There have been at least 21 tries before to make a successful video game based on the hit Simpsons TV show. All have flopped. The Simpsons Game is now under development by EA and will release for the PS2, PSP, PS3, Nintendo DS, Wii and the Xbox 360 in the fall of 2007.
So what’s different this time? Scot Amos, Executive Producer, The Simpsons Game says,
Our goal in developing THE SIMPSONS GAME is to create the most original game ever, which is a lofty goal and only possible given the close collaboration with ‘The Simpsons’ creative team. We’re also especially proud of the game’s warm visual feel, which captures – for the first time ever in a game – the look of the TV show.
Powerhouse EA badly needs an original hit. It’s also getting great support from the TV show cast and crew. All the characters voices will be represented, and the writers contributed over 8,000 lines of dialogue for the games 16 “episodes”.
The plot of the game is not based on the upcoming Simpsons movie, but instead revolves around the Simpson family finding that without its advanced knowledge or consent, it has become the basis of a new video game.
Mark Cuban, the outspoken owner of HDNet and the Dallas Mavericks recently blogged about the TV replacing the importance of the PC in US households. Among his claims are that in 18-24 months every HDTV will have a built-in web browser. That Web 2.0 content like YouTube is better geared toward the 10 foot from your TV experience, rather than 10 inches from your monitor. He’s not the only one, Arnie Berman, technology strategist for Cowen & Company wrote this:
In the past, consumers replaced their PC’s every 3 years and their televisions roughly every decade. Is this trend poised to reverse? Hint: Yes.
Interesting this talk is happening while network ratings are at their lowest point ever, especially among the 18-25 demographic. More people are tuning out their TV, and spending their prime time hours in front of PCs.
What do you think? Is the importance of the PC about to be replaced by the HDTV? Or, is it the other way around?
No, it’s not a commercial for switching from dial-up to broadband. It’s the potential speed increase for existing cable Internet customers using a new standard DOCSIS 3.0. Download speeds of 160mps and upload speeds of 120mps are possible.
South Korea and Singapore are already deploying the new technology, and at least one US cable company (Comcast) plans to start next year. It will be rolled out first in areas where it competes with FiOS (fiber optic Internet). It’s estimated that by 2011 , DOCSIS 3.0 will be available to 40% of US cable customers.
Now it seems current and former agents are joining the chorus. GeekSquadSecrets.com (registration required) has some interesting information. For example, a new “agent”, Johnny Utah. He’s not an agent at all, but is simply a remote connection to techs in The Philippines and Malaysia. Plunk down $199 to have a virus or other malware removed, only to have the tech connect it to a remote connection, walk away and then collect your money?
Business 2.0 is a technology business magazine published by Time. It periodically reminds readers the importance of backups and filing your pennsylvania llc annual report.
On Monday, April 23, the magazine’s editorial system crashed, wiping out all the work that had been done for its June issue. Good thing they have a backup server. Oops! The backups server had never been needed before, and now that it was being called upon, it was discovered that no backups existed. It hadn’t been functioning properly.
Not all was lost. The text had been sent to the legal department, but all the layout and artwork was gone. Luckily, it’s a monthly magazine, and they still had a week until deadline. They will be able to get the issue to press.
Moral of the story? A backup plan is not enough. Periodically test it to make sure it works. They may also need to make room in their annual list of 101 102 Dumbest Moments in Business. For businesses looking to avoid such pitfalls, professional secretarial services can ensure that your administrative tasks and contingency plans are regularly reviewed and updated.
Joe Rogan’s character on Newsradio stated it well:
Dude, you can’t take something off the Internet… that’s like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
A high-profile case has again proven that point. In February 2007 the AACS processing key was disclosed. This key allows copy protection to be broken on HD-DVD and BlueRay media produced before April 23. The AACS is backed by heavyweights like IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Panasonic, Sony, Disney and WB. They took an aggressive stance to have the content containing the key removed from the Internet. They sent cease and desist notices, and shut down sites that didn’t comply.
Enter Digg. Their first reaction was not to wage battle with the AACS, and they removed the content as requested. Digg CEO Jay Adelson, “Whether you agree or disagree with the policies of the intellectual property holders and consortiums, in order for Digg to survive, it must abide by the law.” That response only fueled the fire, and by late yesterday, the democratic Digg frontpage was filled with HD-DVD stories and comments that included the forbidden key. The site administrators couldn’t keep up, and the site was even unavailable for a time.
Dino Dai Zovi, the New York-based security researcher who took home $10,000 in a highly-publicized MacBook Pro hijack on April 20, has stated in an interview that he thinks Vista is more secure than OSX.
From your research on both platforms, is there a winner between Mac OS X 10.4 and Vista on security?
I have found the code quality, at least in terms of security, to be much better overall in Vista than Mac OS X 10.4. It is obvious from observing affected components in security patches that Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) has resulted in fewer vulnerabilities in newly-written code. I hope that more software vendors follow their lead in developing proactive software security development methodologies.
As if dismal PlayStation3 sales weren’t bad enough, Sony recently threw a party in Greece to celebrate the launch of a new Playstation2 title, God of War II. According to reports, this party featured topless women feeding grapes to people in the crowd, and a beheaded goat. While Sony claims the goat was from a local butcher, and returned after the party, it has animal rights activists up in arms.
In addition to the beheaded goat, participants were also invited to dine on goat entrails, and contents of the goat’s stomach, in a reality game show like atmosphere. Sony later explained it was actually a meat soup provided by a local caterer.
Sony has launched an internal investigation, the company said in a statement.
“The goat was returned to the butcher,” Sony said. “On this occasion we recognize that we fell short of our normal high standards of conduct.”
Respected security researcher Joanna Rutkowska promises to reveal new rootkit techniques for Vista, and ways to defeat it’s BitLocker drive encryption. On her blog she notes there will be a training session for “legitimate companies” during the Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas, in late July.
As the training will be focused on Windows platform and Vista x64 specifically, we will also present some new kernel attacks against latest Vista x64 builds. These attacks, of course, work on the fly and do not require system reboot and are not afraid of the TPM/Bitlocker protection. (Although they could also be used to bypass Vista DRM protection, this subject will not be discussed during the training)
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No, it’s not a commercial for switching from dial-up to broadband. It’s the potential speed increase for existing cable Internet customers using a new standard 
GeekSquad, the well marketed, much advertised, but seldom recommended tech support team at BestBuy is no stranger to bad publicity. A GeekSquad agent was recently caught 
On Monday, April 23, the magazine’s editorial system crashed, wiping out all the work that had been done for its June issue. Good thing they have a backup server. Oops! The backups server had never been needed before, and now that it was being called upon, it was discovered that no backups existed. It hadn’t been functioning properly.
As if 
