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DARPA taking inspiration from birds of prey to create agile UAVs
The US military would like to use small drones a lot more, especially to gather intelligence inside buildings and other structures. The problem? Most drones aren't fast or maneuverable in tight places, to the point that even a kangaroo can take one out. Enter DARPA: the gadget arm of the military has just created the Fast Lightweight Autonomy (FLA) program to build fully autonomous UAVs that can get through "a labyrinth of rooms, stairs and... other obstacle filled environments." The drones would also have to move at 45 miles per hour in complex spaces without relying on GPS waypoints -- which is where the birds of prey come in.
1Password for Windows beta available
For a lot of our readers, working with a Windows machine at the office is a way of life; in other words, you probably don't have a choice. Agile Web Solutions, developers of the popular 1Password and 1Password touch applications for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, have announced today that a Windows version of 1Password is available for beta testing. This means that for the first time, it will be possible to use 1Password for password syncing and storage of private information on the Windows platform as well as the various Apple platforms without resorting to the 1Password Anywhere web-based access feature. For those of you who have changed a password on a corporate system at work, only to find out when you're working from home on your Mac that you can't remember it, this is going to be a real help. No pricing or final release date has been announced, but you can join in on the fun of testing the Windows version by downloading a copy from the 1Password Windows forum.
Slim your 1Password 3 Backups
1Password is one of my very favorite and most essential Mac utilities. Combined with Dropbox, I can have all of my login information synced to all of my Macs. The other day I noticed that 1Password had gained a lot of weight, specifically around the backups area. I'm not usually one to comment on such things, but we weren't talking about "love handles," 1Password's backups had gone from 1MB to 21MB literally overnight. On August 28th, the backups were 1MB, and on August 29th, the backups were suddenly 21MB. Wait? Did you say August 28th? Isn't that when Snow Leopard was released? Yes it was. And wasn't that when you switched from 1Password version 2 to 1Password version 3? Yes it was. Could that have something to do with it? I contacted 1Password's excellent support staff who correctly diagnosed that the increase was related to the preview images which are used for Login and Software License icons. (These can be found in the 1Password.agilekeychain/a/default/thumb folder.) Each preview image take about 100K. With 600+ items in my agilekeychain, this quickly added up. Fortunately, this is easily fixed. If disk space is a concern, the icons and previews can be deleted using 1Password > Preferences > General > Remove all icons and previews. I also unchecked the box next to "Automatically download icons and previews for new Logins." After I did that, the backup size went from 21.5MB to 889KB! Why worry about space with today's hard drive spaces? I have 1Password set to backup to my Dropbox account, which is limited to a total of 5GB. Plus this meant having to upload 20+MB every day versus <1MB. Personally I neither use nor need the icons, so it's no loss to me, and it makes a big difference. Many thanks to the 1Password folks for helping me get to the bottom of this mystery!
CCP Games boosts productivity with agile development
When CCP Games developed the Apocrypha expansion for EVE Online, it wasn't only the first time that all three studios -- Atlanta, Reykjavik, and Shanghai -- worked in concert on single project, they also created the game's largest expansion to date in record time. EVE Online's lead designer Noah Ward recently explained how CCP was able to accomplish this in an interview with Gamasutra's Christian Nutt and Chris Remo. The company switched from its waterfall development model to agile methods where the game was developed through the collaboration of small teams that showcase their progress to the rest of the developers frequently. Ward says, "Now that we've switched over, we don't have these huge waterfall phases anymore, it's just iterative, agile two week sprints, and we have a demo day at the end [...] and it's just amazing to see how much is actually produced in those two weeks."
Giveaway: four lucky winners to get Agile Messenger for iPhone/iPod touch
We'll have a head-to-head comparison of the just-released Agile Messenger [App Store link] versus Beejive in a few days, but why not test drive Agile Messenger yourself first? Four lucky winners will get to do just that, courtesy Agile and TUAW. Just tell us which chat protocol you prefer (AIM, Jabber, Yahoo, etc.) and we'll pick four winners at random. Sorry, we've got to limit the winners to the US, as promo codes don't work anywhere else. Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older. (Sorry, we know our international readers want to participate, but promo codes don't transfer outside the US.) To enter leave a comment telling us your preferred IM protocol (AIM, Jabber, etc.). The comment must be left before April 3, 11:59PM Eastern Time. You may enter only once. Four winners will be selected in a random drawing. Prize: Promo code for free copy of Agile Messenger for iPhone (US$9.99). Click Here for complete Official Rules.
No lie: voice stress analysis on iPhone
So here's the thing. If the new iPhone app Agile Lie Detector really works, and I'm fairly convinced it does on some level, do you really want to have something this potentially powerful in your pocket? Do you really want an application that could ruin your marriage, destroy your faith in humanity and wreck your respect for authority, and on top of all that, pay $7.99US for it?Yeah, you do.I was dying to try this thing out. Truth is, I was skeptical that this app would be anything more than a novelty item. But I had a serious moral dilemma on my hands. What kind of person interrogates his wife and purposely tries to make her cough up lies just so he can test out an app for a blog post? Me. So I was off, for 15 minutes, asking her question after question, spanning a wide spectrum, none of which I'll get into. Very little of my prodding resulted in anything more than a blip on the Lie Graph. None of my deep, life-altering questions drew a response that warranted much more than a light yellow reading on the Lie Meter. A few other quick tests with other people did show a wider range of results.The Agile Lie Detector uses voice stress analysis, a somewhat controversial alternative to the traditional polygraph test, to determine whether or not someone is lying. The bad side of this is that it's not considered as accurate as hooking someone up to a machine that measures more than one physiological response, like breathing and pulse. The good side is -- theoretically anyway -- you don't need to be in the same room as the person you are trying to test. In fact, it's possible to analyze speech through speakers, assuming the quality of those speakers is high enough. To play with this a bit, I searched for video on YouTube that showed people obviously lying (think Clinton's denial of his canoodling with Monica Lewinsky) or obviously under stress (think Sarah Palin talking to Katie Couric). The results of holding my iPhone up to the speaker as these and other videos played showed, in a most unscientific and probably flawed way, a difference, however slight, versus when people not under stress spoke. The very cool part of the application is that it gives you results in real time, so you can see from moment to moment when someone is getting a bit nervous. Theoretically.If I were the feds, I wouldn't be shipping off a crate of iPhones (liePhones?) to Gitmo quite yet. This application is filed under the Entertainment category in the App Store for a reason. It shouldn't be relied on in serious situations. You know, like asking your wife if she really, truly thinks you look good in that new jacket of yours. However, if voice stress analysis is your bag, definitely give this app a try. I won't lie though. It's a tad pricey.
