Zebra
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NFL reportedly using ball tracking chips in pre-season games
The NFL is using sensors inside footballs during pre-season to track quarterback throwing speeds, running back acceleration, ball position and other stats, according to Recode. The chips are reportedly made by Zebra, a company that already already tracks player statistics for the league using shoulder pad-mounted chips. The NFL used the same ball tracking tech before at the Pro Bowl last year, but the experiment is a first for pre-season. Officials haven't decided if they'll continue it once the regular season starts.
StripeSpotter turns wild zebras into trackable barcodes
We've heard plenty of stories over the past few years about tagging animals with RFID chips, but we've never been particularly keen on the idea. Well, now a team of researchers has come up with a much less invasive way of tracking individual animals -- specifically zebras -- by essentially using their stripes as barcodes. StripeSpotter, as it's known, takes an isolated portion of a photograph of a zebra and slices it into a series of horizontal bands. Each pixel in the selection is then fully converted into black or white, and the bands are in turn encoded into StripeStrings, which eventually make up a StripeCode that resembles a barcode. All this information is stored in a database that allows researchers to directly identify particular animals without ever having to get too close. StripeCode may be a zebra-centric application for now, but its developers see it making a mark across the food chain with the inclusion of other distinctly patterned beasts, like tigers and giraffes. Animal tracking hobbyists can get their own free copy of the application by clicking on the source link below.
Addonics offers peace with external HD DVD / Blu-ray drive
Combo drives made specifically with computers in mind aren't unheard of or anything, but they're still a long ways from being a dime a dozen, so we figured it was worth the time to check out Addonics' latest. This peace maker plays back HD DVD, Blu-ray, DVD and CD, but it will only burn to the latter two; also, it's available with eSATA or eSATA / USB 2.0 interfaces, and it should play nice with Windows, OS X and Linux-based rigs. If you're wondering about speed, it can reportedly toast CD-Rs at 48x, CD-RWx at 32x, DVD±R at 16x, DVD±RW at 8x and DVD±R DL at 2.4x. Both of these suckas are available now for $409 / $429 depending on your choice of interface, and trust us, you never know when having something like this around will totally save the night.
A Zhevra by any other name...
Irelance asks on the forums "Is "Zebra" trademarked?". He and other players want to know why Elekk, Zhevra and Crocolisk had their names changed (and limbs added), but not others like lions.The obvious answer is Azeroth is not Earth. But CM Drysc went into a bit more detail, giving some insight into world creation along the way:There are many names in World of Warcraft that are derived from something they're intended to resemble, either literally or satirically. You could argue that it helps with recognition of what it's intended to represent, especially in literary fantasy. While Azeroth isn't Earth, it's obviously a fantasy based on Earth, humanity, struggles within societies, etc. and in some cases familiar animals may be adapted to the world... of Warcraft. There's something to be said about influence of our world on our attempts to create fantasy or that which we haven't seen, but that's really another discussion entirely.They could have been called Stripes, or Chazzwuzzers, but would that change what they're intended to represent? There's definitely a need to ground players in a world with things they can relate to, particularly in games that are intended to represent a living world. Many games use a human or at least bipedal protagonist that you control, and that's by no accident. It becomes easier and easier to be drawn into a world, to experience and enjoy something when you aren't constantly working to justify what you're seeing. I, for one, like the Africa but not Africa feel of The Barrens. Incorporating familar images into my fantasy gaming experience does make it easier for me to immerse myself into the world. And there are plenty of dragons and dinosaurs around to keep the world fantasy enough for me. But, for some, it seems that the similarities are pulling them too much out of their fantasy realm and into our own.Do the similar creatures but different names help or hinder your immersion into Azeroth? Do Zhevras/Zebras look better with or without horns? Who would trademark an animal name, anyway?
LionDrover RC zebra replicates the thrill of the hunt
Back before we got this cushy blogger gig, we were looking into a rewarding career as lion bait. Good thing we didn't go ahead with that, since we hear the mortality rate isn't exactly top-rate, and now it looks like we'd be having our jobs replaced by a few infernal robots anyways. Some students over at Strathclyde University in the UK have developed an RC "LionDrover" vehicle that can hit speeds up to 30 MPH and is designed to give bored, captive lions the thrill of the chase. To heighten the realism -- last time we checked, most lions don't chase small 4-wheeled vehicles with hunks of meat tied on top in the wild -- the little vehicle sports some sweet zebra stripes. The LionDrover is a successor to the Lionrover, which has been around for a couple of years, and apparently a new version is in the works, too. Currently the bot is being tested out at Blair Drummond Safari Park, and should be joined soon by six similarly-fated companions once the funding is procured. There will also be versions for wolves and African wild dogs -- sounds like these are glorious days indeed to be a captive carnivore.[Via MobileWhack]
