pipeline
Latest
Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack linked to a single VPN login
Last month's pipeline shutdown started with hackers taking advantage of an unused but still active VPN account at Colonial Pipeline.
DHS confirms new cybersecurity rules for pipeline companies
The measures follow a ransomware attack that halted Colonial Pipeline deliveries for several days.
Belgian brewery to reduce truck use with underground beer pipeline
In order to cut down on the number of trucks it puts on the streets, Brouwerij De Halve Maan is working with the city of Bruges to construct an underground beer pipeline. While the brewing still happens at its original site, filtration, bottling and shipping operations were moved outside of town in 2010. To get the tasty beverages from point A to point B, dozens of trucks go back and forth each day, but not for much longer. Folks familiar with the Cleveland, Ohio-based Great Lakes Brewing Company may recall that it uses an underground system to send its suds from a production facility to a taproom/pub across the street. The effort in Belgium will be much more elaborate though, replacing the 3-mile tanker route with 1.8 miles of polyethylene pipe, and cutting transit time to between 15 and 20 minutes. De Halve Maan claims the system can send out 6,000 liters per hour -- on top of cutting traffic and reducing emissions. What's more, the brewery (er, brouwerij) will foot the bill for installation and road repairs, reducing the financial burden on the city. [Photo credit: Bernt Rostad/Flickr]
Stardock creates staffing company to avoid cyclical layoffs
We've reported on the standard industry cycle time and time again: game ends development, layoffs happen. Stardock (Galactic Civilizations 3), which is also invested in Mohawk Games and Oxide Games, has created the Stardock Staffing Company (SSC) to shift that greatest of assets ("people") around without layoffs. "This lets us have a much more stable environment, because no one has to be laid off. Before they're done with their projects, [staff] can just be assigned to something else, without having to move," Stardock CEO Brad Wardell told Gamasutra. The basic idea is that Stardock would find other work within its network of studios and "lease" the employee, without them having to move, which should theoretically help the organization retain talent, reduce costs, and create a greater sense of job security. We've seen versions of this concept before, most notably from Ubisoft and Activision, which have several studios working on annual projects like Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty, respectively. This is a newer concept for a smaller publisher to test across different projects. Anything that helps us reduce the use of the always-depressing "layoffs" tag is fine by us.
Valve introduces Pipeline, a program for teens seeking careers in the gaming industry
Valve recently introduced a program called Pipeline with the aim of providing guidance for high schoolers that are contemplating a future in video games. Pipeline will host content in the form of videos and a forum that will answer commonly-asked questions about careers in the gaming industry. "Pipeline is an experiment to see if we can take a group of high school students with minimal work experience and train them in the skills and methods necessary to be successful at a company like Valve," the site notes. Pipeline is currently nothing more than a video and FAQ, but that will certainly change in due time.
Valve debuts Pipeline, a portal for teens seeking the greatest internship ever
Valve is proving its unicorn status amongst game developers once again. This time, by hiring a group of handsome teenagers to work within its secretive walls. Pipeline is the latest experiment from the company famous for resonance cascades, and its focus is prepping high schoolers for a career in game design. The website was created by these interns to answer inquiries teenagers consistently ask Valve; questions pertaining to college choice, areas of study and what it's like to work on video games. In the team's self-created clip, video editor Nathaniel says Pipeline is a test to see how a group of younger employees can adapt to the company's unique organizational structure. The site's mainly a FAQ right now, but the plan is to build it around user-submitted queries. Pipeline's illustrator Melanie promises future video series and interviews covering different aspects of development including art, sound design and filming. If Newell and co.'s newest employees being barely older than Gordon Freeman's first adventure doesn't make you jealous, this just might: They probably know more about Half-Life 3 than you.
Tim Cook: Apple pipeline "full of stuff"
Earlier today, Apple held a conference call and announced it would start paying shareholders a dividend as well as buy back US$10 billion in stock shares. During his talk, Tim Cook wouldn't discuss iPad sales or new products, but he did hint that Apple was not done innovating. "I am extremely confident in our future. The pipeline is full of stuff. I think customers are going to be incredibly pleased with what they see coming out," Cook said. We already have a new iPad and Apple TV this year, we expect to see a refresh of the MacBook Air and Pro, possibly some new iMacs and a new iPhone later this year. What features in these products would make you "incredibly pleased?"
EVE Online's first CSM term ending, next approaching
The latest EVE Online dev blog deals with the forthcoming changing of the guard, in terms of the player-elected Council of Stellar Management (CSM). EVE dev CCP Xhagen touched upon the fact that in the nearly 4 months that the first CSM has held office, it became clear(er) to the developers that their own views on some aspects of the game can be differ from how the players see it. While CCP Xhagen didn't list the CSM's accomplishments, he said that some of what the CSM brought to CCP Games won't be implemented until well after the new Council is elected, due to the time it takes to implement changes in the development pipeline. However, some of their efforts "will start to become visible in WAR 1.2 and the winter expansion." He also announced the dates and details for the second Council of Stellar Management, with a few changes made to the rules. CCP Xhagen said, "... the chairman is eligible for the chair-position again should he decide to step down as such and have the CSM vote a new one; 25% of actual voters are required to force a topic up to the CSM; the biggest change is the 21 year age limit to be a valid candidate." In addition, the timetable for the existing CSM stepping down and the newly elected Council moving into their role is as follows:
Bottle-brush robot to clear pipelines the world over
Not like this is a new concept or anything, but Zhelong Wang and Hong Gu of China's Dalian University of Technology have created a "bristled pig" in order to clean the clogged pipes that traditional pigs simply can't. In most scenarios, unclogging devices (or pigs, as it were) are pushed through pipelines by force, though certain bends and changes in size can hamper their effectiveness. These bottle-brush styled bots can climb through portals on their own power and adjust to changes in order to make "unpiggable" pipes clean again. It's a dirty job, but something's got to do it.[Via CrunchGear]
Surf the XBLM pipeline
Microsoft has set up a convenient "one-stop guide" to that confusing mess of content on XBLM. So why can't the actual Marketplace look more like this instead of the current bare bones set up? At least the marketing gurus grabbed a new buzzword before Sony could use it. PS3 Pipeline has a nice ring.[Thanks DapperDan]
