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Gordon Brown was today forced into a humiliating retreat in his battle against retired generals who
accuse him of giving disingenuous evidence on military funding to the Iraq Inquiry.
Amid the Twitter death watch, the blogged eulogies and the pundits' postmortems for Google's
local Chinese search site, we are all beginning to ask what the Chinese internet industry -- and
the digital advertising business -- will be like when Google.cn is no more. And at first glance,
the closure of Google.cn looks to be a bad thing for everyone but Baidu shareholders.
For users, it means the loss of choice and the end of a battle for eyeballs that drove both
services to improve constantly. For marketers, it means the loss of the only strong competitor to
the dominant player in the market and the prospect of higher search ad rates. For websites that
depend on search engine optimization to bring people to their sites, it means going to bed every
night praying your main traffic conduit doesn't change its algorithm before morning.
Servicemen from Royal Anglian Regiment were caught in blast in Musa Qala area of Helmand province
Two British soldiers have died in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence
said today.
The soldiers, from 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment – part of the
Household Cavalry Regiment Battle Group – were caught in a blast in the Musa
Qala area of Helmand province yesterday, a spokesman said.
The spokesman said the soldiers' next of kin had been informed.
NYT: "...the election
followed a fierce, if brief, campaign in which a debate over same-sex marriage, which Mr. Peralta
favors and Mr. Monserrate opposes, often overshadowed discussions on issues that are vital to
many of the largely Hispanic district’s working-class and immigrant residents, like
affordable health care and school overcrowding. With 94 percent of the vote counted, unofficial
returns from the overwhelmingly Democratic 13th State Senate District showed Mr. Peralta with 66
percent and Mr. Monserrate with 27 percent. The Republican candidate, Robert Beltrani, an
administrative law judge, came in third with 7 percent."
FightBack NY
writes: "In the next several weeks, we will together build a stronger, more robust campaign
that will set its sights on where we can have the most impact for additional victories in the
September primary elections and the November general elections. Each and every one of the
remaining 37 New York State Senators who voted "no" to marriage equality-Democrats and
Republicans-will be fair game. Like we demonstrated over the past few weeks: our strategies will
be smart, our tactics will be hard-hitting, and we will win a pro-equality New York State Senate
in November."
Finnish battle metallers TURISAS recently entered Sound Supreme studio in Hämeenlinna, Finland
to begin recording their third album for a late 2010 release via Century Media Records.
"A publicly available platform preview demonstrates Microsoft's strides toward speed,
compatibility and new features. Unimpressed as we may have been when Microsoft released a final
build of Internet Explorer 8 a year ago, the company hasn't stopped toiling away on the most
popular browser in the world. And it's ready to show off what its software engineers have been
hard at work on over the past year. On Tuesday, Microsoft allowed developers to peek through
blinds into its R&D labs with the release of Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview."
As the battle of web browsers continues unabated, Microsoft have set up a website where you can
get a glimpse at their next incarnation of Internet Explorer. Microsoft are planning to make a
number of new changes to IE9 including a new faster Java engine, HTML5 support, and allowing the
web page rendering engine to utilise your graphics card processor to render your page, rather
than your CPU. This, in theory, should make the whole web browsing experience much faster as it
makes use of a resource in your PC that isn't really used much when you are web surfing. I look
forward to seeing some real world tests of this feature and how it actually performs compared to
existing browsers.
We've spent quite a
bit of time with the new and improved Battle.net, both in the StarCraft 2 beta and on its lonesome. It seems
like it wouldn't be a bad platform for other, non-Blizzard games. The
Escapist asked Blizzard VP Rob Pardo at GDC
last week about just such a possibility.
"It's something that we've definitely always talked about," Pardo told The Escapist. "The problem
for us is that it takes a lot of work from our other teams. Every time we have the discussion, we
try to figure out what's going to happen if let's say a Blizzard game was coming out and a third
party game was coming out at the same time. Could we be agnostic in that way? Could we offer the
same level of support that we offer our games to third parties? We just never know. It just seems
like a big job for us."
It's certainly an interesting question, one which we'd say begs comparison to other digital
distribution platforms like Steam. The two aren't
identical by any stretch, but in essence both deliver content. We'd say emulating Steam and its
competitors certainly wouldn't be the worst first step in making Battle.net a viable service for
third parties.
We've spent quite a
bit of time with the new and improved Battle.net, both in the StarCraft 2 beta and on its lonesome. It seems
like it wouldn't be a bad platform for other, non-Blizzard games. The
Escapist asked Blizzard VP Rob Pardo at GDC
last week about just such a possibility.
"It's something that we've definitely always talked about," Pardo told The Escapist. "The problem
for us is that it takes a lot of work from our other teams. Every time we have the discussion, we
try to figure out what's going to happen if let's say a Blizzard game was coming out and a third
party game was coming out at the same time. Could we be agnostic in that way? Could we offer the
same level of support that we offer our games to third parties? We just never know. It just seems
like a big job for us."
It's certainly an interesting question, one which we'd say begs comparison to other digital
distribution platforms like Steam. The two aren't
identical by any stretch, but in essence both deliver content. We'd say emulating Steam and its
competitors certainly wouldn't be the worst first step in making Battle.net a viable service for
third parties.
Bigfoot has been spotted again thanks to Brian T. Jaynes' quasi-remake of Boggy
Creek, which stars Texas Battle, Melissa Carnell, Stephanie Honore, Damon Lipari, Shavon
Kirksey and Sarah Jenazian. Details are slim pickings, but you can get a look inside the film via
the impressive teaser trailer available below. Last September Jaynes explained that it's not really
a remake of The Legend of Boggy Creek from 1971. "It's a thriller that centers around
a story of five young kids who get caught out in a swamp in Boggy Creek, Texas," he said
adding, "They end up crossing paths with an ancient evil creature that lives in the
swamp."
As advertised,
Namco Bandai brought a prototype of its new Pac-Man Battle Royale to the 2010 Amusement
Expo. Arcade Heroes captured some off-screen footage of the multiplayer arcade title (posted after
the break), revealing a cross between the GameCube's Pac-Man Vs. and the XBLA hit
Pac-Man: Championship Edition.
Instead of putting certain players in the roles of ghosts as Pac-Man Vs. did, however,
Battle Royale takes the direct approach and pits four cannibalistic Pac-Men
against each other, as they compete to eat the most dots, ghosts and even each other. The
game would be totally brutal if the cocktail-style cabinet didn't make it all appear so classy.
Hopefully, Namco Bandai will use that cabinet for the final version of the game, due for a
September release, as well.
As advertised,
Namco Bandai brought a prototype of its new Pac-Man Battle Royale to the 2010 Amusement
Expo. Arcade Heroes captured some off-screen footage of the multiplayer arcade title (posted after
the break), revealing a cross between the GameCube's Pac-Man Vs. and the XBLA hit
Pac-Man: Championship Edition.
Instead of putting certain players in the roles of ghosts as Pac-Man Vs. did, however,
Battle Royale takes the direct approach and pits four cannibalistic Pac-Men
against each other, as they compete to eat the most dots, ghosts and even each other. The
game would be totally brutal if the cocktail-style cabinet didn't make it all appear so classy.
Hopefully, Namco Bandai will use that cabinet for the final version of the game, due for a
September release, as well.
This is quite literally what happens when you spend the entire week chatting on a
videogame-related newspaper blog...
"I'm too full of pizza to do anything constructive this afternoon, so I thought I may as well
submit it now." And with those gallant all-too descriptive words Office Pest emailed his Best Of
text to me on Friday afternoon, no doubt assuming that nothing of gargantuan importance
would hit the Chatterbox past 3pm on the last day of the working week.
Fortunately, plenty happened before hand, including Final Fantasy XIII, great game quotes and how
to become a meat-up regular. That sounds wrong, doesn't it?
Final Fantasy XIII – tempted?
On Monday morning, a beautiful weekend had just passed – clear blue skies and
lovely bright sunshine. Such a shame that FFXIII didn't arrive on most people's doormats (myself
included – hrumph), which meant we couldn't spend the whole sunny 48hr period
indoors, in the dark, sat in our underpants, crouched over a controller. Or would that just have
been me? [Regretably, I'm thinking, no - Keef]
Tuesday (release day) spawned a few early blogger reviews of FFXIII for those of us lucky enough
to get it a day early (w00t!). Plus points seem to be the shiny visuals, impressive cut scenes,
frenetic battle system (when you eventually get it). Negative points are the very slow pace (20
hours of linearity for a start) and typical angsty-teen and fluffy-girlie characters. It seems
like this one needs time to settle in, but has already done a good job in dividing the blog.
Heavy Spoilers (again)
Despite Heavy Rain only being out for just over a week, many people had already completed it and
the blog was resplendent once again with posts headed 'HEAVY RAIN SPOILERS'. This was frustrating
to say the least for those waiting for the Qauntic Dreams masterpiece to hit the bargain bins,
and it all got too much for Bigworv – "Can you go and talk about Heavy Rain
somewhere else. One of you f****rs will forget spoilers and ruin it for me."
Bargain Spotters
In between talk of Modern Warfare 2, football and mugs, PhilosopherK1ng managed to find a great
bargain on Valkyria Chronicles – only £19.95 from ShopTo! Chubster2010
later spotted another bargain buy – Chinatown Wars on PSP for £4.99 from
play.com. Sadly this one was quickly whacked back up to £24.99, but a couple of people did
get their orders sent out at £4.99. Good bargain spotting fellas – keep
it up!
What a bunch of mugs...
On Wednesday morning Be4ch expressed a desire to have his own Gamesblog mug, as his company now
requires people to bring their own mugs to work for... you know... 'green' reasons. He even
mocked up several and has linked them to a Wiki page that he also set up.
What a legend! He clearly has too much time on his hands (as do the rest of us I guess, else we
wouldn't be on the blog all day).
Great London Pubs and Worst Places to Live
See Wednesday's box for a full list of the best London pubs. As for the worst places to live,
honourable mentions go to Feltham, Canary Wharf, St Mary's (Southampton), Hull and Stockport.
Apparently PipSickness once found a dead lady on his bonnet when he lived in St Mary's, which led
us all to wonder whether he is in fact the famous Southampton Ripper.
Favourite game quotes
On Wednesday we got to discussing the best gaming quotes of all time, including such beauts as
"You were nearly a Jill sandwich!" from Resident Evil (actually, it was
"almost, a Jill sandwich" - Keef), the synthesized voice that said "Good
luck!" as you exited the tunnel in Starwing, the garbled voice that says "Treasure Island Dizzy!"
in the game with the same name and the all-time classics "Rise from your grave!" and "Welcome to
your doom!" from Altered Beast. (I would add "Another visitor, stay a while, stay FOREVER",
"Welcome to the stage of history" and "Game over, yeah!" though the latter is technically a song
lyric - Keef)
Get bitten by the bug...or dog
On Thursday our resident abstainer timthemonkey regaled us with his story of the night prior:
"Gaming – None, as I went for a nice jog in the evening sunshine in an effort
to get slighter fitter before Cricket season starts. This, however, turned out to be a poor plan
as it lead to me getting savagely bitten by a dog on the back of the calf. 12 stitches and a
three hour wait in A&E and the fitness kick had lost its appeal. Looked at it this morning
and the surrounding area has gone a wonderful shade of purple as well. Feet up tonight!"
Cue jokes over purple, swollen limbs. There was of course plenty of advice on how to sue the
owner. Or take revenge on the dog.
Let's meat up...
On Thursday morning, as people trickled onto the blog, there were some confessions of feeling
rather ropey after the previous night's blog meat up. Somebody chundered but nobody seemed to
want to 'fess up to it. Worryingly, these nights seem to be becoming a regular occurrence. What
have I done?!
If you want to join up to one of the London-based blog meat ups – generally a
night to sit, drink and chat games (and war dollies if you want) – speak to
resident organiser CunningStunt.
Friday Ranting – adverts
The usual Friday vitriol was reserved for the terrible adverts we see on TV nowadays. Here are
some examples:
"Moonpig. Think it's the only way I can get a card to my mother before Sunday. However, their
constant looping of the same annoying advert for years has built up my lava pit of hatred for
them." SuperSmashIn voices his wrath at the personalised greetings card industry
"Adverts. Go compare, We buy any car/gold, Moonpig - take a back seat. Has anyone seen the new
Dove for men advert? Good. F*****g. Lord." Uncle3en lets loose
"I've always reserved a special hatred for the poorly dubbed Glade adverts. If your products that
good, why haven't you shelled out the money for decent advertising instead of getting the
receptionist to speak over the smug German woman?" Timthemonkey goes ape (see what I did there...?)
"Those Ray Winstone Radio Adverts for Volkswagen Veeeeaaaaans. '20 poun' a mumf' 'Vowkswagin
Transpowtah.' Get out." KayJayM quotes an advert I've never seen, but sounds very annoying.
This went on for some time and eventually evolved into hatred of Sunday morning show 'Something
for the Weekend'. The language was such that it cannot be repeated here. (Thank goodness, my
delete finger is getting tired - keef)
Quotes of the week
"Cashback - Went to the cashpoint at lunchtime and got out twenty quid, and it gave me four
fivers! Incredible scenes. Had to check I wasn't in 1987 by mistake." An exciting afternoon for Limni.
"@Whoever mentioned it was Chuck Norris' Birthday. He shares his birthday with Osama Bin Laden.
Coincidence or something more sinister...?" Robotron2000 goes all 'conspiracy theory' on us.
"Has Cunning died? Or is he still going up and down the Northern Line?" Henrypootle's worried concern after Wednesday night's meat up.
Also discussed
Games: Battlefield Bad Company 2, Heavy Rain, Final Fantasy XIII,
Films & TV: Avatar, Hurt Locker, District 9
Welcome to: Albatri, CobraOB
If
you haven't fought a battle with desktop clutter and mess, you're either without a desk, or in a
pleasant minority. The rest of us can keep clutter from accumulating by banishing the transient
junk from our workspaces. More »
If
you haven't fought a battle with desktop clutter and mess, you're either without a desk, or in a
pleasant minority. The rest of us can keep clutter from accumulating by banishing the transient
junk from our workspaces. More »
Just hilarious. Apparently the U.S. intelligence community thought Wikileaks so odious that it labeled it a “potential force
protection, counterintelligence, operational security (OPSEC), and information security (INFOSEC)
threat to the US Army.” Good ol’ Wikileaks, bringing
down the U.S. government.
You can read the report [PDF!],
and I do believe this qualifies as “irony,” on Wikileaks. You really only need to
read the first paragraph to understand what’s going on. So, here you go!
Wikileaks.org, a publicly accessible Internet Web site, represents a potential force protection,
counterintelligence, operational security (OPSEC), and information security (INFOSEC) threat to
the US Army. The intentional or unintentional leaking and posting of US Army sensitive or
classified information to Wikileaks.org could result in increased threats to DoD personnel,
equipment, facilities, or installations. The leakage of sensitive and classified DoD information
also calls attention to the insider threat, when a person or persons motivated by a particular
cause or issue wittingly provides information to domestic or foreign personnel or organizations
to be published by the news media or on the Internet. Such information could be of value to
foreign intelligence and security services (FISS), foreign military forces, foreign insurgents,
and foreign terrorist groups for collecting information or for planning attacks against US force,
both within the United States and abroad.
Never let it be said that CrunchGear is above copy-pasting a paragraph so you don’t have to
download an icky PDF.
Now, I don’t know how familiar y’all are with Wikileaks, but it’s probably one
of the more important Web sites on the Internet—much more so than fun, silly things like
FourSquare or Chatroulette. It’s a centralizied location where people can leak
information that’s of value to the public. The U.S. military has been embarrassed by
Wikileaks leaks in the past, including the publication of details about the battle of Fallujah
and the possible violation of the Chemical Warfare Convention Treaty, also in Iraq.
Lots of bad stuff about Iraq, it seems.
The intelligence community tried—all of this went down about two years ago—to target
Wikileaks but creating a calculated attack on the site’s credibility.
The screening began with Tim League -- venerable genre film enthusiast, owner of the Alamo
Drafthouse, and programmer of the SX Fantastic showcase in which Serbian Film was playing --
telling me and the rest of the audience to get the hell out. Either that, or he didn't want to hear
any whining after Serbian Film kicked our asses, heretofore thought inured to on-screen
gore and depravity after years of worshipping at the altar of the horror movie. This was not idle
talk. Ninety-six minutes later, I was among a group of a half-dozen battle-hardened critics and
writers who, when asked for their impressions of what they had just seen, found themselves unable
to string together a coherent sentence. Consensus: Serbian Film was, by a long shot, the
most disturbing thing we had ever seen.
Let me put my cards on the table: this movie depicts some acts that I think should not be depicted.
I don't mean legally: as a free speech absolutist, I would never advocate for anything being
banned, no matter how awful, so long as no one is actually hurt. But I do think -- or am starting
to think -- that filmmakers have a moral obligation not to show certain things unless they are
prepared to seriously grapple with their real-world consequences. Like Michael Haneke's Funny
Games, Serbian Film is interested not in the substance of the images it puts on
the screen, but in the images themselves: their power and their effect on us. This is perfectly
legitimate, but in this particular case a line has been crossed. If saying that is moralistic and
unprogressive, so be it.
Non-profit hackerspace The Geek Group has
been hit with a hefty tax bill despite their tax-exempt status. We featured a boom camera built
by the organization back in November. It is the goal of The Geek Group to fulfill the thirst to
explore and create by providing facilities, peer group, and camaraderie that make knowledge and
learning not only acceptable, but desirable. In the video after the break you can hear a bit
about the organization’s role in servicing donated computers and putting them out into the
community, as well as its role in education through groups like the Boy Scouts of America.
This is all done without the goal for profit and accordingly they have attained 501(c)(3) status with the federal
government (we’ve seen their 990
forms stating this). To the best of our knowledge this doesn’t mean that they
don’t need to pay property taxes, but it does make property taxes ridiculously low
(we’ve heard of one cent per acre for non-profit land holdings before). That’s why it
comes as quite a surprise when the township slaps a sticker on the doors giving notice of seizure
and demanding payment for $47,652.78 in back taxes or the assets will be auctioned off. The
entire story, from The Geek Group’s point of view, unfolds in a video of the quarterly Board of Directors
meeting from last Saturday.
We’re hoping this is just a mistake and can be remedied. That being said, it’s not
easy to run this type of operation. It’s unfortunate that the Board of Directors needs to
deal with a tax battle in addition to fulfilling the mission of the organization. Good luck to
them in navigating the road ahead.
The full title doesn't exactly leave much room for doubt. Family Party: 30 Great Games Winter
Fun. If only we could take the publishers' word about that "Great" part there wouldn't be any
need to review the game at all.
Sadly, a more accurate title would probably have been 10 Quite Fun Games Plus Twice As Many Dull
Or Utterly Infuriating Ones. That may not have sold quite as well. While it was inevitable in a
compilation such as this that some games would turn out to be more fun than others, the gulf is
nevertheless frustrating. The best will have you waving, twisting and shaking your Wiimote as
enthusiastically as when you fired up the console for the first time; the worst will have you
wanting to throw it out the window.
Among the former are such gems as wall climbing, rapelling and bobsled – all
of them easy pick up, get the hang of, and then become unreasonably competitive about with your
friends or family. Among the worst are giant slalom, ski jump and figure skating, where the
controls are often so unresponsive as to make it almost impossible to succeed
– and often so-badly written as to make it only possible to understand through
trial and error.
Instead of including something as straightforward as a tutorial video, each game offers a
written-through list of the actions involved, featuring such handy instructions as "swing the Wii
remote with good timing" for speed skating or the "right timing" for the ski jump. The game has
three different modes – challenge, in which you must play a set selection of
events – battle, in which you can choose your own and co-operative, a smart
inclusion which works fantastically for events such as curling, in which you take turns to slide
stones and sweep. The graphics are cutesy and aimed at children, and while they clearly aren't
testing the limits of the machine, they work perfectly well.
Unlockable games and characters are included in a bid to add some longevity, though it's unlikely
that many people will keep coming back to the one-player modes. The multiplayer modes hold some
appeal, if probably more for kids than grown-ups, and it should be noted that this is a budget
title with a recommended retail price of £19.99. In the end, though, 30 Great Games is
likely to leave you feeling somewhat indifferent.
Staff at IslamOnline have gone on strike. But is it about workers' rights, religious principles
or national rivalries?
Islamic advice websites aren't the first thing that spring to mind when talking of strikes,
sit-ins and workers' occupations, but if there's any proof needed that Egypt's extraordinary wave
of industrial action is every corner of the nation, then today's drama at IslamOnline.net fits the bill.
With more than 120,000 hits a day and a global reach that extends through several languages,
IslamOnline is one of the biggest and most influential Muslim websites. From Baghdad to Basildon,
Muslims use it as a key source of scholarly advice on everything from impotency to the insurgency
in Iraq.
So the question of who owns and controls the site is a vitally important one. And that's the
question being wrestled over today, after hundreds of staff walked out in protest over what they say is an attempt
by conservatives in the Gulf to hijack the site and force it to pursue a more traditional and
hardline agenda.
Tension had been simmering for months between the website's Cairo-based editorial offices and the
managers in Doha, whose plan this week to fire many of the 350 employees in Egypt led to an
all-night occupation of the company's offices, which was still continuing at the time of writing.
"We're all resigning," Fathi Abu Hatab, a former IslamOnline journalist and one of the strike
leaders, told me over the phone from inside the building. "If we lose this battle then
IslamOnline as we know it will be dead. We were an exception – in our
professionalism, in our moderation, in our refusal to be bound by hidden agendas. And like all
exceptions in the Arab World, we've come to the end of the line."
So what is the battle, exactly? There's not a lot of agreement on this point, with a host of
competing explanations trickling out of the IslamOnline offices on to Twitter, Facebook and even a live online video stream
that the workers set-up to show their grievances to the world. Some of the staff believe this is
primarily a business dispute over pay, conditions and company management but others are reading
more into it, placing the tussle over editorial control at IslamOnline into a wider political
rivalry between Egypt and Qatar, and an even broader context of cultural warfare between Egypt
and the Gulf.
As detailed in the news reports, there's certainly a lot of evidence to suggest that a new board
of directors in Doha has been throwing its weight around in debates over the site's content.
Analysts have argued that the site's relatively open and inclusive nature (where discussions over
homosexuality sit side by side with
the latest fatwas on vegetarianism, martyrdom and T-shirts) has unnerved some
of IslamOnline's more conservative financial backers in the Gulf. At this stage it's hard to
verify that one way or another, but if true it would only be the latest salvo in a long-running
campaign by the Gulf to wrest cultural ascendancy in the Arab World away from Egypt.
In the often febrile Middle Eastern media market, domination of the cultural landscape has tended
to go hand in hand with political ascendancy. Historically the biggest centres of cultural
production were Beirut and Cairo; the latter's singers, film-makers, actors and writers were
untouchable in the 1950s and 1960s.
Egypt's status as the capital of Arab culture mirrored its political fortunes under Gamal Abdel
Nasser; Umm Kolthoum sang, Youssef Chahine directed, and Nasser was the all-singing, all-dancing
leader of the "Arab street" who faced down western colonialism at Suez in 1956 and swaggered
across the world stage.
Then came the oil explosion of the 1970s, and the Gulf states suddenly found themselves with a
load of petro-dollars at their disposal. Over the next couple of decades, with Lebanon mired in
civil war and Egypt rocked by the assassination of Sadat and the beginning of the moribund,
bureaucratic rule of Mubarak, Saudi Arabia (and to a lesser extent the UAE) embarked on an
ambitious and eye-wateringly expensive programme to force control of the region's culture away
from their rivals.
The Arab culture wars are open on a number of different fronts, but all involve Egypt losing its
grip on the Middle East's cultural tiller. On television, for example, Egyptian soaps and serials
have long dominated prime-time schedules, but now the UAE is fighting back with multimillion
dollar productions like Million's Poet, an insanely popular
reality TV show that commands 70m viewers from across the Arab World, yet is based around an
obscure form of Gulf Arabian poetry. The result has been a hitherto unknown appreciation for the
Gulf dialect across the Middle East.
The whole show is funded by the Abu Dhabi Authority of Culture and Heritage, and forms part of a
much wider push to make Abu Dhabi the capital of culture in the Middle East, with local versions of
the Louvre and Guggenheim under construction.
It's not just a matter of the Gulf producing new cultural products to rival Egypt's; investors
are actively taking over Egyptian cultural institutions and reshaping them to reflect more
conservative Gulf values. Egypt's film studios were managing to produce only about five or six
films a year in the early 1990s; now, almost solely because of Saudi investment, they're churning
out around 40, some of which now have to conform to the "35 rules" of piety laid down by the
Saudi backers – a huge shift away from Egypt's traditionally more pluralistic
Islamic values to the much more austere form of Wahhabi Islam prevalent in the Gulf.
This "Saudisation" has left some Egyptians, such as the billionaire communications tycoon Naguib
Sawiris, feeling like a foreigner in their own land. "As far as I'm concerned, this is the
biggest problem in the Middle East right now," he says. "Egypt was always very liberal, very
secular and very modern. Now ... I'm looking at my country, and it's not my country any longer. I
feel like an alien here."
As the IslamOnline workers prepare themselves for a second night of occupation in an attempt to
assert their editorial independence over those that bankroll them, a broader upheaval is under
way in every corner of the Arab media world, one that could prove dangerous for cultural
pluralism.
"There is an Egyptian taste to IslamOnline at the moment which is very discernible; if the site
packs up and moves to Qatar the spirit and attitude of the site will change," says Khalil
al-Anani, an expert on political Islam at Durham University.
"That would be a big loss to the Muslim community globally, because we are facing a wave of
Salafist media at the moment – on the internet, on satellite TV, and elsewhere
– and IslamOnline was one of the key outlets resisting that trend."
Kraft executive Marc Firestone apologises to MPs angry over Cadbury takeover and says US food
group will not cut jobs in British factories for two years
Kraft promised today there would be no job cuts at any of its UK factories for at least two years
after it was taken to task by MPs for making misleading statements during the battle to
buy the British confectioner Cadbury.
The pledge to preserve jobs was made by Kraft's executive vice-president, Marc Firestone, after
he endured a two-hour grilling by the business
select committee. He also issued Kraft's first public apology since the closure of Somerdale
was confirmed last month.
"We are sorry to the people who we disappointed," he said. "We fully understand that for over two
years colleagues at Somerdale had been under a closure programme and our statement created
uncertainty, and when we announced we would not take it forward, hopes were dashed. We are
terribly sorry for that."
Jack Dromey, the Unite union's deputy general secretary, who also gave evidence to the committee,
said Kraft had "lied" and the assurances given to MPs did not go far enough. He said Kraft had
refused to engage with the union during the takeover battle and added: "The committee forced
Kraft to take stumbling steps in the right direction but the company needs to go further and give
a five-year guarantee."
C’est aujourd’hui l’ouverture “officielle” du MIX 2010 avec sa
traditionnelle Keynote. Je retrouve dans les couloirs de la conférence Eric Dupin qui est arrivé la veille et
nous allons nous installer dans la grande salle.
Keynote 1
Bonne chose, nous sommes particulièrement bien placés dans la salle au quatrième
rang avec un bureau et un câble réseau (le privilège du badge presse) :
L'espace Press lors de la Keynote du MIX 2010
Surprise : Loic Le Meur vient nous saluer, il nous
révèle qu’il va intervenir en fin de Keynote pour présenter une nouvelle
version de Seesmic :
Eric et Loic avant la Keynote du MIX 2010
En attendant le début nous avons droit à une impressionante démonstration de yo-yo
par un prodige de 17 ans :
Comme à chaque fois c’est Scott Guthrie qui ouvre le bal avec une session
dédiée à Silverlight :
- Disponibilité immédiate d’une nouvelle version de Silverlight 4 (pour une version
définitive d’ici le mois prochain) ;
- Retour sur les grands succès de Silverlight (retransmission d’événements
sportifs, nombreuses applications BtoB), taux de pénétration = 60 % du parc de
navigateur ;
- Explications sur la retransmission des J.O. d’hiver avec smooth streaming HD, deep zoom
sur la galerie de photos, incrustation de publicités contextuelles, analytics
détaillé en temps réel ;
- Le code source du video player va être publié en open source ;
- Nouvelles fonctionnalités = Affichage d’un flux vidéo HD sur plusieurs
écrans, livraison de nombreux composants d’interfaces, support amélioré de
Chrome ;
- Manipulation de jeux de photos grandement améliorée grâce à l’outil
Pivot :
Manipulation des photos avec Silverlight 4 dans Pivot
Premier cas client avec Ebay
présenté par Raji Arasu :
- Un beau pied de nez fait à Adobe et l’application AIR ;
L'application Ebay en Silverlight
- Possibilité de scanner le code barre de votre produit avec votre webcam pour faciliter le
processus de publication ;
- Dave Wolf de Cynergy nous confirme la bonne
santé de l’écosystème autour de Silverlight (prestataires et clients) ;
- Explications sur le processus créatif (en passant par Sketchflow) :
Le prototype de l'application Ebay avec Sketchflow
- Amélioration du Sketchflow Player pour faciliter la collaboration
(l’application a été conçue et développée en 8 semaines).
Une partie sur le tout nouveau Windows Phone 7
par Joe Belfiore :
- Lancement très prochain de la marketplace d’applications sur Windows Phone ;
- Présentation de l’interface d’accueil avec ses panneaux (”live
tiles“) et ses trois fonctions essentielles (Start, Search, Back) ;
- Utilisation d’une “app bar” dans toutes les applications pour les
fonctions contextuelles :
L'app bar dans l'interface du Windows Phone
Présentation de l’application calendrier avec la fonction magique “I’ll be
late” qui envoie une notification de retard à tous les participants :
La fonction magique I'll be late du calendrier Windows Phone
- Explications sur la notion de “panoramic experience” avec un indice visuel
sur le bord de l’écran pour vous faire comprendre que l’interface est bien plus
grande que ce qui est affiché :
- Possibilité d’installer sur l’écran d’accueil un panneau avec vos
contacts favoris (pour avoir de la notification pus sur leur activité).
Démonstration d’applications tiers réalisées avec Silverlight (cf. Silverlight for Windows Phone)
:
- Ici l’application d’Associated Press :
L'interface panoramique de Windows Phone
- Possibilité d’intégrer des publicités contextuelles ;
- Parfaite intégration avec l’interface de Windows Phone 7 et de la notion de
“panoramic experience” ;
- Démonstration d’une application de journal intime (Hush Hush) :
L'application Hush Hush sur Windows Phone
- Utilisation des applications natives par les applications tiers (ex : application de retouche
photo pour la galerie) ;
- Démonstration d’un jeu 3D avec intégration des mécaniques sociales de Xbox
Live :
- SL pour Windows Phone 7 utilise rigoureusement le même code que pour une application SL
sur un ordinateur ;
- Démonstration de l’environnement de production dans Visual Studio 2010
intégrant un émulateur (ici un client Twitter) :
Création d'un client Twitter pour Windows Phone
- Démonstration de l’outil de création d’interface dans Expression Blend
avec des imports de Photoshop et Illustrator :
Visual Studio 2010 pour Windows Phone
Démonstration de l’application Graphic.ly pour
Windows Phone :
- L’interface respecte toujours l’expérience panoramique :
L'application Graphic.ly pour Windows Phone
- Utilisation de Deep Zoom pour observer de près les détails des cases :
Utilisation de deep zoom pour l'application Graphic.ly
Démonstration de l’utilisation de données de localisation avec
l’application Foursquare et Bing Maps :
Foursquare et Bing Maps pour Windows Phone
Démonstration de Shazam et de son intégration
à la marketplace Zune :
L'application Shazam pour Windows Phone
Démonstration de la fonction de notification Push avec l’application de la Major
League Soccer :
L'application MLB pour Windows Phone
Démonstration de l’utilisation de l’accéléromètre avec
l’application marionnette :
Notre Loïc national entre sur scène avec l’application Seesmic :
Loic Le Meur sur la scène du MIX 2010
- Démonstration de la nouvelle Seesmic Platforme avec la notion de plugins ;
- Annonce de Seesmic Desktop sur Mac :
Seesmic Desktop pour Mac
- Présentation du client Seesmic pour Windows Phone :
L'application Seesmic pour Windows Phone
- Il insiste sur le fait qu’une très grande partie du code source de cette application
a été récupérée de la version Desktop.
Nous passons maintenant à des démonstrations autour des jeux :
- Une expérience intéressante avec une application pour piloter un robot
équipé d’un canon hydraulique :
Un robot piloter par un Windows Phone
- Démonstration d’un jeu sur Windows Phone :
- Explications sur les possibilités offertes par XNA Game
Studio pour simplifier le déploiement et la distribution de jeux (illustration avec
Battle Punk, un social game disponible sur Facebook) :
Le jeu Battle Punks sur Windows Phone
- Illustration de la portabilité des jeux avec The Harvest (le jeu que nous avons vu plus
haut) qui a été très facilement porté sur PC ou xBox :
Le jeu multi-plateforme The Harvest
Nous terminons avec des détails sur la marketplace d’applications :
La marketplace d'applications pour Windows Phone
Le mot de la fin : Disponibilité immédiate des Windows Phone Developer Tools
sur developer.windowsphone.com.
Producer/Director Nathan Williams informs us that his latest BBC documentary, Battle for North
America, used Blender for all it’s graphics! Nathan writes: I’m a producer director
who... [read the full article on blendernation.com]
Le cinquième opus de la saga Silent Hunter arrive enfin dans nos frontières.
Maître incontesté dans le domaine de la simulation de sous-marin, la licence d'Ubisoft
est une référence ultime et chaque volet est attendu par des milliers de
fédérés. Cette dernière itération renforcera-t-elle la position
de Silent Hunter ou, au contraire, signera-t-elle sa reddition ?
Namco Bandai has shown off a new four-player competitive Pac-Man arcade machine called Pac-Man
Battle Royale.
The game was spotted by Arcade Heroes at Amusement Expo 2010. It features the neon graphics and
morphing mazes of the superb download game Pac-Man Championship Edition, but shifts the emphasis
onto multiplayer competition as outsized, powered-up Pac-Men try to eat each other rather than
the ghosts.
Arcade Heroes' YouTube video shows a beautiful prototype cabinet in the flat-topped cocktail
style, complete with retro wood finish and drink-holders.
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