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ICYMI: 'Pepper'-oni pizzas, 'Vibranium' hyperloops and more
Today on In Case You Missed It: Softbank's domestic robot, Pepper, got a job at Pizza Hut welcoming visitors and taking orders. The Hyperloop company developed a metal that's ten times stronger than steel but five times lighter than aluminum -- of course they're calling it Vibranium, Adamantium is so passe. And CorridorDigital created the most realistic TIE vs Millenium Falcon dogfight to date!
Barely Related: Terminator Genisomething, Star Wars world
We're leaving on a jet plane and we're definitely, 100 percent sure when we'll be back – right after Gamescom. Welcome to Barely Related, a conversational Friday column that presents the non-gaming news stories that we, the Joystiq staff, have been talking about over the past week. And no, we're not stopping our focus on industry and gaming news. Think of this as your casual weekly recap of interesting (and mostly geeky) news, presented just in time to fill your brain with things to discuss at all of those weekend shindigs. Grab a fresh drink, lean back in your armchair, and get ready to talk nerdy with us.
Douglas Adams' last post on his online forum was about excitement over Mac OS X
Douglas Adams, author of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was famous for his love of technology. In his personal life and works alike ran a deep appreciation for science and its effect on society. In the posthumous collection The Salmon of Doubt, Adams famously summed up his view of how humankind deals with the introduction of new tech: "I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies: 1. Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things." Adams' interest in technology lasted beyond the age of 35, until his death in 2001 of a heart attack at the age of 49. Given his love of technology, it's fitting that Adams' last post on his message board revolved around his excitement over installing a groundbreaking piece of software: Mac OS X. On April 25, 2001, a formerly Mac-hating user asked Adams about his thoughts on the newly released operating system. The user had seen a demo that inspired him to buy his first Mac, but wanted the opinion of a long-time Mac fan like Adams. In keeping his enthusiasm for technology, Adams provided a giddy response: I was going to wait till the summer to install it, but I succumbed and installed it last week. It takes a little getting used to, old habits are hard to reform, and it's not quite finished (what software ever is), and much of the software that's out to run on it is Beta. But... I think it's brilliant. I've fallen completely in love with it. And the promise of what's to come once people start developing in Cocoa is awesome... What strikes me most about his response is that even while installing a software that was, by his own admission, still a long way from being finished, Adams could only think about the future. He didn't talk about the bugs or problems, all he saw was the promise of what was to come. Even when chatting with fans on his message board, Adams promoted the same love of technology and thirst for the future that drove so many of his books. It's fitting that his final word to fans was a positive view of a still-developing technology. Thanks to Reddit user danwin for finding this post and posting about it on the Apple Reddit forum.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy app coming to the iPad, Don't Panic decal not included
Canadian indie developer Hothead Games is producing a Hitchhikers Guide app, aiming to replicate the titular guide itself (rather than the novels). When it arrives this fall, we can expect beautifully animated sequences describing the Babel Fish and Vogon Poetry -- but just a single word about planet Earth (the addition of the word "Mostly" should come in a second, more sinister update). Visit the holding page and you'll hear the unmistakably honeyed tones of Simon Jones who played Arthur Dent in the original TV and radio series. If he's voicing the guide then this will be a must-have for fans, taking over a role made famous by Peter Jones, and later Stephen Fry in the movie. As the app is iOS only, Android users should probably still panic -- or make a trip to their local laser etching station.
WRUP: Hoopy frood edition
Towel Day may not have fallen on a Friday, but in this week's WRUP we're celebrating belatedly and ensuring that all of the writing staff are hoopy froods who know where their towels are. For those of you with no idea what I'm talking about, you can get a start by listening to the infamous Douglas Adams speak at UCSB in the video above. It has nothing to remotely to do with WoW, but as geeks, I suspect most of us owe him a debt of gratitude. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about and don't want to know what I'm talking about, catch us after the break to see what the team is playing this weekend and some entirely unrelated talk about towels. As always, you're welcome to join in on the comments.
Additional instances can now be launched
Crygil has the official word: Blizzard has completed their updates to the servers, and they are now saying performance is much better: all realms have "shown an improvement in instance performance as well as a noticeable reduction in the amount of players hitting the instance limit." Note that they don't say the issues have been solved (no one would say that everything was fixed, because it never is), but there should be a marked improvements in the "additional instances" bug. In the immortal words of the great Douglas Adams, "We have normality. I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem."And we're sure lots of players will welcome this news. At least until Cataclysm, when the flood of rerollers and werewolf fanatics taking on all of the new content and areas in the old world brings the servers back to their knees once again. But until then, enjoy your runs.Thanks, FerrioClef!
Video: Kindle 2 sees the wrong end of a laser, recommends you don't panic
If there were anything a frequent traveler needs more than a towel (and money, and identification, and maybe a cellphone...) it's a Kindle 2. To celebrate its ability to provide free access to the world's great information repository from absolutely anywhere (within in the United States that has cellular access), Adafruit Industries has turned the K2 into something of an ode to Douglas Adams's great epic: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. After a little burning action courtesy of its Epliog 35 watt laser (which we've seen in action before), the e-book reader now sports the most valuable advice ever given to a man (or alien). Sadly it still won't give you directions to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, but it will at least let you download and start reading it in under a minute. Ford Prefect would be proud.
Blizzard: Comcast issues fixed
Eyonix is now reporting, as an update to yesterday's update, that Blizzard has resolved the issues with Comcast. So to quote the late, great Douglas Adams, "anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem." Which is not quite true -- Blizzard tech support and Comcast are probably still happy to listen to your issues (assuming you can get through their phone system), but the major outages from this weekend are reportedly solved.There are still three stickied threads going in the technical support forums, so you can possibly find help or more information there if you're still having issues: Eyonix encourages anyone still having a problem to go there.I'm on Comcast here in Chicago, but I didn't have any issues connecting this weekend (save for the fact that I was offline for half a day yesterday due to an unrelated computer error I had). Still, though we're not sure just how widespread the problem is, there were definitely some players suffering from lag and disconnects. Hopefully the problem is cleared up for good.
The Best of Massively: Our top 5 weirdest news stories
We're still counting down to Massively's first birthday by compiling the best and most entertaining coverage we've done. So far we've listed our most important interviews and our most helpful guides. This time around, we're looking back at the top five strangest, weirdest and sometimes-raciest news stories we've covered since we launched last November.Whether you missed these stories or you're just ready for a refresher, we hope they'll make you smile and laugh -- or at least make you raise an eyebrow or two! Click to start >> %Gallery-33582%
Stephen Fry on the iPhone and digital life
Some of my posts written here on TUAW are specifically meant for you fans to enjoy, and are about things I can't say I care that much about. Some posts here are great for everyone to enjoy, both you and me alike. And some posts, dear readers, are just for me, and anyone who shares my weird collection of fanaticism. This post is of the third variety, so if you have no idea who Stephen Fry is, feel free to move on.But those of you with a taste for great British comedy will know exactly who Mr. Fry is and why it's so exciting that he's now writing a weekly column about technology for the Guardian. They brag that he bought the second Mac ever sold in England (Douglas Adams, as you might know if you have the same tastes I do, bought the first), but what can't you brag about Stephen Fry-- he's hilarious, insightful, and one of those guys who's pretty much done everything and been entertaining the whole time. His new column won't be all about Apple, but, as he says, Apple can't be ignored in any discussion about computers: "Apple gets plenty of small things wrong, but one big thing it gets right: when you use a device every day, you cannot help, as a human being, but have an emotional relationship with it."And for more Stephen Fry on Apple, reader Jack also points us to this long blog entry, in which Fry reviews a bunch of smart phones, including the iPhone. Sounds like he has the same problems with it as everyone else does, but in true Stephen Fry style, they're discussed more wittily and entertainingly than anywhere else. Looking forward to reading that column every week.Thanks, Jack!
1.5 weeks with no 360, and somehow I live
Douglas Adams probably put it best when he said:"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, 'as pretty as an airport.' Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort."It's unfortunate that any overseas flight must be bookended by airports, conductors of human misery that they are. Still, my new wife and I managed to have a nice time in Hawaii. I'm back now if you haven't already gathered. Was it just like Test Drive Unlimited? I really can't say, as I didn't actually drive anywhere on Oahu. Kauai -- the "Garden Isle" -- on the other hand, has a system of roads devised by a mad man. With, speed limits that go up and down for no apparent reason, outbound lanes that become inbound lanes at certain times of day, and mountain roads that could accurately be called evil, Kauai driving has a treacherous quality that belies the beautiful scenery. Anyway, I'm readjusting from Hawaii time -- it feels like 3:45AM to me -- and ready to get back to posting. I was going to post the happy news that Dig Dug is now available on XBLA for 400 points, but I see that Ken has gotten to it first. Bastard.
Q: What's better than a game? A: a free game
If you're itching to play a game but are short on cash, then don't panic: here's a list of more than 42 free games and places to find free games. The list ranges from the obvious (Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory) to the classics (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and all the way back to the original controversial game (Grand Theft Auto). A few of the games don't exactly fall into the "free" bracket (Air Hockey for example is actually a shareware game) but if you ignore this, there's a lot of fun to be had for not much more than a short wait while your download finishes. Make sure to drop us a line in the comments if you've found any other free titles.Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to try and figure out how to stop a bulldozer from pulling my house down.
