Tag Archives: steam
Cathedral of steam: Inside Albuquerque’s abandoned locomotive shops
A piece of a train sits outside the machine shop.
(Credit: Amanda Kooser/CNET)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.–There are a lot of reasons film scouts for sci-fi movies visit the abandoned Santa Fe Railway locomotive repair shops here and go crazy over the crumbling industrial cathedral. The buildings are massive and lined with tiles of white and green windows. Old machinery rusts overhead and in corners. The shops just scream “movie set.”
I’m visiting this ode to railroading history with a tour guide from The New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Railroad Historical Society. These are the same people who are rebuilding an entire steam engine on the other end of town. The guide lets our tour group through the locked gate and we step back in time about 80 years.
This facility is where the Santa Fe Railway brought its steam engines for repair work. It’s not like you can just pull one of those behemoths into a regular garage and give it a tune-up. You need space. Lots of it.
The grandest of the buildings is the 165,000-square-foot machine shop, where rows upon rows of steam engines could be lined up for maintenance and repair. The multi-paned windows stretch upward, giving it the sense and scale of a church. The floors are made from wood bricks, cho… [Read more]
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Insert Coin finalist: Radiator Labs rethinks steam heat, we go hands-on
If you’ve ever lived in a building that was heated by steam, there’s a good chance that you’ve experienced comfort levels that were less than ideal. Now, Insert Coin finalist Radiator Labs is working to bring a solution to market that’ll make your living space a lot more tolerable, and as an added bonus, it’ll save energy at the same time. We took a moment to catch up with Marshall Cox, co-founder of Radiator Labs, here at Expand, who explained the elegantly simple solution that the company has in store.
At its most fundamental level, what you have is an oven mitt for your radiator that’s augmented with a temperature sensor and an exhaust fan. Whenever the ambient heat reaches your set comfort level (which can be controlled from the web or a smartphone app), the fan will shut off and the insulating cover — described to us as ironing board material — will prevent additional heat from escaping. From here, steam is redistributed to other apartments that need it, rather than turning your unit into a sauna. Beyond this eco-friendly element, Radiator Labs is integrating a phase change material into its product that can store energy and heat an apartment for up to four hours without assistance from the boiler.
Going deeper down the rabbit hole, Radiator Labs is exploring some nifty technologies such as an Xbee mesh network, which it’s using to evaluate the energy-saving benefits at play. While this component won’t be integrated into the consumer version, we could see commercial installations that include wireless communications with the boiler itself. Combined with the phase change material, this would allow a boiler to fire much less often — seems like a great idea, if you ask us. We’re told that Radiator Labs will be seeking crowd-funding for its product this fall, which will be available in the $ 250 price range. For additional peeks at what’s to come, be sure to check the gallery.
Jon Fingas contributed to this report.
Gallery: Radiator Labs cover hands-on
Valve releases Steam Greenlight update, brings with it a handful of improvements
Valve has rolled out an update to Steam Greenlight, bringing with it a handful of improvements based on requests and feedback from users. The improvements are primarily for users, but developers are also tossed a bone with a new stats feature. Among the other improvements is the ability to better organize and discover titles in your queue.
First up is the new “Ask me again later” feature, which allows users to skip a title, which will disappear for one month, then reappear for you to reconsider. If you change your mind about it before the month is up, you can pull up the title via the new menu “Items to Revisit Later,” where it will be nestled waiting for you. For developers, statistics have been added that allows monitoring of item views, votes, and things relevant to both.
Users now have the ability to follow items in addition to favoriting them. When an item is followed notifications will be provided to the user when its developer makes any new announcements. This feature makes it easier to keep tabs on things you like without manually checking various items periodically. With this update, items already favorited will be automatically followed.
Finally, users can also create a collection of titles, which now allow announcements from the user to those who are following the collection. Such a collection can be titles that are favorites, or can be titles in a specific category or trend. Likewise, users can follow other collections, and will receive updates if the collection’s creator posts an announcement.
[via Steam Community]
Valve releases Steam Greenlight update, brings with it a handful of improvements is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
SlashGear
Petition to decriminalize smartphone unlocking gains steam
No, not quite the same thing.
(Credit: Amanda Kooser/CNET)
This past weekend, the Library of Congress officially put down the hammer on the practice of unlocking smartphones without a carrier’s permission, but now the people are standing up for their right to violate their wireless contracts.
In case you missed it, a new rule handed down by the Librarian of Congress (the office in charge of setting the rules to execute the recently updated Digital Millenium Copyright Act) went into effect on Saturday. It makes it illegal to unlock a a smartphone purchased after January 26 without permission from the carrier that locked it.
Naturally, plenty of folks on the Internet are none too happy with the government telling them what they can do with their devices. A petition on the White House “We the People” site asks “the Librarian of Congress to rescind this decision, and failing that, (the administration should) champion a bill that makes unlocking permanently legal.”
The rule doesn’t apply to phones purchased unlocked, those purchased before January 26, or used handsets. But it also seems that even after a carrier contract runs out, you’ll need to get… [Read more]
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Skyrim Dragonborn DLC now available for pre-purchase on Steam
It’s nearly time for Dragonborn to launch on PC, and eager Skyrim fans will be pleased to know that its now available for pre-order now on Steam. Skyrim‘s latest DLC went up for pre-order this weekend, a little more than a weekend before it becomes available for download. As far as we can tell, there isn’t any bonus you get for pre-ordering, aside from getting the payment part of the transaction out of the way early.
Therefore, it’s really only worth pre-ordering if you’re sure this is something you want to buy anyway. Dragonborn will set you back $ 19.99, and though that price seems a little steep, Xbox 360 players have said plenty of good things about the expansion. In it, you’ll be leaving the lands of Skyrim and adventuring through Solstheim, an island located to the north of Tamriel (specifically, Solstheim is north of Morrowind, where the third game in the series takes place).
While there, you’ll come face-to-face with the first Dragonborn, collecting new weapons and items and fighting new enemies along the way. If you’re a big Skyrim fan, many will tell you that Dragonborn is worth the rather steep cost of admission. At the very least, it seems to be a more worthwhile add-on than Dawnguard and Hearthfire were.
Dragonborn will be available for PC on February 5, 2013. After months and months of waiting for some kind of DLC offering, Dragonborn will also be releasing for PS3 next month, along with Hearthfire and Dawnguard. Are you planning on picking up Dragonborn when it becomes available on PC?
[via Steam]
Skyrim Dragonborn DLC now available for pre-purchase on Steam is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
SlashGear
Valve opens Steam for Linux beta, asks users to track bugs via GitHub
Not “experienced” enough to qualify for Valve’s first Steam for Linux beta? That’s okay — patience pays off. Poised as an early Christmas present, Valve has opened Steam’s Linux beta to all users. The team is tweaking how it handles buck reports too, eschewing the existing forum-based system for a public GitHub repository — though the Linux forums will remain open for community discussion. New and updating beta testers will be treated to a few minor fixes — correcting excessive CPU usage from the client while running Team Fortress 2 and adding a few needed details to the Linux variant of Big Picture mode. With just under 40 games working on the Penguin-suited OS, Newell’s Windows 8 alternative is starting to gain ground. It’s going to be interesting to see where it goes.
[Thanks, Devon]
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Steam Community
Steam Big Picture TV mode goes live
(Credit: Valve)
Steam’s Big Picture mode is now available for all. Developer Valve announced today that the television-friendly version of its massive Steam digital video game distribution service is out of beta and available for Steam’s 50 million members. This follows a trial period that began in September.
To mark the occasion, Valve is discounting numerous titles through Steam until December 10. Deals include Limbo for $ 2.50, Alan Wake for $ 7.50, and Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2 for $ 5. For more on the special promotion, check out Steam’s Web site.
Read more of “Steam Big Picture mode goes live” at GameSpot. [Read more]
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Do we really need the Steam autumn sale?
Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of partying with a bunch of my friends. All of them are pretty big nerds, just like me. If you’re a nerd too, you know that not much changes when a bunch of nerds get a few drinks in them, they just talk about nerdy things louder than usual. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to hear that the Steam autumn sale was among the topics that came up that night.
“So what do you think of the autumn sale?” one of my friends asked.
“Not impressed,” I replied. The look his face indicated that he agreed with me.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good deal as much as the next gamer, and I am always willing to spill some serious cash during a Steam sale. I went into the autumn sale thinking that I was going to be buying up games left and right, but we’ve now entered the final day of the sale and so far I’ve purchased two games for a grand total of $ 17.48. I’m in fine standing with both my bank and my girlfriend as a result, but I can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed.
There have been some good deals, to be sure – earlier in the sale, Skyrim took the stage as a featured deal, and right now Dishonored and Torchlight II, the latter of which being one of my 2012 favorites, are both 50% off. The problem, though, is that there’s going to be another Steam sale in less than a month. It’ll be big too, as Steam holiday sales always are. The autumn sale just pales in comparison to the blowout events that the holiday and summer sales have traditionally been, which leaves me wondering why we even need the autumn sale in the first place.
I understand why the autumn sale exists – everyone is going nuts over Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so Valve holds a sale of its own to net some of the shoppers who have cash and are ready to spend it, provided the deals are good enough. With the autumn sale, however, it’s hard to get excited in the same way I’m excited for the holiday sale. In fact, it feels like the autumn sale is intentionally watered down in anticipation of the incoming holiday sale. It’s shorter than its summer and holiday siblings, there aren’t any publisher catalogs on offer, and the discounts don’t seem as deep. So, what’s the point when the holiday sale is knocking on the door?
Maybe this is all in my head. Maybe the problem is with me and not with the sale itself. With the holiday sale on the horizon, I’m hesitant to spend money during the autumn sale because there’s a feeling that they might be even cheaper in just a few short weeks. Even if I see a deal I know is good on a game I’ve been wanting to play, I question whether or not I should take advantage of it since I know (or at least assume) I’ll spend a lot of money during the holiday sale.
I can’t be the only one who feels that way, can I? I’d be interested to see how many people bite during the autumn sale in comparison to the summer and holiday sales, because I would imagine that the numbers for the autumn sale end up falling short. Valve – and other digitial distribution platforms for that matter – have something of a unique problem here. Most retailers don’t hold a holiday sale on the scale of Valve’s, only hosting massive sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Since PC gamers are used to blowout holiday sales and therefore expect them year after year, it makes pulling off an equally impressive Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale a bit trickier for those in the digital distribution arena.
What about you – has this been a great sale for you, or are you like me and feeling a little underwhelmed at the end of it all?
Do we really need the Steam autumn sale? is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Steam for Linux beta launches with 26 games
Remember that Steam for Linux beta we told you about a while back? It launched today, giving a selection of users a first glimpse at Steam running on Linux. The beta is limited-access, so users needed to sign up to get an invite. Even if you signed up, there’s still a pretty good chance you weren’t selected as a participant with this first round of invites – if that’s the case, then sit tight, because Valve will be sending out more invites to the beta soon.
Valve has been working on this beta for quite some time, testing it internally over and over again before finally letting some of its users in on the action. Team Fortress 2 comes included with the client download (it is free-to-play after all), but if you want to play some other games, you’ll be pleased to know that there are a total of 26 Linux games now available on Steam. Most of these titles are indie games, but there is one full-fledged retail game – Serious Sam 3: BFE – that sticks out from the bunch.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the indie games that are available for Linux on Steam have been featured in the Humble Indie Bundle before – one of the big draws of the Humble Indie Bundle is that it supports Windows, Mac, and Linux. You’ve got titles like World of Goo, Space Pirates and Zombies, Dungeons of Dredmor, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent to pick from, so it sounds like it’s time to get to playing.
At the moment, the Steam for Linux beta is only compatible with Ubuntu 12.04 and above. Steam for Linux team member Frank Crockett says that Valve will eventually release Steam for more Linux distros, but since an “overwhelming majority” of applicants said they’re running Ubuntu, that’s the distro that got it first. The Steam for Linux beta also includes big picture mode, and Valve assures that at some point in the future, the beta will be open for all Steam members to try. Stay tuned.
[via Valve]
Steam for Linux beta launches with 26 games is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Samsung Galaxy Premier rumor gathers steam with leaked GLBenchmark results
When we first heard of a rumored Samsung Galaxy Premier handset that might be a Nexus device, we had our doubts, especially when we saw TouchWiz adorning the alleged leaked image from Mobile Geeks. Now, GLBenchmark is also giving the idea of a new model more credence, as it briefly showed a possible GT-I9260 model packing a 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED display, dual 1.5GHz processor and 8-megapixel camera. The page has since been pulled, but a screen cap of the benchmark (after the break) shows PowerVR SGX 544 graphics on the device along with middle-of-the-road scores, though all that would be on a pre-production handset without final software, if it’s accurate. Whether such a device would come along at a Google event or one of Samsung’s shindigs remains to be seen, but its very existence should be taken with a boulder-sized chunk of salt.
Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Premier rumor gathers steam with leaked GLBenchmark results
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Samsung Galaxy Premier rumor gathers steam with leaked GLBenchmark results originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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