New tech could make consoles obsolete

OnLive promises on-demand, streaming games....

What if you could stream top-end games to your TV, just like a Youtube video that you can control? You'd never need to buy a console again.
That's the future envisaged by Palo Alto startup OnLive, which plans to launch a groundbreaking gaming service this winter. OnLive will supply players with a small set-top box, not much bigger than a Nintendo DS, which will plug into your TV and your home broadband connection. From there, you can start playing games just like those on the Xbox 360, PS3 or PC -- but with no install time, no waiting for downloads, and no need for big, noisy, expensive consoles cluttering up your living room. OnLive's service can be continually upgraded, too, so you'll never be stuck with obsolete hardware again.
Skeptical? So were we, until we actually sat down and played with an OnLive box last week. Even a blisteringly fast racer like Burnout Paradise was totally playable over the service, and top-spec shooter Crysis: Warhead -- which normally requires an expensive gaming PC -- ran excellently too. It's all rolled together with a slick interface that requires just a few button-presses to get playing.

OnLive also includes some features you might associate more with your DVR than with a gaming console, including a Replay feature that lets you save the last ten seconds of your gameplay, and send it to your friends.
PC gamers aren't left out, either: OnLive's service can be accessed with a browser plugin from either Mac or PC platforms, works identically to the TV version, and has hardware requirements so low you'll be able, the company boasts, to play the most advanced of games on a $300 netbook.
OnLive has already signed deals with an impressive range of partners -- including EA, Take-Two, and Ubisoft -- and promises to have an up-to-the-minute selection of games when the service launches. Along with Burnout and Crysis, we spotted Grand Theft Auto IV, LEGO Batman, and Mirror's Edge among the games on offer, although the lineup will likely change before the service launches.

There's a catch, though. Being an online, streaming service, OnLive is only going to be as good as your Internet connection. High-definition resolutions will require a higher-end broadband connection, and if your service is prone to drop out unexpectedly, you're probably going to wind up frustrated. Even if it works, all that streaming video's going to add up over the months, and heavy users might find themselves the receipient of some unwelcome attention from their ISPs. Modem users, needless to say, need not apply.
OnLive won't talk price, other than to say that they'll be competitive with subscription services like Xbox Live. The box itself is simple and cheap to make, they told us, and it's easy to imagine it being thrown in with subscriptions -- rather like a cable or satellite TV set-top box. Games will most likely be available to rent or buy, and with free demos that don't need to be downloaded.

My son's favorite ---------> Thomas!

“Pooof…. Pooofff..” toot Thomas.

And my son Virced wakes up early every morning (7 am in Disney Channel) just to watch his favorite cartoon “Thomas and his friends” the first “Railway Series” books published in 1945, and the rest—as they say—is history. It’s a short jump from that to stop-frame animation on PBS, apparently.

I dug around a bit, and I found a pretty good summary of how Thomas and his friends came to be. It turns out that the Rev. Awdry invented these tales to entertain his son Christopher while the boy was recovering from scarlet fever.

My son really loves Thomas. He also memorized the song.. the last part of the word that is.. hehe..

I’m not going to lie to you. I would watch these trains roll their eyes around and talk without mouths in David Archuleta or David Cook’s voice, and I may have wished for the sweet release that only death or a total cable outage and the magical disappearance of our DVD collection could bring. I perhaps didn’t have the same appreciation of Thomas and his pals as my son did.

There are just a few of the timeless lessons Thomas and his cohorts have imparted:
• It’s good to be a very useful engine.
• Hiding in a tunnel to try to keep your paint fresh and shiny can result in getting stuck.
• Being snotty has repercussions.
• It’s not nice to play tricks on your friends.
• It’s uncomfortable to have fish in your boiler.
• Doing as you’re told is probably the wisest choice.

See? Everything we needed to know. My son concurs.

Computerized Election

The approval this week of an P11-billion budget for the computerization of the Commission on Elections should be cause for elation. Unfortunately, it’s not.

As an IT-based businessman, I must agree with those who say that the Open Election System optical scan software chosen for the project will be prone to hacking. In other words, massive cheating can still occur in the 2010 elections.

If it can happen, it probably will. And we don’t have to guess which group has the most to gain by altering the results of the elections. Gloria Arroyo may not be a candidate, but she will certainly do everything to make sure that those she backs win at all costs. They will be her insurance that she and her husband will be protected from liability as a result of acts committed during her term as president.

The fact that the allotted budget was forwarded to the Office of the President by the Senate without passing through the usual bicameral body is also bothersome. Or suspicious might be the better word; P11 billion is a lot of money, and already talk is rife about how much the bigtime influence peddlers will be getting as kickbacks.

My encounter with a now disgraced former Comelec chief tells us that corruption could be widespread within the commission. A political analyst told me that cheating is done throught the alteration of certificates of canvass, and is usually done in the mid-level bureaucracy of the Comelec.

I am willing to give the new Comelec commissioners the benefit of the doubt, but the software to be used in the 2010 elections still leaves some doubt in my mind that every vote cast will be counted.

Computerizing the voting process is long overdue as it is supposed to eradicate cheating. It was supposed to be a major first step to clean up the Comelec. But that first step taken by today’s Comelec only adds to the question of how honest and free next year’s elections will be.

While there is still time, a public review of all available software should be conducted. Industry experts should be invited to make recommendations. Too much is at stake in the 2010 polls. Only the best possible hardware and software should be used to guard the sanctity of the ballot.

by: JDV III