Common Paradox Tech Blog

Katherine Hayles, author of “How We Became Posthuman” goes bio, reminding us that machines aren’t the ones in charge. The catch? Neither are we. [WaPo]

If a speed run is the videogame equivalent of a 100 meter dash, then a WoW character by the name of “Little Gray” just won the Tour De France. On foot.

The character – given virtual life by a Taiwanese power-player – completed 5,906 quests, killed 390,895 creatures, and raided 405 dungeons en route to unlocking all 986 of WoW’s achievements, effectively 100% clearing the game.

Well, mostly. Little Gray hasn’t quite bagged the elusive “B.B. King” event-based achievement, but a glitched PVP achievement still brings his grand total up to 986.

According to WoW Armory, Mr. Gray hasn’t logged-in since November 23. We wish we could say he’s finally hung up his tier 9 pauldrons and moved on to some other game, but – having spent far more time with the game than we’d like to admit long before achievements turned its addiction factor up to 11 – we imagine he’s simply started an alt.

Since the original JBL Creature speakers were released seven years ago, Apple’s designs have (d)evolved into metal bricks. But that doesn’t top JBL from selling the sci-fi-inspired Creature III exclusively through Apple channels.

The same, fluid 2.1 setup we’ve remember from the original Creature speakers are recaptured in the $130 Creature IIIs, though the latest edition features a more compact subwoofer than Creatures of yore. Does the design hold up all these years later? You tell us. [BW via CrunchGear]

In the future, the compliment to give a guy will be to say that he’s hung like a rabbit. It’ll imply that he has the super-high libido that comes with fully-functional, custom-engineered penises like those being successfully implanted in bunnies.

I don’t know how the fluffy creatures lost their most precious parts in the first place, but scientists decided to grow entire penises from scratch and implant them into a group of rabbits. The result were fully-functional, completely responsive sex organs in all the rabbits and “when given the chance to have sex, eight [of them] were able to ejaculate, and four became fathers.” Impressive conception rate considering they were working with brand new equipment.

The hope is to one day reproduce those results for humans and aid those requiring penile reconstruction. Until then though, I suppose that “replacement penis” will keep implying the involvement of batteries. [Wired]

With Left 4 Dead 2, Valve’s showing its full hand. It’s going all out. After all, with no other major franchise to help line the developer’s pockets, what other choice does it have? 

"We’ll be supporting Left 4 Dead 2’s launch with a $25 million campaign," said Doug Lombardi, Valve’s vice-president of Marketing. "Left 4 Dead 2 has already set the record for greatest number of pre-orders in our company’s history, and we’re still over a month out from shipping."

"Based on the strength of pre-orders, Left 4 Dead 2 will be the fastest-selling product in Valve’s history," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "Left 4 Dead 2 has consistently run at 300% of Left 4 Dead’s numbers."

So yeah, Left 4 Dead 2 – no pressure.
 
Now if only Valve tried its hand at building up another series – perhaps something with, say, physicists and small crablike creatures that reside on or around the head. They could be called… cranium crustaceans! Too bad Valve hasn’t been keeping a sequel to a crazy idea like that under wraps for nearly three years.

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Help Net Security: “In the never-ending battle to protect computer networks from intruders, security experts are deploying a new defense modeled after one of nature’s hardiest creatures — the ant. Unlike traditional security devices, which are static, these ‘digital ants’ wander through computer networks looking for threats … When a digital ant detects a threat, it doesn’t take long for an army of ants to converge at that location, drawing the attention of human operators who step in to investigate. ‘Our idea is to deploy 3,000 different types of digital ants, each looking for evidence of a threat,’ [says Wake Forest Professor of Computer Science Errin Fulp.] ‘As they move about the network, they leave digital trails modeled after the scent trails ants in nature use to guide other ants. Each time a digital ant identifies some evidence, it is programmed to leave behind a stronger scent. Stronger scent trails attract more ants, producing the swarm that marks a potential computer infection.’”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It may not make the same freaking scary noise as Big Dog, but Little Dog is even creepier than its big brother. I think it is because of its small size. Smaller creatures are always creepier, even when they fail.

The robot was programmed by Katie Byl—currently at the Harvard Microrobotics Lab—and I don’t want to be anywhere near it. [Harvard Microbotics and Locomotion via BotJunkie]