Technology News with Tech Snake

Games That Simulate Real Life Jobs?

Paul Godden — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:29:59 +0000

The Simulation market has been around for a long time. It’s still here and bigger than most people think. We know about Flight Simulators with their hardcore followers, but what else is out there?

Well surprisingly, after doing a little bit of digging around, there are a LOT of simulation games. Straight away, I’m going to discount things like SimCity, just because those sorts of games are more of a management game, rather than a hands-on simulation of something from every-day life.

Microsoft Flight Simulator X

As mentioned, this is probably the most well-known simulator, and is so well supported that you can buy hardware add-ons for the game, including proper yokes, rudder pedals and throttle controls. And that doesn’t even count the huge number of software add-ons, with new scenery, airports, aircraft – you name it.

For the truly enthusiastic, the game comes complete with a very good Air Traffic Control system, ILS systems at airports, with all the correct approaches you would expect. And the detail inside the cockpit has to be seen to be believed – the aircraft feel & look as per their real-life counterparts. Of course, this is not a lot of fun for the casual gamer as there is no “achievement” other than completing a journey. There are no timetables, or anything to stick to, it’s completely left open to the gamer to work out what they want to accomplish. There are, however, lots of missions which are also available and can be completed, to give the casual gamer a reason to play the game. The various tutorials, from learning the basic controls, to flying IFR, are there to help too.

There are other civilian-based flight simulator games like FlightGear (open-source), but most are of the military type, focusing on dog-fighting and missions. IL-2, and the classic F-16 are two that spring to mind in this genre.

Flight Simulator is the best system for the home, accurately simulating the physics and flight characteristics of the aircraft. Born in 1982, as version 1, Flight Simulator X, released in 2006, is the 12th version of the game – and hopefully not the last. ACES studios, owned by Microsoft, were closed in January 2009, so the future of this long-running game series is unknown.

Train Simulators

Included in this section are Microsoft’s Train Simulator, Rail Simulator, Trainz, and more recently Railworks. As the title suggests, the simulator puts everyday people behind the controls of various types of trains on differing duties. With Trainz, you also have the added burden of multiple trains, almost like a virtual railway set.

The idea is that various real-world routes are recreated that either have a target, such as moving freight from one area to another, or a timetable, such as making stops at stations picking up and dropping off passengers. There are goals to the various scenarios, but they aren’t rigorously enforced or even recorded anywhere historically. So again, the emphasis is on completing the route as you see fit.

Although very much dominated by the railway enthusiast (or train spotter as we like to call them) this genre has a surprising amount of add-ons, hardware wise, for the games – Including full size controls! This sort of game requires concentration and knowledge of the signal systems/trains – and knowledge of the various routes.

The talked about sequel to Microsoft’s Train Simulator has been cancelled for the foreseeable future, when Microsoft withdrew funds from the creators – ACES studios.

Truck/Lorry Simulators

All created by the same company, who are also responsible for a Bus Simulator, the long distance truck or lorry simulator genre has really been born by SCS Software who are located in Prague, Czech Republic.

The Truck titles produced by the company are (US Based) Hard Truck: 18 Wheels of Steel, Across America, Pedal to the Metal, Convoy, Haulin’, American Long Haul & Big Rigs. Their latest, Euro Truck Simulator, moves away from the US for the first time. You wouldn’t expect a truck-driving simulator to be that popular, but it appears on the surface it’s doing very well.

The idea, as you can imagine, is to pick up various loads from different places and take them somewhere else – in a nutshell. The type of load varies, depending on experience, and the cash rewarded from delivery can be used to upgrade your cab with all the latest gizmos – fluffy dice not included.

Bus Simulators

Rather surprisingly, this genre has 3 entrants! SCS, famous for their creation of the 18 Wheels of Steel & Euro Truck Simulators, have turned their hands to Bus Driver, using the same graphics engine. But also, Contendo Games, based in Germany, have released a Bus Simulator of their own. And finally, another German producer, Astragon, have created their own (German-only) offering called Bus Driver 2009.

Although the basic idea is to stick to a close timetable, and drop off passengers while driving around the city, Bus Simulator goes a little further and creates the ability to rent or buy bigger buses, ad marketing and more – as well as driving the buses themselves. SCS’s Bus Driver just includes the ability to drive buses to unlock more routes/buses – which must be completed pretty much in order.

Garbage Truck Simulators

Not surprisingly at all, there is only 1 taker for a Garbage Truck Simulator. From the creators of Bus Simulator – Contendo Games have also given you the choice to be a “refuse collection officer” or whatever the official job title is nowadays..

Take command of a rubbish truck and go around the streets, ordering your gang to jump off and get the garbage cans as you drive past. Time schedules have to be kept, and members of your crew have to kept an eye to make sure they have the correct skills necessary for some of the more challenging tasks, like disposing of nuclear waste.

Ship Simulators

Yes that’s right – you can also take control of a ship! Dominated by one company, VStep in Holland, Ship Simulator 2008 is quite popular with a hardcore following. Astragon have also created a Ship Simulator, although only available in German.

Ship Simulator 2008 puts you in control of everything from large commercial liners, to small water taxis. Take to the seas in the Titanic, or ferry people to the Isle of Wight. And believe it or not, there are also hardware add-ons available for Ship Simulator, complete with a small ship’s wheel! Another, worth noting, addition to the ship simulation market is the shareware Virtual Sailor, which works in much the same way as Ship Simulator 2008, but was last updated over 2 years ago.

Space Simulators

And now onto the final frontier – not really an “every-day” job, but one I thought that couldn’t be left out.

The most popular freeware version is “Orbiter”. You would be forgiven for thinking it’s only about Space Shuttles – however it supports all sorts of satellites, craft – fictional or otherwise, and the ISS. The simulator is very tricky to learn and understand at first, but I have been told it has a really good, open, playing system once you get past these initial hurdles. The last update was unfortunately quite a while ago, so you could say it’s fading away.

Commercial offerings are pretty sparse to be honest, although Space Shuttle Mission 2007 is definitely worth a mention. As you can guess, purely a Space Shuttle simulator, but a very good-looking one. Start out at launch, to in-orbit manoeuvres, and then glide the thing back to Earth when finished. Everything simulated, even down to floating around in the cabin in micro gravity!

More space simulators worth noting are Exoflight (freeware) & Apollo Simulator.

Other Simulators

As we get into the world of the obscure – there seem to be simulators for anything and everything. In fact, so odd are some of these that I had to verify they were actually real products! Most of the following are from a German company called Astragon, and also only available in German. What a shame for us English speaking people!

Deep Sea Fishing (Trawler) Simulator
Farming/Agricultural Machinery Simulator
Driving Simulator – Yeap just like getting in your car, and driving around the streets.. Odd.
Excavator Simulator – JCBs and big earth movers!
Crane Simulator
Sailing Simulator
Forklift Simulator!!

I think we can safely say that simulation software is here to stay, no matter how obscure some of the things simulated are. Where there are gamers that want a little bit more out of their gaming experience, focusing on the details of making something as realistic as possible, there will always be a market for the games.

Steve Ballmer Preoccupied With World War 3

Paul Godden — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:04:34 +0000

Yeap, you heard me right. Microsoft have truly shown their evil streak by allowing Lockheed to take an innocent Xbox 360 controller, and twist it for use in modern warfare, which could potentially spell the end of the planet.

The “Mule” (Multifunction Utility/Logistics Equipment) is one of the US’s latest Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV). Rather than attack the battlefield face-on, the Mule drives to it’s destination via Xbox Controller (or indeed air-lifted in via helicopter), and sucker punches the unsuspecting enemies of the state while they’re asleep (probably).

The Mule, not just another attempt at a bad military acronym (BMA), is also deadly. Weighing in at 2.5 Tons, the Mule’s payload includes the Javelin guided antitank missile and an M240 7.62mm machine gun thrown in for good measure.

Just remember that if you find yourself on the wrong side of the battlefield in Iraqistanislamibad, or wherever, there’s probably a spotty 13 year-old on the controls of a 6 wheeled vehicle, who thinks he’s pausing the game to eat his dinner, rather than hurling 12 kilos of impact detonating rocket at your tent. A lesson we can all learn from.

Wordpress 2.8 Released

Paul Godden — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:00:35 +0000

For champions of the open source blogging platform, the latest installment of Wordpress has just been released. Aiming more for polish and bug fixing, it’s surprising the number of features crammed into this release.

Nicknamed “Baker”, most of the changes to Wordpress 2.8 are behind the scenes. The overall back-end system being easier to use for the person in charge of the site, as well as having more customisation features on the Dashboard and post listing pages.

There are also improvements to the Theme selection page – with the ability to search online, according to tickboxes relating to style and colour, for hundred’s of available to download themes. Simply click on the Add New Themes item in the Appearance tab and you’ll be searching in seconds. The Themes also have the ability to install into your blog without you having to upload them manually. The widget management has also been polished up to make things a little clearer and straightforward.

The code editor, if you really like to get your hands dirty with Wordpress, now features syntax highlighting, making it easier to navigate and edit your php & css files. Something programmers have been crying out for!

There are also many bug fixes (790 in all) and an overall speed improvement. If you use Wordpress on your site, I suggest you upgrade immediately! Techsnake.com had no problems and was upgraded within minutes.

Firefox Beta Gets A pr0n Mode!

Paul Godden — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 07:28:32 +0000

The latest version of Firefox has some added features that will appear in the soon to be released Firefox 3.5

Amongst those is the Private Browsing Mode, already popular amongst Chrome and IE users. Private Browsing Mode disables all history being recorded and cookies being saved. Essentially keeping your browsing safe from prying eyes, it has always been heralded as a way to surf internet porn – and even sometimes the developers hint that this was the reason for it being included in the feature set.

There’s also another useful feature built into the latest version. The ability to “tear off” a tab to create that tab’s own window is something which again is (arguably) borrowed from Chrome.

Other features to be included are how Firefox can handle embedded video. Rather than Firefox needing an external plugin, such as Adobe’s Flash, or Apple’s Quicktime, the browser can now render the video itself. This needs to be supported by the site itself however. You can also restrict the results from the address bar – so rather than displaying everything from your history, bookmarks or tagged pages, you can use special characters to display, for instance, just your history when typing.

All in all, Beta 4 is an improvement over the last beta, and we’re being told that the release of Firefox 3.5 is not very far away at all. Download the latest Beta here.

The Chinese Can’t Tweet!

Paul Godden — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:15:59 +0000

For a change, the Chinese government have decided to impose their holier-than-thou ideals on the public by preventing access to common social networking sites, including twitter.com

Not happy with just blocking Blogger, YouTube and a plethora of others, the Great Firewall of China has put a stop to Twitter, Flickr, Bing, Live.com, Hotmail.com and others too. I’m guessing that China are looking to slowly remove Chinese social networking & reduce communication generally online, in a hope to stop this pesky freedom of speech stuff.

You may remember an article I wrote previously about China’s efforts to stifle freedom of speech, after YouTube and a few other video sites were “unplugged” from China’s network overnight – and it seems now that things are getting worse. Come on China! What are you afraid of? A revolution?!

Liquid Cooled PC-In-A-Desk

Paul Godden — Wed, 20 May 2009 09:39:23 +0000

This is a project that I wouldn’t mind doing – If I had the time, money, and patience, plus required skill. As I possess none of these, I, like most of us, can only look on with envy..

The desk is constructed from laser-cut acrylic, 7 fans, liquid cooled with glycol (through 15 feet of tubing no less!) PC specs are 4Gb RAM, a quad-core 3Ghz Intel CPU & a GTX 280 graphics card. Personally, I think they could have upped the specs to included a couple of TB of storage, but they settled for two 300Gb drives instead. And then factor in the 13 blue Neon lights, and you can see why the 850 Watt power supply gave up the ghost – the new system needing a whole Kilowatt! Have a look at the steps the guys at Popular Mechanics took to build this beast!

Windows 7 FOR FREE!

Paul Godden — Fri, 01 May 2009 09:48:11 +0000

I know, it sounds like a post title to draw you in, but it really isn’t – you can own Windows 7, free for a year, to install on your PC!

Windows 7, the latest operating system from Microsoft, is trying to put to bed the bad press they’ve received recently with their Vista release. Windows 7, in combination with input from users, is being hailed as the best OS that Microsoft have released to date. It is quicker, leaner, and more compatible than ever before. Partly down to a re-written kernel, but also down to the modular approach to the OS – gone are all the extras like Movie Maker, although you’re free to add them to the OS if you want them. Also, with a Windows XP mode, applications are virtualised in a real Windows XP environment, with the help of Microsoft’s Virtual PC.

But to top this, as the Release Candidate is made available to subscribers to Microsoft’s MSDN, there is also news that anyone, from May 5th, will be able to download the OS, install it and use completely free for year. This is truly a stroke of genius! All those people thinking twice about investing in a new OS, now have the option to use it for a year, and if they’re not happy, simply go back to their old OS without any cost! It raises the bar on the try-before-you-buy way of thinking, and could also eradicate piracy of the OS too. And at the same time, the PR is pure gold for the company. Bare in mind that this is a Release Candidate, and although you can be fairly sure it will contain all of the features you’ll get in the final product, there’s no guarantee of course. But, hey, who cares if it’s free?

Read the Microsoft press release

The Founders Of The Pirate Bay Go To Jail

Paul Godden — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:37:54 +0000

It’s been a story that’s been going on for years. Whether or not the guys who run the Pirate Bay website are actually committing a crime or not. Well it seems that a court in Sweden have decided that they are.

The court in Sweden have handed out a 1 years prison sentence for Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde. The court also ordered the 4 to pay damages of £2.4 million. Peter Sunde is quoted as saying, "Nothing will happen to TPB [The Pirate Bay], this is just theatre for the media."

It’s interesting in that the people who run the website are technically doing nothing wrong, although you could argue they are facilitating and condoning the committing of a crime, they aren’t downloading the music or films themselves – just giving others the ability to search on available illegal downloads. Does it warrant a prison sentence? In my mind, it doesn’t. What sort of society do we live in when this sort of corporate bullying can be tolerated, and where even a court of law, it appears, follows their lead?

last.fm Looking To Make Some Money

Paul Godden — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:34:59 +0000

If you’re unlucky enough to live outside of the UK, the US or Germany, then you will notice that the free use of last.fm to stream music has been taken away.

A move that in keeping with the current economic climate, and the acquisition of last.fm by CBS, means that users outside of the 3 lucky countries will have to pay a subscription fee of €3 a month. Of course, if you have access to a particularly fast proxy server in one of those countries, you can escape the charge..

Printer Ink More Expensive Than Human Blood!

Paul Godden — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:16:23 +0000

A quick post, with a link to a bar chart (don’t we all love bar charts?) with various liquids listed, and their price per ml. Top of the list is HP, just above blood! Does this mean that HP are a secret society of vampires, or do I have problems interpreting graphs?

The BBC Hack 22,000 Computers For A TV Show

Paul Godden — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:16:29 +0000

The BBC demonstrated that by acquiring some software from chatrooms on the internet, they were able to set up their own botnet and take control of 22,000 user’s PCs.

Apparently the BBC are voicing that as this was not done with "criminal intent" it’s not illegal – and that no personal information was obtained from the slave machines.

I’m a little shocked, I must admit. When has a TV corporation had the power to take it on themselves to hack thousands of computers and then in the same breath say it’s not illegal? Just the mere fact that the BBC took control, means they have broken the law. They have unlawfully obtained use of equipment that they didn’t pay for, don’t pay the electricity bill for & don’t pay the user’s ISP for use of the bandwidth. Stealing, as far as I have been aware has always been a criminal activity – and it doesn’t matter if you dress this with "criminal intent" or not. And if it’s not stealing, then it’s a breach of privacy in the most basic form – you have the right to use your own property without interference from anyone else.

So what happens next? I think if you were one of the 22,000 users that had their PCs hijacked – maybe you should send a letter to your local MP, or perhaps contact the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I know that’s the route I would be taking. Read the BBC article here.

The Incredible Hulk Uses Computers!

Paul Godden — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:06:46 +0000

No, I thought it odd too – until I caught this old advert of a Tandy 1000, with Bill Bixby himself touting the advantages of a Tandy over a PC! Of course Bill didn’t know how well the PC was going to do, so we can’t really blame him. In fact we should really make sure we don’t make him angry over this. You wouldn’t like it when he’s angry..

Service and support – clearly superior. The thing I remember about Tandy was that they were dodgy electrical shops in the UK where I could buy ends for my audio cables – and at the same time walk around looking at the mountains of tat on offer. I’m pretty sure they’re the same company as Radio Shack in the US.

IE8 Not As Compliant As Once Thought

Paul Godden — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:19:42 +0000

The impression everyone was given in the community was that IE8 would be different. It would be web standards compliant. Well bad news folks..

It appears that a few sites don’t actually render correctly in the Beta version of Microsoft’s upcoming answer to the modern browser wars. IE8 Beta fails to render 2,400 sites in initial tests, as their creators expected. And those aren’t a few never-before-heard-of sites, but major sites that get millions of hits. Check out the list in a recent ZDNet post.

Now you can argue that the browser is a beta, so things can change, but my argument is that the engine (the part that actually renders web pages) isn’t going to change at all. The only differences between this “platform ready” beta version and the release version boils down to a few GUI changes or usability adjustments.

So expect another Microsoft-broken internet, at least for the foreseeable future. Tech Snake isn’t worried however – the vast majority of visitors to this website use Firefox, or another browser that is sensitive to the web standards. So congrats to everyone who has seen the light!

Atari Lynx Retro Advert

Paul Godden — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:13:46 +0000

In true Tech Snake form, I give to you another retro tech advert!

This one is for the grey beast that was the Atari Lynx. A "handheld" console, released at the same time as the Nintendo Gameboy in 1989, Atari thought it to be a winner with full screen backlit colour graphics. However I think what let the system down ultimately was the size, price and availability (of the console and new games).

Looking at the advert, there are two things that really strike me about it – 1, how big are the pockets that kid has in his jacket? And 2, how does he get a power supply in a school toilet??

XKCD – Security

Paul Godden — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:03:35 +0000

Proof XKCD style, if you needed it, that the weakest link in any security solution is YOU!

UK’s House Of Lords Wary Of Surveillance State

Paul Godden — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:11:22 +0000

A significant part of the British government has spoken out against the recent surge of recording and tracking the general public’s whereabouts and communications.

CCTV cameras, databases recording emails, SMS communication and Internet traffic have all been in the news lately, and covered in some depth on Tech Snake. And it appears that government officials have also taken note on the intrusions into civic liberty.

This Guardian article includes excerpts from a House of Lords report, with Lord Goodlad – a former Tory Whip, Lord Woolf – a former lord chief justice, and 2 former attorney generals. Lord Goodlad is quoted as saying, "…there could be no justification for this gradual but incessant creep towards every detail about an individual being recorded and pored over by the state." The report even goes on to say that the local council’s authority to track members of the public with CCTV systems should also be questioned.

If we were all aware of the privacy problems our country is facing – the vast majority would be disgusted at how our government goes about collecting data – which is all in the name of crime or terrorism prevention. Hopefully this report will raise the issues publicly to a level where everyone is appalled by our government’s vision of a surveillance state, and something tangible can be done to prevent further intrusions and hopefully reverse some of the current ones. To download the full report, visit the House of Lords website.

Robots Refuelling Planes

Paul Godden — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:01:55 +0000

In a scene that conjures up visions of Terminator, the US Airforce have revealed the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s refueller will be an automatron. Not only is it another job gone by the wayside (which we could do with more of in the current climate) but also it makes the perfect inside job for a takeover.

Picture it, when the Asimos have massed on the Eastern border of Europe and are preparing for attack – the F-35’s are taken out of their hangers with tactical nukes onboard. The robots come to refuel them – ah but do they? Moments after takeoff, they run out of fuel and it’s game over for humanity.

I can see it, it will happen, and you’ll all be sorry when it does if you don’t listen now! OK – taking a step back from the paranoia end of the world stance – I’m not sure if trusting a robot to refuel a plane is a good idea. Fuel + sparks from robot’s innards = BOOM! It’s a simple formula..

Songsmith’s Greatest Hits

Paul Godden — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:01:52 +0000

Born from the bowels of the Microsoft Research Labs, Songsmith was deemed not to be a product by the head-honchos there. And for good reason. The software creates a backing track after listening to the microphone of your singing. The problem is the music sounds as though it’s coming out of a Casio keyboard from 20 years ago.. An interesting idea, I think everyone agrees, but the execution & actual output from the program sucks.

But then, how they ever thought they would sell the product with this advert is anybodies guess. Made using the creator’s own money, it demonstrates the software and how well it works – don’t worry if you don’t make it to the end – it’s a bit of an abomination.

AAAGGHHHH!!! Well there is good news from this evil creation – For one thing this particular video has gone viral (for all the wrong reasons of course) but most importantly, people have taken it into their hearts to isolate the singing from well known songs and pass it through Songsmith – and the results are hilarious!

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as performed by Songsmith. The program has really captured the essence of this song I think… Er.. OK I’ll be quiet now.

Absolute GENIUS! I couldn’t believe how amazing this sounds! It’s like, Oasis meets Snap!!

I just know Survivor are going to love this rendition of their classic "Eye of the Tiger" from the Rocky films. Songsmith has really outdone itself this time!

What the hell am I doing here? I don’t belong here. Indeed – lyrics that are relevant in more ways than you realised Mr Yorke. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Radiohead’s Creep – Songsmith stylee.

And finally I give you Billy Idol’s White Wedding, with Songsmith playing the backing in a "bluegrass" style. It truly is a marvel to behold!

Now you know what to search for, make your way over to YouTube and it shouldn’t take you long to find some amazing remixes. Of course, you can also download the demo of Microsoft’s Songsmith and see what auditory delights you can set loose on the world!

Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate Available

Paul Godden — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:15:18 +0000

And it gets better – apparently the current release candidate is "platform complete" – meaning that this version will be identical to the final release, which is due in the near future.

IE8 looks to remove, or at least diminish, the previous bad press with the browser by being more web standards compliant. The web standards, laid out by the World Wide Web Consortium, lay out how a browser should render a page correctly The long standing acid tests, from The Web Standards Project is used as a benchmark online, which is known to test almost every aspect of the rendering engine. And the results for IE8 are encouraging. When released it should finally be able to pass the Acid 2 test – which is a first for Microsoft.. Of course then there’s the newer Acid 3 test to tackle!

Download the latest version from Microsoft, but remember that technically it is still Beta.

Why Being A Geek Isn’t Always An Advantage

Paul Godden — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:59:38 +0000

It’s easy to slip into the trap of always using technology to help you out – however, what would happen if someone detonated an ECM over your city? It sends shivers down my spine just thinking of the internet blackout..

Courtesy of XKCD