The required sum for the tickets was donated within 3 days with this response from Gabe Newell:

The English language lacks the words to express the level of excitement Erik and I feel that you and your friends have pulled this off. Give us some time to organize our affairs, as we are trying to ship a product, and then we’ll let you know the time and date of our arrival. Give our best to Robin’s mother, as she is apparently a neighbour of yours.

Gabe & Erik

The history of the stunt, from the Fly Gabe Newell Blog.

In June 2009, a Steam group was created to boycott Valve Software’s upcoming sequel, Left 4 Dead 2.

In September 2009, the leaders of the group were invited to Valve’s headquarters to play the game for themselves, whereupon they decided it was awesome after all.

Although I personally have been privileged enough to have conversed with Valve’s CEO, Gabe Newell, many times by email, and even to have been sent a signed, cardboard X800XT from him (he’s a pretty awesome dude), I have not once – not one time - been flown to Valve to play their games early!

I therefore sent him an email. For context, I have recently been working on a Left 4 Dead 1 campaign.

binarygamer.com will now remain a Steam fan/info site just the way it has always really been.

What’s new at Ozsource AU?

Printable Home Theater signs and Logo’s

HDMI cables and Versions, buying cheap is fine.

What is ITC Processing: ATI

Logitech Mini diNovo perfect for a HTPC

XBMC HTPC Windows Quick Setup guide

Cheapest online PS3 Slim Australia.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcKpx2DxGwY

Warning!: This is disgusting

Is it really possible that implementing a simple a R18+ classification for Australia was just too hard for our communications minister and government to fathom?

There is no chance in hell such a filter will be able to legally block online content networks such as Steam who have a massive list of 3rd party content providers which supply you the games.  Yes that includes every major Australian ISP and gaming network.

The Clean Feed filter in general shows complete disregard for our common-sense and intelligence and is a testament to an average uneducated, archaic, politically correct and ratings crazed government.

You may have seen this article from the age:

Far from being the ultimate weapon against child abuse, it now will officially censor content deemed too controversial for a 15-year-old. In a free country like ours, do we really need the government to step in and save us from racy web games?”

Senator Conroy’s spokesman said the filter would cover “computer games such as web-based flash games and downloadable games, if a complaint is received and the content is determined by ACMA to be Refused Classification”. All games that exceed MA15+ are deemed to be RC.

Is this a typical morning at the Conroy mansion?

Backwards Man from Pepsi on Vimeo.

This gadget looks pretty spiffy,  maybe not something to fully replace the trusted keyboard and mouse FPS combo but intriguing nonetheless -- especially now it has a pistol attachment.  The Falcon was originally announced at CES 09.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ1Rz2clLS0

The Novint Falcon lets you control a game in three dimensions, and also lets you feel high-fidelity three-dimensional force feedback. The Falcon controller moves right and left, forwards and backwards, like a mouse, but also moves up and down.

The Novint Falcon currently works with a number of popular games including full Orange box support and has had the backing of Gabe Newell himself.

Gabe Newell, Valve: “The Falcon adds a new level of interaction for PC gaming, adding compelling force feedback while maintaining controls as accurate as a mouse, and now the millions of Steam gamers will have the chance to play, feeling this new type of experience.”

The device itself seems targeted at the PC gaming market though I personally think it would be better suited to the console FPS crowd due to better contol compared to the tradition controller. For the privilege to show off a Novint Falcon, you will need to fork out  about US$350 or get it bundled with games you probably already have. Source.

New Features

Automatically Organise Library Files

Songbird can now automatically organise the files that are contained in your library. Once enabled, it will consolidate your media in one location. You can customise the structure of the folder and file names based on metadata contained in every track.

2-way Sync with iTunes
If you’re using iTunes Music Store to purchase content, you can now automatically expose iTunes library tracks and playlists into Songbird. You can also export tracks and playlists added to Songbird back into iTunes, so that they can easily be synced to your iPhone or iPod touch.

Last.fm Radio
Last.fm Radio supports artist, tag, and user stations, mapping station links on the Last.fm website to play internally in Songbird. It includes the Radio Directory allowing you to conveniently browse and explore the tag and artist relationships on Last.fm. Additionally, the Radio directory includes quick links for playing stations based on your Last.fm library, your Songbird library, and friends/neighbours’ libraries.

10-band Equalizer
Now you can tweak the frequency response of the audio playback to match your room’s acoustics or your personal preferences.

Performance Enhancements

• Faster search
• Deleting many tracks at once is faster
• Selecting a large amount of tracks from the library is no longer slow
• Reduced the amount of threads required to be running at all times by 50%
• Fewer Crashes: We’ve worked hard to identify and fix some of the most common crashes in Songbird.

How?

Visit the IE8 $10,000 competition website and follow tengrand_ie8 on Twitter.

But you will never find it using old Firefox. (So get rid of it, or get lost)

1. To enter the competition, the entrant must follow clues released by @Tengrand_IE8 on Twitter and on www.tengrandisburiedhere.com. The clues section on www.tengrandisburiedhere.com is only viewable in Internet Explorer 8. These clues will lead the entrant to the hidden webpage.
2. The hidden webpage can only be viewed in Internet Explorer 8. The entrant must have download Internet Explorer 8 to successfully view the hidden webpage. Upon discovery of the hidden webpage, the entrant must register his/her details, via the hidden webpage ‘Claim’ button.
3. The first successful registration received via the hidden webpage by the Promoter will be adjudged the winner of the competition.

Via The Age - AFP

A team of researchers at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, have used nanotechnology to boost the storage potential nearly 10,000-fold compared to standard DVDs, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.

Discs currently have three spatial dimensions. By using gold nanorods, Gu and colleagues were able to add two additional dimensions, one based on the colour spectrum, and the other on polarisation.

A 10 layer DVD using this new technology, generates 1.6TB of data storage. 100 layers will generate around 16TB of storage.

The researchers are still working out the speed at which the discs can be written on, and say that commercial production is at least five years off.

They have signed an agreement with Korea-based Samsung, one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers.  More via The Age and Cnet.