Month: May 2005

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Jargon Alert: “Sith Flu”

As Andrew posted earlier, employers are nervous about huge numbers of workers calling in sick on Thursday, when the new Star Wars film opens. There’s even a term for it now: the “Sith Flu.” Best Buy’s tech support subsidiary, GeekSquad, has a goofy excuse note you can print out for your boss. Good way to get yo ass fired but good.

BTW: GeekSquad is an official sponsor of the NYC Star Wars line. That’s right, you heard me, the freakin’ line has a sponsor and a website. GeekSquad has even rolled up the “Docking Bay,” a sorta Internet cafe on wheels, so that those in line can, ya know, read about themselves waiting in line online and talk to each other in chat rooms. I can only hope that Triumph the Insult Comic Dog pays a visit like he did for Attack of the Clones.

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Software brings new meaning to “car crash”

According to a piece in the Wall Street Journal, being reported on CNN’s website, the NTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) has 13 reports of engine shutdowns on Toyota Prius hybrids due to computer crashes while driving at highway speeds. Edmunds.com has had an equal number of complaints on its Prius forums. Toyota identified one software glitch last year and notified owners to come plug their cars in for a one-hour upgrade at the dealership. It was not made clear by Toyota whether these recent reports are related to that problem or a different one.

It’s one thing to have your Windows PC crash, or your TiVo-tuned TV, it’s another thing ENTIRELY to have your car “crash” when you’re barreling down I-95!

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My OTHER battery is a nuke!

Fascinating piece on LiveScience about R&D being done on nuclear batteries. The batteries get their power from decaying tritium which emits a radioactive gas that is then captured by a silicon wafer, a process (called “betavoltaics”) similar to solar power generation (photovoltaics).

The resulting batteries will be able to last for over a decade, making them ideal for powered implants, such as pacemakers. And you thought leaky silicone breast implants were a problem! Actually tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, is fairly safe and can be as easily contained as current dry-cell chemical batteries. The technology is also promising for use in things like long-range spacecraft and deep sea robotic probes.

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Crazy Real-World Mech

Is it just me or has there recently been a spike of real-world Mech building? Here’s a Babelfish translation of a Japanese page for the LandWalker, a small 2,000-plus pound walker. Check out the 6-barrel Nerf cannon.

Should we start a betting pool for when some geek psycho, perhaps pissed about the cancellation of “Enterprise” or the ending of the Star Wars saga, is going to load up one of these babies with real ammo and go on a rampage?

And they don’t call it Babelfish for nothin’:

The current adults, small time, the robot which has yearned… We would like to ride in the robot which once upon a time, you can operate by your! It made actualize Real bodily sensation robot ‘LAND WALKER’ As for exclusive use BBS this The wallpaper it doesn’t need?

Whuh?

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Xbox 360 Infomercial

Here is an apparently authentic streaming video of the Xbox Dev team talking about the Xbox 360 and how it’s going to change the world, bring about world peace, balance your checkbook, do your taxes, get you laid, etc.

The micropayments scheme that Andrew talked about in his previous post is alluded to as well. Besides the wider implications of MIcrosoft world domination via a content delivery/micropayments system, it’s interesting to think about the in-game implications of players getting to buy their way into tricked out characters, better weapons, faster vehicles, etc. One would hope developers would keep these purchasable game components cosmetic-only, but I bet they won’t. A digital divide WITHIN the digital divide, coming soon to a game console near you.

And yes, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, OurColony, the “alternate reality game,” was little more than a viral marketing campaign for the new Xbox. The player teams were rewarded for their gameplay with the “premiere” of tthis commercial. Be still my beating heart!

[Via Xbox-Scene]

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Microsoft’s PayPal competitor?

Interesting quote from “The Xbox Reloaded” (Wired): “Xbox 360 will introduce gamers to a world where they can create and maintain a persistent, evolving online persona regardless of which game they’re playing. A user profile, maintained at a Microsoft data center, will follow you around and track your progress from game to game. That way, if you’re a Halo 3 ace, you won’t get thrown into a multiplayer Splinter Cell session with a bunch of newbies. The Xbox Live network will also tie into real-world payment systems – à la PayPal – so players can buy, make, and sell virtual weapons, car parts, and clothes via micropayments.”

So it sounds like Microsoft is building a PayPal competitor, with Xbox 360 as a trojan horse to get it into living rooms.

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Star Wars sickouts to cost employers hundreds of millions?

The New York Post reports that the first two days of Star Wars Episode III – Return of the Sith will cost employers $628,880,000 in lost productivity. If you check the article, the Post’s math is based on 4.8 million people simultaneously calling in sick on the first two days of the movie’s debut. The article does not detail the productivity lost at work when these same people stage mock lightsaber duels with cardboard tubes stolen from the mail room and distract their coworkers with Wookie noises and lame Yoda imitations.

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In-Car Auto Sim

Check out this wild modding project. These two hardware hackers, looking to collaborate on a project, decided to build an autoracing sim inside of a junked car. They’ve got a forcefeedback steering wheel, working dashboard gauges, pedals, the works. The windshield screen is a white sheet held in place by a big-ass speaker for “in your face” sound.

Unfortunately, the project got slashdotted before we got a chance to blog it (and now the vids and some of the pics don’t load).

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Street Tech Email Troubles (The Final Chapter)

We have email. I repeat, we HAVE EMAIL. We’re passing out the cigars here at Mission Control and there’s a lot of whooping and ass-slapping. Thanks again for your patience. Now we return you to your junkmail, already in progress.

Sorry this took so long. Hopefully this is the last snag in our moving process and it’s on to bigger and better things from here. Thanks for hanging in there with us.