Growing Up Otaku

Free Portal 2 Map Maker DLC Inbound May 8

2012-05-01T23:19:00.001-04:00

When superfan and frequent commenter Brandon asked to write a post about the upcoming Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC, who was I to say “no”? As it just so happens, I am The Lord thy God of this blog, that’s who! What a silly question. But I said “yes” anyway. So, without further ado:

Well folks, the wait is almost over for the release of the official Portal 2 Map Maker. For the past year Valve has promised this and teased us with a beta version but soon we’ll finally have the real thing. This one is much easier to make maps with than using Hammer. The best part is that all you have to do to make a map is to just drag and drop your ideas to the place you want it to be. They have also added the Steam Community so once you make a map with the new map maker, you can upload it to the Steam Community for others to play around the world.

Now its time to hear from the man who started this all, Cave Johnson. Mr. Johnson?

The Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC will be a free download and is scheduled for release May 8th.

Behind The Blog April 1, 2012

2012-04-01T00:23:00.006-04:00

The Great One here, filling in for the usual staff this month. In last month’s Behind The Blog, Mike stated a certain “Dry Spell” affecting him. Maybe a bucket of water would help. Let’s all hope that he’s feeling better soon!

Let’s all take a look at some of the great stuff going on here at GUO in the last month. Stats seem to show only a small drop off of views this month, with Hello Kitty Merch To Die For being the most popular story this month.

Out Of This World Weekly:

Ancient Planets Revise Planet Formation Models

Finding these 12.8 billion year old planets goes against everything we know about planet formation. It’s great to learn new things, but now scientists have to revise their ideas about the Universe.

Astronauts Run For Escape Pods On I.S.S.

Space junk is a serious problem and it’s being underscored by threatening the billions of dollars spent on the I.S.S., not to mention the lives of the astronauts living there. Let’s hope this gives a wake up call to those who might fund space junk cleaning budgets.

WISE Completes Infra-Red Sky Survey

Pretty pictures of the universe, can we ever really get enough? Not only that but a better look at Infra-Red phenomenon in the Universe.

Robot Gas Attendants In Space?

Testing on refueling satellites is under way on the I.S.S., pioneering the ability to work on objects in orbit. This should keep some satellites we really need working, instead of having to launch very expensive new ones.

Hackers In Space?

NASA isn’t the super-secure government agency that we thought it was. Losing the control codes for the I.S.S., among other things, will definitely draw attention from quite a few people. Let’s hope they can get things under control before someone does something more than just poke around.

Features

Flight Simulator Fans Rejoice! Microsoft Flight Is Now Available For Free

Nice little free flight simulator that gives you all of Hawaii to fly around, unfortunately in 1 slow plane.

Chevy Volt Production Stalls

Whew! Silent cars are the last thing I need. Not even dealers want these as they can’t unload them. I guess we aren’t ready for plug in cars.

Comic: iPad 3 Crabapples

Comix! just what every publication needs! Mike seems to capture a caricature of himself well (except for the red glasses) in daily life.

Original Star Trek Series Continues It’s 5-Year Mission Thanks To Fans In Star Trek Phase 2

Yes, Star Trek: The Original Series isn’t as dead as you would think. New episodes are coming to a computer screen near you. I can't believe they got Sulu in the preview episode!

Minecraft Creator Notch Brings Home A BAFTA

Awards to the (almost) sole creator of Minecraft.

Microsoft Says OnLive’s Win 7 App for iPad Violates Licensing

Microsoft and Apple not getting along? Who could have guessed? Apparently not the people at OnLive…

Video: U.S. Navy Test Fires Railgun Prototype

This could be the future of all guns. Forget gunpowder, the new thing is to shoot things using electricity. Very neat video and the gun sounds cool, too!

Star Wars: The Old Republic Gets 4 Days Free

You missed your chance. Don’t cry, it’ll be OK.

Encyclopedia Britannica Cancels book Production

Encyclopedia? Is that anything like a Wikipedia? I wonder why it’s dying?

Robot Pole Dancers

Neat gimmick but I don’t think that they will be replacing actual women anytime soon.

Th-Th-Th-Th-That's all, folks! It’s been a light month but hopefully not the last.

Thanks for reading!

Ancient Planets Revise Planet Formation Models | Out Of This World Weekly

2012-04-01T00:14:00.006-04:00

Recently, astronomers have found some very old planets. These planets are orbiting a star that is only 376 light years from Earth and shockingly only formed about a billion years after the formation of the universe. At 12.8 billion years old, these 2 Jupiter like planets are some of the oldest planets known to mankind. It was recently thought that planets were only formed after the initial round of stars exploded, sending their newly created heavy elements out into the universe. These heavier elements were thought to be needed to form the core of planets around which the rest of the planet would later form. With the discovery of these ancient planets, the ideas about planet formation are being permanently changed.

While these Jupiter sized planets are likely to be nothing more than large balls of Hydrogen and possibly Helium, the two most abundant elements in the early universe, more information gathered about these early planets will influence ideas about planetary formation forever. It used to be thought that they heavier elements were needed to form a planet but newer models predict that a perturbation from another nearby star could spark planetary formation. It’s also thought that large clumps of light elements could possibly clump together in a significant way after a certain mass is reached, thus allowing for large planet formation around a dense core of light elements.

Finding these planets also increases the likelihood of finding planets around ancient stars, which yet again increases the amount of planetary bodies in our Galaxy and in the Universe. It also allows for the possibility that alien life may have formed billions of years earlier than expected. While our current ideas about life needing heavy elements to conduct the chemistry of life would prevent this, the chance that there were planets formed only a billion years after the big bang does have an impact. We certainly do not have all of the information needed to fully identify the possibilities that these newly discovered planets have to offer but the mere fact that they exist opens up chances for discovery that had not been considered available in the past. Given that these planets may be 8 billion years older than our Sun, we should respect these elderly planets for what they have been through and learn what we can from their extended life.

Astronauts Run For Escape Pods On I.S.S. | Out Of This World Weekly

2012-03-24T23:04:00.008-04:00

A discarded Russian satellite was headed for the International Space Station yesterday, threatening to destroy the station and kill the astronauts. 3 Russians, 2 Americans, and a Dutch astronaut were forced to take shelter in two Soyuz escape craft. NASA said that it could not determine the size of the object approaching the station, although even small objects can cause large damage when traveling at very large speeds. They do know that it was debris from Kosmos 2251 which had already hit an Iridium Communications satellite in 2009 at a combined speed of 42,000 MPH, destroying it and causing about 2,000 more pieces of space junk to be created. As space collisions become more frequent, yet more debris will be created and this will make low Earth orbit an increasingly dangerous place.

While there are some plans to de-orbit dead satellites, nobody seems to be jumping forward with enough funding to implement these ideas. It is unfortunately simpler to just try to forget about a dead satellite than to try to send someone or something into space to try to retrieve or safely destroy it. It has been warned that space travel could be completely unviable due to the massive amount of space junk traveling at extremely high velocities. While current attempts at refueling satellites may make them operational for longer periods of time and makes less launches into space necessary, it seems that low Earth orbit is going to be an increasingly dangerous place to work and live for astronauts aboard the I.S.S. Let’s hope that it doesn’t take a major disaster like the destruction of the I.S.S. or loss of life before methods are put in place to reduce the amount of dangerous space junk in orbit.

WISE Mission Completes Infra-Red Sky Survey | Out Of This World Weekly

2012-03-18T02:44:00.009-04:00

The picture you see above is the result of 14 years of hard work on the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. This mission to map the entire sky was successfully completed with 2.7 million images of 4 wavelengths in the infra-red spectrum, totaling 15 terabytes of data. The data isn’t just a pretty picture, it catalogs 560 million individual objects including asteroids, stars, and galaxies. Many of these objects have never been discovered by any other means, such as type Y stars that are so small and cool that they don’t shine in visible light. With the completion of this mission, we now have yet another set of data that the scientific community can use to understand the mysteries of the universe.

The WISE mission provides a great amount of knowledge about our galaxy and the universe but it also did an extremely detailed survey of asteroids in our own solar system. It discovered that there are significantly less mid sized asteroids than previously thought. That’s good news, as this size asteroid could wreak havoc upon the Earth if it should intersect the orbit of our planet. It also found that 90 percent of the largest near Earth asteroids have been cataloged. The mission was also able to image “Trojan” asteroids that share the same orbit of Earth around the sun. Many Trojan asteroids have been found around Jupiter, lurking in gravitational Lagrange points but never before around Earth. These asteroids either lag behind the Earth or precede the Earth in it’s orbit, yet never come close to the Earth itself because they are traveling at the same speed as the Earth around the Sun.

Even though the survey has just been completed, already over 100 scientific papers have been written using data from the WISE mission. Even more papers are expected now that astronomers can access the entire sky survey. This survey joins other entire sky surveys such as the Plank Sky Survey in Microwave Radiation, ROSAT Sky Survey in X-Ray Radiation, Photoptic Sky Survey (interactive link – Wow!), 2MASS, H-alpha, and many others. It is nearly impossible to determine what a person looks like by only examining a single skin cell, a finger, a hand, or an arm. It is only when we are able to see the whole picture that we can understand how a human or how the universe works. With the completion of another sky survey, astronomers will not have to wait for precious time behind a telescope because that information will be instantly available to them at their computer via the internet. It is a remarkable time to be an astronomer or even just a gawker.

PlanckROSATH-Alpha

Robot Pole Dancers

2012-03-16T13:23:00.001-04:00

It’s Friday! Let’s get this weekend kicked off in style. Without further ado, here’s a video of pole dancing robots:

British robot creator Giles Walker debuted his racy robots at the CeBIT 2012 computer expo. Built from old car parts and controlled by WiFi, these amorous automatons are available for partiers with about 30,000 euros to spare.

Encyclopedia Britannica Cancels Book Production

2012-03-15T12:02:00.001-04:00

After 244 years of production, the voluminous tomes of knowledge known as Encyclopedia Britannica will no longer be produced. The editors of the legendary encyclopedia set posted the following on Britannica Blog:

“Today we’ve announced that we will discontinue the 32-volume printed edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica when our current inventory is gone.

A momentous event? In some ways, yes; the set is, after all, nearly a quarter of a millennium old. But in a larger sense this is just another historical data point in the evolution of human knowledge.
For one thing, the encyclopedia will live on—in bigger, more numerous, and more vibrant digital forms. And just as important, we the publishers are poised, in the digital era, to serve knowledge and learning in new ways that go way beyond reference works. In fact, we already do.”

The post concludes with a plug to check out Britannica Online. The premium website normally requires a $70 subscription, but is free for the next week.

At least I never had to see an ad with the old book format…

Star Wars: The Old Republic gets 4 Days 4 Free

2012-03-14T12:20:00.001-04:00

Been itching to try out EA Bioware’s MMO set a very long time ago in a galaxy far away? Players everywhere get their chance this weekend.

Star Wars: The Old Republic will open its Stargates to the great, unwashed masses for “The Weekend Pass Free Trial”. Catchy name…

“The Weekend Pass Free Trial opens Thursday, March 15th, 12:01AM CT / 5:01AM GMT and ends on Monday, March 19th at 2:00AM CT / 7:00AM GMT. To learn more, visit www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/weekendpass and come back on March 15th to create your account, download the game, and begin your free trial! Have questions? Visit the Weekend Pass FAQ.”

Grab your lightsaber and set phasers to download! And download… and download….

Seriously, the game client is nearly 20GB and demand will, most likely, be high. Bring a book

Video: U.S. Navy Test Fires Railgun Prototype

2012-03-13T13:29:00.001-04:00

How did you spend February? Chomping on chocolate? Guzzling booze? Shoveling snow? Well, the United States Navy was playing with their latest toy, and electromagnetic railgun.

Long a staple of science fiction, a railgun uses magnets to accelerate its projectile down the barrel of the weapon as opposed to conventional weapons which use combustion (explosions!) to get the bullet moving. This latest prototype comes to America’s armed forces courtesy of BAE Systems, a British defense contractor.

You may have noticed the fire shooting out of the barrel. This is caused by a combination of about a million amps of energy, the hypersonic speed of the round, and the aluminum in the bullet reacting with the atmosphere. The odd, hardly aerodynamic shape of the round used is to limit the range of the projectile.

Two Cents Worth on the 2012 iPad

2012-03-12T05:03:00.001-04:00

Yeah, yeah. I tried to skip out on doing this. Ya caught me. I wanted to take advantage of some extra time to really think about how I use a tablet and exactly what the new features of Apple’s latest tablet would add to the experience. Let’s take a look at what Apple is offering up on this year’s iteration of the flagship of the tablet market: The iPad.

So what’s new?

“Retina” display with a resolution of 2048x1536.

I must admit to thinking that the rumors of a “Retina Display” (Yeah, that’s not a real technical term) showing up on the new iPad were total B.S. The thought of such a high resolution screen in a 10” form factor at the existing price point… Well, I really didn’t think it could happen and Apple would be committing hara-kiri raising the price. This is a huge improvement over older iPad screens with a resolution of 1024x768. I have occasionally noticed some pixilation with black text on a white background. The new screen will certainly remove this issue. Overall, the screen should be a stunner although I would have liked to see an improved backlighting system to go with it

A5X Processor

This is the same, still speedy, A5 dual-core CPU in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S paired up with a new quad-core graphics processor. Obviously, all those new pixels on the screen are going to require more horsepower to compute. I’m certainly not going to complain about getting a little extra graphics boost, although I’m not ready to buy Apple’s claims that this new system outperforms Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chipset (5 CPU cores, 12 GPU cores) used by Android tablets such as the Asus Transformer Prime until I see benchmarks from someone less biased.

5 Megspixel “iSight” Rear Camera with 1080p Video Recording

This was one of the features unveiled that really made me stop and think. I have used an iPad often for quick photography as well as video recording. The stills are awful (pic) while the 720 video is surprisingly good (vid. In fact, all of the live video on GUO’s YouTube channel has been filmed using the iPad 2. Trust me, it used to look nice before YouTube’s latest batch of video compression). The real problem is that the iPad itself is a bit too heavy and much to awkward for extended use as a camera. Most of my video experience with the iPad comes from using the FaceTime video conferencing abilities and using its front camera which was not improved at all from it's current, horribly antiquated, VGA resolution.

4G LTE Wireless Capabilities

Couldn’t care less. Yes, Apple is far, far too late in getting in on the “4G” cellular revolution and having a carrier contract on a tablet is just… well, dumb. If you find yourself using a tablet on a cellular connection, you should probably be looking at getting a better smartphone instead. On the up side, I guess we can all but confirm 4G connectivity for the next iPhone.

Voice Dictation

A microphone button on the virtual keyboard allowing universal speech-to-text abilities? Love it. The fact that this, strictly software, feature is being withheld from other devices? Rage inducing. Congrats Apple, you just inspired a whole ‘nother generation of jailbreakers.

After the reveal of the iPad 2, I applauded Apple for delivering “a whole lot of machine for a reasonable price”. One year later, things have changed a bit. While there is little doubt in my mind that this 3rd generation iPad will continue to dominate the hearts and minds of technophiles everywhere, the price point and options available to prospective tablet owners have changed somewhat in the past year. The introduction of 7” tablets at half the price of of the iPad such as the Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet, and upcoming Asus MeMo/Nexus Tablet makes “The New iPad” less easy to recommend compared to its forerunner. In addition, Apple still has not added features to the iPad that seem like no-brianers such as HDMI support and (for crying out loud!) stereo speakers sported by most other tablets.

If you’ve always dreamed of getting an iPad, this new version is the obvious choice. If you are currently and iPad owner, this is probably a good generation to skip. If you’re thinking about getting a tablet in general (and didn’t grab one last holiday season when it was practically raining discounted Android tabs), I would wait and see what Asus’ $250 Tegra 3 tab brings before making a final decision.

Robot Gas Attendants In Space? | Out Of This World Weekly

2012-03-11T01:20:00.006-05:00

The I.S.S. was the setting for a refueling test conducted by a robot this week. The Robotic Refueling Mission, or RRM is a testbed to learn how to correctly repair and refuel satellites in orbit. Satellites have a useful life that is usually determined by the amount of fuel that is carried on board. This fuel is used to keep the satellite in a proper orbit, as there is trace atmosphere in low Earth orbits that eventually drags satellites back to Earth. It is like having an incredibly expensive car with a big, full gas tank that you can never refuel. Making it even more difficult to refuel, most satellites are not set up to be refueled and thus have a triple sealed gas tank that is covered over with protective blankets. While refueling satellites may be difficult, we definitely have the tools to make it possible.

To accomplish the re-fueling testing, the Canadian made DEXTRE robot that is mounted on the outside of the I.S.S. is being used. This robotic arm is remotely controlled from inside the space station by astronauts and will use four unique RRM tools to cut through and peel away protective blankets, unscrew refueling caps, turn valves, and transfer ethanol. The RRM module itself will hold the simulated caps, valves and fuel tanks and is mounted on the outside of the space station. The arm has cameras mounted on it with LED lights, so that the astronauts will be able to see exactly what they are doing.

We can only hope that these tests are completely successful. While it's not likely that we will see the I.S.S. repairing or refueling actual satellites anytime soon, we may see refuel and repair satellites being launched in the near future. This will ultimately benefit everyone who uses anything that interacts with satellites at some point. Services like GPS will become cheaper because less satellites will have to be launched when they can simply be refueled. Weather satellites may become better when more money can be spent on precision instruments instead of multiple launches to replace old or damaged satellites. Even the amount of space junk may be reduced as less satellites are launched into orbit. The ability to repair satellites would also reduce the number of satellites killed by space junk and extend longevity. With the amount of satellites in orbit and the cost of launching satellites, being able to refuel and repair satellites in orbit would have a great number of benefits to all mankind.

Microsoft Says OnLive’s Windows 7 App for iPad Violates Licensing

2012-03-09T15:05:00.001-05:00

On January 10, cloud virtualization service OnLive proved they were more than fun and games with the launch of OnLive Desktop, an free, five megabyte app that delivered Windows 7 and Microsoft Office to your iPad. Our launch review found it to be an impressive technical trick, if lacking in any real usefulness.

Microsoft seems even less impressed. Joe Matz, Corporate VP of Worldwide Licensing and Pricing (how’s that for a job title that just screams “I am a tool”?) posted a nit-picky dissection of Microsoft's various licensing policies and states:

“Our licensing terms provide clarity and consistency for our partners, ensure a quality experience for end customers using Windows across a variety of devices, and protect our intellectual property. It’s important to us and to our partners that we’re serious about issues of compliance.”

Matz goes on to blame the media for shedding light on this possible usage violation and states that they are “actively engaged with OnLive with the hope of bringing them into a properly licensed scenario”. The whole post reads more like damage control than any actual statement. I’d wager that some vendor working on a similar product complained to Microsoft.

While virtualization is not a new wrinkle in the classic ‘one user, one license’ software usage scheme, virtualization on the scale of the OnLive Desktop certainly is. Obviously new rules will need to be created to ensure the proper use of programs in this new technology (leading to three more pages in that EULA you never read). It is a shame that this software giant elected to sight the elaborate ‘if-then-else’ terms of currently existing policies as opposed to simply fixing what will, no doubt, continue to be a sticky wicket in the future, especially two months after said product was released.

OnLive Desktop was also released for Android systems last week on ~~the Android Market~~ Google Play.

Minecraft Creator Notch Brings Home a BAFTA

2012-03-08T11:54:00.001-05:00

BAFTA, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, has awarded Minecraft creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson a BAFTA Special Award this year for his work on the wildly successful indie game Minecraft. Programmed single-handedly by Notch (at least until very late in development) and sold before it was completed in an Alpha test state, Minecraft has gone on to become an gaming phenomenon and created an entirely new business model. Minecraft has gone on to sell over five million copies to date and Notch’s newly minted company, Mojang, is now a publisher in its own right.

BAFTA Special Awards honor “those who has made a significant contribution to their sector and may not otherwise have received the recognition they deserve.” Previous winners include Ridley Scott, Kodak, BBC, The Jim Henson Company, and Rockstar Games.

Original Star Trek Series Continues Its 5-Year Mission Thanks to Fans in Star Trek Phase 2

2012-03-06T12:12:00.001-05:00

Despite what it feels like today, Star Trek (now frequently referred to as Star Trek: The Original Series (or TOS)) was a failed television series. This great juggernaut of sci-fi fandom abruptly met its demise only three short years into its planned five-year mission.back in 1969. Enter donation powered, fan production Star Trek New Voyages Phase II. Their ongoing mission is to bring the promised, yet never delivered, seasons four and five of TOS to viewers everywhere.

Think Phase II isn’t up to the task? You obviously don’t know Star Trek fanboys!

Giant Freakin Robot is reporting that Phase II is now planning to film the unaired script from TOS’ canceled fourth season “He Walked Amonus Us”. The lost episode script was recently uncovered by Norman Spinrad, writer of the legendary “Doomsday Machine” episode and made available for purchase on Amazon.

Slingshot around the sun and join the new old adventures of the crew of the NCC-1701 “No bloody A, B, C, or D” at StarTrekNewVoyages.com. Six episodes have already been completed with two more “Coming Soon”.

Comic: iPad 3 Crabapples

2012-03-05T01:59:00.001-05:00

Hackers In Space? | Out Of This World Weekly

2012-03-04T00:47:00.004-05:00

NASA released information about hackers attempting to gain access to all sorts of classified information and control systems. Apparently NASA was the target of 47 hacker attacks in 2011, of which 13 were successful. Some of these hackers gained “full system access” which includes the ability to edit or delete any files contained on secured computers. They also had the ability to add, edit, view, or delete any or all user accounts. Malware isn’t just a common problem at home, as the agency reported over 5,400 malware infections this year alone. So what is the actual cost? According to the report, all these various attacks “"have affected thousands of NASA computers, caused significant disruption to mission operations, and resulted in the theft of export-controlled and otherwise sensitive data, with an estimated cost to NASA of more than $7 million".

While some of the IP addresses were tracked to China, these hackers could have come from anywhere on the planet. Some previous investigations found hackers from such countries as: China, Great Britain, Italy, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and Estonia. Not only are intrusions coming from foreign countries but sensitive data is being taken when NASA employees have their laptops stolen. 48 laptops have been lost or stolen within the last two years, including some with command and control operations for the International Space Station. Apparently the reason these laptops are not secure is that encryption takes too long. As of right now, there is no technological security monitoring at NASA and it shows. Unfortunately, this means that yet more money will have to be spent on security when we are in a time where funding for actual space projects is rapidly diminishing.

Chevy Volt Production Stalls

2012-03-03T13:12:00.001-05:00

General Motors announced that they will be suspending production of the controversial Volt from March 19 until April 23. GM spokesperson Chris Lee states that the company is going through a “temporary shutdown” of the assembly line in order “align production with demand”. GM sold 7,671 Volts last year, falling short of its 10,000 cars goal. Soon after, the company stopped publicly announcing sales targets last year. It sold 1,023 Volts in February and 603 in January.

In an congressional hearing on January 25th, company CEO Dan Akerson commented “We did not design the Volt to become a political punching bag, and that's what it's become."

So, what went wrong with GM’s Chevy Volt? It it a political scapegoat? Is the US not ready for plug-in cars? Is it the fact that the Volt is an ugly $45,000 sedan that burst into flames during crash testing? Hmm…

Source: Associated Press

Flight Simulator Fans Rejoice! Microsoft Flight is Now Available for Free!

2012-03-02T16:40:00.001-05:00

Flight sim fans have has a lot to be down about since Microsoft closed their ACES Game Studio and shut down the longest running software franchise after 25 years. This week, The House of Gates throws us a bone in the form of Microsoft Flight. The best part? It won’t cost you a dime!

No joystick? No worries. Flight works just fine with your mouse as pictured above.

Minimum hardware specs are a dual core CPU @ 2Ghz, 2GB RAM, 256MB graphics card with shader model 3, 10GB hard disk space, and Windows XP SP3 or newer.

Point your favorite web browser at www.microsoft.com/games/flight/ to download and play for free.

Hello Kitty Merch to Die For

2012-03-02T11:33:00.001-05:00

Well, this one takes the cake. We’ve featured a lot of strange Hello Kitty merchandise. H. Kit and friends seem to dominate every item possibly imaginable from toasters to cell phone cases. Perhaps it’s time to put a nail in that coffin. What would the ultimate collector of Hello Kitty need to complete crown their collection? What could possibly satisfy the cravings of the Kitty superfan once and for all.

Hello Kitty coffin and tombstone!

Source: Hello Kitty Hell

Behind the Blog: March 1, 2012

2012-03-01T04:19:00.001-05:00

Hi ya! Wow, I sure have been doing these for a while. It’s always kinda hard to come up with the little intro speil. What to say, where to go, what looks good above the page break, stuff like that. It doesn’t really help that I’m going through a bit of a dry spell at the moment. Maybe I’ll just roll the pitch for this article. In times of trouble, go with what you know.

Come with me now and take a look back at all the great stuff we’ve posted here on Growing Up Otaku (GUO if you didn’t know), why we posted it, and how it did throughout the month of February. GUO: So transparent people barely see us.

I hate writing “February”. Something about it just feels wrong.

So, anyway… Yeah, bit of a block. All of the DCF Baby Mama Drama is closed up and Baby Girl’s birth parents have cut all contact with us. My time as a foster parent is officially over. It was nice to have a couple of monthly visits through the holidays but, little did I know, that seems to have just been due to DCF looking in on things. Now that they’re out of the picture, we aren’t even getting the civility of… well, anything. It’s a little hard to come back to this former baby blog under these circumstances, so if things go a little quiet in March, you’ll have to forgive me.

Ratings time! Here comes the

Most Popular Posts for February 2012

Tips, Cheats, and Strategies for Wasteland Empires on Facebook

Star Trek Online 2-Year Anniversary Event Begins Featuring Q and Free Ships

Review: Hidden Chronicles (Facebook) Seek and Find Objects from the Makers of FarmVille

Review: Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim (iPhone/iPad/Android) Slaying Dragons With Better Bookkeeping

Unreview: The Sims FreePlay (iPhone/iPad) These Are Not The Sims You’re Looking For

Nice to see some changes on this list. Our second and third place entries were separated by a mere six views!

Some of the changes on this list are due to the fact that StumbleUpon changed the way their site works. Without getting into the technicalities, we do not see referral traffic and SU gets to keep all the page hits for themselves. Most bloggers and Internet media folks are pissed. In fact, this is the ONLY reason you have been hearing so much about Pintrest lately. The blogosphere decided to puff up Pintrest as a replacement for StumbleUpon in retaliation for the changes to the mechanics of their site. The same thing happened to Digg which led to StumbleUpon being promoted by the tech media sites. The saddest part is that Pintrest doesn’t even come close to doing what SU does. It’s all rather petty, disgusting, and about ad money. On both fronts.

Out of This World Weekly

IBEX mission Shows Us What Lies Beyond Our Solar System - As we spin around the center of our Galaxy, we may have moved to another region of space from where our Solar System was created. Space inside our Solar System isn't the same as space just outside it.

Space Makes You Old - It's true! It turns out there are scads of effects on the body that happen when you age and when you go out into space. * note that even if you don't go into space - you will still get old.

Looking At Forests From Space - Not everything in space is looking outwards. Most satellites are focused on Earth. This article shows quite clearly where all of the plant life on Earth is, including under the sea.

Huge Estimate Of Rogue Planets Made - I thought that 160 Billion was a mind-boggling amount of planets in our galaxy. Turns out that that's just the planets orbiting stars. Big changes to the Drake Equation for advanced civilizations here.

Features

St. Valentine’s Day Gift Guide–Geek Style, not Geeky! – I was rather proud with how this came out. It took a surprising amount of time for such a short list, but it was nice to see a Valentine’s list that didn’t make me roll my eyes. Honorable mention to the cookie bouquet which the Mrs found a bit too late for the article.

My Pixelated Valentine: Gaming’s Top 5 Heartthrobs – This was a cool article for gamers. Also a flop. I think the title needed to be different for Google to pick up on it. Of course the featured button didn’t help it either, so… Maybe not such a cool article.

Better than Free-to-Play, Star Trek Online Pays You to Play with Player Run Dilithium Market – The longest time I spent working on any article here. Also the only one I got free stuff out of. Don’t worry, I did it the hard way. Those STO guys don’t even know we exist.

News

Lifelike Robot Mannequin Uses Microsoft Kinect to React to Shoppers – Surprised this didn’t do better. It didn’t do bad, but from the number of Kinect article I see across the web, I figured they were page view gold. The couple other places I saw this story also didn’t push the Kinect angle. Still, very cool stuff and a really bad toupee

NASA Posts First Ever Video from the Far Side of the Moon – Welcome to the only story on the web not to call it the Dark Side of the Moon in the headline. Was so tempting though.

Vin Diesel Posts Pics From the Set of the Third Riddick Movie – Vin’s cool. Or rather, uncool. I remember posting an interview for the Mrs. a while back where he was gushing on about his old D&D group. Ah, here it is.

SpaceX Test Fires New SuperDraco Rocket Engine – Who doesn’t love rockets?

CG Pop Star Hatsune Miku Collapses Putting 61 Year Old Woman in Hospital – I really spun the title on this one. I love the joke that a computer generated personality could fall down and hurt someone.

3D Printers Create Shiny New Titanium Jaw for 83 Year-Old Woman – I loved the intro to this one.

Charity Trivia Game FreeRice Expands with World Landmarks Game Mode – The second article we did for FreeRice last month. We even helped promote their event with a (sadly bugged) banner. I love pimping charity stuff. The Internet makes it so easy to change the world, it would be a crime not to. Go play some FreeRice and feed the world today. Yes, now. I’ll be here when you get back.

Scotch Whiskey May Hold the Secret to Gassing Up Without Oil – For such an easy topic to joke with, I had a surprisingly hard time coming up with a funny title. Never quite got it.

Google Looking to Pay for Tracking You Across the Internet – Now Redbox is doing something similar. How much is your privacy worth? Beats all these companies taking it without asking or compensation.

Printed Computers Could Allow Computing On Everything – Circuits on stickers?! The possibilities are endless! I’m gonna put 8088 stickers all over my notebook!

On Japanese Valentine’s Day, Girls Give Boys Chocolate – One of those things I just wanted to run. Also, any excuse to post a Gintama clip!

World’s First Computer is Shopping for a New Home – You can help!

Weekly Episodes of Star Trek Return with Star Trek Online’s “The 2800” - The whole GUO family is playing. It doesn’t hurt that this new series they’ve been running is some of their best work.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Now Streaming on Crunchyroll – Also just hit Hulu. It is pretty unusual to see an anime go streaming at the same time as a region 1 DVD release. I wonder if sales are lower than expected.

Sony Moves to Turn Bad CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays into TVs with SoRPlas – Wholly Carp! I got to post a story that didn’t paint Sony as the bad guy or moron! Mark the calendars!

Re-Releases of Original 1st Edition AD&D Rule Books to Feature Disappointing Covers – I wrote a lot more on this than I intended. So sad. The covers, not the writing. I should’ve promoted this to a feature.

Verizon Fios Pulls Plug on FUNimation Anime Channel – There is now a link to an online petition in the comments thread. I think it’s about time I had a little chat with Verizon.

MMO Game Eve Online Beats Lag by Changing the Meaning of Time – A novel solution to a constant problem.

Blackberry Playbook OS 2 Finally Released – Any excuse to bring back the Table Turkey pic! I loved making that. I guess RIM deserves a bone: Better late than never.

This Breathalyzer Tests for Lung Cancer

Lab Grown Meat May Soon Be Common – Sure, why not. Less land use, more humane, and, just maybe, they can grow meatballs already stuffed with cheese. Ooo, grow EVERYTHING stuffed with cheese!

The Great One chimes in about his creation of this article with: That hotdog grabbed hold of my soul and made me put it into the article. It's an article about hamburgers, why am I putting a hotdog on the front of it? I just couldn't help it. Maybe something to do with lab grown meat eventually getting up and walking out of the lab... to find ketchup.

Drivable R2-D2 Makes Wishes Come True – Who doesn’t love the Make-a-Wish foundation?

Three Years Later, Deleted Facebook Pictures Remain online – And if you think anything is ever coming out of the Google cache…

Cool Stuff

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Rebuilt in Minecraft, Hyrulecraft Map Available for Download

iModela iM-01 Mini Mill is 3D Printing Backwards – Are you as excited about 3D printing as I am? I can’t believe that I may live to see something close to Star Trek replicators! Wait a minute… I already have! And for less than the price of a good laser printer 10 years ago!

NASA Launches Space Race Blast Off, A Trivia Review Game for Facebook – I didn’t want to do a formal review on this one. I would have ended up putting a 3 star score on it and just didn’t want to scare anyone off from trying NASA’s cool little trivia game. Bonus points for being the least privacy invading title on Facebook!

When Over-Merchandised Brands Collide… – They can still sell Kiss merch? Really?

Star Wars: Book of Sith Delivers a Holocron’s Worth of Fan Service Goodies at 40% off – This was just gonna be a ‘Look at the cool stuff’ post until I found it cheap.

There we go! That’s most of our stuff from this short month that hasn’t expired. I didn’t do any reviewing other than NASA’s Facebook game this month. First time since… August? As I mentioned, I’m in a bit of a slump. Reviews are always a little… strange in terms of reception. While they are the bread-and-butter in terms of bringing people to the site (and I usually love doing it), the Real Life people admit to skipping them. It gets to me sometimes. Working on the ‘Net is kinda like that. For example, another thing that takes the wind out of my sails is our Facebook ‘Like’ count. We have 15 subscribers via Facebook. Taken on its own, this would be rather disheartening. Looking at actual site visits, however, we had more than 200 visits each day last month. Strange stuff.

Analytics be damned! We’ve never done things The Right Way here before, why start now? We’re not one-dimensional pundits or single minded salesmen looking to push an agenda. We are rich, multi-faceted people with a love of games, gadgets, and geekery looking to spend a few moments sharing a grin (or rant) with like minded folks. We love ya!

Thanks for reading!

Three Years Later, Deleted Facebook Pictures Remain online

2012-02-28T12:05:00.001-05:00

Be careful what you post on the Internet! In a story they’ve been reporting on for the past three years, Ars Technica proves that some photos “deleted” from user’s Facebook accounts are still accessible online. While links to the images themselves were immediately removed from connecting Facebook pages, the ‘physical’ image file remains on servers, happily accessible to the Internet via URL.

As for Facebook? They claim they are working on a new system that will actualy delete the stuff you delete “within the next month or two, at which point we will verify the migration is complete and we will disable all the old content." Because… deleting stuff is hard?

I wouldn’t hold you breath. Deleted images lead to broken links which means fewer people clicking through to Facebook. For a company that just went public with a to the tune of $5 billion, that last thing Facebook needs is any drop in Internet traffic.

Here are links to both the original article (which, funny enough, also checks up on the then relevant MySpace) and the recent follow-up from Ars.

Drivable R2-D2 Makes Wishes Come True

2012-02-28T11:43:00.001-05:00

As we’ve said before here on GUO, geeks come in all ages!

The Make-A-Wish foundation in conjunction with Little Mountain Productions made Mathew’s dreams come true by delivering this drivable, larger than life R2-D2 in a surprise reveal during a school assembly.

This amazing replica is controlled with a joystick inside and has huge on and off buttons inside. There’s also a parental powered kill switch should getting Mat back out again ever be required.

You can donate to the Make-A-Wish foundation on their web page.

Better than Free-to-Play, Star Trek Online Pays You to Play with Player Run Dilithium Market

2012-02-27T03:51:00.001-05:00

Have you ever looked over the DLC for your favorite game and tried to justify the price? Man, it sure would be nice to have that rainbow colored lancer skin in Gears of War 3, but, seriously, you want me to pay for it? I already spent $60 on the game, $30 on the season pass, and now you want to juice me for ANOTHER 320 points (however much that is)! Can’t we work out some kind of deal here? Look, I’ll tell ya what: I’ll promise to play three online matches every night for the next couple of weeks, doing what I enjoy while propping up your player base, and you agree to give me the stupid rainbow chainsaw gun. Deal?

Not likely, right?

The odds on striking the above arrangement seem even less likely when we look at the free-to-play arena. Commercial games have the income provided by retail sales. Obviously, this does not apply to titles who give away their base product. No one in their right mind would give away all of the little micro-transaction goodies that cover the ongoing expenses of servers operation, bandwidth, and employee costs. Yet Star Trek Online does exactly that.

So what manner of mental illness has afflicted Cryptic Studios and Perfect World International, the companies behind the free-to-play MMO of Trekkers dreams?

Sporting AAA production values, a hugely popular franchise license, and, now, a low entry price of free, Star Trek Online breaks the micro-transaction mold in allowing players to buy ‘premium currency’ (points bought with real-world money) using in-game money. What’s the cost of converting your in-game booty to points for the skin or pet of your dreams? Strangely enough, that’s up to the players.

Here’s how it works:

Star Trek Online (STO) features, confusingly, four types of cash. Energy Credits, the common form of in-game money used for most stuff, the practically useless Gold-Pressed Latinum won from gambling, Dilithium, paid out for completing special events and used for purchasing high level goods, and, finally, C-Points, the stuff you buy with a credit card. It’s these later two we are concerned with.

As stated above, Dilithium is earned by completing daily events such as an academy scavenger hunt or Borg invasion. A number of repeatable meta-missions also pay out the pink stuff. “Explore Strange New Worlds” gives a reward for completing any one of a list of exploration missions while “Investigate Officer Reports” serves up the goods for playing three user created missions built with STO’s rather revolutionary mission creator, The Foundry. Star base defenses, satellite repair, and even correctly answering a daily Trek trivia question also yield Dilithium based rewards.

So, you’ve got yourself a big pile of virtual pink rocks and want to turn it into a lovely little cat lady for your bridge crew, but how? The answer is just as revolutionary as the concept.

STO features a player run stock market called the Dilithium Exchange where gamers trade premium item purchasing C-Points for the rare in-game Dilithium currency. Just like any other capitalist market, the prices Dilithium Exchange fluctuate with supply and demand. When Cryptic gave away free starships for its birthday celebration the C-Point to Dilithium price crashed to 1:165 as players traded in points for Dilithium to purchase gear and officers for their new ships. The following promotion introduced a Lock Box full of mystery goodies that needed a key purchased with C-Points to open. The exchange rate bounced back up to 1:220.

But does it work? Fascinated by the concept of a player run economy that potentially pays out in free DLC, I attempted an experiment: Could I gather enough Dilithium and play the market to score one of the most expensive pieces of downloadable content available in the game without paying one red cent in a reasonable amount of time. Checking the C-Store, I set my sights on the Guramba Siege Destroyer priced at 2,000 C-Points ($25), one of the most expensive starships currently offered.

Playing both Dilithium rewarding missions and Star Trek Stock Tycoon, I succeeded in less than two months of playing three or four hours on most nights, mostly thanks to a sudden swing in the market that offset earlier mistakes learning the systems. Even better, the variety of missions offering Dilithium rewards kept the full breadth of STO’s gameplay styles open the whole time preventing the treadmill from ever feeling like a grind. I also found the experience of being a Star Trek day trader rather entertaining in its own right.

Star Trek Online’s system truly delivers on a free-to-play promise to players. Heck, it pays better than indie blogging and generates less spam! As a business model… Well, we’ll just have to see how Cryptic and Perfect World fares but considering Perfect World’s success with the free-to-play model thus far, they must know what they’re doing.

Here’s to the end of traditional economics in video games. Good riddance! I got a few ideas about where Epic can put that rainbow colored chainsaw gun now.

Huge Estimate Of Rogue Planets Made | Out Of This World Weekly

2012-02-26T02:55:00.005-05:00

When we usually think of planets, an image of planets circling around their parent star pops to mind. These planets are usually imagined to orbit their host star until that star becomes unstable and vaporizes the planets in a huge explosion. Now, researchers at KIPAC have proposed that this view of planets is by far less common than previously thought. Using gravitational microlensing to make their estimate, they concluded that there may be 100,000 rogue planets for every star in the Milky Way. These rogue planets may have once had a star but now wander freely through space, no longer orbiting any star. This new estimate is huge in comparison to the amount of planets thought to be orbiting stars, which was last thought to be 1.6 planets per star.

Can these rogue planets survive when they are so far out in space that they no longer receive any significant light or heat from nearby stars? It’s quite possible that these planets could have trapped heat from the formation. This heat could be coming from a radioactive source in their interior, tectonic activity, or heat trapped in greenhouse type atmospheres. With the wide range of temperatures and conditions that bacteria can live in, it’s quite possible that these rogue planets could even support life. If there are more than 50,000 rogue planets for every planet orbiting a star this significantly improves those chances for life, especially since the estimate for planets in the Milky Way stands at 160 Billion.

Indeed, with this high an amount of rogue planets we may have to reconsider if planetary formation always occurs around a star. It may very well be possible that planets can form in interstellar dust clouds while not orbiting a star. It is also possible that more planets are ejected from their star due to gravitational effects that previously thought. While this estimation brings about many new ideas about the composition of the galaxy, confirming this number may be extremely difficult. Rogue planets are relatively small, don’t emit light or much heat, and may be relatively stationary or moving at very fast speeds. It is only through using gravitational microlensing that we have been able to detect these rogue planets. To study this phenomena we will need a whole new class of telescopes or to much refine our gravitational lensing techniques. Understanding these rogue planets could possibly give us insights into our galaxy that we have not yet considered.

Lab Grown Meat May Soon Be Common

2012-02-23T07:58:00.008-05:00

Scientists at Maastricht University in the Netherlands are focused on growing hamburgers. The odd thing is that they are not planning on growing an animal to produce the hamburger but rather growing the meat in a laboratory dish. They have used stem cells which have the ability to grow into any type of cell, to grow strips of muscle. When they have enough of these muscle strips, they plan on adding artificial fat and blood and making the world’s first laboratory grown hamburger. They even plan on hiring a celebrity chef to cook it.

At a whopping price of over $313,000, this is expected to be by far the most expensive hamburger ever created. So why create hamburgers that almost cost a 1/3rd of a million dollars? Natural meat is becoming more expensive to come by as land, feed, and labor prices continue to rise. It takes approximately 100g of vegetable protein to produce 15g of meat protein and it’s thought that eventually synthetic meat could be produced at an efficiency of 50% instead of 15%. Meat could also be grown in space, underground, or at sea.

It is thought that as the population increases over the next 50 years, meat could become a scarcity. While this first attempt at creating artificial meat is extremely resource intensive, as the process become streamlined prices are sure to go down. At meat prices continue to increase, there will eventually come a time when artificial meat will become economically preferable to produce. This is very similar to what is happening with alternative energy sources currently. As oil prices increase, other forms of energy which used to be far too expensive to produce are now looking better and better.

So how will this artificial meat taste? Researchers admit that it is likely to be a little bland at first. They will have to ultimately study what meat can be grown most efficiently and how to make it taste as good as possible. While this will require more research, it ultimately has the potential for making every hamburger taste like it was made from the best meat available on Earth. After all, if you are growing the meat, you can select the best cells and even eventually genetically engineer them for flavor. We will have to see how long it takes before they can get the whole artificial meat manufacturing process streamlined. Until then, I guess I’ll just have to eat frankfurters in anticipation of my first frankenburger.