Assassin's Creed III in WW2, Female Lead?

Assasins Creed 2 In an interview with Xbox World 360, Assassin's Creed II producer Sebastien Puel says they've "had discussions" about placing a female in the starring role of the next Assassin's Creed, and setting the game during World War II (via CVG).

The team behind the time-traveling assassin expressed that though a lead female character would be interesting, that the setting is always their preferred inspirational jumping-off point when designing a new game.

"We don't want to just decide we want to change and have a female hero as the first inspiration is always the time period," Puel says, "but if you're talking about, say, World War II the economies in England and France were run by women because the men were off fighting."

In addition to dropping hints on the setting and possible sex of the lead, the interview also plucks some info on Ubisoft's plans for AC's future. Creative director Patrice Fortier points out that though the series was originally planned to be a trilogy, "what's so great about Assassin's Creed is that we can just expand and expand." Patrice painfully elaborates: "I mean, we could do 35 of these." (Err, please don't.)

Assassin's Creed II is available in the States on November 17th, and the 20th in Europe. The PC version is expected in the first quarter of 2010.

More : pc.gamespy.com

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Windows 7 RTM ReadyBoost 256 GB of Memory Cache Support

Windows 7 ReadyBoost Users running the latest iteration of the Windows client will be able to add an extra 256 GM of memory cache in order to handle the overload on the physical RAM installed on their computers.

Just as it was the case with Windows Vista, when the feature was first introduced, ReadyBoost in Windows 7 enables end users to turn to any flash memory device from a USB flash drive to an SD card, in order to get extra memory cache for their machines. Specifically in scenarios where computers are dealing with limited amounts of RAM, ReadyBoost can palpably increase the PC's performance.

“Windows 7 has improved the capabilities of ReadyBoost over Windows Vista, including: Maximum cache size has been increased from 4GB to 32GB. Note that to utilize a memory cache of greater than 4GB, the flash drive needs to be formatted with either a exFAT or NTFS file system. Support for up to 8 ReadyBoost devices simultaneously on the PC. Windows Vista only supported a single ReadyBoost device per PC. The ReadyBoost cache can be used during boot to improve startup performance,” revealed a member of the Global Escalation Services.

Windows 7, just as its precursors, will turn to the hard drive to store data, once it can no longer stash it into the physical memory. If the RAM is saturated, storing and accessing data from a USB device is much faster than when the system turns to traditional HDDs, therefore the performance boost. This is, however, not valid for newer computers with Solid State Drives, as there is no difference between the SDD and the USB device in terms of accessibility speed.

“The best option, if possible, is to upgrade the physical RAM to increase system performance. However, when this isn't an option or if you have some extra space on a flash drive that you are not using, ReadyBoost is there as an alternative. A prime example of where ReadyBoost shines are Windows 7 netbooks that only have 1GB of RAM installed. Having a ReadyBoost cache of 2-4 GB will have a noticeable effect on system performance,” the Global Escalation Services team member noted.

source: news.softpedia.com

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Facebook ensnared in two social networking patent disputes

Facebook Patent Two companies are taking social networking heavyweight Facebook to court over claims that Facebook's website infringes on patents related to personal pages and establishing human relationships. Tele-Publishing Inc, a Boston-based company known for providing personals services to newspapers since the 1980s, is accusing Facebook of violating its patent on "providing a personal page."

Meanwhile, Japan-based Mekiki Co Ltd is suing Facebook for infringing on three of its US patents for a "human relationships registering system."The popular social networking site is facing software patent infringement claims from two less well known companies. A Boston-based company says Facebook infringes on its patent for making a profile page, while a Japanese company says Facebook infringes on its patents for tracking relationship between people. Both suits leave us questioning why the USPTO continues to award patents for software in the first place.

From : Ars technica

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Firefox 3.7, now with Windows 7 jumplist support

Firefox Jumplist Now that Windows 7 is just weeks away from hitting retail shelves, more and more applications are beginning to take advantage of the new shell integration features.

A while back, Google added jumplist support to Google Chrome. Just days ago, a build offering the same functionality finally appeared on Mozilla's Tryserver.

Yes, Firefox fans, you now have the opportunity to test jumplist support in Firefox, as long as you're o.k. with running a Minefield build. As you can see in the image above, the feature is fairly basic right now. In addition to the default Windows 7 "pinned" area, Firefox maintains a list of frequently visited site and allows you to open a new tab or window. I'd like to see a list of recent sites and private browsing added to the list.

You'll find the installer for Windows here. After about 24 hours with the tweaked build, I don't find it to be any less stable than the Minefield nightly. Tried the build out yourself? Share your thoughts in the comments!

From : DownloadSquad

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Thousands of Hotmail passwords leaked online

Hotmail password leaked We has received information regarding a possible Windows Live Hotmail "hack" or phishing scheme where password details of thousands of Hotmail accounts have been posted online.

An anonymous user posted details of the accounts on October 1 at pastebin.com, a site commonly used by developers to share code snippets.

The details have since been removed but Neowin has seen part of the list posted and can confirm the accounts are genuine and most appear to be based in Europe. The list details over 10,000 accounts starting from A through to B, suggesting there could be additional lists. Currently it appears only accounts used to access Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail have been posted, this includes @hotmail.com, @msn.com and @live.com accounts.

Neowin has reported this immediately to Microsoft's Security Response Center and to Microsoft's PR teams in the UK and US and we are currently awaiting feedback on the situation. As this is a breaking story please check back frequently as the story will be updated as soon as more information becomes available.

If you are a Windows Live Hotmail user Neowin recommends that you change your password and security question immediately.

Thanks to Chris for the news tip
Update: According to BBC News, Microsoft is currently "investigating the situation and will take appropriate steps as rapidly as possible."

Update 2: Microsoft has now fully confirmed our reports. According to a Microsoft spokesperson "over the weekend Microsoft learned that several thousand Windows Live Hotmail customer's credentials were exposed on a third-party site due to a likely phishing scheme. Upon learning of the issue, we immediately requested that the credentials be removed and launched an investigation to determine the impact to customers. As part of that investigation, we determined that this was not a breach of internal Microsoft data and initiated our standard process of working to help customers regain control of their accounts."

source: neowin.net

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Microsoft Health Common User Interface (CUI) Controls

MS Health Common UI The Microsoft Health Common User Interface (CUI) provides Design Guidance and Toolkit controls which allow a new generation of safer, more usable and compelling health applications to be quickly and easily created. It is aimed at user interface designers, application developers and patient safety experts who want to find out more about the benefits of a standardized approach to user interface design.

The Microsoft Health CUI Toolkit is a set of .NET controls that help Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) build safe, consistent user interfaces for healthcare applications. Once installed into the Visual Studio Toolbox, full IntelliSense and context-sensitive help are available to help developers understand how to use the various control features.

Controls Delivered in this Release :
-DateLabel (new WPF and Microsoft® Silverlight™ controls)
-TimeLabel (new WPF and Microsoft® Silverlight™ controls)
-AddressLabel (updated WPF and Microsoft® Silverlight™ controls)
-ContactLabel (updated WPF and Microsoft® Silverlight™ controls)
-GenderLabel (updated WPF and Microsoft® Silverlight™ controls)
-Graphing (updated WPF and Microsoft® Silverlight™ controls)
-IdentifierLabel (updated WPF and Microsoft® Silverlight™ controls)
-MedicationsListView (updated WPF and Microsoft® Silverlight™ controls)
-NameLabel (updated WPF and Microsoft® Silverlight™ controls)
-PatientBanner (updated WPF and Microsoft® Silverlight™ controls)
-SingleConceptMatching (updated WPF and Microsoft® Silverlight™ controls)

More : http://www.mscui.net

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Windows 7 Leaked To eBay

Windows 7 Leaked on eBayPC users don't have to wait until Windows 7 is officially launched later this month to get their hands on Microsoft's new operating system—it's already for sale on eBay, and at cut rate prices. A copy of Windows 7 Ultimate was selling for $167.50 on Sunday, while a copy of the Professional version was going for $132.50.

Numerous other eBay sellers are hawking other editions, at varying prices.

Officially, the full version of Windows 7 Professional is $299, with upgrades going for $199. Windows 7 Ultimate is priced at $319, with the upgrade version at $219. The full version of Windows 7 Home Premium is priced at $199, with an upgrade from Vista or XP costing $119.

Some sellers are pitching retail boxed versions of the software while others, the majority, are offering registration keys that allow users to activate a previously downloaded copy of Windows 7. Microsoft has already released Windows 7 to businesses, so it's possible the sellers obtained access to the software keys through their jobs or other professional contacts.

It's buyer beware, however. The software may lack Microsoft's official Certificate Of Authenticity and other piracy protection measures. So it's questionable whether purchasers will receive support for the product, or whether it will even run at all.

Under some circumstances, reselling software violates Microsoft's licensing terms and may also be illegal. The software maker h as sued numerous eBay members in the past, accusing them of distributing pirated or counterfeited versions of its products.

Windows 7 officially goes on sale Oct. 22nd, with Microsoft planning a series of events and launch parties around the country.

From : Informationweek.com

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