Penny Arcade Expo 08 Roundup

This past weekend in Seattle was PAX 08 (along with Bumbershoot and a ton of other stuff). I don't know how many tourists were in Seattle last weekend, but almost 59,000 of them were there for PAX. Penny Arcade is, of course, one of the biggest web comics on the web and is known for brutally honest commentary on the video game industry. This was the fifth year of their conference who's stated goal is to make the Internet into a physical place for one weekend a year. I've gotta say that they definitely succeeded this year. With Fruit Fuckers walking around downtown Seattle, some of the best nerdcore rappers around, and three floors of bean bags to hang out and play Nintendo DS games (which mostly consists of drawing penises on pictochat), it's hard to imagine what else is missing from this physical presence of the Internet.

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TSA Saves World From Robot Menace

Last month I brought you the story of RepRap, a rapid prototyping machine that was the first machine to build a copy of itself. I covered some of the possible long-term consequences of this development. Apparently the TSA read my post and reacted swiftly to protect America and the world from this robot menace. OSCON (Open Source CONvention) was this last weekend in Portland and the creators of RepRap brought the child machine with them to show off. On the way back, the TSA dismantled the crate holding the machine by unscrewing the permanent screws instead of the ones marked "Open Here". Unable to put the crate back together, they shipped it as-is with a whole side open despite the "Fragile" stickers all over it. When the crate arrived back in New Zealand, the machine was completely destroyed. So thanks TSA, for protecting all of us from this grave threat!

Call for questions

In the next couple of weeks I'll be recording a round-table discussion with some of my coworkers at the video game company we work for. I've already got some questions in mind, but I want to open it up to you, our loyal readers. So if you have any questions about video games, the industry, how to get in, or anything else, post it in the comments and we'll do our best to cover it!

Internet Catastrophe Narrowly Averted

A major Internet catastrophe was narrowly averted recently through the combined efforts of security researchers and large companies like Cisco and Microsoft. Not all the details of the problem have been released yet and those that have are rather esoteric, but I'll do my best to explain them in layman's terms. Also, before I get started, I want to do something I don't do often: thank Microsoft for showing strong leadership on this and providing resources to ensure that the problem got fixed for everyone. So if you're interested in hearing an exciting story about a race to save the Internet, read on! ...more.

Judge bans sale of some Wii controllers

A judge yesterday banned the sale of Wii Classic and GameCube controllers because Nintendo violated a patent on analog joysticks used in their controllers. Apparently the patent is owned by a Texas company, Anascape Ltd. This isn't a killer for Nintendo since the standard Wii controller and the associated nunchuck are still on the market, but the Wii Classic and GameCube controllers are used to play many of the games on the Wii's Virtual Console (a place to buy downloadable games, many of which are games that came out for older systems such as the SNES). More than anything else, it's a public relations fiasco for Nintendo. It's unlikely the customers will be unable to get these controllers for long as they're available in much greater supply than the Wii itself.

Furthermore, the amount of money Nintendo will end up paying Anascape (if any) is likely to be a fraction of what they've made on the Wii so far. So mostly they just have to deal with a lot of articles in the news about how they violated a patent and how it will now be impossible for consumers to find these controllers. Of course, Nintendo could get really lucky and have those news stories drive more people to buy these controllers now, further increasing Nintendo's revenue, making the lawsuit effectively backfire. But that's just too ridiculous to ever actually happen.

YouTube and Internet Privacy

The last couple of weeks at work have been super busy, so I've missed several stories that I think deserve more coverage than they're getting. So bear with me while I talk about old news, meaning it happened longer ago than yesterday.

On Friday, July 4th, the judge in Viacom's lawsuit against YouTube ordered YouTube (aka Google) to hand over user data for every time anyone has watched a video on YouTube. Specifically, the judge said that usernames and IP addresses must be handed over for each of the billions and billions of times someone has watched a video on YouTube. The argument that Viacom made and, apparently, the judge agrees with is that neither IP addresses or usernames alone are enough to identify a person (although I'd argue that that's debatable since the company that provides you with internet service keeps a log connecting an IP address to your account at a specific time). What this misses is that together, they can make it very, very easy to identify someone. For instance, an IP address is usually sufficient to figure out what city someone is in and how many people in Iowa have the username AlwaysALogger? Probably just one.

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The Singularity is Nigh

About 3 weeks ago a very important milestone in technology passed with little fanfare or notice. For years now, we have had 3D printers. These are exactly what they sound like, machines capable of printing rigid, 3D objects using plastic, resin, or some other similar material that can be laid down in layers. They are often used for rapid prototyping, but also see use for weirder applications like making custom figurines of World of Warcraft characters. The important event, though is that one of these machines built a working copy of itself. ...more.

Newsflash: MPAA is still dumb

In a legal move being widely hailed as a new and innovative interpretation of the law, the MPAA has claimed in court that it shouldn't need to prove someone actually infringed their copyright to collect up to $150,000 per song, movie, or other work that the MPAA/RIAA claims the person illegally downloaded. In fact, they claim that they should be able to get large sums of money from every single person who has ever connected to a P2P service and has an open shared folder. I really cannot imagine a better way to make movie and music fans like you than to sue people with no evidence and tell the court that you shouldn't need to prove that the defendant actually broke the law to get money from them. Of course, at $150,000 per song, this new business model may actually be more profitable.

By Ink Alone: Fixing Climate

Fixing Climate: What Past Climate Changes Reveal About The Current Threat – And How To Counter It
Wallace S. Broecker and Robert Kunzig

Kunzig and Broecker issue a very short volume to educate the general public about the future and the numerous previous climate changes that we have had throughout earth’s history. They then spend the last couple chapters discussing the best ways to solve the problems associated with excessive CO2 release and the resultant global warming.

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Firefox 3 launched today

Today marks the launch of the latest and greatest version of the best web browser out there, Firefox. It has a new look and lots of great new features, so head over to their site and grab yourself a copy! ...more.