thinkjoynews-blog

[thinkjoynews-blog]

Need For Speed EMP Immobilizer In Real Life!

Eureka Aerospace has developed and is currently distributing a new High Power Electromagnetic System (HPEMS) or EMP Immobilizer. This device, when mounted to a police car, allows pursuing officers to immobilize a target vehicle with the flick of a switch.

This device is described as having the following capabilities:

   High-value asset perimeter protection from approaching hostile vehicles

   bringing cars to halt on urban, suburban roads and multi-lane highways

   perimeter protection for gas-oil (fueling) platform at sea

   day/night, all weather clandestine operations  

The HPEMS is a 16 stage Marx generator powerful enough of generating a strong Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) capable of immobilizing vehicles. The HPEMS although extremely powerful is able to, and is powered by a 9V car plug or the same plug that you charge your phone in while driving.

Hopefully we will be seeing this new technology being deployed by police and security sources around the world very soon.

Source

Brennan Wright

[thinkjoynews-blog]

Nintendo President/CEO Dead

Satoru Iwata, the President and CEO of Nintendo, has died at the age of 55.

According to a brief statement by Nintendo, Iwata died of a bile duct growth, a rare form of cancer that only shows about 1,000 cases per year.

Although tragic, it does not come as a surprise as Iwata’s health has been declining rapidly in the past per years. In 2014, Iwata missed the E3 conference after being advised to do so by a physician. He underwent a surgery that was believed to be successful shortly after.

Iwata started his career as a developer for HAL Labrotories, where he helped with the development of popular Nintendo games such as Earthbound and Baloon Fight. He became the president of HAL in 1993 and the head of corporate planning at Nintendo in 2000. In 2002 Iwata took Hiroshi Yamauchi‘s spot as president of Nintendo becoming the 4th in Nintendo history.

Loved by gamers, Iwata helped lead Nintendo through some of it’s best times. During his time as president Nintendo released the DS line of systems, which became the best selling system of all time. Nintendo also released the hugely popular wii system. In 2011, Iwata launched a series of Nintendo online events where Iwata would speak to the fans aswell as announce new games and other Nintendo products.

RIP Satoru Iwata. You will be missed

Brennan Wright

[thinkjoynews-blog]

New Zealand Throws Rights Out The Window In New Law

New Zealand, the country known for being one of the freest countries in the world, has made their citizens a little less free as of a new law that can land you in jail for saying mean things to someone on the internet.

according to the “Harmful Digital Communications Bill”[Download], harmful digital communication is defined as the following:

A disclosure of sensitive personal facts

Threatening, intimidating, or menacing communication

Grossly offensive communication

False Allegations

Breaches of confidence

Encouraging anyone to send a message to send a message to someone else to cause harm

Causing or encouraging someone to commit suicide

Being racist, sexist, bigoted, phobic, etc.

What worries many about these rules is how broad they are. Many point to rules such as “grossly offensive communication” as too broad being that they have no definition. This being said, it seems that this new piece of legislation can easily be taken advantage of to attack someone for simply, “making them feel bad”, with potentialy big consequences for the person being charged. Punishment for breaking this new law can include

Take down or disable material

Order that the defendant stop communication with the complainant

Order that a right of reply be given

Order that a correction be published

Order that an apology be published

Order that a correction be published

Order that the identity of an anonymous author be released to the court

Those who fail to comply with these orders can face up to 6 months in prison and a $6,000 dollar fine.

So why is ThinkJoy, a news/entertainment site for gaming and technology publishing on this? Because as much as we don’t want to think it this bill has the potential to take a serious hit on the gaming community. Even though many of you probably don’t think about it, trash talking your opponent is a major part of any multiplayer game.

Brennan Wright

[thinkjoynews-blog]

Do you really have a good password?

I could safely say that for most of you reading this article would answer true to the statement stating that you use the same password for most if not all of your accounts. How can I be so confident? According to a study conducted by BitDefender using leaked social account information from 250,000 accounts that 87% of these accounts passwords were identical to the password used for the account holder‘s email. This allows someone to easily take complete control of not only your social accounts, but also your email.

250,000 leaked accounts is only a small fraction of what is leaked every year. In June of 2013, 6 million accounts were leaked in a single day. The leaked information on these accounts included usernames and password giving anyone with this information instant access to your account.

Why would I care?

Think about this, You are signed up for 10 different websites varying from your ESEA account to your twitter to your online banking; all of which have the same password. Now, one of these websites is compromised, let’s say your club penguin was leaked. Not only do they have your email and password for club penguin but now they have your universal password. This person can now log into your email and find what other accounts you may be using. Just like that they have access to your twitter, ESEA, and your bank accounts.

Don’t think something like this wont happen to you. Data breaches like this are happening more and more often.

How do I know if my passwords are secure?

The real secure way to store passwords is called ‘hashing and salting’. This simply means that the service storing your password has no way of retrieving the password. Unfortunately for the user there is no real way to tell if the service you are using actually does this. The best things to look out for when setting up a new account are the following:

How does the service handle lost passwords? If they send your current password to your email chances are they are not secure. A secure site will always only give you the option to reset your password when you forget it.

Does the website use a secure zone? This can be identified by a lock next to the url.

This article is not made to scare you into not signing up for your favorite websites but instead to try to get you to take more precautions when creating your passwords. Be proactive and have multiple passwords and always reset your password when ever you see any suspicious activity on your account.

Brennan Wright

[thinkjoynews-blog]

Apple bans the confederate flag?

There has been a lot of controversy following Apple’s recent decision to remove Civil War: 1863 from the app store due to their portrayal of the confederate flag. HexGames, the company responsible for the development of the game has stated that the game should be back once they change the games icon and screenshots to remove the confederate flag from the app store page.

Apple has cleared the confederate ban does not ban app developers from placing the flag within the game but instead prohibits the flag from being displayed on the app store page (screenshots and game icon).

Brennan Wright

[thinkjoynews-blog]

E3... An Overview of what we have seen! (Day1)

                                                     Nintendo

Nintendo has announced Super Mario Maker which will be available to everyone September 11th 2016. Along with this announcement they announced new features to the game such as a new mushroom that turns Mario into an Amiibo that you have connected to your Nintendo system. Along with being able to use these Amiibos in Super Mario Nintendo announced that they will be compatible with Skylanders.

                                                       Ubisoft

Other than paying a women to talk about new memes, Ubisoft had a lot to unveil. During the main Ubisoft conference viewers got to see trailers for games including South Park The Fractured But Whole, which follows South Park The Stick Of Truth. Ubisoft also unvielled the trailer to The Crew: Wild Run which is a sequal to the hit racing game The Crew. Along with these games Ubisoft also showed more of games that have previously been announced such as Assassins Creed: Syndicate and Rainbow Six Siege.

                                                Microsoft (Xbox)

After a long wait Xbox One users are finally getting at least some of what they asked for in the launch of the console: Backwards Compatibility. According to Microsoft the One will be getting 100 new titles and One users will be able to play their xbox360 games that they already own for free. Along with the ability to play 360 games Microsoft will be releasing a new “precision” XB1 controller called the Elite Controller which basically takes the concept of a Scuff controller with a few other added precision features. The XBox conference also included a few new games being unveiled including Halo 5 which features a new game-mode, larger servers, and massive maps. Microsoft also announced the release date for Forza 6 as September 16th. Fans also got sneak previews for games such as Gears of war 4 as well as a tech demo of the Microsoft HoloLense.

                                                           EA

After tons of doubt from the initial announcements of Star Wars: Battlefront EA delivered what seemed to be something completely unexpected. Fans were shocked when they saw basically everything they wanted in the game that was still in pre-alpha. The preview including everything from flying s TIE fighter to taking down the towering AT-ST. The game will available Nov. 14th on PS4 XB1 and PC. Along with Battlefront came a game that fans had long been awaiting; Need For Speed. Although now much is known of the game as EA only stated that there will be another one, they did say that it will be coming this November. EA did not stop there. They went on to satisfy fans of Mass Effect, announcing that Mass Effect: Andromeda which was announced with a small prieview. The final of EA’s major announcements did not fail to satisfy the speed running world with the announcement of a new Mirror’s Edge.

                                                     Activision

Activision announced many games that did not surprise many including the announcement of Black Ops 3 which seems all too similar to CoD; Advanced Warfare in terms of game play AND plot. Along with the new Call Of Duty Activision also announced that they will be releasing TRANSFORMERS: Devastation this coming fall.

For more E3 see http://www.twitch.tv/twitch

Brennan Wright

[thinkjoynews-blog]

Dreamhack Winter ‘15 Group A Overview

Dreamhack kicked off the annual CS open with the four group A teams fighting it out for 2 slots to advance to. After multiple close and intense games between LGB, Titan, Flipsid3, and fnatic, Titan and fnatic came out victorious leaving LGB and F3 in the group stages. The stage B groups will play tomorrow with the first games starting at 17:15 CEST. Check back tomorrow for an overview on DH:W ‘15 group B results.

Brennan Wright

[thinkjoynews-blog]

PornHub raising $3.4M to shoot a porno in outer space

      The popular Adult website PornHub has launched a crowd sourcing campaign to raise $3.4M in order to shoot a pornographic film in space.

      The campaign launched on the website indiegogo is aiming to raise $3.4M dollars in order to shoot a pornographic film in space. The film is planned to star Eva Lovia and Johnny Sins posing as Astronauts. According to the donation perk titled ‘Uranus’ (only 1 available) you will recieve the two costumes worn by the two actors in the film.

      This campaign has been gaining much controversy over the Porn companies decision to launch this campaign but Corey Price, VP of PornHub, stated that “This will be a grand experiment in learning how intercourse works after penetrating the Earth’s atmosphere,” implying that they are doing his for “science”.

      On the indiegogo page Pornhub breaks down the costs of the production showing that 60% will be going towards the flight as only 40% will go towards the acual film. Unfortunatly only about $4,000 dollars has been raised but hopefully more cash will flow in in order to help make this crazily amazing idea a reality!

Brennan Wright

[thinkjoynews-blog]

Steam Offers Refunds

As of June 2, 2015 Steam has started to offer refunds for games, dlc with less than 2 hours of play time. This new addition is welcomed throughout the community as it allows users to to try out a game before they buy it. This is a feature new to PC gamers and will hopefully inspire others do do similarly in the future.

http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/

Brennan Wright

[thinkjoynews-blog]

Fallout 4 Confirmed!

After a wait that seemed like forever we have finally reached 0 on the countdown that mysteriously appeared on the Fallout website. Now when visiting the website you see the Fallout 4 trailer showcasing the previously unannounced game. For now not much is know of the game but more is soon to come, Check back at thinkjoy.com for future updates on the game!

Brennan Wright