Streaming videos of people playing video games is big business. Right now though, there isn’t much competition — Twitch pretty much dominates the scene. But, if there’s one company that can topple the king it’s Valve. Today it took the wraps off Ste…
Google sprinkled in the ability to edit Microsoft Office files in Drive a while back, but the folks in Mountain View are always looking to help improve that workflow. When a colleague sends a non-Google file as an attachment, you’re now able to conve…
Evernote may have started out as a place to keep your digital notes, but CEO Phil Libin has far grander plans in mind: He wants it to be your everything for productivity. We’re already seeing shades of Evernote’s evolution today. New features let you…
Ubisoft’s much awaited multiplatform racing title finally launched today. Called The Crew, it has been in development for quite some time now. The developers were hopeful that their title would not face the issues that recent Ubisoft titles have, and so far there haven’t been any reports of gamers facing issues. The Crew hits shelves today and to keep the hype machine churning, a new launch trailer has been released as well.
The launch trailer runs over three minutes long and includes some beautiful racing scenes, which makes sense, given that it is a racing title after all. Once you’ve taken a gander and made up your mind to blow your money on this game, you can pick it up for the PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and the Xbox 360.
In case you’re wondering if I’ve missed out PlayStation 3 from the list, I haven’t. Ubisoft isn’t working on a PS3 or Wii U version of The Crew, even though it is being released for the Xbox 360.
The Crew is built exclusively for the new generation of consoles and when it was decided to port it over to the previous generation, it was decided to focus on the platform closest to the new-gen’s technical infrastructure, which is why this title will be available on the Xbox 360.
The Crew Hits Shelves With New Launch Trailer
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Next week Bungie will release the first ever expansion for Destiny. The expansion is called The Dark Below and it will bring some exclusive content for gamers who are playing Destiny on a PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4. A post was published on the official PlayStation blog today detailing the exclusive content that The Dark Below DLC for Destiny will bring to Sony’s gaming platform.
Gamers on PlayStation get an exclusive strike on Mars called The Undying Mind. They get to go back into the dangers of The Black Garden to faace a timeless Vex machine-beast that has survived for ages. “Prepare for firefights amidst vine-laden pillars and decaying paths in an effort to destroy the ancient evil.”
The Dark Below also brings a PlayStation-exclusive exotic weapon called The 4th Horseman shotgun. This weapon, with its four barrels and five shots is great for taking on Vex legions.
Apart from all this, Destiny’s first DLC includes new story missions which pit gamers against a Hive god, new weapons, armor and gear as well as three new competitive multiplayer maps. A new six-player raid and a co-operative strike will be added via The Dark Below as well.
The Dark Below DLC for Destiny is going to be released on December 9th.
Destiny Expansion Brings Exclusive Content For PlayStation
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Valve announced today that it is adding support for built-in livestreaming to Steam. The feature is going to be called Steam Broadcasting. Gamers will be able to take advantage of this feature to broadcast their gameplay live, as well as view live gameplay streams of friends or anyone who is broadcasting their gameplay to the public.
Now its not like Valve has done something completely out of the box. Gamers have had the ability to broadcast their gaming sessions through popular third party services like Twitch and Ustream, but this is the first time that Steam gets a native broadcasting feature.
Only a few browsers are supported by Steam Broadcasting at this point in time, which include Google Chrome, and Apple Safari apart from the Steam client. Since the feature is in beta stage right now players can’t monetize their streams at this point in time, and neither can streams be archived.
The Steam Broadcasting feature comes part and parcel of the Steam beta client. Gamers will have to opt-in to this feature in order to be able to broadcast gameplay. They will need to update their privacy settings to enable broadcasting. Streams will be available for viewing through the community hub.
Visit the Steam Broadcasting page in order to sign up for this feature.
Steam Broadcasting Brings Livestreaming To Steam
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
There’s a new Lenovo Workstation coming out early next year, and it will be powered by Intel’s 5th generation Core i7 processor (aka Broadwell) that is supported by a maximum of 16GB of memory (2 slots), along with an NVIDIA Maxwell graphics processor with 2GB of video RAM. Since a workstation is often used to produce pretty images, buyers can select up to a 3K (2880×1620) IPS display with a brightness of 350 Nits. If you plan on using it for computing purposes, maybe 1080p (1920×1080) FHD display option is good enough. The Lenovo W550s configurations can vary enough to accommodate all kinds of customers and budgets.
Having muscular configurations like this is pretty common in the world of workstations. However, having a 15” laptop with this kind of power in a 4.92Lbs (5.47Lbs for touch version) sounds very nice. The touch version is noticeably heavier, which was common to all touch laptops just a few years ago, but recent computers such as the Yoga 3 have proven that it is possible to build an ultra-light touch laptop. Typically, Workstation screens have better color output, brightness consistency and calibration abilities.
More importantly, the workstation is certified for a number of CAD applications, which is really why one should pay for a Workstation instead of just buying a robust consumer laptop. The idea is to remove as many potential IT issues as possible, because each hour of downtime can potentially cost a lot of money in terms of engineering or design productivity.
There is the overall robustness of the laptop (when compared to a consumer counterpart): although Lenovo is still going through the mil-spec (military-level robustness) certification, but the company is aiming to officially offer this level of endurance by the time the product hits the market. This should be more than enough to cater to most engineers needs in the field… Other details like the full-size numeric pad, or the Bridge battery system (there are two batteries, so you can change one, without downtime) make this a pretty solid workhorse.
Lenovo ThinkPad W550s Workstation Announced
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Chris Hawker, the creator of the Powersquid, and some of his buddies at Trident Design have created a new flying drone, the Carbon Flyer. The Flyer is an ultralight airplane that flies under its own power and controlled via Bluetooth. A tiny camera streams the flight to your phone.
“We built this because after years of focusing on practical items like the PowerSquid, we wanted to make… Read More
It was called husky back then, but I was what I was: a fat boy who rarely saw the sun.
Years before websites, blogs and vanity URLs would become actual things, my domain was the furnished basement of my parents suburban home. My most cherished plaything were a Nintendo gaming system with a protruding NHL ’96 cartridge, big screen TV console fixated on the then-brand-new ESPN 2 (“The Deuce”) and our well-worn favorite chair in desperate need of reupholstering. I shouldn’t therefore, in good conscience, be all high and mighty-like when it comes to the changing landscape of children’s play and how modern parents are “helicoptering,” or participating in “trophy culture.” But, I believe it prohibits 21st-century kids from learning how to win and lose with class.
I know failure. I have failed as a boy and as a young man. I have failed as a young adult and as a parent. And at the end of the day, when the rhetoric is stripped away and the well of excuses has run dry, what our culture is attempting to do by forcing tie scores in grade school basketball games, is prevent failure. Seems the hot coffee lawsuits of the ’80s laid a most fertile groundwork for the modern Cover Your Ass (CYA) parenting protection movement. The sad news is that the #FAIL meme has ultimately won out, ’cause we’re all scared to death of letting our kids land flat on their cute pudgy faces, literally or figuratively, privately or in front of a crowd. No one wants to let their kid feel the cold sting of embarrassment or the torment of failure.
What we seem to be forgetting is that without struggle, there can be no progress. Without embarrassment, there can be no empathy. Without failure, there can be no success.
I do not know if it is too late to reverse course and stop the madness when it comes to over-protecting our children from every one of life’s potential pitfalls, but here are five easy steps you can take right now to start combating the baby-proofing of modern childhood and stop screwing up our kids.
1. Don’t Do Your Child’s Art Project, Social Studies Diorama or Science Fair Experiment
It is 100 percent a douche move to do the majority of your kiddo’s school project work. If you need to live vicariously through your child’s faux accomplishments in third grade, you are a colossal loser. Seek professional help. And in case you’re wondering, you ain’t fooling anyone. The rest of us can all tell that your kid didn’t have anything to do with their pristine blue ribbon-winning science fair entry. You need to step off and let them carry in to class their crappy dioramas with glue streaks where a roof kept sliding down, because that is their real output. That is what they tried hard to accomplish but, in some small way, failed to succeed at building. And that kind of youthful failure is to be embraced, not run away from, because next time they will try harder to make their project more perfect. And then again, and again. This process is called evolution, and you are stepping on its throat every time you complete their assignments on their behalf. Stop it.
2. Don’t Correct Homework
How is anyone going to learn when the documents have been scrubbed and sanitized? How will teachers know what your kid does or does not ACTUALLY know if every answer is made or corrected by you, the parent? Let your kids try to use the knowledge they are accumulating in class, let them fail by getting some of the answers wrong, let them be corrected by their teachers and let them learn how to process constructive feedback from someone not related to them, someone not standing over their shoulder applying Whiteout to their entire childhood educational experience.
3. Keep Your Mouth Shut During Their Games/Practices/Tournaments
Dudes, you’ve gotta tone it down. Let the coaches coach. Let the refs and the umps do their best. Trust in the process. You didn’t sign up for the role of coach or umpire, for whatever reason, so stop yelling obscenities from the bleachers and quit shouting out in-game corrections to your kid and their teammates. If you do have a legit beef, be an adult and approach it on the down-low without veins bulging from your neck as you sit angrily 20 yards off in the distance. Instead, allow your talented child and their instructors to work through the nuances of their performance while you cheer and show support. You are embarrassing yourself, your family and most importantly, your kid. Now sit the hell down and shut up.
4. Let ‘Em Fall
You’re supposed to fall off the monkey bars while trying to learn how to get from one side to the other. That’s how this crap works. It’s called Trial and Error, not Trial and Repeated Help from a Scared Parent. Kids have to know what it feels like to lose their grip, to feel the beads of sweat forming on their clammy palms and to struggle mightily to stay attached to the cold metal bars, only to eventually succumb to gravity and hit the recently-rubberized wood chips. Hard. Dust ’em off, give ’em a kiss and encourage them to try it again… if not right away, then in a bit when their courage bar refills. Soon, they will get the hang of it, literally, and the glory in their accomplishment will be enhanced for having taking the gravely path instead of the padded one.
5. Embrace Mistakes
Could you imagine getting to adulthood without the privilege of making mistakes while the errors were minor and fixable, before the consequences became dire? That is what we are doing to our children now. Too many kids are not having to make choices — just play ALL the sports and go to ALL the events, even if they overlap! — and too many kids are not being allowed to make mistakes in their youth, the exact period of time when mistake-making SHOULD occur. Kids are going to screw up. They are going to cost you few extra bucks this winter by turning the heat on in the one room with a separate control panel before running off and forgetting all about it. They are going to invite ants into their bedroom by leaving remnants of a sugary snack on the floor. They are going to drop and shatter a plate when trying to carry too many dishes while clearing the table after dinner. It is our job to pull lessons from these moments and teach a better way forward. That’s one of the biggest asks of parenthood: to have the tough conversations; to give constructive feedback to help them learn from mistakes; to hold them tight, but not hold them back when they are scared of failing; to give them the space necessary to try on their own; to pay the bloated heating bill; to tell them to put shoes on before they sweep up the pieces of the shattered plate; to love them at every turn.
Parenting well is not easy. It takes restraint and nuance at times and balls-to-the-wall exuberance at other times, but avoiding outright the challenges of failure and embarrassment now is screwing up our children and filling the world with more and more adults too fragile to exist in a harsh world, not willing to kiss their boo-boos and polish over their errors.
The unedited version of this post first appeared on Jeff’s site, Out With The Kids. Follow Out With The Kids on Facebook.
Also on HuffPost:
An Instagram account that posts alluring photos of female police officers has landed several NYPD cops in trouble.
The account “Blueline Beauties,” which now appears to have been closed, featured female officers striking “come hither” poses next to pictures of themselves in uniform, according to the New York Daily News.
The off-duty shots aren’t anything that would get the average person kicked off Instagram — and they’re way tamer than what most celebs post to social media — but several NYPD officers might face discipline after their photos came to the attention of the department’s top brass.
According to MyFox New York:
NYPD policy prohibits members of the police department from posting pictures of themselves in uniform on social media unless at official ceremonies.
The department issued this statement saying the policy “is in part intended to protect officers from divulging identifying information on social media sites that may endanger officer safety.”
Investigators are also looking into another Instagram account, “Blueline Beefcakes,” which features male officers mugging for the camera.
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
