Month: July 2012

A Technological leap happened less than 24 Hrs Ago

Posted on by Madarame-Harunobu

Well, where I am nothing but rusty with my whole Japanese, I can however say that this is some of the most exciting news yet. Less than 24 hrs. ago it was announced the 1st fully operational Mech was avlib for purchase. Bad news it’s 1.3 Million US. $ . Most MechWarriors will be screaming over this true, but I am more into it for the sheer fact it’s a Mech, that I TOLD those I used to RPG with in fact to point when we watched Madox-01 Metal Skin Panic for the first time and at the end they had that documentary on the military weaponry that was used as research for the slave troopers. Well guess who has the last laugh on this one? I DO!

Think of this as the edge of finally applying that which most of us thought was fantasy and being able to produce an actual functional mecha with dual Gatling mini guns (Using plastic BBs) and a 4 chambered Water powered missile launcher. Now as I hear the laughing, (I know it did sound funny at first for me as well.) but think about it. They have a Gundam at Diver Tokyo Mall automated and everything from Gundam Unicorn, but what if that could be re-worked and brought into a practical stance?

Kuratas Prototype Demo 1

Kuratas Prototype Demo 2

I know it’s a long way off taking in consideration of balancers and gyro stabilizers, but we’re nearly there with this The Kuratas Prototype. Runs on gas, (diesel fuel) it’s semi modular, it has a functional Cockpit face tracking tech based O/S, it works with 3G WI-Fi. There are some drawbacks, the tracking is a bit slow, and the mech travels at 10K an hour. But think of technological boundaries Japan just leaped across. Suidobashijuko really outdid their selves with this one. I am still astounded at the work that was placed into this project and that it was kept under wraps till now, just wow. I also liked the Press release they had and the way they presented it at WonderCon this year. I’m now leaving it up to you to comment on your feedback on this great announcement.!

A Blogger’s Rage at comments of a trolling variety and some advice.

Posted on by Madarame-Harunobu

I saw this on facebook this morning and had to reply back, but due to YT’s character limitation I have to post this here. Ok, I’m not saying I agree nor disagree with what you are saying Ms. McQueen. I being one of those that had a semi-hellish High School and ran to the military to escape from said hatred and in this day referred to as trolling on a daily basis. I’ve been called Gumby, or too tall jones, or Jolly Green Giant. I took in stride for the most part but there were times I just well we all have “those” type of moments and let’s leave it at that.

But I won’t say I go off to troll others and belittle and destroy their morale self-worth or self-esteem, on the contrary. I just lash back at the stupidity trolls dish out and compare them to themselves. These days I don’t even bother replying to them. They want to troll my blog? Let them I say, I control the comments anyway, mostly spam being spread but on occasion I get one of those trolls I used to be annoyed with when I was at X-forum/Community and I either just erase their comment or ban them from my board.

Why give yourself a headache by dealing with them? As you said the hurtful verbiage, the jabs at your self-worth and self-esteem, it’s not warranted nor deserved so why deal with it? Nip the issue in the bud and remove the trolling, eventually those trolling with be done and move on and hopefully they will collectively grow at least one brain cell amongst themselves and realize what type of tripe based asshats they’ve become and since your place is more or less not the only place they have trolled/dare I say to a point cyber-bullied they’ve placed out there on the internet and that’s permanent to a degree for all the world to see.

I got so angry at those type of people and such that when I was wanting to start my own website for other purposes , I also opened up the forum side of it for those that are picked on trolled by and even cyber-bullied. Again I understand your rage, anger and angst at the trolls and cyber-bullies of the net and such but –we- are empowered to control the flow of hatred and either show them as the bullies and trolls that they are or starve them out and not to validate them period. I’ve had to go as far as banning, blocking emails and even doing an IP range Banning as well, eventually they gave up and ran off back to their community where most end up becoming the forum jester and they find out what means to have the shoe on their foot, but being too stupid to move on and go elsewhere.

Pioneer Day, Steam and Ramblings…….

Posted on by Madarame-Harunobu

What’s up my fellow bloggers and blog readers? Yesterday was pioneer day here in Utah and have to say there was a ton of fireworks going off all around us till about midnight. I love fireworks myself but when it’s at midnight it’s a bit more than annoying. Also re-installed steam and resent out friend requests so if you got one and you’re on my shit list just hit ignore, lord knows I will.

Let’s say that Rage is awesome love it! that and Nuclear Dawn and L4D-2 as well, the best early birthday presents evar! Anime Banzai is paid for hotel paid for days off confirmed, now just have to sit tight for Oct 23rd then PART-AY! If I can’t go to SDCC this is the next best thing. Been reading Bakuman again and finally up to volume 12, and caught up to Accel World Ep. 15 so now I don’t feel bad for falling behind.

Amanda is in Tokyo at the moment and should be back early August and we’ll have her on the podcast to review her trip and to discuss Mysterious Girlfriend X and Accel World since we both seem to follow them at the same rate. The Olympics start Friday and to be honest I’d rather stay home and celebrate the opening ceremonies with my family and BBQ while we watch the ceremonies in England.

Not sure with The Wedge Duo are going with their family or not? If so I’m hoping for some great video footage and pictures, Simon always was great with the camera. I know one of them is seeking a better place for employment after updating and improving the educational facilities network and security platforms as well. I know either one of them will do excellent in any technology based position. Ok ok, I’m done for now so till next post TAA TAA

Optical Replacements, OH Ye of the Shadowrun genere our time has just about to come to past!

Posted on by Madarame-Harunobu

Ok, to all my Shadowrun buds. Just over 20 yrs. later we finally see the bio/cyber replacements for damaged or diseased organs, and not just for one but two models of vision replacement.  Unfortunately, this only applies to those that have already had existing vision to begin with.  The European medical market was of course to be the ones to do the theories and trials and debates, but let’s not get into that side of things, due to it might get ugly.

Developed by Second Sight, the first of these implants is the Argus II, which is now currently available on the European market.  Running roughly at $115,000, the patient undergoes a 4-hour operation to implant an antenna behind the eye, and a pair of camera-equipped glasses that emits signals to the antenna.  The antenna is then wired into the retina with about 60 electrodes, creating a 60-pixel display that the brain interprets. The users of the new Argus II bionic eye have reported they can see rough shapes and outlines, can see the movement of objects, and can read large written text.

Developed by Nano Retina, the second bionic eye implant, the Bio-Retina is a bit more interesting. The Bio-Retina is more cost effective — cost being roughly the $60,000 mark — and instead of an external set of camera displays, the vision-restoring sensor is actually placed within the eye, atop of the retina. This surgical procedure takes 3.5 hours less plus it can be performed under local anesthetic.

The reasons these were created for patients that suffer from macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, what happens is the light-sensitive rods and cones in the retina cease working. The Bio-Retina inserts 24×24-resolution about .5 megapixel sensor atop of the damaged retina, with 576 electrodes at the back of the sensor implant themselves into the optic nerve. Then a embedded image processor translates the data-feed from each of the pixels into electrical pulses that are encoded in a way that the brain perceives at different levels of grayscale, and through ongoing testing and development I’m pretty sure that color will be right around the corner before the end of this decade.

The Bio-Retina system comes with a standard pair of corrective lenses that are modified so that they can fire a near-infrared laser beam through the iris to the sensor at the back of the eye. On the sensor there is a photo-voltaic cell that generates up to 3 mill watts. This infrared laser is invisible and harmless to the patient.

Volunteer Human trials of Bio-Retina have been said to start in 2013 — and like Second Sight, US approval could be a long time coming especially with our current political state. There are however multiple research groups are working on bionic eyes with even electrodes, and thus higher resolution, there currently isn’t any progress on the sensors or encoder technology that can create a color image at this time. Though work is being done on the fundamentals with understanding the retina, optic nerve, and brain interpret, perceive images. Looks like that what was once RPG is now on threshold of reality.

Monday July 16th

Posted on by Madarame-Harunobu

It’s Monday again, yes SDCC is over and I’m normal again. I want to hit the 2014 SDCC since it will be SDCC “45” and that means MILESTONE! So there should be some cool stuff already in the works being planned for 2014. I’m hoping some of my buds that went to SDCC got me some cool swag so I don’t feel like a total loser again for the 17th time in a row.  OH! We’re registered for Anime Banzi however all taken care of at this point. We got Registration, accommodations, time off already in place.

Dave got sent me Space Marines WarHammer 40k off the steam summer camp sale. Looks good, was hoping for l4d 2 a bit in the back of my mind, chainsaw to a zombie head slice & dice is fun. The girls are back from camp as well so no more summer camp for the girls this year. They can just relax and help the rest of us with the house. Wife’s brother and family are heading to slc for a 2 week stay visiting some friends of his wife’s. We’ll get to hang out and catch up for a bit, in fact we’ll probably see them Wednesday, so I’ll be taking a half day in regards to that.

Wife’s had some issues where I’ve had to take her into insta-care on Saturday Dr. said it’s just an acne infection. If it’s just and acne infection why is my wife “back” at a Dr.‘s office with a fever and having to get a booster shot of antibiotics to help fight the infection and to help this fever peak fall and fade?  I swear sometimes it just doesn’t pay to wake up. Now I just want leave and take care of my wife and make sure the house is taken care of before her brother and family show up in the next few days.

Backyard needs to be taken care of as well in regards to that dead quake I have by the back fence.  Have to get rid of that thing before it becomes a liability on the property.  My longtime friend and gamer point man Ali got me RAGE for the PC today as an early Birthday gift! I can’t wait to play together with him that really made my day.  So from a slightly awful day to a great day over the progression of the day, not bad for a Monday, I still however have to finish steam cleaning the front room tonight. ^^;

Augmented Reality, meets VR Idol Miku Hatsune

Posted on by Madarame-Harunobu

Well, this is an odd way to expanded on the Virtual/Augmented Reality technology. A young man from a Technical University in Japan on YouTube has posted a video showing him actually on a date with Miku Hatsune (Popular VR Singing Artist and VR Gamer (See Garry’s mod)) using a mixture of technology specifically in regards to integrating as Xtion PRO motion sensor to a pair of Visual VR goggles, which  allowed him document He and Miku in several places in what appears to be tokyo.

During the Documented video we see this young man interacting with Miku in the “real world” and up till near the end, it was an interesting and still is yet at the end, there was and I know it may have been for fanservice humor, but still the skirt flipping could have been avoided.

 

 

I understand that it was demonstrative purposes, but the young man should have also clearly stated that the video was for demonstrative purposes as other sites have had comments reflecting humorous comments rather than ones with more seriousness inquiry as to HOW the technology works and how the young man had constructed the pair of interactive “Augmented Reality” spectacles and the programming thereof.

To read more on this you can read one the articles involved on this directly at hackaday’s website. I find the technology ultimately a step further towards holographic technology and interactive gameplay and military appilicaltion as well as medical there also leads to questions of a morale nature as well. Please feel free to comment your ideas and opinions as well.

Thanks everyone hope your day is well.

Friday 6th of July Anime, podcasts and other fun events this summer!

Posted on by Madarame-Harunobu

Announced on Friday Publisher Kodansha and creator Naoko Takeuchi, a new anime adaptation of Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon manga is in production. The new anime series is set for release summer 2013, and Idol group Momoiro Clover Z is doing one of the theme songs for the series. The announcement was a live event celebrating 20 Years of The Sailor Moon Manga Saga. Momoiro Clover Z was present and sang the first Sailor Moon anime’s theme song “Moonlight Densetsu”while attending “Japan Expo” in France as special guests and this was done via a live video feed, so many otaku were on hand to enjoy the festivities and help in celebrating the 20 year celebration..

 

Also on hand were Mitsuishi and Tohru Furuya, the voice actress and actor of Sailor Moon/Usagi Tsukino and Tuxedo Mask/Mamoru Chiba from the 1st Sailor Moon series, were present for the live event, however neither specified that they’ll be reprised for their roles in the new series. Kodansha editor Fumio Osano also explained this is not a movie announcement but rather as said a “Series” and I for one look forward to it as well as my girls who were lucky enough to watch the edited edition on TV while growing up.

 

In unrelated news, Cybernauts Podcast crew is doing ZZ and Zeta Gundam reviews for the summer of 2012. There are 3 Eps. Posted at this point and have to say even though I’m not there in some of them it is pure humor to listen to. I should be back on as soon as all these real life events subside and I can get back on full on and without interruption. Please feel free to swing by the forum if you have a suggestion or request on a series you’d like to hear about. We’re always up for a discussion.

 

Personally, I’m playing a few games currently as well, Star Trek online, Nuclear Dawn, classic StarCraft and Team Fortress II. At the moment I’m currently on the bridge of the U.S.S Genom and I’m battling Klingons (Yea, I know there are a ton of puns there) my guess is there is an event on Xp points and such that I am not aware and am too lazy to check at the website. I am however getting in there and rough housing it and locking horns with those battle hungry bastards. We’ll show them that the federation can dish it out as well as take it full tilt! Damn the shields and arm the Photon torpedos we’re heading in warp factor 12 and let send as many of them to Sto’Vo’Kor and we’ll take on the empire’s yo’ qlj! And send what’s left in an urn!  FOR GLORY FOR HONOR AND FOR THE FEDERATION!

The Start of July, and what a start!

Posted on by Madarame-Harunobu

Hello everyone, well it’s now July & I have rebuilt & recovered my PC & OS without so much a hiccup excluding drivers for my new gt520 2 gig video card that is replacing the 1 gig 8600  both from NVidia both awesome cards but the 520 is superior & gave my pc that extra needed boost in resources. After getting back in I also received an email from Xfire & my account is now recovered & in working order again. One of my BFF’s had his birthday on the 24th & I was able to get him the IRONCLAD High Seas Collection, man….each one by itself through steam is like 9.00 on its own. With him being the civil war hobbyist, I think he’ll enjoy that game pack.

 

I’m also doing call out to cabinetry shops to see how much drawer fabrication & installation will be for our cutlery drawer since it has seen better days & is on its way to the sawdust pile in the sky. One of my other BFF’s sent me his code for SC Classic since his mac doesn’t support the classic games anymore due to what would be a technological leap backwards for Mac Users. You would think that Apple would “want” to keep some level of classic gaming support around for their user base. Doesn’t seem like it though, especially all you Space Marines types that love WarHammer & StarCraft & marathon & the ilk.

 

Well, at least Mark will know that his SC is alive & well & being put to good use on my new rig, & will be enjoyed immensely & right next to StarCraft II as well.  I also won a great auction with a steam gift code for Nuclear Dawn, a great game by looks & media clips, haven’t had a chance to play it yet but will do sometime this week. I’ve also started on a writing collaboration of sorts or at least I hope so. I’ve started off in an alternate version of the BGC 2040 Universe in where both Leon McNicole & His Partner on the police force Daley Wong have gone above & beyond the call of duty & service for their country. In this it’s a Temporal Crossover with historic data relating to: Hellgate, BGC Universe, Sliders, & Ghostbuster as odd as that may sound but yes ectoplasmatic technology will be used in this fanfic.

Site wise, I’m going to do some clean up and hopefully involve Simon in helping out just a wee bit with securing and blocking certain IPs from the site. I really hate the fact that I have asshats from china and North Korea trying to get in just to spam their stupid knock off Prada and Gucci fashion ware in the articles and have their script bots running through the processes and making in that much more difficult to clean up after their crap and spam. I haven’t heard from he who must not be mentioned lately so no loss there at all. Still pisses me off though however regardless of the method or way on what he did.

I’m going back to work after posting this up since I’m on my last break at this point of the day. Till next entry Space Marines HO! Give new meaning to the word RAID as far as the Zerg is concerned damn roaches.