A new feature has come to the Unsayable Podcast. Here are the links from the weekly email that I send to Podcast Co-Host Chris McVicker detailing all the interesting things he misses while he is stuck at work.

Here are the links for this week’s while you were at work!

Consoles are dead

BNET UPDATE

PS3 BluRay upgrade

Ars Technica build guide

GAME RELEASES FOR THE WEEK

Xbox 360:

• Dark Sector
• Viking: Battle for Asgard
• Universe at War: Earth Assault

PS3:

• Dark Sector
• Viking Battle for Asgard

Nintendo Wii:

• Octomania
• Obscure: The Aftermath
• Opoona

PS2:

• Naruto Ultimate Ninja 3
• Obscure: The Aftermath
• Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure

PSP:

• Warriors Orochi
• Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

Nintendo DS:

• Harvest Moon DS Cute
• Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword
• Backyard Baseball 2009
• Plushees

PC Games:

• Guild Wars Platinum Edition
• Escape from Paradise City
• Australia Zoo Quest
• Command & Conquer 3: Limited Edition
• Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath
• Obscure: The Aftermath
• Sword of the Stars Collector’s Edition
• Warriors Orochi

Don’t steal 360’s in this day and age

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In lieu of me posting the latest episode, allow me to humbly submit my current desktop.

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This week’s this week in DARPA showcases one of the many ways that DARPA is always looking to maximize the combat effectiveness of the war fighter. First, some background, orexins (also called hypocretins) are a kind of neuropeptide hormones that are thought to be important in wakefulness and appetite stimulation. It turns of that the good folks at DARPA following a series of experiments in monkeys found that after delivering doses of orexin A intra-nasally to sleep deprived monkeys they were able to perform as well as their well-rested counterparts. While humans using stimulants to stay awake is nothing new, orexin seems to not suffer from many of the drawbacks and side-effects associated with amphetamines.

Hit the link for the abstract of the monkey experiment

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Episode 23 of the Unsayable Podcast is now available for download. This week Chris and I discuss taser robots, insecure TSA redress website, thermobaric weapsons, and all the videogame news that is fit to print. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

Stories for this show include:

• Thermobaric battle weapons
• Ubuntu locked and loaded into new Dell systems
• Roboids with taZorz
• Kazakhtelecom
• Microsoft don’t owe you a thing
• Super-duper ultra def
• Ninja Gaiden needs your help
• Microsoft sells a crap-ton of 360’s
• Used games… pure EVIL

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Thermobaric you say? What now? This new breed of super weapon operates by releasing a first stage consisting of a cloud of combustible gas from the warhead, then igniting it in the second stage. The upside to this method is that is that by allowing the gas to spread first it increases the range and lethality, even for people hiding in cover. Here’s a quote from a Department of Defense analysis in 1993

“The [blast] kill mechanism against living targets is unique–and unpleasant…. What kills is the pressure wave, and more importantly, the subsequent rarefaction [vacuum], which ruptures the lungs.… If the fuel deflagrates but does not detonate, victims will be severely burned and will probably also inhale the burning fuel. Since the most common FAE fuels, ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, are highly toxic, undetonated FAE should prove as lethal to personnel caught within the cloud as most chemical agents.” … “shock and pressure waves cause minimal damage to brain tissue… it is possible that victims of FAEs are not rendered unconscious by the blast, but instead suffer for several seconds or minutes while they suffocate.”

“The effect of an FAE explosion within confined spaces is immense,” said a CIA study of the weapons. “Those near the ignition point are obliterated. Those at the fringe are likely to suffer many internal, and thus invisible injuries, including burst eardrums and crushed inner ear organs, severe concussions, ruptured lungs and internal organs, and possibly blindness.”

Sounds like that nice cave you had staked out in Afghanistan is looking a little less secure.

Check out the full story at Raw

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Overview:

The goal of the Orbital Express Space Operations Architecture program is to validate the technical feasibility of robotic, autonomous onorbit refueling and reconfiguration of satellites to support a broad range of future U.S. national security and commercial space programs. Refueling satellites will enable frequent maneuver to improve coverage, change arrival times to counter denial and deception and improve survivability, as well as extend satellite lifetime. Electronics upgrades on-orbit can provide regular performance improvements and dramatically reduce the time to deploy new technology on-orbit. The Orbital Express advanced technology demonstration will design, develop and test on-orbit a prototype servicing satellite (ASTRO) and a surrogate next generation serviceable satellite (NextSat). The elements of the Orbital Express demonstration, coordinated with Air Force Space Command and Air Force Space and Missile Command, will be tied together by non-proprietary satellite servicing interfaces (mechanical, electrical, etc.) that will facilitate the development of an industry wide on-orbit servicing infrastructure. NASA will apply the sensors and software developed for autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations to reduce risk for collaborative human-robotic operations in space for the NASA Exploration Initiative. Launch of the demonstration system is scheduled for March 7, 2007 on the Air Force Space Test Program STP-1 mission.

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Bowing to the wishes of its customers, Dell has started selling desktops and laptops with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed.

Here’s a quote from the Dell main page:

You asked, we listened. For advanced users and tech enthusiasts, we’re happy to offer a new open-source operating system, so you can dive in and truly enjoy a PC experience just the way you want it. In addition to the FreeDOS systems we already offer, we are proud to announce PCs with Ubuntu.

 

Not sure Open Source is for You?

The main thing to note is that when you choose open source you don’t get a Windows® operating system. If you’re here by mistake and you are looking for a Dell PC with Windows, please use the following link.

Did you notice that they basically come out and say that these machines are only for advanced users and tech enthusiasts, as well as offering a helpful link back to their windows page if you’ve gotten to the Ubuntu page by mistake. How exactly do you find yourself on the Dell/Ubuntu page by mistake? Anways, as another side note, the price for their base laptop model with Ubuntu is $1337, coincidence, I think not!

Dell/Ubuntu

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To All NSS Members and Friends:

As many of you have heard, there was a serious accident last week at Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan’s pioneering company. Three lives were lost, including Charles ‘Glen’ May, an NSS member who was a leader within NSS’s Huntsville HAL5 Chapter. In addition, three employees suffered serious injuries. Scaled has announced information on a fund for those wishing to support the families of the deceased as well as the injured and their families. The National Space Society urges all of its members to give generously to support these heroes.

Please send contributions to

Scaled Family Support Fund
c/o Scaled Composites
1624 Flight Line
Mojave, CA. 93501

Acct # 04157-66832
Wire transfer ABA Routing #1220-0066-1

Please make checks payable to the account number or to the name of the fund.

NSS Statement on Accident at Scaled Composites: America was built on the courage of those who dared to explore new frontiers. From Lewis and Clark to the Apollo astronauts, great men and women have tested themselves against the frontiers of their age.

In the course of their efforts, these heroes may pay the ultimate cost, as they did yesterday in Mojave. When that happens, it is the highest duty of all of us to care for the injured, to mourn the departed, and to care for the families. An honest investigation must be conducted to learn what went wrong, and to fix the cause so that it does not happen again.

But when the investigation finished, our duty is to carry on the work of those heroes, to redouble our efforts to scale the peaks that they were climbing. That is what we learned from Apollo 1. That is what they would want.

The frontier of space is far from tamed. The men and women of Scaled Composites are engaged in one of the great efforts of our time: opening space for all humanity. That is a noble pursuit, perhaps the most noble of all, and we must all be thankful for their work, and for their sacrifice.

Let us not shirk from what happened yesterday. Professionals will find the cause. The program will continue. The effort to open space cannot be stopped. Now is the time to honor those men by honoring the cause that they were engaged in. Those of us who are part of this great endeavor, whether as participants or as supporters, let us carry forward this message of perseverance to our own communities, to our elected leaders and to the media. Now more than ever, the nation needs to hear your voices.

National Space Society
Katherine Brick
Email: members@nss.org
Phone: (202) 429-1600

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NewScientistTech has a very short article, but an important one, about plans from Taser International of Arizona to begin arming robots with taser guns. The idea would be to sell these death-bots to police departments for use on civilians.

Check this quote from security guru Neil Davison:

“The victim would have to receive shocks for longer, or repeatedly, to give police time to reach the scene and restrain them, which carries greater risk to their health,” warns non-lethal weapons researcher Neil Davison, of the University of Bradford, UK.

Right, so here is how I see this playing out, the robot is wheeling down the street, catches me jaywalking, and commences to mercilessly taser me so as to keep me at the scene of the crime until police can arrive to issue me a ticket. Unfortunately, the cops are busy, and when they finally arrive eight hours later, they find the robot hunched over my dead body, watching as my corpse jerks around like a marionette on a string from the repeated electrical shocks.

How often do I have to say it, DON’T GIVE THE ROBOTS WEAPONS!!!!!

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ArsTechnica has an interesting piece about the price of internet service in Kazakhstan, and lemme tell you, it ain’t cheap. Currently, unlimited phone modem service will run you about $111 dollars a month, DSL 1.5Mbps is $3,355 a month, and a 6Mbps cable connection is a whopping $22,032 dollars monthly. (Note to the readers, I can’t even get a 6Mbps connection, not that I’d pay twenty grand for it anyways) Not only are the prices completely insane, but you have only 1, count ‘em, 1 choice for your service provider, Kazakhtelecom, who also reserves the right to block any web addresses it likes as well as reporting you for “unlawful activities of political and economic organizations in creating, disseminating, and using information.” Yikes, that’s one spot officially crossed off the vacation list. Hit the link to Ars for the full story.

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