One of best parts of Will Smith's first slapstick-sci-fi "Men In Black" film is the part when an entire galaxy is found living inside a tiny marble. The scene was a mind-blowing moment in sci-fi history and now you can relive the cognitive dissonance too with design firm Living World's Milky Way galaxy 3D model. Created using real space data culled by Eiichiro Kokubo, Assistant Professor at Japan's National Astronomical Observatory and Osaka University's Kato Tsunehiko, the three dimensional cube encased model does indeed look you're holding an entire galaxy in the palm of your hand. But holding 80,000 laser rendered stars in your hand isn't cheap, the cube costs 80,000 yen ($770).
Kolmanskop is a ghost town in southern Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port of Lüderitz. In 1908, Luederitz was plunged into diamond fever and people rushed into the Namib desert hoping to make an easy fortune. Within two years, a town, complete with a casino, school, hospital and exclusive residential buildings, was established in the barren sandy desert. But shortly after the drop in diamond sales after the First World War, the beginning of the end started. During the 1950’s the town was deserted and the dunes began to reclaim what was always
Matrix...anyone said. Yeah but this chandelier in first look, seems like the bunch of screens in the movie Matrix...except for the blue in place of green. But looking closely it turns out to be just a chandelier for your ceiling. If Big Brother had a chandelier, this would be it. "End of an Era" is an art project created by Ian Burns that attaches 16 small black-and-white TVs to a chandelier-ish frame. Each screen displays a live video feed (presumably received via the extended antennas in the pic), and from the looks of the screens, it's the same one on each. Well, that's kinda boring. I want 16 different live video feeds, Ian. I want this thing to look like some kind of 24 scene cutaway run amok — think you can handle that next time?
The works of Kenji Yanobe are renowned in the Japanese art world for their nightmarish takes on the future. But peeling through Yanobe's portfolio of work reveals a particular obsession with man-meets-machine contraptions. From the fire breathing Giant Torayan (created as a child's toy, it actually breathes fire), to the erotic bug-like Radiation Suit Atom to the Dune-esque features of the Mini Tanking Machine, Yanobe's work hints at a future many of us would be afraid of, and others would revel in. If the dark side of sci-fi is your cup of sake, Yanobe's work will be on display at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art until April 16th.
How long do you expect your flashlight to last without needing a recharge? A few hours, perhaps? How about 80 years, how does that sound? Because that's just how long newly developed micro LEDs can last on just a single charge. Damn. Of course, this LED is called micro for a reason — it's tiny. Like 15 microns across compared to the 300 microns across that a standard LED measures. But still, the technology is there, so it could be expanded to make larger, more practical LEDs that might last a less impressive but still awesome 5 years on a single charge. It'd be tough to complain about that.
Now here's an awesome idea: a windshield that doesn't need wipers due to a thin nanotech coating that gets rid of water for you. It's a major element of a new car dubbed the Hidra, designed by Italian designer Leonardo Fioravanti. How will it work? With four layers of treatments on the windshield.
The first treatment filters the sun and repels water. The second is made of nano-dust which is able to push dirt to the edges of the glass. This dust is activated by the third layer, which senses dirt and activates the second layer as necessary. Finally, it’s all topped off by the fourth layer which is a conductor of electricity to power the whole mechanism. He claims this could go into production cars in less than five years, with a prototype already working on the Hidra concept. If it works as promised it could signal a huge change in cars in the near future.
The earliest computer games were played on supercomputers. Of course,these were found only in large universities or the laboratories of large corporations or government agencies, such as, the US Department of Defence. Thus, till about mid 1970s, games were restricted from being available to the common populace.
A lot of games claim to be the first game, and considering the number of formats and genres that exist today, this isn't surprising. If you ask a lay person to name the first PC or video game,the qualifying factor being that there must be some computing involved in the game, one of the most common answers you'd probably get is the PacMAN. This pill-chomping circle was a craze, probably the single largest gaming icon for almost a decade, but for those who came in late, here's a bit of news flash, PacMan was released in 1980 by Midway games, almost a decade after the first console game made its debut and a good 30 years after the first ever computer game entertained the researchers at the Cambridge University.
A S Douglas was the name of the scientist and the game was OXO. He you think you haven't heard of it, think again- we call it tic-tac-toe! Douglas developed a graphical version of this game way back in 1952, making it the first ever video game. Developed at the Cambridge University to demonstrate a thesis on human-computer interaction, OXO was played is the first known graphical game to have been played on a computer.
Remember PacMan? There was a time when it was the hottest game around, and it got better when colour screens became the norm. There were actually color dots that had to be gobbled! That was 1988.
Today, games have grown from being a mere pastime. They are a passion. What's more, they constitute an industry that commands respect and is often seen in awe for what it has achieved.
Would you touch a game today that doesn't have the best available graphics, sound and gameplay? Shouldn't you also be able to play it online with your buddies? What about the improvements? The publisher must release mods (with or without hot coffee!) periodically to keep the enthusiasts going... Yes, gaming has become more complicated that the simple PacMan.
Thankfully, there's something for everyone- sports games, arcade games, FPSes, MMORPGs, online games and flash games that are easy to play. If you don't understand some of the abbreviations that I've mentioned, then you are at the right spot. Just look out for the accompanying posts.
This series of blog posts aim at being a guide to all people about all things gaming- for those who have a passion for games, those who just want to have some fun, or just want to increase their general knowledge. So what are you waiting for? Lets frag!
I think that the Hypermotard is one of the most entertaining and unique machines Ducati has come up with yet. I have been wanting to try this machine for some time yet, but it is hard to come by. Like any other biker you always enjoy some good stunting, in the right enviroment, not the idiots you see on the roads in India.
But getting full control of your machine like Ernie Vigil. I got this strange sensation in my stomach, but what he does is amazing on such a fun bike.
These powertoys can help you a lot. These include a program known as Tweak UI, a powerful calculator and more. Wonder why microsoft doesn't include these with its OS.
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