volcano
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Hawaiian volcano in sped up, thermal video: pretty intense
The United States Geological Survey's thermal camera recently captured some wild stuff over at the Kilauea volcanic caldera in Hawaii. The video (which is below) has been sped up four times, and shows a 450 foot-wide vent which is usually obscured by gas fumes.The results are impressive and overwhelming. Check it out.
"Icelandic Model" is ideal for small MMO start-ups, says Alexander Gianturco
When Iceland isn't belching volcanic ash that brings sky travel to its knees, it's kicking butt in the MMO world. EVE Online is widely seen as one of the greatest MMO success stories -- a small yet incredibly complex title from a small-fry studio (CCP) that's seen steady growth over the years instead of the typical rise, crest and fall of most other titles. In a recent chat with Gamasutra, Alexander "The Mittani" Gianturco followed up his talk at GDC 2010 by outlining just why CCP's business model may be the Rosetta Stone for future games to follow. According to Gianturco, the crash-and-burn of many MMOs is due to the insistence that their games stick to the "Big Content" model (à la World of Warcraft), which requires a huge amount of resources and time before launch. He says that this is "near suicidal" for most studios to pursue.
CCP safe from Icelandic volcano disaster
If you live in Europe, have an interest in aviation, or follow current events, you've likely heard of the volcanic ash cloud hovering over half the continent and shutting down air travel to and from the Old World over the past few days. While the incident has been a financial disaster for airlines and a huge inconvenience for travelers, the good news for MMO gamers is that it's still business as usual around CCP Games Iceland-based headquarters. "There hasn't been any impact on our day-to-day operations, including the production of our next EVE Online expansion, Tyrannis. The servers hosting the EVE universe are located in London so they are not affected by the fire and brimstone in any way," said CCP spokesperson Sveinn Jóhannesson Kjarval. Even though the offending volcano is less than 150km from Reykjavík and the EVE developer's main office, prevailing easterly winds have sheltered the dev team and the rest of the capitol from ash and debris. Check out the full article over at Eurogamer.
Lonely Planet giving away free iPhone guides in honor of Eyjafjallajökull messing with Europe
Did Eyjafjallajökull mess your week up? The answer is probably "no" if you're asking who Eyjafjallajökull is. For those of us who did have our week interrupted by that big exploding volcano in Iceland, Lonely Planet is offering thirteen of its City Guides for free in the App Store (and okay, they're free to all, no proof of volcano-interruption required). The aptly-named "Volcano Relief Sale" is being held in hopes of helping travelers stuck in unfamiliar places find "access to practical information as well as suggestions on what to do whilst stranded," according to Tom Hall, Lonely Planet Travel Editor. "That's why we're giving away iPhone city guides to major affected destinations." Those destinations include: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Istanbul, London, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, and Vienna. I've been to all but two of those destinations, and if you're stuck in any of them, you really should be thanking Eyjafjallajökull (and now, Lonely Planet). The thirteen City Guides are normally priced between $10 and $15, so this is quite a bargain. But act fast, the City Guides will only be available for free until April 22 -- hopefully a date which will also see many more planes back in the air. [via Macworld] [Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video]
Monsoon adds streaming, sideloading sweetness to new Volcano placeshifting box
Blazing a different path from Sling or even its own HAVA line, Monsoon's Volcano is not just an HD placeshifting device -- it can play back video from attached storage devices, NAS or PCs, plus internet video from YouTube or CinemaNow. Existing remote DVR and streaming features are joined by sideloading, as it can deliver compressed recordings to compatible mobiles (Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Mobile) over 3G for later offline viewing. Other additions include an OS X client, MPEG-4 support plus plans for downloadable apps like Boxee and an open SDK for developers. Pricing is set at $199 with 4GB of flash memory included or $299 with 250GB HDD. Check out a video of our quick demo of the client running on a Motorola DROID and a press release with all the other details after the break. %Gallery-82512%
New Runes of Magic area "Autolia Volcano" to melt faces this month
Runewalker Entertainment and Frogster Interactive have put word out that a new area is coming to Runes of Magic at the end of September. The "Autolia Volcano" is actually part of the Chapter II: The Elven Prophecy expansion that was just released under a week ago, and will be another high-level region for players to progress after the Savage Lands on their journey to the new level cap of 55. And yes, the graphic above does appear to have a spelling error (it's spelled "Volcano" every time in the news article). The Naga race call the volcano home, so be prepared to engage these scaly foes if you choose to visit. Right at the foot of the volcano is the sprawling Naga city -- perhaps not the smartest place to build, but it doesn't sound like they had much choice after getting their scaly tails kicked in the Great War.Ahead of the zone being released, there are a couple of ways you can get a small taste of what's coming. An article on the Runes of Magic website has two pages worth of detailed lore about the area, its points of interest and its inhabitants to read through. For those who aren't into the whole reading thing, we've got a trailer just past the break that you can watch instead.
T-Mobile roadmap shows Dell netbooks, BlackBerry Gemini, and more
Leaked carrier roadmap documents of unknown age and origin aren't necessarily the most accurate things in the world, but they are one very awesome, important thing: leaked. Pictured above is a fragment of one such spreadsheet that we've had the good fortune of receiving for T-Mobile USA -- obviously it's a little bit on the small slide, but no sweat, we'll walk you through what it's saying. Again, we wouldn't take these dates as the gospel truth, but we'd venture to say they're a good rough guide for what to expect out of these guys for the next few months. Move along for the full list![Thanks, anonymous tipster]
Kilauea: Mountain of Fire gives an HD look at the volcano tonight on PBS
Sure, if you want a great look at nature in HD, Discovery HD Theater has a marathon of Planet Earth going on right now (no seriously, if you haven't seen it, forget the NCAA tournament, Tiger on the links and LeBron's 60 Minutes half court shot, click over right now and watch) but brand new this evening Nature on PBS has an all new look at active volcanoes with Kilauea: Mountain of Fire. The first of this site filmed specifically for high definition broadcasts, Hawaii Magazine certainly seemed impressed by peeks into the vent from the air, underwater lava flows and hikes into the world's largest and deepest lava tube (whatever that may be) promise to give an all new appreciation of natures power for anyone not already peeping Ian McShane on Kings.
One Shots: No, I'm not a sacrifice!
Here's something you don't see everyday in an MMO; someone standing on the lip of an active volcano! We're not quite sure why Nuutador the Cimmerian Conqueror clambered up here to look down into the mouth of this smoking, steamy volcano in Age of Conan. But if you're curious (and it won't really hurt you) why not! Nuutador writes in: [This screenshot is] from Wild Lands of Zelata -- from the top of a volcano. Took some time to climb up there but hey, what wouldn't you do to get somewhere you really want to go? =)We're more the 'luau with frozen drinks' type ourselves, admittedly. Do you have any screenshots showing off strange and unfamiliar places that you've cliffwalked to? If so, we'd love to see them! Just send them to us here at oneshots AT massively.com. %Gallery-9798%
One Shots: A Zelata adventure
For all that the game may still have a way to go, many people are very fond of the looks of Funcom's Age of Conan. This landscape including volcanoes and cliffs comes to us from Oz, who said it was taken some time ago. Oz writes: Here is a shot from a while ago when I explored the wild lands of Zelata on my Ranger. You can see the Sanctuary of the Burning Souls dungeon in the background. If Age of Conan isn't your thing, that's totally cool -- send us screenshots of whatever game you're playing! All MMOs, big or small, are welcome. Just grab those screenshots, write up a quick description of what we're seeing, attach them to an email to us at oneshots AT massively.com and send 'em. We'll happily take them!%Gallery-9798%
iriver T7 Volcano DAP now shipping
We first spotted iriver's Volcano back at CES, and it looks like the stick-shaped DAP is finally shipping in Europe under the T7 model number. Specs are the same as we had in January: 2 or 4GB, OLED display, MP3 / WMA / ASF/ Ogg, FM, and voice recording in a variety of colors. €35 ($54) for the 2GB, €50 ($77) for the 4GB. Let's hope we get word on an official US release with some more dollar-friendly pricing soon, eh?[Via DAPreview]
Hawaii volcano film to be released on Blu-ray... and HD DVD?
There's simply no question that the beauty of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (above) can only truly be appreciated after a winding drive down from Kailua Kona (or Hilo, for those who love the rain), but for folks without weeks on end to spare waiting to see lava flow from some of those majestic creations, a forthcoming film should give you the next best look. Volcanographer Mick Kalber has assembled an hour-long movie entitled Kilauea's Flow to Waikupanaha, and while we'd generally brush something like this off, a recent writeup about it most definitely caught our eye. We thought we had already seen HD DVD's last hurrah back in March, but if KHNL-8 is to be believed, the forthcoming flick will be available on Blu-ray and HD DVD. Granted, there's no release date mentioned, but given that red has been decomposing for months now, we're tempted to believe someone was simply misinformed.
iriver's new APlayer, Volcano and MPlayer Season II DAPs
We had some inklings about these ones, but iriver is taking the covers off its new fashion-centric DAP lineup. The APlayer already ran away with our hearts with its sexy looks, and while it lacks a screen, the FM tuner, voice recording and 8GB max capacity almost make up for it. The player is controlled with iriver's SPINN Lite dial, and also comes in 2GB and 4GB capacities. Next up is the Volcano (pictured after the break), a "minimalist" USB stick player that features a small screen and otherwise similar features and capacities to the APlayer, along with multiple color choices. Last up is the MPlayer Season II player, which looks to be just the new selection of colors for the existing 1GB Mickey Mouse flash player we've already seen floating around. No word on price or availability for any of these, but if that APlayer doesn't make it to the States we're going to cry.
Living on lava: that's hot
As much as we do really hate to quote Paris Hilton, that is pretty hot. Chris Jensen at GameAlmighty has an entertaining and interesting story up about how so many games feature a lava level, have villain's lairs built around lava, or just feel the need to put molten rock in there somewhere. To quote from the article, "...have you ever stopped to consider what it must have been like to build a castle or dungeon near or on a river of lava? It breaks every rule in the OSHA handbook, I'm sure."He breaks down the difficulties on building things around lava, let alone living near it. It takes a very hardy soul, and we admit that we would probably start thinking about moving if we had a lava flow nearby. Of course if we did, we could also just call in Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche to save the day. If any knows how to corral lava and work with it, it's those two.
How would your DS fare ... in a volcano?
That's one of the many tough questions Robert Falcon asks over at modojo.com. He decided to analyze the DS and PSP's ability to survive various natural disasters, including floods, earthquakes, and blizzards. Keep in mind that if your DS Lite somehow manages to find its way into a pit of boiling lava, you need to take pictures so we can post them. Seriously, that stuff is blogging gold.On a slightly more serious tack, has anyone had a DS or DS Lite miraculously survive when it had no right doing so? Let us know![Thanks, Justin!]
Discovery HD Yogyakarta Earthquake special: Panic in the Ring of Fire
During last weeks devastating earthquake in Indonesia, Discovery HD was actually on the ground filming a television special about the (still) ready-to-erupt volcano Mount Merapi. The morning of the quake they got to the affected area, Yogyakarta, within minutes and recorded the destruction all in HD. The one hour special airs Sunday at 7 p.m. on Discovery HD.[For more information on how you can help the victims of the earthquake, you can check out the Red Cross' website]
