Common Paradox Tech Blog

After Infinity Ward hauled dedicated server support off to the gallows, many gamers figured that its partner in crime – modding – was next in line for the chopping block. It appears, however, that Infinity Ward’s had a change of heart. Not on the dedicated server thing, mind you – but one is better than none, right?

“Nothing on Dedicated Servers, but there may be some Mod Tools news coming in the future, I’ll pass it along once I have it,” Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling tweeted in reply to a fan’s question.

Granted, Infinity Ward never explicitly stated that mod support was a complete no-go for Modern Warfare 2, but it’s nice to hear that the developer’s still got enough time for us PC gamers in between its assuredly frequent “Biggest Launch in Entertainment History” trophy polishing sessions.
 
Not that we blame them. You’ve got to savor records like that while they’re still yours, because these days, it’s only a matter of time before someone tosses out a Twilight dating sim and breaks every sales record known to man, setting the bar so high that our children’s children won’t even produce a series fit to lick its jewel encrusted boots. These are dark days, friends. Dark days, indeed.

I’m surprised this hasn’t come out sooner: Google Goggles is a visual search app for Android phones that scans products, books, movies, business cards, bar codes, artworks—a ton of stuff. It’s like Google robot eyes in your phone.

While it’s not pixel perfect in its judgment, what’s impressive is its depth—unlike apps like ShopSavvy or SnapTell, Goggles aims to search everything, even if it admittedly isn’t great at IDing food or pets or cars. Yet. Plus, it’s got integrated augmented reality powers, so it’ll show you nearby businesses without you having to touch anything.

Considering Google’s rollout of QR codes to a bunch of places, clearly, they’re planning to splash big with visual search before some upstarts get the ball rolling—I figure it’s only a (short) matter of time before we see it on other smartphones besides Android 1.6. [Google]

Mark Zuckerberg’s note detailing Facebook’s latest privacy changes also contained an announcement about another important milestone for Facebook: 350 million users.

It’s a flabbergasting number, but even more amazing is the speed with which Facebook has managed to achieve it, trouncing its competitors (including the once mighty MySpace) in the process.

Back in August 2008, Facebook had 100 million users. It took about five months to reach 150 million, and after that Facebook has been adding another 50 million users roughly every three months, going from 150 million to 350 million in less than one year.

And despite its humongous size, Facebook is still growing when it comes to traffic. After a short summer slumber, Compete’s stats show solid growth for Facebook in October.

When it comes to social networks, history has shown that it’s hard to stay on top; sites like Bebo, hi5 and even MySpace, have all lost much of their former glory. But Facebook is getting bigger and bigger, with no strong competitor in sight. Will it become the Google of social networking? Or is it just a matter of time until some new kid on the block takes away Facebook’s users? What do you think?

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Norebbo.

Tags: facebook, social networking

The year is 1963. It’s November. At 1:40 PM ET, CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite comes on the air. “In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting.” Rapidly, everyone in America descends upon the closest television set to tune in.

Thankfully, we have not yet had a tragedy of that magnitude in the age of the realtime web. But we will. It’s just a matter of time.

If it were to happen today, most people would still turn to their TV sets to get the most up-to-date information on such an event. We saw that on September 11, 2001. But a large number of people would also now turn to the web. And there they would likely find the information they were looking for faster than those watching on television. We’ve seen it time and time again recently.

I’m not sure any lasting change will come from our series of Scamville posts. For now the most egregious of the social gaming offers are gone, which is a good thing. But none of the big players seem to have felt much pain. And, importantly, Facebook’s rules still allow most of the really bad stuff (as long as users are being told in the fine print exactly how they’re being screwed). It’s only a matter of time before business as usual kicks in.

Four companies have felt the wrath of Facebook in the wake of Scamville: Tattoo, Gambit, Social Hour and Social Reach. Facebook doesn’t openly talk about the fact that these companies have been “banned,” but they’ve let the app developers know – work with these guys and there will be trouble.

Zynga also got a slap on the wrist with the suspension of Fishville for a few days, but their cash cows, like Farmville, were never touched. And that’s despite the fact that we showed clear violations of Facebook’s rules on Zynga games via DoubleDing, an offer provider that Zynga has some control over.

Ultimately only those four companies took a permanent hit. And we’re still scratching our heads over Gambit.

As promised, the wedding ceremony between a man named Sal9000 and Nene Anegasaki, a character from the Nintendo DS game Love Plus, was filmed and broadcast across the internet. It’s predictably sad.

Fortunately, a shred of hope for humanity was preserved when it was revealed that Sal9000 orchestrated the event as a piece of performance art—although it is unclear how serious he is actually taking the relationship. Apparently, he has sexed up his fair share of virtual girlfriends, so it is probably only a matter of time before technology progresses and he finds himself another woman with bigger and better…rendering. [Boing Boing]

In what’s turning out to be a game of cat and mouse, Apple last week disabled support for Intel’s Atom processor through a Snow Leopard update, a tactic the Hackintosh community insisted would present only a temporary setback. They were right, thanks to a Russian hacker known as "teateam," who says he has restored support for Atom-based Hackintoshes running Snow Leopard 10.6.2.

"The problem originates in a revision to the kernel in 10.6.2. The changes Apple made to the latest mach_kernel removes support for [Atom] processors, leaving updated netbooks in a useless state," InsanelyMac member "blkhockypro19" explained in a forum post.

TeaTeam’s hack appears to address the issue, though Jeff Porten of MacWorld warned that performing the crack is not something to be taken lightly.

"You’ll need to roll up your Terminal sleeves for a few simple steps here," said Porten. "And, of course, replace the kernel of your operating system — the fundamental code that underlies everything else in Mac OS X — with a file you’ve downloaded from the Internet."

Not only that, but it’s only a matter of time until Apple releases another update that, in all likelihood, breaks support again. Apple hasn’t been sympathetic to the Hackinstosh community, and even went so far as to serve Wired.com a cease and desist order after the tech site posted a video with instructions on how to hack a netbook to run Mac OS X. 

Image Credit: adisetiya.files.wordpress.com

By now most of you have seen the infamous Verizon “map for that” attack ads against AT&T. It was only a matter of time before we heard Verizon’s response to the lawsuit [Full document PDF link] that AT&T recently slapped them with and respond they did. Verizon’s lawyers put their heads together to come up [...]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Verizon Replies to AT&T’s Lawsuit Over Attack Ads — “The Truth Hurts”

With the original Eee PC seemingly ideal for kids, it was only a matter of time before we saw more netbooks aimed specifically at children. The Asus Disney Netbook is a brightly coloured product – available in either Princess Pink or Magic Blue – with prominent Disney branding.

The basic design of this machine is very similar to Asus’ existing Eee PC 1008HA Seashell netbook – with a thin and curved clamshell design, rounded edges and an integrated battery.

The 8.9-inch screen offers bright colours and a matt-TFT finish that’s ideal for hiding greasy fingerprints.

The 1024 x 600-pixel resolution is standard netbook fare, although there’s more than enough space to create and edit documents or browse the internet in comfort.

When starting this machine, you can choose between the standard Windows XP interface or a custom theme aimed at kids. Both layouts offer a Disney theme, but the latter also adds large and easy-to-use icons and simple games, making it ideal for younger users.

Parental controls

Using the XP interface, parents are also offered a host of controls, letting them restrict their child’s use of applications between set times.

The machine itself offers surprisingly good quality, with the shiny plastics proving robust. Attention to detail is also impressive, with the Disney theme running throughout the chassis and even a Mickey Mouse-shaped webcam in place.

The keyboard is small, but perfectly formed, and is great for use by those with smaller hands and fingers.

There is a full set of ports for adding peripherals, including three USB, one VGA and a memory card reader.

Wi-Fi and Ethernet are both built in, making it easy to connect to home or school networks.

Although the Asus Disney netbook may not offer anything new, it’s a great machine for kids and is a surprisingly strong product for the money.

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Apple told us jailbreaking wasn’t a good idea. Sure, we mocked them at the time, but it is looking a little less safe these days. The first iPhone worm has been discovered affecting iPhones in Australia. The virus takes advantage of a massive security hole in the SSH client for jailbroken phones. The “ikee” worm is fairly benign, simply changing the user’s wallpaper to a picture of Rick Astley of “Rickroll” fame.

As it turns out, the default password for the SSH client is ‘alpine’. The worm accesses the phone via this route, and then attempts to infect other phones on the network. The worm’s creator, a 21 year-old student, said in an interview, “The virus itself is not malicious and is not out to hurt people. It’s just poking fun and hoping waking people up a little.”

Un-jailbroken phones, and jailbroken phones that don’t have SSH installed are not vulnerable. Jailbreakers should head to the Cydia store, and use the Mobile Terminal app to change their default password. With a zillion iPhones out there, it was only a matter of time.