Digital Trends
A study to be published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence find that, at least among college students, the type and frequency of video game play can parallel real-life risk behaviors like drug and alcohol abuse, as well as poor personal relationships and self-esteem. The authors don’t propose a causal relationship between gaming and these traits, but suggest that video gaming habits might cluster with what would generally be seen as negative outcomes in children in adolescents.
In 2003 the satellite TV market was pretty cutthroat, and retailers would do almost anything to have an edge on the competition. In the case of Web retailers Miami-based Rapid Satellite and Weaknees in LA, that anything included a denial of service hack attack that took their sites offline.
Now the FBI is looking for a Brit, Graham Walker, and a German, Axel Gembe, in connection with the attack. If convicted, they’re looking at 15 years in jail, the BBC reports. Two others, Jay Echouafni and Paul Ashley, have already been charged with conspiracy in the case. Ashley pleaded guilty and has served two years, while Echouafni is currently a fugitive.
Thor Walker, an 18-year-old from New Zealand, is lucky. At a court hearing in Hamilton, New Zealand, the young man known online as AKILL admitted hacking into computers as part of a group that took about $25 million from people around the world and created a massive botnet of machines. But, the Guardian reports, he was let off without a conviction and having to pay just $11,000 in damages and costs.
When he was arrested last November, following a joint operation involving the FBI, Secret Service, New Zealand and Dutch police, Walker was accused of being the mastermind behind the hacking ring.
For an organization that’s barely two weeks old, the Symbian Foundation is flourishing. The Nokia-led group, which was formed to help develop and open-source Symbian over the next two years, has just added nine more members to its original 10, and claim that there’s interest from more than 150 other companies.
The original group – Nokia, Symbian, Motorola, AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone – came together with the intent to develop and open-source Symbian, and also bring other, Symbian-derived platforms into the OS, according to ZDNet.
Not too long ago Owen Thor Walker was a rich teenager. At 18, the New Zealander was running a massive botnet that reportedly controlled thousands of computers and which had illegally skimmed $20.4 million from the bank accounts of its victims. Today Walker stands as a convicted criminal after admitting six charges of using computers for illegal purposes. He was arrested in November following an FBI investigation and his sentencing will take place in May. The New Zealand Press Association reports that Walker pleaded guilty to accessing a computer for dishonest purposes, interfering with computer systems, possession of software for committing crime and accessing computer systems without authorisation. He’d reportedly started his criminal activities at school, designing a virus that was encrypted to avoid detection be anti-virus software. Although Walker could face five years in jail, the judge has indicated he may not hand down a custodial sentence, possibly because Walker is rumoured to suffer from the neurological disorder Asperger’s syndrome
Owners of Sony Ericsson’s P990 smartphone—at least, owners in Europe—can now tap into their home television and video libraries, served to them over broadband Internet using Sony’s LocationFree place-shifting technology. Users can watch live television from their homes from anywhere in their world they can get broadband Internet access with their P990s, as well as recorded programming and DVD media—assuming your gear is already set up and ready to play.
“Noted Japanese developers Yoshiki Okamoto of Game Republic and Tetsuya Mizuguchi of Q Entertainment have both signed up to develop Xbox 2-exclusive titles for Microsoft Game Studios.
The announcement follows last week’s revelation that Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguichi has committed his Mist Walker studio to developing a pair of RPGs for the next-generation platform, and is expected to greatly increase Microsoft’s standing in the Far East.”
Read more at Gamesindustry.biz
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