Google Paints Chinese Government into a Corner

courtesy of PCWorld.com

Google's carefully worded blog post today explaining why they redirected mainland Chinese traffic to the Hong Kong version of Google sounds fair and balanced. In fact, it's a humiliating slap in the face for the Chinese government. Here's why.

Because Google was used by hackers most likely working for the Chinese government to track down political activists and to steal Google's intellectual property -- and because they were forced by the government to censor the Internet -- Google decided that such evil wasn't worth the money they might make by rolling over for the authoritarian government. No more censorship.

(If you're tempted to argue equivalency with, say, German censorship of Nazi-related content or censorship of hate speech and child pornography in the West, note that in addition to consumer and social sites, the Chinese government censors the words "dictatorship," "anti-communist," "genocide," "oppression," and related web sites. The Chinese government even forced Google, whose motto is "don't be evil" to censor the word "evil." Here's a more complete list of what the Chinese government censors.)

The Chinese government told Google that censoring the Internet for the Chinese Communist Party is Chinese law. Obey the law, or leave the country.

Google's solution was to redirect traffic from the mainland Chinese site, google.cn, to the Hong Kong site, which is google.com.hk. Mainland Chinese laws don't apply in Hong Kong, so there is far less censorship on that site.

This is something of a worst-case scenario for the Chinese government. It brings huge attention to the special privileges afforded to Hong Kong residents, who have a whole range of relative political freedoms. It leaves the Chinese government with three options:

1. Block mainland access to Hong Kong, which exacerbates frustration with Hong Kong's special status and creates resentment on the mainland

2. Shut down the Hong Kong site, which creates resentment among powerful elites in Hong Kong

3. Allow Chinese citizens access to an uncensored Internet

None of these options are acceptable to the Chinese government. All put a massive spotlight on a set of facts that the Chinese government works hard to keep in the shadows. Despite spectacular economic growth, the Chinese government is in fact a backward authoritarian one-party regime, more akin to Cuba, Burma or pre-invasion Iraq than to the group of leading democracies it pretends equality with or superiority to. Google's redirect move lays that truth bare for all to see, especially inside China.

Don't be fooled by Google's fair-minded tone. This was a humiliating slap in the face of the highest order.

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The World's Only Immortal Animal

courtesy of Yahoo


The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth.

Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life).

The key lies in a process called transdifferentiation, where one type of cell is transformed into another type of cell. Some animals can undergo limited transdifferentiation and regenerate organs, such as salamanders, which can regrow limbs. Turritopsi nutricula, on the other hand, can regenerate its entire body over and over again. Researchers are studying the jellyfish to discover how it is able to reverse its aging process.

Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. They're now found in oceans around the globe rather than just in their native Caribbean waters. "We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion," says Dr. Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute.

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OnLive Remote Gaming Service Turns On in June

courtesy of PCMag.com


After eight years of development, remote gaming service OnLive is scheduled to roll out on June 17.
The company also announced its service pricing: users will need to pay $14.95 per month, which will allow them access to the service. However, the company did not disclose the price to rent or purchase games.

The first 25,000 users who preorder via the OnLive preorder site will receive their first three months of service free, the company said in a blog post. (Preregistration does not require a credit card, at least initially.) In addition, loyalty programs and special deals at the June E3 show (when OnLive launches) will also add other discounts, the company said.

"Everyone here at OnLive is just incredibly excited about this milestone," Steve Perlman, the company's chief executive and founder, said in a blog post. "It's the realization of a dream that we knew would be a huge undertaking, but also one that would change everything."

OnLive's claim to fame is that it puts PC users closer to console gamers in terms of hardware investment. Instead of being forced to constant shell out hundreds of dollars in CPU, graphics, and memory upgrades, OnLive completely abstracts both the game as well as the processing power required to run it, placing both inside a remote server. The service turns the user's PC into something like a dumb terminal, meaning that, at least theoretically, even an older laptop with a high-speed broadband connection should be able to run the latest games.

The service will be enabled via a PC browser plugin; later, a "MicroConsole" TV adapter will allow users to play them on their HDTVs.

Because the service is video-based to begin with, normal features -- gamertags, friends, and chat -- are supplemented with live spectating, so-called "Brag Clips" video recordings, and instant game demos, which can be instantly accessed and shared, Perlman said. Users will also be able to pause and resume, even on a different platform.



Users will be able to buy and rent "instant-play, top-tier, newly-released games," but OnLive will announce the actual prices closer to E3, Perlman wrote, adding that he expected prices to be "competitive" with retail offerings. OnLive has put up a page with games it expects to support (including "Borderlands," "Crysis Wars," "Mass Effect 2," and "Dragon Age: Origins") although whether or not all of them will be available at launch is unknown.

Previous demonstrations of the technology have worked well, although it's unclear how the network will hold up under strain. Perlman has said previously that the OnLive service will render games at about the equivalent of 720p, so games on high-resolution PC screens may look a little fuzzy.

The OnLive technology could seemingly pose a threat to companies like AMD, which manufactures both CPUs and graphics chips. But AMD invited an OnLive competitor, OTOY, to a Sept. 2009 launch event where it announced its Eyefinity technology.

Meet PlayStation Move, Sony's PS3 Motion Controller

courtesy of PCWorld.com


Sony's upcoming motion controller finally has a name--the PlayStation Move--and it looks like a pair of aircraft traffic wands with glowing blue and pink bulbs on the ends. The company announced the name during the 2010 Games Developer Conference before proceeding to demonstrate several games and inviting attendees to give the technology a spin for themselves.

The buzzword throughout the presentation: Precision. From SCE Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida's inaugural lines ("A more precise, immersive, and responsive game experience") to SCE Senior Vice President of Marketing Peter Dille's use of the word over a dozen times thereafter, it sounds like Sony plans to square off against Nintendo and Microsoft by leveraging the Move's fine motor tracking capabilities.

When it ships this fall, Sony says the Move will sell in three configurations: A version with just the Move wands for those who already own the requisite PlayStation Eye camera, another option with the Eye, the Move wands, and a game, and a full bundle to include the Eye, Move wands, a game, and the PlayStation 3 console.

The "Eye, Move wands, and game" option should sell for "under $100," said Dille.

The company then demonstrated several motion-control games, starting with a medieval sword-and-shield beat-em-up. From right or left hand slashes to shield blocks to a hands-behind-your-back stance that triggers taunts, the Move--tracked by the Eye--appeared capable of deftly processing every gesture and angle.

Table tennis was up next, and Sony demonstrated how subtle shifts in wrist rolling or pitching could produce any of the effects a physical paddle would, from harder or softer hits and various types of spin to near court swats and far court slams.

Covering the family angle with a game that looked suspiciously like an EyeToy demo, Move Party used the PlayStation Move to "augment" reality by placing you--literally, as in a video stream snapped with the Eye--in micro-arenas with changing motion-related challenges. First, the demonstrator's Move wand became a tennis racket (or as Sony described it, the racket was "augmented onto" the controller) to swat objects that appeared around her. Next, the Move became a paint brush and the demonstrator had to color in shapes without going outside the lines before a timer ran out. At one point, the Move wand even morphed into a portable hand-fan, the demonstrator yawing her wrist to redirect airflow and guide falling baby chicks into nests on either side of the display.

Existing games were also shown using slight Move modifications. A cooperative-angled demo of LittleBigPlanet allowed one player with a regular PS3 gamepad controlling the onscreen character to play in tandem with a second player, who used one of the Move wands to manipulate the environment and ease progress.



In a surprise move, the company trotted out a complementary product it calls the "sub-controller" (see pic above). Think Nintendo's nunchuk, because that's what it is--an analog thumbstick with buttons you hold in one hand while waving one of the Move wands in the other. Sony noted you can play "all the way through" SOCOM 4 (shipping this fall) using a Move wand and the sub-controller.

Dille called the PlayStation Move Sony's "biggest effort of the year" and noted the company plans a major marketing push, so brace yourself for TV spots, retail promotions, public relations campaigns, billboards, and who knows, probably some stealth-viral stuff rattling around out there too.

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