PhD
Latest
Infrared light could someday deliver super-fast WiFi
WiFi has become essential to our everyday lives, which is why slow speeds piss us all off. Luckily, a PhD student in the Netherlands has come up with a potentially groundbreaking idea: using infrared rays to carry wireless data to your laptop or smartphone.
BioWare's Ray Muzyka on how to make single-player gaming more social
The good folks at IncGamers had a chat with one of BioWare's founding medical doctors, Ray Muzyka, about the company's history of classic single-player gaming and its upcoming foray into the world of massively multiplayer with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Muzyka says that the line between solo and collective experiences is blurring: even traditionally single-player games are dipping into the vast realms of multiplayer co-op and competition through online social tools and downloadable content. Speaking specifically, he says that Dragon Age: Origins is a good example, with online social features for what is definitely a single-player experience. And Mass Effect 2, he says, will explore these ideas through its own DLC. In fact, he outright guarantees us that BioWare is "planning more [DLC] than in Mass Effect 1." As players who couldn't get enough of the two packs on offer for the original game, that's Muzyka to our ears.
Digital camera inventor Steve Sasson collects honorary PhD, Economist award
If there's one thing we know about geeks, it's that they hate having nothing to do. Bill Gates has filled his spare time collecting knighthoods and Harvard degrees, and Steve Sasson -- inventor of the first, and assuredly biggest, digital camera -- is now following in his distinguished footsteps. Sasson perfected a microwave oven-sized 0.01 megapixel prototype while working for Kodak way back in 1975, and has now been awarded an honorary PhD for his troubles from the University of Rochester. The man, the geek, and the legend (all the same person) will be in London later today receiving further recognition, in the form of The Economist's Innovation Award, which commends the "seismic disruption" his invention caused in the field of consumer photography. Funny, nobody gives us any awards for being disruptive. Read - University of Rochester honorary doctorate Read - The Economist Innovation Award
Nick Yee puts the Daedalus Project into hibernation
The Daedalus Project, for those who aren't familiar with this fantastic project by Nick Yee, is an in-depth look at the psychology of MMO gamers. As someone who plays MMOs, Nick has always taken a very fair and balanced look at the intricate worlds spanning the MMO genre, with results that were sometimes surprising. During the course of ten years of research, he's looked into everything from basic gender alignment questions to in-depth looks at genre, how emerging changes in game mechanics affect social interaction, and so very much more. To say it's been important, enlightening work is an understatement. In a recent blog posting, Nick has announced that he's going to be placing the Daedalus Project into 'hibernation' due to time constraints, the rigors of his everyday work, and his need to publish as a PhD. As anyone can imagine, running an enormous project like Daedalus has to take a great deal of time and effort. It would appear that rather than letting the quality of the work for this project of love suffer, he's opted to place it on hold for now. While it's definitely a loss for the MMO - and indeed educational - community, we can totally understand. All of us here at Massively would like to thank Nick for his unwavering dedication to bringing so many important things to light over the last ten years, and hope that all of his future challenges are equally as rewarding.
Lab admin's secret weapon: Tips & Tricks for Mac Management
If you're the person responsible for Mac support in a big, cross-platform shop, it can sometimes feel like you're alone in the Windows wilderness. Established communities like AFP548.com (port 548 is reserved for the AppleShare Filing Protocol, hence the name) and MacEnterprise.org are critical resources for anyone who rides herd on a pride of Macs in a business or educational environment. Hidden away among the postings and troubleshooting info are some true gems, including Apple engineer John DeTroye's "Tips and Tricks for Mac Management" PDF handbook. If you're trying to do anything with Workgroup Manager, you need this concise 116-page document, and you need it now.JohnD's guide for workgroup and preference management -- particularly for implementing Portable Home Folders, where user data is cached and synchronized to a fileserver -- is so vital, it's linked from Apple's knowledge base article on Mac Manager. Along with Mike Bombich's deployment tips page and AFP548's AD/OD integration guide, it needs to be in the virtual library of every Mac manager. You can download the current version of the Tips and Tricks PDF here.
Three new loot cards for the WoW TCG
We actually heard from Upper Deck last month that there would be new loot cards coming in the "Fires of Outland" booster release from the WoW collectible card game, but now PHD Games has announced exactly what they'll be. Strangely enough, PHD is a distributor, and there's no word on Upper Deck's site about this, so this may actually be an unapproved leak-- wonder if PHD might face consequences for apparently telling us all of this early.At any rate, here's the random cards that will be showing up in Fires of Outland: Goblin Gumbo, which will make you "burp outlandish gas" A Fishing Chair, for relaxing while angling And the best one: A Spectral Tiger mount (!). MMO Champion has actual pics, which you can see above. Pretty! Also, all the loot cards will now be foil cards (which is a first for the WoW TCG), and they'll have a different design as well. Fires of Outland, says PHD, is coming in late August.Update: Commenter boulee points out there were foil cards in the Onyxia raid deck. Thanks!
