The Cipher: Blog

Cargo Bridge

Nick — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:47:34 +0000

This is a pretty fun game. Basically, you build a bridge for cargo. People walk across it and transport cargo. It’s more difficult than you might think. Play Cargo Bridge Related posts:Great Wii Games Here is a list of some great wii games. Feel...Team Fortress 2 Review Right-o, so here I am, to make a review...Scrabulously [...] Related posts:

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Spectrum Genesis

Alec — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:43:35 +0000

This is a really fun game! Hold the “A” key to switch. Hold the “S” to bounce. Hit the space bar to reverse.

Swing and bounce from dot to dot to progress through each level. Your goal is to get to the bright star. Avoid enemies and obstacles!

There are two ways you can play:

1) Hit as few of the dots as possible on your way to the star.

2) Be sure to hit all of the dots on your way to the star.

Save the access codes to jump back in the game at the level where you left off!

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Scrabulously Scrabble

Jeff — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:19:35 +0000

For many game lovers, this may ring a bell: A spin off of a game that allows players to form words in order to score points was made. When RealNetworks, one of the many companies that have claim on Scrabble, tried to introduce an online Scrabble on Facebook, its attempt was overshadowed by that of an existing version of the game. The popular, yet unauthorized Scrabulous.

RealNetworks is quietly introducing a version of Scrabble on Facebook, despite pledging to save Scrabulous, the wildly popular, unauthorized online version of the board game.

In recent weeks, Gamehouse, a division of RealNetworks, introduced “Scrabble by Mattel” on the social networking site Facebook. The game, an online version of Scrabble, is technically available only to players outside the United States and Canada, though it relies on users to be honest about their location to make that distinction.

The rights to Scrabble are owned by multiple and competing companies, a situation that seems to be hobbling the game’s introduction to Facebook and other social networking sites, and complicating negotiations with the creators of Scrabulous.

Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble in North America, and Mattel in the rest of the world. RealNetworks of Seattle has signed deals with both companies for electronic rights, but Electronic Arts of Redwood City, Calif., also has a deal with Hasbro.

As of Sunday, the official Scrabble game had attracted fewer than 2,000 daily Facebook users, in contrast to more than 600,000 on Scrabulous.

Scrabulous’s popularity attracted the attention of Hasbro and Mattel earlier this year, and they threatened legal action to shut it down. The game companies’ actions spurred tens of thousands of Scrabulous players to sign petitions and join online clubs supporting the unauthorized game, and many have pledged to stop buying Mattel and Hasbro products if the companies shut Scrabulous down.

RealNetworks said in early March that it was working with the creators of Scrabulous to save the game. The introduction of a competing game on Facebook seems to indicate an about-face in strategy.

RealNetworks would not make an executive available for an interview for this article, but the public relations manager, Ryan Luckin, said in an e-mail message that the company had been “working with Mattel for a few months now on a version of Scrabble for Facebook.” Scrabble by Mattel is “in beta,” the message said, meaning it is still being tested.

RealNetworks said that “it is important to remember that even if we reach an arrangement with the Scrabulous owners, both Hasbro and Mattel must approve” any Scrabble-related game.

Rajat Agarwalla, one of the brothers in Calcutta who developed Scrabulous, said that he could not comment on the status of discussions with Mattel, Real Networks or Hasbro. Rajat and his brother Jayant have recently introduced a version of chess for Facebook, and Wordscraper, a Scrabble-like game in which players make up their own board configuration.

Facebook Scrabble takes a long time to load, it does not always update quickly to show recent moves, and the words the game will accept do not reflect the Tournament World List Scrabble dictionary. In a recent game, for example, Scrabble by Mattel accepted “feen.” Right now there is no way to challenge opponents’ moves, and no way to play commonly used words like “zen” that are not officially sanctioned Scrabble words.

So far, Facebook users’ response to Scrabble by Mattel has been split. One user wrote that it had “a few bugs, but over all it’s excellent,” while another said, “Beta Testers: View the Scrabulous site; see how well it works; and build your beta off of that.”

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On This Day In History…

Nick — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:26:10 +0000

On this day in history, the sun rose. Yeah, pretty amazing, right? Strangely enough, it happens every day. Anyways, I’ve come to tell you about funny things and to post this video. This video has a great explanation of a historical event. It’s really interesting, and it has some humorous parts.

ANYWAYS. Moving onto the stuff that matters. On this day in history, the Warsaw Pact was formed. I’m not really sure what a warsaw is. I talked with a few intellectuals about it, and they had conflicting points of view. One said that it was a weapon used in maid-evil times. It was used to cut down trees, and sometimes to cut down people. Another said that it was some sort of sea creature, almost like a walrus or a seal or a juniper. A third said that it was the capital of Poland, before it disappeared. The last was dead. He wasn’t very talkative, but he was a GREAT listener and good with kids. Although I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.

After doing some research on the internet, I found that the Warsaw Pact was when a group of sea creatures with maid-evil weapons that lived in Poland (once again, before it disappeared,) got together and made a pact. This pact said something, but I’m sure it was. Anyways, Winston Churchill once said, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on”. I wonder why he thought truth would have its pants off…maybe he was still angry about it sleeping with his wife? I dunno. Anyways, I thought I’d take this time to say that Lawl-wrench of Arabia died on this date. But nobody cares about him. To wrap things up, have another link.

LOL LENIN!

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Freerice.com

Justin — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:22:34 +0000

Sorry that is has been such a slow month but I finally have a new article to post. It’s about a great website that I have learned about called Freerice.com. This website was first created by a man in Indiana who wanted to help his son study for his SAT. So he created a website to help him study his vocab. But now millions of people are visiting the site everyday to study their vocab, or just for fun. But the best part about the website is that when you get a word correct, the website donates 20 grains of rice to a country that is in need of food. And with millions going to the website each day, there is tons of rice being donated to needy countries. So if you’re one of those people who like to help the needy, or you just need to study for a test, go to www.Freerice.com

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Power Gridding

Jeff — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:49:46 +0000

Cern, the birthplace of the Web, is now working on a project that will make the Web obsolete. This magnificent project is “the grid”, which supposedly is nearly 10K times faster than a typical Broadband connection, thus making the Web obsolete.

The grid project was started seven years ago by researchers at Cern. By using fiber optic cables, a “grid” is produced around the world. First, Cern is connected to eleven other centers, which then will be connected to smaller centers worldwide. Such a grid would be more organized than the Web which looks like this.

Almost like a parallel Web, the grid will provide a connection with the rest of the world as well as what we currently enjoy on the Web. Although it might be slow to become as common place as the Web, virtually anyone can hook up to the grid. It also will be extremely fast because of the high-tech fiber optic cables and routing centers that will ensure the usage of up-to-date material, thus preventing any temporization of data flow.

Ian Bird, the leader of the gridding project believes that the grid would be so fast and safe that users would entrust all of their data to the internet. This ideology of keeping information online so that it can be accessed online, ‘cloud computing’, is not new. In fact, there are many website that allow online storage, with XDrive being one of the most convenient to use.

In fact, according to TimesOnline.co.uk, the grid could also transmit holographic images, play multiplayer games with many other players without lagging, and speed through the web with tremendous speed.

To all who had really slow internet connections or lagging servers, the grid is the savior! So if you wish to connect to the grid, starting counting down because it’s coming out after Summer ends!

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ROBO-ONE 13 Video

Josh F. — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:38:12 +0000

Robots duke it out at ROBO-ONE 13 in the Lightweight Championship.

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Cyber Black Holes

Josh F. — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:25:31 +0000

New research in computer science has shown that information is always being lost on the web. Some of the loss of information can be attributed to problems with the server or end host. However, these cyber black holes have been found to be a common occurence.

A team of scientists now monitors these black holes and maps where they occur. This team is led by Ethan Katz-Bassett, a graduate student in computer science at the University of Washington. The team hopes that the information they collect will help ISPs find the cause of the problem. The project is called Hubble, because of the the black hole connection. The team will present the information they have collected at the Usenix Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation in San Francisco next week.

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Sony BMG is caught pirating

Alec — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:06:59 +0000

I almost thought it was a joke when I first heard about this! However, this a true story. France Sony BMG got caught using pirated Microsoft software on its servers. That isn’t the worst part though. Guess how Sony got caught? They actually called Microsoft tech support and gave them their illegal key. Can you believe these fools at Sony BMG? After they install root-kits on peoples computer and crack down and P2P and music-sharing college students they use pirated software on THEIR OWN servers. Stupid French. However they only got a fine of $450,000 which is like pocket change to a massive corporation like Sony when they are charging college students $5,000 for sharing a couple of songs.

I have two words for Sony BMG:

EPIC FAIL!

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TED: Jeff Bezos - After the gold rush, there’s innovation ahead

Griffin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:51:38 +0000

This is a 17 minute talk from TED (Technology, Education, Design), an annual conference where speakers share their ideas with many important individuals.

This particular talk is by Jeff Bezos and outlines several analogies towards the internet, comparing it to the California Gold Rush and the beginnings of electricity. It is very interesting, but ultimately he comes to a conclusion that we are in the beginnings and things will only increase from here.

You can find hundreds of talks like this on TED.com.

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