Jason Booth takes a look at the recently released Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, on Xbox Live. A highly anticipated title, Mr. Booth lays out why Capcom has fallen short of the high expectations gamers had for the title. From the article: "Now, where the game really falls down is online. It's bad enough playing SF2 on the 360 controller, but with lag it's nearly impossible. The funny thing is, the lag really isn't that bad from a technical standpoint. Most matches feel as if I'm getting a reasonable ping time and response. But SF2 turbo is a fast game, and at that speed, you just can't play, and can't compensate enough for the lag. If you press an attack button while leaving the ground on a jump, it'll probably go off as its landing."

torrensmith writes "Paul Thurrott answers the question that some IT folks are asking: 'Is Windows Vista Ready?' His answer is not only no, but 'No. God, no. Today's Windows Vista builds are a study in frustration, and trust me, I use the darn thing day in and day out, and I've seen what happens when you subject yourself to it wholeheartedly. I think I've mentioned the phrase "I could hear the screams" on the SuperSite before.' He also addresses the more important question, 'When Will Microsoft figure out what's important?' and to Paul, like most IT pros, its not about when the next OS will be released, it is about having the OS work."

Kyle Orland's always interesting Video Game Media Watch site has up a post condensing the reaction to the death of E3 into soundbites. A few quotes from the article: "I don't know whether to be shocked or relieved -- it's no secret that many game editors detest E3. Why? Because it's so loud, garish, and overwhelming that it's hard to even hold a decent conversation with anybody. I see this is a positive step. Publishers will benefit because fewer games will get lost in the shuffle. Editors will win because they'll have more opportunities to cover more games without all the traditional E3 distractions." -ViciousSid at GamePro "What does this mean for gameblogs like Kotaku and Joystiq? If publishers and platform manufacturers don't like the site's messages will they be excluded? The slope here is as slippery as its ever been." -Luke Smith, on 1up

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Big tech companies are engaging in a full charm offensive at the Black Hat hacker conference as they seek to convince hackers and security researchers to work with, not against, them, the Wall Street Journal reports. Among those being courted: HD Moore. The suitor is his erstwhile foe, Microsoft. From the article: 'Microsoft plans to wine and dine Mr. Moore at a party at the fancy Palms Hotel. A Microsoft security executive wants to meet with him to discuss his latest work. And earlier this year, the Redmond, Wash., company invited him to speak at a Microsoft-sponsored conference on security. "There were a few tense silences," says Mr. Moore, 24 years old, who lives in Austin, Texas. But he says the meetings put a human face on a company he once saw as impenetrable. "You're less willing to publicly humiliate someone you know in real life," he says.'"

Next Generation is running an article looking at the design of the next-gen consoles. Article author Eric-Jon Rossel-Waugh argues that the new systems have lost their sense of identity, due to high monetary stakes and the need for consoles to 'say something' to the consumer. From the article: "In May, I finally saw a PlayStation 3 up-close - and dear lord. It looks like a space ship based on the template of a waffle iron. Whereas the Sega Genesis looked like you could top-load a CD into it, the PS3 looks like you could top-load a side of bacon. It was around this point that I realized, on the surface, none of the forthcoming-generation consoles really strikes me as a game machine. Building on the PS2, both Sony and Microsoft have chosen to outwardly craft their systems to resemble nothing so much as random hunks of pop electronics."

P3titPrince writes "In an NYT op-ed today, Timothy B. Lee argues that legislation specifically guaranteeing Net Neutrality would in fact be less effective than just allowing the status quo." From the article: "It's tempting to believe that government regulation of the Internet would be more consumer-friendly; history and economics suggest otherwise. The reason is simple: a regulated industry has a far larger stake in regulatory decisions than any other group in society. As a result, regulated companies spend lavishly on lobbyists and lawyers and, over time, turn the regulatory process to their advantage. Economists have dubbed this process 'regulatory capture,' and they can point to plenty of examples. The airline industry was a cozy cartel before being deregulated in the 1970's. Today, government regulation of cable television is the primary obstacle to competition." Relatedly, winnabago writes "Computerworld reports on a potential method for testing a net connection for neutrality. Somewhat similar to Traceroute, the software uses spoof packets that appear to be from a potentially throttled source and compares the transmission time to that of neutral traffic."

1up is reporting on comments from Phil Harrison, saying that the PS3 is in full production mode. There are apparently already 10,000 devkits out there, and something like 100 games in the pipe already for the console. From the article: "Sounds pretty much like the usual rah-rah, go-team kind of stuff you'd expect to hear before a major system launch, but mentions of third-party support become far more interesting when you learn that many folks, both within Sony and without, are apparently 'scared of the wrath of Phil Harrison,' according to a Guardian source. Are third-party developers as excited and supportive as Harrison would have us believe, or are they just scared of receiving a Sony-flavored beat down?"

GiggidyGiggidy writes "Our friends at IMDB.com are reporting that Matt Damon has been cast to play a young James T. Kirk in the new Star Trek Movie directed by J.J. Abrams. Is this the end of the Star Trek series we fans know and love, or the beginning of something bigger and better for the series?"

Eurogamer is reporting that Rockstar Games has finally won a lawsuit. It's an important one too, involving a strip club's objection to its appearance (in satirized form) in the streets of San Andreas. From the article: "Rockstar conceded that its artists worked from photographs of real life LA locations - including the Play Pen - when designing the game, but argued that they 'changed the names, building designs and overall look and feel of the locations... To make them fit the virtual, cartoon-style world of San Andreas and the series' irreverent tone.' Rockstar also referred to the lawsuit MCA Records successfully defended over the song Barbie Girl, when the judge ruled that trademark rights 'do not entitle the owner to quash an unauthorized use of the mark by another who is communicating ideas or expressing points of view.'"

IdaAshley writes "The Linux initial RAM disk (initrd) is a temporary root file system that is mounted during system boot to support the two-state boot process. It contains various executables and drivers that permit the real root file system to be mounted, after which the initrd RAM disk is unmounted and its memory freed. In this article explore the initial RAM disk for Linux 2.6, including its creation and use in the Linux kernel. In many embedded Linux systems, the initrd is the final root file system."

ukhackster writes "The curse of Norton Antivirus has struck again. This time, Britain's vicars have been hit. Norton mistook a legitimate file for a piece of spyware, and those who followed the instructions found that their sermon-writing application no longer worked. Norton was once an essential application. Is it turning into a joke?"

simoniker writes "Gamasutra's latest 'Analyze This' column has game industry analysts commenting on the rise of casual games, asking whether simpler games that take less time to play may be vital to game industry growth. David Cole of DFC Intelligence disagrees that any one genre or game type is vital, suggesting: 'A key for the industry is being able to diversify.... For the N64 and GameCube, Nintendo focused primarily on its big franchises and didn't have the same level of diversity. The platform that did was the Sony PS2. Which platform could work as a karaoke machine, allowed you to put yourself in the game, had all kinds of trivia products? The reason the PSOne and PS2 sold [so well] was diversity.' Is this the key to working out who wins in next-gen?"

thhamm writes "If you happen to see people wildly shaking and dancing with their white umbrellas in the street, don't call them crazy just yet. They might just be controlling their iPod with an iBrella: "The iBrella is a special umbrella that acts as an iPod interface. One can control the iPod just by his physical interactions with the iBrella." Theres a video of it in action, too. The ideal gadget to use while driving your motorized couch maybe?"

Grimwell writes "Mark Jacobs (VP EA) joined a discussion in our forums and shared his personal thoughts about the Mythic/EA merger: 'Another thing that has almost brought a smile to my face is that they are willing to embrace new IP that is not just WoW 2007 but IP that can stand on its own two (or three) feet without having to rely on the WoW userbase for its success.' Included in his hopeful thoughts was a healthy dose of realism: 'As always, I expect people to believe it when they see it.'"

Aglassis writes "The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced at a conference that they are planning to build a Moonbase by 2030. Since JAXA doesn't currently have a 100 ton-class heavy lift rocket or a human transportation system perhaps now is a good time for JAXA to join in with NASA on the Project Constellation rocket program."