World domination dream dies

Microsoft has quietly dropped its attempts to make its Passport service a universal sign-on for everything from Hotmail to online banking and shopping - something akin to the gatekeeper of the internet.

The Seattle giant has decided after a number of bruising years that Passport will be be confined to MS outlets only - ie, just a handful of sites compared with its ambitious plans for world domination.

Few enough partners were willing to get into bed with the Beast of Redmond anyway and it didn't help that a few security cock-ups - such as a flaw that potentially exposed the passwords of its 200 million customers - cast a cold light on Microsoft's security arrangements.

This isn't the end for Passport, of course, but there aren't many who'd agree a single sign-on for everything was the way forward anyway.

Somethin' for nothing, mister?

For all those hordes who snapped up Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, here's a chance to taste the early fruits of this ground-breaking series - for nowt. The generous bods at Rockstar have posted a free download of the full version of GTA 2, originally released in 1999.

You just need a PC and the patience to wait for hundreds of megabytes to download.

Will they never leave us alone?

Advertisers are relentless in their pursuit of our eyeballs. While the hellish vision of personalised ads showcased in Minority Report has yet to come to pass, now the marketing spivs are actively targeting in-games advertising as a way to reach the plum 18-35 demographic.

From PS2 to Xbox to PC, the Massive ad agency is trying to tie up deals to give it exclusive rights to pump flashing banners into gamers' faces. Lovely, just when we've switched off the TV channels to get away from it all...

Convenience, at a price

In this week's column, read about Microsoft's Fingerprint Reader - built into the €115 Optical Desktop mouse/keyboard combo and used to log on to Windows and sign into websites at the flick of a digit.

Ultimately, it just seems to form part of Microsoft's PR attempt to rebuild its shattered security reputation - MS tells you during installation that the feature is purely for convenience and not particularly secure (ie, you can probably fool it easily).

That it insists on using the deeply flawed Internet Explorer is the technology's biggest mistake.

Anyway, it also comes as a standalone reader and integrated into a wireless mouse receiver if you're still interested.

Much more grounded in reality is Trend Micro's PC-Cillin Internet Security 12 package. Unlike McAfee and Norton, it won't bring your PC grinding to a halt, imposing just a barely perceptible performance while still protecting your computer from viruses, worms, hackers, spyware and spam.

Reviewed in games is Nokia's long-awaited Pathway to Glory, a gripping turn-based wargame, ideally suited to the small screen. Also getting a spin this week are The Vampire Masquerade: Bloodlines (FPS meets RPG, not entirely unsuccessfully) and Spyro: A Hero's Tail (not a patch on the last dragon outing but amusing enough).

DVD-format anarchy explained

Many computers bought this Christmas will be stuffed with a DVD recorder. But if you don't know your plus from your minus - or even if you don't have a clue what I'm on about but can't work out why the disc you made for granny won't work in her machine - visit The Inquirer's lowdown on the different formats. Even smartypants might learn something.

Inside King Kong's head

If you marvelled at the Lord of the Rings trilogy or are any way curious about film-making, zip over to Kong is King, where director Peter Jackson is blogging furiously about the shooting of the ultimate monster movie (in New Zealand, where else?).

Jackson did it a lot too during the making of LOTR but this online diary is more detailed and includes regular video dispatches by the beardy one describing the challenges and results of filming King Kong, due out in 2005.

Putting the games industry in its place

Log On is not the only one who's fallen into the trap of believing the hype that the games industry is now bigger than Hollywood. It can be, in certain select comparisons (such as the opening weekend for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas versus Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) but a close examination of the numbers by Grumpy Gamer explodes some egos.

Bottom line: movies are still way out in front.

New iPod owners, look here

Terrific device and all as it is, the iPod is still not exactly plug and play like a TV or Xbox. So for all you bewildered new iPod owners who cleared out the shops of the little white (or silver, green, pink, etc) blocks this Christmas, read Walter Mossberg's primer in the Wall Street Journal about what you can and cannot do with the best MP3 player bar none.

Somebody stop that big gorilla

Games giant Electronic Arts has signed a five-year deal with America's NFL to score the exclusive rights to use player/team names, stats, etc in its titles. It effectively puts an end to any other developer producing a gridiron game for the next half-decade - all because the public demands realism and accuracy.

So what, sez you? But just as EA has now engineered a stranglehold on gridiron (a stunt at least partly sparked because it was losing market share to cheaper-priced rivals), so the gorilla could do the same to, say, football.

Imagine if EA bought up the rights to Premiership clubs and players? Or all the European leagues? It would be very difficult for the likes of the Pro Evolution Soccer series to compete with EA's inferior but "up to date" FIFA effort.

Now that would be wrong. Be worried. Very worried.

Hands-on with 3G

In this week's column, read the verdict about the only 3G service in the country. Vodafone launched with not a little fanfare last month but how does the service stand up to a real-world test? Pick up the paper and find out.

In games: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is another fine platformer but the combat distracts from the puzzle fun. Also reviewed: Mortal Kombat - Deception (gory of course but highly entertaining) and GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (a disgrace to the GoldenEye name and I'm thinking of standing outside games shops warning people not to buy it).

Finger in the dyke again

Apple has rolled out another round of bug fixes/improvements while Microsoft has plugged a few more holes in Windows. Non-critical in both cases, they say, but then they would, wouldn't they?

Better safe than sorry anyway. Get patching.

Search 'n' speak

Surely blind people won't be the only ones who'll find Speegle useful? It's a search site which reads out (in a variety of spooky voices) the results of your query.

Speegle doesn't specify which search engine it's based on (though given the company logo, Google should sue if it's not them) but a cursory glance suggests the algorithms are at least competent.

Give it a whirl and indulge your inner child by typing rude words into the search box.

The coolest mobile on the planet?

In this week's column, feast your eyes on Motorola's Razr V3, the phone everyone will want this Christmas. Slim as a chocolate bar and ten times as tasty, the V3 screams bling-bling, right down to the price tag: €650.

Less covetable is Siemens SL65, a not-too-shabby update to the pretty but unpopular SL55 slider phone. Verdict: better keypad but uglier.

In games: Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault is the refurbishment the FPS series desperately needed. Also reviewed: Need for Speed Underground 2 (more of the same, ie, not bad), Call of Duty (not a patch on the PC original) and The Urbz (a marketing concept in search of a game).

An easy mistake to make...

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer got a huge amount of publicity (including in this parish) when he claimed both he and Bill Gates got four million pieces of spam a day.

Seems Steve was a bit confused. It's actually four million a year. An easy mistake to make.

Anyway, Ballmer cleared up the matter a few days later when the hoo-hah had died down. But Log On still likes the cartoon over at Joy of Tech which explains the mess.

Which computer firm gives the best support?

The gap between the computer firm with the best after-sales support continues to widen. No prizes for guessing Apple is, as always, top of the pile for reliability and technical back-up.

Though its average rating of 76% is hardly flawless, Apple is still streets ahead compared with others in the respected Consumer Reports survey - the next best achieves only 57% approval, on average.

Makes paying that little bit extra for a Mac something to think about.

Is this the greatest game ever?

Six. Long. Years. That's what we waited for Half-Life 2, which stakes a convincing claim to the title of game of the year, nay, maybe the decade. Read today's column for the reasons why the €50 it costs to buy Half-Life 2 is the best you'll ever spend.

Oh, yeah, a few other games reviewed too but frankly they're not worth mentioning.

Lastly, there's a hands-on look at Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, a fabulous program for cataloguing and editing your digital pictures.

Ouch, that's gotta hurt

Pity the hundreds, maybe thousands of poor saps who loaded up a free demo disc sent out by Sony PlayStation America only to find that the screwed-up little bleeder wiped their memory cards in a fit a of bad coding.

Imagine you'd spent weeks playing Ratchet and Clank III or GTA: San Andreas - say, about 95% complete - when, shazam, all your save points are gone. Lovely.

The least Sony could do would be to chuck a few free games their way, eh?

Bugging out

It must be bad if Microsoft broke its self-imposed monthly schedule to rush out a new bug fix for Internet Explorer. The latest vulnerability has already been exploited by virus writers, so it might be wise to rush over to Windows Update and get the patch.

Mac users, wipe that smug smile off yer gobs, Apple has just plugged 17 security holes with a 20MB uber-patch. Go here for details.