ufos

UFO on Tape: The game of close encounters

Picture this: you're in the backseat of a speeding car, trying to keep up with a flying saucer you just spotted zipping along the horizon. The only tricky part is keeping your iPhone camera trained on the UFO, which is constantly zigging and zagging out of view.

That's the intriguing premise of UFO on Tape, a simple but absolutely ingenious new game. The whole point is to see how long you can keep the UFO in your sights--a task that relies entirely on your device's accelerometer (or, if you have an iPhone 4, the gyroscope).

What makes … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1318: Aliens want our nukes (podcast)

Alien coverage week continues on Buzz Out Loud, with testimony from U.S. Air Force pilots that aliens want us to disarm our nukes. For world peace, or to make sure we don't have any guns when they get here? But in actual news, a study finds that texting-while-driving bans don't reduce crashes and might even increase them. Plus, NAB goes even crazier. --Molly

Basic arcade game

AsteroidRush is a basic arcade-style game in which users must destroy asteroids and other objects that threaten their spaceship. It's not very interesting, yet we found it somehow addicting in a totally mindless kind of way.

The program's interface is very simple. The player's spaceship is located in the middle of the screen and can spin around but not move from its spot. The spaceship is bombarded by asteroids (which look a lot like meatballs) and other unidentified objects from all directions. Users shoot at these threatening objects to protect themselves and earn points. Some objects confer … Read more

Phone home! E.T. on Google Street View!

If you were able to get on a bicycle, put a little child or two into the front basket, and fly off into the bluest yonder, would you make your home in Berkeley Heights, N.J.?

That is the troublesome question patting at the heads of certain UFO experts, whose attention has been drawn to the apparent apparition of E.T. on Google Street View.

The image, which you can see here, suggests that E.T. has lost his way. Perhaps he has lost his bike.

The kindly Google Street View camera took the image on the corner of Diamond … Read more

Metallica's Kirk Hammett speaks about Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero: Metallica, which lets gamers play along with the band and its influences, comes out in the U.S. on March 29. Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett spoke to me this afternoon at the South by Southwest music festival about the game and other issues related to music and technology.

Q: With the Guitar Hero game, do you think you'll be reaching longtime fans, or is this mainly a way to reach younger fans who might know a song or two but don't really know Metallica? Hammett: We'll be reaching fans across the board, longtime fans, … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 916: Fiber to the butt

Natali opens with some rage against Verizon Fios over a billing problem after she canceled the service. She feels somehow, well...Jason explains it best in the show. We also get a Molly rant over Ireland's new content filtering on the Internet and TechCrunch's reporting that Last.FM was giving data to the RIAA. Which it was not.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 916

Microsoft asks for severance back from laid off employees http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10169119-75.html

Workers ’stealing company data’ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7902989.stm

Xbox Live denial … Read more

Organize your corner with ezGear's new power extender

Trying to put more electronics in a tight corner and running out of power outlets? ezGear has a solution, and it comes in a compact package.

The company announced Monday at CES its newest wall mount power expander, called the ezSpace UFO.

Taking the shape of a flying object, the ezSpace UFO is a six-outlet plug expander with built-in 1050 Joule surge protection that provides space for a large plug or transformer on each outlet.

The ezSpace Wall Mount UFO plugs directly into the power outlet on your wall and provides the same six outlets standard on other models. The … Read more

British PM comments on NASA hacker Gary McKinnon

British prime minister Gordon Brown spoke on Thursday (at least indirectly) about the future of Gary McKinnon, a 42-year-old UFO enthusiast accused of hacking into several U.S. military sites. It was the prime minister's first public comments on the case which, after six years, took a twist over the summer.

McKinnon lost his last fight against extradition in July but has yet to arrive in the United States to stand trial. His lawyers are continuing to appeal within the E.U. courts. McKinnon, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, has said he would prefer to stand … Read more

UFO Hacker's computer hacked

Gary McKinnon, the Briton who appears to have confessed to hacking into 90 unclassified Pentagon computer systems, is clearly something of a character.

His defense seems to consist of his insistence that all he was looking for was secret knowledge about UFOs.

This blog loves secret knowledge too. And has a very occasional penchant for the concept of an eye for an eye.

So, at great personal expense, I hired the famous one-eyed Sergei (I know his second name, but he has, you know, a regular job) to get in on McKinnon.

Yes, Sergei hacked the hacker.

Quickly, he found … Read more

NASA hacker loses latest extradition fight

On Wednesday, a 42-year-old UFO enthusiast lost his bid in a British court to fight extradition to the U.S. on charges he hacked into several U.S. military bases and even NASA.

Gary McKinnon has been fighting extradition for nearly six years, and his latest setback occurred in the British House of Lords. McKinnon admits breaking into U.S. databases in order to uncover evidence of secret UFO documents. His supporters contend that if deported to the U.S. for trial, McKinnon could be portrayed as a terrorist, seeking military secrets in general.

At the heart of Wednesday's … Read more