June 14, 2002 -
Courtney Love does the math
- The controversial singer
takes on record label profits,
Napster and "sucka VCs." By
Courtney Love, Salon.com,
Today I want to talk about
piracy and music. What is
piracy? Piracy is the act of
stealing an artist's work
without any intention of paying
for it. I'm not talking about
Napster-type software. I'm
talking about major label
recording contracts...
June
2002 -
EverQuest 2 Preview - PC
GAMER, Let’s assess: 420,000
subscribers, three years, three
add-ons (with one more on the way),
countless patches, more weddings
than should be considered safe, 45
servers (including chat and test),
hundreds of magazine column inches,
thousands of fan sites, one fake
suicide, and…still…420,000
subscribers paying $9.89/month and
now $12.95/month. In the annals of
PC gaming lore, when wise scribes
assess the greatest impacts on our
industry, alongside the legend of
Doom will stand EverQuest. Sure, the
Ultima Online creators and fans will
be pissed, as they and text-based
MUDs were blazing the trail before
EQ. And for that, UO should rightly
stand alongside Wolfenstein 3D. But
the head table is reserved for the
power-players, and EverQuest has
power...
June 17,
2002 -
Pay-TV piracy -
Decrypting is costing the
satellite and cable TV industry
$6.5 billion a year, Benny
Evangelista, Chronicle Staff
Writer, Patrick doesn't
consider himself a pirate, nor
does he feel guilty about
pulling down free satellite TV
signals for the past two years.
The Bay Area resident, who did
not want his full named
published, uses a computer to
descramble the TV signals beamed
down from outer space, bringing
him an unlimited selection of
movies, sports and news...
June 25,
2002 -
Digital characters learn to move
- BBC NEWS, Computer game
characters in the future could
be truly interactive, reacting
to your movements and changes in
the virtual environment. Based
on prize-winning work carried
out largely at Oxford University
in the UK, researchers at
NaturalMotion have developed a
new way of animating virtual
characters in games or films...
June 28,
2002 -
Pirate Cops Raid MS Gaming Foe
- By Noah Shachtman,
Sometimes real life is stranger
than any video game. When
Swedish computer game designer
MindArk, maker of the
controversial Project Entropia
role-playing world, announced
Thursday that Microsoft was
behind the raid of its corporate
offices, the claim sounded like
a Gates-hater's most paranoid
delusion. But it turns out this
is no fantasy. At the request of
Microsoft, Adobe Systems, other
members of the Business Software
Alliance (BSA) and nearly 70
local court officials in
Gothenburg, Sweden, swept
through MindArk's offices,
temporarily shutting down
company operations while the
bailiffs catalogued every piece
of software in the place...
June 27, 2002 -
Companies crack down on MP3s
- By Lisa M. Bowman, Special
to ZDNet News, Stash those
headphones and trash that
file-swapping software:
Companies are cracking down on
employees who use streaming
media and swap MP3s at work.
Companies increasingly are
blocking access to Internet
music and video at firewalls and
are issuing sweeping initiatives
that ban workplace media usage.
The trend is a result of two
developments: media usage
hogging enormous amounts of
corporate bandwidth and threats
of legal liability as the
entertainment industry
aggressively pursues copyright
scofflaws...
June 27, 2002 -
Gamers, beware--Nimda could be lurking
- Reuters, Some video game players got a nasty
surprise this week when they downloaded software from a popular online
gaming site--the Nimda computer virus. The installer for GameSpy Arcade
1.09, the main file exchange and gaming software of GameSpy.com, was
infected with the Nimda virus twice this week, GameSpy Chief Executive
Mark Surfas told Reuters. Surfas said the virus infected one of their
download servers for two hours on Tuesday and five hours Wednesday
night, while they were performing routine service...
June 27, 2002 -
The Who's Entwistle dead at 57
- CNN.com, LAS VEGAS,
Nevada (AP) -- John Entwistle, the bassist for the innovative rock band
The Who, was found dead Thursday in his hotel room of an apparent heart
attack. He was 57. Entwistle stood out because he played without
emotion, a stark contrast to the antics of lead guitarist Pete Townshend
and lead singer Roger Daltrey...
June 15, 2002 -
Online Games: The Future Is When? - By Brad King, Wired News,
Online games, the latest craze for the rapidly expanding video-game
industry, still face a series of growing pains. Despite a growing base
of players, a host of questions have given companies pause when it comes
to online games, ranging from bandwidth issues to the high cost of
developing games to determining how much gamers are willing to pay. But
the companies that overcome the challenges will be richly rewarded,
especially if predictions of $1.5 billion a year in revenues are
anywhere close to being realistic...
June 14, 2002 -
May I Have This Avatar? - By Katie Dean, Wired News,
Dancing with an avatar is a little like dancing with a cartoon after
it's shimmied its way off the screen, into a living room and on top of
the furniture. You know the feeling. A group of artists knows it, too,
after recently experimenting with the concept in the Ava Project, a
multimedia dance performance that pairs a human dancer with a virtual
one...
June 12, 2002 -
Wireless gaming: Back to the future? - By Tom Taulli, Special
to ZDNet, COMMENTARY--When Scott Orr started in the computer gaming
world 20 years ago, he had to be a brutally efficient programmer. After
all, developing a cool game for an Atari or Commodore was no easy feat
because of the primitive functionality and low memory. Of course, over
the course of time--as increases in computer power followed Moore's Law
--Orr was able to develop very realistic computer games, such as John
Madden Football, NHL Hockey, Andretti Racing and NCAA College
Football...
June 03, 2002 -
Napster: Gimme shelter with
bankruptcy - By Jim
Hu, Help.com, Napster, the
struggling online music company,
filed for bankruptcy protection
Monday. The filing comes just
weeks after Redwood City,
Calif.-based Napster agreed to
sell its assets to German media
conglomerate Bertelsmann for $8
million. As expected at the time
of that transaction, Napster
said Monday that it has filed
under Chapter 11 of the U.S.
Bankruptcy Code with the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court in Delaware...
June 02, 2002 -
A troubled gaming addict takes
his life - CNN,
HUDSON, Wisconsin (AP) -- His
mother found Shawn Woolley's
body in a rocking chair in front
of his computer. His head was
slumped to one side -- still
facing a screen of the online
game that she says had become
his obsession. "That damn game,"
Liz Woolley said to herself as
she broke into tears...
June 08, 2002 -
Make Love, Not War Games
- By Brad King, WiredNews,
Military agents slip into an
airplane hanger and hide behind
boxes to shield themselves from
terrorists who are holding a
group of scientists hostage.
Anticipating the attack, the
terrorists had laid a trap,
positioning snipers behind
several barrels scattered
throughout the room. When the
agents make their move, storming
the room, the terrorists pounce
with ruthless efficiency and
kill the agents and hostages...
June 06, 2002 -
ESCAPE FROM HOLLYWOOD -
Internet site beams U.S.
movies from Iran, Benny
Evangelista, San Fransisco
Chronicle Staff Writer,
Thursday, An Internet
company that lets viewers watch
pirated hits like "Harry Potter"
and "The Mummy Returns" for
$1.50 or less has set up shop in
a place that might be out of the
film industry's long reach --
Iran...
June, 2002 -
50,000,000 Star Warriors Can't Be Wrong
- By J.C. Herz, Wired Magazine, A
long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,
George Lucas built an empire on the
force of his imagination. Now the online
game Star Wars Galaxies puts control of
his universe in the hands of the fans.
The scenery is hauntingly familiar:
sloping sand dunes feathered into
ripples by the harsh desert wind. Squat
dwellings built to shelter shady
characters from the unrelenting sun. Not
far from here, moisture vaporators glean
what little water hangs in the air.
Wildlife skulks around the outskirts of
the settlement: womp rats, scurriers,
dewbacks, and the krayt dragon, a
reptilian menace whose footfalls
literally shake the ground. There are a
few droids in the vicinity. For now,
there are no people. The planet of
Tatooine hasn't been settled by
real-world human beings. Not yet...
