Spoiler-y Portal 2 prop made for sake of science

Prop master Harrison Krix made a fabulous, full-sized replica gun from Valve's hit, Portal. That was years ago, and with Portal 2 wowing critics and gamers, it's time for an upgrade.

Yup, that's the GLaDOS Potato, attached to Krix's prop. And she's looking pretty good. More can be seen over at the Volpin Props Flickr account.

In Portal 2, bots have more trust.

Run a Katamari over any Webpage

Are you browsing this page on Google Chrome right now? Well, you're going to want to. Some saint of a coder has developed an utterly delightful hack that rolls up all of a Web page's text and pictures, Katamari-style.


How's it work? Pasting a piece of JavaScript into Chrome's address bar activates the hack, which reloads the page and separates all of its parts - words, images, etc. - into individual items. Just like the game, as the Katamari gets bigger it's able to roll up larger items. The Katamari hack will provide you with hours of time-killing, frustration-dissipating fun on any Web page - your least favorite news network, your least favorite celebrity's Twitter, your most favorite site whose redesign you dislike, anything!

Did we mention there's a multiplayer feature? By going to the Katamari Hack Web site and pasting in a URL, you create a game session (listed on that site) which allows other people to join in.

GamePro, which spotted the hack yesterday, noted that the creator "has seemingly taken great pains to remain anonymous." The page was originally hosted on an anonymous Amazon Web Services site. He seems to be out in the open now, as the code has moved to the URL kathack.com, whose owner, a Seattle programmer, is identifiable by a WHOIS lookup.

If that page goes down to a surge of traffic, too, here's the Javascript.

javascript:var h='http://174.129.249.239/js/',i,n,ss=['http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.min.js',h+'Renderables.js',h+'Game.js'];for(i=0;i<ss.length;i++){n=document.createElement("script");n.src=ss[i]+'?'+Date.now();document.head.appendChild(n);}

Microsoft penalizing users of illigitmate Microsoft Points

A few days ago a forum user, on the website ‘The Tech Game’, told all the other users how to generate codes for Microsoft Points on the Xbox Live service.
Since this Microsoft have looked into it and they are looking to punish those who participated in obtaining the free codes. Microsoft has now invalidated the codes generated illegitimately and come out with the following statement:
“Codes obtained legitimately by users will not be impacted”. Microsoft found out about the generator within hours but a reported $1.2 million worth of codes were generated and used. Microsoft has said that the figures are far too high adding “We can’t share specific numbers”.
Microsoft’s full statement:

“We are aware of the situation and have taken steps to invalidate the codes obtained illegitimately. We take safety and security very seriously and require that Xbox LIVE members use the service in compliance with applicable laws and specifically prohibit people from engaging in illegal activity as a part of our Terms of Use and Code of Conduct. Our Policy and Enforcement team is evaluating whether or not certain individuals have violated the Terms of Use for Xbox LIVE and will take the appropriate enforcement on an individual basis. Codes obtained legitimately by users will not be impacted.“

It has not been revealed yet how Microsoft are going to penalize the users who used the points but bans may be put in place and Microsoft’s ‘Terms of Use’ changed.

Mortal Kombat: Raiden Story/Gameplay trailer

The new Mortal Kombat game is looking to be pretty good. The demo is currently available for Playstation Plus subscribers and will soon be available on Xbox Live.

Xbox Live Labs - Trading time for avatar items

Microsoft wants to enlist your help in testing the Xbox Live network, rewarding volunteers willing to donate up to six hours of Xbox 360 time with crazy mad scientist goodies once the testing's done. To participate, simply scroll to your Xbox 360's community section and download the tiny Xbox Live Labs app from the ad there. Once downloaded and installed, you just turn it on and leave it running.

The three levels of testing - 30 minutes, one hour, and six hours - are each associated with zero point achievements that will score testers three Xbox 360 avatar items: A lab coat, a brain helmet, and crazy mad scientist hair.

Kinect + Garry's Mod?

Definitely the most entertaining video of a Kinect mod I've seen so far. Wonder how much more we'll be able to do with it once Microsoft releases the official pc SDK?

Epic reveals next gen graphics with Unreal Engine 3

The trailer, called Samaritan, showcases the power of UE3 and DirectX 11 together. IGN says that Epic is releasing this updated Unreal Engine development kit today, March 9th.

Nyko doubles 3DS Battery

What you're seeing here is actually two products Nyko has lined up to support 3DS gamers when the system hits North America on March 27. The first is the Power Pak+, a high capacity battery that hooks onto the back of the 3DS, adding extra power at the cost of added bulk. They say the device will double the battery life of the 3DS, effectively transforming three to eight hours into up to 16 hours.  Then there's the Charge Base. Arriving a week after launch and packed along with one of the Power Pak+ units, the charge base will allow players to drop their 3DS unit inside for a little juicing up while not in play. Considering the base and Power Pak+ combo is only $29.99, it might be worth waiting a week to get both.

CyanogenMod 7 appears for Samsung Captivate

CyanogenMod Forum post for SGS phones now contains the instructions to flash/update CM7 as well as the links to the latest versions for the files. If you are already running CM7, you just need to download the latest cm7-captivate-update-xxxxxxxx.zip and flash it via CWM. It still has some problems, but is relatively stable and usable.