With Modern Warfare 2 barely out on the market, developers are already putting the finishing touches on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which they say will be the most realistic military game ever created. Onion news reporter Jeff Tate has all the details.
Oh, and that was a joke by the way… But in case you’re looking for an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING game that is, according to most people who already played it better than MW2, check out Bad Company 2, which will be released in just a few days (and is available for preorder on amazon.com RIGHT NOW!)
Please do not try this at home. Repeat: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.
Even though that scientist appears to be drinking liquid nitrogen, it seems that all he’s doing is swallowing the condensed vapor, blowing it out through his mouth and nostrils. In any case, this strikes me as a very bad idea. Oh, maybe the Leidenfrost Effect could protect you for a short while in case you swallow some liquid by mistake, but I wouldn’t really count on that for the benefit of your continued health and comfort.
The best ideas are often the simplest, and that certainly looks true of the latest car safety innovation.
What are the two best-known safety features experienced directly by passengers? The seatbelt and the airbag. But back-seat passengers only have a seatbelt, and installing an airbag for those seats is a tricky process. So why not combine the two?
That’s just what Ford’s research and advance engineering department has done. It’s created an inflatable model designed to solve two of the main problems with the seatbelt.
Firstly, while it does a great job of preventing impact with the seat in front (or worse, the dashboard or windscreen), it does mean that what impact does take place – between the chest and the seatbelt – is across a small area, thus increasing the force. That’s thought to be even more risky for rear seat passengers as they are more likely to be children or elderly people and have weaker bones in the chest.
Secondly, the traditional seatbelt design means that a crash can leave the neck snapping quickly to one side and may even mean the head slamming into the door.
The new system, which connects to the same triggering process as front-seat airbags, takes just 40 milliseconds to inflate, increasing the seatbelt’s surface area by around 400%. Consumer tests showed only one in ten people found the new design to be less comfortable than a traditional seatbelt.
The system has been researched and tested for several years, including tests to make sure it wouldn’t pose a danger upon deployment to a child who had fallen asleep with their heads tucked over the belt, or had wriggled about and managed to get the shoulder strap behind their back.
The system will debut next fall as an optional extra on the Explorer SUV, with an expected cost of below $400.
Yes folks, this week marks the fifth anniversary of our favorite browser here at [Geeks are Sexy]: Firefox. Five years is a long, long time on the Internet, so let’s celebrate these five years by spreading the word around and making the Web an even better place for everyone!
With over five and a half million views on YouTube alone in just a couple of months, “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar” by Felicia Day and the rest of The Guild cast has become something of a geek musical sensation. Which means that a couple of things were bound to happen: (1) a machinima version (Check! And it took less than a week.), and (2) a cover by a college a cappella group. Double check! @theguild tweeted about this one recently.
The soloist actually sounds a bit like Felicia Day, I think. And the guys in the background swinging around the swords are endearingly geeky.
You can also hear Felicia Day sing it acoustic if you’re so inclined.
Holy rodents on steroids, Batman! A mouse with 18 buttons? How could you possibly know which one you’re pressing without looking at it? Someone will have to invent home-row mousing!
Warmouse announced the OpenOfficeMouse yesterday (November 6), a mouse specifically designed for use in conjunction with OpenOffice, but also handy for any mouse-centric applications like AutoDesk AutoCAD, the GIMP, or World of Warcraft. This mouse comes pre-loaded with profiles for the OpenOffice applications based on 662 million datapoints of usage tracking data from OpenOffice 3.1.
Just reading through the features makes me dizzy:
18 programmable mouse buttons with double-click functionality
For a total of 36 different single-key operations, I presume. Sounds more like a keyboard to me.
Three different button modes: Key, Keypress, and Macro
I guess that means sending a “key down”, a “key down/up” sequence, or a series of mouse operations, but I’m not clear on that.
Analog Xbox 360-style joystick with optional 4, 8, and 16-key command modes
In case the mouse wasn’t enough, it has a joystick, too!
Clickable scroll wheel
Uh, I would have been a little surprised if they’d left that out.
63 on-mouse application profiles with hardware, software, and autoswitching capability
Never mind trying to remember 18 buttons – try remembering 63 different profiles for what they do!
1024-character macro support.
Send a KB at the click of a button.
Open source support software for creating, managing, and customizing application profiles
This is starting to sound even more complicated. At least it’s open source.
Import and export of custom profiles in XML format
So you can have the same profiles in each of your eighteen mice?
Optional audio notification of profile switching with customizable wave files
“Now assuming identity SpreadsheetÜbermaus.”
PDF export of profile button assignments
PDF? Really? I guess that’s so you can print it out to paste on the wall so you can remember how to save so much time with all these button assignments.
Adjustable resolution from 400 to 1,600 CPI
For when you need your mouse to be able to detect your heartbeat through your fingertips.
Default profiles for Writer, Calc, Impress, Base, and Draw based on actual usage statistics compiled for OpenOffice.org 3.1
20 default profiles for popular games and applications, including Adobe Photoshop, the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, World of Warcraft, and the Call of Duty series.
Okay, I know I’m biased. I’m not a big fan of mice in general – I find the keyboard to be a much more precise and expressive device for all but the most graphically-oriented tasks. What say you, readers of the GUI persuasion? Would you rush out and buy this mouse? At least it isn’t terribly expensive – retail $74.99 USD.
Are you someone who never smiles? Would you like that to change? Well, with the help of the happiness hat, you’ll start smiling like you never did before… trust us!
The Happiness Hat is a wearable device that detects if you’re smiling and provides pain feedback if you’re not. An enclosed bend sensor attaches to the cheek and measures smile size, a servo motor moves a metal spike into the head inversely proportional to the degree of smile. Through repeated use of this conditioning device you can train your brain to smile all the time. This is the first in a series of Tools for Improved Social-Interacting.
