SFcrowsnest.net: The genre media magazine

Just purchased a second hand copy of StarCraft II from Oxfam for £4. Bargain you might think? No.

The serial number inside the game pack is a 1-time use burner, so even though the original owner can no longer play their copy of the game as they've donated the CD, box and manual to charity, I can't play it either.

I don't begrudge Oxfam getting the money off me, it's for a good cause... I'm just going to bin the game now so nobody else can be duped.

What I do begrudge is Blizzard selling StarCraft II without a big red fucking sticker on their packaging indicating the resale/tradein value of their game is DICK.

Thanks, Blizzard. I'm never buying another game from you again, new or second-hand, now.

And that's my review.

Today (Sunday) is the last day my book ‘In the Company of Ghosts’ is free for download on Amazon Kindle. It's a thriller with elements of fantasy and horror, and is the first in my new ‘Spy-Fi’ series.

Amazon USA @ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005UDJ97M and Amazon UK @ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005UDJ97M

NASA's twin spacecraft to study the moon from crust to core are nearing their New Year's Eve and New Year's Day main-engine burns to place the duo in lunar orbit.

Named Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), the spacecraft are scheduled to be placed in orbit beginning at 1:21 p.m. PST (4:21 p.m. EST) for GRAIL-A on Dec. 31, and 2:05 p.m. PST (5:05 p.m. EST) on Jan. 1 for GRAIL-B.

"Our team may not get to partake in a traditional New Year's celebration, but I expect seeing our two spacecraft safely in lunar orbit should give us all the excitement and feeling of euphoria anyone in this line of work would ever need," said David Lehman, project manager for GRAIL at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

The distance from Earth to the moon is approximately 250,000 miles (402,336 kilometers). NASA's Apollo crews took about three days to travel to the moon. Launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Sept. 10, 2011, the GRAIL spacecraft are taking about 30 times that long and covering more than 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) to get there.

This low-energy, long-duration trajectory has given mission planners and controllers more time to assess the spacecraft's health. The path also allowed a vital component of the spacecraft's single science instrument, the Ultra Stable Oscillator, to be continuously powered for several months. This will allow it to reach a stable operating temperature long before it begins making science measurements in lunar orbit.

"This mission will rewrite the textbooks on the evolution of the moon," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. "Our two spacecraft are operating so well during their journey that we have performed a full test of our science instrument and confirmed the performance required to meet our science objectives."

As of Dec. 28, GRAIL-A is 65,860 miles (106,000 kilometers) from the moon and closing at a speed of 745 mph (1,200 kph). GRAIL-B is 79,540 miles (128,000 kilometers) from the moon and closing at a speed of 763 mph (1,228 kph).

During their final approaches to the moon, both orbiters move toward it from the south, flying nearly over the lunar south pole. The lunar orbit insertion burn for GRAIL-A will take approximately 40 minutes and change the spacecraft's velocity by about 427 mph (688 kph). GRAIL-B's insertion burn 25 hours later will last about 39 minutes and is expected to change the probe's velocity by 430 mph (691 kph).

The insertion maneuvers will place each orbiter into a near-polar, elliptical orbit with a period of 11.5 hours. Over the following weeks, the GRAIL team will execute a series of burns with each spacecraft to reduce their orbital period from 11.5 hours down to just under two hours. At the start of the science phase in March 2012, the two GRAILs will be in a near-polar, near-circular orbit with an altitude of about 34 miles (55 kilometers).

When science collection begins, the spacecraft will transmit radio signals precisely defining the distance between them as they orbit the moon. As they fly over areas of greater and lesser gravity, caused both by visible features such as mountains and craters and by masses hidden beneath the lunar surface. they will move slightly toward and away from each other. An instrument aboard each spacecraft will measure the changes in their relative velocity very precisely, and scientists will translate this information into a high-resolution map of the Moon's gravitational field. The data will allow mission scientists to understand what goes on below the surface. This information will increase our knowledge of how Earth and its rocky neighbors in the inner solar system developed into the diverse worlds we see today.

Break out your 3D specs, because here is the world's first book trailer shot in 3D. It's for the science fiction novel 'Sliding Void' and you can find it over at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4D4rn5hY-M

If your eyes are old (like mine), you can also watch the trailer in flat(ish) non-3d at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d87sKjmrYPY

Enjoy. My first novel 'The Court of the Air' back in 2007 had one of the earliest book trailers (maybe even the first), animated by HarperCollins art department. You can see this at www.TheCourtofTheAir.com if you are feeling very nostalgic.

Ah, there's life in the old dog yet!

There is a future out there, a glorious one, that while it may not solve all of our problems, it will certainly get us beyond these artificial limits to growth.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/10/the-true-failure-of-durban/

Never say I don't give you anything, dear readers.  From Tuesday 6th December 2011 to Friday 9th December 2011 (e.g. the rest of this working week), the first novel in my Sliding Void series of science fiction novels, rather logically entitled 'Sliding Void' has been reduced by 70% to the lowest price Amazon will allow for a book - 99 cents in the USA and 86 pence in the UK.

Enjoy, and do drop me a post here to tell me what you think of the series. Chatting with readers is one of the few things that keeps me sane when I'm tied to a desk all day long!

The USA Amazon link is:

http://www.amazon.com/Sliding-Void-science-fiction-ebook/dp/B005V2H54G/ref=as_li_tf_cw?&linkCode=waf&tag=hologratalesthem

The UK Amazon link is:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sliding-Void-science-fiction-ebook/dp/B005V2H54G/ref=as_li_tf_cw?&linkCode=waf&tag=hologratalesthem

Stephen

www.StephenHunt.net

More steampunk gaming... Professor Layton and the Unwound Future.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/gaming.gadgets/09/10/professor.layton.game/

The Sign Of The Four – Edginton & Culbard return, with expected style, to Baker Street.

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2010/the-sign-of-the-four-edginton-culbard-return-with-expected-style-to-baker-street