Category: Techie

Anything of particular interest to the techie crowd.

Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) development platform

I honestly have no idea if this is any good, but it certainly sound interesting.  A MMOG development platform with no upfront costs.

THE COMPLETE MMOG PLATFORM

Our platform is in beta! Early developers sign up here!

Independent game developers, the revolution is here! For the first time, you will be able to:

  • Make a complete Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) or virtual world for less money and in less time than you could have dreamed possible.
  • Participate in the game industry’s most exciting frontier.
  • Build the features that make your game unique, leveraging the expertise of the networking and infrastructure experts who helped build the web.
  • Deliver your vision to a built-in market of players–without having to ask a publisher’s permission or give up your intellectual property.
  • Get filthy rich! *

*Or just comfortably well-off. Your mileage may vary.

There are no upfront costs. We only make money when you make money, and if you never charge a cent, you never have to pay us anything. What are you waiting for? Start building your MMOG now!

I probably lack the skill to do anything with this, but I am at least going to learn more about it and see if I can learn enough to do something with it.

[tags]MMOG, gaming, game development, multi-player games[/tags]

Malware for sale

It had to happen sooner or later.

PandaLabs uncovers a complex malware creation system designed to spy and steal personal data

After Panda ActiveScan detected a malicious code designed to spy on infected computers and capture data, a complex espionage system has been uncovered

This system sells made-to-measure Trojans to hackers for US$ 990

Although this code is checked to avoid detection by different antivirus solutions,  TruPrevent™ Technologies have managed to detect it

The author’s website guarantees that if the Trojan is detect by an antivirus solution, it will be changed

I miss working in the security field.  I remember seeing predictions of this some time ago.  Of course, here is what these folks have to be asking now - is this something new, or has this been around a while and we’re just now finding it?  Also, one has to ask how the money transfer is taking place.  If someone is paying for this, there has to be an exchange of money somewhere.  I’m guessing that’s how people are going to try to track down the programmer in question.

I seriously doubt this is new, although it’s probably not a very old (in tech-world terms “mature”) service.  Still, this will likely grow more popular as other skilled programmers realize they can make real profits from doing bad.  But any that would offer a guarantee to reprogram said malware if it is discovered (as this one was) will have to charge more to stay ahead, fiscally speaking.  This is what you would call a growth industry, and like all growth industries, pricing will be high until it matures.  (via ArsTechnica)

[tags]Maleware, Virus for hire[/tags]

A computer only a geek could love

digi_big3.jpg
I know you are tired of hearing this, but man, I need to get one of these. I don’t think my wife would approve, though. (via Engadget)

No doubt about it, the original Digi-Comp I is a rare item——in more ways than one. For example, there’s the Yahoo group FriendsOfDigiComp… How many other educational toys can boast their own Internet fan club? Remarkable, considering Digi-Comp is over 40 years old and has been off the market for at least 30… Which explains why the originals (if you can find any) are so scarce, commanding $100 or more on eBay.

But perhaps the rarest thing about Digi-Comp is the combination of hands-on and minds-on fun it affords. It definitely still has things to teach*, like Boolean logic and problem-solving… and it’s rewarding to build and use. That’s why Minds-On Toys decided to reintroduce it in an affordable kit format, with a thorough and professional revamp of the original documentation.

[tags]Digicomp, 3-bit computer, Kit computer[/tags]

What did George Washington look like?

A brief article about some interesting work — reconstructing George Washington’s looks at several times throughout his life. Includes a fascinating video. (via Blue’s News)

“The most difficult part of the challenge in a way was morphing backwards when there are no images of the 19-year-old,” said recreation team member, Ivan Schwartz. “Our 19-year-old mystery man — the man who would become leader of the country.”

The team recreated Washington at age 57 when he was president; at age 45 when he commanded troops in the Revolutionary War and as a teenage surveyor.

[tags]George Washington, President[/tags]

Over the air HD reception

MAKEzine had a similar article in the latest issue, but here’s a write-up at HDBeat on how to get over the air High Definition signals on your TV.  I suspect doing this for your PC would be similarly manageable. (via MAKEzine blog)

Some of the best picture quality possible can be obtained with an antenna, at least until High Definition DVDs are released. It’s FREE, it’s recordable on some computers like Windows Media Center Edition and it works sometimes when cable and Satellite doesn’t.

[tags]HDTV, OTA HD, Hi Def[/tags]

Sound following robot

Wow, this is really cool. A LEGO Mindstorms robot with the capacity to follow sound. (via MAKEzine)

Paul-Nicolas created this nice robot that is capable of following the sound of a radio or a music instrument or a human voice. It follows the ideas developed on this site concerning the interaural time detection (ITD) (binaural sensor and high speed sampling).

[tags]LEGO Mindsprings, Robot[/tags]

Guide: Converting physical system to virtual system

I recently reloaded my system from scratch. I wish I had thought to do this. I did it the old-fashioned, hard way of installing on a fresh hard drive and restoring things from my old hard drive. This way seems much smarter. (from MAKEzine).

recently got a new replacement laptop for work. I had a lot of stuff on the old laptop after 2+ years of use and so I didn’t want to have to rush myself in remembering everything in one or two passes before formatting it to send back to the office. There are always things I forget when I’m mostly focused on moving data files over: files in “hidden” places like IM logs and non-file based data such as product keys, configuration info, settings for programs and other stuff. So I decided the best thing to do was make it into a VM and take my time about reinstalling and configuring the new laptop to match.

[tags]Virtual machine, backup[/tags]

Another HTPC article

I put up a different, but similar article recently.  Here’s a post at Engadget that’s something of a guide on building your own home theatre PC (HTPC) for under $1,000.

We’ve seen a lot of home theater PCs lately and being in need of a new workstation, we decide to build one of our own. We started planning by looking around to see what others had done.

[tags]HTPC, Engadget[/tags]

Newsflash: Size matters – 19 inch laptops on the way

I just got a laptop with a 15.4″ display.  I like it, but it’s not as nice as the 17″ display on my wife’s laptop.  But both of these pale in comparison to the 19″ laptops which should be available sometime in the near future.

SavRow likes to refer to their computers as “bespoke technology,” which implies a certain degree of high-end customization. And, sure enough, the company’s computers tend to be fairly upscale models, with features targeting gamers. The company’s latest, the Axen X-1 laptop includes a mammoth 19-inch display, dual NVIDIA 7800 GTX Go GPUs, an AMD Turion at speeds of up to 2.2 GHz, dual-layer burner, 7200 RPM hard drive, and up to 2GB of RAM. Of course, you’ll pay over $4,000 for all that large-screen, desktop-level performance, and we doubt it’s very portable either. But, hey, we hear SavRow’s throwing in a second pair of pants with each purchase.

[tags]Laptop, 19″ laptop LCD[/tags]

Potential PDF replacement?

In another of the many “I’m not sure how I stumbled across this” sites I stumble across, I’ve been reading about Unipage tonight.

What is Unipage?

Unipage is a way to store a complete web page as just one file.

All of the page’s images, formatting, and even functionality are kept together instead of as separate files.

To create a Unipage from any web page or page on your computer, you need the Unipage Unifier program.

[tags]PDF replacement, Unipage[/tags]

On making time estimates in the techie world

I read Shark Tank every day. Plenty of the posts aren’t worth the time they take to read. But occasionally, something really good comes through. The latest post is a good example of this.

Pilot fish at this retail chain gets an assignment to add some functionality to four reporting applications. One change request is to add passwords to one of the four applications — but just one.”Just doing one sounded suspicious to me,” says fish. “So I decided to code the password logic in a separate module for easy reuse. I only had to add one line of code to the existing executable.”

Read on for the punch line.

[tags]Shark Tank, time estimates, Techie humor[/tags]