A few weeks back, one thousand of our readers participated in our MP3 bitrate test. Today, with the little help of a stats expert, we have results–and a recommended rip rate that most of you can live by.

Readers who took the test listened to three songs at varying bitrates on their own sound systems, and identified the threshold at which encoding quality stopped mattering to their ears. After statistically evaluating the results, we not only found that there's a bitrate that most of us can live by, we found that there is joy to be gleaned from uncompressed audio, especially if you spent money on your sound system.

Videogamers are not a single group. Some of us are Republicans, gay, disabled, ethnic minorities, not from America, or even Christian. So as I followed a Game Politics story about a couple of blogs taking issue with EA's crass publicity stunt in which they hired actors to pretend to be outraged Christians, I was delighted to discover a review of Soulcalibur IV on a blog called Catholic Videogamers.

One of the contributors is Andy Kirchoff, a seminary student. He'll be a priest in six years. And he's an avid player of Soulcalibur IV. In his review, he brings up Pope Benedict's 2007 address to the media, in which he said:

"any trend to produce programs and products - including animated films and video games - which in the name of entertainment exalt violence and portray anti-social behavior or the trivialization of human sexuality, is a perversion"

We’ve confirmed that a very small number of people have ported their existing numbers to Google (Google uses Level3 to handle phone numbers). In the U.S. it’s possible to port any phone number to another service provider - even a mobile number to a voip provider like Level3... That means you can switch your mobile number to Google and then just use whatever device you happen to have in your hand to receive calls. That’s an extremely powerful feature for Google Voice.

In a court battle rife with twists, turns, and delays, Google has been attempting to push forward its Book Search initiative, which could potentially give the Mountain View, Calif., tech giant exclusive access to digital editions of some out-of-print books. That could, as Levy pointed out, get in the way of Amazon's goal of offering every book ever printed in every language on the Kindle and its new, bigger Kindle DX sibling. And it sounds like that's where Amazon has some beef.

I will admit that testing eighty thermal paste products amounts to more than what was really necessary to convey our message. What actually transpired was a search for the best TIM out of about fifty products sent to Benchmark Reviews over the past year, and halfway through the project I decided to accept everything that fit the description of thermal paste; even if it's a product that's no longer commercially available. The project dragged on as last-minute entries were accepted (I really wanted an even number of products, anyway) such as the Gelid's GC-Extreme, Zalman's ZM-STG2, and Tuniq's TX-3 which arrived mere weeks before this article was to be published.

That evening, conversation over drinks turned to a security update Microsoft had just released. Its timing was suspicious: updates usually came once a month, and the next was not due for two weeks. "I remember thinking I should take a look at this," recalls Paul Ferguson, a researcher at Trend Micro, a web security company in Cupertino, California.

He did. So did the rest of the computer security industry. In fact, they talked, puzzled and worried about little else for months after. The update heralded the birth of the Conficker worm - one of the most sophisticated pieces of malignant software ever seen.

Despite an unprecedented collaboration against them, Conficker's accomplished creators have been able to bluff and dodge to gain control of machines inside homes, universities, government offices and the armed forces of at least three nations, establishing a powerful and lucrative network of "zombie" computers. New Scientist has pieced together the sobering details of that cat-and-mouse fight.

The Heinz Beanzawave is being billed as the world's smallest microwave and measures a scant 7.4 inches tall by 6.2 inches wide and 5.9 inches deep. It's equally suited for heating a can of beans/soup at your desk or frying your nuts so you can't have children.

"The mini microwave is being developed as a partner to Heinz Snap Pots, baked beans in single-serving containers. The Snap Pots, available in the U.K., fit perfectly into the Beanzawave. But the $160 device will only be released commercially if consumer feedback is positive and if component prices drop in the near future."

Well you can count me on board. I'M ON A BOAT! Just kidding, I wish I was though. No, right now I'm just laying in bed topless braiding my penises. Now where'd I put that scrunchie?

This is it, the revolutionary LCD screen by Pixel Qi that turns your netbook into a Kindle by the flip of a switch. As you can see in this video, thanks to Pixel Qi technology, your next LCD screens can now be very usable outdoors as well under the sunlight, in a very high resolution black and white mode and also keep a full color and bright back light indoors mode.

This is a demonstration from the first batch of the first working prototypes of this screen, and as you can see, it already looks amazing. Mass production of these screens are planned to be launched soon and should be available in any netbook (and later other devices such as smartphones) as long as the manufacturers decide that they want to integrate it in their products.

The teenager survived the strike, the chances of which are just 1 in a million - but with a nasty three-inch long scar on his hand. He said: "At first I just saw a large ball of light, and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand. Then a split second after that there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder."

Guts: use them or lose them in DDO Unlimited. Get unlimited combat, unlimited adventure, and unlimited fun without a credit card or a subscription when DDO Unlimited launches later this summer.

* Level cap raised to the natural limit of 20
* New class, and new high and low level adventures
* Play without subscription — no purse strings attached
* Feel every blow with DDO's awesome action combat
* Alone or with friends, slay your way — solo, raids, guilds...
* Premium features for free — hirelings, crafting, auctions...
* Shop 'till they drop at the new DDO Store

This mod has been created with a thought of bringing the beautiful and immersive game of STALKER from the last generation era, when it was created to an up-to-date experience you'd expect from games you play in 2009. I did not try to include every single mod out there that changes the game beyond recognition, that was not the point. The following list is the carefully chosen essential collection of most advanced and aesthetically pleasant modifications, created by talented concept artists and programmers in the past 2 years. These are meant to technically and artistically enhance the game without compromising the original feel and atmosphere developers meant you to see. You'll notice every single detail has been retouched and has a polished feel to it.

This is ideal for first time players or people who have beaten the game when it first came out and now are coming back to replay it on new rig with higher resolution and better graphics.

According to ZDNet (which cites the Wall Street Journal) a report by Harvard University researcher Isaac Mao, who has seen the code, says there are two kinds of keyword documents in the software: one is related to pornographic content, and the other related to political content. Not only that but the documents related to political stuff are much, much bigger than those related to pornographic content.

Speculation that the software did more than the government were letting on has been mounting since China first announced the decision earlier this week and computer experts believe that with Green Dam installed on every computer, the Chinese government will gain access to personal information and have the ability to monitor Internet use through the software.

The game? The game itself? This is where the truly astonishingly clever ideas appear. You’ll either play as a Criminal or an Enforcer. Each has a distinct style of play, and neither will ever have to sit in a lobby waiting for a game to play. With an intended 100 players on each server, the enormous city is also populated by NPCs who will play critical roles. Firstly they will serve as the city’s initial gangs, and give missions to players. Secondly, and far more interestingly, they also provide the means by which the game’s natural action flows. So let’s say you’re playing as a Criminal. You log into the city and want something to do right away. Why not steal a car? You may well get away with it. Take it out and go for a joyride, look for some trouble. Or you may not - you may get spotted by an NPC who will report the APB. Report it to other players playing as Enforcers. Who then come chasing after you.

When the current Wurm servers started they contained nothing but virgin islands, and it was the players who designed and built the villages, forts, farms, shops, mines, roads and inns that are there now in various states of use, misuse and abandonment. This is important! This is /really cool!/ Not only does it give the layout of the world an intriguing, immersive plausibility, it adds an extra dimension to everything from the lowest level crafting to the highest level inter-kingdom warfare. The craftsman needs to think about where his material is coming from, the general needs to think not only about conquering castles but building, repairing and breaking them.

When the Swedish Pirate Party was founded in early 2006, the majority of the mainstream press were skeptical, with some simply laughing it away. But they were wrong to dismiss this political movement out of hand. Today, the Pirate Party accomplished what some believed to be the impossible, by securing a seat in the European Parliament.

With 99.9% of the districts counted the Pirates have 7.1 percent of the votes, beating several established parties. This means that the Pirate Party will get at least one, but most likely two of the 18 (+2) available seats Sweden has at the European Parliament.

The Pocket Retro Game Emulator looks a bit like the GameBoy Micro but that's where the similarities end. Load on NES, SNES, GBA, Sega Genesis, or Neo Geo roms and play your old favorites in the palm of your hand. With 4GB of built-in storage and a mini SD slot for expansion you can bring every single game from the best classic consoles with you. Of course in typical all encompassing gadget style you can also play movie files, audio files, use the built-in FM radio, view jpg images, Read E-books, do voice recording etc...

Microsoft could drop the price of Windows 7 to around $100 when it announces retail prices later this month, according to calculations based on an earlier Vista cost-cutting move.

Although Microsoft is not expected to go public with Windows 7 retail prices until next week, if it drops them by the same percentages it did in February 2008 when it cut U.S. prices for three editions of Vista, the upgrade to Windows 7 Home Vista could be $106.

If it does cut prices, Microsoft's motivations could range from a recognition of the recession's impact on consumers to a desire to move as many users as possible to Windows 7 -- which has been generally praised by reviewers -- to stem defections to other platforms, such as Apple's Mac OS X.

With both a case and colour scheme in mind, I needed to think of a name for the project. The inspiration for this came during a drive home from work. Names such as Orange Dream Machine, Tangerine Dream and Orange Extreme ran through my head, and eventually, I thought of the film ‘Clockwork Orange’, and finally decided on Overclocked Orange.

RJ sez, "Known for their supersized productions, the French mechanical marionette street theatre company Royale de Luxe [ed: see The Sultan's Elephant] have been up to their tricks again this weekend, this time on their home territory of the city of Nantes in western France. A giant deep-sea diver desperately searches for his niece, a search which has encompassed a hundred years, the sinking of the Titanic and a mysterious mailbox. Quite an extraordinary sight by anyone's standards."

Nantes, the home town of Jules Verne, is situated in western France. Here, near the river Loire a giant deep-sea diver sleeps gently, waiting for his task to begin. Sadness marks his face even as he sleeps. He has been searching the world over for his missing niece and although he may not know it, the end of his search is coming. The diver or scaphandrier as he is known in French will be paraded through the streets of this historic city at the beginning of the Estuary 2009 arts festival. The biannual festival gives the French mechanical marionette street theater company Royale de Luxe the opportunity to unveil their latest creation.

It's been a long time since we've first heard about Alan Wake, now that we're getting to see a bit more of it I'm pretty psyched.

It is, as Mike McWhertor says, like a Silent Hill we want to play. I get a sort of Evil Dead vibe off of all of that running around in the woods and the trippy effects, and not the remake, the original.

So listen to this story. I was in the early levels; I didn't quite have an idea of how ridiculously in-depth the database was. I was summoning things like ladders, glasses of water, rayguns, what have you. But I reached a level with zombie robots, and the zombie robots kept killing me. Rayguns didn't work, a torch didn't work, a pickaxe didn't work. In my frustration, I wrote in "Time Machine". And one popped up. What the fuck? A smile dawned on my face. I hopped in, and the option was given to me to either travel to the past or the future. I chose past. When I hopped out, there were fucking dinosaurs walking around. I clicked one, and realized I could RIDE THEM. So I hopped on a fucking DINOSAUR, traveled back to the present, and stomped the shit out of robot zombies. Did you just read that sentence? Did you really? I FUCKING TRAVELED THROUGH TIME AND JUMPED ON A DINOSAUR AND USED IT TO KILL MOTHERFUCKING ROBOT ZOMBIES. This game is unbelievable. Impossible. There's nothing you can't do.

North Korea has a reputation as one of the most secretive, authoritarian, repressive countries in the world. But that doesn't stop Curtis Melvin, a PhD student at George Mason University, from trying to shine some light into the country's dark corners.

Using knowledge gleaned from his own trips to North Korea, as well as tips from many others who have visited, Curtis and his crew of civilian spies have managed to plot into Google Maps previously unknown sites in North Korea such as secret prison camps, vast burial mounds, and missile storage facilities. His interactive project, called "North Korea Uncovered," has literally thousands of entries and is the most exhaustive map of North Korea to date.

Red Faction: Guerrilla breaks a lot of things. Buildings, bridges, walls, cars, trucks, smokestacks, monuments, people movers, mining derricks, power plants, you name it. Something else Red Faction: Guerrilla breaks is E3.

Okay, "broke" might be a bit too strong a term. But it certainly presents new challenges to my willing suspension of disbelief. After over twenty hours of playing time with a game so shrewdly built around the idea of breakable objects, it's a bit strange to see demos of other games where rockets bounce harmlessly off buildings and trucks don't plow through houses they hit. It's like going back to black-and-white TV, a big clunky iPod, or manual steering.

For example, during a demo of the impressive-looking Just Cause 2, you're supposed to fly a helicopter to a casino formed by two high-rise buildings. A sky bridge stretches between the buildings. Someone is trapped in the middle of the sky bridge, and you have to save him from attackers coming from both sides. Naturally, during the demo, the producer hovered along the sky bridge and fired rockets at the guys stepping onto it to attack the guy in the middle.

At first glance, it looks as if some natural disaster has shaken away the walls of these buildings to reveal architecture hidden for thousands of years.

And at second and third glance, it looks like that too.

But these spectacular images are not the unexpected result of an earthquake.

This does seem to be the year of great cases at Computex. Thermaltake partnered with BMW Designworks USA to bring to life a truly unique chassis design that looks like a million bucks - let's just hope it doesn't cost that as well!

We don't have a whole lot of details on the case yet, such as pricing or availability, but we should have them tomorrow during the show in Taiwan and I will update this article with that info. We should also have a good video run through of the case design then too.

For now, I though it was worth sharing the pictures I had of what will probably be the most coveted product from Computex this year. Without further ado, the Thermaltake Level 10:

This thin part on the right hand side is really just for cable management and for mounting the motherboard. All the components are on the left of it in their own separate compartments.

The rumors of a remake of the original Monkey Island for Xbox Live Arcade are true, but it gets much better, as LucasArts and Telltale team up to deliver all-new episodic Monkey Island adventures.

Starting this July, Telltale will be releasing Tales of Monkey Island, a five-episode monthly adventure game series for the PC and WiiWare featuring the further adventures of Guybrush Threepwood and nemesis, LeChuck, as Guy accidentally releases a voodoo pox that threatens to turn the swashbuckling men of the Caribbean into pirate monsters, which is the only thing worse than just plain pirates.

Meanwhile, LucasArts is internally developing The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, which is a completely update version of the 1990 original, complete with new graphics, a remastered musical score, and full voice-overs. FULL VOICE-OVERS.

We feature downloads of all kinds every day at Lifehacker. Today, however, we're bundling all the best free downloads for new computer owners, re-installers, would-be geeks, or anyone who wants to save time installing the best stuff out there. This is our 2009 Lifehacker Pack for Windows computers.

The idea is the same as when we first introduced the Lifehacker Pack more than three years ago–a single, handy list that we think improves the computer lives of Windows users. We're also providing a utility to download some or all of these applications at once–more on that after the list.

You can head directly to each application's download page from the [Download] links following their write-ups, and see what Lifehacker originally wrote about them at the [LH Post] link. If there's a portable version of an application that you can run off a thumb drive and/or test out without installing, we've linked to that at [Portable], or added a "+Portable" to the main download link.