First its Digg spam now its spreaded to WORDPRESS!

Yes its a sad day. Fist its Digg now its WordPress. Im thinking its Koolaidguy

[ZOOM IN]

V-Rock:V-Requester BETa

We are working on a new feature called V-Requester. V-Requester is online based so you V-Rock listeners will be able to go to a web address and It will tell you the songs we have. All you have to do is  click on your song and wait for your song to get out of the Queued Requests. We are trying to work on a way to get the V-Rock Player on the page but it is not a priority for us yet. We got a few BuGs like the counter wont work, some songs are on the playable list more then one time, and the Currently Playing does not update with out a reload of the page (we are working on a auto refresh) We plan to have V-Requests out in a few months.

Signing off,
Aj Collins
Gamerz World Network
Creater

P.S. We have a pic of the Admin and User page.
Screen shot of the ADMIN page
http://imageknockout.com/uploads/V-Requestsadminshot12-23-05544947.JPG

Screen Shot of the User Page
http://ImageKnockout.com/uploads/v-requestsrequestshot12-23-05907323.JPG

Windows Vista Pre-Beta2 December CTP (5270) IS OUT!

Yes,

The newest build is here. December's CTP will be made available to about 500,000 developers and IT professionals through Microsoft's technical beta, MSDN and TechNet programmes.

To read more from VNUnet

"

Microsoft has made available a new Community Technology Preview (CTP) of its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system.

The new release includes several new features in the areas of security, performance and the user interface, said Shanen Boettcher, a senior director with Microsoft's Windows Client Group in a conference call with reporters.

The preview offers an updated version of Windows Defender, formerly known Windows anti spyware. The tool offers improved detection and removal of spyware and malware and features a new user interface. It will also run for users on a standard user account where previously it required them to run in administror mode.

Microsoft has also make available an updated version of its firewall software that now features bi-directional filtering. This enables the software to monitor the data that a system is receiving from the internet as well as data that it is trying to send, potentially blocking worms or spyware from connecting to their masters.

Internet Explorer is set to start giving better notifications when a user visits a spoofed website that is set up to steal confidential information such as credit card numbers. Microsoft had already revealed that the browser will use a list of know spoofing websites and turn the address bar red when a users visits such a website.

Boettcher said that Internet Explorer also will look for uncommon characters in the website's URL, based on the system's language settings. The software for instance will warn when an English user visits a website with an o-umlaut.

For enterprises, the software adds support for the IPSec standard for data encryption or authentication. Another feature courting enterprises enables IT administrators to control or block the use of USB memory keys inside organizations through group policies.

"This has been a great concern of these folks in terms of data leakage, in files being copied on to these devices and then taken home or potentially lost, " Boettcher said.

Consumers meanwhile can start testing the software's new parental control features that enable parents to monitor and control their children's computer usage by blocking certain websites. It can also prevent access to games based on the ratings set by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and allows parents to set a timer for the maximum time of computer usage.

The December CTP will also introduce a new feature dubbed Bitlocker, which uses a technology that Microsoft refers to as secure startup. Bitlocker will encrypt the contents of the hard drive on a laptop computer, preventing data leaks when a laptop is lost or stolen.

New performance features include the inclusion of Superfetch. Unveiled at the Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles last September, the technology will use external memory including USB memory keys or flash memory chips to boost system performance by preloading commonly accessed data and application onto the memory.

Testers can also expect to start seeing some of Vista's new designs for the user interface, including window transparency and an updated interface for Media Centre editions.

December's CTP will be made available to about 500,000 developers and IT professionals through Microsoft's technical beta, MSDN and TechNet programmes.

Windows Vista is the first version of Microsoft's operating system where the company is using its Community Technology Previews. Microsoft promised the monthly updates at PDC in September, although it skipped the November release. Each CTP is centred around a certain them, indicating to testers when they can expect to start looking at certain functionalities.

Microsoft issued a first beta of Windows Vista last July. A second beta has been promised for early 2006 and the final product is scheduled to become available in the second half of 2006."

[VNUnet]

Is your Dell Laptop on fire? Dell has recalled some batteries…..

Dell and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission today announced a voluntary recall of approximately 22,000 Dell notebook computer batteries. The reason for the recall is that the batteries could overheat, which could pose a fire risk.

Dell said they had received three reports of batteries overheating, with the incidents involving damage to a tabletop, a desktop, and minor damage to personal effects. No injuries have been reported.

The specific notebook batteries being recalled were sold with the following Dell notebook computers: Latitude D410, D505, D510, D600, D610, D800, D810; Inspiron 510M, 600M, 6000, 8600, 9200, 9300, XPS Gen 2; and Dell Precision M20 and M70 mobile workstations. The batteries were also sold separately, including as secondary batteries and in response to service calls. All of the impacted batteries were sold from October 5, 2004 through October 13, 2005. The computers with these batteries sold for between $900 and $2,650, and individual batteries sold for between $99 and $179.

The batteries insert into the battery bay located on the underside of the notebook. "Dell" and "Made in Japan" or "Made in China" are stamped on the batteries. The identification number for each battery appears on a white sticker (impacted numbers can be viewed here). Dell said users should contact them toll-free at (866) 342-0011 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, go to the firm's Web site, or write to: Dell Inc., Attn: Battery Program, 9701 Metric Blvd., Suite 200 Austin, Texas 78758.

Need an idea what to get him or her? how about a homemade Copy-Protected CD!!

Here’s a great gift idea just in time for the holidays: Make your friends and relatives their very own copy-protected CDs using the same industrial-grade passive protection technology built into XCP and Macrovision discs.

Passive protection exploits subtle differences between the way computers read CDs and the way ordinary CD players do. By changing the layout of data on the CD, it’s sometimes possible to confuse computers without affecting ordinary players — or so the theory goes. In practice, the distinction between computers and CD players is less precise. Older generations of CD copy protection, which relied entirely on passive protection, proved easy to copy in some computers and impossible to play on some CD players. For these reasons, copy protection vendors now use active protection — special software designed to block copying.

Discs with XCP or Macrovision protection employ active protection in conjunction with a milder form of passive protection. You can create your own CD with exactly the same passive protection by following a straightforward five-step procedure. I’ll describe the procedure here, and then explain why it works.

What you’ll need:

• A computer running a recent version of Windows (instructions are Windows-specific; perhaps someone will write instructions for MacOS or Linux)
• Nero, a popular CD burning application
• CloneCD, an advanced disc duplication utility
• Two blank recordable CDs

Step 1: Burn a regular audio CD

Start Nero Burning ROM and create a new Audio CD project. [View] Add the audio tracks that you want to include on your copy-protected disc. [View] When you’re ready to record, click the Burn button on the toolbar. In the Burn tab, make sure “Finalize disc” is unchecked. [View] Insert a blank CD and click Burn. Be careful not to infringe any copyrights! For loads of great music that you can copy legally, visit Creative Commons.

Step 2: Add a data session to the CD

Start another Nero compilation, this time selecting the “CD-ROM ISO” project type. In the Multisession tab, make sure “Start Multisession disc” is selected; and in the ISO tab, make sure Data Mode is set to “Mode 2 / XA”. [View] Add any files that you want to be accessible when the CD is used in a computer. You might include “bonus” content, such as album art and lyrics. [View] For a more professional effect, consider adding the installer for your favorite spyware application and creating an Autorun.inf file so it starts automatically. When you’re finished, click the Burn toolbar button. Insert the audio CD you created in Step 1, and click Burn. [View] Nero should warn you that the disc you’ve inserted is not empty; click Yes to add your data files as a second session. [View]

At this point, you’ve created a CD that contains both audio tracks and data files. The data files you put on the CD should be visible in Windows Explorer (in My Computer, right click the CD icon and click Open) and the audio tracks should be rippable with your favorite audio player. To add passive copy protection, you’ll need to modify the layout of the data on the disc so that the audio tracks are more difficult to access.

Step 3: Rip the CD as a CloneCD image file

Make sure the CD you just created is still in the drive and start CloneCD. Click the “Read to Image File” button. Select your drive and click Next. Choose “Multimedia Audio CD” and click Next. [View] Select an easy to find location for the image file and click OK to begin ripping.

Step 4: Modify the image file to add passive protection

The CloneCD image you created in step 3 actually consists of three files with names ending in .CCD, .IMG, and .SUB. The .CCD file describes the layout of the tracks and sessions on the CD. You’ll edit this file to add the passive protection.

Start Windows Notepad and open the .CCD file. Modifying the file by hand would be tedious, so I’ve created an online application to help. Copy the entire contents of the file to the clipboard and paste it into this form, then click Upload. Copy the output from the web page and paste it back into Notepad, replacing the original file contents. [View] Save the file and exit Notepad.

Step 5: Burn the modified image to create a copy-protected CD

Insert a blank CD and start CloneCD again. Click the “Write From Image File” button. Select the image file you modified in step 4 and click next. Select your CD recorder and click Next. Select “Multimedia Audio CD” and click OK to begin burning. [View]

That’s it! You’ve created your very own copy-protected CD.

Now it’s time to test your disc. If everything worked, the files from the data session will be visible from My Computer, but the audio tracks will not appear in Windows Media Player, iTunes, and most other mainstream music players. The CD should play correctly in standalone CD players.

How it works. To see how this form of passive protection works, you can examine the layout of the CD you created. Start Nero and select Disc Info from the Recorder menu. You should see something like this:

(The exact number of tracks you see will depend on how many songs you included.)

Notice that the tracks are grouped into two sessions — essentially two independent CDs burned onto the same disc. Unprotected CDs that combine audio and data files contain audio tracks in the first session and a single data track in the second. The only difference in the passive protected CD you just created is that the second session contains two tracks instead of one.

You added the extra track (shown in yellow) when you edited the disc image in step 4. This simple change makes the audio tracks invisible to most music player applications. It’s not clear why this works, but the most likely explanation is that the behavior is a quirk in the way the Windows CD audio driver handles discs with multiple sessions.

For an added layer of protection, the extraneous track you added to the disc is only 31 frames long. (A frame is 1/75 of a second.) The CD standard requires that tracks be at least 150 frames long. This non-compliant track length will cause errors if you attempt to duplicate the disc with many CD drives and copying applications.

Caveat emptor. Yes, your copy-protected CD is “industrial strength” — XCP and Macrovision employ exactly the same passive protection — but even the pros have their limitations. There are many well-known method for defeating this kind of passive protection, such as:

• Enhanced software — Advanced CD ripping programs avoid the Windows CD audio driver altogether and communicate directly with the CD drive. Thus, programs such as EAC are able to rip the tracks without any difficulty. — Better CD copying applications, including Nero, support a recording mode called Disc-at-Once/96; this lets them create an exact duplicate of the protected disc even though the last track has an illegal length.
• Other operating systems — The discs can be ripped with standard software on Macs and on Linux systems. These platforms don’t suffer from the limitation that causes ripping problems on Windows.
• Magic markers — The famous magic marker trick involves carefully drawing around the outer edge of the CD. This blocks out the second session, allowing the disc to be ripped and copied just like an unprotected CD.

And of course, at any time Microsoft could fix the Windows quirk that is the basis for this technique, rendering it completely ineffective.

Despite these limitations, who wouldn’t enjoy finding a homemade copy-protected CD in their stocking? They’re a great way to spread holiday cheer while preventing anyone else from spreading it further.

thanks to, Freedom to Tinker blog for the info

Repaired Xbox 360 stolen by DHL!

DHL is Microsoft's shiper when it come to repairs. Well it seems like Microsoft should not trust them anymore. A DHL employee stole a repired Xbox 360!

" I sent my defective 360 back for repair 11/28 and it was fixed and shipped back to me on 12/1. The morning of 12/2 it was scanned at my local DHL facility but never made it onto the truck. DHL admits it was likely stolen by an employee and has updated the tracking information accordingly. They told me to call Microsoft to initiate a claim.

Does anyone know a direct number at Microsoft I can call to get this resolved? 800-4MY-XBOX tells me they can't do anything and promised "someone" would call me yesterday but that didn't happen, and I have yet to get a call today. Where should I turn? Very confused and frustrated here… if you can help please let me know."
[ http://forums.xbox.com/927938/ShowPost.aspx ]

DIGG THIS

So you wanna work for Rockstar Games huh?

We all know Rockstar Games is best known for Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar North and Rockstar Leeds have posted open job positions. Rockstar North is the console and pc games part and Rockstar Leeds is the porable part. So it seems like Rockstar North is looking for people to work on GTA 4 for the PS3 and Rockstar Leeds is looking for people to work on GTA (title not yet announced) for PSP.

Rockstar Leeds
2D DESIGNER
ENVIRONMENT ARTIST
SENIOR ENVIRONMENT ARTIST
Content Creators

Rockstar North
ENVIRONMENT ARTISTS
You might want to look at http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=286161 A guy just got a job at Rockstar North and he posted the pics that got him the job!

Here are some of them

Ever get the feeling the people at Blockbuster are calling you an idiot?

"When TeamXbox forum member oltranzista pre-ordered two copies of Perfect Dark Zero from Blockbuster, the last thing he expected was to be insulted for doing so. Instead, when he decided to change his pre-order (due to the store being out of stock) and purchase a Hard Drive for his Xbox 360 he was insulted by the manager. Not directly mind you, but via a receipt. Here’s an extract of the message oltranzista saw when he picked up his game.

11/28 13:38 COM [EMP#]
WHAT A IDIOT…..I THINK HE IS ABUSING THE SYSTEM…BUT…WITH SO MANY CHANGES I TOLD HIM THAT NOMORE ECHANGES ON PRESELLS..[EMP NAME]

Not suprisingly, oltranzista is working on a formal complaint to Blockbuster. Read the full receipt after the jump.

"

[Via Joystiq]

 

DIGG THIS

 

 

" I'm working on a formal complaint to Blockbuster but I thought I'd share my experiance with you krazy kidz too.

OK, I pre-ordered two copies of Perfect Dark Zero in September (two copies because I planned on getting two XBox 360s). I used a gift card and trade-ins to pay one limited edition off and apply the remainder on the second copy. I made damn sure to keep both receipts because the transaction took forever and nearly made the employee's head explode.

Then on 11/26 I went to pick them up and also buy a 360 hard drive. I called before to ask if I could change one pre-order of Perfect Dark Zero to another game and was told I could.

Then when I arrived I found that they were out of Perfect Dark Zero copies so I asked to just apply the remaining credit from the partially paid game to the 360 Hard Drive. I was told that I only had like $20 credit on my account and when I explained that I should be getting the other XBox 360 game in place of the paid in full Perfect Dark then that employee's head nearly exploded and she told me call back when the manager was there. So I just left the other game that I wanted there and just bought the 360 Hard Drive on my credit card.

I fortunately found my receipts and gave the manager a call. After explaining the exact amounts/dates/numbers on my receipts the manager gave me my credit (without asking to see the receipt in person? wtf?) and when I came to pick up my game I got the coolest receipt ever:

===================================
DATE ITEM EMP# AMOUNT BALANCE
—- —- —- —— ——-
11/28 DELIVE [EMP#] 0.00 0.00
13:29 1333991 X360-PERFECT DARK ZERO
11/28 CREDIT [EMP#] -20.90 -20.90
13:29 1333991 X360-PERFECT DARK ZERO
11/28 CREDIT [EMP#] -59.90 -80.80
13:37 Overring Credit
11/28 13:38 COM [EMP#]
WHAT A IDIOT…..I THINK HE IS
ABUSING THE SYSTEM…BUT…WITH
SO MANY CHANGES I TOLD HIM THAT NO
MORE ECHANGES ON PRESELLS..[EMP NAME]
11/28 TAX [EMP#] -6.88 -87.68
13:39 Total Tax
11/28 13:38 COM [EMP#]
$59.99 IS TO CORRECT THE FUBAR MESS
OF THE XBOX-360 PRESELL AND CHANGES
i THINK HE PURPOSELY IS TRYING TO
MESS WITH US….THIS IS WHAT HE THIN
HE IS OWED….
11/28 13:43 WRN [EMP#]
CORRECTIVE ACTION NOTICE
ALL CREDITS ARE TO BE DONE
BY [EMP NAME] [EMP#]
UNDERSTANDS HE CAN'T CANCEL OR
CHANGE ANY MORE PRESELLS…..[EMP NAME]"

[Via Team Xbox]