Mediterranean Solar Goes Large

Mediterranean Solar Goes Large

Thoughts on Clutter and Junk

Thoughts on Clutter and Junk

Posted on 5th Jun 2011 at 11:50 by Joe Martin with 29 comments

I?ve been playing Star Wars: Jedi Academy lately. I didn?t play it when it first came out, but good word of mouth and a budget Steam price proved hard to resist. Overall, it?s a pretty good game too, although I?ll never be as effusive about it as my pals. One thing I can?t get over, though, is how incredibly dated the game looks.

It?s been hard for me to pin down exactly why Jedi Academy feels so dated, as the graphics actually hold up very well for a seven year old game using the twelve year old id Tech 3 engine. Lately, I?ve come to think that it?s the sparseness of the levels that makes it feel archaic. There are too many empty desks in the cantinas, too many barren walls; there?s not enough clutter in the world.



The effect that level clutter has on the feel of a game can be significant. One of the other games I?ve been dipping in and out of lately has been the original SiN, which manages to feel a lot more contemporary than even Jedi Outcast, despite having been released years earlier and using the previous id Tech engine. Why? Because the world seems more populated and involving; there are mugs on tables, books on shelves and posters on walls. It doesn?t change the action at all, but it fundamentally alters your impression of the world.

The importance of clutter isn?t new. I still remember when my young friends and I got our hands on the original Quake shareware. We loved it and played it to death once we overcame our fear of its murky, gothic castles. The only game that bested it was Duke Nukem 3D which, despite being uglier on a pure technical level, was set in a place far more engaging to lazy young minds.

Carmack and Co. may be able to make gorgeous 3D castles, but only 3D Realms would think to stand suits of armour and hang tapestries in the hallways. That was how I used to think of it, as a kid.


Nowadays, nearly all games seed their levels with an appropriate level of junk. It?s one of the forgotten benefits of the more powerful technology in modern computers. We?re used to smashing bits of furniture with stray bullets in Modern Warfare or scouring through medicine cabinets for painkillers in Left 4 Dead. Even relatively modern games can get this wrong, however.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is one of the worst games I can recall in this regard. It was a good game and I have many fond memories of it, but when I look back I don?t immediately recall high points such as the Brush With Death quest. Instead, the first memory that comes to mind is that I must have spent hours of my life just picking up and selling ladles, clay plates and cloth-covered pots. None of these items were good for anything at all and Oblivion wouldn?t have lost anything by not featuring them, yet Bethesda seemed ready to drown players in this junk.

A lack of clutter may make a game feel outdated, but too much of it can get in the way so much that it ends up defining your game. Surely there?s got to be a happy medium?

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Lian Li launches new HTPC, mid-tower chassis

Lian Li's ever-expanding chassis lineup got a little larger today with the addition of two new cases: the PC-C60 and PC-6. The former resides in Lian Li's HTPC Domus series, supporting ATX, microATX and Mini-ITX motherboards, and measuring a relatively compact 445mm (W) x 182mm (H) x 410mm (D). The enclosure features a tool-less "easy-to-upgrade" design along with enough airflow and elbowroom for some respectable hardware.

The exterior shows two 5.25-inch bays while the interior can hold three 2.5-inch and six 3.5-inch drives (the 3.5-inch bays also have native support for 2.5-inch drives). The rear is occupied by seven ventilated expansion slots and there's headroom for graphics cards measuring up to 270mm long. Cooling is tackled by two 140mm front intake fans and an optional 140mm top exhaust. Front I/O includes USB 3.0, eSATA and audio ports.

Meanwhile, the mid-tower PC-6 is geared toward full-fledged desktop use, touting eight tool-free PCI brackets and space for expansion cards measuring up to 440mm long. Despite its larger dimensions, the mid-tower supports less than half the storage drives, though it gains one external 5.25-inch bay. Front panel connectivity has been somewhat downgraded too, trading one USB 3.0 for USB 2.0 and nixing the eSATA connector.

The PC-6 has two 140mm fans -- one in front and one in back -- along with a "mount for a fan speed control-switch," but the switch isn't included. You can expect both chassis to have Lian Li's quality craftsmanship throughout, including an all-aluminum body, anti-vibration components, and decent cable management. The PC-C60 is reportedly set for $149, while the PC-6 will cost $229 -- a price we're not particularly thrilled about.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44180-lian-li-launches-new-htpc-mid-tower-chassis.html

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Logitech MX518 gets long-deserved successor, G400

Logitech has finally introduced a veritable successor to the trusty old MX518. Long regarded as the best gaming mouse $40 can buy, the MX518 is the go-to pointing device for folks on a budget. Simply put, the MX518 offers everything an accomplished gamer requires to get the job done, including a comfortable profile, programmable buttons, on-the-fly DPI adjustments, and a cool holographic skin to boot.

The freshly announced G400 follows that general formula to the T, but it has a few new tricks up its sleeve. For starters, the optical sensor has been upgraded from 1800DPI to 3600DPI, which will undoubtedly prove handy in fast-paced twitch-oriented games. Naturally, DPI can be adjusted at any point courtesy of dedicated hardware buttons, and you can configure the four individual increments to your liking.

Since it's using a newer version of the MX518's sensor, Logitech says you can expect the same tracking consistency with less than 0.5% cursor-to-hand movement variance at up to 140 IPS. The company has also pushed the report rate from 125 to 1000 reports a second (a 1ms response time -- the quickest USB can handle). Speaking of USB, the G400's cable is thinner and 25% lighter for less restrictive movement.

Logitech has also integrated the same button programming software used by its G-Series keyboards and the G13 Advanced Gameboard. This grants the G400 access to Logitech Gaming Software's drag and drop interface, automatic game detection, macro, and scripting capabilities -- not to mention the ability to share macros with G-Series keyboards. Logitech Gaming Software v8.0 includes profiles for 210 games.

Logitech only had one goal for the G400: to build upon everything that was great about the MX518. "We were very careful not to mess with the shape, tracking consistency, button layout, or legendary durability that millions of customers have grown to love and rely upon over the years -- we even kept the suggested retail price the same. All we wanted to do was make a legendary FPS gaming mouse work even better."

The G400 is coming to the US on June 19 for $49.99 with other markets to follow by mid-July. If you couldn't tell by the swooning above, we're pretty enthusiastic about its arrival. Several TechSpot staffers have used the MX518 for years. We deemed the best gaming mouse available in a 2005 roundup, and it's always held a seat in our desktop buying guide. Here's hoping the G400 can carry the torch for another six years.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44177-logitech-mx518-gets-long-deserved-successor-g400.html

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Most Malware Tied to 'Pay-Per-Install' Market

New research suggests that the majority of personal computers infected with malicious software may have arrived at that state thanks to a bustling underground market that matches criminal gangs who pay for malware installations with enterprising hackers looking to sell access to compromised PCs.

Pay-per-install (PPI) services are advertised on shadowy underground Web forums. Clients submit their malware?a spambot, fake antivirus software, or password-stealing Trojan?to the PPI service, which in turn charges rates from $7 to $180 per thousand successful installations, depending on the requested geographic location of the desired victims.

The PPI services also attract entrepreneurial malware distributors, or "affiliates," hackers who are tasked with figuring out how to install the malware on victims' machines. Typical installation schemes involve uploading tainted programs to public file-sharing networks; hacking legitimate websites in order to automatically download the files onto visitors; and quietly running the programs on PCs they have already compromised. Affiliates are credited only for successful installations, via a unique and static affiliate code stitched into the installer programs and communicated back to the PPI service after each install.

In a new paper researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies in Software Development Technologies describe infiltrating four competing PPI services in August 2010, by surreptitiously hijacking multiple affiliate accounts. The team built an automated system to regularly download the installers being pushed by the different PPI services.

The researchers analyzed more than one million installers offered by PPI services. That analysis led to a startling discovery: Of the world's top 20 types of malware, 12 employed PPI services to buy infections.

"Going into this study, I didn't appreciate that PPI is potentially the number one vector for badness out there," said Vern Paxson, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley. "We have a sense now that botnets potentially are worth millions [of dollars] per year, because they provide a means for miscreants to outsource the global dissemination of their malware."

The researchers set out to map the geographic distribution of malware being pushed by these services, so they devised an automated way to download installers. They used services such as Amazon's EC2 cloud computing platform, and "Tor," a free service that lets users communicate anonymously by routing their connections through multiple computers around the world, to trick the pay-per-install program into thinking requests were coming from locations around the globe.

The system classified the collected malware by type of network traffic each sample generated when run on a test system. The researchers said they took precautions to prevent affiliate accounts from being credited with the test installations.

The analysis of the PPI services indicates that they most frequently target PCs in Europe and the United States. These regions are wealthier than most others, and offer affiliates the highest per-install rates.

But the researchers surmise that there are factors beyond price that may influence a PPI client's choice of country. For example, a spambot such as Rustock requires little more than a unique Internet address to send spam, whereas fake antivirus software relies on the victim to make a credit card or bank payment, and thus may need to support multiple languages or purchasing methods.

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=ca7c333d394ea5b7667812e1ff2d03c7

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Thoughts on Clutter and Junk

Thoughts on Clutter and Junk

Posted on 5th Jun 2011 at 11:50 by Joe Martin with 29 comments

I?ve been playing Star Wars: Jedi Academy lately. I didn?t play it when it first came out, but good word of mouth and a budget Steam price proved hard to resist. Overall, it?s a pretty good game too, although I?ll never be as effusive about it as my pals. One thing I can?t get over, though, is how incredibly dated the game looks.

It?s been hard for me to pin down exactly why Jedi Academy feels so dated, as the graphics actually hold up very well for a seven year old game using the twelve year old id Tech 3 engine. Lately, I?ve come to think that it?s the sparseness of the levels that makes it feel archaic. There are too many empty desks in the cantinas, too many barren walls; there?s not enough clutter in the world.



The effect that level clutter has on the feel of a game can be significant. One of the other games I?ve been dipping in and out of lately has been the original SiN, which manages to feel a lot more contemporary than even Jedi Outcast, despite having been released years earlier and using the previous id Tech engine. Why? Because the world seems more populated and involving; there are mugs on tables, books on shelves and posters on walls. It doesn?t change the action at all, but it fundamentally alters your impression of the world.

The importance of clutter isn?t new. I still remember when my young friends and I got our hands on the original Quake shareware. We loved it and played it to death once we overcame our fear of its murky, gothic castles. The only game that bested it was Duke Nukem 3D which, despite being uglier on a pure technical level, was set in a place far more engaging to lazy young minds.

Carmack and Co. may be able to make gorgeous 3D castles, but only 3D Realms would think to stand suits of armour and hang tapestries in the hallways. That was how I used to think of it, as a kid.


Nowadays, nearly all games seed their levels with an appropriate level of junk. It?s one of the forgotten benefits of the more powerful technology in modern computers. We?re used to smashing bits of furniture with stray bullets in Modern Warfare or scouring through medicine cabinets for painkillers in Left 4 Dead. Even relatively modern games can get this wrong, however.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is one of the worst games I can recall in this regard. It was a good game and I have many fond memories of it, but when I look back I don?t immediately recall high points such as the Brush With Death quest. Instead, the first memory that comes to mind is that I must have spent hours of my life just picking up and selling ladles, clay plates and cloth-covered pots. None of these items were good for anything at all and Oblivion wouldn?t have lost anything by not featuring them, yet Bethesda seemed ready to drown players in this junk.

A lack of clutter may make a game feel outdated, but too much of it can get in the way so much that it ends up defining your game. Surely there?s got to be a happy medium?

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/6lOHz6X-bvs/

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Thoughts on Clutter and Junk

Thoughts on Clutter and Junk

Posted on 5th Jun 2011 at 11:50 by Joe Martin with 29 comments

I?ve been playing Star Wars: Jedi Academy lately. I didn?t play it when it first came out, but good word of mouth and a budget Steam price proved hard to resist. Overall, it?s a pretty good game too, although I?ll never be as effusive about it as my pals. One thing I can?t get over, though, is how incredibly dated the game looks.

It?s been hard for me to pin down exactly why Jedi Academy feels so dated, as the graphics actually hold up very well for a seven year old game using the twelve year old id Tech 3 engine. Lately, I?ve come to think that it?s the sparseness of the levels that makes it feel archaic. There are too many empty desks in the cantinas, too many barren walls; there?s not enough clutter in the world.



The effect that level clutter has on the feel of a game can be significant. One of the other games I?ve been dipping in and out of lately has been the original SiN, which manages to feel a lot more contemporary than even Jedi Outcast, despite having been released years earlier and using the previous id Tech engine. Why? Because the world seems more populated and involving; there are mugs on tables, books on shelves and posters on walls. It doesn?t change the action at all, but it fundamentally alters your impression of the world.

The importance of clutter isn?t new. I still remember when my young friends and I got our hands on the original Quake shareware. We loved it and played it to death once we overcame our fear of its murky, gothic castles. The only game that bested it was Duke Nukem 3D which, despite being uglier on a pure technical level, was set in a place far more engaging to lazy young minds.

Carmack and Co. may be able to make gorgeous 3D castles, but only 3D Realms would think to stand suits of armour and hang tapestries in the hallways. That was how I used to think of it, as a kid.


Nowadays, nearly all games seed their levels with an appropriate level of junk. It?s one of the forgotten benefits of the more powerful technology in modern computers. We?re used to smashing bits of furniture with stray bullets in Modern Warfare or scouring through medicine cabinets for painkillers in Left 4 Dead. Even relatively modern games can get this wrong, however.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is one of the worst games I can recall in this regard. It was a good game and I have many fond memories of it, but when I look back I don?t immediately recall high points such as the Brush With Death quest. Instead, the first memory that comes to mind is that I must have spent hours of my life just picking up and selling ladles, clay plates and cloth-covered pots. None of these items were good for anything at all and Oblivion wouldn?t have lost anything by not featuring them, yet Bethesda seemed ready to drown players in this junk.

A lack of clutter may make a game feel outdated, but too much of it can get in the way so much that it ends up defining your game. Surely there?s got to be a happy medium?

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/6lOHz6X-bvs/

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Most Malware Tied to 'Pay-Per-Install' Market

New research suggests that the majority of personal computers infected with malicious software may have arrived at that state thanks to a bustling underground market that matches criminal gangs who pay for malware installations with enterprising hackers looking to sell access to compromised PCs.

Pay-per-install (PPI) services are advertised on shadowy underground Web forums. Clients submit their malware?a spambot, fake antivirus software, or password-stealing Trojan?to the PPI service, which in turn charges rates from $7 to $180 per thousand successful installations, depending on the requested geographic location of the desired victims.

The PPI services also attract entrepreneurial malware distributors, or "affiliates," hackers who are tasked with figuring out how to install the malware on victims' machines. Typical installation schemes involve uploading tainted programs to public file-sharing networks; hacking legitimate websites in order to automatically download the files onto visitors; and quietly running the programs on PCs they have already compromised. Affiliates are credited only for successful installations, via a unique and static affiliate code stitched into the installer programs and communicated back to the PPI service after each install.

In a new paper researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies in Software Development Technologies describe infiltrating four competing PPI services in August 2010, by surreptitiously hijacking multiple affiliate accounts. The team built an automated system to regularly download the installers being pushed by the different PPI services.

The researchers analyzed more than one million installers offered by PPI services. That analysis led to a startling discovery: Of the world's top 20 types of malware, 12 employed PPI services to buy infections.

"Going into this study, I didn't appreciate that PPI is potentially the number one vector for badness out there," said Vern Paxson, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley. "We have a sense now that botnets potentially are worth millions [of dollars] per year, because they provide a means for miscreants to outsource the global dissemination of their malware."

The researchers set out to map the geographic distribution of malware being pushed by these services, so they devised an automated way to download installers. They used services such as Amazon's EC2 cloud computing platform, and "Tor," a free service that lets users communicate anonymously by routing their connections through multiple computers around the world, to trick the pay-per-install program into thinking requests were coming from locations around the globe.

The system classified the collected malware by type of network traffic each sample generated when run on a test system. The researchers said they took precautions to prevent affiliate accounts from being credited with the test installations.

The analysis of the PPI services indicates that they most frequently target PCs in Europe and the United States. These regions are wealthier than most others, and offer affiliates the highest per-install rates.

But the researchers surmise that there are factors beyond price that may influence a PPI client's choice of country. For example, a spambot such as Rustock requires little more than a unique Internet address to send spam, whereas fake antivirus software relies on the victim to make a credit card or bank payment, and thus may need to support multiple languages or purchasing methods.

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=ca7c333d394ea5b7667812e1ff2d03c7

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Android or Windows? Now You Don't Have to Choose

A startup called BlueStacks wants to end all your worrying about whether an app will run on a specific operating system. The company's technology, which it's showing off at trade shows, lets users run apps on operating systems they weren't designed for.

The  software lets Android apps run on Windows, and lets Android apps run within the browser on Google's ChromeOS. It can run Windows on top of Android or vice versa. The company will make the software available for download, but it can also be built into apps, and will come preinstalled on some hardware. "We don't care about the operating system anymore," says BlueStacks CEO Rosen Sharma. "It's all about apps."

Software "emulators" already make it possible to run software designed for one operating system on another, but emulators tend to run slowly because they translate code from one form into another. Sharma says the performance hit can make them 10 to 100 times slower than an application running within its native environment. In contrast, the BlueStacks software interfaces directly with the device's hardware, meaning apps can run more smoothly and with better performance.

Many people now think of their smart phones and tablets as their main computing devices, a trend that is likely to accelerate as the power and variety of mobile devices increases. "For kids these days, their first computing experience is the phone," Sharma says, adding: "All the cool apps are on Android and iPhone." He also believes that many apps could benefit from having access to a larger screen, keyboard, or mouse.

BlueStacks's technology could also let tablet manufacturers hedge their bets by providing a device that can run Windows for business applications, but can also run Android apps. According to the BlueStacks website, the forthcoming ViewSonic ViewPad Pro 10 tablet, which runs both Windows 7 and Android, will be powered by BlueStacks. Sharma also says that a version of BlueStacks will be available for users to download at the end of June?it would enable them to run Android apps on existing Windows devices.

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