Warner Music Wants More Cash from Rhythm Games

It's not much of a secret that the music industry is chocked-full of the greediest people on earth, and we've seen evidence of that time and time again, especially when talking about iTunes. Well, it seems like such rhythm games as Rock Band and Guitar Hero are no longer safe, at least if music execs have their way.

Since the execs now see the potential in these games (took them long enough), they feel like they should get their cut. You know, because $2.00 per song isn't enough for consumers as is. The record company in the hotseat is Warner Music, who are quoted as saying, "The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small", which probably equates to, "We are clearly making enough off these songs as is, but can see potential to get even more."

The solution to this problem is a rather simple one. Companies who produce the games could just say no way, because seriously, are these companies going to want no money? If their songs are selling well for the over-inflated prices as they are now, it's going to be unlikely that gamers will pay even more. These developers need to start using publicly available songs, or songs that bands donate. All the record industry does is screw us.

We see a similar effect developing with rhythm games. The games now sell so well that inclusion in the track listing isn't just good for the games, it's good for the bands. As our own Ben Kuchera pointed out recently, new versions of both major series will ship with built-in music stores, and big-name classic rock acts stand ready to rake in the dough.

Source: Ars Technica

Has Gentoo 2008.0 Returned the Distro to Greatness?

As posted last month, Gentoo doesn't see a new release all too often. The latest 2008.0 release promised vast improvements though, and a completely renovated installer, using Xfce as the front-end to help get things done. Although I haven't yet taken a look at the latest release myself, our tuxmachines.org friend Susan did, and had quite a bit to say.

She installed the OS via the Live CD twice, with the second time being the charm. For those who don't know, Gentoo is more of a power-user's distro. It avails full control over the system and allows you to configure everything, which does become a hassle at times, but means you really have a system fine-tuned to your liking. It's noted in the article that despite improvements made here, there are still some near-showstoppers that could turn some newer adopters away.

Gentoo is without question my favorite distro, but I do wish the installer was made more reliable in order to gain new users. Half the fun of the distro is to learn the ins and outs of Linux, but needless compile errors or bugs that cause root accounts to not be set up is not the most fun method of learning. It's because of that, that I highly recommend any new user to install via the minimal CD. Once you install the OS by command-line, you'll feel like a genius, even though once it's done, you'll realize how easy it was.

When I began using Gentoo in 2003, everything worked like clockwork. Results were practically guaranteed and always to my liking. I had stability and a slight but noticeable increase in performance. But the greatest thrill of running Gentoo was the sense of ownership. No other system in the world was exactly like mine, and mine was exactly as I wanted. That's hard to achieve with binary distributions.

Source: Linux.com

Fake CNN.com 'Daily Top 10' E-mails Link to Malware

I'm confident that most visitors of our site are net-savvy enough to know spam when they see it, but the latest round of CNN daily roundups is so real, even I thought it was legit at quick glance. I don't subscribe to their newsletter, but when I saw it, I just threw it in the trash, figuring I somehow got on their list. All you need to do is look at the destination of the links though, which of course don't go to CNN.com.

What's interesting about these spam e-mails is that most of the links are indeed linkable to CNN.com, it's just the news items that aren't. Of course, clicking one will give you a prompt of some sort and go ahead and infect your machine with malware and who knows what else.

It might be a wise idea to warn your friends and families though, since CNN is generally a company that's going to be trusted by the masses, and given the e-mails look so legit, it's easy to fall into the trap, especially if you or someone else you know actually does subscribe to their newsletter in the first place.

If the user accepts the download of the fake Flash Player update, they don't get an updated version of that but instead receive a Trojan with any of several names, including Cbeplay.a, which then "phones home" to a malicious server to download and install yet more malware, according to Bulgarian security researcher Dancho Danchev.

Source: The Inquirer

Ubisoft Sues Disc Manufacturing Company Over Leaking Assassin's Creed

There are few PC developers who haven't felt the effects of piracy, and it's becoming a bigger issue each and every day. It's even gone so far that Crytek, creators of Crysis, said that particular title would be their last exclusive on the PC, simply due to the vast amounts of piracy. What results in the desire to thwart pirates, is to release insane copy protection, and despite the fact it doesn't work, it's still there.

Well, it looks like Ubisoft needs something even better than copy protection, as the company has found out that the disc production company they used for duplication, Optical Experts Manufacturing, actually leaked the copy they received to the Internet. How did Ubisoft know? It was a rip of the exact copy the company was given, and also found out to be uploaded by one of their employees. Ouch.

Ubisoft is suing the company for $10 million for breach of contract, negligence and copyright infringement, and I seriously hope they win. I'm not huge fan of Ubisoft to begin with, but if the people you contract to duplicate your game actually have the nerve to go and release it to the Internet, they deserve the nice fine. Let's see if others are still going to contract with these guys, because though I'm not up to par on disc manufacturing labs, I'm pretty sure Ubisoft has not been the only victim.

The publisher alleges that OEM had agreed to abide by--and thereafter ignored--an array of security procedures that could have prevented the leak. Ubisoft further alleges that OEM admitted to not following through on its security commitments and causing the leak. One such security procedure was to prevent copies of the game from ever leaving OEM's premises.

Source: GameStop Australia

Aurora Concept Browser Brings Internet Use to New Level

Let's face it, as perfect as the web browser seems to be right now, it hasn't changed that much since the first browsers of the mid-90s. What does our current browsers lack? Well, a high-tech interface and extremely-refined collaboration tools, of course, two things that the concept browser 'Aurora' by Adaptive Path delivers.

To better show-off what the concept is (or will be) capable of is explained in a few videos found on the Adaptive Path website, with two parts currently being online, and another two en route. I haven't watched the second part, but I feel the first one informed me well enough. Aurora will be akin to interfaces we are used to seeing in high-tech movies, with clean design, incredibly intuitive and predictive interfaces and one that makes lots of advanced bleeps and bloops.

One example in the first video shows off the potential collaboration aspects of the browser. Two people are conversing, one says the rain isn't bad while the other says it is. The guy on the other end essentially taps into the browser and shows the person exactly where it was that it said lots of rain was on the way. It's definitely interesting, and if that intriques you, then the other videos are sure to please. The concepts right now seem far-fetched, but we didn't imagine how things would have been today just ten years ago, either. Anything is possible.

The release of Aurora is part of the launch of Mozilla Labs’ browser concept series, an ongoing initiative to encourage designers and developers to contribute their own visions of the future of the browser and the Web. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be releasing more video segments, as well as background material showing just what went into imagining the future of the Web and translating that into a video.

Source: Adaptive Path's Aurora Concept

OCZ Releases 16GB 'P45 Special' Memory Kit

When Techgage first launched three years ago, the common standard for a new PC build was the inclusion of 1GB of RAM. Most people at that time were still running a hearty 512MB. Later that year, it suddenly became the new standard to have 2GB in your rig, and it was even necessary in most cases for the best all-around gameplay experiences (especially with FEAR, which was truly hardcore at the time of its release).

It wasn't until Vista's launch that people began to really see the value in having 4GB of RAM, and it didn't take long before the hardcore users slammed 8GB into their rigs. Even that is reaching overkill for most people though, as that much RAM is difficult to utilize unless you have incredibly specific needs. So... how can this be brought to the 'asinine' level? With a 16GB of course, courtesy of our friends at OCZ.

The 'P45 Special' (not to be confused with a sidearm) comes in a 4GB x 4 kit and is designed for Intel's P45 chipset, since it's the first desktop chipset to allow support for that much memory. The modules themselves come in at DDR2-800 speeds and utilize 5-6-6-18 timings and feature a fantastic-looking pure-black heat spreader. You can expect the kit to retail for around $450. Tempting, isn't it?

The PC2-6400 4GB modules are ideal for enthusiasts, professionals, and DIY system-builders using 64-bit operating systems that can take advantage of high density memory configurations. As the ultimate challenge for hardcore gamers, the latest DirectX-10 games require large amounts of memory to minimize swapfile access and allow smooth game play.

Source: OCZ Product Page

AMD's 790GX Chipset Offers Best Integrated Graphics Available

AMD might not have had the smoothest two years in the company's history, but they've managed to release a few select products that haven't only impressed, but have astounded. One recent launch to come to mind would be their ATI Radeon HD 4850 and HD 4870 cards, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that thinking. Another successful launch was for their 780G chipset, and to make sure the magic didn't die, they've gone ahead and released an even better model: 780GX.

The chipset adds a brand-new south bridge, SB750, which adds RAID 5 and Advanced Clock Calibration, an option that somehow allows a Phenom to overclock higher. The most interesting addition might be the GPU clock boost, from 500MHz to 700MHz. Does it impress? According to our friends at the Tech Report, yes. Big time.

To quote them, 'AMD's 790GX is the fastest integrated graphics chipset on the market. Period.' Sure sounds good, right? Well, not so much. The board that the new chipset is found on retails for around $150. For that price, you could score a 790G board along with a modest HD 3650. Tough situation. AMD does offer the best integrated chipset out there, but the caveats will have to be debated before your purchasing decision.

Credit: Tech Report

At least the 790GX is more than just a hopped up integrated graphics processor. The most interesting element of the chipset for enthusiasts may be the Advanced Clock Calibration capabilities built into the new SB750 south bridge. AMD's ATI acquisition pays big dividends here, allowing the SB750 to reprogram internal Phenom processor timings to improve overclocking. With our X4 9850 Black Edition, ACC is good for a 300MHz clock speed boost, and that's not bad at all.

Source: Tech Report

August 7th Tech Roundup

• ECS P45T-A - Overclockers Club
• ASRock P45R2000-WiFi - Hardware Canucks
• Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME - Benchmark Reviews
• XFX nForce 750a SLI - Motherboards

• Kingston HyperX 3GB Notebook Memory - Virtual-Hideout
• Lexar 8 GB Class 2 SDHC - techPowerUp

• Mint 220 Wireless Digital Music Station - I4U

• Scythe Shuriken CPU Cooler - Mikhailtech

• iBuypower Gamer Fire 294 Desktop - ComputerShopper