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Space

Minecraft Creator Announces Space Sandbox Game Mars Effect 117

Posted by timothy from the go-hither-go-yon dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Notch posted the official page of Mars Effect today, saying through Twitter, 'it's a completely different game! Our takes place in space, and focuses on characters, and lets you land on planets!!' He gives more detailed on the new website, noting the game will be based around hard science fiction (think Star Trek sci-fi) and puts characters in control of a character rather than just a ship. Similar to Minecraft, it will be a free-roaming game, but with a full economic system, different planets, customizable ships, space battles against AI, and other features. There will also be an in-game, 16-bit computer. Notch also took the chance to poke fun at Mass Effect, noting it will have 'A game ending that makes sense.'"
Music

Moog's MF-401 Auto De-tune Fixes Music 79

Posted by CmdrTaco from the good-bye-fm-radio dept.
Max Romantschuk writes "Moog Music has released the MF-401 Auto De-tune, a revolutionary new DSP device that promises to undo the clinical results of Auto-Tune. According to Moog Music, 'even a T-Pain vocal can be restored to its complete original character, scrubbing the pitch correction and leaving the untreated vocal in all its wavering sharp or flat glory.'"
Idle

Want a Body Piercing With That Server? 19

Posted by samzenpus from the this-will-only-hurt-for-a-little-while dept.
1sockchuck writes "The web hosting business is known for promotional gimmicks. But here's an unusual one: ServerBeach UK is offering a free body piercing with every new server ordered on April 1st. 'We were tired of the typical boring giveaways that have been done to death' said ServerBeach's Dominic Monkhouse. The stunt revives memories of earlier guerrilla marketing efforts by web hosts, like the 'human billboard' who was paid $7,000 to tattoo a hosting company's logo on the back of his head."
Apple

iCade, an Arcade Cabinet Docking Bay For Your iPad 55

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i'd-buy-one dept.
schmidt349 writes "ThinkGeek has announced a cool new accessory for that iPad you're too ashamed to be seen buying in the Apple Store. iCade is an arcade cabinet/dock that lets you play all your favorite vintage arcade games at your desk, on the airplane, or in the bathroom with an authentic look and feel. Games are still being licensed, but iCade's launch titles include Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Q-Bert, and everyone's favorite, Super Steve Brothers. Quarters, thick veil of cigarette smoke, and annoying eight-year-olds are not included."
The Internet

France Bans Use of 2.0 114

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stranger-things-have-happened dept.
illybilly writes "French President Nicholas Sarkozy was mad about what was called a 'version 2.0' website redesign for the presidential palace in Paris. So he pushed through legislation that bans the use of the term '2.0' in France."
Media

YouTube, Now In Text Mode! 102

Posted by CmdrTaco from the squeezing-the-pipes dept.
techmuse writes "YouTube has introduced a new, higher-resolution text mode for video. The new text mode is far more efficient than their previous high-end, high-definition offering, and should bring entirely new levels of realism to streaming web video!"
Google

Google Renames Itself "Topeka" 84

Posted by CmdrTaco from the not-as-much-zazz dept.
techmuse was one of several readers to note Google's official response to recent news that a town in Kansas would rename itself Google. The search engine company has announced a name change of its own, although I'm not sure saying "Let me Topeka that" has quite the same ring to it.
Censorship

Aussie Net Filtering Trial Delayed 83

Posted by samzenpus from the think-of-the-children dept.
hopejr writes "The Federal Opposition says it is not surprised the Government's mandatory internet filtering trial has been delayed. The trial, which was meant to begin today, has been postponed until mid-January 2009 and the internet service providers (ISPs) who will participate will be announced at the same time. ISPs iiNet and Optus both said yesterday they had not heard anything about their applications to participate in the trial, and doubted the Government would meet its own deadline."
Security

Security Flaws In Aussie Net Filter Exposed 182

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the let-your-government-do-your-thinking-for-you dept.
Faldo writes "There's a three-part interview with a computer security expert on BanThisURL that goes into the flaws in the Aussie net filtering scheme. In addition to SSH tunnels and proxies, more worrying problems like trojaning the boxes to set up man in the middle attacks (which the interviewee has done in his lab), cross site scripting and the Australian blacklist leaking are all discussed. Worrying and relevant, especially since Thailand's blacklist has just been leaked."
Censorship

Australia To Block BitTorrent 674

Posted by CmdrTaco from the who-saw-that-coming dept.
Kevin 7Kbps writes "Censorship Minister Stephen Conroy announced today that the Australian Internet Filters will be extended to block peer-to-peer traffic, saying, 'Technology that filters peer-to-peer and BitTorrent traffic does exist and it is anticipated that the effectiveness of this will be tested in the live pilot trial.' This dashes hopes that Conroy's Labor party had realised filtering could be politically costly at the next election and were about to back down. The filters were supposed to begin live trials on Christmas Eve, but two ISPs who volunteered have still not been contacted by Conroy's office, who advised, 'The department is still evaluating applications that were put forward for participation in that pilot.' Three days hardly seems enough time to reconfigure a national network."
Censorship

Submission + - Australia to block BitTorrent 1

Submitted by Kevin 7Kbps
Kevin 7Kbps writes: Censorship Minister Stephen Conroy announced today that the Australian Internet Filters will be extended to block peer-to-peer traffic, saying "Technology that filters peer-to-peer and BitTorrent traffic does exist and it is anticipated that the effectiveness of this will be tested in the live pilot trial". This dashes hopes that Conroy's Labor party had realised could be politically costly at the next election and were about to back down.

The filters were supposed to begin live trials on Christmas Eve, but two ISPs who volunteered have still not been contacted by Conroy's office who advised "The department is still evaluating applications that were put forward for participation in that pilot." Three days hardly seems enough time to reconfigure a national network.

Comment Not just fearmongering (Score 1) 2

by predakanga (#26197891) Attached to: Security flaws in Aussie net filter exposed

Disregarding all issues of child porn (which has been the key factor in the Australian internet censorship debates), the advent of censorship, particularly in western countries, has become an international issue. The linked article covers the security aspects of the filters fairly well, but for me the more worrying issue is false positives.

In recent weeks, we've seen how UK ISPs managed to censor the wikipedia, and as noted in the article on Thailand's blacklist, even the most innocuous things, such as Charlie Chaplin videos, have been blocked (for a laughable reason, too - I don't know about you, but I've never seen Charlie Chaplin speak out against anything, let alone any Thai Royalty... actually, come to think of it, I've never seen him *speak*).

Once it starts, it's not so easy to stop. We need to stem the growth of censorship, or other countries like the United States will have something to use as a precedent. We all know that politicians don't *need* precedent, but do you really want to make it easier for them?
Security

Submission + - Security flaws in Aussie net filter exposed (banthisurl.com) 2

Submitted by
Faldo
Faldo writes: "There's a three part interview with a computer security expert on BanThisURL that goes into the flaws in the Aussie net filtering scheme.

In addition to SSH tunnels and proxies, more worrying problems like trojaning the boxes to set up man in the middle attacks (which the interviewee has done in his lab), cross site scripting and the Australian blacklist leaking are all discussed.

Worrying and relevant, especially since Thailand's blacklist has just been leaked."
Television

Submission + - Worlds smallest PVR? TiVX 2230 review. (gadgetzone.com.au)

Submitted by
Dave
Dave writes: "GadgetZone takes a look at the DViCO TiVX 2230, the worlds smallest PVR. The internal notebook drive means it can be used as a portable hard drive then installed in the living room and used as a full media player and PVR. It's definitely a nifty little gadget."
Games

Submission + - Ubisoft to Merge Tom Clancy Range (gameplayer.com.au)

Submitted by
SlappingOysters
SlappingOysters writes: "In an interview with gameplayer, Tom Clancy's EndWar Lead AI Programmer Vinh-Dieu Lam spoke in detail about plans to tie all the different Clancy franchises together into one super game in the near future. Below you will find one particularly good quote, but click through to learn more.

"So maybe in the next EndWar you will need to attack Paris but before you can it may generate some sort of Splinter Cell recon mission or a Ghost Recon mission or things like that. But that is the direction we are looking at.""

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