Sunday, May 31, 2009

25 Amazing pictures of lightning



These pictures are BREATH TAKING and wow o wow i am attaching few juicy samples for the real deal head over to the page i got these pictures from



25 Electrifying Pictures of Lightning Photography � Digital Picture Zone

More of E3 Madness Spliter Cell Convication and Assassain's Creed 2 Videos Leaked

LOL like PSP Go wasn't enough to stirr the cyber world here we go with leaked video footage of Conviction and Assassain's Creed 2's videos, they are very short but hey something is better than nothing, Courtesy of Kotaku

Kotaku - Sieve-Like Ubi Site Leaking Splinter Cell, Assassin's Creed Vids - Assassin's Creed

PSP Go leaked before E3



Would Sony be able to keep SOMETHING as a surprise for us? we have been hearing the rumors of a new PSP and today there were pictures leaked of it (PSP Go) on different forums and yes the news spreads like fire


Edit: More details, its 16GB internal storage and also has bluetooth plus it has slot for memory cards and is going to be UMD less



Edit 2: One more picture added

Edit 3: Video added



Fore More Screens: http://www.eurogamer.net/gallery.php?article_id=587698
Thread On Playstation Forums: http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=e3expo09&thread.id=1906

Saturday, May 30, 2009

The VGC Top 100 Best Games of All Time, #10-1 - VGChartz - Video Game Charts News Reviews Cheats Tips FAQs Walkthroughs Forums

The VGC Top 100 Best Games of All Time, #10-1 - VGChartz - Video Game Charts News Reviews Cheats Tips FAQs Walkthroughs Forums

Debatable list many would say, OMG i am so much hyper about E3 can't stop reading, writing and talking (much to annoyance of my wife) about games! :)

Crispy Gamer - Feature: STFU 2009: The 10 People We Hope Will Shut the F*** Up at This Year's E3

Crispy Gamer - Feature: STFU 2009: The 10 People We Hope Will Shut the F*** Up at This Year's E3

NFS Shift I Hope It Doesn't Turns Out To Be NFS Shit

It's been ages i have played a decent NFS game, No honestly NFS Porsche unleashed was one awesome game, Hotpursuit was great fun but than it all went down the drain with the franchies and now EA comes out with a dazzling trailer for NFS:Shift which is supposed to take NFS to a whole new level by being realistic simulator much in line with Forza and Grand Trissmo franchise than being arcade game.



The trailer looks awesome but this is one game i won't jump to buy when its released i'd rather wait to go through few reviews before jumping onto this one, Sorry but NFS franchise have totally lost its credibility with me and its going to take some convincing to get that confidence back.

Kojima Mystery What's Going To Happen On 1st June 09


Kojima apart from excelling in making games knows the art of marketing and he certainly knows how to play around with his fans. Past week has been crazy with speculations, theories, my brother's friend's uncle who works in Konami told me, Fanboy fights and what not. I am sure all through this Kojima is sitting comfortably laughing his ass on us trying to guess what's coming our way.

Things To Keep In Mind
Few things about MGS

1. We already know that Kojima have previously claimed not to make any further MGS game and yet we saw him bringing a new chapter in the franchise to fans.

2. MGS as a series has not beeen TOTALLY exclusive, it has been ported to PC and on XBOX (Correct me if i am wrong but MGS 2: Substance was on XBOX too, right?)

3. The main character of the game has not alwaays been Snake, We have played as Big Boss and also as Raiden, so If we end up playing as Sunny, Big Boss, Gray Fox or anyone else for that matter I won't be surprised

4. Kojima have also taken us back in time during the franchise and we have played through different era's as different characters to tell the story from different aspects, So if the stage is set back in time it won't be something which should come as a surprise to gamers.

5. Kojima have said that MGS 4 will not be ported to XBOX 360 but he certainly never said anything about MGS 5 or for any other product.

What's Gonna Happen?

So once we have refereshed our memory with these "facts" here are my predictions for 1st June 2009

1. MGS 5 would be announced

2. Player will play as Big Boss and as Sunny doing different chapters from different point of view.

3. The game will be exclusive (if not than alteast timed exclusive) for PS3. The reason why i say this is becasue of the timer, It's ending on the exact same date as the Microsoft's E3 conference, i personally believe this is done delibrately to take the thunder away from Microsoft's Press Conference by announcing an exclusive to PS3, that would definately be a big announcement and boards and internet traffic would be full of OMFG OMFG OMFG OMFG XBOX SUXX0R kinda messages.

What I Wish

What i wish though is to see MGS 5 on both Ps3 and XBOX 360, i never did liked the idea of exclusives, It would be nice to have a game offered on different platform so everyone can enjoy it.

Awesome kickass scenes which are not in the movie

Came across this awesome post :)

http://io9.com/5272895/kick+ass-scenes-that-are-in-trailers-but-arent-in-the-movies

Is Zune HD a step towards iPhone Killer?


Oh i know i might get blasted by Apple fan bois but lets face the fact this move from Microsoft to bring a very (let me repeat myself VERY) slick looking device which directly goes to compete against iPod Touch is something to think about.

From the specs it offers everything the Touch does PLUS the HD Radio and HD Video Out, talk about having a portable HD Player with you all the time, I don't know about others but hey it would make life much simple for me (Carrying the Zune HD to other room plugging it to HDTV and watching the movie is much easier the messing with Windows Media Connect and banging your head if its not working or you get jerks in the playback.

What's next? This is a question mark if you ask me, Can Microsoft's ultimate goal be to enter the celluar market and go against Andriod? Although Google is not there with hardware only software but still that's a market segement which in my opinion Microsoft must be keeping an eye out for.

Saving the keyboard after a spill

Directly from Lifehacker.com a awesome tip

If you've used a computer for any significant amount of time, you've also probably facepalmed after spilling some potentially sticky substance into the recesses of your keyboard. (If you haven't, your day will come.) Here's how to save your keyboard after that spill.

As I was finishing up work last night, I accidentally knocked a half-full glass of Diet Coke over and got some in my keyboard. Argh! I shook it out and went on my way, but then this morning 7's and 8's were mysteriously inserting themselves into words, and the spacebar was only working intermittently.

A spill doesn't necessarily mean keyboard death, but resuscitation can take some elbow grease. Unplug the keyboard (or for wireless models, remove the batteries), break out the screwdriver, and take that baby apart. It can take some time; my Logitech has at least two dozen screws holding it together. Lay out the pieces one by one and wipe them down with a slightly-damp cloth to get off any sticky residue. Use a dry paper towel to mop up drops. If you've got compressed air handy, this is a great time to blow out any dust, too.

When all the parts are dry as a bone, carefully reassemble them. All's well for me now; I'm typing this very post on the keyboard. Here are some photos of my keyboard's innards from this morning's clean-up.

Read the full article along with pictures

http://tinyurl.com/n6425c

Search is going to get lot smarter - Google Co Founder

Sergey Brin: 'Search is going to get smarter'

Expect to be surprised says Google co-founder


The size of the web isn't the problem for search, Google co-founder Sergey Brin claimed at the Google IO conference this week. Instead, the problem is the kind of questions search users want answered.

Brin says adding intelligence to search is the way to solve the problem. "We are starting to see more inherent smarts in the search engine. Google Squared [a new service similar to Wolfram Alpha] combines information from hundreds of pages and put it in a table for you. You're going to see an increasing amount of that kind of smarts going on - you'll feel the search engine is smart."

http://tinyurl.com/n3o5r2


Google Wave Video

A preview of the Google Wave check out the video, It looks and sounds impressive but will it be easy for us as consumers to change our computing habbits for wave? I mean c'mon facebook, twitter, msn and what not we are used to those things, hmmmm keeping my fingers crossed here

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

DOD developing portable hacking device for soldiers

It's not exactly news that the Department of Defense is looking at ways to make hacking a more practical weapon, but it looks to really be stepping up its game with its latest project, which promises to make complicated attacks as simple as a few button presses. That would apparently be possible thanks to a slightly mysterious device that'd be small enough to carry around in a backpack, but powerful enough to do everything from breaking into a wireless network to hacking into SCADA (or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems (used at power plants, nuclear facilities, and the like). While complete details are obviously a bit light, the system would apparently be able to, for instance, map out the nodes in a wireless network, cause them to disconnect, and watch them come back online to identify weak spots. It would then present the "hacker" with various attack attributes that could simply be adjusted using sliders on a touchscreen. No word if the soldiers will also be rewarded with Achievements.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/26/defense-department-developing-portable-hacking-device-for-soldie/

What's gonna happen on June 1st, 2009

For those people who don't understand what's on June 1st, well E3 2009 is gonna kick off with Microsoft's press conference and if that was not enough its the same date on which Kojima and his website's (http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/next/index.html) counter will end. Here is what i think is the relevance between them and is going to happen.

I personally believe Kojima is cleverly being used by Sony to under mine the Microsoft's press conference, The counter is going to end on June 1st the very same day Microsoft's press conference and they are going to announce another Metal Gear Solid game exclusive to PS3 thus creating a lot of vibe and taking the share of the publicity away from Microsoft.

I maybe wrong and like many fanbois out there hope that Kojima will announce MGS-5 and it would be on XBOX 360 so lets see :-)

Monday, May 25, 2009

Pacman The Real Deal

Who haven't heard about Pacman perhaps one of the most popular video game character ever, Remi (A guy who goes around doing insanely stupid and funny videos) and his pals decided to do real life Pacman and the result is hilarious

Reality TV

Introduction

Although the invention of television and related technology can be dated as back as late 1800’s commercial television was not around till mid 1900’s, the original debut of commercial TV was shadowed by World War II and got fame after the war ended.

Reality TV - Introduction

What exactly is reality TV? It is a genre / category of television programming in which there is no concept of pre scripted events or dialogues and is more focused on real time events not to be mistaken with documentaries and news / sports shows.

Reality TV - History

Reality TV can be dated back to as far as 1940’s with early shows as Candid Camera which was instant hit to early 1950’s Miss America Beauty Pageant laid strong foundations for Reality TV.

Reality TV - Reason for Popularity

Many factors can be accounted for outstanding popularity of Reality TV, few of them are listed below,

• Ordinary people coming on national television.
• Ability of turning ordinary people into celebrities.
• Unscripted events can lead to humorous situations.
• Provides chance to earn huge amount of money by participating in shows.
• People like to enjoy pain, agony, happiness and other emotional situation of another person.


Reality TV – Critical View

Although Reality TV is perhaps one of the most genres of television programming, It has its own lion’s share of criticism, We shall discuss the criticism based on morals, ethics and social point of views.

Morals / Social / Ethics

Different people from different parts of world and belonging to different casts, religion, and moral values cannot agree or be happy with the idea a director or producer had for the show, popular example would be dating shows which encourage girls and boys to come ahead and explore dating and unmarried sex which is prohibited in Islam and Christianity.

A certain type of show may not be popular in a certain area of the world (Temptation Island was a big failure in India) and popularity and success of the show depends on the social and ethnic background of the people.

Humiliation

Often reality TV shows are subject to criticism based on a phenomenon known as schadenfreude (German word meaning enjoyment taken from the misfortune of someone else.) Often in shows such as Candit Camera, America’s Funniest Home Videos etc, We end up laughing at someone’s account without taking into context how the other person is feeling about the issue.

Are They Real?

One skeptic view of reality TV is that the events portrayed and viewers see on their TV screen are not real but are pre scripted events and are molded according to surveys conducted to see what end viewer wants


Reality TV – Are WE Responsible

We as a viewer are 100% responsible for encouraging TV channels to come up with more and more ridiculous excuse for programs all in name of “reality tv”, programs ranging from “Khuwaja Ki Idalat” to “Living On The Edge” are just few examples of what our media is working on now days.

The concept of quality programming and shows is dying day by day because of viewers and their craving for reality TV. We won’t blame TV channels because they would not be launching a TV and spending xyz amount of money on it without conducting proper surveys and studies so they before hand know that its going to pay them back.


Reality TV – Media Point of View

We shall not be biased in bashing Reality TV and therefore we shall explore the point of view of a TV channel which is busily producing such reality TV shows.

At the end of the day a show is considered as success if it generates viewership and advertisement revenue. In a cut throat competition like we have in our country a producer / director is living on the edge (no pun intended to the reality tv show bearing the similar name) and is often forced to come up (our polite choice of word for plagiarism) inspired by some foreign show.


Reality TV – What Can We Do? (Media Point Of View)

Its not necessary to follow western media and copy each and everything they do, We cannot deny the fact that reality TV is popular but we can use all that popularity, all that energy into something positive by making a show which encourages some social issue, award a deserving individual by promoting him/her or making life of a deserving family better.

A show can be created to start a competition for individuals to adopt a particular area of suburbs and teach certain amount of children, Or the same amount of energy which is wasted doing dares (By now you can tell how much we HATE that show) can be utilized by making the individual help someone deserving by dare (anything which can make someone do a good cause).

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Consumer Rights In Pakistan

Edit: Found this URL courtesy of Abbas at WCCK, its for Customer Rights Council Pakistan

http://www.crc.org.pk/

Originally posted on PakGamers.com

http://www.pakgamers.com/forums/chit-chat-cafe/29682-pakistan-consumer-court-playstation-3-must-read.html


The is a true story. I will not give out all the details and will have to cut the story short.


The primary purpose of reporting it here on pakgamers is so that each one of you who spends his hard earned halal money on console or games has basic protection.


The secondry purpose of posting this story is to teach all the shop owners a lesson that they cannot screw a customer ever again

PG Spoiler
Btw a little bit of factual information before i tell the incident.Coz i have read on various threads that people go to kiran zone after the guy at futurezone screws with them. Kiran Zone,Future Zone,Gameshock and several others including all their branches may it be in defence or model town or where ever are owned by the SAME person.

There is only one owner. most people don't know that. I personally know the owners son and they are the biggest importer and exporters of consoles in pakistan. he told me last month they exported 20,000 ps3's only to Iran and not counting other countries .so you can imagine how huge their business is. so it doesn't matter if you purchase a console at kiran zone or futurezone the money goes to the same man


Now with what happened..... I purchased a PS3 from a shop ( not going to name them coz their business might suffer ). A week later the lens of the PS3 dies.

when I was purchasing the PS3 the shopkeeper told me that there is no warranty or guarantee on the console. I was only allowed to check it in the shop and thats it.

I told him that it was a wrong and illegal practice so why was he doing it?

He told me that they don't get any warranty from behind so they don't offer any.

I told him that under the law ( which many ppl arn't aware off until consumer courts came ) if a trader sells an item and makes profit on it and the customer has a receipt. the shopkeeper is responsible for any kind of defect in the product that may arise in a reasonable amount of time.

He just nodded his head and i bought the system a couple of games and TOLD HIM TO MAKE A RECEIPT He hesitantly started making one and on top of the receipt wrote" NO WARRANTY AND GUARANTEE" So i called the shopkeeper 'Ghattaia and cheap' and came back home with the console.

A week later while playing call of duty(which i have a platinum trophy for ) the game just got stuck and upon restarting the console it refused to read any disc.

I called the shop and informed him of the problem. He obviously tried to put the blame on me by saing that " I MUST HAVE BEEN WATCHING DVD MOVIES ON IT ".

Which I was not.( I had read reports on the internet of lens failing by inserting cheap dvd media discs in the PS3 )

After some quarrelling on the phone he offered to replace the lens for Rs: 3500. Which I refused by telling that i had paid money for a new PS3 not a repaired one.

He did not agree so i decided to contact the consumer courts.

The reason I came to know of their existence was through newspapers which reported on their daily activities on generators,UPS,Shampoos( YES Shampoo, woman paid RS 50,000 coz a shalmi made shampoo made her go bald LOL) ,mineral water, ETC.

To cut the story short within 1 hour of meeting with a lawyer at the consumer court my mobile was ringing off the hook as the shopkeeper was calling to apologize.

He said that I can get the PS3 fixed for FREE or i can have a full refund.

I went for the refund.

Moral of the story is that YOU as a customer have rights, so it does not matter weather your PS3 lens died or your 360 got RROD like in a week of purchase. If you have a receipt you can take the shop keeper to court.

I hope I delivered my message clearly and saved ppl thousand of ruppes.


1UP for Consumer rights

Friday, May 22, 2009

OpenSSH is Open After All

"Researchers at the Royal Holloway, University of London have discovered a flaw in Version 4.7 of OpenSSH on Debian/GNU Linux. According to ISG lead professor Kenny Patterson, an attacker has a 2^{-18} (that is, one in 262,144) chance of success. Patterson tells that this is more significant than past discoveries because 'This is a design flaw in OpenSSH. The other vulnerabilities have been more about coding errors.' The vulnerability is possible by a man-in-the-middle intercepting blocks of encrypted material as it passes. The attacker then re-transmits the data back to the server and counts the number of bytes before the server to throws error messages and disconnects the attacker. Using this information, the attacker can work backwards to figure out the first 4 bytes of data before encryption. 'The attack relies on flaws in the RFC (Request for Comments) internet standards that define SSH, said Patterson. ... Patterson said that he did not believe this flaw had been exploited in the wild, and that to deduce a message of appreciable length could take days.'"

New Version Of Google Chrome Is Out

New Version Of Chrome Is Out

"Google has released the second major version of the Chrome browser. This version features more speed improvements thanks to a newer version of V8 JavaScript engine and WebKit. JavaScript-heavy web pages will now run about 30% faster. Other new features include form autofill, fullscreen mode, and improved New Tab page. If you're already using Google Chrome, you'll be automatically updated with these new features soon. If you haven't downloaded Google Chrome, you can get the latest version at google.com/chrome."

I personally like chrome but i find it too basic in features to be used as my primary browser, so till the time chromes matures and gets good extensions like trusty ol firefox, I am not going to switch.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

We Support Our Troops

Dedicated to our brave men and women fighting with enemies of our nation, We are with you