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Tag: starwars

The Power Geeks #103

by DarthMolen on Jun.01, 2011, under The Latest Shows

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We are LIVE on Ustream. Tonight we talk fuzzy unicorns, some trouble in game land, Pentagon declares war on the Internet, and Macintosh finally gets malware

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

  • The Bodyguard (udg)
    • The BodyGuard, designed by cameraman David Brown, is an armored glove equipped with a high voltage stun gun, laser pointer for aiming, video camera and flashlight. The glove weighs less than three pounds, is made of breathable material and has a hard, protective shell that extends up the arm. The stun is generated by four electrodes on the wrist-area of the glove, prepped by a pull pin, and is activated by a button on the palm, with similar buttons activating the laser pointer, flashlight and video camera.
    • Brown developed the prototype for the BodyGuard in 48 hours, by using a medical arm brace as a base, attaching a stun gun and a fire-alarm button from Home Depot. It took Brown seven years and thirty prototypes to finish his final demo model.

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Deals of the Week / New Releases

  • New Green Lantern Game (release June 7) might not suck (btm)
    • First game to star the Green Lantern ties in with the upcoming movie
    • Available for Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3 (PS3) and Xbox 360
    • Game will feature 3D graphics on the 3DS and also the PS3  and Xbox 360
    • PS3 and Xbox 360 will achieve 3D through anaglyphic 3D with the included 3D glasses or stereoscopic 3D on native 3DTVs.
    • Gameplay screenshots and videos look impressive, but we’ve all been fooled by movie tie-in games in the past.

Movie Minute (new feature)

  • Peter Jackson confirms Orlando Bloom is returning for The Hobbit (btm)
    • Saying via his Facebook page, “Ten years ago, Orlando Bloom created an iconic character with his portrayal of Legolas. I’m excited to announce today that we’ll be revisiting Middle Earth with him once more. I’m thrilled to be working with Orlando again. Funny thing is, I look older — and he doesn’t! I guess that’s why he makes such a wonderful elf.”
  • Also in Hobbit News, Titles and Release Dates Announced (btm)
    • ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ opens December 14, 2012
    • ‘The Hobbit: There and Back Again’ opens December 13, 2013
    • Possibly following up with “The Hobbit: We Might Be Able to Squeeze One More Out” opening December 12, 2014
  • X-Men Logo fills the LA Skies (btm)
    • People across Southern California have witnessed strange goings on in the skies overhead
    • In a unique advertising campaign for the new X-men movie, studios have hired sky writers to put the X-Man logo in the clouds.
    • Initial reports showed up in tweets and YouTube videos from Los Angeles but soon reports from San Diego and points in between started showing up.
  • Star Wars Live Action Update
    • Canon re-release: Still 3D, Still Post Process, Nothing Ground Breaking
    • Live Action:
      • 50 hours on the shelf
      • not economic enough
      • Wants to make it like a feature film for a 10th of the cost
      • Hoping to revolutionize how feature films are budgeted (250 – 350 million turned to $50 million)

Geek Speak

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

  • Iran Plans on Unplugging the Intarwebs (udg)
    • So, Iran has come up with a way to fully censor its internet. Yup, it’s going completely prevent access to the Intarwebs and create it’s own national Internet to take its place.  According to their telecommunications chief, in two years all Iranians will be “forced to use a state-censored, fully-internal Internet.” He suspects 60% Iran’s homes and businesses will switch sooner than the estimated 2 years. Iran believes this is a move toward “upholding Islamic moral values” but, with it taking very little to access it, can they actually block the Internet?
    • Google may has a sad too because the current 11% who do not have access to the Internet at all will be forced to use an alternative called “Ya Hagh” as well as a non-Mircosoft operating system.   So far, the plan is just that — a plan — but considering Iran has already created and implement their own alternative to Google, it would seem the more difficult obstacle to overcome would be to cut off rogue Internet users, rather than actually create their own national Internet.
  • Macintosh Malware Gets Possibly Worser (btm)
    • For many years Macs users  have bragged about the lack of viruses and malware affecting them.
    • Recently a fake Anti-virus called MacDefender spread like wildfire in the Mac community
    • The malware hides in webpages. When activated it produces an animation declaring that viruses have been detected on your computer (old trick)
    • If you have “open safe files after downloading” option checked MacDefender begins installing automatically.
    • Tricks users into giving their credit card information to “purchase” fake software to remove the detected viruses (which don’t exist)
    • This week Apple finally released a security update to address the issue after denying it was a problem for weeks. (just over 2 MB)
    • Updates detects and deletes the malware which allegedly arrived on your computer via poisoned Google image files.
    • While this update addresses the current problem, experts are advising users to be alert as this may be the beginning of the end of Macintosh’s relative safety.
  • Google Launching +1 service tomorrow (SM)
    • In a bit of “me 2”, Google unveils a button that works similar to “like”
    • Developers can place the +1 button to show their support for the site
    • Still unclear how this will get eyes on sites with no social network
    • Probably a “lateral move” with Bing! getting some elevation from facebook likes
  • Chinese Prisoners Learn to Farm (udg)
    • I’m all for putting prisoners to work, but not exactly the way China seems to have in mind. Go figure. A Chinese man who goes by the pseudonym of Liu Dali had a little chat with The Guardian and revealed how he spent his time in a North-East China prison after being imprisoned for “illegally petitioning” the Chinese govt regarding Corruption in his hometown. Oh and Dali is an ex-prison guard himself.  Besides what you’d expect for prison labor- breaking rocks and “whittling chopsticks and toothpicks from planks of wood,” they got to do some gaming. Yup, the guards made him and other convicts play massively multiplayer gamesin 12 hour shifts in the interest of selling the gold online.
    • Dali alleges that between 300 prisoners working in tandem the guards bragged they could earn some 5,000-6,000 RMB (around $823) each day.
    • “If I couldn’t complete my work quota, they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things.”
    • While the Chinese govt banned the practice of gold farming in 2009 and Dali’s imprisonment took place before that, he is doubtful the process has stopped.  You know I’ll be the first to agree with him on that.
  • Disney Withdraws Trademark application (btm)
    • Two days after Navy SEALs killed bin Laden the Disney Corp. filled a trademark application for the SEAL Team 6 name and logo.
    • The Navy, which already held the Trademark on “SEALs” filled their own trademark request for “SEAL Team and Navy SEALs”
    • Disney withdrew their request but says their original application was misunderstood.
    • They were considering a show about the elite squad similar to other military based shows like JAG or NCIS.
    • Studios have previously applied for trademarks on names like JAG and NCIS without much attention. It seems the timing on this one appeared to be in poor taste.
  • Apple Releasing iCloud (SM)
    • Apple plans to put out a cloud service similar to amazon and google
    • Been rumored since Apple bought the icloud.com domain in April
    • Many are speculating on a streaming music service (which has been rumored awhile)
    • Some are wondering about drop box-like functionality (would go well with their IPads not having a lot of disc space or drives)
    • Films and TV still a possibility for the iCloud – Working on various TV and film possibilities.
  • Pentagon Declares Cyber Attacks Constitute Act of War (udg)
    • If you tuned in last week, we talked about the reality of cyber warfare threats. In a move that put a very big smile on my face, the US Dept. of Defense has ruled that attacks on computer networks and sabotage of information systems that stem from other countries officially constitute an act of war and as such can be responded to with traditional military force.
    • The Pentagon’s decision provides a physical threat against nations in a world where virtual threats and attacks are becoming more and more common. It also gives the US military more options to retaliate against simply defending against information attacks and trying to wage our own.
    • Now, taking down Google is not likely going to lead to an attack, but any attempt to sabotage or shut down nuclear reactors or power grids are examples of things that will get your ass handed to you right quick.
    • The Pentagon’s report  is the first official document on cyber strategy and includes references to attacks on the Pentagon’s computer networks, as well as a reference to the Stuxnet computer worm that targeted nuclear power systems in Iran – a worm that many analysts believe is complicated and enough that only a nation would have had the resources to develop and inject it.
    • The report is also without controversy both inside and out the Military.  Some question whether or not the US can ever have an absolute certainty to where an attack originated, or even enough to start launching missiles. Other defense analysts have pointed to the concept of “equivalence,” meaning an attack should be met with equal but overwhelming force, as a way to determine how broad a retaliatory strike should be in response to a cyber attack.
    • Regardless, the Pentagon’s statement represents two major shifts in US military thinking when it comes to information warfare: first that the Pentagon recognizes they’ve been slow to build a comprehensive information security posture to protect American military and civilian networks, and second, that the Department of Defense is taking threats and attacks against American information security very seriously.
    • It’s about flipping time.
  • TSA Not Just Happy With Their Hands in Your Shorts (btm)
    • Now they want to keep your data for 15 years!
    • New draft agreement between the US and EU allows the Department of Homeland security to keep the private data that passengers provide to airlines.
    • Credit card details, phone numbers, and home addresses would be kept for 15 years and analysed by automated data-mining and profiling programs.
    • Agreement is requesting that airlines provide this passenger information at least 96 hours in advance of flights so that names can be checked against terror watch lists.
    • European privacy advocates are up in arms about the agreement and say that “blanket retention of personal data for five or ten years is a huge infringement of data protection principles.”
    • Databases get hacked and personal data is stolen often.
    • Sony’s Playstation Network had no comment.
  • SC2 XPack info released (Finally) (SM)
    • Will be called “Heart of the Swarm” and will be zerg based
    • Kerrigan makes her debut in the new franchise
    • player-played hero character throughout the campaign, with her own tech tree
    • Think in power proportions, she’ll be powerful enough to take on many,many units
  • The shift is self-described at “Huge”. Think more defense of the ancients play-type than total RTS…
    • Wings of Liberty was more of a “multiplayer trainer” than a well executed single player experience
    • No releases on what units will make their way into multiplayer yet but they’re promised
  • Call of Duty Elite (udg)
    • After rumors galore, Activision Blizzard has finally announced Call of Duty Elite- basically a social network for Call of Duty players. Beta will launch this summer with last November’s Call of Duty: Black Ops and the full service will be integrated with Call of Duty’s next installment, Modern Warfare 3. No price announced  yet, but Activision did mention they are projecting it to be less than “fees for comparable online entertainment services.”
    • What is that money going to get you?  Basic social networking features, the ability to make groups and clans, participate in tournaments, stat-tracking, and the ability to upload videos and screenshots and have users vote on which they feel are the best. Not exactly worth a monthly subscription fee? It also offers in-depth stat-tracking, such as heat maps detailing where the player gets shot, the ability to review the minute-by-minute progression of a match, as well as aggregate data, like which weapons were used to obtain the most kills on a certain map and where the most deaths occur on a map. It is also planned to allow subscribers access to free map packs that non-subscribers would have to purchase separately. So, still not exactly worth its monthly subscription fee, unless you take your yearly-iterated war gaming very seriously. Luckily for Call of Duty gamers who don’t exactly want to add a Call of Duty subscription to their monthly budget, Activision stated that the base game will still ship with regular multiplayer functionality that will not cost a monthly fee.
    • Check out the notes for the official trailer.
  • Twitter buys TweetDeck? (btm)
    • Twitter has reportedly bought London based TweetDeck for $40 million.
    • TweetDeck is the popular application used to organise and more easily read your Tweet-Stream and Facebook updates among others.
    • The 15 employee start up will continue to work from London.
    • No major changes are expected in the short term for the application which is currently available for desktop computers and mobile devices.
  • Interplay in doubt, Fallout MMO on the rocks (SM)
    • The company is ready to fall down go “BOOM”!
    • Preparing to file for bankruptcy
    • Has $3000 to their name and their credit got pulled
    • Own the rights to such games as Fallout and Earthworm Jim
    • Most popular? Probably Baldur’s Gate (written by Bioware)
    • One of their first games published? Battlechess

Intarweb Goldmine

  • Billion Dollar Star Trek Resort, in Jordan? (btm)
    • Rubicon Group Holding will design and produce “The Red Sea Astrarium”
    • 184 acre themed  entertainment resort in Aqaba, Jordan
    • Will prominently feature an attraction inspired by the 2009 Star Trek movie.
    • Themed destination will serve as a model for “green energy” incorporating state of the art renewable technologies throughout the facility.
    • Could have something to do with fact that King Abdullah II is a big Star Trek fan and actually appeared on an episode of Star Trek: Voyager when he was still a Prince.
  • She Makes Junkpunching Look Friendly (udg)
    • A man whose penis was cut off during an alleged rape attempt in southern Bangladesh has fled his hospital possibly to avoid being arrested, hospital officials said Tuesday.
    • The Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital released the suspect, undergoing treatment after his penis was severed, at his own request as there were no instructions from police, physician Jahangir Alam said, adding that he may have left in haste for fear of arrest.
    • Police said that a 40-year-old woman, a neighbour of the accused man, had filed a complaint alleging he attempted to rape her in her home in southern Jhalakathi district, 200 kilometers south of Dhaka.
    • Jhalakathi police officer Abul Khayer said the woman, a housewife and mother of three children, cut off Mozammel’s penis Saturday night, wrapped it in plastic and came strutting in to the police station with it  as evidence.
  • Sleeping-In Could Cost You (btm)
    • Do you really want to sleep-in?
    • New alarm clock designed to shread bills the longer you take to get out of bed.
    • You load bills in clock the night before, set the alarm and go to sleep
    • If you don’t get up when alarm sounds, it begins to shred the money one bill at a time.
    • Just a word of advice, willfully destroying U.S. currency is still a federal crime.
    • So sleeping in could cost you money, make you late, and potentially leave you facing a $100 fine and 6 months in jail.
    • WAKE UP!
  • Taking Tree Hugging to a Whole New Level (udg)
    • According to BBC Mundo, Swede Leona Johansson and Norwegian Tommy Hol Ellingsen have spent eleven years using sex and porn as a non-profit way of raising money to help save the environment.
    • Since the Scandinavian couple set out on their unique path towards environmental salvation with the creation of their org Fuck for Forest, or FFF, they have attracted up to 1,300 like-minded activists all over the world.
    • From Germany to Chile, members are sharing their sex-lives in a bid to save trees.
    • Since 2000, they have raised an impressive 345,000 dollars by selling pornographic material via their website: explicit photos and videos of themselves having sex, usually out in the open.
    • “Saving the planet is sexy,” they argue, “so why not get turned on for a good cause?”
    • Johansson and Ellingsen shot to fame in the latter’s native Norway in 2004 when they had live sex on stage alongside local group The Cumshots at the Quart Festival in Kristiansand
    • Despite receiving money from the Norwegian government to get themselves started, and their evident success at raising money for environmental causes, more established environmentalist groups continue aren’t so keen.
    • Even the World Wildlife Fund in their home country of Norway refuses to accept their money: “We said no thanks. We are in favour of love and nature, but not this version,”a WWF spokesperson said.
  • Can You Fit a Million Dollars in a Microwave? (btm)
    • Yes you can
    • Responding to the “How Much is Inside a Million Dollars” website where a man took bill sized paper to approximate a million dollars the website has now used actual one dollar bills to approximate a million dollars.
    • A million dollars would consist of 10,000 bills
    • Pictures show the bags of bills fitting on a DVD rack, in the laundry and, yes, in the microwave.
  • Suuuure…. Blame the Blackberry (udg)
    • Rookie PC candidate George Lepp says he’s embarrassed that a photo of his family jewels was posted on his campaign Twitter account for about 20 minutes before it was quickly unzipped.
    • Alan Sakach, communications director for the Ontario Conservatives, said the photo was inadvertently taken by Lepp’s BlackBerry when it was in his front pocket. The photo was posted after someone took it from the candidate for the riding of Niagara Falls, Ont., according to Sakach.
    • “He is pretty upset and embarrassed,” Sakach said of a photo that was posted on Lepp’s account Sunday. “It was removed as soon as it came to his attention.”
    • QMI Agency obtained grainy copies of the Twitter page images before they were removed.
    • The pictures – too graphic to reproduce – are of a man naked from the waist down, showing a close up of his penis and his crossed legs.
    • Sakach said the device was operating on camera mode in his front pant pocket when it went missing. He added that Lepp suspects it was taken as he was jostled by protestors outside the Dixon Rd. convention centre where the Tories met for the party’s weekend convention.
    • Sakash said he didn’t know if police were called about the stolen BlackBerry
    • “It was an unfortunate circumstance,” Sakach said Sunday. “This is pretty low and juvenile, and we don’t believe it is politically motivated.”
    • Lepp, a Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., farmer and businessman, put the boots last November to Sandy Annunziata, a former Fort Erie, Ont., town councillor and Canadian Football League all-star, in a battle to become the Tory candidate in the provincial riding of Niagara Falls for October’s election.
    • Sakach said the image was first noticed by Lepp’s son, who administers the Twitter account, and was immediately removed.
    • On Friday, he told followers, “1500 people meeting in Toronto to support Ontario working families to stop McGuintys tax and spend policy that is killing Ontario Jobs.”
    • Lepp is credited with helping restructure the sales and marketing of Ontario’s grape and tender fruit industry to provide a more stable livelihood for farmers.
    • The photo of a penis on Lepp’s Twitter account surfaced as Ontario Conservatives vowed in Toronto to force high-risk sex offenders and other dangerous criminals to wear GPS monitoring bracelets.
    • (btm… that was ballsy of him)
  • Prepared to Cheat? Better think again…
    • 2 guys with a pinhole camera and telephones tried to cheat the medical entrance exam
    • Conned 3 others into thinking they were going to be tutors
    • The images seen weren’t test-questions, they were the real thing
    • Students got suspicious, searched for exams being given, figured out they were being scammed, gave him wrong answers til the cops got there
    • Guys are being accused of everything under the sun and the authorities are throwing the book at them
    • Never try to con smart kids… they’re in medical school for a reason.

Extra Links

  • Wet and Warm, That’s How We Like Our Planets (btm)
    • French researchers have confirmed through computer modeling that Gilese 581d has a stable atmosphere, comfortable temperatures and a surface covered with liquid water.
    • The planet is about twice the size of Earth with six times the mass.
    • Orbits a red dwarf star approximately 20 light years away.
    • Scientists say its heavy CO2 atmosphere would be ideal for the development of plant life and where there’s plants there may also be animals.
    • With current technology any probe we sent to check on the planet would just take a century or two.
  • World Record Hot Wheels Jump (kinda) (btm)
    • Crowds at last Sunday’s Indy 500 were treated to a surprise.
    • A world record truck jump at turn 4 of the race track.
    • Stunt driver and Top Gear star Tanner Faust set a new jumping distance world record for a 4-wheeled vehicle.
    • As part of the “Fearless at the 500” promotion Faust  drove down a ramp made to look like a Hot Wheels V-Drop track launching his modified “Pro-2” truck 332 feet beating the previous record of 301 feet.
    • As part of the promotion Faust’s identity was kept secret until the day of the jump even though he has been practicing for months.
    • Previous promotional videos digitally masked Faust’s face.

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