Computer Talk From The Last Frontier

In this installment of Computer Talk From The Last Frontier, program hosts Jeremy Smith and Ivan Baird discuss one big story: the end of Games For Windows (aka. Computer Gaming World) Magazine and what that means in regards to the future of print versus web media.

This one is funny. Seriously. Ivan makes fun of Jeremy. It is a total hoot.

This second episode of Computer Talk From The Last Frontier features your hosts Ivan and Jeremy waxing philosophical about how robots can improve the lives of those in rest homes and what the recent announcement of every episode of the cartoon South Park being offered for free online means to the future of media and television.

(Honestly though, it is not as deep as that last sentence would make you think. -Jeremy)

Once upon a time (1981) there was an excellent gaming magazine called Computer Gaming World. It provided insight, interviews and reviews for decades to computer game players. Eventually, (as in 27 YEARS later, 2006) the market became a little too soft for magazine publications (I’m looking at YOU Internet and.. oh my god, I SEE MYSELF IN THE MIRROR AS A CAUSE), and in order to stave off the dreaded axe, they transformed from an independent voice in the computer gaming industry into an independent voice in the computing industry with a 4-10 page section dedicated to the wonders and amazement of the Microsoft Windows operating system and how games are that much more amazing on its various platforms, especially Vista.   Oh, and they changed their name to reflect this by calling themselves Games For Windows Magazine.

Now, citing the reason that everybody is already online, Games For Windows Magazine is ceasing publication and planning to rebuild itself as an “online-exclusive” endeavor, ending an era, and in my opinion, an ethically murky one.

It always seemed suspect to me that they not only took money from Microsoft to stay afloat in 2006, but changed their magazine’s name AND added that ad-vertorial bit to the back of each magazine. I may not be a gaming journalist, but I do know when something seems fishy. Isn’t this akin to changing the name of the local Fairbanks paper to Alyeska: No One Gets Hurt The Newspaper, and dedicating the entire classifieds section to how committed Alyeska is to the environment and why gasoline is a great investment and why it is important to not consider any alternate forms of energy because Alyeska says so? Anyone else have an analogy?

The Escapist has a nice little eulogy and timeline for the magazine on their site.

Now we are rolling on WordPress 2.5 here at GPF central, the source of Computer Talk From The Last Frontier. What does that mean? Nothing really, but now we can say we are AHEAD of Web 2.0, because we are already at 2.5!

At the CanSecWest computer security conference, in a hacking "Pwn To Own" contest, a MacBook Air was hacked on the second day of the competition, in two minutes.

Contest participants had their choice of trying to hack an Apple MacBook Air running OS X 10.5.2, a Sony Vaio VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10, or a Fujitsu U810 running Vista Ultimate SP1. During the first day, when attacks were limited to network attacks on the operating system, no one managed to compromise any of the systems.

Come day two however, the Macbook fell. Granted it was because of a security hole in Apple’s Safari browser, but - (to paraphrase Horton) - a hole is a hole, no matter how small. I am certain security software companies are salivating in the general direction of all Mac users as we speak.

***UPDATE*** The Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 system fell on the final day of hacking. Much like the cheese, the Linux-based Ubuntu system stands alone… and un-compromised.