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Archive for: June, 2009

A little video game catchup

Jun 28 2009 Published by Kyle Buis under Uncategorized

I completely missed the opportunity to praise the wonder that is Tetris. How four squares arranged in shapes to make lines was able to work so beautifully is beyond me. It’s sort of like when you combine plumbers and mushrooms. Yay for 25 years of the joy and rapture.

It’s really put into perspective when you realize the Matrix Online couldn’t make it out of this decade.

By the way if you don’t think video games are important, you’re clearly not listening to a U.S. Air Force general. Programming is definitely important.

Australia is not enjoying games. Well at least not the ones that contain mature themes for anyone over the age of 15. Even if they are over 15. By the way if you’re really interested in the way games are rated in other countries, here’s a post on the process in South Africa.

And for one more look at the process, here’s a simple diagram on the game industry. Click on it for more

To close, here’s one of the finest stories that came out of E3. A fake protest of the game “Dante’s Inferno” was staged by the game’s creators. Interesting enough so far, but it gets better. The L.A. Times reported it as real.

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Of fingerprints, social security numbers and failed companies

Jun 27 2009 Published by Kyle Buis under Uncategorized

Sometimes you have to take a moment and think “Hey is this too good to be true or what?”

Frequent fliers had a fast way to get through an airport if they were willing to pony up a few bucks through the Clear program. For as much as $199 a year, travelers could pay Verified Identity Pass, Inc. to zip through security. All they needed to give aside from the $199 was their fingerprints, social security number, addresses and DNA from their first born child. Well the first three at least.

Nothing could possibly go wrong. Unless the private company offering this service happens to do what many companies are doing nowadays — go bankrupt. And nobody knows what’ll happen to this information, not even the government.

That’s why I sort of get miffed when I see other businesses get pressed into keeping track of things like fingerprinting for used video game sales.

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A quick word about iTunes and the Pre

Jun 26 2009 Published by Kyle Buis under Uncategorized

A few weeks ago, people were shocked to hear that the new Palm Pre actually synced with iTunes. With the number of former Apple employees that have joined Palm’s ranks, it shouldn’t have been that surprising, but it’s an impressive feat nontheless.

Then came news last week from Apple saying, “Well we can’t guarantee how long that’s going to work.” Plenty of bloggers took that note as Apple playing the role of a Mafioso not guaranteeing a store won’t burn down.

Upon further reading though, it’s pretty clear the message Apple is sending: “We’re not going to try to break it, but if it breaks, don’t call us, call Palm.”

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Whaddya know, DRM actually creates pirates instead of stopping them

Jun 26 2009 Published by Kyle Buis under Uncategorized

A study in the UK found that the crusade the RIAA and its copyright counterparts is on to stop the wretched hive of scum and villainy it sees the Internet as hasn’t been working out so well. Rather than curbing piracy, well, it’s just managed to make more.

Recently I’ve lived this reality after I purchased the game Civilization IV for my computer. Unfortunately my laptop is the only machine I have that’s capable of playing it. Why is that unfortunate? It’s a combination of portability, needing the disc and roasting hot summer days.

Most of the time when a game needs a disc, I’ll make an image of the disc. That allows me to play the game while protecting the disc and reducing the heat and wear on my machine’s disc drive.

Am I selling the game the second I’m done with it to make a profit? No.

Am I making copies for all my friends to use? No.

Am I executing a massive conspiracy to turn an ordinary everyday glass of water into a heat-seeking missile? That’s classified.

My point is, I’m not trying to rip off the company that made it, I’m trying to make the game more usable for me. Otherwise I probably won’t play it as much and I’ll pass on the next version of the software. It’s the same thing I’ve done with Adobe’s products since they’ve gone to their authentication DRM technology. I’m not buying CS4 and I’ll probably pass on CS5 when it comes out.

Well Civilization IV had a nice little kink in its system I wasn’t aware of. It has a form of disc check software that I haven’t been able to figure out how to get around. Again, this is for personal use, yet I’m forced to scour for a workaround since the good folks at Aspyr (which I’m ready to start spelling with two s’s) decided that if I’m not going to play the game by their rules, I must be a sneaky pirate.

Thanks for contacting Aspyr Media.

Unfortunately there is no legal way to run a retail version of almost any game without the disc in the drive. It is the security measure that is used for most retail games. Bypassing that check is illegal and I cannot recommend doing so. If you are worried about drive use, the disc ckeck (CQ) should not shorten the lifespan of your drive.

Aspyr Tech Support

Aside from their inability to spell “check,” Aspyr is not using a standard disc check procedure. They’re using a form of crippleware to make a game useless the second a disc stops working.If I detailed all of my methods for trying to get around this crippleware, I’d probably be facing a DMCA takedown notice. I can safely guarantee though that until this situation is fixed, I’m going to recommend against purchasing software by Aspyr (so tempting not to use that extra s).

And just to make it clear, I’m not soliciting any solutions for this problem usable on a Mac and I’m certainly not recommending they be sent to my e-mail address.

By the way, the picture is from a great Web comic called xkcd you can find here