Universe’s Tech Blog

Just a few bugs to sort out…

Bungie has made good on its promise to deliver some new Halo 3 information this week and today, on the day of Xbox’s and Halo’s 5th birthday, the developer has made a couple of new announcements.

The most significant of these announcements has to do with the The Xbox Live multiplayer public beta, a pre-release version of the multiplayer experience of Halo 3, scheduled for availability in spring 2007 on the Xbox 360.

In addition, Microsoft and Bungie confirmed today that consumers will be able to experience the Halo universe this holiday season through a one-time airing of a 60-second Halo 3 teaser ad. The add will be fully CGI and has been created by an external studio under Bungie’s supervision and wuill not be meant to replicate gameplay visuals but rather as a showcase of what the Halo Universe looks like under photorealistic conditions. Shortly after the commercial airs, Bungie will be treating fans to the next installment in its making of documentary series on Xbox Live Marketplace. This next VIDOC is going to give some new insights into elements of the campaign and will peel back the curtain on a certain prominent character in Halo 3.

And finally it was announced that the new, premium downloadable content for Halo 2, exclusive to Xbox 360, is scheduled for release in spring 2007.

Unveiled earlier this year at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, “Halo 3” represents the third chapter in the “Halo” trilogy, an international award-winning action series that grew into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 14.7 million units worldwide, which equals nearly $700 million in sales, and logging in excess of 800 million hours of multiplayer action on Xbox Live.

On Dec. 4, the special 60-second Halo 3 advertising spot will be broadcast, one time only, on ESPN’s Monday Night Football. The ad, created by advertising agency McCann Erickson, will provide viewers with a unique and compelling look at Master Chief and the world of Halo 3. The television spot will also be available for download exclusively for Xbox 360 users via Xbox Live Marketplace.

In addition, gamers who have jumped in to Xbox 360 will be able to join legions of Xbox fans next spring in all-new multiplayer maps for Halo 2 available for download through Xbox Live Marketplace. The exclusive Halo 2 content will bring new experiences and excitement to the seminal sequel that made entertainment retail history in its first 24 hours — with USD 125 million in sales — and that boasts more than four billion online matches since its release in November 2004.

According to Microsoft and Bungie, in this third chapter of the Halo trilogy, Master Chief returns to finish the fight, bringing the epic conflict between the Covenant, the Flood and the entire human race to a dramatic, pulse-pounding climax.

A new report by analyst Lazard Capital Markets, is casting doubt over Sony’s ability to deliver 400,000 PS3’s for the console’s U.S. launch and suggests the realistic figure may be closer to 150,000-200,000 units.

Such a dramatic decrease in the launch quantities of PS3 is bound to cause a severe shortage and may disrupt the delivery of pre-orders as Lazard’s Colin Sebastian claims, we expect Sony to deliver 150-200k units to stores in the United States for the launch; consumers without pre-orders may find it difficult to locate an available system.

The same analyst downplays the significance of the reduced quantities of PS3’s during launch and suggests that it will be a while before Sony’s and Nintendo’s next-gen console sales will be able to have an impact on the overall industry performance. We expect less than 15 per cent of software sales to come from the PS3 and Wii this holiday. The more numerous Xbox 360, PS2 and handheld platforms remain key drivers of growth, said Sebastian.

While we await confirmation, or denial, by Sony to these suggestions, we have to mention that rumors were circulating today regarding GameStop and its recent calls to customers mentioning the possibility of not fulfilling all pre-orders. The company is even offering a free-gift as an apology, we wonder if Sony will pick up the tabps3nwctrlrtlt_s1 for the expense.

Following the news that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Full Auto 2, Sonic and possibly F.E.A.R. are to miss the launch window for the PS3, Activision has come to confirm a strong launch lineup for both the PS3 and Wii.

The robust launch lineup features popular game franchises, including Tony Hawk’s Project 8, Call of Duty 3 and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance for the PS 3 and Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, Call of Duty 3 and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance for the Wii. Additionally, Rapala Tournament Fishing and World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions for the Wii will ship on November 22, 2006.

Activision’s Game Lineup:

The follow-up to the #1 next-generation game, Call of Duty 3 delivers the intensity of being closer than ever to the fury of combat during the Normandy Breakout, the historic campaign that led to the liberation of Paris. The game offers action-packed online multiplayer gameplay for up to 24 players. The game will be released on PLAYSTATION 3, Wii and the Xbox 360, as well as the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

An all-new action/RPG, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance lets players control the world’s largest army of Super Heroes in an epic quest that will determine the fate of Earth and the Marvel universe. The game will be released on the PS 3, Wii and Xbox 360 as well as PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC, PSP and Game Boy Advance.

Built from the ground up for the next-gen consoles, Tony Hawk’s Project 8 delivers the most authentic skateboarding experience ever and will be available for the PLAYSTATION 3 and the Xbox 360, as well as PlayStation 2, Xbox and the PSP.

A new brand extension designed exclusively for the Wii and Nintendo DS, Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam lets players experience the breakneck speed of downhill skateboard racing as they tear up steep terrain while performing tricks and outmaneuvering opponents.

Coming out on the Wii platform, Rapala Tournament Fishing lets players embark on all new angling adventures in 16 of the world’s most desirable fishing locales utilizing authentic gear from Rapala, the world’s largest manufacturer of fishing lures and #1 fishing brand in the world.

Building on last year’s #1 poker title and the #1 brand in poker, World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions for the Wii puts players on the Pro Circuit as a new pro and protege of Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.

It’s somewhat passed under the radar, but as this AP piece reported, Sun has taken the historical step of releasing all of Java, bar those components it doesn’t own, under the GPL. This, as the report correctly notes, is a massive addition to the open source world.

After all, it was Java that stirred visions of a write-once run-anywhere future of applications, regardless of operating system, and sold us a vision of an OS-agnostic future where all that mattered were the programs.

Of course, it didn’t quite happen that way, but Sun estimates some 3.8 billion machines, from embedded systems including phones to PCs and servers, run Java applications.

In fact, be it your phone, web sites you visit, desktop programs or custom applications in the world around you, chances are you run into Java sometime during your day.

The motivation for Sun is still in its business interests, hoping that by releasing the code it will encourage more developers to use it, extend the life of the platform and, in turn, profit from the continuing demand for its services and expertise.

Personally, I just think it’s pretty damn cool. While it’s sometimes been the bane of cross-platform programming, it’s also been a boon. As I write this I have Azureus, a highly popular Java-based P2P application, running in the background. And it runs just the same under Windows as under Linux.

While the release of the source code won’t immediately change anything for the sphere of Java applications, it’s going to be interesting to see what the world of open source developers can do with it. We’ll almost certainly see optimised JRE and JDK builds for various distributions (not to mention retrieving packages without going through a clickwrap agreement) to improve the performance of Java applications under Linux and Windows, which can only be a good thing. I love my Azureus, but it’s noticeably slower than a native application. Here’s to the power of peer review. Well, hopefully.

Naturally, you can read more at Sun.

It’s been a while since I’ve played a game until my fingers ached. But I’ve been so enraptured by Guitar Hero 2 that I just keep on banging out those riffs until I can barely hold the plastic PlayStation 2 guitar controller anymore.

For those who haven’t experienced the Guitar Hero franchise before, it’s like air guitar karaoke. Instead of a microphone and an assortment of Beyonce tracks, Guitar Hero 2 puts a guitar in your hands and gets you to play along with bands like Guns N’ Roses and Black Sabbath. It’s every rock pig’s gaming fantasy, and is incredibly well implemented.

Gameplay consists of matching button presses and strumming on the guitar while notes scroll towards you on an onscreen representation of the fret. To hit a note you hold down the appropriate button on the neck and tap the strum bar on the guitar’s body. At the easiest level this involves basic three chord progressions, but this gets more and more complex until expert mode with five chords and some intense fretwork are needed.

I hadn’t had a chance to play the original Guitar Hero — when the review copy arrived in the office it was pounced upon by too many of my colleagues for me to have a go. But I’ve been able to spend some time now with the sequel and the subtle charms of what is quite a simple game are becoming apparent.

In part it helps that there are so many familiar songs to come to grips with, which helps the learning curve a lot. The game is also set up to scale quite well, with easy mode getting you used to the basic game mechanics, while still offering up a challenge for the noobish. I’d been feeling pretty good until I hit ‘Who was in your room last night?’ by The Butthole Surfers, and the sudden appearance of simple multi-button chords threw my hand eye coordination completely. As you progress through difficulty levels the dexterity required gets more and more intense, the game culminating with some truly brain destroying tracks (check out this amazing video of someone playing the hardest song in the game, Lynard Skynard’s Freebird, on Expert setting)

Career mode in Guitar Hero 2 involves unlocking a series of ‘gigs’, each featuring different songs to choose from. Complete the songs to a satisfactory level and unlock the next gig and its songs. There’s also the ability to unlock new songs as ‘encores’ if you perform well enough, and other tracks that can be bought with money earned from gigs.

You don’t have to nail every note in a song to complete it, but you do get a score based upon how well you pull it off. However the real joy in the game comes from nailing a track perfectly, your inner rocker punching the air and screaming as you blast the last power chord on a flawless run through the song.

I haven’t had a chance to play around with the coop multiplayer yet, but the game gives the ability for two guitarists to play together. Either as lead and rhythm guitar, or lead and bass guitar. One great thing about this is that players can set their difficulty levels independently — meaning someone can still be learning on easy mode, while their more experienced friend does the lead guitar on expert. It’s a small touch, but a nice way to make for a fun experience without both people being air guitar gods.

On the down side for some, the tracks in the game are definitely skewed to the metal/thrash/rockabilly side of the guitar equation, with more poppy songs like Message In a Bottle by the Police or Girlfriend by Matthew Sweet being exceptions rather than rules. The good news is that of the heavier tracks, there are some really iconic numbers to play like Killing in The Name Of by Rage Against The Machine (without the swearing), Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana and even Sweet Child O Mine by Guns N’ Roses. For extra special geek cred the game even includes Trogdor, the song about burninating made famous by the website Homestar runner.

Guitar Hero 2 is one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played on PS2 in a long time. Standing there in the living room, guitar strap slung round my neck as I rock out makes me feel like I’m a teenager in the bedroom strumming a tennis racket — but this time I’m actually ‘making’ music rather than being a passive participant. It’s a game made to nurture the inner guitar god in all of us.

CSI detectives can spray Luminol around the place to detect spots of blood that have been wiped clean, but there’s no such wonder spray for hard drives.

I came across this fascinating area of IT a little while ago and decided to investigate HOW investigators actually approach computers in criminal forensics.

The first step a forensics investigator has to take with a suspect computer is to image its hard drive. Other storage media can also harbour evidence so CDs, DVDs, USB memory sticks and backup tapes might also be included. Even RAID arrays might have to be incorporated. An exact duplicate of the original is necessary from an evidence point of view so that it can be shown that nothing has changed after it was seized.

I use Encase 4.20 for Windows in this article to demonstrate concepts but the general idea is the same no matter which software is used. This is an awesome piece of software, made by Guidance Software, that facilitates all aspects of forensics IT work.

Other applications in this space are The Sleuth Kit and Autopsy (both open source). These two run on Unix and work together to provide a complete solution.

The traditional method of acquiring an image of a suspect source HDD is booting with a special Encase DOS boot disk and copy from drive to drive. There’s also a version called LinEn which is a 32-bit Linux based boot disk achieving the same goal with better performance. Encase provides a simple wizard to create or modify an existing startup disk. It can also be used to create a boot CD.

Options for an acquired image

For serious work however the FastBloc hardware write block device is the professionals choice. This sits between the hard drive source and destination; blocking all write access. It comes with Firewire and USB interfaces and using adapters can also fit PATA and SATA drives.

Fastbloc hardware write blocker

Drives can be imaged from disk to disk in the same system or over a network crossover cable. The Enterprise version can acquire images from live running systems over the network. To avoid potential abuse there’s a third system that controls who can acquire which systems and when, called Secure Authentication for EnCase (SAFE). All network traffic in the Enterprise version is encrypted.

All imaged drives along with notes etc are contained in one evidence file. As an image in created CRC and MD5 hashes are automatically created to ensure that the data is identical to the suspect drive. Later in the process this can also be done manually to verify that the data hasn’t been altered.

As a forensics tool looks at an imaged hard drive from the “outside” with the OS not running, a thorough understanding of filesystems (both FAT and NTFS) is required as there can be “slack space” in sectors that can hide interesting data.

HPA (Host Protected Areas) or DCO (Device Configuration Overlay) are areas of hard drives where the manufacturer can store extended information. These areas can also be used by a sufficiently knowledgeable user to hide other data and so must of course also be investigated.

Once the image is acquired the search for “artifacts” begin. This is forensics speak for evidence on the suspect system. Different operating systems and applications leave diverse traces of user activities, not surprisingly Windows has a whole host of different ones. The Recycle bin is an obvious first stop for investigation as are Link files. Recent documents can also provide clues and the Temp folder can provide a wealth of information as most users don’t look here. Favorites, temporary internet files, Cookies and the History folder are also clear targets.

The swap file can be interpreted by Encase as can the hibernation file (laptops).

Powerful search functions for the whole drive are provided with GREP expressions. Picture gallery show image files (think child porn), Encrypting File System in Windows can be bypassed (with a retrieved key), IE history files can be accessed and shown in the timeline to establish web surfing patterns (think Google searches for “hijack flight”).

File signature analysis is the process of comparing the file header to the file extension and thus spotting files that have had their extension changed to “hide” their true content. File hashes can also be compared to known suspect files so you can easily find “subseven” for instance, even if program files have been renamed.

IT forensics is an interesting application of IT, and if you ever need to find another job in IT, you might consider pursuing it. There’s even a certification for this particular software: Encase Certified Examiner (EnCE).