1up has a look back at the Metroid series during the 20th anniversary of Metroid for the NES. From the article: "Metroid's gameplay isn't beloved exclusively. Fans love the series' heroine, Samus Aran. Samus is hard to define as a character, which adds to her appeal. In the scrolls of the Chozo, the avian race that raised her after she was orphaned, she's recorded as The Newborn, and the hope of their depleted race. To the Galactic Federation, she's the protector of the galaxy. To Space Pirates, she's the Huntress, or a handful of vulgar alien words. To gamers, Samus is mostly an enigma. Unlike other game heroines, she hasn't spread herself and her secrets everywhere like a high school senior of ill repute. Samus' motivations still command respect and a certain degree of awe."

Glyn writes "Time magazine is reporting on Josh Wolf the 'first blogger to be targeted by federal authorities for not cooperating with a grand jury.' Josh would have normally been protected from government coercion by California state shield laws but the prosecutors have argued its a federal matter, using quite shaky logic. Josh's blog is being updated by his mother, providing updates on what is happening. From the article: '"Not only does this logic seem silly," Wolf told TIME in June after receiving his final subpoena, "but if unchallenged it will have a deleterious effect on the state protections afforded to many journalists, both independent and those that are part of the established media." Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court rejected Wolf's arguments, and declared him in contempt of court. So he is now being held in a detention center in Dublin, Calif, where he could remain until next July.'"

An anonymous reader writes "ComputerWorld is reporting that open source evangelist Bruce Perens has been ousted from the board of Software in the Public Interest. Even though he founded the organization he said it was time to move on, stating that he probably shouldn't have run but just couldn't let it go. It seems that for the time being Perens in content to focus on the truly important things, like watching his son grow and making time for his family. I just hope that he isn't gone for too long."

An anonymous reader writes "In one of the coolest implementations of ridiculously expensive tech to come along in a while, it seems that a Dutch architect has created a magnetically suspended bed. That is, if you happen to have a spare $1.54 million laying around you don't know what to do with and don't mind being careful about your piercings when getting the cat from under the bed."

An anonymous reader writes "IBM DevWorks has provided us with an introductory article that helps define what it means to be a mashup. In addition to just defining what a mashup really is the author also delves into what they do for the community at large and where they may take us in the near future. From the article: 'Mashups are an exciting genre of interactive Web applications that draw upon content retrieved from external data sources to create entirely new and innovative services. They are a hallmark of the second generation of Web applications informally known as Web 2.0.'"

electric_mongoose writes "NewScientistTech has a story about paragliding military drones being developed by a US company called Atair Aerodynamics. These aircraft could be airdropped or ground launched and fly for over 48 hours carrying a 100 kilogram payload, including video surveillance equipment."

Joe Barr writes to tell us that while many have heard that an Apple was exploited in order to install a rootkit at the recent BlackHat security conference, most people don't know the details of how it works. This is no mistake, it seems that the researchers who demonstrated the flaw were intentionally vague. Some theorize that this is in response to the real or perceived threat of legal action similar to the situation with previous Blackhat presenter, Michael Lynn.

Soong writes "The blogsphere has been going crazy today about the technical difficulties being experienced by the Joe Lieberman for CT Senator web site, joe2006.com. MyDD outlines the story so far and has continuing updates. A reader at DailyKos digs deeper and finds some shamefully exposed ports. A front page story there has the money quote: 'Joe's site shares one server with 73 other sites. They pay $15/month for an overcrowded server, and then they blame others when it goes down?' kos also mentions that 'My hosting bill is now over $7K per month.' While this has immediate consequences for Joe Lieberman's campaign since his site went down Sunday night/Monday morning and the election is today, it makes me curious to see an expose on what exactly we're getting from various vendors when we buy into sub $100/month hosting plans."

fragmentate writes "This morning Google released information about their analysis of the exaggerated click-fraud numbers. Without pointing fingers, they mention that click-fraud analysis companies need to clean up their methods. From the post, 'A rigorous technical analysis by Google engineers has found fundamental flaws in the work of several click fraud consultants - flaws that help explain why widely quoted estimates of the size of the click fraud problem are exaggerated.' They even point out some obvious shortcomings of the methods used. The entire report [PDF] is available with their complete analysis."

Venues like PAX, Tokyo Game Show, and GDC are taking stock in the wake of E3's 'demise', and coming to terms with what this will mean next year. Gamasutra reports that another trade show is stepping up the the plate: Gen Con. From the article: "In order to better accommodate the video game business into its existing shows, Gen Con organizers plan to expand its venue space at the Indianapolis show in 2007. An additional 43,000 square feet will be added to the exhibit hall with additional space expanding into area hotels as well to accommodate the thousands of games taking place over the four-day event. In addition, Gen Con So Cal, the companies' show traditionally held in Anaheim, will be moved to the Los Angeles Convention Center, the former site of the annual E3 trade show, for an unspecified 2007 date, and will attempt to attract further video game companies to exhibit alongside the traditional paper-gaming and CCG Gen Con stalwarts. 'When the news came out about the drastic changes at E3, we began to hear from some industry players about Gen Con increasing its capabilities to better accommodate the industry,' said Peter Adkison, CEO of Gen Con, LLC." This is truly surreal.

Sean.D.Matthews writes "This weekend the 9th Annual Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Competition was held in San Diego. This year, teams were challenged to complete three tasks including finding a docking station, dropping markers in marked bins along a pipeline, and surfacing in a recovery zone marked by an acoustic pinger. Teams from MIT, Cornell, Duke and eighteen others competed for the grand prize. After an intense final round, the University of Florida's Team SubjuGator walked away with the victory for a second year in a row. Interestingly, the UF team ran Windows XP embedded on SubjuGator's on-board computer."

Heartless Gamer writes to mention a feature on Grimwell online looking at the great board game of Carcassonne. Yet another terrific title from Rio Grande, the article takes a look at a possible introductory title for someone who might not have played a more serious board game. From the article: "Once you place a farmer, you can't get that follower back. The question thus becomes, do you play it now while the field is empty or do you wait, hoping your opponent won't claim the field the following turn? Farms can mean big points at the end of the game but could also mean missed points during the game if you run out of followers to play. The game plays smoothly once the players are briefed on the rules. Turns fly by and games complete relatively quickly. The only trick area of gameplay is ensuring players placing farmers are not overlapping other farmers. There can be a lot of land tiles between farmers, so a keen eye is required to ensure the rules are followed. Fortunately, the rule book has plenty of examples to help the players out."

An anonymous reader writes "University of Pennsylvania researchers have developed a keylogger they call the JitterBug that can modulate passwords or other information into normal traffic by adding imperceptible delays to keypresses as people use keyboard and network-intensive apps like telnet and remote desktop. The idea is that the delays in keypresses cause delays in packets, and data can be encoded in those delays. There's no software or extra network activity that the victim can see, but anyone who can see the traffic (even if it's encrypted) could grab the data. Here's the scary part: the researchers say that it could be manufactured into a keyboard, making these keyloggers widespread and virtually undetectable."

Sir Haxalot writes "The British band Duran Duran is to create a virtual island within the online world of Second Life, on which they will perform actual live concerts." From the article: "Three-dimensional versions of the band members - called Avatars - have been commissioned and will be revealed in September. The band hopes to perform their first virtual concert in the coming months. Rhodes added: 'We are hoping to give the crowd that come to the virtual concert a real immersive experience, so they can interact with us and react while we are stage.'"

waterlogged writes "Lara Crigger writes a compelling account of the effects of hurricane Katrina on a person's sense of videogames in The Escapist. From the article: 'Hurricanes destroy more than just property; they destroy the sense of property, as well. They smash that universal belief that objects intrinsically carry some emotional gravity or weight. Acts of destruction remind us that physical substances are only equal to the exact sum of their parts: Plastic and cotton, metal or wood. What's left over is a painful buoyancy, an unbearable absence of feeling; you mourn not just your lost PS2 games or your Xbox controllers but also the fact that these once precious things have been proven completely meaningless. Even if they do remain intact after the storm (like the Samus poster), the only entity that really survives is you.'"