Crysis gets a November 16 release date

Electronic Arts (EA) and Crytek today announced that the first person shooter Crysis will be hitting retail shelves on November 16.

The new game, shown for the first time at the 2006 E3 tradeshow and conference, will be available for the PC only and promises to deliver “stunning DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 visuals.”

“Crytek is constantly striving to push the boundaries of both game design and technology, while maintaining quality at the highest bar," said Cevat Yerli, CEO and president of Crytek, said in a prepared statement. "We're thankful to our fans for their support and patience, and we're excited to bring them Crysis this year. It's going to be worth the wait."

According to EA, the new game will feature open-ended gameplay and dress the player in a “revolutionary nanosuit and an arsenal of fully customizable weapons.” The game environment will include “tropical jungles, flash-frozen landscapes and a zero gravity environment.” There also will be a new team-based mode to play the game, which will enable up to 32 players can face each other.

Blackhat: Breaking audio CAPTCHAs with Winamp

This year’s Blackhat computer security convention started off with a bang. Convention officials told us that a record number of people have registered and there are more than 4000 people attending. Former chief counter-terrorism advisor Richard Clarke gave this year’s keynote, while veteran speaker Dan Kaminsky showcased his hacking knowledge.

Like in previous years, the keynote wasn’t deeply technically, but rather focused on broad security issues in government. Clarke is known for his criticism of the current Bush administration. He believes the United States government and corporations spend much too little on cybersecurity.

Dan Kaminsky has been talking at hacker conventions for several years and is considered to be one of the most entertaining and knowledgeable speakers here. At his Black Ops 2007: Design Reviewing the Web today, he gave his typical stream of consciousness type of talk where he discusses many of the topics he’s currently researching. The most interesting part was about recognizing and defeating audio CAPTCHA’s with Winamp and graphical plotting.

Audio CAPTCHA’s try to weed out Spam scripts from entering in comments or forum posts by forcing humans to recognize the sound of numbers from background noise. Kaminsky claims he is close to making an automated tool that can instantly and accurately cut through the noise and recognize the number.

“That tool is coming out any day now,” Kaminsky said.

Kaminsky is also concerned about Internet service providers secretly replacing ads on web pages. He told the audience that this will become a significant problem in the future and security experts will have to start working on stronger website encryption and integrity protocols.

Use the USB port to charge AA batteries

Moixa Energy has developed rechargeable AA batteries with a twist: the batteries are recharged simply by plugging them into an USB port.

The batteries, called USBCell, do not look different than a regular Ni-MH AA battery at first sight. However, the top part of the device is a cover that not only contains the cathode of the battery, but also, when opened, exposes the USB connector. The battery can be plugged into any USB host to be recharged.

At this time, there are only AA types of the technology available, but the manufacturer promises to follow up with 9V blocks and cellphone batteries in the near future.

The convenience of the recharging process (assumed you have a USB host, such as a notebook) put aside, there are a few downsides. The integration of the USB connector requires a reduction of the electrolyte. As a result, the available capacity is much lower than a typical Ni-MH battery, which are commonly selling in variants ranging from 1400 mah to about 2400 mah. The 1.2 volt AA USBCell provides a maximum of only 1300 mah, which means that it won’t be able to provide as much juice than regular rechargeable AA batteries.

The weight reduction that results from trading electrolyte for a USB connector is marginal: The USBCell weighs about 22 grams compared to the 23 grams of a regular AA battery.

Also, the charging time appears to be quite long, as the manufacturer noted on his webpage that a 90% charge is reached after a charging time of about 320 minutes.

A 2-pack of USBCell batteries is currently selling for just under $17.