Modern medical techniques, specifically stringent sterilization practices, have led to a dramatic drop in the number of post-op infections—assuming the facility has the necessary electricity and equipment to do so. However, in the remote regions of developing countries like India, neither of those is guaranteed. But that’s where Rice University’s new solar steamer comes in. This ingenious device cheaply and easily captures the Sun’s rays to sterilize anything from scalpels to human excrement. Huzzah, no more infections from backwoods surgeries! And—bonus—your shit no longer stinks.
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you’ve come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they’ve found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won’t last long.
Today’s hottest deals include a a sweet Costco deal on an HP touchscreen laptop, as well as a glowing offer for a Logitech Bluetooth Illuminated Keyboard. Want the latest deals delivered to your inbox? Join gdgt and add the gadgets you’re shopping for to your “Want” list. Every time there’s a price cut, you’ll get an email alert!
The gamer-created unofficial Half-Life modification Sven Co-Op has been announced to be going fully official (Steam game official, that is) this week by its makers. What this means for you, the lay person, is that you’ll be seeing this game available inside Steam for free – downloadable and playable – where before today – and for the past 14 years or so – you’d have had to have downloaded it and loaded it yourself attached to the original game. Now it’s all on its own and going big with help from the Steam team!
This modification to the classic person-vs-person shooting game has been rolling out updates for years now, with the newest edition acting as a great jump-off point for those looking to understand the draw. In the newest update’s user manual you’ll find weapons and characters from the human world you’re familiar with, but the monstrous Sven reality as well – Spore launchers and Stukabats and Kingpins, oh my!
Basically this game takes on the skeleton and the brain of the original Half-Life game and takes it to an alternate dimension where monsters roam free. Have a peek at a demonstration of what Sven Co-Op brings the world of Half-Life here courtesy of coopcrowd:
The Valve Corporation have now officially – for real, this time – granted the developers behind Sven Co-Op access to the original game’s engine for the creation of this cooperative game. The game will be one in which players must continue to work together to solve puzzles in both odd locations and time periods aplenty.
• The next version of Sven Co-op will run as a standalone game using a custom build of the Half-Life engine. • The game will be FREE for all Steam users, including the official Half-Life campaign (for 2+ player co-op play). A Half-Life purchase will not be required. • Automatic updates will be available using Steam’s content delivery system dubbed SteamPipe. This will allow us to perform more frequent and rapid updates as needed. • Updates and new features will be added to the Half-Life engine, as well as a series of improvements to Half-Life’s level editor called Hammer. • Increased Half-Life engine limits to allow for much larger and more detailed worlds. • Stability, performance, and gameplay improvements for everyone.
You can expect this update to come to Steam SOON. At the moment we’re not clear on an exact date, but we’ll keep you informed without a doubt!
Valve is proving its unicorn status amongst game developers once again. This time, by hiring a group of handsome teenagers to work within its secretive walls. Pipeline is the latest experiment from the company famous for resonance cascades, and its focus is prepping high schoolers for a career in game design. The website was created by these interns to answer inquiries teenagers consistently ask Valve; questions pertaining to college choice, areas of study and what it’s like to work on video games. In the team’s self-created clip, video editor Nathaniel says Pipeline is a test to see how a group of younger employees can adapt to the company’s unique organizational structure.
The site’s mainly a FAQ right now, but the plan is to build it around user-submitted queries. Pipeline’s illustrator Melanie promises future video series and interviews covering different aspects of development including art, sound design and filming. If Newell and co.’s newest employees being barely older than Gordon Freeman’s first adventure doesn’t make you jealous, this just might: They probably know more about Half-Life 3 than you.
It’s no secret that Valve’s Steam digital gaming service holds gigantic sales throughout the year and discounts even the biggest games by 50% or more. This time around, we’re seeing probably the biggest sale of the year so far, which is Steam’s Summer Getaway Sale that is lasting 11 days throughout this month, with each day having its own set of discounted titles.
Headlining today’s sales is BioShock Infinite at 50% off for only $29.99. This specific deal will only last 24 hours, so the clock is ticking. You should be aware of four different types of Steam deals throughout this next week and a half or so. There are broad, store-wide discounts that older games receive; there are daily deals which last 24 hours; there are flash deals which only last a couple hours; and then there are community deals which are voted on by Steam users.
Obviously, the more broad store-wide deals usually aren’t that great of a deal, and usually deal with games that aren’t very popular. However, it’s the daily deals and flash deals that you’ll want to keep your eyes on. These deals only last a short amount of time, and usually consist of popular games that have deep discounts. Blink once and you’ll miss them.
However, if you’re like me and end up buying all of these cheap games but never play them because you have more important things to do, then we suggest hiding your wallets and implementing some self-control. It’s a hard thing to do when you can get Portal 2 for just a few dollars, but once you buy that first cheap game, it’s like a vicious cycle.
Of course, we’re not therapists and we’re not trying to advise you to be careful out in the crazy world of Steam sales — go crazy for all we care. Just be sure you’ll actually play them when you get them. Don’t end up like us, with a huge list of games that we’ve never played that we’ll never be able to sell again.
Steam’s annual Summer Sale is on now, but before you go and empty your wallet, here are some helpful tips to make sure you get the most for your money and catch the titles you really want.
One of the most influential role-playing video games in the history of such things has been delivered to the PC gaming realm at last. Having made its way from the PlayStation universe back in the classic era of 1997, here it’s one whole heck of a lot less expensive than that release, brought through Steam for the first time. What’s more, this release has Square Enix making a teaser for future releases with a bit of a pre-order bonus too – Cloud for all games!
This release includes a bit of a modification for an upcoming game by the name of Lightning Returns: FInal Fantasy XIII. In that game with this mod, inside this pre-release edition exclusively (for now), you’ll be able to make-up the main character Lightning as the hero from Final Fantasy VII. It’s not going to change the way you play the game all that much – it’ll just look like you’re burning up that universe with the key to this one.
This release of Final Fantasy VII for PC brings the heat to Steam, the online gaming portal that’s famous for its all-encompassing releases for towers, notebooks, and TV-based systems. You’ll be working with a cool $11.99 price tag – several bags of chips and cases of Mountain Dew cheaper than the original cost on PlayStation edition.
This version of the game is essentially identical to the original, complete with the ability to use a 3rd party PlayStation-like controller if you do so choose. You’ll be able to save your game to the cloud – as it is with most Steam games – and the full rack of achievements is here as well. This “seminal RPG”, as The Verge calls it, is out with Steam right this minute. Let us know if you’re up for it!
Last week Valve took Half-Life 2 for Linux out of its beta, and now it looks like another Valve game has made its out of its Linux beta as well, this time in the form of Left 4 Dead 2. […]
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