It was recently reported that Second Life’s website was hacked into and that it’s user database was stolen. The breach in security was discovered last Wednesday, September 6th, 2006. You can read more here.
For those who haven’t seen it, the guys over at Microsoft Game Studios have posted the first part of their ‘Shadowrun History’.
http://shadowrun.com/shadowrununiverse/shadowrunhistory/
And if you’ve been on your favorite metaplane for the last year and didn’t even know that there was a Shadowrun XBox game in the works, you can check out videos, screenshots, Microsoft’s version of the timeline and more at shadowrun.com
A new wireless standard is in the works and is due out early 2008 – it promises longer range and faster connection speeds. You can read more about the new standard here:
Ok, so it’s been a slow couple of weeks for news. But, this is really cool for any real-life rigger – even if it’s not ‘directly’ Shadowrun related:
A new kind of combustion engine – getting more power by doing less work
Scuderi began by splitting the heart of the internal combustion engine — the chamber where air is compressed, mixed with fuel and then ignited — into two separate cylinders, linked by a passage. Air is compressed in the first cylinder, and then shot through the passage into the second cylinder, where it mixes with the gas and burns.
Well, another GenCon Indy is over. There seemed to be a nasty cold going around this year (which I caught) – here’s hoping that not too many of you were effected by it.
I know that the FanPro guys really appreciated the effort put forth by the people who volunteered to GM the events again this year. Hopefully those who were new to the GM experience enjoyed it (i.e. hopefully none of Moo’s psychotic episodes didn’t scare you too badly).
And finally, congrats to team ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’ for your domination over the opposition in the tournament. May all of your runs be so successful!
First of all, congrats to the FanPro guys for taking home two Gold ENnies: one for ‘Best Rules’ and one for ‘Best Product’. That’s a big honor – and one well deserved, I think.
Secondly, ‘Street Magic’ was officially released when the Exhibit Hall doors opened on Thursday; so be looking for it to be in your friendly neighborhood gaming shop soon!
Lastly, the tournment is going well, and I’ll try to post again soon with the results as well as any other news.
The UK has been issuing RFID enabled passports for the past several months; and today it was anounced that the US will soon begin using this technology as well, despite warnings that the signal is hackable.
As stated in this article, an independent security firm overseas has already cloned a passport and the cloned chip can be used to fool any device looking to verify the contents of the signal.
The US State Department has done its own testing of RFID technology over the last year, and they say that “electronic passports improve security by making it harder to forge or alter such documents. All personal information on a chip must precisely match that in the printed portion of the electronic passport.” Which may be true so long as we stick to the ‘contact’ style RFID chips, which need to be within 4 inches of the receiving device; but with the US pushing hard to switch to ‘contactless’ chips, which broadcast their signal to nearby receivers, I personally feel that we will soon hear of hackers who are wirelessly downloading the information from passports, then later reading said information and simply forging a printed passport with the exact information and a copy of the cloned chip.
I also feel that, once introduced to the public, RFID won’t stop with passports, and that a world full of RFID tags, as presented in SR4, is closer than we think.
The new, hardcover rules supplement ‘Street Magic’ is now at press! You can get the details and preview some of the artwork here.
*EDIT* Preview #2 – Table of Contents and Traditions
*EDIT* Preview #3 – The Metaplanes
For those of you who put the ‘CityMaster’ on your Christmas wish-list every year:
And you can visit their official site here; but it’s not easy to navigate, so to read about the SmarTruck III, just click on the link at the bottom of the site and then you can use the ‘Technologies’ link in the upper right-hand corner of the site to read all about it’s various systems (such as it’s Perimeter Defense System and SWARM Weapon Station).
The Guardian posted a story Thursday July 13, 2006 about tests that have been done to restore limb movement in a person who has been paralyzed for 5 years. And in the process of testing the brain’s ability to send signals, the doctors found that not only could the subject move a prosthetic limb, but they could also hook him up to a computer where he could manipulate full programs, such as MS Paint.
Scientists have for the first time developed a brain implant that allows people to control electronic devices by thought alone, it emerged yesterday.
…
Professor Donoghue’s work is published today in Nature. He describes how, after a few minutes spent calibrating the implant, Mr Nagle could read emails and play the computer game Pong. He was able to draw circular shapes using a paint programme and could also change channel and turn up the volume on a television, even while talking to people around him. After several months, he could also operate simple robotic devices such as a prosthetic hand, which he used to grasp and move objects.
You can read the full article here.
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