The British secret service has been suffering from a paucity of computer-savvy employees, and so they’ve turned their recruitment radar in a different direction – they’re advertising inside MMO computer games. But budding Bonds with a Halo jones should take note – they’re looking for signals and decryption types to work at GCHQ, so you won’t be getting your Walther PPK any time soon.
Ever since finding a superb Spore video by Will Wright on TED.com, I’ve been keeping an eye on the website for new videos which are released on a regular basis. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and is an annual conference in which respected thinkers from all aspects of the world come to give fascinating speeches about their pet subjects. Only recently has the website started giving access to these speeches to anyone who didn’t attend the conference.
As well as Will Wright’s speech (and if you haven’t watched at least one presentation about the forthcoming groundbreaking game, you should), there’s a recent video by bioengineer Hod Lipson about his work on small robots which can learn and self-replicate. The website and video player is cleverly designed with an ingenious overlay on the bottom of the video telling you about the subsections of the talk, how long they go on for and what the subtopics are. Other enjoyable talks include speakers like Al Gore on global warming, Carolyn Porco on flying to Saturn with Cassini, James Kunstler’s engaging criticism of the tragedy of suburbia and Aubrey de Grey’s controversial belief that we can defeat ageing. That’s barely scratching the surface – I could spend weeks watching nothing but TED talks and not get bored. Have a browse and find the ones that engage you.
Having stayed up way too late for the past week playing Halo 3, I am in total agreement with the author of this article when he states:
You haven’t lived until you’ve attacked an enemy’s fortified position with a Scorpion tank providing covering fire while three of your teammates assault the base on foot. The co-op play makes the campaign feel alive, and you can do things working together that you wouldn’t dream of alone. While playing the campaign by yourself can feel clunky and artificial, playing with other skilled players is like living the best buddy-action movie you’ve ever seen.
Playing through the first two Halos on co-op was fun, but nothing matches playing four-player co-op on Xbox Live, with each player having a full screen, voice chat, and no lag. This is the best possible way to play the game, and it is incredibly addicting.
As a gamer, I hate cheaters. As a game developer, I can’t stand piracy. But as a consumer who believes if you can’t open it and hack it you don’t really own it, my personal reservations on the recent US government’s ICE sweep of Mod-Chip installers are many and varied. A slew of interesting and opinionated links on the topic are available at Slashdot.
The vibration function in the Nintendo 64’s Rumble Pak can be hacked into an improvised tattoo gun. Someone let MAKE Blog know…