Three Wise Men

Star Trek Online – Exploration with a touch of epic space battles?!?

Previously questioned by BigWhale, now we all are beginning to wonder if Star Trek Online will replace Eve Online? Final revelation will be known when beta testing is opened to public. Discovery is scheduled to commence on January 12th and close on January 26th.

We know, so far, that Star Trek Online will not be ONLY about space battles. Players will also be able to experience exploration, diplomacy, star ship crew micro management, ship upgrades and more. Although some reports from closed beta test mention only space battles we hope that this means that closed beta tests were focusing on space battles and space battle systems while open beta test will expand to ‘Space the final frontier … ‘.

With the end of closed beta test, Cryptic studios also announced the names chosen for Tier 5 Starships. They are:

• Emissary class for Tier 5 Cruisers
• Dervish class for Tier 5 fleet Escorts
• Destiny class for Tier 5 Science Vessels

The following video shows how will exploration look in the Star Trek Online.

UPDATE: We successfully downloaded installed and played the open beta. It looks quite nice, the interface is something that you will have to get used to. Still there are few bugs and glitches here and there.

Sony is dedicated to 3D stereoscopic experience for 2010

After almost a year of rumors and guessing, on the 7th January, 2010, Sony announced that it is dedicated to bring the 3D experience  to consumer homes. Announcement was made at Consumer Electronics Show (CES). As seen from announcement 3D will be integrated into most aspects of Sony’s product line meaning consumer electronic devices, TV and movie content and game devices.

The latest information is really interesting because it means that PS3 will be able to play stereoscopic games. The update which will enable stereoscopic game play will be available through PS3 update which will be available sometime in the summer 2010. Playback of “Blue-ray” discs with 3D content will also be able on PS3 with later updates.

Read more for additional information about first experience with 3D stereoscopic games. READ MORE

Completed theme update and web server optimization

Image by Patrick Keogh via Flickr

There was some some construction work on the blog for the past week or so.

We have made theme improvements and web server speed optimizations which will provide quicker loading times and less load on the web server.

Hopefully your reading pleasure was not disrupted, but if it was we sincerely apologize and hope that you continue to support us¹.

1. by clicking on the adverts and coming back for more geek stuff :P [↩]

TorrentFlux – The Best Torrent Client in the Galaxy

Image via Wikipedia

File sharing has a long history and I will start with the time when I first got into it. At that time I was using ZX Spectrum 48k and games were distributed mostly on magnetic tapes packed in plastic boxes more commonly known as compact cassettes¹.

Twenty years ago, give or take a few, violation of copyrights² wasn’t really a big issue in a country behind the iron curtain. Getting a new game involved borrowing the tape from a friend, going back home and copying that tape with a double cassette recorder that supported high-speed dubbing.

The other a more sophisticated way of getting a game was to tune your FM radio to a certain local radio station. Then you had to put a blank tape in a cassette recorder and press Record when they started airing the games³. Yes, the local radio station was in fact airing all sorts of ZX Spectrum games and you were able to record them on tape. This was the first method of file sharing that I encountered and by today this is the only one that is limited only by the range and not by the bandwidth. A billion clients can connect at the same time and perform a download.

Read on if you want to know more on how to set up the best BitTorrent client in the Galaxy. ;)

READ MORE

1. Back then piracy was not for soft-hearted types, it was for real men — it was almost a hardware business. [↩]
2. Piracy. [↩]
3. Storing data as a bunch of chirps and beeps on the audio tape was something very common. [↩]

Windows 7 driver update for AuthenTec AES2810 fingerprint scanner on HP notebooks

In my previous post I was describing a method how to enable and use the AuthenTec ASE2810 fingerprint scanner beta Windows 7 driver. There was some positive feedback and the method worked on some HP notebook devices. For some with different versions of fingerprint scanner the method did not work. Hopefully times have changed for all of us.

On the October 23, 2009 AuthenTec released information about update to Windows 7 driver infrastructure. About 2 weeks ago I noticed an optional update in Windows 7 update section. It read AuthenTec Inc. driver update for AuthenTec Inc. AES2810. I was pleased to finally get the final version of the driver.

Immediately checked it and started the 32Mb download procedure. Smooth download, smooth install. Went to Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->Biometric Devices and the  AES2810 was still available. I decided for clean setup so I removed my existing fingerprint data by clicking and confirming the Remove your fingerprint data dialog. Then I clicked on Manage your fingerprint data and waited for my password dialog. None appeared. Frustrated and angry about the stupid update I started to minimize the windows and was presently surprised by the TrueSuite login screen¹. Typed and retyped in password of my account and voila I was ready to enroll my fingers.

TrueSuite Application has changed a bit. Must say that it is simple and intuitive to use². You have 2 options. Enroll finger by selecting a finger to enroll and repeating finger swipe 3 times and delete an enrolled finger. Additional nifty feature is available when you enroll a finger.  When TrueSuite application is run through manage your fingerprint data call you are presented by the password login screen. But now you can use your enrolled finger to authenticate your self. No more password typing.

I repeated the update on both HP notebooks that I own. So I can confirm that the driver works for HP EliteBook 8530p and HP Compaq 2230s. Bravo AuthenTec. Now if you could only release data which would help to create or create a Linux driver then I would be in heaven.

1. I don’t know if that was my impatience or the on top functionality of login screen is broken, but I was unable to repeat this feature [↩]
2. not that I was complaining about previous beta version [↩]