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EA to pull down servers with older online game titles

Gamers still logging onto older versions of Madden, FIFA, Tiger Woods, and others don't have much more time until EA suspends all online gaming features for dozens of titles.

The massive online service shut down will take place in two phases. On September 1, EA will scrap multiplayer capabilities for all 2006 and previous entries in itss FIFA, Madden NFL, Nascar, NBA Live, NCAA Football, NCAA March Madness, NHL, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchises.

Additionally, Arena Football, Fight Night Round 3 (excludes PS2 and next-gen), Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, MVP 07, and NFL Head Coach will all be cut off from the online world on 9/1.

No PS3 games will be affected by the move, but FIFA Soccer 06, Madden NFL 06, NBA Live 06, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 are all Xbox 360 titles that will be part of the online cut-off. The rest of the titles only affect the Xbox, PS2, PC, and PSP versions.

A second service cut-off will happen on November 1 for Burnout Revenge (Xbox, PS2), Need For Speed Underground (PS2, PC), and Need For Speed Most Wanted (PSP, Xbox).
Post Taken from D.J Tech

Bluetooth spec updated to version 2.1+EDR

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has officially adopted the Bluetooth specification 2.1+EDR, which promises to improve the pairing process and the power consumption of Bluetooth devices.

According to a press release, pairing of two or Bluetooth-enabled products is getting much easier with the new spec. While the setup is relatively complex today, the new version will rely on selecting specific types of hardware to be added (such as “Add Headset”) and then wait until the device is found, connected with an encrypted link and paired. If required, the 2.1 spec can use a six digit passkey for eavesdropper protection.

New is also a feature called “sniff subrating”, which will improve battery life of devices such as mice, keyboards, watches, home sensor networks and medical devices by up to five minutes, the Bluetooth SIG said. The feature enables a Bluetooth device to increase the time that passes between connection confirmation, up from currently 1/10 of a second. The time frame is decided dynamically by the device – but the less confirmations the chip has to send the more power it will save.

The group expects silicon vendors such as Broadcom, CSR, Infineon and Texas Instruments to have Bluetooth v2.1+ EDR chips available as of now.

Post Taken From D.J Tech

Pioneer introduces new Blu-ray Disc burner

Pioneer has announced a new Blu-ray Disc PC drive that can burn BD-R as well as rewritable BD-RE media.

The second generation BDR-202 drive from Pioneer has limited equalizer LSI and a liquid crystal tilt compensator, which help in playback and data reading of discs. Additionally, it incorporates ultra DRA technology, designed to reduce the vibrations when burning a disc, according to CDR Info.

The drive can also write and read all forms of blank DVD and CD media. Maximum writing speed is 2x for BD-RE, 4x for BD-R, 6x for DVD-/+RW, 12x for DVD-/+R, and 24x for CD-R/RW.

The BDR-202 is already available in Europe for around 490 euros, and is expected to launch in the US for between $600 and $700.
Post taken from
D.J Tech

Mercury releases supercomputer SDK for PS3

If you are planning to do a lot more with the Playstation 3 than playing games, then here is an opportunity to use the console as a high-performance computing platform.

Mercury Systems said that it has releases its "MultiCore Plus SDK for PS3 - Base Package" just ahead of Siggraph and will follow up with a more elaborate version on August 6. Provided you have not just casual development experience, Mercury promises that the kit offers the tools to dive into the processing power of the Cell processor in an “affordable” way and simplify the transition to multi-core programming for developers.

According to the company, the SDK will run (YellowDog) Linux on the PS3 without overhead, data movement and computation automatically, and fine-tune application performance. Included in the $399 per seat software is a trace analysis tool, which monitors dynamic multiprocessor and multi-core interactions and detects performance bottlenecks and visualizes deadlocks (both functions require an x86 PC as host.)

Pricing for the upcoming “MultiCore Plus SDK for PS3 - Scientific Algorithm Library Add-on Package” has not been announced. However, Mercury promises the software to include “over 600 functions for use in compute intensive applications” and “over 100 image and signal processing functions optimized specifically for the Cell architecture.”

The Playstation 3 has been at the center of third party applications virtually from the beginning of its release. The Folding@Home PS3 project, announced back in March of thsi year, has emerged as one of the most popular third-party and supercomputing uses for the platform.

Post Taken From D.J Tech

Intel and $100 laptop join forces

Chip-maker Intel has joined forces with the makers of the $100 laptop.
The agreement marks a huge turnaround for both the not-for-profit One Laptop per Child (OLPC) foundation and Intel.

In May this year, Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of OLPC, said the silicon giant "should be ashamed of itself" for efforts to undermine his initiative.

He accused Intel of selling its own cut-price laptop - the Classmate PC - below cost to drive him out of markets in the developing world.

"What happened in the past has happened," Will Swope of Intel told the BBC News website. "But going forward, this allows the two organisations to go do a better job and have a better impact for what we are both very eager to do, which is help kids around the world."

Nicholas Negroponte, founder of One Laptop per Child, said: "Intel joins the OLPC board as a world leader in technology, helping reach the world's children. Collaboration with Intel means that the maximum number of laptops will reach children."

Intel inside

The new agreement means that Intel will sit alongside the 11 companies, including Google and Red Hat, which are partners in the OLPC scheme.

It will also join rival chip-maker AMD, which supplies the processor at the heart of the $100 laptop.

"Intel's apparent change of heart is welcome, and we're sure they can make a positive contribution to this very worthy project for the benefit of children all over the world," read a statement from AMD.
Initially there are no plans to switch the processor to one designed by Intel. However, the servers used to back-up the XO laptops, as they are known, will have Intel technology at their core.

Decisions about the hardware inside the XO laptop would be made by OLPC, said Mr Swope.

"OLPC will decide about which products they choose to offer or not offer," he said.

OLPC, however, indicated that it would consider using Intel chips in its machines in the future.

Walter Bender, head of software development at OLPC, told the BBC News website that he believed OLPC would eventually offer different computers with different hardware.

"I think we will end up with a family of products that run across a wide variety of needs," he said. "Intel will be part of that mix."

Price test

In addition, the partnership will have a practical pay off for software developers.

"Any software you build is going to run at least on our two platforms," said Mr Swope.
An application developed for the XO laptop should work on the Classmate and vice versa.

"That's the exciting thing for me," said Mr Bender.

Currently both laptops are being tested in schools around the world. In parallel, OLPC is finalising orders for the first batch of computers.

Participating countries are able to purchase the XO in lots of 250,000. They will initially cost $176 (£90) but the eventual aim is to sell the machine to governments of developing countries for $100 (£50).

Intel says it already has orders for "thousands" of Classmates, which currently cost over $200 (£100).

Like the OLPC machine, Intel expects the price to eventually fall.

Windows Messenger to show Xbox live friends

Microsoft is launching a new service called Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360 which will enable users of these two services to merge their friends lists. That means xbox live users can see their friends lists in windows messenger and vice versa.

NotifyChatDash, originally uploaded by Major Nelson.

Scratch: Programming for kids

Scratch is a tool aimed at kids to make animations, games and interactive artworks, scratch is developed by MIT media lab.

With scratch anyone can create animations or games with out knowing any programing language. One can import pictures from the computer and start animating it, the program provides buttons that have programmed to do activities like move forward, backward, rotate etc. Adding sounds to the presentations and some other characters is easy, the characters colors and costumes can be changed in few mouse clicks. Overall kids will enjoy doing stuff like this.

Your creations can be posted to the scratch site to share with the world and comment on others creations.

“With Scratch we want to let kids to be the creators. We want them to create interesting dynamic things on the computer.”

The program works by making the act of creating a computer program more like building with Lego bricks.

“Kids make programs by snapping blocks together,” said Professor Resnick, whose position is in part supported by the toy company.

Objects and characters, chosen from a menu and created in a paint editor or simply cut and pasted off the web, are animated by snapping together different “action” blocks into stacks.

Scratch is now available to download for free and works with both Apple Macs, Windows and Linux version expected in the late 2007.

Scratch site is currently down after it hit digg front page.

Create Your Own Internet Radio Station with ubroadcast

With ubroadcast you can create and broadcast your own internet radio station. Users can host a Live talk radio or music show easily with ubroadcast, above all its free.

How it works:

Users have to download software from ubroadcast website, there are two different software, one is player for listening and other is Station Manager for broadcasting. You can use station manager to broadcast your show with play list support, inline CD ripping, MP3 uploading etc. You can also add commercials if you want to sell advertising in your shows.

It just takes few minute to get start with the software, it has an inbuilt registration system to quickly setup the station. Once you registered you can start broadcasting live content, upload music from MP3’s or select from other ubroadcast members.

You can broadcast recorded content 24 hours a day or go live whenever you want. It is a good option if you want to set a radio station with your music. Although it is free you need to enter credit card information while registering as a broadcaster.

Yahoo to buy MySpace and Google to buy Apple?

Yesterday there was a rumor about Yahoo and MySpace deal, TechCrunch reported that News Corp is in talks with Yahoo, where Yahoo will buy MySpace and in return 25% stake in the combined Yahoo and Myspace for News corp. Based on the current Yahoo market value Myspace is worth $12 billion.

Mashable has a story on Google may be interested to buy Apple. I don’t know how much truth is in that but a few other sites also reported that. Given the recent happenings between two companies anything is possible. If this deal ever happen then Microsoft have tough time with these two companies merger.

What do you think about these rumors?

Want To Talk To Someone Human From Now On?

We’ve all heard them, we’ve all dealt with them, we’re all sick of them…automated phone systems. Press 1 for billing, press 2 for service, press 3 to shoot yourself in the head. Nine times out of ten, the operator can do the same task you need with in a matter of seconds and the automated system is only there to annoy people to the point that they hang up and never call back. There’s even the rising popularity of automated voice recognition systems as well, which are even worse. Finally, someone has come up with a simple answer.

Gethuman.com is collection of 500 of the larger businesses that you may deal with on a day to day basis. They provide the 800 number, and the process of skipping past all of the automated BS. Be sure to add this do del.icio.us. Definitely something that will come in handy.

Check it out: Gethuman.com

Ultra Free Passwords for Ultra Security from GRC.com

(Please Consult Your Manual for Wireless Router Security Configuration)

Steve Gibson is one the smartest internet Security experts on the web. You can listen to his podcast over at www.twit.tv called Security Now. A weekly show with host Leo Laporte about Security Vulnerabilities, applications and fine tuning. Some of the early episodes they discussed Wireless routers and securing them with various options, with one of the strongest being WPA-PSK.

The vast majority of people with wireless networks at home, go out, buy a wireless router, bring it home, plug it in and go “WOW!, I’M WIRELESS”. They then leave it wide open for other users to steal their internet connection for doing whatever they want. The vast majority also don’t realize that your router has an administrative menu that can be hacked and modified for other’s use. Of course, that can be reset, but that is beside the point. The point is, if your network is unsecure, your network can be hacked and a smart hacker can even possibly access network storage and/or computers. This is especially a problem in large apartment complexes where dozens of wireless networks are.

That is why you MUST secure your network. Early versions of wireless routers, cards and laptops only supported WEP encryption. A solid, but very vunerable security standard. If that’s your only option, go with it, just realize that there free applications out there that CAN get around it. WPA-PSK is a different animal all together.

WPA-PSK is up to a 64 bit Encryption standard that is supported by many modern laptops and supports just about any character imaginable. You can type this in yourself, or you can take advantage of excellent resource brought to you by who else, Steve Gibson. Here it is:

GRC.com’s Perfect Passwords

And here is an excerpt from that page:

Generating long, high-quality random passwords is
not simple. So here is some totally random raw
material, generated just for YOU, to start with.

Every time this page is displayed, our server generates a unique set of custom, high quality, cryptographic-strength password strings which are safe for you to use:

On that page, you’ll find three different sets of passwords types. I usually use the ASCII version, because it looks unhackable.

Become Your Own Wireless Hotspot With 2HotSpot

Are you sick of your incredibly high broadband bill? Would you like to have a quick an easy access point friends and family to join your wireless network? or are starting up your own business and don’t want to have pay the extra cost for a high end hotspot hardware device or application? Then this software is just for your from 2HotSpot.com.

2HotSpot allows you to create your own hotspot, similar to what you see in many hotels, airports and coffee shops, but from within the confines of your own home. This gives you the convenience of connecting friends and family very quickly, allows you to possibly split the broadband bill you’re paying every month, or even add additional security to your wireless access point or router. The software is completely free of charge and only requires that you have an internet connection, you have a wireless enabled router, or you have a WIFI enabled NIC. Looks like it has some incredible benefits, and looks like something many small businesses could take advantage of in many different ways.

Check it out: 2HotSpot.com

Digital Camera SD Cards w/Wi-Fi Built In Still On the Horizon

Upon first hearing about this technology, I really thought it sounded like the future of digital camera storage. The idea was Wi-Fi built into your digital camera. The ability to take your pictures, save them temporarily onto a storage card and then upload them to your photo sharing site of your choice. Depending on how much storage capability you have, you are almost given a limitless amount of disk space to work with.

There have been a few introductory cameras that have WI-FI integrated, but the technology has yet to take off probably due to:

A. Limited widespread Wi-Fi hotspots.
B. Digital camera companies, just like printer companies(ink cartridges), make a bundle on external storage.
C. Although improving, Wi-Fi’s lackluster speeds.

Hopefully ideas, such as the one brought to us by Eye-Fi, will change all that. Eye-Fi is releasing a standard 2GB SD card, that will in addition have the ability to connect to WI-FI networks. At a $100.00 price tag, they’re aren’t anything out of the norm. They’ve already locked $5Mil+ in capital with hopes that as both WI-FI and digital cameras continue to explode onto the scene, enthusiasts will take advantage of both of these technologies at the same time.

Shocking : Cell phone Battery blast kills youth in China

A 22-year-old Welder In North-western China Died When His Cell Phone Battery Exploded As He Was Working In Hot Temperature.

The Battery Exploded While The Phone Was In The Man’s Pocket As He Was Welding At A Factory In Shuangcheng In Jinta County In Gansu Province, The Lanzhou Chenbao Reported, Adding That The Death Was Believed To Be The First In China Caused By A Cell Phone Battery.

The June 19 Blast Broke A Rib And Drove It Into The Man’s Heart And He Collapsed In A Pool Of Blood, The Report Said. He Was Taken To Hospital But Died There.

The Manufacturer Of The Phone Was Notified And Dispatched Experts To Jinta To Conduct An Investigation

Gosh !!! I have heard that we should not use the cell phones at higher temperature, but that could result something like this , I was totally unaware of. Even though the person was welding at a factory , I doubt that temperature could be so high to exceed the sustainability of a battery . So is temperature could be the only cause ?? Or the quality of the battery ??( Chinese )
I have checked my nokia phone , even though its finland made, the battery label states “Made in China”.
Anyway prevention is better and hence avoid taking your phone at high temperature places.

Cellphone rays are harmful : Underwears may help protection

Cellphone radiations are still a matter of concern for the users. Many even say talking a lot on phone without the usage of a handsfree accessory can even cause short term memory loss.

According to science news

A single 2-hour exposure to the microwaves emitted by some cell phones kills brain cells in rats, a group of Swedish researchers claims. If confirmed, the results would be the first to directly link cell-phone radiation to brain damage in any animal.

Many people even say that carrying a mobile phone in your pant pocket may even cause sterility , however the point is yet to be proved.According to textually, a Swiss clothing manufacturer Isabodywear is launching a special line of men’s underwear that claims to protect

“men’s sperm from harmful cell phone radiation”.

The briefs are made with threads of silver which the company claims blocks cell phone rays and reception. The inventor, Andreas Sallmann, explains that when you put a cell phone inside your briefs, then dial your number from another phone, you probably won’t even get a signal.

4000 black (only) briefs have been made so far and 500 will be been given away for test purposes, by simply sending the company an email.
Product seems to have raised concerns over cell phone radiations and hope this wont be the last product in this range.

Cnet has given clear review about cell phone radiation level based on SAR (specific absorption rate) level.
According to the review :

SAR or specific absorption rate is “a way of measuring the quantity of radiofrequency (RF) energy that is absorbed by the body.” For a phone to pass FCC certification, that phone’s maximum SAR level must be less than 1.6W/kg (watts per kilogram). In Europe, the level is capped at 2W/kg.

You can check SAR level based on company model here.

World’s fastest internet : 40 gbps, can download full HD DVD in 2 seconds

ts not a rumor , its something which is live in Swedon in a 75 year old lady Sigbritt Löthberg’s house.She is the mother of Swedish internet legend Peter Löthberg who, along with Karlstad Stadsnät, the local council’s network arm, has arranged the connection.

As reported the trick behind the setup is a “new modulation technique which allows data to be transferred directly between two routers up to 2,000-kilometers apart with no intermediary transponders

The power of such high speed internet connection , gives Sigbritt an option to download a full HD DVD movie in just 2 seconds.

Amazing isnt it ?? This is how fiber optic technology for transferring the data can revolutionize the internet world. Time is not that far when this kind of high speed internet will be available worldwide and that too on a wide scale because of the rising demand of high definition audio video,which result in exponential increase in size of a small video clips.

Some time back I heard the news , that some celebrities are kind of scared of High Definition Video as it may make their wrinkles on face visible on the big screen. This just gives an idea of the clarity in HD video.

Nokia N series phones making Computer Jealous ??

Nokia’s much hyped N series (But no where near to Iphone ) stated as multimedia computers can make your computer or laptops extremely jealous. Well the idea is created by a Nokia N95 user , whose laptop started behaving strange (actually jealous ), when he started using his phone for just everything for which he normally used his laptop for.

The warning given in the video states that “N series phone Can be Dangerous for Health”. Apocalypso is the author at Symbian-freak , who seems to be behind the Idea.

A short description at the video sounds pretty interesting :

Well, in my personal opinion, computers are just like women, and now, at least, I have a proof for that.

You see, my lovely computer got extremely jealous and pissed off because I ran off to sunny along the beautiful Croatia’s Dalmatian coastline, taking in amazing islands such as Brac, Hvar, Vis and Korcula to spend a hot summer with a sexy, sleek, stylish, fancy and powerful Nokia N95, leaving my poor desktop stored far away at my home and my laptop in the hotel room to collecting dust.

This jealousy has driven my laptop to refusing to start up last few days and now it seems that I can expect even more serious reactions.

The HeCoVoG encourages us all to ensure that every Nseries user is aware of the dangers they face by using their device and have categorically stated that both of you guys face an increased risk.

Buy the Worst of Barron's 500

Every year, Barrons publishes a ranking of the top 500 companies. A subsidiary of Credit Suisse (Holt) is the entity that has come up with the methodology for these rankings. I will not bother to explain the methodology since the point of this post is not to critique nor endorse these rankings. Rather, I looked at the last 3 years (2004, 2005 and 2006) rankings, and came up with some interesting observations that I wanted to share.

I examined the Top 10 and the Bottom 10 stocks from each of the lists over the last 3 years, in other words, stocks ranked 1 to 10 and 491 to 500. What I noticed was that the best performing group of stocks over the 3 years were those ranked 496 to 500 - the 5 worst ranked stocks.

Indeed, these worst 5 stocks from the lists of 2004, 2005 and 2006, yielded investors 45%, 32% and 12.5% respectively in the 52 weeks that followed the date the rankings were published. Over the three years, this was the best group to invest in.

Another interesting fact was that the second best performing group to invest in, was the group ranked 491 to 500 - the 10 worst ranked stocks. Over the three years mentioned above, this group returned 30%, 18.5% and 18.5% respectively.

Considering that 2004, 2005 and 2006 were all bull years when the S&P returned 8%, 2.5% and 13% respectively, one would have thought that the worst 5 or 10 stocks in the Barrons rankings would underperform the S&P 500 somewhat, let alone outperform the top 5 and top 10 stocks. But if you look at the 52-week performance of these bottom tier stocks leading up to the publish date of the rankings, they lagged the top ranked stocks by a huge margin. In fact, leading up to the rankings, the Top 10 ranked stocks each year were already up 83%, 31% and 56% respectively over 52 weeks. Compare this to the Bottom 5 ranked stocks which were down 23%, 8% and 7% respectively over the same period.

In other words, stocks that have had strong performance leading up to the Barrons 500 Rankings issue tend to be ranked at the top, even though these stocks hardly ever replicate their big move after the rankings. Meanwhile, stocks ranked at the bottom are ranked so on the heels of underperformance, and turn out to be solid value plays in the weeks following.

The tables below illustrate my point:

*BOY above shows gains/losses from the beginning of the year to date of publishing.

Do Not Let Controversy Cloud Judgement on Whole Foods

Whole Foods (WFMI) is a organic grocer that people love to frequent. But this once darling of wall street is a fallen angel, with the stock plummetting from $80 back in December of 2005 to a recent $40. In fact, the stock is at the same level as it last was back in August of 2004.

The 50% drop in stock price over the last 18 months seems justified. After all, revenues have been increasing in low double digits, guidance has been poor, margins have been shrinking, larger competitors like Safeway (SWY) and Kroger (KR) have started selling organic foods so there is plenty of competition and above all, earnings have been falling.

The most recent controversy surrounding the CEO of Whole Foods posting frequent messages on Yahoo Finance's message boards is another blow to the company. Or is it? The attention that the company will get from all the chatter about the CEO, not to mention the subsequent ouster of John Mackey, which seems to be on the cards now, might actually be a good thing for the stock. Perhaps this is one of the reasons the stock was up almost 4% today on higher than average volume. Either that or some of 14% shares shorted were covered.

With almost 200 stores, Whole Foods is still a young chain. in comparison, Safeway has over 1700 stores in US and Canada. But does Whole Foods really compete with Safeway? Perhaps it competes with Safeway's upscale Pavilions chain, but certainly not Vons or Randalls. Whole Food's specialty is organic foods, but the shopping experience there is far more superior than at most other grocers.

The point here is not to be outright bullish or bearish on WFMI. I think there is a contrarian opportunity to be had here, but investors on either side will need to be patient and adventurous.