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A lawsuit almost stalled NASA's Cassini mission
Capt. Scott Kelly wasn't kidding when he famously quipped that "space is hard." Even getting to the launch pad can prove to be a daunting challenge. Take the Cassini mission to study Saturn, for example. Despite an investment of $3.4 billion and nearly a decade of development, Cassini wound up being very nearly scuttled at the last minute by protesters who thought they knew better than a federal agency that has put multiple men on the moon. Geez guys, it was just 73 pounds of plutonium riding aboard that Saturn orbiter -- it wouldn't have caused that much damage had something gone horribly wrong at launch.
How artificial intelligence can be corrupted to repress free speech
The internet was supposed to become an overwhelming democratizing force against illiberal administrations. It didn't. It was supposed to open repressed citizens' eyes, expose them to new democratic ideals and help them rise up against their authoritarian governments in declaring their basic human rights. It hasn't. It was supposed to be inherently resistant to centralized control. It isn't.
EverQuest Next video talks about Ogres and Dwarves
When you talk about basic fantasy races, Dwarves and Ogres are up there as the classics. But which do you find more interesting to learn about in EverQuest Next? The latest episode of the game's Workshop Show is available now; art director Rosie Rappaport and creative director Jeff Butler are joined by lead content designer Steve Danuser to show off the style and lore of both races while players vote over which one should be the next workshop focus. Dwarves, for their part, are fairly familiar to anyone who has played EverQuest or EverQuest II (or pretty much any fantasy game from 1967 to the present): short, stocky, bearded, ancestral, and traditional. Ogres, meanwhile, have changed a lot, with a renewed developer emphasis on making the race more appealing to players in general whilst offering a wider range of available style options for players. You can watch the full show past the break, but be forewarned: It's a long one.
EverQuest Next Landmark shows off the building blocks of the desert
EverQuest Next Landmark is all about building things right now. There's going to be more to do in the future, but right now it's all about making your own stuff. So it's helpful to know what you can use to make those things. The latest trailer, past the break, shows off another set of building blocks for the game in the form of desert-based plants, landscapes, and textures. Just like real deserts, it's not just an unbroken sea of sand and rocks -- there are cacti, withered trees, sparse grass, bluffs, valleys, and the like. All the things you could need if you want your own little slice of the game to be a dusty place full of blowing tumbleweeds, in other words. Take a look at the video past the break, and keep your eyes peeled for similar videos in the future.
Age of Conan sneaks a peek at some (selectively) stylish crafting
Age of Conan is already unchained according to its subtitle, but players are still restrained in certain ways. You can't just craft an item with your chosen stats and have it look like whatever you want, can you? Of course not! At least, not until the major crafting revision goes live, and the latest game director's letter shows off how players will be able to do exactly that. The letter previews the new crafting interface, which along with ingredients allows players to select a style for the crafted product. New styles are unlocked via completing missions and certain achievements. The system also allows for adding new visuals as endgame drops or from the cash store, giving players more flexible options about how to look. Take a loot at the full letter for more details, as well as discussion about the next major content update and the possibility of porting elements over from The Secret World.
The Daily Grind: How much time and effort do you spend on your character's appearance?
Guild Wars 2 has an interesting way of handling dyes, with a pool of colors that you can alter at any time that propagates to all of your present and future equipment. It also makes me stop dead in the middle of my leveling and spend about an hour trying out color combinations and then start over when I got a new chestpiece and a nice new pale green dye -- something that I will no doubt do all over again as soon as I replace the existing chestpiece. This isn't unusual. I spend a lot of money in Guild Wars on dyes and mixing them for just the right look. I've spent huge chunks of time in Star Wars: The Old Republic hunting for just the right modifiable pieces of armor. These are times spent looking for things that look the way I want, not actually spent playing the game or improving my character in any other way. But what about you? How much time and effort do you spend on your character's appearance? Is it a major part of the game for you, or just something that you barely consider? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: How important is your look?
Sometimes I'm not entirely sure I play City of Heroes. I definitely log in, and I definitely enter the game world. The thing is that I can enter the gameworld and then start staring at the tailor, and the next thing I know two hours have passed and I'm calling Ms. Lady over to see if the outfit looks better with one shade of cyan or another. I believe there are also elements of the game that involve superhuman antics, but at times it feels that my intersection with those elements is brief and often superfluous. Of course, I know I'm not the only one. There are people who will devote even more time than I will to getting a character's outfit just right, even in games that don't allow costume-customizing free-for-alls. And then there are players who couldn't care less that their RIFT characters appear to have been dressed by a blind MC Hammer as long as their stats are high. So where do you fall on the spectrum? How important is your look? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Cataclysm: Stylish overcloaks!
The thing about our cloaks is that the ones that give us the most power for our characters aren't always the ones that look the best. Turns out that is about to change. Our friends over at MMO Champion have revealed a new Overcloak function. They're entirely cosmetic in appearance and allow you to slightly customize the look of your cloak. It appears there will be a toggle option of some sort for players who wish to display their cloak along with an overcloak. My guess is that these cloaks will be incentive rewards that come from reputation, limited seasonal drops or really rare drops (like mounts and companion pets). Ironforge represent!
Ripple unleashes dashingly handsome LOOK on unsuspecting nettop crowd
With its shapely curves and dramatic paintwork, the Ripple LOOK makes a wonderful first impression. Though not a candidate for being either the smallest or thinnest mini PC around, it's definitely one of the best looking nettops we've seen. Specs are par for the course -- dual core Atom 330, 2GB RAM, 320GB storage and Intel GMA950 graphics -- but you really don't buy devices like these for their power. Then again, we won't be buying this at all unless it does the unthinkable and finds a reseller outside Korea, where the lucky locals can have it for $321. A couple more glamor shots await after the break to soothe your heavy heart.
Yoichi Yamazaki's latest bot has hungry eyes, nothing else
A quick glance can say a lot, but sometimes its meaning can get lost in translation. For example, there's not a lot of difference between a dirty look and a, uh, dirty look, but Yoichi Yamazaki and cohorts at the Tokyo Institute of Technology hope to quantify that (and many more) by creating a so-called Eye Robot. It's a pair of disembodied eyeballs that create expressions in concert with pink eyelids; a user views each expression and then indicates how it makes him or her feel. At this point it seems like something of a scatter-shot affair, throwing out expressions at random and seeing which elicit a reaction, but hopefully in the near future Yamazaki's metrics will help make the vacant gaze of other bots a little less disconcerting. [Via Engadget Poland]
Ask WoW Insider: The new look of Northrend
Most of the time here on Ask WoW Insider, we ask ethical questions of you, the readers, or sometimes we'll ask what you think of certain game mechanics. But this time, we've got an aesthetic question instead, from reader Lindelan.Let me say first that Wrath is awesome!! I LOVE it! One of my favorite things is the way they designed the new armor. That being said, one thing that has absolutely started to drive me crazy is the lack of diversity in armor! I can understand having the same models while leveling, however the fact that level 80 blues look just like the blues I got at 71 is just plain lazy! Has anyone else noticed this, and do you guys think Blizzard will step it up in the future? LindelanThis is an interesting issue -- Blizzard got some flak in Outland for the gear being a bit too colorful. "Clown" was a word that was used pretty often, thanks to all the glowing and neon extras that came on our gear last expansion. And in Northrend, we fortunately haven't had that problem: the gear looks a little more badass, made up of dark steel and leather with pointy and ragged spikes on it.But have we gone too far the other way? Does all of the gear look the same now? Personally, I just miss my Hunter's mail kilt from the Argent Dawn world event rewards, but I think the gear has been much better looking in Northrend. I'm just happy none of it is pink, so if I have to choose between dark blue or straight black, that's a choice I'm happy to make. What do you think?Previously on Ask WoW Insider...
Singing the praises of shoulderpads
freelancer_bob (love that name) over on LJ has a good point: Shoulderpads seem to be the height of fashion in Azeroth. Not only do shoulder pieces call for the highest Arena rating in the game, but they're often the flashiest way to add a little flair to your character. While you can get the plainest of the plain before level 20, after level 70, they quickly and often turn into the wackiest thing your character can wear. Whether it's pure energy, lightning wolves, or even eyes (freakin' eyes!), Blizzard's artists seem to go overboard as much as possible, especially on the high end shoulder pieces.Sometimes it just gets out of hand -- how exactly are Hunters wearing Tier 1 supposed to use their peripheral vision? But just as Bob says, oversized and garish shoulders are a big part of what makes WoW Warcraft. If we walked around with realistic shoulder armor, the game would look that much more boring.So here's to the praises of huge, awesome-looking shoulders. We're looking forward to a lot of stuff in Wrath of the Lich King -- the new class, the dungeons, and the new continent to wander around on. But I'm also looking forward to seeing just how the armor designers will top having blindfolded statues of women on shoulder pieces. It'll be amazing for sure.
Turning keyboard turners around
Zg thinks, quite unreasonably, that 99% of players in the game are "keyboard turners"-- people who use the keyboard to turn their characters rather than holding down the right mouse button and moving the camera to turn. It's hardly anywhere near 99%, but given that WoW is a game that attracts casual players (a.k.a. people who aren't experienced videogame players), I wouldn't be surprised if there are more people in Azeroth than in, say, Counter-Strike, who use the keyboard to do most of their navigating.Personally, I'm one of those that come from a CS background, and so I use the mouse for pretty much all movement whenever possible-- I'll often just hold down both mouse buttons if I need to run for a short distance (and anything longer gets the run lock key from me). I also think that circle strafing is pretty much the best game mechanic ever made, but I know that there are those who disagree with me-- back when I worked at Gamestop, one of our employees there just couldn't seem to wrap his head around the fact that he should turn and move at the same time, and as a result just got dominated in our Halo matches.But habits are a powerful thing, and so keyboard turning is probably around to stay. I won't go so far as to say that fast-turning with a mouse is required to be a good player, but certainly that kind of reflex is required to be a really great player. So keyboard turners, pick up that mouse and start looking around-- you'll thank me later.
All the World's a Stage: If looks could kill
All the World's a Stage is a column for inquisitive minds, playing with roles every Sunday evening. The media usually portrays WoW as a "boy's game." That's not to say girls don't play too, of course -- just that the game is basically about qualities such as aggressiveness and violence, and our culture expects males to be interested in that sort of thing. Whether such a designation is true or not, the "masculine equals violent" stereotype is very pervasive, and it is natural for many male players to begin the game with a powerful and intimidating character in mind. The player may imagine that his avatar is warm and kind-hearted inside, but outwardly, his character looks as though he could rip out your throat with a flick of his pinky finger.But there are many men out there who don't like such exaggerated manliness in their characters, just as there are many women who don't want their character to look like a dainty barbie doll. Being a person isn't just about just one gender attribute, after all. Indeed, female characters in WoW can achieve a full range of human attributes in their appearance; they can look friendly and intelligent, yet lightning quick and deadly at the same time. However, the appearance of male characters is often so filled to the brim with "strength and honor" that there's not much room left for any other human quality.
Bringing the mohawk to Azeroth
Mr. T hacked the game and put in a Night Elf mohawk of his own, but will we be able to do the same with the next expansion? Could be-- Bornakk says that he hopes every class gets a mohawk to choose from when the new hairstyles come down in Wrath of the Lich King, but the actual model from the commercial was custom-made for Mr. T.A mohawk might not be your first choice, but it will be nice to have some new customization choices out there-- I was showing off all of my alts to a friend the other day, and it occurred to me that I must have created an alt for almost every look out there. Not every combination of looks, surely (there's got to be tons of those), but at least every look that appealed to me. Just like many players, I'm definitely ready for new looks, whether they look like Mr. T or not-- if we've got the mohawk coming, does that mean we'll get a mullet for Blood Elves?
Interactive fiction on the iPhone
Before the iPod and the iPhone, there was iFiction-- err, interactive fiction, which is what we now call what I used to know of as "text adventures," those text-based games where you moved "north," "look," and then "pick up phone."But now, interactive fiction has met the iPhone-- spathiwa has created a z-machine interpreter for the iPhone, which means that (once you've jailbroken it), you too can play all the old favorites-- Hitchhiker's Guide and Zork, and even newer (relatively) stuff like So Far. I never even considered the idea of typing "eat analgesic" with the iPhone's text entry, but combining old school gaming with new school gadgetry is always cool.The latest version (.2) even saves games when the iPhone is put to sleep, so now you can play your favorite text adventure till the end where ever you take your iPhone.Thanks, Mark!
GmailUI Extension for Thunderbird
If Gmail's UI floats your boat but you prefer using a desktop email client for 'no waiting for a refresh' feel, Ken Mixter has developed a Thunderbird extension just for you. The GmailUI extension brings many of the shortcuts and search expressions of Gmail to Mozilla's Thunderbird client. Keyboard shortcuts like J and K for moving up and down through messages, as well as search expressions such as 'subject:' and 'from:' can now be a part of your Thunderbird experience. Ken even went so far as to include Gmail's 'archive' functionality and (oddly) a quick calculation function, right from within Thunderbird's search box.The extension appears to be completely free, and Ken is accepting feedback and suggestions at his site. Head over to Mozilla's addons site to grab the extension, or check out Ken's site for a lot more details of everything GmailUI is capable of.[via Gmail.pro]
iMac disassembled for your viewing pleasure
Continuing the tradition of taking things apart as soon as they're released, a site by the name of KODAWARISAN has already dissected an Intel Dual Core iMac. The images aren't incredibly hi-res, but they should be good enough to keep you from doing the same to your zippy new iMac.[via MacDailyNews]
