STUFF: News, Technology, the cool and the plain weird

[MIKA27]

I was tossing up between a Playstation (for FF and Gran Turismo) and Xbox in the beginning. Halo tipped the scales for me, and ever since, I've been an Xbox fan. Can't wait to get me grubby little hands on the One!

Yes, I agree, the XBOX is the ONE.

If you are on XBL, look me up: M1KA27

Keith: Get with the program, grab an XBOX ONE and we can all hook up online and race in Forza 5

[MIKA27]

John McCain Really Asked Tim Cook This Dumb Question

You know how your granddad will often ask you to fix his tech? This is just like that, only much more official. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, fronted a US Senate Inquiry this week to answer tax dodging claims, and Republican Senator and former Presidential candidate, John McCain, said something dumb about updating his apps.

At the end of the Q&A with Cook, McCain closed the session by asking the Apple CEO “why the hell do I have to keep updating apps on my iPhone?” Oh, Granddad.

Tim Cook laughed it off like it was a funny joke, but we all know that McCain was being dead serious.

[CanuckSARTech]

Keith: Get with the program, grab an XBOX ONE and we can all hook up online and race in Forza 5

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

PS all the way, man!!!!!!!!!!!

Original Blu-Ray (how'd that HD-DVD thing work out for Microsoft? ), no paying for XBox Live, better enabling/syncing with my Harmon Kardon AVR system and home computer/server, Gran Turismo franchise, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, DJ Hero.....

[MIKA27]

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

PS all the way, man!!!!!!!!!!!

Original Blu-Ray (how'd that HD-DVD thing work out for Microsoft? ), no paying for XBox Live, better enabling/syncing with my Harmon Kardon AVR system and home computer/server, Gran Turismo franchise, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, DJ Hero.....

Man, don't even get me started about PS vs XBOX.. No contest.

XBOX 1 and 360, a gamers machine, I have a seperate Blu ray player and HD-DVD was a seperate system to purchase 'Should you wish to do so'..

Games and Software developers pulled out from Sony as they realised the platform for XBOX was far more superior for 'games'.

Sony Playstation XBOX live 'equivalent' which btw is like looking back at MS DOS... was hacked. Xbox Live still strong bud and fully integrated. I personally don't mind paying for security, accessibility and personally, quality.

PS: Go Moderate yourself and as usual, appreciate your post!

[CanuckSARTech]

Man, don't even get me started about PS vs XBOX.. No contest.

XBOX 1 and 360, a gamers machine, I have a seperate Blu ray player and HD-DVD was a seperate system to purchase 'Should you wish to do so'..

Games and Software developers pulled out from Sony as they realised the platform for XBOX was far more superior for 'games'.

Sony Playstation XBOX live 'equivalent' which btw is like looking back at MS DOS... was hacked. Xbox Live still strong bud and fully integrated. I personally don't mind paying for security, accessibility and personally, quality.

PS: Go Moderate yourself and as usual, appreciate your post!

LOL. Gotta love it. PS vs XBoxOfDeath, NASCAR vs F1, Ford vs Holden, etc., etc. SOOOO many things to laugh and debate about in this world!!!

Life is good brother, life is good....

[MIKA27]

LOL. Gotta love it. PS vs XBoxOfDeath, NASCAR vs F1, Ford vs Holden, etc., etc. SOOOO many things to laugh and debate about in this world!!!

Life is good brother, life is good....

You forgot Star Wars vs Star Trek And yes, life is good.

[bugman78629]

Insecure webcams? They got self-esteem issues and you want to abuse them? For shame!

Lol......I think he meant unsecure . Too funny.

[MIKA27]

New Man Of Steel Trailer Shows General Zod Destroying Earth

If you weren’t excited from the explosions-filled Man of Steel movie trailer before, after seeing this final trailer that teases General Zod threatening Earth, you will be. It shows more of the conflict of the film and reveals even more insane action sequences.

In the trailer, which is probably the final one before the movie releases next month on June 14, you hear Michael Shannon as General Zod demand that Kal-El surrender himself or Earth will suffer consequences.

MIKA: This looks EPIC!

[MIKA27]

The Creator Of The GIF Says It’s Pronounced JIF. He Is Wrong

Along with whether or not Al Gore invented the internet, figuring out the correct pronunciation of GIF is one of the earliest questions of the internet. I grew up believing it was hard-G GIF. Most people I know pronounce it like that too. Even the White House agreed on pronouncing GIF like ‘gift’. But we have to re-evaluate the whole argument again because the inventor of GIF — PAPA GIF Steve Wilhite — says its pronounced JIF. What. The. Hell.

Steve Wilhite, who is accepting a lifetime achievement award at The Webby Awards, told the NY Times how annoyed he was at the debate over the pronunciation of GIF:

“The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.”

You hear that? They are wrong. He’s saying we, the people of the great state of internet, are wrong. It is a soft ‘G’, pronounced ‘jif’. Sir, why did you not name it JIF like the cleaning cream then! End of story. I have long thought the story was over too, but I’m guessing we’re reading different books.

But he is Papa Gif, and parents have a certain amount of right over the things they bring into this world. If you want to name your kid Dwyane instead of Dwayne like Dwyane Wade, go ahead (but it’s still pronounced duh-wayne). And also, Wilhite isn’t exactly wrong in his thinking. The hard-G pronunciation of the letter G usually comes when a, o, or u follows it (think gas, good, or guy). We pronounce G’s as the soft-G when i, e, or y follow it (think giraffe, German, or analogy). There are exceptions of course, but in general practice, Wilhite has his point. GIF is followed by an I.

The problem with Wilhite’s thinking is how we see acronyms. Are they their own words or do they stand for something? Is BBC a word? Buhbuhck? Or is it B-B-C. If you combine the letters into a word, how does jay-peg for JPEG make sense as opposed to juh-peg? If GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format, does the ‘Graphics’ portion of the phrase point toward a hard-G in the acronym? It gets confusing, I know.

But the clearest difference for me is that there are things pronounced JIF and not spelled GIF already. The peanut butter comes to mind. Jiffy Lube. Back in a jiffy. If you want to pronounce GIF like JIF, spell it JIF (that’s also the JPEG Interchange Format, so I can see why maybe not). If you spell it with a G and use it as an acronym for the word Graphics, if there are words like gift, girl, give, Gizmodo and many more gi- words being pronounced with a hard-G and if the President of the United States of America decrees that GIF is GIF and not JIF, well then, you are wrong. Even if you are the father.

MIKA: I dont care how you pronounce it, that "Moderated" is funny!

[MIKA27]

Daredevil base jumper escapes death by inches

This amazing piece of footage is from Matthew Gough’s helmet cam, which recorded the moment when his base-jumping parachute got twisted sending him hurtling to the ground. Shocked, dazed and confused about what just happened, Gough somehow escaped with just minor injuries.

He apparently hit the ground at some 40mph, narrowly missing some large metal spikes. It’s truly amazing how resilient the human body is for him to be released just hours after being admitted to hospital with basically just cuts and bruises.

This is what actioncams were made for.

[MIKA27]

This is the insanely-gorgeous, mental new centenary Aston Martin:

Meet the Aston Martin CC100 — a celebration of 100 years of the iconic British sports car, and an update taking the low-slung lines of the 1950′s Aston racers and bolting a 21st century 6L V12 monster in the front.

The concept is electronically locked to a blistering 180mph top speed, and will hit 60mph in a smidge over four seconds, apparently.

It looks like a cross between an Aston and the Batmobile, and is severely lacking such British necessities as a roof; this is a racer, not your traditional Aston GT.

The car debuted in the hands of Sir Stirling Moss at the ADAC Zurich 24 Hours of Nürburgring race over the weekend, and while there are no current plans to make a full production run of the CC100, Aston might be persuaded to make a small run of the things.

It’s done so in the past with the likes of the One-77.

[MIKA27]

A Dead Satellite Could Ruin Weather Prediction For Years

While extreme weather events seem to come and go more often than ever, our ability to forecast them does at least help us minimise risk to human life. But an impending weather satellite outage could make events like yesterday’s devestating tornado even harder to predict — for up to three years.

The US relies on two types of satellites to help it predict the weather. One orbits the Earth’s poles, providing a global snapshot of weather conditions every morning and afternoon. A second set — known as geostationary satellites — maintain a constant position above the planet to continuously monitor a single area. Combined, they work fantastically; alone, neither provide enough data to form truly accurate predictions.

The problem is, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have become aware that, soon, the United States’ polar satellite is to reach the end of its life. No problem, right? Let’s just launch another! But, sadly, its replacement has been severely delayed by cost increases, technical problems and — surprise, surprise — management challenges.

Thats leaves the US in a tricky situation, where it could be without a polar orbiting satellite — and all the useful data that comes from it — for a staggering 17 to 53 months. NOAA even admits that the gap will result in less accurate weather forecasts — and more difficulty in predicting extreme events like hurricanes. In turn, that doesn’t just mean we need to carry a raincoat more often, but could place lives and property in danger.

So what to do? Well, fortunately the US Government Accountability Office is well aware of the problem, and has added it to its High Risk List in 2013. That should see the polar orbiting satellite project fast-tracked, and with any luck minimize the time we’re without its data.

If that doesn’t work out there are some other options — wave gliders that float on the ocean and monitor the weather, say, or perhaps even leveraging data from other satellites. But none of those options are as effective, and they’ll also come at serious expense. So, for now, let’s hope that satellite arrives sooner rather than later.

[MIKA27]

Cyclist straps a rocket to a bike, beats world record

French cyclist François Gissy reached a top speed of 263 kilometres per hour on a bicycle — after strapping a rocket to the frame.

We assume there's a reason that motorcycles have big, sturdy frames and thick tyres, and that that reason has something to do with high speeds. However, French cyclist François Gissy has pushed a mountain bicycle to speeds we never see on the roads.

At a disused runway in Munchhouse, Haut-Rhin department, Alsace, France, Gissy reached a top speed of 263 kilometres per hour — beating the 2002 rocket-powered bicycle world record of 242.6 kilometres per hour.

The rocket itself, made by Swiss company Exotic Thermo Engineering, was built to Gissy's specifications and runs on hydrogen peroxide.

As impressive as this is, he still didn't get the fastest cycling record of all time. That honour still goes to Dutch cyclist Fred Rompelberg who, at the age of 50 in 1995, reached a top speed of 268.8 kilometres per hour in slipstream.

However, when it comes to an epic thrill ride, we don't think there's much difference between the speeds at all. Check out Gissy's feat in the video below.

http://youtu.be/oqocUxVDSXE

[MIKA27]

Here comes the thinner, lighter iPad?

Production of the fifth-generation iPad is slated to begin in July, according to a report fromTaipei-based Digitimes.

The new 9.7-inch iPad will be 25 percent to 33 percent lighter than the iPad 4, Digitimes said.

Specifically, the 2,048x1,536 pixel-density Retina display (same pixel density as the iPad 4) will have thinner glass — achieved by using new touch sensor technology — and, most importantly, a less bulky backlight apparatus, according to Digitimes.

NPD DisplaySearch told CNET in April that "part of the thinner/lighter design will be reducing the size of the LED backlight, partly by making the display more efficient and partly by using more efficient LEDs." DisplaySearch also cited the likely shift to a "a film-based touch sensor."

The third- and fourth-generation iPads gained heft and thickness — compared with the iPad 2 — due mostly to technologies supporting the Retina display, including a relatively large backlight assembly.

Monthly shipments of the "iPad 5" are expected to ramp up to 2 million to 3 million units by September, said Digitimes, citing sources in the supply chain.

[mazolaman]

This is ground control to Commander Hadfield: you’ve more than made the grade and the papers want to know how a former farm boy from Canada with a love of David Bowie has accomplished a one-man mission to make space cool again.

Chris Hadfield left orbit in style yesterday after five months aboard the International Space Station. Hours before his planned return to Earth aboard a Soyuz capsule, he cast himself as Bowie’s Major Tom in a remake of the singer’s 1969 classic, “Space Oddity”.

Commander Hadfield had already sought Bowie’s permission to use the song. “We’ve been working on it for about six months,” the astronaut’s son and media manager, Evan Hadfield, told The Independent. “It was planned before the mission began and fleshed out as we realised what was possible.”

The first music video shot in space, made with subtly adapted lyrics, rocketed across the web, gaining a million views in 12 hours on YouTube.

Bowie, who released the original in the summer of Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap”, was among thousands to tweet it. “Hallo Spaceboy,” he wrote, recalling a song from his album, Outside.

It was a musical climax to a mission in which Commander Hadfield has attracted a global audience with updates from 240 miles up. His poetic tweets, photos and videos have changed the way many think about space, 44 years after he was inspired to go there as a nine-year-old watching the Moon landings at his parents’ Ontario farm.

“It’s wonderful,” Professor Brian Cox, the physicist and presenter, told The Independent. “We’ve become used to seeing serious business in space but for the first time someone is allowing us to see day-to-day life.”

In earlier clips, which Commander Hadfield filmed, the astronaut revealed the wonder of weightlessness by showing how a person sleeps, eats and even cries in space. A 30-second close-up of mixed nuts floating in their tub gained five million views alone. “It might seem trivial but you misunderstand our place in the universe to think we can sit on Earth indefinitely,” Professor Cox said. “It has to be the case that we as a species will live and work in space rather than just explore it. Hadfield has shown us how.” Professor Cox, a former keyboard player with the band D:Ream added: “He’s also got a brilliant voice.”

Commander Hadfield sings in several bands and enlisted his friend, Emm Gryner, to play piano over his vocals. Gryner, a former Bowie band member, then worked with her fellow Canadians, Joe Corcoran, a producer, and filmmaker Andrew Tidby to finish the film. The astronaut, 53, arrived in orbit in late December. The Canadian Space Agency always planned to exploit his charm to create good PR, but did not predict such a hit. Evan, 28, said: “I don’t think an astronaut has had this level of media success since the Moon landings.”

Commander Hadfield was due to land in Kazakhstan early this morning. He will emerge from his capsule as the most famous astronaut for a generation. Next up: Life on Mars? In a Q&A last month Commander Hadfield said his dream was now to visit the red planet. Bowie has already provided the soundtrack

[MIKA27]

Pretty cool stuff! Thanks for posting!!

[mazolaman]

Chhers Mika, thanks for welcoming me to your lad of tech!

[MIKA27]

13 Facts You Won’t Believe Are True

[MIKA27]

Chhers Mika, thanks for welcoming me to your lad of tech!

The more the merrier I say old chum.

[Duxnutz]

The Most Awesome F-35 Video I’ve Ever Seen

Lockheed Martin just completed the latest high angle of attack test series. It was a complete success, as this video shows.

The video footage is spectacular, especially that unreal first shot:

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., May 16, 2013 —

The latest in a series of Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35A high angle of attack (AOA) testing was recently completed. The testing accomplished high AOA beyond both the positive and negative maximum command limits, including intentionally putting the aircraft out of control in several configurations. This included initially flying in the stealth clean wing configuration. It was followed by testing with external air-to-air pylons and missiles and then with open weapon bay doors. The F-35A began edge-of-the-envelope high AOA testing in the Fall 2012. For all testing, recovery from out of control flight has been 100 per cent successful without the use of the spin recovery chute, which is carried to maximise safety.

As a bit of an aviation enthusiast this boggles my mind. In flying, airspeed is life and 'unlearning' a basic principle of fooling around waay back on the wrongside of the drag curve would be a mind f$(k to say the least. Also I really wonder how close they come to super-stalling into a non-recoverable situation and how effective that spin recovery chute would be if it happens. Interesting stuff and thanks for the amazing thread Mika!

[Fuzz]

Vectored thrust makes all the difference. Conventional aircraft, even military or acrobatic aircraft wouldn't be able to pull of moves like this without the use of vectored thrust.

[Tariacuri]

Well that's funny - I'm actually the one of the archaeologists on this project and the one quoted in the original New Yorker article. lots of crazy claims in the media - things that we never actually said. A couple direct quotes from me that were complete fabrications.

How Lasers May Have Revealed A Legendary Lost City Of Gold

One year ago, a team of researchers traveled deep into the Honduran rainforest in search of Ciudad Blanca, the legendary lost city of treasures. Yesterday, they revealed images — uncovered by lasers — of structures that they believe to be the White City itself.

The legend of the White City has captured explorers’ imaginations for centuries; Hernán Cortés detailed his interest in the purportedly gold-laden metropolis as far back as 1526. But the Mosquitia region where it was rumoured to exist is densely packed with rainforest, and the conquistadors never penetrated deep enough to claim their prize.

Modern archaeologists have been just as stymied. Mosquitia has been the focus of a half dozen intensive explorations in the last century alone, some of which have yielded signs of some ruins and mounds. No one, though, despite their best efforts, had found anything close to a full city structure.

The team of researchers from the University of Houston, though, had something none of those expeditions did. They had lasers.

Major Laser

The National centre for Airborne Laser Mapping does just what you would think; uses highly advanced lasers to see things the human eye can’t. Specifically, in this case, the team — led by a Los Angeles-based filmmaker — used a Lidar system to penetrate the thick foliage of Mosquitia and discover the treasures that lay beneath.

Lidar itself isn’t particularly new. Developed in the 1960s, it was originally used to measure cloud densities, but comes in handy today for everything from mapping the Amazon rainforest to hunting down modern-day pirates. In this implementation, the system spits out laser pulses and measures how they’re reflected off vegetation and the ground, to map the surface hidden beneath the forest’s canopy.

By stripping away layers of reflections the researchers were able to remove detail from the canopy and reveal the ground beneath, shown on the right in the image above. Yesterday, the researchers revealed these images for the first time, at the American Geophysical Union Meeting of the Americas in Cancun.

The White Cities?

After others had spent centuries trying to unearth a single city of gold, the NCALM exploration made a surprising find: not one city, but two.

It might hard for the untrained eye to see, but the Lidar images revealed regularly spaced mounds — and a few other linear features — that possibly make up two distinct city centres. Either of which could very well be the legendary Ciudad Blanca.

We should know soon enough. The team is now closely studying the data to work out which sections contain the most promising features. Once they have, they’ll deploy archaeologists to investigate the site further.

What will they find? Maybe rubble. Maybe gold. Maybe thousands of inexplicable golden orbs. The possibilities are endless when you uncover a legend right here in real life.

[mazolaman]

Well that's funny - I'm actually the one of the archaeologists on this project and the one quoted in the original New Yorker article. lots of crazy claims in the media - things that we never actually said. A couple direct quotes from me that were complete fabrications.

Interesting work mate, would love to hear more of your findings.

Not surprised by the media mal-quotings......

Is this the "city of Z" of Percy Harrison Fawcett fame?

[CanuckSARTech]

Man, that Aston is HOT!!!!

[MIKA27]

China Has Its Own Stealth Drone

This is China’s stealth combat drone, an aeroplane that seems very similar to the American Northrop Grumman X-47B. The unmanned combat air vehicle was photographed while performing taxiing tests.

Given the development speed of China’s other military aeroplanes, it wouldn’t be surprising to see this in flight in the next few weeks.

According to the China Defense Blog, it was initially labelled to be a project by “college students” for the 601 Aircraft Design Institute/Shenyang Aircraft Corporation. Clearly, it’s much more than that.

It seems obvious that China’s military complex is advancing at a higher pace than many in the West would like to believe. It is not comparable to the United States yet, but the technology matching may be a matter of years and not decades. And it has already happened in the cyber war front.