Planetside 2: Brainstorming: Sunderer Command Module

I'm still spending a bunch of time in Planetside 2, and I've recently started running some fairly organized squads and platoons around the Auraxian battlefield. At the same time, I also really enjoy teaching new players about the coordinated team-play possibilities in game, because when I first started playing, it was solo-zerg-boring-death-fest-2012. 

But there's certainly a downside to commanding (up to) 48 players in a cohesive and effective manner. Most of the time, I'm sitting in my deployed Sunderer at a platoon waypoint, staring at the Map window and calling out objectives over voice chat. The few times I venture out of my vehicle are to scout the area or run down a Light Assault trying to blow the Sunderer. 

So I had an idea: What if the Sunderer had a "Command Module" that fit into the Utility slot? Obviously, you'd lose AMS capabilities, but consider the possibilities! Here are my basic thoughts on how it might work, feel free to add to the discussion!

If a squad or platoon leader was inside a Sunderer equipped with a Command Module, it would bestow additional capabilities on the commander. For instance, it might unlock an enhanced map view, with the ability to display terrain and units in higher fidelity than currently. If the owner deploys the Sunderer, it might unlock the (so far, unimplemented) orbital strike option, available for use in a defined radius around the Sunderer. I think adding too much more might make the module overpowered, but what do you guys think? 

Why not have one of these outfitted with a Command Module?

Planetside 2

Hi Guys!

I'm really enjoying the sequel to one of my favorite games of all time, Planetside 2! I've already recorded a couple videos in FRAPS, as well as a long set of screenshots sitting on my Steam screenshots page. Feel free to take a look, the game is gorgeous.

Seriously. It's beautiful.

Flu Season 2013

About a year ago I posted information on the yearly Influenza outbreak. I thought I'd followup this year with a slightly more informative post. Boston declared a Public Health Emergency in early January of this year (2013) and it's got the masses all riled up. First, regardless of what I show below, it is always a good idea to get a Flu vaccination if it is available in your area. 

While this is definitely a serious Flu season, it's useful to compare this year to previous ones. It seems to me that most media groups compare the current situation to the 2011-2012 outbreak, which was much later and much less extreme. If you take a look further back, especially back to the 2009-2010 season, you can see that we aren't experiencing apocalyptic levels of outbreak. It's important to note the effects on each age group, though, specifically how in 2009-2010 it was very young children getting hospitalized most often, whereas this year it is people 65 years or older. Also, given the incomplete data, if the current slope continues upward for older citizens, this may be a particularly bad season for them in particular. So far, it appears this season is progressing most similarly to the 2010-2011 season. 

We'll have to see how it turns out, but I plan on updating the graphic below over the next several weeks to keep everyone updated on Flu status this year, good or bad. 

Data Updated: January 30, 2013

Generated using the CDC FluView tool. 

Back from the Dead! (Part 3)

It's been more than a year since the last post, and the blog is undergoing a major transplant and overhaul! I had a great time using WordPress, but due to various local server issues, it was becoming increasingly unstable. I may return to it someday, but for now we're rocking a brand new SquareSpace site. 

I've been rooting around, trying to clean up and repair posts that degraded over the last couple years, but it's time to get some new content out rather than fix links to my off-base technology predictions from 2009. 

And on THAT note, here's a little bit of 2012 before it's over: 

Higgs Boson was discovered, bolstering support for the Standard Model of Physics. 

One overly-attached-satirical-girlfriend launched from a Justin Bieber fan video straight into our hearts. 

Mass Effect 3 LITERALLY broke my heart. 

Aaaannnnddddd.....We're all still here? Psh, Isaac Newton said we have till 2060 anyway. 

AMD Radeon 7970 Released

Reviews are flooding the tech sites, the AMD Radeon 7970 is now available! The significant change from previous cards is the transition from VLIW cores to SIMD cores. What does this mean to you and me? The new 7000 series GPUs are significantly more capable of generalized processing.

AMD always says, "The Future Is Fusion." By enhancing the ability of their new GPUs to act as generalized processors, AMD sets the stage for Fusion to excel in any case where massively parallel workloads exist. This is Intel's only real weakness, so it's probably wise that AMD is acting aggressively in this regard.

UPDATE: Reviews indicate the Radeon 7970 is on average 25% faster than the Radeon 6970. It also dethrones the Nvidia GTX 580 as the fastest single GPU available. A premium card at a premium price, AMD plans to start selling the card at $550,  50% higher than the going price ($350) of the 6970 .

Snow?

It's nearly Christmas in Boston, and beyond a light dusting several weeks ago, no snow graces our only recently chilly city. For one, it hasn't been cold enough, we regularly have afternoons in the 40s (Fahrenheit, 5-10 Celsius) so snow wouldn't last long anyway. If it had snowed earlier in the season it's possible it would be cold enough for snow now. Why is that, you might wonder? Clean, white snow reflects sunlight back into the sky, preventing it from heating the ground. Snow can have a reflection coefficient near 0.9 if it is fresh. Either way, I'm crossing my fingers for a white Christmas.

Reflection Coefficient, aka Albedo, is the measure (between 0 and 1) of a substance's reflectivity.

Faster than light particle measured?

Information coming from CERN, a center for nuclear science in Geneva, Switzerland, claims that particles called neutrinos may have broken Eisenstein's speed-of-light speed barrier. This is big news, if independently verified, and could shatter almost a century of physics assumptions. UPDATE: A measurement error may have occurred due to the time keeping process used in the experiment. Satellites were used to synchronize clocks at the start and end stations of the neutrino's path, but the relativistic motion of the satellites may not have been considered when updating the clocks. In other words, Einstein is likely still correct, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.

Neutrino Sensor Room

Still Alive

Solar Power Satellite Update!

PowerSat is the first company I've read about to have a concrete and plausible plan for solar power satellites within the next decade. I explained this concept in a previous post so if you want more info check out the link to their site. 

[Video No Longer Available]

Windows 7

I'm currently testing out the (free) Release Candidate (a kind of late Beta) for Windows 7. Long story short, Windows 7 is awesome and I'll definitely be picking up a copy when the full version is released. Anyone who installs the Windows 7 RC has until March of 2010 before they even have to think about spending a dime. The new taskbar, improved memory management, Libraries, Themes, HomeGroups, Device Stage, chilled UAC, and increased zippyness make this a solid (though not essential) upgrade for Vista users. This is Microsoft's best shot at getting entrenched XP users into the 21st century.  

Even the boot screen is more awesome!