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EVE Evolved: Archaeology and Hacking in Odyssey
EVE Online's Odyssey expansion is set to land in just over a week's time, kicking off the game's second decade with a focus on exploration, immersion, and resource rebalancing. Developers plan to shake up nullsec by redistributing the value of various moon minerals and buffing player-owned outposts, and lowsec will become a more tempting place to visit with the addition of valuable new tags to asteroid belt NPCs. But what's in it for highsec players? In addition to new navy issue battlecruisers and immersive new jump and death sequences, players from all corners of EVE will find new exploration content in their back yards. A big part of the new exploration system is a complete redesign of the Hacking and Archaeology mini-professions, which have been in EVE for as long as I can remember and have remained relatively unchanged. Odyssey will add new sites for both professions and replace the boring old chance-based system with a new minigame that emphasises co-operation with other players. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the history of Hacking and Archaeology in EVE and what the new system brings to the table.
Google's Turing doodle celebrates his genius, reminds us how dumb we are (video)
This week sees many corners of the globe celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alan Turing. A man whose contribution to the worlds of tech and gadgets is immeasurable -- a sentiment not lost on Google. Today, geeks and norms worldwide will be waking up to possibly the most complex doodle to date. Can you set the machine and spell out "Google"? If you can, you'll be sent off to lots more information about the man himself. This isn't the only thing Mountain View's done to keep his legacy alive, having previously helped Bletchley Park raise funds to purchase (and display) Turing's papers, and more recently helping curators at London's Science Museum with its Codebreaker - Alan Turing's Life and Legacy exhibition. If you haven't already, head to Google.com and pop your logic hat on, and if you get stuck, head past the break for a helpful video.
Brits, your government needs you to solve this puzzle
Spare a thought for the British intelligence services. Every time they come up with a clever recruitment drive, their efforts are hampered by yet another off-putting death scene in a certain long-running spy drama. But relax, this particular ciphered job advert is entirely safe. It's been put out by the UK's monitoring service, GCHQ, which is altogether more 9 to 5 than MI5. You simply need to figure out the keyword buried in that daunting grid of characters, submit it via the 'canyoucrackit' link below, and a happy career in headphones and Herman Miller could be yours. On the other hand, people who claim to have beaten the puzzle seem underwhelmed by the response: all it got them, they say, was a shot at a £25k per year position that was already being openly advertised on the web. But, who knows, maybe those guys only think they cracked it?
