The new video game "Grand Theft Auto IV" did its part to shore up the economy in the past week.

The extremely violent, yet critically praised game sold 6 million copies - 3.6 million on the day it was released - ringing up more than $500 million in sales, according to a New York Times report.

Legions of video gamers dutifully shelled out $60 each for a game that allows them to play a criminal.

What would Abbie Hoffman say?

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules. Comments do not reflect the views or approval of The Virginian-Pilot or this Web site. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment to alert an editor. Repeat offenders will be denied automatic posting privileges.

The NHL is remaking its Web site to appeal to its tech-savvy fans hungry for more high-sticking content.

Launching Wednesday, the new site will offer hockey fans the option of seven “channels” of everything NHL, and all of it will be free.

Andre Mika, the NHL vice president of broadband and new media production, explains: “We know from market research that our fans are the most Web-savvy of all the sports leagues... And in the 18-34 demographic, they are a very sought-after fan. We really believe strongly that our avid fan base is going to love what we’re doing because we’re actually enabling them to use technology more and more and more."

That fan base is considerable: In Canada, NHL.com is already the most popular Web site, more so than even Google and Yahoo.

The playoffs that begin this week will provide a test run for the new player , which will be relaunched in the fall before next season. The site's centerpiece will be “The Hockey Show,” a daily live broadcast from the NHL’s studio in New York.Each day’s telecast will include news, highlights and features.

So skate by and check out the other winter pro sport's new look.

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules. Comments do not reflect the views or approval of The Virginian-Pilot or this Web site. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment to alert an editor. Repeat offenders will be denied automatic posting privileges.

How much more would you pay for an iPod or iPhone to get free access to the iTunes’ library?

That’s what the Financial Times of London said Apple is negotiating with record labels, citing unnamed music industry sources, of course. The sticking point is price: How much Apple would the labels per device.

Analysts called the idea “far-fetched” and a potential “accounting nightmare,” but such a move would not be unprecedented. Nokia cut a deal in December with Universal Music Group that gives buyers of certain Nokia phones free downloads of songs from the Universal catalog.

A quick informal poll in the newsroom found most folks would shell out an extra $100 for an iPod with unlimited iTunes downloads. That’s may not be enough for the music labels.

* - for the life of the iPod, that is

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules. Comments do not reflect the views or approval of The Virginian-Pilot or this Web site. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment to alert an editor. Repeat offenders will be denied automatic posting privileges.

Disney is becoming the mouse that roared online, especially when it comes monetizing clicks.

The Walt Disney Co. expects to collect $1 billion in revenue from online content this fiscal year, which ends in September, CEO Robert Iger said Monday.

Disney’s online revenue came from advertising during ABC network hits such as “Lost” and “Grey’s Anatomy” that are rerun on ABC.com; ads on sites such as ESPN.com; subscriptions to online games; downloads of movies and music; and e-commerce that is not related to its theme parks.

Still online sources account for less than 3 percent of company revenue. Disney posted total net income of $4.7 billion on $35.5 billion in revenue last year.

Disney proves the best trump card on the Net remains a solid brand (or better yet, a whole stable of them).

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules. Comments do not reflect the views or approval of The Virginian-Pilot or this Web site. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment to alert an editor. Repeat offenders will be denied automatic posting privileges.

Unless you're a married women.

Not a year since Ask.com overhauled its search engine and user interface in an effort to gain ground on Internet search leader Google, it threw in the towel.

Through January, Ask ran the Internet’s fifth largest search engine in the United States with a 4.5 percent market share, according to comScore Media Metrix. Google dominates the industry with a 58.5 percent share.

So, instead of trying to be all things for all people, Ask.com will target a specific niche of married women looking for help managing their lives. With the shift, it returns to its roots by concentrating on finding answers to basic questions about recipes, hobbies, children’s homework, entertainment and health.

Ask.com chose to target married women - particularly mothers - because they dictate many household spending decisions, making them a prime advertising target. 

“It’s a smart move,” said Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li. “I still think Ask has great technology, but it’s just really hard to fight against Google.”

She predicted many married women and mothers will be thrilled to have a search engine focusing on their interests. “It’s not so much that these women have simple questions,” she said. “It’s just that they are so busy that they need fast answers.”

Maybe I should ask my wife.

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules. Comments do not reflect the views or approval of The Virginian-Pilot or this Web site. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment to alert an editor. Repeat offenders will be denied automatic posting privileges.

Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wis. He was 69.

He had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife Gail.

Gygax and Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and eventually was turned into video games, books and movies.

Gygax always enjoyed hearing from the game’s legion of devoted fans, many of whom would stop by the family’s home in Lake Geneva, about 55 miles southwest of Milwaukee, his wife said. Despite his declining health, he hosted weekly games of Dungeons & Dragons as recently as January, she said.

“It really meant a lot to him to hear from people from over the years about how he helped them become a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, what he gave them,” Gail Gygax said. “He really enjoyed that.”

Dungeons & Dragons players create fictional characters and carry out their adventures with the help of complicated rules. The quintessential geek pastime, it spawned a wealth of copycat games and later inspired a whole genre of computer games that’s still growing in popularity.

Born Ernest Gary Gygax, he grew up in Chicago and moved to Lake Geneva at the age of 8. Gygax’s father, a Swiss immigrant who played violin in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, read fantasy books to his only son and hooked him on the genre, Gail Gygax said.

Gygax dropped out of high school but took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago for a while, she said. He was working as an insurance underwriter in the 1960s, when he began playing war-themed board games.

But Gygax wanted to create a game that involved more fantasy. To free up time to work on that, he left the insurance business and became a shoe repairman, she said.

Gygax also was a prolific writer and wrote dozens of fantasy books, including the Greyhawk series of adventure novels. Gary Sandelin, 32, a Manhattan attorney, said his weekly Dungeons & Dragons game will be a bit sadder on Wednesday night because of Gygax’s passing. The beauty of the game is that it’s never quite the same, he said.

Funeral arrangements are pending. Besides his wife, Gygax is survived by six children.

- Emily Fredrix, The Associated Press

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules. Comments do not reflect the views or approval of The Virginian-Pilot or this Web site. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment to alert an editor. Repeat offenders will be denied automatic posting privileges.

Literally. Don't look. Then again you might not be able to.

Companies are increasingly blocking access to Web video and social networking sites, citing lost productivity and the wasted bandwidth, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

In December, Internet users watched more than 10 billion videos online, according to comScore. Meanwhile, Nielsen Online found the heaviest consumption of Internet video is during weekday lunch hours between noon and 2 p.m., when most people are at work.

The Journal cited the example of Carriage Services Inc., a funeral-services company in Houston, that discovered that 70 percent of the workers in its 125-person headquarters watched videos on Web sites like YouTube and MySpace for about an hour a day.

“I almost fell out of my chair when I saw how many people were doing it and how much bandwidth those sites sucked up,” said Jeff Parker, the company’s information-technology administrator. He quickly blocked access to both sites.

Blocking bandwidth sucking video sites follows previous steps by employers to cut off employee's access to instant-messaging services, streaming music and Web sites with adult content.

Now get back to work.

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules. Comments do not reflect the views or approval of The Virginian-Pilot or this Web site. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment to alert an editor. Repeat offenders will be denied automatic posting privileges.

Fueled by fears of another Virginia Tech-style massacre, colleges nationwide have been implementing cell phone-based text alert systems.

But students aren’t embracing the systems, even though most now carry cell phones.

Omnilert, a Northern Virginia company that provides an emergency alert system called e2Campus to more than 500 campuses, reports an average enrollment rate among students, faculty and staff of just 39 percent. Another firm, Blackboard Connect, reports even lower participation – 28 percent for the 300 campuses that use its Connect-Ed emergency alerts.

Even at Virginia Tech, where a gunman killed 32 people and himself last April, 4 in 10 students still have not signed up for emergency text alerts. The campus also employs other alert methods, including e-mails and online instant messages.

What does it take for students to get the message?

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules. Comments do not reflect the views or approval of The Virginian-Pilot or this Web site. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment to alert an editor. Repeat offenders will be denied automatic posting privileges.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports in this article that consumers weren't the only ones burned by the Vista's shortcomings after the new Windows operating system's release last year. Apparently a member of the software giant's corporate board and at least one top executive had problems too.

Their experiences came to light in e-mails disclosed as part of a class-action suit against Microsoft that alleges it deceived consumers with stickers touting many PCs as "Windows Vista Capable" prior to its launch. One e-mail goes so far as to say Microsoft lowered its system requirements to help Intel "make its quarterly earnings." Intel needed to sell more motherboards with built-in graphics that couldn't handle Vista's slick, top-level user interface.

“I know that I chose my laptop (a SONY TX770P) because it had the vista logo and was pretty disappointed that it not only wouldn’t run Glass, but more importantly wouldn’t run Movie Maker,” wrote Microsoft executive Steve Nash. “I now have a $2100 email machine.”

At least Nash is not alone.

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules. Comments do not reflect the views or approval of The Virginian-Pilot or this Web site. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment to alert an editor. Repeat offenders will be denied automatic posting privileges.

The European Union issued Microsoft a stinging slap on the wrist Wednesday when it imposed a record $1.3 billion fine against the software titan.

It seems the EU doesn't think Microsoft has complied with a 2004 antitrust order despite repeated assurances that it would.

“Talk is cheap. Flouting the rules is expensive,” sniffed EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

If you say so. The fine amounts to a mere 9 percent of Microsoft's fiscal 2007 profit of $14.07 billion or about 17.6 percent of the cash - yes, cash! - it had on hand at the end of the year.

Microsoft can still appeal or just dig under its pillows, pay up and make the case go away... them buy Yahoo and still afford that Caribbean vacation.

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules. Comments do not reflect the views or approval of The Virginian-Pilot or this Web site. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment to alert an editor. Repeat offenders will be denied automatic posting privileges.