Its finally here, but is it just me or does it just blow that you can't run this on Windows XP machines? Is this because of DirectX 10? Probably so. Why the hell does Microsoft not allow DirectX 10 on XP machines... I could care less about 2000 machines but at least go with where the masses are. Maybe you're better off getting Halo 2 on your X-Box 360. (The 3-month pre-pay option is the only worthwhile thing on XBOX live.)
For those of you who play Warcraft III : The Frozen Throne on the ever popular online gaming service, Battle.net, there is a pretty awesome custom map circulating. It is called DotA (otherwise known as Defenders of the Ancients). It is addicting and there is pretty much always a game to join 24/7.
This map updates on a regular basis and consists of many characters to choose from. For the most part, DotA is always welcoming friendly faces and gamers who just want to have fun. However, there are some scrunity about some particular players who start harassing others.
There is a way to alleviate these problems. There is a 3rd party app simply known as "banlist" released by banlist.nl. However, this program although has an excellent premise, is written extremely poorly as well as has various security holes including the sharing of personal data.
The netcast crew has scoured and found out about DotA Bot (currently at v8.41) which is created by SeCreTeC.
The Creators who go by battle.net avatars : PaigeMatthews and EmilyOsment on the Azeroth (U.S. East) realm have devised an excellent little app that embeds real well into Warcraft III (it designs smoothly right into the game's interface, no alt+tabbing necessary.)
The app, more commonly known as SeCreTeC has features such as:
-- Global Ban/Shitlist -- Ability to have a full-fledged shared server side ignore list.
-- Personal Ban/Shitlist -- Ability to have a locally stored (per user) client side ignore list.
-- Ping all timed-out/firewalled users -- Ability to ping every player via HTTP tunnelling (Very Nice!)
-- Country Checker -- Queries the Secretec Database for known IP ranges for particular countries.
The Country checker could be used in conjunction with either the personal or global ban/shitlists.
-- Auto-ban/shitlister -- Ability to automatically shitlist a user based on a specific ping level. (By default if a user goes over 150ms, the shitlister will add that user. You may auto-ban locally, globally, or both.
There are no limits to how many people you send to the globally stored ban/shitlist, however all transactions are logged for abuse. Although you do not have to specify a reason, it is recommended so that other secretec users can know exactly why a particular person is on the list.
You could automatically submit users IN REAL TIME or via BATCH which means use your local list and then at your interval send a copy of your local list to the global database. Every secretec user always uses the global shitlist before using their personal list.
The HD-DVD processing key which allows for unrestricted disc to disc copying of copyrighted work has been cracked in just about a month after the release of HD-DVD. (High Definition DVD)
It is a long 32-bit encryption key which has over 1,600,000 google page results (as of May 6, 2007). The key which circulated like a wild brushfire, has been a source of controversy. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is definitively pissed off and are suing anyone who posts it even though it still takes some skill to actually use it.
Although you can't copyright a hexadecimal string, its the whole idea that this string can be used to thwart copy-protection on work that can be protected by copyright.
Lesson #1: The MPAA should take this as a lesson and realize by putting stuff viewable on personal computers, there will ALWAYS be a way to thwart copy-protection. That's the nature of data. Always has been and always will be. The only foolproof way of protection is a proprietary player with proprietary media that cannot be accessed on computers. (Paraphrased by Leo Laporte, TWIT #96 May 6, 2007).
Windows Vista, contrary to what's circulating around the 'net, will be a complete success. Most people with a decent job would go ahead and buy the OS starting January 29, 2007. With today's hardware, it should NOT be a problem running the slick new Aero interface at full speed. The hype of users switching to Linux (particularly Ubuntu) will soon fade. Mostly these are people who are anti-Microsoft and have nothing better to do than bash Windows, even though they use it themselves -- how hypocritical is that?
Two reasons: Linux does NOT have DVD-ROM playback support "out of the box" and MacOSX is too expensive for the average user. Unless you are a tech geek or an enthusiast, like many, you'll be getting Vista.
Sure Windows Vista will have a slight learning curve particularly to the XP novices, but the grasp will be a snap within a month of using it. Have a novice switched to Linux, the learning curve would be downright huge.
Welcome back to the Netcast arena. Tonight's entry brings us to MMORPG's on the web. Are they worth it or just plain wastes of time?
The MMORPG we're talking about is called SecondLife. Two of our reps who actually tried out this MMORPG sims-like environment, tested all technical and social aspects of this service. If you think this is like your favorite social-networking service like MySpace or FaceBook, or your favorite chat client like AIM, Yahoo, or MSN, think again! It's not!
SecondLife comes in two flavors: FREE and PREMIUM. Both enable shared access amongst other users of the service. The only difference is that FREE membership is limited to chatting, creating/modifying your character (otherwise known as an avatar), and basic navigation through the world. PREMIUM users do all that, except they are able to buy land, as well as buy anything through the use of Linden dollars. SecondLife is pretty much useless unless you shell out your hard-earned money to the SecondLife team, Linden Labs.
On a technical standpoint, Cable and Verizon FIOS were used in our tests, SecondLife has a terrible horrific UI which constantly refreshes itself, doesn't remember where you were which causes major lags in "loading" the terrain. SecondLife updates its client frequently, however, nothing gets fixed. Still the same lag and same low performance. Yes, we know that SecondLife is operated by a small team, but when you launch a world-wide service, it is imperative that you launch it correctly and have regional servers throughout the world to ease the latency issues. SecondLife is a poorly written Win32 application which connects to poorly connected servers with extremely high latency and bad response times.
On a social standpoint, SecondLife is way under par. Our reps, who are extremely friendly and respectful on the Internet, constantly have been harrassed, insulted, and even lagged out of particular areas of the SecondLife map. The report abuse system does nothing to fix problems in these cases as they state.
SecondLifie Rating: * (0.10/100%) rating. "very poor"
Performance issues: * (0.05/100%) "Not acceptable for Win32 client"
Social issues: * (0.02/100%) "Not acceptable for all ages"
Concept idea: * (0.03/100%) "Pathetic attempt to a Sims Clone"
Its already been 13 days since the Zune was released to the public and already it has been hacked. This hack enables the Zune to become like a standard USB mass storage device. What does this tell you? No matter how many times a protection scheme goes in place, there's always a hacker there to break it. But you cannot blame Microsoft, they just gave in to the RIAA. We all know Microsoft has the money and power to basically tell the RIAA to drop dead. If they ever did, they would gain the respect they deserve. This goes for Apple too.
From the Tech Netcasts group, we wish you a very special Thanksgiving holiday. Have fun and enjoy being with family and friends. Enjoy all the technological gadgets that we have for the 21st century (man, what a time!). If you have bought the Zune, PS3, XBOX360, or Wii, have fun with them on this (for most folks) four day weekend.
Images (from left to right): Microsoft's Zune[Black], XBOX360, Nintendo's Wii, Sony's PS3 To start as the first newest tech news, this brings me to Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Zune (portable media player). The PS3 came out this week and the Zune came out last week (Nov 14, 2006). What makes the PS3 such a big story is that Sony purposely makes this system seem to be worth more than gold by releasing far too little for a large demand. That wasn't so responsible of Sony (but hey, look at their batteries blowing up in people's laptops). It is in this reporter's opinion that you just wait for the PS3. Its not even worth the rush. Some major problems with the initial release of the PS3 are 1) you have to do about an hour's worth of upgrading to finally play games, 2) the controller no longer has a rumble feature!!! 3) most of the people waiting in line to buy it were NOT gaming enthusiasts, but rather to resell the system for double or triple the costs. Now that is just not right!!
Do yourself a favor and buy an XBOX 360 or Nintendo Wii. You don't even have to wait in line. Microsoft and Nintendo were at least responsible enough in making more systems available in stores.
Now on to the Zune: This is an excellent piece of hardware. Huge color screen, video capabilities, as well as audio and radio functionalities. The only thing wrong is the DRM!! Say you wanted to save a couple of netcasts, for example TWiT or Security Now, so you can listen to them on the road. So you pop in your Zune to your computer and transfer it over. Now the Zune will add its own copy-protection onto those mp3's you put on it. Clearly this is in violation of TWiT's licensing. Netcasts must NOT be copy-protected as they are freely available for the general public. I sure hope Microsoft really removes this DRM from the Zune in its next firmware update. Because of this DRM, Microsoft will not get as many sales as it can if it didn't have it. (Tip to Microsoft: Remove DRM if you want to be the next iPod Killer.)
