inFamous

Comic-book characters such as Batman provided inspiration for the superhero romp inFamous, but it was getting caught in an actual riot that had an even bigger impact on the game's development.

Game director Nate Fox, from Seattle-based games studio Sucker Punch, found himself caught in street riots triggered by protests surrounding the 1999 World Trade Organisation conference, an experience that had a dramatic impact on the developer and the content of his latest game.

"I found myself in that riot," Mr Fox says. "And it was really interesting, because when we were getting tear-gassed, people around me were breaking into windows and stuff - there are no cops, you are not going to get arrested being a jerk. (Yet) a lot of people around me were offering me food, water to wash out my eyes.

"In this place where there were no consequences, people are still kind. It made me think about what would exist in this game world when people are operating on a more base level."

inFamous, out next month on PlayStation 3, is set in a city that is "rocked to the core" by a massive explosion and a subsequent plague that forces authorities to quarantine and abandon the metropolis.

"People freak out, there is a large riot, and most of the cops are killed," Mr Fox says. "Since then, Empire City has become a lawless place. There is no structure any more. This neighbourhood, for example, the Neon district, is now under martial law, controlled by a gang called the Reapers.

"They were just a bunch of drug dealers before the blast, but since then they have become much more organised and well-armed."

In the blast, the game's protagonist, Cole McGrath, is transformed from a humble courier to a superhero with dazzling electrical powers. But when he is suspected of causing the calamity, he becomes public enemy No. 1.

Like Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown, inFamous is set in a sprawling urban environment that offers gamers a huge playground to explore, and fantastic freedom to use Cole's electrical powers for good or evil.

"From the beginning of the game you can do things like chuck cars around (with electromagnetic bursts)," says MrFox, before demonstrating other powers such as hurling electrical grenades and charging up otherwise inoperative railroads in order to train-surf.

"And, of course, you can use your powers to take people alive, using electricity to incapacitate the enemy as opposed to killing them outright." Or even use defibrillator powers to bring people back from the dead.

"You can choose to be a nice guy or a total jerk, (but) if you treat people in the city badly they will remember. What you do has consequences."

You don't have to stick to the city streets, with Cole able to scale tall buildings and use the environment strategically to help him combat (or avoid) foes.

But no superhero game is complete without iconic villains. "Where is the Batman without the Joker?" Mr Fox says. "So we deliver those big moments, the kind of things you'll remember a month after you played the game."

Source: stuff.co.nz

Nintendo swings into motion with new Wii gizmo

The MotionPlus add-on plugs into the base of Nintendo's WiiMote.

LOS ANGELES - There's nothing all that charming about Nintendo's latest gadget.

It's not as zany as a zapper or as sexy as a steering wheel. It doesn't even tell you whether you're losing weight. However, the gamemaker is hoping a small cube-shaped device called Wii MotionPlus will take the Wii's motion-sensing controls to a new level of precision.

It's no secret the wrist-flicking Wii Remote's lack of accuracy has long been the console's clunky downfall. The Wii MotionPlus successfully defeats that dilemma by using gyroscopic sensors to exactly mimic gamers' hand movements, making such activities as sword fighting, disc throwing and golf look seamless on screen.

"The great thing about this particular new technology, which isn't always true for other new technologies, is that we immediately saw the benefits of it," said Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 senior producer Jason Shenkman.

"Before I even touched it or got my hands on it, I knew exactly what having a gyroscope in our possession would do for this game."

Electronic Arts' Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 will be the first game bundled with the Wii MotionPlus. Shenkman insists the increased sensitivity doesn't boost difficulty because instant feedback helps gamers before their shots.

Nintendo has been pairing cute peripheral gadgets with games since launching the Wii, such as the Wii Wheel, Wii Zapper and Wii Balance Board, the scale-ish device packaged with Wii Fit.

Just how Nintendo plans to market the obscure Wii MotionPlus accessory - or why such technology wasn't originally included in the controller - is unclear.

"We are always looking at ways to enhance the gaming experience for consumers," said Denise Kaigler, Nintendo vice president of corporate affairs. "This was another way of enhancing the gaming experience, and consumers will hopefully choose to experience that more immersive type of gameplay and enjoy it."

Only five games have so far been confirmed to employ the new functionality. The most prominent is Nintendo's own Wii Sports Resort, a beachy follow-up to the popular Wii Sports.

Besides Tiger Woods, the other games are Electronic Arts' Grand Slam Tennis, Capcom's Virtua Tennis 2009 and Ubisoft's slice-and-shoot-'em-up sequel Red Steel 2."

Though the original Red Steel was one of the most anticipated games to debut alongside the Wii in 2006, the first-person samurai shooter's wonky fidelity left many gamers feeling let down. Creative director Jason Vandenberghe promises Wii MotionPlus technology will remedy that in Red Steel 2."

"One of the cool things is that with Wii MotionPlus, we know how hard you have swung the remote," said Vandenberghe. "That means we can ask the player to have a more physical experience, like having enemies who are wearing armour that players will have to hit harder with their sword."

If the blockbuster sales of the Wii Balance Board with Wii Fit are any indication, gamers will want the new contraption even if it's not compatible with their old titles.

Wedbush Morgan game analyst Michael Pachter believes Wii MotionPlus' American price - US$19.99 for one, $49.99 if bundled with Wii Sports Resort - is right for cash-strapped consumers. He anticipates that over 30 million Wii owners will pick up the new accessory in the first year.

"Some people will find Wii MotionPlus really appealing, and some people won't understand it and will wait until they're told by their friends they need it," said Pachter.

Nintendo is likely to promote Wii MotionPlus and announce new games that use the technology at next month's Electronic Entertainment Expo, where the gadget was first unveiled last year. Rumours have been circulating that Nintendo competitors Microsoft and Sony may announce their own motion-control technologies for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles at E3.

Source:NZ Herald

Infamous

PlayStation 3 (M)

Pros: Electricity as a weapon is hardly a new concept to gaming, but the new open-world PlayStation title Infamous - from cartoony-rendering masters Sucker Punch, responsible for the Sly Cooper games - makes it the star. You play bike courier Cole, a bloke who wakes up next to a smoking crater in Empire City with no idea what has happened. The hole was made by an electrical bomb, and Cole is left with powers that just increase with time. The city is in ruins, with gangs and factions taking control, so Cole needs to restore order. You can choose to be a nice bloke and use your powers for good, or become an ultra-powerful villain - or both. Powers can be used to great effect as weapons - lightning bolt to blow enemies away, a Mega Watt which does the same with gusto, shock grenades (self-explanatory), and Thunder Drop (the best way to kill everything fast). To fuel powers, Cole needs to drain electricity from wherever he can, and clicking the left thumbstick will highlight nearby sources - the more electricity, the more hardcore powers are available. And with some of the epic battles with multiple enemies, keeping charged up becomes a longevity necessity.

Cons: Some of the levels get a bit repetitive, and sometimes controls (particularly L1 and R1) can be a bit unwilling, although the ability to attack from almost any position - including firing at enemies while jumping around between buildings - makes up for any clunkiness.

Verdict: Graphically excellent, especially the lush cutscenes. Frantic gameplay, mind-blowing weapons and only a few niggles - worth adding to the collection.

Source: NZ Herald

Godfather II: GTA without the fun

The movie's characters and storyline are closely represented in the game which itself follows EA's reasonably entertaining original Godfather gaming title three years ago. Surprisingly, despite the advances in graphics in three years, the sequel doesn't reflect the advances.

Unlike the emotional roller coaster of the crime syndicate in the movie, Godfather II feels pedestrian, a bystander missing the excitement of the movie and as a game not pushing things much further than its original.

I suggest the problem is that the developers have once again failed to notice why a blood-splattered crime title like the Grand Theft Auto series is successful beyond its mere shock value. It's got wit and deceptively clever subtleties.

This is well illustrated in the Godfather's dialogue which is predictably crude but crude without the charm you get in GTA. Much of the time, you're doing the GTA thing of choosing missions and driving around with guns blazing but it doesn't seem as much fun.

Gameplay is a mite repetitive, has a few great moments where your squad assist you in missions and the police crash your party. However the camera is cumbersome and not helped by the odd technical glitches.

What's disappointing is that despite the problems, this game has potential and should be a great game. It has a mix of action and real-time strategy and, let's face it, it's based on such a great movie. Instead it fails to meet expectations.

You control mob underboss Dominic (not from the movie) who takes over from the original mob leader killed in the first game. You escape Cuba with Michael Corleone to take over the New York operations - hitting on syndicates, recruiting mobsters, controlling the various rackets - as well as roaming about Florida and Cuba.

Using "Don's Map," an interactive city map as a management sim, you can dispatch your men on missions and easily get a snapshot of your various enterprises and recruit guards for protection. This is where the game should shine but the feature feels under-developed although useful. The long learning curve will no doubt give gamers a decent playing time, but only the mobster at heart will love this game.

Source:NZHerald

How to fit 300 DVDs on one disc

A new optical recording method could pave the way for data discs with 300 times the storage capacity of standard DVDs, Nature journal reports.

The different colours and polarisations of light access different images

The researchers say this could see a whopping 1.6 terabytes of information fit on a DVD-sized disc.

They describe their method as "five-dimensional" optical recording and say it could be commercialised.

The technique employs nanometre-scale particles of gold as a recording medium.

Researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia have exploited the particular properties of these gold "nano-rods" by manipulating the light pointed at them.

The team members described what they did as adding three "dimensions" to the two spatial dimensions that DVD and CD discs already have.

They say they were able to introduce a spectral - or colour - dimension and a polarisation dimension, as well as recording information in 10 layers of the nano-rod films, adding a third spatial dimension.

The scientists used the nanoparticles to record information in a range of different colour wavelengths on the same physical disc location. This is a major improvement over traditional DVDs, which are recorded in a single colour wavelength with a laser.

Also, the amount of incoming laser light absorbed by the nanoparticles depends on its polarisation. This allowed the researchers to record different layers of information at different angles.

The researchers thus refer to the approach as 5-D recording. Previous research has demonstrated recording techniques based on colour or polarisation, but this is the first work that shows the integration of both.

As a result, the scientists say they have achieved unprecedented data density.

Their approach used 10-layer stacks composed of thin glass plates as the recording medium. If scaled up to a DVD-sized disk, the team would be able to record 1.6 terabytes - that is, 1,600 gigabytes - or over 300 times the quantity stored on a standard DVD.

Significant improvements could be made by thinning the spacer layers and using more than two polarisation angles - pushing the limits to 10 terabytes per disc and beyond, the researchers say.

Bit by bit

Recent efforts based on holography have shown that up to 500 Gb could potentially be stored on standard DVD-sized disks.

Holographic methods take all of the information to be recorded and encode it in the form of a graph showing how often certain frequencies arise in it.

That means that the recording process is a complex, all-at-once, all-or-nothing approach that would be difficult to implement on an industrial scale.

By contrast, 5-D recording is "bit-by-bit", like current CD and DVD writing processes in that each piece of information is read sequentially.

That is likely to mean that recording and read speeds would be comparatively slow, but the approach would be easier to integrate with existing technology.

"The optical system to record and read 5-D is very similar to the current DVD system," says James Chon, a co-author on the research.

"Therefore, industrial scale production of the compact system is possible."

DVD surfaces now are "2-D": just the position on the disc matters

Now that the method has been demonstrated in custom-made multi-layer stacks, the team is working in conjunction with Samsung to develop a drive that can record and read onto a DVD-sized disc.

Dr Chon says that the material cost of a disc would be less than $0.05 (£0.03), but there are a number of advantages in moving to silver nano-rods that would bring that cost down by a factor of 100.

For optical data storage expert Tom Milster, at the University of Arizona, the beauty of the approach is in its simplicity.

"It's not just elegant - there are a lot of experiments that are elegant - it's relatively straightforward," he told BBC News.

For the moment, Dr Milster says, the equipment needed to write the data would make a commercial system expensive. However, that has not stopped the development of optical storage solutions in the past.

"For example, a Blu-ray player is not an easy system to realise; they've got some wonderful optics in there," Dr Milster said. "People thought that would be pretty difficult to do, but others managed to do it."

Source:BBC News

Chrome 2.0 Juices Up JavaScript

A new version of Google's Chrome browser boasts faster speed by way of improvements to V8 and WebKit. Other new features include full-screen mode and autofill. A faster JavaScript experience, however, could also pave the way for faster malware, since the language is a favorite among scammers. Google contends Chrome is no less safe than other browsers.

Google on Thursday revealed Chrome 2.0, a purportedly faster and more feature-filled version of the search giant's Web browser.

The extra speed comes from an update to its V8 JavaScript engine and from a new version of the open source WebKit rendering engine.

However, Chrome's speed advantage may soon be overshadowed by rivals. Mozilla , for example, is expected to release a final version of Firefox 3.5.

Also, speeding up JavaScript may lead to security problems.

New Features in Chrome 2.0

Chrome 2.0 is faster than Version 1, released eight months ago, because it runs JavaScript faster, according to Google.

It also incorporates some of the features beta testers requested the most. One is an improved new tab page that lets users remove thumbnails.

Another is a new full-screen mode, and a third feature is form autofill.

However, full-screen mode and form autofill are both features other browsers have had for a while (think deadly rivals Internet Explorer and Firefox).

Why Chrome 2.0 Works Faster

The V8 JavaScript engine is open source technology developed by Google and written in C++. It increases performance by compiling JavaScript to native machine code before execution, instead of to a bytecode or interpretation.

It also employs optimization techniques such as inline caching, which remembers the results of a previous method lookup directly at the call site. A call site of a function is a line in the code that passes arguments to the function and receives return values in exchange.

These optimizations let JavaScript applications run at the speed of a compiled binary.

Will Firefox Pose a Speed Challenge?

Chrome 2.0 may not hold its speed advantage very long, however -- Mozilla will issue the release candidate (RC) of Firefox 3.5 in the first week of June, according to Mozilla director Mike Beltzner's post on the company's blog. That new version of the browser could be sped up too.

"It's pretty common competition among the browsers -- they always want to be fastest," Randy Abrams, director of technical education at security software vendor ESET, told TechNewsWorld.

Mozilla did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Speed Kills?

Supercharging JavaScript may not always result in a faster user experience.

"I'm not sure how big an impact speeding up JavaScript is going to make unless you're using some huge JavaScript application," ESET's Abrams said.

Speeding up JavaScript could also speed up the malware based on the language.

"Malware based on JavaScript will run faster," Abrams said. "JavaScript is the vector of choice for drive-by attacks."

In a drive-by attack, a Web page containing malicious code downloads that code onto visitors' computers without their knowledge or permission ,and without the user having to click on any links.

Malware authors use JavaScript in almost 90 percent of Web pages that contain malicious script, according to Stephan Chenette, manager of security at Web security software vendor Websense.

Hard to Scratch Chrome?

It's not necessarily open season on users of Google Chrome, since it uses a sandboxing model that makes it difficult to hack, Google spokesperson Eitan Bencuya told TechNewsWorld.

Sandboxing means isolating code so that it cannot interact with the operating system or applications on a user's computer.

Still, ESET's Abrams thinks sandboxing is not enough. "Chrome does have some protection other browsers don't, in that it sandboxes individual tabs," he said. "That might protect the operating system itself, but it's not going to do anything to protect you against cross-site scripting or clickjacking."

Sandboxing offers only limited protection, he warned. "It's only effective if you go to each different site in a different tab. Otherwise, the old data will be accessible when you use the same tab to click on a new site."

Google contends Chrome is no less safe than other browsers. "All of the topics you mention are tough issues to fight, and they affect all browsers," Bencuya said.


Source:Technewsworld.com

In-box preview makes Gmail's loading less painful

Gmail has a new feature in its labs section aimed at people with bad connections who still want to use the fancypants JavaScript-filled "new" version of the popular Web mail service. It shows a quick preview of the latest 10 messages while Gmail's loading bar makes its slow march toward completion.

You can't actually read these messages, but you can quickly see if you have new ones. Users on a fast connection will only see the preview for a mere second or two before the in-box opens up. But for those on the very thread of a cellular data line, or on some chuggy dial-up, Google is pitching this as a simple way to see if those latest messages are worth the loading wait.

While relatively useless to users with fast connections, this is still a nice alternative to switching over to the HTML version of Gmail, which survives for the sake of compatibility on older machines and browsers. The switch over to that version forgoes many niceties such as no page refreshing, and the use of Gmail labs features.

The in-box preview shows you the latest 10 messages in your in-box while Gmail quietly loads in the background.

Source: CNET

'Verified apps' coming soon to Facebook

Facebook has announced a revamp of the way it lists and catalogs its directory of third-party developer applications, according to a post on its developer blog, and the most notable update is the debut of the "verified apps" program.

This was first announced in November. Basically, for a $375 fee, Facebook will review developer apps to make sure they fit security and transparency standards, and will award a graphic badge to apps that make the cut.

Security on Facebook has been making headlines in the past few weeks, in the wake of several prominent phishing attacks that have hit the social network. While most have been quickly mitigated, and most did not involve third-party apps, getting the verified apps system in place may help with some image issues for the massive social network.

"Ensuring that applications are trustworthy, meaningful (whether for entertainment or utility value), and easy to find is paramount to developer success, user engagement, and helping the ecosystem as whole to thrive," Facebook's Jerry Cain wrote in the blog post.

Verified apps are also ranked higher in the directory, which is a big deal considering it now contains more than 52,000 applications. The directory has also upgraded its category system so that you can find what you're looking for more easily.

This will all be rolling out in the next few weeks, Cain wrote.

Source:CNET

Google networking error caused outage

Widespread outages involving several Google services--including search, Google Docs, and Gmail--were caused by an upgrade gone awry inside of Google, according to engineers.

Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research for McAfee, said that Google this morning attempted to make changes to key Internet routing numbers--known as autonomous system numbers--as part of its ongoing transition from an older networking standard to a newer one called IPv6. An unknown "bug" inside Google's network involving some sort of hardware failure or glitch prevented Internet service providers from finding Google's new ASNs on the Internet--effectively sealing it off from many customers, he said.

Not all Internet users were affected, but some that use larger providers--such as AT&T or Verizon--appeared to be disproportionately hurt because large ISPs "peer" with Google, or interconnect their networks with Google's networks in order to improve speed and reduce bandwith costs, Alperovitch said. Not all customers at those providers were affected, and smaller ISPs that didn't interconnect their networks were able to route around the problem. But just like when a bad car accident shuts down a key highway, the ripple effects were felt elsewhere.

The outage began at 8:13 a.m. PDT, according to McAfee's data, and was fixed by 9:14 a.m. PDT. The issue was discussed inside forums dedicated for ISPs and their engineers, such as the North American Network Operators Group. McAfee's customers reported the issue to the security company, which monitors network traffic for some customers.

Google is a major fan of IPv6 and makes many of its services available through the new network technology. However, IPv6 has been slow to arrive overall, in part because it's a very difficult transition from the current IPv4 network.

Google spokesman Eitan Bencuya wouldn't confirm what caused the problem but said the company plans to detail what happened in a company blog to be published "shortly."

Update at 12:25 p.m. PDT: Google has confirmed that "an error in one of our systems caused us to direct some of our Web traffic through Asia, which created a traffic jam." The company did not elaborate on what caused the error in a blog post, but claimed just 14 percent of users were affected.

"We've been working hard to make our services ultrafast and 'always on,' so it's especially embarrassing when a glitch like this one happens. We're very sorry that it happened, and you can be sure that we'll be working even harder to make sure that a similar problem won't happen again," Google wrote.

Source:CNET

The Sims 3

The Sims 3 allows you to immerse your unique Sims in an open living neighborhood right outside their door, interacting with other Sims using the new, deeper personality system. The game also allows you to customize anything, anywhere. From floors to flowers, fashions to sofas, wallpaper to window shades and more, The Sims 3 gives you all the flexibility and options you need to be the architect of your dream house or explore your interior design skills to outfit your ultimate home. Your Sims can make home an ultra-deluxe mansion, a cool bachelor pad, family's dream home or charming cottage. The choice is yours.

The Sims started off as an experimental game concept that designer Will Wright reportedly had to fight for. After it was released in 2000, it became a smash hit that went on to occupy top spots on computer-game best-seller lists for years to come, along with a good number of expansion packs and its in-depth sequel, The Sims 2. Now the team is getting ready for an impressive round three with a new sequel that will offer much more in the way of customization options, social options, character behavior, and in-depth careers. We got an up-close look at the game and have much to report.

The Sims 3 will offer much more of what you enjoy from the series.

The Sims 3 will apparently be the product of both the development team's desire to push the series forward, and also of the many requests that the series' fan community makes on a regular basis. For starters, though The Sims 2 took place in a virtual neighborhood that was split up into separate lots for housing (where your sims would live out their home lives) and downtown areas (where your sims could go shopping and socialize) that required you to sit through loading screens, The Sims 3 will have a continuous neighborhood that you can traverse seamlessly without any loading screens. The game unfortunately will probably ship with only the one neighborhood (rather than the numerous neighborhoods that The Sims 2 offered), and you most likely will not be able to build out new lots, but this area will be absolutely massive and should afford you more than enough space to putter around in.

In addition, the sequel will expand on the previous games' gameplay by enhancing your characters' personalities and their life goals. In previous games, you'd create your family of little computer people and determine each one's personality by assigning points on various personality meters, such as sloppy-to-neat and athletic-to-lazy, which would net them a specific horoscope sign and an approximate personality. This time around, you'll actually be able to directly choose up to five "traits" from a large pool of potential personality types, such as grouchy or clumsy. In addition, the new game's "motives"--personal needs that each of your sims has--have been streamlined down to the four major needs of sleep, food, fun, and potty breaks to cut down on situations that require you to stop whatever you're doing to fulfill this or that condition. In addition, the motives have been streamlined in the interface to simply change color from red (a state of dire need) to orange, yellow, and finally green (a state of complete fulfillment), instead of filling up little meters--again, to reduce the emphasis on micromanaging your little family's lives.

You'll also have more-directed gameplay for each character if you care to use it, in the form of enhanced "wish"-based gameplay and "lifetime achievements"--a step up from The Sims 2's "wants" and "goals" system. A lifetime achievement is essentially your sim's single life goal, and if you care to, you can choose one for each sim that you create, or not...and let life fill in the blanks. For instance, a child sim, in the course of his young life, might use a telescope item and suddenly become smitten with the desire to become an astronaut as his lifetime achievement. In addition, the "wants" system from Sims 2 has been streamlined down to a new "wish" system with up to three active slots. Wishes are short- to long-term goals that you'll uncover over the course of your sims' day, and they'll often occur much more naturally and organically. In addition, your characters will feel "moodlets"--small emotional boosts or potholes that happen as the result of various events in their lives. For instance, if your sim has recently fallen in love, she might constantly experience a slightly elevated moodlet for some time that puts a little more spring in her step on any given day.

Falling in love can lead to marriage, children, or just a constant high all day long.

We watched a demonstration of the game in action that showed two roommates having a house party with guests. Like in previous games, you can throw a party by having your sims pick up their home phone and using the "throw a party" option, but this time around, there will be many more types of parties you can throw, including a political fundraiser, which one of our sims held in the hopes of raising some campaign donations in accordance with his political-career aspirations. Like in previous games, your sims will be able to choose careers for themselves and will need to leave their homes for several hours each day, then reappear some hours later with a paycheck. You can still increase your sims' various skills, such as physical fitness, through repeated study (for instance, hitting the gym to increase your physical fitness), which will better equip you to get ahead in the rat race. In The Sims 3, you'll be able to climb the ladder at least a few times either by increasing your skills or simply by networking with enough people. (However, to get to the very top of the career ladder, you will need to grind away on those skills.)

Choosing the political career track unlocked the ability for one of our sims to hold the fundraiser at home, inviting over other friends and acquaintances to chat, schmooze, and ultimately, to leave behind a couple hundred simoleans to further the cause. The Sims 3 will do a better job of arranging your characters' relationship into various groups (love interests, family, friends, and others), and will also have social options that make more sense in context. For example, depending on your relationship with whichever other sim you're talking to, you'll be able to take your conversation in different directions, from romantic options (that will appear only for sims you have a romantic interest in) to more-hostile, argumentative options for sims that you don't quite get along with. You won't be required to repeatedly use the same social option over and over to build up a better relationship, as in previous games. Furthermore, though sims will still talk using cartoon speech balloons that have various graphical icons in them, there will be many more icons and they'll be tailored to fit the context of the situation, so you'll be able to get a better sense not only of who's connecting in conversation, but also on which topics they agree.

Our fundraiser ended successfully with our black-tie-and-ball-gown guests filing out the door and leaving some nice chunks of change for us. We then took our character to head down to SimCity hall in the center of town by driving our car directly there. Once there, we observed a civic demonstration of unhappy sims, who were waving picket signs and hollering in The Sims' trademark nonsensical gibberish, simlish, about their concerns. Their grievance this time around: hamsters, apparently. After watching the demonstration, we were then given a career-based opportunity to steal a bit of money from the campaign contributions that we had garnered. You'll apparently get these open-ended choices to pop up every so often, along with various tasks that may require you to travel across town or gather one of dozens of different items that may include food items, fish, and other stuff to build out your sims' personal collections. Unfortunately, our would-be political maven got caught in the act of stealing and was fired from his job.

Oh yeah, and you can catch fish, too.

On that happy note, we switched over to the character creator, which will be far more robust than the previous games' tools. The Sims 3 will have a gradient tool that will let you select a more-nuanced skin tone for your characters, along with new slider tools to select your characters' builds, from fat to thin, and from flabby to muscular. Plus, the game will also offer many more prebuilt facial features (eyes, eyebrows, nose length/height/width, and so on), along with plenty of sliders and meters and doohickeys to let obsessive players tweak to their hearts' content. In addition, The Sims 3 will have many more clothing options, including not only shirts, pants, and one-piece suits, but also hats, glasses, shoes, and other accessories (such as wristwatches, bracelets, and other types of jewelry). Like in The Sims 2, if your sims give birth to a little bundle of joy, the new addition to the family will share facial and body features from both parents, though the genetic makeup of your children will be a bit more consistent this time around. (Sims 2 players will remember that every so often, due to random genetic matching, children ended up looking a bit...off.)

With so much new and so much improved, by all appearances The Sims 3 will have plenty to offer. The new game's improved social aspects, streamlined motive system, and enhanced career paths will likely make social butterflies extremely happy, and the sequel's expanded character creator and new collection-based gameplay will give completists plenty to do. The game is scheduled to ship next year.

Source:Gamespot.com

Google unveils 'smarter search'

Google says users are becoming more sophisticated at search

Web giant Google has unveiled new products that it says will push search in a new direction.

Google is using so-called semantic web technology to leverage the underlying data on websites to enhance results.

"The race in search is far from over and innovation and continued improvement is absolutely pivotal," said Google's Marissa Mayer.

Google said it could not afford to rest on its laurels in the quest to build the perfect search engine.

Google has over 63% of the US market compared with rival Yahoo, on 20%.

"I've said this many times but search is still in its infancy. Our engineers are worried about what is the next big thing in search and how are they going to find it," said Ms Mayer, who is the vice-president of search products and user experience.

She said that last year Google had released more than 360 products and in the first quarter of this year it had been 120. Ms Mayer added that this was proof that "Google gets better all the time".

Google has in the past said that despite its lead in the marketplace, users were "one click away" from switching to other alternatives.

Vanessa Fox of SearchEngineLand told the BBC that Google's ability to constantly innovate gave them a leading edge.

"Google is saying: 'We have to provide for all searchers and do things at scale.' It means they have to launch all sorts of features while some companies can concentrate on just one thing. The key thing behind why they are still ahead is because they are able to innovate at such a pace," said Ms Fox.

Rich snippets

During the Searchology event at Google's Mountain View headquarters, Ms Mayer and her team showcased four new products that she said would give users a "different way to look at the web".

Google Squared is still experimental and far from perfect, says the company

Rich Snippets are search results that return more information in every listing.

For example, users looking for reviews of a new restaurant might get a "rich snippet" of average review scores, number of reviews and the restaurant's price range.

"This is a step toward making the whole internet smarter," said Google product manager Kavi Goel.

Rich snippets use the metadata from web pages, such as address information, calendar information and semantic web mark-up specifications, called Resource Description Frameworks.

The use of these so-called microformats allows the search engine to better understand the meaning of data and to employ it more intelligently.

Google can understand the relationship between different sets of data, and so can pull the correct address listing of a shop without that information having to be specifically tied together.

Google Squared

One of the more experimental products was called Google Squared, which will go public in the next month or so. It takes information from the web and displays it in a spreadsheet in "split seconds", something Ms Mayer said would normally take someone half a day to do.

During the demonstration, a query for "small dog" was typed into the search box. Seconds later a table popped up showing photographs of various dogs, their origin, weight and height in a clear and simple layout.

While Ms Mayer described this product as "transformative", she would only hint at the specific techniques that Google uses to drive this feature.

"I think we can open the kimono a little bit without talking about the computer science behind it.

"What they are basically doing is looking for structures on the web that seem to imply facts. Like something 'is' something.

"Different tables, different structures, and then corroborating the evidence around whether or not something is a fact by looking at whether that fact occurs across pages.

"This is all in the secret sauce of what we are doing and it takes an incredible amount of compute power to create those squares," said Ms Mayer.

'Refine, filter and view'

Google Search Options is a tool that is aimed at letting users "slice and dice" results so they can manipulate the information and get what they want faster.

Search options is a "tool belt" giving new ways to interact with search

They come into play after a normal web search and allow users to drill down into the results by offering an option for different genres like product reviews, forum posts or videos. Other choices include recently added blogs, images, timelines and so on.

Ms Mayer said this new feature should help people who struggled with the "vexing" problem of exactly what query they should type into the search box.

It is meant to give users the opportunity to "refine, filter and view results in a different way".

'Skymap'

A final feature had Ms Mayer "reaching for the stars" with an app for mobile phones using the Android operating system.

Google said it was still working on finding keys but can find the stars

"For a long time here at Google we joked could we actually find physical things like keys and now with the power and technology of Android, coupled with search, you can see we are starting to find some physical things like stars," said Ms Mayer.

Skymap displays the constellations. By using the smart phone's GPS capability, it offers the user a dynamic star map that knows where they are standing and which way they are pointing

The feature came about as a result of Google's 20% time, which allows engineers to spend one-fifth of their time working on pet projects.

The app is now available on the Android app market.

"Clearly Google is still pushing the envelope with all these new additions," said Rob Hof, Silicon Valley editor of Business Week.

"They are certainly continuing to improve daily. Whether it makes a difference and will stave off the competition, I don't know. But they are not standing still."

Ms Mayer said keeping the user happy was at the heart of everything they did.

"There is a shoe company called Stuart Weitzman and their slogan is 'a little obsessed with shoes'.

"Google is a little more than obsessed with search," confessed Ms Mayer.

Source:BBC

Microsoft patches critical PowerPoint hole

Microsoft on Tuesday released a patch aimed to fix a critical vulnerability in PowerPoint that had already led to exploits.

The vulnerability is listed as critical for Office 2000, but rated only as important for Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007. However, the hole had already formed the basis of targeted attacks, prompting Microsoft to issue a warning last month.

Although Microsoft says the hole is now patched in the Windows version of PowerPoint, the software maker said it is still working on fixes for the Mac version of Office as well as for Microsoft Works, the company's entry-level productivity suite.

"The updates for Office for Mac and Microsoft Works 8.5 and 9.0 users are still in development," Microsoft security response communications lead Christopher Budd said in a statement. "Microsoft plans to issue updates for these software when testing is complete and we can ensure high quality. We are releasing this security update on an incremental basis because of active targeted exploitation toward Windows platform users."

Without the patch, the vulnerability can be exploited by getting a person to open a PowerPoint file rigged for the attack, Microsoft has said. When the file is opened, PowerPoint will access an invalid object in memory. That then allows an attacker to remotely execute code on the system.

The fix was released as part of the company's regularly scheduled monthly Patch Tuesday.

The software maker said that with the update, the ability to open PowerPoint 4.0 file formats will be disabled by default in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2000 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2002. (Microsoft has already disabled that option by default in PowerPoint 2003 Service Pack 3 and that capability does not exist in PowerPoint 2007.)

Microsoft said that the vulnerability is not rated critical for PowerPoint 2002 and later versions because they prompt a user before opening a document, meaning that the vulnerability "requires more than a single user action to complete the exploit."

Symantec said in a statement that the PowerPoint fix related largely to flaws in older file formats. "Because taking advantage of these vulnerabilities requires a user to open a maliciously crafted PowerPoint file, e-mail is likely the most probable method attackers would use to try and exploit these," said Alfred Huger, vice president of Symantec Security Response, in a statement. "Another possibility is for an attacker to lure a victim into downloading the file from a misleading or compromised Web site. At that point, the attacker would then have complete control over everything the user's account has permission to do on the system."

One security analyst warned that corporate IT staff should be paying attention not just to Microsoft, but also to a variety of security updates being issued by other software makers.

"Although Microsoft only dropped one patch for PowerPoint this month, IT administrators shouldn't get the wrong impression and breathe easy given the light load," said Lumension security analyst Paul Henry. "In addition to Microsoft, other vendors including Google, F-Secure, Adobe, HP, Symantec and Mozilla (to name a few) released a slew of patches for popular software applications."

Henry posted a list of the other updates and blogged on the subject.

"It is important to remember that historically, popular applications and files like Adobe PDF files or Word, Excel or PowerPoint files have been great vehicles for targeted attacks because those attachments are so socially acceptable and are simply expected attachments within corporate email," Henry said. "While we are relieved about the PowerPoint patch, we live in an environment where compromised applications have now become a delivery mechanism for additional downloaded and executed malware such as key-loggers and rootkits. The most effective risk mitigation, therefore, continues to be application control to prevent a compromised application from downloading and running any unauthorized software (including malware) on a user's PC."

Source:CNET

Google adds new filters, visualized results

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Google introduced three new enhancements to its search engine Tuesday, giving searchers new ways to filter results and adding new types of data to the search results themselves.

Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and experience, led a parade of the company's product managers on stage at Searchology 2009 to demonstrate the new features, known as Google Search Options, Google Squared, and Rich Snippets. Search Options will be rolling out gradually on Tuesday, giving searchers ways to filter their results based on factors like timeliness, result type such as image or videos, or a desire to see search results in visual form.

The announcements "center around how can you find more, and what can you do with it," Mayer said. Google last held a Searchology event in 2007, when it introduced Universal Search, blending regular search results with images, video, and news results.

Building on Universal Search, Mayer and Nundu Janakiram, an associate product manager, showed how Search Options allows users searching for information on the Hubble Telescope, for example, to filter their results with a "Show Options" link at the very top of the search results page. Clicking on that link brings up a new page with a list of options on the side, somewhat akin to the current Google News user interface.

By opting for the most recent information on the space telescope, the subject of a current NASA mission, users will be given a mix of news and blog results. If they prefer, they can click a filter that will sort those stories with images pulled from those stories.

Other options include new ways to visualize search results, such as the News Timeline introduced last month, as well as something called Wonder Wheel that visually represents data as rays of a star spreading out from the center of a search result.

Google Squared is the newest addition to Google Labs. This project allows searchers to create a spreadsheet based on Web results. Users can filter the data accessed through the Google Squared search, request additional categories to create a custom spreadsheet with the results that matter the most to them, and even fact-check the results by accessing the source of the data as well as alternate sources.

The other enhancement discussed Tuesday is called Rich Snippets, which is a partnership between Google and certain publishers, including CNET, to display information from Web pages within the box that encompasses a search result. Google is backing open standards called RDFa markup and Microformats markup that allow Web publishers to highlight aspects of their Web page to show in the search results.

Rich Snippets is a partnership between Google and certain publishers, including CNET, to display information from Web pages within the box that encompasses a search result.

(Credit: CNET)

The CNET example used in the presentation displayed the number of stars assigned by a CNET reviewer to a GPS device in the search results for a particular product. Likewise, Yelp's user-generated restaurant ratings will show up in the search result for a certain restaurant.

The feature is closely related to Yahoo's SearchMonkey, which the Google rival released a year ago. SearchMonkey allows outside developers to create their own SearchMonkey extensions to spotlight content, but to try to encourage use by more publishers, Yahoo has been working to make SearchMonkey easier to use.

Source:CNET

Microsoft taking on Wii with motion-sensing camera

This camera, from Israeli startup 3DV Systems--which has reportedly been acquired by Microsoft--could form the basis of a new motion-sensitive controller that Microsoft is reportedly working on.

(Credit: Jared Kohler/CNET)

Nintendo won't be the only video game console maker with a sophisticated motion-sensitive controller if a report out Tuesday from The Wall Street Journal is accurate.

The report said Microsoft plans to unveil a new video camera that would allow players of its Xbox 360 console to control games by moving their bodies. And if true, it's a clear shot across the bow of Nintendo and its innovative Wii console, which shocked the video game world when it was released in late 2006 with its own motion-sensitive controller.

The camera may well be the product of Microsoft's reported acquisition of Israeli start-up, 3DV, which had developed a motion-sensitive camera.

For months, there had been speculation that Microsoft's interest in 3DV was about taking on Nintendo and the Wii. But neither company would confirm such speculation. On Tuesday, Microsoft declined to comment on the Journal story.

The Journal said, "the camera is based on technology that Microsoft developed inside its sprawling research arm," though it added that, "Microsoft also recently acquired...3DV...which has developed a 3D camera and holds related patents."

For Microsoft, coming up with a controller that could be appealing to a more casual gaming audience is key to carving away at Nintendo's giant lead in the so-called "next-generation" video game console wars. Though both Microsoft and Sony--which makes the much-maligned PlayStation 3--contend that the Wii is not really a competitor, the two companies originally lumped all three consoles together before the generation began in 2005 with the Xbox launch, and continued a year later with the Wii and PS3 launches.

The Journal reported that the new camera could be shown at next month's E3 show in Los Angeles, though it might not come out until later in the year, and that Microsoft is expected to first sell the camera as an accessory rather than bundling it with the Xbox.

Source:CNET

Hackers Break into University Health Records

The University of California at Berkeley Friday disclosed that hackers broke into restricted computer databases in the campus health-services center, as the university began notifying current and former Berkeley students their personal information may have been taken.

The attackers may have taken information related to health-insurance coverage and certain medical information as well as the University Health Services (UHS) medical-record number, dates of visits or names of healthcare providers seen, as well as information such as Social Security Number, according to the statement released by UC Berkeley.

[ 7 burning security questions answered ]

About 160,000 individuals are believed to be impacted, including about 3,400 Mills College students whose medical care is tied to health care at Berkeley. Social Security Numbers are used as unique identifiers for students enrolled in the campus Student Health Insurance Plans, the university says.

"The university deeply regrets exposing our students and the Mills community to potential identity theft," said Shelton Waggener, UC Berkeley's associate vice chancellor for information technology and CIO, said in the statement.

[ A brief history of data breach apology letters ]

The university believes the server breach began on Oct. 9 last year and continued until April 9, when administrators performing maintenance identified messages left by the hackers, whose attack was launched from overseas. The attackers accessed a public Web site and subsequently bypassed additional secured databases stored on the same server, the university contends.

The Berkeley administrators do not believe the hackers were able to steal extensive medical records, said to be stored on a different system.

"Patient privacy and quality care are cornerstones of our services," said Steve Lustig, associate vice chancellor for health and human services, adding the university is "deeply troubled" by the breach but that "medical records were not touched in this incident. We anticipate that the audit of our systems will inform UHS and the campus of steps that can be taken to continually improve security."

Berkeley is working with campus police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in investigating the data breach, and the university urged victims of the incident to contact the university hotline established to answer questions at 1-888-729-3301 and to consider placing a fraud alert on their credit-reporting accounts. The campus has also set up a Web site, for information.

UC Berkeley made headlines a few years back because of a couple of security breaches, including a stolen laptop containing personal information on graduates and a compromised database of California residents.

Source:PCWorld.com

Windows 7: What's New in the Last Beta

While the hot-off-the-presses Windows 7 release candidate has no radical changes from the beta version released in January, it does have a bundle of interface tweaks as well as some minor changes to security and networking features.

From more keyboard shortcuts to new control over jump lists from the taskbar to some new and trippy desktop backgrounds, UI adjustments abound in Windows 7 RC.

But these are workmanlike tweaks, not new features. Nevertheless, Windows 7 RC does have two brand-new features that are generating buzz: Remote Media Streaming, which that lets users stream media to PCs outside of the home, and Windows XP Mode, a controversial add-on in Windows 7 that runs Windows XP applications in a virtual machine.

Jeff Price, senior director of Windows product management, discussed these two features with CIO.com.

Remote Media Streaming

Mostly for consumers and small businesses, Remote Media Streaming in Windows 7 extends the media sharing abilities of Homegroup - which links Windows 7 PCs in a home to share media - to the outside world.

Remote Media Streaming "allows you to take media sharing on the go," says Microsoft's Price. So, the media library full of songs and photos that a person could access on any laptop in their home network can be accessed anywhere there is a Wi-Fi connection.

"Whether in the home or remotely you get the same access to media. I think this feature will be a lot of fun for people," says Price. "If I chose to play a song from my home media library at Starbucks, it would stream it over the Internet. I'm not copying the songs and photos over or synchronizing them. I can just view the library and play them."

Remote Media Streaming is unique to the Windows 7 RC, and is not included in the Windows 7 beta.

Windows XP Mode

This virtualization feature designed for enterprises is a free, downloadable add on to Windows 7 RC. It allows users to run older XP-only applications on Windows 7 through a Microsoft virtual machine that contains a licensed copy of Windows XP SP3. Windows XP Mode is currently in beta.

XP Mode is not for consumers, and will only work with the Enterprise, Professional and Ultimate versions of Windows 7. It is designed for enterprises with mission-critical apps that have not been updated to work with Vista or Windows 7. Users can run the app in XP Mode until they upgrade to a newer version.

XP Mode is likely Microsoft's response to enterprise IT pros who have been hesitant to upgrade from XP because of compatibility worries and negative perceptions of Vista.

The add-on does give IT pros a much-needed compatibility option, but XP Mode has been met with some early criticism, including predictions of support headaches for IT pros, who will now have to manage two versions of Windows and could become spoiled by virtualization and delay making sure all their apps work with Windows 7.

Additionally, not all microprocessors from Intel and AMD support virtualization, hence some laptops may not be able to run Windows XP Mode.

But with regards to easing compatibility fears of the XP faithful, Windows XP Mode is arguably Microsoft's most compelling case to date.

"This feature is for XP-only line of business apps that companies are planning to update but just aren't quite ready yet," says Price. "XP Mode gives them a good transition tool to ease the deployment of Windows 7."

Source:PCWorld.com

Windows 7 still at risk from Explorer flaw: report

Windows 7 can still be infected through a security flaw that has existed in the past four versions of Microsoft's operating system.

Windows 7, the much-awaited replacement for Microsoft's ill-fated Vista operating system, still includes a legacy flaw that can put users at risk, says a security specialist.

Mikko Hypponen, research boss for computer security experts F-Secure says that an exploit from earlier Windows versions still exists in the release candidate for the next-generation Microsoft OS.

Hypponen wrote in his blog that the flaw, which existed in Windows NT, 2000, XP and Vista, allowed cyberbrooks to exploit a Windows Explorer issue to hide viruses and executable files from users.

The 'Hide extensions for known file types' feature, which could be used to disguise malware nasties, still exists in the new OS.

"Virus writers used this "feature" to make people mistake executables for stuff such as document files," he wrote.

"The trick was to rename VIRUS.EXE to VIRUS.TXT.EXE or VIRUS.JPG.EXE, and Windows would hide the .EXE part of the filename.

Source:nzherald.co.nz

Game review: Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars

Publisher: Rockstar Games

GamefreaksGrand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Platform: DS

A match made in potential controversy heaven, the sweet and innocent Nintendo DS gets hitched to a series from the very wrongest side of the tracks. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars does the kind of naughty things to your DS you only ever dared dream.

When it was first announced that an original Grand Theft Auto title was in development for the Nintendo DS it sounded like a perfect bit of cross-promotion, the world's best selling game machine meets one of the most popular series of all time, however nobody could quite picture how it would all work out. As it happens, with Rockstar Leeds and Rockstar North working together to pull out all the stops, it would work out quite brilliantly indeed.

We all had a perfect right to be sceptical; the sprawling, intricate urban tapestry of Liberty City doesn't exactly jump out as ideal fodder for a machine that is more often that not used as a dumping ground for shovelware, minigame collections, and movie tie-ins. But the artisans at

Rockstar remembered what so many had until now forgotten; that rush of potential we all felt when the DS was first released, it was a unique piece of hardware ripe for innovation.

The game once again shows us the untamed Liberty City through fresh eyes, this time as a young Huang Lee, spoilt son of a recently murdered Triad leader. Liberty City is where Huang was born but he has spent recent years living the good life abroad on his father's crooked dime. With the mysterious death of his father Huang is once again called home, to deliver a supposed heirloom sword to the family's new number one. Needless to say, things don't go well.

The game is presented in a way the melds the ground-level view of recent GTA titles with the top-down perspective of earlier entries to the series. The player can position a fully rotatable camera to observe a scene angled above the action. This style allows the DS to overlook the more minute details of Liberty City as presented in GTA 4 while still offering a familiar, easily navigated rendition of the iconic map. The visuals are rendered in a charming cel-shaded style, giving the title a solid, bold comic book-type aesthetic that remains knowingly hard-boiled.

The entire rhythm of the game has been remixed to a more appropriate tempo for handheld gaming. Gone are lengthy missions involving long drives, extended shoot-outs, and epic getaways. Instead the game delivers it's mini-missions in a rapidly succeeded bursts; it's easy enough to pick the game up and fly through a handful of story points in five minutes, but the machine-gun delivery of each job also makes Chinatown an absolute devil to put down. If you can shake yourself free of the manically bounding grindhouse story, however, you'll still likely be addicted to the game's drug running element for days to come.

Rockstar have performed the seemingly impossible task of shrinking the incredibly busy Grand Theft Auto onto two tiny screens so well that they almost make it look easy. The game is bold, engaging, addictive, stylish, and just plain irresistible. Easily one of the greatest games on the Nintendo DS (and if we take RPGs off the table it's unequivocally first place), Chinatown Wars is a triumphant challenge to all other DS developers; handheld gaming is no longer an excuse for second-rate products.

Synopsis

Chinatown Wars is exactly the kind of game the Nintendo DS has been gagging for, evidence that handheld gaming is worth the effort. The game's appeal crosses the hardcore-casual divide and does more justice to the series than seemed possible.

Source:tvnz.co.nz

The Good, Bad and Ugly Bits of Windows 7 RC

Microsoft is letting the world take a prerelease version of its next operating system for a test drive, and opinions range from delighted to disgusted. Some users -- even a few who consider themselves Mac fans -- have said they're impressed. Others have said the RC has soured them on PCs in general. Also, a security firm has noted the presence of what it says is a persistent Windows problem.

Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) limited distribution of the Windows 7 release candidate (RC) on April 30 -- followed by its more widespread release a week later -- has triggered a firestorm of opinions, comments, critiques and compliments.

As usual, the commenters can be generally divided into two camps: Windows haters and Windows fans. On the whole, though, the RC has received a considerable amount of praise, even from some Macintosh users.

However, security -- always an issue with Microsoft -- could be a problem with the RC, which apparently has a security hole that has hung around on Windows operating systems for years.

Just Loving It

The Windows 7 RC has generated lots of positive comments.

Michael Cherry, a senior analyst at Directions on Microsoft, is running the RC on a newly purchased netbook with an Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Atom processor and 1 GB of RAM. "I was skeptical because a lot of Microsoft executives were promoting running it on a notebook, but it works just fine," he told TechNewsWorld.

The RC has also generated quite a bit of fan mail. "So far, I'm apprehensively impressed," one fan signing himself "Daniel" wrote in response to an article on The New York Times' Gadgetwise blog about the RC. "Seems Microsoft really pulled their finger out to make this simple and sexy."

After running the RC for two days, another commenter on the blog, Joe Richards, said that he prefers his PC running Windows 7 RC over his Apple Macintosh.

Even on the Apple Blog, which (perhaps predictably) ripped the Windows 7 RC, there were a few favorable comments.

"I've used Windows 7 RC1 quite a lot and it's been blisteringly fast," wrote Chris Neal in response to a post about Windows 7 RC, suggesting that it outperforms Windows Vista, Windows XP and, in some cases, Apple's own OS X operating system.

The Other Side

Not everyone who has tried the Windows 7 RC has fallen head over heels in love with it, however. Naysayers include many other commenters on the aforementioned Apple Blog.

Among them is Christian Walker, who considers himself as a hardcore Windows user. The Windows 7 RC has "frozen up on me as much as and perhaps even more than Vista," he wrote, adding that the RC also caused him other problems. "Let's just say I'll be purchasing a Mac. My first Mac."

Meanwhile, security vendor F-Secure points out on its blog that the Windows 7 RC retains a known security hole in Windows Explorer that lets malware authors trick people into clicking on and downloading their malware.

This is a feature that hides extensions for files. Instead of seeing a file name with the extension ".doc" or ".txt" ("Finances.doc" or "MyFile.txt"), for example, users will see the file name without the extension (simply "Finances" or "MyFile").

The problem has been around since Windows NT, according to the F-Secure post. Windows NT, a family of operating systems first released in 1993, is the first fully 32-bit version of Windows.

Hiding the Extensions

Malware authors leverage the extension-hiding feature by renaming an executable file, which uses the ".exe" extension. "The trick was to rename 'Virus.exe' to 'Virus.txt.exe' or 'Virus.jpg.exe' and Windows will hide the '.exe' part of the filename," the F-Secure post says.

However, this may not be much of an issue, according to Directions on Microsoft's Cherry. "The first thing I do on any Windows machine is set the file attribute so I can see the attributes even on hidden files," he noted.

"Microsoft uses this feature because it's very confusing to a lot of users to see all these file extensions out there," Cherry explained. "They just want to name their file. They don't want to know the difference between the '.xls,' the '.doc' and the '.dot' extensions, for example.

Source:Technewsworld.com

Are we ready to say bye to books?

With technology constantly evolving it comes as no surprise to see Amazon launching a larger version of their e-reader, only three months after the original release.

The latest version of the Kindle DX is 250% bigger than their Kindle 2 gadget.

With a screen roughly as big as an A4 page, the device is aimed at reading newspapers, magazines and documents.

The question is, are people in Northern Ireland ready to say goodbye to books and papers?

Currently, the Kindle DX is not on sale in the UK. However, with other e-readers on the market and the Kindle brand becoming more well-known, it seems like a question of when will we see it, not if.

Once you have bought your Kindle DX reader, you then gain access to the Kindle store. The virtual store has more than 225,000 books available to buy as well as 37 newspapers and 28 magazines which you can subscribe to. And they say that this is just the beginning.

Amazon's vision is to allow user access to every book that has ever been printed, in any language, and all in less than 60 seconds. Titles already available include Irish classics such as Ulysses and the Narnia books, and the works of famous literary greats, Seamus Heaney, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw.

However, at a cost of £340, an increase of £87 from the original Kindle 2, will we actually benefit from Kindle DX?

Well apparently we will, or at least students will, especially if you're studying literature.

Without printing and shipping costs, books could be cheaper and struggling with your books would be a thing of the past. A whole term's worth of books could easily be stored in the device.

Kindle DX allows users to download from a virtual book shop

Ciarnan Helferty, president of the University of Ulster's Students Union, thinks it could work.

"The initial price of the Kindle DX is quite expensive but if you worked it out the overall costs of textbooks students have to buy it doesn't seem too bad.

"On average students spend £200 per term, with six terms in a three-year degree then they spend on average £1,200."

With the Kindle DX costing only one third of the average amount spent then it seems quite reasonable.

However, as Mr Helferty pointed out: "All of the students' textbooks and documents would have to be available in order for it to work.

"Perhaps if students could pay over a fixed term, say 12 months, like mobile contracts, that would work out better for them."

Great interest

Amazon has secured deals with newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. They are offering discounted monthly subscriptions, enabling Kindle DX owners to receive their daily paper every morning, without moving a muscle.

So, with newspaper popularity increasing, will we see our papers in Northern Ireland following suit?

Darwin Templeton the editor of the oldest English language general daily newspaper, News Letter, is watching the Kindle DX with a "great interest."

"We are all under a lot of pressure at the moment but this is a very positive development.

"No one is very sure how it will impact on us but we're certainly aware of it and we are watching it."

Malcolm Johnston, publisher at Colourpoint Books, Newtownards, said: "We're quite keen to jump on board.

"It's another means to sell our books, a way to reach a wider group of people.

"If someone in Australia wanted to find out about the village in Northern Ireland where they were born then it's unlikely that they could walk into their local bookshop and find a book we have published on that village.

"However, if the Kindle DX listed all the books we sold then the customer could very quickly download the book from the other side of the world. It's all about widening the access to people."

Acquired taste

But will the introduction of the Kindle DX in the UK endanger the publishing houses? Not according to Mr Johnston.

"It's not something that publishers should be scared of, people will still want to physically hold books.

"They are an acquired taste but as times change we'll adapt and they will be a way of promoting the books we publish."

Amazon has yet to launch the Kindle brand in the UK, but Sony and iRex have already launched portable readers here.

Kindle is the first to use wireless technology which enables users to buy and download books from a virtual store in 60 seconds.

Source:BBC News