spector

CD box sets: It's that time of year again

Downloads and streaming music can't touch physical media for sound quality, or the pleasures associated with truly deluxe packaging.

For a prime example of the state of the art of the box set, check out the extra-thick album sleeves and gorgeous slipcase on Pearl Jam's "vs. & Vitalogy Deluxe Edition" three-disc set. The third disc is a live show from Boston's Orpheum Theatre in 1994. The band is peaking, and it's great to hear this fierce, passionate music sounding this good. To get the full effect, you'll want to play it loud. The … Read more

Game developer: Let's not be like comic books

The gaming industry's reliance on larger-than-life characters and science fiction stories could turn it into a niche market like the comic book space, Disney game developer Warren Spector warned at the Game Developers Conference Europe in Cologne, Germany, on Monday.

Speaking to a crowd of developers, Spector said the industry finds itself "in the center of a cultural firestorm." Because of that, the onus is on game developers to build better games that bring the industry into the mainstream, like film, rather than the niche, like comics.

"If we don't break out of the big … Read more

Q&A: Bringing back Mickey Mouse's dark side

In a world in which Disney defines its brand and the content it releases under its own name as being aimed at the broadest possible audience, Mickey Mouse is known largely as a feel-good, happy-go-lucky cartoon character.

But that's not how Mickey was in the early days. Back in 1928, when he first hit the world stage, he was a very badly behaved mouse. And now, one of the best-known video game designers in the world wants to bring back a little of bit of Mickey's dark side.

And he'll get his chance to make that a … Read more

Army shows more than one way to look under a car

Manning security checkpoints is hazardous duty, but vehicles still must be checked. So the U.S. Army is helping develop products that will allow soldiers to do their job, preferably from a distance.

Researchers and scientists at the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (aka TARDEC) have focused on semi-autonomous robotic systems capable of remotely inspecting a vehicle's undercarriage for explosives or roam the line looking for suspicious activity.

TARDEC will showcase a couple of its favorite autonomous robotic systems this week at the Michigan Security Network Market Leadership Conference. Both units were developed for … Read more

The fascinating tweets of a murderer? Um, no

Correction, June 3 at 8:57 a.m. PDT: This story was originally written on a mistaken assumption that Phil Spector was tweeting from jail. We subsequently learned that we had been taken in by a hoax, by a Twitter user who was posing as Spector. Thanks to our readers for pointing out the error.

In the interests of full disclosure, we are leaving the original post below, but as you read, bear in mind that the quotes (tweets) attributed to Spector are not trustworthy. As the person behind the hoax wrote earlier this morning, "I copied many of … Read more