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Dyson's engineers head off to the races, create dragsters using spare parts, DC-16 motors (video)
Dyson engineers certainly know a thing or two about creating innovative vacuums and fans Air Multipliers, but did you know they've also dabbled in the world of high-speed racing? Such is apparently now the case, as these folks were tasked with building go-kart drag racers out of spare parts, resulting in a variety of wheeled wonders viaing for the fastest run on a makeshift strip in the office. Of course, there was a catch -- all of the dragsters had to use the motor from Dyson's DC-16 handheld vacuum in a battle for maximum torque. We won't spoil the outcomes for you, so scroll down to catch a video mashup of all the hijinks in the video below.
Hunker down and blow up: Meet PlanetSide 2's Engineer
If PlanetSide 2's recent Infiltrator class reveal didn't grab you by the throat and say, "Play me with very last, dying gasp in your rapidly-turning-blue body," then SOE would like to try again with the Engineer. PS2's Engineer got a promotion from his old duties as a wrench monkey, opting instead for blowing enemies up with high-yield explosives and creating tough-as-nails fortifications to protect his teammates. Engineers are granted an Advanced Construction Engine that turns them into a walking, smart-talking factory. With this tool, Engineers can deploy anti-personnel and anti-vehicle turrets, anti-tank mines, and protective shield generators. In addition, the class will fill a vital role when it comes to repairing vehicle and suit damage In direct combat, the Engineer will rely on a trustworthy assortment of assault weapons, such as shotguns and SMGs. SOE predicts that the Engineer will be most valuable in holding a position and starting a siege against an enemy stronghold.
How to assemble coordinating transmog gear sets for your hunter or shaman
In fashion, coordinates are matching pieces of clothing that are meant to be worn together. Think of a matching suit jacket and pants, or a prom dress and shawl sold together in the same color. Typically, coordinates are for people who work in offices and need to look professional or people who can't dress themselves. In WoW, there are coordinates too, and they can be used strategically to pull together seemingly unrelated pieces of gear into different looks. This week, I'll be showing you three different looks for your mail-wearing hunter or shaman, all oriented around three easy-to-obtain mail coordinates.
The Daily Grind: Now that all Guild Wars 2 professions are revealed, which will you play?
Earlier this week, the internet exploded with a leaked reveal of Guild Wars 2's eighth profession: the Mesmer. The official reveal soon followed, with some of the most amazing skill videos and game mechanics to ever hit an MMO class. OK, so I'm a Mesmer fanboi. Sue me. But now that we can flip through the entire array of Guild Wars 2 professions, we're left with the question about what class to play... or play first. Will you be burning stuff with the Elementalist, bashing stuff with the Warrior, or shooting stuff with the Ranger? Perhaps you'd like to pander to your inner kleptomaniac by playing a Thief or dance with the dead as a Necromancer. Throw in the Guardian, Engineer, and Mesmer, and it's fairly impossible to pick just one. So which will you play first? Let us know your profession plans for Guild Wars 2 in the comments below. Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Carrier IQ VP says software poses no threat to user privacy, backs up his argument with metaphor
The final chapter of the Carrier IQ saga has yet to be written, but at this juncture, even the rosiest of rose-tinted observers would be hard pressed to find a silver lining. The specter of federal investigation looms larger by the day. Implicated carriers and manufacturers are washing their hands with Macbethian fury. Al Franken is on the verge of going Al Franken. And at the epicenter of all this sits Carrier IQ -- a California-based analytics company that has already gone to great lengths to defend its innocence. First, it sought to discredit Trevor Eckhart's ostensibly damning research with a cease-and-desist letter. Then, CEO Larry Lenhart flatly denied Eckhart's findings with an impassioned YouTube address. In recent days, the company has markedly softened its stance, arguing that its apps are only designed to meet operator demands and to "make your phones better." Now, Carrier IQ has elaborated upon these arguments with a more detailed breakdown of how its software functions, and a more substantive defense of its practices. Head past the break to read more.
Flameseeker Chronicles: C-C-C-Combo maker
Sing hallelujah, for the Guild Wars 2 news drought is over! (The information gates may now slam shut for another excruciating period of time, but I'm choosing not to think about that.) Jon Peters brought us all sorts of exciting information on pets, Engineer changes, and cross-profession combos last week on the ArenaNet blog. Now that we've had some time to absorb the news and talk it over, I wanted to take some time to look at it more closely, particularly the cross-profession combos. Follow along after the jump and let's get started!
More pets, more combos, more burning: ArenaNet brings big changes to Guild Wars 2
If you're anything like us here at the Massively offices, you've been feeling a bit starved for Guild Wars 2 news. ArenaNet's been extremely quiet for weeks now, and just as fans were beginning to despair of hearing anything, the information gates swing wide. The ArenaNet blog has a shiny new update courtesy of designer Jon Peters this morning, and it's a doozy. It brings all sorts of new details on pet improvements, the Engineer's big upgrade, and the ever-fascinating cross-profession combos. Follow along after the break for all the news!
Galaxy Nexus barometer explained, Sam Champion not out of a job
Google's Galaxy Nexus may be a lot of things: the fourth-coming of Android, an HD Super AMOLED showcase and iPhone 4S competitor. But weather forecaster? Alright, so it won't give you hourly atmospheric updates with an air swipe, but the built-in barometer that's got so many of us scratching our heads has a much different purpose. Android engineer Dan Morrill took to the social pages of Google+ to clarify the confusion. Turns out, Sammy added the barometer to help the device more rapidly acquire a GPS lock by delivering altitude coordinates to the required latitude and longitude GPS equation. Morrill goes on to note that the original Xoom also packed a similar feature, so if anything, this Nexus is simply following that Moto tab's lead. Next quandary Morrill needs to solve? Why, that would be the omission of carrier release dates.
Julius Blank, chip-making pioneer and Fairchild co-founder, dies at 86
Somber news coming out of Palo Alto today, where Julius Blank, the man who helped found the groundbreaking chipmaker Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation, has passed away at the age of 86. The Manhattan-born Blank (pictured third from left, above) began his engineering career in 1952, when he joined AT&T's Western Electric plant in New Jersey. As a member of the engineering group at the plant, Blank helped create phone technology that allowed users to dial long-distance numbers without going through an operator. It was also at Western Electric where he met fellow engineer Eugene Kleiner. In 1956, Blank and Kleiner left AT&T to work at the lab of Nobel Prize-winning physicist William B. Shockley, but departed just one year later (amid to start Fairchild, alongside a group of six other computer scientists that included future Intel Corporation founders Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore. At their new labs, Blank and his peers developed an inexpensive method for manufacturing silicon chips, earning them $1.5 million in capital from a single investor. As the only two with any manufacturing experience, Blank and Kleiner were charged with bringing the dream to fruition -- a task that required them to build the chips from scratch, beginning with the machinery for growing silicon crystals. They succeeded, of course, and in 1969, Blank left Fairchild to start Xicor, a tech firm that Intersil would later buy for $529 million, in 2004. But his legacy will forever be linked to those early days at Fairchild, where, as Blank described in a 2008 interview, he and his colleagues were able to experience the unique thrill of "building something from nothing." Julius Blank is survived by his two sons, Jeffrey and David, and two grandsons. [Photo courtesy of Joan Seidel / AP 1999]
Layoffs underway at HP's webOS division, hundreds of employees may be in jeopardy
HP's webOS-powered devices are riding off into the sunset and so too, apparently, are hundreds of jobs. Sources close to the company tell All Things Digital that upwards of 525 employees at HP's Palm division are slated to lose their jobs in the near future, as part of a layoff process that began this week. In a statement, an HP spokesperson explained the decision thusly: "As communicated on August 18, HP will discontinue the development of webOs devices within the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011, which ends Oct 31 2011. As part of this decision, the webOS GBU is undergoing a reduction in workforce. Today's actions are part of this initiative. During this time, we stand by our commitment to our webOS customers and will work to ensure that support and service for customers are not adversely affected." The company went on to say that it's still "exploring ways to leverage webOS software," but declined to specify the exact number of hardware-related jobs that would be cut.
German engineers want to halve EV manufacturing costs by 2018, seem confident about it
Yearning for an EV that can fit within your budget? You may not have to wait too long, according a group of engineers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), who are aiming to halve plug-in manufacturing costs by 2018. It's all part of something called Competence E -- a €200 million ($273 million) initiative that will draw upon the expertise of 250 scientists from 25 different institutes, in the hopes of creating new and more cost-effective methods of producing power trains and batteries. Under the publicly funded project, which was announced at last week's International Motor Show, KIT's researchers will construct a "research factory" where they'll develop and demonstrate their processes and technologies. According to project leader Andreas Gutsch, the idea isn't to create concepts that could bear fruit a few decades down the road, but to develop more pragmatic solutions that can be integrated at the industrial level within a relatively short time frame. "We are no longer focused on studying individual molecules or components, but on developing solutions on the system level, which meet industrial requirements," Gutsch told Science|Business. "We are actively approaching industry and will even intensify these efforts...We are conducting excellent research for application, not for the drawer." A full 50 engineers will begin working on Competence E next year, with the project scheduled to wrap up by 2018. Purr past the break for more details, in the full press release.
Researchers use wireless network to monitor breathing, could save lives
When Neal Patwari and his team of researchers developed a wireless network capable of seeing through walls, we assumed they were simply looking to cultivate their Alastor Moody-like superpowers. Turns out, they had far more important things on their minds. Patwari and his colleagues at the University of Utah have now penned a new study in which they demonstrate how their motion detecting technology could be used to monitor breathing patterns, as well, potentially enabling doctors to keep closer track of patients with sleep apnea or babies susceptible to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). To do this, Patwari reclined on a hospital bed and surrounded himself with 20 wireless transceivers operating at a frequency of 2.4GHz, as pictured above. He then timed his breathing at about 15 breaths per minute (the average rate for a resting adult), which he measured with his array of nodes and a carbon dioxide monitor. The engineer ultimately found that his system's algorithm could accurately measure respiration within 0.4 to 0.2 breaths per minute -- a relatively low error rate, since most monitors round off to the nearest full breath. Patwari says this development could offer a non-invasive and low-cost alternative to the devices used in most hospitals, and hopes to implement his technology into at-home baby monitors, as well. He acknowledges, however, that it will likely take at least five years before any of that happens -- so don't hold your breath. Full PR after the break.
Captain's Log: Class spotlight - Tactical
Captain's Log, Stardate 65168.1... Hello, computer (and players)! Welcome to Captain's Log and the second installment in a three-part series focusing on the classes within Star Trek Online. After exploring some of the amazing powers available to those who roll a Science captain, we shift our focus away from support and healing this week to dive into the realm of DPS. While this realm can be filled with members of all three classes, Tactical captains, if specced correctly, take the trophy each and every time. Ever since the game launched early last year, my main toon has always been a Tactical captain. During the time I leveled up, I tested out different types of ships at each rank. While flying a science ship as a Tactical captain was fun during the early stages of leveling, I would definitely suggest flying an escort, or if you must, a cruiser, when you first make it to Rear Admiral. I am sure there are some Tacticals out there flying Science classes, but I feel that the Bridge Officer stations equipped on escorts allow the best Tactical abilities to come into play. But enough about telling you what to do -- let's move onto talking about some of the best attack powers in the game. Ensign, warp 10! It's time to help our reads unload some DPS on their next enemy...
Quantum Phantom program turns your smartphone into a wireless mouse (video)
The last time we saw Ben Wu, he was busy hammering away at Quantum Phantom -- a prototype program that allows users to manipulate their desktops with a simple webcam. Now, the engineer has expanded the concept to smartphones, as well, with a system that effectively turns any camera-equipped handset into a wireless mouse. To achieve this, Wu hooked up his Android phone to his PC via WiFi and used the IP Webcam app to create a video stream server. The results, by Wu's own admission, aren't exactly elegant (due to an unwieldy configuration process and low-res camera), though he still managed to use his creation to sketch an onscreen smiley face. Watch it for yourself in the demo video, after the break. [Thanks, Ben]
LucasArts job listing hints at in-development 'open-world RPG'
Lucasfilm's recruiting website says the studio is hiring a developer for "an open-world RPG." The mid-level gameplay designer position will work on code and engines for an upcoming (and presumably unannounced) role-playing game set to take place in an open-world environment. Other than that, the listing is unfortunately vague, asking only for a talented and experienced individual to work with artists and designers to put code together. There's no mention of online or multiplayer features at all, and no hint of what platforms (other than PC) the game might be built for or run on. It does seem like LucasArts is working on putting together some kind of RPG, possibly based on one of its current properties, in an open-world setting. That's intriguing news on its own.
Quantum Phantom prototype lets you control your computer screen with a webcam (video)
A guy named Ben Wu sent us this video recently and it sort of blew our minds. Wu, an engineer and self-described dreamer, has spent the past year developing a program he calls Quantum Phantom -- an Iron Man-inspired system that allows users to control a computer's cursor using only an ordinary webcam. With his Windows software onboard, Wu can draw, write and move onscreen icons or widgets, simply by waving his camera in front of a set of dual monitors. The prototype is even sophisticated enough to recognize his own webcam-produced handwriting and automatically convert it to rich text. In most cases, the sensor relies upon an ordinary cursor to navigate a screen, but Wu has also developed a pointer-free solution, as demonstrated toward the end of the above, three-part video. Be sure to check it out for yourself and get lost in the magic. [Thanks, Ben]
Plick hitches an elastic ride on the DIY robotics train (video)
Man, we hope Gumby's collecting some royalty checks for this one. One part incredible-stretching toy, and one part DIY robotics kit, the Plick project takes the traditional hobbyist approach to brick-building your own bot and slaps a little rubber all around it. The industrial design prototype from Brazilian engineer Gabriel Paciornik combines programmable robotic parts with an elastic wired connection suitable for strapping your mad scientist creations to everyday objects. So, what can you make? The kit packs a variety of sensor-based circles that react to distance and sound, giving your mod-jobs the power of movement and light. It's safe to say this not-for-market toy veers far from LEGO Mindstorms NXT territory -- and that's exactly the point. Far out video demo and its 60s beach music soundtrack after the break.
HP seeks NFC engineer for 'smartphone and tablet products'
HP's mystery-wrapped Touch-to-share functionality already does something very similar to Near Field Communication, but it looks like the company's not satisfied with its own tech and will be jumping into the rapidly growing field of companies embracing NFC. A new job listing that has popped up online this week invites applications for the position of NFC Design Engineer on HP's tablet and smartphone team. Responsibilities include the design, testing, and debugging of NFC antennae and systems, but also expand to "support of product in field," indicating that HP is working on an aggressive roadmap here. Don't take our word for it, though, the job advert also advises prospective applicants that they'd have to work in a "high paced, schedule driven environment." Only question we have is this: since when are webOS devices being produced at a high pace?
E3 2011: Spacetime Studios on the Legends franchise
Blackstar has a new name to capitalize on the Legends brand -- it's now known as Star Legends: The Blackstar Chronicles. At this year's E3, we caught up with Spacetime Studios' Fernando Blanco to see how the revived project (as well as the company's hit Pocket Legends) is coming along. Star Legends is only a month away from launch, and Spacetime hopes that the Pocket Legends fever will spread to its sci-fi brother. The name's been changed to communicate the studio's intent to provide an ongoing story rather than a one-shot experience. The game will launch with the first 20 levels of content, but Spacetime has grand plans to expand this much further. Blanco gave us some of the backstory to the game: In the far future, humans are exploring the cosmos and have stumbled upon a resource-rich area. Corporations, as they are wont to do, have swooped in to exert their dominance but have come across hostile aliens in the process. War breaks out, invasions start popping up all over the place, and you're called in to clean up the mess -- and make a quick buck in the process. Hit the jump to hear more about Star Legends' classes and gameplay!
The Perfect Ten: Unusual MMO weapons
Swords. Staffs. Maces. Spears. Wands. Bows. Crossbows. Double-crossbows. Hammers. Wolverine claws. Daggers. Axes. Deadly? Yes. Fashionable? Not so much. I mean, really. A two-handed sword is so 1299. Now, a deep dish Chicago-style pizza with the works flung into an enemy's gullet -- that's progressive thinking! Because I'm deeply bored with the usual suspects in most MMO armories, I wanted to spend a day praising devs who said, "Screw it. We're going weird, and we're not going to regret it, even when our bosses call us into their offices demanding why such lunacy ended up in a professional game." So forget everything you think you know about weapons because your pitiful armament has yet to scratch the surface of the wild, wild universe of things that can be used to kill you in game. This Perfect Ten column is sponsored by Grizzly Bear Rocket Launchers, Ltd. after the jump.
