Neowin.net

A Counter-Strike update and a game engine update were originally scheduled for tonight, but have been postponed until tomorrow morning.

Here's a list of the changes included in the update.

COUNTER-STRIKE:

• Fixed bug where shield would be invisible if a player picked the shield up immediately after throwing a grenade.
  
• The round timer is now disabled when the bomb is planted.
  
• The winning defensive team now gets the same amount of money whether they win by round timeout or not ($3250 instead of $2000)
  
• Players on the offensive team who survive the round due to a round timeout no longer receive money the next round.
  
• The Terrorists get an additional $800 per player if they plant the bomb but lose the round.
  
• Fixed exploit where when a player died they could sometimes join the other team during the same round.

ENGINE:

• Fixed custom decals not being downloaded from the server correctly.
  
• Fixed custom decals drawing incorrectly for the host of a listen server after another player joins.
  
• Fixed vgui textures being corrupted after going over a number of level changes.
  
• Fixed problem where player would be sometimes be forced to look straight up after task switching in and out of game in fullscreen d3d mode.
  
• Fixed problem in sound system where it wouldn’t properly be shutdown at the end of a .wav file.
  
• Fixed banner picture not working correctly in HLTV.

VGUI:

• Changed the way that Asian fonts are displayed in game for compatibility on more platforms.
  
• Optimized VGUI to use less system resources when running on the desktop.

GAMEUI:

• Fixed error message that was cut off when a player was disconnected from a game server.

News source: Steam website

Big gender gap in Italy

The findings are derived from surveys of Internet and non-Internet users in 14 countries: the United States, Britain, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Japan, Macao, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, China and Chile.

The study does however support some long-established Internet usage trends including the fact that the wealthiest segments of the population are the most avid users and that more men than women surf the Web. But figures vary widely by country.

For example, the gender gap is most pronounced in Italy and smallest in Taiwan. According to the study, 41.7 percent of Italian men are online compared to 21.5 percent of Italian women. In Taiwan, the difference is 25.1 percent for men and 23.5 percent for women.

The digital divide, a phrase used to describe how poverty impacts Web usage, appears to be tightening around the world, Cole said.

In seven of the 12 countries for which the information was available, more than 20 percent of the poorest segment of the population uses the Internet. Sweden, Korea and the U.S. have the highest usage of Internet users among the poor.

Skeptical Swedes

The credibility of information published on the Internet also received a surprising boost.

Despite the existence of countless spoof Web sites and message boards that carry oddball political rants, more than half of Internet users surveyed said "most or all" of the information they find online is reliable and credible.

The most trusting users are in South Korea while Swedes are the biggest skeptics about the veracity of Web news.

The Chinese, meanwhile, are among the most active Net socializers. According to the study, Chinese Internet users say they rely on the medium to interact with others who share their political interests, hobbies and faith.

"It's more than in any other country and a significant figure for citizens of a nation in which religion is officially banned," the study said of Chinese users' willingness to discuss religion online with others.