1up has a feature up looking at a day in the life of Yoshitaka Amano. This talented artist has been behind much of the visual appeal of the Final Fantasy series over the years. He's also worked on several anime series, such as Speed Racer, some Macross titles, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. In addition to background information, the article has a piece talking directly with the artist himself. From the article: " Final Fantasy wasn't the first video game-related job I did. So I went to America for a week, which was the first time I went to America, and I don't remember what company it was, but this company asked me to do an illustration similar to Dragon's Lair, the arcade game, and that was the first game-related job I had."

robotrachel writes "According to Technology Review, the $100 laptop intended for children in the developing world will be powered in much the same way that you might start an outboard motor on a boat. The new power system will 'make the laptop much easier to power than it would be with a hand crank, in part, because the users will be able to operate the generator in a variety of ways, including holding the device (the size of two hockey pucks) in one hand and pulling the string with the other, or clamping the generator to a desk, attaching the string to one foot, and using leg power.'" There are plenty of sewing machine treadles in the world, too -- I hope someone can figure out a way to combine them with the new design.

Gamespot is carrying the news that Microsoft is aiming to sell 13 to 15 Million consoles by June of next year. The story shows good and bad news for the company; While they've already sold 5 Million units, the Home Entertainment division lost about $1.2 billion for the last year. From the article: "Will Microsoft make its goal in the face of not one, but two rival next-gen console launches this fall? That remains to be determined, but the console will have the advantage of being cheaper than the Sony PlayStation 3 and having a bigger game library than the Nintendo Wii. The upcoming 12 months will also see several exclusive 'system seller' titles be released for the 360, including Epic Games' Gears of War, which is tentatively due this holiday season." Kotaku points out that, to sweeten the pot, a new bundle pack may be in the offing for the system.

An anonymous reader writes "For the first time in more than two years, the United States has failed to make inroads into its spam-relaying problem. The U.S. remains stuck at the top of the chart and is the source of 23.2 percent of the world's spam. Its closest rivals are China and South Korea, although both of these nations have managed to reduce their statistics since Q1 2006. The vast majority of this spam is relayed by 'zombies,' also known as botnet computers."

nywanna writes "SEO is an extremely unpredictable aspect of running an online business. Every month the rules change slightly, and with every rule change we receive new bad information from speculators and those who spew nothing but conjecture. David Harry looks at one of the greatest Google misconceptions and bits of misinformation that exists right now: This brings me to the greatest mythological creature to roam the Google landscape since 'the sandbox'; The Google Toolbar PageRank (TBPR) system. While the jury may still be out on the 'sandbox,' I am here to slay the beast that is the TBPR, right here, right now."

dud83 writes to mention an article on IGN, in which LucasArts confirms they'll be making games for the Wii, in addition to their already announced titles for the PS3 and 360. From the article: "During the Q&A session, a younger gamer took the microphone and asked if the company would be showing support for the newest motion-controlled Nintendo console. Sansweet's responded simply by stating the likeness between the Wii controller and a lightsaber, followed by a statement that LucasArts would be supporting every next generation system."

bighead314 asks: "Maybe I haven't had enough coffee, or my brain power has gone down while working through my lunch break, but I cannot seem to find a good source for getting command/syntax reference posters for our office. We are looking for some SQL, UML, Oracle 10, and other reference posters to plaster on the walls for quick reference. However, the search for a site/company that sells more than just one poster has yielded nothing. Anyone out there have some good links or know of places were these can be purchased without having to buy 10 accompanying SQL Server magazine subscriptions just for the insert?"

KrispyGlider writes "Vista's installation process is dramatically different from any previous version of Windows: rather than being an 'installer,' the install DVD is actually a preinstalled copy of Windows that simply gets decompressed onto your PC. It is hardware agnostic, so it can adjust to different systems, and you can also install your own apps into it so that your Vista install becomes a full system image install. APCMag.com has published an interview with a Microsoft Australia tech specialist on the inner workings of it as well as a story that looks at some of the pros and cons of image-based installs."

Steven Williamson writes "HEXUS.gaming's resident wood elf, Steven W, jumped at the chance to take the eye-opening trip to the Games Workshop HQ in Nottingham, home to the unique venue that is Warhammer World. What started out as a run-of-the-mill press event to see the latest real-time tactics videogame set in the Warhammer universe ended up capturing my imagination and quashing any previous hang-ups I almost certainly had about the people who played Warhammer and indeed the tabletop game that has spawned this latest PC game, Warhammer: MOC."

ReadWriteWeb writes "Richard MacManus covers the launch of Gotuit.com, a new broadband video portal from VOD (video on demand) company Gotuit Media. The portal is free to use and offers instantaneous video delivery of professional media content, such as the latest popular music videos and movie trailers. Content is streamed directly to the user's PC, so there's no buffering or download. The UI is slick and navigation between videos is near seamless. But the most exciting part of Gotuit.com is perhaps its ability to search inside video items. Gotuit has built a system which enables their staff to 'tag' specific points inside each video with appropriate metadata. This allows users to create playlists of video snippets — based on keywords — and share those with other people. Gotuit is different from YouTube and Google Video in that it offers professional media content and its video streaming technology is more advanced."

Krishna Dagli writes "An evolutionary arms race between early snakes and mammals triggered the development of improved vision and large brains in primates, a radical new theory suggests. The idea, proposed by Lynne Isbell, an anthropologist at the University of California, Davis, suggests that snakes and primates share a long and intimate history, one that forced both groups to evolve new strategies as each attempted to gain the upper hand. Early primates developed a better eye for color, detail and movement and the ability to see in three dimensions — traits that are important for detecting threats at close range. Humans are descended from those same primates. "

Wowzer writes "Nintendo announced today that sales of its hand-held, dual-screened video game player, the Nintendo DS, have topped 20 million worldwide (guesstimates say 21,270,000). Nintendo expects DS (Lite) sales to be 17 million between April 2006 and March 2007. From today's financial report: 'The company raised its full-year sales forecast of the DS handheld game players to 17 million units for the year ending March 2007, up from 16 million unit sales projection made in May. Sales of DS game titles are projected to rise to 75 million units, from 70 million.' The report refers to PSP owners as just combat-game fans, while the DS is said to target a wider audience with more diverse games such as the 6 million seller Nintendogs." I will say, I was very skeptical when I first heard about the DS and the split screen — but having played a number of different games, I've found I like it. But I have not played Nintendogs, unlike some other people I know.

BenelliShooter writes "MySpace.Com - Undergoing Maintenance "hey everyone! there's been a power outage in our data center. we're in the process of fixing it right now, so sit tight. -Tom" That about says it... I suppose we'll see if they had proper back-ups. " Hah. The site says it was supposed to be back up as of ... 7:40 PST PM. Which was something like close to nine hours ago.

FrankNFurter writes "It's been a rumour for several weeks, but now it's confirmed: AMD buys ATI. What implications is this merger going to have for the hardware market?" In addition to AMD's release, there's plenty of coverage out there.

PeterN writes to tell us that after hearing the announcement that AMD was slashing prices on their processors by 47%, TG Daily looked a bit deeper and found that it still might not be enough. From the article: "For AMD's planned price drop for its dual-core processors to enable the company to regain its aggressive price/performance competitive position against Intel as it has promised, the company would have to reduce its existing Athlon 64 X2 and Athlon FX prices by between 38% and 56% for its various models, with cuts averaging about 51%. This estimate is based on a comprehensive price/performance review of Intel's soon-to-be-released Core 2 Extreme and Core 2 Duo processors, along with its existing Pentium D dual-core line, pitted against AMD's FX-62, FX-60, and Athlon 64 X2 processors in Tom's Hardware Guide tests."