At the Chiba Institute of Technology, a group led by Shuro Nakajima has developed a robot wheelchair that can climb over steps. This robot can make a variety of movements, using its four-wheel drive and five axes. Normally, it rolls along on its wheels, but if there’s a step or ditch, it can get over the obstacle by using its wheels as legs. All the user needs to do is tell it which direction to go, using a joystick. The robot automatically assesses the surrounding terrain and moves …
WICHITA, Kan. — A former Kansas soldier will spend 10 months in federal prison for entering into a sham marriage so he could get additional military benefits and his Jamaican bride could become a legal immigrant, a federal judge ruled Monday.
In a rare move, U.S. District Judge Monti Belot rejected the prosecution’s request for leniency for Joshua Priest, saying it was not justified in this case. The former Fort Riley private pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and wire fraud, and testified against his wife, Shannakay Hunter.
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — Glacier National Park officials and family members say two men lost in Glacier National Park in Montana have been found alive.
The park posted on its Facebook page that Jason Hiser of Richmond, Va., and Neal Peckens of Herndon, Va., were found Monday and that “initial information indicates they are well.”
Henry Stiles is married to an aunt of Peckens, who is in Montana. He told The Associated Press that Peckens’ wife had notified them that the men were found.
Following in AT&T’s wake, Sprint has chosen to provide the world with the launch details for the LG Optimus G. Brace yourselves, folks, because the smartphone that wields a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro and a 13-megapixel camera will arrive at the Now Network on November 11th for $200. Naturally, this is certainly one to get excited about, as the phone also boasts a 4.7-inch HD (1,280 x 720) IPS LCD display, 32GB of internal storage and a beefy 2,100mAh battery. While the phone will ship with Ice Cream Sandwich, LG has already promised to deliver Jelly Bean in short order. Those looking to score a place at the front of the line may pre-order the smartphone on Sprint’s website come November 1st. If you happened to miss our recent hands-on with the Optimus G for Sprint, now would be a good time to get acquainted with the device as you count away the time until Veterans Day.
Back in August, we reported that Yahoo was on the hunt for a new chief operating officer, specifically for someone with a focus on finance and restructuring. Yahoo has confirmed that it named Henrique de Castro, a top Google executive, as its new COO. Until now, de Castro has been working as Google’s vice president of the Partner Business Solutions group.
For his new position, de Castro will receive a $600,000 annual salary and $36 million in stock grants, which includes $18 million in performance-based stock options and an $18 million one-time retention equity award. In addition, he’ll receive $1 million for forfeiting money from Google, which he’ll get within a week of joining the Yahoo ranks. He’ll have to pay the $1 million cash bonus back, however, if he resigns within the next six months without a good reason or is fired. Finally, he’s also to receive restricted stock units valued at $20 million.
Said Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer:
“Henrique is an incredibly accomplished and rigorous business leader, and I’m personally excited to have him join Yahoo!’s strong leadership team. His operational experience in Internet advertising and his proven success in structuring and scaling global organizations make him the perfect fit for Yahoo! as we propel the business to its next phase of growth.”
As you probably suspect, Yahoo shares are up, having gained 0.45% in after-hours trading. The stocks were priced at $15.68 at the close of the regular trading session, which was down $0.20 overall. De Castro will join Yahoo by January 22 of next year, dependent on when he finishes his current work at Google.
Get ready, Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition players, because you’ve got a massive update headed your way. Update 1.8.2 is scheduled to launch tomorrow, and it adds a ton of new stuff for you to see and do. PlayXBLA originally reported an October 16 launch date for update 1.8.2, which was later confirmed by 4J Studios, the developer that handled the porting duties when Mojang decided it was time to bring Minecraft to the Xbox 360.
Perhaps the most important addition in update 1.8.2 is Creative Mode. Yes, you’ll finally be able to build with infinite numbers of every item type in a world with no enemies whatsoever, which is a feature Xbox 360 players have been asking for right from the very beginning. Survival Mode is in for a quite a few additions itself, as 4J Studios has tossed strongholds, ravines, abandoned mineshafts, and villages into the mix. Sounds like it’ll be time to start a new world once update 1.8.2 lands.
Not enough for you? Update 1.8.2 also adds a ton of new items to the game, including things like Ender Pearls, chain armor, and melons. You can now sprint if you’re playing in survival mode, and 4J has even made a few biome code additions with this update, adding rivers and oceans. Have a look at the changelog below, but we warn you: it’s really long.
Additions
• Added Creative Mode. • Disabled Achievements and Leaderboard updates if the player is in Creative Mode, or if the world has been previously saved in Creative Mode. • Added a simple tutorial for Creative Mode. • Added sprinting to Survival Mode. • Added flying and sprint-flying to Creative Mode. • Added new items to the game – Melon, Melon Slice, Melon Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Raw/Cooked Beef, Raw/Cooked Chicken, Rotten Flesh, Pumpkin Seeds, Iron Bars, Fence Gate, Stone Bricks, Stone Brick Slabs, Stone Brick Stairs, Brick Slabs, Brick Stairs, Ender Pearl, Web,Vines, 10 more Music Discs, and Chain Armor. • Added new items to the crafting menu – Melon, Melon Seeds, Glass Pane, Fence Gate, Iron Bars, Stone Bricks, Stone Brick Slabs, Stone Brick Stairs, Brick Slabs, Brick Stairs. • Added terrain generation features – Strongholds, Villages, Abandoned Mineshafts and Ravines. • Biome code additions, including rivers and oceans. • Changed the bow to have drawing and firing action. • Added a quick move to the dispenser. • Added a quick equip for armor to the inventory interface. • Added a quick move for ingredients and fuel in the furnace interface. • Brought forward the mining speed changes from 1.2.3 • Brought forward apples dropping from leaf blocks from 1.1 • Brought forward change from 1.2.3 to make pumpkins and melons grow from stems much faster, and not require farmland around the stem to grow on. • Fix to vines brought forward from 1.2.3 to stop them spreading too much. • Added the Food Bar to the HUD. • Added stacking for food items. • Added the eating animation. • Enabled crafting mushroom stew without a crafting table. • Added the blocking move with swords. • Changed all the text descriptions for food to show how much they refill the food bar. • Passive mobs will now flee when hit. • The snout on pigs now protrude from their head. • Skeletons now hold full size bows. • Animals no longer despawn which makes it possible to capture them. • Zombies now drop Rotten Flesh instead of Feathers. • Updated some mob sounds. • Shears can now collect Tall Grass and the new Vine. • Improved sunrise and sunset. • Improved the rain edges (when looking up in rain). • User-placed leaf blocks no longer decay. • Cloud height raised to the top of the map, so clouds can no longer phase through blocks. • Cloud movement syncs with the game’s time. • Both Wooden and Stone pressure plates can now be placed on fences. • Improved chest model with a 3D lock, and opening and closing animation. • Added a countdown timer to the autosave to stop it being such a surprise. • Added the ability to rename an existing saved world. • Added map icons to the in-game player list to match their color in the map. • Added a confirmation dialog on the player choosing to exit without saving. • Added a character display when sprinting or flying. • Updated the How To Play HUD with the Food Bar information. • Added descriptions for Creative Mode and Sprinting to the How To Play menus. • Updated the Download Content menu with pictures of the DLC available. • Removed Herobrine.
Options Changes and Additions
• Changed the Gamertags Display option to mean display/hide gamertags in-game and on maps. • Added an option to select Creative Mode or Survival Mode on creating or loading a world. • Added an option to disable clouds. • Added additional options to the world creation – Superflat land (creates a flat world near bedrock in both the Overworld and the Nether), enable/disable Structures and Bonus Chest. • Added Host options – toggles for Player Versus Player, Trust Players to stop players being able to mine without permission from the Host, Fire Spread, TNT Explodes, and Host Privileges. • Added in-game player options for the host – Can Build and Mine, Moderator, Kick Player, Can Fly, Disable Exhaustion, Invisible. • Store the Online, Invite Only, and Friends of Friends options in the player’s profile. • Tutorial World Changes: • Changed the Tutorial world to enable the new terrain features in it. • Added mini tutorial for sprinting in the Tutorial world. • Added mini tutorial for eating in the Tutorial world. • Added Music Disc Quests in the Tutorial world – players can search the world for the 12 chests, each containing one of the Music Discs that can be played in a Jukebox.
Fixes
• Fix for duplication glitch. • Fix for aspect ratio of things in hand when in splitscreen mode. • Fix for issue with player data not saving (player starting world with no items they had when they saved). • Fix for redstone tiles burning out when they shouldn’t. • Fixed issue with Minecart with Furnace not being able to move another Minecart. • Fixed particle code for flipped 3rd person view.
Oh, look at that – it appears 4J Studios has removed Herobrine with update 1.8.2. It’s a shame too, as Herobrine was really awesome, but what can you do? 4J Studios says that the update will begin rolling out at 2AM Pacific tomorrow morning (October 16), but warns that it may take a few hours before every region has the update. Get ready Xbox 360 players, because you are definitely in for a treat.
If there’s two things in life I love, it’s video games and cookies. I mean, what’s not to like? Apparently, the guys over at Parchment Cookies have the same mentality, and have baked up some epic video game-inspired cookies for us to admire (and eat if we could afford them.)
These incredibly-detailed cookies are based on classic arcade and console games ranging from Galaga, to Duck Hunt, to Donkey Kong, and look great. The level of detail in the icing is spectacular, and really captures the original games in cookie form. I think my favorite set has to be the Burgertime cookies, since they’re food that depicts a video game, depicting other food – including walking hot dog and a ladder-climbing egg.
A dozen of these handmade video game cookies will set you back $54(USD), which works out to be $4.50 per cookie. I know a lot of love and labor must go into each of these, so they’re worth it. I just don’t know if I could bring myself to eat them or if I’d just frame them and hang them on the wall. Ok, I’d eat them – all in one sitting.
Google has been testing an expanded search that includes Gmail results ever since August, and it’s been enough of a hit that the company is swinging for the fences with an expanded test. The new version lets Gmail members find Calendar appointments and Drive files through the autocomplete results in the search box. Visit the main Google page and the results won’t be quite as broad, but they’ll include both the previous trial’s Gmail infromation as well as Drive — thankfully, tucked to the side rather than dominating the main page. Any individual, English-literate Google fans can join the new trial to get early access and find that long lost spreadsheet in the cloud.
This is unforgivable. With all the hoopla about yesterday’s crazy supersonic space jump, we didn’t celebrate yesterday’s 65th anniversary of the first man to go faster than the speed of sound, a true American hero: the now retired Brigadier General Chuck Yeager. More »
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a smell has to be worth at least a few hundred. And the next time you’re chatting and come across a thought or sentiment that can’t be expressed with an emoticon, maybe a specific scent could translate your feelings. At least that’s what the creators of the ChatPerf are hoping. More »
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