Sponsors: CUBS the Computer Warehouse
We here at the MHF tech network have teamed up with those great people at Drobo to bring a great competition where one of you lucky listeners can win an amazing awesome Drobo. It has a USB 2 port and a FireWire 800 port.
We want to give a big shout out to Mr Matthew Potter who is listening to us in Canada, MatinsBigtech blog, Drobo, pc tech stream.com, black bear IT.com , Oldgold tec, tech dune, sophiecools on youtube , pizza football, random chinese guy, Coolism tv, blubrry, Natasha Simmons and Ben Roberts.
The News:
After only being open for approximately a year, Apple’s Mac App store has reached the milestone of 100 million app downloads.Google has updated the web-based version of the android market place so that users can search by release date or how good the app is.Huawei’s honor smartphone will get the Google Android Sandwich Sandwich update. The software update is now available, so download it now.
The games room:
Today, we turned the clock back to 1997 and had a look at star fox 64(AKA Lylat wars in Europe) for the Nintendo 64.
The game takes place in a group of planets known as the Lylat System. The evil scientist known as Andross who was exiled to the planet venom has attacked the Lylat system and littered it with his bad guys.
You play fox McCloud who leads the Star Fox team, comprised of Peppy Hare, Slippy Toad and Falco Lombardi. Your mission is to rid the Lylat system of Andross.
You get to fly through 7 missions from a choice of 15 missions and there are two different routes through the entire game. The right hand path is the easiest in difficulty and the left hand path is the hardest. If you compelete all of the objectives in a missions, then you will go to the hard path. However, if you do end up on the hard path, you can actually choose which path you want to go down, which is a great mechanic. In each mission, you score points based on how many enemies you kill. The more enemies you kill, the more points you get so make sure that you kill as many of those bad guys as possible.There are also two different ways to do missions, there is the on-rails approach, where you go pretty much forwards all the time. You also get to play in the so-called all-range mode, it is more of an open format, which is used in some of the levels. I personally prefer the on-rails styled levels as it encourages me to challenge myself and go for the highest scores.You also get a multiplayer section of the game where you can play with up to four people on the same console. The first of the two ways to play multiplayer is a point match. You basically have to go and destroy each other a certain amount of times(say 3 or 5 kills). The winner is the one who reaches the target score. Then, there is the battle royal mode, the goal is to be the last player standing. If you perform well in the story mode, then you can use the landmaster in multiplayer mode. You can also go on foot, I am dead serious. If I had to pick a favourite, it would be the battle royal. Alongside the Arwing, you can also play in the Landmaster and walk around on foot.Graphically, a lot of the levels in there looked really great for their time. Especially the first level corneria. In terms of general gameplay, this game plays really well. The only thing that puts this game down is the below average voice acting. However it is still a classic game. There has been a re-release of this on the NIntendo Wii, you can get this game on the Wii’s virtual console. In addition to that, there has been a remake of it which released on the Nintendo 3DS called Star Fox 64 3D, which is basically a remastered version of the original game. There were also other sequels which were Star Fox Assault, Star Fox Adventures and Star Fox Command, all of which were really bad and would get 2 out of 5.All-in-all, Star Fox 64 is a great game and we give it 4 out of 5. It’s a game that is Truely worth having in your collection.
Last week in the news David Blunkett today revealed he made two private trips to the U.S. to plead with authorities to let Gary McKinnon stay in the UK while he faces court proceedings.The former Labour home secretary has visited Washington twice to argue that British alleged computer hacker Mr McKinnon should remained in Britain while facing court proceedings in America.Asperger’s sufferer gary , 45, has been the subject of an intense extradition batte but would be jailed in the UK if Mr Blunkett’s plan is successful. A suggested six-month community service sentence by UK police quickly turned into a maximum 60-year sentence once America took over.Gary himself states that he was merely looking for evidence of free energy suppression and a cover-up of UFO activity and other technologies potentially useful to the public.
Gary was indicted by a US court in November 2002, accused of “hacking” into over 90 US Military computer systems from here in the UK. Gary embarrassed the U.S. by highlighting their cyber security as pitiful, as they had no passwords or firewalls on their computers.In his interview with the BBC, he also claimed of “The Disclosure Project” that “they are some very credible, relied-upon people, all saying yes, there is UFO technology, there’s anti-gravity, there’s free energy, and it’s extraterrestrial in origin and [they've] captured spacecraft and reverse engineered it.” He said he investigated a NASA photographic expert’s claim that at the Johnson Space Center’s Building 8, images were regularly cleaned of evidence of UFO craft, and confirmed this, comparing the raw originals with the “processed” images.He claimed to have viewed a detailed image of “something not man-made” and “cigar shaped” floating above the northern hemisphere, and assuming his viewing would be undisrupted owing to the hour, he did not think of capturing the image because he was “bedazzled”, and therefore did not think of securing it with the screen capture function in the software at the point when his connection was interrupted.
Gary was indicted by a US court in November 2002, accused of “hacking” into over 90 US Military computer systems from here in the UK. Gary embarrassed the U.S. by highlighting their cyber security as pitiful, as they had no passwords or firewalls on their computers.In his interview with the BBC, he also claimed of “The Disclosure Project” that “they are some very credible, relied-upon people, all saying yes, there is UFO technology, there’s anti-gravity, there’s free energy, and it’s extraterrestrial in origin and [they've] captured spacecraft and reverse engineered it.” He said he investigated a NASA photographic expert’s claim that at the Johnson Space Center’s Building 8, images were regularly cleaned of evidence of UFO craft, and confirmed this, comparing the raw originals with the “processed” images.He claimed to have viewed a detailed image of “something not man-made” and “cigar shaped” floating above the northern hemisphere, and assuming his viewing would be undisrupted owing to the hour, he did not think of capturing the image because he was “bedazzled”, and therefore did not think of securing it with the screen capture function in the software at the point when his connection was interrupted.
gary stated the image was approximately 256 megabytes in size, yet that the craft’s details were still distinct in the greatly inferior 4-bit color and low resolution he had to reduce the viewing image to appear across his mere 56k modem connection (approximate transfer rate 5.4 KB/s).
The charge ”the biggest military hack of all time” is dissmissed by gary who characterises himself as a “bumbling computer nerd” who undestructively accessed open, unsecured machines while under the influence of cannabis and that the destruction claims were manufactured by embarrassed US authorities after the fact, in order to meet the dollar amount required to seek an extradition, to make him a poster child and intimidate any snoopers, especially those interested in the alien technology subjects he believed the public had a moral right to know.
as suffering from an autism spectrum disorder compounded with clinical depression.
McKinnon’s mother, Janis Sharp, claimed that he was suicidal and that he would not survive a U.S. prison incarceration
promising news for gary is when last week A motion calling for ‘urgent reform’ to the US/UK treaty which is being used to try to wrestle him to America was passed uncontested by MPs.
A No vote was called when it became clear the motion had overwhelming support after being backed by a string of heavyweight speakers from all parties. The motion is not binding on the Government, but sends a clear message to David Cameron that MPs want changes to both the 2003 UK/US treaty and a separate extradition deal with Brussels.
It will strengthen his hand in any future talks with the EU and the Americans – who were desperate for the motion not to pass. It seems unfair that a America can extradite anyone from britain with no evidence of a crime committed but if Britain wanted to extradite someone from America they would need clear evidence that a crime had been committed. And even then America could decide not to extradite.Gary McKinnon’s mother, Janis Sharp is indefa in support of her son, and is now using Twitter to help to keep friends and supporters informed.
Odd Box:
Remember those odd images that Google Maps discovered in the Gobi Desert last month? On Friday, a new explanation surfaced, along with an accusation that the Chinese ripped off American technology to make them.
According to Nathan Cohen of Fractal Antenna Systems, the strange patterns in the Gobi sand are just that: fractal antennas, designed to reflect radar waves and conceal objects hidden in the ground beneath them.
The strange patternsemerged in mid-November, when Google and gadget site Gizmodonoticed the strange shapes. The story was later picked up by news outlets all over the world, all without any good explanation for what made the strange shapes in the desert, although the Chinese government almost certainly had a hand. Their purpose, though, remains unknown.next up Brooke Greenberg (born January 8, 1993), is a now 17 year old girl from Reisterstown, Maryland, who has remained physically and cognitively similar to a toddler, despite her increasing age. She is about 30 inches (76 cm) tall, weighs about 16 pounds (7.3 kg), and has an estimated mental age of 9 months to 1 year.Brooke’s doctors have termed her condition Syndrome X. Scientists are hoping to gain new insights into the mysteries of ageing by sequencing the genome of a 17-year-old girl who has the body and behaviour of a tiny toddler.Brooke Greenberg is old enough to drive a car and next year will be old enough to vote — but at 16lb in weight and just 30in tall, she is still the size of a one-year-old.
According to Nathan Cohen of Fractal Antenna Systems, the strange patterns in the Gobi sand are just that: fractal antennas, designed to reflect radar waves and conceal objects hidden in the ground beneath them.
The strange patternsemerged in mid-November, when Google and gadget site Gizmodonoticed the strange shapes. The story was later picked up by news outlets all over the world, all without any good explanation for what made the strange shapes in the desert, although the Chinese government almost certainly had a hand. Their purpose, though, remains unknown.next up Brooke Greenberg (born January 8, 1993), is a now 17 year old girl from Reisterstown, Maryland, who has remained physically and cognitively similar to a toddler, despite her increasing age. She is about 30 inches (76 cm) tall, weighs about 16 pounds (7.3 kg), and has an estimated mental age of 9 months to 1 year.Brooke’s doctors have termed her condition Syndrome X. Scientists are hoping to gain new insights into the mysteries of ageing by sequencing the genome of a 17-year-old girl who has the body and behaviour of a tiny toddler.Brooke Greenberg is old enough to drive a car and next year will be old enough to vote — but at 16lb in weight and just 30in tall, she is still the size of a one-year-old.
Picks of the week:
Adi’s pick of the week was the Canon Powershot SX120 IS it takes some great photos which he has put up on Flickr .
Chris’ pick was the Smar Touch gloves from firebox.
Until recently she had been regarded as a medical oddity but a preliminary study of her DNA has suggested her failure to grow could be linked to defects in the genes that make the rest of humanity grow old.If confirmed, the research could give scientists a fresh understanding of ageing and even suggest new therapies for diseases linked to old age.We are going to be giving away a Drobo to one of you. For now, follow us on twitter and Like our facebook page for more information.