strategy

Cyber card game

Fans of strategy, role-playing card games may find this game an interesting variation, but the entire experience seems a little bland compared to actually holding cards in your hand and drawing from a deck.

Heartless Victory launches a window with a number of panes for selecting cards to build a personalized deck. The design is rather bland but functional and easy to understand. One pane provides all the info about each selection, and we were able to build multiple decks and save it with its own name. A second window lets players actually use their decks to attempt beating their … Read more

Teen cheating morphs with new tech, poll shows

Parents have yet another reason for a long, hard talk with their kids. More than half of teens admit to using the Internet to cheat, a new poll shows, while 35 percent say they've used their cell phones.

The results were released Thursday by Common Sense Media, which commissioned research firm Benenson Strategy Group to conduct the poll.

The report (PDF) uncovered several alarming trends. More than 38 percent of teens say they've copied content from the Internet and presented it as their own work, while 21 percent have downloaded an actual paper to turn in as their … Read more

PayPal and Picnik come to Yahoo Mail

Yahoo has added new applications for its users in another step toward giving its users more and more to do from within Yahoo.

The company plans to announce the limited beta of three new Yahoo Mail applications from PayPal, Picnik, and Zumo Drive on Friday. Yahoo Mail users who have indicated an interest in signing up for Yahoo's beta programs will be the first to get a crack at the new services, with the applications coming to the wider user base over the next several months.

It's all part of Yahoo's Open Strategy, designed to let outside … Read more

The path forward for Linux is child's play

Linux has been growing in importance for years in the darkened server closets. In the server world, Linux's cost and performance benefits have trumped its early weaknesses (Ease of use, etc.), making Linux the heir apparent to the Unix throne.

But that's the server, where geeks write software for other geeks. In the consumer world of personal computers and mobile devices, however, Linux hasn't fared particularly well precisely because the developers of Linux differ so markedly from the vast majority of the user population.

Linux developers, in other words, scratch very different "itches" from those … Read more

Gadgets and Games 5/22

While we're not in for the show on this good Memorial Day, we decided to embed our appearance on FOXNEW.com's Strategy Room's Gadgets and Games show. Our good friend Claytom Morris invited us to discuss everything from the latest "Ghostbusters 3" rumors to unboxing the Asus Eee PC Seashell and our thoughts on the Palm Pre. We also chat about a slimmer PS3, how a HTC Touch Pro causes some one's pants to catch on fire, the Queen gets a gold plated Nintendo Wii, and a possible Apple netbook or tablet.

Check it … Read more

The 404 348: Where we need a Doctor's opinion

Aside from some technical difficulties today and a giant bug bite, we've got a great show featuring all three of your favorite Web celebrities. Before we get to the stories, we want to remind everyone of The 404 logo contest and of our appearance on our buddy Clayton Morris' FoxNews.com's Strategy Room to talk about all the good tech, video game-related goodness at 2 p.m. EST.

On today's show, find out ways that kids now are using abbreviations in text messages to hide things from their parents. Apparently, "RU/18" is something that kids these days are getting on their cell phones. Also, Pfizer is giving away free three-month supplies of Viagra and Lipitor because of the recession, but only if you were on the drugs before you got laid off. We hope Justin isn't itching to get fired for this deal.

In regard to a story about China shutting down a sex-themed park, Wilson gives us way too much information about "the talk" with his mom when he was 15. Justin and Jeff learned everything from "Sesame Street." Speaking of more things naughty, there is a new version of "Star Trek" called "Star Trix", and we can't really say much more about it other than it's totally NSFW.

Finally, showers make you more productive at work. Just be sure to watch out for peephole-size openings at work. Be sure to write in at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com. We'd love to see more of your submissions for our logo contest. See you on Tuesday after the Memorial Day break!

Episode 348 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

The stickmen are coming!

StickWars is a fun and unusual arcade-strategy game that shows promise for future versions. The game's interface--in which you defend a castle from an endless horde of stick-figure "barbarians"--is inherently entertaining, as you tap and swipe (i.e., fling) incoming invaders, hurling them off the castle walls at high speeds, to meet their bloody demises (which can be quite bloody, depending on how you set the variable cartoon blood settings) on the ground below.

The game's strategy revolves around earning money, based on how many kills you rack up, and also on capturing barbarians. Train … Read more

The race for the integrated technology stack

In the past few months, Cisco announced its UCS server platform, Oracle announced its intent to acquire Sun Microsystems, and IBM entered into an agreement to rebrand and sell Brocade Ethernet switches. Hmm, so a network company entered the server market, a software firm jumped into hardware, and a traditional systems company decided it needed to put its name on a networking component.

Why the land grab? Rather than dominate a single or multiple technology layers and rely on others for additional parts and systems integration, these industry behemoths want the whole enchilada including the virtualization layer, operating system, server … Read more

Yahoo hires former Adobe exec to lead applications group

Yahoo has hired Bryan Lamkin to head up the group that manages some of its highest-profile products and is an essential element of the Yahoo Open Strategy.

Lamkin will take on the role of senior vice president of Yahoo's Applications Products division, which encompasses its e-mail and instant messaging services, photo-hosting site Flickr, as well as Yahoo Answers, Groups, and e-mail and calendar service Zimbra. He will report directly to Executive Vice President of Products and Chief Technology Officer Ari Balogh.

As part of its Yahoo Open Strategy, the company is attempting to better integrate social connections with its … Read more

Motocross racing and turn-based strategy: iPhone apps of the week

This week, Apple surpassed an amazing milestone at the iTunes app store: one billion downloads. Apple had been running a contest called the Billion App Countdown promotion with prizes including a chance to win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card, a MacBook Pro, an iPod Touch, and more. Though the contest ended once they reached their mark (winners will be announced soon), it's still an amazing feat and clearly implies the apps are going to keep on coming. That's great news for iPhone app lovers like us!

It's no secret that the most popular apps at the … Read more