I’m writing an article that involves piracy right now. And boy, do gaming companies not like piracy.

After all, games are the magic dust that powers this billion dollar gaming machine; it’s not that hardware that makes money, but the software and accesories. So naturally, it’s in the best interests of developers to protect that investment. Which brings me back to my original point…

Gaming companies do not like piracy. And by extension, they sure as hell don’t like talking about it either.

Things get fuzzy when you try to account for homebrew development. For the uninitiated, it’s generally the sort of console development that relies on hacks and exploits to get unsigned or third-party code on to a console. Most gaming companies are wary to issue any sort of official stance on this activity — welcoming homebrew is out of the question, and condemning it is an unspoken rule of the industry. The reasoning behind this is that most companies seem to equate homebrew with piracy. And if you haven’t gotten it already, the gaming industry certainly isn’t a fan of those who pirate their magic smoke.

The gaming industry’s attitude toward piracy ultimately puts those who attempt to hack and exploit and reverse engineer a console or portable in an awkward situation. Exploits aren’t always intended to encourage piracy or the illegal copying of games, but they can certainly be used to do so. In some cases, like the custom firmware for the PSP, it’s hard not to inadvertently support piracy when the mechanism for loading custom software happens to be the same mechanism for loading illegal games.

To be clear, I’m not looking for some grand sanction on homebrew activities. The point of all this is, it seems like it’s become increasingly hard for companies to take the idea of homebrew seriously when it is so deeply entangled with pirate culture. People are doing some amazing things with consoles — XBMC for the original Xbox — comes to mind; and yet, I get the impression some companies can’t be bothered to separate the pirates from the programmers.

The monkeys are back in their cage, all the paint seems to have dried, and at long last, everything is in its right place. Hard to believe, but it’s only been a few short months since I last revamped the site. Not satisfied with the previous set up, I made the decision last week to re-tool; six days of CSS voodoo and HTML magic later, I’ve got something to show for it.

Welcome to the 134.5th revision of The Horrible Fanfare.

In what is either an affirmation of my inflated ego, or a very smart career move, I’ve placed some links to my recent work on the newly-minted splash page. Everything links to an appropriate section, where you can find more detailed and abundant listings, which will be kept updated as often as possible. The same goes for photos, where the old gallery system has made its triumphant return.

This isn’t a particularly huge update, but more of a pleasant face-lift. Just act as if The Fanfare’s gotten some botox, minus all the facial freezing and awkward social reactions. All the things you know and love are the same, just organized a little better, and easier on the eyes. Like a digital Harrison Ford. Or something.

Finally, the 134.5th revision means that I’ll be hosting every episode of the Not So Horrible Podcast locally again, which is good news for both you, and us. Not only will things (hopefully) load a little bit faster, but iTunes support is finally on its way too. Exciting times indeed!

So, take a look around, see what’s new, and most importantly, enjoy!

Things have been busy lately. Very busy. Purchases have been made, items bought, electronics returned, stories written, campsites camped and parties partaken. Alas, a few things to point out, dear readers…

In the past week, I have had two articles published in fairly large and reputable publications. The first is an article on the Microsoft Surface, which, if you recall, I wrote about something similar many moons ago for BlogTO. This time, however, I’m writing for Ars Technica – part of the Conde Naste media conglomerate, which includes the likes of Wired and The New Yorker – which allowed me to be much more technical than I’m usually allowed. It’s a great article, in my opinion, and it’s generated some nice discussion over at Ars. So take some time, and go ahead and give it a read!

I’m thrilled to say that my second piece appeared in the Toronto Star this past Saturday. I pitched a small idea revolving around Japanese WiiWare games, after I downloaded some rather interesting titles these past few weeks. The result was a nice, 800 word article that had an entire half-page spread devoted to it this past weekend! I’ll have some scans up shortly, once I sort out lingering scanner issues, but you can still check out the online version here.

And that’s it for now. I’ve got some nice post ideas that should be up in the next few days, along with another idea that I’m trying to get off the ground with my good friend Anand. Stay tuned for more details – you’ll like what we have in store!

Yes, I’ll admit – that was a horribly corny title. Yet in all honest, Zorro is the first thing that comes to mind now whenever I read this particular application’s name. But I digress.

Zotero is actually the name of a Firefox extension, available for Windows, OS X and Linux editions of the open-source browser, which actually looks to be incredibly handy come September. At first, it seems kind of weird posting about an app that’s all about collecting and organizing citations and database resources, considering I only just finished school in May. Yet, the more I think about it, the more I realize it could be incredibly useful for Journalistic purposes too.

From what I gather, there’s two parts to Zotero, which each work seamlessly depending on your use for the extension. The first is what I can only describe as an advanced and extended bookmarking library. Documents from databases like Jstor and CPI.Q can be flagged and entered into your database of resources, and automatically sorted based on date published, author, or any other criteria you set. Even more useful is the ability to bookmark links from a list of search results, without having to actually click through each.

Yet, this is the point at which Zotero’s truly becomes more than another bookmarking extension. Once journal articles or document links are bookmarked, Zotero doesn’t simply collect and organize links, but pulls all associated documents, PDFs and scans from the bookmarked pages. But more importantly, it parses the information from these documents – dates, pages, publishers, authors and more – and formats it into your literary style of choice. Everything from MLA to Turabian is available for use, and can be switched on the fly, making for an incredibly powerful platform that can be adapted to any course or professor’s needs.

The best way to get a feel for how Zotero works is to watch the quick introductory video on the developer’s homepage. It provides a simple rundown of the extension and its features, and even more information on how all that archived information can be easily turned into bibliographical output for essays and papers.

Like I said before, I think this could be a very handy extension when it comes to Journalistic uses, especially when dealing with articles that rely heavily on database resources. I think the only problem now is deciding whether the extension is enough to make me ditch Chrome on my Windows 7 install.

I’m not sure what it is with the Toronto Star these days – it’s as if the comments are becoming more insightful than the actual articles. Case in point, this gem…

With George W. Bush speaking to the city’s “well-heeled” tonight, I hope corporate sponsors will take advantage of this event to boost our culture, economy and national pride. For example, Bata Shoes could get their new lineup some air time. The Bata Shoe Museum could mount an exhibition called “Political Self-Expression with Footwear,” and Payless Shoe Source could offer a “1 for the price of 2″ special, for people who only want to cast a single vote.

Bart Hawkins Kreps, Port Hope