Valve to Stay Independent

Gamesindustry.biz has an interview with Gabe Newell, head of Valve, regarding its plans to remain an independent player in the video game world. Newell cites the fact that the company has no interest in moving to a publisher owned business model at this time, and that unlike the movie industry self financed third party companies are actually in a good position to continue producing works because they maintain some amount of creative control.
"I'm glad that we have orders of magnitude greater ability to make those decisions that we think are the right ones, that customers will say 'Good job' rather than worry that some third party's going to step in and tell us to ship on a particular date or take this out or put this out or whatever."
Valve is currently at work on Half-Life Episode 2, the latest version of Team Fortress and the new Portal game mode while pre-production has begun on the third and final Half-Life 2 episode as well.

steam

Everyone has heard of MaddoxX, the hacker who has stated that he hacked the Steam servers, gaining access to Valve financial information, user information, and even credit card numbers. The alleged hacker gained access to a third-party site that Valve uses to manage the commercial partners in its Cyber Café program. This Cyber Café billing system is not connected to Steam. The hacker continues to states that he has credit card information, and even posted photos of credit card info from game sales dated March 12, 2007. Valve maintains that Steam is secure, but what do the consumers think? You'll have to tell us that.

Valve Marketing Need User-Created Content

"Half-Life 1 was okay as a multiplayer game and Team Fortress Classic was really good, but Counter-Strike kicked both their asses no question." Lombardi goes on to praise the PC's open multiplayer channels, saying," The PC has that great advantage; has had that great advantage, and it comes from multiplayer and modding starting in the early '90s and [online] multiplayer only showing up on consoles in 2000 or 2001. You've got a good 10-to-15-year lead there and you still have broken pathways on both consoles, so the PC has the advantage of time and a clear pathway."

About Valve

Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 and based in Bellevue, Washington. The companies’ debut title, Half-Life, has won over 50 Game of the Year Awards and was named "Best PC Game Ever" in the November 1999, October 2001, and April 2005 issues of PC Gamer, the world's best-selling PC games magazine.
The company's portfolio of entertainment properties includes Half-Life®, Counter-Strike™, Day of Defeat®, and Team Fortress®. Valve's catalog of products accounts for over 20 million retail units sold worldwide, and over 80% of the PC online action market.
In addition to producing best selling entertainment titles, Valve is a developer of leading-edge technologies, such as the Source ™ game engine and Steam, a broadband platform for the delivery and management of digital content. Today, Valve is composed of over 70 of the industry's leading artists, programmers, and writers. In the company's nine-year history, it has risen from "unlikely new entry" to industry leader, producing a string of best selling and critically acclaimed PC entertainment products and technologies.

Introduction of flameout protector | valve

When we use the cook top, the fire may be extinct because of the wind or overflowing water. In this case, the protector may cut off gas to prevent some accidents happening because of its leakage, such as poisoning, explosion or fire. In this way, it realizes its safety protection function.
Attention:1. Thermocouple1) There mustn’t be any damage or peeling off for the cover of insulation wire or insulation sleeve, otherwise it will cause short circuit, which will influence the normal operation of the valve2) The fix-up of the thermocouple must dissipate heat to reduce the heat accumulation of fixing board and thermocouple copper. This can shorten the valve-closing time when there is sudden flameout.3) The heated part of a thermocouple must be on the top of 2-3mm. Not to put the top into the fire, otherwise it may reduce the potential and shorten its life. 2. Solenoid valve1) Prevent the valve from being strongly striken in the process of installation and shipment, otherwise it may influence its normal performance.2) Before installation, the user must check the valve flatly on the test clamps with some prepressing. It is not allowed to be freely-flip. This assures that magnetic material won’t be damaged by colliding, otherwise it will influence the magnetic force. 3) Clean the impurity such as aluminum or oil left on the inner wall of the stove and the surface of the valve.
4) Keep the good connection of the solenoid valve and thermocouple. Prevent the safety protection device from operating abnormally because of too big contact resistance.5) The warehouse of solenoid valves must be dry and ventilated and strictly prohibit extrusion.