Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 17 Issue 44
Volume 17, Issue 44 Atari Online News, Etc. November 27, 2015
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2015
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
log on to our website at: www.atarinews.org
and click on "Subscriptions".
OR subscribe to A-ONE by sending a message to: dpj@atarinews.org
and your address will be added to the distribution list.
To unsubscribe from A-ONE, send the following: Unsubscribe A-ONE
Please make sure that you include the same address that you used to
subscribe from.
To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
following sites:
http://people.delphiforums.com/dpj/a-one.htm
Now available:
http://www.atarinews.org
Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi!
http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/
=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1744 11/27/15
~ Firefox: No Google Cash ~ People Are Talking! ~ Meet The New Atari!
~ Xbox 360 10th Birthday! ~ Chrome Support Update! ~ Google+ Relaunch?
~ Billion Logins Stolen! ~ Nothing Like M.U.L.E.! ~ Li-Fi Beats Wi-Fi!
~ CMU: Tor Claim Wrong! ~ Right To Be Forgotten! ~ Word of the Year!
-* PS2 Emulation Coming to PS4! *-
-* The Polycade: Retro Arcade of Future *-
-* Did Anonymous Just Save The World from ISIL *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Happy Thanksgiving, a day late. We had a nice, quiet celebration
again this year. It was just my wife and I - and of course, our
two dogs. Everyone enjoyed the turkey and all of the fixings (I
make a damn great turkey!). All of us here at A-ONE hoped that you
all had an enjoyable holiday with family and friends - plenty of
good food and a football game or two!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
Firebee Update News
Here's a quick update.
FireBee.org is proud to announce that our goal of 50 pre-orders
for the second run of Firebee Computers has been reached. This
week we reached 55 pre-orders. More information will be announced
soon on what will be the next step in the process.
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - PlayStation 2 Emulation Heading to PS4!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Happy 10th Birthday, Xbox 360!
Meet The New Atari!
And more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Sony Is Adding PlayStation 2 Backwards Compatibility to the PS4
Sony and Electronic Arts have a Star Wars: Battlefront
PlayStation 4 bundle available right now and with it comes a
quartet of games from a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away
(or at least as far as the PlayStation 2 era). Star Wars: Bounty
Hunter, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, Star Wars Racer: Revenge and
Super Star Wars come with the bundle via a single download code,
and all bar one appear to be the original PS2 games running in
emulation. The discovery comes via the tech-minded folks over at
Digital Foundry who spotted a number of clues suggesting backwards
compatibility had finally arrived. The evidence is in the details.
As DF noted, the sophomore console's select and start buttons have
been mapped to either side of the DualShock 4's touchpad,
something only Sony, rather than Lucasarts Interactive can do.
Oh, and there's an even bigger giveaway: a PS2 logo appears when
you launch each game. Need more proof? "All in-game button
prompts" are relative to the DualShock 2 which means these aren't
remastered versions of the games. So, local emulation of classic
games so long as you download them, and there's no monthly
subscription fee. Sounds familiar, right? We're expecting a Star
Wars-themed package in the mail from EA tomorrow so perhaps this
is what that is. We've reached out to Sony for more information
about the backwards compatibility and will update this post should
the company respond.
Update: And just like that, Sony has confirmed backwards
compatibility is coming, telling Wired: "We are working on
utilizing PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2 games forward to
the current generation ... We have nothing further to comment at
this point in time."
PlayStation 2 Emulation Heading to PS4
Sony has confirmed that PlayStation 2 emulation is coming to the
PlayStation 4.
"We are working on utilizing PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2
games forward to the current generation," a Sony representative
told Wired. "We have nothing further to comment at this point in
time."
The confirmation comes after Eurogamer earlier this week
discovered PS2 emulation. The site's Richard Leadbetter noticed
that three Star Wars games that came bundled with Star Wars
Battlefront were from the PS2-era but didn't appear to be ports
made specifically for the PS4. They were in fact running on
proprietary emulation software.
Currently, the only way to play classic games on PlayStation 4 is
through the PlayStation Now streaming app, or by playing a
remastered title. With Microsoft launching Xbox 360 backwards
compatibility for the Xbox One earlier this month, it's obvious
that users are hungry to play older games, and Sony is jumping on
that bandwagon.
It seems odd that Sony would release this news with such little
fanfare, though. Compare this announcement to the one Microsoft
made about backwards compatibility during its E3 event, which
kicked off the presentation to thunderous applause.
Sony's confirmation doesn't give us a lot of information to go
on, but we'll be hearing more about this in the future. Many
questions still linger, however, such as how this technology
works, whether or not PS2 disks can be used to download games
like they can on Xbox One, and what the pricing of titles will
be. Stay tuned for more news on this as it develops.
Happy 10th Birthday, Xbox 360!
Microsofts most successful home console just turned 10.
Launched on November 22, 2005, the Xbox 360 had a busy decade. The
system brought multiplayer gaming to the forefront of the console
world, demonstrated that game systems could do a lot more than
play games, sucked us in with its addictive Achievements, and
hosted some of the biggest games in the industry's history.
But it didn't get off to a great start.
Rather than unveiling the system at a game industry trade show or
news conference, Microsoft opted to debut the Xbox 360 on MTV in a
show hosted by Elijah Wood. Even by 2005 standards, it was a
painful thing to watch. It featured odd cameos from The Killers,
the Pimp My Ride crew, and Lil' Jon. A model strutted through the
crowd with a courier bag before plopping the system on a pedestal.
Wood uttered the phrase "uber-gamers" and made shadow puppets in
front of Xbox 360 artwork.
Things got worse once the system was in the wild. The Xbox 360s
launch lineup was uninspired, and the infamous "Red Ring of Death"
rendered thousands of consoles useless, forcing Microsoft to
repair units free of charge.
"I calculated with my finance team [a cost of] $1.15 billion,"
Peter Moore, who ran the Xbox division at the time, told Gamespot.
"I ... sat in front of Steve [Ballmer, then CEO of Microsoft],
who I love to death, but he can be an intimidating human being.
And Steve said, 'OK, talk me through this.' "I said, 'If we don't
do this, this brand is dead.'"
Over time, though, the Xbox 360 began to thrive. Led by huge
exclusive franchises like Halo, Gears of War, Fable and Forza,
the software lineup soon found its groove. Valve's vaunted
shooters Left 4 Dead and The Orange Box bypassed the
PlayStation 3 and called the 360 home. Games like Dance Central
made the Kinect peripheral cool (for a while, at least). Beyond
exclusives, Microsoft also worked with third-party publishers to
get first dibs on DLC for the biggest games of the time,
including Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, further luring
gamers to the system.
Some of the systems biggest contributions had more to do with how
you play games rather than the games themseves. The introduction
of Achievements and Gamerscores, essentially adding rewards (and
bragging rights) for playing, was a master stroke that would be
emulated by both Sony and Apple.
For many, it was Xbox Live that made the Xbox 360 so appealing.
While Microsoft had dabbled in online play with the original Xbox,
the 360 was a truly connected machine, making it easy to find your
friends online, invite them to join you in a game, and voice chat
with them as you played.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of the Xbox 360, though, had
nothing to do with gaming at all. For decades, console
manufacturers had been positioning their systems as living room
Trojan Horses: Gamers would hook them up to play games, but the
real shelf life would be found in other entertainment capabilities.
The Xbox 360 was the first to really embody that trend, becoming
usable not only by gamers, but by non-gaming members of the
family.
It started with an exclusive deal with Netflix, which allowed
Xbox Live subscribers to freely watch movies from the
then-burgeoning streaming service. Other services, including
Hulu, YouTube, UFC, and MLB.tv later became available. The Xbox
Music service offered an unlimited music streaming option in a
pre-Spotify world. Towards the end of the console's time in the
spotlight, cable services, including AT&T Uverse, offered set-top
box functionality via the system, while others, such as Xfinity
and Verizon FiOS, tied into the Xbox 360 with their on-demand
services.
As of June 2014, the Xbox 360 had sold 84 million units worldwide,
good enough to make it the sixth best-selling game system ever
(fourth if you don't count handhelds). While it's no longer
discussed at press conferences and publishers are slowly dropping
the system from new releases of key franchises, it remains a
consistent source of revenue for Microsoft. (Publisher support is
expected to continue at least through next year.)
Though it wasn't their first, the Xbox 360 was the system that
made Microsoft a real player in the video game space. The original
Xbox had plenty to crow about, but it often felt like an
experiment as the company worked its way through unfamiliar
industry (and was outsold 5 to 1 by the unstoppable
PlayStation 2). With the 360, Microsoft matured, got a handle on
what gamers wanted, and learned how to move beyond what could have
been crippling mistakes.
Those are lessons that it's still implementing today, and while
the Xbox One is currently in the rearview mirror of the
PlayStation 4, it's outpacing the Xbox 360's early sales, perhaps
a sign that once again Microsoft doesn't plan to let a bad start
ruin its overall run.
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Meet The New Atari
Though Atari was one of the founding fathers of the games
industry, for many it will always be synonymous with the video
games crash of 1983.
The firms fast and loose approach to publishing, and its lack of
quality control, was so severe that it killed faith in the sector
resulting in a market collapse in the US.
Since then, the name has passed through a number of hands,
including Tramel Technology, Hasbro, Infogrames and IESA.
Then in 2009, Atari parent company Infogrames rebranded itself as
Atari SA.
The once dominant brand has seen its worth diminish during the
years, to the point when, in 2013, three of Ataris subsidiaries
filed for bankruptcy. Re-emerging wounded, but still alive.
The Atari of today is a different beast to the one of old, with
the firm now comprised of less than twenty people.
The brand has gone through a lot of ups and downs, a lot of big
ups and big downs, Atari SA CEO Fred Chesnais tells MCV.
These days, Ataris status is very simple weve picked up the
mess of 2013, we exited bankruptcy, we are now profitable. Its
still a very small company, if you look at the numbers youll see
theres nothing to write home about.
But the brand is still here, its untarnished, its still very
popular. Were still doing a lot of licensing agreements that
generate millions of dollars. For instance, during the first six
months of this fiscal year, we have entered into licensing deals
in the casino space and its taken over $1m dollars.
Were branching out of the game business. We have entered into
licensing agreements in the movie space and were working in the
TV sector through licensing and co-productions.
Its clearly a brand for the generations. We get loads of calls
asking us to licence the Atari brand.
In another 18 months, our goal is to be in really good shape with
our games, and well be able to show good progress outside of the
games business, too. Were trying to branch out of games because
its a very complicated sector and frankly, you can make a lot of
mistakes in that market.
"We do care about these brands
and are really trying to pay attention
to what the community is saying."
Fred Chesnais, Atari
Yep, this new Atari has made its fair share of mistakes. The firm
launched a new Asteroids game into Early Access in March of this
year. Entitled Outpost (pictured below), this was a survival game
akin to Minecraft or Rust.
Then in June, the publisher released Alone in the Dark:
Illumination, a team-based shooter where players were neither
alone nor in the dark. Both games faced severe criticism from both
video game journalists and consumers.
We make mistakes in video games, Chesnais says.
So first and foremost, we read what the fans say and we always
try to bring the games to the next level. We read what they are
writing in the forums and we always try to improve the situation.
Each game has its own story and history.
With Asteroids, for instance, the idea was to start with a solo
experience and keep adding to it. The fans did not respond to
that.
On Alone in the Dark, the game is very stable but people didnt
like the gameplay. They were asking us why it was a shooter and
they were telling us it was too repetitive. Were working on
addressing that. This isnt a situation where a game is released
and we say: Hey, its out; and then we clean up and dont care
about it. We do care about these brands, we are really, really
trying to pay attention to what the community is saying and to do
our best.
You are only as good as your last game. Thats the problem and
also the beauty of our industry. We are just very mindful of what
the fans are writing and we dont do it on purpose.
Atari certainly appears to be trying, if its recent Rollercoaster
Tycoon game is anything to go by. The publisher has changed the
development studio working on Rollercoaster Tycon World twice. The
firm initially had Pipeworks developing the title, before handing
the game to Area 52 after quality concerns. Atari then gave the
reigns to Nvizzio Creations, again citing quality.
"The main issue with new IP is standing out.
Thats why we brought the Atari name back."
Fred Chesnais, Atari
Looking at Ataris recent releases Alone in the Dark
Illumination and Asteroids: Outpost many might think that the
firm is just looking through its portfolio of existing IP and
attempting to revive them with modern stylings. But Chesnais says
that it is looking into new IP, too.
We have launched a game for the LGBTQ community, Pridefest,
which is a new IP, he explains. We thought it was interesting,
and something for a community thats underserved when it comes to
interactive experiences.
However, Chesnais says that Ataris main focus will be on its
existing brands.
We have more than 200 games in our portfolio, Chesnais explains.
On the App Store you have thousands of games. The main issue you
have with new IP is standing out, so people will notice your game.
Thats why we brought the Atari name back, to exploit the
portfolio of IP. Well see a titles gameplay, think its
interesting, and ask ourselves if theres a brand in our portfolio
that we could match to that by making a game of that style.
Asteroids: Outpost is a very good example of what we are trying to
do, even if we have failed on this one.
We are not very happy with the results on that, but its better
for us to take very innovative gameplay and then try to see if we
can match it to an existing brand.
Theres Nothing Like M.U.L.E. on an Atari 800 To Bring A Family Together
On holidays like Thanksgiving, part of the togetherness
(especially with my older brother) has always included video
gamesespecially games for our first computer, the Atari 800.
Released in 1979, Atari intended the 800 (and its junior sibling,
the 400) to serve as both advanced follow-ups to its successful
Atari 2600 game console and, in the case of the 800, as a
competitor to the Apple II. But the Atari 2600 held its ground,
remaining commercially relevant until at least 1986, and the
Apple II, well, you know.
The Atari 800 was a unique hybrid of personal computer and gaming
machine.
Think of the Atari 800 as a hybrid between a game console and a
personal computer. Advanced custom silicon betrayed its origins as
a potent gaming machine. Chief among them were the ANTIC and GTIA
graphics chips, which granted the sophisticated sprite controls
(among other functions), and the POKEY chip, which could output
four audio channels simultaneously for complex (at the time)
musical capabilities.
POKEY also managed all player input to the system, allowing up to
eight paddles or four joysticks at a time. That made the
Atari 800 a very special multiplayer machine.
The Atari 800 had four ports for joysticks or paddles.
Of the small number of games that supported using all four
controller ports, my brother and I owned and played most of them.
In Asteroids, players can blast globby space rocks (or each other)
four-at-once. Atari Basketball? Two-on-two on the digital
blacktop. And Super Breakout? Oh my: If you hooked four paddle
pairs to all of the ports, you could have eight people playing
onscreen. It was an absolute blast.
But we must reserve the multiplayer crown for the king of all
Atari four-player games: M.U.L.E. Designed by the legendary Dani
Bunten and published by Electronic Arts in 1983, this turn-based
resource-trading title was never a runaway bestseller, but it
quickly became a critically acclaimed computer game. M.U.L.E.
combines equal parts depth and dexterity, chiefly from its
boardgame-like strategy elements and its four-player, real-time
auction sequence. Players move their characters up or down on the
screen at the same time to set a buy or sell price. There can be
a fair amount of bluffing involved, keeping everyone on their
toes.
M.U.L.E combined boardgame-like strategy with twitch-speed
multiplayer dynamics.
Boy did my brother love M.U.L.E. One of my earliest memories of
the game involves one of his birthday parties. He was probably
turning nine, so I would have been four years oldand as eager to
be included in whatever the big kids were doing, as they were to
keep me out.
On that day, I heard joyous shouting and laughing coming from his
room. I pushed open the closed door (as in, keep out, no little
brothers allowed): The glorious tones of the M.U.L.E. theme song
emanated from a color TV propped up on his desk.
My brother and three friends each clutched a black Atari
controller, and I watched as he started up a game on the hardest
Tournament setting. I lurked at the back of the room, mostly
unnoticed, as the game engrossed the crowd.
The legendary game M.U.L.E. commanded the attention of
nine-year-old boys for astonishingly long periods of time.
The entire play-through likely lasted only 30-45 minutes of real
time, but it felt like a brilliant eternity. In the age of twitch
games like Asteroids, where you frequently got blasted away within
30 seconds, 30 minutes was an epic commitment of time and
attention span for a kid. The fact that M.U.L.E. kept a room full
of nine-year-olds glued to the screen for that long meant it was
truly something special.
Ive played M.U.L.E. many times since then. Throughout the 1990s,
my brother and I hooked up the 800 every Christmas and played the
classics. We still manage it most years to this day.
Playing Atari 800 games became a holiday tradition for the
author's family.
This year, I decided to pull a Benj and set up M.U.L.E. once
again but at my parents house, for the most retro feeling
possible.
The centerpiece would be our familys old woodgrained RCA TV set.
Hailing from a time when people built TV sets to look like
furniture, it saw non-stop daily service until 2006, when it
finally lost out to an HDTV.
I knew it was too important a family artifact to discard, so I
tucked it away in the darkest corner of my parents garage. I dug
out the old, 100-something-pound set and cleaned off all six of
its spiderweb-encrusted sides. Then I stuck it in the traditional
TV corner in the den at her house and hooked it up.
What could make this look more 80s? I asked my mom. She brought
in a basket of fake flowers, which she set down on an antique
childrens chair. Then she placed an old wooden duck on top of the
TV, and I found a vintage brass lamp. Instant country-style decor,
1980s-style. My moms favorite.
I also rounded up a Betamax player a friend gave me (sadly, our
original VHS VCR met the scrap heap long ago), a Zenith cable box
thats just like the one we used back in the day, and an old clock.
Finally I hooked up the Atari 800, put in the M.U.L.E. disk, and
threw the switch.
Gaming, back in the day: Atari 800 with four joysticks attached to
a 1983-era wood-grained TV.
My face lit up with joy as I heard the first few beats of the
triumphant M.U.L.E. theme song play through the vintage TV set.
To me, history is as close as we can come to time travel. These
artifacts are cues that pull up powerful memories. People who say,
dont live in the past obviously didnt own an Atari.
I plugged in four bona-fide Atari controllers and played through
a beginner-level game against three computer players because,
well, its not Thanksgiving yet. My mom had already gone out back
to start a bonfire for fun (she does that). Come Thursday, I hope
to have four people at the controls, firmly commanding our
makeshift time machine.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
The Polycade - Retro Arcade of the Future
The arcade is the ultimate casual gaming experience. Arcades are
social, low commitment, and perfect for either playing solo or
competing with friends. Sadly, due to their failure to evolve
with the times, arcades are becoming a rarity.
The classic arcade has a few problems. It only plays a single game,
its heavy and takes up a lot of space, and it doesnt fit
aesthetically into many home or business spaces. I built the
Polycade to solve all of these problems, and I realized that there
are likely others out there who want the same thing: an elegant,
minimalistic arcade that plays multiple games.
Polycade features include:
One 4-directional joystick for classic titles
Two 8-directional joysticks for multiplayer
At the size of a standard arcade machine, the Polycade fits
nicely in any home or office
The Polycade ships with over 90 games, and is capable of
playing thousands more!
As children of Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, my siblings and I
grew up surrounded by video games. We had a few arcade machines at
home (Pengo, DK Jr., Breakout), and we would save up to buy
systems and games as they came out. Additionally, my dad had all
kinds of nooks where various treasures were stored, waiting to be
discovered. We even stumbled upon a Vectrex, found stashed away in
a closet we had to crawl to get into. When Street Fighter 2 first
came out in arcade form, we would ride our bikes six miles to the
closest arcade. As time went on, systems and games broke, were
foolishly sold, or were simply lost. Even the DK Jr. cabinet that
we held onto for so many years eventually broke.
It became increasingly apparent that keeping and maintaining old
systems, especially arcades, is a job for museums, hard-core
collectors, or bars. I am none of those things. But I still wanted
to play these games. I needed a dedicated solution that works for
most retro games.
To me, the arcade is the ultimate casual gaming interface. Its
always on, it doesnt share its screen with anything else, and it
has an extremely low barrier of commitment. That last point might
be the most important. With a dedicated arcade, I dont need to
play Setup Quest - searching for controllers, making sure
batteries are charged, downloading and installing updates,
limiting the use of the living room television for others - in
order to hammer out a quick game of Pac-Man.
Building the first Polycade took almost a year of design,
research, and testing. I even ended up writing a script to manage
files and scrape metadata. Throughout this process, it became
clear to me that even for those who have the technical skills to
build something similar, the needed investment of time and money
keeps the arcade out of reach. Also, most people assume the only
way to have a home arcade is to have a dedicated room filled with
vintage machines. I want to change that.
Want to give a Polycade as a gift for Christmas? We will send you
a snazzy card to put under the tree prior to the 25th!
The Polycade is constructed out of simple components. This makes
it easy to customize, repair, or change parts. A bit more about
the key components of the Polycade:
The Cabinet
The cabinet is cut out by robots and constructed by professional
cabinet makers. Most of us would-be arcade builders are capable
of sticking some plywood together, but even the experienced
amongst us will be hard pressed to match the quality of these
pros.
Once constructed and sanded, the cabinet is primed and sanded
again. What happens next depends on the finish you choose.
- Vinyl Graphics: the Polycade is professionally wrapped with
high quality, printed vinyl.
- Solid Color Paint: the Polycade is painted using a professional
spray gun, sanded, painted again. The paint used is a strong,
glossy lacquer that protects from bumps and keeps fingerprints
hidden.
The control panel of the Polycade is removable. This helps to
future-proof the polycade by allowing you to swap out the control
setup to optimize for your favorite games, if need be. Down the
road, we will offer different control panels.
The Controls
The Polycade features a standard 2 player "fighter" setup, as well
as a single player "classic" setup. The classic setup is necessary
for games such as Pac-Man and Dig-Dug, while the fighter setup is
used for most other games.
The Monitor
The Polycade uses a 28" Insignia LED TV with a 60Hz refresh rate.
In the event you want to swap this out for a different monitor,
the mounting mechanism in the cabinet is adjustable.
The Hardware
The Polycade uses a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B (this is the latest
Raspberry Pi). It comes with an 8g SD card pre-loaded with the
software. An 8g SD card is capable of holding thousands of games
from the systems listed below.
The Software
We load the SD card with open source emulation software using a
modified RetroPie install. We are customizing the interface along
with hand testing and configuring each game to ensure that
everything works right out of the box. If you want to put
additional games on it, here's a list of systems we have tested:
Atari 800
Atari 2600
Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Color
Game Gear
Sega Master System
Sega Genesis
Nintendo Entertainment System
Turbo Grafx 16
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Servicing
All of the components in the Polycade are simple and will last a
long time. Everything fails eventually though, and we've made sure
that each piece is as easy to swap out as possible. Replacing a
button, joystick, or even the computer is a trivial task, even for
the non-technically inclined person.
We stand by this product and will do our very best to help you,
should you run into any problems.
Mounting the Polycade (45lbs) is similar to mounting a TV. The
cabinet ships with a double cleat that mounts to the wall using
four screws driven into studs. The screwholes are slotted so the
cleat can be slid left or right prior to tightening. The Polycade
sits 3/8" out from the wall. This gives it a floating effect, and
allows us to place ventilation on the back of the unit, out of
view.
Each Polycade will be finished with a high-quality, solid color
paint.
Another option for finishing is a vinyl wrap with some awesome
graphics! We've got a few more options for graphics on the way.
POLYCADE APPAREL
All clothing is American Apparel.
WOODWORKERS KIT
The woodworkers kit is intended for people who wish to build their
own cabinet. You might want to do this in order to save money, or
because you wish to design your own cabinet and want the technical
portion of the arcade done for you. We do not include the monitor
with the woodworkers kit, as someone designing their own cabinet
may wish to change the monitor size. With the woodworkers kit, you
will receive:
Polycade Plans (in case you want to build the Polycade
cabinet)
Instructions for hooking up the electronics
Polycade controls (buttons and joysticks)
Raspberry Pi computer configured with the Polycade software
build
Wire harness (to connect the computer to the controls)
Nearly 100 games
Some things that you will need to provide on your own (these
things are NOT included in the kit):
The wood necessary to build the cabinet
The tools necessary to build the cabinet
The monitor (we will provide suggestions)
Extension cord with 2 outlets
Anything else that you might use in the building of your
cabinet (marquee, lights, etc)
SIGNED ATARI 2600 CARTRIDGE
For the record, I'll be filming the signing (it will be placed on
youtube) and providing a certificate of authenticity for each one
of these. I'll ask you for your top 3 cartridge choices, and will
do my best to get you one of those.
GAME LIST
The Polycade will ship with the following games:
Pac-Man
Ms. Pac-Man
Galaga
Dig Dug
Galaxian
Pole Position
Rolling Thunder
Rally-X
Bosconian
Dragon Spirit
Sky Kid
Xevious
Mappy
1942
1943: Battle of Midway
1943 Kai
Bionic Commando
Commando
Exed Exes
Final Fight
Forgotten Worlds
Ghosts'n Goblins
Gun.Smoke
Legendary Wings
Mercs
Pirate Ship Hingemaru
Section Z
SonSon
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Street Fighter II: Champion Edition
Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting
Super Ghouls'n Ghosts
Trojan
Vulgus
Asteroids
Asteroids Delux
Battlezone
Centipede
Crystal Castles
Gravitar
Millipede
Missile Command
Pong
Super Breakout
Tempest
Warlords
Golden Axe
Altered Beast
Comix Zone
Ecco The Dolphin
Gain Ground
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Vectorman
Sonic The Hedghog
Crack Down
Space Harrier II
Ecco Jr.
Fatal Labrynth
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
Bonanza Bros
Super Thunder Blade
ESWAT: City Under Siege
Kid Chameleon
Ristar
Golden Axe 2
Galaxy Force II
Columns
Sonic The Hedghog 2
Bio-Hazard Battle
Columns III: Revenge of Columns
Sword of Vermillion
Virtua Fighter 2
Ecco: The Tides of Time
Alien Storm
Decap Attack
Flicky
Sonic 3 & Knucles
Sonic Spinball
Landstalker
Shining Force
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Streets of Rage
Streets of Rage 2
Alien Soldier
Light Crusader
Sonic 3D Blast
Gunstar Heroes
Shining Force II
Shining in the Darkness
ToeJam & Earl
ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funktron
Our ultimate goal is to provide easy access to games that have
slipped away from the consumer reach due to the lack of a
marketplace, failure of old hardware, or simply swallowed by the
sands of time.
Keep track of our progress by following us on twitter
(@thepolycade) & instagram (@polycade)!
FAQ
Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the
project creator directly.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Did Anonymous Just Save The World From ISIL?
Last week, a new cyber front emerged in the war against the
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Anonymous, the hacker
collective principally known for its website defacements and
account takedowns for political causes, initiated #OpParis, aimed
at defeating ISIL online. This is not the first Anonymous campaign
against ISIL. Their previous foray several months back, more
obviously named #OpISIS, failed to cultivate a strong following or
endure. But Anonymous hackers, likely bearing witness to ISIL
violence in European neighborhoods in which many likely roost,
have energized their legion and drawn interest from media outlets.
Reactions to #OpParis are mixed. It is encouraging to see the
collective take on a noble goal in contrast to many of their other
campaigns that vary in merit. Everyone hates ISIL and Anonymous
has skills. Why shouldnt the hacker collective join in a campaign
to root out evil? And who better for Anonymous to challenge than a
terrorist group that so prolifically uses the Internet to
radicalize and recruit their foreign fighters and social media fan
boys.
Thus far, Anonymous primary modus operandi has been to take down
ISIL social media accounts and initiate Distributed Denial of
Service (DDoS) attacks on key terrorist forums. This immediately
raises several issues.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many other social media companies
policed ISIL accounts much more aggressively this year. ISIL social
media accounts today have a short life span and the effects of
continued shutdowns have stunted the groups propaganda
dissemination. So a question naturally arises: Do we need
Anonymous to do account shutdowns at this point?
Another clear problem with Anonymous campaign seems to be their
targeting. Anonymous claims to have shut down 20,000 ISIL Twitter
accounts. Yet J.M Berger, who at the height of ISILs online
presence conducted the ISIS Twitter Census, estimated there to be
roughly 46,000 ISIL Twitter accounts in November 2014. Seeing how
social media companies have opened an assault on ISIS accounts
this past year, it appears doubtful that 20,000 ISIL Twitter
accounts still remain. J.M. Berger, when queried about the claim
of 20,000 account takedowns, stated, I cant vouch for it, but I
cant totally rule it out. It seems unlikely. Thus, a second
question arises: How does Anonymous know they are targeting ISIL
accounts? While the collective clearly brings a wide range of
computer skills to the fight, their understanding of terrorism is
probably lacking. Combined with the fact that the majority of
Anonymous members reside in Europe and North America, it seems
doubtful the collective retains sufficient Arabic language skills
for properly vetting accounts.
Assuming the collective lacks appropriate counterterrorism
research skills and linguistic capabilities, Anonymous must then
fall back on technical signatures, like hashtags and keywords to
find ISIL accounts. These methods are highly unreliable. In a past
campaign against extremists, hackers targeted any website and
account using the word jihad. Several key research websites used
by academics and researchers for studying and developing methods
to counter terrorists were taken offline. Without the ability to
nimbly identify and accurately assess ISIL accounts, forums and
content, the Anonymous campaign will likely result in a lot of
digital collateral damage. Their account shutdown carpet bombing
campaigns thus far seem to be doing just that. Less than a week
into #OpParis, most of the accounts targeted by the collective
have nothing to do with ISIL.
Recklessly shutting down social media accounts and closing jihadist
forums likely blunts many Western intelligence efforts to
infiltrate the group. As arrests have unfolded across France and
Belgium, law enforcement and intelligence services have likely
relied on undercover social media accounts and forum infiltrations
to track down key associates of the Paris attackers and intercept
communications about rapidly unfolding plots. Infiltrating these
forums can take months and years, a sizeable investigative
investment that may be squandered by indiscriminate youngsters
who believe they are doing good when they may be actually doing
more harm.
Anonymous hacker skills would be of more value if they focused on
infiltration and penetration rather than account and forum
shutdowns. Hackers in the past have penetrated governments and
corporations revealing internal documents and communications.
Should hackers focus on ISIL forum administrators, the accounts of
key ISIL leaders, and their encrypted communications, Anonymous
could expose the groups inner workings, reveal operational
vulnerabilities, illuminate petty terrorist infighting and erode
the groups support from international audiences.
Fortunately, a faction of Anonymous seems to be moving in this
direction. Ghost Security Group has directed its efforts in just
this way seeking to infiltrate, monitor and report rather than
destroy ISIL online. DigataShadow, the executive director of the
group, told CNN that they have a lot of counterterrorism
experience. We have translators, linguists, research analysts on
hand to analyze all the data that we receive. DigataShadow noted
the concerns outlined above: Anonymous has a habit of shooting in
every direction and asking questions later. The same might be
said for ISIL. The two groups seem perfect for each other.
Looking at the bigger picture, Anonymous, as a collective, has
been on a downward path for some time. Being anonymous by design,
their crew has been vulnerable to infiltration. Their networks have
been infiltrated, betrayed from within, and fractured from
infighting over direction and fame. This weekend again showed the
challenges of trusting Anonymous even when they might have achieved
a victory. On Saturday night, an alleged Anonymous account
published seven locations and events in five countries that ISIL
was planning to attack on Sunday. Media outlets initially
attributed the list to Anonymous, but shortly after, Anonymous
official Twitter account stated, We did not spread rumors about
possible future ISIS attacks, and frankly, we do not know where the
rumors come from.
As cyberwar has expanded, there has been increasing convergence
between threat actors. Internet anonymity has allowed
nation-states, terror groups, and hackers to swarm together and
either deliberately or inadvertently use one another to achieve
their goals. When no one knows who is in Anonymous, it becomes an
excellent vehicle for a nation-state with ulterior motives to leak
intelligence or disseminate propaganda to manipulate their
adversaries. As law enforcement scrambled to evaluate the validity
of the leaked targets and the plausibility of another wave of ISIL
attacks, the alleged Anonymous claims validity cannot be
confirmed, and may ultimately prove false and only divert precious
resources from other meaningful leads. It is possible, though not
likely, that ISIL released the list and in so doing, engaged in a
form of terrorism without firing a shot.
Of most concern may be that Anonymous efforts, while well
intentioned, have drawn the ire of ISIL hackers and propagandists.
Terrorist groups have generally trailed other threat actors on the
cyber battlefield, but ISIL has changed this trend. Over the past
year, ISIL has attempted to create and utilize its own app for
communication and dissemination seeking to bypass openly available
platforms and their content controls. Anonymous successes in
shutting down a few social media accounts have resulted in ISIL
issuing a cyber operational security manual and updated guidance
to train their supporters on how to protect their accounts from
penetration. Then, this past Sunday, in the worst outcome yet from
the Anonymous campaign, ISIL retaliated by publishing a targeting
list of the names and addresses of current and former CIA and FBI
agents in the United States. It may therefore be that the most
significant result of the Anonymous campaign is better ISIL cyber
capabilities.
Anonymous, in its fight against ISIL, has its collective heart in
the right place. #OpISIS before this and now #OpParis will
ultimately prove a useful case study in the advance of cyber proxy
forces, in this instance a proxy for good rather than bad. The
challenges of hacker collective targeting, attribution and
direction should be explored and evaluated comparatively to
traditional warfares utilization of militias and para-militaries.
If nothing else, weve learned that while ISIL tends to be
disgusting and vitriolic, at least Anonymous retains a sense of
humor. They have returned one of their classic tactics, Rick
Rolling ISIL accounts flooding ISIL hashtags with Rick Astleys
Never Gonna Give You Up music video. Just remember, if youre
surfing Twitter this week, and you get Rick Rolled, a hacker
somewhere might be thinking youre part of ISIL.
FBI: 1.2 Billion Logins Stolen By A Single Hacker
A computer hacker known as mr.grey is wanted by the FBI for
stealing the login information for over 1.2 billion online
accounts, reports the BBC.
The hacker was linked to the stolen logins through a Russian email
address.
To the best of our knowledge, they mostly focused on stealing
credentials, eventually ending up with the largest cache of stolen
personal information, totaling over 1.2 billion unique sets of
e-mails and passwords, said American cyber security firm Hold
Security.
The company said the Russian crime ring responsible for stealing
the data, called CyberVor, breached more than 420,000 websites.
Dave Palmer, director of technology at security firm Darktrace,
said the accounts were hacked through botnets, large networks of
computers linked together to perform malicious activity.
Whats interesting about this is botnets are usually used to
harness their massive scale to attack an individual target like
taking computer games consoles down last Christmas for example,
he explained. Its instead been used as a massive scanner
scanning websites all around the world for weaknesses.
Palmer added that by adding simple security tools to most
websites, such attacks can usually be thwarted.
Gmail Bug Makes It Insanely Easy To
Impersonate Other Peoples Email Accounts
Want to impersonate another persons email account? Its
shockingly easy to do, as a new Gmail bug reported by independent
security researcher Yan Zhu reveals. Speaking with Motherboard,
Zhu explains that all you have to do is to change your display
name in your settings on the official Gmail app in a way that
will conceal your actual email address.
In this instance, Zhu entered in security@google.com as her
display name in Gmail. Note that she used two sets of quotation
marks at the start of it apparently, doing this will cover up
your actual email address and make it look like the email youre
sending is coming directly from Googles own security team.
Obviously this is something that can be used in phishing attacks
by people impersonating different entities and organizations that
ask you to send them sensitive information.
OK, so Google must be all over this, right? Sadly, no. Zhu
informed Google of this bug late last month and they responded
by telling her that they dont consider this bug to be a security
vulnerability.
This is a puzzling attitude. As Motherboard explains, its
always been possible to spoof email envelope addresses, but
spoofed emails now usually get caught by spam filters or get
displayed with a warning in Gmail
with this bug, a hacker can get
around these protections. And even if Google doesnt consider
this to be a critical security vulnerability, what would be the
harm in fixing it?
University Says FBI Payment Reports 'Inaccurate'
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) says reports it was paid by the
FBI to attack software sometimes used for criminal activity are
"inaccurate".
The Tor web browser is designed to let people anonymously explore
websites, including those hidden on the dark web which do not show
up in search engines.
Last week the Tor project claimed that the FBI had paid CMU to
find vulnerabilities in its software.
On Wednesday, the university said that was "inaccurate".
In 2014, the Tor network detected a concerted effort to work out
the identity of people using the platform.
That attack was linked to CMU after two of its researchers said
they would give a talk at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference
on a method they found to "de-anonymise hundreds of thousands
Tor clients and thousands of hidden services".
The talk was cancelled, but later the same year a big FBI
operation took down dozens of Tor sites, including Silk Road 2
which was a notorious marketplace selling drugs.
The Tor project has since suggested that the FBI paid the
university $1m (£660,000) to carry out the research.
Last week the university was non-committal on the accusations
and told the BBC: "You can read what you want into it."
On Wednesday it issued a statement and said there had been a
number of "inaccurate media reports" on its work in
cybersecurity.
CMU said it did have a federally funded research centre which
investigated software security, but that it did not receive
funding in exchange for information.
"The university from time to time is served with subpoenas
requesting information about research it has performed," said the
statement. "The university abides by the rule of law, complies
with lawfully issued subpoenas and receives no funding for its
compliance."
However it has still not denied it was paid by the FBI to conduct
research into Tor.
Even if the FBI had not paid the university to carry out specific
research, the Tor project has raised questions about the ethics
of CMU's investigation.
It has been suggested that the FBI could have ordered CMU to
hand over its methods, or the identities of Tor users it had
uncovered as a result of its research.
"Whatever academic security research should be in the 21st century,
it certainly does not include "experiments" for pay that
indiscriminately endanger strangers without their knowledge or
consent," the Tor project wrote in its blog.
Google Receives Steady Stream of 'Right To Be Forgotten' Requests
Google continues to receive a steady stream of requests to delist
specific search results as a result of a controversial European
court ruling.
The company said Wednesday it has received 348,085 requests since
it launched its program after the European Court of Justice's
ruling in May 2014. That's up from about 300,000 it had received
by the end of July.
The court's ruling allows people to ask search engines to delist
results to content that is inadequate, irrelevant or not in the
public interest, the so-called "right to be forgotten."
The search engine can decide whether to scrub the results or not
based on the circumstances. Google provided some anonymized
examples of how it handled certain requests.
In Austria, a couple that was accused of business fraud asked for
links to articles to be removed, which Google rejected.
But it did remove a link to pages referencing an article about a
teacher in Germany who was convicted of a minor crime more than a
decade ago.
The top websites where search results to content were removed
were in order: Facebook.com, profileengine.com,
groups.google.com, youtube.com and badoo.com. Twitter also made
the top 10 list.
Since May 2014, a total of 1,234,092 URLs have been removed,
Google said. It tends to reject more requests than it
accommodates.
When links are removed from its index, Google notifies the
websites that are affected, but those sites are not required to
remove content.
Some of the more clear-cut cases for Google are websites that
contain a person's address or contact information or crimes
committed while a person was a minor, according to an FAQ.
The process isn't alway smooth, and Google has occasionally
clashed with data protection authorities.
The U.K.'s Information Commissioner's Office ordered Google in
August to remove links to articles that described URLs it had
removed. The company maintained the articles were in the public's
interest.
France's data protection authority ordered Google in June to
remove results from all localized versions of its search engine,
which would make the content in question invisible worldwide, at
least using Google's search engine.
Google is fighting that order, contending it could have a
chilling effect on free speech.
Updates to Chrome Platform Support
Earlier this year, we announced that Google Chrome would continue
support for Windows XP through the remainder of 2015. At that
time, we strongly encouraged users on older, unsupported platforms
such as Windows XP to update to a supported, secure operating
system. Such older platforms are missing critical security updates
and have a greater potential to be infected by viruses and
malware.
Today, were announcing the end of Chromes support for Windows XP,
as well as Windows Vista, and Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8, since
these platforms are no longer actively supported by Microsoft and
Apple. Starting April 2016, Chrome will continue to function on
these platforms but will no longer receive updates and security
fixes.
If you are still on one of these unsupported platforms, we
encourage you to move to a newer operating system to ensure that
you continue to receive the latest Chrome versions and features.
Posted by Marc Pawliger, Director of Engineering and Early
Notifier
Mozilla Claims That Firefox Does Not
Depend On Googles Money Anymore
Non-profit organization Mozilla once relied on Google for all of
its revenue, but the company has revealed that it does not get a
single cent from Google any more. In fact, as CNET reported,
Mozilla makes enough revenue from other companies to ensure that
it does not need the millions of dollars which Google provided
Mozilla with. Mozilla relies on traffic-related revenue and fixed
payments to earn search-related income.
Mozilla revealed that new deals with other search engine deals
actually rake in more money for it, even though most of Mozillas
$330 million in revenue came from Google in 2014. Google is now a
subsidiary of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and the continuous
diversification of Googles services mean that Mozilla wants to
rely on dedicated search engines to get the job done. Mozilla
switched away from Google towards the end of last year.
Mozilla has since overlooked Googles global deal for region
specific deals; the company partnered with Yahoo! Inc. in the US,
Yandex in Russia and Baidu in China, while Google still remains
Firefoxs default search engine in Europe. Mozilla's chief
business and legal officer, Denelle Dixon-Thayer, pointed out
that Mozilla did not currently enjoy any commercial relationship
with Google Inc. She said that Mozilla wanted to boost
competition with the move.
In some ways, Mozilla wants to promote net neutrality by ensuring
that tech giants such as Apple and Google (who run the Safari and
Chrome browsers respectively) do not give preference to results
which unnecessarily favor the giants. Mozilla felt that it would
be able to offer customers more choices by becoming a self-reliant
browser, even though the company has, overall, had a very positive
relationship with Google.
Jim Cook, Mozillas Chief Financial Officer, revealed that the
company expected to rake in even more revenue this year due to
strong search deals with other partners. As CNET pointed out,
Mozilla still ensures that the company has enough money to
attract talent by the end of 2014, Mozilla recorded a $20
million increase from the previous year to ensure that it had
$270 million in cash and cash equivalents. The company benefits
from the work of over 10,000 volunteers across the globe, while
employing over 1,000 people from all over the world.
Mozilla has overall been expanding, and the company even has its
own Firefox OS, which can be installed on Android phones. The
company even released Firefox for iOS users, but it has not yet
had the desired impact. Apple and Google have their own
smartphones and are recognizable brand names in the tech space,
ensuring that their respective browsers get more exposure as
opposed to Firefox. Firefox, for its part, has tried to counter
that; but perhaps the solution lies in launching its own
smartphone?
Mozillas aim is to provide users with unrestricted access to
the internet. Being a nonprofit organisation, there is only so
much that Firefox can really do. That said, it is refreshing to
see a company which does not need a tech giants support to
function.
Google Is Relaunching the Struggling Google+ Social Network
After slowly dismantling its struggling social network, the
company is relaunching Google+ with a new look and an emphasis
on ways to join interest groups, called Communities, and group
posts by topics, called Collections.
Google says that the new site is much simpler and geared towards
helping people connect with other like-minded users and discover
content about their interests.
Collections let you immerse yourself in content about topics
like surfing (goo.gl/vvv5QD) or tiny tilt-shift photography
scenes (goo.gl/nWyicL), product manager Luke Wroblewski writes
on Google Plus. Communities enable groups of people with the
same interests to join up and geek out on anything from Game of
Thrones (goo.gl/aaqtgq) to Painting (goo.gl/kmlM7m).
This move comes not long after Google broke out the social
networks photo product and also decoupled it from YouTube.
Bradley Horowitz, the man leading the social network, told
TechCrunch that Google+ relaunch is essentially the company
ripping the social network down and then building it back up.
For now, you have to opt-into the new version, but eventually it
will be rolled out to all users.
Li-Fi Internet: First Real-World Usage
Boasts Speed 100 Times Faster Than Wi-Fi
Li-Fi, a super-fast alternative to Wi-Fi, is finally moving from
research labs to the real world after an Estonian startup
implemented the technology within a commercial context. Velmenni,
a recent finalist at the Slush 100 startup competition in
Helsinki, revealed that it has begun trialling the technology
within offices and industrial environments in Tallinn.
The Li-Fi technology used by Velmenni in the pilots is able to
send data at up to 1GBps - more than 100-times faster than
current Wi-Fi technologies. At these speeds, a high-definition
film could be downloaded in just a few seconds.
Li-Fi is a wireless technology similar to Wi-Fi that allows data
to be sent at high speeds using visible light communication
(VLC). Invented by Professor Harald Haas from the University of
Edinburgh, Li-Fi has several advantages over Wi-Fi.
Li-Fi allows for greater security on local networks as light
cannot pass through walls, which also means there is less
interference between devices. Perhaps the most significant
advantage is the speed that the technology offers. Researchers
have achieved speeds of 224 gigabits per second in lab
conditions.
We are doing a few pilot projects within different industries
where we can utilise the VLC (visible light communication)
technology, Deepak Solanki, CEO of Velmenni, told IBTimes UK.
Currently we have designed a smart lighting solution for an
industrial environment where the data communication is done
through light. We are also doing a pilot project with a private
client where we are setting up a Li-Fi network to access the
internet in their office space.
While Li-Fi may not completely replace Wi-Fi, the technologies
could be used in parallel to create more efficient networks. The
success of the pilot projects could see Li-Fi technology rolled
out for consumers within the next three to four years, according
to Solanki, allowing people to access the internet using the
light bulbs in their home.
Before mass adoption of Li-Fi can be realised, techniques need to
be developed to retrofit current devices with the technology. It
is very difficult to create a whole new infrastructure for Li-Fi
so somehow we need integrate our system with the current system,
Solanki said.
The inventor of Li-Fi, Professor Harald Haas from the University
of Edinburgh, has previously claimed that in the future every LED
lightbulb could be used as an ultra-fast alternative to Wi-Fi. In
a TED talk describing the technology, Haas said that current
infrastructure was suitable for the integration of Li-Fi.
All we need to do is fit a small microchip to every potential
illumination device and this would then combine two basic
functionalities: illumination and wireless data transmission,
Haas said. In the future we will not only have 14 billion light
bulbs, we may have 14 billion Li-Fis deployed worldwide for a
cleaner, greener and even brighter future.
This $5 Computer Sold Out in A Day
Raspberry Pi has raised the bar on low-cost computing again.
The UK-based educational nonprofit released a new, tiny computer
on Thursday for $5, the Raspberry Pi Zero, and sold out of it
online within a day.
That's $30 cheaper than its original Raspberry Pi model, which
went on sale in 2012. And $4 less than the CHIP, which raised more
than $2 million on Kickstarter earlier this year.
"We were amazed at the rush on stores that happened as soon as we
announced the release," Liz Upton, Raspberry Pi's head of
communications, told CNNMoney in an email.
Raspberry Pi even gave away 10,000 devices for free with a copy
of its December magazine, The MagPi. Issues of the magazine are
now sold out too.
"More Zeroes are being built at the moment and we'll keep making
them, but we think it's going to be a little while before we'll
be able to keep up with demand!" Upton said.
So why all the fuss?
The Raspberry Pi made a name for itself as the maker of the
world's smallest and cheapest computer in 2012. Essentially,
Raspberry Pi computers are just motherboards that can be built to
power robots, and used to create connected devices.
Like the foundation's first two products, the Raspberry Pi Zero
is intended mainly to help people learn to program computers in
an affordable way.
Upton says all the profits "go straight back into free learning
resources, training teachers, running Code Clubs and getting kids
involved with computing."
The Raspberry Pi Zero is smaller than a mustard packet and light
enough to be held up by two Lego figures.
To use it, you'll have to add your own monitor, keyboard, power
source and data storage, via a micro-SD card slot.
But with a 1-gigahertz processor and 512 megabytes of RAM, it
packs as much computing power as the iPhone 4. There's even a
mini-HDMI socket so you can play HD videos.
The mini-computer runs a version of Linux called Raspbian, as
well as applications that teach coding skills - such as
Minecraft, Scratch and Sonic Pi.
Over the past few years, Raspberry Pi has spawned a number of
other low-cost computers that help teach people how to program
and code.
Kano, for example, is a build-it-yourself computer kit that
actually uses Raspberry Pi as its brains.
Oxford Dictionaries Chooses An Emoji for Its 2015 Word of the Year
In a move that leaves us all a little [Confused Face emoji],
Oxfords much-celebrated annual Word of the Year award for 2015
goes to this:
Oxfords choice of the Face with Tears of Joy emoji marks the
first time the institution has chosen a pictograph as its Word of
the Year. Of course, if we get another year or two of picks that
are in fact not words, there could be petitions for Oxford to
change the name of the award to something more appropriate.
In a blog post defending its selection, Oxford Dictionaries
explained that [Face with Tears of Joy emoji] was chosen as the
word that best reflected
the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of
2015. Attached research informs us that, although emojis have
been around since the late 1990s, they experienced their greatest
increase in usage ever in 2015; Face with Tears of Joy
accounted for a whopping 17 percent of all emoji shared in the
U.S. this year.
Among the actual words bested by the winning emoji: sharing
economy, Dark Web, and ad blocker.
Considering the growing popularity and importance of emoji in
everyday communications, you cant call Oxfords proclamation any
kind of jump the shark moment for the language as a whole. As
for the venerable Word of the Year award itself, however, that
may be another story. [Smirking Face emoji].
Why Ive Accepted Defeat and Embraced Emojis, Emoticons, and Smileys
For many, many years I refused to use emoticons. I was a hard case,
an old man, a prideful English major with a chip on my shoulder
the size of a continental shelf.
Even after email and texting had become by far the primary
communication vectors in my day-to-day life, I insisted on proper
grammar and capitalization in all electronic dispatches. There
would be no effing sideways smiley faces in my correspondence.
Alas, I have recently and reluctantly abandoned my steely resolve.
I feel defeated, to a degree, but also strangely liberated. Its
sort of like being a Detroit Lions fan. Once you learn to accept
the relentless losses, you realize that the universe is simply
aligned against you and your chosen cause.
It was the king of emoticons the smiley face that finally
broke my will. Because the terrible truth is that, in the realm of
email and texting, the smiley face is frequently useful and
sometimes straight-up necessary.
Tone is famously difficult to impart in email. Like a lot of
people, I suspect, I got into plenty of trouble in the early days
by trying to deliver deadpan jokes electronically. In fact, I
almost got fired once when irony wasnt successfully transmitted
in an email (which would have been ironic). Text is an unreliable
platform for communicating sarcasm or irony, Id always thought.
You cant wink. You cant smile.
Except, with the advent of emoticons, you suddenly could and,
in fact, everybody was. But that stupid smiley face was too
broad, and I wasnt about to learn some arcane code of lateral
semicolons to approximate sideways winking or whatever.
The unrelenting cascade of incoming emoticons finally broke my
will, and I started occasionally, warily putting smiley faces at
the end of select messages. The final nail in the coffin came
earlier this week when Oxford Dictionaries long the unofficial
arbiter of proper English usage chose an emoji as its 2015
Word of the Year. This one:
Thats right not the word emoji. But an emoji.
On the off chance youre unaware, emojis are like the next
evolutionary step of emoticons. Theyre actual pictures instead
of adjacent keyboard symbols, but their function is essentially
the same. Emoji refers to a system of digital ideograms
initially developed in Japan in the late 1990s the term
translates roughly to picture plus character. Its similar
to the English word emoticon, but the resemblance is actually
coincidental. Emoticon is a portmanteau of emotion and icon.
Oxford refers to its Word of the Year-winning emoji as Face
With Tears of Joy. According to research conducted in
partnership with the mobile tech company SwiftKey, its the
single most popular emoji used worldwide. Oxford Dictionaries
official statement declares that the emoji was chosen as the
word that best reflected the ethos, mood, and preoccupations
of 2015.
Well, thats it then, isnt it? When Oxford Dictionaries Word
of the Year is not actually a word, then the fight is officially
over. The living language wins again. The living language always
wins.
Look, I know when Im beat. Let me just say for the record that
I, for one, welcome our new ideogrammatic overlords. Insert Face
With Tears of Joy. Thank you.
Facebook Wants To Make It Easier To Handle Break-ups
This is a bit of an odd one, but Facebook is beginning to try out
some new tools that it believes may help improve your experience
following a break up. That's right, Facebook is testing ways to
show you less of an ex-partners information and updates without
you needing to unfriend them. Once you change your relationship
status, Facebook will prompt you with the new set of tools.
With these, you'll be able to limit how much of the ex you see in
just a few taps. You'll be able to select to see them anywhere on
Facebook, like you normally would, or limit how much you see them.
With the limited option, you'll only see something if you visit
their profile. You won't see status updates, profile changes, etc.
unless you visit specifically. In addition, you'll be able to
limit how much they can see, by allowing full access or hiding all
your posts.
Finally, you'll be able to limit who can change and edit previous
posts and tags. You'll be able to keep things as they are, edit
them individually, or edit everything that you are tagged in.
These tools are being tested now in the US on mobile, and based
upon feedback, Facebook plans to continue the expansion in the
future.
=~=~=~=
Atari Online News, Etc. is a weekly publication covering the entire
Atari community. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted
at the beginning of any article, to Atari user groups and not for
profit publications only under the following terms: articles must
remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of
each article reprinted. Other reprints granted upon approval of
request. Send requests to: dpj@atarinews.org
No issue of Atari Online News, Etc. may be included on any commercial
media, nor uploaded or transmitted to any commercial online service or
internet site, in whole or in part, by any agent or means, without
the expressed consent or permission from the Publisher or Editor of
Atari Online News, Etc.
Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do
not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of the publishers. All
material herein is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing.
