Breaking Windows

As I promised in June, RSS headlines have been added to Breaking Windows. Sure, it took me two months, but these have been busy months.

This was also due to finding the scripts to add the Blogcritics headlines to the site (not to mention finding ones that were not a chore to use). I was about to ask Sussman, as he lists his BC headlines on Futon Report, but along came across a nice piece of software for Dreamweaver called RSS Replay by RNSoft.

MTVU, an MTV Networks-owned channel geared toward college students, has purchased Youth Media & Marketing Networks (Y2M). Y2M owns College Publisher, which provides Web-based publishing and content management software geared toward online student newspapers. It counts approximately 450 colleges among its clients

BGSU is one of those clients. As you might know by reading this blog, I have been involved with bgnews.com since it launched in 1997. We have never really switched service providers. They always get bought out by someone else.

Humor in Cloning Clyde (Xbox Live Arcade) is one of the major selling points. I mean, yea, it is a fun platformer too, but the humor is off the wall.

Every note you read from yourself (your clone) has a bit of great humor. Take this one for example:

"I'd jump over them if I were you (which I am)."

My dad mentioned this to me, so I had to go check it out.

"On Aug. 1, Intel issued a bulletin warning of three flaws in the software that lets its Wi-Fi radios communicate with the Windows operating system. Although the company said that it knew of no active exploitation of the flaws, one of them was especially dangerous because it could allow an attacker to take remote control of a computer over the air. Then the next day, on Aug. 2, two researchers demonstrated just such an attack at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas," Wildstrom reports.

Of course they used a MacBook Pro to demonstrated the attack. The bottom line is that this effects all Wi-Fi radios -- not just the ones in Apple or Intel notebooks. I also like the MacDailyNews Take:

If there is "nothing Mac-specific in the attack," then why use a MacBook? For the headlines, of course. Apple currently has 12% of the portable market share in the U.S. Surely, using a non-Apple laptop from any of makers included the other 88% of the market would have been more representative, but then, who'd be surprised or pick up the story about yet another security breach on a Windows system?

Brian Krebs and The Washington Post should be ashamed of their initial headline, "Hijacking a Macbook in 60 Seconds or Less."

Just months ago, NBC Universal was demanding that clips of its shows be removed from YouTube. In the time since, YouTube has emerged as an Internet tour de force, and now NBC has changed its tune.

Holy Toledo! Did YouTube just get a business model?

Creekstone Farms, a Kansas beef producer, wants to reassure customers that its cattle are safe to eat by testing them all for mad cow disease. Sounds like a smart business move, but there's one problem: The federal government won't let the company do it.

Wait a minute. Read that again?

Reuters withdraws photograph of Beirut after Air Force attack after US blogs, photographers point out 'blatant evidence of manipulation.' Reuters' head of PR says in response, 'Reuters has suspended photographer until investigations are completed into changes made to photograph.' Photographer who sent altered image is same Reuters photographer behind many of images from Qana, which have also been subject of suspicions for being staged

You could also read this news from Reuters, but do you really want to? Oh and the photog in question is Lebanese.

Ynetnews has both photos for comparison, there is nothing subtle about it. The photo was published on news Web sites for about a day, before Reuters issued a retraction, plus the unaltered photo.

Journalistic ethics have really gone out the window. It is really shocking that any photog, even a freelancer, would do this. After this incident, it is doubtful this guy has a career in journalism.

A Reuters employee was suspended after using the company's internet access to issue a threat saying "I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut."

The e-mail was sent to Charles Johnson, who maintains the of Little Green Footballs blog.

Reuters really hates bloggers. First they foil a photoshop job, and now they are writing about Israel and jihadist terrorist activities (OMG!).

How stupid was it to send an email from within the company network? I would have at least used an anonymous proxy.

Two black eyes for Reuters, back-to-back no less. Nice job fellas.

The Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), which was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last Wednesday, aims to cut down on pedophiles’ access to social networking sites and the children who often populate them; however, the act could potentially ban the kids its seeks to protect from accessing sites like MySpace.com—even Amazon.com—while at libraries or schools, BBC News reports.

DOPA? Great name. While I am all for cutting down on pedophiles’ access to social networking sites, this is not the solution. From Internetnews.com:

...The dopes, in this case, are lawmakers anxious to show the voters back home they are doing something about the sexual predators crawling around the Internet...

The American Library Association's (ALA) analysis of DOPA concludes the dragnet filters would cover non-educational social networks, chat rooms, wikis, instant messaging, blogs and possibly even e-mail.

The big problem I see here is the government blocking even more sites that are legitimately used for research -- you know, education?

This morning Steve Jobs will be talking Leopard at the keynote. But no one is interested in that (well, not really). You have to admit, banners that read "Mac OS X Leopard, Hasta la Vista, Vista" and "Mac OS X Leopard, Introducing Vista 2.0" are pretty funny.

My biggest hope is that Finder and Spotlight get a modest boost in speed. Both are dog slow, especially Spotlight -- which is also buggy as all hell.

But the big rumor is the Intel-based Mac Pro desktop. Apple needs to retire the G5 tower, and with the Core 2 Duo out, now is the time.

Wether we see Woodcrest or Conroe chips in the new Mac Pro, it is gonna scream. Xserve also seems likely to get new Intel hardware as well. We could also see new Intel chips in the MacBook Pro line, but I have my doubts on that one.

Will there be updates to the iPod and iTunes? If I were a betting man, (and I am not) I'd bet on it.

I am sure the keynote will have the usual fireworks, fake turtleneck, and "one more thing." The show starts off at 1 PM EST, with numerous sources giving live updates. MacRumorsLive and MacCentral are two places I usually read for the keynote.

As I gaze into my Prognost-o-Matic, I see all nature of things. Secrets of the very universe, are revealed to my gaze as though a curtain has been drawn aside on life itself. Admittedly, some of the things that makes themselves known are of questionable authenticity, but I trust this magic oracle not to deceive me. Thus, I present to you, my WWDC predictions.

My favorite is the lickable iPod interface. Although iTunes Grocery Store is pretty creative too.

This all helps to support my basic understanding of the universe, of course, which is based on the foundational belief that people suck.

People are really, really stupid, too.

The save system sucks, big time. Using the 360's Dashboard to handle everything, you are torn away from the game when you save. Guide Blades swoop in from the left and right, it is all very confusing. Surely they could have covered together a better system. Oh, and you only have one save slot.

When you die (and you will die) you have two options. Save progress and restart the entire game, or load last save. I just started day two and encountered my first auto save.

This is a game you are very likely to play again, so there is no need to force people into only one save file.

Beyond the rotten save system, the game is a hell of a lot of fun.

UPDATE: After playing the game for a few days now, I like the save system now that I understand it. It adds to the intensity and urgency of what you need to do.

Matt isn't the only person who can play link whore for YouTube. Letterman ran a funny video farewell for Bill Gates. Check it out.

As result of trying to enact a law banning the sale of violent videogames (which was found unconstitutional), the State of Illinois must pay the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), game industry trade group, $510,528.64 in attorney fees.

Wow, that is a great use of tax payers money. Good job Illinois!

Time Machine uses a unique interface that turns the rather boring task of backing up and restoring files into something that you may actually enjoy doing. And you may not even have to think too much about the “backing up” portion of the exercise—according to Apple, Leopard will automatically back up your files as you work.

Out of the ten features previewed at WWDC this year, Time Machine was by far my favorite. There is third party software that will kinda do what Time Machine does. But nothing so seamless, but that is the Apple way.

Just get a very large (say terabyte) drive to be able to keep a nice sized backup on hand.

And there’s nothing as terrifying for those same developers as waiting to see if those new features do similar things to the software they’re already selling.

We all know what happened to Watson and Konfabulator, and countless others. They get gulped up into Mac OS X. This year's great shareware that just got a lot more useless include: SuperDuper, ChatFX, VirtualDesktop Pro, Quicksilver, Pulp Fiction, Mail2iCalToDo, Searchlight, and others I am not familiar with.

There are some other good articles on this same subject, Apple’s Research & Rip-off department and 7 Apps on Leopard’s Hit List.

On one hand, this shareware gets expensive, and they usually conflict with each other or the operating system. When Apple incorporates this software into OS X, it works as it should, usually better with more features than the shareware, and it is one price, not 15 different shareware bills.

It also forces shareware developers to one-up Apple when a feature from their shareware gets eaten by Apple. This is good for the community, very good.

The other side of course is that a loyal Apple shareware developer is out a substantial source of income. It sucks, but you know what? That is how products progress. In any industry.

I just hope that Path Finder doesn't get eaten by Apple. Sadly, I have been waiting for it to happen though.

I don't like Attack of the Show, I don't even like G4TV. Those (bleep) (bleep) destroyed TechTV. Luckily, we have YouTube, and you can watch the latest in the JT saga for free.

I would say that Sessler did a great job at yelling at Jack. I would say Jack did a great job of contributing absolutely nothing relevant to the discussion at hand. Nor did he have any new "facts" to give us. To be honest, I was disappointed in his performance.

The opening poll showing 91% of viewers saying that violent video games don't cause real world violence was quite telling. It is a shame that Mark Friedler from GameDaily was squeezed in between Sessler and Thompson, because he was almost completely drowned out.

Oh, on a related note, I got an email from JT in response to an article I did not write, Matt wrote it, on the fact that Bully might get a Teen rating.

Oddly this email did not come to my Blogcritics email -- he sent it to my Meancode account, which I do not even publish. Even more oddly, JT included Matt's article in a press release sent to the ESRB.

I may go into details at a later date.

Yes, it is still Sunday. But I just put in 12 hrs. at Student Publications. What a way to start the week. This might explain the lack of blogging.

Okay, we all know the facts by now. Adnan Hajj, ex-photojournalist for Reuters, manipulated at least some of his photographs before submitting them to the wire service. Hajj has been fired, and all of his photos have been removed from the Reuters archive pending an investigation.

(The “investigation,” in this case, may involve Reuters dumping 920 photographs with Hajj’s name on them into a deep hole, paving over the top and getting on with their lives.)

When it comes to Mac OS X troubleshooting and maintenance, Repairing permissions may be the most frequently recommended course of action. It’s also easily the most maligned.

If you could call an article on repairing permissions in OS X a wonderful read (and I can) -- this is it. Dan Frakes, as usual, does a great job of explaining things.

This tutorial will teach you how to create a hello world web page using AJAX technologies.

It's easy, give it a try!

Those usages people keep telling you are wrong but which are actually standard in English.

Three reviews and two articles in this 16 page PDF. Not bad for the first issue, plus it is free.

I just picked up a DVD set from one of my favorite cartoons of all time. Pinky and the Brain Vol. 1 shipped in July, but our Meijer just got it. From the Wiki entry, it looks like other DVD volumes are planned. Goody!

Vol. 1 has 22 episodes, and one lone feature. It is a four-disc set. Watching them on my HDTV sure makes me realize how far saturday morning cartoons have come.

I will surely be looking out for vol. 2 this Christmas.

Still sticking by the ridiculous "Columbine Simulator" angle, Thompson now is asking for a subpoena to get a copy of the game. Why not just read the previews that prove you wrong Jack?

Home Media Retailing has a write up on retailers problems with both formats, one even calling it the "worst execution of a new technology." Maybe this won't play a role in the 360/PS3 war?

You've probably heard about AOL releasing user searchs and failing to keep the names secret when their code was cracked. Anyway, Somethingawful has the full story and they probably tell it better than I do. Aside from that, they also have the best of the best from the searches with their own sly comments. Hilarity ensues.

This week we got four new-to-us iMacs. And this time they are scott free. Usually with the desktop replacement program, we have to give up an old one.

We were going to purchase four new Intel-based iMacs, we even put in the order. The university said they could save us the money as they had four G5-based 17 inch iMacs.

That is quite possibly the nicest thing they have ever done, especially this summer.

Checking out Microsoft's website home page of "Microsoft Security" (an oxymoron if there ever was one), MacDailyNews reader "MadMac" noticed that the image Microsoft is using next to the caption "Click. You're clean." is an Apple Mac!

And they replaced it with a picture of what looks like a PowerBook without the Apple logo. Nice job!

“Despite SecureWorks being quoted saying the Mac is threatened by the exploit demonstrated at Black Hat, they have provided no evidence that in fact it is,” Apple Director of Mac PR, Lynn Fox, told Macworld. “To the contrary, the SecureWorks demonstration used a third party USB 802.11 device–not the 802.11 hardware in the Mac–a device which uses a different chip and different software drivers than those on the Mac.

SecureWorks even changed their web site. There is a reason for the “Mac user base aura of smugness on security,” and do you know why?

I signed up for GamesnFlix on the 8th. Two days later I got my first three selections. It costs $16.99, and I love it for being able to rent games and movies.

I rented V for Vendetta, Munich and Stacked for the Xbox. You should watch V for Vendetta -- great movie. I need to review Stacked, because I sent a review copy out, and never received a review in return -- not a good thing.

I sent the two movies back and today got Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel and Chibi-Robo.

Wonderful service so far. They have a warehouse in PA, and I get stuff in a day or two.

One day I hate eBay, the next day I love it. That is how it goes. This time the find was Ikaruga, complete. It wasn't cheap (it's only money), but I got it. And it is good.

I also recently picked up O~3's Chaos Field. I played the Japanese version of this game, and was so glad the 'Cube was getting a US port.

Both are great verticle shooters, though Chaos Field did not score too well. But we all know how wrong video game critics can be.

I am glad to have both of these in my collection, and my GameCube is actually being played again!

Today Aaron and I finalized plans to attend the East Coast Gaming Expo. I hope to have a couple articles for Blogcritics covering the show. It is going to interesting, to say the least, meeting Rob Hardcore.

I forgot to ask if the Quality Inn had Internet access. I will have to call back.

John Simley from Walmart media relations contacted Joystiq to clear up the ciircumstances behind the Bully pre-order situation. Simley said that Wal-mart policy is to not carry any unrated or Rating Pending games for pre-order or sale, in-store or online. This decision was made recently, Simley said, but just reflected on the web site starting this week, hence the pulling of Bully pre-orders.

Nice policy change. Don't want to pre-sell a 'Rating Pending' GTA or Bully to a nine-year-old. Not at all related to the Jack Thompson lawsuit, right?

I have logged over 40 hrs. in just four days this week (today was a short day, as I only worked 12 hrs.). No, I am not trying to break a record, or kill myself -- I had exactly three days to take a design comp for a newspaper, complete production, and implement it for The BG News.

The paper went down tonight. It looks great. There are still some styles that need tweaked and added, a bulk of the library created, and I still have to fix up the almost useful style book, but the brunt of the work is over.

I love it when stuff like this is dropped in my lap like this. At least if I knew it was coming, I would have prepared for it.

If Matt can whore out YouTube, then I can do the same for Google Video. Granny. Just don't go to the web site advertised. (You don't fall for those tactics, do you?)

Apple has laid legal claim to the word "Pod", arguing that other companies that use the word as part of their product names risk infringing the trademark of its popular iPod music player.

Um... what the hell? Did you read about this?

Nick Hurm was up from Cincy to help layout the paper last night. After that he and I headed over to the local Waffle House for some well needed nourishment.

He asked me what my favorite game of all time is. While Super Mario Bros. springs to mind, Arkanoid takes top honors in my book. I first played Arkanoid on an Amiga, but mostly played it on an Apple IIGS, then later on the NES, Game Boy, and SNES.

Why is it my favorite? It is simple and addictive. The game has not aged a bit since it was released 20 years ago.

The worst game of all time is obvious, E. T. for the 2600. Why? Because it sucked. It was doomed from the start, and ultimately became the biggest failure in the industry.

So, what is your favorite game of all time? And what do you think is the worst game of all time?

I get phishing emails every day. Who doesn't these days. This one made me laugh. The first thing in the body of the email reads:

Information provided below will be transmitted via a secure socket layer connection !

The first Blu-ray (BD) disc drive for desktop PCs is here, but be warned -- it won't play commercial BD movies.

Sony officially announced its BWU-100A product at its "Experience More 2006" event in Sydney yesterday, all the while acknowledging that there's significant room for improvement before the product is viable for integration into media centre PCs.

Lets here it for HDCP, (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) Sony is really making strides in the fight of the HD format wars.

The HD format wars are over folks. It was porn that helped VHS win the fight, it will be porn that slams the doors shut on Blu-Ray. Do you find it funny or ironic that Betamax was also from Sony? From Gizmodo:

Format war over, HD-DVD wins by way of pornography appearing on it first. Over in Japan GLAY'z, known for its "Brand-new-century-visual-super-exprotion-entertainment," just released the world's first adult film on HD-DVD entitled (if machine translation isn't too unreliable) "Slave Room." Public fornication aside, it's pretty significant since everybody and their mom knows that whatever format the adult industry supports is automatically the winner, or at least that's how the story goes.

My latest batch of gaming goodies from Play-Asia arrived Friday. One of which is Kururin Squash! for the GameCube. I have played the GBA game Kuru Kuru Kururin, this being a sequel. It is even better than the GBA game.

This is also my first GC import. Does anyone have any recommendations for others? I would love to find Donkey Konga 3 but that looks like a hard to find one.

Fall classes started, and I didn't even go. That's right, I am not even enrolled this semester. I don't know if I can give up my "Professional Student" title. It has served me well over the years.

I was going to take a class or two, but I got a job offer from X2GO a month ago. I jumped at the opportunity, and of course said yes. Sadly, I haven't signed a contract with them yet -- they still do not have the business paperwork back from the government yet.

That has been an excruciatingly long wait. I have been working on a corporate identity for them though, hopefully I will have a logo to post soon.

Apple Computer Inc. will pay Creative Technology Ltd. $100 million to end lawsuits over technology needed to navigate through songs on Apple's popular iPod music player. Creative's shares soared.

Anyone watching this unfold had to know that Apple would be paying Creative in the long run. But look at it this way, now with Creative joining the "Made for iPod" program, they can make products for MP3 players that people might actually want to buy!

I am curious about Just Cause. It is a good thing there is demo, or it might just fly under my radar. I think others feel the same way.

The big new demo is a Test Drive Unlimited demo #2. From the press release:

The new demo gives players a sample of online and offline play on 40 miles of open roads on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Players will find prime real estate, three cars – the Ferrari F430, Ford Mustang GT Coupe and AC 289 – and one motorbike, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R.

The Test Drive Unlimited demo offers various challenges, including four offline challenges and two online challenges, allowing up to eight players to race simultaneously. In addition, gamers can launch instant challenges against anyone they encounter on the road, or just burn gallons of virtual gasoline tearing around the lush tropical roads in free ride. Other demo enhancements include gear changes, customizable speed blur effects, optional in-car camera vibrations, fully operational vsync, and handling refinements.

Or in this case, outdoor furniture.

Last night we got back from our trip to Reading, PA. Let me just say that that town has some messed up streets. The hotel, and subsequently the expo, was a bitch to find.

But I had fun, and got a bunch of stuff I have been looking to get. I didn't pick up anything retro, as I spent all my money on imports and funding my friend's loot too. Note to self: don't forget about loan to Christina.

Pictured:

Castlevania "WMD" shirt
Resident Evil "Umbrella Corporation" shirt
ECGXpo '06 shirt
ECGXpo '06 poster (10 of 24)
ECGXpo '06 hot sauce (16 of 24)
Donkey Konga 1+2 Bundle Pack
NEO GEO Battle Coliseum
Jump Super Stars
Bleach DS
Osu! Tatake! Ouenden!
Mawashite Koron
Tokobot
Naruto 4
Confessions of the Game Doctor (autographed)

When I got back from the ECGXpo I had three games waiting for me. Madden NFL 07, which goes to Matt (since he already reviewed two versions of the game) Saints Row, and Starfox Command.

I am happy to say that Saints Row is even better than the demo, and even has some surprises for the beginning that were not in the demo.

Starfox Command is equally impressive. You control the ship entirely with the stylus, which is something I was not expecting. Like Metroid Prime Hunters, it takes a little time to get adjusted to.

The photo below is the box that Starfox Command came in, complete with two bags of peanuts and an "Air Sickness Bag." They love their packaging.

I bought a used copy of Bleach DS. Resetting the data is not a trivial task, as none of the menus are in English (of course).

To delete the Bleach DS data, there are no button combination at the startup screen, but rather you must go into the menus.

SCREEN 1: On the menu screen choose option (second from the bottom).
SCREEN 2: On the option screen select the third option from the top.
SCREEN 3: Select the last option, Save data.
SCREEN 4: It will show four options: Game Data, Record Data, Wi-Fi Data, and All data. Select any one of them and it will then give you a (yes/no) prompt if you want to delete the data.

Thanks to Carlson at Mad-Gear for help on this.

You might have read our series on the Back Compat debate, and I feel this is another step in the right direction. Backwards compatibility of Xbox games is very important. Major Nelson has the list of new and updated games.

Of note are Sid Meier's Pirates. This is a game that I sold to pay for my Xbox 360. I will go and buy it back now that it will work on my 360. This is a title that I have completed 100% of the optional quests on, but I will play again now that it works on my 360.

Burnout 3: Takedown and Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection are also nice additions. Lego Star Wars II, and a couple other new or soon-to-be-released titles are also on this list. This is a very smart move by Microsoft.

Still no Psychonauts, but the list is growing at a good pace. With 267 original Xbox titles, Microsoft is well on their way to their goal. The August '06 update added 39 more titles, and updated compatibility for nine others.

There is one person out there that I know will agree with me on this one, without hesitation. Matt, who has gone through four of these things, has really been screwed over with the 360's headset.

Today mine broke. I went to put it on and it fell apart at the point where it swivels. So mine lasted 10 months. A far better average than Matt for sure, but still, that is horrible. I take very good care of my headset, especially after enduring the stories of Matt's malfunctioning ones.

So right now I am using my AX360 for voice. I am not about to buy another wired headset. I will wait until the wireless headset comes out and hope to God that for $60 that it is not a piece of shit.

At least I did not have to go through the fiasco with Microsoft Support that Matt did with all his headset/controller issues. Knock on wood.

I am not even going to call Microsoft support. I am sure they would tell me that I was mishandling my headset, and that is why it fell apart.

It'a Homer Simpson moment when their anchor forgets to turn off her mic when she heads off to the bathroom. Opps.