Version 3.0 of -=}{oT~dEv1L 666=-’s HQ will be delayed yet again, due to change of plans. This time round, I have planned to roll out version 3.0 with a complete site redesign on 16th October, mainly to celebrate the release of Grand Theft Auto IV.

So, with the upcoming two blog/site updates, there will be additional themes and plugins added and installed. They will also be delayed due to the fact that version 3.0 has been pushed back.

So, I wish all of you out there a very happy June and I hope you guys will live life and enjoy gaming to the fullest, for there will be many greater games coming out soon.

Though this may have come late at the 6th of June, I thought I might still as well greet the readers at the start of another promising month, June.

June marks the possibilliity of the release of yet another Grand Theft Auto IV trailer. It also marks the release of Mr. Windows X’s Vista Transformation Pack 7.0. June also marks my birthday, when I’m turning 14.

Besides, June is also the Month when Ocean’s 13 will be released. On 8th June, to be exact. I just went to GameSpot, and I think this could have been the best birthday present I’ve got - Grand Theft Auto III just got the “Greatest Game of All Time” title.

Anyway, this is about all I have to say about this, and the upcoming months. I hope you guys had enjoyed a great deal reading this post, and visiting my blog.

The beta version of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 is out already. It now installs to a Windows Live Messenger directory instead of the MSN Messenger directory.

Also, it sports a new Windows Live GUI that is now Aero aware, meaning that it now fully supports Windows Vista’s Aero capabillities. As it is now only in beta stage, the Windows Live GUI is not a finallised version yet.

So, after so much of the talking that I’ve done, if you haven’t got your copy of the beta build of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 Beta, you can get it today, right here. The download link can be found at the bottom.

Windows Live Messenger Beta (70)

Adam Mapleson, a CounterStrike player, was shot yesterday while coming to the aid of a female security guard who was being robbed at a railway station. He is in serious but stable condition.

Adam, a 24-year-old man, is now considered a “hero” to most gamers. On his MySpace profile, he is described as having “a passion for heavy metal music as well as games”. Besides CounterStrike, he also enjoys playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, GTA San Andreas and Neverwinter Nights.

Before Jack Thompson wishes to comment about this, he’d better think twice, or thrice. I don’t think he would want anymore trouble with Rockstar Games again. They have just settled the lawsuit.

And of course, before you go, remember this - Violence is a primitive instinct in present in all Human Beings. So if you don’t feel entertained gunning down a few guys from the rival gangs in Grand Theft Auto, you’re not Human.

“Surface”, a new touch-sensitive coffee table-shaped computer, is designed to do away with the need for a traditional mouse and keyboard. Users can instead use their fingers to operate the computer.

Also designed to interact with mobile phones placed on the surface, Microsoft says it will initially sell the unit with 30 inch screens to corporate customers like hotels, casinos, phone stores and restaurants for between US$5,000 to US$10,000, and later produce cheaper versions for homes within three to five years.

The so-called “multi-touch” interfaces allow the user to “gesture” with several fingers at once to manipulate data, rather than relying on a mouse and menus. Microsoft also says small groups of people will be able to use each Surface machine simultaneously. This kind of technology has been making waves in tech circles for some time.

“We see this as a multi-billion dollar category, and we envision a time when surface computing technologies will be pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror,” said Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

While Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console has been a success, its Zune music player continues to lag far behind Apple’s iPod. With this new piece of technology, the computer giant hopes to dominate the consumer market once again by first deploying them in Sheraton hotels, Harrah’s casinos, T-Mobile stores, and numerous restaurants in November.

I know almost 80% of gamers that’s reading this is excited over the announcement of Starcraft 2 and the launch of the website.

Starcraft2.com was launched about a week ago. To many gamers, it came as a surprise. I was no different. The game itself was initially announced at the Worldwide Invitational on 22nd May.

According to Blizzard Entertainment, development of Starcraft 2 started way back when Warcraft III Frozen Throne was completed. The screenshots tell us how far it is already through development. However, no specific release date was announced.

Now, before you go about thinking “Where the **** did my Starcraft Ghost went?”. I have no idea either. Anyway, here’s a screenshot I will leave you with for the day, if you don’t mind the quality (After seeing so many Grand Theft Auto IV and Final Fantasy XIII screenshots, I expect Blizzard to learn a lesson or two from them).

Again, -=}{oT~dEv1L 666=-’s HQ has just been updated - to celebrate the launch of the blog forums and the blog’s 1000th Hit.

In this minor update, a Forum has been set up in the blog where you can talk about Grand Theft Auto, Technology stuff and give me feedback. Also, we have switched hosts to ByetHost and finally reached our 1000th Hit. The gallery now finally includes the new Grand Theft Auto IV screenshots.

The next update, version 2.7, will be launched a few days from now to fix a few minor bugs in IE. Version 2.8 will be launched one week after 2.7 and I will include some more interesting plugins and themes. Version 2.9 will be launched on 19th June 2007 with an Aero inspired theme included in the themes list.

23th June 2007 - my birthday, will see the relaunch of -=}{oT~dEv1L 666=-’s HQ (which means version 3.0), where the red default theme, as well as the black theme, will be greatly modified. A new modified sleek Black/White theme - “Grand T}{eft Auto IV”, will also be launched.

For those of you wondering, the rest of the themes - Classic, Gaming and Aero , will not be modified. So, I hope all of you will look forward to the relaunch of -=}{oT~dEv1L 666=-’s HQ on 23rd December!

In a special event held in Los Angeles, Microsoft announced that the title “Halo 3″, together with a Halo-styled Zune, will debut on 25th December on the XBOX 360.

Halo 3 will continue the storyline of the Halo franchise, where Halo 2, the last installment, finishes off. Another two Halo titles is also set to debut after Halo 3, namely “Halo Wars” and another untitled Halo project.

Peter Moore, the head of Microsoft game studios, says that Halo 3 isn’t just game, but “the biggest entertainment event of the year.”

Microsoft executives hope that Halo 3 will boost the sales of the Xbox 360, which is currently second in place, with the Nintendo Wii in the first place. Together with Blue Dragon and Grand Theft Auto IV, we hope the XBOX 360 will take the lead this fall.

An article on NanoTechWire explained the possibilities in the future of Hard Drives and other storage mediums holding much more data than what is possible now. With the help of Water, scientists in Drexel found out, in the future our Hard Drive might be able to be “so dense that a cubic centimeter contains 12.8 million gigabytes (GB) of information.”

It could be so huge that even an iPod can continue playing music for 100 millennia without repeating a single song. A USB thumb-drive might also have room for 32.6 million full-length DVD movies in the future.

And how are all these possible? This could actually be achieved by “combining a computing principle that was popular in the 1960s, a glass of water and wire three-billionths of a meter wide.”

Below is the excerpt from the article that explains how all these are possible, from a Scientific perspective:

“Ferroelectric materials possess spontaneous and reversible electric dipole moments. Until recently, it was technologically difficult to stabilize ferroelectricity on the nano-scale. This was because the traditional process of screening the charges was not completely effective. However Jonathan Spanier from Drexel University and his research colleagues have proposed a new and slightly unusual mechanism stabilizing the ferroelectricity in nano-scaled materials: surrounding the charged material with fragments of water.

All ferroelectric materials, even Spanier’s wires that are 100,000 times finer than a human hair, need to be screened to ensure their dipole moments remain stable. Traditionally this was accomplished using metallic electrodes, but Spanier and his team found that molecules such as hydroxyl (OH) ions, which make up water, and organic molecules, such as carboxyl (COOH), work even better than metal electrodes at stabilizing ferroelectricity in nano-scaled materials, proving that sometimes water and electricity do mix.”

Read the full story at NanoTechWire.

The Windows Vista port of the XBOX game Halo 2 was released just a week ago. The game marks the date where Microsoft’s “Games for Windows” and “Games for Windows - Live” branding are both launched.

Halo 2 comes with the “Tray & Play” technology and according to Microsoft, this technology aims to emulate console gaming, where no installation is needed and the game is started up a soon as you insert the disc into the machine.

“Tray & Play” allows the player to play the game within 2 minutes after you insert the DVD into your machine, claimed Microsoft. And all these are possible by installing the game while allowing the player to stream the game from the disc at the same time.

Halo 2 might be a old game and by the time you’re reading this, Halo 2 for the XBOX might have already been released for 3 years already. But nevertheless, for non-XBOX owners, Halo 2 would be an enchanting experience after all.