Facebook publishes deleted images, Android vs iOS crashes, 12345 Syrian password “hacked”, AT&T throttling, NASA killing Mars and more GeekNews. In the second half Mike Treanor from UCSC’s Center for Games and Playable Media joins The Geeks to talk about game development and AI.
Take a look behind the scenes as they replace the world’s largest IMAX screen.
Currently on board the International Space Station, Dr. Pettit presents fantastic physics that can only be demonstrated in micro-gravity.
Ever wonder why certain mobile apps you use crash so much?
It turns out there are many possible reasons. And it can vary particularly depending on whether you are using an Apple iOS device such as an iPhone or iPad, or an Android device.
One of the reasons for app crashes is the proliferation of mobile operating systems on iOS and Android. As Apple and Google have released more new operating systems, each with multiple updates, app developers face more operating systems to test apps on.
“Facebook is still working on deleting photos from its servers in a timely manner nearly three years after Ars first brought attention to the topic. The company admitted on Friday that its older systems for storing uploaded content ‘did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time even though they were immediately removed from the site,’ but said it’s currently finishing up a newer system that makes the process much quicker. In the meantime, photos that users thought they “deleted” from the social network months or even years ago remain accessible via direct link."
“The attack took place overnight Sunday and the target was the mail server of the Syrian Ministry of Presidential Affairs. Some 78 inboxes of Assad’s aides and advisers were hacked and the password that some used was ‘12345’. Among those whose email was exposed were the Minister of Presidential Affairs Mansour Fadlallah Azzam and Assad’s media adviser, Bouthaina Shaaban.”
“It seems that ceiling has decreased significantly over the past few months, at least for some regions. John Cozen reports that he received his top 5% data usage warning after reaching only 2.1GB of data for January.”
“Scientists say NASA is about to propose major cuts in its exploration of other planets, especially Mars. And NASA’s former science chief is calling it irrational.
“With limited money for science and an over-budget new space telescope, the space agency essentially had to make a choice in where it wanted to explore: the neighboring planet or the far-off cosmos.”
“We spend more on pet food every year in the US than we do on NASA. What we spend every year on tobacco products is five times NASA’s annual budget, so I’m thinking the money is out there.”
“… courtesy of Neil deGrasse Tyson.”
Prom Week is a next-generation social simulation game driven by a novel artificial intelligence engine. The goal of Prom Week is to make social interactions truly playable. While games have increasingly gotten better at physical simulation, social interactions in games still tend to be scripted, using dialogue trees or other static structures to represent in-game choice. As a result, games are more often about combat or physics-based behaviors (which are easier to make playable) since these simulations are the only part of the system dynamic enough for interesting gameplay.
! Prom Week
The game [Prom Week|http://games.soe.ucsc.edu/project/prom-week], that our guest Mike Treanor has been working on for about 2 and a half years, is a finalist for the 2012 Independent Games Festival Main Competition – in the technical excellence category.
Mike Trainer, has a BA in computer science with game focus, then a Master of Fine Arts in Digital Arts and New Media (thats the program I help run at UCSC) and is currently working on his PHd in Computer Science in the Center for Games and Playable Media working with the expressive intelligence studio – games, artificial intelligence and art making.
