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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

The 9 minute preview session of the new Trek MMO is now online. It looks pretty exciting.

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

The Particle Zoo has released plushies based on sub-atomic particles! Each one of them has a unique / personality. They’re perfect for getting your budding super scientist to take an interest in the microverse.

The Particle Zoo

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

Remember those cool robots from “Silent Running” that helped Bruce Dern maintain his artificial ecosystems as they were jettisoned into space? Well if global warming has you really nervous, then you can build your own helper bots to help build your own private bio-dome. Or you can create them just to keep you company, like Joel on “Mystery Science Theater 3000.” It’s your own business what you do with this information, but do me a favor and let me know if the linked instructions teach you how to build real robots or just replicas. If the latter’s the case, then you’ll just have to supply your own voices. Enjoy.

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

Because everything Steampunk is amazing. This mod comes from Russia.

Geekologie

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

Do you hate going into a coffee shop, opening your laptop, and booting it only to find the supposedly free WiFi is crap? I do too. Fortunately they’ve taken WiFi detectors and stuck them inside watches, so you can check to make sure before you go to all that trouble. You can also use it to find the optimum spot for hopping on the neighbor’s WiFi, if one were so inclined. This sweet baby retails for $39, and I predict will be as popular as those calculator watches were when they first came out.

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

PlayStation 3 users have been waiting for Sony to launch “Home” second-life service for just over a year, but now the console giant is asking for a little more time. The proposed service is an expansion of Sony’s existing PlayStation Network, where users can interact over an ISP. “Home” will allow users to create an avatar with its own apartment and selected furnishings which will be acquired through various gaming-related achievements. Sony sites quality improvement as the reason for the second delay of the service’s release.

I’m a little disappointed to hear Sony hasn’t been able to make this happen sooner. I understand that they don’t want to rush out an inferior product, but in this area, the PlayStation falls behind the Xbox and Wii. If Nintendo has taught the gaming industry anything, it’s that players want something that they can get more personal enjoyment out of rather than a product that may be technically superior. Maybe Sony’s hoping that the allure of a cheap BluRay player will make up the difference now that the format wars have ended, but if they’re going to continue to compete, they need to launch “Home” soon, and they need it to be good, not great.

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

Ernie Cline, the co-writer of the controversial movie, “Fanboys,” has just sold a spec script entitled “Thundercade” to Lakeshore Entertainment. The story centers around an adult video game phenom who embarks on a journey with his best friend to reclaim a record which has recently been broken by a younger gamer. Cline says he was inspired to write the story by his nephew while playing Xbox. He says, “I fell in love with the idea of pitting…the Atari 2600 generation vs. the Xbox 360 generation.”

This sounds like a cool idea to me. After watching “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters,” I really did wonder what it would be like to see some of these older gamers try to compete at the newer games. There were so many interviews with the first generation of gamers saying that “Donkey Kong” was more challenging than any modern games that I really wanted to see them play. Having played games from every generation (on the original systems, no less), I don’t think you can honestly say one is more challenging than another. They all just require different kinds of skills. What do you guys think?

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

Oh Nokia Morph.

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

The concept for the “green” Atlas Kinetic Phone has hit the web. Made from glass and aluminum the phone doesn’t sport any extra features basic the basic function of making calls, but at least you’ll never have to worry about dead or lost batteries again.

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

BeatBearing is the newest in a line of stylish music sequencers. Developed by Peter Bennett of Belfast’s Sonic Arts Research Center as the result of human behavioral research, the BeatBearing is a slick transparent grid with metal receptors. When metal spheres are placed on the grid musical sequences are formed.

I’ve been left asking myself if these sequencers are really any more of an innovation than ipod skins. To me they “feel” like nothing more than dressed up drum machines. They all seem to lack the true innovation represented in instruments like the Moog keyboard and I doubt that they’ll stand the test of time as true leaps forward. They do, however, light me up in regards to the fashion of technology. I love the idea that as our technology develops we’re able to house it in new and innovative ways.

VIDEO available on Make

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

Last October a Polish traveler was detained at the Vancouver airport and ultimately killed by an RCMP officer’s overzealous use of a tazer. Now, Mike Greenway has uploaded a re-enactment of the incident casting it in the context of a Mega-Man level. Does this signal a post-modern trend toward casting all visual information as one weird emotionally disconnected medium? I’m not sure, but these quotes from Mediapost’s Gaming Insider show the public relations responses to the video from both sides.

” The video was my view on the YVR tazer incident last October, and specifically the ineptness of the RCMP and airport staff’s dealings with Mr. Dziekanski. My intent was to remark towards their conduct and maybe reach an audience that would not have had the opportunity otherwise.” - Mark Greenway

” This tragedy should not have been portrayed as a game. It is disrespectful to the victim, his family and the Polish community.” A Canadian Police spokesperson said, “Any right-thinking person who would look at the video would be offended by that. A gentlemen lost his life and it is in extremely poor taste.” - Spokeswoman, RCMP

Watch the video, listed on youtube as a reponse to the 8bit Chocolate Rain Remix below.

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

Over the last week the Optimus Tactus concept keyboard has been getting a lot of bad buzz. I think it looks ridiculous… ridiculously cool. If the specs pan out it’s a fully customizable keyboard interface complete with multi-media functions. The argument has been that there are currently available tablet PC’s that make this obsolete before it even hits stores. I completely disagree with that assessment for two reasons. First, I don’t enjoy the experience of typing on the monitor surface, it’s not natural for a human to work while looking down on the monitor surface. I’ve tried and it’s very uncomfortable. Also, I can see some very cool uses for devices like this embedded in walls or desks giving people multimedia connectivity without the “big box” feel. As we integrate more devices in to our environments I think it’s important not to make these small wired devices too “work like”. Using the Optimus for intercom, telephone and inter-office messaging uses could be a very good way to strip out the majority of the OS capabilities on stationary communications devices. I applaud the designers for their efforts in developing this type of concept.

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

Researcher Sylvain Calinon has developed a robot that can hand draw a portrait using a a regular ink pen. Although the results leave a little bit to be desired, the rough feeling of the finished works shows that the robot is actually drawing and not just a fancy printer.

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

I know that this is a few months old news, but the technology really impresses me. Philip’s showcased this “Dynamic Daylight Window” at a special event in Earl’s Court, London earlier this year. The technology allows for individuals to control the tint and shade of a window with only hand gestures. There are also modes for “light therapy”, a system with proposed uses ranging from simple relaxation to combating jet lag.

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

Life Bank, or Jinsei Ginko in the native Japanese, allows a virtual family to grow wealthier as you save. Watch the little people go from the poor house to the sweet life for just a few yen.

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

Music from the heart of space never looked so good. The Suzuki QChord is described as, “an exciting digital audio instrument that strums like a guitar, plays melody like a keyboard, plays chords like a piano, and has over 100 MIDI voices and rhythms onboard,” and it looks every bit as strange as that sounds.

The Qchord’s major selling point is that the Qchord doesn’t allow you to play any wrong notes! At first blush this sounds like a glorified version of Guitar Hero, but it’s been used professionally by David Bowie, Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan.

Read more at musician’s friend.

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

Japanese Production house Yujin  has just released the cutest and weirdest toys I’ve seen all week… emoticon toys. Riddled with Japanese cell phone characters and sporting an adorable dough-boy anthro-body, these “lucky trolls” for the 21st century should be all the rage for forward thinking hipster geeks. The Yujin emoticon idols can be yours for just under $1USD (or 100 yen). Check out the rump-shakin’ video linked below.

LINK

Yujin Emoticon Video (flash)

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

CGSociety has released their list of the top 2007 CG moments. Culling from movies, hardware, software and games the list takes on some unexpected twists and turns. Included in the highlights are Pirates of the Caribbean at World’s End, Pixologic’s ZBrush 3 and Sony’s Surf’s Up.

LINK

CGSociety 2007 Retrospective

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

Warcry Network shows us how MMOs celebrate the holiday season. The holidays, by the way, do include Life Day for all of our wookie readers.

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Originally published at Better Living Through Science Fiction. Please leave any comments there.

Bicyclers can now safely monitor the angry SUV drivers preparing to ram them with the Cerevellum Rearview Monitor. Additionally, the units come with on-screen GPS, a heart monitor and 32mb of memory. The rearview monitor will cost approx. $200 when it hits the market in the near future.

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