All Things News

Straight from Gizmodo: “Lawyers ruin all the fun. Lik-Sang, the world-renowed importer of all things video game, has closed up shop for good. Guess who’s to blame? Our good friends at Sony, that’s who. Feeling the pressure from the legal threats Sony has been shooting across its bow recently (like threatening to unleash Hell if Lik-Sang sold imported PS3s into Europe before its official launch there), Lik-Sang decided to close once and for all. Yet another Web site consigned to the dustbin of history ($1 to Pat Buchanan). As expected, all orders have been canceled and will be refunded ASAP. There’s a really gnarly catch, however: Lik-Sang named names. High-ranking guys over at Sony apparently used to online importer to nab some goods, too.”

Straight from Gizmodo: “Sony is in a heap of trouble. First the exploding batteries, and now it looks like that could turn into a cascading problem. Our beloved blood brothers at Kotaku point us to a quote where Sony Computer Entertainment America co-chairman Jack Tretton backpedaled on the ship date of the PlayStation 3, saying that the game console’s widely-reported rollout on November 17 is not set in stone:

“The honest answer is it’s more of a target. Clearly we’ve had production issues.”

This can’t be good. The company’s bleeding cash, making us wonder if the PlayStation 3 might be put on the back burner for a while.”

Straight from Ars Technica: “Launch supplies of the PlayStation 3 may be even tighter than expected, as Sony again warns that production issues may keep it from hitting its revised target of 2 million PS3 shipments by the end of this calendar year. Last month, Sony cut its original 2006 calendar target of 4 million PS3s in half, while pledging to meet its original 6 million target by the end of March 2007.Sony’s revised plans included having 100,000 consoles available for the November 11 launch in Japan and another 400,000 for the North American launch six days later, but with production problems continuing, those targets could be difficult to meet.”

Straight from Slashdot: “Gamespot has an article describing PS3s operating erratically at conference demonstrations.’ In its defense, Sony said the PS3 failures were caused by unusually high temperatures created by having many of the next-gen consoles operating in close proximity to each other. ‘It’s not a problem with the PlayStation 3 unit itself,’ Sony spokeswoman Nanako Kato told the AP. ‘For a normal player at home, there shouldn’t be any problem.’ As a result, Sony’s stock slid 2.75%. I guess they should have thought first before releasing five times the number of kiosks as they did with the PS2 — they’re causing each other to overheat. There goes my PS3 beowulf cluster idea!”

Straight from Ars Technica: “Sure, Sony has had its problems this year—PS3 production problems, massive battery recalls, less-than-expected enthusiasm for its PSP—but Sony’s a massive worldwide corporation and one of the strongest brand names in the world. How much could a few production missteps hurt them? A lot more than you might think.Sony has just announced a revision of its projected performance numbers for the 2006 fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2007, and it’s a grim tale. While the sales and operating revenue projections remain unchanged, the company’s operating income will plummet from ¥130 billion to ¥50 billion. That’s a drop of 62 percent.”

Straight from Joystiq: “Before jumping into Genji to deal some massive damage to historically accurate giant crabs (nyuk nyuk) during Sony’s Gamer’s Day event on Thursday, MTV News’ Stephen Totilo noticed a curious menu option:

INSTALL

What’s this all about? Totilo writes, “Also unexpected was a feature in Genji to install the game, committing 4GB of data from the game’s Blu-ray disc to the PS3’s hard drive — a three-minute one-time-only procedure available from the game’s start menu that a Sony rep said cuts down in-game load times from about 15 seconds to four seconds.”"

Straight from Ars Technica: “When a company is on a roll, good news seems to pour out of it like a gushing, bubbly waterfall. Conversely, when a once-dominant company starts to head downhill, nothing but bad news seems to stick to it. Sony is increasingly falling into the latter category. The demonstration of the PlayStation 3 for the first time at the Tokyo Game show was intended to be a positive moment for the company. Instead, it turned into an awkward one that the press were only too eager to pounce on. Macquarie Equities analyst David Gibson was at the show, and he wrote in a research note to his clients that he saw the PS3 “operate erratically” and said that it “required repeated resets” during the show. He described the problems occurring so close to the production date as “clearly negative news for the company.” However, Gibson believes that the issues can be fixed before launch, so he is keeping his existing “outperform” rating on Sony stock.”

Straight from Joystiq: “Games bought through the PlayStation Store will be able to run on five-or-fewer systems. Of course, if you own more than five systems, you can probably afford to pay for the game again on the sixth. (Hah, we kid; you didn’t get so rich by wasting money on a game you already bought.) The important application for the five-or-less rule is that you can log in to the PlayStation Store at a friend’s house and re-download a game for free.

When you leave your friend’s house, Sony says that you can leave the game there. If the title is an online multiplayer game, only one of you can use it at a time. But if it’s an offline game, we were told that the multiple systems can continue to play it.

Sounds like you and your four best friends may be splitting PS3 game downloads.”

Straight from TorrentFreak.com: “Last week at the Digital Home Developers Conference Brad Hunt, the MPAA’s executive vice president and chief technology officer said that piracy is the inevitable outcome of the music and movie industries’ inability to provide a simple, inter-compatible and non-intrusive DRM solution.”

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Straight from Slashdot: “Kotaku reports on a Shacknews Post. Battlefield 2142, the new Electronic Arts game, is expected to include mandatory spyware in the retail package. The software will apparently monitor web browser and other computer usage; this information will be used to deliver targeted in-game advertisements. Other popular game titles have included spyware in the past to aid anti-cheating measures. Is spyware acceptable to the public when it comes with a game, or has EA made a PR misstep?”

Straight from HDBlu.com: “While there has been much focus on the developing battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD, it seems that both formats are underperforming with consumers in the early going. Thus far, only $30M has been spent by consumers on the new formats, $25M on hardware and $5M on software, as reported by Reuters.

Both the Blu-ray Disc Association and the HD DVD Promotion Group have lined up long lists of supporters including Dell, Sony, and Apple (Blu-ray) and Toshiba, Intel and Microsoft (HD DVD). However, consumers have not been lining up to buy their systems. On the market as of September 30th are only a handful of units. Most notably, two units from Toshiba (HD DVD) and one from Samsung (Blu-ray). However, while original sales projections ranged from $1.1-2.2B, Warner Home Video projects that actual sales will come in at only $900M for the year.”

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Straight from the Monkey Bites blog regarding Windows Vista Software Protection Platform: “Basically, Windows Software Protection Platform will be able to determine if your copy of Windows Vista is operating under a bogus or hacked license key. If the software detects a bogus key and thinks you’re cheating, you’ll be locked out. Not immediately and totally locked out, but you’ll first lose Windows performance enhancements and spyware/virus protection. If you continue to use Vista after that, you’ll eventually be forced to work in “reduced functionality mode.” The start menu and desktop icons disappear, and you are immediately logged out every 60 minutes.”

Great, considering the fact that Microsoft is already having trouble with “false positives” from their Windows Genuine Advantage, thus punishing paying customers, as well as stating that they are shipping all versions of Vista on a single DVD (just waiting to be hacked); none of this bodes particularly well for Microsoft in my opinion.

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Straight from Gizmodo: “We covered the Dark Blade aluminum and stainless steel case here and here last year, when it was still in its infancy. Gianluca, the case-modder, has finally completed this thing after more than a year’s worth of hard work during which his wife divorced him, his kids died from malnutrition and his boss fired him from using company time to build this case (only two of those things are true).”

Straight from Slashdot: “Space.com is reporting that President Bush has unveiled his new space policy. From the article: ‘U.S. assets must be unhindered in carrying out their space duties,’ the Bush space policy says, stressing that ‘freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power.’… As a civil space guideline, the policy calls upon NASA to ‘execute a sustained and affordable human and robotic program of space exploration and develop, acquire, and use civil space systems to advance fundamental scientific knowledge of our Earth system, solar system, and universe.’ While this policy does seem to push for more civil involvement in space for exploration and research, the article does go on to say, ‘The policy calls upon the Secretary of Defense to “develop capabilities, plans, and options to ensure freedom of action in space, and, if directed, deny such freedom of action to adversaries.”‘ So it will push into the intelligence community, and will supercede a similar policy from 1996. You can read the entire policy.”

Straight from Slashdot: “The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), a branch of the Commerce Department, has sustained several successful attacks. Chinese hackers were able to gain access to its computers and install rootkits and other malware.”

From the article: “This is the second major attack originating in China that’s been acknowledged by the federal government since July. Then, the State Department said that Chinese attackers had broken into its systems overseas and in Washington. And last year, Britain’s National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Center (NISCC) claimed that Chinese hackers had attacked more than 300 government agencies and private companies in the U.K.”

Straight from Slashdot: “TwitchGuru has an article outlining in detail what is known about Star Trek XI. The film is in the early stages of production, led by J.J. Abrams (creator of Lost), and the movie will most likely be a prequel featuring Kirk and Spock in their younger years. No word of Matt Damon to play Kirk, though…”

From the article: “As reported in early September, even former Star Trek actors are saying that CBS has kicked Rick Berman off the Trek bandwagon. This helps to allay the fears of those who say that ‘they’ will screw up this movie as ‘they’ have been doing for the past several years. As Anthony Pascale put it to me, however, ‘There is no they any more. Everyone who has worked on Star Trek previously, from the top executives at the studio to the guy who sweeps the floor on-set, is gone. There’s now a totally different production team running Star Trek. This is what people have been asking for now for years.’”

Wow, I hope it’s not cancerous!

Straight from Slashdot: “Just as we near the end of the hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean, winds whirl and clouds churn 2 billion miles away in the atmosphere of Uranus, forming a dark vortex large enough to engulf two-thirds of the United States.”

GovTrack.us “is a nexus of information about the United States Congress, following the status of federal legislation and the activities of your senators and representatives.”

Keep track of who your Senators are and how they are voting here.

Keep track of who your House Representatives are and how they are voting here.

Straight from CNN.com: “I don’t know about you, but I can’t take seriously anyone who takes either the Republican Party or Democratic Party seriously — in part because neither party takes you and me seriously; in part because both are bought and paid for by corporate America and special interests. And neither party gives a damn about the middle class.Our country’s middle class is not just collateral damage in what has become all-out class warfare. Political, business and academic elites are waging an outright war on working men and women and their families, and there is no chance the American middle class will survive this assault if the dominant forces unleashed over the past five years continue unchecked.”