Monday, February 28, 2011

Anonymous and Westboro Baptist Church: When PR Stunts Backfire

If the Anonymous threat hoax was orchestrated by the Westboro Baptist Church, it is a prime example of how not to conduct a publicity stunt.

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We're live from GDC 2011, in sunny San Francisco

GDC 2011
If San Francisco suddenly seems a bit stranger and a bit more wonderful, it could be thanks to the global game development community's annual pilgrimage to the Game Developer's Conference. This year marks the conference's 25th anniversary and, to celebrate, it's featuring nearly a dozen classic gaming post-mortems like Prince of Persia, Maniac Mansion and Doom. That's in addition to our usual gauntlet of interviews, demos, meetings and late nights.

Stick around all week as we deliver the news straight from GDC 2011 - and be sure to be here Wednesday at 12PM ET for our liveblog of Satoru Iwata from Nintendo's GDC keynote and Wednesday night at 9:30PM ET for our liveblog of the always entertaining GDC and IGF awards.

Protip: Keep your browsers locked on our GDC-2011 tag to track all of our coverage.

JoystiqWe're live from GDC 2011, in sunny San Francisco originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thoughtcrime? The ethics of neuroscience and criminality

One of the most thought-provoking sessions I attended at AAAS was "Nature, Nurture, and Antisocial Behavior: Biological and Biosocial Research on Crime." The three talks encompassed neurocognition, psychobiology, and a range of ethical issues that would make your brain spin if you thought about them hard enough. The topic has great potential for controversy, and it would be easy to interpret some of the data presented as an argument against free will. In some ways, however, I think it illustrates the mistake of thinking of nature and nuture as separate, when in reality the interplay between genetics and environment are inseparable, especially when it comes to criminal activity.

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ICANN: No government veto over controversial top-level domains

Less than two weeks away from ICANN's conference in San Francisco, representatives from the organization's Government Advisory Committee have rejected a US Department of Commerce proposal that would give GAC members veto power over new domain endings.

The Department of Commerce plan would have allowed governments to object to a generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) "for any reason." On top of that, "if it is the consensus position of the GAC not to oppose objection[s] raised by a GAC member or members, ICANN shall reject the application," the proposal added.

Critics like information studies Professor Milton Mueller of Syracuse University warned that the provision would let individual governments scrap gTLDs like .humanrights or .gay.

But the GAC's scorecard on recommendations to ICANN proposes government "advice" rather than veto power over gTLDs. Here's the text of the proposal:

At the beginning of the Initial Evaluation Period, ICANN will provide the GAC with a detailed summary of all new gTLD applications. Any GAC member may raise an objection to a proposed string for any reason.

The GAC will consider any objection raised by a GAC member or members, and agree on advice to forward to the ICANN Board.

GAC advice could also suggest measures to mitigate GAC concerns. For example, the GAC could advise that additional scrutiny and conditions should apply to strings that could impact on public trust (e.g. '.bank').

If ICANN's Board takes an action on gTLDs "not consistent" with the GAC's advice, "the Board will provide a rationale for its decision," the draft suggests. ICANN's Board will hold a public meeting in San Francisco on March 18. The GAC and the Board are holding a pre-San Francisco conference in Brussels today.

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Week in Apple: Verizon iPhone shootout, Thunderbolt makes its debut

Ahhh, sweet release. After so many weeks of rumors, we all needed it. Not only did Apple finally release new MacBook Pros this week, the company also announced a media event for March 2 that may touch on the next-generation iPad. Apple also helped Intel make its Thunderbolt (also known as Light Peak) debut, Ars pitted the Verizon iPhone against the AT&T iPhone, and more. Read on to get your roundup of the top Apple news of the last week.

iPhone versus iPhone: Ars puts Verizon and AT&T to the test: Verizon versus AT&T: if you were to buy an iPhone today, which network would you choose? Ars did a plethora of real-world tests to compare the data network speeds and voice calls against each other, with bonus WiFi hotspot and battery testing.

Thunderbolt smokes USB, FireWire with 10Gbps throughput: Intel, with the help of Apple, has developed a new technology to connect devices and computers with massive bandwidth. The standard uses tiny ports and optimized controller chips to enable laptops to connect to mass storage and other high-bandwith, low-latency hardware.

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Serious Sam 3: BFE detailed, more screens released

Following the recent sneak peek of Serious Sam 3: BFE on the game's Facebook page, developer Croteam has fully parted the curtain standing between us and this prequel to The First Encounter set in ... bum fudge Egypt (or something like that).

In a wildly amusing press release (after the break), the studio revealed some of the game's key features, including its lush Egyptian setting and 16-player "full campaign" co-op. (We wonder if it'll have 16 player split-screen support? We've always wanted to truly utilize our 256-inch monitor.)

Serious Sam 3: BFE (the acronym won't be spelled out) is scheduled for release on PC and "game consoles" this summer. Check out the new screens below for more insight into its arcadey action!

Continue reading Serious Sam 3: BFE detailed, more screens released

JoystiqSerious Sam 3: BFE detailed, more screens released originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A Horrifying Composite Photo, Courtesy the 3DS Camera

Someone at Nintendo must be a Conan O'Brien fan, because one of the 3DS' more amusing new features is a new addition to the DS camera software that allows you to combine the faces of two people ala Conan's "If They Mated" skit.

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Blog Post: Disponibilit� di Office Web Apps nel mondo

Disponibilit� di Office Web Apps nel mondo

Come promesso, stiamo compiendo ogni possibile sforzo per rendere disponibile Office Web Apps su Windows Live in tutto il mondo, e abbiamo quasi raggiunto l'obiettivo.

A partire da oggi gli utenti di oltre 150 nuovi paesi possono utilizzare Office Web Apps per visualizzare, modificare e condividere documenti di Office ovunque si trovino, utilizzando un browser e una connessione Internet. Sono incluse anche la visualizzazione, la modifica e la condivisione di documenti di Office allegati in Hotmail. I 150 nuovi paesi comprendono India, Indonesia, Israele, Malaysia, Messico, Filippine, Arabia Saudita, Singapore, Sudafrica e Tailandia.

Il progetto si concluder� il mese prossimo, quando Office Web Apps diverr� disponibile in tutto il mondo, con l'implementazione in tutti i mercati restanti in America centrale e meridionale, inclusi Argentina, Brasile, Cile, Portorico e Venezuela.

Siamo molto soddisfatti della rapidit� con cui siamo riusciti a raggiungere questo obiettivo. Marzo � infatti a soli nove mesi dal lancio iniziale del prodotto. Ecco la cronologia:

  • 7 giugno 2010: lancio di Office Web Apps in Stati Uniti, Canada, Regno Unito e Irlanda.
  • 23 settembre 2010: aggiunta di Australia, Austria, Belgio, Francia, Germania, Russia e Svizzera.
  • 6 dicembre 2010: aggiunta di Cina, Danimarca, Finlandia, Hong Kong - R.A.S., Italia, Giappone, Paesi Bassi, Nuova Zelanda, Norvegia, Portogallo, Corea del Sud, Spagna, Svezia, Taiwan e Turchia.
  • 3 febbraio 2011: aggiunta di oltre 150 ulteriori paesi (inclusi India, Indonesia, Israele, Malaysia, Messico, Filippine, Arabia Saudita, Singapore, Sudafrica e Tailandia).
  • Marzo 2011: Office Web Apps diverr� disponibile in tutto il mondo, con l'implementazione in tutti i mercati restanti in America centrale e meridionale, inclusi Argentina, Brasile, Cile, Portorico e Venezuela.

Se siete tra gli oltre 30 milioni di persone che utilizzano Office Web Apps, siamo estremamente interessati a conoscere la vostra opinione, tramite la pagina di Facebook dedicata a Office Web Apps, all'indirizzo www.facebook.com/officewebapps. Partecipate alla conversazione e fateci sapere cosa ne pensate. Per iniziare, o per ottenere ulteriori informazioni su Office Web Apps, � possibile visitare il sito www.office.com/webapps. Per mantenersi aggiornati, basta seguire il blog del team di Office Web Apps.

Jevon Fark
Office Team

Questo � un post di blog localizzato. Consultate l'articolo originale: Office Web Apps Worldwide Availability

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Share your Wiimote, share your wife: We Dare... WTF?

The video for Ubisoft's upcoming Wii game called We Dare looks like a joke. It has been spreading all over the Internet, and the most common response has been disbelief. This is a game that is supposed to be played with your very attractive friends in order to have an excuse to do sexy things with one another. Do you know anyone who has a Wii and looks like these people? When watching the trailer, think of how uncomfortable this would be in real life.

Let's watch... together.

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