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Stupid netbook tricks: DIY microwave shield testing
So, we're guessing that at some point in your life you've wondered whether or not your microwave oven has sufficient shielding. Well, we certainly haven't -- but maybe we're the fools for trusting the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. Then again, in Russia they don't even have a "United States Consumer Product Safety Commission" (for obvious reasons). Clearly, someone over there was nagged by the thought that this appliance was scattering radiation where it didn't belong, so he got this bright idea: as microwave ovens operate at 2.45 MHz, and 802.11d WiFi operates on a 2.4 GHz frequency, any netbook placed in a closed microwave should be woefully un-pingable. And you know what? When he placed his netbook in a closed microwave, it couldn't be pinged. Clearly relieved that his microwave oven was amply shielded, the author has one final piece of advice for any of you who might be thinking about conducting this test for yourself: "Don't try to turn your microwave on, while experiment." Action photos after the break.
Video: Robots crash into dummies, identify human weaknesses
The IEEE International Conference of Robotics and Automation is kicking off today in Kobe Japan. In other words, the world's leading researchers in the field of robotics are gathered in a single location to plot our doom. Don't believe us? Just check out the video after the break. It's a research piece from the Germany Aerospace Center depicting experiments of robots crashing into human test dummies. They claim that the research explores human-robot accidents so that robots can be made safer. We're not so sure though, judging by the devious laughter heard after the first gruesome impact.
Tweenbots project finds people really do care about robots, for now
We've already seen a fair bit of evidence suggesting that humans can quickly form bonds with robots, and it looks like ITP's Kacie Kinzer has now thrown some additional, adorable fodder into the mix. Apparently, she's spent the past few months sending a robot, or "Tweenbot," aimlessly wandering through New York's Washington Square Park in the hope that passers-by would take time from their busy day to help guide it from one corner of the park to the other -- or at least point it in the right direction. As you may be pleased to know, it turns out that plenty of folks were more than happy to help out the little bot, and it was even able to complete its journey in as little as little as 42 minutes with the help of 29 people. Of course, no one sends a smiling cardboard robot out into the wild without capturing a bit of video, so head on past the break for it, and hit up the link below for glimpse at some future Tweenbots.[Via MAKE]
Could you live on online TV / Netflix alone? One gal found out.
It's bound to have crossed your mind a time or two: "Could I ditch my pay-TV and still stay entertained?" With the advent of HTPCs and boxes such as the ZvBox, entertainment truly has been disconnected from the coaxial jack that sits quietly behind your TV. Practically every broadcast network (and even a few cable channels) places their hit shows online for viewing, and a whole litany of other internet TV portals are but a URL away. A mettlesome AP writer decided to give it a go for a week, abstaining from live broadcast TV, cable and pay-per-view content; in essence, she survived solely on internet media and Netflix. The nicely journaled experience is a must-read, as it details what she did with her newfound free time and how she coped without the luxuries of DVR and limitless content. At the end of the seven days, she concluded that she could indeed live sans pay-TV so long as she had good broadcast reception, but she still couldn't answer the all-important "but, would I want to?" On that note, would you?
Psychologist says Wii users have 'truth bias'
A psychology expert from the University of Memphis, Dr Rick Dale, has been using the Wii in his latest experiments. No, not to help senior citizens stay active or to help those in physical therapy, but to study the relationship between the mind and the body. "We often begin to act before we think, even when making relatively simple decisions," Dale said. "Some might say that we even think through our actions." Using the Wii in a variety of different experiments helps him to map how our brains handle thinking and action, and that the two are apparently intertwined.In another experiment, Dale found that participants had a 'bias toward truth,' meaning that those involved had a natural tendency to think what they were presented with was truth. In this experiment, those involved would use the Wiimote to determine if a statement was true or false. Before making up their mind, those involved in the experiment tended to float towards each statement being true, before making up their mind and choosing their answer. This proved that the body of the participant was in motion before the cognitive process was finished, as well as showing that each individual wanted to believe each statement was true, even if they later decided that the statement was not.Might not be the most exciting stuff to us without years and years of education, but it's good to see that folks in the medical field are taking the console seriously and understanding that it can do some good beyond letting you and Mario run around some globes in space for a few hours.
Japanese scientist claims breakthrough with cold fusion experiment
While recent attempts to create a perpetual motion machine somehow, inexplicably didn't pan out, a physics professor from Osaka University now claims to have made a scientific breakthrough of another sort, with him now touting nothing less than a supposedly successful demonstration of cold fusion. That was apparently done by forcing deuterium gas under pressure into an evacuated cell containing a sample of palladium dispersed in zirconium oxide, which caused the deuterium to be absorbed by the palladium sample, resulting in a denser, or "pynco" deuterium, with deuterium nuclei that are close enough together to fuse. That process also supposedly resulted in a rise in temperature to about 70° Celsius, and a temperature in the center of the cell that remained "significantly warmer" than the cell wall for 50 hours after the test. Of course, there doesn't appear to be any other scientists ready to back up the experiment just yet, so you'll have to rely on your own armchair science expertise to get your hopes up or down accordingly on this one.[Via Slashdot, thanks One]
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An experiment for NASA offers cash while you play
Feeling bad for neglecting the kids? Want to do something for society? Well ladies and gentlemen, NASA wants you! Not for the vigorous life of an astronaut, but to stay in bed. They will even pay you (US)$17,000 to do it. What about World of Warcraft or the other MMOs we play? How are we to survive for up to 90 days away from the internet? Too easy says NASA! They will provide the internet and anyone is welcome to bring their own system. Since we spend hours in bed or sitting at the computer hacking away at gnomes, why not get paid for it?The NASA experiment has nothing to do with video games. It is actually an experiment to test the bodies reaction to low gravity. The fine folks at NASA want us to help them understand just what happens to a person who spends a long time in space. We already help promote economic studies through the games we play so why not take it one step further? As long as our fingers and thumbs do not wither away, it could make for a fine opportunity to play, get paid, and benefit the entire human race.
Manhunt 2 gets experimental in new trailer
Rockstar's latest, Manhunt 2, is striking three platforms: PSP, PS2 and Wii. While a true next-gen version would provide a greater deal of visual flair, this new trailer shows that style still goes a long way in visual storytelling. This "experiment" trailer certainly has us quite intrigued--this could be the moodiest portable adventure yet. For some PSP-formatted downloads, check out the game's newly updated official website.
The challenges and philosophies of Crush
At yesterday's Experimental Game Design lecture, Alex Butterfield discussed his latest project, the mind-bending PSP title Crush, billed as a "revolution twist on the puzzle platform." Butterfield's presentation focus on the challenges of making a game that seemingly transitions from 2D to 3D without effort. Crush is designed so that your character, who is under hypnosis to cure insomnia and forced to find a way through 40 dream sequence levels, can only "crush" (transform 3-dimensional space into 2-dimensional platformer) horizontally and top-down. Of the challenges discussed, Butterfield talked about the shortcut challenge, whereas the clever player would be able to use the crushing ability to move from the beginning of the level to the end without effort. Thus, the team devised three different blocks whose behavior differed when crushed: ghost block (insubstantial), solid blocks (impassible) and hollow blocks hollow block (somewhere in between). Other issues include disorientation, which Butterfield tried to fix by way of camera work and the placement of prominent landmarks to help the player. There were two design flaws that the dev team worked to solve. The creation of cut-zones let the developers section off part of the level so that one does not accidentally crush themselves next to a horrid enemy without prior knowledge. A safety feature was also implemented so that a crush process does not cause the character to fall helplessly to their doom; "an explanation as to why you failed the puzzle" will be shown instead. Many of these problems were also solved, of course, through countless QA and debugging. Following the talk of problems and problem solving, Butterfield moved into the realm of conjecture, philosophy and other higher-order thought. What if you were allowed to crush at any angle? What if you could crush outward into four dimensions (with time being the 4th candidate); i.e. a block could become a bridge, a cockroach would crush into a centipede, etc. How about multiplayer? Butterfield suggested separate realities for each character, whereby only you control the crushing in your reality and only your movement would be reported to the other player's screens. There's no clean-cut solution, but some of these problems give us an idea of the far future of platform puzzlers. Crush is looking good and the game's twist well-executed. The game is slated for release later this year on the PSP.
9000 Switchers a Day?
I've never been one to fixate on the whole market-share question, but several reports are pointing to increasingly good results for Apple's core Mac business. From over at MacDailyNews comes word that the February numbers from Net Applications have the Mac up to a 6.38% share for February, a rise of 2.05 percentage points (i.e. an increase of around 47%) since just last August (the numbers are based on visits to a network of websites). Glen Fleishman at TidBITS repeats an analyst's speculation that the total number of Mac users will shortly hit 22 million. Finally, Tom Yager at InfoWorld suggests that by his calculations there are around 9,000 new switchers per day. So he's decided to set up a little experiment to see "what happens when you leave a professional Windows user alone with a Mac." He has set up a long-time Windows user with a MacBook and a copy of Parallels, and he's going to report how she reacts. "Will she resist? Or will she make the switch? Stay tuned." Personally, I'm just happy that the market is expanding because that can't help but benefit the long-term Mac user base as well. It's hard not to be optimistic and think that even more happy days are here for the Mac. And with Leopard just around the corner, it's only going to get better. So welcome to a new day you latest 9000, it's good to have you on board.[Via Digg]
Chinese scientists control live pigeon flights via brain electrodes
Scientists in eastern China have successfully experimented with brain-motor skill manipulation in pigeons to "force the bird to comply with their commands." Micro electrodes have been planted into the brains of these pigeons to control their movement left, right, up, and down during flight. While chief scientist Su Xuecheng boasts, "It's the first such successful experiment on a pigeon in the world," they were fruitless in the search for any type of practical use, which was, ironically, the group's initiative when moving forward from similar experiments in mice in 2005. Although it's doubtful these pigeons will be transformed into aviary cyborg fighting machines, perhaps the scientists can have a little fun with practical droppings jokes and the like.
Wii Sports Experiment sheds nine pounds
While some folks are struggling just to stay out of the hospital when getting too amped up playing their Wii, Mickey DeLorenzo, a 25-year-old living in Philadelphia, decided to meld exercise and gaming together and further substantiate the most obvious research study of the year. His Wii Sports Experiment started in December of last year and ran for six whole weeks, and while he sought to keep his eating habits constant, he devoted 30 minutes per day to Wii Sports and monitored his weight, BMI, calories burned per session, body fat percentage, heart rate, and physical soreness. Mickey started out at 182 pounds, and after a month and a half of Wii workouts, whittled his weight down to 172 pounds, which he found quite amazing considering that this was the first substantial loss he had attained in over two years, and he never even cut back on the Eat 'N Park cookies (or similar). Moreover, according to The American Council on Exercise, he went from the "acceptable" category to the "fitness" category, and seemed to gain a huge boost of self-esteem in the process. So if the Subway diet just doesn't mesh with your taste buds, and you're desperate to find an excuse to game it up instead of going for a jog, be sure to hit the read link for all the encouragement you'd ever need, and click on through for a bit of footage from the entire process.[Via SMH]
