“The Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta will go live on May 16th at 12:00 AM PDT and run through June 6 ^th at 11:59 PM PDT. That means that folks who purchased specially marked copies of Crackdown, or won a spot in the Beta through the “Rule of Three” or other regional promotions, will be able to log into their Xbox Live Gold accounts, download and play the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta and enjoy an early peek at the multiplayer aspect of the game.”

“The Beta itself consists of three maps – Valhalla, High Ground and Snowbound – graphically improved since our first MP screenshots – and all three will be playable in Matchmaking only (that is after all, what we’re Beta testing here). All three maps are suitable for a wide variety of gameplay types, and you will have the chance to try all manner of game types, familiar and new.

There are a number of new features you’ll get to test out – including a new grenade type, a completely different class of weapon and some of the enhanced online functionality we plan to bring to the game – but it should be noted, a lot of secret features are hidden in this Beta. We’re keeping a lot of our powder dry for Fall. In May, when your firing the Spiker, sniping vehicles with the Spartan Laser and sticking fools with the Brute Spike grenade, remember that it’s just a peek-a-boo fraction of what’s to come”.

PK - If you still haven’t got your Halo 3 beta key or you want to get into the beta wagon go and buy a copy of Crackdown!

Via Bungie.net

Space Tourist Charles Simonyi is onboard a Russian Soyuz Spacecraft. Billionare Simonyi is an early Microsoft employee who oversaw the development of apps such as Word and Excel. Check out his website and blog, http://charlesinspace.com/ .

It read 45 mins before he docks with the Internationa Space Station (ISS)

Heroic Space Nerd pose from his blog! 

In the News: Charles Simonyi

A few much needed Xbox 360 updates, coming soon!

Major Nelson reports the official updates that will be out in a months time:

[Quote]

While the actual update is about a month away from being released, today we released official details on some of the new features and enhancements the free update will contain. In addition to MSN Messenger integration that you may have heard about, we also announced a new text input device coming this summer. Other features coming next month include:

• The redesigned Achievement notification pop-up (toast) will show the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value. You’ll see this information the moment you earn an achievement. No more popping open the guide and interrupting your gameplay. (screenshot)
• Enhanced family settings features for Xbox LIVE communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.
• A new Xbox LIVE Marketplace blade lets Xbox LIVE members access the content they seek - whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States) - from one place.
• Updates to Xbox LIVE Arcade allow owners to see which Xbox LIVE Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox LIVE members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list. The Tell a Friend capabilities have been expanded as well.
• A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox LIVE Arcade games.
• New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
• Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.

I know you probably have a bunch of questions about these features, so I’ll work on getting a few guests on some of my upcoming shows to answer ‘em.

One more thing, the update will also add the ability for the name of the game that is in your tray to show up on the dash. Oh, and it works for Xbox 360 and Original Xbox titles

[Quote end]

More details can be found on Xbox News.

The most interesting update to hardware will be the QWERTY keypad accessory for the 360 controller. Watch out for this accessory this coming summer. It will be very useful for people like myself, who want to use the Live Messenger on the 360 but don’t want to attach a USB Keyboard or use on the on-screen keyboard which is a pain-in-the-ass to use!

Details of it had been leaked ages ago around July 2005 on what seems to be a Spanish .ppt presentation.

I was on Gizmodo today and the layout was all over the place and messed up. On IE and yes on FF too. (Worse on IE)

A few Screenshots:

All the entries made on April 9, 2007 appear twice along with Gizmodo Banner and header adverts. The cloned entries at the bottom seem to be all jumbled up, especially on IE 7. Is this just on my PC or yours too?
Okay, back to blogging…

(Another reason to switch to Firefox? It renders well even when the layout of the site is screwed up!)

Windows Live™ for TV Beta is a rich, graphically-driven interface designed for people who use Windows Live Spaces and Messenger and Live Call on large-screen monitors and TVs. Microsoft is still in the early stages of this beta, and access to this beta is very limited. It works only in Windows Vista Ultimate and Home Premium, so users with these operating systems are ready to go already!

• Browse millions of Spaces in rich 3D graphics with new Gallery views and full keyword search
• Find out what your friends have been doing and saying on Windows Live Spaces
• Have real-time text and voice conversations
• Call your friends’ mobile or landline telephones by signing up with Verizon Web Calling to make affordable domestic and international calls
• Easily navigate with your mouse, keyboard or a TV remote (remote navigation requires Microsoft Media Center Remote and IR)
• Make free PC-to-PC calls to other Windows Live Messenger users.

You can be part of this beta! We have only 2 invites (small number, but more coming soon) and if you want to be in with a chance of getting in on this amazing beta, take part in our rather unconventional contest!

How this works
Technology has got me into trouble before. I was at a party, this weird girl gave me her number so I typed it in and put as the name (without her seeing me) “Hayley - weird”. I went to the same club a few weeks later, the same girl saw me and asked why I hadn’t called her. I told her I didn’t have her number - she persued this and took my phone, and entered in her number again. When she went to save it, it said “Do you want to replace ‘Hayley - weird’?” That got me into hot water with a few of her friends. So… the question is:

“How has technology got you into trouble?”

The two best comments will get the beta invites - leave your name and email address and your comment so we can get back to you.

1. Upgrade the hard drive (and how to open the case).
2. Run Xvid movies.
3. Attach a keyboard and mouse.
4. Enable SSH.
5. Install VNC remote desktop.
6. Boot Apple TV from a USB drive.
7. Turn it into a web server.
8. Install OS X.
9. Install the Asterisk open-source VOIP system.

Source: Wired

Someone decided to have fun with the king of Thailand and YouTube got banned from the whole country.

Here is the link to the video that caused the ban. The video now seems to have been removed by the uploader (or by YouTube?)

So, now that it is gone, will Thailand unblock YouTube or leave the ban in effect?

psst.. anyone got a spare copy of that video? Upload it to Google Video, will that get it banned too? Ridiculous!

If YouTube is still blocked in Thailand you can use YouTubeProxy to access your lonelygirl15 videos.

“A TV advert for the XBox 360 games console has been banned over fears it encouraged reckless driving by “glamorising” boy racers’ following a complaint from just one viewer.

The un-named solitary viewer told watchdogs that the ad was “irresponsible” because it glamorised “street racing” and might encourage viewers - young men in particular - to drive dangerously.”

The purpose of video games is to escape reality. The advert clearly stated “Dramatisation. Professional stunt. Do not attempt”.

I don’t understand or support the logic behind this move. Why ban an advert on one negative feedback? Do they not take into account that many people did not mind this and did not bother to raise it up as it is so frivolous?  Before we know it, games like these will be illegal.

Source :Life Extra Style

I’ve seen this a few times on different websites, and there’s a very simple temporary fix to sort out the problem, only it doesn’t fix anything really long term and you have to keep doing it.  Let me show you what I mean - below is the Bink.nu header and logo which is in PNG format. The top image is where IE7 doesn’t render it properly, whilst the bottom image is what it really should look like. See if you can notice the difference in the images.

It may not be blatently obvious, but one is in 32-bit graphics, whereas the top is in 16-bit graphics. But why? I asked someone on the IE7 team to clarify this one and here’s what I got:

“No comment”.

Useless. Anyone else having this issue or is it just me and the other 50 other people who I’ve asked?

We couldn’t put it clearer - use Firefox! It is so much better than Internet Explorer or Opera, even Safari. You can get Firefox on a number of different platforms - for Windows, Linux, Red Hat, and even Apple Mac, don’t forget mobile editions.

It loads things faster, it’s more secure, it’s simpler, it shows websites much better than Internet Explorer, it manages passwords and saved data much better, it’s easier to use, it updates itself automatically to keep you secure from online threats, it has in-built safety features such as a phishing filter (which Microsoft stole of course). All these, and it’s completely free.

Currently 61% of Live and Beyond viewers (as of 31st March 2007) use Internet Explorer and only 28% use Firefox. C’mon, use Firefox to view Live and Beyond and show us that you really support open-source and better browsing. Let’s try and get that figure up to at least past half way. If you’re using Internet Explorer, we’ll tell you so in the top right hand corner of your screen.