Posts Tagged ‘know’
Xbox at E3 2013: everything you need to know
Author: Heather Brown
Microsoft’s Xbox One announcement last month left something off the list: video games. Yes, Microsoft was very clear that the Xbox One would dominate and absorb every facet of your living room and your entire entertainment lifestyle. But it wasn’t clear about “Halos.” Well, there’s a Halo TV show, but in our prior experience Halo was a video game, and based on unconfirmed reports, the Xbox One was a video game console.
E3 was Microsoft’s chance to correct that oversight, and boy oh boy did they ever. Outside of a few quick respites to talk about some new overall Xbox functionality, the press conference today in Los Angeles was a nonstop onslaught of games, games, games.
Related Posts:
Tags: 
Xbox at E3 2013: everything you need to know
Author: James Cliff
Microsoft’s Xbox One announcement last month left something off the list: video games. Yes, Microsoft was very clear that the Xbox One would dominate and absorb every facet of your living room and your entire entertainment lifestyle. But it wasn’t clear about “Halos.” Well, there’s a Halo TV show, but in our prior experience Halo was a video game, and based on unconfirmed reports, the Xbox One was a video game console.
E3 was Microsoft’s chance to correct that oversight, and boy oh boy did they ever. Outside of a few quick respites to talk about some new overall Xbox functionality, the press conference today in Los Angeles was a nonstop onslaught of games, games, games.
Related Posts:
The New Opera Browser : Everything You Need to Know
Author: Stefanie Jenkins
Opera has done a lot of work recently and have updated their very popular browser. We’ll show you all the new features and everything else you need to know a…
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Related Posts:
Intel launches Haswell processors: here’s what you need to know
Author: Jamie Colby
Last year, Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors provided a modest but very welcome speed bump, just in time for all of the crazy transforming computers which heralded the launch of Windows 8.
This year, the company’s new Haswell CPUs are poised to actually give those touchscreen computers the battery life and graphics power they so desperately need. Intel’s launching its fourth-generation Core processors this week, and it sounds like they’ll be a significant enough improvement in laptops and tablets that you’ll actually want to look for their name, perhaps even choosing a processor whose digits start with ’4′ rather than a cheaper one with ’3′ if a Windows 8 portable is what you need. While Haswell will obviously be in desktops and all-in-one…
Related Posts:
Intel launches Haswell processors: here’s what you need to know
Author: Brandon Zimmerman
Last year, Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors provided a modest but very welcome speed bump, just in time for all of the crazy transforming computers which heralded the launch of Windows 8.
This year, the company’s new Haswell CPUs are poised to actually give those touchscreen computers the battery life and graphics power they so desperately need. Intel’s launching its fourth-generation Core processors this week, and it sounds like they’ll be a significant enough improvement in laptops and tablets that you’ll actually want to look for their name, perhaps even choosing a processor whose digits start with ’4′ rather than a cheaper one with ’3′ if a Windows 8 portable is what you need. While Haswell will obviously be in desktops and all-in-one…
Related Posts:
Good To Know: Ants Will Carry Little Signs For You If You Dab Them With Pee First (The Signs Not The Ants)
Author: Jack Schmidt
This is a video from Smarter Every Day showing how you can get leafcutter ants to carry little signs for you by peeing on them. The urine, which contains salt, make the little bits of paper desirable for the ants to drag back to their colony and use to grow their fungal food. It reminded me of how you can get my roommate to drink urine by mixing it into the orange juice container.
Hit the jump for the video.
Related Posts:
Installing, buying, selling and sharing games on Xbox One: here’s what we know
Author:
With each subsequent console generation there’s an undercurrent of fear, a concern that this will be the cycle that finally kills off something many hold near and dear: the used game. Though these scratched-up disks and carts are often overprized and come with incomplete or unfortunately creased manuals, they’re still better value than the shrink-wrapped titles.
With the announcement of the current next-generation of consoles the discontent raised again. Is the axe about to drop on the used video game market? Is this the iteration that will prevent you from borrowing something from a friend? Not if Microsoft has anything to say about it. The Xbox One does support used games and it does support game sharing — but the details are in some cases a bit murky. Join us after the break for an exploration of what we know.
Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft
Related Posts:
Installing, buying, selling and sharing games on Xbox One: here’s what we know
Author:
With each subsequent console generation there’s an undercurrent of fear, a concern that this will be the cycle that finally kills off something many hold near and dear: the used game. Though these scratched-up disks and carts are often overprized and come with incomplete or unfortunately creased manuals, they’re still better value than the shrink-wrapped titles.
With the announcement of the current next-generation of consoles the discontent raised again. Is the axe about to drop on the used video game market? Is this the iteration that will prevent you from borrowing something from a friend? Not if Microsoft has anything to say about it. The Xbox One does support used games and it does support game sharing — but the details are in some cases a bit murky. Join us after the break for an exploration of what we know.
Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft
Related Posts:
Google I/O 2013: everything you need to know
Author: Mark Jeffries
Google’s biggest event of the year will be taking place from Wednesday, May 15th through Friday the 17th. Though the annual conference is aimed at developers, the company uses it to announce new details on Android releases, Nexus hardware, Glass, and more. We have a couple ideas about what to expect this year, but you can follow along here for the latest.
Related Posts:
What You Need To Know About The Liberator 3D-Printed Pistol
Author: Randy Miller
Now that we have confirmation that the Liberator 3D-printed pistol can be fired without destroying the body, let’s address what this means for 3D printed weapons and, presumably, homemade weapons in general.
Does the pistol work? Yes, it can be fired at least once without damage to the body of the gun or the person at the trigger. Andy Greenberg at Forbes has seen the gun fire multiple times and the video above shows one shot.
Is it a real pistol? No. This is more of a zip gun than a pistol. Zip guns were improvised firearms made of tubes, rubber bands, and nails. Kids fool-hardy enough to shoot one (this cohort included my own father who showed me how to make them) were promised a second of hair-raising and potentially deadly excitement when they made zip guns out of pipe and rubber. To fire one, you fitted the cartridge into the pipe and pulled back on the nail attached to the rubber band. If it hit the charger properly the bullet would fire. A similar thing is happening here: a spring-loaded nail is hitting a cartridge.
The barrel of the gun is threaded but I wouldn’t expect this weapon to be very accurate. Think of this gun as a controlled explosion generator. It uses a very small .380 caliber bullet which is deadly, to be sure, but quite small.
Could I print one? Yes. You can easily download the 3D-printable files from DEFCAD.org (here is a private mirror) and if you have a 3D printer you can easily print any of these parts.
The creators built this gun using the Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer, a high-resolution printer that works similarly to the Makerbot but offers a far finer and more durable print. This printer has a layer thickness of .25mm, however, which the Makerbot can easily match.
Would I print and fire this using on my Replicator? No. I’m far too risk averse. I asked multiple 3D home printer manufactures and none would comment specifically on firearms, so there is no implicit or explicit promise of safety.
Will someone try to print it on home equipment? Yes.
Is this legal? Yes, but I’m no lawyer. It is a legal, homemade firearm and those have been made in basement workshops for most of this century. In most cases, a Federal Firearms License is mandatory to begin making or manufacturing weapons. For example, anyone building this gun would be a “Manufacturer of Destructive Devices, Ammunition for Destructive Devices or Armor Piercing Ammunition.” Anyone can apply for this license, thereby making the manufacture of this thing legal. For decades, however, the need to license was a minor barrier to entry into what would be a non-trivial process. The tools and materials necessary to build a real gun in your basement were expensive and it made economic sense to legally safeguard your home workshop. The manufacture of a 3D-printed weapon, however, is trivial, and can be built by anyone with an investment of $ 8,000 or so for a Stratasys printer or, for the less risk-averse, a home 3D printer that costs about $ 2,000.
It is also designed to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 because it contains a small block of steel. From the print instructions:
-Print (ONLY) the frame sideways (the shortest dimension is the Z axis). USC18 922(p)(2)(A)*: “For the purposes of this subsection (The Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988) – the term ‘firearm’ does not include the frame or receiver of any such weapon;”
Thus, you can legally print ONLY the frame entirely in plastic, even without 3.7 ounces of steel.-Once the frame is finished, epoxy a 1.19×1.19×0.99″ block of steel in the 1.2×1.2×1.0″ hole in front of the trigger guard. Add the bottom cover over the metal if you don’t want it to show.-Once the epoxy has tried, the steel is no longer removable, and is an integral part of the frame. Now your gun has ~6 ounces of steel and is thus considered a ‘detectable’ firearm. So now you can print all the other parts.
It is, in short, legal to make a gun and this is a gun.
Can this be stopped? No.
What’s next? The cynic would say we will soon see the first murder with a 3D-printed gun. The cynic will also say that this will cast 3D printing in an entirely new, more sinister light and could affect the home printing industry dramatically. The cynic would also expect a great deal of messy legislature to come out of this that will, depending on which side of the gun debate you fall on, “get these off the streets” or “infringe on our rights.”
A cynic would also say that the entire Defense Distributed agenda is an example of trolling that will eventually do more harm than good. The cynic would also say that a harsh government crackdown would also be equally silly.
A nuanced approach is absolutely necessary.
The non-cynical would find this to be more a proof of concept than a real manufactured weapon and say that it was bound to happen eventually. 3D printing has made manufacturing trivial. This is a logical evolution of an entrenched industry and a centuries-old product. Gunsmithing is not a new hobby. However, it just got much easier.
