hack-attack

When it came to security in the past I always took the view of the risk vs reward approach. If someone was to hack into my computer, my websites or something else I own what would I lose from it? It worked for many years but as I’ve become older I’ve learned it’s not just about what you personally lose, but also what others could lose from you. Another way of saying it is with the information a hacker gained from you what could they potentially do to someone else?

I experienced this situation first hand a few weeks ago which knocked a forum I host for some friends out and made it into a very unfortunate place to be. (more…)

As I hinted in my previous article beta sign-up’s have started today! Here’s the post from the Loadstone

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Beta Test – Now Recruiting Testers! (01/07/2013)
In preparation for the upcoming launch of FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn on Windows PC and PlayStation 3, we are looking for enthusiastic players to take part in the beta test.

Players who met the Legacy campaign requirements can participate in the beta test starting from phase 1 and are not required to apply. However, we ask players who wish to participate in the PlayStation 3 beta test to apply for it.
If you applied to be a PlayStation 3 beta tester for FFXIV Version 1.0 and were selected to test the Windows version instead, you need not apply again to test the PS3 version—your original application will be reconsidered when we start selecting PS3 testers. However, if you wish to be considered as a Windows PC tester, we ask that you apply specifically for that.

Proceed to the beta test application site.

So what are you waiting for? Get going! If you’re still here there games opening movie has been released, includes the orginal End of an Era video and more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h542YbZuwkQ

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Square Enix have released an updated roadmap for the development plan of FFXIV: A Realm Reborn! Yes yes I know it was released on the 26th of December but I’m posting about it today because of a little snippet that Yoshida posted on Jan 1st at the Loadstone.

To both our Legacy adventurers as well as those eagerly awaiting A Realm Reborn, we hope we can continue relying on your support this new year! (By way of a tip-off, be sure to jot January 7 down on your calendars! :)

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Producer/Director
Naoki Yoshida

Seeing as today is the 7th we should be expecting something interesting today, my bet is that the Beta Tester Application website will come online and players can sign up to be selected for beta access and participation.

Now back to the Roadmap, it explains what’s being tested in Beta and the development life cycle as well as who is eligible for beta access and what preferences apply to who is chosen. If that interests you you can read the full updated Roadmap here, or you can read below where I’ve summarised the applicable parts. Enjoy!

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Are you a fan of sci-fi, Star Wars, 4X games or a persistent sandbox that spans a universe? If so then I have a treat for you!

Star Citizen was a Kickstarter success and managed to raise a massive $2.15 million (426% of its target goal) during its 30 day campaign, what’s even more impressive is that on their own website they have raised a further $5,107,669 to date. With a total budget of around $7.2 million and increasing it’s got the ability to become the space simulator that everyone always wanted. I can’t explain the game in one sentence so here’s a paragraph.

Star Citizen is the combination of every space game you’ve played to date with an updated graphics engine and the ability to have ALL of those features in ONE game. Think of the size and economy of EVE Online with the space combat of X3/Freelancer/Wing Commander, the ability to have multiple people working on one ship like the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars, the ability to exit your ship and have some level of out-of-ship character development and out-of-ship combat in a persistent world being maintained and updated every other week. Once you’ve got all that extend the depth by double, add your own private servers, single player and modding and you’ll have what is planned for Star Citizen.

Sounds like a bit much? Read on…

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Naoki Yoshida, Yoichi Wada and Toshio “Foxclon” Murouchi hosted the fourth Live Letter from the Producer for FFXIV on the 11th of November 2012 at 19:00 JST. This was the last day that FFXIV was active in version 1.0 and the end was met with an amazing video clip showing the freedom of the primal Bahamut and the starting of the Seventh Umbral Era a time of great disaster and tragedy. The live stream had Yoshida answering a large variety of questions on the development of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

A few days later (ok I’m a month late to the party but still!) they released the video on Youtube with English translations. Here is the information I was able to gather from the stream, time stamps included so you can go back and check them. If you’re interested in the re-release of FFXIV you should read on, some very exciting things to come.

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limbo_title

A picture is worth a thousand words, or so the saying goes but was there ever a consideration for colour? With the technology of today nearly everything you look at is blasting with colour and most games are the same. With that in mind take a look at Limbo, it’s a game that tells a dark and chilling story of a boy trying to find his sister through a dangerous world filled with traps, hazards and gruesome ways to die in just black and white. Still, it’s one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played…

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War for the Overworld

At the time of this post War for the Overworld has achieved £142,789 of £150,000 with 6 days remaining on it’s Kickstarter page. With less than 5% of it’s funding to go and a 6 day time frame it’s extremely likely this game will be funded for development on Kickstarter, especially considering most payments for projects on Kickstarter come at the start and end of a project.

So with that in mind let’s assume the game will be put into development, what is it? Who is making it and why should I get it?

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Introduction

evehomescienceandtrade

It was his third day at the Institute and already he had gathered a name for himself as a troublemaker, but being a Civire it was expected and most paid him little attention. He left his room walking the massive hallways of the Science and Trade Institute School in the Amsen system. Today was different however, as he entered his class for trade basics with the other students a different lecturer was at the front of the room fumbling through a number of papers.

“Who’s this guy and where’s Tezek?” One of the other students said, without another word the man gestured for the students to come forward.

“Greetings, I’m Tegra and I’ll be replacing Tezek today” he said. “Where’s Tezek?” a student asked but the man turned and began transferring some documentation and schematics to the students Neocoms ignoring the comment.

“Today is the last day of your life. From tomorrow you begin your new lives as traders, you will deal in lucrative contracts and wares from all empires and learn to turn these to your advantage. I will teach you what you need to know to be successful and you will gather the ire of your peers; always remember law is subjective and you will use it to your betterment. ”

While cautious he listened closely, this was no ordinary teacher and anything to gain an edge up would be an advantage…

The details

Welcome to “The Tools of a Trader” this is a primer guide for EVE Online and provides useful information for new and aspiring Traders in EVE. While it won’t tell you what to make money off, it will give you the principals and skills needed as a core to develop your skills and grow substantial wealth. With that in mind please read on. This first article will discuss the very basics and two more will follow delving into mid level progression and top end.

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