General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

E3 Development Roundup

Posted: 07 Jun 2011 05:30 PM PDT

While trying to keep you afloat in all things PC gaming related at E3, we sometimes lose sight of some of the other awesome announcements outside of our department. Luckily, our sister publication GamesRadar.com has been blowing out E3 with some killer coverage. We know PC users like to be in the know about anything electronic, including video games, so we thought we'd show you some of more memorable posts from today.

Nintendo Wii U: Possibly the biggest announcement so far, Nintendo's questionably titled "Wii-U" sports a crazy looking controller and new, updated, HD graphics. Check it out here.

BioShock Infinite Gets a New Trailer: 2K Games latest is an absolute stunner to look at. Check it out.

PSP 2 is Called Playstation Vita: Sony unveiled their plans and pricing for the Playstation Vita, a new handheld gaming device available with 3G or wi-fi. Click here for more details.

Dust 514: a PS3/PC Crossover?  CCP annonced their new shooter will integrate with the very popular PC MMO, EVE Online. How is this done? Click here to find out.

How to Go On Vacation (Without Ever Leaving Your Computer)

Posted: 07 Jun 2011 03:30 PM PDT

Who has time (or money) for a vacation anymore? There's just not enough free time in the month for your typical hardcore geek to unstick him or herself from that butt indentation in the office chair, throw some Threadless t-shirts into a bag, and travel to parts unknown. No, there's email to check. Digital dungeons to stomp! Desktop files to organize!

Before you emit a frustrated sigh and close this article from the realization that, yes, our lives are truly just like that, fret not. For I have visited many a location across this great wide Internet, and I come back from my cyber-vacation with riches to behold. You don't need to take a real-life vacation, because everything you've ever needed for a digital vacation is but a few keystrokes away.

Don't believe me? Think this is going to be just some lame exercise in travel-themed Web apps? Guess again. Grab your virtual Ray-Bans and slap on some cyber-sunscreen: We're going to travel the world together… and Carmen Sandiego is decidedly not invited along. Think we missed a gem? Alert us to the error of our ways in the comments!

Location, Location, Location


Google Maps is quite extensive in the view-a-home-away-from-home features it builds into its service (hint: Hover your mouse over the big "Map" or "Satelite" button in the upper-right corner, then select webcams, videos, or photos for live feeds, YouTube clips, and pictures). But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Mapcrunch is, hands down, my favorite tool for taking a scenic trip through another land. Pick some countries and hit the big "Go" button to randomize yourself to a Street View shot somewhere within the areas you've selected. But if you actually want get a little more realistic than mere pictures, Geoquake's driving simulator will put you behind the wheel of a car set overtop Google Maps itself–no extra points for getting all Grand Theft Auto about it.

For a more chauffeured tour, the Google Earth Plug-in Driving Simulator allows you to select any two points you want to travel between– with Google providing the car. Just sit back and relax as Google drives the route for you! (A precursor to Google actually driving a route for you.)

Even digital cars can be pretty slow, though. And that's exactly why Google has built a flight simulator into its downloadable Google Earth program. It's not quite as fancy as that Microsoft program of a similar name, but it gets the job done if you just want to buzz by your favorite landmarks in a digital environment.

For a more musically intensive and, dare I say it, artistic trip through some of your favorite places, there's always The Arcade Fire's HTML5-based music video for "We Used to Wait." What it lacks in actionable data points and directions, it makes up for in American Beauty-like… er… beauty. Pick your hometown for the address you input into the app; you won't be disappointed.

Of course, you can always eschew Earthly minutia entirely. For a more holistic view of that great, big marble in the sky, check out Desktop Earth. This simple wallpaper gives you an accurate depiction of how Earth looks at precisely the moment you're viewing it.

Pictures: Worth a Thousand Words


Let's all say it together: Flickr. There. It's out of our systems. We all know Flickr exists, and we all know that you can type in any given geographical place and pull up a smorgasboard of shots tagged for the location within Flickr's main search. Ta-da.

Panoramio, however, is a little different. I prefer it because it overlays images across a standard map of the world–very similar to Google Maps' similar, built-in functionality. Not only can you see the most popular (and most recent) photographs for any given space, but you can also see photos that have yet to be submitted to Google Earth/Google Maps. Or, for whatever reason, photos that were rejected for publication into either app. It's the real deal, yo.

OK, it didn't take that long for us to jump back into the Flickr boat once again. Earth Album is just like every other "puts photos on a map" web app out on the Web, only it does so with pictures that have been uploaded to Flickr. Easy enough, right? Well, the catch with Earth Album is that this Web app only samples the cream of the crop. You're only going to see the top Flickr images over an unspecified time frame slapped on the map. The site's less compelling to visit on a daily basis but, when you do go, you'll know that you're getting some of the best images that the photography world has to offer.

Twitter: That Little Blue Bird Gets Around


Oh, Twitter. I confess, the only semi-interesting and somewhat novel Web app I could find related to Twitter and travel was Twittermap. It's not an outright travel-related mashup of Twitter and a big ol' map, but it's definitely a useful tool for finding out the popularity of a certain keyword or phrase throughout the globe. For example, suppose I want to know which users in which countries have most frequently used the word "cat" in their recent Tweets. Type in the word, and little Google Maps-style indicators will pop up on the map for every user that's recently used the word in a 140-character (or less) message.

Webcams: Seeing Is Believing

 

Now we're getting to the good stuff. As well as the bad stuff. I say that as I do, for a webcam slapped right in front of a national landmark or scenic area is practically as good as visiting, right? Why pay $2,000 to go hit up the Eiffel Tower when you can just pull up the official EiffelCam? Still there! Still a tower!

Unfortunately, trying to find legitimate sites that feature webcams instead of SEO spam is like trying to find Atlantis. EarthCam is one such site that has yet to be too burdened by the annoyances of BS text and links. As I mentioned earlier, Google Maps also comes with a webcam layer that you can activate overtop its standard map display–a useful tool for trying to pinpoint webcams around a particular location, but not one that always delivers the best quality webcam feed for a given spot.

For the aspiring Snow Bro, the website Snoweye catalogs webcams specifically placed on, or near, a ton of different ski resorts across 46 different countries. That's over 5,000 webcam feeds in all: Try not to let the tear falling from your eye turn into a hunk of ice as you pensively dream of shredding from the comfort of your nine-to-five day job.

And if that's not cold enough for you, there's always the International Space Station!

 

 

Local Sounds and Sights: Music / TV

Vacations just aren't about the sights and travel plans: Part of the essence of travelling to a new location is basking in the music and culture of wherever it is you're going to. To do that from the comfort of your desk, there are a few sites that immediately spring to mind for getting your international rock on. Shoutcast is self-explanatory: This popular music streaming service gives you plenty of free International feeds to listen to across a number of countries and cultural categories.

The website Tracksonamap takes this premise a little bit further and, like every other app in the known world, uses a tie-in to Google Maps to display its results. In this case, you're getting a map that's full of different tracks to listen to, arranged by the originating country of the music. The music comes from the Soundcloud service, and you can flick between different genres merely by selecting your favorite styles at the bottom of Tracksonamap's screen.

Livestation is a website that's analogous to Shoutcast for video feeds: For the intelligent traveller, pulling up a number of different (and free) international news feeds is as easy as clicking the mouse. MyP2P offers a similar service for the sports world, though your mileage may vary as to how successful you're going to be for tuning into live, international sports coverage. For UK-only enthusiasts, try TVCatchup!

Language, Lingo and Lexicon

Language. It's my personal pitfall of travelling, as I have neither the time nor the mental fortitude for learning even the slightest bit of any non-English language. That doesn't mean you can't, however. The giant online network Palabea is a mix of person-to-person communication tools, learning aids, and native speaker meet-ups, all designed to help you learn a language that isn't your own (or, conversely, teach someone else who's trying to learn your language). My Language Exchange presents a similar concept–it's like finding a digital pen pal and language practice dummy all in one.

The beta app Voxy–for both Apple and Android phones–is a points and achievement-driven multiplatform tool for learning languages "from life," as founder Paul Gollash puts it. The platform, currently in beta, combines contextual learning (think language learning based off current news items, not stale sentences in the style of, "Jane does something") with a wide range of delivery methods: learn via your mobile device through an app or text message, receive lessons through your Inbox, or fire up your Web browser itself! Every spare moment is a language learning opportunity, as Voxy calls them.

If you'd like to try and master an accent in addition to the language of a particular region, fire up Map Your Voice. Those submitting to the app are tasked with reading a list of six words or a slightly longer short story, Roger Hargreaves' "Mr. Tickle." These submissions are then plotted on a world map, giving browsers an easy method for listening in on the accent of any given area or presumed language. Cool stuff, aye? (Or, eh?)

Extra! Extra! News from Around the World

We'd be doing ourselves a diservice if we didn't include a tip of the hat to the medium of publishing itself. Besides, wouldn't you want to read about what's going on in the places you're currently visiting (or plan to visit)? For a geography-driven presentation of the top stories around the world, look no further than the news-meets-maps mashup of Mapeas. It's pretty; it's newsworthy.

If you want the slightly more unfiltered feed, or have a love of dead tree media (Keep buying! Keep buying!), then the perfectly named app "Newspaper Map" does exactly what its title suggests. In this case, you're given a map with a whole ton of little markers on it. Clicking on a marker pulls up a newspaper for a particular area, and the colors indicate what language the newspaper is written in.

And, finally, because Web Apps are the new newspaper, the website AppAppeal does an excellent job of showing you which Web apps within the sites database are most popular per country. It lists these categorically or, if you really want to drill down, you can see which countries send the most traffic to a specific web app of your choosing.

Unusual Travel Bonuses

What's the most important category for a virtual vacation? Travelling, of course–gotta get to your destination after all, no? Whereables is the perfect web app to plot out such a virtual voyage: Each icon overlaid on a huge map represents an airport you can fly in or out of. Click on an airport, and then click on the routing icon, and you get an instant visual representation of every location that airport serves.

Once you're in a given area, fire up the app MisoTrendy to combine the latest data pulled from the Foursquare service with any area you're interested in learning more about. All you need is a Foursquare account of your own to reap the benefits of every other travellers brain trust–locals too!

And last, but certainly not least, a small present for the men (and bold ladies), if you're in a foreign land and you just have to go. You know. Go. Then why suffer the embarrassment of having to ask for directions to the potty/loo/WC? Pull up Urinals of the World for that yes-everything-has-a-Google-Maps-mashup web tool for showing you the nearest place to accomplish your business. Seriously; if you need a Web app just to pee, we have bigger problems than your travelling habits. Or maybe you should have taken it easy on the World's Best Bars listing.

Former Maximum PC editor David Murphy loves to travel. He does not enjoy paying roaming charges for his various mobile devices.

Facebook Opting Users into Facial Recognition

Posted: 07 Jun 2011 02:40 PM PDT

fbIt wouldn't be another week without some sort of Facebook privacy snafu. This time it's all about facial recognition, and Facebook's apparent assumption that you wanted it turned on. The facial recognition technology was announced last year, but did not roll out to all users. Now the option is turning on for many users around the world, and it defaults to "enabled".

The facial recognition engine is a little disconcerting, but it's not being used in a particularly creepy way. When your friends are tagging people in their photos, the facial recognition system will suggest your name if it feels like you are in the image. Facebook is not automatically tagging you in photos; although that would be technically possible.

The person tagged in a photo does not have the option to approve the tags. Rather, you have the option to remove tags off yourself, or just turn off tagging altogether. If you want to check your facial recognition setting, go to you settings, then to "Customize settings", then look under "Things others share", and edit the settings of "Suggest photos of me". Was yours enabled? 

E3 2011: PC Gaming A No-Show At Microsoft's Keynote

Posted: 07 Jun 2011 02:31 PM PDT

If you asked Microsoft, they'd probably say their flashy keynote address at E3 signaled the day the Xbox 360 grew into its own as an entertainment center, rather than a dumb old video game console. Here at Maximum PC, we view it a little differently: we think Microsoft's keynote address at E3 signaled the day that PC gaming fell off of Microsoft's radar.

Maybe that's not quite fair. Microsoft did have one – count 'em, one – PC game on display at the premier gaming expo in the world. Then again, Age of Empires Online was announced almost a year ago. And Mojang announced plans to port its mega popular Minecraft to the Xbox 360. If you count that, then the number of big Microsoft-related PC game announcements on the first day doubles to a whopping two. Meanwhile, the Windows Phone got eight new games.

Even if the lack of PC attention gets you down, Microsoft still had plenty of cool things to show off at E3. Not surprisingly, most of them centered around the Xbox 360, which continued its evolution into an entertainment hub.

Xbox: Putting the "Live" in Live TV

Xbox Live gold members already get access to Hulu Plus, Netflix and ESPN (although Hulu and Netflix require separate subscriptions). At E3, Microsoft announced deals to add YouTube and UFC to the mix. We all know what YouTube brings: "Cookie Monster Sings Chocolate Rain." For those of us who would rather watch intense violence than silly videos, the UFC deal brings live pay-per-views, behind the scenes footage, interviews and classic fights to your console.

Microsoft also said they're bringing live TV to the console later this year, but pretty much clammed up after that. Maybe the final deals haven't been signed yet? Still, they must be close to completion to make the announcement.

Kinect Struts Its Stuff

Eh, the Kinect was kind of cool at first, but to be honest the lack of variety and the abundance of kid-friendly games kind of cooled our enthusiasm after the initial burst of excitement. Microsoft aimed to change that at E3 2011. Microsoft's motion-sensing device delivered in a big way, with several new games and features on display.

Kinect Fun Labs offers amusing, silly things to do that take advantage of the Kinect's motion sensor, like giving yourself googly eyes. One cool function will snap a picture of you with the Kinect, then create an Avatar doppleganger of your ugly mug. It could be awesome, especially if it offers more support for epic beards than the Avatar editor's current paltry options. 

Wait. Did we call the Kinect a motion-sensing device? Scratch that. The Kinect still handles those duties, but the future of the device seems to rest in the Kinect's voice recognition capabilities. Microsoft unveiled plans to bring an Xbox-tailored version of Bing to the Xbox 360 that allows gamers to search Netflix, Hulu, ESPN and the various Xbox marketplaces just by saying some search terms. You'll be able to boss around the rest of your console, too, watching videos and picking applications using only your voice.

 

Gaming In The Cloud

Plain and simple: Xbox Live's account recovery process sucks. Microsoft finally listened to gamers' complaints and is bringing the power of the cloud to the Xbox 360. Coming soon, your gamer profile and save game data will be uploaded to Microsoft's servers, so you can access your Microsoft Points and Gears of War 3 saves at your buddy's house.

It's About The Games, Stupid

E3's about the games, and Microsoft had several top-tier offerings on display: Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Gears of War 3, COD:MW 4 and Bioshock Infinite all blow our socks off, but nothing compares to the end of the keynote, when we got our first glimpse at Halo 4. Forget ODST and Reach, Master Chief's back around Christmas 2012!

Some of the blockbuster games shown included Kinect functionality. Forza 4 and Mass Effect 3 both plan on supporting the device. Mass Effect 3's live demonstration was especially cool. When BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka said, "Liara, singularity," Liara used the singularity biotic power. Simple and effective.

Kinect's actually getting dedicated games for grown-ups, too. Kinect Star Wars rekindled the awesome "I am Jedi, hear me roar" feelings we originally got from Star Wars games on the Wii. Rise of Nightmares and The Gunstringer bring even more adult-oriented goodness to the Kinect.

The Stragglers

Microsoft unveiled a few more things worth a quick mention. This year's fall update will see a completely overhauled UI. A new "Beacon" feature lets friends see which games you kinda feel like playing, even if you aren't playing it currently. It's mildly cool, but Microsoft might be stretching the social media idea where it doesn't need to go. Windows Phone also saw a small handful of games announced, plus the release of an app that lets you customize your Xbox Avatar and send messages to 360 users.

So Whaddaya Say?

 

Image borrowed from the awesome Hyperbole and a Half

Turns out us jaded PC gamer types aren't the only ones left feeling a bit out-of-the-loop. Hardcore console gamers have taken to the Internet in droves to complain about the heavy – some might say overwhelming – focus on the Kinect at the big show. If you remember, the Xbox 360 used to pride itself as being the console of choice for serious gamers, and the sudden turn to the casual side has the hardcore screaming that all they want to do is shoot each other in the face online. Is there room for both Kinectimals and the curb-stomping Locust Horde? We've all heard homophobic pre-teens shouting obscenities in Halo. Is voice recognition a good idea? Wouldn't it be great to have Microsoft highlight, I dunno, just five PC games? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

No BS Podcast #175: Room With No View Edition

Posted: 07 Jun 2011 01:59 PM PDT

While we were gone, we bought you a pony! Nah, we didn't, but we did make some changes! Episode 175 of the No BS Podcast is the very first episode recorded in Future US's very nice podcast recording studio with Andy Bauman sitting RIGHT THERE! Previously we'd just recorded via Skype at our desks. The new way is much better. We think.

Join Gordon, Nathan, Alex, and Andy as they discuss the crazy new podcasting setup, Windows 8 and the future of Windows, the post-PC era (again), Google's two-factor authentication, the new Star Trek-themed PC mod they've commissioned, and more!

Do you have a tech question? A comment? A tale of technological triumph? Just need to get something off your chest? A secret to share? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are not standing by.

Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/maximumpc/1337

 chicklet_rss-2.0.png chicklet_itunes.gif badge-channel-pink.gif

 

E3 2011: Hitman: Absolution Preview

Posted: 07 Jun 2011 12:25 PM PDT

It took the Hitman series a long time to get it right. 2006 Blood Money was an apex: by far the best game about silently mudering a man and then sliding away into the mist. In LA, I'm about to see if the follow-up – Hitman: Absolution – can do better.

The demo begins in a Chicago library. It is clearly a new, high-tech game. Agent 47 – more pumped than I remember him – is hiding behind a bookcase. It's a gorgeous slice of grotty dilapidation; dusty, old, ruined, but still beautiful. 47′s been chased to the abandoned building by the local police. He's got to escape. Simple mission. Simple objectives. Hard problem.

But stealth has changed in the time since Hitman: Blood Money. Splinter Cell: Conviction showed that you didn't have to feel fragile if you kept to the shadows, Batman: Arkham Asylum showed that being fragile doesn't mean feeling vulnerable. And both those games showed the importance of slick, instinctive control systems that fluidly understand what you want to do and help you achieve it, rather than twisting your fingers into spaghetti as you crouch, aim and hide.

Absolution's first solution is going to be controversial: a cover system. Agent 47 hides behind the bookshelves, ducking between each slice of protection as the cops move around. It's the same style cover system we've seen in Gears of War, in Splinter Cell: Conviction. The second; a system for showing when and how the guards move called 'instinct' – when turned on, you can see a glowing orange path that shows where they're going. It's about helping players visualize the space and allowing them to plan ahead.

The next few minutes are spent with Agent 47 ducking and weaving between bookshelves trying to get closer to the roof. He clambers up, and then shuffles along a balustrade, dodges a patrol by hanging from a ledge, and eventually ducks right past two guards as they chat.

Meanwhile, the guards talk. And they really, really talk. One officer is sniping at another, a rookie, teasing him about how he doesn't really know anything about being a cop. The dialogue is sharp and funny, a real step above gaming's usual idle chatter. A side-plot is already forming – one in which Hitman can clearly intervene.

He does, brutally. First, he shuts down the power to the library by sabotaging a fuse box. Fat sergeant and rookie wander over. "I know nothing about this," says the Sergeant. You're on your own, buddy."

He then wanders off. 47 picks up an abandoned piece of cabling and sneaks up behind the sergeant. Then stabs him with the sharp end, right in the neck. It's a gruesome take-down, and in performing it, 47 alerts other cops.

There's a shoot-out, and during it, Hitman takes a hostage, using a cop as a human shield. 47 ducks back out of a door, and dashes up the stairs, under heavy fire. He finally manages to shake his pursuers by shooting at a chandelier, which falls through the stairwell, smashes at the bottom, and scatters the police. Agent 47 dives through the door to his freedom.

This first section of the demo showcases combat and technology. But it could be any stealth shooter. It's slick, clearly fun, but doesn't necessarily have that unique blend of silliness and sadism we expect from Hitman. That's to come.

Before we get to that, though, we're given a demo of why Hitman's action and stealth sequences should be at least as well put together as any competitor's: the tools and tech the team at IO are using to create them are built from scratch to help their designers rapidly iterate.

Martin Amor, IO's technology director pauses the demo and starts moving the camera around – shifting giant purple waypoints around as he sees fit. He restarts the action, and the patrols of the guards are instantly changed. For the better, hopefully.

The point is that the developers can play and play and play, forever polishing their work until it feels right, until the levels work, and that players can plan ahead, execute and understand a strategy and still have fun when it all goes wrong.

Back to the demo. Hitman is being chased across the rooftops of Chicago by a helicopter. A machine gun is ripping through the attic in which he's hiding, spraying bullets with no regard for the pigeons that roost in there. At one point, 47 leaps between two roofs, and the action slows down for a brief moment. In that moment, I swear I see two pigeons explode into a mist of feathers and blood.

It's then that 47's next move becomes clear. A solitary police officer is wandering the roofs, torch in hand. He's quietly knocked unconscious, stripped, and 47 walks away in police uniform. Over a bullhorn, the pilot of the helicopter yells "Any sign of him?" 47 doesn't respond.

Then, it gets weird.

Part of the new emphasis within Absolution is giving in-game, non-hostile characters a range of reactions. 47 walks into a top-floor flat. It's full of stoners, draped with psychedelic posters saying "Fuck the Police". This should be fun.

The local hippies are all gathered at a window. They're looking at the police below, clearly terrified. One panics, grabs his prized cannabis plant and runs to the toilet, flushing it down the sink. Out of sight, 47 simply watches, dodging their movements. On a sofa, one of the hippies is completely off his face, entirely unmoved by the bald, terrifying, fake policeman watching. 47 takes his bong, and walks over to the hippies. And then smashes them both over the head with it.

Drugs are bad, mmkay?

47 leaves, as police rush up the stairs, and start going door-to-door. Some glance over at 47, ask each other "isn't he going the wrong way?" But most ignore him. When they do get slightly suspicious, time slows for a brief moment, and 47 ducks his head. It's a very cool, very cinematic touch.

Finally, we're at the lobby, and it's a clear homage to the final scenes of Leon. 47 is dressed as a cop, but there's a wall of police ahead of him, all dressed in full riot gear. He's not getting through. 47 spies a box of doughnuts. A solution presents itself. 47 grabs a doughnut, and starts munching away.

"Hey, I know you," shouts one of the bored beat cops. 47 barely gives him the time of day. Instead, he's watching the riot police, who start running up the stairs. The escape route is clear. He leaves.

He walks down the street, and turns right, onto a train platform. There are hundreds of people waiting in the rain, all milling about – far more people than we're used to seeing in a game. 47 walks straight into the mass, blending into the crowd, and the demo ends.

Hitman: Absolution won me over. At first, the stealth combat, with its freshly grown cover system, reminded me too much of Splinter Cell. In Hitman games I'm used to wandering around a mansion – or the White House, or a cruise boat, or a bayou wedding chapel – mostly unchallenged, figuring out the clockwork of a level and the vulnerabilities of our target before striking. In this demo, Hitman didn't assassinate anyone; he simply fled.

However, the second section, with its bizarre bong kills, and phenomenally tense escape through hordes of police, was spectacular. It wasn't just a cool stealth game; it was a step above what we'd expect from Hitman. After the trailer, and this demo, I can't wait to play it.

PCGamer.com is the global authority on PC games, with exclusive news, reviews, demos and updates.

E3 2011: New Deus Ex: Human Revolution screenshots sneak out of E3

Posted: 07 Jun 2011 12:21 PM PDT

Behold! More fruit from E3: Deus Ex: Human Revolution screenshots. We've played the first ten hours of DX: HR, and communicated our excitement for the game with an entire week of diaries that showed the variety of ways in which it can be played. The game's close to launch now – August 23rd in North America, 26th in August – and these shots represent a fairly well-finished game. That first one also represents the way Tom likes to play.

PCGamer.com is the global authority on PC games, with exclusive news, reviews, demos and updates.

Byte Rights: STREISAND'S HOUSE [PICS!]

Posted: 07 Jun 2011 11:39 AM PDT

There are so many places where the law doesn't get the net, but few are as extreme as the Streisand Effect. Named for the singer/actress, it's really about how the net responds to censorship. It is insufficient to say the net routes around censorship. The net wedgies censorship and hangs it on the school fence.

In 2003 Barbara Streisand sued a photographer to keep an incidental picture of her house taken during a survey of the California coast off the Internet. The publicity of the suit, along with the net's fascination and ridicule, made the obscure photo ubiquitous. Now if you Google "Streisand," the incident is the third result.

st house

There have been many, often hilarious, Streisand Effect moments: the MPAA/AACS takedown notices for the DVD crypto key that catapulted the key from 9,000 Google results to 300,000 overnight; the takedowns on Diebold documents and Wikileaks.com that lead to massive mirroring; the ruling against linking to DeCSS that resulted in .sig files, T-shirts, tattoos, and, of course, more linking. Most profoundly, Scientology's attempts to censor a leaked internal video created the sometimes lunatic anticensorship community of Anonymous, which has taken the law enforcement headache to a new level.

decss

But the culture of law has doubled down instead of backing off. Recently, the British have become fond of the super-injunction—journalists are ordered by the courts to not report on the injuncted news item, and they're not allowed to say they've been gagged. It's been used by oil companies under investigation, by a bank CEO to gag the media from being mean to him, and celebs and soccer players to protect their sexual proclivities. This only punishes traditional publications, because all these stories are easily Googleable. Legal methods of getting information off the net resemble a guy trying to kill bacteria with a hammer, and I don't see them getting better.

Quinn Norton writes about copyright for Wired News and other publications.

E3 2011: 25 More Stunning Arma 3 Screenshots

Posted: 07 Jun 2011 11:30 AM PDT

When we first laid eyes on Arma 3 two weeks ago, we were blown away by the military sim's realistic graphics. At E3 2011, Bohemia Interactive let loose with 25 more amazing looking screens. Read on, and tell us what you think in comments.

 

Mozilla Introduces Alternative To Chrome OS

Posted: 07 Jun 2011 11:02 AM PDT

When it was just Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox on the market, it was hip to say you used Mozilla's browser. Then Google Chrome and its tabs-on-top showed up, and suddenly, Firefox wasn't quite so cool. Mozilla stood by silently – and enabled tabs-on-top themselves – as Chrome's star rose, but apparently the time has come to try and return the hip-leeching favor. Just as Chrome OS notebooks are nearing the market, Mozilla unveiled Webian Shell, a smaller, simpler Web-based interface.

Don't expect the same functionality out of Webian Shell that you get out of Chrome, though. There are some key differences between the two operating systems. Rather than being a full OS, the Webian Shell website calls the software "A full screen web browser for devices that don't need a desktop." Version 0.1 is a very basic prototype that sits on top of your existing OS. The Mozilla Labs team, led by veteran Ben Francis, hope to show off their ideas and garner some feedback with this first release.

You can download Webian Shell, although it's very rudimentary at this early stage – just a Web browser, a clock and a basic desktop. The open-source program is based on the Chromeless project and written entirely in standard web technolgies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. One of the principles of the project is to promote open web standards over proprietary technology. Could that be a jab at the walled-in nature of the Google ID-requiring Chrome OS?
Posted by Shri Krishna

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