geekosystem

Because Minecraft wasn't already cause enough for procrastination: Programmer and player sk89q and his associates hacked the map added in the 1.6 update to play YouTube videos in-game. Notch: "Oh. My. God. Have all my upvotes!!"

This is indeed playing YouTube (over SMP -- no client mod). The Mirror's Edge video, however, was local. The sound is external. There is even, yes, a mapsaver (screensaver)! Fraps dropped frame rate substantially so the video is not as smooth as it really is usually. How I am doing this is unrealistic. However, I'm investigating the real possibility of a YouTube player. THANKS to dested (especially), fullwall, and Tahg!

(via /r/minecraft)

The BodyGuard, designed by cameraman David Brown, is an armored glove equipped with a high voltage stun gun, laser pointer for aiming, video camera and flashlight. Brown developed the concept for the BodyGuard -- which is designed to prevent violent situations rather than end them -- one night in 2004 when he and a few of his friends were discussing a recent mountain lion that attacked some cyclists, leaving one dead and the other maimed.

When using a knife, gun, or other handheld weapon, Brown felt the item could be easily dropped, thus leaving the wielder unable to protect his or herself. So, he came up with the glove concept because he felt it would be more difficult to lose the weapon, but also because using one's own hand was much more instinctual than using a foreign object.

The DoD has rolled out its airplane buying plan for the next thirty years in the highly speculative yet congressionally mandated Aircraft Procurement Plan 2012-2041. The document outlines the fleet size for the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and the Navy, giving some idea of what to expect in the coming years. Overall, the number of aircraft staying around the current size of 5,500, but the plan does show that the DoD is eager to get more drones into the fleet. For the most part, expansion is out. Bombers, cargo planes, and aerial refueling are staying at around their current levels. This doesn't mean that there will be no new developments in those areas -- the plan calls for a new bomber of some kind, and procurement of the new KC-164 aerial refueling craft -- but the total fleet sizes will remain untouched. There will even be some shrinkage, mostly in the fighter segment, which will drop by some 10% from the current 3,300 craft. This figure includes legacy fighters like the F-15 and F-16, in addition to the new F-22 and F-35. However, the number of mid-size to large unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) will nearly double in the next nine years, going from about 340 to 650 by 2012.

The Hobbit movies get release dates (The Mary Sue) Lockheed Martin cyberattack: Routine, a warning, or a possible act of war? (IEEE Spectrum) Google cracks down on Android Market gaming emulators (Android Police) What different college degrees are 'worth' (Georgetown.edu) Are AirBNB users in NYC and elsewhere breaking the law? (BetaBeat) StarCraft 2: Heart of the Warm details released (Slashdot) The most useless video game weapons (Shortlist) (title pic: Endeavour's last spacedock. via Bad Astronomy)

I bet you've been wondering what Jörge Sprave, slingshot enthusiast and large bicep owner, has been up to lately. Wonder no longer, as Sprave has emerged with a new and terrifying slingshot rifle. The best part? This one shoots circular saw blades. And of course Sprave's new slingshot is designed to ensure that the blades are spinning once fired from the rifle, for safety and better stability during flight. Because when firing your circular saw blade slingshot, safety is the top priority. Sprave has a good attitude about his eFame, and safety concerns. When one commentor asked him what would happen if the misfired and launched a saw blade into his face, Sprave quipped: "Well, if that happens that would no doubts be my first video with more than ten million views!" This man truly understands the Internet. (via Nerd Approved)

Anybody that has played Portal -- or at this point, heard someone espousing the virtues of Portal -- has likely come across the musician Jonathan Coulton. His song from the ending credits, "Still Alive," has reached near mythical status in the realm of geekdom and potentially beyond.

But Mr. Coulton is far from the only geeky musician out there. There are some obvious inclusions in a list of geeky musicians, such as mc chris, Freezepop and, of course, Weird Al. There are also, however, a number of musicians, bands and groups that exist just far enough out to the side of what might be considered mainstream that they deserve to be spotlighted. This is by no means comprehensive. For more artists, check out Nerdapalooza or Penny Arcade Expo. The first is a nerdy music festival while the second typically has concerts at night featuring many of these artists and more.

The World Health Organization now lists cell phone use as a "carcinogenic hazard," a category of cancer risks that contains lead, engine exhaust and chloroform, though it only lists cell phone use as a risk, and made clear that it has found no conclusive evidence linking cell phone use to any adverse health risks. The news here, however, is that the WHO now recognizes cell phone use as a potential cancer risk, whereas previously, they did not. A team of 31 scientists from 14 countries peer-reviewed studies on cell phone safety and found enough evidence to reach the conclusion that cell phone use could indeed pose a health risk. There haven't been any longterm studies to determine if cell phone use definitely poses a health risk, but the WHO claims there is a possible connection.

Activision Blizzard announced the oft-rumored Call of Duty subscription fee service today: Call of Duty Elite, basically a social network for Call of Duty players. The network will launch its beta this summer, first being implemented with last November's Call of Duty: Black Ops, and the full service will be integrated with Call of Duty's next installment, Modern Warfare 3. Activision hasn't yet announced the price, but mentioned they are projecting it will be less than "fees for comparable online-entertainment services."

The service offers what any sensible gamer would expect: Basic social networking features, the ability to make groups and clans, participate in tournaments, stat-tracking, and the ability to upload videos and screenshots and have users vote on which they feel are the best. Not exactly worth a monthly subscription fee? The service also offers in-depth stat-tracking, such as heat maps detailing where the player gets shot, the ability to review the minute-by-minute progression of a match, as well as aggregate data, like which weapons were used to obtain the most kills on a certain map and where the most deaths occur on a map. The subscription fee is also planned to allow subscribers access to free map packs that players will ignore while sticking to their favorite originals, whereas non-subscribers would have to purchase them separately. So, still not exactly worth its monthly subscription fee, unless you take your yearly-iterated war gaming very seriously. Luckily for Call of Duty gamers who don't exactly want to add a Call of Duty subscription to their monthly budget, Activision stated that the base game will still ship with regular multiplayer functionality that will not cost a monthly fee. Head on past the break to see the official trailer announcement, which details many of the new network's features.

Animation is a medium and not a genre. It seems to bear repeating, since many professional critics, filmmakers, and a vast majority of the cinema-going public still don’t see it that way. Thankfully, this opinion has begun to shift in recent years, thanks to foreign productions like Persepolis, or the Best Picture-nominated Toy Story 3. Still, this cultural attitude has also led to some unusual reviews of animated films (including one about Princess Mononoke suggesting it was for 9-year olds seeking escapism), and (when combined with a number of factors including, but not limited to, Disney’s significant dip in quality for most of the ’80s leading to some serious competition from other animation studios and the influence of anime finally arriving on American shores), some very, very interesting childhood movie memories for people now in their 20s and 30s.

The directors of these films simply had a more … expansive view of what children could handle, which sometimes landed them in hot water with critics and outraged parents. Sometimes, it left an indelible impression on the young guns that watched it, an impression that they’re all too happy to share with others who remember too.

>>>List at The Mary Sue.

Over the weekend, a Reddit user posted the above picture of a Husky/Corgi mix, which soon found itself disseminated to all corners of the Internet. This should come as no surprise since, as we've discussed before, the Internet cannot help but love corgis. But now there's more to love since the Horgi (Corskey?) has inspired other Corgi hybrid owners to show off their mutts, with adorable results. My corgis, let me show you them.

Do any of you remember the 1990's cartoon The Tick? The show featured a tertiary character called The Human Bullet, who would fly into action by having his son fire him out of the large artillery canon housed in the Bullet's backyard. If you've ever wanted to do the same, then Danish company Copenhagen Suborbitals might be able to give you the lift you need. And what's more, they're aiming to launch a major test flight this week. The flight will be unmanned, launched from northern Europe, one of the many unusual tactics used by this fiercely independent company. The launch window is sometime between June 1st and the 14th, and will be streamed live from their website. This testflight will be another step for the company, bringing them closer to the ultimate goal of launching space tourists 100km up from the earth and landing them safely. But what can you expect from a ride in their Tycho Brahe capsule?

Reported straight from Sony's official PlayStation Blog, they expect the rest of the currently missing PlayStation Network services to return by the end of the week, which includes the most important part of the PSN besides online gaming -- the PlayStation Store. Sony plans to fully restore PSN services in the Americas, Europe/PAL territories and Asia (excluding Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea) by the end of this week. Yes, if the store isn't restored today, then Sony's original May 31 deadline for restoring the store will have passed, and yes, that does mean they missed yet another deadline that they set themselves regarding PSN service restoration, and yes, that means this new deadline might not mean anything either. No one would blame anyone for not exactly expecting full PSN services back by this new deadline, but hey, they've already been gone for so long, the estimated "by the end of this week" deadline seems spot on. I mean, what else is there to do, right? Right? Let me give you my money already, Sony! Jeez. (via PlayStation Blog)

This morning, Apple put out a press release detailing some of what we'll see at WWDC 2011, the developers' conference which will take place from June 6 through June 10. While the iPhone 4 was announced at WWDC 2010, at this point, it's being taken as gospel in the tech press that we will not see an iPhone 5/iPhone 4GS/whatever you want to call the next-gen iPhone at this year's WWDC, and will have to wait for a late summer or fall reveal. But there's still some potentially interesting stuff in store:

CUPERTINO, California—May 31, 2011—Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software - Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

The OS X Lion and iOS demos aren't particularly surprising, since this is after all a developers' conference, and developers need to know something about the operating systems they're working with to build much of anything useful. The big question mark, though, is iCloud: Though its existence has been rumored for a long time, as Wired's Charlie Sorrel points out, it is highly unusual for Apple to preannounce a product release. So what will we get? Streaming iTunes (finally), DropBox killer, or something else entirely? (Apple via Wired)

In their latest joint, prank collective Improv Everywhere assembled a noisy contingent of 23 actors and 2 dogs by the northern entrance to Prospect Park in Park Slope, Brooklyn. After making a New York ruckus of sax music, cell phone conversations, break-dancing, arguing, and street-preaching, the co-conspirators all went totally silent at the same time, much to the amazement of everyone around them. (Improv Everywhere via Laughing Squid)

If this isn't 'news you can use,' we don't know what is: The folks at Seattle Weekly have come up with a day's worth of recipes using ramen noodles, craftily converting the dorm room staple into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert options.

Heating up a quick bowl of ramen in the microwave, waiting exactly three minutes, and topping it with some hot sauce was the go-to meal every broke undergrad could appreciate. Fast. Simple. And kinda tasty--if you've just had another beer. But this humble delicacy doesn't have to stay that way. Nowadays, people are gettin' fancy with the noodles, creating recipe after recipe with the main ingredient being . . . you guessed it: ramen! From breakfast dishes to classy dessert options, ramen can get you through a whole day's worth of meals, all costing under $10.

Full thing here. >>>See also: 10 foods you can allegedly make in a coffee maker. (Seattle Weekly via Lifehacker)