Prominent videogame institute opens in Singapore

The new DigiPen campus in Singapore
DigiPen is not the name of some new tablet pointing device. It's the name of an institute that offers degree courses which relate directly to videogame design. The school has two campuses in the US, and today, it officially opened one more in Singapore. Founder and president of the institute, Claude Comair, was in town for the opening and gave an overview of the purpose of the school and what it hopes to achieve in the island-state. From the time it set up shop in Washington till today, the number of companies creating videogames around it has increased from below 10 to more than 100. Comair is hoping the same effect will occur with the Singapore campus.

In case you are wondering what the big deal is about this school, consider the work of some of its graduates. Portal, the award-winning game developed and published by Valve Corporation, was first conceived by some DigiPen students who were employed by the company upon graduation. Other famous games worked on by past graduates have included Mario vs Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (Nintendo) and Blood II: The Chosen (Monolith Productions). Imagine, the chance that a future hit game in 2011 may just come from your own backyard. The first line of the Portal theme song, Still Alive, truly describes its awesomeness: "This was a triumph."

A projector in your phone

Egads! Just had to say it since Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI)'s EGD module simply begs for it. That aside, this shouts geek appeal since it's a 110g device that can basically throw pictures off your mobile device to a 60-inch full-color SVGA image 2m away. What we know is that it can receive picture input signals like S-video, composite, component and analog RGB, and comes equipped with controller that can realize 3D images. Lest we get too excited about the potential waiting to be unleashed here--from billboard-type messages to sales pitches--the Eye Glass Display is still in gestation mode, folks. But at least it won't be long before we can turn our mobile phones into portable video projectors for impromptu movie marathons.

Via Ubergizmo

Printf("hello, world!"); Google Code Jam begins July 16

This one is for all you geeks out there.

The global Google Code Jam is back with a top prize of US$10,000. Registration has already begun and you could be a professional programmer, or just one who likes to write codes to annoy the hell out of others. If you meet the eligibility rules, you can take part.

The top 100 contestants from the local onsite rounds will be flown on an all-expenses-paid trip to Mountain View, California, for the finals. Of course, you'll have to make it through the qualification and online rounds first.

Now, before you click to register, here's what you should know from the Terms and Conditions. Although you'll retain the full intellectual and property rights to your codes, "Google shall have a perpetual, irrevocable, world-wide, royalty-free right to use, copy, distribute, modify and make publicly available the submission in connection with the operation, conduct, administration, and advertising and promotion of the Contest".

In addition, your source codes will be made available for all users to view and download at the end of the competition and you will allow other contestants to have a "world-wide, royalty-free right to use, copy, and modify all submitted source code".

And a little bit of background trivia just so you know what you are getting into. The previous global Code Jam was held in 2006 with finalists from China, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan in Asia slugging it out for top honors. The prize money? US$10,000 (guess they didn't factor in inflation).

Or if you are a wimp, you can choose to be a spectator and watch the true geeks battle it out. Now's the right time to get our Rock Band console out for a real jamming session.

Image is a screen grab from the Google Code Jam Web site.

Solar power to set sail in space

On earth, people are beginning to use the sun's light to power their houses, office buildings, and even gadgets. Now, outside of our planet, the sun's energy is going to be utilized for something else--space travel.

If NASA can successfully implement solar sails, which have been referenced in some sci-fi books of the past, using the sun's energy for space exploration may become a reality this summer.

According to a report by NASA Science, the Marshall Space Flight Center and the Ames Research Center have teamed up to make history, by deploying its first solar sail, the NanoSail-D.

The solar sail, made of aluminum and space-age plastic, has the ability to harness the radiation of the sun for movement. Since outer space is frictionless, the sail could potentially accelerate forever, traveling much faster and much farther than a rocket running on fuel. Travel back to Earth would require a turn of the sail.

This technology isn't the first of its kind. In 2005, The Planetary Society launched a solar sail spacecraft, hoping to be the first successful launch. However, later that day, there was no confirmation that the craft, names Cosmos 1, had entered orbit, and the mission was deemed unsuccessful.
Read more »

Move your body, charge your phone

There are several ways one can harness natural energy. For example, the wind, the sun, tides and geothermal activities, and increasingly, the human body to producer energy to charge all sorts of electricity-hungry devices.

Music company Orange and GotWind, a firm specializing in renewable energy, have teamed up to create Dance Charge. Weighing 180g, you strap it around your arm. Dance Charge then uses the kinetic energy generated by your body in motion to juice up your phone.

It also uses a system of weights and magnets to produce electric current to top up the storage battery, which can later be used to charge your handset.

A prototype of the device will be shown and tested on June 27 at this year's Glastonbury Festival, the world's biggest greenfield music and arts celebration.

Credit: ubergizmo and reuters.uk

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