It’s another day where I try to strangle Firefox by opening up all of the tabs in my browser with interesting tech stories I’ve found. Let’s get started.
An Apple patent may provide part of an answer to one of my pet peeves: Annoying ads that start playing video when you load the page. The patent hints at possible volume controls in the Safari Web browser to provide a master switch to at least cut out the audio. Now if only they’d just disappear altogether… Continue Reading »
Game-maker Konami announced it has put the kibosh on an Iraq War game called “Six Days in Fallujah” less than a month after officially announcing the title.
The game was supposed to be set from the perspective of a Marine during the second battle of Fallujah in 2004 (by the way, Fallujah is in Iraq). It caught all sorts of hell-spawned rage from veterans groups who were understandably upset that less than five years after a battle and while the war is still going on, a game was being made about it.
Whether or not the game would have been able to properly tell the story of the battle likely won’t be answered, but a posting on Game Politics brought up an interesting tidbit about the inception of the game.
The Los Angeles Times reported in its tech blog that the idea for the game originally came from U.S. Marines returning from Iraq. But gaming Web site onelastcontinue.com has a post up claiming trademarks for “Six Days in Fallujah” were filed as early as February 2005.
This doesn’t smell like another Eric Slater -esque story from the Times, rather the creators of the game might have embellished on where the idea came from as a form of CYA for the outcry against the game.
I know it doesn’t sound that exciting on paper, but trust me, everything is getting that much better on this blog.
We’ve upgraded to WordPress Mµ 2.7.1, which means a massive change to our posting layout. Anyone who’s made the jump knows what I’m talking about. I’m just happy that work has finally caught up with my personal sites.
After blaming the media for misinforming customers, Time Warner has announced it’s ditching its plans for capping users’ Internet access for now “while the customer education process continues.”
That ranks high on my list of creepiest partial quotes I’ve ever read. Continue Reading »
A few months ago when Apple released iWork 09, a few users decided to hit Bittorrent to pick up a pirated copy of the productivity software. In much the same way that someone who hits up the Craigslist Erotic Services section and doesn’t use protection instead of just staying home with their spouse, the computers were infected with malware.