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SQUARE ENIX, Eidos Interactive Publisher Week – Day 5

The final day of deep discounts has begun! Check out what’s on sale until Monday

50% off the following games:

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Just Cause
FINAL FANTASY XI: ULTIMATE COLLECTION

66% off the following bundles:

Batman: Arkham Asylum + Just Cause Bundle

I would like to point out the Batman & Just Cause Bundle is $22.xx, Batman alone is $24.95…. Why wouldn’t you purchase the bundle?

(View the rest of the article at SQUARE ENIX, Eidos Interactive Publisher Week – Day 5)

Steve Jobs Flash rant put to the test

The register is discussing a study that claims that Steve Jobs was wrong, when he stated:

  • Adobe Flash is Buggy
  • Littered with Security Holes
  • and is a CPU Hog

According to tests from the Streaming Learning Center – an online media consultancy that conducts public seminars on the delivery of net video – Flash is no more of a CPU drain than the HTML5 setup favored by Steve Jobs. The issue is not whether you use Flash or HTML5, says Jan Ozer, who conducted the tests, but whether you back them with hardware acceleration.

Overall, even when using HTML 5 with H.264 Safari, and Chrome were both pulling roughly the same load as the Flash player when tested on the Macintosh….  So why bother, is effectively what the study is claiming.  Use Flash, it’s fine, just let Flash access the GPU directly…

Right….  Adobe has for years ignored the Macintosh, and put out sub-par versions of Flash, just significant enough to say that they support Flash on the Macintosh.  Now Apple is suppose to expose the GPU directly to Adobe?

Let Adobe do this right…  Access the Graphics drivers like any other developer, and stop looking for a Magic bullet so that you can instantly leap across your lack of R&D.

Yes, on Windows you were able to directly access the video hardware, that’s why windows can be so fragile.  People accessing hardware and drivers that are either buggy, fragile, or ripe with bugs…

On the Macintosh, the tools already exist to speed your software up.  Yes, part of the problem is that your drawing inside another applications video space (eg the Web browser).  But you have already worked with Apple to attempt to solve this problem, and you have partially.  I examined your posting discussing the new webkit foundation, where you have significantly decreased the CPU load when parred with 10.1 Flash, and the latest web kit.

Stop making excuses and work like any other developer.  Just because your Adobe, doesn’t mean that you are correct.  Apple owns the OS, and they are not wrong in asking you to follow the rules.

Steve Jobs Flash rant put to the test • The Register.

Mass Effect 2 DLC – Kasumi’s Stolen Memory

As expected, the Mass Effect 2 universe will continue to expand beyond free downloadable missions. Earlier this afternoon I watched game project director Casey Hudson plow through the game’s first chunk of paid DLC, “Kasumi’s Stolen Memory,” that looks to incorporate a new character, a new SMG, and even a unique way to play this April 6th.

The content, which can be launched at any point during the narrative, can be divided into two themed swathes. The first half is exploration-based. The space Rogue Kasumi is seeking an item of value that is tucked deep in a bent rare-item collector’s vault. To get access, Shepard must travel to the collector’s house party, mingle, and discover where exactly that vault actually is. The second half is an escalating series of battles against mechs and soldiers after discovering the object.

More details at Destroid…

Day 4 of Square Enix / Eidos discounts… (Steam)

The fourth day of deep discounts has begun! Check out what’s on sale until 8 AM PST tomorrow:

50% off the following games:

Gyromancer
Mini Ninjas

66% off the following bundles:

Gyromancer + Mini Ninjas Bundle”

(View the rest of the article at Steam News)

Indigo 4.17 has been released.

Indigo 4.1.7 Released
4.1.7 is now available for download.

In addition to the major 4.0 improvements and 4.1 features, this update includes:

  • Added support for 1000W SwitchLinc firmware version 35 and higher to enable remote default brightness and ramp rate UI.
  • Improved CM15 support to not show communication error with newer firmware version.
  • Modified CM15 processing to ignore incoming X10 RF commands if the W800RF32 interface is also being used (avoids duplicate processing).
  • Modified (again) support for ToggleLinc firmware version 35 and higher to enable remote default brightness and ramp rate UI

SQUARE ENIX, Eidos Interactive Publisher Week – Day 3

The third day of deep discounts has begun! Check out what’s on sale until 8 AM PST tomorrow:

50% off the following games:

The Last Remnant
Tomb Raider: Legend
Tomb Raider: Anniversary
Tomb Raider: Underworld

60% off the following bundles:

Tomb Raider Bundle

66% off the following bundles:

Tomb Raider + Last Remnant Bundle

(View the rest of the article at SQUARE ENIX, Eidos Interactive Publisher Week – Day 3)

Study Shows TV Makes Kids Fat, Computers Don’t

Slashdot!
Xemu writes ‘Computer’s don’t make children fat, but watching TV for the same length of time does. This is shown by a recent Swedish study of all school children in Lund’s county conducted by RN Pernilla Garmy. The results were clear: The child’s obesity was directly affected by placing a TV in the child’s room, but placing a computer in the room had no effect at all. One theory is that it’s common to have a snack in front of the TV, while a computer requires a more active user, for example when chatting or playing games.’

(View the rest of the article at Study Shows TV Makes Kids Fat, Computers Don’t)

(See Ma, I was right!)

Fact or fiction? 8 HDTV claims demystified

If you’re buying your first HDTV or an upgrade from a starter set, your new television may deliver a better picture than the one you’re used to. But picking the right HDTV can be confusing, especially when your favorite blue-shirted salesperson may be steering you in a certain direction in hopes of a bigger commission. Or maybe the rep is just misinformed. Whatever the reasons, the environment has encouraged a cavalcade of claims about HDTVs—some of which were true for first-generation sets but have little relevance to today’s buyers, some of remain valid, and some of which were never true.

via Fact or fiction? 8 HDTV claims demystified | HDTV | Playlist – Page 1 | Macworld.

Microsoft Updates Office 2004 and 2008

Microsoft has released updates for Office 2004 and 2008, which include security fixes for “vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code.”

The Microsoft Office 2004 11.5.8 update is a mere 9.7 MB, and the Microsoft Office 2008 12.2.4 update is 221.5 MB.

If you use Office, it’s a good idea to keep up with these updates, as they not only provide security fixes, but also improve performance and stability. If you haven’t kept up with Office updates, you cannot, unfortunately, apply the latest update without applying previous updates. (Microsoft does not make any combo updates like Apple does.) So you can find previous updaters for your software on this page.

Speeding up Apple Mail by Vacuuming?.....

Apple Mail, especially earlier versions of Apple Mail, may start to slow down after a long period of time…

Evidently as everyone knows, it is possible to get quite a speed boost out of Mail.app by stripping all the bloat out of its Envelope index, an SQLite database Mail uses to store senders, recipients, subjects and so on.

What’s the easiest way to do this?

  1. Quit Mail.
  2. Open Terminal.
  3. Type the following:
    cd ~/Library/Mail
    sqlite3 Envelope\ Index
    An sqlite> prompt will appear.
    At that prompt, type vacuum subjects;
    After a short delay, the prompt will return. Type Control-D to exit.
  4. Restart Mail and enjoy the extra speed.

Does it work?   The first time he tried this, Rob Griffiths of macOSXHints reduced his Envelope index from 25.9MB to 4.5MB.

Okay, so that’s not the easiest way…  Instead download

Sebastian Morsch has written a script that quits Mail, runs the sqlite commands and then relaunches Mail at the end of the process. You can get the script from his web site.