Wired: Top Stories (8 unread)
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Spying Court Stays Secret, Rejects ACLU Plea Again
Posted: August 30th, 2008, 10:00pm EDT by Ryan Singel
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For the third time in a year, a secret spying court rejects an ACLU request to let some sunshine pierce its dark curtains of secrecy, ruling that national security prohibits publishing even unclassified versions of court documents or allowing non-government lawyers to argue in the court.
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Gallery: Penny Arcade Expo Is Geek Gamer's Paradise
Posted: August 30th, 2008, 9:00pm EDT by Chris Kohler
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: Photo: Stephen Brashear/Wired.comSEATTLE, Washington -- What is a "gamer?" Ask ten different Penny Arcade Expo attendees and you'll get ten different answers. Around 50,000 videogame fans have descended on downtown Seattle for this weekend's Penny Arcade Expo, all looking for a different experience.
Some are here to show off their hand-crafted costumes of videogame characters. Some are here to compete in tournaments for thousands of dollars in cash prizes. Some are here to perform videogame music and some are looking to hook up with game publishers and score the job of their dreams. All are here to meet up with like-minded peers from all over the world.
Click through the gallery to see the zaniness of PAX so far. Also check out Wired.com's entire PAX 2008 coverage.
Left: Victor Carino poses for a photograph as Captain Falcon from the game F-Zero on the first day of the Penny Arcade Exposition at the Washington State Visitor and Convention Center in Seattle, Washington, Friday, Aug. 29, 2008.
: Photo: Stephen Brashear/Wired.comJack Waterman, left, and Paul Owens perform "chip tunes," using their Nintendo Game Boy systems as electronic instruments on the first day of the Penny Arcade Expo. Owens directed "Reformat the Planet," a documentary about chip tune artists who create original music using ancient videogame hardware, which is being screened at PAX.
: Photo: Stephen Brashear/Wired.comYou don't see as much cosplay on the PAX show floor as you do at events like Comic-Con, but there are still plenty of gamers in disguise. Kristopher Benson, left, of Seattle dressed up as Pit, aka Kid Icarus, from the game Super Smash Brothers Brawl. His friend, Hilary Kotzke of Seattle, is dressed as Yuffie -- she's a character from the Final Fantasy series of games, but this particular costume is how she appeared in the Disney/Final Fantasy crossover Kingdom Hearts. Cosplayers are a very specific sort.
: Photo: Stephen Brashear/Wired.comThe "Omegathon" is one of the most brutal videogame tournaments ever devised. A pool of twenty competitors is slowly whittled down to just two finalists, over six grueling rounds spanning the three days of the show. "Omeganaut" Jo Urbanksy of Litchfield, Ohio, awaits his fate while playing Boom Blox on the Nintendo Wii (during the final match of round two of the Omegathon competition). Urbansky's aim was true, and he moved on to the next round.
: Photo: Stephen Brashear/Wired.com Dana White, left, of Seattle says she dressed up as a ninja because she is a ninja. Conversely, Megan Cummings, of Seattle, dressed up as a pirate because she wanted to fight the ninja. (Are they thinking about this game?)
: Photo: Stephen Brashear/Wired.comDungeon Master Sage Kurtz of Portland, Oregon, presides over a game of Dungeons & Dragons. Some gamers come to PAX just to game for three days, whether sprawled on a beanbag chair playing Nintendo DS and trading Pokemon with new friends, or holed up in the tabletop gaming rooms waging pen-and-paper campaigns.
: Photo: Stephen Brashear/Wired.comThe first two nights of PAX play host to the nerdiest concerts ever. The OneUps, a videogame music cover band, kicked off Friday night's show, which was headlined by Jonathan Coulton, a singer/songwriter who penned "Still Alive," the theme song to last year's cult hit game Portal. Pictured: OneUps guitarist Tim Yarbrough, left, and violinist Greg Kennedy.
: Photo: Stephen Brashear/Wired.comWarmachine player Matt Birdsall of Arlington, Washington, rolls the dice while playing Hordes at the Privateer Press exhibit.
: Photo: Stephen Brashear/Wired.comTim Riggs of Spokane, Washington, competes in a Starcraft tournament. PAX's PC gaming room is the stuff of legend: It's sponsored by Intel, and Penny Arcade says it's one of the largest LANs in America. There are 330 computers that attendees can play on, and 300 spots where attendees can set up their own custom rigs. All of those spots had sold out before PAX even began.
: Photo: Stephen Brashear/Wired.comAs so many years of E3 proved, gamers will do almost anything for swag. To win a the newest version of Brothers in Arms, Kenny Repine of Tumwater, Washington, shaved his head and allowed "HELL" to be painted on his scalp.
: Photo: Stephen Brashear/Wired.comThere's no Dark Knight videogame that we know of, but that didn't stop Stephanie Lindner and Scott Falkner of Renton, Washington, from dressing up as Harley Quinn and the Joker.
: Photo: Stephen Brashear/Wired.comDaniel Smolentsev, right, of Portland, Oregon, and teammate Robert Bosch of Gresham, Oregon, celebrate winning a match in a Team Fortress 2 tournament.
: Photo: Stephen Brashear/Wired.comFreezepop vocalist Liz Enthusiasm performs. Freezepop isn't a videogame band per se, but member Kasson Crooker is a senior producer at Harmonix, the creators of Rock Band, and Freezepop's songs have appeared in many of the company's games.
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10 Geeky Flicks to Raise Your Kids On
Posted: August 30th, 2008, 8:00pm EDT by Ken Denmead
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In our never-ending quest to provide you the tools and knowledge to raise your kids in your own geeky image, we present you with a list of 10 geeky movies to share with your kids.
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Maps: Storm Surge Risk From Tropical Storm Gustav
Posted: August 30th, 2008, 6:30pm EDT by Alexis Madrigal
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Storm surge maps developed by a insurance risk management firm show that Tropical Storm Gustav, if it continues strengthening, could have a devastating impact wherever it hits along the Gulf Coast.
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Wild Rides Rule the Playa at Burning Man
Posted: August 30th, 2008, 6:00pm EDT by Keith Axline
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: Photo: Kat Wade/Wired.comBLACK ROCK CITY, Nevada -- From mind-bending art cars to crazy, tricked-out bicycles, there's more than one way to get around at Burning Man. And sometimes the journey's all in your head.
Left: Adrian Selkowitz rides shotgun as Anela Bence drives Boss Hog across the playa. They're just two of the five creators of the huge hog. There's a fine line between a good acid trip and a bad one, and Boss Hog snorts that line up for breakfast.
: Photo: Kat Wade/Wired.comBikes of all shapes and sizes grace the avenues at Burning Man. The amount of energy people waste trying to figure out why someone would build these bikes actually makes them less fuel-efficient than a Hummer.
: Photo: Kat Wade/Wired.comMaya Peer peers through a kaleidoscope created by "Ivan Idea" while Micha Biterman takes a snapshot of her multiple images. The sign is both instructive and a cry for help.
: Photo: Kat Wade/Wired.comA forklift is brought in to move The Beast from Camp Apocalypse after the monstrous machine's hydraulics failed, causing a mammoth roadblock in the streets of Black Rock City.
In accordance with Burning Man's archaically inhumane robot policy, The Beast will be put to sleep and thrown in a Dumpster out back, and its creators will be told that it was for the best.
: Photo: Kat Wade/Wired.comA burner turns heads as she cruises through the streets of Black Rock City on a motorized skateboard. Not pictured are the thousands of angry 13-year-olds from whose fantasies she just escaped.
: Photo: Kat Wade/Wired.comAfter a blazing day on the playa, burners Adam Al-Harbi (left) from California and Loren Geenberg (center) from New York come out to play in the Zorb, a hamster-wheel-type contraption powered by Logan Jackson and "Dr. Dave" from camp And Then There Is Only Love.
Shortly after this photo, the Zorb became what one onlooker described as a "vomit washing-machine."
: Photo: Kat Wade/Wired.comIt's love at fur sight: A playa moment between "friends."
: Photo: Kat Wade/Wired.comLighting the night on fire, Katrina McFerrin, a fire dancer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, shows off her talent for the Crazy Horse Camp. McFerrin later suffered minor burns when she remembered she hadn't set up her out-of-office auto-reply and lost concentration. (Just kidding.)
: Photo: Kat Wade/Wired.comA spectacular, pedal-powered, fire-spouting vehicle operated by burners from Camp Department of Spontaneous Combustion blazes a trail up the esplanade. And they say cars are dangerous.
: Photo: Kat Wade/Wired.comBurners dance to sounds spun by Doug LePre, aka Big Daddy Doug, at Big Puffy Yellow Camp beneath the "air star" by Jim McGuire. Four 50-watt bulbs and helium create the full-moon effect, but there can be no explanation for the mumu.
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A Short History of 'When the Levee Breaks'
Posted: August 30th, 2008, 4:12pm EDT by Scott Thill
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A million citizens flee Louisiana for safer ground from Hurricane Gustav. It's scheduled to hit almost exactly three years after Hurricane Katrina, visiting on the Gulf Coast the kind of disaster dystopia one usually finds in music, most notably in the Led Zeppelin epic "When the Levee Breaks."
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The Envirosight Supervision 250 Crawls Through Sewer Pipes So No Human Has To
Posted: August 30th, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Bob Parks
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What it is: Envirosight SuperVision 250
What it's used for: Revealing damage deep inside city pipes
You go, you flush: out of sight, out of mind. Not for city maintenance crews. With 850 billion gallons of sewer and storm water leaking into watersheds around the country every year, the Environmental Protection Agency is cracking down on cracked pipes. And the SuperVision 250 is riding that great, stinky wave of demand. Placed in pipes 10 to 72 inches in diameter, this little guy will track down splits, debris, corrosion, and breaks. Operators can watch the video feed from the 10X optical-zoom autofocus camera and use a joystick to pan and tilt. A ring of high-intensity, shadowless LEDs illuminates the scene; dual lasers help size up defects. A sapphire window shields the camera lens, while hardened stainless steel parts protect the crawler from the harsh sewer environment. And thanks to an ultrathin, Kevlar-reinforced tether (sorry, no wireless), the bot can crawl up to 1,640 feet through even heavily obstructed pipes. Just make sure to hose it off when it comes back.
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120-Hz Hi-Def TVs Bring Onscreen Action to Life
Posted: August 30th, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Chuck Cage
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Last year's TV buzz was 1080p. This year's is all about 120 Hz. That refers to the number of images a set displays each second to make your picture move; 120 is twice the norm, netting the smoothest pans since Teflon.
How We Rate .c2{padding-left:70px;}
Samsung LN52A750
$3,700, samsung.com
This 52-inch Samsung chewed up stuttering 60-Hz video and spit out glass-smooth motion, leaving few visual artifacts. It sailed through most of our processing challenges, proving especially effective at recombining interlaced video. The set also delivered vibrant color — if a bit more saturated, and thus less natural, than the Sony's — after only minor calibration tweaks, which Samsung's simple menus made painless. The subtle, red-hued "touch of color" bezel imparts a reserved style — think Armani, not Elton John.
Wired: InfoLink system displays news, weather, and RSS feeds via Ethernet connection. Side-mounted HDMI/USB ports make for easy gaming and photo viewing. Eight HD and three standard-def inputs.
Tired: Room lighting + glossy screen = disco reflections. Only one color option, and it might not work for everyone.
1... A complete failure in every way. 6... A solid product with some issues. 2... Just barely functional — don't buy it. 7... Very good, but not quite great. 3... Serious flaws, proceed with caution. 8... Excellent, with room to kibitz. 4... Downsides outweigh upsides. 9... Nearly flawless — buy it now. 5... Recommended with reservations. 10... Metaphysical product perfection. 
Sony Bravia KDL-46W4100
$2,400, sonystyle.com
We loved the color right out of this 46-incher's box, and the video processors aced our tests, removing jaggies and scrubbing noise — even from standard-def sources — with little loss of detail. Plus, the motion enhancer smoothed out movement while introducing fewer visual artifacts than any other TV in this batch. (Purists can turn it off for a true filmlike experience.) One gripe: With great features come overstuffed menus. Time to RTFM.
Wired: Elegant silver and black bezel. Tons of video inputs — seven HD and five standard-def — plus distinct color profiles for each. Add-on lets you watch select clips via the Net.
Tired: Internet add-on is $300! Attention Sony: YouTube is free; you can't charge three bills for an inferior version. PS3-style menus will appeal to gamers but may confuse others.
Sharp Aquos LC-65SE94U
$8,500, sharpusa.com
This 65-inch monster "five-ups" the previous standard for a large LCD set, but you'll pay for bragging rights. Thankfully, that price buys more than just 5 extra inches of screen. The set produced very dark blacks and a picture bright enough to see even in strong sunlight. But it's time to join the 21st century with your interface, Sharp; we're running out of Atari jokes.
Wired: Trumps your neighbor's 60-incher and cranks out enough lumens to let you watch football in the backyard ... just to rub it in. Great-looking narrow-bezel case — important when your TV takes up half a wall. Excellent default picture quality means you can have green Astroturf without taking a course in color calibration.
Tired: No bonus features like USB pictures and music. The array of tiny, identical buttons on the remote probably spells "annoying" in braille.
LG Scarlet 47LG60
$2,500, lge.com
The bulky, shiny case and visible-from-space power button mark a bold departure from most manufacturers' minimalist styling. And while LG's TruMotion removes stutter, we saw more artifacts than on other LCDs we tested. Default settings produced harsh, oversaturated color — correctable using the bevy of adjustment options but disappointing for a TV of this price.
Wired: Straightforward menus simplify navigation and configuration. Separate color adjustment for each input. This 47-inch set boasts one of the few alternatives to picture-frame bezels that isn't designed for a 14-year-old Japanese girl (cough cough, Hannspree, cough).
Tired: You'll need expert help — or a lot of time — to dial in good color. No S-video jacks and only one composite input, so forget most of your non-HD sources.
