Legal Jailbreak - it even sounds bad.

(Yahoo) – Owners of iPhones and other smartphones are one step closer towards taking complete control of their gadgets, thanks to a new government ruling Monday on the practice of “jailbreaking.”

This weekend has seen a flurry of activity about digital rights, but the biggest news dropped Monday morning, when the FCC announced that it had made the controversial practice of “jailbreaking” your iPhone — or any other cell phone — legal.

Jailbreaking — the practice of unlocking a phone (and particularly an iPhone) so it can be used on another network and/or run other applications than those approved by Apple — has technically been illegal for years. Most jailbroken phones are used on the U.S. T-Mobile network or on overseas carriers, or are used to run applications that Apple refuses to sell, such as Safari ad-blocking apps, alternate keyboard layouts, or programs that change the interface to the iPhone’s SMS system and the way its icons are laid out.

While technically illegal, no one has been sued or prosecuted for the practice. (Apple does seriously frown on the practice, and jailbreaking your phone will still void your warranty.) It’s estimated that more than a million iPhone owners have jailbroken their handsets.

Apple fought hard against the legalization, arguing that jailbreaking was a form of copyright violation. The FCC disagreed, saying that jailbreaking merely enhanced the inter-operability of the phone, and was thus legitimate under fair-use rules

Yeah, it's been 12 years but I'm baaaaaaaaack.

Nearly 12 years after the original was released, Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty finally saw the light of day when it launched yesterday. Fans of the first game, and its resulting expansions, had been eagerly awaiting the launch since rumors of a sequel surfaced several years ago. And after I had played the demo and participated in the beta, I was among those anxious fans.

I received my copy yesterday and quickly made a beeline for my PC when I got in the door. On opening the package, I was pleased to see that Blizzard had included a pad of paper as they did in days of old but instead of the Blizzard watermark, there was a watermarked Wanted poster for the game’s protagonist, James Raynor. It was a nice touch and a timely one since I was running low on my old Blizzard notepads.

I’d been a little concerned that I would have to go back and load up the original game and expansions to get back up to speed on the storyline. While Starcraft was an RTS, there was a great story being told as you fought for survival. But my fears were unfounded as during the install of Wings of Liberty, the backstory was told in a series of slides voiced over by the Adjutant, the AI that served as your tutor when you originally began the first game.

Fans of the original will be happy to hear some familiar voices returning to the second game. Robert Clotworthy has returned to voice James Raynor and the dictator Arcturus Mengsk is once again voiced by James Harper. It was good to hear those familiar voices speaking all new dialogue as the story began to unfold.

After staying glued to my monitor for nearly two hours, I can safely say that Blizzard has managed to capture the spirit of the original game while advancing the gameplay mechanics and the story line as well. When the first mini Zerg Rush came blasting towards my front lines, I felt a surge of excitement. As my marines happily slaughtered the encroaching alien horde, I was surprised by the familiar feeling surrounding it all but rather than feeling like I had “been there, done that”, I was happy to be there again.

There’s been some marked improvements on gameplay, as one might expect after 12 years. Units and buildings can be upgraded between missions and rather than the “tech” advances one makes on the battlefield which disappear between missions, the units carry the improvements with them into each fight. Several of the old units make their return into the fray, marines, firebats, medics, but there’s also new and improved units to play with as you progress through the story.

Unfortunately, I was unable to sample the multiplayer mode due to some problems on Battle.net (no surprise considering everyone was probably trying to play all at one time) but I suspect that it will be as fulfilling as the original. I’ll update our Busy Gamers out there as soon as I am able to get in a game.

All in all, my initial reaction is to recommend this game to anyone who may have been a fan of the first. Single player missions last night lasted anywhere from 10 to 25 minutes so it may be possible to get in a quick session or two before our busy lives demand our attention. I’ll post up a full review as soon as possible.

Gritskrieg – End of Line

All Glory, indeed.

This past weekend, the nerds and geeks were in San Diego in full force for the San Diego Comic Con. It was a weekend filled with sneak previews, panels for upcoming movies, and, of course, comics. In other words, it was a perfectly innocent geeky weekend for those who attended the event. Of course, not every one who went was there for fun. Some people went to protest the event.

Yes, oddly enough the Westboro Baptist Church came out to protest the San Diego Comic Con.

If you’re not familiar with the Church and its leader Fred Phelps, their mission appears to be… hatemongering. They’ve made a name for themselves by picketing gay pride events (claiming “God hates Fags”) and the funerals of American soldiers (claiming they paid the ultimate price because the US harbors homosexuals) and pretty much saying that every bad thing that happens to the people of the United States is because we tolerate the sexual choices of our citizens.

In all honesty, I’m hesitant to mention the Church and its bigotry because I don’t want to give them any more press. But the reason I’m writing this is to commend the way the attendees of the Comic Con handled the protest. Instead of spewing hatred back at the people protesting, the attendees did just the right thing… They counter protested.

Whoa, whoa... Let's not get carried away.

Joining the Westboro Church members with signs of their own, the attendees made sure to dilute the message of hate the Phelps’ followers were preaching by using their own tactics against them. A chant of “What do we want? GAY SEX! When do we want it? RIGHT NOW!” as the counter protest got fully underway.

I’d like to congratulate the people of the Comic Con for choosing the perfect response to those who would otherwise undermine the spirit of the event by making the protest just another form of entertainment. Perhaps if more folks would use this form of mockery rather than reacting in anger, Westboro would lose it steam.

Although I may have to hunt down the “God Hates Jedis” sign wielder and have a talk with him…

Gritskrieg – End of Line

...not if you get fired first...

Despite warnings from employers and guidelines outlining proper company equipment usage, a recent study from Cisco indicates that Enterprise users continue to access social networking sites and tend their virtual crops in Farmville.

The study shows that of the employees surveyed, 50% confessed to ignoring social media policies at least once a week while 27% were guilty of reconfiguring settings on their corporate devices in order to access content and applications which were expressly forbidden by their employer. Of those verboten applications accessed, the number one application accessed was Farmville. Not far behind were games like Mafia Wars, Café World, and Treasure Isle.

The primary focus of the report is network security with Cisco demonstrating that one of the largest threats to Enterprise networks is Social Networking sites. Unsurprisingly, the document goes on to analyze the impact of social networking and the games it offers on workplace productivity. While the number of people who spent an excessive amount of time on Farmville and the like was below 10%, there was evidence that those individuals spent an average of 68 minutes per day tending their web crops while in the office. That comes out to approximately 295 hours a year. That’s 7.4 weeks out of the 52 week year. And you wonder why your boss gets grumpy when you Tweet from work…

The overall message of the report is that while social networking is a great tool for getting your company’s product into the public eye that allowing rampant use can not only lead to a loss of productivity but can open your business up to hackers and cybercriminals. Sadly, I see the persons who are most at risk on a daily basis, individuals who don’t lock down their personal information and happily open any attachment that comes their way.

If you’d like to see the full report, you can access it here.

[Source]

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Some of you might recognize the fact that we have a soft spot in our hearts here at BusyGamer.com for the hawt geek girls out there. We’re crazy about ‘em and they’re… well, they tolerate us for the most part. At least until we start talking about role playing. Yeah, maybe we should have been specific about it being pen and paper roleplaying but hey, we tried.

Among some of the fairer sex are those rare few who go to the Cons dressed up as their favorite characters and actually enjoy themselves. They know as much about the various geek genres as most of the guys and aren’t afraid to flaunt it. We fear them because they are of the female persuasion and yet are drawn to them for their beauty and their huge… collection of action figures.

They are the Comic Con Girls.

So when we caught wind of a new spoof video from the guys at Screen Team just in time for the San Diego Comic Con, we weren’t disappointed to find out that it was about one of our favorite subjects. There’s an intro by Andre “Black Nerd” Meadows (who you may recognize as our first and only “Gamette of the Day” back on April 1st) and in the first minute of the video, you get to see some lovely ladies dressed up as Super Girl, Wonder Woman, and Slave Leia (aka Action Flick Chick) so if you watch it for that alone, we won’t hold it against you. Go check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

Gritskrieg – End of Line