Despite having successfully orchestrated a major hack on Sony just a few days ago, they announced Friday that they had successfully infiltrated the Atlanta chapter of Infragard. For those not in the know, Infragard is an FBI affiliate. The hackers then uploaded Infragard’s user database to the internet, compromising security for the company and its affiliates. An associated company’s use of botnets was exposed as well, claims the group, and they are claiming that the documents they exposed also reveal an attempt by someone involved to pay LulzSec not to expose the breach.

LulzSec actually took complete control of Infragard’s Atlanta Chapter website, defacing it. One of their main reports was that while there were not many logins (around 180), all of them were affiliated with the FBI in one way or another.

Ironically, Infragard is a private-public partnership between the FBI and US businesses. Their business is “designed to protect IT systems from hacker attacks and other intrusions.” It would appear they are going to have to rethink their security protocols.

LulzSec really seems to be driving home the intense need for appropriate security measures to be taken by companies who are holding extremely valuable personal information for clients. One “weak link” can expose literally thousands of networks to a security breach, as was well demonstrated by their exposure of Karim Hijaz’s indiscretions when it came to his password. It must be understood that reusing passwords in several different places is frowned upon by both the FBI and Infragard handbooks and, indeed, by any person or organization concerned about security.

The attack on Infragard exposed Hijazi’s repeated use of his Infragard password in other places, including accounts of his personal business as well as his personal e-mail. Hacking one system gave them access to all of the major information Hijazi was privy to, compromising not only his own security, but that of the FBI, Infragard, his personal business, all of this clients as well as his personal activities. Particularly interesting to note is the fact that Hijazi’s personal business, “Unveillance” is a whitehat company that specializes in data breaches and botnets. LulzSec reported on their website that Karim was contacted personally by them and told all that they had done and that he purportedly offered them money in exchange for eliminating his competitors by illegal hacking means and for their silence. Supposedly they even discussed plans for him to give them insider information regarding his botnet information.

Hijazi issued a public statement shortly thereafter and is quoted here:

Over the last two weeks, my company, Unveillance, has been the target of a sophisticated group of hackers now identified as “LulzSec.” During this two week period, I was personally contacted by several members of this group who made threats against me and my company to try to obtain money as well as to force me into revealing sensitive data about my botnet intelligence that would have put many other businesses, government agencies and individuals at risk of massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

In spite of these threats, I refused to pay off LulzSec or to supply them with access to this sensitive botnet information. Had we agreed to provide this data to them, LulzSec would have been able to grow the size and scope of their DDoS attack and fraud capabilities.

While this author cannot vouch one way or the other for the truth of Hijazi’s or LulzSec’ claims, she can provide the last response LulzSec regarding Hijazi’s claims:

Karim compromised his entire company and the personal lives of his colleagues, then attempted to silence us with promises of financial gain and mutual benefits … [he] used the same password for all of his online accounts and all accounts linked to a company he owns. Then he tried to bargain with hackers so his company wouldn’t crumble.

Regardless of whose claims are the complete truth, one thing is for certain: LulzSec is not playing around. Companies holding vitally sensitive information would do well to make sure their security protocols are truly secure, for their own sakes as well as the sakes of the clients who trust them.

As a side note, as this article was being written, it has come out that Lulzsec has hacked Nintendo as well, though Nintendo claims that no user information has been compromised. We will update this article as more information becomes available.

The following selection includes some of the most promising looking games and devices that were introduced in this year’s E3.

It is a subjective selection that might not please any gamer out there. Keep in mind that we have all the gaming systems out there and enjoy playing games on all of them.

Hardware

Two hardware announcements stick out. Microsoft’s Project Natal was introduced as Kinect for Xbox 360 which looks like a Nintendo Wii with better graphics and without controllers. Some games and applications for it look very interesting while others plain silly. It remains to be seen if the price and the available games will convince Xbox 360 users to buy the add-on device though. Most promising looking game so far was Ubisoft’s Your Shape: Fitness Evolve followed by Dance Central. The Star Wars game looked very rough and repetitive.

microsoft kinect

Second hardware device and in our opinion the hardware of this E3 the new Nintendo 3Ds, a 3D version of Nintendo’s popular handheld system. The 3D does not need glasses which is probably the coolest thing about it.

Lots of old school games have been introduced including Donkey Kong Country Returns and Kid Icarus: Uprising. These old school games have a bigger appeal than many of the new game series with their colorful graphics.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine will be released for Xbox 360 and PS3. Could be a Gears of War type of game, but it hopefully will bring more to the table.

Star Wars The Old Republic, the only MMORPG that I personally will take a closer look at. Bioware never disappointed yet, don’t think they will with this game.

Mafia II will be released for PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Nintendo had a very strong showing with titles like Zelda: Skyward Sword, Goldeneye Wii or Metroid: Other M.

Microsoft and Sony showed more or less the usual games that they show on every E3 from Gears of War 3 and Killzone 3 to Metal Gear Solid: Rising and Madden NFL 11.

Lots of games to play if you like these type of games. We keep an eye on any surprise announcements in the coming days. If you have spotted a game that you think should be in our small listing let us know in the comments.

The current version 0.21 works with several homebrew games that I tested from several websites that offer games and applications for the Nintendo DS. Their main purpose is obviously to be run on the Nintendo DS but they work great on the NeonDS emulator.

The emulator is not perfect yet which is fully understandable if you look at its version. Some homebrew games crashed after loading them into the emulator and some did not display the graphics properly. The experience after all was quite good for most applications and games.

Games can be saved and keyboard shortcuts are available which are essential for most applications. To make it short, WASD moves Up, Left, Down and Right while the keys JKU IYO emulate the other six keys of the Nintendo DS. The key 1 emulates select while 2 does the same for the start button.

I was able to get 60 frames per second in most applications and games when testing the emulator, users with older systems will probably experience lower frame rates. If you are looking for a solid Nintendo DS emulator you might give NeonDS a try.

The results are pretty amazing. He used to measure his weight, BMI, body fat and heart rate and saw a drop in all of them. His weight went from 191 lbs to 176 lbs, BMI from overweight to normal (down 1.5 points), body fat from 20.8% to 18.4% and heart rate from 87 to 71.

This obviously are interesting results. The question that comes to my mind is however if those results would have been the same – or even better – if he decided to do something else instead. I’m not thinking about Eyetoys here although this would probably make up an interesting experiment as well.

What if he decided to run, swim or play football (that’s soccer for you Yanks) for 45-60 minutes a day instead ? I would think that it would have been reduced even further.

The benefit of Wii Fit however is that you can do it in your home, that most of the exercises are fun and not boring and that you can do it on your own.

The first project demonstrated a digital whiteboard, something that sells for several thousand Dollars, emulated by the Wiimote and additional hardware that do not cost more than $10. The software used in the demonstration can be downloaded from the researchers website and it actually has been downloaded about 500.000 times.

The other project demonstrated a head mounted 3d- viewer. This system was also using the Wiimote and some additional hardware. He mentioned that this technique will be included in a game by Electronic Arts as an Easter Egg.

As of September 2007, Nintendo has sold over 13 million Wii game consoles. This significantly exceeds the number of Tablet PCs in use today according to even the most generous estimates of Tablet PC sales. This makes the Wii Remote one of the most common computer input devices in the world. It also happens to be one of the most sophisticated. It contains a 1024×768 infrared camera with built-in hardware blob tracking of up to 4 points at 100Hz. This significantly out performs any PC “webcam” available today. It also contains a +/-3g 8-bit 3-axis accelerometer also operating at 100Hz and an expandsion port for even more capability. These projects are an effort to explore and demonstrate applications that the millions of Wii Remotes in world readily support.

The homepage of Johnny Lee contains another video that is demonstrating how it is possible to track fingers with the Wiimote.

Still, it’s sometimes nice to just play a quick game and that’s where browsers excel. Nintendo 8 is a website that has huge list of available games that can be played in the browser which has to support Java because the games are emulated in a Java applet.

You can choose to browse a category like Action and RPG or browse all available games. Every category except the one that lists all games displays a preview image of the game. A click on the title or screenshot loads the game. Controls are usually the arrow keys for directions, B-key being Z, A-key being X, Start key being enter and Select mapped to CTRL.

Games are fast loading and performance is fine. Excellent way to spend some free time.

Dan McWeeney and Eddie Herrmann, the winners of last years SAP TechEd ’06 DemoJam, were not allowed to compete again this year but were asked to make a short presentation at the 07 show. They came up with this rather crazy idea to use the Wiimote, or better two Wiimotes in conjunction, to work on the screen and replace the mouse.

You can watch a short demonstration of the new technique in the video that I did embed below. The demonstration starts around minute 2.

via Podtech

Wiinja, Cyclowiz and Wiikey are able to play Wii and Gamecube backups from the same region and the Wiikey seems to have a good success rate to play games from other NTSC regions. This means that it could be possible to play Japanese games on a US Wii system. It is however not likely that you can play NTSC games on a PAL system with those modchips.

While the wiinja modchip is not upgradeable the other two modchips Cyclowiz and Wiikey are. This is a big advantage for them and with the availability of the Cyclowiz chip I can’t see why someone would still buy a Wiinja. Sure, the Wiinja is not that expensive but it should be noted that you would have to replace the Wiinja chip if Nintendo would decided to upgrade the firmware of the Nintendo Wii to defeat current modchips.

The Wiikey chip seems to be the best solution for those gamers who like to play original games from other regions. No one has seen the chip in action yet and everything announced at the official Wiikey site should be taken with caution until some reviews are out.

Other more advanced modchips have been announced that have the features the gamers are waiting for. The modchip Wizard for Nintendo Wii for instance is able to defeat regional encoding and is supposed to be able to play games from any region. This would be a major factor for gamers who like to import games due to several reasons.

All chips are running in stealth mode which should make it impossible to detect them and use countermeasures.

The next step would be to create an account at mycast.orb.com. When that is done you can start configuring the service at the server. Right-click the icon that should appear in the system tray and select Configuration. Select the media tab and add folders of videos, music, photos and documents that you want to access with another internet device. You may add other users who are allowed to view your media files.

Once everything is setup you simply open the mycast.orb.com website and login. After that you can browse the contents that the server streams and view it on the other device. A real simple but effective system. I was able to view movies using my Wii that way. You can also stream tv if you have a video card that supports it. I don’t think it makes that much sense to stream tv to my wii but it would be nice if you are using a notebook for instance.

Take a look at the following youtube video which demonstrates orb used by a Nintendo Wii.

Please note that you need a broadband connection to do this kind of things. Some folders are automatically added (my documents). If you do not want this make sure to remove them from the configurations menu.

Carl added Wiimote support to Glove (Glove Programmable Input Emulator) Pie which makes it possible to use the Wiimote and the Nunchuck to control applications in Windows. You need to have bluetooth enabled to be able to communicate with the Wiimote and Nunchuck though. Just download and start the Glove Pie software. After that you could add scripts to support the devices.

I found a forum post that had some good examples for scripts that you could use to use the buttons of the Wii devices for example.

Up = Wiimote.Up
Down = Wiimote.Down
Left = Wiimote.Left
Right = Wiimote.Right
A = Wiimote.A
B = Wiimote.B
One = Wiimote.One
Two = Wiimote.Two
Home = Wiimote.Home
Minus = Wiimote.Minus
Equals = Wiimote.Plus

Some scripts for the Glove Pie can be found at Joseph Coulstons website. The two scripts that he offers make it possible to use the Wiimote with Google Earth and one script to display the battery level of the Wiimote.

It is quite possible that we will soon witness some games that work specifically with the Wiimote connected to your computer.

The file that you have to download is called OOT GB Demo. Please note that this game is currently a demonstration only, I’m not sure how far you can play at the moment, the author however is still developing the game which means that we can except a complete game to be released in the near future.

The story follows Link, a young boy living with a race called the Kokiri, who is called by the Great Deku Tree and discovers he must go on a quest to amazingly stop a “dark stranger” who lays a curse on the tree, and eventually travels back and forth through time to help save Hyrule from destruction by the forces of evil. (wikipedia)

Enjoy this classic game, please note that you will have to create a save game first before you can start playing the game. Make sure you read the readme file that is included in the download to know about the keys that are used to play the game.

Wikipedia lists 26 games that will be available on launch day in Northern America, some are the usual multi-platform titles but many make good use of the new controlling scheme. Still, only a few rely on the scheme exclusively. A big advantage of Nintendo’s Wii is the price – the basic system including the Wii Sports game costs only $249.99, this is less than half the price of a premium playstation 3 system which does not ship with a game.

Games for the Wii seem to have a lower price as well, most stay close to $50 while PS3 titles are closer to mid-end $50. The Wii still features all those popular games, like Mario, Zelda and Metroid that made Nintendo the biggest player in the video game market which is great for Nintendo fans. It also offers the unique opportunity for different kind of games that have not been possible with normal controllers.

Let us start with the games, I included at least one link to reviews or previews to give you the ability to read more about a specific title that could be of interest to you.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (ign preview)
Barnyard (ign preview)
Call of Duty 3 (ign review: 7.7)
Cars (gamespot review)
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (ign preview)
Excite Truck (ign preview)
GT Pro Series (ign preview)
Happy Feet (gamespot review)
Madden NFL 07 (ign preview)
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (ign preview)
Metal Slug Anthology (gamespot preview)
Monster 4×4 World Circuit (gamespot review)
Need for Speed: Carbon (ign preview)
Open Season (gamespot preview)
Rapala Tournament Fishing (gamespot preview)
Rayman Raving Rabbids (ign preview)
Red Steel (ign preview)
SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab (ign preview)
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (ign review: 8.4)
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (gamespot preview)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (lawrence: 9.9)
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent (gamespot preview)
Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam (ign preview)
Trauma Center: Second Opinion (ign review: 8.0)
Wii Sports (ign review: 7.5, lawrence: 8.9)
World Series of Poker (gamespot preview)

Everyone has of course his own game types that he likes to play, some like Sport games, some racing, some roleplaying games. It is a matter of taste and the Wii should deliver something for everyone. Let us take a look at the most interesting games of some of the most popular categories:

Wii Party Games: Wii Sports included, Rayman Raving Rabbids, probably Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. Watch out for Wii Play which is a launch title in Europe.
Wii Games you can’t do anything wrong with: Zelda
Unique to the Wii and worth a look: Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Red Steel

Everything else is up to you. If you have not played all those typical games that come out for all systems (Splinter Cell, all EA games, Call of Duty 3 aso you might want to check them out as well.)

I will buy a Wii and use it for games that you can play with friends plus games that use the unique controller for the Wii in a great way. I will not buy conversions, I will not buy all those games that you can buy for every system that comes out. Wii is unique and that is what I want as well, unique games.

to be continued..

The English games make the biggest part of the list and include some classic games like Super Mario Brothers 1-3, Double Dragon, Ikari Warriors, Bomberman and Mega Man. This is also a incredible opportunity to play some of the games that the angry Nintendo nerd is reviewing in his videocasts. Play some of the best and the worst games ever that came out for the NES.

Many Japanese games seem to be playable as well because there is not much story to tell. Most are action or jump and run games. The prototype game list has some interesting ones, heroes quest and final fantasy 2.

The author of the site seems to be adding new games regularly to the website which is great because some classic ones are still missing in the list. The games are loading somewhat slowly but are not that big so this is no real hindrance.

The launch lineup consists of 17 titles including the blockbusters Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent. First party games will retail for 49,99$ while third party companies may choose a different price range. Additional controllers look expensive at first glance: Another wireless Wiimote costs 40$ and a Nunchuck 20$. Considering that you need at least two controllers for multiplayer experience this is quite expensive.

A normal setup would include the Wii system, a second set of controllers and one or two additional games which leads to a price around 400$ for that bundle. This is still not expensive for a new console system and nothing compared to the expensive Playstation 3.

Virtual Console games will be available at launch, Nintendo is expecting to offer around 30 games until the end of 2006. You can purchase Wii cards with 2000 points (20$) and use those points to buy NES (500 points), SNES (800 points) or N64 (1000 points) games. A total of 24 companies including SEGA and Square Enix are supporting the Virtual Console and we can expect more games coming our way from those companies. Those 30 games are Nintendo first party games, it will be most likely a lot more considering the huge amount of supporting companies.

First party Wii games will not have a country code, means you can play Japanese and European games on a US Wii and vise versa. Again, third party companies may include a country code in their games.

The Wii will have messaging and photo capabilities. Web browsing will be included as well, totally free unlike Xbox Live. You just have to purchase the Opera browser for it. No Wii point price know for that.

I think the Wii will be highly successful. First, it starts with Zelda which alone is a system seller. It has big third party support with incredible games coming out like Resident Evil and Final Fantasy. It has a unique way of playing the games which appeals to long time gamers and probably to never before gamers as well. Remember those Eyetoy parties ? Even non gamers had lots of fun and were able to grasp the concept quickly.

Now, I only need to see an announcement from SEGA that they publish all Shining Force games for the Virtual Console. Oh, and Panzer Dragoon Saga please.

All videos last many minutes and show mainly game footage but you also see the angry nintendo nerd commenting and hear him of course while he is showing scenes that simply make him that angry. Hope you enjoy the videos.

Oh, I would like to remind everyone that the Ghacks first anniversary competition is still running, you can win some great prices.

Two of the three major players decided to use the latest technology for their systems while the remaining company is heading into a different direction. I have some troubles identifying the innovations of the Microsoft Xbox 360 system and the Sony Playstation console. Sure, they got high definition, more cpu and gpu power, more ram, hard drives, Blue-Ray (Sony) and HD DVD (Microsoft) support and they seem to be battling each other to win the next gen crown.

Still, their systems look like their old systems with more power to me and some tiny modifications. Where are the innovative games for the Xbox 360 ? I suppose I have to ask the same question once the PS3 comes out. Where is the innovation ? Better graphics ? Sure. More fun ? Not neccessarily.

What about Nintendos approach ? I was never a big Nintendo fan, being a Sega supporter my whole life. Don´t get me wrong, I loved to play some classic Nintendo games like Mario Kart and Mario World but I always thought Sega was making better games.

When I first read about their concept for the Wii system I was very excited. It sounded to good to be true. Finally some innovation. Finally a new approach to video gaming. Nintendo could bring back what video games were lacking the last years in my opinion. Fun and Innovation. Their controllers can be used for thousands of game concepts using natural movements of your arm / hand. Be a surgeon, tennis player, baseball star, sword fighter, whatever you like by emulating the natural movement with the controller. This could be exciting, if Nintendo manages to make it right.

Nintendo was always a quality company so I think they will make it right. It will be the only next gen system that I will buy once it comes out.

Which system will you buy ? What do you think about the systems ? Let me know.