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Hitting the Books: The genetic fluke that enabled us to drink milk
In her latest book, Life as We Made It, author Beth Shapiro takes readers on a journey of scientific discovery, explaining how symbiotic relationships between humans and the environment around us have changed — but not always for the better.
Fujitsu made a wearable that knows when a cow is in the mood
Fitness trackers for cows are nothing new, but Fujitsu's EDSC wearable has a very specific purpose. The company's Estrus Detection System for Cattle, which is being showcased at Mobile World Congress, is designed to help farmers increase the efficiency of cattle production. By counting a cow's steps, using the orange pedometer pictured above, EDSC can easily recognize when the animal is ready for insemination. According to a Fujitsu representative, cows boost their walk time by up to six times when they are sexually aroused.
Moo's NFC tagging app hits Google Play, NFC business card not required
Remember those NFC-equipped business cards Moo promised? Yeah, well, they're still not ready for mass consumption. But, that's not stopping the company from making its own NFC tagging app available today on Google Play. Obviously, the intended draw here is to pair the companion app with Moo's fancy programmable cards. In lieu of that, however, you can always use the company's software with other NFC tags in your possession to transfer social networking data, phone numbers, contact info and even redirect to specified URLs. The only barrier to entry? You'll need a handset running Android ICS and up (and, ideally, an actual NFC business card). Head to the source below to demo the free application now.
Moo.com working on NFC-equipped business cards, kicks off limited beta program today
Do you recall those fancy business cards that took a design cue straight out of your adored Facebook Timeline? Well, the company behind such neat idea is now working on bringing cards equipped with NFC technology, which will allow folks to add things like email address, URLs and even pinpoint locations for easy access via any maps application. Of course, most of this information can already be shared using typical business cards, but one of the biggest pros with the Near Field Communication method will be the ability to change this info at any given time without having to purchase a whole new set. Moo plans on having the NFC-ready cards available to the masses by 2013 -- that said, the startup's currently running a beta program where it will allow 150,000 lucky folks get a complimentary card with their order of a traditional sheet. There's a video demo down below for you to check out, and you should probably act fast if you're looking to get one for yourself ahead of the extensive rollout.
Moo.com makes business cards from your Facebook Timeline
It's a new year, which probably means that you're due for new business cards. And look, your card design from last year is precisely that -- so last year. Moo has announced a clever new design, which allows you to "take your Facebook Timeline offline, and hand it out to new friends, contacts and potential clients." Wildly enough, creating 'em is as easy as tweaking your Timeline. Once you're ready to roll, just sign in and allow Moo to access your data (cue privacy advocate yelling), check that you spelled your name right and hand over $15 for a stack of 50 cards. Update: Looks like there is a Like button after you've ordered. Nice!
The Game Archaeologist's excellent EverQuest Online Adventures: The memories
It's been a good month looking back at EverQuest Online Adventures, wouldn't you agree? Educational, almost. While this title is just about as far from the mainstream MMO eye as can be these days, it's heartening to know it's still out there, still running, and still capable of evoking fond memories from current and former players. While we did attempt to contact SOE for an interview to see if we could find out anything new -- or even old -- about EQOA, it failed to materialize. As a wonderful consolation prize, however, this week we'll hear from three players who have extensive experience in the game. So let's hit this column running and equip our +2 Ears of Paying Attention!
One Shots: Points for originality
Today's One Shots comes from the high-tech world of Global Agenda. Reader Aeronca says: I don't really go in for ugly armor, but I will say that Global Agenda offers some truly hideous dyes and garish "flair" head pieces that are always a hit with the silly crowd. Case in point is my minotaur helm here. I can't remember how or when I got it, but I think it might have been during one of those week-long special events that Hi-Rez likes to run. They've also given out quite a bit of Christmas, New Year's, and other holiday-related headgear that can be mixed and matched with otherwise slick-looking sci-fi armor for some really atrocious fashion faux pas. It's ugly armor week all week on One Shots, so whether you have an eye-searing color scheme, a set of armor pieces that clash like crazy, or something that you just put together for a laugh, we want to see. Next week we'll be revisiting starting zones, so if you want to get a jump on things, grab a screenshot of your favorite starting zone and send it in to oneshots@massively.com and we'll feature it in next week's One Shots! %Gallery-112285%
15 Minutes of Fame: MIT Media Lab director Joichi Ito on WoW
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. Let's get Joichi Ito's professional credentials out of the way first. The 44-year-old Japanese venture capitalist is the incoming director of the avant-garde MIT Media Laboratory. A self-professed "informal learner" (he dropped out of college twice and never finished a degree) now shines as one of the stars of the digital age, serving on the board of directors for Creative Commons, Technorati, ICANN, and Mozilla, and catching the wave as an early-bird investor in Last.fm, Flickr, and Twitter. Currently a resident of Dubai (he moved there so he could get a better feel for the people and the region), he circumnavigates the globe a full two times every month in the course of his international pursuits. According to his Twitter stream, he's been scuba diving in Japan this week taking underwater radioactivity samples; after catching the bug to learn how to dive, he promptly became a master diver and now is a PADI open water instructor. He's the godson of psychedelic explorer Timothy Leary ... ... and a guild leader in World of Warcraft. "My feeling is that what we are doing in WoW represents in many ways the future of real time collaborative teams and leadership in an increasingly ad hoc, always-on, diversity intense and real-time environment," he wrote in his blog back in 2006. In fact, one of his presentations on WoW made it into an early incarnation of our Moviewatch feature in 2007. So yeah, we're going to talk about WoW ... Need anything else to cement his gaming cred? Two more tidbits: Ito's GMed a WoW raiding guild since the original days of Molten Core, and he owns an actual handwritten map drawn by Richard Bartle, creator of the first MUD -- it's like the Magna Carta of gaming.
The Game Archaeologist plays with MUDs: Your journeys, part 2
This is the end, my only friend, the end. Of our elaborate plans, the end. Of everything that MOOs, the end. No safety or aggro radius, the end. Man, listening to The Doors early in the morning does not put you in a happy state of writing, let me tell you! In any case, we've extended our MUD/MU* month here on the Game Archaeologist Channel to include a few more first-hand testimonies of Massively readers' favorite text-based MMOs. As much as anything else we've talked about in this column, it's vital that we not forget the roots from which our current MMOs were born nor neglect to take the opportunity to expose a whole new generation to a graphically simpler but textually richer experience. So let's kick the tires and light the fires of nostalgia as we talk with five of the baddest MUDders you'll ever know!
The Game Archaeologist plays with MUDs: Your journeys, part 1
What a long, strange trip it's been back through the heyday of multi-user dungeons and the many, many spin-offs and variations thereof. We've looked at the history, talked with Richard Bartle, and promoted a few of the best titles out there -- but we're not done yet! The Game Archaeologist will not hang up his hat and call it a day well-lived until your stories are entered into the history books. Throughout this month, MUD and MU* players have deluged the inbox of the Game Archaeologist Institute for Text-Based Virtual Worlds, impressing us with hefty paragraphs of passionate experiences. These stories are so good, in fact, that we have little desire to choose between them, which is why we're going to annex the first week of May so that we can share all of them. May won't mind -- May's cool like that. So hit the jump and read the testimonies of the word warriors who were there on the front line of parser combat and grammatically correct roleplaying. These are their stories. This is your lunch break.
The Game Archaeologist plays with MUDs: The games
Fair citizens of Massivelyville, believe me, I've heard your voices. After two weeks of giving an overview of MUDs and MU*s, not to mention talking to Dr. Bartle about the genre, I think I've held off talking about specific games long enough. No need for heads to explode on my watch! One of the reasons I stalled for time is that I was gathering as much information on the most popular and beloved MUDs of the past few decades. From the perspective of someone who is but a mewling infant when it comes to these games, it's a considerable task akin to asking someone to sum up all of the World War II movies out there. The selection field is big -- that's all I'm saying. So after polling a number of friends and hearing what you've had to say in the comments section, I've culled the list to six games that seem to pop up over and over again. Not only are each of these MUDs a wealth of history, but they're all going strong even in the futuristic year of 2011. If you've never played a game in this genre, then consider these a good place to start, and if you have, hopefully this will be an exciting stroll down memory lane. Watch out for the boojums and grues!
The Game Archaeologist plays with MUDs: A talk with Richard Bartle
From talking with Richard Bartle, reading his blog, and looking over several interviews that he's done, I've concluded that the co-creator of the first multi-user dungeon is, in many ways, a card. A smart one, a perceptive one, and an outspoken one, but a card nonetheless. I say this in a good way, of course, because for all of the verbal pussyfooting that often goes on in this industry, it's refreshing to hear the voice of someone who knows what he thinks and isn't afraid to say it, even if it goes against the grain. Dr. Bartle's name often comes up in discussions of both MUDs and MMORPGs. His designs, work and scholarship have influenced MMOs in substantial ways, and it's possible that if our children end up learning about massively multiplayer RPGs in school some day, Bartle's name will be mentioned once or twice. While he's sometimes polarizing, it's hard to deny the incredible work he's done, which is why I was excited to get to talk to him about this month's subject on the Game Archaeologist. So hit that pesky jump and let's pick the mind of a guy who really earned the right to post "FIRST!!1!"
The Game Archaeologist plays with MUDs: The history
You know that sinking feeling when you get into something that's way, waaaay over your head and you have no choice but to swim furiously or drown? That's exactly how I felt when I started to do research for this month's series on MUDs -- Multi-User Dungeons -- and their descendants. At first I was thrilled, because I knew that along with Dungeons & Dragons and Bulletin Board Systems, the MUD was one of the key predecessors to the MMORPG as we know it today. It was, and still is, vital gaming history that helped to shape the genre. The only problem was that for various reasons -- mostly a lack of good internet access in college and general ignorance -- I'd missed out on MUDs back in the day. But it's not like that stopped me from covering any of the other games in this series that I never experienced first-hand way back when; after all, there are few among us who can honestly say they did everything. So the problem wasn't the lack of first-hand knowledge but the sheer, overwhelming scope of this subject. One game alone is a manageable subject -- MUDs are an entire genre unto themselves. It's intimidating, to say the least. It doesn't still my excitement, however, nor will it stop us from diving into this topic no matter how deep the waters get. This week we'll take a look at the brief history of the MUD/MUSH/MOO/et al. and then get into specific games later this month. So hold your breath and jump on in with me!
Creative gives up, introduces the Zen Moo
We've seen plenty of cheap plastic MP3 land-fillers in our day. But those usually originate from deep-down within the fetid bowels of some no-name manufacturing house in southeast Asia, not the once illustrious Creative. The Zen Moo (yes, Moo) appears to be be a Zen Stone with extra bits of plastic and paint added to achieve Cow. Like the Stone, you get a small OLED, 2GB of memory, 20 hours of playback, and FM tuner to the delight of kids across China (where the Zen Moo was announced) -- hey, it's never too early to destroy a child's hearing. Gift-wrapped product waifs holding the accompanying speaker accessory after the break. Update: Seems the Zen Moo is a tribute to the 2009 Chinese New Year, year of the plastic cow.[Via EpiZENTer, thanks Oscar M.]
GDC08: Thinking outside the virtual world
Tuesday afternoon, Michael Acton Smith, CEO of Mind Candy, presented attendees at the GDC's Worlds in Motion summit with an interesting look at the confluence between real goods and virtual worlds. For some background on where Smith is coming from, Mind Candy "creates games and puzzles that span multiple media.... [they] use all forms of technology to tell stories and interact with... [their] audiences." They run Perplex City, an alternate reality game that uses clues puzzles in the real world combined with web-based resources to create a unique type of gameplay. Their upcoming game Moshi Monsters is an adoptable pet game geared towards kids. Smith says it's a "new type of virtual pet experience." The pets will be very alive with their own emotions (driven by a behavior engine which will cause your pet to act different ways depending on how you treat it) that will be reflected in the pet's animations. The game will also incorporate a number of social tools, so both you and your pet monster can hang out with friends. And, of course, there will be toys, oh glorious toys. (Some already available, though the game itself is still in beta and closed to the public.)%Gallery-16441%
Cinemassively: It's great to be a super hero
Moo is out today, and so instead I'm picking a movie for you Cinemassively fans this afternoon. Now, it's pretty clear that I don't have Moo's taste for machinima-- this isn't exactly an epic piece of work. But it amuses me to no end (and it's from City of Heroes, a game that I've never gotten the chance to play, but also a game that I think could make for some very awesome machinima), so here you go.Anyway, this is just a funny groove to tide you over until Moo gets back tomorrow (although I do like some of the editing choices-- that train cracked me up). It really is great to be a super hero.
BatMUD: back online and still in business
BatMUD first opened its virtual doors in 1990, and has been a solid online presence for the last 17 years. Initially text-based, and accessible only via telnet, the Finland-based game introduced a new graphical client in February 2007. Unfortunately, their original site was hacked in October, but they've since come back stronger than ever.Whether you wish to play in standard or hardcore mode, there are plenty of options to satisfy every gamer's wishes. 44 races, 100 levels, character respecification ... it's all here, and it's all free. This begs the question, though: when we consider what makes an MMO an MMO, at what point do the lines blur between MUDs, MOOs, and what we traditionally consider MMOs? With more MUDs introducing graphical interfaces, and with the ability to utilize text-based commands in MMOs, is the divide between the two categories shrinking?While pondering the answer, take a look at BatMUD and give us your opinion: do you feel that a well-written MUD can provide the same level of personal interaction and character development as can the average MMO? As for BatMUD, specifically, the web-based forums provide a plethora of information on game play, and some of the players have been involved in the virtual community for its social networking capabilities since the game's inception nearly two decades ago. All things considered, regardless of how you classify it, an evening of high fantasy and good friendship is nothing to sneer at: there's nothing batty about that idea at all.
WoW MOO cards!
I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that aside from being a writer here, I'm also a devoted WoW Insider reader. So when all the news from Blizzcon came out, I was glued to it from here in my own office. However, as I also knew Dragon*Con was just around the corner, I was scouring the writing of my co-workers for tips for Dragon*Con. This led to a reminder by Robin that I needed to get business cards, as well as a mention of something called "Moo cards."Being a great big fan of things with completely silly and incongruous names, I clicked on the link and found the most interesting little culture had sprung up around these wee tiny little Moo cards. There are people leaving art Moos for others to find, Moo swaps where you mail your Moo card(s) in trade for other people's Moos, and even an around-the-world Moo. But as I was going to Dragon*Con, it struck me as a perfect time to check into these Moo cards and get some for myself!Over the course of planning, I linked the cards to Elizabeth H., who also ordered some for Dragon*Con. Almost as soon as I received my cards, the folks over on the Wonderland Blog posted pictures of a booklet of the coolest Moo stickers made entirely with WoW in-game icons. Thus the WoW Moo-vement began around here.While not as serious-looking as the official Weblogs, Inc. business card is, I really must admit, I love my WoW MOO cards. To me, they fit the overall spirit of WoW Insider (fun!) as well as finally giving me a use for the gigs of WoW screen-shots I have on my computer. I'd be willing to bet as Elizabeth and I hand them out at Dragon*Con to other folks we meet, our tiny World of Warcraft Moo cards won't soon be forgotten! %Gallery-6388%
