Crave

Blizzard Entertainment on Thursday released the CG intro for its next game, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. This is the second expansion for WoW. The first, The Burning Crusade was released in January 2007 and sold 2.4 million copies in 24 hours to become the fastest-selling PC game in history.

Arthas, the Lich King, enacts his plan for the domination of the world...of Warcraft.

(Credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

The CG intro for The Burning Crusade appeared about a month before the game's release. Blizzard has commented already that it expects Wrath to be released sometime in the fourth quarter. The fact that it's debuted the intro for the game is evidence that things are at least going well in the beta, and we could see a release as early as October.

Even if you're not a fan of WoW, you owe it to yourself to check out the intro as it's incredibly cinematic and has more story and character in its 3 minutes than many movies have in 90.

Also, the CG quality is really second to none, but that's usually the case with Blizzard CG intros. Fans of the previous WoW intros may be a little disappointed though. There is no montage of character classes showing off their badass-ness.

The cinematic focuses on one character only, so just be prepared for that. While I was initially disappointed that we didn't get our montage, I have to say that the intro is growing on me having watched it five times at the time of this writing. Hmm, maybe I'll start using the high-res version for monitor testing.

Blizzard Entertainment has recently opened up the beta for its forthcoming expansion to 'World of Warcraft,' 'The Wrath of the Lich King.' According to people familiar with the beta, the expansion offers some big improvements and appears likely to sell millions of copies.

(Credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

Since its launch in the fall of 2004, Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft has shattered expectations at every turn.

Prior to its release, no American massively multiplayer online game (MMO) had ever reached what was then seen as the magical million subscribers level--even major hits like EverQuest and Ultima Online. Yet almost before anyone could blink, WoW, as it's known, had surpassed 4 million paying users and now has more than 10 million worldwide, and at $15 a month for most users, it may well be bringing in more than $1 billion a year.

Then, prior to the January 2007 release of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, no one had ever heard of the kind of nationwide midnight madness lines associated with iPhone and Xbox launches for a game expansion. Sure enough, however, people lined up at game stores everywhere for hours for the right to be among the very first to buy Burning Crusade, and the update went on to sell millions of copies.

And now, with the second major WoW expansion, The Wrath of the Lich King, in beta testing, Blizzard is getting ready to prove yet again that when it comes to American MMOs, it is the undisputed gold standard.

"It's just beautiful," said longtime WoW player and Lich King beta player Katrina Glerum. "The game really feels epic in a way that The Burning Crusade didn't....Burning Crusade felt like an extension of the (original) game. This really feels epic, and that you're part of something grand."

It's software like Nero that makes copying optical media content so easy.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

Yeah, I know, it hit me as a surprise too. However, that's one of the findings found in a recent Consumer Home Piracy market research study carried out by Futuresource Consulting and sponsored by Macrovision.

The study was done in May 2008 in the U.S. and the U.K. with the sample size of more than 5,000 people. As it turns out, one-third of all the respondents in both countries admit to having made copies of prerecorded DVDs, on average about 13 titles each, in the last six months, up from just over a quarter of respondents in 2007. At this rate, before you know it, most of us will be copying DVDs.

The survey goes deeper and analyzes other information about the copiers, from their age, the kind of entertainment they would copy, to the method they use to get the job done and so on.

One of the motivations for the study is to find out the reason for the studios' decline in sale revenues of DVDs since the end of 2007. (Though the sale of Blu-ray media already largely offset it). It's interesting, though, the fact that the study didn't ask any questions about the consumers' renting habit (apparently they have to do this in order to make copies), but focus mostly to find out why the consumers would not buy more DVDs. What the studios want us to do is go see the movie in the theater, then rent the movie again to watch it at home, then go buy a Blu-ray copy of it, and while we are at it, buy a DVD copy of it, too. And they seems somewhate reasonable as most of the study's respondents indeed did admit that they would go buy the DVDs if they couldn't copy them.

In conclusion, the study showed that as studios' revenues from DVDs are in decline, protecting revenues is even more vital than 12 months ago. This basically means they don't feel like they are making enough money, and there's no definitive definition to what enough is.

So, who's to blame and what's the solution? I don't know and leave the answer to those who are directly concerned by the matter. If you are one of them, you can get the full report of the study by contacting Macrovison at cmurphy@macrovision.com.

In the meantime, the rest of us, guys, please either stop copying or be not so honest about it when it comes to filling market research questionnaires. Personally, I would rather see you do the former, but that's just because piracy is against the law, not because it has anything to do with me making enough money or not (which I don't, by the way).

WiiWare offers a new racing shooter or you can search for your long-lost brother in the Virtual Console update.

Virtual Console

• Alex Kidd in Miracle World (1986, Sega Master System, 500 Wii points): Play as Alex Kidd in search of your brother, Egle. Make your way through 16 levels using "rock, paper, scissors" as one of your primary weapons.
  
• Burning Fight (1991, NeoGeo, 600 Wii points): Burning Fight is a side-scrolling action game. Fight as Duke, Ryu, or Billy as you make your way toward the very evil Casterora.

WiiWare

• Gyrostarr (High Voltage Software, 700 Wii points): Gyrostarr is an arcade-style shooter that allows you and up to three friends to race and battle alien ships at lightning-quick speeds. Enjoy 50 levels of intense action and use any Wii controller combination you like.
  
  

What games do you think are missing from the Wii Vrtual Console? Sound off here!

Swarm is a project made up of six large orbs in which five of the orbs are tethered to a single 'mother node' that can then autonomously direct the others in open space. Here, project member Corey Fro chases after one of the orbs, trying to keep it from crushing another robot.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Corey Fro is chasing a large metal orb across the pavement at the NASA Ames Research Center here. He is desperately trying to make sure that the orb doesn't crush a nearby robot.

The orb in question is being remotely directed by a kid wielding an Xbox-like wireless controller, but it's the kid's first time using the device, and he really doesn't have any idea what he's doing.

Swarm is the work of at least 30 artists and is the continuation of a project originally created for Burning Man 2007. It is expected to be even more developed for Burning Man 2008.

(Credit: Swarm 2.1)

And that's why the orb has rolled away and is bearing down rapidly on the unsuspecting and defenseless robot a few yards away. In the end, Fro caught the wayward sphere and saved the day, or at least the innocent robot.

If this sounds unusual, it isn't. At least not at Yuri's Night, a 12-hour celebration of space, science, music, and art held at NASA Ames and other locations around the world Saturday in honor of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's first flight into space.

The orb is part of Swarm, a project designed for Burning Man built around the concept of autonomous spheres that can be programmed to perform in one of many ways.

Or, as Fro put it, "They're kinetic sculptures that drive around in an autonomous but choreographed pattern."

Fro is just one of about 30 people who built the orbs for Burning Man 2007, and now the project is returning to Burning Man 2008 as an art piece partially funded--and therefore honored as noteworthy--by the curators of the annual countercultural arts festival.

But before it can go back out to the Nevada desert, Swarm had to make an appearance at Yuri's Night, and it was certainly one of the main attractions for the thousands in attendance Saturday.

And that's at least in large part because of what they can do.

"The orbs control their own movement, light show, and music," explained Fro. "The way they do that is by communicating with the mother node."

"The Swarm of autonomous beings by their very nature will have emergent and complex behavior," the project's Web site states. "They will flock, flirt, dance and interact, and their actions will surprise and astonish even us, their creators. They are simple, but together they will behave in ways more complex than we can predict."

At Yuri's Night Bay Area on Saturday, the orbs from Swarm were one of the most popular projects on display.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)

The idea is that five of the six orbs--which look something like specialized see-through hubcaps turned into spheres with really expensive robotic controls and LEDs inside--are subservient to the desires of the lead orb, or mother node.

The only information the subservient orbs send out is GPS and accelerometer data, which they send to the lead orb, which, Fro said, uses that information to coordinate the movements and lighting effects of all the spheres.

"So the movement coordination allows it to follow the leader, drive in patterns or (even) make the orb representation of planetary systems," Fro said. "But once they're running under control of the mother node, there's no control from humans.

That means, once all the orbs are in motion--something that wasn't on display at Yuri's Night--the only way to stop them is direct the mother node to stop.

Each orb, Fro said, is driven by counterbalancing using the weight of lead-acid batteries as ballast. By swaying the ballast forward, the orb moves forward as the center of gravity changes.

"To turn right or left," Fro said, "we swing the ballast right or left."

At Burning Man, where the entire project, in its 2008 configuration, will be unfurled, the Swarm team plans to erect a mast on the open desert floor that projects a large laser circle on the ground.

The idea is to define a safety zone so that pedestrians, bicyclists, and those on other forms of conveyance are safe.

"If they walk into that circle," Fro said, "all bets are off."

I was very happy to see the orbs at Yuri's Night because Swarm was one of the legendary art projects I missed at Burning Man 2007. It was something I heard a lot of people talk about after the fact in very reverent terms.

And as befits many Burning Man art projects, the 2008 version is sure to be new and improved. In fact, Fro said, the Xbox-like controllers were a big part of what's new for this year: joysticks that can allow anyone to take very subtle control over the orbs.

But it's also very easy to lose control of them, as I saw multiple times on Saturday as Fro would hand the controller over to one person or another.

"Try not to rock it so much," he said to someone at one point, "because if you hit the kill switch, it will stop."

Escape from Berkeley is a race planned for the July 4 weekend that will task contestants with getting an alternatively powered vehicle from Berkeley, Calif., to Las Vegas.

(Credit: Escape from Berkeley)

Update July 19, 2008: Escape from Berkeley is now scheduled for Oct. 10-13, 2008.

If you're a regular reader of Geek Gestalt, but not of its sister blog, Green Tech, I thought I'd point you to an entry I just posted there about what sounds like one heck of a cool event scheduled for this summer.

The so-called Escape from Berkeley race will task contestants with getting their non-petroleum-based fuel vehicles from the famously liberal Bay Area city to the famously outrageous Sin City, Las Vegas, over the July 4 weekend.

Part Burning Man, part Power Tool Drag Races, part DARPA Grand Challenge, Escape from Berkeley should be a sight to behold.

For more information now, however, check out my entry on Green Tech.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Just about every computer available these days comes with a CD/DVD burner as part of the package. Whether your primary use for this drive is to make mix CDs for the car, backup data, or burn DVD backups for your movies, you need a good program with the right type of features for the job. Though Windows offers some burning features, you're not going to get the options you'll find in a stand alone app.

There are many paid CD and DVD burning apps to choose from and some of the most popular in this category--like Nero and Alcohol 120%--are probably recognizable by most Download.com users. The only prohibitive trait about these apps (besides cost) is usually they take up too many system resources and offer superfluous features that you may not need for simple burning. I happen to like these apps and some of the extra features are quite useful, but what if you just want something quick and dirty for burning on the cheap?

I did a little research and picked out some top free CD/DVD burning apps that you can download and use for free if you need to get started right away.

The four-paned interface makes moving your media around a snap.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

CDBurnerXP is a quick and easy solution for burning audio CDs, creating data disks, and has extra features for ripping your audio CDs and finding track info on the Web. A four-paned interface makes it easy to find and then drag-and-drop files to your chosen media and an included audio player helps you make sure you get the tracks you want. A handy dropbox window lets you browse your files using Windows Explorer and quickly drag-and-drop files to your burn list on the fly. Judging from the user reviews, some users had trouble with CDBurnerXP when burning data DVDs, but I was able to use this function without problems. The developer site offers a list of compatible drives if you have any issues.

Sometimes an easy way to burn media is all the feature set you need.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

JetBee is another free app for burning CDs, DVDs, BlueRay, and HD-DVDs and offers the option to include these burning commands to your right-click contextual menus in Windows. The two-paned interface is simpler than CDBurnerXP, but good enough for most simple burning projects. This is probably the most bare-bones of the bunch as far as extra features, but if you want a quick-burning program to make backups or audio CDs for free, JetBee does the job nicely. As someone who burns primarily audio CDs, I was a little annoyed I had to drill all the way down from the top level for music files, but this might not be a problem for other users.

The launch page takes all the guess work out of your burning project.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

BurnAware Free Edition is probably the prettiest in the interface department for this collection and offers a step-by-step procedure for your burning projects. A launch window lets you choose the type of project you want and leads you through the process to completion. Navigating your directories is easy with BurnAware's file management system and adding files is as simple as highlighting them and hitting a button. Though you don't have the option of a floating window like CDBurnerXP, BurnAware offers enough features for most burning projects.

Sometimes you just need a simple program for your burning needs and don't need all the extra features of a paid app. For a quick and easy free solution, try one of the apps above. As always, if you have a favorite that is not listed here, let me know in the comments!

Edward Burns' latest film, Purple Violets, won't be coming to a theater near you, but you won't have to go far to see it. The movie is available to anyone with $13 and an account at iTunes. It is the first time a feature film has premiered at the Apple media store.

Burns first landed on the scene in Hollywood with his highly successful 1995 film The Brothers McMullen. He wrote, directed, produced and starred while managing to spend less than $30,000 putting together the vehicle that would pave the way for his role acting in Saving Private Ryan.

... Read more

The route for the Baja 1000 road race that begins next week in Ensenada, Baja, Mexico. One team, from San Jose, Calif., plans to run the 1,300 mile route in a 1969 Volkswagen Beetle loaded up with modern communications equipment.

(Credit: Jim Graham)

SAN JOSE, Calif.--If you were to see this 1969 Volkswagen Beetle, missing a couple of tires, its engine compartment and hood open, and its interior feeling very much like a work in progress, you'd probably mistake it for one of the countless automotive projects currently under way in American garages and driveways.

You certainly wouldn't think any special was afoot.

But this is no normal '69 Bug.

No, this little machine, which on a Friday afternoon still looks a lot closer to a junkyard than a highway, is actually awaiting the finishing touches that will have it ready to race in next week's Baja 1000 race, one of the world's most-grueling, and one that (hopefully) will take its owners across 1,300 miles of unforgiving roads up and down the Baja peninsula.

And it's going to be loaded down with the kind of high-tech gear that will make it possible for its owners, a team of 12 dedicated people from all over Silicon Valley known as Desert Dingo, to know precisely where they are at any moment, to know what giant pothole might be around the next bend and to Twitter every little development back to the rest of the world as it unfolds.

Their goal? Run the whole race--their car is entered in Class 11, for stock VWs--in the 53 hours they're allotted, all while staying safe, sane and having the time of their life. And counting on a passel of high-tech gear to do it all.

Graham said he got the idea for running the race while watching the racing documentary Dust to Glory earlier this year. He got on the phone with some friends, and next thing you know, they were out in search of a Beetle to run the race with.

"Class 11 is the lowest (race) class," Graham said, "but everyone roots for them because if you can get (one of the cars) across the desert, you've got something."

This VW has been specially decked out for the race. Graham explained that he called Eric Solorzano, a nine-time Baja 1000 Class 11 winner, in search of advice on how to put the car together and that, next thing he and his team knew, Solorzano had agreed to build them an engine, even though the car would be up against his own in the race.

These guys, meanwhile, are all from Silicon Valley, and so they decided that they had to gear the car up.

"Because we're all Silicon Valley geeks," Graham said, "we figured we would trick it out with as much electronics as possible."

Jim Graham, one of the leaders of the Desert Dingo Baja 1000 team, shows off the handheld GPS unit and the satellite phone his team will use to stay in touch while running the race.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

So, Graham explained, they will be carrying three GPS units and at least one satellite phone. The idea is to be able to know exactly where they are at any point and for him to be able to Twitter everything that happens almost in real time.

One innovation Desert Dingo will employ is to take the basic GPS course data provided by race organizer SCORE and add to it.

"We went a step further and bought data from a team that pre-ran the course," Graham explained, "and what they did was annotate the data with all the hazards on the course, such as big rocks, sheer cliffs, water crossings, and silt, with silt probably being the worst."

Thus, he added, "as we're driving, we'll know everything that's coming up."

Graham is also toting along a satellite phone, which he is hoping will allow him to send Twitter updates about the car's progress. He's not certain he'll be able to file the updates directly from the phone, but if not, he'll relay them via text to someone in a support vehicle who will them post them to the Internet.

"I'll (Twitter) the status of the car, or what a section of the route was like," he said. "Whatever I can fit in 140 characters."

One additional convenience Desert Dingo decided on was paying someone to handle the team's pit stops for it. So, by calculating how far they could make it on a single 15-gallon tank of gas, they've figured out exactly where to set up the pit stops along the route.

And while teams like Desert Dingo are relying on GPS for navigation, others have no choice to but to utilize the written directions provided by SCORE. Graham said his team will carry a copy of the directions in the car in case everything fails.

While many Baja 1000 teams will have high-tech navigation equipment to help them run the grueling race, some will have to rely on written directions.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

And while Desert Dingo doesn't look like its hopes to win the race, it is hoping that it can raise some money for Diabetes research. On its Web site, it is accepting donations, which will go entirely to the International Diabetes Foundation.

Ultimately, putting together a project like this, especially for first-timers like Desert Dingo, was quite the challenge. The team, many of whom are Burning Man veterans, has been working hard at it since March, has spent about $20,000 and is hoping its preparations will allow it to finish the course.

"It's all about figuring out what the variables are and managing them," Graham said. "It's like doing a theme camp at Burning Man. Except tis theme camp will be moving 25 miles an hour and it's for 1,300 miles."