The first IUN webcast

For the IT( )E faithful, we're now producing a webcast, which is available at the top portion of the sidebar to the right. The plan is to have a weekly discussion of PC gaming amongst our current and former members. The idea is to keep our clan connected, even as many of us have moved on to other games.

L4D2 dominates the discussion this week, but we'll hit more topics of general interest the next time around. The format is definitely a work in progress, so bear with us as we get our sh*t together.

If you want to download the cast, you can get it here.

CoD4: Galactic Warfare mod

Brought to you by the German modding group, the Black Monkeys. The beta release hit the net a few days ago. I've played it a bit, and the character models are incredible to see in action.  Even though there's only one map at this point (Mos Eisley), the whole experience is surprisingly polished and professional, and hella fun to play.

The iPhone's true "killer app"

From the Mirror (UK):

Soldiers in Afghanistan are using a £19 iPhone "app" created from computer game technology to kill Taliban fighters.

BulletFlight helps sharpshooters work out how the wind and the rotation of the Earth will affect their bullet - and even predicts the wounds the enemy will suffer if it hits him. Snipers are using the ballistics program downloaded on to their iPhones to target the enemy over long distances.

Yet another Top 5

The worst marketing campaigns of 2009, from Set on Stun.

 1. Evony
 2. Dante's Inferno
 3. Rogue Warrior
 4. Modern Warfare 2
 5. Dead Space Extraction

Mr. Sherman's explanations for the various selections are interesting, but he missed what was by far the bigger story on MW2: the fallout from the IWNET announcement.

Borderlands DLC: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot

As of today, MMUR is available for the Xbox, with the PS3 version due on January 7. No word on a PC release date as yet.

Instead of new mission sets, the DLC will feature a number of arena-combat game modes, along with a bank to store your loot (a widely requested feature that should have been in the original release).

Video below the fold.

Adobe will be top target for hackers in 2010

From NetworkWorld:

Adobe Systems' Flash and Acrobat Reader products will become the preferred targets for criminal hackers in 2010, surpassing Microsoft Office applications, a security vendor predicted this week.

"Cybercriminals have long picked on Microsoft products due to their popularity. In 2010, we anticipate Adobe software, especially Acrobat Reader and Flash, will take the top spot," security vendor McAfee said in its "2010 Threat Predictions" report (PDF).

Hackers usually target the most widely used products in order to achieve the maximum impact. For a long time that has made Microsoft their primary target. But the software giant has tightened security in its recent OS releases, leading hackers to look for additional targets.

McAfee also predicts more sophisticated attacks on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, Mozilla's Firefox browser, Apple's Quicktime media player, and Google's Chrome OS, with HTML 5 serving as a new vehicle for infiltration.

Monday Music XIII.5: the Midnight Riders

This Christmas song is so good, even the baby Jesus loves it!

UNAUTHORIZED EDIT: The hell he does!

Modern Warfare 2 the most pirated game of 2009

From TorrentFreak:

'In just five days of sell through[,] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the largest entertainment launch in history and a pop culture phenomenon,' Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said commenting on the game’s success. This is, of course, reflected in the number of pirated copies being traded on BitTorrent.

With 4.1 million unauthorized downloads of the PC version alone, the game more than doubles the achievement of last year’s 'winner' Spore. Modern Warfare 2 leads both the PC and Xbox 360 lists, by a landslide.

The overall trend across all platforms is that, unlike last year, all of the games are 2009 releases. What makes Modern Warfare 2’s chart-topping even more impressive is that this has been achieved after just two months of availability. We further see that the figures for the most downloaded titles have more than doubled compared to last year, equaling the growth in uTorrent users.

That's IWNET: fail at everything, and fail hard.

Monday Music XIII

Only links today.  Two of the three videos had "embedding disabled by request" - which is a completely asinine thing to do - so you'll have to just click on the text.

KT Tunstall - I Want You Back

Living Colour - Solace of You

The Smiths - What Difference Does It Make?

Left 4 Speed 2