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The Matrix

24 Hours In The Matrix 71

Posted by Zonk from the jackburn dept.
Both E! Online and Gamespy have looks at the most recently launched Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying game, The Matrix Online. From the Gamespy article: "Since the close of the beta, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that it has employed a troupe of 20-odd people whose job it will be to enact narrative scenarios in The Matrix Online live. These people will assume the roles of popular characters, interact with players, and generally move the stories in ways that only live "actors" can."
Role Playing (Games)

The Matrix Online Launches 77

Posted by Zonk from the red-pills-for-everybody dept.
Another large, commercially built virtual world has launched. The MMORPG Matrix Online, based on the popular Matrix movie series, is now online and accepting red pills. From the launch announcement: "...a specialized role-playing live events team at Monolith will assume the roles of the actual Matrix characters and support the continuation of the game's storyline through choreographed interaction. Players will meet, battle and eventually team up with the familiar characters on high-profile missions or at player-organized events."
Education

Learning a Language in the Digital Age 450

Posted by timothy from the my-excuse-is-laziness dept.
UmmRa points out his discussion of four flash-card programs for language learning, excerpting "As someone who has learned three dead languages in the past six years (Latin, Egyptian, and Akkadian) I have had my share of experience with language software....If there is one thing I have learned from the experience, it is that no program is a panacea. Until we all have Matrix-esque jacks at the base of our skulls, learning a language will be a process that requires some amount of work and time. However that does not mean there isn't cheap (or free!) software out there to greatly simplify the process." None of the program compared are free (or Free), though two are shareware; two of them are for Windows only, one is Mac-only, and the other is "Java based, so it can operate on any platform." Update: 03/21 02:34 GMT by T : The actual link got dropped -- my fault -- in editing this post; now fixed.

Joss Whedon to Write/Direct Wonder Woman 480

Posted by CmdrTaco from the finish-serenity-first-goddammit dept.
bigbear writes "'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Firefly' creator Joss Whedon has signed on to write and direct the big screen adaptation of the DC Comics character Wonder Woman. The film is being produced by Joel Sliver ('The Matrix'). No word yet on who will play the "iconic female heroine of our time.""
Games

WoW Board Game, Shadowrun 4.0, and City of Heroes RPG 44

Posted by Zonk from the zappinin'-chummer? dept.
Among the many announcements made at the GAMA Trade show this week, one of the most exciting is the revelation that Shadowrun 4.0 is on the horizon, to be released at this year's Gen Con game fair. Other news includes a World of Warcraft board game, an "Ultimate" version of Rifts, the Production Schedule for Dungeons and Dragons for 2005, a City of Heroes Table-Top RPG, and a 10th Anniversary Settlers of Catan edition. From the Shadowrun Website: "The core mechanics are completely revised to be simpler and more streamlined for quicker, easier and more consistent play. Matrix 2.0! An all-new level of wireless "augmented reality" overlays the real world, unleashing hackers to be mobile digital wizards."
Biotech

Stem Cells Cultivated Free of Animal Contaminants 444

Posted by samzenpus from the grow-me-a-new-liver dept.
qewl writes "In a follow-up to this story, researchers at Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology have created a new method of growing human embryonic stem cells that has overcome the major obstacle of animal contaminants to their use for human treatments. As President George W Bush has restricted federal funding of this research to limited cell lines existing since 2001, scientists have strived to find ways to keep the lines pure. Irina Klimanskaya and colleagues at ACT grew the stem cells from the beginning on a cell and serum-free mixture called an extracellular matrix. "The importance of this work, of course, is that by eliminating contact with animal and human cells, you minimize the risk of contamination with pathogens that could be transmitted to patients and the population at large," Dr. Lanza at ATC said."
Mars

The Indirect Case For Life On Mars 334

Posted by timothy from the nearly-almost-somewhat-approximate dept.
Deinhard writes "Space.com is reporting that '[a] pair of NASA scientists told a group of space officials at a private meeting here Sunday that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water.' It is all based on methane signatures and not direct observation. Now plans for using the Genesis Device on Mars are out ... unless this is just a particle of preanimate matter caught in the matrix."
Role Playing (Games)

The MMORPGs of 2005 41

Posted by Zonk from the upcoming-ways-to-ruin-your-life dept.
MMORPGDot.com has a two-part piece on the upcoming Massive games of 2005. The first article in the series touches on big name titles expected out this year like Matrix Online and Tabula Rasa, while the second article mentions lesser known small budget titles. From the big-title article: "If a list of features could make a great game, Dark & Light would be the first. NP Cube is promising some really ambitious things like a 40.000km gameworld without any loading, the possibility to become the king or conquer a town and enough goodies to whet your appetite. The question is how many of those features will actually be present at release?"
The Matrix

Interview With Sundog of Radio Free Zion 100

Posted by Hemos from the fluffers-for-the-game dept.
RosethornKB writes "KillerBetties.com has an interview with Sundog of Radio Free Zion, an internet broadcast whose purpose is to entertain players of The Matrix Online and will broadcast live events when the game goes live. From the article: "Rosethorn: How will you manage multiple server coverage? Sundog: We are trying to develop enough of a following in beta to allow us to support a different stream for each server, with its own DJs and coverage. So far, the community has been wonderfully supportive of what we are trying to do and hopefully that will translate into the right numbers to allow us to expand that much when the game goes fully live this spring.""
AMD

Intel and AMD's 2005 Plans Revealed 272

Posted by CmdrTaco from the smaller-faster-cooler-or-maybe-not dept.
Takemedown writes "There's a good article on CTZ that talks about Intel and AMD's plans. Intel, continuing on their 18-month chipset refresh rate, will introduce their Glenwood and Lakeport chipsets for the Smithfield dual core desktop microprocessor in 2005. The chipsets will support SATA II, Matrix RAID and a higher system bus speed for the new Pentium 4 name holder. As far as Intel's dual core strategies are concerned, they will most likely bring their dual core additions by the very end of Q2 or Q3 this year, so for those waiting for these next generation chips are better off with a due upgrade. Secondly, if you are hoping for a noticeable performance gain in regular computing tasks are in for a disappointment. Dual core microprocessors are for those who like to do multitasking or work on multithreaded applications. For example, if you are gaming and burning a DVD at the same time, dual core chips will come in handy and will definitely give a smooth computing experience."
Classic Games (Games)

Whippersnappers Bad-Mouth Old Games 699

Posted by Zonk from the in-my-day-we-only-had-8-bits-and-we-liked-it! dept.
1up.com has posted the second in an article series called "Child's Play", where they invite youngsters to experience the joys of classic gaming to hilarious effect. From the (sob) article: "Bobby: After you beat the Death Star level, there should be a snow level, then a small speeder bike level. They should make a Matrix game in the theme of Star Wars. So then you take out your sword and run up to a guy and go, "Chiiing!" And after you saw through his head, you fly inside your X-wing."
The Internet

Router Wars 142

Posted by Hemos from the the-battle-begineth dept.
Chris Holland writes "On the heels of Juniper Networks' recent release of its TX Matrix Platform, Om Malik is giving an interesting overview of current and upcoming battles between protagonists of the Router Game, armed with their Terabit toys."
Programming

Developing Applications With Objective Caml 243

Posted by timothy from the watering-hole dept.
Fahrenheit 450 (William D. Neumann) writes "Developing Applications With Objective Caml was originally published in French by O'Reilly, and later translated into English by a group of volunteers (note that the reviewer was a volunteer proofreader during the translation effort), and graciously made available online as HTML or PDF at the Caml website. For those not familiar with Objective Caml (or OCaml, as it is commonly called), it is a strongly, statically typed (but don't be thinking about Pascal-style typing), eagerly evaluated language with a functional core that also offers many imperative programming features. OCaml also has full support for object-oriented programming that fits in completely with OCaml's strong type system. On top of that, OCaml code can be interpreted for simple scripting, compiled to bytecode for portability, or compiled to native code for speed and resource utilization that rival even that of Intel's C++ compiler. Intrigued?" If so, read on for the rest of Neumann's review.
Movies

American McGee To Adapt Oz As Movie 43

Posted by Zonk from the just-add-goth-cheshires-and-hilarity-will-ensue dept.
Ant writes "According to ShackNews and Hollywood Reporter, American McGee's "Oz" is back on track in several ways. Infogrames dropped the Wizard of Oz based videogame a while ago, but it's being revived now that McGee will be writing an Oz movie script for producer Jerry Bruckheimer. McGee said: "The hero of the story, a teenage boy named Arthur, is whisked away from Earth to an Oz in turmoil. Like Neo in 'The Matrix' films, the boy makes a hero's journey and comes to grips with his powers," he said. "What Jerry Bruckheimer was able to do with 'Pirates of the Caribbean' was simply brilliant, and since 'Oz' is similar in tone to that film franchise, I'd like to follow that model.""
Books

Malware: Fighting Malicious Code 95

Posted by timothy from the give-thanks-for-more-opinions dept.
Adam Jenkins writes "I have had a fair bit of experience with malware, from removing DOS viruses to removing rootkits on Windows servers. Currently I am working in desktop support at a university -- exactly where many of the anti-malware battles occur." With that background, he provides a review of the reprinted Malware: Fighting Malicious Code, writing "As with many things computer-related, this book might age quickly, but it has lots of sound theory that will stay relevant for a long time, even if it doesn't discuss the latest worm by name. I haven't read the author's earlier book (Counter Hack: A Step-by-Step Guide to Computer Attacks and Effective Defenses) but he is well known as both the author of that and also for the SANS lectures he runs." Read on for the rest of Jenkins' review, or revisit Matt Linton's review.
Role Playing (Games)

Jack Emmert Responds to Your Questions 198

Posted by Zonk from the many-thanks-to-the-paragon-city-messenger-service dept.
A while back we passed on some your questions to City of Heroes Lead Designer Jack Emmert. He has responded with details on the upcoming CoH expansion, the future of MMOGs, and commentary on some of the decisions that led to City of Heroes in the first place. Read on for his responses.
PHP

Open Source Content Management Discussion? 109

Posted by Cliff from the because-content-won't-manage-itself dept.
Media Girl asks: "As someone considering the vast array of GNU/open source CMS systems out there (and right here), what have been the experiences, insights and opinions of developers on the various programs out there, such as Slash, Scoop, Drupal, PHPslash and the various Nukes? CMS Matrix has a nice comparison grid of features, but there seems to be a lot left between the lines, and the Perl powerhouses are left out of the matrix. How do the typical components (blogs, articles, comments, karma) compare? What about modality, security and speed under heavy loads? What about the quality of ongoing development and activity of the app's community? What's leading edge and not bleeding edge? And what about the Perl/PHP debate? Can we take a snapshot of this realm of open source web development applications and hash it around a bit?"
Role Playing (Games)

Towards a Theory of Place in Digital Worlds 16

Posted by Zonk from the introspective-navel-gazing dept.
Following last month's State of Play Conference, Gamespot has a good discussion of some issues brought up at the conference, as well as some analysis by Cory Ondrejka of Linden Labs. From the Article: "There is no spoon ... is a tempting shorthand, made all the more powerful by its association with the Matrix. It is also clearly wrong. There is a spoon, just not one that you can eat with. Digital worlds are very real places." Relatedly, Cory Doctorow has up today a short story on Salon.com (registration required) that takes place inside a MMOG.

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