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Gearbox Announces Borderlands DLC, Hints at Borderlands 3 at PAX South
Gearbox held a Borderlands panel at the PAX South event over the weekend and announced the next DLC for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, The Lady Hammerlock Pack, which will be available on Tuesday. Players will gain access to Aurelia, sister to Sir Hammerlock, and her own skill tree. A future DLC was also announced that will put players into the mind of Claptrap, the robot that has appeared in all Borderlands games. CEO Randy Pitchford also took to Twitter to announce that the company wants to "meet great artists, designers, coders, producers and other developers to help with next Borderlands!" Pitchford clarified the upcoming game at the panel stating, "The fact is, we're not working on a new Borderlands game, but we want to... There's literally nothing to tell, but we're ready to start."
Source: Polygon and Computer and Video Games
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HighPoint Announces Thunderbolt 2 To USB 3.0 Adapter
HighPoint has announced its latest adapter to take advantage of the high speed Thunderbolt 2 interface, the RocketStor 6324U. It provides a four port USB 3.0 hub that provides an independent 5 Gb/s USB 3.0 controller for each port. The 6324U is capable of vastly expanding the capabilities of any system and allows users to "add PCIe expansion capability, multi-bay drive docks, I/O adapters and Hardware RAID storage to any Thunderbolt™ capable platform." An included 90W external power supply also provides the ability to simultaneously charge four USB devices. The RocketStor 6324U will be available this month at an MSRP of $349.
Source: Press Release
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Internet Browser Found in Older Versions of Android Will Remain Vulnerable
According to Adrian Ludwig, the Chief of Security for Android at Google, the company has no plans to patch a WebView vulnerability that affects the default Web browser found in Android 4.3 and older. According to Ludwig, the number of devices running affected Android versions are shrinking every day as users upgrade or get new devices. Unfortunately, about 60 percent of all Android users are still utilizing Android 4.3 and older, according to Android usage numbers provided by Google, meaning that over half of all Android users remain vulnerable.
With Google leaving the WebView issue unpatched, Ludwig has recommended that Android users begin to utilize browsers that are unaffected by the vulnerability and that are updated from the Google Play Store, such as Google Chrome and Firefox. Despite the change in browsers, an application may still make use of the WebView API, and as a result, can still pose a risk to smartphones running Android 4.3 and older.
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Better Optimization Method Developed
Just about anything that can be done, can be done multiple ways, which begs the question of what the best way is. Depending on what is being done, the answer may be very difficult to find. Thanks to researchers at MIT, we now have a much better understanding of one way to find the answer.
To start optimizing a problem, a cost function describing it must be generated. Depending on the function's complexity though, finding the minimum can be very difficult, so a common practice is to work with a similar but simpler function. Once that function is solved for, some complexity is added back and the previous solution used to find the new one. While this method works, it has not been theoretically described and knowing what simpler function to start with is difficult. What the MIT researchers have done is developed an algorithm that finds the simpler function. It works by making a convex approximation of the original function using Gaussian smoothing. This smoothing creates a new function where each value is actually the weighted average of values from the original cost function, and the weighting follows a normal curve. By shrinking the normal curve, the smooth function approaches the original function until it exactly matches.
This approach removes the guesswork that would otherwise be involved, making the optimization process more straightforward.
Source: MIT
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Vudu Spark Streaming Stick is Now Available for Purchase
It was reported last November that Walmart was expected to sell their own streaming stick, known as Vudu Spark. According to the retail giant, the Vudu Spark is now available to purchase at select Walmart locations and through the company website for $24.95. The device connects to a television via HDMI, comes with a dedicated remote, and is powered via USB, though no power brick is included with the device. The Vudu Stick also supports 802.11 b/g/n 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, video resolutions up to 1080p, and 7.1 surround sound. Unfortunately, the device only supports Vudu and does not allow other applications or services to be installed, according to the included user manual.
Although the Vudu Spark is certainly catered towards individuals who religiously utilize Vudu, Walmart is hoping that the device will sell well with its aggressive pricing as well as the $25 Vudu credit that customers of the device are eligible to receive.
Source: Gigaom
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Ubisoft Bans Legitimate License Keys Purchased from Third-Party Platforms
Ubisoft has banned gamers from being able to play several video game titles, such as Assassin’s Creed Unity and Far Cry 4, due to issues surrounding legitimate license keys purchased from third-party platforms. The keys were purchased by a wealth of gamers from platforms such as G2A.com and Kinguin, which purchase keys in regions where they are somewhat inexpensive and sell them in locations where the keys are worth more. Although the keys are genuine, gamers are receiving an error that notifies them at the key or activate code has been banned when attempting to activate their game.
Ubisoft has yet to respond directly to gamers, who have taken their complaints to the official Ubisoft forums, but did manage to publically tweet that affected customers should contact the seller of the key for a solution.
Source: Myce
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Energy Flow Electrically Controlled in Light Emitters
The ability to control phenomena is important for many current technologies, and certainly many future ones. For example, controlling the emission of photons is necessary for future telecommunication devices and photonics. Researchers at the Institute of Photonic Sciences, MIT, and more have recently demonstrated control of photon emission and plasmon creation using just electrical voltages.
For their work, the researchers began with photon emitters made of erbium that were placed on a graphene sheet. The carrier density or Fermi energy of that sheet is electrically controlled. Normally erbium ions are used in optical amplifiers and can emit light at 1.5 micrometers, which is useful for telecommunications as there is little energy loss at that wavelength. Energy was fed into the erbium, causing electrons in the graphene sheet to become excited. As the Fermi energy of the sheet was increased by applying a voltage, the erbium ions started emitting photons or plasmons. Plasmons are a combination of photons and electrons with great potential in telecommunications, and researchers have long been looking for a way to create them in graphene, at near-infrared frequencies.
This control of emissions could be used to improve current communication technologies, as well as sensors and displays, but could also be put to use in new devices. It could even be used for data storage and to make active plasmonic networks.
Source: The Institute of Photonic Sciences
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Homeworld Remastered Collection Launches on February 25
Back when THQ had its Chapter 11 bankruptcy auction, Gearbox Software picked up the rights to the Homeworld franchise and fully intended on releasing updated versions of the classic RTS games. Now, right around two years after getting the franchise, Gearbox is delivering on its promise with Homeworld Remastered Collection. Both Homeworld 1 and Homeworld 2 are included in the Collection, with improved visuals, enhanced audio, and high-res textures and models along for the ride. Some of Homeworld's original creators helped out on remixing the games, with even the original audio files getting a tune-up. Both Homeworld 1 Remastered and Homeworld 2 Remastered offer support for HD, UHD, and 4K resolutions, and all the cinematics have been improved to support the new resolutions and textures. Mod tools are included, too, so gamers can work on getting more content into Homeworld (and maybe some of the older mods ported in). If you want the original games, both Homeworld 1 Classic and Homeworld 2 Classic come with the Collection.
Source: Gearbox Software
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Getting Particles to Accelerate Themselves
According to Newton, objects will not accelerate unless an unbalanced force is applied to them. While that is still true, researchers at MIT and Israel's Technion have found a way to trick Newton, and the conservation of momentum. What they discovered is a way to cause an electron to accelerate on its own, almost to the speed of light.
The researchers theorize that this effect can be caused with specially engineered phase masks, like those for creating holograms but at a much finer scale. Any electron that is self-accelerated this way, would look like it were accelerated by some external force, even though none is being applied. The reason this does not violate any laws of physics is because the electron is accelerating and expanding at the same time. The tail of the electron's wave packet expands backwards so that the total momentum is still preserved.
As the researchers dug into their theory more they also found that the self-acceleration can cause time dilation, like that described by relativity. This could be especially useful by allowing a way for short-lived particle to exist a little longer, making it easier to study them.
Source: MIT
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Microsoft Acquires Revolution Analytics
Microsoft has announced that it will acquire Revolution Analytics, a company known for its distribution and support of the R programming language. R was "specifically designed for statistical computing and predictive analytics" and it will be used by Microsoft to "offer cloud services and on premise applications for its customers to undertake big data-style analysis." As big data and cloud computing continue to gain in popularity and usefulness, R is in a prime position to help those industries succeed. Microsoft corporate VP of machine learning Joseph Sirosh described the motivation for the acquisition stating, "As their volumes of data continually grow, organizations of all kinds around the world—financial, manufacturing, health care, retail, research—need powerful analytical models to make data-driven decisions. This acquisition is part of our effort to address these customer needs."
Source: PC World
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Theory Suggests the Milky Way is a Wormhole
Wormholes have been a popular topic in science and science fiction for decades and could potentially allow for relatively easy travel across the Universe. While they have been theorized though, no one has found one yet, but one has been suggested. Researchers at the International School for Advanced Studies have theorized that our home galaxy, the Milky Way, may actually be a gigantic wormhole.
To arrive at this idea, the researchers combined equations from General Relativity with a highly detailed dark matter map of the galaxy. Based on the observed dark matter distribution, the Milky Way might not only contain a worm hole but have one spanning its full size. It could even be navigable, if the researchers' calculations are correct.
To test if the hypothesis is true, one will have to very carefully compare the Milky Way with another galaxy, which is something we are not yet capable of. Besides that hypothesis though, this work could also lead to new interpretations of what dark matter is.
Source: International School of Advanced Studies via EurekAlert!
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Kim Dotcom Planning Secure Video Chat Service
Kim Dotcom, the man famous for his involvement in the cloud file storage service Mega Upload, has announced plans to release a secure video chat program called MEGAchat. MEGAchat joins the new MEGA file upload service with a focus on security that offers end-to-end encryption, allowing information to get from its source to its destination without being seen by unwanted parties. The software operates entirely in a web browser, removing the need to download and install any additional software. MEGAchat will only support video chat at first, but plans are in place to add text chat and video conferencing.
Source: Slash Gear
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Emitting and Extracting More Light with Metamaterials
Metamaterials are likely among the most important, recent scientific discoveries as they are able to defy Nature and give us properties that cannot be found in any natural material. A lot of the research into metamaterials has concerned optics, and especially the possibility of creating invisibility cloaks, but this is not the only application. Another potential use is to enhance light sources, and recently researchers at City College of New York have done this.
Previous efforts to enhance light emission with a metamaterial have been problematic because the light did not want to leave them. For this work the researchers put a light emitting nanocrystal on top of a metamaterial with hyperbolic dispersion. This would enhance the light emission, and then the researchers figured out how to efficiently extract the photons from the system by embedding quantum dots in the material.
Potentially this discovery could lead to ultrafast LEDs, nanoscale lasers, and efficient single photon sources.
Source: City College of New York
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