You may have read earlier this week that Burst.net, a Scranton, Pa.-based Web hosting service, took Blogetery.com, a blog hosting service that features some 73,000 or so blogs, offline earlier this month over claims that one (or more?) of the sites was hosting materials used by "al-Qaeda operatives." Joe Marr, chief technology officer of Burst.net told C|Net that "it took the site offline after FBI agents alleged the blogging platform was being used by al-Qaeda operatives to distribute recruiting materials and to offer bomb-making tips."

Today Burst.net said that it had zipped up Blogetery.com's data and will give it back to its owner, but it will no longer host the site. Marr also said the al-Qaeda materials and some copyright infringing files were removed. The transfer was due to occur later in the day. Read More

UK Chancellor George Osborne announced today that he would review support for the research and development tax credits for the videogame industry this fall. In a letter to Joe Fitzpatrick, MSP for Dundee West, Osborne reiterated his support for tax credits for the game industry, saying that he "recognises that there has been a relative decline in the tax competitiveness of the UK" and that "the UK’s R&D tax credit schemes provide an internationally competitive tax regime for R&D activity, providing nearly £800 million of relief and supporting around 7500 innovative companies each year, including companies in the videogames industry."

Osborne said that the government will consult with "business in autumn 2010 to review the taxation of intellectual property, the support R&D tax credits provide for innovation and the proposals of the Dyson review."

Meanwhile, MSP Fitzpatrick said that he will encourage the video game industry to make a stronger case for tax breaks after Osbourne took them out of the budget earlier in the year. Fitzpatrick's Dundee constituency includes Realtime Worlds and Denki. Read More

On Wednesday, surrounded by Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert and other state and local officials, Electronic Arts executives had a "grand opening" of its offices in Salt Lake City to much applause. The office has actually been running in Salt Lake for three months, but this grand celebration allowed the public to get a look inside EA's new operation. The 20,000-square-foot office serves as a base to develop and manufacture games featuring pet and Nerf guns toys for children and families as part of an agreement it signed with Hasbro.

But after the ceremonial "grand opening," EA took the opportunity to strongly urge Utah lawmakers to give the videogame industry more tax incentives on par with what it currently gives the film industry. EA government affairs director Craig Hagan led the charge, saying that in other parts of the country, like Texas and Florida, and in Canada's Vancouver and British Columbia, governments are offering rebates on corporate income taxes of up to 42 percent to companies like EA. Read More

While lobbying efforts from the tech sector took a slight dip from Q1 - $23 million from April - June of 2010, companies like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Cisco, Facebook, Yahoo, Apple, HP and Amazon still managed to spend $19 million to influence lawmakers in Q2. While those numbers were lower in Q2, they prove that this small sampling of tech companies is spending obscene amounts of cash to get lawmakers behind their various causes.

Comcast spent more than $3.8 million last quarter to drum up support for its proposed NBC merger and other issues. Verizon spent about $4.4 million to to influence lawmakers on an expanded research & development tax credit and the Universal Service Fund. Hewlett Packard spent $1.6 million in lobbying dollars to influence lawmakers on white spaces, patents and taxes. Microsoft spent a small undisclosed part of its $1.85 million lobbying warchest to get the discussion on cybersecurity started. Finally, Google spent $1.3 million in Washington on broadband, cloud computing and a host of other issues.

Source: Politico's Morning Tech

Intel's investment arm is apparently keen on Dave Perry's streaming game technology company. According to Mercury News, Intel Capitol plans to invest an undisclosed amount of money into Gaikai, which is set to launch later this year. The company also revealed that online content delivery infrastructure Limelight Networks will be making an investment of some sort.

Gaikai is all about streaming content, with a particular focus on games. Earlier this year Perry showed off World of Warcaft playing on an iPad - much to the delight of WOW addicts. Gaikai's platform was developed by company co-founders Andrew Gault and Rui Pereira.

While financial terms of the deal were not revealed, Gaikai CEO David Perry said his company is relying on servers running Intel's Six-Core processors. Perry added that Intel's chips allow them to stream more games simultaneously while offering users a premium experience."

"Having Intel Capital buy into our vision as much as we buy into their processors makes this a great deal for both companies," he said. Read More

A breakthrough in CT (Cat) scan reconstruction technology that utilizes graphic processing (GPU) units could lead to lower amounts of radiation being absorbed by patients undergoing cone beam CT scans.

Previous attempts at (essentially) turning down the radiation emitted during a CT scan (by “reducing the total number of X-ray projections and the mAs level per projection“) resulted in “mathematically incomplete data” that took hours to process. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, however, have developed a CT reconstruction algorithm that processes data in parallel, turning the process into a two-minute task.

Lead Author Xun Jia reported that reconstruction time ranged from 77 to 130 seconds when using an NVIDIA Tesla C1060 GPU card, which he estimated was 100 times faster than similar reconstruction approaches.
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Not to be outdone by Hamilton, Ontario’s $11 million dollar interactive institute, London, Ontario is attempting to wrangle enough funds to build its own technological center of excellence based around videogames.

The goal of such a center, according to the London Free Press, would be to “bring together video game companies and academics to commercialize games technology to other video game companies and other industries.” Digital Extremes President Michael Schmalz said that such an ideology could help to cut through the “competitive realties” that make it difficult for technology creators to share their work with each other.

Local videogame developers and Fanshawe College and the University of Western Ontario are behind the project. The city of London also applied to Industry Canada for financial assistance. It was estimated that the center would cost upwards of $5 million. Read More

Miller-McCune went inside the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) and came out armed with information on new trainers and simulators helping U.S. troops.

The center is hard at work on fleshing out (get it?) virtual human technology, which the piece’s author states “will most certainly be used in many training and educational roles” in the future. The technology will also inevitably make its way to consumer-based videogames, at least according to ICT’s Bill Swartout, who thinks we will all be talking to our games and “interacting with people who’re talking back” eventually.

One of the ICT’s latest creations is the Mobile Counter-IED Interactive Trainer (MCIT). As shown in the embedded video, the trainer, housed in trailers (hence, mobile) lets users train on both sides of the “game,” both as soldier’s looking to spot IEDs and insurgent’s trying to figure out the best place to plant them.
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The U.S. Air Force will continue to ramp up its flight simulation and training capabilities with the addition of up to 20 F-16 Mission Training Centers (MTC) on American, European and Pacific bases.

Each MTC is made up of four high-definition simulators featuring InterSense Inc.’s IS-900 inertial/ultrasonic tracking technology (demonstrated in the embedded video) combined with Link Simulation & Training’s—a division of L3—SimuSphere HD or Advance Helmet Mounted Display (AHMD).

The resulting technology allows F-16 pilots to “detect, identify and engage targets from the same apparent distance as when flying a real mission -- creating an optimum environment for advanced pilot training, tactics validation and mission rehearsal. “

The end result looks something like this.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation has officially opened a probe into the possible security breach of AT&T's web site that exposed sanative iPad user data. According to published reports, a security hole in AT&T's web site exposed iPad user email addresses.

On Wednesday, AT&T acknowledged that a security hole in its website made it possible for iPad users' email addresses to be revealed, but claimed that it fixed the security problem by Tuesday. Apple is not publically commenting on this story. Read More

A few more cryptic details have been issued in regards to the planned “experiential” (not experimental, as previously written [Ed. fail]) videogame theme park and resort Game Nation, first detailed here last week.

A bit of PR contains information on the first of several planned “Districts” to be featured in the park, which will be built in an as-of-yet-undetermined location.

The “Alternet” is promised to loom as “dark and foreboding,” and “will allow you to live your ultimate cyber punk fantasy,” according to the man behind the operation, Daniel Ruke (who goes by the simpler title of RUKE in Game Nation communiqués).

More from the press release: Read More

The growing reliance of the U.S. military on high-tech recreations of foreign villages and their inhabitants has some social scientists concerned.

A Boston.com story on the subject begins by outlining the work of University of Pennsylvania engineer Barry Silverman, who has been funded (by an unnamed U.S. agency) to the tune of over $500,000 in order to recreate a 3D computer model of an actual village in Afghanistan. Silverman is supplied with data from U.S. Army social scientists, who interviewed residents of the actual village.

Dubbed “human terrain mapping, it’s hoped that this technology can assist the U.S. in fighting terrorists and insurgents, but the whole idea has Hugh Gusterson, a George Mason University anthropologist, concerned. Gusterson asked, “Are we going to detain someone if a computer predicts that he will become an insurgent?"

He continued: Read More

While it sounds a bit like the setting of the old television series Fantasy Island, a website has popped up today that teases the eventual launch of an “experimental videogame theme park and resort.”

While we initially pictured a virtual-reality type of offering, the Game Nation website states that “In the next 12 months, Game Nation will be deciding the best location for the Experimental Theme Park.” 

A description of the park entices, “As you pass through the gates, you leave behind all worldly stereotypes. You’re now one of millions, all equal, separated only by your skill, wit and achievements, which will be proven.”

Background art on the Game Nation website contains images of roller coasters and other rides, so the park, if ever realized, may contain typical theme park essentials in addition to an interactive element.
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While Microsoft’s Project Natal Xbox 360 add-on has been rumored to have a price tag of around $200, MIT researchers have created a gesture-based computer interface that requires only a cheap pair of colored Lycra gloves (in addition to a webcam).

Billed as low-latency, Grad student Robert Wang, from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory sees the most “obvious application” for the invention as videogames.

The technology, as noted on MIT’s website, is based on “a new algorithm for rapidly looking up visual data in a database.”

Colors used on the gloves were specifically chosen so that they could easily be distinguished from each other by the computer.

A quick explanation of how it works: Read More

Political cartoon site TobyToons offers the above illustration as a means to explain President Obama’s continued attacks on videogames and technology.

Just last week the President lamented the current state of technology, stating, “With iPods and iPads, Xboxes and PlayStations, information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment.”

This follows Obama taking a shot at the Xbox in a 2009 speech, where he stated, “I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.”


Thanks Rodrigo Ybáñez García!

It turns out that research labs love gaming hardware for much the same reason Wall Street firms do—raw processing power.

While today’s technology enables traders to process more trades, and earn more money, faster equipment in research facilities is allowing scientists to tackle research that would have been impossible even a few years ago. New Scientist details the exploits of MIT’s Nicolas Pinto, who built a 16-GPU (graphics processing unit) super computer for less than $3,000. Pinto is using the PC as part of his bid “to crack the brain's formula for recognizing objects in images.”

His PC performs “statistical analysis in both space and time on thousands of frames of video to find objects moving through the scene.” Pinto added, “It's very cheap to buy a GPU and explore.”
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The Yokosuka Naval Base in Yokosuka, Japan is the center of operations for the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet and is also now home to a brand new, $6.0 million state-of-the-art “battle lab.”

Set in a formerly abandoned bunker dug into the side of a hill, the facility was launched on Monday according to Stars and Stripes. The inaugural simulation, dubbed Operation Coral Dagger, involved American and Australian forces maneuvering against a fictional foe called the Kamarians, an opposing force used in Australian military training.

The military publication called the exercise “a far more complex game than multinational forces had ever been able to play in Japan before Monday.” The simulator allows multi-national forces from all over the world to participate, whether they are on a ship, sitting in a flight simulator or parked in front of a computer.

The “battle lab” allows training to continue even when ships are docked for maintenance. Japan and other U.S. allies will be able to take part alongside the U.S. in future simulations. Read More

Videogame technology is being adapted by Wall Street in a bid to speed up the execution of trades.

A Wall Street Journal story claims that more and more firms are implementing  field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), graphics processing units (GPUs) and cell processors (like in the PlayStation 3)—technology taken from the aerospace, medical and gaming fields—as they attempt to shave microseconds off of transactions.

The newer technologies take pressure off a computer’s central processing unit (CPU) and operating system, allowing computers to operate faster.

Technology introduced by Nvidia a few years back is making the task a bit easier: Read More

The Lindale Independent School District Education Foundation of Lindale, Texas has awarded grants to 23 teachers that will fund classroom projects, including two based around Nintendo’s Wii console.

The Early Childhood Center was one recipient; with teachers Cookie Hartley and June Wright (pictured) receiving $1,021.40 in order to fund their project called Wii Can Do It! The project utilizes Wii games as “therapy and instructional tools” for preschool students afflicted with disabilities. Use of the Wii will promote a way to “address educational goals and objectives in the areas of communication and academics” in the youngsters.
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A game in development at Michigan State University was designed to teach Cambodian kids, and others around the world, how to avoid landmines and other unexploded ordnance (UXO) that might be scattered about their countries.

Undercover UXO is funded principally by a $78,000 grant from the U.S. State Department and via a partnership with the Golden West Humanitarian Foundation. The game is intended to run on the One Laptop Per Child $100 computer.

The State News offers a description of the game:

Players use directional buttons to guide a character, accompanied by a pet, through a series of Cambodian landscape pictures in search of food. Players must avoid land mines and other artillery, called unexploded ordnances, or UXOs, by following warnings… Read More

A new project co-founded by a Carnegie Mellon University graduate student is creating educational games for extremely affordable computers that are gaining popularity in developing nations.

PlayPower grew from an idea Derek Lomas had while attending a conference in India, where he noticed that families were snatching up $12 computer systems right and left. The 8-bit computers are not very powerful, but the processor that powers the PC (the MOS 6502, which powered the Apple II and Nintendo NES) is in the public domain, meaning that development is relatively easy and inexpensive.

Lomas told the Post Gazette, “It doesn't require a $50 million development budget to make a great game.”

The PlayPower team is currently at work on three games, two of which feature the Hindu deity Hanuman. One Hanuman-starring title will teach users how to type, with the hopes that such a skill could translate into better job opportunities, while the second is a multiple-choice quiz-type game. The third title in development will try to raise awareness of malaria.

Lomas added, “I think that many of the more powerful educational effects of the system can be in the way it changes a kid's interest and ambitions.”

Lomas anticipates that all three games can be finished this year. He also hopes to build a relationship with those selling the computers so that PlayPower’s software can be bundled in.

Over 1,000 volunteers from around the world are already on-board to assist in game development. PlayPower also hopes to harness the growing 8-bit retro community for assistance in future releases.

The Public Broadcasting Service’s (PBS) investigative show Frontline will air a deep look into how digital media and the Internet have transformed human lives and the subject of videogames is featured heavily in the program.

Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier will debut on February 2 at 9:00 ET. The 90 minute show was produced by Rachel Dretzin, who also created the recent Frontline special Growing Up Online, and will feature commentary from Douglas Rushkoff. Segments include Living Faster, Relationships, Waging War, Virtual Worlds and Learning.

Many individual videos are already available for viewing on the PBS website and a trailer for the show offers a quick overview of what it’s all about.

The Waging War section features game-related topics such as the military’s use of virtual reality training, as well as looks at both America’s Army and the Army Experience Center.

Virtual Worlds contains a cornucopia of videogame segments, including the use of virtual reality therapy for veterans, gaming addiction, professional gamers, violent games, Second Life and about 20 more pieces.

Another cool aspect to the program is that the Digital Nation website launched about a year ago ago in a bid to let users collaborate with the project by sharing their own experiences.

The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) has launched a drive to get gamers to notify government representatives of their support for a pair of bills that would make gaming a little greener.

S.1397, or the Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act, would research ways to deal with the proper disposal of electronic devices, while S.1696, or the Green Gaming Act of 2009, would require the Secretary of Energy to conduct a study of videogame consoles energy efficiency.

The ECA’s letter states:

While I enjoy spending some of my free time playing video games, I also would like my hobby to be “greener,” and these bills would both help to that end. Both S. 1397 and S. 1696 are needed steps to insure that my hobby of video games continues to improve as an environmentally sensitive hobby.

Participants can input their information and send off a letter to their Senator via a simple form on the ECA website.

Image via Green Today Magazine, which has a rundown on the average energy consumption of a variety of videogame consoles.

Disclosure: GamePolitics is a publication of The ECA.

A bill up for consideration before the Senate looks for ways to deal with the growing piles of disposed—and potentially toxic—electronic devices.

S.1397, or “Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act” was introduced by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) and seeks new ways to attack the growing problem of “e-waste.”

Citing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stats that over 2.0 billion “computers, televisions, wireless devices, printers, gaming systems, and other devices” have been sold since 1980, the proposed bill notes that “collection of such electronic devices is expensive, and separation and proper recycling of some of the materials recovered, like lead from cathode-ray tube televisions, is costly.”

The bill seeks to enable research into such areas as ways to safely separate and remove hazardous materials from electronic devices, how to develop environmentally-friendly alternatives and to identify the “social, behavioral, and economic barriers to recycling.”

Another proposed aspect of the bill would see grants given to higher education facilities to enable the development of curriculum that “incorporates the principles of environmental design into the development of electronic devices.”

As ArsTechnica notes, the proposed bill is really just opening the topic up for discussion in hopes of setting the tone for future actions.

S.1397 was introduced on July 6, 2009 and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Big brother may or may not be watching, but a new form of interactive entertainment will allow participants to leverage Britain’s 4.0 million plus closed circuit cameras in a bid to catch criminals and win money.

According to the Daily Mail, Internet Eyes is scheduled to launch next month and has already drawn the ire of civil rights groups, who worry the activity could lead to civil rights abuses.  One member of the opposition, Charles Farrior, labeled it “an appalling idea,” and worried it would create a “snooper’s paradise.”

Those watching cameras—in real-time—will be able to click a button every time they witness something they deem suspicious. Then, a message will be relayed to a camera operator, along with a still image from the camera. The operator will decide whether or not to take action and will notify the “player” if a crime has taken place or not.

Those participating will be blocked out after three incorrect alerts in a month, though additional alert opportunities can be purchased. As a further safeguard, actual locations of the cameras will not be known to those watching at home.

The article notes that Britain has 4.2 million CCTV cameras—one for every 14 inhabitants.

The Office of Naval Research is currently funding a program that uses videogames to treat post-traumatic stress in veterans of the armed forces.

Virtual Iraq, based on the title Full Spectrum Warrior, allows experiences to be tailored to each participant, so they can relive exactly what they went through, reports American Medical News. 3D goggles and a chair with feedback add further realism. So far, 20 participants have undergone treatment using Virtual Iraq with “positive results.” It’s thought that the familiarity of videogames helps lower resistance to being treated.

The article also notes that the United States Air Force is conducting a similar study with virtual reality treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

As everyone knows, the economy is pretty bad. There are signs it is getting better, but none of the 50 states have been immune, according to Forbes magazine. To that end, it released its yearly list of the states with the best business climate for 2009. Virginia tops the list at number 1.

Two states with a large video game foundation made the top 10. Washington came in at number 2, bolstered by the Microsoft behemoth. Texas came in at number 8, no doubt in part to the growing video game development community in Austin and the vicinity. California, home to many of the big video game publishers and developers, rose two spots from numer 40 last year to number 38.

Forbes detailed how it determined the rankings:

Our Best States ranking measures six vital categories for businesses: costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life. We factor in 33 different points of data to determine the ranks in the six main areas. Business costs, which include labor, energy and taxes are weighted the most heavily. We relied on nine different data providers. Moody's Economy.com is the most-utilized resource.

Many of the top states showed a more educated workforce, the magazine said.

For those who have trouble with the written word, Forbes also included a look at their list in pictures. If you want to digest all the data at once, then you can look at the handy table provided.

As GamePolitics has previously reported, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is a tireless promoter of his state's growing video game industry.

Yesterday, the Guv made his support official. In a proclamation designating September 9th as Video Game Innovation Day, Patrick looked ahead to the launch of The Beatles Rock Band and harkened back to the creation of the original video game, Spacewar!, at MIT: 

Whereas In 1961, MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell and Wayne Wiitanen invented the game Spacewar!, one of the first video games ever created; and

Whereas Throughout the Bay State, innovative companies are developing new gaming technologies from diagnostics to social media.  Our universities feature programs and curriculum that support the growth of the videogame industry; and

Whereas On this day, Harmonix Music Systems, the Cambridge-based inventors of Rock Band and developer of the original Guitar Hero games, is releasing The Beatles: Rock Band™, a game that will not only bring the creativity and joy of The Beatles music to countless people, but will introduce the Fab Four to new generations of fans,

Now, Therefore, I, Deval L. Patrick, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, do hereby proclaim September 9th, 2009 to be,  Video Game Innovation Day...

Mass Technology Leadership Blog points out that the official fun will continue next week when 300 tech executives, members of the Mass Technology Leadership Cluster, will gather to celebrate the proclamation and release research findings on the state's video game industry. If you're local to Cambridge, the event is free.

This photo from flickr user Tomas apparently shows a makeshift arcade in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is just one of numerous photos from Congo uploaded by Tomas.

The photo is tagged Kinshasa, so it was likely shot in the capital city, which has some 10 million inhabitants.

Source:  via boingboing

Nintendo has settled a patent infringement case that could have blocked sales of the Wii in the United States, reports Bloomberg.

As GamePolitics noted last September, Hillcrest Labs not only sued Nintendo, but filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, alleging that the Wii's motion control system infringed upon the Maryland-based company's patents.

Nearly a year (and lots of attorney fees) later, on August 21st, Nintendo and Hillcrest advised the USITC that they had reached an agreement. Financial details were not made public.