Blizzard embraces kung-fu pandas for next WoW expansion

With World of Warcraft players looking for new ways to level up their characters, Blizzard released a barrage of information on the next expansion pack for the MMORPG.

During the opening ceremonies of Blizzcon Friday, Blizzard revealed the fourth expansion pack for the popular World of Warcraft series. Titled World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, the expansion pack allows players to create a new character called the pandaren, a panda bear creature that has training in martial arts. This is a neutral character, thus players can choose to join either the Alliance or the Horde with the pandaren. In addition, a new class called the Monk has been opened up in the game. Players will have the option of customizing the Monk to become a healer, a damage dealer or a defensive tank-like character to absorb the majority of damage from attacks.

Mists-of-PandariaBeyond the new zones like the Kun-Lai Summit, Jade Forest and the Wandering Isle to explore, the level cap has been raised by ten levels to 90 for the WoW veterans. Blizzard is also introducing a pet-battling system for players to pit pets against each other in PVP turn-based fights similar to Pokemon. In addition, Blizzard is adding a new time-trial mode for players to earn prestige points by completing dungeons in a specific amount of time. While Blizzard didn’t announce a release date for the new expansion pack, WoW players can get a sneak peak at the beta by signing up for the WoW Annual pass. By putting up an entire year’s worth of subscription fees for World of Warcraft, players get into the beta early as well as a free copy of Diablo III.

In addition to the expansion announcement, Blizzard also unveiled a Defense of the Ancients type of game where players control teams of heroes to annihilate structures on the opposite side of the map. Only titled Blizzard Dota at the moment, the game will utilize popular characters from many other Blizzard franchises. Similar to Mists of Pandaria, there is no release date for Blizzard Dota yet.

Hacker develops rear window LED to send messages to other drivers

With aggressive drivers that enjoy tailgating other vehicles in mind, a hacker decided to built a method to communicate to those annoying drivers without using obscene hand gestures.

Hacker Gagandeep Singh has developed a do-it-yourself project for designing a grid of LED lights on the rear window of a vehicle without obstructing the view from the rear-view mirror. Singh is interested in providing feedback to drivers that don’t pay attention to the rules of the road. Using his Volkswagon Polo as the guinea pig for the project, Singh created plans for a 40 x 16 LED matrix display with LED lights that allowed two centimeters of space in between each LED in order to still see out the rear window. He then used a strip of wood to accurately measure out the distance between the LED lights and spent the next two days soldering the lights into the full matrix display.

LED-display-within-carAfter attaching all the wiring at the bottom of the display and making sure the matrix lit up, Singh attached the matrix to the interior of the Polo and connected it up to a AT89C51 micro-controller. This controller allows Singh to design patterns as well as messages and watch them display in the rear window. For instance, Singh could ask a tailgating driver to back off his bumper while traveling down the highway. While entering messages into the controller is likely too much of a distraction while driving the automobile, the next stage in the project will enable updating the matrix through a Bluetooth connection on a mobile smartphone.

While others can follow Singh’s instructions in his Google slideshow detailing the entire process, it’s unlikely that this matrix would be adapted for the mass market. Abuses of the technology could easily lead to distracted drivers on the road as well as angry drivers if the matrix was used to display obscenities. In addition, any object that blocks the rear window at all would likely be frowned upon by lawmakers.