Officially, Quake III Arena has no place in a corporate IT support department. In other words, unofficially, it's what they play all day, instead of fixing your computer. Possibly. However, that's not the case at the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, which has got together with Cisco to turn Quake III Arena into a computer network monitoring tool.

It involved modifying an open-source game called Open Arena, which is based on the Quake engine. The result visualises network activity within the 3D game-world, with nodes on the network represented as small pyramids which change shape, colour, movement and orientation according to what's happening on the network.

And yes, sysadmins can shoot them. With a big laser gun. Although given that their fellow admins are also running round as characters, I can't see how it wouldn't descend into a fragfest, with work forgotten. Anyway, the application is called L3DGEWorld 2.2: you can find all the technical bumph via the link below, or watch the video demo above.

L3DGEWorld 2.2 website (via New Scientist)

Related posts
Belkin's n52te SpeedPad for those of you still married to Quake III
Quake Legend John Carmack on Why Mobile Games Rule

Consumer electronics companies are almost (I said almost) ashamed of using the word convergence now. It's become a byword for clunky, poorly-designed attempts to shoehorn as many gadgets as possible into one device, while satisfying nobody.

Yet the basic idea behind convergence - the idea of cutting down the number of gadgets you carry around by combining their functions - isn't dead. In fact, it's a necessity. Last week I went to CES with a mobile phone, a laptop, a digital camera, a dictaphone, an iPod, a Nintendo DS, a Skype headset, and a USB memory stick. Oh, and a wristwatch.

Isn't it time I started throwing out some of those gadgets, with some necessary convergence? It sparked the idea for this piece, where one-by-one, I'm going to see if I really need all those different bits of consumer technology.

Those of you not affected by port'n'turkey sloth on Christmas Day may well have downloaded the official release of the BBC's iPlayer, as it came out that day. According to the Beeb, more than a million people have since used the service, watching more than 3.5 million programmes.

The corporation says 250,000 shows have been streamed or downloaded every day since launch, with streaming users outnumbering downloaders by a factor of eight. Get set for some LONG TAIL ACTION - nearly half of all the shows that were watched were from outside the Beeb's 50 most popular programmes.

Popular shows so far include the Doctor Who Christmas special, Top Gear, and the festive edition of Eastenders. Yes, I know that's a dictionary-stretching definition of 'festive'.

(via BBC News)

Related posts
BBC launches stripped-down iPlayer for Mac users
BBC teams up with Adobe (not Microsoft!) to create Flash-based cross-platform iPlayer
UK Government backs BBC Trust's commitment to make iPlayer available on other platforms (eventually)

The fightback has begun in the HD wars, with HD DVD backer Toshiba slashing prices on its players to try and compete with its Blu-ray rivals. In the US, its cheapest HD DVD player will now cost $149 - half its previous official price - while even its high-end player has seen a big cut to $299.

Meanwhile, in the UK, Toshiba's high-end HD-EP30 HD DVD player has been spotted on sale for £179. However, the rhetoric from Toshiba's Yoshi Uchiyama in the US begs a few questions:

"While price is one of the consideration elements for the early adopter, it is a deal-breaker for the mainstream consumer. Consumer sales this holiday season have proven that the consumer awareness of the HD DVD format has been elevated and pricing is the most critical determinant in consumer's purchase decision of the next generation HD DVD technology."

We're back in the UK, with fuzzy heads, bulging post counts, and emptied bank accounts. Last week at CES was a blast, with more cool products than you can shake a stick at. Not that this has stopped us stick-shaking in order to weed out the 50 best products we saw at CES 2008. Read on for the full list, with links to our stories.

1. Panasonic won the big-screen size war with its 150 inch plasma television
2. Sony tried a different approach with its diminutive OLED TVs
3. OQO unveiled the world's first WiMAX-enabled UMPC
4. JVC made its own telly splash with the world's skinniest LCDs
5. Alienware debuted a curvy 2880x900 gaming monitor
6. Toshiba wowed us with its A100F hard disk HD camcorder
7. WowWee revealed its latest robot, the micro-GPS-equipped Rovio
8. LG jumped on board the watch/phone bandwagon with its, ahem, prototype watch/phone
9. iRiver made us wish they released more products in the UK with their slinky SPINN player
10. We headbanged in appreciation of the Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker

I'm still at the Billboard Digital Music Live summit, and we're ready for the main event now. Keynote speaker in the afternoon is Wyclef Jean, the multi-million selling ex-Fugee who's collaborated with stellar acts like Shakira, Destiny's Child and, er, Brian Harvey.

He's due to announce a big new digital music deal, and give his views on the industry. Read on for the liveblog as it happens – and pray his lips don't lie...

He's working with Motorola. “I got to find a new way to introduce my music. I might do 60 or 70 songs for an album, but I can only put 20 on the album. So the idea that I can promote music through a telephone, it's great. It allows me to get out new music.”

What will he be doing? Gigs around the world, exclusive tracks that aren't on his albums – he apparently has 60-70 songs lying around ready to distribute to fans.

There's an entire hall devoted to in-car stuff at CES, complete with many cars showcasing the exhibitors' kit. If you want detailed specs and information, you'll have to go to a proper motorblog - it's all about the CarPorn photos here. See below for my pick of the coolest 25 motors at the show.

1. (above) For some reason this makes me think of Star Wars.

Oh. My. God. I'm slightly disbelievingly putting this post together and realising that we've published more than SIXTY posts on Tech Digest today. And we're still sitting here with bags of other stuff ready to go. So this is an attempt to sort through it all.

THE BIG STORIES
CES 2008: BT Vision to use Xbox 360 consoles as set-top boxes
CES 2008: Blu-ray press conference liveblog
CES 2008: hands on with Toshiba's impressive new A100F hard disk HD camcorder
CES 2008: Samsung HDTV Series 7 range heading to the UK
CES 2008: Skype coming to Slim and Lite PSPs
CES 2008 Opinion: So why is everyone so disappointed with Bill Gates's keynotes speech?
CES 2008: Panasonic's 150 inch plasma television
CES 2008: Casio Exilim EX-Z80, EX-Z200, EX-Z100 and world's thinnest 10.1-megapixel camera, EX-S10
CES 2008: Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker strums up a storm
CES 2008: Uberblogger Loic Le Meur on peeing next to Bill Gates at CES
CES 2008: Is CES leaving Vegas? Is the next stop Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania?
CES 2008: Blu-ray studios claim 85% share of HD hardware market, predict two million player sales in 2008

THE FUN STORIES
CES: Spy Video ATV-360 car - great for keeping tabs on your boss
CES 2008: Get your hands on The Shaft Wii joystick
CES 2008: First booth babe spotted!
CES 2008: Halo 3 weapons turned into real-world laser-tag guns
CES 2008: Robo-fun with the Clapping Penguin, Attacking Duck, and Probing Robot

Check over the jump for everything else...

It's safe to say this one could be somewhat triumphant. With rival format HD DVD having seen its CES press conference cancelled, the Blu-ray people could spend the next hour crowing.

Hopefully they won't though: I want to hear some up-to-date numbers on how Blu-ray is really performing, irrespective of the woes of its rival. How are they going to ensure more Blu-ray sales in the next year? How will the format develop? And where are we at with the cutting-edge interactive gubbins that they've promised in the past.

Read on to find out. I'm blogging as live during the conference, but then uploading it in one go when I get back to the Wi-Fi sanctuary of the press room.

This is the best gadget bar none at CES 2008. I'm telling you, it is. The Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker is a gadget from Jada Toys, it's out in March for $29.99 (with UK distribution following), and it lets you crank out fat air guitar riffs from Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Motorhead, Van Halen and Boston.

It consists of a guitar pick, a belt buckle, and a wearable mini amplifier. When you strum the pick in front of the belt, you unleash RAWK MAYHEM. I'm talking Iron Man, Smoke On The Water, Ace Of Spades, and More Than A Feeling. Watch the video above, and tell me this isn't genius.

I'm sure had he introduced the cure for cancer, people would still be writing up their show reports with comments claiming he 'missed the mark', and his cure is 'too little, too late'. Sometimes people just love to be controversial, but are any of their criticisms warranted? Let's take a look...

It's hard to avoid speculating as to what will be shown off in conferences and keynotes speeches, especially when it's Microsoft, and Gates normally uses his annual keynotes to debut products like the Surface, Windows Mobile, or the Xbox 360. Most people were expecting an integrated HD DVD drive in the Xbox 360, some Windows Mobile 7, others some more news regarding last year's Surface.

What everyone was hoping for however, was a comment on the HD DVD/Blu-ray battle, especially since Warner went exclusive with Blu-ray on Friday, causing many to proclaim HD DVD as 'dead'. We'll probably never discover whether there was going to be a HD DVD 360, as it may've been canned, with the keynotes speech rewritten at the last minute.

Waiting in line for a Bill Gates keynotes speech is tough. Last year, they served us food and wine. This year, err, the budget was obviously cut back a few notches. When faced with a few hours' wait without any booze, Kat got resourceful, and nabbed France's most famous blogger, Loic Le Meur, for an impromptu video interview.

It's lengthy, but take a look to see them speculating as to what Gates would announce, plus Le Meur's hilarious story about the time he was once stood next to Gates at the urinals. Did he look down? Was *it* impressive? You'll have to watch the above video to find out..

CES 2008 Special
Read all our coverage from the show in our CES 2008 category.

There are a couple of companies out there in this plugged-in world which Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny would just like to raise their foot-long margaritas to, who’ve helped with kitting us out to the max, ensuring our laptops are as light as the free beer served at CES parties, and we won’t turn an embarrassing shade of red when a Gizmodo buy walks past and spies us using a digital camera held together by duct tape. It was an emergency internal operation gone wrong after a seaside accident, I swear!

A huge thanks goes out to these companies from myself, Stuart, Al, Susi, Alex and Gemma...

JVC – a big part of CES for us is shooting a heck of a lot of vids out on the floor, often resulting in less than satisfactory background noise-fests. JVC’s Everio GZ-HD3EK HD camcorder and mic means you’ll hear every word just as we spoke them. Admittedly they're highly exhausted words, but hopped up on caffeine and Boots’ energy tablets.

HP – for loaning us their magnificent HP TX1000 notebook, highly suitable for a long Bill Gates livebloggin’ sesh. The touch-sensitive tablet function is great for Mah Jong enthusiasts, too.

Canon – what would we do without their awesome EOS 400D? Perhaps a bit dated now with the recent launch of the 40D, but it doesn’t mean it produces any lesser results when taking hi-res snaps of the latest gadgetry on offer. And, err, pics of pretty cockatails.

Casio – much smarter than a duct-tape encompassed camera of yesteryear is the Exilim EX-Z1080 which, due to its pocket-sized nature, is handy for those random shots, and potential ‘sleb sightings.

ASUS – Stuart barely shuts up about how wondrous the Eee PC notebook is, to the extent where Susi thought she’d follow suit and take along one of the teensy lappies as well. I think she’s still in shock it fits in her handbag, meaning no more carting around the massive CES backpacks. You’ll be pleased to know it fits in Stu’s manbag just fine, too.

Medion – Alex could hardly cart her massive MacBook around the convention centre, so is thrilled to bits Medion could help her out with her less obese model.

CES 2008 Special
Read all our coverage from the show in our CES 2008 category

Phew. It's been a long day here in Las Vegas (as evidenced by me still working at 12.45am. We attended all the major press conferences, caught Bill Gates' last ever CES keynote, and got a bunch of stories from the Digital Experience press event. See below for links to all the good stuff. Tomorrow, meanwhile, we hit the show itself...

SUNDAY'S STORIES
CES 2008: Watch Bill Gates play Xbox 360 Guitar Hero III with Slash
Sir Howard Stringer responds to Warner Bros announcement
CES 2008: Microsoft Zune worldwide shipping FINALLY FREAKIN' announced
CES 2008: Toshiba's response to Warner's Blu-ray allegiance, and what it means for the future of HD DVD
CES 2008: Panasonic press conference liveblog
CES 2008: Sharp press conference: surprise, surprise – more massive tellies are on their way
CES 2008: Sony Ericsson's W760 GPS Walkman phone
CES 2008: Sony Ericsson's latest fashion phone - the Z555
CES 2008: Sony Ericsson launches W350 flip Walkman phone
CES 2008: LG conference's big announcement? MPH, Mobile TV
CES 2008: Sony first to launch diminutive OLED TVs
CES 2008: Jook lets you broadcast your iPod music to people around you
CES 2008: Motorola launches Z10 with HSDPA connectivity and video editing
CES 2008: Bill Gates's last day of work at Microsoft
CES 2008: LG announces plethora of LCD and Plasma screens
CES 2008: Sharp rolls out latest AQUOS HDTV ranges
CES 2008: Sony expands its HDTV range with new features, accessories
CES 2008: Samsung's Duo HD BD-UP5500 player blends Blu-ray and HD DVD
CES 2008: JVC reveals world skinniest LCDs
CES 2008: Sharp announces colourful, gamer-friendly AQUOS LCDs
CES 2008: Video Diary - Panasonic and Philips at CES
CES 2008: Alienware debuts curvy 2880x900 gaming monitor
CES 2008: Panasonic’s new Viera TVs – 46-inch plasma and 37-inch LCD
CES 2008: CES Unveiled Video Preview - WowWee Rovio
CES 2008: Sony unveils Mylo 2, UK left wondering where Mylo 1 has got to
CES 2008: Sharp's AQUOS Net takes tellies online, launches first TV widgets
CES 2008: Samsung unveils 3D-ready Series 4 plasma HDTV
CES 2008: Toshiba announces bunch of new Plasma and LCD screens
CES 2008: iLuv shows i399 iPod boombox and i1255 DVD / iPod Video player
CES 2008: Samsung launches Series 6 and Series 7 LCD HDTVs
CES 2008: SC-HMX20C 1080p HD camcorder makes a splash
CES 2008: Sony Vaio TP Home Theatre PC – now sensibly includes two TV tuners
CES 2008: Sony promotes the α200 as the affordable DSLR
CES 2008: Fujifilm launches super-thin FinePix Z100fd digital camera
CES 2008: SpaceTime swizzy 3D web browser
CES 2008: Samsung unveils Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC
CES 2008: JVC takes iPod docking to the small big TV screen
CES 2008: Sony Rolly MP3 player thingy arriving soon
CES 2008: Track your dog with a Zoombak A-GPS dog tracker
CES 2008: JVC's iPod-tacular TH-F3 Home Theatre System
CES 2008: ASUS drops the Nova P22 mini desktop and 24” MK241 monitor
CES 2008: Oregon Scientific Weather Center and InstaForecast
CES 2008: Celestron LCD Microscope

OTHER DAYS
CES 2008 Roundup: Friday
CES 2008 Roundup: Saturday

Hurrah for Bill Gates, who capped an entertaining CES keynote by jamming on Guitar Hero III with Slash. Shiny Kat and Gemma were there to capture the historic moment as it happened (the fun starts about two minutes in).

CES 2008 Special
Read all our coverage from the show in our CES 2008 category. And while you're at it, check out Xboxer.tv for more Xbox 360 stories.

For those of you getting weary of big TVs, some comfort: Sony Ericsson has unleashed some new mobile phones at CES this afternoon. Pick of the bunch is the W760, a Walkman handset with HSDPA, motion-controlled gaming, and GPS.

It's a slider phone, and the GPS is twinned with Wayfinder Navigator software and Google Maps, which sounds like a pretty powerful combination. There's also a GPS-enabled fitness app called Tracker that records how far and fast you've run or walked.

Naturally for a Walkman phone, music is a big focus - the W760 has twin speakers with 'stereo widening', plus an optional Active Speaker accessory that acts as speakers, FM tuner and protective casing.

It's 11am on press conference day at CES, and next up is Panasonic. I'm liveblogging it, although due to sketchy Wi-Fi access, I won't be publishing the post until afterwards. Just so you know. Judging by the stage backdrop, Viera flat-screen TVs will be one of the core elements today. On with the show...

Chairman of Panny North America Yoshi Yamada is kicking things off, and talking up the company's official sponsorship of this year's Olympic Games, which he says will be the first “high-definition Olympics”.

Now he's showing a promotional video of how HD is changing the daily lives of American families, with the company's Living In High Definition campaign, which will be expanded to 30 families by March, with movie director Brett Ratner putting their footage together into some kind of project. He should be here to talk it up, but his flight was cancelled apparently.

This year's CES is underway, with Team Shiny having descended on the CES Unveiled press event this evening. In truth, it was a bit underwhelming, but there was some good stuff, including WowWee's latest crop of robots. Read on for all our stories from today.

CES 2008: WowWee Tribot ROBOT!
CES 2008: WowWee Alive wild cub toys steal our affections
CES 2008: Top 10 celebrities appearing at this year's show
CES 2008: Shiny Susi tries the HT-7450 Zero-Gravity massage chair
CES 2008: WowWee's Rovio is a Wi-Fi robo-webcam with micro-GPS
CES 2008: Slingbox PRO-HD will placeshift HD content
CES 2008: Is getting a plug in Bill Gates' CES opener the gadget kiss of death?
CES 2008: SE2 Labs' ITC Wii/Xbox 360/HD PVR/iPod console system
CES 2008: Will the Bel Canto Ultra-Dock persuade audiophiles to get iPods?
CES 2008: HD Radio iTunes Tagging
CES 2008: WowWee's friendly Mr Personality robot
CES 2008: EGO Icebar2 waterproof iPod Nano case bubbles up
CES 2008: Relax in the Human Touch HT-7450 Zero-Gravity massage chair
CES 2008: Liquid Image's Digital Underwater Camera Mask
CES 2008: NRG solar charging docks
CES 2008: Hurrah for network-enabled automatic urine collectors
CES 2008: Vestalife Ladybug is a ladybird-style iPod dock
CES 2008: The greenwash begins
CES 2008: CUE Acoustics' iPod-dockin' HD radio
CES 2008: Viable's video phone for deaf and hard of hearing
CES 2008: Aquallusion iTube wants to be Lava Lamp 2.0
CES 2008: Pinnacle solve video transfer woes with their accurately named Video Transfer unit
CES 2008: OmniMount shows off its Motion 52 cantilever mount
CES 2008: Winner of CES Unveiled's 'most boring' product goes to the Powramid E-900H

You can rely on WowWee to storm CES with a battalion of new robots - tonight, several were on show at the show press preview. Pick of the bunch was Rovio, which the company describes as a 'Wi-Fi enabled robotic webcam'.

It basically trundles around your house, and can be controlled remotely, but also has something called NorthStar smart navigation built in, which lets it navigate around under its own steam using a micro-GPS-like system.

You can stream audio and video from Rovio wherever you are to spy on your home, and he can be controlled via devices like mobile phones and games consoles, as well as PCs. Oh, and you can send him back to base for a recharge at any time.

WowWee website

CES 2008 Special
Read all our coverage from the show in our CES 2008 category

Britney is, alas, otherwise engaged, so won't be making an appearance at this year's CES. Thankfully, an array of other celebs ARE heading for Vegas at the beck and call of sundry consumer tech companies. Here's the ones we'll be stalking checking out:

1. Yoko Ono. Yep, you read that right. She'll be on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus on Monday, graciously accepting apologies from sheepish Beatles fans who thought she was the worst Fab Four wife until Heather Mills came along.

2. Michael Douglas. He's appearing at the XstreamHD stand on Tuesday, looking strangely less craggy than he was ten years ago.