Well, we all visioned it for a long time but wished it never came, well its D-Day now as Valve follow their partners initiative about putting Ads in game.
The first game to Officially support it was EA’s Battlefeild 2142 (Subtitled Adfeild 2414 Here: Battlefeild Box Art

A while ago me and mates decided that after Team3D got their subway agreement up and going, we would advertise Subway in game too
worked for a while and we got a good laugh out of it, many people even thought our sprays were real and they could see it was a real ad in game. it caught on to many others but wasn’t a “big hit”. but it was a very enjoyable sensation!

Valves official notice said:

“There will be some ads posted on walls in the game world, an ad on the scoreboard screen, and one in the letter boxed area of Spectator mode. Counter-Strike levels aren’t going to turn into Times Square or a Nextel Cup race car. We have control over what ads show up in Counter-Strike and how they are presented.”

While we all hate valve for their steam creation, we despise them for this move, and the cs community is already moving to the likes of BF2 where they can sustain the same online action without intrusive advertisement to throw them off guard.

Valve has said that it is standing by its decision to do this as “It was made in agreement with the community” which is just complete crap as no one was even aware of it, or even a post about it on the Steam help forums.

CS nation has more on it here: CS Nation News Link

Post was written by CyberBlade with exclusive permission to be used on this website. Thanks Cyber!

When you buy a qualifying Windows Vista Capable PC between October 26, 2006 and March 15, 2007, you may be eligible for an Express Upgrade to Windows Vista.

A new promotion from Microsoft has assured its customers that every specially marked Microsoft Windows XP will include a free upgrade to Vista, only paying for its postage.

This in turn would mean that you could purchase a copy of Vista very cheaply.

How to redeem this offer:

1. Purchase a specially marked retail copy of Office 2003 or Windows XP before 28 February 2007.
2. Read the terms and conditions
3. Apply online to get offer (and pay $27 via Credit Card)
4. Send order confirmation and proof of purchase (original receipt and software box lid) to:
   Microsoft Australia
   PO Box 1037
   North Ryde NSW 1670
5. Wait for the upgrades to be sent after 1 February 2007!

If you’d like to see which product of today’s products will get you a certain copy of the yet-to-be-released copies, please see upgrade_guarantee.pdf

For more information regarding this offer, please visit the Microsoft Website’s Windows Vista site.

A new Vista crack is circulating, but it isn’t really a crack for such a thing. It is in fact a trojan.

The crack titled “Windows Vista All Versions Activation 21.11.06″ takes advantage of all the people that are trying to get cracks for the upcoming release of Microsoft Windows Vista. The “crack” contains the “Trojan-PSW.Win32.LdPinch.aze” trojan which will do a heap of harm as its rating is “High”.

Microsoft urges that you do not obtain illegal pirated copies of Vista, for the simple reason that these copies may contain trojans and viruses, due to the new system which will allow people to make their own copies of Vista which can install their favourite applications.

More information on the trojan can be found on the Counter Spy website.

“If you are the type of person that enjoys trying new beers, and enjoys them for their unique flavours then you’ve come to the right place. Start your collection of Beer Reviews today by creating a free Beer Guide Account!” - BeerGuide.com.au website

Beer is one of Australia’s most loved drink, and as the site suggests, not too many people actually taste the difference between each drink. So Nathan, the owner and creator of BeerGuide.com.au, setup a website which would be able to hold reviews for many of National and International drinks.

BeerGuide.com.au only has about 12 21 beers that have been currently reviewed, but it has the strive to pull forward and produce more reviews, even with facilities to take public reviews from its members. The site is totally free (with voluntary premium upgrade), which is yet another bonus of the website. Not only does the site have reviews, it also has a forum which enables people from around the country and inevitably the world to come together to talk about different beers and possibly allow brewerys to also elect a representative to get onto the website and answer customer’s questions regarding their products and services.

Overall I really like this website, and it certainly deserves a 8.5/10, but it really needs more reviews to get going.

Update: Well, a few days after this review, Nathan added even more reviews so I’d definitely check out the website!
Check out the site, www.beerguide.com.au, and post your comments about the site and its contents.

Well, I think its been about 3 weeks since Microsoft Office 2007 went RTM (Ready for Manafacture), but I have found out that its already been uploaded to the web to download illegally. Reports have been made that Vista is also available for download, although I haven’t tried this myself. It’s unbelievable how soon these crackers have been able to receive these copies, although it does appear that they are in fact hacked copies incorporating the BETA activation files. Office however, uses a VLK license (Volume License Key), which in turn means it can be used over and over again, just as many people did with Windows XP Corparate Edition.

The release date for Microsoft Office and Vista is set to be about 30th January, so we’ll see how these new versions persist against their buyers.