the0ther - Slashdot User

Submission + - Kotaku Blackballed By Sony For Reporting On Rumor

Submitted by

Imaria

on Thursday March 01, 2007 @06:40PM

Imaria writes: "The video game blog, Kotaku reported earlier Thursday regarding a rumor that Sony would be debuting a new PlayStation Home concept to compete with Xbox Live and the Wii's Miis. It seems that, in their attempts to confirm this rumor, Sony informed them that publishing anything about this rumor could put their official relationship at risk.

Kotaku posted the story. Shortly afterwards, David Karraker, SCEA senior director of corporate communications contacted them informing them that their time together was over.

An excerpt from the official SCEA reply:

I am very disappointed that after trying to work with you as closely as possible and provide you and your team with access and information, you chose to report on this rumor.... I can't defend outlets that can't work cooperatively with us.
"

Submission + - Tim Berners-Lee Predicts Tech Future

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01, 2007 @06:39PM

An anonymous reader writes: Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee testified before Congress on Thursday about the "digital future." He offered up a couple of predictions which went beyond generalities, including cell phones would use radio technology to communicate with everyday objects wrapped in surfaces equipped with digital billboards. He also talked about the Semantic Web, or a Web of "machine-processable data," which is under development at the U.K.'s Southhampton University, where Berners-Lee holds a position. Do you think such predictions are valuable, or is it "Star Trek" stuff which Congress ultimately can't understand and pays little attention to.

Journal SPAM: It's a new age of the privateer. 8

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius on Thursday March 01, 2007 @06:37PM

A gathering of today's buccaneers and freelance adventurers will be taking place next week on the Florida coast. This week, a (self-declared) important section of the 'intelligence community' will be meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida for its second "International Intelligence Summit," where they will be discussing how best to fight their Global War on Terror. Among them will be a motley crew of Iranian exiles, Israeli intelligence officials, repentent Islamists, neocon warriors and scions of

Submission + - Blizzard exposes detailed WoW character data

Submitted by Gavin Scott on Thursday March 01, 2007 @06:27PM

Gavin Scott writes: Blizzard has introduced a new web site called the Armory which lets you get information on any World of Warcraft character, extracted from their live databases, in near real-time. This exposes a great deal of information that was not previously obtainable including profession choices, skill levels for all skills, and the character's complete talent specification and all faction reputation data, along with all gear currently equipped. The complete roster of any guild or arena team is also available.

Some players are upset about this, such as arena PvP teams who now have all their gear and talent choices exposed to the world, players with non-standard or less-popular talent choices who fear they will have difficulty getting into pickup groups now that people can instantly find out everything about them, and even role players who worry that the site will reveal what clothing they are (or aren't) wearing at any particular moment.

Are these complaints fair? Blizzard claims to own all the data and the characters, but at what point does this data represent personal choices and information about their players which would be covered by their own privacy policy? In a virtual society, should people be able to present a view of themselves that differs from (virtual) reality, or should all details be exposed?

Journal SPAM: Three Years Later, They Shot Him Dead 2

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius on Thursday March 01, 2007 @06:26PM

"The great and grand dream of America that all men are created free and equal, endowed with the inalienable right of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness - this great dream of America, this great light, and this great hope - has almost gone out of sight in this day and time, and everybody knows it; and there is a mere candle flicker here and yonder to take the place of what the great dream of America was supposed to

Submission + - Gaming in movie theaters - coming to USA soon

Submitted by

Fronz

on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @12:07PM

Fronz writes: "Basically, instead of 20 minute movie previews, they're going to test out playing interactive audience games. They've already tested it out in Spain, Germany, and Canada with much success. There's even senior citizen and educational projects planned involving the setup. If it comes out near me I'll go broke in days :) http://www.thelastboss.com/post.phtml?pk=2307"

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