Monday, July 23, 2001

Palm PDAs Get ARM'd -- 11:40 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Palm will announce tomorrow that they will be porting the PalmOS to ARM processors. Many of the WinCE devices are already powered by ARM. This could be interesting if Palm, Handspring, TRG, et al, can keep the price down. This would give PalmOS devices all the speed without the OS eating all the cycles like WinCE does. For now (and the forseeable future) I am more than happy with my Handspring Visor Deluxe. Thanks Slashdot.

More SirCam -- 10:19 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Tons of people all over the Net are reporting being hit by literally hundreds of copies of the SirCam worm. 3D Realms' Joe Siegler updated his .plan with word that he got 200 over the weekend. With the attachments, that amounts to an awful lot of wasted mail server traffic. I guess it just proves that people are still stupid and will open any and every attachment without thinking twice about it. Arrrggh.

The Master comments: The mail server at my office got hit with this one, but I don't know how severly. Sounds like a really fun virus tho. Once infected, running ANY executable will send the virus to EVERYONE on your contact list. Wheee.

New Ask Sweeney -- 9:02 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

VoodooExtreme updated their Ask (Epic's Tim) Sweeney column. In this installment, Sweeney tackles such topics as the XBox, z-buffer precision, and even Linux gaming. Check it out!

Sunday, July 22, 2001

Games Are Good For You -- 8:56 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

A British government-funding study indicates video games make children brighter. Games helped with concentration and coordination, and the gamers were well-adjusted. Thanks Slashdot.

I think this article makes a very valid point. Gamers who have a life outside of gaming are going to be well-adjusted. Those who never escape the glare of a CRT are going to have problems. If your kid is a head case to begin with, playing Quake probably won't help. If your kid is developing relatively normally, Quake won't turn him into a psychopath. Why people insist on looking at removing games as a quick-fix to all the problems of youth is beyond me. Actually, I know why. It's easier to blame a game than to say, "I'm a crappy parent."

ION Fallout -- 12:01 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

A rather disgruntled ex-ION-Storm-Dallas employee made a post on the PlanetAnachronox boards (thanks Voodoo Extreme) about the disintigration of ION Dallas:

Look. I didn't sign any NDA, so if the EIDOS lawyers come to chomp my beans off, I'll see what I can do. We were told to keep it on the down low until EIDOS made an official statement, but they've had almost a Month, and It kills me to see people on the forums who don't know what's going on. I know the rumour mill has been Crazy about ION since its inception, and it's really strange that Blues or Scarys hasn't posted anything yet about the closedown. But yeah. We're closed. Shut down, get your stuff packed and pick up your severance check on Friday closed. We still love the game, and many of us developers are still supporting it. Even while putting my portfolio and resume together, I've been working on Planet Docs and attending messageboards.

We've still got love, even if we don't get paid for it.

On the Bright side, I don't care if you Warez the game anymore, being that No one who actually worked on it will see a penny one way or the other.

Naturally, we at The Haus do not condone warezing, even if the cause might seem noble. It is a bit disingenuous for him to say they'll never see a penny of the money, since Eidos has been paying them all along during the games production, hoping to be reimbursed through the sale of the game.

Did Daikatana kill ION and Anachronox? It didn't help, but I think their free-spending ways just caught up to them. You can't bleed cash and not expect to be amputated.

In other ION Storm-related news, pc.ign.com is reporting that John Romero was actually axed months ago.

We've received word that Ion Storm's leading figure, John Romero, had been "let go" a couple of months ago. Romero was fired from the company allegedly because he did not ship enough titles to fulfill his contract. Details are still sketchy at this point but we are investigating the status of the rest of the Ion Storm Dallas team (who recently shipped Anachonox) and will bring you updates as soon as we can.

Of course, this is all academic now, since all of ION Dallas is gone. Thanks Evil Avatar.

Pondering the Imponderable -- 11:51 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The Master is AWOL until late tomorrow and I'm going to be gone until tonight. It looks like a slow news day anyway.

I've been going back to an old addiction--EA Sports' NHL series. In particular, NHL 2001. It's a pleasant diversion from my standard diet of shooters. Unfortunately, no game can get me more mad than NHL2K1 can. I'm getting pretty good at it again, except on the penalty kill where I'm a miserable 70.7%. I need to get a newer gamepad though so I don't have to use the keyboard for line changes.

No T.V. for Me! -- 10:36 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

In case you are wondering why I rarely watch anything on television other than the various incarnations of ESPN and the Weather Channel, here's your answer. I'm still 6.5 years short of 40, but I share his opinion nonetheless.

J.t.Qbe comments: Good article, and written at a level that even a TV watcher can understand. One who can read, anyway. I kicked the TV and movies habit a few years ago. Now I can't stand 'em at all. Anyone who believes that TV can have some redeeming value is dreaming (or is an addict), especially given the pap which passes for "prime time" TV these days.

The Master comments: Heh-I know you watch more TV than THAT A.T., 'cuze I know about your Junkyard Wars addiction (not that I don't watch that one regularly too . . .)

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