Mythbusters
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'Mythbusters' Savage & Hyneman to host Steve Jobs retrospective on Discovery
It seems like this must have been in the works for a while already, but Entertainment Weekly is reporting that the inimitable Mythbusters (Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman) will be hosting a one-hour special on the life and achievements of Steve Jobs. iGenius: How Steve Jobs Changed the World will include interviews with key figures from Jobs's past, including the legendary inspiration for Jobs & Wozniak's first explorations into phone phreaking, John "Captain Crunch" Draper. Considering that Savage's unofficial motto is "I reject your reality and substitute my own" (originally a line from the low-budget fantasy thriller The Dungeonmaster), he and his taciturn partner are well suited to honor the reality-distorting Apple co-founder. The show, a co-production with NBC's Peacock Productions arm, will air on the Discovery family of cable networks on October 16. Show full PR text iGenius: How Steve Jobs Changed the World Premieres Sunday, 10/16 at 8PM ET/PT DISCOVERY CHANNEL CELEBRATES STEVE JOBS' ENDURING INFLUENCE ON MODERN CULTURE IN iGENIUS: HOW STEVE JOBS CHANGED THE WORLD, MAKING ITS WORLD PREMIERE THIS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16 AT 8PM ET/PT -- Hosted by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, One-Hour Documentary Features Interviews with Luminaries From Tech, Media and Entertainment -- Steve Jobs was a creative and technological visionary who quite simply changed society as we know it. As co-founder and CEO of Apple Computer, Jobs ushered in personal computing to the masses, which in turn led to new innovations which completely changed our way of life - from how we do our work, to the way we watch movies, listen to music and interact socially. On Sunday, October 16, from 8-9PM ET/PT, Discovery Channel will feature iGENIUS: HOW STEVE JOBS CHANGED THE WORLD, a one-hour documentary that celebrates these innovations. Hosted by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who celebrate the spirit of innovation through intellectual curiosity on Discovery Channel's MYTHBUSTERS, the special will feature interviews with people whose lives and livelihoods were forever changed by Jobs, including: Those at the front lines of personal computing's birth, and former Apple employees and executives, including: Lee Felsenstein, founding member of the Homebrew Computer Club, Daniel Kottke, a friend who traveled to India with Jobs and who later become an early Apple employee, and John Draper, an engineer who gave Jobs his start Journalists, authors and critics who covered Jobs and his innovations, including NBC Correspondent Tom Brokaw, Joe Nocera (New York Times), cultural critic Toure, Bill Werde (Billboard) and Andrew Serwer (Fortune) Scientists and educators including theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku Musicians, filmmakers and designers who saw their business completely change as a result of Job's technological advancements, including: Stevie Wonder, Pete Wentz and lesser-known artists who credit Jobs' innovations (such as iTunes) for their success Says host Adam Savage, "Someone once said that to follow the path that others have laid before you is a very reasonable course of action, therefore all progress is made by unreasonable men." He continued, "Steve Jobs was an unreasonable man. He didn't simply give the public what they wanted, he defined entirely new ways of thinking about our lives in the digital space: productivity, creativity, music, communication, media and art. He has touched, directly and indirectly, all of our lives." Following its world premiere on Discovery Channel U.S., iGENIUS: HOW STEVE JOBS CHANGED THE WORLD will premiere across Discovery's international portfolio of networks in more than 210 countries and territories around the world. iGENIUS: HOW STEVE JOBS CHANGED THE WORLD is produced for Discovery Channel by NBC's Peacock Productions. For Discovery Channel, Brooke Runnette is Executive Producer; for Peacock Productions, Colleen Halpin is Executive Producer. Knute Walker, Benjamin Ringe and Aretha Marshall are also Executive Producers for Peacock Productions; Sharon Scott is Executive in Charge of Production. About Discovery Channel Discovery Channel is dedicated to creating the highest quality non-fiction content that informs and entertains its consumers about the world in all its wonder, diversity and amazement. The network, which is distributed to 100.8 million U.S. homes, can be seen in 210 countries and territories, offering a signature mix of compelling, high-end production values and vivid cinematography across genres including, science and technology, exploration, adventure, history and in-depth, behind-the-scenes glimpses at the people, places and organizations that shape and share our world. For more information, please visit www.discovery.com.
WoW Moviewatch: Wowbusters: Big boom!
J'mie likes a big boom, and this video by Bullworth has quite a bit of big boom in it. The Wowbusters team, previously featured in Epic Fall, have returned in Wowbusters: Big boom! to test the Mine Sweeper achievement. I loved this video. Bullworth showed off his love of both WoW and the incomparable Mythbusters by blending the two in an endearing, fun video. I also appreciate that Bullworth isn't releasing these videos so quickly that they become commonplace. He seems to be taking time and care to make each video unique and amazing; that careful effort shows in the final product. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
WoW Moviewatch: Wowbusters: Epic Fall
Bullworth is back with the release of Wowbusters: Epic Fall. This installment of Bullworth's material is an obvious parody of that perennial geek favorite: MythBusters. While Bullworth stands in for Adam Savage, the creator wisely chose a Kaluak to take the place of Jamie. (Really, what other Azerothian creature could pull off that moustache?) The pair of Wowbusters are testing the myth that if you're falling to certain doom but manage to dismount right before hitting the ground, you might somehow survive the fall. Bullworth used a lot of standard techniques from the original show, so this video comes across as a loving and detailed homage to Adam and Jamie. It's great work and a lot of fun. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
Halo: Reach 'not a Natal title,' being made with a controller in mind
Sure, you could take Bungie's latest foray into Mythbusters territory as full on confirmation of Halo: Reach not having Project Natal support, or you could be like us and remain skeptical of the developer's still-not-straightforward wording. In a recent post on Bungie.net, the company attempted to answer a mess of "myths" about its upcoming Halo game, including "Myth: Reach is being built for Natal!" In answering, the post states, "Halo: Reach is NOT a Natal title and is being developed expressly with the traditional Xbox 360 controller in mind." That said, rather than outright saying, "No, there's no support for Project Natal in Halo: Reach," Bungie instead chose to loosely word the answer. It certainly doesn't help the situation that multiple Bungie employees have expressed interest in seeing Natal incorporated into the Halo series, with Bungie prez Harold Ryan even saying he could "absolutely" see Reach specifically incorporate Natal. So, about that myth ...
Modern Warfare 2 Mythbusters: Explosive hydrants uncovered
Though the Modern Warfare 2 community is uncovering some unsavory hidden aspects of the game for their own benefit, the kind folks from Defend The House have labored to uncover some of the game's harmless (but awesome) unadvertised features. For instance, did you know throwing knives are still lethal after bouncing? Also, you can survive a forty-foot fall with the help of a few well-placed mattresses. That's news to us! Check out all these revelations in the first episode of Modern Warfare 2 Mythbusters, which we've posted after the jump. Oh, one last thing -- we will not rest until we kill someone by blowing up a nearby fire hydrant. Do you hear us? It is our life's new purpose.
Adam Savage's RFID implant activates, orders him to change his story
It's no secret that RFID isn't the most secure thing in the world, so we mostly took Adam Savage's story about Discovery telling the Mythbusters to back off an episode exposing the tech's flaws after a conference call with various cred card company lawyers as a bit of laughable corporate insecurity, but it looks like Adam got himself in a bit of trouble by sharing -- Discovery's now sending out a release in which he basically retracts the whole thing. "There's been a lot of talk about this RFID thing, and I have to admit that I got some of my facts wrong... Texas Instruments' account of their call with Grant and our producer is factually correct [and] the decision not to continue on with the RFID story was made by our production company, Beyond Productions, and had nothing to do with Discovery, or their ad sales department." Sure, that doesn't explain why he said that Tory "still gets a little white" when he remembers the phone call, or why he said RFID was "on Discovery's radar," but we're guessing it has more to do with simple exaggeration than devious conspiracy. At least we hope so.
Mythbusters RFID hacking episode canned by credit card company lawyers
Although it's no secret that RFID is easily hacked (see: train passes, passports, credit cards, one billion other cards, etc.) it's still not necessarily common knowledge, and it sounds like the major credit card companies want to keep it that way -- according to Adam Savage, Mythbusters was all set to do a show exposing the weak security behind most RFID implementations but was shut down by lawyers from "American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else... [who] absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode." Since Discovery is an ad-supported channel, it's not surprising that it backed down, but we'd say that the credit card industry would be far better served spending money on actually improving security rather than lawyering up and trying to keep consumers in the dark. Video after the break.[Via Wired]
Ask MeFi on balancing MMO economies
Just like WoW Insider's Adam Holisky, I too am a big Mythbusters fan, and it's pretty common knowledge that 'buster Adam Savage is a big Ask Metafilter fan and user. So I am also a big Metafilter fan, and when they do a thread about MMO economies, it just intrigues me in all the right ways. (See what I did with that intro? That's why I get paid the big blogging bucks, which, trust me, aren't that big in the first place).But my interests aside, the Ask MeFi thread is a great read for anyone who's thought about balancing an MMO economy. Not only are there a lot of great links (see that? True MeFi style equals big blogging bucks!) to other resources on the subject, but there's some good commentary in there, too: What specific things can you do to balance out the huge earnings of hardcore players and keep casual players competitive? And how exactly do you organize your items -- if items are too rare, they'll never be useful enough to be sold, but items that are too common won't get their prices off the ground.Fascinating stuff, touched on by a fascinating community.
MythBuster Hortus says "No PTR caused lag"
When I woke up this morning I was greeted to two things: a fist full of WoW news to report on, and my daily dose of MythBusters. Interestingly I found that our chummy Blizzard PTR forum poster Hortus has taken up dispelling some myths of his own. This myth is so epic that I think it would make for a good computer nerd edition of MythBusters.The myth is this: every time the PTR goes up, my server slows down. I play mainly in two different servers, Anvilmar and Eldre'Thalas. I've heard it claimed often enough on both servers that the PTR seriously effects stability. Most people claim this is because the PTR and the server hardware are on the same "rack." Most servers are just a small gray box with a few blinking lights on the front of them, and lots of connection ports in the back. When making a server farm, like Blizzard has scattered throughout the country, they physically put the servers in clusters, called racks (no, not that kind of cluster, well kind of, but that's beside the point).
MythBuster vents about common tech headaches, offers fixes
They're about as far from myths as you can get, but MythBuster Jamie Hyneman nonetheless took it upon himself to explore seven tech headaches that many of you are likely all too familiar with in the latest issue of Popular Mechanics, and he's offered a few suggestions on how companies could fix 'em. Those headaches include the ever-popular cordless tools with endless varieties of battery packs and chargers (which he suggests should be replaced by stackable 6-volt modules), fancy flashlights that use pricey batteries (which he thinks we'd be better off without), and cars with obnoxious electronics and near-impenetrable encasements. Of course, cellphones and their myriad of charges and connectors aren't spared either, although Hyneman sees some hope in the Open Mobile Terminal Platform that aims to make micro-USB the standard, and, as you might have guessed, he pays particular notice to computers that come pre-loaded with scores of unnecessary software. On that last note, he also offers some action consumers can take themselves: switch to Ubuntu.[Thanks, Niall]
Digital fingerprint door lock defeated by photocopied 'print
There's an old adage in the security community that any lock can be picked. Well in this modern age of digital doorlocks with fingerprint scanners, you can't exactly pick them with a bump key, nail file or other such assorted tools, now can you? Luckliy for budding criminals, the smart cats on "Mythbusters" discovered that one of these "never been broken" digital fingerprint scanner locks (they didn't cite the manufacturer) -- which also comes with thermal sensors (to detect if there's a real human behind that print) -- can in fact be quite easily duped. So how'd they do it? By copying the master fingerprint onto a piece of latex and attaching it to his thumb, Adam Savage was able to open the lock without a problem. Savage and his team then duplicated the feat by making another copy with ballistics gel. And to top it all off, they did it a third time (check the video link below) with a just a photocopy of the master fingerprint and a little saliva. Perhaps our own Marc Weber Tobias should have a word with the makers of these schlocky locks.
