Wiimote head tracking meets First Person Shooter: die Marshies, die

Filed under: Gaming

Remember Johnny Chung Lee’s self-made VR head-tracking system cobbled together from a Wiimote and IR-equipped safety glasses? Good, because it’s now one step closer to its destiny as the ultimate controller for a first person, Wii shooter. The video experience in a 3D wireframed world does look admittedly rough, but the idea is sound: step forward to move forward, to the sides to turn, and jump to (you guessed it) jump. Fortunately, with Nintendo’s WiiWare service now live in Japan, maybe, just maybe someone will see the potential and commercialize this. Watch the Insight VR people hunt down the evil Marshies after the break.

[Via Make and Hack A Day]

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Hump Day Happy Hour: Blueberry Smash

Filed under: Recipes, Cocktails, Rum

I’ve never been one for cocktails with a lot of fruit flavor. The sweetness of many of these drinks gets to me after a while.

But this one sounds both refreshing and strong (though not too strong) and seems like a perfect drink for spring. It’s the Blueberry Smash. You have to muddle blueberries and mint leaves. I’m not sure I’ve ever muddled anything, but it’s one of my favorite words. Muddle! Full recipe after the jump.

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Good news, Washington Nationals fans!

Filed under: Openings, Newspapers

No more smuggling outside food into the stadium, because at the new Nationals baseball park, they’re letting you bring your own food to the game, no questions asked.

Unlike neighboring RFK Stadium, the current home of the Nats, fans can tote in their own sandwiches and sodas instead of paying an arm and a leg for them at the stadium.

Nationals spokeswoman Chartese Burnett was quoted in a WTOPNews piece as saying, “I don’t know who’s going to want to bring in food with all the great offerings at Nationals park.”

Gee, I dunno, Chartese - maybe people who don’t want to shell out their life’s savings for lunch at the ballgame. But if you get hungry after eating your meals from home, a full list of the stadium’s vendors - including Ben’s Chili Bowl, Boardwalk Fries, and La Piccola Gelateria - is available here. The new stadium is slated to open March 30.

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Bicycles can create smoke too!

Keep on Smoking by Michel de Broin

As an alternative to petrol, this custom-made bicycle transforms kinetic energy produced by the cyclist into smoke. The will to power is a renewable energy resource that can be recuperated by a power generator supplying enough electricity to operate a smoke machine. The work is the result of two coupled machines; the one human is productive and the other machine, consumptive. This coupling of machines produces smoke, a waste energy that is liberated freely in the atmosphere.

Video.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
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Samsung’s AnyCall Haptic is out and UI-licious

Filed under: Cellphones

While Samsung is a perennial innovator when it comes to hardware, software has never been the company’s strong suit. Lucky for us, the new TouchWiz UI Samsung is building for its touchscreen phones is a significant step in the right direction, and the new AnyCall Haptic SCH-W420 looks to be the perfect way to show it off. Centered around a 16:9, 3.2-inch screen, the phone includes DMB, a 2 megapixel camera and Bluetooth 2.0. Haptic feedback in the form of vibrations help out with the UI, and home screen is customizable with widgets. The feature set seems to be squarely targeted at the consumer, but the price sure ain’t — the phone is launching in Korea starting at 700,000 KRW and ramping up to 800,000 KRW ($700 to $800 US). Video is after the break.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

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Google (GOOG): The stupidity of the $1 salary

Filed under: SEC filings, Management, Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL)

A look at the new Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) proxy shows that founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page were each paid $1 for their work in 2007. Steve Jobs has done the same thing at Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Of course, the two Google founders each have about $13 billion in stock and Jobs is also rich as Croesus.

The $1 salary is a bit of theater. It says that the compensation of senior management will be built on the stock price. If it does not do well, all we have is that $1.

The gesture does not even fool idiots when the share price is down and the management is wealthy. Even with Google off from a high of $747 to its current price of $450, Brin and Page retain wealth which is beyond most investors’ wildest dreams. The level of their salaries has no meaning.

Google shareholders would be much happier if Brin and Page plundered the company for tens of millions in compensation provided that they get the stock back over $700. The $1 salary is just an insult.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Google pushing out WiFi 2.0 — a threat to WiMAX?

Filed under: Products and services, Television, Internet, Google (GOOG)

Those who think Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is happy being the world’s most dominant search engine haven’t been reading their tea leaves on the wall (or some mixed metaphor like that).

Google recently exited the FCC’s 700 Mhz spectrum auction without winning anything but gaining much. The tech giant persuaded the FCC to open up the wireless networks and won big without having to spend almost $5 billion on licenses. I never thought Google wanted to build out a wireless network, and chooses instead to deliver ads and applications to other operators.

I was interested to read yesterday about Google’s further lean on the FCC to open up soon-to-be-unused broadcast spectrum as the U.S. converts to digital TV. Google wants access to these “white spaces” to begin using them to manage a nationwide WiFi network — free, unlicensed and able to reach much farther than WiFi can today.

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George Lucas Talks ‘Indiana Jones,’ Says “It’s Just a Movie …”

Filed under: Action, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, George Lucas, Remakes and Sequels

With Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull due out on May 22, George Lucas wants everyone to know that it’s “just a movie.” I did think the unused tagline “This will be the greatest piece of visual material your eyes will ever witness” was just a tad too much. Instead, I like “George Lucas says ‘it’s just a movie’” a whole lot better. USA Today sat down with The Lucas to talk about the hype surrounding this fourth installment, and how similar hype (with regards to those newer Star Wars flicks) has hurt the way fans have viewed the films in the past.

He says, “When you do a movie like this, a sequel that’s very, very anticipated, people anticipate ultimately that it’s going to be the Second Coming. And it’s not. It’s just a movie. Just like the other movies. You probably have fond memories of the other movies. But if you went back and looked at them, they might not hold up the same way your memory holds up.” Really? Sure, I’ll give you Speed 2: Cruise Control, but Raiders of the Lost Ark holds up quite well, IMO. He continues, “We came back to do (Indy) because we wanted to have fun. It’s not going to make much money for us in the end. We all have some money. … It would make a lot of money if you weren’t rich. But we’re not doing it for the money.”

I absolutely love the line … “it would make a lot of money if you weren’t rich.” Yeah, thanks George for reminding us that half a billion dollars (or more, probably) is, like, the equivalent of a couple nickels and dimes for you. Indiana Jones and the Quest for More Money No One Needs arrives in theaters on May 22.

p.s. Is it just me, or is anyone else dying to spot Lucas wearing a “Don’t Believe the Hype” t-shirt?

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