(05-08-2013) Rymdkapsel is minimalistic space bliss, here are some tips to succeed [ G4dG33t ]

Rymdkapsel is minimalistic space bliss, here are some tips to succeed Aug 5th 2013, 02:58

Games By James Plafke Aug. 2, 2013 4:28 pm

Rymdkapsel, a minimalist space-based base-building RTS recently released on iOS, Android, and the PlayStation Vita. If you're into any of those combination of things, playing Rymdkapsel will be a bright part of your day. Though minimalist, the game does require some complex strategic thinking, so on top of explaining how good the game is, we'll explain how to be good at it.

The semi-unpronounceable game (it's the Swedish word for "space capsule) leverages an extremely minimalist style of flat pathways and basic shapes and colors — triangles, squares, rectangles, trapezoids, and so on. Since this is a space game, the background is black with rotating white dots that signify stars. The game only appears to have one "mode," so to speak, with three missions within the mode. Start a new game and the tutorial begins, but you can just ignore it and it'll catch up to you, rather than you having to complete it each time.

Perhaps an overused phrase that absolutely applies here, Rymdkapsel's gameplay is easy to learn, but tough to master. You build corridors in the vacuum of minimalistic space, onto which resource generation rooms attach, and you set your little rectangular minions to do your building and gathering. The game has three missions per match, which is to research (a form of resource gathering) all four monoliths on the map, survive 28 waves of enemies, and reach all four monoliths within 45 minutes of a match.

The strategy of the game is based on the red bar sits at the bottom of the HUD, alerting you to when the next wave of increasingly difficult enemies is coming to attack your minions, and the one finite resource on the map sitting amongst the other infinite resources. In a majority of RTS games, resources are limited, but there are so many that it barely ever matters. In Rymdkapsel, you run out of that one pink resource very quickly, and there are only a handful of resource nodes, so you have to plan far ahead from the start.

The other difficult bit is that your minions can't dispatch enemies (and thus, stay alive) without taking them off building and gathering and placing them in a weapons zone that only holds two units each. You also have to precisely time your minion's movements to make it back to the weapons zone before the enemies arrive, a task much more difficult than it sounds.

The game becomes very tough very quickly, but there are some easy-to-follow rules that will keep you afloat, but still provide you with the freedom to be creative with your base and strategy.

Next page: Tips, hints and tricks to survive a minimalist death in Rymdkapsel…

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(05-08-2013) ‘Sherlock’ Teaser! [ G4dG33t ]

'Sherlock' Teaser! Aug 5th 2013, 01:58

If you haven't seen the last two seasons of BBC One's Sherlock, go watch it now! The show is absolutely phenomenal and coming back for season next year. That may be quite a ways away, but when you consider each episode is as long as a full-length feature film worthy of theatrical release, it's understandable.

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(05-08-2013) NeverWet makes the Raspberry Pi and other gadgets waterproof [ G4dG33t ]

NeverWet makes the Raspberry Pi and other gadgets waterproof Aug 5th 2013, 00:58

Chips By Sal Cangeloso Aug. 2, 2013 5:31 pm

Here at Geek.com we've spent a lot of time with NeverWet, the amazing superhydrophic coating from Rustoleum. At $ 20 and available at Home Depot stores across the US, NeverWet is incredibly accessible and an ideal subject for home projects. We've tested NeverWet on clothing and shoes and cardboard and all sorts of other things but, in what I freely admit was a huge oversight on our part, we've yet to test it out on electronic devices. Luckily, the team at Adafruit took the time to do extensive testing.

In our defense, I'd just note that NeverWet's preview video might have used a coated smartphone in a torture test, but the product's packaging clearly states that NeverWet was not designed to be used with electronics. The FAQ page could not be more clear about this:

3. Can NeverWet be used on electronics?
No, NeverWet should not be used on electronics.

Being good geeks we clearly should have ignored that, as it's clearly there to cover Rustoleum in the case that you destroy your new iPad or something else expensive and send your class action-loving lawyer after the company. Regardless, here are electronic devices covered in NeverWet and then submerged, misted, sprayed, and hosed down with water…

The video features the Raspberry Pi, LED light strips, Adafruit's Citi bike helmet, the company's Flora wearable electronics board, an Arduino Micro and a few LEDs, all sopping wet. The verdict? Based on what we see in the video, NeverWet actually gets the job done. The Raspberry Pi in the video survives a full submersion while operating, and the Flora take a full-on blast from a hose and continues to work. NeverWet might not be recommended for electronics, but it actually did a great job with these worst-case scenarios.

So, why wouldn't you want to use NeverWet on your gadgets? First off, and mainly, NeverWet leaves a tacky, chalky film on whatever it coats, which is actually a little bit gross. It doesn't appear in Rustoleum's demo videos, but it's quite apparent when you use the product. Part of the film will wash off the first time water hits it, but some always remains. This helps with spills, but who knows what it's doing to your gadgets (or to you). Secondly, NeverWet degrades over time, so your device might be fine for a few minutes or a few hours, but eventually the coating will fail and your toy is going to be wrecked.

These details are notable, but not enough to prevent NeverWet from being the best water-resistant coating for electronic devices that I can think of, short of a waterproof case.

Now read: MIT creates superhydrophobic coating for condiment containers

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(05-08-2013) Talking Moto X, Nvidia Shield, and Rymdkapsel on Geekout 17 [ G4dG33t ]

Talking Moto X, Nvidia Shield, and Rymdkapsel on Geekout 17 Aug 4th 2013, 23:58

Android By Russell Holly Aug. 2, 2013 5:55 pm

This week we've gone hands-on with the phone that was made for everyone and the portable gaming rig made for the geekiest among us. We've played indie strategy space games in real-time and braved the frontiers of Kingdom Rush. It's time to Geekout.

Motorola's press meetings have come and gone, and the Moto X has officially arrived. While I work on a proper review of this new phone, it seemed right to take a few minutes to talk about some of the things we liked and didn't like about the phone. One thing is for sure: Motorola has done something interesting here. While it may not be the very best phone on the market today, the Moto X is every bit as big a deal as the Galaxy S4 and the HTC One. Hard to believe? Check out Ryan and I as we compare the new Moto flagship to the latest from Samsung and HTC, in those those links.

Would you buy a $ 299 Nvidia Shield? That's going to be the big question for a little while, it seems. This bulky little game system is an impressive feat of manufacturing and performance, but it is not exactly pocketable. The big impressive feature, being able to stream games from your PC to the Shield, is still in beta testing phases. That doesn't mean that you cant have some fun with Android games that are controller friendly, but if you play a game that forces you to use the touch screen you had better be ready to violate everything you have ever been told about holding a laptop by the screen in order to play the game. Since most of the weight for the Shield is in the controller, it's a little awkward to feel the weight imbalance by picking it up from the screen.

If you're looking for something new to do this weekend, you may consider checking out a super-minimal RTS called Rymdkapsel. It's available on iOS, Android, and PS Vita. We've got a few tips for success if you get stuck somewhere along the way.

If you'd like to join us on our weekly Geekouts, or if you've got a topic you'd like us to talk about on next week's broadcast, leave us a message here or on our Google+ page.

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(04-08-2013) Bomb threat tweet sent to Mary Beard [ G4dG33t ]

Bomb threat tweet sent to Mary Beard Aug 4th 2013, 22:58

3 August 2013 Last updated at 21:13 ET

Prof Beard has spoken in the past about abuse she received online

The classicist and TV presenter Mary Beard has been sent a bomb threat on Twitter hours after the UK boss of the social networking site apologised to women who have experienced abuse.

Prof Beard, who has faced abuse on Twitter previously, told the BBC she had reported the new message to police.

It used similar wording to a tweet sent earlier to a number of women, some of whom have also received rape threats.

A number of Twitter users are boycotting the website for 24 hours.

Prof Beard spoke earlier this year about the online abuse she had received after appearing on the BBC’s Question Time.

And this week said she revealed she had received an apology from a so-called Twitter troll who sent her an offensive message on Monday, after she retweeted the remark.

‘Particularly unpleasant’

Writing on Twitter on Saturday, Prof Beard said the bomb threat was reported to “make sure” another case was logged by police.

Journalist and broadcaster Grace Dent highlighted the bomb threat

Prof Beard told BBC Radio 5 live: “I think it is scary and it has got to stop.

“To be honest I didn’t actually intellectually feel I was in danger but I thought I was being harassed and I thought I was being harassed in a particularly unpleasant way.”

On Friday, the Metropolitan Police said its central e-crime unit was investigating allegations by eight people of “harassment, malicious communication or bomb threats” suffered on Twitter.

Two people have been arrested in relation to rape threats against Labour MP Stella Creasy and feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez, who received the messages after a campaign to have Jane Austen on the new £10 note.

The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman, the Independent’s Grace Dent and Time magazine’s Catherine Mayer all said they had received identical bomb threats on Wednesday.

The Twitter Trolliday boycott began at midnight and was proposed by the journalist Caitlin Moran as a way of doing “something symbolic” on International Friendship Day in the wake of the escalating incidents of abuse on Twitter.

In a blog entry, Ms Moran, who herself received an abusive tweet on Saturday, said the boycott was being staged in a “spirit of solidarity – to show what Twitter would be like if the trolls over-run this place”.

Updated rule

Twitter UK boss Tony Wang has said the threats were “simply not acceptable” and pledged to do more to tackle abusive behaviour.

The revelations of threats sparked a backlash online, with a petition calling for Twitter to add a “report abuse” button to tweets attracting more than 125,000 signatures.

Twitter has updated its rules and confirmed it would introduce an in-tweet “report abuse” button on all platforms, including desktops.

In a series of tweets, Twitter UK general manager Mr Wang said: “I personally apologize to the women who have experienced abuse on Twitter and for what they have gone through.

“The abuse they’ve received is simply not acceptable. It’s not acceptable in the real world, and it’s not acceptable on Twitter.

“There is more we can and will be doing to protect our users against abuse. That is our commitment.”

In an earlier message posted on the Twitter UK blog, the company’s senior director for trust and safety, Del Harvey, and Mr Wang, said the company had clarified its anti-harassment policy in light of feedback from customers.

Twitter has clarified its guidance on abuse and spam – reiterating that users “may not engage in targeted abuse or harassment”.

The “report abuse” button already available on the Apple iOS Twitter app and mobile site will also be rolled out to the main website and Android app from September, Twitter said.

The bosses said in the blog that additional staff were being added to the teams that handle reports of abuse and the company was working with the UK Safer Internet Centre, which promotes the safe and responsible use of technology.

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(04-08-2013) 12 months of NASA’s Curiosity rover in 2 minutes [ G4dG33t ]

12 months of NASA's Curiosity rover in 2 minutes Aug 4th 2013, 21:59

Science! By Ryan Whitwam Aug. 3, 2013 10:01 am

Can you believe it has been almost a year since NASA's Curiosity rover arrived on Mars aboard it's crazy rocket sled? It has spent those months rolling around the Martian surface, scooping up clumps of soil and drilling holes as it performs experiments. In celebration of one year on Mars, NASA has assembled a video of Curiosity's time on the Red Planet.

Curiosity landed in Gale Crater on Mars August 6, 2002 and is scheduled for a two-year mission. However, most successful rover missions on Mars have traditionally been extended far beyond their original parameters. Curiosity's goals include determining the role water played in Mars' history, and gather additional geological and climate data.

The video is composed of 548 still images captured by a front-facing fisheye camera known as the Hazard-Avoidance Camera. The name should give you a pretty good idea what it's for — NASA uses it to ensure there are no obstacles in Curiosity's path that could catch on the underside of the rover. You can't exactly walk out there and lift the rover off a rock when it's on a different planet.

The video doesn't really contain anything unexpected. The robot arm is swinging out across the surface, poking and scooping. The front wheels on the car-sized rover are visible at the edges of the wide-angle lens. What makes this amazing is simply that humans built a machine, shot it into space, landed it on another planet, and it's spent the last year doing science and beaming images back. Also, it's been taking selfies. Truly humanity has reached new heights.

Now read: Geek Answers: Why doesn't the ISS have artificial gravity?

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(04-08-2013) Oculus Rift is immersive enough to horrify someone who fears roller coasters [ G4dG33t ]

Oculus Rift is immersive enough to horrify someone who fears roller coasters Aug 4th 2013, 20:58

Games By Ryan Whitwam Aug. 3, 2013 11:00 am

The Oculus Rift has seen a real turnaround in public perception since it was first shown off on Kickstarter. People who try the head-mounted virtual reality system are usually blown away by the impressive sense of immersion and depth it offers. It's so good, that it can apparently terrify someone that's deathly afraid of roller coasters. Don't buy it? Here's rather convincing video proof.

Meet Jacob. Jacob is probably a regular guy with a job and hobbies, but he has terrible friends. Knowing that Jacob does not like roller coasters, they strapped the Oculus Rift on his head and queued up a roller coaster demo. It starts off okay, but the stereoscopic 3D effect really makes you feel like you're there, which is a problem in Jacob's case.

As the virtual roller coaster starts to drop down the first hill, he gets a little wobbly. The Oculus Rift tracks head movements and pans the UI accordingly. The experience can be a little disorienting, and it's not easy to get out of the simulation if it gets to be too much. That's why there's a spotter behind Jacob to catch him when he tips backward. Okay, his friends probably aren't that terrible, and there was reportedly some alcohol involved.

The Oculus Rift is is not up for sale yet, but you can pre-order the development kit for $ 300. Games need to be designed with Oculus Support, but some game devs have opted to include support. Orders are expected to go out next month.

Now read: Oculus Rift combines with Atlas for real space virtual reality

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