Filed under: Hybrid, Government/Legal, Recalls, Hatchback, Toyota

A joint investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota into the highly publicized incident last week of a runaway 2008 Toyota Prius near San Diego, CA may begin to answer questions raised after the owner's credibility was challenged. In particular, the brakes reportedly exhibit a pattern of wear that's inconsistent with the story told by the vehicle's owner, James Sikes. According to a draft memo written for the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the condition of the brakes suggests that they "weren't applied at full force over a sustained period at high speeds" reports the Wall Street Journal, but rather "the driver may have intermittently applied moderate pressure on the brakes."

Representatives from NHTSA and Toyota also couldn't duplicate the sudden unintended acceleration in testing that was allegedly experienced in the same car last week, though Sikes' lawyer claims these findings are not surprising: "I don't think that is surprising insofar as NHTSA has never been able to recreate these events and Toyota has denied that they even occur."

Finally, Sikes said after the incident that his accelerator pedal was stuck to the floor and he was braking hard at the same time. His particular Prius, however, is fitted with a brake override system that cuts engine power if the accelerator pedal and brake are applied at the same time. Investigators from both NHTSA and Toyota reportedly tried to recreate the same scenario with the vehicle in question and failed due to the brake override system performing as it was intended.

Toyota has announced a press conference for later today to share more of the investigation's results, which will likely further erode confidence in Sikes and his story. Some experts have questioned why Sikes didn't follow the advice of a 911 operator and shift his Prius into Neutral, as well as his explanation later of being afraid that the car would flip if he took it out of Drive. Also, Jalopnik.com reported last week that Sikes is some $700,000 in debt as well as behind on lease payments for the Prius in question. Puzzling behavior and circumstantial evidence aside, this investigation appears to offer the first hard evidence that what happened on Interstate 8 last week may not have been Toyota's fault.

[Source: Wall Street Journal, CNN, Jalopnik | Image: Toyota]]

Official investigation of runaway Prius begins to answer questions originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Most any journalism professor, upon mention of Wikipedia, will immediately launch into a rant about how the massively collaborative online encyclopedia can't be trusted. It can, you see, be edited and altered by absolutely anyone at any moment. But how much less trustworthy is the site for breaking news than the plethora of blogs and other online news sources?

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Even Moka Pantages, the communications officer for the WikiMedia Foundation, said she agreed with this sentiment when she spoke this morning at the South By South West festival in Austin, at a panel entitled "Process Journalism: Getting It First, While Getting It Right". Here's the thing - we have to say that everything she said before answering this question seems to say otherwise.

Tackling Real-Time Content The panel featured journalists from the New York Times, SeattlePI.com, Journerdism.com and Gizmodo and a common theme was that user-created content - whether tweets, YouTube videos, or otherwise - could and should be used in breaking news coverage. The panelists all agreed that this content should be verified in some way and should be presented to the audience with a high degree of transparency.

Each panelist spoke about a specific case study - the New York Times' coverage of last summer's protests in Iran, for example - and discussed how they gathered crowd-sourced information and attempted to verify its authenticity. Robert Mackey, the reporter for the New York Times, gave examples of translating chants heard in YouTube videos and matching up street signs that flashed on screen with Google Maps. Once he was sure of its validity, he said, he would add it to the coverage.

"When you're sitting in an office in New York and you're trying to confirm that something was shot in Tehran that day was actually shot in Tehran that day, you're not going to be able to verify that," he said. "The idea is that its a conversation on the web about this event."

The Newsroom Moves Online Monica Guzman, a reporter for SeattlePI.com, spoke similarly about her website's breaking coverage of a shooting and the subsequent day-long man hunt. SeattlePI, formerly a print publication, has existed solely online for nearly a year now. Most of the breaking information that day, she said, came from Twitter.

"The media collaborated with itself and it was one big swirling newsroom on Twitter," said Guzman. "We ended up using tweets as starting points. And Twitter did end up breaking a bunch of stuff."

While SeattlePI was able to send reporters out and verify some of the information in person, how was the rest of it verified? "Common sense," she answered.

The Seattle Times, she said, had more than 500 people collaborating on Google Wave to gather information on the same story.

Wikipedia Takes On The Mumbai Terror Attacks Then came Pantages' turn to discuss how the Wikipedia community addressed the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. While it is said, as we started out with, that Wikipedia just shouldn't be trusted, the case we heard for its coverage of a breaking news situation far surpassed what you might often see on your average blog or even traditional newspaper.

One particular user, Kensplanets, was a driving force behind the coverage, using breaking news from IBN.com as a source. In cases such as this one, the crowdsourcing aspect not only allows multiple points of view, but also allows aggregation from multiple points in a number of different languages and locations.

"It's not just U.S.-centric information," Pantages explained, "You have the New York Times, Reuters, Times of India - they're all there."

According to Pantages, by the end of the first day of the Wikipedia article's life, it had been edited more than 360 times, by 70 different editors referring to 28 separate sources from news outlets around the web. While this could seem like a situation rife for misdirection and misinformation, the constant discussion swirling around the creation of an article, Pantages explained, is "really similar to what you would think should be in a newsroom." Nonetheless, we still disparage Wikipedia as an untrusted source of news.

Wikipedia As News Aggregator Just like other news aggregation services, Wikipedia takes many sources and puts them in to a central location, but with the added benefit of human curation instead of algorithmic collection.

"There's no real-time reporting going on in Wikipedia, it's real-time aggregation," Pantages said.

So the very first level of information vetting, which happens at the reporting level, has already taken place by the time it reaches the site. Then the hundreds or thousands of editors continue to scrutinize the information, discussing edits and potential changes in the back channels. The news we read in our daily newspapers, on the other hand, is curated by only a small number of people. Surely, there is the question of qualification, but many of Wikipedia's contributors and editors are, themselves, professionals.

In contrast, we often accept news from other blogs as immediately trustworthy, while a Wikipedia article such as this one, which is transparent in its creation, its sourcing and its transmutation over time, we dismiss as flawed from conception. Today, the 2008 Mumbai Attacks article sits at more nearly 43,000 words with over 150 different sources cited and 1,245 unique editors.

While Pantages argues that "Wikipedia should not be a source, it should be a starting off point," we would have to argue the same for news media in general. In this crowd-sourced news environment we've entered, blindly consuming news and content, from any source, is an ill-advised path to follow.

With that said, if we are willing to take crowd-sourced content - whether tweets, Facebook updates, blogs, videos or whatever else - as valid sources for information about our world, then a collection of these same media as carefully poured over and curated as found in a Wikipedia article should be even more trusted, not less, than those bits on their own.

Traditional media get bits of breaking news wrong all the time, but we accept that as part of the game. To vilify Wikipedia for the same errors sets unequal standards and besides, you'll likely never see the same level of transparency in traditional media about where it went wrong. With Wikipedia, it's all laid bare for the world to see.

Discuss

Peter Graves has passed away at the age of 83, just shy of his 84th birthday. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he went out to brunch on Sunday with his wife and kids, and upon returning to the house, collapsed before he could get inside, passing away from an apparent heart attack.

Graves' career started in 1942, with an uncredited role as a bombardier in the Oscar-nominated documentary short Winning Your Wings. And that was only the beginning. Over the next 68 years, he acted in 130 more projects, ending with voice work on this year's video game, Darkstar. His first memorable role came in 1953, when he played Price in the war comedy Stalag 17, but it was his iconic role 14 years later that made him a star -- IMF leader Jim Phelps in Mission: Impossible. But of course, for some of us, there's no better memory of Graves' work than remembering the irreplaceable 1980 spoof Airplane!, where he played the man of strange questions, Captain Clarence Oveur.

THR writes that Graves' stardom never reached that of his brother, Gunsmoke star James Arness. To me, however, the exact opposite is true. While he didn't have a 20-year-long hit show to make him super-popular, his fame transcended a single genre and one major role. He was white-haired man with the match, the goof in the cockpit (hit the jump for his most memorable lines), and I can't imagine Hollywood without him.

Rest in peace, Peter Graves.

Filed under: Obits

Continue reading RIP, Peter Graves

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The photographer talks about body language, Picasso and his dread of modern celebrities

Sarfraz ManzoorAlex HealeyMichael Tait

Here we have an extended look at EA’s upcoming Medal of Honor, which should—knock on wood—be released this fall for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. You’ll never look at left-clicking over a man’s face the same way again.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Safety investigators have found no evidence so far to support or disprove a California motorist's claim his Toyota Motor Corp Prius sped out of control on its own, and cautioned the case may never be explained, U.S. regulators said on Monday.

Didn’t I just write that the online video publishing market is heating up quickly? Here’s another testament to that notion: KIT digital this morning announced that it has agreed to acquire privately-held competitor Multicast Media for net consideration of approximately $18 million.

The acquisition sum is comprised of $4.9 million in cash and 1.3 million shares of KIT digital common stock, plus the assumption of approximately $4.6 million in long-term liabilities.

KIT digital plans to close the acquisition by the end of this month.

This is KIT digital’s sixth strategic acquisition, following the purchases of Narrowstep, Visual Connection, Morpheum, Kamera, The Feedroom and Nunet (the latter two brands were retired by KIT digital late 2009).

Multicast specializes in live event broadcasting, Internet video management and targeted multimedia communications for about 1,000 organizations ranging from government, non-profit organizations to Fortune 500 companies. In 2009, Multicast claims to have delivered broadcasts for some 50,000 live events and served more than 250 million video streams to a worldwide audience.

The company is said to derive an estimated $12 million in annualized recurring licensing fees for its IP video management software, with additional revenues related to professional services.

From what we can gather, Multicast has never publicly talked about how much funding it raised and when, although it is listed as a portfolio company of Northbrook, Illinois based MK Capital.

KIT digital will be integrating Media Suite’s live and content delivery solutions onto its VX-one platform, and expects to host Multicast’s clients operating on a unified platform by the third quarter of 2010. Several Multicast executives will be transitioning to KIT digital’s global management team and the company’s offices in Atlanta, Georgia will continue to be staffed by 90+ Multicast employees.

Concurrent with the Multicast acquisition, KIT digital announced that it has acquired or agreed to acquire nearly 4 million of its outstanding in-the-money warrants over the course of the first quarter, using the proceeds from its recent $15 million public equity offering.

CrunchBase InformationKIT digitalMulticast MediaInformation provided by CrunchBase

Jene Newsome played by the rules as an Air Force sergeant: She never told anyone in the military she was a lesbian. The 28-year-old's honorable discharge under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy came only after police officers in Rapid City, S.D., saw an Iowa marriage certificate in her home and told the nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base.

Hi,

 

I’ve been using svnkit plug-in inside intellij idea 9.01.  When I tracked apache server logs that hosts svn server, I noticed that there are continuous accesses from intellij idea. Nearly every minute, there are various accessed in spite of having no update or commits. We have 7-8 users and all intellij ideas send multiple request periodically. I’ve never seen a situation like this when I was using intellij idea 8. I think this makes apache crash sometimes. Is there a way to prevent this periodical access to svn or is it a "normal behavior" to keep connection alive?  Thanks.

 

Alper

Government Agency Says, "We May Never Know" What Happened with Calif. Man's Toyota

· Club statement says former manager 'on gardening leave'
· Brian Horton and Steve Parkin to take charge of first team

Phil Brown has been "relieved of his managerial duties" at Hull City.

Hull, who lost to a late Nicklas Bendtner goal at home to Arsenal on Saturday, are 19th in the Premier League, three points away from safety.

A statement on the club website, by Adam Pearson, the club's chairman, read: "Hull City AFC confirms that Phil Brown has been relieved of his managerial duties at the club and has been placed on gardening leave with immediate effect. Brian Horton and Steve Parkin will take charge of first-team duties until further notice.

"We would like to place on record our sincere thanks to Phil for the major success achieved during a period of four seasons in charge at the club and wish him every success for the future. Promotion to the Premier League in 2008 and retention of our status on the last day of the 2009 season are unique events in the history of Hull City AFC and both were achieved under Phil's stewardship during a period which will never be forgotten by all connected with the club.

"However, retention of Premier League status is paramount and the board believes that a change in managerial direction is the correct option at this time. The club will keep supporters completely up to date in respect of any managerial appointment but, in the meantime, Brian Horton and Steve Parkin will prepare the team for our important game at Portsmouth next Saturday."

• Hull City
• Phil Brown
• Premier League

Martin Pengellyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Real Networks’ Rhapsody To Go subscription includes a mobile app that lets you stream music (they’ve got some 9 million tracks in their library) directly from your iPhone, for a $14.99 monthly fee.

It was once thought that Apple would never allow such an app, but now Rhapsody prepares to take it one step further, announcing song downloads for offline listening for the next version of Rhapsody for iPhone.

The app is still pending approval from Apple, but according to Rhapsody it should be available in a couple of days. Furthermore, an Android version of Rhapsody is coming out of beta and into the Android Market soon.

Check out a video preview of the new offline listening feature from Rhapsody below.

Tags: apple, iphone, music downloads, music streaming, rhapsody

The concept is this - I tell you things that I'd have done in certain comics!!

But don't worry, I'm not talking about simple 20/20 hindsight things like pick a famous bad storyline and just say, "I wouldn't have done that."

No, I mean more like tweaks and nudges, stuff like that.

You can check out past years' I'ds to see what I'm talking about, or just read on (I've decided to consolidate them all into one big post this year to better center the discussion)!

I'd Have Silver Surfer Be Out on His Own Again

To put it simply, if Jack Kirby and Stan Lee think a character set-up is a good one, it's probably worth following their general lead.

They thought it was a great idea to have Silver Surfer be spurned by his former master, Galactus, and travel the world experiencing new things every day. You can expand that from the Earth to the universe and still get the same basic feel of their plans for the character, but making him go back to being Galactus' herald?

I don't think it works - he's too interesting of a character to have him stuck as Galactus' herald again.

Free the Surfer!

I'd Have Kept a Certain Character Killed in Cry For Justice Alive.

Spoilers for Cry For Justice!!!!

Okay, like Cry for Justice or hate it, the death of Lian Harper is pretty necessary to the plot of Cry for Justice. It doesn't mean that it was well-told or a GOOD plot or anything like that, but Green Arrow's granddaughter pretty much HAD to die (or someone of equivalent importance to him, like Speedy or Dinah or Hal) to get the reaction from Green Arrow that James Robinson wanted in the series. So I don't think it is fair for me (or anyone else) to say "I'd have kept Lian Harper alive," because that's not a tweak or a nudge - it would drastically change the story.

However, having one of the very few gay superheroes (and one of the coolest ones, at that) killed off IN A FLASHBACK did not seem to be a particularly important plot point, and the same gag (showing the big bad guy using the hero's hide as a rug) could have been achieved through any number of truly unremarkable characters (or even a new character), so I'd have kept Tasmanian Devil alive.

I'd Make the Red Hulk be Thunderbolt Ross

I know that Ross was sort of the "obvious" choice for the alter-ego of the Red Hulk, but just because it's the obvious choice doesn't mean that it is a BAD choice!

Having Ross turn into the very thing that he's been trying to chase down for years, and then finding out that he LIKED it?

That's a great twist on the old Ross/Banner dynamic, particularly for a character like Ross who wasn't exactly getting a lot of screen time anyways.

I find it hard to believe that the Red Hulk's actual identity will be cooler than Ross (maybe somehow it IS Ross! But it's most likely going to be Clay Quartermain).

I'd Have the Lead of Haunt Have a Different Job When the Series Began.

The main character of Haunt (about a guy who merges with the ghost of his dead brother to form a super powered being) was a priest when the series began. For, like, no reason that I can see so far (and he no longer IS a priest anymore). It's a distracting plot point in that it really doesn't seem to have a purpose, we never really get to see any sort of guilt (or hell, even any real response from other characters) over his role as a priest mixing with his several vices of his, and now he's no longer a priest - so what was the point? It was basically worth one fairly cheap gag in #1 (look, he went to a hooker but he's a priest!!) then never really used again - I'd have just dropped that aspect of the character period.

I'd Bring the X-Men Down to a Consistent, Moderately-sized Team.

I really think that, while the whole "Every mutant in the same area" concept is an interesting one in general, when it comes to a regular title it is better to have a consistent main cast of characters. There were a lot of characters in Grant Morrison's New X-Men run, but he had a main cast, and it was relatively small.

Joss Whedon continued in this vein, and Warren Ellis after him.

But I think based on a good idea (at the time) of "Why shouldn't Uncanny X-Men get to use cool characters like Cyclops and Emma Frost TOO?," we got this gigantic cast of X-Men, and I think the book works best with a small, consistent, moderately-sized team.

It can even use the same characters who are in Astonishing if you'd like to keep using Cyclops and Emma Frost and Wolverine, just get a regular team!

I'd Have Brian K. Vaughan Write Another Comic!

Come on, Brian, we're dying here! You're too awesome not to write any new comics!

I'd Make the Masters of Evil a Major Avengers Foe Again

So it's been, what, twenty years since the Avengers fought the Masters of Evil in the pages of the Avengers?

Doesn't that just sound WRONG to you? They used to fight the Masters of Evil a lot! Like, a dozen times in the first twenty years of the Avengers, but just the one time in the twenty years since, and that time wasn't even in their own title, but rather in the early issues of the Thunderbolts when the Masters were passing themselves off as heroes.

I guess The Hood's league of super-villains is BASICALLY the Masters of Evil, but I'd prefer the "real" thing.

I'd Have Kept One Couple Apart at the End of Y the Last Man

Spoilers for the end of Y the Last Man!

I really didn't like that Hero and Beth got together at the end of Y the Last Man. It seemed way too "cutesy" in a sort of "hey, guess what, everyone you knew ended up with everyone else you knew!" way. I'm glad Yorick didn't end up with Beth, and I guess Vaughan figured it would save space in the final issue by having the two characters together (so he wouldn't have to do two separate "wrap up" visits), but it really took me out of the moment to see how two basically random characters (who both happened to be major cast members of the title) end up together at the end.

I'd Have Roger Stern and John Byrne do Their Red Skull Three-Parter as a Prestige Format Series

Whether an extra-long one-shot (or hell, a three-issue mini-series), I'd bring Roger Stern and John Byrne back to finish the story that they were prepared to do before they left Captain America almost thirty years ago.

They were willing to do it in the past, so it's up to Marvel (well, okay, I guess it's also up to Byrne to work for Marvel again, which might not be a possibility)! This needs to happen!

I'd Give Kieron Gillen SOME Major Book to Write

I get that the thought of having Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker handling the ongoing titles of the Big Three (two for Fraction one for Brubaker) is too cool of an option to pass up, so I don't blame Marvel for not letting Gillen write Thor regularly, but he's surely shown that he's not just capable of writing a major character, but that he would THRIVE on such a title - so someone really ought to find a major book he could write! If not at Marvel, maybe DC?

I'd Have Not Killed Stealth

I really don't understand the concept behind killing off Stealth in REBELS, especially off-panel!! Her relationship with Vril Dox was fascinating - there had to be a better way to set up an adversarial position between Vril and Querl than to kill off Stealth (NOTE: If she returns to life due to Blackest Night, then, well, my apologies for even bringing this up as a complaint).

I'd Reveal That the Time Displaced Alpha Flight Died in The New Avengers' Collective Storyline

Or that the Time Displaced Alpha Flight (from Scott Lobdell's Alpha Flight run) are still alive - either or.

In either event, I'd use the gaping loophole Lobdell left for everyone at the end of that series and bring back Alpha Flight.

You don't even have to use them right away - just establish that they're alive out there and if someone EVENTUALLY wants to use them, have the option be there.

Open the door, basically.

I'd Bring Wesley Back Into the Pages of Angel

Angel spoilers ahead!

While Wesley did, indeed, die in the last episode of Angel, Joss Whedon made a point of saying that, had the show been renewed for Season 6, Wesley would be back, so now that Angel continues as a comic book, I don't see the point in keeping Wesley out of the comic. He was a strong part of the After the Fall storyline, and he'd be a great addition to the current cast (which, otherwise, IS a pretty interesting cast, a nice mix of established characters and characters introduced in the comic).

I'd Have Wally West's Parents Show Up Once in Awhile

While I can understand why people would not be interested in using some of Bill Loebs' Flash supporting cast like Chunk (although I like him a lot), I really don't understand why the fact that Wally's parents are both alive is not more of a plot point in any Flash comic. I mean, Wally's dad hasn't appeared in a comic in over ten years! Basically, since Bill Loebs last wrote a Flash (or Flash-related) comic, Wally's parents have been no-shows.

I think that's a shame - Bill Loebs did strong work with Wally's mother, Mary, and his father, Rudolph, and I'd like to see them show up once in awhile.

I'd Give Nick Fury and His Old SHIELD Allies Their Own Book

I LOVE the parts of Secret Warriors spotlighting Nick Fury, Ex-Agent of SHIELD.

I don't MIND the third-generation superhero characters, but I don't like them as much in a book that would be near-perfect if it was just Nick Fury, Ex-Agent of SHIELD.

So, well, I suppose I'd like a Nick Fury, Ex-Agent of SHIELD comic, basically.

Those are MY I'ds for this year - now share yours, too!

L'une des grandes craintes de Internet "Big Brother" reste le contrôle de nos données, la perte de libertés (voir débat sur Hadopi puis Loppsi). Internet est un espace de liberté où encore plus aujourd'hui chacun peut facilement participer, échanger, partager. Mais cet espace de liberté fait peur et continue à faire peur et pourtant consciemment on renonce de plus en plus à notre anonymat.

"Facebook : je t'aime moi non plus"

Les leaders sur Internet font peur, c'est un réflexe encore plus fort en France, pays de défense des libertés. Microsoft, Google et aujourd'hui Facebook se font souvent critiquer autour des données personnelles et de leur utilisation. Il faut se rappeler en ce qui concerne Facebook que cela ne date pas de hier car déjà le lancement abandonné de Facebook Beacon avait fait des remous, les changements dans leur politique de CGUs également (Polémique autour des nouvelles CGUs de Facebook et Facebook fait marche arrière sur les CGUs). Pour autant, cela ne créé pas de défection de ce service, bien au contraire. Dans un effet de mimétisme social, on a tous utilisé Google plutôt que d'autres moteurs de recherche, et on voit se reproduire le même schéma avec Facebook.

Où est Charlie ? Regardez je suis là

En ce qui concerne les outils de géolocalisation qui est sans nul doute la tendance en 2010 avec le buzz autour du service proposé par Foursquare ou le lancement en avril de la géolocalisation dans les statuts par Facebook (Facebook to launch location features next month), cela va plus loin.

En effet, on donne ici volontairement le lieu dans lequel on se trouve dans un but peu évident. Partager le lieu dans lequel on se trouve pour partager en live une expérience ou partager a posteriori un avis autour d'un lieu ou restaurant (cf service proposé par DisMoiOu) pourraient avoir du sens. A l'ère du web en temps réel et des outils de mobilité, il faut aujourd'hui partager dans l'instant pour se donner le sentiment d'être connecté en permanence à sa communauté, son réseau (Peut-on Twitter partout, tout le temps ?). Sauf que clairement aujourd'hui pour les personnes utilisant Foursquare et l'ayant relié à leur profil Facebook ou leur compte Twitter, on a une pollution des contenus (une de plus) où il devient encore plus important de savoir filtrer parmi les contenus pour rechercher et suivre les informations intéressantes (De la recherche au filtre de l'information). Désolé mais je m'en fous de savoir que mes amis se trouvent ici ou sont là... On sait que les avis sur les restaurants, les concerts, les bars, les expos font partie des éléments les plus partagés et discutés sur Internet. Les outils de géolocalisation représentent ainsi un intérêt fort pour ces "lieux d'expérience"...

Se donner l'apparence d'une vraie vie sociale

L'anonymat sur Internet servait à se protéger en avançant à visage masqué, sous le nom d'un pseudo. Mais aujourd'hui il est important d'avoir une "second life" et de la valoriser. Il n'est pas important d'avoir un réseau d'amis important, il devient plus important d'avoir 500 faux amis sur Facebook ou 300 followers sur Twitter. On se donne l'illusion d'une importance et donc d'une existence. Nous passons du "Je pense donc je suis" au "Je partage donc je suis". La société individualiste pousse à ce que les outils virtuels le soient moins voire soient l'opposé. Il est difficile de rencontrer des gens dans la vraie vie, par peur du contact avec autrui, alors passons par Internet et Meetic : cela devient plus simple, plus ludique et il est plus simple de dire "next".

Pour aller plus loin :

• Peut-on Twitter partout, tout le temps ?
• Faites l'amour... et dites-le sur les médias sociaux
• Réflexions autour de l'influence et du Personal Media à l'heure des médias sociaux
• "You'll never walk alone" : vers l'individuation altruiste ?
  

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Government measures force card providers to reduce the costliest part of a debt first, saving card holders millions of pounds in interest payments

Credit card firms will be forced to change the way they make customers pay off their debts, in a move that could save 9 million borrowers a typical £225 each a year, the government announced today.

The move is part of a package of measures to tackle indebtedness unveiled this morning by the prime minister, Gordon Brown.

Currently, when cardholders transfer a debt to a card provider at a low or zero rate of interest, and subsequently buy items on the card at a higher rate of interest, often around 20%, most card companies force them to pay off the cheaper debt first when they make repayments.

This makes the costlier debt on the card last longer, thus prolonging the debt and earning the card companies more interest.

Today, the government said it would introduce legislation to stop the practice, known as "adverse order of payments", in a move that will save 9 million of the country's 30 million cardholders around £500m a year, according to one building society.

However, the government decided against setting a minimum monthly repayment for consumers, or capping interest rates on cards.

The package of measures, which have been agreed with the credit card and store card industry, gives consumers five rights:

· Right to repay: consumers' repayments will always be put against the highest rate of debt first. For consumers opening new accounts the minimum payment will always cover at least interest, fees and charges, plus 1% of the amount they have borrowed.

· Right to control: consumers will have the right to tell their providers never to increase their credit limit, and the right to reduce their limit at any time.

· Right to reject: consumers will be given 60 days to switch provider if informed of an increase in their interest rate, and will be able to reject the offer of any increase in their credit limit.

· Right to information: consumers at risk of financial difficulties will be given guidance on the consequences of paying back too little; and all consumers will be given clear information on increases in their interest rate or their credit limit including the right to reject.

· Right to compare: consumers will have an annual statement that allows for easy cost comparison with other providers.

In addition, the government said it would protect consumers who were at risk of financial difficulties by banning card providers from increasing their credit limit or interest rate, and allow consumers to access their credit records for free or just £2.

Brown said: "Step by step we are reinventing the financial services industry after the global financial crisis and moving the balance of power back towards consumers.

"These new rights will put an end to the irresponsible lending practices that people have been most concerned about, and help cut the cost of borrowing."

Positive order of payments

The changes follow the Credit and Store Card Review launched by the government last year. It received responses from more than 5,000 members of the public, as well as receiving input from all the country's card issuers and a number of consumer bodies.

A government spokesman said it became clear from the responses that the majority of cardholders were not aware they were being made to pay off their cheaper debts first. When they understood the issue, he said, it was the area in the review they were most keen to see changed.

Nationwide and Saga are the only two card issuers that do not use an adverse order of payments system. Other credit card firms are expected to be given until the end of 2010 to change their system.

Nationwide's product and marketing director, Chris Rhodes, said: "This review is excellent news for the consumer. A positive order of payments would mean that consumers can trust that when they make a payment it will go to paying off their most expensive balance first. That would be good news for anyone who cannot, or chooses not to, pay off their credit card debt in full."

Melanie Johnson, chair of the UK Cards Association, said: "We are pleased that our evidence on unsolicited credit limit increases and the repricing of existing debt has conclusively shown that existing practices do not need to be overhauled.

"We believe that, overall, the outcome of the review is balanced and will give consumers the greater control and convenience that the industry and the government wish to provide."

She added: "Now that we have agreement in place we can focus on the important task of implementing these changes so that customers can benefit."

However, the association said the changes were likely to cost the industry around £533m over the first two years – double the cost of the package of proposals it had put to the government.

This could mean some providers consider introducing annual fees to recoup these losses.

• Credit cards
• Borrowing & debt
• Banks and building societies
• Consumer affairs
• Consumer rights

Hilary OsborneLisa Bachelorguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

If you're like most senior company loyalists, the word "temp" probably brings to mind certain corporate characters. The receptionist who's always updating his Facebook page. The coder who spends more time on job search algorithms than on optimizing your site. The contract manager who never gets that her suit looks odd in your laid-back culture.

Decent job listings are pretty scarce these days -- which is why it's more important than ever to get your résumé in front of the top headhunters in your field. Executive-search professionals serve their client companies by quietly cherry-picking candidates for high-level jobs, many of which are never advertised. And if you're not on the recruiters' radar, you may miss out on prime opportunities. These strategies can help you get on the gatekeepers' good sides:

[Continuing his 'Sound Current' series of interviews with notable game music creators for GameSetWatch, Jeriaska catches up with Heavy Rain composer Normand Corbeil to discuss the creation of the soundtrack to the acclaimed Quantic Dream-developed PlayStation 3 exclusive.]

Composer Normand Corbeil previously joined game director David Cage and film composer Angelo Badalamenti on the production of Quantic Dream's paranormal thriller Indigo Prophecy, titled Fahrenheit in Europe.

The soundtrack to Cage's follow-up title, the interactive drama Heavy Rain, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and has recently been made available on iTunes. In addition, a code to download the soundtrack album comes with the Collector's Edition of the game. In this interview, Corbeil discusses his approach to adding nuance to the personalities of the story's central characters through the use of the musical score.

The Heavy Rain Collector's Edition released in Europe

The storyline of Heavy Rain involves several central protagonists who each have their own distinct musical themes. How did you decide which facets of their character or backstory would best be complemented by aspects of the game score?

Normand Corbeil, Heavy Rain composer: David [Cage] briefed me very precisely. Each character has a different way of seeing life, and that was more important than what they do in the game.

For Ethan, we focused on the piano. The theme is something very human, fragile but strong at the same time. For Madison there is a chamber orchestra with a smaller setup, both strong and emotional. Jayden is an investigator and researcher in a sad and crazy world, so his theme is dark. There it’s the opposite, a symphony orchestra. Shelby’s theme is drawing on French film noire from the 60’s: cop stories, a bit jazzy, brass and flutes.

I don’t want to say too much about it because I think we love to discover the themes by ourselves—people don’t want too many hints. Also, you never know if what you say will spoil the plot.

David Cage is himself a musician. Did this help make communicating easier in the process of writing the score?

I think the most important part of his being a musician is that he understands the aspects of a musician’s work. He never involves himself directly in the notes, in the way I do the orchestration. He briefs me about the characters and prefers that to talking directly about the music.

Did this allow you greater freedom to make your own artistic choices?

I think that’s it exactly. David really knows when it’s time for him to stop talking. That adds to the great pleasure of working with him.

How would you describe the process behind your previous collaboration for Quantic Dream?

That I did with Angelo [Badalamenti], who I was working with on several projects at the time. The three of us met in New York for an afternoon, and then I worked on it for a month and a half. I think they appreciated what I did, because they called me back for Heavy Rain.

Of course many people know Badalamenti’s music from David Lynch films. Are there particular movie scores of his that have stood out in your memory?

It’s difficult to say. Muholland Drive is a very, very interesting score, and "really Angelo." I think he is among the greatest composers alive and it was a privilege to work with him and observe his process.

When you are working on game projects like Heavy Rain, do you think of it as “making game music?”

No, especially not at the beginning. I think that David came to Angelo and I because he does not want people thinking too narrowly about games, or musicians thinking too much about cues. He is concerned most with the emotion and the journey. Of course in the end because it is a game we are recording all the variations to the themes, but at the beginning at least it is the same as working in film.

Around how many cues ended up being recorded?

We recorded the cues, varying the mood and duration on the fly with the orchestra, for instance saying to the clarinet player to play the part of the harp. We did all these variations because we could not afford to come back later with the orchestra. At the end I delivered around 250 cues.

Even after that, when I returned to Montreal, I recorded a solo piece on piano. Each time you hear a solo piano in the game, it’s me playing. Now, the number might be closer to 300 cues. That gave Quantic Dream a lot of music to play with, and they said to me they used them all in the game.

How were these many cues labeled?

They changed all the titles for the soundtrack release. For me it was like “Ethan, Piano 1,” “Ethan, Piano 2”... We had only a short time, a couple months starting the fifth of June 2009 and ending at Abbey Road, for everything.

Have you had a number of experiences recording at Abbey Road Studios before?

I’ve done many things there. I’m used to working with the musicians, the sound engineer Jonathan Allen, and the assistants. I love when I’m at Abbey Road because I know that I don’t have to concern myself with anything other than music. Everything else is taken care of. They’re taking notes on all of your suggestions and if you need to hear the 62nd take, they can play it back to you in two seconds. It’s like Jonathan is co-producing with me, the way he knows the music.

This title has been years in the making, and yet the score had a tight production schedule. Did you ever feel pressured for time on Heavy Rain?

Of course. The reason why they waited until the end was because they were not sure exactly how they wanted the music. More music was required than for a movie, because there are so many beginnings, so many middles and ends. You have to take care that each piece of the puzzle fits together.

It was a bit crazy, especially because it was for a symphony orchestra and I am doing the composing and orchestration alone, but I’m used to working that way on films and miniseries and it was amazing to do. I did ask that if I am involved in a next game that I be given a bit more time.

There are any number of activities open to the player that are very uncommon to what we are used to seeing in games. Guiding Ethan through a day of playing with his son at the park is one example. In your observation do you feel this format of an interactive drama allows for the player to be engaged in the story and the identities of the characters on an experiential level?

I don't want to speak for David, but yes. People want more than to watch TV passively. They want to be involved, and games if designed correctly can offer tools to be involved. Some people are resistant to Heavy Rain because they are used to having a jump button and a run button, but for a lot of people I think it was interesting. Being involved in all these choices, maybe some people will feel closer to the characters.

Are you currently looking into to the possibility of writing for interactive dramas in the future?

Of course. It would be a shame not to use the technology to go further as an art form. Compared with other games, this is closer to the suspense thrillers I'm used to doing, more about human beings. For me the interactivity is inspiring—to know that somebody can decide to go one way or another. I think it holds a lot of possibilities for storytelling and for a composer. Heavy Rain is just the start.

[To learn more about Normand Corbeil, visit the composer's official website. Images courtesy of Quantic Dream. Heavy Rain (Original Soundtrack from the Video Game) is available for purchase on iTunes.]

**Dedicated smooth SVG animation, display essential & powerful proverbs, motto on homescreen **, Comfortable in contrasting , easy operation produced by MMMOOO Art Designing Team. Cool black theme with default icons, it is never out of date.

In response to a phishing attack against its customers, NetRegistry has issued a warning reminding them that they would never ask for a password.

{loadposition davidh08}The full text of the warning is as follows:

Important Notification

Hello David,

Netregistry was made aware of an account login details phishing scam with the subject line "Please Update", currently being circulated, asking Netregistry customers to provide their Username and Password details for an upgrade.

Please DO NOT RESPOND to this email as this is not a legitimate email sent by us.

As with most phishing scams, in this case we believe customer information has been acquired by harvesting publically accessible whois databases. If you received the email in question, we recommend you urgently login to TheConsole to change your password.

For your security, you would never be required to provide your username and password details via email. It is important that you frequently change your password and keep your login details confidential at all times.

For any additional information or enquiries please don't hesitate to call our technical support team on 1800 78 80 82, or view the notification here.

Kind Regards,

Netregistry Pty Ltd

iTWire is in full agreement with the statements made and commends NetRegistry for its quick and fulsome warning.

The next page continues with the text of the phishing email and some suggestions.

{loadposition davidh08}Like many such phishing attacks, this one claims to be from NetRegistry and encourages users to reply with their username and password in order to comfirm the account is still active.

Subject: Please Update
From: Netregistry Account Billing support
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:18:16 +1100

Dear Netregistry  Subscriber, We are currently verifying our subscribers Profile in order to increase the Efficiency of our mail features.

Due to the congestion in all Profile users and removal of all unused Account, Netregistry  Will be shutting down all unused Profile,

To Join in the Recent Upgrade Taking Place at Netregistry ,You must Reply to this email by Confirming your account details below,

UserName:

Password:

Failure to do this will immediately render your email address deactivated from our database.

Thanks for using Netregistry !

We are sorry for any inconvenience.

Regards,
Netregistry  Customer Care Team.

The poor grammar is, as usual, an obvious sign that this is a fake.

As an afterthought, iTWire does take minor exception to one small aspect of the message from NetRegistry.  Although it is safe in this instance, it would be much better practice to describe the web address of the NetRegistry management console and encourage users to type the address in their own browser.

"I used to say that Ali was the best I'd ever seen," says Arum, an industry legend who co-promoted the Ali-Frazier "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975. "I had never said that about another man. I don't use those words cheaply. But here it is: Manny Pacquiao is the best I have ever seen, including Ali.

Remember the many news stories about the femicides in Ciudad Juarez? Since 1993, hundreds of mutilated female bodies had turned up in the deserts surrounding this border city, and these horrific crimes have never been solved. Several books have been written on the subject; you might also recall that Jennifer Lopez made a movie about it. But now, with the (gender-neutral) bloodbath that Ciudad Juarez has turned into, it is shocking, indeed offensive, yet true, that we can look back at the decade of femicides as being relatively peaceful when compared to current events. The annual murder rate is now in the thousands (compared to just a few hundred per decade for the femicides), making CJ the most dangerous city in the world, more so than Baghdad, Caracas, or Port-au-Prince.
Some of those killed were directly involved in the drug trade, but many others are innocent bystanders or victims of mistaken identity or simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nobody is safe. Recently, sixteen teenagers were killed at a party. And just this weekend, two US citizens (one an employee of the US Consulate in CJ) and a third person (married to a consulate employee) were shot and killed in separate incidents in broad daylight on Saturday afternoon (in the first, a baby was left alive in the car seat, and in the second, two small children were wounded but left alive). The State Department is now allowing other embassy workers to send their families out of the killing zone.

Previous MetaFilter posts here and here. Reading the State Department's travel advisory for Mexico may make you rethink your plans for spring break.

Many (including the US State Department) agree that the insatiable US appetite for drugs is a major contributing effect to the carnage.

Peer's report chided for letting justice system off the hook after calling for greater emphasis on victim support

A misleading focus on the proportion of rape cases that result in conviction has left victims' needs neglected and stopped women coming forward, the author of a landmark government review said.

The independent report by Baroness Stern was commissioned by the government last year in response to ongoing concerns over the level of rape cases resulting in convictions. But in an interview with the Guardian, Stern said that while they remained important, the conviction rate was "not the be all and end all".

Stern suggested the figure of 14% – the estimated proportion of reported rapes that end in a conviction for that crime or another related offence – was "not dramatically low" compared to other crimes. Of the cases that get to court, 58% result in a conviction. Stern said that figure was a sign that the system was "working very hard" and was never going to be considerably higher under the current legal system.

"We have probably put so much emphasis on the criminal justice process ... that the actual needs of the human being who's suffered this appalling violation come second," she said. "What I've tried to suggest is that they should at least be equal." Better victim care would help improve the conviction rate because fewer people would drop out of the process, she added.

But some campaigners said that the recommendation effectively let the criminal justice system off the hook, when women were still receiving "shocking" treatment. "What she's proposing is to cover up what's happening in the criminal justice system just at the time when women are finally getting the truth out," said Ruth Hall of Women Against Rape.

Stern's conclusions mark a significant departure from the previous policy agenda. At the launch of the review last years, the solicitor general, Vera Baird, said: "Conviction rates are far too low ... the Stern review should help us identify how we can improve the handling of rape complaints and drive up conviction rates."

In future, Stern found, police and prosecutors should be rated on how well victims are treated, as well as clear-up rates. Independent sexual violence advisors (ISVAs), who support victims throughout the process, should be an intrinsic part of the system and available to every complainant.

There are currently only 43 ISVAs in England and Wales, with 13,000 rapes reported last year. Stern said she believed enough ISVAs could be provided for a cost of just £1m a year.

Stern also called for all police forces to consider setting up a specialist rape unit and focus more on joined-up, intelligence-led policing to prevent more cases like that of the taxi driver John Worboys, who was jailed indefinitely last year for a succession of sexual attacks. Detectives should be aware that computer technology could help them track information on sex offenders at a national level.

The report found problems persisted in the system, with implementation of policies for improvement "patchy". In some areas target-driven approaches meant rape cases were fighting to get priority over burglary and theft; the focus was on easy to prove cases; some officers were still influenced by the false idea that rape didn't count when it was between two people who knew each other; and communication with victims could be poor.

The researchers were told that in some places there were no female physicians available for intimate forensic examinations, and victims complained that overseas doctors with poor language skills were being used.

But Stern said she believed that most people were treated well by the police.

The report called for an end to the use by politicians and campaigners of the much-quoted 6% conviction rate, which represents the proportion of reported rapes that end in a conviction for rape itself. It was misleading and may be putting victims off reporting attacks, Stern said.

The suggestion is controversial, because campaigners say women who have been raped want to see their attacker convicted for rape, not a lesser offence that may carry different connotations. The 6% figure most accurately represented the situation women faced when reporting rape, Hall said. "To move away from that is to hide what women are really up against."The report's other recommendations include:

· the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority should end its practice of docking victims' payouts if they have previous unspent convictions or did not report the rape immediately

· responsibility for forensic medical examinations should be transferred from the police to the NHS, and every victim should have the choice of a male of female physician

· a study into the number of false allegations, to see how it compares to other offences. An idea persists that false allegations are higher for rape, and it is hoped that a review would show this was not the case

· better use of video interviews, which can be amateurish, cause distress to victims and hinder effective trials

· consideration of the idea that victims should be given their own lawyer for part of the criminal proceedings

· an end to the use of conflicting performance targets for the police and CPS, which see detectives keen to charge a certain number of people and prosecutors keen not to take harder cases to court

Rape Crisis said that while it welcomed many of the recommendations, it wanted to know what sustainable resources would fund support for victims.

Many rape crisis centres face the threat of closure because of a lack of cash, and when money does come from central government it is only for a year at a time, meaning uncertainty continues.

"We would also ask questions about who is going to monitor the 23 recommendations, as they are similar to those that came out of previous rape reviews in 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2007," a spokeswoman said.

She added that Rape Crisis still considered the conviction rate when taken as a proportion of rapes reported to the police to be "extremely low".

Ceri Goddard, the chief executive of the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for an increase in conviction rates, said: "Whilst we welcome Stern's call for greater focus on supporting victims of rape we would caution that this should be alongside more not less efforts on increasing conviction rates."

Using only the 58% conviction rate would not reflect the high attrition rate in rape cases that was so important, she added.

Baird said: "Rapists must know that they won't get away with it anymore, whatever the circumstances, even if the woman is someone they know, even if she is drunk. Things have changed, and they now stand a more than one in two chance of being convicted."

She added that the government would be announcing grants worth more than £3m for ISVAs and rape crisis centres this week. But the Equalities Office admitted this money had been been announced previously and was not new funding.

• Rape
• Crime
• Criminal justice

Rachel Williamsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

The battle between Google and Apple continues. RJ Pittman, a prominent product manager at Google, has left the company to join Apple. We’ve been tipped off to a tweet he sent out two days ago that said “My last day at Google. Incredible experience. Amazing people. Moved mountains. Next chapter. Hello Apple.” Pittman has since removed the tweet from his Twitter feed, but judging by the tweets still visible in Twitter search, it’s true.

We’ve also received an email that Pittman  sent to his coworkers and friends about the move (we’ve redacted a paragraph about hanging out with his family during his time off):

Yesterday was my last day directing traffic at Google. It has been an incredible ride, and an amazing experience. Google is one of the most fascinating companies to work for. Working at Google scale is pretty incredible and the people are one of a kind, to say the least. It’s been an amazing 3 years of my career. It was very hard to say goodbye to all the people I call family at the Googleplex around the world. The company afforded me the opportunity to be ‘me’ inside the walls of a 20,000 person company that generates $20B in revenue. For that, I will always be grateful. I learned so much about the world, our users, and most of all…me. I left with a very heavy heart yesterday. Leaving was much harder that I expected. Admittedly, I’m feeling a bit useless today, my first day as a Xoogler. But I’m hoping this feeling will wear off soon. (Noogler is our term for a newly hired Googler, and Xooglers are the band of ex-Google alumni)

I was sprung from Google by a little company down the road that you might have heard of called Apple. Some might say I owe most of my career in technology to a little start up company that created the computer that I first learned to program, the Apple II, in 1980. By 1984, my life would be changed forever with the introduction of the most revolutionary creation of the decade, the Macintosh. A year later I would find myself spending more time with my first Mac than any other living being for my foreseeable teenage future. I’ve owned almost one of every Apple product released since then, and still own my first Mac that started it all some 25 years ago. In a strange but not so strange way, this is a sort of homecoming for me, despite never having worked for Apple. Life works in curious ways, and I love it when every so often it comes full circle. I couldn’t be more excited for what lies ahead. They’ve created a pretty neat role for me, which I will be able to talk about soon after I’ve started working there.
…

It’s unclear exactly what project Pittman is working on (his email only says that it’s a “pretty neat role for me”) and there’s little chance Apple’s PR team is going to give us any guidance. That said, my hunch is that he was recruited at the behest of the Lala team.

Apple acquired the streaming music service in December, less than two months after Google and Lala worked in tandem to launch Google OneBox Music Search. Pittman was one of the key players on that project, and worked closely with Lala to get it off the ground.

That said, Apple could be after his other talents — Pittman had previously presented at the launches of other search-related products, including a Google Labs event. And before that, he founded Groxis.

We’d previously heard that Google and Apple had a gentlemen’s agreement not to poach each other’s employees. Obviously, that’s no longer the case.

CrunchBase Information R.J. Pittman Apple Google Information provided by CrunchBase

The "father of computer gaming" gave the keynote at GDC 2010 this past week, and while we really hoped he would tell us a lot about the upcoming Facebook version of Civilization, it got only the barest of mentions during the hour-plus talk. Instead, Meier shared wisdom with the gathered crowd, talking about the lessons he'd learned in player psychology over his long and storied career in game design. First, he talked about what he called the "Winner's Paradox" -- "if you've played Civilization," he said, "you're an egomaniac," since anyone crazy enough to think that they can actually "build a civ to stand the test of time," as it says on the game box, must be pretty full of themselves. And because of that, Meier says his players always believe that if they don't win for whatever reason, fate or the random number generator or the crappy AI must be out to get them. As a result, his policy has become to let the player win -- the threat of punishment is enough to keep it interesting, but in the end, the player should win the game.

He also talked about the "unholy alliance" between players and developers -- not only is the relationship beneficial for both parties (players offer their money, developers offer their time and talent), but it's also one of "mutually-assured destruction," as players can break contact with (or even just belief in) the game anytime they feel it's not fun any more, and developers can "really mess up the game, too." Everything in the game, said Meier, should be designed with an eye towards this alliance -- the AI should live to serve the player, the graphics and gameplay should engage imagination, and even options screens and load/save settings should be developed with an eye towards preserving the relationship.

Civilization Network was mentioned under a section Meier called "my bad" -- along with the original ideas to make Civ real-time (whoops) and make the tech path random, he said that the CN team had considered letting players give gold to each other on Facebook, but during playtesting, found that players never actually did. He did say that the game is deep into testing currently, and that it will allow co-op, singleplayer, and competitive gameplay, and that it will be interesting whether players play for just "a little time a day" or more than that. At the end of the talk, in reply to a question about where he saw gaming going, Meier declared that "this is the year of Civilization!" With CN coming soon and Civ V due out this fall, we can't wait to send our Settlers out into the world.

Sid Meier talks player psychology and the year of Civilization originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The "father of computer gaming" gave the keynote at GDC 2010 this past week, and while we really hoped he would tell us a lot about the upcoming Facebook version of Civilization, it got only the barest of mentions during the hour-plus talk. Instead, Meier shared wisdom with the gathered crowd, talking about the lessons he'd learned in player psychology over his long and storied career in game design. First, he talked about what he called the "Winner's Paradox" -- "if you've played Civilization," he said, "you're an egomaniac," since anyone crazy enough to think that they can actually "build a civ to stand the test of time," as it says on the game box, must be pretty full of themselves. And because of that, Meier says his players always believe that if they don't win for whatever reason, fate or the random number generator or the crappy AI must be out to get them. As a result, his policy has become to let the player win -- the threat of punishment is enough to keep it interesting, but in the end, the player should win the game.

He also talked about the "unholy alliance" between players and developers -- not only is the relationship beneficial for both parties (players offer their money, developers offer their time and talent), but it's also one of "mutually-assured destruction," as players can break contact with (or even just belief in) the game anytime they feel it's not fun any more, and developers can "really mess up the game, too." Everything in the game, said Meier, should be designed with an eye towards this alliance -- the AI should live to serve the player, the graphics and gameplay should engage imagination, and even options screens and load/save settings should be developed with an eye towards preserving the relationship.

Civilization Network was mentioned under a section Meier called "my bad" -- along with the original ideas to make Civ real-time (whoops) and make the tech path random, he said that the CN team had considered letting players give gold to each other on Facebook, but during playtesting, found that players never actually did. He did say that the game is deep into testing currently, and that it will allow co-op, singleplayer, and competitive gameplay, and that it will be interesting whether players play for just "a little time a day" or more than that. At the end of the talk, in reply to a question about where he saw gaming going, Meier declared that "this is the year of Civilization!" With CN coming soon and Civ V due out this fall, we can't wait to send our Settlers out into the world.

Sid Meier talks player psychology and the year of Civilization originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and fueled by leaders and social hubs such as Micah Baldwin, Tech Stars mentor, #followfriday creator and now chief community caretaker at Graphic.ly of Digital X, and Robert Reich, the founder of Boulder/Denver Tech Meet-up, Boulder's startup community is pumping, even in the midst of recession.

Boulder is the home of Blue Mountain cards, one of the first successful online greeting cards websites. In the 1990s, Fortune 1,000 tech companies popped up all over the Western prairie between Boulder and Denver. Since then, Boulder's creative, crunchy, beautiful mountain environment has nurtured a self-supporting startup tech ecosystem.

Sponsor

We already wrote about Boulder in our Never Mind the Valley series, and recently had the chance to visit the city and lunch with four of the region's startups. Here is what we found.

Community Support RWW's Never Mind the Valley series:

The Boulder startup community, continues to be a supportive, passionate community with talented individuals, inspired ideas that is affecting change politically and economically in the United States. Lunching with four startups that Micah Baldwin organized was like lunching with a family. The group we talked with share office space, mentor each other and talk proudly of each others ideas and accomplishments.

The Underground Rail Road

Attracting talent is foundational to any startup environment. Eric Marcoullier, co-founder of Gnip described the "underground railroad" of transients that have made their way from Silicon Valley to Boulder. "Weekly I would get emails asking about what Boulder was like. Eventually I just started telling people to come here, visit and ask the locals themselves," he said. Venture capitalists have also made their way from busy Silicon Valley to the Boulder Valley.

Affecting Change - The Startup Visa Act

Once you have the foundation of talented motivated individuals, ideas flow. Brad Feld of TechStars took the idea for a national startup visa bill and made it a reality. TechStars receives proposals from all over the world. Startups based in foreign countries come on tourist visas with great ideas - and potential jobs are being sent home with them. The startup bill seeks to change this. The bill will enable companies that do not have U.S. citizen or resident status, but who have blessed by at least $100,000 in VC investment, to start their companies in the United States.

Measuring Outcomes

The four thought-provoking, pioneering startups we met with had had nothing but positive things to say about TechStars and starting a business in Boulder. Each had a unique story; two of them were locals and all of them men.

Gnip

Eric Marcoullier, co-founder of Gnip, launched two years ago with the unique idea of providing data collection and analysis of social signals across multiple social websites to help companies improve their product and service experience. The Gnip platform and service bridges the gap between the data APIs between large companies and multiple social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Post Rank. ReadWriteWeb has covered Gnip extensively. Since its launch, Gnip has changed its technology strategy and will be re-launching soon.

Everlater

Natty Zola and Nate Abbott spent one year sleeping on couches as they traveled across five continents before they came up with the concept for Everlater. Everlater allows travelers to easily record and share their travel experiences through Twitter and Facebook. The platform allows users to use data from across multiple photo sharing sites. People can also publish their travel "scrapbooks". An algorithm lays out the book automatically so you don't have to. For hopeless photo organizers like me, this is a godsend!

Next Big Sound

Alex White, co-founder Next Big Sound, provides cultural analytics specifically to music companies. Music professionals can track how fans interact with their music, or music from many musicians across sites such as MySpace and LastFM. It is currently developing a premium service.

Graphic.ly

Micah Baldwin is not only social hub-connector extraordinaire, but also works for the uniquely cool comic book community Graphic.ly. Graphic.ly, which is currently in private beta, hopes to open opportunities for comic book creators, publishers and enthusiasts that are currently suffering under a one distributor model - as well as reawaken America's and the world's love for online comics. Members can both purchase and discuss comic books on Graphic.ly.

Ties to the Universities

Startup's ties with Colorado universities are immature, but starting to materialize. The morning of our lunch someone from the Colorado startup community (who we promised not to name) had met with the University of Colorado. As the individual put it, "Universities are turning out graduates prepped for a traditional computer science career at the likes of Lockheed Martin. We don't need MBAs - we need coders." The local Universities are overlooking careers in startups that are based - literally - around the corner or down from "The Hill" as a viable career option. An exception, University of Colorado Law School is has been offering startups free legal advice in exchange for student experience.

Judging from the close-knit group of entrepreneurs we saw, Boulder has matured significantly since the dot-com boom and bust. The only thing lacking at lunch was more estrogen.

Discuss

Ebay seller nes_harmonica is offering three of these old Nintendo cartridges that have been modded to contain working harmonicas. Why the heck would you do that? Turns out it's kind of a retro in-joke for NES enthusiasts. OhGizmo's Andrew Liszewski explains:

If you grew up in the 80's and played video games, at one point in your childhood you had to blow on an NES cart, or inside the console itself, to get it to recognize a game. In fact I never even had an NES, but I can still remember having to do it on a friend's system. At this point it's almost become cliche to bring it up whenever the conversation turns to classic video games, but that didn't stop one clever modder from attempting to turn a profit on Nintendo's folly.

Right now Super Mario 3, Dick Tracy, and Legend of Zelda models are available. [via Geekologie]

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With Saturday Night, James Franco the actor becomes James Franco the filmmaker, as he sets the camera loose inside the very closed and somewhat private world of Saturday Night Live. From that first team pitch meeting with that week's celebrity guest to a full, live show one week later, Franco's doc takes us through every step of the process with a cast and crew who truly appreciate the art of the joke, and are relentlessly committed to the long, arduous journey it takes to put just one episode of Saturday Night Live out on the air.

Franco never shifts and shapes his documentary by fitting it into some corny mold with voiceovers, music or excessive talking-head interviews. Instead, it's as if he just tosses the camera into the air and lets it float - capturing the SNL creative process from a fly-on-the-wall perspective, allowing the audience to mix and melt with castmembers and writers so they, too, become a part of the madness. Saturday Night doesn't reinvent the wheel and it won't reveal any shocking truths (except maybe that Bill Hader deserves way more credit than we give him), but you'll definitely walk away with a lot more respect for not only the show itself and what it manages to produce with only one week of prep time, but also the people who make it all happen.

Filed under: Documentary, Theatrical Reviews

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