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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Top Stories from the last 24 hours


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These are the top stories from The Next Web over the last 24 hours.

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Exclusive: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg Football Comedy Lands Writer-Director Team


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BREAKING NEWS: Magnitude 7.0 Quake Reported Off Mexico

Magnitude 7.0 earthquake reported off Pacific coast of Mexico on heels of major quakes off California and Oregon coasts

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Watch Fox News Channel for complete coverage of this story and all breaking news.

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BREAKING NEWS: Magnitude 5.9 Quake Reported Off Oregon

Magnitude 5.9 earthquake is reported of the coast of Oregon, followed by a lesser earthquake off California coast

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Box Office Preview: 'Battleship' Boldly Opens More Than a Month Early Overseas

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April 11, 2012
Box Office Preview: 'Battleship' Boldly Opens More Than a Month Early Overseas

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BREAKING NEWS: Zimmerman in Custody on Murder Charge

Florida special prosecutor charges George Zimmerman with second-degree murder in killing of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin

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Lotus Just Turned A Joke Into A PR Disaster On Facebook

April 11th, 2012Top Story

Lotus Just Turned A Joke Into A PR Disaster On Facebook

By Matt Hardigree

Lotus Just Turned A Joke Into A PR Disaster On FacebookIn the annals of corporate history, I doubt any company has ever flipped their shit more completely than Lotus just did in this Facebook post. Meant to be a response to media reports about the automaker's financial problems, management instability, and one mostly harmless joke, it quickly became the ultimate example of how not to engage in public relations on social media.

Come and enter the delusion with us.

Lotus is an automaker that has historically been a money-loser for whatever larger company has owned the tiny niche brand. The current owners — Malaysia's Proton — were just purchased by Malaysian mega corporation DRB-Hicom. That's leading to all sorts of questions about the future of Lotus and its CEO Dany Bahar, who once freaked out when talking to us.

The press hasn't been easy on Bahar and his ambitious "five-year plan" to save Lotus by introducing a bunch of models and hanging out with Billy Baldwin and Sharon Stone.

The general impression is that Lotus has down-played the constant drumbeat of bad news. That impression led brilliant parody auto news site SniffPetrol to create an image showing Bahar dressed up as "Baghdad Bob" — Iraq's notoriously cheery ex-information minister — trying to assure people Lotus was in good shape.

There are supposed to be three ways to respond to a joke made at your expense: Ignore it, play along, or get mad.

Lotus Just Turned A Joke Into A PR Disaster On FacebookLotus managed to find a fourth way — acting like they're playing along while actually going into an obvious and demented paranoid spiral. First, the automaker — without asking permission — used that image and sent it out along with what can only be described as a bitch-fest of a press release in an email to owners. While the responses to that will be likely kept between Lotus PR and the owners — thereby hiding their shame from public view — their next move wasn't private. The PR team next posted the entire press release and the image to Facebook.

At first glance, it almost seems like Lotus is taking things in stride and is in on the joke.

Take a little look at what we found online. Don't you think it's funny? We do. We had a good old giggle. After all, we love a bit of self irony, just as well really. Although it's funny, this one's not accurate but then again, why let the facts get in the way of a good story? The inconvenient truth is – surprise, surprise – we have never said that there are no problems at Lotus.

It's only when you dive beyond the first paragraph that you see just how wide they've had to open their mouth in order to fit in that Lotus-branded carbon fiber loafer:

So whilst lots of people obviously feel the need to comment on Lotus' current situation in the absence of proper facts or evidence, we can't ignore these particular mistruths any longer even if we would like to, so we have decided to turn a negative into a positive and use this hilarious piece of 'art' to set the record straight regarding the status quo at Group Lotus and try to return a little stability to a fast changing situation.

False rumour #1: Dany Bahar is no longer CEO of Group Lotus.
Fact: Rubbish – Dany Bahar still is.

False rumour #2: Dato' Sri Syed is no longer Managing Director of Proton.
Fact: Again rubbish. He still is.

You can thank good old Tony Fernandes for these two. Don't take everything he tweets too seriously – perhaps he's still frustrated about owning Caterham instead of Lotus and the fact that he fights HRT and Marussia instead of Mercedes and Ferrari in F1.

And whilst we're on the subject of jokes - do you know the latest F1 joke? Mike Gascoyne, Caterham Group's Chief Technical Officer, has gone missing. Why? He's looking for the 30 to 40 points he predicted for the last F1 season. Funny.

Speaking of F1: It seems that one special so called 'independent' source is at the root of the lion's share of damaging rumours and misleading stories. The delightful Joe Saward which leads us nicely to….

False rumour #3: Joe Saward is JUST an independent journalist.
Fact: He is an active Director on the Caterham Group Board.

And unlike some, we don't want to get too personal, so we'll leave it to you to judge how 'independent' his stories about Lotus are.

False rumour #4: Group Lotus is no longer involved in F1.
Fact: Lotus F1 Team and Group Lotus have reshaped their commercial relationship earlier this year. The new governance agreement signifies the continued commitment of Group Lotus to the team and the sport.

Group Lotus' branding and marketing rights and subsequent activities remain unaffected by the new agreement until at least 2017. Alongside continued branding and title partnership status, Group Lotus is also the exclusive master licensee for all Lotus F1 Team merchandise.

The new agreement was reached following Group Lotus owners Proton providing team owners Genii with a £30m loan which is repayable within three years. In order to secure the loan Genii used 100% of the F1 team's assets as collateral meaning that under the conditions of the loan agreement Proton have been given full title guarantee to all plant, machinery, show cars, computers, office and the Lotus F1 Team headquarters.

In addition Proton retains the rights to purchase 10% of the F1 team. Another 10% share option will be activated if the team default on their loan obligations with Proton.

Again we leave it to your judgement how 'bad' Lotus' current situation in F1 is. And speaking of bad situations…..

False rumour #5: Group Lotus is going into administration.
Fact: Rubbish. The takeover of our parent company Proton by DRB-HICOM couldn't have come at a worse time, but up until that point Proton was (and still remains) fully committed to our five year business plan to create jobs and to expand the factory and business. With the takeover process the funding has been restricted and DRB-HICOM is taking time to understand what to do with the business. DRB-HICOM is currently in the middle of due diligence of Group Lotus and there have been and continue to be positive discussions between Group Lotus senior management and senior management at DRB-HICOM both here in Hethel and in Malaysia. At no point has DRB-HICOM indicated to Group Lotus that it intends to put the company into administration. The over-active rumour mill is seriously damaging our business reputation, image and credibility but it is what it is.

The simple fact is, and we haven't denied this - Lotus is going through a very difficult phase at the moment but we are showing true fighting spirit every day in trying to keep this vision alive. This is also a fact – no matter what people outside of Lotus may say or tweet or blog.

It reads like a manifesto — and the sort of notes people post to Facebook before going insane and shooting up their office.

See, the worst way to respond to a joke is to pretend like you get it and then turn around and basically completely grant the premise. It's like saying:

"No, no. We get it. We're not in denial. NOW LET ME GO AND DENY EVERY SINGLE POINT ANYONE HAS EVER MADE ABOUT US!"

Judging by the responses on Facebook and Twitter, we're not the only ones who feel this way.

[View the story "Lotus Throws A Fit: The Responses" on Storify]

The response on Twitter has been even harsher, with journalists gleefully enjoying the breakdown. Automotive.com's Blake Z. Rong summed it up nicely when he said "I love auto journalism. No matter what our differences or opinions, we can all come together one day and bash the hell out of Lotus."

Historically, Lotus is known for building things that are small. CEO Bahar has made it clear he wants to do big things.

Congrats, Dany, you did it. You've failed at PR and social media in a big way.

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Build Your Own VPN to Pimp Out Your Gaming, Streaming, Remote Access, and Oh Yeah, Security

April 11th, 2012Top Story

Build Your Own VPN to Pimp Out Your Gaming, Streaming, Remote Access, and Oh Yeah, Security

By Alan Henry

Build Your Own VPN to Pimp Out Your Gaming, Streaming, Remote Access, and Oh Yeah, Security Even if you have no idea what a VPN is (it's a Virtual Private Network), the acronym alone conjures visions of corporate firewalls and other relatively boring things, right? While a VPN is a common corporate security tool, it's also one of the coolest things you can set up for personal use that you probably have never tried.

Browsing the web from a coffee shop can be dangerous, but you know that already. Gaming with friends over the internet is great, but it's better when it's just you and your friends, right? Wouldn't it be nice if you could surf the web anywhere as if you were at home, and game with friends like you were all in the same room? That kind of functionality is at the very heart of a VPN, and we're going to show you how to set one up. Here's how to get started.

Build Your Own VPN to Pimp Out Your Gaming, Streaming, Remote Access, and Oh Yeah, Security

What's a VPN?

A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is just a network of computers that are all connected securely even though they're in different locations and all using different connection methods. The biggest benefit to a VPN is that all of the computers on one are securely connected to one another and their traffic encrypted and kept away from prying eyes. Another great benefit to a VPN is that all of the computers on one are effectively on the same network, meaning they can communicate as if they were right next to one another, plugged in to the same router. Photo by cloki (Shutterstock).

If security is all you want, sure you can sign up for a free or paid VPN service that will encrypt your traffic only, but why throw your money (and trust your privacy and security) into the hands of a third party when you can roll your own? It's incredibly easy, and once you have your own personal, private VPN, you can browse securely on any network by leveraging your home internet connection, get a group of friends together for LAN gaming, get access to all of your music and movies from home with ease, and more.

Why You Should Roll Your Own

We've often discussed the dangers of using unsecured internet connections at coffee shops, airports, or other public places, especially if you're planning on doing any browsing or surfing that may be considered private. We've warned you of the ubiquitous "Free Public Wi-Fi", explained how you can stay safe when you do use public networks, and even outlined how to set up your own private VPN with Hamachi.

We're going to build on that second story, where Adam Pash showed us how to set up a proxy and Hamachi to protect ourselves when browsing from public places, and extend Hamachi's functionality to not just secure surfing, but LAN gaming with friends, secure remote access to your home computers and files when you're on the road and on the go, and more. Rolling your own VPN—while ideal for security—also gives you access to your home network at any time, and all of the great things that come with effectively sitting at home using your Wi-Fi there, when you're actually at home, in a coffee shop, or across the country.

Build Your Own VPN to Pimp Out Your Gaming, Streaming, Remote Access, and Oh Yeah, Security

Before You Get Started

Hamachi isn't the only utility that does this—most notably OpenVPN, which is one of your favorite VPN tools. However, for our purposes, Hamachi wins for being the most hands-off, zero-configuration VPN tool to configure. The others aren't terribly difficult, but Hamachi really is easy to install. Before we get started, there are a few prerequisites that will make this solution work best for you:

  • You have to have an always-on computer at home.
  • You don't trust, or don't want to use third party VPN services.
  • You don't have an office or school that offers free VPN services..

If the above sounds about right, and you have a nice sturdy broadband connection at home (remember, when you're connected to it, you'll be sending your traffic to your home network and then out again, so you may feel a performance hit by double-hopping) then it's time to get started.

Set Up and Configure Hamachi

Hamachi runs on Windows, OS X, and Linux, so grab the installer for your OS of choice. It comes in two flavors: a free (for non-commercial use) version that gives us everything we want (the ability to leverage to our home network from anywhere over a secure, encrypted connection), and a paid, managed version that does more than you'd likely ever need.

We don't want to rehash all of the steps that Adam walked through in his post on setting up Hamachi and Privoxy for secure browsing—so here's the quick version:

  1. Download Hamachi
  2. Run it. If it's your first time, click the Blue power button to power it on.
  3. Click the Network menu, then select Create a new network, giving your network a name and a good, strong password.
  4. Done!

After you've set up your network on your always-on computer at home, grab your laptop, netbook, or any other system you plan to travel with, and install the client there. Instead of creating a new network, this time join the one you created (Network > Join an existing network), using the network name and password you just generated. That's all there is to it—it really is zero-configuration security. Make a note of that network name and password—you'll need it again later. Now those two computers can securely access one another from anywhere, and do so as though they're on the same local network. (You can add as many computers as you want to the network you just created.)

Build Your Own VPN to Pimp Out Your Gaming, Streaming, Remote Access, and Oh Yeah, Security

Protect Your Web Browsing, Anywhere You Roam

Most people use VPNs to protect their browsing when they're using an unsecured network, like the one at your local library or coffee shop. With Hamachi, you can turn turn your always-on system at home into a proxy that you can securely browse through when you're there. We suggest (and help you set up) Privoxy to handle this, and while it takes a little work, once you're finished, you're good to go. You'll effectively be connecting to your home computer, and then asking your home computer to feed you any sites or services you want to access, so your browsing may slow down a bit based on that—but if you have broadband at home and a good connection to the internet from your always-on computer, the slowdown will be worth the added security. The knowledge that you're largely protected from snooping by people who may be using tools like Firesheep or Faceniff to sniff out your credentials on public networks is a great feeling, and knowing that your connection is secured and encrypted goes a long way towards making it more comfortable to check your email, log in to your social networks, and generally use the web through your proxy when you're out and about as though you were at home (because effectively, you are!) Photo by Ed Yourdon.

Build Your Own VPN to Pimp Out Your Gaming, Streaming, Remote Access, and Oh Yeah, Security

Bring Your Friends In On Private LAN Gaming

Secure browsing isn't the only thing you can do with Hamachi though. Connecting to your home computer with Hamachi puts you on an on-demand mesh network with any other computers connected to the same network, which is ideal if you and your friends want to effectively LAN party it up without lugging your computers to each other's houses. You have the choice with Hamachi to either give out the network name and password you created earlier, or you can set up a specific network just for your friends to play LAN games together, without forcing you all to try and find slots on a public server or desperately try to find each other in whatever matchmaking service your favorite games offer. Photo by dbgg1979.

Every computer in your virtual LAN will have to have Hamachi installed, and they'll all have to log in to the network with the credentials you supply. One system will have to host the game server (and with most games, it's best if that system is the most powerful one with the fastest connection to the internet, and ideally one you're not actually using to play the game) and all of the other systems, including yours, will connect to it as clients. As far as Hamachi is concerned, as long as it's running in the background of all of those systems, you're all set. Keep in mind that here too your connection to your friends will be as slow as the slowest system in the group, but again, if you all have broadband you should be fine.

Build Your Own VPN to Pimp Out Your Gaming, Streaming, Remote Access, and Oh Yeah, Security

Use Hamachi for Zero Configuration Remote Access and Streaming

Along with secure browsing, running Hamachi at home while you're traveling gives you a great way to get access to your files at home without the need for remote desktop tools. If it's just movies, music, or photos you're looking for, a shared folder on your home computer will do the trick. If you use iTunes, you can use Home Sharing to stream anything in your library at home to the computer you have. That means you can relax in your hotel room across the country and stream the movies you have downloaded to your HTPC, or stream the music you have stored on your home PC, effortlessly, as though you were right there. Photo by myvector (Shutterstock).

You may not care about streaming music if you're already using one of the many cloud-based music services when you're away from home, but when it comes to movies, TV shows, photos, or other media that's too much for your Dropbox account, using Hamachi when you're on the go is a great option. Speaking of bandwidth, it's worth mentioning here that when you stream movies to your PC while connected via Hamachi, you're limited to your upload speed at home, and you are using bandiwidth on your home connection—so if you have an ISP that throttles after a certain bandwidth limit (like Comcast's 250GB), you may want to exercise some caution.

You can also get out from under services like GoToMyPC or even LogMeIn Free, made by the same people who now manage Hamachi. With Hamachi installed and active, you can remote desktop natively or use VNC to connect to any computer on your home network if you want to use it as though you were there, all without worrying about port forwarding or tweaking your router to make sure you can connect from outside of your network.

Enjoy the Benefits

These uses just scratch the surface of some of the things you can do with a tool like Hamachi. There are caveats, like using bandwidth on your home connection as well as where you are, and the potential slowness that comes with being limited by your upload speed at home, but the benefits of a VPN go past just accessing the files on your home network and connecting to the internet as though you were sitting right there at home. LAN gaming, collaborating on an ad-hoc network with friends or coworkers, secure browsing, they're all easy to set up once you have your own VPN up and running.

What are some of your favorite uses for Hamachi—or your favorite VPN client—beyond simple secure tunneling? Let us know in the comments below.

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Fez: The Kotaku Review

April 11th, 2012Top Story

Fez: The Kotaku Review

By Tina Amini

Fez: The Kotaku ReviewThe first thing that appealed to me about Fez, an independent puzzle platforming game developed by Polytron, was how adorable it was. If my childhood proved anything, it was that eight bits of detail can still make me squee with delight. I instantly knew that I would need a plushie version of Gomez, the main character that sports a cute little red fez atop his Pillsbury doughboy-like form.

But the pudgy protagonist and his sweet animations are actually the least cool thing about the game by comparison. Fez plays something like Super Paper Mario. You explore a 3D world, but in a 2D-at-a-time view. In order to navigate around platforms and objects, you turn the world on an axis, discovering new perspectives.

You have one main goal while jumping and climbing through each level: Collect 32 total cubes, and/or build them through finding cube bits. A lost hexahedron is causing the universe to crumble, resulting in black holes that appear across the levels. It's up to Gomez to find these cubes to open locked doors that hold the mystery behind the imminent calamity. The fidgeting blocks of empty space that suck you in if you get too close appear when you enter and exit the same level repeatedly. Folding the world, your tesseract of a guide will tell you, creates an imbalance that results in these black holes.

The overall map in Fez is a lot larger than I had expected. There are dozens upon dozens of segments of the pixelated universe, within each of which are several levels. Each mini-world is small, and the piecemeal delivery suits the game well because it makes the puzzles manageable. Fez is a very well-designed game. Even the map itself is three-dimensional, and you can turn your view to get a 360 look at it.

Click to view If you've ever seen Fez in action, you might recognize the mossy-topped cubes and platforms under bright skies. Gomez can grab onto the grass to move around each level. But the platforming game soon becomes more complicated, as you discover new ledges and moveable ladders that redirect your movement. Things like pivoting platforms and rotating blocks of grass that connect when you change the perspective work in harmony with the game's main mechanic.

Fez: The Kotaku Review
WHY: Fez is more than just adorable. It's a world that makes you want to explore every corner, and solve every obscure puzzle.

FEZ

Developer: Polytron
Platforms: Xbox Arcade
Released: April 13
Type of game: Puzzle/Platformer.
What I played: 100% completion on the main game in roughly 7-10 hours. Dabbled with new game +.

My Two Favorite Things

  • The absolutely adorable main character, Gomez, and the pleasant sceneries he traverses.
  • Frustratingly obscure puzzles that somehow make the game even more fun.

My Two Least-Favorite Things

  • The map can get confusing to explore, and backtracking is tedious even with warp gates.
  • A few glitchy corners, and three crashes.

Made-to-Order Back-of-Box Quotes

  • "I've never been dizzier." -Tina Amini, Kotaku.com
  • "My cat is jealous of how much attention I give Gomez." -Tina Amini, Kotaku.com
  • "My neighbor has filed a noise complaint citing 'incessant squeeing.'" -Tina Amini, Kotaku.com

Shifting the view creates new pathways to get to previously unattainable goals. Playing around with the perspective of the level makes the world feel like it's your playground. Even though they're all carefully constructed designs, you'll feel like you're the one shaping and molding the world. You can effectively create a new wall or edge to jump off of if you're looking at the world in the right way.

What's most interesting about these features that I stumbled on as I got further in the game was that they felt less like obstacles to my goal, and more like an introduction of a new way to play. No part of Fez felt like it was fighting my progression. It felt more like it wanted me to be successful.

But I haven't even told you the best part of Fez. While you're searching for tiny golden cubes, you'll come upon levels that have secrets embedded in them. The level of obscurity of these secrets is another nod to nostalgia. They often comprise of Tetris-looking shapes, but other times you'll have to interact with hidden objects like telescopes and simultaneously cute and creepy owls. I love how utterly confusing some of these puzzles are, and I love that you generally will not get an ounce of help in solving them.

Because you're given the luxury of taking your time with Fez, I played around in secret levels for lengthy amounts of time, refusing to believe that I could be stumped. Fez is one of those rare games where frustration actually lends itself to the enjoyment of it.

After awhile of playing and gathering cube after cube, I began to wonder what the golden blocks were for exactly. So far they'd only opened doors to more levels with more cubes. What was going to happen when I finally collected all 32? What was behind that mystery door? Would there be a pay-off anytime soon? The lack of communication between game and player provides only more motivation to find out what Gomez was working towards this entire time.

And Fez does not disappoint. Everything about this game is beautiful. Its visuals, catchy 8-bit soundtrack, and cute references and characters made it a pleasure to play through. Each level unfolds with a unique atmosphere and new obstacles that make exploration an adventure. Sometimes you want to shoot things in their faces, and other times you want to kick back with a relaxing game. Just because you're not racking up headshots doesn't mean that Fez won't keep you just as engrossed. Even after finishing the game, I hadn't had my fill, but new game + came to my rescue with features that I won't spoil for you. But I will tell you that those features inspired a sense of awe, made me laugh, and surprised me in the best of ways. There really is no reason you shouldn't play Fez.

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