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Valve, Duke, UDK updates and UK Law(lessness)

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kat:
Valve has released the results of a recent hardware survey which show nVidia by far the most popular graphics card being used on Intel systems running largely Windows XP. Obviously this is relative to PCs connected to the Steam Network but it should still provide an interesting insight in the wider sense of what PC owners have inside their boxes.

All of which will be moot by the time Duke Nukem is released. Yawn. But may be useful in playing Modern Warfare 2, providing it isn't one of the estimated four million pirated copies downloaded from various bit-torrent networks - don't ask how they know these numbers without 'tracking' traffic and 'seeding' files to do so.

Speaking of 'networks', the UK Government finally set the ball in motion on what's been euphemistically called the "Broadband Poll Tax". As a result of that deplorable bit of legislation called the "Digital Economy Bill" [1] (link may change as the status of the bill updated), CGHQ want to 'tax' all phone lines, apparently irrespective as to whether they either have broadband or are even capable of getting broadband, a 'nominal' rate of 50 pence a month (£0.50).. for now that is. The move is being seen as a exceptional example of "disproportionate taxation" as a result.

There was also news this past week that the UK Government finally closed a (the?) loophole left open in the Video Recordings Act 1984 whereby it turns out it was not illegal to sell material to any one under age. As mentioned previously, the Act should have meant it was illegal to do that but in an ironic twist of bureaucratic fate, the Government has been prosecuting for offences meted out under the provisions of unratified legislation, illegally I might add.

What was that about UDK? Oh, Epic have released a new Beta of the dev kit with a couple of improvements and fixes. You can find out more and download the app from UDK Network site.

ratty redemption:
kat, very interesting news. and I personally would like to see duke released oneday. although I understand why a lot of people are tired of hearing about it.

kat:
Labour 'broadband tax' to hit three million offline homes. What I find really funny, in a none-funny way, is how many people naively think this is to raise funds to pay for this so-called "super-fast" broadband. It's not. Just like any other 'tax' it's used to pay off the dept we're currently in and not to pay for services being developed. I wouldn't be surprised to find that £175 million expected to be raised from this going into so politico's back pocket by way of stakeholder investment in the firm that gets the contract (don't think it's BT).

ratty redemption:
@ kat, typical politicians and agreed I don't believe we'll benefit from this.

kat:
A couple of interesting follow-ups on this one from PCPro; Government "doesn't know what 2 meg promise means", Government won't disconnect file-sharers, MPs: Government should scrap broadband tax.

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