TF2 Getting New Game Mode, Heavy Update and more

Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

Update: Thanks to reader Theory who points out that the TF2 Blog is now describing the five new maps for the new game mode as “five new arenas”. What does that suggest to you?

Valve have begun the Heavy update news, but they’re being dreadful teases. Revealing a detail per day until Friday, and then more on Monday and Tuesday next week, it seems there are big plans afoot. Shack News are reporting that there will be the user map, a new “special edition” Meet The Team video, a new Payload map, and most of all, five new Valve-made maps designed for the brand new game mode. What this may be, we don’t know yet. But it’s the biggest change to TF2 since launch.

For today, it’s information on a new community map, CP_STEEL.

Created by Jamie “Fishbus” Manson, the first revealed map is a dynamic Attack/Defense map, where the available routes change as control points are captured. Valve explain in more detail:

“A complex Attack/Defense control point map, with some
unique gameplay. Unlike most TF2 maps, capturing a control point
modifies the layout of the map, opening and closing routes for each
team. As a result, the offensive team has a wide variety of tactical
choices around how they’d like to assault the final point. Should they
use Scouts and Soldiers to rush the final point with only the routes
they start with? Should they go for the side control points and open up
more routes to the final? Should they capture extra points to shut down
the defender’s routes? The many choices keep the map interesting for a
long time, providing a wide variety of experiences in a game.”

Tune in tomorrow as we inevitably feed Valve’s insatiable desire for our attention by reporting the next update. In the meantime, go on, what are you guesses/desperate desires for the Heavy’s new bits? Oh, and the new game mode?”

Look@Lan Monitors Your Network

Lifehacker:

“Windows only: User-friendly network monitoring utility Look@Lan quickly
displays information about your local network such as the percentage of
machines online and the operating systems installed on them. With
automatic network configuration detection and a quick start wizard, you
can be up and running seconds after installing the program. Look@Lan
has audio notification of changes to the network and you can configure
it to send email notifications about changes as well. Look@Lan can
limit scan ranges based on IP address, network adapter, or port types;
it comes with ping, traceroute, and a tree-based network viewer built
in. Here’s what some of Look@Lan’s graphs look like….”

SEE MORE PICS

Look@Lan is a free download for Windows only.

Look@Lan [via gHacks]

Totally Free Burner Makes CD and DVD Burning Simple

Lifehacker:

“Windows only: Free application Totally Free Burner burns audio, video,
data, and ISO CDs and DVDs in just a few clicks. The app covers almost
all of your potential CD and DVD burning needs, and it does so through
a slick and simple interface. As FreewareGenius points out, drag and
drop support for adding files to a project would make this a truly
great app, but even without that functionality it’s an impressive piece
of freeware. Chances are by this point you’ve found a reliable burning
tool, but if not, the freeware, Windows only Totally Free Burner isn’t
a bad offering.”

Totally Free Burner [via FreewareGenius]

Blue Screen of Death Strikes Bird’s Nest During Opening Ceremonies Torch Lighting

It’s been confirmed as real. Classic!

Gizmodo:

“Well this is just perfect. At the exact moment Li Ning was rounding the lip of the Bird’s Nest
during the amazing torch-lighting climax, someone snapped this photo of
our good friend the BSOD nestled amongst the Nest’s steel twigs.
Perhaps an Opening Cermonies
IT dude spit out his coffee on the machines in the server room when Li
took to the sky? Another question is what a projection screen is doing
inside the Nest at that location, but I think the better question is what wasn’t
going on inside the Nest’s roof—did you see that thing during the
ceremonies? Lights! Fireworks! LED screens! Everything! Anyway, if only
one image of this perfectness existed we’d be skeptical, but
thankfully, someone has grabbed more from a different angle that pretty much seal the deal.

UPDATE: And it’s been confirmed on the NBC broadcast by commenter cirby on his DVR. Fo’ real!”

MORE PICTURES

DK Finder Does Lightning Fast Desktop Search

Lifehacker:

“Windows only: Free utility DK Finder is a resource-light desktop search
application that indexes your hard drive for fast searching. Obviously
there are plenty of desktop search applications out there, most notably
Google Desktop, but DK Finder sets itself apart with a tiny footprint
(around 3MB running, 1MB in the system tray), advanced filtering
options, and file operations (like batch copying and moving files).
Like any desktop search app, the initial index will take some time.
Once DK Finder finishes indexing your drive, it provides nearly
instantaneous results. DK Finder is a free download for Windows only.”

DK Finder [via FreewareGenius]

Speed Launch Opens Applications, Documents and More

Lifehacker:

“Windows only: New kid on the app launcher block Speed Launch brings a
dose of novelty and a whole lot of functionality to the scene. Speed
Launch, from Microsoft Office Labs, puts a small archery style
bull’s-eye in the lower right hand corner of your primary monitor. You
can drag documents, programs, and URLs onto the target to create a
quick launch keyword. For example, drag the executable for Adobe
Photoshop to pull up a dialog where you can assign a keyword such as
“ps” or “shop” to the program. Similarly, if you have a document you
edit frequently like a todo.txt or a spreadsheet, Speed Launch can
assign keywords to them such as “todo” or “accounting.” Hit the Win+C
keyboard combination to pull up the launch menu you see in the
screenshot above, enter a keyword to launch the application, document,
or bookmark. One of Speed Launch’s strong points is the ability to
chain together items in a keyword for multiple launches, too.

Lets
say every morning you go to Gmail, read the new articles at
Lifehacker.com, and launch Thinking Rock to get your GTD focus going.
Speed Launch lets you to drag the URLs for Gmail and Lifehacker and the
shortcut to Thinking Rock onto the bull’s-eye and assign them all the
same keyword “Morning.” If you’re in the mood to test-drive application
launchers and find the perfect fit, make sure to check out our application launcher Hive Five. Speed Launch is a free download for Windows only, requires .NET 3.0 to run.”

Speed Launch [Microsoft Office Labs via Digital Inspiration]

ZSoft Uninstaller Removes Crapware from Your PC

Lifehacker:

“Windows only: Free application ZSoft Uninstaller is a beefed up replacement for the default Windows Add or Remove Programs dialog. ZSoft isn’t quite as good as previously mentioned Revo Uninstaller (one of our readers’ favorite Windows maintenance tools), but it has its charms. Its filtering feature, which filters installed programs by crapware or dead links, makes ZSoft worth a download—if nothing else for the joy of running the crapware filter against your installed apps. Aside from that, ZSoft Uninstaller provides a more organized look at your installed apps and more comprehensive uninstalls than the Windows default. ZSoft Uninstaller is freeware, Windows only.”

ZSofr Uninstaller [via Download Squad]

Vista’s Security Rendered Completely Useless

Slashdot: “While this may seem like any standard security hole, other researchers
say that the work is a major breakthrough and there is very little that
Microsoft can do to fix the problems. These attacks work differently
than other security exploits, as they aren’t based on any new Windows
vulnerabilities, but instead take advantage of the way Microsoft chose
to guard Vista’s fundamental architecture. According to Dino Dai
Zovi…, ‘the genius of this is that it’s completely reusable. They
have attacks that let them load chosen content to a chosen location
with chosen permissions. That’s completely game over.’”

Microsoft’s PC maker of choice

Boing Boing:

“Take a look at the homepage for Microsoft Office. Look carefully.”

Go to school with Office [office.microsoft.com]

Snarl Displays Growl-Like Universal Notifications

Lifehacker:

“Windows only: Free application Snarl is a universal notification system for Windows inspired by the popular Mac OS X notifier Growl. We mentioned Snarl once before, but the young project has improved a lot since then, with extensions supporting Firefox, Pidgin, Outlook, Sunbird, and more. Out of the box Snarl has built-in support for battery warnings, system events, and timer and clock support (like hourly reminders)—along with several attractive themes. It needs support for a wider range of apps if it’s ever going to do everything Growl does, but it’s got a good start. Snarl is free and open source, Windows only.“

Snarl