Sir Arthur's Den

Social engineering has sunk really low…

Sir Arthur, King of Ghouls'n Ghosts — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:27:14 +0000

Someone could think that the strategies currently executed by cyber-criminals to extort personal information are sophisticated, dangerous and antivirus software-proof. Maybe it's just like this, however it's as much true that next to the fine technique the aforementioned criminals still use dirt cheap tricks against which there wouldn't theoretically be any need for the antivirus at all. It would be enough to have one's own brain always turned on when in front of the screen.… Continue reading

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Mikko Hypponen calls upon the foundation of the Internetpol

W32.Changeup, the eMule-aided worm

Sir Arthur, King of Ghouls'n Ghosts — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:05:08 +0000

File sharing platforms abuse by malicious code is a fashionable habit since years now. A malware usually just checks if the infected machine hosts a peer-to-peer software, but the W32.Changeup worm detected by Symantec (among the others) goes beyond and rather than searching for a P2P tool it installs its own "private" eMule copy to replicate itself. The malware is noteworthy for its ability to "assist" downloading and spreading of additional computer threats.… Continue reading

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Videogames highlights - July 2010, Underdogs Edition

Sir Arthur, King of Ghouls'n Ghosts — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:52:37 +0000

After the previous month's feast of mainly "triple-A" games, this new round of videogaming highlights focuses for the large part on minor titles, original games and games anyway without great advertising campaigns so far. After all interactive entertainment has never been directly tied to the money spent by developers and publishers for its packaging in finished products. On the contrary: the more the gaming business becomes an "industry", the less an eclectic and old-time player like me tends to care about just the big titles on the limelight. Big titles already receive all the attentions by everybody so it's useless to state the obvious.… Continue reading

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PC gaming: a platform to rule them all

Sir Arthur, King of Ghouls'n Ghosts — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:39:38 +0000

It's one of the most debated issues within the PC world together with the digital downloads' true weight: how much is the computer video games market worth, what financial results does the PC gaming hardware gain compared to the - seemingly much healthier - major home consoles one? The reply comes from the PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA), the publishers and producers non-profit organization "dedicated to driving the worldwide growth of PC gaming" which details heavy numbers and proclaims: the computer definitely is the largest, most widespread and financially important gaming platform out there.… Continue reading

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Estimating digital downloads’ true weight

Sir Arthur, King of Ghouls'n Ghosts — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:32:46 +0000

How much are digital downloads worth within the PC video games market? According to a recent report by NPD Group, in 2009 digital delivery of commercial products would have taken 48% of the overall marketplace in North America. NPD says that the 44.8 million games sold the past year would split in 21.3 millions in digital format and 23.5 millions on optical disks. The market research firm depicts a situation where on-line distribution of videogaming products would be on par with traditional retailers, positioning itself as the only business capable of putting back in shape the PC video games market.… Continue reading

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Wallpapers on the spotlight: Trine 2

Sir Arthur, King of Ghouls'n Ghosts — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:28:58 +0000

Along with the official announcement of Trine 2 release, during the E2 2010 Atlus unveiled screenshots, a teaser trailer and some artworks of the game. All the stuff regarding the sequel to the marvellous puzzle-platformer developed by the Finnish company Frozenbyte has been collected for the latest post in the Videogames highlights series, while the topic of today's post will be one of the aforementioned artworks which in my humble opinion is worth the evaluation by any fan of games and fantasy in search for a new wallpaper to decorate one's own virtual desktop with.… Continue reading

EasyBCD & TrueCrypt, tools for the HDDs pros updated

Sir Arthur, King of Ghouls'n Ghosts — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:14:09 +0000

July has been a noteworthy month for fans of the not so trivial arts of multiboot and hard disk data encryption, which have been able to profit by the release of updated versions for two of the best utility software out there: NeoSmart Technologies released version 2.0(.1) of the EasyBCD advanced bootloader, while the so called TrueCrypt Developers Association brought to 7 the version number of its powerful, open source encryption software.… Continue reading

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Videogames highlights - June 2010, E3 special

Sir Arthur, King of Ghouls'n Ghosts — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:13:18 +0000

In the days between the 14th and 17th of June Los Angeles hosted the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the most important yearly exhibition of interactive entertainment where big names and small publishers showed an almost endless cornucopia of video games coming for the next months (and years). The E3 2010 edition was marked by publishers optimism for a market that suffers the economic crisis but hopes to return soon to make the same money they were used to. Many, too many sequels were showed, while the final result suggests a noticeable revival compared to the past editions. What follows is a personal survey of the stuff appeared during and around the video gaming show, where highly appealing games and underdogs with no big names behind them alternate as usual.… Continue reading

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Videogames highlights - February-May 2010

Sir Arthur, King of Ghouls'n Ghosts — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:44:15 +0000

I could continue to speak ill of the never too much abused downloadable contents (DLC) and video games digital delivery with my own words, but this time I will leave to Sony management official statements the task to chill the continuous, boring, stupid and annoying hype about an exclusively downloadable gaming future and other crap of this kind: 1) "I want it on the disc, that way when they buy it, they get it" - Rob Dyer, SCEA vice-president while commenting on the state of the DLC market; 2) The gloomy and failing UMD-free PSPGo "was introduced in a mature lifecycle to learn more about what the consumer wanted and we've definitely learnt a lot. Is that measured by success in sales? I don't think it is" - words of Andrew House, SCEE president.… Continue reading

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Intel says farewell to PCI bus

Sir Arthur, King of Ghouls'n Ghosts — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:29:10 +0000

Soon another technology that in the past years dominated the always-changing universe of computer hardware will bite the dust. That's the decision by Intel, the merciless executioner of standards which the company itself imposes on the market and that in the upcoming months will rule the end of official support for the PCI bus. Developed by the Californian chipmaker in 1993, the PCI Local Bus standard has been implemented on all the motherboards for x86 and compatible platforms until 2004, the year when it passed on the baton to the younger and faster PCI Express technology.… Continue reading

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