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Hockey strike over, just in time

After close to a year of NHL contract negotiations, which are finally wrapping up after a marathon session by the NHL Player’s Association and owners, hockey will return next season.

After close to a year of NHL contract negotiations, which are finally wrapping up after a marathon session by the NHL Player’s Association and owners, hockey will return next season. The details should be hammered out in the next few weeks, cutting it really close to the line for game developers. While the teams still have some time to work out the kinks, the main hockey video games – like NHL ’06, Gretzky NHL ’06, NHL 2K6, and ESPN NHL Hockey – have a small window of maybe two weeks to get their products into production.

The main issues are team rosters – who’s playing for who this season, and with what rookies – and the list of 13 proposed rule changes, including no centre-line, wider blue lines, more teams in the playoffs, smaller goaltending equipment, limitations on goalie puck handling, automatic icing calls, penalties for shooting the puck into the stands, stiffer misconduct penalties, three-point games, and shoot-outs to resolve ties.

There is a good chance that at least a few of these rules will be passed by the league, which means that they will have to be included in the video games which are striving to be as realistic as possible.

The NHL, which is the first major sports league to cancel an entire season, will also relaunch this season with a new branding campaign to bring fans back to the game. The video game companies also want to capture the essence of that brand launch.

The only positive for the game developers is the fact that no player statistics changed last year besides age, and it will only require a minimum amount of reprogramming to create virtual teams for the 2006 season.

Most of the games are slated to be released in time for the start of the NHL preseason, with Electronic Arts releasing NHL ‘06 in mid-August, 2K Sports releasing NHL 2K6 on Sept. 1, and Sony releasing Gretzky NHL ’06 less than a week later.

Company to come up with in-flight cellular solution

It wasn’t all that long ago that the airlines finally admitted what many of us suspected all along, which is cell phones and other electronic devices will not jam instruments and cause planes to fall out of the sky. It turns out that those restrictions were extended purely as a courtesy to other passengers.

It was a courtesy I appreciated, and a courtesy I think should continue to be observed, but in these days of "ME" it’s also a courtesy that is about to go out the window.

Siemens AG of Germany recently signed a contract with Airbus to develop a technology that would allow passengers to use their cell phones in flight. There are no cellular towers at 30,000 feet, so any solution would likely involve secondary transmitters on the plane that would relay data to towers on the ground or to satellites in space.

Just because they can do it, and do it by next year, doesn’t mean they should. Most people would probably agree that a pre-flight rectal exam is preferable to having the passenger next to you babble into their phone for the duration of the flight.

It’s not the phones that are the problem, it’s the fact that people still haven’t gotten the hang of the technology – you don’t need to shout, and you need to shut up now and then to hear the other person talk so you don’t get those irritating delays.

It will be up to the airlines whether or not to make this technology available, so I’d suggest you let them know what you think the next time you fill out a customer satisfaction card. It’s not too late.

Final word on cell phones?

The U.S. based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a study this week that shows drivers using cell phones are four times more likely to get into serious crashes causing injuries than other drivers. The study also found that the use of hands free devices is not much safer.

While this may seem obvious to most people – New York, New Jersey and Washington D.C. already have laws against using cell phones behind the wheel – most jurisdictions in North America have no laws, and sometimes laws against creating cell phone laws.

In the bright side, when you do get in an accident, you can always use your cell phone to call 911. Assuming that you’re still conscious, that is.

Careful what you legislate

Upon reading the fine print, more than a few consumer advocates and lawyers are voicing their concerns about Bill C-60, the federal government’s amendment to the Copyright Act which would make it illegal to upload or download music, movies or other copyrighted files through online peer-to-peer networks.

It seems that C-60 may be a little too vague, and actually suggests that it would be illegal to provide or obtain copyrighted information through "information-location tools." The authors of the Bill were most likely referring to P2P services like Kazaa and Bearshare, but the wording could easily be interpreted in such a way as to include Google, Yahoo, and every other search engine, as well as several Internet archiving services. In other words, if you download any copyrighted materials using a search engine, that search engine could be held liable.

Bill C-60 has only received its first reading at this point, and will likely undergo several revisions before it becomes law in Canada. As a result there’s a good chance that the language will get a lot more specific in the next draft.

However, rewording the bill does create a delay, one that will likely further exasperate the Canadian Recording Industry Association and partners.