March 27, 2008 Archives
By The Byron Review was released this morning. Dr Tanya Byron's report was even handed and it's obvious that she knows what she's talking about.
The Byron Review proposes:
- Introduce a mandatory age-rating system for all games, to be handled by the BBFC
- Ensure that retailers defying the age-rating are punished appropriately
- Make age ratings on the game boxes larger and clearer
- Ensure that in situations where there is a risk of actual harm, restrictions can be adequately enforced
- PEGI will continue to rate 3+ and 7+ titles.
The final decision of any implementation is up to the government and it isn't guaranteed that they will follow the recommendations in the report.
Cybernet, not the late-night ITV video games show, but rather a company based in Irvine Spectrum, California, make a range of space saving PCs. They produce 2 distinct versions; the i-One LCD PC, a PC inside an LCD monitor, I suppose a wee bit similar to how the iMac may have evolved and the Zero-Footprint PC, a PC inside a keyboard; harkening back to the days of the Amiga 1200.
The lowest priced i-One starts at $999 and the lowest priced ZPC starts at $629. Both are fully customisable and are definitely aimed at customers who have limited amounts of space. One of the testimonials on the site is from a company which uses the ZPC in a Class 1 Clean Room. The ZPC has allowed them to replace their previous rack-mounted solution with the much less space consuming ZPC.
Ultimately, as nice an idea as they are I think they've only really got a niche-market. Although, I don't doubt some geeky(ish) home users will like the idea and go out and buy one.
HMV currently have a sale on. I was going to buy myself a copy of The Simpsons Movie for only £4.99 but instead spotted The Omen: Pentology for only £7.99 instead. There were loads of other things I could've also bought but restricted myself to just the one item.
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