Category Archives: IT

May 9, 2013 · 01:37

Previous Generation towards future Games

At this point it feels important to me to take a look at the lighter side of life. This article is also slightly more intended who remember gaming on systems like the Commodore 64, Atari ST/Amiga and the pre Pentium 1 gaming days. I remember those days well. Simple days! It was all about working the absolute minimum one had to do and the rest of the time was about enjoying the outside life (to some extent) and then to go home and enjoy a video game…..or two. In those days if a boss required you to work overtime, then you went to the chemist at lunchtime and bought him some Valium or Xanax, so he could relax. Good Times!

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon something called D-Fend reloaded, which is a DOS emulation program, with an additional link to a place called ‘My Abandoneware’ at http://www.myabandonware.com

These two places allow you to play the old original games from those early gaming days. The fun part is that I had several of them, yet the advanced options of D-Fend allowed me to slow down the processor to such an extent that those games finally worked again and they worked flawlessly.

Now, for most this is not new, or in some cases they think that these games have nothing to offer.

I beg to differ. The X-Com games and The Ultima series are more than most realise. These games brought a level of original gaming that even today can hardly be surpassed. You see, a good game is not about smooth graphics. It is all about playability. This is without a doubt a lesson we can learn for free so it seems, so this is a number one trip for all readers. The abandoneware site had actually a second option. Each game has a link where the original owner can identify himself, should he object to his game being freely available here. I found one such game, and I bought it for the iPad at the Apple store.

The interesting part is that these games still touch me in some way. These were the original titles and they are part of gaming history. More important, this list of over 4000 games will show you one clear thing. These people were innovators in more than one way. They were able to deliver a game that was able to run on a 640Kb system (yes, I know that most do not even have a memory card that small).

So, consider how the bulk could be transferred to something as ‘simple’ as the Nintendo DS. Add slightly better graphics and several of these titles will soon be more coveted then several high marketed products on the game store shelves today. After 20-25 years that is some achievement.

Of course many of these 4000 games are below par by most standards, but that is the consequence these games have, some were from, or meant for the Commodore 64. It only had 64Kb to work with. It was not until 1990 that this world changed for the personal computer. The main reason was the coming of the SoundBlaster. The SoundBlaster was a soundcard that went to places the Adlib card could not reach (the ruling soundcard in those days). It gave the PC sound abilities that surpassed the initial 16-bit home computers like the Amiga and the Atari ST.

Yes, many will not be swayed as they are so into ‘graphics’, yet these games depended on game play, which is not that far-fetched when you are limited to 640Kb high-end computing powerhouses (as they were then).

Legally this group of games is interesting too. Even though many might not bother or realise this but these games still have copyrights. More important considering the term of copyright, and it currently goes to figure why some of these games are not reset for the new and smaller systems. This is where the one owner option on that games site comes into play. The game that was removed from the system as per request by the original owner was a game called Ascendency. It has a tactical and it has a strategical side to it. I will not go into the game itself, but what is clear is that he made an excellent export to the iPad. Most of the game remained the same. Only small changes were made to get this game to run on my iPad 1. The result is one enjoyable journey into a game thought was lost to me. It works great! Consider that I had no problem dishing over those $7, even though I still have the original PC disk. This version is a happy addition to my collection.

The two big winners here would be Sid Meier and Richard Garriott. Their old games are still as fun and rewarding to play as the moment I got these games in the early 90’s. A dozen games all almost ready to be ported to handhelds and tablets. All ready for a new generation of gamers who will quickly learn that these games filled with game play can easily outlast some high end graphic game we conquer in 20 hours for $99 retail. Comparing new games against transferred game I can see a dozen games, each having 50-100 hours of gaming value at $10 each. That comes down to almost 1000% more game play for the amount of one new game. I say that makes it a win-win for us.

A win one as we get great game play, and win number two as the game industry needs to start thinking long and hard on how their marketing hypes are winning less and less, whilst we the gamer become ever weary on what we are offered and for the amount it is offered for.

Will this stop games like Elder Scrolls 6 or a new God of war? No! Good games will always get our attention.

Their question should be what makes it a good game for us!

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Filed under Gaming, IT, Law

Tagged as abandoneware, Commodore 64, dos emulation, Nintendo DS, original games, Richard Garriott, Sid Meier, Ultima, X-Com

May 7, 2013 · 22:19

Cody Wilson, 003½ with a plastic gun

It is not often we see innovation in a new light. We have seen innovations over time as people found something that was new, that was nice, and then they changed the world, they sometimes change it twice.

Some might have seen it, some might not. There is a ‘new’ novelty printer. This printer is different. It has the ability to print in 3D. It does so by printing plastic. As it prints layer by layer, it creates a 3D plastic model. I saw it in a novelty science store called ‘Professor Plums’ in Crows Nest (Sydney, Australia). As such I have seen small vases, holders and other small trinkets that seem simple, yet, when you consider that these are ‘printed’ objects, you would look again and think ‘How amazing!’.

A law student in Texas took that design to new level. Perhaps this man saw John Malkovic in the movie ‘in the line of fire‘, he put one and one together and ended up with 15 ‘printed’ parts and that is how he made a plastic gun. You might think what nonsense it was; however, consider the second part of that equation as he added one part that was not printed. The bullet! Then he did what others stated was ‘Science Fiction’ and he fired the gun, making it a working success. The article is at “http://news.sky.com/story/1087396/controversial-3d-printed-gun-fires-test-shots”.

Innovation, an idea to break open the law and the most dangerous item you could ever consider, a gun that does not show up on metal detectors. No matter what he thinks in this regard, I am not attacking him for his convictions. Like him I believe that guns do not kill people. People kill people. The part he might or might not have considered is that the American Arms industry currently represents roughly $11B in 2012. This represents guns and ammo as far as I know, but now that revenue is in some serious peril. No matter how criminals get their guns, they do pay for it. Now, someone needs one 3D printer, plastic toner and the schematics. The result will be a collection of guns without serial numbers, without set bullet striations. I reckon that forensic evidence will never be the same again once these guns hit the streets in numbers. Consider in addition that plastic melts. Dump the used gun in an open fire and the option ‘Beyond reasonable doubt’ will now happily take a gander into never never land.

In the Sky News article it stated New York congressman Steve Israel view “Security checkpoints, background checks, and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser.”

Congressman Israel is correct. This is a new day. When Jeff Maguire wrote his idea “In the line of fire” in 1993 he might never have considered that his idea could become a reality. Yesterday the news showed him that reality caught up with his imagination!

So should we blame Jeff Maguire? Seems hardly fair! Should we blame Cody Wilson? I think that his idea to put this on-line would be irresponsible, yet, proving that the idea worked was all it took. It now only takes a slightly clever person to re-engineer this concept. So perhaps we should consider that there is no blame. Perhaps in the US gun control the way they tried to pull off their political games in the last year is now clearly shown to be an utter mistake.

That is how I saw this then; this is how I see it now even more. The clarity remains that guns do not kill people, other people do that!

I am not turning this into a gun debate. This is the issue when technology and innovation catches up with us faster and faster. The fact that new and additional laws are needed gives us two issues.

1. More loopholes. Whatever changes or additions are made, once they introduce a new material, a new way to make 3D models, we will see more changes and more legal issues.

2. “Beyond reasonable doubt”. The plastic gun can too easily be transformed. How long until we buy a small glass container with an Isopropyl Bromide (or variant)? That would be one way to melt plastic. Soon thereafter the prosecution has nothing left. Nothing to work with and due process stops as the gun that was used no longer exists.

This means prosecution of another level. This is nothing compared to the countries where there is a ‘proper’ form of gun control. These nations now have the issue that a printer can get the people the firearms they never had to worry about. Unlike the Golden gun in the James bond film from 1974, these weapons are made from the cheap stuff and they do work.

So from the 60’s we had Star Trek and now we have the mobile phone (we’ve had that device a while), the 80’s we had Star Trek the Next Generation, and now we have the iPad. 1993 we got John Malkovic and his plastic gun, which is now a reality. What will we get next? More important, what laws will these innovations break (or not break as they are too innovative to cover)?

This brings me to the modern Jules Verne. Arthur C. Clarke had 3 laws of predictions. The third one was “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” He came up with that gem in 1962. Considering that into a legal frame I come to is “Any sufficiently advanced technology is not contained as illegal through law“.

This point has been proven in several cases.

– Designer drugs. Often take too long to classify, giving the trendsetters an initial option to score large amounts of money, mCPP is a perfect example of this. (Criminal law)

– Tying (product tying), in many cases, this practice is still (legally allowed) used widely in both Mobile and computer industries. Even though there is criticism against the existence of these laws you still see it used widely in getting a subscription with a provider and getting a ‘free’ phone. Also consider Microsoft and the merging of office software and the IE browser in the core of it all. (Competition law).

– Digital piracy – Peer to peer sharing of movies and music (IP law)

– If we consider the events of LIBOR, Cyprus and the 2008 Bank crash, then we can safely say that banking laws are just not up to speed (especially as unregulated as they are now)

– Now printers that produce firearms.

Consider the next step, which is not that far away. In the movie ‘Ultraviolet’ we see a scene where a mobile phone is nothing more than a plastic mould, ‘distributed’ from a machine, just fold it and it is ready to use. How long until the plastic and electronic print board is just printed on any device. So jacking someone else’s phone is one step away. You will be paying for the ‘used by someone else’ costs. Not identity theft, but consumer technology theft.

From earlier and the last example we see that the law is not up to speed and a rewrite that allows for rules of evidence of another nature is becoming a more pressing matter then we realise, as we see that the law is increasingly running behind.

Tomb Raider, A game the wrong way round.

This is for those who play/played games (on a console or PC). I have been involved in the gaming industry for a long time. I have tested them, reviewed them and been in contact with original game creators since 1989. No matter who we applaud for whatever game started what, there is no denying a basic fact. When Sony released the first PlayStation the world of gaming changed forever.

This console came in the beginning with a minimum amount of games; however gaming changed forever one year after the PlayStation was released when a game named Tomb Raider was released. This game was in no uncertain terms the pinnacle of gaming in many ways. It was puzzling, Action, exploring and extremely exciting. It had 4 area’s comprising of 18 levels. It was a massive game filled with so many things that replaying was essential. The game that followed was even bigger and more challenging. I reckon it took no less than 3 weeks to get through either game. I was mesmerised. It was there for a shock that I got through this new game for almost 90% in just two days.

The new Tomb Raider is served like an expensive meal. Nice plate, exquisite display of eatable items, but a nice plate does not necessarily leave you filled and in this case it leaves you hungry soon after dinner. The game is rocky in several places. It is repetitive; at times it has the same shock effect again and again and at times too cinematographic where you must push a button at the exact time.

So, what are the good parts?

Yes, they had so much to work with. Enough so, that I am very concerned on how this was messed up to that extent. The premise that it is on ONE island was pretty brilliant, the idea of a Tomb Raider zero is pretty decent and one thing MUST be stated at the very beginning is that the graphics are UNREAL! That is the one part that is beyond exceptional. The graphics show utter perfection. Especially when you get to a level called coastal base, you have no idea what you are in for. The graphical part of the game is without a doubt utterly perfect. To give you a little more, this is from the same house that brought Deus Ex. A game that brought several times the satisfaction this game brings. Square Enix is a house that has a high quality established name, so what went wrong? WHY is this game so mediocre in my mind?

Let us take a look at the first level. It is decent and a good introduction to this game. It gives the person a way to control and move through the introduction. In the end of this short run we will have seen how easy the game is controlled and that is what any good introduction does. From there we stop at our first camp. The camps are important and it is a good way to progress and safe a game. All that is fine. Next we get to get the bow and do a little hunting. Soon thereafter you will get a first feel on how good the game might be. You as a gamer will quickly become hungry for more. After a day, when you see your progress you realise that overall this game could have been a lot more, and it is without a doubt way too small. The indication that ‘downloaded’ tombs are coming might not even be a consolation, especially if those tombs cost extra (unknown at this time whether it will cost). I do not know whether the failing is due to timing, due to marketing or just a lack of creativity. The art and graphics are so amazing that the third option is not likely the case.

Levels are overall not that bad and the hidden tombs are nice. The change that the entire game plays on One Island gives the game a good feel, and soon the story will narrate into a supernatural field that is well known and a source of fame for the Tomb Raider series. So, the elements of a great Tomb Raider game are definitely there. However, some levels could have been a lot larger, making the game a lot more and especially longer challenging. I reckon that this is one of the two great flaws in this game. The game does have many decent sides, again, it tends to get repetitive when Lara is dumped in the deep end, suddenly surrounded by overwhelming forces and then the fight starts again. I can understand that approach to happen once or twice, but it happens too often, I would state that this is a big No in my book. This repetition becomes tedious after a while. This is odd way to go, because the approach with stealth kills with a bow is actually a very nice twist for the player. In addition we soon have an idea who is two-timing us, so the average gamer will not get too much of a surprise.

What was good is in some levels there is a running need to jump, climb and skip in a cinematographic approach. This is not bad, but it again happens too often and then it is all about timing the button correctly, or to shoot the right obstacles. 2-3 might be nice, but it happens slightly too often with too many cut scenes.

What could have been done better? Larger playing levels are a definite! 2 of them, like the Coastal area and the climb to the monastery are sizeable area’s to see. However, getting through the levels is at times slightly too fast. If we look at places like the Research Station, we see a place that was way too small. Even additional puzzles in all areas would have been a good thing. Additional levels and depths as well as puzzles to get through the hidden tombs would have given this game additional weight; those additions would have dramatically driven the score of the game. In one weekend I got up to the final temple, and most areas were 100% completed.

I am a decent gamer, but not a great one. I am certain several gamers could have done the same game 1-2 hours quicker on the highest setting, which again is shown in my low score. The hidden tombs are a fun idea; however, for the most each one has one small puzzle and not a challenging one at that. Only the fishery tomb is slightly challenging at first. But all levels do show utter perfection in its graphical and artistic environment. That makes it all so upsetting.

I would rate this game a 7.5 out of 10. With a little more effort it could have been an easy 9.4 out of 10. Which begs the question, why the failing effort? Tomb Raider, of all games should be better than this in my mind. The second question is how the critics came to a score so high, way higher then it currently deserves.

Important that this review is based on the single player ONLY! This game has an additional multi-player option which was not tested.

They’re consoles, but not as we know them!

Have you been looking forward to the Hype start of the PlayStation 4 yesterday? I was not. I did not waste time waiting for some stream to start with all the other people who were waiting to be the first to know. Millions of viewers and all were watching the same stream at the same time. I was not. Don’t get me wrong. I love games as much, if not more than the average player. But to quote Mr William Shatner in a very appropriate manner: ‘Get a life!’

So, when I looked at some of the details after the first wave, I had an option to sift through the information, and a few very scary thoughts were starting to form. The steps taken are very very appropriate (from the viewpoint by Sony), yet, we are about to get an entirely new wave of revenue driven groups, and before too long, it will cost you!
This might even more then you bargained for and there might be little to no chance to avoid it with all impending consequences. What am I talking about? Let me explain!

First the mundane stuff:

It is mentioned to have eight cores and an enhanced PC GPU. This system will work at speeds approaching 2 Teraflops. There is a lot more, but the issue is set in the next part I mention: “PS4 to include cloud and game live-streaming functionality; focus on social networking; global Gaikai network rollout.” (Source: Gamespot).

Am I just spouting out some facts? Perhaps, however, consider that managing multi core processor systems are a lot harder than most people realise. However, inserting code that accesses non-used, or less used processors is hard, but when active, they can remain undetected for a long time. Now add the thought that such malignant code is added through the DLC that is added to the game and we have a silent data screamer. This is the other less known side of anti-viral solutions. Data viruses are almost impossible to track, unless you track EVERY process, which slows down any system scanned.

Its opponent, the new XBox720 is still a question mark. There are loads of rumours, however, no real facts. It is however very likely that the Social Networking issue will be included. This is going to be the real problem.
This step was unavoidable.
Let’s face it, Facebook changed the world forever! However, if we take into account the shadier side of social networking (aka cyber criminals) then you might begin to realise that your goose could be cooked. We are not talking about an account that gets hacked. No, that would be too simple. For this part, we need to take an additional look back towards last October where insurers were mentioning that mentioning absences on social media might have consequences.
In December 2012 the insurance council of Australia made this quote: “The insurance industry is urging holidaymakers to keep their travel plans off social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to reduce the risk of burglary over Christmas”. This is actually late in the game as the British Insurance Age wrote this in June of 2012: “Social media-savvy young people could represent an emerging market for on-line risk insurance cover, according to research conducted by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII)” So, here we can pretty much replace the words ‘emerging market’ for ‘additional costs’.

There has been the odd wild story on how a person tagged in a photo on Facebook through their smart-phone was enough for burglars to know that a house was empty. Now we add Social media to a gaming console? I could go for the kids and computers next, however, the bulk of gamers on systems like that are likely to be adults. Being adults does not mean that they are in ample supply of Common Cyber Sense. Let’s face it; loads of advanced users tend to lack such skills. In addition, we will now have to contend with consoles in need of Anti-Viral Software (to thwart Social media Cybercrime) and a league of other issues.
Let’s mention the issues that Sony had in the past with their hacked databases. Should we wait for the first time loads of credit cards go into some auto-donation mode? (With cybercriminals as the designated benefactor). I am not kidding! Yes, you will hear on the amount of safety Sony has, and the people will be perfectly safe. Spokespeople and Marketing spins will all make the case that we are all perfectly safe. So, let me remind you, or if you did not know inform you that in April 2011 the information of 77 million account holders were stolen from the Sony network. On May 4th of that year Sony confirmed that personal identifiable information was stolen.
Now they want to add their console to social media?
How long until the insurance company wants additional policies? How long until the insurance company decides that ‘it’ is not covered? Who will pay then? Sony? Or will they say “Oops! We so Sorry!” and leave you hanging with the consequences of the event.
I am not having a go at Sony here (even though it sounds like it).
There are several factors that should be seen as hazardous to the gaming health if those new console owners continue in an on-line/cloud gaming experience. First of all, cyber laws are shaky on several levels, especially when foreign criminals are involved (finding them is often a near impossibility). There is evidence on several levels that most of us are not ready for this level of integrated social media. Not because we do not want to, but because our systems can be invaded on many levels at several points. This is the consequence of evolution and people going to the edge of new technologies. At some point it becomes a clear that adding more and more is becoming counter-productive.
Then there is the part of additional revenue. Sony and Microsoft want all these sides to social media, for the simple reason that all that information is worth a massive amount of money. ‘free’ data, all there waiting to get scooped up by the container load. Would we get paid for this? Very likely not! How long until a non-adult gets to click ‘yes’ on an option so he/she gets it for free? Who is then liable when things go wrong? (When they go wrong, not if they go wrong!).
These are all the dangers of social media on the internet. Then finally there is their mention of Cloud gaming. Another new Hype that will be added for gamers. Yet, there are several levels of dangers. This is not just something I am claiming. Several exports on this field from data providers to the technology providers at Cisco make mention of this. They are warning us on levels of dangers when it comes to Cloud issues. So, the cloud, especially with data at rest will need several levels of monitoring and all this takes resources. So, how will we be charged for those? You can bet your house on the dangers that ‘free’ options there will come at a much higher price down the road and not unlike Facebook, should you stop gaming, then what will happen to the data?
The weird part is that most of these issues belong in medium to large sized companies with able IT coverage. Not in the average household where the IT expert is 11 and has a Nintendo 3DS!
Should you consider this and wonder how much time you have. Well, this console is to be released in 2013 and disaster could strike in 10 months, 10 days and 10 hours from now. Questions need to be asked, and those who protect the gamers (read citizens with a console) need to realise now that ALL data can be gotten to by cyber criminals, and in many commonwealth nations the law and the law enforcers are not up to scrap within that timeframe.
My biggest issue?
A device meant for entertainment is thrust into a grey area of legislation for the benefit of massive amounts of revenue. The moment our personal data goes somewhere else, those who enabled this in the first place will likely pass the buck to an area of non-accountability.

Fraud, deception or Ignorance in IT Safety?

Fraud, deception or Ignorance in IT Safety?
Again it was the Dutch NOS last night that gave me the idea of reflection on today’s blog. Their newscast and articles on NOS.nl is all about cybercrime. The news was that last year (October 2012), cyber criminals using the botnet Citadel was able to acquire over 750 GB of data. The data is coming from computers involving the Energy industry, Media corporations, Hospitals, Universities and airlines. The data seems to have gone to eastern European cyber criminals. Over 150.000 computers infected in the Netherlands alone.
Watching it, you could see login details, passwords, network layouts, detailed notes from a doctor and the medication prescribed. The amount of information was staggering! I looked a little further into this botnet. Its name is Citadel. It seems to be an ingenious piece of work. This is something the NSA, GCHQ or the FSB and several other Boy Scout units of a governmental type. When looking at the info, there was an implied strength that it could go passed and ignores many anti-virus systems. When looking at my own provider, there was an interesting lack of information regarding this botnet.
So we are looking at a three edged sword.
Are anti-viral protectors committing fraud? When looking at a Norton protection plan, and I see the green ‘Secure’ sign. Am I really secured? Tracy Kitten from Bankinfo security wrote: “Segura notes that hackers claim PCs relying on anti-virus solutions from Microsoft Security Essentials, McAfee, and Norton were infected. ‘That’s kind of worrisome,’ he says. ” So, am I paying for security I am not receiving?
It seems that this secure statement is also a case of deception. My Norton anti-virus states a secure setting, yet, citadel was initially designed to collect bank information for cyber criminals. From the two facts earlier, I must also conclude that the banks have been insincere to me on more than one occasion (big surprise I know). They claim safety and security, whilst 150.000 computers in the Netherlands seem to prove the opposite. Especially considering that banks have been trimming down on staff because much more goes on-line, yet there is no clear information that the cyber divisions of the financial industry is making any kind of strong progress. The BBC stated on Oct 10, 2012, that GBP 341 million was acquired through card fraud in 2011. The events involving Citadel imply that the losses in 2011 are not likely to go down any day soon.
Last is about Ignorance. That would be you the reader and me. These anti-viral dealers leave us with a false sense of security while we are charged $70-$100 a year, whilst it lowers intrusions, but not remove the threat. I must confess that we are all likely a lot safer with then without anti-viral protection. So stopping anti-virus protection is the worst of ideas.
I feel slightly safer as I have always refused any kind of on-line banking option. From the 90’s I knew that their X-25 protocols had several weak spots, which is now getting me to the last part of this.
If Windows is so weak, volatile and easily transgressed upon, then the dozens of security updates seem little more than a smoke screen. I reckon a lot of us should seriously consider moving to another system like Linux. Linux has proven to be a very secure system. We used to consider Apple to be very secure as it was a Unix based system, which has all matters of security or a much higher level than Windows ever had. However, that it is now an INTEL based system with Microsoft attachments makes me wonder if it remained that secure.
What is my issue with this all is that Yesterday’s news on Citadel was known with the Dutch cyber security for months, and little was done, the newscast even mentioned that many had not been alerted to this danger. I reckon that IF there is truth on transgression on ‘secured’ systems, we need to consider the dangers of connected networks. This likely endangered the infrastructure, and it definitely endangered personal information of millions. With that state of mind, how should we see the security of corporate and personal systems in the UK, US and Australia?
Consider that the implied ignoring of Cyber security is mentioned (but unproven as far as the validity of sources go). Yet, when I seek places like Norton, I get no answer (connection was reset). If we can believe people like Tracy Kitten then the financial sector that relies on massive internet presence, we are in serious trouble. On the other side is the opinion showing on the NOS site by Professor Michel van Eeten from the TU Delft. It is not really created to a directed attack. He compared it to a buck shot into the internet. It was designed to acquire login, passwords and bank details.
My issue is the fact that 150.000 systems were infected! The one flaw in the NOS newscast is the absence of the cyber safety factor. Whether Common Cyber Security was used by those infected. If so, then why are these questions not openly directed at the makers of Norton Anti-Virus, McAfee, Kaspersky and a league of other Cyber Safety providers?

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Filed under IT

Tagged as Banks, botnet, Citadel, cyber security, hacking, Kaspersky, Microsoft, Nederland, Norton, NOS, UNIX