Cody Littley is a computer science PhD student with a little time on his hands. Which perhaps explains why he built a working 1KB hard drive in Minecraft out of virtual building blocks. Read more…
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Someone Built a Fully Functioning 1KB Hard Drive Inside Minecraft
New submitter GammaKitsune writes: “The Player’s Handbook for the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons, formerly known as “D&D Next, ” released today to major bookstores and online retailers across the U.S. The Player’s Handbook, which contains core rules for gameplay and character creation, is one of thee core rulebooks that developer Wizards of the Coast plans to release in 2014. The Monster Manual is scheduled to release in late September, and the Dungeon Master’s Guide will release in mid November. Also out today is the first of two adventure modules in which players team up to battle against the dragon goddess Tiamat. Fifth edition has a lot to prove following the highly-controversial fourth edition, the rise of competing roleplaying game Pathfinder, and two years of public playtesting. Initial reviews posted on Amazon appear overwhelmingly positive at the time of writing, but more skeptical gamers may wish to take a look at the free “Basic Rules” posted on the official D&D website. The basic rules contain all the bare essentials needed to create a character or run your own adventure, and will serve both as a free introduction for new players and as a holdover for long time players until the remaining two rulebooks are released. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook Released
Google claims to have made 890 improvements to search over the past year. Still can’t find my keys though, can it, hmm? Read more…
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Google claims to have made 890 improvements to search over the past year.
itwbennett (1594911) writes In a follow-up to yesterday’s story about the Chinese hackers who stole hospital data of 4.5 million patients, IDG News Service’s Martyn Williams set out to learn why the data, which didn’t include credit card information was so valuable. The answer is depressingly simple: people without health insurance can potentially get treatment by using medical data of one of the hacking victims. John Halamka, chief information officer of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and chairman of the New England Healthcare Exchange Network, said a medical record can be worth between $50 and $250 to the right customer — many times more than the amount typically paid for a credit card number, or the cents paid for a user name and password. ‘If I am one of the 50 million Americans who are uninsured … and I need a million-dollar heart transplant, for $250 I can get a complete medical record including insurance company details, ‘ he said. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Why Chinese Hackers Would Want US Hospital Patient Data
No two humans type alike. Some of us jab our fingers precisely into the right spots on a screen, while others are slightly less accurate. Now, a Swedish security startup is using this behavior to add an extra layer of security to our cellphones. Read more…
The most valuable stamp in the world is a red smudge , but the coolest postal payments just might be these itty bitty stickies from 1970s Bhutan. They’d legally get your letter where it needed to go, and play the country’s national anthem (yes, really!). Read more…
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These Bhutanese Postal Stamps Play Like Real Vinyl Records
In most parts of the world, cable cars are relegated to ski areas or amusement parks. But in South America, cities use the gondolas to navigate undulating terrain as public transportation. This fall, two more lines will open in Bolivia’s La Paz-El Alto network, making it the longest urban cable car system in the world. Read more…
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Watch How Bolivia Built the World’s Longest Urban Cable Car System
If you’ve ever been stung by a jellyfish, you’ll know how incredibly painful it is—but you might not know why. In fact, their tentacles are covered in explosive cells that are like miniature hypodermic syringes filled with venom—and in this video, you can see how they work in microscopic slow motion. Read more…
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This Is What a Jellyfish Sting Looks Like in Microscopic Slow Motion
AmiMoJo writes Sure, you can set an out-of-office auto-reply to let others know they shouldn’t email you, but that doesn’t usually stop the messages; you may still have to handle those urgent-but-not-really requests while you’re on vacation. That’s not a problem if you work at Daimler, though. The German automaker recently installed software that not only auto-replies to email sent while staff is away, but deletes it outright. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Daimler’s Solution For Annoying Out-of-office Email: Delete It
Nobumichi Asai has used projection mapping to put CGI onto cars, docks, building and more. His latest canvas? A real, live human face. Read more…
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Watch How "Electronic Makeup" Completely Transforms This Model’s Face