Wave of bans hits Xbox Live
Nov/09BC
Source: Yahoo!
As many as 600,000 Xbox 360s were banned from the Xbox Live service this week in the latest in a series of crackdowns by Microsoft on illegally modified consoles.
The banned machines — a “small percentage” of the millions of Xbox 360s around the world — are alleged to have been modified in ways that violate Xbox Live’s terms of service, but Microsoft won’t say exactly how they can tell, nor exactly how many users were affected. Banned consoles can still play games, but can’t connect to the Xbox Live service for multiplayer gaming, content downloads or software updates.
“All consumers should know that piracy is illegal, and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs, violates the Xbox LIVE terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live,” Microsoft said in a statement today.
The bans were apparently timed to coincide with yesterday’s release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, expected to be by far the biggest gaming event of the year. One affected Call of Duty fan, a self-confessed software pirate called “Raz,” told the BBC about his disappointment.
“It was a big day yesterday, the latest game we’ve been waiting months and months for. We’ve played the whole series and this one’s come out, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2…I sign in online and next thing I see, ‘Your console has been banned from Xbox’…now I don’t know what to do,” he told the BBC’s Newsbeat.
Most law-abiding gamers will have little sympathy for Raz — but at least one banned Xbox owner claims to have been targeted by accident, and that Microsoft won’t listen to his excuses.
Read more…
Can scientists make a space elevator?
Nov/09BC
Source: CNN
(CNN) — It sounds like science fiction. And it was.
Now, 30 years after “2001″ author Arthur C. Clarke wrote about an elevator that rises into outer space, serious research is happening all over the world in an effort to make the far-fetched-sounding idea a reality.
The benefits of a fully realized elevator would make carrying people and goods into space cheaper, easier and safer than with rocket launches, proponents say, opening up a host of possibilities.
Restaurants and hotels for space tourists. Wind turbines that provide energy by spinning 24 hours a day. A cheaper, easier and more environmentally friendly way to launch rockets.
Scientists envision all of the above — possibly within our lifetimes.
“Space elevator-related research is valid, but there are hurdles to overcome,” said David Smitherman, a space architect at NASA’s George C. Marshall Space Flight Center.
This week in the Mojave Desert, three teams of engineers are competing for $2 million offered up by NASA for anyone who can build a prototype of an elevator able to crawl up a kilometer-high tether while hauling a heavy payload.
“We haven’t had any winners yet, but we truly do expect to have at least one winner, probably more [this year],” said Ted Semon, spokesman for The Spaceward Foundation, which has run the competition for the past several years.
Read more of this article at cnn.com.
Facebook spammer ordered to pay $711 million
Nov/09BC
Cnn-A California judge awarded Facebook $711 million in damages against spammer Sanford Wallace for bombarding the Web site with junk messages.
“We won another battle in the fight against spam,” said Facebook, which announced the Oct. 29 ruling on its Web site on Friday.
Wallace, who has also been called the “Spam King,” accessed Facebook members’ accounts without their permission and sent out “phony” Wall posts and messages, the company said.
In addition to the damages, Judge Jeremy Fogel of U.S. District Court in Northern California’s San Jose division banned Wallace, and anyone affiliated with him, from accessing Facebook.
Facebook acknowledged that it doesn’t expect to get much money out of the bankrupt Wallace, but it said that he could end up behind bars.
“Most notably, the judge referred Wallace to the U.S. Attorney’s Office with a request that Wallace be prosecuted for criminal contempt, which means that in addition to the judgment, he now faces possible jail time,” read the Facebook statement. “We will continue to pursue damages against other spammers.”
Read more about this article at Cnn.com.