The service allows users with the Xbox gaming console, or its newer version the Xbox 360, to play over the internet. It also features a marketplace to purchase "arcade" games, TV shows, videos and other downloadable content.

According to Microsoft, there are over 160 high-definition video games for its Xbox 360, which is available in over 37 countries.

Microsoft says, "following the launch of the Xbox Live in November 2002, gamers have spent over 2.3 billion hours on the network playing games online with their friends around the world. This is equal to 95 million days of gaming or over 260,000 years. With our top title, Halo 2, which is being played on both the Xbox and Xbox 360, gamers have spent over 710 million hours playing online with over a half a billion games played."

However, gamers are also using the console as a media player, with "more than 70 percent of Xbox Live members downloading content; driving more than 135 million downloads since the launch of Xbox 360."

Popsugar caught Lindsay Lohan recently wearing a black and white Chanel minidress that was identical to one Cameron Diaz wore to one of the many premieres of “The Holiday” last year and is taking a poll as to who wore it better:

I couldn’t tell you, really. Cameron is much hotter in it, that’s for sure, but she’d be hotter in just about anything than Lindsay. Not that I’d throw either out of bed or anything.

Fashion-wise, I’d say that black shoes are a better choice–score one for Lindsay–but those tan heels are kind of hot. Especially with that set of legs coming out of them. Score two for Cameron.

Full Story

Hidden fingerprints can now be revealed quickly and reliably thanks to two developments in nanotechnology. The thing is that they have invented an easier way to reveal hidden fingerprints, but the explanation is rather vague. The main point is that the experiments are not very stable at the moment, but with its development this technology will probably help in discovering many criminal mysteries.

Full Story

An increase in malware originating from China has not gone unnoticed by security researchers, according to the site ITWeek. The aggravating software has been increasing over the last three months, to the point where some unlucky persons may be getting some every day. Individuals interviewed for the article are seeing an increasing sophistication and independent use of rootkits, new to the Chinese malware scene. 'China has traditionally been a hotbed of password stealers who go after log-in names and passwords for online games such as World of Warcraft. The criminals are after virtual currencies and goods which can be sold on auction websites.' These new types of software are actually encrypted, and can prove hard to dismantle."

Full Story

An International Herald Tribune story talks about NASA's answer to the movie 'Armageddon'. Specifically, they've outlined a plan to deflect a planet-killer asteroid. "In 1998, Congress gave NASA's Spaceguard Survey program a mandate of 'discovering, tracking, cataloging and characterizing' 90 percent of the near-Earth objects larger than one kilometer (3,200 feet) wide by 2008. An object that size would probably destroy civilization. The consensus at the conference was that the initial survey is doing fairly well although it will probably not quite meet the 2008 goal." With this tracking system in place, scientists are hopeful an intervention could be staged before any grim choices have to be made. Assuming they have the money and manpower needed for the effort, NASA has actually outlined a pair of procedures that dove-tail with each other: "First we would deflect the asteroid with kinetic impact from a missile (that is, running into it); then we would use the slight pull of a 'gravity tractor' -- a satellite that would hover near the asteroid -- to fine-tune its new trajectory to our liking. (In the case of an extremely large object, probably one in 100, the missile might have to contain a nuclear warhead.) To be effective, however, such missions would have to be launched 15 or even 30 years before a calculated impact."

Full Story

Full Story

Full Story

 Drug Dealers

1. Refer to their clients as "users".
2. "The first one's free!"
3. Have important Asian connections.
4. Strange jargon:
   "Stick"
   "Rock"
   "Wrap"
   "E"
   "Stash"
   "Drive-by"
   "Hit (LSD)"
   "Source"
   "The Pigs"
5. Realize that there's tons of cash in the 14- to 25-year-old market.
6. Clients really like your stuff when it works.When it doesn't work they want to kill you.
7. Job is assisted by the industry's producing newer, more potent product.
8. Often seen in the company of pimps, hustlers and low-lifes
9. When things go wrong, a "fix" is just a phone call away, but may be expensive
10. A lot of people are getting rich while still teenagers.
11. Product causes unhealthy addictions.
12. Do your job well and you can sleep with sexy movie stars who depend on you.

Software Developers

1. Refer to their clients as "users".
2. "Download a free trial version..."
3. Have important Asian connections.
4. Strange jargon:
   "SCSI"
   "RTFM"
   "Packet"
   "C"
   "Cache"
   "CTRL ALT DEL"
   "Hit (WWW)"
   "Source-code"
   "Microsoft"
5. Realize that there's tons of cash in the 14- to 25-year-old market.
6. Clients really like your stuff when it works.When it doesn't work they want to kill you.
7. Job is assisted by the industry's producing newer, more potent products.
8. Often seen in the company of marketing people, venture capitalists and fund managers.
9. When things go wrong, a "fix" is just a phone call away, but may be expensive
10. A lot of people are getting rich while still teenagers.
11. DOOM 3, Quake, Half Life 2, Crysis...
12. Damn! DAMN!!!