21 Oct 09 It Could be Possible to Stop Hurricanes with Supersonic Jets [Weather Control]
Hurricanes, as we've seen, can wreak serious havoc when they strike populated areas. We've never had control over them before, but one researcher thinks they could be broken up with F-4 fighter jets.
In theory, sending in a pair of the jets to do loops around the eye of the hurricane while it's still out over the ocean, creating sonic booms, would break it up before it hits the shore.
Jet fighters flying at supersonic speeds along special trajectories with a hurricane/typhoon at various altitudes would create supersonic booms. In one such embodiment, the trajectories for the supersonic booms of the present invention are counter to the rotational component of the hurricane and/or typhoon being targeted. As such, supersonic booms can be tailored and/or designed to partially and/or fully -negate the basic rotational contribution in a hurricane by slowing down a hurricane's/typhoon's rotation. Additionally, when supersonic booms propagate downward to the surface of the ocean they also destabilize a hurricane's/typhoon's structure by increasing the pressure in the central part of a hurricane's/typhoon's eye.
It's a pretty crazy idea, but I guess it makes sense. It would be pretty amazing to be able to stop any hurricane before it hit shore, saving millions and millions of dollars and who knows how many lives. I can't wait for them to test this out. [Patent via AV Web; Thanks, Jason!]
Tagi: supersonic jets, eye of the hurricane, weather control, fighter jets, web thanks, jet fighters, millis, booms, trajectories, altitudes, embodiment, jas, hurricanes, havoc, researcher, cy, patent
31 Dec 09 Boost a Weak 3G Modem Signal, With a Saucepan
modeca writes "Using only commonly available kitchen equipment this guy demonstrates the amazing powers of an ordinary metal pan to boost the 3G reception of his USB modem. It really seems to work, check the right hand side of the graph in the video." It's not that crazy: cheap antenna boosting (for USB WiFi dongles, Bluetooth, and more) has been elevated to a fine art in New Zealand.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: modem signal, th guy, usb modem, metal pan, recepti, kitchen equipment, saucepan, antenna, wifi, fine art, graph, bluetooth, cy, new zealand
24 Jan 10 Crazy Firewall Log Activity — What Does It Mean?
arkowitz writes "I happened to have access to five days worth of firewall logs from a US state government agency. I wrote a parser to grab unique IPs out, and sent several million of them to a company called Quova, who gave me back full location info on every 40th one. I then used Green Phosphor's Glasshouse visualization tool to have a look at the count of inbound packets, grouped by country of origin and hour. And it's freaking crazy looking. So I made the video of it and I'm asking the Slashdot community: What the heck is going on?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: state government agency, us state government, firewall logs, quova, firewall log, locati, glasshouse, mdash, phosphor, what the heck, country of origin, milli, parser, ips, cy
05 May 10 Best Way To Sell a Game Concept?
dunng808 writes "If a couple of young, game-crazy guys wanted to get started designing a game with the intention of selling the concept, how should they proceed? In the music industry they would make a demo mp3. In the film industry they would write a script (and I would recommend lyx with the hollywood document class). Should they develop some sample game play with a well-known engine? Is the one in Blender good enough? This somewhat dated list suggests it is. Or should they focus on textual descriptions and static scenes made with Blender and The Gimp? Is there even a market, let alone a convention, for selling game concepts?"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: demo mp3, static scenes, document class, game concept, coue, same game, film industry, blender, gimp, cy, lt, hollywood
28 May 10 Blizzard Boss Says Restrictive DRM Is a Waste of Time
Stoobalou writes "Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce reckons that fighting piracy with DRM is a losing battle. His company — which is responsible for one of the biggest video games of all time, the worryingly-addictive online fantasy role player World of Warcraft — is to release StarCraft 2 on July 27th, and Pearce has told Videogamer that the title won't be hobbled with the kind of crazy copy protection schemes which have made Ubisoft very unpopular in gaming circles of late. StarCraft 2 will require a single online activation using the company's Battle.net servers, after which players will be allowed to play the single-player game to their hearts' content, without being forced to have a persistent Internet connection."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: frank pearce, recks, fantasy role, h company, battle net servers, mdash, losing battle, ayers, single line, starcraft, waste of time, co founder, blizzard, world of warcraft, piracy, circles, cy, video games, hearts, boss
