http://www.usagaming.net/forum/ en Sun, 20 May 2012 15:53:46 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.usagaming.net/forum/images/misc/rss.png http://www.usagaming.net/forum/ http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2792-Diablo-3-Quick-Tips-How-To-Level-Up-Faster-Get-The-Best-Items-Earn-Extra-Gold-A?goto=newpost Fri, 18 May 2012 19:55:41 GMT This Diablo 3 quick tips video will help you level up faster, get the best items, earn extra gold, and more. After playing through Blizzard... This Diablo 3 quick tips video will help you level up faster, get the best items, earn extra gold, and more. After playing through Blizzard Entertainment's action role playing game, we found that there are a few ways to make the experience as a whole better and we wanted to share them with you. Check them out below. Watch Larger Version of this Video GUIDE: Diablo 3 Guide -- Your Guide to Our GuidesAfter the break you can find a full breakdown of each Diablo 3 quick tip. Read More?

More... ]]> Gaming Stephen Colbert http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2792-Diablo-3-Quick-Tips-How-To-Level-Up-Faster-Get-The-Best-Items-Earn-Extra-Gold-A http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2791-The-Most-Amazing-Science-Images-of-the-Week-May-14-18-2012?goto=newpost Fri, 18 May 2012 17:58:24 GMT More... (http://www.popsci.com/science/gallery/2012-05/most-amazing-science-images-week-may-14-18-2012) More... ]]> Science Albert Einstein http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2791-The-Most-Amazing-Science-Images-of-the-Week-May-14-18-2012 http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2790-The-Most-Amazing-Science-Images-of-the-Week-May-14-18-2012?goto=newpost Fri, 18 May 2012 17:58:24 GMT Image: http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/AP12051513633.jpg Got a space-heavy lineup for you guys this week,...
Got a space-heavy lineup for you guys this week, looking forward to the SpaceX launch this weekend: a Soyuz rocket launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, a time-lapsed photo taken from the ISS, a roving space shuttle cafe that looks like an actual space shuttle, and more. Enjoy!
Click to launch our guide to the upcoming year in science.


More... ]]> Science Albert Einstein http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2790-The-Most-Amazing-Science-Images-of-the-Week-May-14-18-2012 http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2789-Archive-Gallery-PopSci-s-Beauty-Secrets?goto=newpost Fri, 18 May 2012 15:05:10 GMT More... (http://www.popsci.com/science/gallery/2012-05/archive-gallery-popscis-beauty-secrets) More... ]]> Science Albert Einstein http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2789-Archive-Gallery-PopSci-s-Beauty-Secrets http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2788-Archive-Gallery-Beauty-Secrets-of-Popular-Science?goto=newpost Fri, 18 May 2012 15:05:10 GMT Get gorgeous with the cutting edge of twentieth-century technology Image:... Get gorgeous with the cutting edge of twentieth-century technology

Despite having a readership made up mostly of men, Popular Sciences of old knew their way around a beauty parlor. Especially from the 20s to the 40s, PopSci offered makeup tips and advice to female readers, saying in effect "Look! We've got incredibly detailed cutaways of how things work AND beauty knowhow! What more could you want?"
Click here to check out the gallery.
What, indeed. This week's archive gallery takes a look at Popular Science's best beauty advice, some of which is spot-on (use a stencil to keep your lipstick from smudging!), some of which is less so (electrocute yourself to get rid of a double chin!).
Enter the gallery above to learn how to get gussied up, PopSci style.


More... ]]> Science Albert Einstein http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2788-Archive-Gallery-Beauty-Secrets-of-Popular-Science http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2787-Sly-Cooper-Thieves-In-Time-Now-Confirmed-For-PS-Vita?goto=newpost Fri, 18 May 2012 11:25:20 GMT Sony kicks off this late-May 2012 Friday with the wonderful news that the PlayStation 3 version of Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time will be joined by a... Sony kicks off this late-May 2012 Friday with the wonderful news that the PlayStation 3 version of Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time will be joined by a PlayStation Vita release as well. The Vita-based Sly game is to be a direct port of the console release, Sanzaru Games' Glen Egan confirms on PlayStation Blog.In addition to carrying the core PS3 game over to a handheld platform, the Vita version of Thieves in Time will also include front/back touch features, motion controls, and cross-platform saving. Egan promises to bring out more details on the price and release date "soon." And hey, wouldn't you know it? E3 2012 is also happening quite "soon."

More... ]]> Gaming Stephen Colbert http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2787-Sly-Cooper-Thieves-In-Time-Now-Confirmed-For-PS-Vita http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2786-Team-Fortress-2-Day-of-Defeat-Source-and-Half-Life-2-Deathmatch-Updates-Released?goto=newpost Fri, 18 May 2012 00:28:30 GMT Updates to Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your... Updates to Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

• Fatal engine errors are now written to the server log file
• Added sv_lowedict_threshold and sv_lowedict_action which allow the engine to take action before running out of free edicts
  
  • Possible values for sv_lowedict_action are: 0 - no action, 1 - warn to log file, 2 - attempt to restart the game, if applicable, 3 - restart the map, 4 - go to the next map in the map cycle

Team Fortress 2

• Added The Sneaky Spats of Sneaking
• Added new promotional items
• Added koth_badlands to eligible quickplay maps
• Added changelevel_next server command which changes to the next map in the map cycle
• Added mp_restartgame_immediate ConVar which has the same effect as mp_restartgame without a delay
• Fixed The Manmelter using the wrong muzzle flash effectFixed The Frying Pan not being positioned correctly for some classes

More... ]]> Gaming TeamFortress http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2786-Team-Fortress-2-Day-of-Defeat-Source-and-Half-Life-2-Deathmatch-Updates-Released http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2785-38-Studios-In-Money-Trouble-With-The-State-Of-Rhode-Island-Over-1-125-Million-Missed?goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 23:31:18 GMT Curt Schillings' 38 Studios, developers of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, have reportedly missed their latest loan payment of $1.125 million to the state of Rhode Island. Consequently, they defaulted on their $75 million loan from Rhode Island's Economic Development Corporation. REVIEW: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review Is At Hand Additionally, the developer wasn't able to pay its employees for their work on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which turned out to be a successful game. They also had to let go all of their temps and contractors according to Joystiq. The EDC called a three-hour emergency meeting on May 16, 2012 to determine what they were going to do about the funds. In the end they decided not to take immediate action to help the developer. Read More?

More... ]]> Gaming Stephen Colbert http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2785-38-Studios-In-Money-Trouble-With-The-State-Of-Rhode-Island-Over-1-125-Million-Missed http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2784-Buried-Since-the-Jurassic-Era-Ocean-Microbes-Are-Still-Barely-Alive?goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 20:55:44 GMT Image: http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/roy9HR.jpg With no meal for 86 million years, and barely enough oxygen...
With no meal for 86 million years, and barely enough oxygen to sustain metabolism, can a single-celled organism really be considered alive? Yes, but only just, according to a new study. A microbial community buried under the ocean floor since the mid-Jurassic era is still hanging on. Their tenacity could pose some interesting questions for the hunt for alien life.
Plenty of microbes live beneath ocean sediments — about 90 percent of the planet’s unicellular organisms are found there, and they’ve long been subjects of study among biologists interested in extreme environments. Hans Røy and colleagues wanted to dig even deeper to examine the most barren places, where food supplies are scarce or nonexistent and where oxygen barely reaches.
Røy and colleagues from Denmark and Germany surveyed red clays buried deep in the Pacific Ocean, along the equator and into the North Pacific Gyre current system. From the research R/V Knorr, they drilled core samples 92 feet into the ocean floor, dating to the time of the dinosaurs, and tested the cores with oxygen sensors. They found that organisms live in the deepest parts of these sediments and that they’re using oxygen for respiration — only incredibly slowly. The deeper the sediments, the less food and oxygen is present, and the less oxygen is used up, too. These organisms have not had access to a fresh food supply since their burial, 70 to 86 million years ago.
It takes the microbes about 1,000 years to double their biomass, which could also mean it takes them 1,000 years to divide, Røy and his colleagues found. E. coli, by contrast, takes 17 to 30 minutes. Put another way, to be sure these things were actually living — meaning undergoing metabolic processes and growing biomass — you would have to wait 1,000 years.
Røy and colleagues believe these microbial communities are living at the absolute limit — they have the bare minimum energy required to keep their DNA intact and their proteins functioning. This is interesting for a couple reasons. First, these life forms are definitely odd, and they suggest that scientists’ knowledge of prokaryotes is incomplete at best. The way unicellular organisms live in the lab is nothing like the way they live beneath the ocean. Second, they once again prove that live persists where it would seem physically impossible — and that is an interesting finding if you’re interested in astrobiology. Even in the harshest environments on this planet, where access to any form of energy is limited at best, microbes can live. Could they live somewhere off this planet, too?
The study appears in the journal Science.


More... ]]> Science Albert Einstein http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2784-Buried-Since-the-Jurassic-Era-Ocean-Microbes-Are-Still-Barely-Alive http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2783-Steelseries-Diablo-3-Headset-And-Mouse-Review-The-Stylish-Way-To-Slay-Evil?goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 20:22:59 GMT Steelseries' Diablo 3 gaming gear is stylish, functional, and most importantly, the Steelseries Diablo 3 headset and the Steelseries Diablo 3 mouse are perfect for long gaming periods. Face it, that's exactly what you're going to need while crawling through the many layers of Blizzard Entertainment's latest action role playing game. In our latest edition of Tech Junkies, Rob Manuel and Leah Jackson review Steelseries' Diablo 3 headset, mouse, and mousepads. Watch Larger Version | Watch HD Version GUIDE: Diablo 3 Guide -- Your Guide to Our GuidesAfter the break you can find our in-depth review of the Steelseries Diablo 3 headset and mouse. Read More?

More... ]]> Gaming Stephen Colbert http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2783-Steelseries-Diablo-3-Headset-And-Mouse-Review-The-Stylish-Way-To-Slay-Evil http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2782-Phineas-Gage-Neurology-s-Most-Interesting-Case-Gets-His-Head-Re-Examined-With-a-New?goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 20:22:59 GMT Image: http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/120516195408-large.jpeg Scientists are getting another chance to get...
Scientists are getting another chance to get inside Phineas Gage’s head. The 25-year-old Gage was a railroad supervisor back in 1848, using a 13-pound, 3-foot-7 iron rod to pack blasting powder into a rock just moments before becoming history’s most interesting neuroscience case. Gage somehow triggered an explosion that drove the rod straight through his left cheek and out the top of his head, taking a chunk of his left frontal lobe with it.
Yet somehow Gage survived, though not really as Phineas Gage. The previously likeable young man underwent severe personality changes, becoming irritable and profane, far from the person he once was. Scientists studied his case for the dozen years he survived after the accident, and have been fascinated with Gage’s brain ever since--up to an amazing reconstruction just completed.
Studying Gage’s brain today has proven difficult, and scientists have long argued over just how much of his brain matter was removed or damaged in the incident--key data that could help explain both his profound changes in behavior and the causes and effects of certain deleterious frontal lobe disorders like Alzheimer’s. When Gage died there was no recorded autopsy, and while his skull was preserved it is now deteriorating. As such, the last time it was allowed to be imaged was in 2001, and those computed tomography scans were quickly lost somewhere at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, an affiliate of Harvard. The last, best data on Gage went missing.
But the authors of a paper publishing in yesterday’s issue of the journal PLoS ONE were able to finally recover the CT data files that had been lost for more than a decade, and using them they have reconstructed Gage’s brain using modern-day brain images of males matching Gage’s age and handedness (he was a righty). These new models are the best look yet at what most likely happened to Gage’s brain.
The real question here isn’t how he survived, but one of the architecture of the brain and how it’s wired together. The researchers, from UCLA, found that their models show that nearly 11 percent of Gage’s white matter was damaged, as well as 4 percent of the cortex. That basically means that while the cortical damage was restricted to Gage’s left frontal lobe, the disruption to his brain’s connectivity via the white matter damage reverberated throughout the brain, severing connections between the left frontal, left temporal, and right frontal cortices as well as the left limbic structures of his brain even though the rod completely missed those areas.
This explains why this iron tamping rod--which gruesome as it may sound only physically impacted a small portion of his brain--had such widespread impact on behaviors governed by other brain regions. Gage’s injury is not unlike many traumatic brain injuries, or even certain degenerative diseases. So understanding what went on in Gage’s head should inform the way neurologists thing about the human brain even a century-and-a-half later.
[Science Daily]


More... ]]> Science Albert Einstein http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2782-Phineas-Gage-Neurology-s-Most-Interesting-Case-Gets-His-Head-Re-Examined-With-a-New http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2781-Far-Cry-3-Multiplayer-Beta-Details-Coming-This-Summer?goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 19:36:57 GMT The Far Cry 3 multiplayer closed beta will run for two weeks this summer on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In the beta, up to 16 players will be... The Far Cry 3 multiplayer closed beta will run for two weeks this summer on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In the beta, up to 16 players will be able to shoot it out on multiple maps in all sorts of different modes, including Firestorm mode, with six different playable classes. The Far Cry 3 beta will also include all sorts of weapons with hundreds of upgrades and customizable options available. Sounds to me like they're cramming a whole lot of awesome in to this beta. If you want to get in on the action you'll either have to purchase a copy of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier at Gamestop, be a GameStop PowerUp Rewards Member, and they'll e-mail you a code. Or you can enter for a chance to win a code via Far Cry's Facebook. Far Cry 3 will be out on September 4, 2012 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

More... ]]> Gaming Stephen Colbert http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2781-Far-Cry-3-Multiplayer-Beta-Details-Coming-This-Summer http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2780-Gallery-The-Galaxy-Evolution-Explorer-s-Greatest-Hits?goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 18:47:08 GMT More... (http://www.popsci.com/science/gallery/2012-05/gallery-galaxy-evolution-explorers-greatest-hits) More... ]]> Science Albert Einstein http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2780-Gallery-The-Galaxy-Evolution-Explorer-s-Greatest-Hits http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2779-Video-MIT-s-Latest-User-Interface-Employs-Gravity-Defying-Levitating-Metal-Orbs?goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 15:45:51 GMT Image: http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/Screen Shot 2012-05-17 at 11.25.18 AM.png The future of user interfaces...
The future of user interfaces seems to be gesture-based, at least if one simply looks at where research dollars are flowing and what products--yes, like the Kinect--are coming to market. But the peripheral is not dead. Jinha Lee at the Tangible Media Group at the MIT Media Lab sees a different future, one that dispenses with gravity to create a much more tangible yet futuristic UI that lets users move and interact with floating, gravity-defying objects in 3-D space.
Lee’s prototype ZeroN is a small metal orb floating in free space that users can manipulate by moving around and placing in midair. Suspended by a highly tuned electromagnetic field, the orb really does seem to levitate, and the degree to which the system keeps the ball stable even as it is moved around on all three axes is pretty mind-blowing. The ball floats until it is moved, and when placed in a point in space it stays there. And with an added layer of software surrounding it, the orb becomes a tool for all sorts of applications.
For instance, the ZeroN can be used as the stand-in for a camera in a 3-D scene (imagine a scale architectural model placed in the ZeroN’s working space; the ball can be moved around the model, changing the point-of-view of the 3-D representation in a graphic representation). The ZeroN can also remember how it has been moved in the past, retracing a path that it was previously moved along (the ZeroN doesn’t have to be moved by a human hand, but can also be moved around the space by the computer).
The trick to all this is a precision electromagnet fitted to a moving actuator above the ZeroN’s workspace. The electromagnet can move around the space above and rapidly adjust its magnetic pull or resistance based on where the ZeroN is in space, a value that is measured every few milliseconds by an array of IR cameras. So while the ZeroN appears to float as if in defiance of gravity, the setup is purely mechanical. All it really requires is a very precise electromagnet and the right software to keep the orb stable.
Next up: replacing the actuator with solenoids, which might allow the system to place several objects in the same ZeroN workspace at the same time, allowing for whole new applications. More on this over at Co.Design and in the video below.
[Co.Design]


More... ]]> Science Albert Einstein http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2779-Video-MIT-s-Latest-User-Interface-Employs-Gravity-Defying-Levitating-Metal-Orbs http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2778-Diablo-3-Easter-Egg-Is-All-Sunshine-And-Rainbows?goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 14:44:26 GMT Dedicated Diablo 3 players have already discovered the secret level that we all knew would be hidden away somewhere in the game. The Diablo series... Dedicated Diablo 3 players have already discovered the secret level that we all knew would be hidden away somewhere in the game. The Diablo series has a history of such things, with rumors of a secret cow level than never panned out in the first game leading to the inclusion of an actual secret cow level in the second game. Moo Moo Farm is no more in Diablo 3, however. It's been replaced by Whimsyshire, a colorful land filled with deadly unicorns, stuffed teddy bears, and flowers. Getting to the hidden area -- and earning the achievements and loot that it offers -- involves finding an assortment of random object spread out between acts 1-4 of the game, and then using those objects to somehow open a portal. You can find a rough set of instructions in the Battle.net forums (via Polygon). You can also see what this ridiculous location looks like in the video up top.

More... ]]> Gaming Stephen Colbert http://www.usagaming.net/forum/showthread.php/2778-Diablo-3-Easter-Egg-Is-All-Sunshine-And-Rainbows