Author: Duncan Geere
REVIEW: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin for the Xbox 360 and PC
When Duncan and I were offered to take F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin for a test drive, there was a bit of a scuffle over who should be the lucky one to review it. On the one hand, Duncan’s a much more experienced and discerning gamer than me. On the other, I’m his boss. So, instead we thought we’d do the early fair thing which was for both of us to test it from each of our point of views, each of our expertise and each of the two different formats – PC and console.
Duncan on PC – the expert’s take
Let’s get one thing straight here, before we begin. I’m sure as hell not going to put full stops between the letters of F.E.A.R. every time I write it, so you’re just going to have to cope with me calling it FEAR. That alright with everyone? Okay, then we can begin.
FEAR 2 is the sequel to 2005’s rather successful military horror first-person-shooter FEAR, which ostensibly stands for “First Encounter Assault Recon”. The plot revolves around combatting an army of telepathically-controlled clone soldiers, created by a company called Armacham, and gone rogue.
Also central to the plot is a creepy little girl called Alma, who appears constantly in nightmarish visions and flashbacks…
GPS gets 25% smaller, thanks to Epson
Epson’s Infineon XPOSYS chip is 25% smaller than any other A-GPS chip on the market, measuring just 2.8 x 2.9mm. That’s about the same size as a matchhead, as you can see in the picture.
The new smaller chip will also consume half as much power, meaning that location-based features will start becoming common on even the cheapest handsets. Will you ever be able to hide from anyone ever again? If this trend continues, then it’s unlikely.
I wrote an editorial the other day explaining why that doesn’t bother me. If you’re interested, then you can read that here. In the meantime, how much does being tracked bother you? Share your opinion below.
(via Engadget)
Econav Sat Nav: The tree-hugging satnav
Driving green is totally different to driving fast, and the Econav, from Vexia, knows it. The Econav will deliver you exactly the same speed, traffic and gear change info as a regular sat nav, but instead of showing you the fastest way to go, it’ll show you the most economical.
For example, if you’ve got a carful of people, then it’s going to be much better for you to use a motorway than country roads. It’ll take into account your car, fuel and occupancy level. The manufacturers claim that it’ll pay for itself in reduced fuel usage within six months. The price? £200. If you’re not often in a hurry, then it could be worth a look.
Vexia (via ShinyShiny)
Cuba launches its own Linux variant
Cuba, long the subject of a trade embargo from America, finds it difficult to get its hands on Microsoft software legally. Given that MS Office formats are the global standard, it makes things rather difficult for the island nation, so the country has decided to put its eggs in the Open Source box.
Cuba has developed its own variant of Linux, called “Nova”. It was introduced at a Havana computer conference on “technological sovereignty”, the Cuban government’s desire to become more technologically independent from America.
About 20 percent computers in Cuba currently run Linux – but sales of computers to the public only started last year. The dean of the School of Free Software at Cuba’s University of Information Sciences, Hector Rodriguez, says “I would like to think that in five years our country will have more than 50 percent migrated (to Linux)”.
(via Reuters)
Purelight XD Magic Wand offers fast, safe, sterilisation of surfaces
A “light wand” that uses ultraviolet radiation in the UV-C band to sterilize surfaces has been made available by Purelight UK. The wand should be able to knock out 99.9% of bacteria, including the rather nasty MRSA and C.difficile bacteria.
UV-C is higher-energy than the UV-A and UV-B wavebands, and it cleanses viruses and bacteria by breaking down the DNA of the microbes. After exposure of no more than 20 seconds, only 1 in 1000 bacteria remain.
There’s three versions of the wand available – the XD, which is rechargable and costs £120, the MD which is more compact and costs just £35, and the more hardcore, industrial “ClearCare” system, which costs £500 and up. None of those prices include VAT.
Purelight UK
First orbital collision – US and Russian satellites get a little too close
In the first reported orbital collision ever, a US and a Russian communications satellite have accidentally collided 780km above Siberia. A “massive cloud of debris” has been produced, and NASA is tracking the hundreds of bits resulting from the crash, in the hope that they won’t interfere with the ISS and the shuttle, which is due to launch later this month.
It’s comprehensively answered the question of “how much stuff can we stick up there without it hitting each other?”, as 6,000 satellites have been sent into orbit since the first in 1957. Only about half are still in use, with the others having become defunct over the years.
The satellites in question belong to Communications firm Iridium, based in Bethesda, Maryland, and Russia’s civilian space agency, Roscosmos. The former was launched in 1997 and only weighed 560kg, so probably came off rather worse in the collision than its one-tonne Russian rival from 1993.
Place your bets in the comments below as to when the second collision will occur. The closest wins a bit of charred satellite, dug out of the tundra of Siberia.
(via BBC)
Geek Chic: a t-shirt, bag or mug with a mosiac of your Twitter friends
My Twitter followers are important to me. No, really, you all are. But I’m not convinced that they’re important enough for me to want to wear them on my chest all day. Still, you might be closer to them than I am, so for £20 you can stick them on on T-Shirt and look down every ten minutes at your lovely disciples.
Also available are mugs (for £11), bags (currently out of stock) and business cards (£5.50). Just think to yourself before you make your purchase – will you genuinely still be wearing that thing in six months’ time?
Twitter Mosaic (via TechCrunch)
Download festival considering cashless wristbands for beer purchases
Wet festivals suck, especially wet rock festivals. If you’re deep in a mosh pit, and suddenly your wallet comes out of your trousers and falls into the mud, then you’ve essentially lost all your cash, cards and anything else you keep in it. Absolutele nightmare.
So Live Nation UK, which runs Download Festival, are experimenting with a form of cashless wristband that you ‘charge up’ in advance at the start of the festival, and then simply swipe your wrists over a scanner to buy food and drink, etc. I suspect there’d also be some form of top-up station, too – like an Oyster one, for when you overspend on the first day and run out of cash.
It’ll be great for preventing theft (for both stall owners and punters) as well as helping combat drugs problems onsite – dealers aren’t likely to have scanners. Any lost wristbands can be cancelled and replaced immediately with a new one with the same amount of cash on it.
Download Festival (via CMU Daily)
Spotify is wonderful, but it has five problems
It’s no secret that I love, adore, and worship Spotify. It’s far and away my favourite piece of software that’s emerged over the last year. The reason I love it so much is its simplicity, and the way it does nearly everything exactly right. You can see exactly why I love it from my original writeup here.
Yesterday, Spotify removed its invitation-only status in the UK. It’s been possible to sign up without an invite, via a bit of URL trickery, for a little while, but now it’s open to anyone. Go get your sisters, brothers, parents and neighbors signed up – they’ll love it. However, Spotify, for all its awesomeness, isn’t quite perfect. Here’s five reasons why.
UK Twitter traffic trebles in a month
Twitter’s popularity in the UK has exploded since January, after a number of high-profile celebrity Twitterers including @stephenfry, @wossy and @schofe started using it, and talking about it. As a result, the site’s traffic has trebled since ths start of the year, according to Hitwise Intelligence.
All that traffic has catapulted Twitter into the top 100 UK sites, where it now sits at #91, above Expedia, Gumtree and Easyjet. It’s also ranking seventh within the “Social Networking and Forums” category. Of course, this still underrates Twitter’s popularity, because many people don’t use the website to interact with the site. Real numbers would be even higher.
(via Hitwise Intelligence)
