Evoke: ok I spoke too soon - they're just allowing a second client for. No crossover of RealID FTL!!!!
M00NBEAST: Yeah, I found the WoW passes amusing as well.
Z-R0E: Yeah, it's pretty normal, the me being right thing.
Evoke: Z you were right - SEA can now play on the US server!
Evoke: sc2 CE is so so shiny! and lolol at the WoW guest passes >_>
Ricky: a nuke is about the only damn thing gonna break down a wall but if the enemy has poor tank position...
Z-R0E: For some reason, spectator chat is visible in this game. Ricky did the creating & inviting for t...
Z-R0E: I really should have tried some nuke drops when we got to the end there, instead of going BCs. With ...
Z-R0E: Review notes from Evoke's perspective:
-I'm pretty sure the first supply depot wasn't correctly ...

Z-R0E: I forgot to mention, I think this is a decent game of ZvT with IdrA vs Lz. Lz doesn't go banshees, b...
Latest Forum Posts
Z-R0E: I've removed the renaming functionality from ZBNI, and instead included the addon Moniker. Moniker l...
Deep Sea Dolphin: Oh man, it's been way too long since I've played a RTS. I'm HORRIBLE. But I'm having a lot of fun ...
tr0tsky: Yah, I like it.
Keii: They're doing an amazing job with this strip. I love it.
Smog: I like Kaku for his philosophies, I just think his science is a bit shaky. I think he's an absolute...
Site Updates @Z StarLeague - Updates Updated July 25 '10 at 02:12 PM @ZSL4 officially (finally) ended
Gaming - StarCraft Replays Updated May 19 '10 at 05:11 PM New replay added: @ZSL4 Round L3: Bluedragon vs Z-R0E 2
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Gaming - StarCraft Replays Updated May 16 '10 at 06:48 PM New replay added: @ZSL4 Round 3: Ricky vs Spink 2
By Soulskill from Slashdot's tee-plus-two-weeks deptartment:
Trailrunner7 writes "Microsoft will issue an out-of-band patch on Monday for a critical vulnerability in all of the current versions of Windows. The company didn't identify which flaw it will be patching, but the description of the vulnerability is a close match to the LNK flaw that attackers have been exploiting for several weeks now, most notably with the Stuxnet malware. The advance notification from Microsoft on Friday said that the company is patching a critical vulnerability that is being actively exploited in the wild and affects all supported Windows platforms. The LNK flaw in the Windows shell was first identified earlier this month when researchers discovered the Stuxnet worm spreading from infected USB drives to PCs. Stuxnet has turned out to be a rather interesting piece of malware as it not only uses the LNK zero day vulnerability to spread, but it had components that were signed using a legitimate digital certificate belonging to Realtek, a Taiwanese hardware manufacturer."

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By Michael McWhertor from Kotaku:

Real-time tactics evolve with StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Blizzard's long in the making sequel to one of the most beloved, bestselling sci-fi strategy games of all time. Oh, so you've heard of it, then?

Three distinct races, the displaced humans known as Terrans, the ancient, mystical alien Protoss, and the insect-like Zerg horde, are (still) embroiled in an intergalactic war. Billions die as the Zerg swarm reawakens from hibernation four years after the events of 1998's StarCraft: Brood War. In StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, players will largely experience the Terran side of this story under the command of Jim Raynor, hero of the original StarCraft and now enemy of the imperial Dominion forces. Raynor and his faithful crew of Raiders hop from planet to planet searching for artifacts that may end the Zerg's reign of terror and that of its leader, the Queen of Blades.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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By NIBMRatchet from TFW2005:
No, the article's not about a ginger haired person but rather about a new face of a robot for Transformers 3.

This new robot was spotted interacting with Sam and Carly on the TF3 Set.

You can also spot him on the following YouTube video (at 3:51).



...Article continued at TFW2005

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Slashdot UK Government Rejects Calls To Upgrade From IE6
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 10:30 PM
By Soulskill from Slashdot's it-was-good-enough-for-churchill deptartment:
pcardno writes "The UK government has responded to a petition encouraging government departments to move away from IE6 that had over 6,000 signatories. Their response seems to be that a fully patched IE6 is perfectly safe as long as firewalls and malware scanning tools are in place, and that mandating an upgrade away from IE6 will be too expensive. The second part is fair enough in this age of austerity (I'd rather have my taxes spent on schools and hospitals than software upgrade testing at the moment), but the whole reaction will be a disappointment to the petitioners."

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Panels on Pages Retcon This! Exodus
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 09:45 PM
By Jason Kerouac from Panels on Pages:
"What happens when a perfectly good character is squandered for no reason other than not knowing how to use him properly? Exodus knows"

Read the full article at Panels on Pages

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Kotaku Mass Effect Cosplay: A New Challenger Enters
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 09:45 PM
By Luke Plunkett from Kotaku:

Less than 24 hours after posting the Mass Effect Comic-Con cosplay clip, we already have a serious competitor for the title of "Best Mass Effect Cosplay In The Universe".

Evil FX, a freelance special effects artist, is currently building two Commander Shepard suits, one male, one female. And while they're unfinished, they're already displaying a level of authenticity and build quality that wouldn't look out of place in a Mass Effect movie.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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Kotaku What's Your Longest Gaming Session?
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 09:15 PM
By Brian Ashcraft from Kotaku:

It's a me, Friday! Time for Tell Us Dammit. Dammit.

Here's how it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn't some marketing survey or whatever. It's an emotional investment in you. Yes, we're interested in knowing you, Kotaku reader person.

You probably know oodles about us - more than you even want to, we're sure. But, hey, we'd like to know about you. That way you won't be some faceless blob - and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban ya. Or not, because really we're incapable of human emotion.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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Kotaku The Video Game Dodgeball Team
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 08:45 PM
By Luke Plunkett from Kotaku:

This is 8-Bit Shit, from LA, who may well be the world's only video game-themed dodgeball team.

While not a mandatory rule for every player every week, as you can see, many of them turn up to games dressed as video game characters. Most of the big names are covered, from Mario to Sonic to Ryu to...a guy with Qbert on his dick, but my favourite may well be Carmen Sandiego, whose getup is so impractical for dodgeball it's worth a tip of the hat.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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Slashdot The Canadian Who Holds the Key To the Internet
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 08:30 PM
By Soulskill from Slashdot's hope-nothing-breaks-during-hockey-season deptartment:
drbutts writes "The Toronto Star has an interesting story on how they are securing DNS: It's housed in two high-security facilities separated by the North American landmass. The one authenticated map of the Internet. Were it to be lost — either through a catastrophic physical or cyber attack — it could be recreated by seven individuals spread around the globe. One of them is Ottawa's Norm Ritchie. Ritchie was recently chosen to hold one of seven smartcards that can rebuild the root key that underpins this system' called DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions). In essence, these seven can rebuild the architecture that allows users to know for certain where they are and where they are going when navigating the Web."

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By Luke Plunkett from Kotaku:

Yesterday, select Facebook data from over 100 million accounts turned up on a 2.8GB torrent file. It may shock you to know that employees at companies like Sega and Lucasfilm were interested in downloading said information.

Before you become alarmed, the data wasn't a "leak"; all the information was pulled from publicly-available sections of profiles, so you won't find anything listed that you wouldn't find by performing a regular Facebook search.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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MMO-Champion Cataclysm Masteries, Tol'vir, Blue Posts
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 08:00 PM
From MMO-Champion:
Cataclysm Class Masteries
The latest beta build reintroduced class masteries in-game! Masteries are affected by the Mastery Rating on your gear.

For example, a level 82 player will get 1 Mastery point for each 93 Mastery Rating he has. This mastery point will increase the mastery bonus differently depending on the class, +1 Mastery Point doesn't necessarily means a +1% increase to the bonus. (e.g. A Beast Mastery hunter with +2 Mastery gets +4% increased pet damage)

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Panels on Pages PCN - Master-PoP! Theatre Episode 5
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 08:00 PM
By Lee Rodriguez from Panels on Pages:
"For the final episode, we get the thrilling second half of Friday the 13th"

Read the full article at Panels on Pages

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Kotaku Singles Seeking Rock Band Next Week
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 07:45 PM
By Michael McWhertor from Kotaku:

Next week's Rock Band additions are certainly an eclectic mix, ranging from Christian pop to German industiral to indie rock. What's the theme? Singles!

New tracks from Blondie, La Roux, The Decemberists and Eagles of Death Metal might inspire you to drag the plastic instruments out and commence to wailing. That is, provided you have the (deep breath) $1.99 USD, £.99 UK, €1.49 EU, 160 Microsoft Points or 200 Wii Points per track to spare.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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Kotaku See You In The Future
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 07:15 PM
By Michael McWhertor from Kotaku:

Ladies and gentlemen, grab your forks. Please insert into this week. For it is done. Now, let's celebrate with a little off-topic conversation. Anything, everything, is up for discussion.

I'm going to deal with a few thousand pesky ants that are crawling all over my workspace and my person. Then I play more StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and eat a delicious hamburger, one that could be made of ostrich, should I feel adventurous enough. Please share interesting stories and links to current events that we may have missed. It's appreciated.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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StarCraft: Legacy Reconnaissance Report: Scrap Station
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 07:00 PM
From StarCraft: Legacy:
Lylirrahas posted the 2nd StarCraft IIReconnaissance Report.This report focuses on the 1v1 league map called Scrap Station. Just like the first Reconnaissance Report, physical features of the map are explained in detail and some strategy is discussed in order to give players a better understanding of what its like playing on Scrap Station.

...Article continued at StarCraft: Legacy

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Kotaku Eyes On The Prize
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 06:45 PM
By Owen Good from Kotaku:

So long from Comic-Con, and the indoctrination of another generation of gamer/geeks. Picture via Shiraz Malik.

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By Soulskill from Slashdot's it-was-the-one-armed-terrist deptartment:
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times covers a report released by the National Research Council, which says the ability of the US to identify the source of a nuclear weapon used in a terrorist attack is fragile and eroding. The goals of the highly specialized detective work, known as nuclear attribution, is to clarify options for retaliation and to deter terrorists by letting them know that nuclear devices have fingerprints that atomic specialists can find and trace. 'Although US nuclear forensics capabilities are substantial and can be improved, right now they are fragile, under-resourced and, in some respects, deteriorating,' the report warns. 'Without strong leadership, careful planning and additional funds, these capabilities will decline.' The report calls on the federal government to take steps to strengthen its forensic capabilities and argues for the necessity of better planning, more robust budgets, clearer lines of authority and more realistic exercises."

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StarCraft: Legacy Join The Dominion Winners Announced
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 06:30 PM
From StarCraft: Legacy:
The winners of the Join The Dominion contest have been announced on the official StarCraft II'swebsite. Eleven talented talented artists were crowned winners, consisting of three top prize winners and eight runner-ups. There are also countless honorable mentions that span several pages.

Quote:
The power to annihilate a planet is insignificant when compared to the power of information. Nothing exemplifies this maxim more than the brilliantly executed program of inspiration, indoctrination, and admonition that has been unleashed over the course of this propaganda art contest. Indeed, the results have been truly impressive, but now the contest has drawn to a close. The votes have been counted and the time has come to recognize 11 propagandists whose efforts have most swayed the hearts and minds of their peers. Let us congratulate the winners on their victory and bask in their rewards.

...Article continued at StarCraft: Legacy

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By NIBMRatchet from TFW2005:
We have received a Press Release from Hasbro and it’s about the recent Cybertron Convention, China.

Hasbro is kicking off the start of the first ever official TRANSFORMERS fan convention to be held in Asia, “TRANSFORMERS Cybertron Con,” at the East Asia Exhibition Hall at the Shanghai World Expo.

...Article continued at TFW2005

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StarCraft: Legacy StarCraft II Patch 1.0.1
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 06:15 PM
From StarCraft: Legacy:
Blizzardhas just released Starcraft II Patch 1.0.1. The patch very small seeing as though it only fixed a sound bug with 7.1 systems and optimized campaign save files. These optimizations are an effort to prevent players from playing pirated versions of the single player campaign offline.

Quote:
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty - Patch 1.0.1

To get the latest news and interact with the community, visit our brand new StarCraft II website. Be sure to check out our Game Guide for an in-depth look at StarCraft II gameplay. We wish you all the best on your journeys through the embattled Koprulu Sector!

...Article continued at StarCraft: Legacy

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Kotaku Sega Does What Nintendon't (Namely, Make Money)
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 06:15 PM
By Michael McWhertor from Kotaku:

While Nintendo managed to lose a cool $290 million USD this past quarter (for very good reasons), its one-time rival Sega actually managed to have a showing in the black.

Or, rather, its parent company Sega Sammy Holdings did. Because without all those yen flowing in from the company's pachinko business, Sega could have had a less impressive quarter. Sega's consumer division, the part that sells video games for consoles and PCs, saw "firm" sales according to the company.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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Kotaku The Superstars of NBA Jam, In Action
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 05:45 PM
By Owen Good from Kotaku:



NBA 2K11 hasn't cornered the market on 1990s Showtime nostalgia. Yesterday we learned that household names like Detlef Schrempf and Clyde Drexler will return to the 2-on-2 Wii arcade title. Here's a video showing them in action.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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Slashdot New PS3 Firmware Causing HDD Upgrade Problems?
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 05:45 PM
By Soulskill from Slashdot's infirm-ware deptartment:
Channard writes "While there have been occasional reports of previous PS3 firmware upgrades causing system crashes and so forth, Sony's new firmware upgrade for the system, 3.41, is apparently stopping PS3 owners from upgrading their hard disks. This problem has been encountered by many users on Sony's forums and occurs when you try to put a new hard disk into a PS3 that already has the firmware upgrade installed. The general course of action for upgrading a PS3's drive is that you download the latest PS3 firmware onto a memory stick and, after swapping the hard drive in the PS3, plug the stick in, allowing the PS3 to properly prepare the disk for use. But as of upgrade 3.41, the PS3 fails to recognize the firmware on the stick, complaining that it can't proceed until you insert the correct firmware. Repeating the process and re-downloading the firmware does not fix the problem, as I can confirm, having encountered the problem myself. Users can put the old hard disk back in, provided they've not reformatted it for some other purpose, so all is not lost. Sony have apparently told gaming website CVG that 'The information available to our Consumer Services Department does not suggest that this is a problem PlayStation owners are likely to experience when upgrading the HDD with 3.41 update.' This seems to fly in the face of the currently available information — although whether or not this statement was issued by Kevin Butler is unclear. Either way, PS3 owners encountering this problem will likely have to wait a few days for a fix and use their old HDDs for now."

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By Michael McWhertor from Kotaku:

This year's gathering of first-person shooter diehards at Quakecon will feature more than just id Software's Quake, Doom and Rage. Bethesda's showing up too, armed with Brink. More surprising is an appearance by the former heads of Infinity Ward.

Jason West and Vince Zampella, who went on to form Respawn Entertainment after getting canned from Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward, will make the trip to Dallas, Texas to talk about video games. They'll be sitting on the ‘Building Blockbusters' panel, joined by id's Tim Willits and Bethesda's Todd Howard to talk shop. That could be very interesting.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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By Tony_Bacala from TFW2005:
Thanks to the good folks at Activision and S3, we have some Playstation Network codes available to give away. These codes when entered on PSN will allow you to download and install the War for Cybertron DLC Pack, just released this week, FOR FREE!

We have a total of 5, and will be holding "post to win" type threads all weekend. All you need to do is post in the thread, and if we choose your post, you win. Enter as many times as you like per thread.

...Article continued at TFW2005

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By Owen Good from Kotaku:

Responding to vociferous reaction from its hardcore community, Madden NFL 11 will patch in original pre-snap adjustment controls that countermand the new "Strategy Pad," design, but not before a month after the game releases.

Ian Cummings, the series' creative director, announced the decision earlier today after a blog post explaining the original design change. For Madden hardcore fans, they can expect to return to the old shoulder-button/Y (or triangle) command set by the first week of the NFL season, which begins Sept. 9.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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Slashdot FCC Gives Thumbs-Up To First LTE Phone
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 04:45 PM
By Soulskill from Slashdot's wait-how-many-g-is-this-one deptartment:
eagledck tips news that the FCC has "finally approved the first 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) phone for sale in the US." The Samsung device will use MetroPCS as a carrier, but tech specs, software details and a launch timetable are still uncertain. Meanwhile, Verizon is ramping up testing of their own LTE infrastructure, hoping to launch in 25 to 30 markets by the end of the year. An anonymous reader notes that LTE rollouts could be hampered by a confused and conflicted patent situation. "It is impossible to know where all the patents are but we have identified more than 60 companies holding essential patents. It is a very large landscape and fragmented. If there was one major patent pool and a handful of individual companies to deal with, that would be possible. But signing license deals with 40 plus [entities] is not. A unified patent pool is best," said a representative for one of three patent pool organizations trying to accomplish that.

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Kotaku The Sega Revival You Probably Weren't Expecting
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 04:15 PM
By Michael McWhertor from Kotaku:

If you thought Darius Burst's transition from PSP game to old-school super widescreen arcade cabinet was an odd choice, Sega's arcade return to old school might blow your mind. That is if you've ever heard of Pengo before.

Of all the arcade properties to revisit, Pengo is perhaps the least expected. The arcade game, released by Sega in 1982 and later ported to gobs of other platforms, is getting an 8 player competitive update for a Japanese arcade release. Play as an ice block-pushing penguin, crush enemies and outscore your opponents to win.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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By Michael McWhertor from Kotaku:

Do you love computer adventure games? You know, Zork, Planetfall, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or anything that falls under the "interactive fiction" description or bears the Infocom label. Then get Get Lamp, a long-in-the-making documentary.

Jason Scott, who you may know from his BBS documentary, has been slaving away on this thing since 2005, interviewing adventure game luminaries and lovers of interactive fiction from Steve Meretzky to John Romero to others that only the most hardcore text adventure fan will know. I highly doubt you'll see a more interesting documentary about the meeting of computer games and literature this year, or maybe even ever.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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Slashdot DefCon Contest Rattles FBI's Nerves
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 03:45 PM
By Soulskill from Slashdot's par-for-the-course deptartment:
snydeq writes "A DefCon contest that invites contestants to trick employees at 30 US corporations into revealing not-so-sensitive data has rattled nerves at the FBI. Chris Hadnagy, who is organizing the contest, also noted concerns from the financial industry, which fears hackers will target personal information. The contest will run for three days, with participants attempting to unearth data from an undisclosed list of about 30 US companies. The contest will take place in a room in the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas furnished with a soundproof booth and a speaker, so an audience can hear the contestants call companies and try to weasel out what data they can get from unwitting employees." The group organizing the contest has established a strict set of rules to ensure participants don't violate any laws.

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By Charlie Jane Anders from io9:

Have you ever wondered which starship would prevail in a knock-down, drag-out space battle? The "Starship Smackdown" is a Comic Con institution, and we were able to marvel at the geeky knowledge and fannish quips from the celebrity panelists.

This was the 15th Starship Smackdown (partly because it's happened at other cons besides SDCC.) We were assured at the beginning that there would be "no ties," although of course there turned out to be plenty of ties, which the audience had to break. It was all extremely scientific and rigorous.

...Article continued at io9

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Kotaku I'll Bet Chad Ochocinco Also Has An Edge Card
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 03:30 PM
By Owen Good from Kotaku:

The Cincinnati Bengals receiver scoured the used bin at his local GameStop today. I'll never again doubt his gamer bonafides. Seen via Twitter.

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Slashdot How Should a Non-Techie Learn Programming?
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 03:00 PM
By Soulskill from Slashdot's at-gunpoint-is-not-a-valid-answer deptartment:
CurtMonash writes "Nontechnical people — for example marketers or small business owners — increasingly get the feeling they should know more about technology. And they're right. If you can throw up a small website or do some real number-crunching, chances are those skills will help you feed your family. But how should they get started? I started a thread with the question on DBMS2, and some consistent themes emerged, including: Learn HTML + CSS early on; Learn a bit of SQL, but you needn't make that your focus; Have your first real programming language be one of the modern ones, such as PHP or Python; MySQL is a good vehicle to learn SQL; It's a great idea to start with a project you actually want to accomplish, and that can be done by modifying a starter set of sample code (e.g., a WordPress blog); Microsoft's technology stack is an interesting alternative to some of the other technology ideas. A variety of books and websites were suggested, most notably MIT's Scratch. But, frankly, it would really help to get more suggestions for sites and books that help one get started with HTML/CSS, or with MySQL, or with PHP. And so, techie studs and studdettes, I ask you — how should a non-techie go about learning some basic technological skills?"

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By Michael McWhertor from Kotaku:

The creator of Half-Life, Team Fortress and Portal has a plan to increase the number of Mac games that are available through its digital distribution service, Steam. Valve plans on giving away* "some" of its Mac-specific game code to developers.

*The only real catch here is that Valve will be helping out those game creators who also sign on for Steamworks integration, the company's social networking, matchmaking and dev tools software.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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By Owen Good from Kotaku:

Madden NFL 11 strives to make your football video game experience "simpler, quicker, deeper." Not sure what dedicated Dorito support can add to this - maybe "more stoned?" - but two flavors "inspired" by the game have hit store shelves.

As the clear market leader with an exclusive license, Frito-Lay is dogged by knee-jerk consumer criticism that it has no incentive to innovate and simply releases a $3.99 ingredient update each year. Plus everyone knows Tim's Cascade Style Steak & Onion Potato Chips got like a 107 on Metacritic before it was discontinued.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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By Soulskill from Slashdot's just-tell-them-it-was-for-national-security deptartment:
suraj.sun writes with news that the US Department of Justice has joined a lawsuit alleging Oracle of overcharging the federal government for its software products. Quoting: "In a nutshell, the lawsuit argues that Oracle's government customers — a wide array of agencies, including the State Department, the Energy Department, and the Justice Department itself — got deals 'far inferior' to those the enterprise software giant gave to its commercial clients. The allegations stem from a software deal between Oracle and the federal General Services Administration that the Justice Department says involved 'hundreds of millions of dollars in sales' and that ran from 1998 to 2006. Under the contract, Oracle was required to inform the GSA when commercial discounts improved and to offer those same discounts to government buyers. Oracle misrepresented its true commercial sales practices and thus defrauded the US, the lawsuit contends.

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By Mike Fahey from Kotaku:

How did developer Realtime Worlds go from creating violent free-roaming shooters like APB and Crackdown to working on the massive social gaming undertaking Project: MyWorld? They don't. It was the other way around.

Realtime Worlds' debut of the ambitious Project: MyWorld on Wednesday took a lot of people by surprise. Known for violent shooting games like APB and the original Crackdown, the concept of a project that seeks to recreate the entire planet as a virtual playground for social networking and social gaming seems slightly odd.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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By Annalee Newitz from io9:
The human genome contains fragments of viruses that our species tangled with in our distant evolutionary past. Now new scientific research has isolated some of the viruses that still haunt our genomes, even after millions of years of evolution. In today's Scientific American, Katherine Harmon has a great roundup of new studies of the retrovirus genes that lurks in our own genome, as well as in the genomes of other life forms.

Harmon writes:
Quote:
Genetic code from retroviruses has been found to compose some 8 percent of the human genome, having been copied in during replication and left to be inherited by us and our progeny. But non-retroviral RNA viruses do not use their host's DNA to replicate-and some do not even enter the host cell's nucleus. Nevertheless, new research has turned up surprising evidence that some of these viruses are enmeshed in the genomes of vertebrates-including humans and other mammals.

...Article continued at io9

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Slashdot ISC Offers Response Policy Zones For DNS
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 01:45 PM
By Soulskill from Slashdot's cleaning-up-the-e-streets deptartment:
penciling_in writes "ISC has made the announcement that they have developed a technology that will allow 'cooperating good guys' to provide and consume reputation information about domains names. The release of the technology, called Response Policy Zones (DNS RPZ), was announced at DEFCON. Paul Vixie explains: 'Every day lots of new names are added to the global DNS, and most of them belong to scammers, spammers, e-criminals, and speculators. The DNS industry has a lot of highly capable and competitive registrars and registries who have made it possible to reserve or create a new name in just seconds, and to create millions of them per day. ... If your recursive DNS server has a policy rule which forbids certain domain names from being resolvable, then they will not resolve. And, it's possible to either create and maintain these rules locally, or, import them from a reputation provider. ISC is not in the business of identifying good domains or bad domains. We will not be publishing any reputation data. But, we do publish technical information about protocols and formats, and we do publish source code. So our role in DNS RPZ will be to define 'the spec' whereby cooperating producers and consumers can exchange reputation data, and to publish a version of BIND that can subscribe to such reputation data feeds. This means we will create a market for DNS reputation but we will not participate directly in that market.'"

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Kotaku How To Add West And Wesker To Lost Planet 2
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 01:30 PM
By Mike Fahey from Kotaku:

Previously unlockable only by having older game saves on your console's hard drive, a generous Capcom has divulged the secret to unlocking Dead Rising's Frank West and Resident Evil's Albert Wesker to Lost Planet 2, game save-free.

Perhaps Lost Planet 2 didn't live up to sales expectations because it required game saves from Resident Evil 5 and either Dead Rising or the original Lost Planet in order to unlock Albert Wesker and Frank West. Capcom fixes that issue by divulging the process to follow in order to unlock the two popular characters without the older data.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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TFW2005 Nelson : The NASCAR Trio Are The Wreckers
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 01:15 PM
By NIBMRatchet from TFW2005:
Nelson just visited our boards and announced that the famous Transformers 3 NASCAR trio are indeed The Wreckers.

We wish to thank, Mr. Nelson Lauren for this exclusive piece of news.

We do believe The Wreckers need no introduction. But, just in case...
The Wreckers are a sub-team of Autobots in the Transformers Universe, functioning essentially as a commando unit. They were created by Marvel UK writer, Simon Furman. The Wreckers are called upon whenever the odds of success are slim.

...Article continued at TFW2005

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TFW2005 War for Cybertron Megatron Video Review
Posted by News Fetcher on July 30 '10 at 01:15 PM
By Aulistar Mark from Kotaku:

For 30 years Chinatown Fair Video Arcade has stood at 8 Mott Street in New York City's Chinatown, entertaining gamers. Despite its age, it also stands as an environment for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) youth to just be themselves.

While the world of gaming has labored to deal with the gay question, Chinatown Fair counts LGBT teens and adults among some of its most frequent and valued customers. People traverse from machine to machine, unmoved by even the most blatant public shows of affection. The politics of Street Fighter are deemed more pressing then those of society at large.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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By Annalee Newitz from io9:

Want to travel into the future of particle physics, but don't have that Higgs boson-powered time machine in working order yet? Check out this chart (below), which shows the insanely huge physics experiments that come after the Large Hadron Collider.




Symmetry Breaking's Barbara Warmbein explains that the slide comes from Jean-Pierre Delahaye's presentation last week at the International Conference on High Energy Physics. She explains:

...Article continued at io9

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By Meredith Woerner from io9:

The last trailer for Tron Legacy left us with plenty of questions, so we went producer Sean Bailey for the answers. In our exclusive interview, we scanned and deciphered Tron's identity discs, sirens and Flynn's relationship with Quorra (Olivia Wilde.)

And it should go without saying, there are spoilers ahead.



...Article continued at io9

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By Soulskill from Slashdot's do-androids-dream-of-electric-rights deptartment:
eldavojohn writes "According to AfterDawn, Google has given app makers the option to use a license server as DRM to ensure the user has paid for an app before they can download it. Reportedly, the Market app will communicate with a Google license server using RSA encryption. It is important to note this is only available for non-free apps (built with SDK 1.5 and later), and it was instituted to provide a better solution to the old and widely criticized copy protection scheme that was susceptible to Android app piracy (like sideloading). For better or for worse, Android's Marketplace appears to now have an optional, phone-home form of DRM." Following news of the new licensing service, Hexage Ltd, makers of a popular Android game called Radiant, released the data they had collected on piracy of Radiant over a 10-month period beginning last October. A series of charts shows total users, paid users and the piracy rate, by region.

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By Michael McWhertor from Kotaku:

While the PSP may sit atop this week's list of bestselling hardware in Japan, it's still the Nintendo DS that Japanese gamers love more than anything else.

Cheaper versions of the Nintendo DSi LL, DSi and DS Lite walk away with the biggest share of the pie this week, sales likely spurred by the latest Inazuma Eleven game and that new/old Fire Emblem release. The battle between the Wii and PlayStation 3 sees a wider gap this week, with Nintendo pulling ahead, likely from still strong Wii Party sales.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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By Mike Fahey from Kotaku:


EA sweetens the deal for players picking up the limited edition of the modern-day Medal of Honor reboot on October 12, with a beta invite for DICE's highly anticipated Battlefield 3 in every package.

We've heard nary a peep regarding Battlefield 3 since EA COO John Pleasants mentioned it back in June of 2009. All we've known since then is that the game is in development.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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By NIBMRatchet from TFW2005:
There had been many speculations regarding the identity of the new Mercedes-Benz E550 Autobot in Transformers 3 by fans. Finally, Nelson of the Shoot For The Edit provided us with more info about who he is.

First of all Nelson said… Mercedes is not Jolt.

And to clear things-up furthermore, “IIRC, the blue Mercedes and the Einstein-looking bot are the same.

...Article continued at TFW2005

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By Stephen Totilo from Kotaku:

In late May, ModNations Racers producer Dan Sochan told Kotaku a patch was in the works that would shorten the game's lengthy load times. Today, IGN reports that such a patch will be out next week.

First on the list of tweaks coming via the patch, the outlet reports, is:
Quote:
Slashed Load Times
Yes, there are still going to be load times, but Sony is reporting that in some cases those loads will be 50 percent faster.

...Article continued at Kotaku

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