Weekend tech reading: First 25 minutes of Crysis 2 hits YouTube

Stunning Crysis 2 video: First 25 minutes leaked A video of the first 25 minutes of gameplay from Crytek's Crysis 2 has snuck out - after an early build of the game leaked onto torrent sites yesterday. The quality of the footage (particularly, we're guessing, the voiceovers) isn't representative of the final polished game. But that doesn't mean it isn't drop dead gorgeous. CVG

Industry vet: The $50 million video game must go The time has come for developers to slash and burn the budgets of multimillion-dollar games, an industry vet says. Mark Cerny, who has worked on everything from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to MLB 08: The Show, spoke yesterday at the Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain (DICE) Summit in Las Vegas. CNET

Amazon.com shutting Irving office over tax dispute As a result of an ongoing tax dispute with Texas, Amazon.com has decided to take its ball and go home. The online retailer said Thursday that it would shutter its Irving distribution facility April 12 and cancel plans to hire as many as 1,000 additional workers rather than pay Texas what the state says is owed in uncollected sales tax. Dallas News

Anonymous claims possession of insidious Stuxnet virus Houston, we have a problem. Or should I say, "Iran, we have your problem?" Last night, a member of hacker group Anonymous a devious 4chan-spawned Internet coalition known for increasingly serious web-based attacks announced on Twitter that the group was in possession of the Stuxnet virus. Forbes

YouTube and the major film studios In the course of writing lists or features, it's frequently occurred to myself and other writers to upload a clip from a movie to YouTube, by way of illustrating a point - and embedding it in the article. How often this goes through smoothly and how often it doesn't has become quite interesting in the last few years. Shadowlocked

Software association paid $57K in 2010 to piracy whistleblowers In 2010, the Software and Information Industry Association received 157 reports of alleged corporate end user software piracy. Of the 157 reports, 42 (or 27%) were judged sufficiently reliable to pursue. Of these 16 qualified for rewards totaling $57,500. Network World

Duke Nukem Forever: Official Steve Gibson Interview YouTube

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Obama?s Budget Seeks Deep Cuts in Domestic Spending

Two-thirds of the reductions that Mr. Obama will claim are from cuts in spending, including in many domestic programs that he supports. Among the reductions for just the next fiscal year, 2012, which starts Oct. 1, are more than $1 billion from airport grants and nearly $1 billion from grants to states for water treatment plants and similar projects. Public health and forestry programs would also be cut.

Home energy assistance to low-income families and community service block grants would be cut in half, and an initiative to restore the Great Lakes? environmental health would be reduced by one-quarter.

The administration readily concedes, even boasts, that the president will not win any race to outcut Republicans. In the House, Republicans are trying to slash up to $100 billion in the current fiscal year alone before they begin writing their own proposed budget for 2012 and beyond.

But the administration contends that its plan would leave the country in better overall fiscal health than the path Republicans envision. Even as they seek to downsize domestic programs, they would exempt the Pentagon from budget reductions, make permanent all the Bush-era tax cuts that are to expire at the end of 2012 and repeal cost-saving provisions of the health care law.

Mr. Obama would also extend the Bush tax cuts, but not for people whose taxable income is more than $250,000 a year. His budget does not count that proposed change as a savings; in fact, the huge revenue loss from extending the tax cuts for all income below that amount is included in his deficit projections for the remainder of the decade.

By 2015, the senior administration official said, Mr. Obama?s budget would show a deficit of just over 3 percent of the gross domestic product, down from three times that level, and at roughly the point that economists consider stable; it would hover around that point through 2021. But beyond 2021, an aging population and rising health care costs are forecast to drive annual deficits higher again.

With Republicans in charge of the House, Mr. Obama?s budget is more a statement of his priorities and philosophy than an actual template for federal spending and tax policy. Long-term budget projections ? and especially deficit forecasts ? are frequently unreliable because they are subject to so many political and economic variables. The point of Mr. Obama?s forecast is less to promise a specific result than to signal to voters and financial markets that he is serious about reducing annual deficits.

Mr. Obama?s budget will also serve as his frame for the debate with Republicans over the highly political act of writing next year?s budget ? even as he tests Republicans? willingness to compromise on the more divisive solutions to the nation?s long-range imbalances. ?This is the opening bid in a long process,? said Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and the second-ranking Senate leader.

Previewing his budget message, Mr. Obama has argued for weeks that cuts deeper than he is seeking could threaten the fragile economic recovery and that America?s future growth and competitiveness demand increases in programs for education, infrastructure, innovation and research.

Mr. Obama would reduce military spending and some health program costs, but neither party is tackling the unsustainable long-term growth of entitlement programs like Medicare or proposing to raise revenues significantly to close the budget gap.

?This is a budget that?s at that pivot point where we?re saying we now have to move from making sure the recovery takes hold, while being careful not to undermine it, to start to move in the direction of putting policies in place that deal with the deficit,? said the administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to preview budget details, ?because if we don?t deal with the deficit, it becomes the potential next substantial economic challenge.?

The $1.1 trillion in total deficit reduction that the administration will claim through the 2021 fiscal year is measured from spending levels enacted by Congress and the president for the 2010 fiscal year. Comparisons of the impact of Mr. Obama?s new budget and House Republicans? proposals on deficits and the size of government are difficult to make until both budgets are available.

House Republicans will begin work on a 2012 budget after they finish trying to shrink current spending. But their proposed $100 billion cut for this fiscal year, already four months old, would translate over a decade into more than $1 trillion in deficit reductions, budget analysts say.

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Weekend tech reading: First 25 minutes of Crysis 2 hits YouTube

Stunning Crysis 2 video: First 25 minutes leaked A video of the first 25 minutes of gameplay from Crytek's Crysis 2 has snuck out - after an early build of the game leaked onto torrent sites yesterday. The quality of the footage (particularly, we're guessing, the voiceovers) isn't representative of the final polished game. But that doesn't mean it isn't drop dead gorgeous. CVG

Industry vet: The $50 million video game must go The time has come for developers to slash and burn the budgets of multimillion-dollar games, an industry vet says. Mark Cerny, who has worked on everything from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to MLB 08: The Show, spoke yesterday at the Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain (DICE) Summit in Las Vegas. CNET

Amazon.com shutting Irving office over tax dispute As a result of an ongoing tax dispute with Texas, Amazon.com has decided to take its ball and go home. The online retailer said Thursday that it would shutter its Irving distribution facility April 12 and cancel plans to hire as many as 1,000 additional workers rather than pay Texas what the state says is owed in uncollected sales tax. Dallas News

Anonymous claims possession of insidious Stuxnet virus Houston, we have a problem. Or should I say, "Iran, we have your problem?" Last night, a member of hacker group Anonymous a devious 4chan-spawned Internet coalition known for increasingly serious web-based attacks announced on Twitter that the group was in possession of the Stuxnet virus. Forbes

YouTube and the major film studios In the course of writing lists or features, it's frequently occurred to myself and other writers to upload a clip from a movie to YouTube, by way of illustrating a point - and embedding it in the article. How often this goes through smoothly and how often it doesn't has become quite interesting in the last few years. Shadowlocked

Software association paid $57K in 2010 to piracy whistleblowers In 2010, the Software and Information Industry Association received 157 reports of alleged corporate end user software piracy. Of the 157 reports, 42 (or 27%) were judged sufficiently reliable to pursue. Of these 16 qualified for rewards totaling $57,500. Network World

Duke Nukem Forever: Official Steve Gibson Interview YouTube

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Leaked: full Crysis 2 game, with multiplayer and master key

According to a thread on the Facepunch forums, titled "Crysis 2, leaked 49 days early," Crysis 2 has been leaked. The download contains the full game (the campaign is reportedly playable from start to finish) and multiplayer support (the master key for online authentication is supposedly included).

The game will still see a multi-platform release on March 22, 2011 in the United States and March 25, 2011 in Europe. Given how close we are to the game's release, the leaked build could be almost finished. Crytek has said that the game has the best graphics you've ever seen but that it will be graphically superior on the PC. The company will be undoubtedly less inclined to support the PC platform after a fiasco like this one. The game's developers are trying to save face by saying the leak is a still a development build.

"Crytek has been alerted that an early incomplete, unfinished build of Crysis 2 has appeared on Torrent sites," an EA spokesperson said in a statement. "Crytek and EA are deeply disappointed by the news. We encourage fans to support the game and the development team by waiting and purchasing the final, polished game on March 22. Crysis 2 is still in development and promises to be the ultimate action blockbuster as the series' signature Nanosuit lets you be the weapon as you defend NYC from an alien invasion. Piracy continues to damage the PC packaged goods market and the PC development community."

Crysis 2 was announced for the PC, Xbox 360, and the PS3 way back in June 2009. Since then, we've seen screenshots, teaser trailers, gameplay footage, and even delays. This, however, takes the cake. The news that there will be a Crysis 2 demo for PC is almost redundant now.

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Blog - Blast 'n' Blown

The Nexus S: Is this the Android version of a Cr-48?

The Nexus S: Is this the Android version of a Cr-48?

You?ll have to excuse my Android fanboyism during this piece. The fact of the matter is, I had been trying to track down a Nexus S since the first day that it got confirmed. So when I finally got the notification this past Monday that one was headed my way, I was excited beyond anything that you?ve seen outside of an Apple store the night before a new iPhone.

You see, when the Nexus One came around, people talked it up like it was something that the world had never seen before. Fortunately, at least in some respects, it was. It was the first pure Android device, it was built on a great handset and it carved the way into the future for the Android releases up to and including FroYo. I had high hopes for its successor, the Samsung-built Nexus S. Would they be fulfilled?

Not entirely.

It?s important to understand that I was reasonably impressed with the Galaxy S line of phones. Though the Nexus S has some marked differences, there are some very striking similarities as well. If you?ve used Verizon?s Galaxy S, branded as the Samsung Fascinate, then you?ve essentially held a phone that feels very similar. There should be some pretty significant differences, though, given the OS.

I?ll say, first off, that the Nexus S is a pretty nice phone. It?s not world-shattering, but it?s pretty nice. If I were a customer that had better T-Mobile coverage in my area, I?d likely have it on my short list. But realizing that, I also had to realize exactly what drove me to that decision. In that, the fact came to me ? The Nexus S is akin to what Google is doing for the Chrome OS with the Cr-48.

Don?t get me wrong, the Cr-48 is underpowered and a real pain to use sometimes. The Nexus S is hardly that. In fact, it?s beautifully speedy. Sadly, that?s also the end of where I can compliment the phone. Google and Samsung made some odd choices for the Nexus S and, while I?ve only had it for a couple of days, they were glaring things that have come to mind.

First, there?s the issue of the four soft keys. While I understand that this isn?t a Google-driven decision, I don?t understand why Android handset manufacturers continue to flip them around at will. The Nexus S configuration is maddening to me. I?d give just about anything to have my home and search buttons flipped around. It?s minor, but it?s an annoyance.

Next, there?s the display. It?s a 480×800 Super AMOLED. In the Galaxy S phones that I used, it was the same complaint ? it?s very pretty, when used to its full potential. When it?s not, it shows every flaw. While I understand that Super AMOLED is the new standard, there are phones out there that look way better with the same type of display.

I also don?t understand the method to the madness behind not having a Micro-SD slot. Sure, the phone has a pretty hefty chunk of onboard memory. But the fact is that apps are getting bigger and that space is becoming a premium. When the new offerings on the market are holding up to 32 gigs of data, having a hard cap of 16 gigs is just a bit strange.

All of these things seem to add up to a few annoyances that would keep me from actually having the Nexus S top my ?most wanted? list. Oh, also you can add the fact that it?s a T-Mobile device, made by Samsung, and lacks the ability to do 4G data speed. Huge oversight.

The same can be said for the Cr-48. When we did our first review of the Chrome Notebook, it became very obvious that the platform wasn?t what shined. Rather it was the OS itself. This seems to be the case for the Nexus S. Android Gingerbread is lovely. It?s an absolute joy to use. But using it on the Nexus S seems to be limiting it.

Round all of these up into a nice pile and you?ll have my knee-jerk verdict ? The Nexus S is a decently usable package for an OS that can do incredible things. Now, here?s hoping that other carriers and manufacturers will be quick to adopt Gingerbread so that I?m no longer tempted to put up with ?decently usable? just to get the OS.

About the Author

Brad is a music and tech junkie who calls Nashville home. While he writes across many channels on The Next Web, he has a particular interest in startups located in the Southern US. Find him on Twitter @BradMcCarty.

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Obama Presses Egypt?s Military on Democracy

Standing in the foyer of the White House, where just a week before he had started to press Mr. Mubarak for immediate reforms without calling for his resignation, Mr. Obama described the Egyptian uprising as a model of nonviolence and moral force ?that bent the arc of history.? While comparing the 18-day protests to Gandhi?s peaceful resistance to British rule, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the student protests that brought down a dictator in Indonesia, he also set out a series of benchmarks that he said he expected the Egyptian military to follow, warning that ?nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day.?

?That means protecting the rights of Egypt?s citizens, lifting the emergency law, revising the Constitution and other laws to make this change irreversible, and laying out a clear path to elections that are fair and free,? he said. ?Above all, this transition must bring all of Egypt?s voices to the table.?

Mr. Obama?s tone was optimistic, and he promised the crowd in Cairo?s Tahrir Square ? which was listening to his brief broadcast live via Egyptian state television ? continued American support for Egypt. That support, however, is likely to take new forms: Administration officials agreed that the $250 million in economic aid was a pittance compared with the $1.3 billion in annual military aid, and the White House and the State Department were already discussing setting aside new funds to bolster the rise of secular political parties. Under Egypt?s current Constitution, alternatives to Mr. Mubarak?s National Democratic Party are all but banned.

In his remarks, Mr. Obama promised ?whatever assistance is necessary? to pursue a ?credible transition to a democracy.?

But as he spoke, White House officials were assessing the longer-term impact of street revolutions that have deposed two dictators in less than a month, starting with the ouster of Tunisia?s leader, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. Middle East leaders from Saudi Arabia to Jordan to Yemen have moved to pre-empt similar uprisings.

In Israel and Saudi Arabia, both of which depended heavily on Mr. Mubarak, officials were blistering in their criticism of Washington, arguing that the United States abandoned a long-time ally without first building in guarantees that Egypt?s revolution could not be hijacked by religious extremists.

In his final press briefing at the White House on Friday, Robert Gibbs, Mr. Obama?s press secretary, told reporters, ?I think it?s important that the next government of Egypt, as we?ve said in here many times, recognize the accords that have been signed with the government of Israel.? But other officials have acknowledged privately that if Egypt turns into a noisy democracy that includes the Muslim Brotherhood, there will undoubtedly be political debate in Egypt about whether the 1979 peace accord with Israel should remain in force.

?We don?t think that there is any real chance the Egyptian military would have any interest in seeing the peace accord walked back,? one of Mr. Obama?s senior aides said this week. ?But it?s a warning we must issue.?

The Saudis, like Mr. Mubarak himself, portrayed the uprising as the creation of ?foreign powers,? which was widely interpreted as code words for Washington and other Western powers.

?We are astonished however at what we see as interference in the internal affairs of Egypt by some countries,? Saudi Arabia?s foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said Thursday, as Mr. Mubarak was still clinging to power. In an unusually direct shot at the White House, he said, ?We are shocked to see that there are countries pre-empting even the will of the Egyptian people,? never addressing the fact that the protests in Egypt seemed both widespread and homegrown.

While there are few signs yet of protests gathering steam in Saudi Arabia, the government there has taken steps to raise wages and try to keep the contagion from spreading across its own desert.

Yemen and Syria, according to an analysis circulating in the White House, could be more vulnerable. But even as administration officials worried about how the protests could spread, they seemed to be all but inviting it in Iran.

White House officials were clearly relishing the discomfort the uprising has created for Iran?s leaders.

On Friday, White House officials noted that the Iranians, who initially greeted the protests in Egypt because they were aimed at a secular leader who had helped isolate Tehran, had changed their minds. They were blocking broadcasts by the BBC, and putting some opposition leaders under house arrest.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. all but urged Iranians to go out onto Tehran?s streets, in a repeat of the June 2009 demonstrations: ?I say to our Iranian friends, Let your people march. Let your people speak. Release your people from jail. Let them have a voice.?

Just a week ago, trying to coax Mr. Mubarak to transfer his powers or leave office, Mr. Obama called the Egyptian leader a ?patriot? who cared deeply about his country. On Friday, after Mr. Mubarak slipped out of Cairo, Mr. Obama mentioned him only once.

Instead, he focused his comments on the young people in the streets, and a military that ?would not fire bullets? into the crowds that gathered in Tahrir Square, also known as Liberation Square. He struck a decidedly optimistic tone about Egypt?s future, repeating lines from his own presidential campaign in 2008, saying that Egyptians could now create a government that ?represented their hopes and not their fears.?

Even some outsiders who have been critical of the administration?s mixed messages during the Egyptian crisis ? from its early declarations to Egypt as ?stable? to its wavering on whether reform could happen with Mr. Mubarak still in office ? said Mr. Obama struck the right tone on Friday. ?He has done better than his government has done,? said Robert Kagan, a conservative scholar and essayist at the Brookings Institution.

But there are widespread concerns in Washington about the weeks ahead, starting with the worry that once Tahrir Square clears, the military might try to recreate a state it would dominate. ?It is going to be critical to make sure the military remains true to the transition,? Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, said in an interview. ?If that is secured quickly, then I believe the process can flow quite smoothly.?

Mr. Kagan said he thought the risks were relatively small.

?Once the military decided they were not going to kill people in the streets, I don?t know what leverage they have. If they tried to re-establish the military dictatorship that Egypt has had for years, it would be pretty difficult.?

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AMD to abandon its processor brand names?

According to a document spotted by X-bit labs, AMD plans to abandon its established Sempron, Athlon and Phenom processor brand names with upcoming products. The company will divide new processors into different categories of Vision platforms and stamp them with basic model classifications and numerical identifiers, but no brand name.

We've already seen this with the newly launched Fusion APUs (Accelerated Processing Units). The Ontario and Zacate chips are simply called the AMD C-30, C-50, E-240 and E-350. AMD's Llano and Zambezi desktop APUs are expected to use a similar scheme, with the former being mid-range A-series chips and the latter becoming the high-end FX-series.


AMD says its Brazos ultrathin platform (which includes the aforementioned Ontario and Zacate APUs) forgoes component branding so OEM partners can use their desired names without sub-brands getting in the way. By excluding product brands, AMD also places more emphasis on its corporate identity -- X-bit labs compares this to Mercedes cars.

"Vision is AMD's contribution, which comes with the intention of simplifying the purchasing for folks who know what they want to do with their PC and don't care to learn the intricate sub-component technical nuances to make a buying decision. Will we do the same with Llano and Zambezi? You'll have to wait and see," said AMD spokesman Damon Muzny.

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