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Gyrocopter pilot who landed at US Capitol faces a decade behind bars
The government worker who accidentally landed a drone on White House grounds reportedly got off easy, but Douglas Hughes isn't so lucky -- he could be locked up for nine-and-a-half years. You might remember Hughes for flying a gyrocopter from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and landing at the US Capitol in April. He was fully aware that he breached restricted airspace, but he did it to protest the influence of big money in politics, carrying one letter for each Congress member. He's now facing several charges, including flying without a certification, violating national defense airspace and operating a vehicle masquerading as a postal carrier: the tail of his gyrocopter carries a Postal Service logo, since Hughes used to work for the agency. This incident (along with the White House drone crash) exposed gaps in the government's security, even leading to a Congressional hearing about airspace safety in DC. [Image credit: Wikipedia]
WoW Archivist: Bottlenecks
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Wherever thousands of players try to complete on-rails content, bottlenecks are inevitable. For Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard is trying to be proactive about eliminating them. Back in July, CM Zorbrix posted a "targeted feedback request" about bottlenecks in the beta. Given that the introductory experience is completely on rails before the expansion unleashes players into its less structured zones, this is a real concern. WoW hasn't had the best track record when it comes to bottlenecks. As we help Blizzard loosen the bottlenecks of the future, let's revisit those of the past. The great gyrocopter jam of 2012 Blizzard's server tech has come a long way since the game's launch. Lag and crashes are no longer rampant during expansion launches. But sometimes, other problems can prohibit players from progressing on Day 1. If we're talking bottlenecks, we have to start with the most infamous one in all of WoW, which also happens to be one of the most recent. This was a problem that people saw coming. I found a thread on MMO Champion from September 2012 where a poster writes, "On Beta - everyone had to funnel through a single vehicle quest to proceed on the Jade Forest quest line. I'm a touch concerned that this is going to be way worse than any other expansion..." And this guy was totally right. OK, maybe Mists wasn't as bad as The Burning Crusade overall, but the ironically named Unleash Hell was still the biggest -- and most dramatic -- bottleneck ever caused by a single quest.
PAL-V ONE makes maiden voyage, gives new meaning to 'Flying Dutchman' (video)
The Netherlands made a lot of noise in the tech world last year for stuff like net neutrality and the legal herping and derping between Apple and Samsung. Now it's making some noise of the whirly kind after the successful maiden flight of its very own flying car. Dutch company PAL-V christened its flying car the, uh, PAL-V ONE -- short for Personal Air and Land Vehicle. Like the Terrafugia Transition flying car, the PAL-V ONE also sports a push propeller, which it uses for forward speed. The Dutch flying car, however, doesn't have side wings and relies on an auto-rotating rotor to create lift instead. The vehicle -- which supposedly complies with all air and road traffic regulations in major markets -- chugs good, old regular gas (biodiesel and bio-ethanol versions are planned as well) for a range of 350 to 500 kilometers in the air and about 1,200 kilometers on the ground. For more adventurous land drivers, the PAL-V ONE also features a "cutting-edge system" for tilting at windmills, allowing it to power through curves like a motorcycle. See it in action in the video after the break, along with some company PR.[Thanks, Barry]
Macworld 2010: Hands-on with the Parrot AR.Drone
We first heard about the Parrot AR.Drone, an iPhone-controlled RC quadrocopter, back when it made such a big splash at CES, but unfortunately, since we weren't there, we didn't get to see it in person. Fortunately Parrot did come by Macworld, and the day before the show, we finally got to see their iPhone-controlled, dual camera-equipped, high tech toy in action. So what's the verdict? It's not super easy to fly (we crashed it into the walls, the ground, and even their marketing guy), but it's the real thing -- the extremely light (3/4 of a pound, as our own Steve Sande estimated with remarkable accuracy) quadricopter is packed with all kinds of fun gadgets, including variable speed rotors, the ability to lift off, hover, and land on its own, and super-sensitive touch controls along with two 640x480 VGA camera feeds running back to the iPhone via 802.11G Wi-Fi. We're not sure how ready it actually is for market (or what it'll cost yet), but the AR.Drone does what it says on the not-yet-designed box: Allows you to control a real quadricopter with and through your iPhone. Read our impressions of the hands-on below, and don't forget to stay tuned -- we'll have video of our demonstration later on. %Gallery-85172%
Parrot unveils the AR.Drone, an iPhone-controlled microcopter, at CES
Probably the coolest iPhone-related product to come out of the festivities at CES so far this week is the AR.Drone, created by a company called Parrot. It's a little working microcopter that's remote-controlled by an iPhone app, and it's decked out with all sorts of interesting gadgetry, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, and two cameras. A key feature is Wi-Fi integration, so the AR.Drone can actually be controlled by any Wi-Fi device, not just an iPhone. Release is rumored to happen as early as March of this year, although the product itself is still somewhat surrounded in mystery -- we don't know a price, and even some of the features sound a little fantastical. Apparently the drone has an "autofly" setting, in which it'll follow certain visual stimuli in the environment, and it apparently also watches the floor for flight stabilization. The features go even further than that, with the cameras on the real-life drone providing an augmented reality game feed (like shooting robots around your house as you explore with the drone) back to the iPhone. Like I said, the features are fantastical. Parrot hasn't actually been able to show off controlling the copter with the iPhone in anything but the video above -- apparently there's too much Wi-Fi permeating the air around CES. But this is the most-hyped item coming out of the first few days of CES for sure. It'll be interesting to see how the actual product looks and works as we get closer to the expected release. Boy, a price would be nice to hear, though it'll probably be high!
WAR's Dwarf mounts are real head turners
MMO mounts come in an almost endless variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and types. From the mighty Kodo to the agile Chocobo, there's a generally accepted level of convention when it comes to mounts. They're usually organic (or at least they replicate being organic), walk on legs, and have some way for players to sit astride them. Mounts that buck this trend are really few and far between.So you can imagine our surprise then when Avien over at the Warhammer Alliance forums posted several links to the new Dwarven mounts (also featured in the newest Warhammer newsletter) for Warhammer Online -- in the form of personal gyrocopters. They're certainly not what we would have guessed would be their mount if you had asked, but thinking about it, there's something so distinctly Dwarven about the idea of strapping a gyrocopter to your back and flitting about a battlefield. In any case, the concept art is extremely amusing both if you plan to make a stuntie yourself or if you aim to have them fall at your feet.
Engineering: 2.3 and beyond
It would be an understatement to say that engineering as a profession has been sorely lacking for quite some time. Although there are those among us who have remained optimistic (and a touch crazy), the upcoming changes in patch 2.3 will do wonders to lift the spirits of browbeaten inventors everywhere. Yet, the forums are still rife with creative new ideas for the direction of the profession, as well as glaring issues that have yet to be addressed. Today I will be summarizing some of the more ingenius and workable proposals for the future of engineering, highlighting some of the changes that Blizzard has promised to make, and bringing some much-needed attention to the problems that still plague this profession. Even if you aren't an engineer yourself, many of the suggestions for craftable goodies make for an interesting read.
The latest changes on the PTR
World of Raids once again has the latest breaking news on the latest Patch 2.3 Public Test Ream changes! Today's class changes seem to be mostly happy buffs, especially for hunters and rogues and paladins, as well as a slight nerf to warriors beyond the jump. Also read on below for Guild Bank prices, New Arena Season 3 weapon models, a Field Repair Bot change, as well as a few new engineering toys.Hunters: It looks like hunters get their version of Mortal Strike after all: Aimed Shot now reduces all healing done on the target by 50% for 10 seconds, in addition to the regularly increased damage. The dead zone has not been eradicated, but it has been reduced to just about 1 yard. Why not just get rid of the dead zone and be done with it? Is Blizzard paranoid about the possibility of using melee and ranged abilities at the same time through latency bugs or something? Rogues: The rogue talent "Aggression" is being improved so that its damage bonus applies to Backstab as well as Sinister Strike and Eviscerate (at +2/4/6% with each rank). Shadowstep now has a 30 second cooldown in addition to being usable out of stealth. Its range has been changed from 0-20 yards to 8-25 yards, and its +20% damage bonus now applies to whatever special attack you make next (i.e. Sinister Strike, Hemorrhage -- even Eviscerate or Rupture). Could this make it beneficial to non-dagger rogues as well? Hemorrhage has received a huge buff: It now increases physical damage dealt to its target by up to 36 (increased from 10!), but its number of charges has been reduced from 30 to 10. This should make hemo rogues more desirable in groups, and also increase the benefit from having more than one in a raid -- but is it really enough? Paladins: The "Fanaticism" talent in the retribution tree now reduces the paladin's threat by 30% at the highest rank in addition to 15% increased critical strike chance with all judgements. The protection talent "Precision" now gives a +3% chance to hit with spells in addition to melee attacks.
