Xfire

Xfire is a very useful tool for people that wish to combine their gaming experience with chatting. Xfire is a Instant Messenger service which feature, the ability to see if a friend is on a server of a supported game at the moment, if yes the player can join up on the same server with the friend without having to search for the server or having to start the game. Xfire currently supports more then 700 games and they are becoming more and more, further the user has the ability regularly chat over Xfire with friends that are available at that moment. Xfire can also memorize your favorite servers and the player can then check up on the server without having to start the game, and thus allowing the player to browse through several servers that can be for several games in order to find the right one.

I added the link of the Xfire website to the Link list for websites of note.

Zune and Ipod

Microsoft is now expending its weaponry against Apple which is the Zune the new MP3 player which is designed by Microsoft, it will have some features the Ipod does not poses, but is it really better? Further MSN will stop selling music and the files that were bought through MSN will not be compatible with the Zune. Zune will also have to compete with PSP, and several other media players which are already established in the market. Microsoft seems sure that their new product will simply take the market and that their is not a single mobile media player out there that could compete with their Zune, yes admittedly the Zune does have some interesting features such as a build in Wireless port which allows the user to share music with other Zune users. This is interesting, and Microsoft stated that the transferred music will only can only be replayed three times or so, which means that you have to either buy the song or that you have to find the person that 'lend' you the song in the first place and let this person send the song over again. Microsoft will continue to steer the same course which they have steered over the past years which is towards greater and more efficient content protection, DRM is of course included in the Zune package which will then help control the use of the content.

Counterstrike Beta...

Counterstrike Beta, was a test forum for a dynamic pricing system that was to be implemented into Counterstrike Source. On November the 1st this dynamic pricing system officially released and was not a beta anymore. It is now part of the regular Counterstrike Source version, what does dynamic pricing mean? Well it basically works the same way today's economy functions which is the demand and supply system, that doesn't mean that a weapon or a piece of equipment can be sold out, but it does mean that the prices for weapons and equipment adjust to the demand. That means a weapon that is great demand like the 'deagle' can suddenly cost a great deal more then it used to while a unpopular weapon becomes dirt cheap.
The implementation of the dynamic pricing also means that the beta has officially ended on November the 1st and can not be played anymore.

Canada and the US....

Canada is defines itself as a socialistic nation (for North American standards anyway), while the United States are seen and by self-definition a capitalistic nation or the capitalistic nation. What could have caused the Canadians to become more Socialistic then the US-Americans, was it the French (Quebecois) or was it something else during the Canadian history. Was it the more pacifistic approach to all issues if independence or other problems? Is it just that the Canadians define themselves by saying we are not like them (The US-Americans)?
Why did these two nations that are situated on the same continent, that are so dependent on each other, become so different in their economical ideologies? Does the difference really reach beyond the economic ideologies or are both nations basically the same?

The Little Environment Test

This test contains questions concerning the environment...

1. How many more years can the fish population sustain fishing at todays rate in the North Sea?

2. Which of the following are green house gases?
A)CO2
B)N2O
C)H2O
D)Methane
E)A,B and D

3. Which of the green house gases continue to rise and why?

4. Does the Kyoto Protocol suffice or is there need for stricter limits? (Explain)

5. Which nations suffer the most under the climate changes?

6. How do Green House Gases cause the increase in temperature?

7. Why is it so important to reduce emissions as soon as possible?

8. By how much did the Global average temperature increase over the last 140 years?

9. When do the warmest years of those 140 years occur for the first time?

10. How great is the portion of the human population that will suffer under acute water stress?

11. How many out of how many people suffer under mail-nutrition due to lack of food?

The answers will be given in the comment section.

The Ship

Steam has once more a free play weekend for a game!

The Ship is the title of the game in which you are a passenger on a Ship on which you then have to murder someone, this has to be done undetected or you will go to jail, further you have to remember that someone might be out there trying to kill you!

The game is most interesting, a cruise with a twist.

The game will be available from today November the second until Sunday November the fifth 2006.

HDCP...lol...

HDCP (High-Bandwidth-Digital-Content-Protection) is something that is necessary to let you watch a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD movie, for a PC you have to have a monitor that can read those signals, a Graphic Card that can and not to forget a DVD drive that can, and of course the software to play a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD.
This is not altogether new, but there is a small detail, it is ugly and unwanted, most Graphic Cards and Monitors used today are NOT HDCP complaint in other words only very few computer systems that are used to day are actually capable of playing Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies that are sold commercially. The same concept applies for TV's just that there are more TV's that are HDCP capable, so you should check if your TV can read HDCP before buying a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player and DVDs and suddenly the TV can not show a picture.
For PC's well there is not a great deal of Hardware available that can deal with HDCP...
ATI Cards I managed to find out that there are some ATI cards that can play HDCP but not which so you will have to find out for ATI cards by searching for a specific card...
Nvidia offers a list of Drives, Screens and Video Cards that are HDCP complaint.

HDCP is endorsed by the Movie giants, Microsoft (Vista supports HDCP as well).
There is good and detailed article available on Wikipedia.

Here is the Link to the list...

Nvidia's list of HDCP compatibility (Nvidia)

Mozilla Firfox 2.0

Firefox has reached a new generation 2.0 it has a visual remake as well as more features that allow for a safer and hopefully more satisfying Web-browsing experience.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

here is the link the download page where you can then find Firefox 2.0

The New Features include:
A build in Spell checker that checks everything you write for errors!
Identity Theft Protection has been included!

Improved Features include:
The Tab-browsing has been improved
The integrated Search capabilities have bin improved
Web-feed performance has been improved
Security Model has been improved upon
Customization has been brought to a new level

And of course it is open source...n_n

Merger

I Merged the Story Time Blog with Stuff, all poems and Stories of Story Time are now available on this Blog.

The Question

Where is it?
What is it?
Who is it?
Is it someone or something?
Can you tell me?

Is it the sign?
Is it this stone?
What is it?
How can reach it?

What is the answer to the riddle?