Author Archives: Robin

Is Controller design killing creativity in video games

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We make money not art has a great set of notes on a lecture by Tom Armitage about how the game controller is basically the same everywhere, and how they have evolved for specific platforms to the point where they are no longer intuitive to the new user of console games due to the plethora of buttons and combinations you have to use. He then gives some alternatives packaged with it

of which I thought the Capcom one was really cool…

Mens rights on child support

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Well, we all know when it comes down to women and children it’s the woman who gets to say it all, and the man can just lump it and pay over the child support. Fortunately for us downtrodden men someone is starting a lawsuit to establish precedence much as there is precedence for women being allowed to have a choice. Not much chance of it working, but hopefully it’ll break down some of the sexist practices women have been engaging in lately.

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Space exploration = money

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OK finally the boffins have found a way to fund extra space exploration:
yes, tourism is a (small) part of it, but 3554 Amun is a larger incentive:

It’s a space rock about 2 kilometers in diameter that looks as if it might have fallen straight out of The Little Prince. There are three key things to know about 3554 Amun: First, its orbit crosses that of Earth; second, it’s the smallest M-class (metal-bearing) asteroid yet discovered; and finally, it contains (at today’s prices) roughly $8 trillion worth of iron and nickel, $6 trillion of cobalt, and $6 trillion of platinumlike metals. In other words, whoever owns Amun could become 450 times as wealthy as Bill Gates. And if you time your journey right — 2020 looks promising — it’s easier to reach than the Moon.

Wind Farms block RADAR

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It turns out that there’s a whole controversy going on about wind farms, which deliver ‘green’ energy.

The BBC has a story listing 10 objections to wind farms, more than half of which are bunkum, but it turns out that one of the major problems they produce is RADAR clutter, which creates false positives (aircraft being spotted when they really are just a wind farm) or misses the aircraft completely. They are working on ways to negate this effect by putting filters on the RADARs and also by changing the design and placement of the wind turbines to lower their RCS and RADAR interference. Good studies with pretty pictures 🙂

Russians to fly through cave in Su-27s and Su-30s

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BEIJING (AFP) – A team of Russian pilots will reportedly fly fighter jets through a narrow cave in central China in a tourist stunt that will cost people up to 840 dollars to watch.
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The Russian air force jets, including advanced Sukhoi Su-30s and Su-27s, will fly through the famed Tianmen Cave in central Hunan province on March 17-18, the Hunan Daily said.

Yup, these are military fast jets!

USN developing plane that launches from submarines

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It’s called the Cormorant and the initial development has been given to Lockheed Martin’s Skunkworks.
Because nuclear subs don’t have much to do in today’s environment they want to modify the launchers to eject these aircraft. This obviously comes with problems…

The Skunk Works’s answer is a four-ton airplane with gull wings that hinge around its body to fit inside the missile tube.

The craft is made of titanium to resist corrosion, and any empty spaces are filled with plastic foam to resist crushing. The rest of the body is pressurized with inert gas. Inflatable seals keep the weapon-bay doors, engine inlet and exhaust covers watertight.