Make a lightning bulb for $5!

We at Computer Junkies recently happened upon a really neat instructable. It teaches you how to hack a lightbulb into a lightning bulb for about $5.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Maker-your-own-Lightning-Globe!/

Stop Playing This - Start Playing That

With so many games released every week, it can be a full-time job trying to figure out which ones are worth your time. And often, the answer is none. Why risk getting a crummy game when you've got a perfectly awesome one sitting on the shelf already?

Because you're missing some great stuff, that's why. It's easy to get stuck playing the same game for years on end, but while that's nice to your wallet, it's downright nasty to your well-being as a gamer. If you're willing to live a little, consider changing up your game by switching out your beloved blockbuster for a new video game pal.

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Stop Playing: Halo 3

Sheesh, finish the fight already. Despite being three years old now, Microsoft's smash first-person shooter is still the most popular game on Xbox Live. That's just silly. Sure, it's got millions of active players and well-worn gameplay, but it's hardly the best multiplayer game available for the system. We could easily name three other shooters you really should be playing.

Start Playing: Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Such as this one. It might not have the marketing reach of Halo or Call of Duty, but this superb military shooter does some things both of those greats cannot. EA's Battlefield: Bad Company 2 features fully destructible environments, which turns each multiplayer affair into a riotous game of "find the sniper lurking in the building, then blow up the building." It's still tough, but well worth the money...and some time away from Master Chief.

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Stop Playing: Bejeweled

Seriously, stop. You've been playing this match-three puzzle legend for about a decade, and while it's still totally addictive and totally fun (especially on the iPhone), it's too old for you and you're too old for it. Time to move on to bigger, brighter puzzle games.

Start Playing: Puzzle Quest

Like Bejeweled, this terrific blend of puzzle and role-playing has appeared on just about every platform on the planet. Unlike Bejeweled, however, it's got loads and loads of depth and replayability. A sequel is due out in a few short months, making this the perfect time to upgrade your puzzle skills.

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Stop Playing: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

If you're still playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii, well, we can't blame you. It ranks among the most played games on the Wii and has provided us with more satisfying nights of mascot bashing than we care to admit. But it's also two years old, and it turns out there are some other great Wii fighting games out there.

Start Playing: Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars

While Tatsunoke vs. Capcom doesn't roll off the tongue, make no mistake: this is a top notch brawler that IGN has called "one of the best games on the Wii." And with a similar easy-to-learn, hard-to-master approach as Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it will feel pretty natural for fans. Give it a fighting chance and it won't let you down.

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Stop Playing: Fieldrunners

The Little Game that Could! No one saw this sublime tower defense game coming, yet within a few short months it shot to the top of every must-have iPhone game list around. And if it were still 2008, we'd still be playing it. But alas, every good thing must come to an end. Or at least a new game.

Start Playing: Plants vs. Zombies

Like this one. Created by the unceasingly brilliant PopCap Games, this stellar strategy game turns the tower defense idea on its rotting head with simple mechanics and amazing depth. Worth much, much more than its $2.99 asking price, it's easily one of the best deals on the App Store. Make it your next buy.

via Yahoo! Games

Hydrofloors

Hydrofloors are only like the coolest thing ever invented. They are specially designed pools with movable floors. When you’re using your pool it’s just like a normal pool. But when you are done swimming or exercising , you press a button and the pool’s floor slowly raises up while the water slips underneath the floor. Awesome! Eventually the pool’s floor reaches the top and you are left with a large flat area you can use for recreation, dining, parties or any other dry land event you want.

Another press of the button and the floor sinks back down slowly to reveal your already water-filled pool. You can also stop the floor at any point which means you can make the pool as shallow or deep as you want. Having a kid’s party? Just set it for shallow kiddie pool depth. Be sure to throw a few extra chlorine tablets in the pool cleaning mechanism though, you know how kids are.

via gizmodo

Portal 2 Announced

The news was revealed via Game Informer, which will be featuring the game on its next cover. No real details have been revealed, although the game will be a "full-fledged, standalone sequel," as opposed to the original, which came packaged with The Orange Box. We should have plenty of good information when the magazine hits newsstands though, as it features a full 12-page spread on the game.

UPDATE: Apparently there’s some kind of crazy co-op mode included, although the source is a now-edited GameStop description, so hmm.

As confirmed by the cover of next month’s Game Informer. GI’s Jeff Marchiafava says:

Our 12-page cover story gives you the first details on Portal 2’s new gameplay mechanics, storyline, and some surprising new twists.

So no, they’re not giving much away. Cheers to Pat for the tip. Official word from Valve saying the game is out “This Holiday Season”, below.

VALVE ANNOUNCES PORTAL 2

Sequel to 2007’s Game of the Year Coming This Holiday

March 5, 2010 – Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike, and Half-Life) and leading technologies (such as Steam, Source), today announced Portal 2 for shipment this coming holiday season.

Portal was originally released in 2007 and earned over 70 industry achievement awards.

Sid Meyer's Civilization V

When Civilization IV came out - and I'm using the z spelling with the same counter-intuitive courtesy that allows me to refer to drag acts using "she" - it was difficult to say, "Hey! Everyone! This is the big new thing that makes Civ IV the one game in the series that'll make you guff up your lungs, in a way none of the others previously did!"

There was religion, but Civ's a balanced and even-handed affair, so religions were slotted neatly into the tech tree. Moreover, like political systems, each one was a viable gameplay option. And not, as a petty-minded athiest like me was hoping for, an inexorable mental journey from storm-worship to rocket-fuelled godlessness.

Other things changed the game, too. You could open your borders up as part of a diplomatic deal. This is something that was removed for 2008's boiled-down console and handheld version, Revolutions, and the return to the old ways was immediately jarring, making you feel that the new way was indeed the right way.

Great People were introduced, too, giving the series another way of plugging into (and generating interest in) history. But it's difficult to grab headlines with something as cerebral as Sid Meier's Civilization. Having Leonard Nimoy narrate your progress along a tech tree is about as gimmicky as it gets.

So, there we stood. Civilization IV, a critically acknowledged pinnacle of refinement, a homage to itself, and supported like clockwork with the usual strong expansions. Instead of developing itself into a where-next crisis, however, Firaxis has simply moved people around, given fresh young blood Jon Schafer the lead design role, and the unexpectedly eyebrow-raising result is Sid Meier's Civilization V.

Only eyebrow-raising to the fans, of course - this isn't Modern Warfare 2, and the two dominating responses to Civ V will be enthusiastic curiosity and utter indifference. But the attempts to win over the Civ-averse continue, with Civ V taking a few tips on approachability from the console version, all the while preserving the formidable, complex core that attracts the long-term Civ fan.

There's probably been a screenshot by now, so you might already have noticed - hexagons. Finally, Civilisation does away with right-angles. No more grid, where moving diagonally always felt a bit cheaty, being 41 per cent further than vanilla points of the compass. From a purely aesthetic point of view, the hexagons allow for less abruptly contoured land masses, and less crooked channels of water. No-one needs convincing. Two minutes into looking at the board and I've already resigned squares to history.

Hexagons can only simplify the flow of the game - each tile his just six neighbours now, instead of eight - but how much will only come out with a playtest. In the meantime, it's just another tessellating shape.

However, the way the tiles are used is changing as well. They're still a source of resources - rewarding their owner with gold, production, food - and workers will still build improvements to boost that output. But cities no longer expand their area of influence in concentric, grid-based attempts at a circle. Instead every tile is individually painted your civ's colour. One at a time.

Your expansion is still earned by increases in culture (and can now be bought with gold), and you'll earn the tiles as quickly, overall, as your previous empire would have expanded. But now, the permanent and steady expansion and shape of your empire is a more irregular, important and tactically considered process.

The introduction of City States opens new routes of diplomacy. City States are sub-civilisation NPCs which provide bonuses to any player earning their alliance. These bonuses can make them worth defending or reclaiming should they fall to another civilisation. It's also possible that the benefits of diplomacy will be outweighed by their position: a city state too close to your town might need to be destroyed. If you don't mind the reputation as a butcher.

Hands up, then, everyone who's used a strategy that involves piling up stacks of military units and ploughing your way across the board like a poker bully pushing his chips all-in? There's no shame in it. You do what works, especially on the harder difficulties. But Civ V has a stack-blocking new limitation, inspired by Schafer's love of 1994's Panzer General - one military unit per tile.

It's game-changing. Both in terms of WYSIWYG transparency and the tactics required of you. A front line backed up by ranged units, with terrain offering the usual adjustments. There's also a limitation on resources discovered in the field. Previously, if you found horses, it was a bottomless well of horses (thankfully not literally) but now you find a specific number - and once you've used them to make cavalry units, they're gone. Just as artificial, maybe, but another limitation on your war machine.

Not that Civilization is all about war - military domination is just one of the ways of winning. The othe methods - tech, culture, and so on - are still available to you, and the reasons to pursue them are more compelling.

You can't trade tech any more, but in another example of how gold takes a more upfront role, you invest in research agreements. This provides both civilisations with a research bonus to use as they see fit - not necessarily in the same area. It keeps you interested in your alliance, and saves you having to check to see if you can sell anything you've just learned to anyone else.

For a company that's all about the gameplay, there's a staggering amount of work going into Firaxis' presentation of the new leaders. No longer boxed heads - or the cartoons of Civ Rev - we now have fully modelled world leaders, roaming fully modelled rooms, speaking their own language (whether you understand it or not), with research into the body language of different cultures reflected in their animation sets.

To watch people fussing over the fibrousness of the tassles hanging from an epaulette, is to wonder whether a company is being self-indulgent - but this is another thing, like hexagons and open borders, that will quickly become an expectation rather than a waste. I've only spent a day at Firaxis, and already Civ IV feels archaic.

The new game is being written for the community, too, with an easier-than-ever map editor coaxing casuals (if there is such a thing as a casual Civ player) into the world of Civ-modding. And if you're not so inclined, a mod browser and installer has been integrated into the menu system. This is the developer's way of removing as many obstacles as possible between the less tech-savvy or simply unaware player, and excellent free content such as the complete fantasy revamp, Fall From Heaven.

Former modder Jon Schafer is unable to expand on any moderation policies for now, but is keen to point out that this is an additional service. You'll still be able to do everything the old way if you pop omnidirectional boners when manually extracting zip files.

Meanwhile, the AI is getting a new system, based on flavours. A leader has certain predispositions, towards offence, defence, recon and military training. Leaders will have favoured units, win conditions, methods of growth, and resources. They might prefer generating great people, or wonders. Queen Victoria, for example, will generally have strong flavours towards naval growth and sea-faring units. But every time you meet her, there'll be random elements in those flavours that will make her capable of surprising you: and if she finds herself land-locked, she'll adjust her priorities.

There are four layers to the computer's AI, each operating at a different level of strategy. From the Grand Strategic AI which governs which win conditions to aim for, the economic and military considerations of the Strategic AI, down to the Operational AI which moves units around, and the Tactical AI which kicks in at the combat level - to see the flowcharts as a layman is to go briefly mad with possibilities.

But something that only really struck me after watching the demonstration, taking notes and going home to have another scout around Civ IV, was the organisation of the icons on the screen. With your options aligned along the left-hand side of the screen, rather than in a blue-backed panel on the bottom with swathes of empty space around square icons. The most common use of the unit (say, Build City for Settlers) is bigger than the rest, and lesser used icons (say, delete unit) are hidden in a sub-menu.

Put simply, Civilization V is the best of both worlds: more approachable, less opaque, but still with a huge, impenetrable brain throbbing in the background. The only thing now is to play it, because it's impossible to see the changes and not want to try them out.

Sid Meier's Civilization V is due out on PC this autumn.

Babcock Dairy announces plan for Google Fiber ice cream

Madison is pulling out all the stops in order to attract Google Fiber to its shores. Dane101 has confirmed with Ald. Mark Clear that Babcock Dairy will launch a "Google ice cream flavor" as part of the city's service bid. Samples will be available tomorrow night at a public meeting being held at Olbrich Gardens at 7:00 p.m. where the public is invited to share ideas for how to convince Google to make Madison its flagship city for the high-speed internet project.

For what it's worth, we're told that the ice cream is "Google colored," with M&Ms and granola (to represent fiber--heyo!).

For more about the Google Fiber project, go here. For more on the meeting,click this.

The Coolest Invention Ever: Smokeless Caffeine Cigarettes

The Coolest Invention Ever: Smokeless Caffeine Cigarettes

For all of us Caffeine-addicted Geeks, I give this guy a 10 for creativity and awesomeness.

Apparently one breath through this baby gives you the caffeine equivalent of one shot of espresso (100 mg of caffeine). You can buy them at Dylan's Candy Bar in packs of three ($8) or individually ($3) later this month.

Sadly they all sold out within three hours of unveiling it, they're also sold out online. (Last we heard)

Thank you Prof. David Edwards

iPhone os 4.0

(From: Appleinsider)

Apple this summer will go a long way towards silencing critics and catering to one of the most prevalent demands of its iPhone user base, when it introduces a multitasking solution through the handset's 4.0 software update that will finally allow several third party apps to run concurrently and in the background.

People with a proven track record in predicting Apple's technological advances tell AppleInsider that the Cupertino-based company has developed a "full-on solution" to multitasking on the iPhone OS but offered no specifics on how the technology would optimize resource conservation and battery life -- two of the most critical issues surrounding the matter, alongside security.

From a user-facing perspective, Apple plans to deliver a multi-tasking manager that leverages interface technology already bundled with its Mac OS X operating system, according to those same people. It was requested that specifics be withheld at this time, as the iPhone Software 4.0 remains under development and reportedly has a quite 'way to go' before it's ready for prime time.

Today's iPhone 3.x software is a fully preemptive multitasking operating system, but it artificially restricts apps (other than specific ones bundled with the system by Apple) from running in the background.

Not a technical issue

Controversy over "multitasking" within the iPhone OS has been brewing ever since Apple launched iPhone 2.0 with the ability to run third party software titles. While often reported as begin a technical flaw, the iPhone OS really has no problem with multitasking.

The system's phone, SMS, email, iPod, voice recorder, Nike+, and certain other bundled apps can continue in the background while the user launches another app. However, third party titles obtained from the App Store (including apps from Apple, such as Remote or iDisk) can not be launched at the same time.

This behavior is prevented by the iPhone OS' security model, which is designed to close the current app whenever the user returns to the Home screen or accepts an incoming call. This design prevents apps from being able to run in the background without the user knowing, and therefore erases any real potential for spyware, adware and viruses.

Enabling multitasking

By jailbreaking the system, the iPhone OS security model is compromised via an exploit, allowing the user to launch and run multiple apps. This also opens the door to both malware and widespread piracy, both of which have been contained by the default security system put in place by Apple.

While this has resulted in a secure platform and a commercially viable App Store for both users and developers, many vocal critics have cited a variety of examples of apps or features that can't work within these constrains.

Among these apps begging for background execution are: Pandora-style Internet radio; third party instant messaging features that are available at all times just like SMS or email; and Loopt or Google Latitude type apps that report the user's location at regular intervals.

New in iPhone 4.0

There are a number of ways Apple can address these needs. First is by allowing third parties to launch apps that actually run all the time in the background, just like the bundled Mail, SMS, iPod, or Voice Memos.

This isn't a technical problem for the multitasking iPhone OS, but does introduce new issues for users. Because the iPhone OS doesn't present a conventional windowing user interface, launching multiple apps requires the addition of a new interface mechanism that allows users to intuitively switch between apps without introducing too much new complexity.

The iPhone OS is intended to create mobile devices that are easy to use, not just small versions of the complex PC model of the 1990s. Apple mocked the unfriendly and complex Task Manager of Windows Mobile at the launch of iPhone 2.0. Today's Android users similarly find themselves diddling with resource and memory management to optimize battery life and performance.

Existing background-capable apps in iPhone 3.x paint a bar across the top of the screen that allows the user to return to that background app (such as a phone call, voice memo, or Nike+ session) when finished with their secondary foreground app. But that solution isn't going to scale to multiple apps all running at once.

Other multitasking issues to fix

In addition to a new graphical interface for switching (handled by the Dock in Mac OS X), a multitasking third party app model would also require a way for apps to communicate with each other or prioritize resource allocation. One reason why the iPhone and iPod touch are emerging as a successful mobile games platform is due to the fact that the iPhone OS' one-app model means that games can be more complex and sophisticated and yet still perform well on a mobile device.

Gaming has largely failed to take off on other mobile platforms because titles are limited to simplistic experiences, as they must either run in a poorly-performing layer of abstraction (such as the Adobe Flash/Flash Lite, Microsoft Silverlight, or Sun Java/Android Dalvik runtimes), or target a native platform that lacks an installed base big enough to attract significant development.

Installing lots of background processes will inevitably eat up battery life and performance, so adding multitasking features that are valuable without creating a mess for users to deal with requires solving a variety of non-obvious problems that are very apparent on other mobile platforms that claim to deliver functional multitasking.

Potential solutions include saving the state of and parking the foreground app, or scaling down the execution of a background app, so that multiple app execution does not overwhelm the limited resources available on mobile devices. Either one would allow the user to quickly switch between running apps without seeing much downside. Today's iPhone OS requires a brief layover to the Home screen before jumping from the current app to launch another one.

More system RAM and faster processors will also help to improve the experience of users who want to quickly switch between multiple apps.

Dell Tablet Device Images Leaked

The Dell Mini 5 tablet PC is coming to the U.S. as the Streak.

The intrepid folks at Engadget nabbed internal slides this morning, which confirm that the five-inch, Google Android device will sport a WVGA (800 by 480) capacitive touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, front-facing VGA camera and 30-pin docking connector.

The slides also reveal that the device will arrive in an array of colorful finishes, including black, blue, pink, red and several custom Dell Design Studio finishes.

Darren Murph notes that the Streak will launch with an Amazon content partnership, meaning Kindle e-books and Amazon MP3s and video will stream to the device.

iPad 2g?

Rumors have started to surface about the iPad 2g already! Rumors say that it will be cheaper, have a better battery, and have a webcam built in for online chat... What do you think?