Major corporations simply do not offer online game play on their company website … except for Toshiba that is. Their flash games site has 5 games based on a character named Tobby. In Tobby Pachi, for example, Tobby is launched Pachinko-like to higher and higher levels in an effort to rescue his girlfriend Jelly from [...]

There’s a well-written and researched article over at Wired Magazine entitled “The Shadow Internet” describing how game and movie pirates operate.

The article describes the pirate supply chain thusly:
Producer (moles employed in the industry or in disc-stamping plants).
&8595;
Packager &8594; Distributor &8594; Couriers
&8595;
Public

The article also has a description of the security at the so-called [...]

As part of our low-tech gaming series, we present Quzzle. The Economist in a Dec 2nd 2004 article entitled “A hard, simple problem“, portrays Quzzle, as “the world’s hardest simple sliding-block puzzle”. Quzzle was developed by Jim Lewis, an inventor based in NJ. Its objective is to move one of the large tiles [...]

The Centrix MVP-100 is a new portable media player from a Korean company named SITEC, whose motto seems to be “Global 1st Networking Leader” … no idea what that means.

In any event, the specs seem ok:
20GB 1.8 ” HDD
3MP Digital Camera /w flash
3.5in LCD screen at 1280×960
Supports jpg, bmp & gif image formats
2800mAh Lithium Polymer [...]

The ongoing dialectic between capitalism and socialism, individualism and collectivism, left and right has been joined by a new book. The book is entitled A Hacker Manifesto.
Author McKenzie Wark updates the Communist ethos and posits the emergence of 2 new social classes:
Hackers. They typically are researchers, authors, artists, biologists, chemists, musicians, philosophers and programmers. [...]

We express our condolences to the peoples of south-east Asia on the loss of so many lives in this horrific tragedy.
The AFP is saying that estimates of the death toll from the tsunami triggered by the massive earthquake off Indonesia yesterday, are expected to reach 45000. More than 1000000 people are homeless.

The [...]

Sharp today announced the CE-MR01 - a new audio/video streamer.
The device supports wireless streaming of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and MP3 encoded files to your TV or stereo. The main selling point seems to be the support for the 802.11a/b/g protocols.
Seems ok if somewhat unexciting .. I’m holding out for 802.11n, which is spec’d to [...]

The Electrolux Design Laboratory 2004 event was held in New York City on November18th. The event was the culmination of a competition whose purpose was to solicit innovative appliance concepts for the year 2015. First prize was won by a team from the University of NSW in Australia, for their Rockpool waterless dishwasher.
The Rockpool [...]

The Graphyscaf has one odd-looking high-end fountain pen. Intended for a niche market - those who want a pen with complexity, innovativeness and uniqueness. Its main feature seems to be:
This writing instrument has been assembled from 195 separate components: 52 parts held together by 143 rivets.

Yahoo has it on sale for 25% off [...]

Billboard Magazine started listing the top 20 ringtones a or two month ago. Their top 10 list is available at this link, with the rest of the list only available to subscribers. This week’s top three ringtones according to Billboard are:

Drop It Like It’s Hot, Snoop Dogg

1, 2 Step, Ciara

My Boo, Usher And Alicia [...]