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Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Top Stories from the last 24 hours
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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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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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 StoryLotus Just Turned A Joke Into A PR Disaster On FacebookBy Matt Hardigree
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.
At first glance, it almost seems like Lotus is taking things in stride and is in on the joke.
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:
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:
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 StoryBuild Your Own VPN to Pimp Out Your Gaming, Streaming, Remote Access, and Oh Yeah, SecurityBy Alan Henry
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. 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 OwnWe'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. Before You Get StartedHamachi 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:
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 HamachiHamachi 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:
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.) Protect Your Web Browsing, Anywhere You RoamMost 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. Bring Your Friends In On Private LAN GamingSecure 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. Use Hamachi for Zero Configuration Remote Access and StreamingAlong 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 BenefitsThese 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 StoryFez: The Kotaku ReviewBy Tina Amini
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.  WHY: Fez is more than just adorable. It's a world that makes you want to explore every corner, and solve every obscure puzzle. FEZDeveloper: 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
My Two Least-Favorite Things
Made-to-Order Back-of-Box Quotes
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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