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Rumor: Syndicate script slips out
Siliconera has published alleged "chunks" of a script for Starbreeze's long-rumored Syndicate game. If authentic, the excerpts would join some trademarks in a modest pile of evidence pointing to a reboot of EA's dormant cyberpunk series, created by the now defunct Bullfrog Productions in the early 90s. The narrative and dialog excerpts share some commonalities with the old Syndicate games' bleak, corporate cyborg–regulated world -- namely, the suggestion of brain-implanted "chips" -- but don't otherwise let on to any gameplay elements. In June 2009, Sean Cooper, who designed the original, isometric tactical shooter, commented on EA's failed attempts to revive the franchise. "Every time I've seen a prototype of a new Syndicate it's just been misguided," he told IncGamers. Cooper did not appear to have any knowledge of Starbreeze's possible recreation, which is rumored to have been in development since August 2007. "The essence of the game was killing people -- and that was it," Cooper said of Bullfrog's 1993 classic. "Big guns, strong dudes; Terminators essentially. If I have to kill everyone, I will. That to me was the essence of the gameplay." [Screenshot source: MobyGames (with script overlay)]
Upgrading old Pres, Pre Pluses to webOS 2.1 slightly easier, fraught with less danger thanks to new scripts
Let's be honest, Palm user: in all likelihood, your days with your Pre or Pre Plus are numbered. At this point, you've got the Pre 2 available, the Pre 3 and Veer in the pipeline, and countless awesome assaults from other platforms in constant danger of stealing you away. Might as well have a little fun, right? Maybe try your hand at an unauthorized upgrade to webOS 2.1, for example? WebOS Internals has thrown together some scripts that make updating a variety of Pre and Pre Plus versions from Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, Telcel, and Bell -- devices that HP recently decided wouldn't get webOS 2.0 -- relatively painless, though they're quick to note that any number of absolutely awful things could still happen to your device or your Palm Profile. It's not for the faint of heart... but then again, carrying around a Pre these days shows a level of platform defiance that isn't for the faint of heart, either, so you're no stranger to bravery. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Use Dropbox to backup a few folders every day
There's a nice little tutorial on Justin Schwalbe's blog for using a simple script to backup a few folders to a Dropbox backup folder every day. Why would you do this? Well, let's say you aren't always able to connect to a hard drive for Time Machine, but you have a couple of document folders you want to make sure are backed up off site every day. If you are traveling but have internet access, this script plus Dropbox will save your bacon -- or your files, at least. Note that you should be comfortable with bash scripting to successfully implement this backup solution. You can, of course, also keep folders in Dropbox itself, but Justin's scripted method allows incremental backups that keep versions from a few days back, so (sort of like Time Machine), if you find yourself needing a file from two days ago versus five minutes ago, you'll have that in a dedicated folder based on the date. If you're not comfortable with Terminal or scripting, consider carrying a USB drive with you and relying upon Time Machine, Apple's built-in backup solution. Update: As noted by Justin in the comments, this creates encrypted disk images. Also, Dropbox does have versioning that goes back 30 days, available on the Dropbox site. photo by Flickr user jm3
The story behind the Twitter worm
When we heard about this malicious JavaScript code that hit Twitter yesterday, we were kind of relieved: perhaps it was nature's way of ridding us of celebrity micro-bloggers. But as the day went on, it seemed that even if this were the case, a sordid tale was emerging: apparently the whole thing began with a Norwegian programmer named Magnus Holm, who had experimented with a flaw in Twitter's website that let users execute code on a mouseover. His version of the code simply replicated itself: "The purpose was simply to see if it was possible to create a worm," he told The New York Times, adding that he was surprised it had spread as quickly as it did. "Because it was very easy to delete the Tweet that contained the worm, I expected that everyone would just delete it the moment they realized that they've been 'infected.'" But soon enough, folks were updating the code for malicious purposes, including redirects to spam sites and, perhaps worst of all, Rickrolling. By 8:30 AM President Obama's Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had inadvertently sent the thing out to his followers, and by 10:00 AM (when Twitter had patched the hole) an estimated 200,000-plus users had been hit. Fortunately, it looks like things are back to normal, which reminds us: @justinbieber hasn't tweeted for over twenty-four hours. We hope he's OK!
'Rainbow tweets' start hammering Twitter after onMouseOver exploit discovered
Oh dear. Some wise guys have discovered a JavaScript exploit in Twitter's web interface, which uses an onMouseOver instruction to hijack your own tweeting voice and force you to say things you don't want to say. Simply put, hovering on some of these colorful new tweets can result in you tweeting out the spammiest spam you ever did tweet. So, as with Tetris, be wary of those blocks of color, they are the harbingers of doom. And until the Twitter crew wrap their brains around sealing this vulnerability off, we'd recommend just using any of the cornucopia of Twitter apps floating about in the webosphere. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Update: The Twitgineers are already dealing with the issue and are rolling out a patch that should span the entire Twitterverse before too long.
iOS 4.0 firmware release expected momentarily, quick Terminal tip to check
Last year, we showed you how to check for the 3.0 firmware release via the terminal command line. As we move into the new year, TUAW reader Mike K writes in, saying "Being compulsive, is the terminal command to check for 3.0 the same as for 4.0? I'd love to know..." Hey Mike, yes the terminal command is more or less the same as last year, but we have a slight improvement for you, so your system will speak to you when the new firmware goes live. #! /bin/csh curl -s -L http://phobos.apple.com/version | grep -i Restore | grep -i iPhone | grep -i 4.0 if ($? == 1) then echo "Nothing yet..." else say "FOUR POINT OH FIRMWARE IS NOW AVAILABLE" endif sleep 30 Save this script into a new file (e.g. "checkingscript") and chmod it to 755 so it will be executable. (The line that starts with "curl" and ends with "4.0" is a single line -- so make sure you don't split it in two. Also make sure you put a carriage return at the end of the "sleep 30" line.) Then run the script from the command line using a repeat command, e.g. repeat 5000 ./checkingscript. The built-in "sleep" command ensures that it will wait 30 seconds between attempts. If you are not using csh or tcsh, just type csh at the command line before issuing the repeat command. The script works by checking for iPhone restore firmware that has 4.0 in the name. When it finds this, the curl command will return a success (exit status 0 versus a failed exit status of 1) and your system will speak to you using the OS X "say" command. You will need to select your firmware using the iPhone or iPod touch model. They are: iPhone 3G: iPhone 1,2 iPhone 3GS: iPhone 2,1 iPod touch 2G: iPod 2,1 iPod touch 3G: iPod 3,1 These are embedded into the name, so a firmware restore named iPhone2,1_4.0_9B291_Restore.ipsw (I just made that name up) would be a 3GS restore file for 4.0. To download, copy the full phobos.apple.com URL and paste it into Safari's download window or use any other favorite method to retrieve the firmware. Then hold the Option key and click Update in iTunes. Navigate to the firmware (the ipsw file), select it, and 4.0's good to go. Of course, you can also download directly through iTunes as soon as the update is available.
Sikuli can automate any UI by taking screenshots
This is pretty impressive --of course there are already lots of ways to automate actions on your Mac, and odds are that you may have messed around with scripting or Automator more than once before. But Sikuli is a new app that makes automating as simple as taking screenshots. Instead of programming actions, all you have to do is put screenshots of the particular UI items that you want to automate in a list, and then the app will use visual cues to do whatever you want it to do. Not only does it make things much easier when actually writing scripts, but it also gives you countless options in terms of automation -- the app can automate any app that has a graphical user interface, because all it has to do is recognize that GUI on your screen. That includes web apps, too -- like I said, the possibilities are endless. And since it's developed with Jython, you Python experts can insert any Python code that you like in the scripts as well. The whole thing is an MIT project, so it's available for free across all platforms, including OS X, Windows, and Linux. If you've been looking for an automator that'll do any rote task for you, give Sikuli a try. [via LifeHacker]
Rumor: Uncharted movie gets new writers
Last we heard about the movie version of Uncharted, it was in the hands of writer Kyle Ward, who most recently penned the big screen adaptation of Kane and Lynch. According to a rumor being reported by LatinoReview.com, Ward has been removed by Sony and producer Avi Arad, who didn't want to wait on the script while Ward finished his current project, Hitman 2. Reportedly, Sony is considering filling his slot with Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, the duo that's currently writing a relaunch of Conan. The bigger surprise, of course, is that movies based on video games have scripts. Who knew?
The Explain-o-matic will explain your macros
This is actually a really cool idea for a site -- Fitzcairn's Macro Explain-o-matic is basically a web script that reads WoW macros, and will go, line by line, through them to put exactly what they do in plain English. Sure, odds are that if you have a macro already, you probably have some idea of what it does, but if you've ever wanted to learn how to write macros, or aren't sure exactly what the macro your friend emailed to you is supposed to do for your character, you can just throw it in a text field, and then Fitzcairn's script will break it apart for you.The site will even let you save (with a permalink) and email any macros you punch in -- though I couldn't find a way to browse them, maybe Fitzcarin is working on that. There are lots of resources online to find macros, but not so many to explain them well, so the Explain-o-matic is definitely worth a bookmark for the next time you need a little help.[via Twisted Nether]
Gary Whitta worked on a Warcraft screenplay
You'll notice that I surreptitiously left the question of "screenwriter" out of the other day's Breakfast Topic. That's because, quite frankly, I have no idea who I want writing the Warcraft movie. The folks I really like in Hollywood are probably too quirky to write an epic movie like this, and the folks who usually write these epic movies are too lame to handle a world like Warcraft. In my mind, only someone like Metzen should wield the pen for this one, and even then, his strengths lie in creating universes, not dialog. So I have no idea.But apparently there's already a screenplay being worked on: with the news that Sam Raimi is taking the helm, screenwriter Gary Whitta (who's written both for games and movies) says he'd been working with both Legendary and Blizzard on crafting a screenplay that included both the sprawling world and a story that would resonate with non-players. But he says that since Raimi took over, it's likely the whole thing will go in another direction, as "his own pretty specific vision of what he wanted to do story-wise." Whitta does say, however, that, from what he's heard, "Raimi is the best possible director for this." Sounds good to us.It'll be quite a tightrope to walk: depending on what Legendary actually wants out of the film, they've got to make the story interesting and pressing enough that even non-WoW players will get into it without ruining and/or ignoring the reason why there are so many players in the first place: the lush and intriguing universe we've all enjoyed playing in. Anyone tasked with putting together a script that uses all of those blocks to build something great will have quite a job ahead of them.[via Blue's News]
Tweetcraft lets you tweet from Warcraft
Twitter is all the rage right now -- it's the easiest, quickest way to let anyone interested know what you're up to, and because it's so popular, it's also no surprise that we've seen quite a few Twitter and World of Warcraft mashup apps. wowTwitter is a separate update service just for news about your characters, WoWHorn is a script that lets you Tweet when you hit certain achievements, and though services like PlayXpert have let you Twitter from the game before, TweetCraft appears to be the first standalone application designed to do just that. After installation, it works the same way as an addon, though it's actually not -- addons can't directly connect to the Internet, so TweetCraft instead uses an outside script to read and write tweets into settings files, which the ingame addon then reads to get and send your tweets. It gets complicated, but you don't need to know all that to install and use it -- when you run the setup app, it'll put everything in the right places for you.As with all third-party applications, you should install and run this one at your own risk -- the FAQ has more information if you're wondering how things are stored or whether the app is secure. The app is completely open source, which means anyone who wants to can read the code, so if the author of the app was doing anything sneaky, we'd know about it. And yes, right now the app is not violating the ToS, but of course that's enforced according to Blizzard's whims, so again, use it at your own risk. If you're not interested in using this app, you can always update your status here on WoW.com using our own addon -- it's not Twitter, but it will let your friends keep track of you in Azeroth!But TweetCraft does look to be a clever, solid way to access and post to Twitter from right inside your World of Warcraft game. If you've been looking for a one-stop solution like this, there you go. Do be sure to follow us over on Twitter, too, if you haven't yet -- you never know when we might tweet something you'll want to see.Update: Apparently the app on default tweets all kinds of things you probably don't want to (like changing zones). There is probably a settings switch somewhere, but as always, user beware.
Rumor: Partial script for Driver film adaptation leaked
"DRIVER, 25, a test driver for Audi Germany in his mid-twenties -- a little Beckham, a little McQueen -- with munchy hair and intense blue eyes that show a focus that's laser-like."These precious words constitute the first sentence of the Roger Avary-crafted screenplay for the (currently on-hold) film adaptation of the Driver series. The first five pages of the "HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL" script (written circa fall 2006) were recently leaked to superannuation, an anonymous (but extremely reliable) gaming news source. We have no idea who did the leaking, nor are we entirely certain of the script's veracity. Still -- a blogger can dream. If you have the literate faculties to do so, please take the time to lose yourself in this all too brief masterpiece.Update: The mastermind behind superannuation contacted us, informing us that he (or she?) was the one who actually discovered the script. Good find, sir! (Or madam!)
Wolverine movie borrowed lines from Wolverine game
Remember how when you saw the Wolverine movie yesterday, and it was at the part where Wolverine was all like "Rawrrgh! I'm going to cut on you!" and you thought that dialogue seemed pretty familiar? You may have heard that exact same line in X-Men Origins: Wolverine: The Game -- in a recent interview with Yahoo, Aussie hunk extraordinaire Hugh Jackman admitted he "was able to bring some of the lines of dialogue from the game script into the movie." Thief! Vagabond! Scoundrel!However, since the general consensus we've heard says the game is better than the flick, perhaps this scurrilous Outbacker's shameless line thievery isn't such a bad thing.[Via GoNintendo]
Exporting guild calendars from the Armory
Reader Bob sent us a neat little tool a while back that will help you get your guild's calendar off of The Armory and on to another calendar program, like Google Calendar or iCal. This little script he built (which unfortunately will probably get beat up as soon as this post goes live, so give it a break if it's down) will give you a link for your guild's calendar, which you can then take over to Google Calendar (in the Other Calendars box, click Add, and then "Add by URL") or any other calendar service that accepts ICS data by URL, and put all of your guild's raids and events right into the calendar app that you actually use every day.However, there are a few hitches. Because the information you need lies on the Armory, you'll have to enter a Battle.net password into your calendar app to access that (which as Bob says, should be fine, but if you don't trust it, don't do it). Also, Blizzard is apparently not that happy with people accessing this data on the Armory either -- they've removed links to scripts like this off of the forums before. It's probably not a bannable offense (they probably just don't want tons of calendar queries into the Armory's servers), but if you try to connect this stuff together, you'll do it at your own risk.Still, it's a shame Blizzard isn't more open with this guild data -- it would be extremely useful to easily export guild information out to an .ICS file or even an RSS feed (for bank and join/quit info). We're not sure what all of their concerns are, but given that the info is already updated on the Armory, there has to be a way to more easily get it out of there and into more places where we can use it.
AppleScript: Exploring the power of Folder Actions, part III
So far in this AppleScript feature we've covered what folder actions are and how to create them. In this AppleScript post, I'm going to tell you how to create your own custom scripts and add them to your folder actions list. If you work with file permissions a lot, then you know how crazy it can get when you need to change a ton of files to their correct permission types. With this AppleScript folder action, you can easily change the permissions just by dragging and dropping files in their correct folder. Creating the Script To get started, we'll open the Script Editor (located in /Applications/Utilities). Once you have the editor opened, copy/paste the following script: on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items tell application "Finder" set fold_name to the name of this_folder try repeat with i from 1 to number of items in added_items set new_item to item i of added_items set the item_path to the quoted form of the POSIX path of new_item do shell script ("/bin/chmod -R +r " & item_path) end repeat end try end tellend adding folder items toThis script will change the dropped files to a permission of "0644" meaning that everyone can read the file. For information about chmod and command line permissions strings, visit the Wikipedia page. Continue reading to learn more about this AppleScript and folder actions.
Forum Post of the Day: Chatroom of the Scourge
I don't know exactly what's so funny about this long chatlog between some of the more popular undead and evil NPCs of the game (maybe just how similar this crowd ends up being to us), but it is hilarious. Basically a sequel to the old boss chat, this one has "theLichKing" chatting with "Killzone'jaeden" and "An00barak" about everything from how cold it is in Icecrown to just where Sargeras is from. Very well done, Warraven of Ravenholdt. He even gets some nice lore in there even between all of the pony jokes.And this little chatlog reminded me of all the funny stuff over at Wowbash. If you've never looked through the archives over there, definitely check them out, but be careful. Browsing all of those funny quotes is almost more addictive than actually playing the game.
Random Signatures with TextExpander and AppleScript
TextExpander, a $29.95US utility which inserts snippets of text or images when you type a preset string of characters, has long been a TUAW favorite. I only recently learned that it can run AppleScripts within a snippet, which opened up a world of fun for me. Here's a quick script demonstrating how AppleScript can be used to randomize quotes within your email signature. Create a new TextExpander snippet and set the content type to "AppleScript." Copy and paste the code that follows into the snippet content box. I'll run through what it does in at the end. Read on for the script!
SteelSeries WoW mouse dangerous in no uncertain Terms (of Use)
We had an article here not too long ago about the SteelSeries WoW mouse, purportedly das ubermaus, replete with glowing fissures and lookin' all like a Templar helmet. We actually had kind of a hard time finding out just how the mouse performed -- it was advertised months before it came out, and it doesn't appear that many gamers actually got to use the mouse prior to pre-ordering it and did so based on Blizzard's official licensing of the WoW name on the product.The few that did use it, those that played around with it at BlizzCon, actually reported to us that it felt cheap, flimsy, and about to break. That was a bit disconcerting to read, of course, and it wasn't actually an isolated incident--all of the emails we've received about it thus far have been negative reviews. Folks complained of broken buttons or strange key reassignments with the accompanying software.Now, our sister site Engadget just released their own impressions on the device and they appear to like it, offering a large size, good weight, and robust software among their list of pros.The inconsistency in reviews of the product thus far isn't what really bothers me, though. It's the fact that the mouse is a WoW-licensed product that performs functions that are against Blizzard's policies.
Yascombe: Haze's script is over 1,000 pages long
We've all heard quite a bit about Haze, the next big (and easily-swappable) FPS coming exclusively to the PS3 sometime in May, but during a recent tour through Free Radical Studios led by lead writer Rob Yascombe (who is, in fact, a bona fide, bug-eyed madman), it was announced that the script for the nectar-enriched shooter is over 1,000 pages long. As a point of reference, the script for "Gone With The Wind" clocks in at a crisp 650 pages. Probably.Before you linguaphiles begin frothing at the mouth in anticipation of a Bioware-caliber dialogue extravaganza, Yascombe explains that a lot of the script is composed of mid-battle NPC retorts -- some of which, he adds, will be delivered by none other than the Royal Shakespeare Company. We wonder if those dandy artistes will be able to deliver their bullet-riddled screams of agony in iambic pentameter.
Rumor: Further evidence of Star Wars: KOTOR MMO discovered
1UP recently added some fuel cells to the fire of the relatively aged rumor that the result of Bioware and LucasArts' recent collaboration is an MMORPG which takes place in the long-winded universe of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. While one could make a case for and against this claim, a script for the game, which apparently landed in the laps of 1UP's digital ink slingers, could prove conclusive evidence for the online epic -- if it's completely legit, that is.The script details the online game as a "role-playing game set in the historical past of the Star Wars universe," where "Jedi and Sith battle across the galaxy." While those two phrases could apply to many chapters of the Star Wars mythos, the tipster who submitted the script was convinced it carried Bioware's trademark verbosity. We're confused -- how will we be expected to spend hours mindlessly grinding and spawn camping with all of that dialog getting in our way? Hopefully they'll fix that in beta.[Via Massively]
