ORIGINALLY AIRED: 12/6/2004
LEGO CAD, Half-Life 2 Physics, Blade: Trinity
Episode #2884
| From the Depths of Hell: Reports from the set of the new Doom movie at darkhorizons.com indicate some major divergences from the game’s scenario. Let the suckage commence.
Meet You in the Aisles: Grocerygame.com offers grocery store savings galore. Come for the Meat, Stay for the Musical: Monty Python + SPAM = Commemorative tins that will be appearing on eBay any second. |
| Some people never let go of their toys. Others adapt them to their adult lives, which is what Tim Courtney has achieved as steering committee chairman of LDraw.org. LDraw is free CAD program for building and sharing virtual LEGO block creations. It allows you to create building instructions, 3D photo-realistic images, and even animations of your LEGO models or scenes to share with others. Tim demonstrated the programs’ abilities and brought in some samples of artwork created by users.
To learn more from Tim about LDraw, read our interview here. Get the LDraw software: www.ldraw.org Also, you can enter the non-profit software developer contest to develop the next generation of LEGO CAD software: www.LPRIZE.com. Also, you can view an example LEGO CAD models animated with a program called Persistance of Vision Raytracer (http://www.povray.org/) by looking over to the left side of this page. |
| Best Classic LEGO Sets 5. Space Light & Sound Sonic Robot 4. Imperial Guard Trading Post 3. Black Knight Dungeon Master Castle 2. Paradisa Country Club 1. Pirate Black Seas Barracuda |
| It's the vampire movie series that's better than you expect: Blade. And now the third chapter is coming out this Wednesday, Blade: Trinity. Will Wesley Snipes still look cool with fangs? Will his new sidekicks Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel steal the movie from him? And has Kris Kristofferson always looked like that? Draw your own conclusions at www.bladetrinity.com. |
| In tech topics…
And It’ll Be Small Enough to Fit in Your Suitcase: Rumors are running willy nilly across the Internet that the next iPod will contain a Sirius satellite radio receiver. Sure would be cool, but Gizmodo.com is skeptical. Lose Your Memory, Get a Crappy Game: Sony is buttering up anyone whose system memory got erased by the Viewtiful Joe demo with an offer of a free game, reports Gametab.com. Pictochat With the World: The Nintendo DS has reportedly been hacked for online play, says Plasticbugs.com. |
| Got a file you’d like to share with a friend, but it’s too big for email and handing over a DVD will take too long? Try Grouper – this free beta program allows you to share files with registered friends, and there’s no file size limit. |
| Lab Rat Hahn Choi came onto the show bearing the Garmin Quest, a handheld GPS. The $500 unit comes with voice directions, but Hahn didn’t find it efficient for car use. He said it would lose its location when going into parking garages, requiring you to pull over and reconnect to the satellite. Hahn said he would recommend it for outdoor hiking use, however.
For more info on the Quest, visit garmin.com. |
| Make your enemies float like stuck pigs in space with these hacks from Kevin P. |
| Mark of Stafford, VA wanted to know if overclocking is dangerous to your PC.
If you overclock it too far, you might generate excessive heat which can fry your memory card. But you should be able to see performance warnings before reaching that point: texture tearing and dropouts. You might search for information more specific to your system at http://www.overclockersclub.com/. |
| What should you look for when shopping for a multimedia computer?
Bigger is better: a large (and fast) hard drive for those big video files, and lots of ram for multitasking. Depending on what kinds of multimedia needs you have, you might also investigate Apple PowerMacs. How’s the Creative Zen Micro MP3 player? Billed as another “iPod killer,” the Micro does compare well to the iPod Mini. Chi-Lan says it has a bigger hard drive and an FM tuner, and cosmetically it does come in different collars. She finds its size comfortable as well, and recommends it. |
FEATURES
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Playing with Virtual LEGO
Tim Courtney, the organizer behind LDraw.org, explains why playing with virtual LEGO is fun. |
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Float Like a Butterfly
Here's how to hack your physics engine in Half-Life 2. |
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Review: Garmin Quest
A GPS unit that can guide you on the road, trails and even on open water. |
