Software

Doctor Who Interactive TV Christmas Special Planned
The BBC is hoping to get Dr Who fans reaching for their red buttons en masse with a video-rich interactive TV application scheduled to run straight after the airing of the Christmas Day special (7:00PM GMT).
Dubbed “Attack of the Graske,” the application hopes to get sofa-loafing viewers taking part in an interactive adventure with the aim of preventing an evil alien creature, called the Graske, from taking over the earth.
It looks that the BBC has invested muchos cash into the venture, employing live-action video and “state-of-the-art” special effects produced at the high end visual effects studio, The Mill.
Christmas-pud gorged viewers will be tasked with using the arrow keys on their remote controls to perform a series of challenges which will test observation, dexterity, memory and – according to the BBC – their bravery.
There’ll also be an opportunity to fly around in the Tardis with the Doctor “on hand to give advice, encouragement, and even step in when things go wrong.”
Produced in Cardiff by BBC New Media and BBC Wales, producer Sophie Fante commented, “Attack of the Graske gives the viewer the unique opportunity to immerse themselves fully in the world of Doctor Who.”
“We aimed to make the challenge with the same scope and feel of the main series and, in ‘Attack of The Graske,’ the viewer finds themselves not only flying the Tardis with the Doctor but fighting the Graske on the planet Griffoth and hunting him out in Victorian London,” she added.
Filming the program involved creating an authentic Dickensian Christmas scene, complete with snow, in Cardiff.
We can’t wait to watch this latest installment of the highly rated Dr Who series and are hoping to witness another kind of winter wonderland the day after when the mighty Cardiff City FC take on Plymouth.
Dr Who
19 December, 2005
Mac OS X Tiger for Unix Geeks: Book Review (72%)
Summary
If your hardcore linix/unix and want to know the Mac – 72%.
Non-unix heads need not apply.
UK List Price £24.95
UK Amazon Price £17.46
US Amazon Price $23.07
Review
This book covers the Mac OS X 10.4 (aka Tiger) for geeks who have come from a Unix/Linux environment and are happiest using the command line, not sexy GUIs (graphical user environments).
If you didn’t know, we’ll let you into a little secret – Mac OS is really Unix underneath. This book exposes the basic programs and utilities that are normally hidden behind shiny Aqua interface that is the Mac OS GUI front-end.
As an example – want to burn a CD? Of course you can do it using the GUI, but it’s also possible to use the “hdiutil”program on the command-line interface (CLI). Truth be told, that’s all that’s really happens when Mac OS is using all along.
One of the advatnages of using CLI approach is that when used in the shell, scripts of commands can be used to chain together a string of them, enabling automation.
Be aware, it’s not a book for the casual Mac user, but if you get excited about the insides of an OS (which some of us at Digital-Lifestyles do admit to), you’ll find plenty of material.
By way of examples of how detailed it can get – please peruse the following –
Setting up printers through CUPS (a modern printer interface for Unix printers, which comes with Mac OS)
How to compile 64bit code using (GNU Compiler Collection) (GCC);
Using Spotlight’s metdata;
Library linking and porting Unix software;
Using the X Windows System on top of Mac OS X;Installing Fink and DarwinPorts to download and install common Unix and X11 software;
Even using PearPC to run Mac OS X on an x86-based PC.
Bits like the section of PearPC might be a bit over the top for even a normal Unix user, but it does work. If you just want to develop Mac OS programs, this could be a way to do it – although it will be slowly as the emulator isn’t very fastest.
Only recommended if you’re an old hand at Unix/Linux and want the same experience on a Mac.
Summary
If your hardcore linix/unix and want to know the Mac – 72%.
Non-unix heads need not apply.
UK List Price £24.95
UK Amazon Price £17.46
US Amazon Price $23.07
ISBN 0-596-00912-7
O’Reilly
Brian Jepson & Ernest E. Rothman
15 December, 2005
Brain Response Altered By Violent Video Games Claim
The New Scientist is reporting that US researchers have discovered a brain mechanism that may link violent computer games with aggression.
Although not conclusive, the study suggests a causal link between virtual and real world aggression.
Previous studies have concluded that violent video game players are “more aggressive, more likely to commit violent crimes, and less likely to help others”, but critics argue that this just shows that violent people gravitate towards violent games, so the games aren’t responsible for turning little Timmy into Ivan the Terrible.
A team led by Psychologist Bruce Bartholow from the University of Missouri-Columbia discovered that fraggers show diminished brain responses to images of real-life violence, such as gun attacks, but not to other emotionally disturbing pictures, such as those of dead animals, or sick children.
Bartholow argues that this reduction in response is correlated with aggressive behaviour.
Employing technology so advanced that mere mortals wouldn’t even know how to plug it in, the team measured a brain activity called the P300 response, which is the characteristic signal seen in an EEG (electroencephalogram) recording of brain waves as we see an image (like us, you already knew that, didn’t you?)
This P300 response whats-it reflects an evaluation of the emotional content of an image, so the bigger the response, the more people are surprised or disturbed by an image. Novel scenes also register a big response.
The team shipped in a crew of 39 gamers, and quizzed them on the amount of violent games they played, before being shown a series of neutral images interspersed with occasional violent or negative (but non-violent) scenes, while sensors recorded their EEGs.
The full-on fraggers with the most experience of violent games were then found to register a smaller and delayed P300 response to the violent images.
“People who play a lot of violent video games didn’t see them as much different from neutral,” says Bartholow, with the research finding that although desensitised to such scenes, their responses were still normal for the non-violent negative scenes.
Although this may not exactly be big news – video games have been used to desensitise soldiers to scenes of war – players with the greatest reduction in P300 brain responses were found to dish out the severest “punishments” against fake opponents in another game.
Throughout the tests, the violent games experience and P300 response were still strongly correlated with aggressiveness.
“As far as I’m aware, this is the first study to show that exposure to violent games has effects on the brain that predict aggressive behaviour,” says Bartholow.
Not everyone is convinced though, with Jonathan Freedman, a psychologist from the University of Toronto commenting, “We habituate to any kind of stimulus. All we are really getting is desensitisation to images. There’s no way to show that this relates to real-life aggression.”
Freeman also added that stopping people playing violent video games would be like banning them from playing sports such as football or hockey.
The work will appear early in 2006 in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
New Scientist
14 December, 2005
3 Italia Buys TV Broadcaster: Now First Euro Hybrid Mobile TV Co
In a sure sign that TV to the mobile is the new European media battleground, 3G mobile operator 3 Italia have announced its plans to purchase the Italian national broadcaster, Canale 7. Reports have put the price of the acquisition at between €30-35m.
The addition of Canale 7, Italy’s fourth largest broadcaster, gives the company access to the country’s existing home TV business. Canale 7 currently broadcasts in analogue to around 40% of Italy, predominantly its north. More interestingly, it also has a terrestrial digital TV nationwide network operator’s license. This should provide coverage for over 70% of the country.
It is expected that 3 Italia will work to develop a Pay-TV and interactive services proposition for handhelds. We also understand their intention would be for Canale 7’s nationwide digital project to be integrated with 3 Italia’s UMTS mobile network to create a DVB-H network.
The company intends to offer a DVB-H mobile TV service from the second half of 2006. Indications are that there will be a minimum of 20 channels, although no line up has yet been decided. 3 Italia already carries Playboy adult entertainment and football via existing technology, and has worked with Mediaset and News Corp’s Sky Italia pay-TV operator.
Italy is already one of Europe’s leaders in mobile consumption and is considered to be a prime market for such services. Reports we’ve seen rather puzzlingly mention a “standard of video quality comparable to DVD” perhaps somewhat unlikely on the small screens that will be deployed for this sector – but we’re sure the picture will be absolutely bella.
3 Italia, which is owned by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa, has so far invested €9bn in its 3G network since obtaining a license from the Italian government in 2000. It currently has around 4.8 million Italian subscribers. Hutchison Whampoa also own 3G licenses in other countries including the UK.
3 Italia
Canale 7
29 November, 2005
xBox 360 Launch – A Teenage View
Digital-Lifestyles is pleased to have Lawrence Dudley writing for us. All too often articles about the things teenagers are interested in are written by people old enough to be their parents. What teenagers are thinking isn’t represented. Lawrence will give you a point of view that you won’t find in other publications. You see Lawrence _is_ a teenager.
The Next Revolution Is Here… Or Is It?
Of course, the big news this week is the launch of the xBox 360. I say big news, but to be honest, there has been very little mainstream media coverage of it, at least as far as I have gathered. The only things I heard about it, other than that it had been launched, was that they were in short supply, that one (or more) have been crashing, and that the New York Post warns consumers not to buy a 360.
Of course, I don’t want to spoil the fun for anyone, I’m not like that. There are a lot of reasons to upgrade from the previous version of the xBox: Apart from better graphics and a nicer looking box, there isn’t the danger of a 360 setting your house on fire like it’s predecessor came close to doing. Proof, I suppose, that the xBox really did smoke all the other consoles ;-)
With mediocre initial reports I’ve started thinking that maybe the xBox 360 isn’t quite the 3rd generation of consoles that it has been made out to be. It’s a shame, but it has been described by original xBox fans as “more of the same”, which is really saying something, as the fan-boy community tend to be almost fanatical in their support of their chosen platform.
Still, it’s not all bad: There are some interesting early finds about the new xBox, for instance, that it sports full iPod support, something which I find extremely surprising, as Apple are one of Microsoft’s competitors.
I’m really not (too) biased on this topic: I genuinely believe that the new xBox is a bit of a flop. Overall I think that while the new it’s surely a good piece of kit, I don’t think it’s quite the revolution that the first one was. Indeed, it seems very much a product launch designed to complement the old xBox as opposed to replacing it.
But then again, I, along with the majority of the UK have yet to see it. Perhaps when I do, that will all change.
Perhaps it’s just a matter of time. A few revisions down the line, the 360’s should have a lot of bugs fixed and a few better games will have been developed.
Well, I’ll certainly have to wait and see, as one things for sure – As a teenager there is no way I or my parents could afford a 360 at its current price of $400 (~£232, ~€338).
Oi! Microsoft! Either bring the price down quick, or don’t sell many of them. The choice is yours Bill.
24 November, 2005
BitTorrent Signs Anti-Piracy Agreement With MPAA
P2P network, BitTorrent has signed an agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America to collaborate on stopping Internet piracy.
After a press conference, a joint release was released by BitTorrent founder and CEO Bram Cohen and MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman announcing that BitTorrent have agreed to remove all links directing users to pirated content owned by the seven MPAA member companies.
The agreement will effectively prevent bittorrent.com from locating unlicensed versions of popular movies, making it harder for freeloaders to find online illegal copies of films.
“BitTorrent is an extremely efficient publishing tool and search engine that allows creators and rights holders to make their content available on the Internet securely,” Cohen said.
“BitTorrent Inc. discourages the use of its technology for distributing films without a license to do so. As such, we are pleased to work with the film industry to remove unauthorised content from BitTorrent.com’s search engine,” he added.
Thousand of BitTorrent fans the world over will be clenching their fists and shouting “Traitor! You’re doing deals with the Devil,” while other more balanced, less angry-types will be saying “Smart move Bram, you’ve built a technology that they cannot stop and the fact they’ve done a deal with you proves that. Hey and you’re not getting your shirt sued off your back.”
In September, Cohen revealed that his company had raked in $8.75 million in venture funding to develop commercial distribution tools for media companies, and the MPAA deal looks to be part of a strategy to make the technology more attractive to Hollywood moguls – no doubt with an eye to future lucrative movie download deals.
With an estimated 45 million users, the BitTorrent technology pioneered by Cohen does its clever stuff by assembling digital files from separate bits of data downloaded from computer users all across the Internet.
The decentralised nature of technology makes it the easiest, most convenient way to fill your hard drive with dodgy movies galore, while making it harder for Hollywood to find and identify the movie swappers.
In an attempt to stop the piracy, the MPAA has been slapping lawsuits around like confetti during the last year, successfully closing down 90% of targeted sites using the BitTorrent protocol for illegal distribution of movies.
The MPAA claims that the film industry lost $3.5 billion to movie piracy last year, with a recent study predicting the figure to jump to $5.4 billion this year. The MPAA claim these losses are excluding revenue lost through online file-swapping, so the true figure could be even higher (although other will say the figures are already gloriously exaggerated).
With tears welling up in their eyes, the MPAA said that film copying hurts hundreds of thousands of employees dependent on the movie industry, including sound and lighting techies, carpenters, cinema staff, video store employees and quite probably the popcorn sales assistant too.
But not, we suspect, the fatcat industry bigwigs.
BitTorrent
23 November, 2005
The Teen View On SonyBMG DRM Woes
We’re really pleased to have Lawrence Dudley writing for us.
Digital-Lifestyles thinks that all too often articles about teenagers are written by people old enough to be their parents. What teenagers are thinking isn’t represented.
Lawrence will give you a point of view that you won’t find in other publications. You see Lawrence _is_ a teenager.
Because Criminals Make the Best Police Officers
A while ago, another teen, Jon Lech Johansen, who was most likely one of those addicted to the Internet, did something that upset a lot of people: He cracked the encryption used to protect DVDs. His actions had a huge impact and a lot of the big movie companies were upset. So much so, that they filed a lawsuit against the then-19 year old.
Imagine then, after the scandal that was SonyBMG’s DRM software which was actually a rootkit, that SonyBMG actually incorporated some open source software (OSS) code in their CDs. And not just any OSS either: It was software written by Jon himself a few years ago.
This leaves SonyBMG in a tricky position: If proven to be correct, they have broken almost every rule in the LGPL, a license used for Open Source Software. This license states that a distributor may not distribute software containing LGPL code without revealing the code’s source. SonyBMG and the suppliers of the DRM software, First4Internet, appear to have failed in doing that, and could end up being penalised for it. My views? How about sending a cool million dollars over to our friend Jon Jen Johansen? I’m sure he could use it to research some new cracks.
The other law other are saying have been broken by SonyBMG, and this is one that could land them in BIG legal difficulties, is The Computer Misuse Act, which contains the following clauses, all of which have been broken by SonyBMG in their keenes for DRM:
- 3.(1) A person is guilty of an offence if
- (a) he does any act which causes an unauthorised modification of the contents of any computer; and SonyBMG certainly caused an unauthorized modification of the computers on which its software was unknowingly installed on. It even installed a security risk.
- (b) at the time when he does the act he has the requisite intent and the requisite knowledge. Well this obviously applies to a company like SonyBMG.
- (2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(b) above the requisite intent is an intent to cause a modification of the contents of any computer and by so doing
- (a) to impair the operation of any computer; it would appear that making it impossible to make legitimate, fair-use copies of CDs an impairment
- (b) to prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in any computer; or to me it looks like SonyBMG followed the rule, thinking their program had to break every single clause. Preventing access to data, namely $sys$ named folders, is exactly what SonyBMG did.
- (c) to impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data. Again an impairment in the operation of the computer. Again a clause which SonyBMG broke.
There is one interesting little caveat though: The software wasn’t developed by SonyBMG, but by First4Internet, and was only deployed by SonyBMG on their CDs. Whether it will be SonyBMG or First4Internet who will get into trouble over this one remains to be seen, but from my point of view, Sony as a whole has done themselves a lot of damage with this one.
21 November, 2005
Teenage Internet Addiction
We’re really pleased to have Lawrence Dudley writing for us.
Digital-Lifestyles thinks that all too often articles about teenagers are written by people old enough to be their parents. What teenagers are thinking isn’t represented.
Lawrence will give you a point of view that you won’t find in other publications. You see Lawrence _is_ a teenager.
There’s a Trust Issue Here
With the Digital world coming ever closer to reality, there is a danger of the two merging. The upshot of this is a danger that people become so involved with the Digital world, that they lose a grasp of reality. In short, they become addicted.
Internet addiction disorder is already a widely recognised addiction and those most likely to become addicted to the Internet are teenagers. This is partly because of the anonymity and therefore reputation-less nature of the Internet, allowing them to be whoever they want to be, and partly because teens just have so much more time on their hands than their grown-up counterparts. This together, results in a vast amount of Internet use.
What can responsible parents do when their teenager refuses to turn off the computer or refuses to go to school because they’ve been up too late playing online?
There are two approaches: The first is to talk to the child in question about the problem. While this will work with the majority of responsible teenagers, there will always be a minority who won’t listen. The other approach is using parental control software which can do a variety of things including limit the amount of time that a user is allowed to spend on the Internet. Trouble with any sort of software solution is, of course, that it can easily hacked or broken. Very often the teenager has a much better knowledge of the computer than the parent has.
A company called Woog Labs (yes, really) have unveiled a product that is designed to be hack-proof and will apparently work for any operating system.
Trouble with it is that A) It requires an adaptor to be used with any video cable other than VGA (mine’s DVI), and B) It only works with PS/2 Keyboards… PS/2?!
This makes their claim that it works with any operating system a bit hard to swallow: I’m sure that theoretically, this device will work on Mac OS X. However, to my knowledge there has NEVER been a Mac shipped with a PS/2 port. Makes it a bit useless really…
I can see that there is probably a market for a device like this, but what’s really needed is for someone to educate parents on their responsibilities. Surely it should be up to the parents to teach the kids what’s right and what’s wrong? If they don’t, then what are the kids going to do when they grow older? When they are forced to look after themselves? Digital nannying should only go so far in my opinion.
18 November, 2005
Too Easy(net) For Sky?
Yesterday, Sky’s takeover of Easynet was finalised and it looks to many that, despite paying a premium on the share price, they’ve have quite a bargain on their hands.
Easynet is not a ‘fly-by-night’ Internet start up but a profitable business having traded for over 10 years in it own right, it has equipment located at over 250 of BT’s exchanges and has earned its technological spurs with deliveries of 22Mb using its ADSL2+ network.
The broadband addition should future proof Sky against TV being broadcast to the home by ‘Wi-Fi’, and cable or fibre, expect future generations of receivers to start evolving into the home media hub with increased storage and the sophisticated Digital Right Management (DRM) that major film studios demand. Easynet will also offer an alternative to satellite delivery to customers who are prohibited from having a dish, or live in a built up urban area, where there can be no line-of-sight.
Although reports that broadband is the latest media battleground have highlighted the moves by the UK telcos, the ultimate prize is the fabled home digital information gateway. The opportunities that this acquisition enables go beyond a mere triple play option (Inernet, TV & Telephone), allowing Sky to, begin by become the overriding aggregator of TV content and, in time, become the preferred digital gatekeeper for many UK homes.
The prize? Being the ability to take a small fee for each of the numerous transactions that will take place.
Sky will be competing initially with the telco’s and ultimately Microsoft. Sky’s choice of MPEG4 H264 for future HD TV delivery pits it against Microsoft and their WMV HD. The two new encoding technologies offer similar advantages and share characteristics but, by and large, broadcasters remain wary of becoming locked into a Microsoft solution and prefer, historically the flexibility of more open standards.
Eyes are peeled to see if Sky Italia and other associated ‘News’ companies look to replicate this type of broadband acquisition.
16 November, 2005
UK Gov Wants Your Views On Content Protection And More
Ladies and Gentlemen, start your word processors …
The House of Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport Committee today announced a new inquiry into the challenges and opportunities for the creative industries arising from the development of new media platforms.
For the purposes of the inquiry, the term “creative industries” includes music, visual broadcasts, sound broadcasts, film, graphic art, design, advertising, fashion and games software.
The Committee is particularly interested in receiving evidence on the following issues:
- The impact upon creative industries of recent and future developments in digital convergence and media technology
- The effects upon the various creative industries of unauthorised reproduction and dissemination of creative content, particularly using new technology; and what steps can or should be taken – using new technology, statutory protection or other means – to protect creators
- The extent to which a regulatory environment should be applied to creative content accessed using non-traditional media platforms
- Where the balance should lie between the rights of creators and the expectations of consumers in the context of the BBC’s Creative Archive and other developments
Written submissions are invited from any interested organisation or individual by Thursday 19 January 2006.
Submissions should give the name and postal address of the person sending the memorandum and should state whether it has been prepared specifically for the Committee. If the memorandum is from an organisation rather than an individual, it should briefly explain the nature and membership of the organisation. The Committee may publish some of the submissions it receives.
For more guidance on the preferred format, see http://www.parliament.uk/commons/selcom/witguide.htm
Submissions should be sent to the Clerk of the Committee at the address below.
Kenneth Fox
Clerk of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee
House of Commons
7 Millbank
London SW1P 3JA
[email protected]
Luke Gibbs writes for Ofcomwatch.
16 November, 2005

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