Tuesday, June 22, 2004

AS-Confexia Released -- 2:59 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The folks who made the intro movie for Unreal Tournament 2004 have released a new assault map, AS-Confexia. This Atari forum thread has all the details, including download locations. What are you waiting for? Just one bit of warning: this one map weighs in at 42M(!)

Analysis of MS PR -- 12:34 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Eric Raymond has taken a look at the new PR campaign from Redmond called "Get (What Microsoft Considers to Be) the Facts." It's always interesting to see the plans MS has for combating Linux. It seems like they're down to arguments over semantics more than anything else. MS's real problem is MS itself. It's kind of hard to grow a company that already has 92% market share. There's really only one way to go, especially when the alternatives are getting more and more attractive every day. Thanks Linux Today.

WinXP SP2 Security vs. Compatibility -- 11:19 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

TechReport is reporting that service pack 2 (SP2) for Windows XP will emphasize security ove compatibility. When you upgrade, you might want to make sure your apps won't break as a result. Here are a couple of changes in SP2 which I would classify as "Great idea! What took you so long?":

• The Internet Connection Firewall is now enabled by default, which should improve security for SOHO users . . . The firewall will also now activate much earlier in the boot cycle, even before the network stack is enabled. On shutdown, it will now remain active until after the stack is disabled.
• The Messenger service is now disabled by default.

I don't know why it took MS this long to figure out that the firewall shouldn't come up well after the network connection is already made. I'm glad they finally figured it out. Unfortunately (and understandably) pirate copies of XP won't be able to be upgraded, which means that the scourge of Trojans, etc., aren't just going to disappear from the 'Net. I can't wait for the conspiracy theories when some major app (like, say, WordPerfect or Mozilla) suddenly won't run with SP2. Thanks Slashdot.

SpaceShipOne: Not as Smooth as Planned -- 11:03 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The New Scientist is reporting that there were some problems with SpaceShipOne on its flight yesterday. How serious? Well, I think this quote from Pilot Mike Melvill pretty much says it all:

As I came out of the atmosphere I no longer had any attitude control. If that had happened earlier, I would never have made it and you all would be looking sad right now.

Having said that, it is unlikely that space travel will ever be perfectly safe at least in my lifetime. Thanks Slashdot.

Monday, June 21, 2004

Sweeney Interview -- 9:15 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Beyond3D posted an interview with Epic's Tim Sweeney about the Unreal Engine 3, which is still a couple of years in the future. Just a warning: reading Sweeney interviews is like reading an interview with id's John Carmack. Your hair will get about three new parts, depending on how much of the programming/graphics lingo you understand. Still, it's an interesting look at what's in store for Unreal Tournament 2008*. Thanks Beyond Unreal.

* No, nothing has been announced. You may calm down now.

First Private Spaceflight Completed -- 1:20 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

SpaceShipOne, funded by Paul Allen, completed a trip into space and back again today. They have until January 1 to get the craft prepared for an attempt at the Ansari X Prize and the $10 million that comes with it. I've always wanted to go into space. Maybe my dream might just be a reality in my lifetime.

Past Two Days' News

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