Internet censorship plagues journalists at Olympics

With the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games a mere 10 days away, members of the media have learned that there is at least one thing they can expect not to be open: The Internet.

Despite earlier assurances that journalists would have unfettered access to the Internet at the Main Press Center and athletic venues, organizers are now backtracking, meaning that the some 5,000 reporters working in Beijing during the next several weeks won't have access to a multitude of sites such as Amnesty International or any site with Tibet in the address, according to an Associated Press report.

When Chinese officials were bidding for the right to hold the games seven years ago, they assured international organizers that there would be ''complete freedom to report.'' In April, Chinese organizers told International Olympic Committee members that Internet censorship, which is routine for China's citizens, would be lifted for journalists during the games.

However, IOC members issued a clarification Tuesday, saying that Internet freedom applied only to Web sites related to ''Olympic competitions.'' Some journalists expressed frustration at the slow download rates and even voiced suspicion that it was deliberate and intended to discourage use.


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EA's Spore a week from being finished

After more than three years of anticipation, Spore is almost finished.

Electronic Arts' evolution game, from legendary designer Will Wright's Maxis studio, is about a week from going "gold", I was told Tuesday by Thomas Vu, a producer on the game who gave me a demo Tuesday morning. Going gold, of course, means the game is about to be sent to manufacturing. EA has said that Spore will launch September 7.

As you probably know, Spore is designed to task players with evolving through a series of stages, from the initial cell stage, to creature creation, to a tribal stage, then onto civilization, and then out into space.

Over the last few years, I've had a number of opportunities to see the game in its various stages of development, and let me tell you: It's looking good. What was a fairly rudimentary system back in 2005 when I first saw it at E3 in Los Angeles is now a polished, slick game that looks just about ready for prime-time. Its interfaces all seem to work, there were no obvious bugs and it just seemed like a game that is doing what it's supposed to.

"Thank goodness", is what EA must be thinking. Spore has been the industry's most-anticipated title for at least a couple of years. When I first wrote about it, during E3 in 2005, in one of the very first extensive interviews with Wright about the game, I penned these words: "Next year, Electronic Arts will release Wright's next attempted masterpiece, Spore."
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When a mouse gets influenced by an alien

Previously, I wrote about the Steampunk mouse which only Hellboy would have appreciated using. This time around the PC peripheral has gone X-Files. No, it's not for aliens, although it does look weird. Actually, it is designed to fit the critical ergonomics of a human hand, which you can modify to best suit the comfort of your hand by sliding some supporting parts of the mouse up and down. The area of support lies in the wrist, palm and free fingers, which are not required to do anything.

Designed by Mizanur Rehman, the Alien mouse concept is made of soft gel and cellulose, to mold to the shape of your hand for support. Also included in the mouse is a vibrator. Not what you think, the vibrating effects are transmitted throughout the mouse by the aluminum frame to relax the muscles of your hand.

The Alien mouse uses a finger joystick, which is two dimensional to control the cursor in order to reduce the need for unnecessary movement.

In short, this mouse is capable of preventing repetitive strain injury (RSI) and stress on your hand, which normal mice can't.

Credit: Techfresh.net

Facebook's portal for the masses

This week, Facebook took a number of strategic steps toward its goal of giving people the "power to share and make the world more open and connected". That's how founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the mission statement for Facebook.

With that mission statement, similar to Google's mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful", Facebook is highlighting its noble aspirations, but underneath the "make the world a better place" is the fact that both Facebook and Google, as well as Yahoo, Microsoft, MySpace, and others want to be the portal for the masses.

By portal, I mean more than just a place to share content with friends, search or wire up a social graph. If the Web is becoming social at its core, Facebook (90 million and growing at hundreds of thousands per day) and its competitors want to be the center of their members' lives in the same way that MyYahoo became a personalized home base for millions of users over the last decade.
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Updated: Dell's minidesktop launching tomorrow

The small form factor PC that Dell was talking up earlier this year will be released tomorrow.

The company posted a teaser video to its blog today.

Dell says the new Studio Hybrid is 80 percent smaller than a traditional PC and it will come in seven different colors. But here's some stuff that's not in the video: It will retail for US$699 with a monitor, and US$499 without, according to sources familiar with the product. And, although it's a desktop, it'll have Intel's latest mobile processor in it.

In April, Dell pitched it as an environmentally friendly PC, and the video notes that it uses 70 percent less energy than a traditional desktop. The company also said then that the casing would be from totally recycled material, but the video doesn't indicate that, other than the still of what looks like bamboo casing--but that would make eight colors, not seven. We'll update as we get more information.

Here's the video:
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