As a panellist on GameTrailer’s Bonus Round once again, Analyst and often-quoted gaming figure Michael Pachter spun the rumor mill at full speed last week.
When a viewer asked the guest panel why Microsoft did not port more games to the PC, instead of keeping them console exclusives, Pachter launched into a myriad of generalities:
“It’s a profit deal. Microsoft wants you to never play a game again on your PC and play everything on your 360,” he said.
“You can’t hook a guy into Xbox LIVE Gold if he’s playing on a PC. That’s the other problem. You really want to hook every gamer who has a 360, you want them to buy all their games on the 360, play everything multiplayer, pay you 50 bucks a year, so that in a couple years it’s 100 bucks a year. That’s going up. We all know that.”
Gamers immediately fled to the forums, their blogs, or Twitter to add their two cents, with a large share crying foul. With the competition offering free online service, people want to know what Microsoft thinks they have to offer that’s worth the cost. Many threatened to “turn in their Gold badge” if a price hike did happen.
Later, Microsoft spokesperson David Dennis’s guarded response did not lend solace to LIVE gamers:
“I don’t foresee a scenario where we’re going to double the price of LIVE anytime in the next couple months.”
Pachter’s prediction mentioned a hike in the coming years, not months.
Then again, Pachter also proclaimed that 2K Games sent Borderlands to die by releasing it so close to other anticipated hits, yet the despair of gamers everywhere unable to find a single copy on the shelves neatly bursts his bubble.
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For airport security solutions to make a difference
New Straits Times September 27, 2001 | Rina De Silva Rina De Silva New Straits Times 09-27-2001 For airport security solutions to make a difference Byline: Rina De Silva Edition: Computimes; 2* Section: Outlook
THE terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC on Sept 11 are expected to cause many airport operators around the world to step up security measures.
This includes installing better and more innovative airport security solutions which could help reduce the passengers’ exposure to danger.
Local systems integration company Xybase Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd which has a firm grip on the world’s airport sector, believes that a good system should be able to help airport operators deal with a crisis as minor as a lift failure and as terrifying as a terrorist attack.
Its senior vice president for strategic business development Sarah Samuel says that such a system is designed to display and alert the duty manager of any inconsistent incidents happening in the airport.
“The irregularities will be notified to the manager while he is at his desk at the airport or via his personal digital assistant or cellular phone if he is on the move,” she says. go to web site boston logan airport
Besides sounding the alarm, the management system should also provide sufficient information to allow the person receiving the information to make careful and accurate decisions. For an example, if a lift is out of order, and has a high passenger traffic area and is considered to be on the high alert, the system would inform the relevant authorities of the situation.
“It should allow the person to also assess the potential cause and also track the nearest on-duty maintenance engineer so that he can expedite the restoration of the lift operations,” Samuel says.
Xybase’s airport solution, airportXpert suite, has a module called Airport Operations Management System or XTMS which has been designed to deal with crisis mentioned above.
“When various incidents happen, the XTMS will guide the airport operator on what needs to be done and who to contact. This makes their work more efficient and a lot easier,” Samuel told Computimes in Kuala Lumpur.
She adds that the XTMS helps the airport administrator to deal with system alerts and emergency procedures, check the airport status, airport activities, airport directory listings, weather and meteorological reports. “It can monitor activities including all the diverse processes that are required to manage an airport, daily operations such as gate allocation, runway monitoring and current parking situation more effectively,” she says.
The XTMS is Internet-enabled and supports wireless technologies. It enables airport management activities to be conducted in a mobile and proactive manner. “Since the XTMS offers a seamless airport-wide decision support system to improve monitoring duties and information flow the user is able then to interface with the system via a browser,” Samuel says. She adds that the XTMS is targeted towards airport users and management. Xybase has implemented the entire suite of airportXpert at Istanbul, Turkey and the RetailXpert module in Sydney. Samuel says Xybase has two contracts worth about US$6.1 million (RM23 million) to install the airportXpert solution at Boston Logan Airport, one of the three airports where the hijacked planes took off on Sept 11, the day of the terrorist attacks. this web site boston logan airport
However, all the six modules except for the XTMS is being implemented at the Boston Logan Airport. According to Samuel, the exclusion of the XTMS module is because airports in United States operate differently from Asian or European airports. “These airports do not have control centres and most airlines actually operate their own terminals and manage their own flights. Also the way the US airports manage their security is quite different from Asia and Europe.”
However, she says that in light of the terrorist attacks, Xybase Technologies is expecting a delay in an airport management project at Boston Logan airport, where the company is also the master systems integrator.
Two of the four hijacked planes – American Airlines Boeing 767, Flight 11 and United Airlines Boeing 767, Flight 175 – which crashed into the World Trade Center on the morning of Sept 11 left Boston Logan Airport enroute to Los Angeles.
The company, she says, expects some form of delay by just a matter of weeks due to all the FBI agents in the vicinity. Another reason for the delay is due to the delay in the completion of the the airport’s new building.
rinade@nstp.com.my
Illustrations/Photos:
Caption: Samuel: Reducing exposure.
Rina De Silva
