Today the existing world-wide modding community of Crysis will receive a major boost as Crytek is happy to release the first version of the Mod Software Development Kit for the award-winning FPS.

Mod SDK - Description
With the tools and the assets provided now modders will be able to not only get their own creations exported into the Sandbox2 Editor but will also be able to create complete new levels and modifications with outstanding content.

This SDK is only the first version that has been released to the community in order to provide the necessary exporters, plug-ins, and also respective documentation.

Next to some basic sample assets that provide information on how to set things up correctly, this SDK also includes a few serious game assets. These are high poly objects that can be used as reference for own creations.

With patch 1.2 not being far away from being released, the SDK will get updated with the game source code. The update will then be available for download around the time the patch is released.

Mod SDK – Content
The list below represents everything modders will find from the 400MB sized package.

Tools:
Resource Compiler (32 bit only)
CryExport plug-in for 3DS Max 8 (32 bit only), Max 9 and Max 2008 (32 and 64 bit)
Polybump plug-in for 3DS Max 8 (32 bit only), Max 9 and Max 2008 (32 and 64 bit)
Polybump application (32 and 64 bit)
CryTIFF plug-in for Adobe Photoshop (32 bit only)
FMOD Designer Tool (32 bit only)
Rigging, Artist, Animation Tools for 3DS Max

Example Mod:
SDK_Mod (inclusive “Nanosuit Playground” level)

Sample Assets:
First person model (pure hands, with weapon)
Third person run animation
Properties (doors, glass, jointed breakables, ladders)
Whitebox human male model
Whitebox head model
Weapons (SCAR)
Weapon attachments (magazine, silencer, scope)
Weapon attachment scripts
Vegetation (bushes, grass, trees)
Vehicles (helicopter)

Serious Game Assets:
HMMWV Vehicle high poly model
HMMWV Vehicle high poly model for 3DS Max 2008
HMMWV Vehicle scripts
Abrams Tank high poly model
Abrams Tank scripts

Fire up Visual C++ and get modding… Read more here

Lamont Wood
Special to LiveScience
SPACE.com 1 hour, 43 minutes ago

Proteins play a big role in the functioning of your brain, but some recent research indicates that, in a few years, proteins could also play a big role in the functioning of your computer.

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Tetsuro Majima at Osaka University in Japan has now shown that proteins can be used to store computer data - and exceed the capacities of today’s magnetic and optical media, which are pushing their performance boundaries. The resulting data should be stable enough for a commercial product, which he hopes to see emerge in the next five years, he told LiveScience.

Protein-based memory devices should be immune to magnetic interference, which can wreck data on a hard drive.

To demonstrate the storage approach, the researchers used a special fluorescent protein to etch patterns on a glass slide. Using combinations of light and chemicals, they were able to read the patterns as computer data and erase them at will, mimicking the functions of a computer’s memory.

The protein patterns can be fixed in about one minute, Majima said, and then can be read at standard computer speeds. The protein (derived from bacteria) is stable, but for long-term storage is best kept below 4 degrees Celsius (40 degrees Fahrenheit.)

The results are detailed in the latest edition of Langmuir, a scientific journal of the American Chemical Society covering films, gels, bio-electric-chemistry and related phenomena.

In addition to conventional memory storage devices, Majima and his colleagues hinted that the proteins could also be used for improved biosensors and automated medical tests.

• Video: Brain-Healing Nanotechnology
• Wild Technologies: The Next Step With Richard Hart
• 10 Technologies That Will Transform Your Life

• Original Story: Proteins Could Beef Up Computer Memory

Proteins Could Beef Up Computer Memory - Yahoo! News

View Settings
The ‘View’ tab has two sections. In the first section, ‘Folder Views’ you can either set Explorer to show all folders according to the current settings using the ‘Apply to All Folders’ button; or, by clicking the ‘Reset All Folders’ button, Explorer can be set to display folders as they were when Windows was first installed - this excludes any changes made to the toolbars.

The second section has a number of ‘Advanced settings’ to change the look and the behaviour of Explorer.

Automatically search for network folders and printer
If this setting is selected Explorer will hunt round the local network for any shared folders or printers. The effects of this setting will be negligible for home users or anyone who is not on a large local area network within a company or other organisation.

Display the size information in folder tips
If this setting is ticked, Explorer will show the size of the contents of a folder if you hover the mouse over it. As shown in this picture:

Display simple folder view in Explorer’s Folders list
This setting affects the way that the folder view appears. You can show the folder view by clicking on the ‘Folders’ button on the toolbar.

The normal folder view looks like this:

The simple folder view looks like this (note that the dotted lines are not visible):

With the simple folders view option is selected when you select a folder in the list Explorer will automatically expand a list of all the sub-folders it contains and will collapse any other lists. If the normal view is selected any explanded lists will be left open when another folder is clicked.

Display the contents of system folders
A number of folders on Windows are classified as system folders, like the ‘Windows’ folder and the top level of the system drive (usually the ‘C’ drive). By default the content of these folders is hidden, and if you open them in explorer you will see the following:

If you click on ‘Show the contents of this folder’ you will then be able to see its contents, or alternatively if you select the ‘Display the contents of system folders’ option then the content of all system folders will be viewable.

Display the full path in the address bar
This setting shows the name of the current selected folder and the names of all the folders it is contained within in the address, like so:

From this we can see that the ‘admin’ folder is contained within the ‘Documents and Settings’ folder on the ‘C’ drive.

Ordinarily the address bar would only read ‘admin’.

Display the full path in the title bar
This is much the same as the last setting, except that the full path can be shown in the title bar, as follows:

Do not cache thumbnails
You can change between various views within Explorer by using this drop down menu.

If thumbnail view is selected Explorer will display a small version of any images that the folder contains, as shown in the next image. If there are a lot of images in the folder, it may take Explorer a while to show them all, if this setting is selected. If it is not selected Explorer will create a small file in the folder which will contain the thumbnail information, meaning it only needs to read this file rather than make new thumbnails from all of the images in the folder.

If you are running low on hard drive space you may wish to recover the space taken by these files.

Hidden files and folder
Some files and folders are hidden from view by default and some can be hidden by choice. This setting can be used to make these files and folders visible. If ‘Show hidden files and folders’ is selected then all hidden files will be displayed as faded items, as shown here:

There are several hidden folders shown above including ‘Application Data’ and ‘Local Settings’, and a couple of hidden files, such as ntuser.dat.

Hide extensions for known file types
This option is selected by default, and as such all files will be displayed as follows:

I prefer to have Explorer show me the whole filename including the extension, which is the short code, usually three letters, at the end of the filename that lets Windows know what application to open it in.

If Windows has not been told what program to use when a file with a certain extension is double-clicked, it will show the extension anyway.

This is shocking - if it's true (haven't tested yet)...

Check it out here and see the video below!

get the Full research paper here.

Hope this is not true - BitLocker (and other disk encryption tools) is still a good thing, but it has kinda lost some of its advantages...

Where can I buy RAM that drops its content ASAP after power off? ;-)

.

Run a Script at Shutdown

Open Up you registry and look for this key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\State\Machine\Scripts

Run gpedit.msc and select Computer Configuration ? Windows Settings ? Scripts ? Shutdown. Examine the changes in the registry and use that as a guide.

Now to speed up shutdown you may have to do a Kill Hung Processes Automatically

When logging off, you sometimes get an “End Task” dialog prompt, indicating a program that doesn’t shut itself down. You can suppress the prompts and have Windows kill these programs automatically when you log off. In regedit, find key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

Look for the value AutoEndTasks, and change it from 0 to 1.

Good Luck Happy Tweaking…

The other day I posted a tip on how to enable the Network Access Protection client on XP SP3.  The client is also built into Vista (RTM and SP1) and is a little easier to configure.  Although the same command line from the XP SP3 config can be used, there is a MMC console as well.

Again before we configure the client we must set the Network Access Protection Agent service to start automatically, then start it.

Then we can launch the MMC console with the following command

napclcfg.msc

Once this opens up click on Enforcement Clients and then simply right-click the agent you wish to use and choose enable!

If you are a command line junkie or wish to script this you can also run the following command:

netsh nap client set enforcement ID = "#####" Admin = "ENABLE"

Just replace the ###### with the enforcement ID.  One last hint, you can see the enforcement ID circled as well if you forget and need to enable the client using Netsh.