Month: June 2016

Randels Media Group/Revvolution.com, Official Photographers of the PPIHC

Despite a blown engine that prevented any running on the Friday before the race—and an epic case of jet lag after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans the week before—Romain Dumas was the fastest man of the day at Pikes Peak, setting the second-fastest time ever.

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb turned 100 this year, making it five years younger than the Indianapolis 500. Other than age, the two events have very little in common. The first Indy 500 came about because Carl Fisher wanted to give America's new car builders somewhere to test their creations; by contrast, Spencer Penrose organized the first Pikes Peak Hill Climb in 1916 to help draw tourists to the mountain (and in turn, his hotel the Broadmoor). Ironic then that all these years later it's Pikes Peak—rather than Indianapolis—that's being used to test the cutting edge of automotive technology.

In particular, people have been bringing electric cars and motorbikes (you can read about those later today) to test them on the hill climb. The 12.4-mile (19.99km) course is short enough that they don't need to be overburdened with batteries, for one. And unlike internal combustion engines, electric motors don't care whether they're at sea level, the start line (9.390 feet/2,862m), or the 14,110-foot (4,300m) summit—they make the same amount of power everywhere.

When last we checked in from America's Mountain, Romain Dumas and his Norma M20 RD Limited Spec-2016 were the fastest combination of man and machine, topping the qualifying charts. This somewhat upset the narrative—for the Norma runs in the Unlimited class and does so on gasoline, not electrons. As the fastest overall qualifier, Dumas would be the first of the cars to set off, some two hours later than planned. Below the tree line the weather was perfect, but icy conditions up top saw several motorbikes crash, causing several lengthy delays.

A 100% accurate artist's conception of the Nibbler high score battle.

The excellent The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters exposed the wider world to the strange subculture of classic video game high score competitions in 2007. Now that the ensuing quest for ever higher and higher Donkey Kong scores looks like it's coming to an end, it's the perfect time for a new documentary focused on an even stranger sub-niche: players who spend days "marathoning" classic arcade games for high scores. In other words, it's the perfect time for Man vs. Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler.

Man vs. Snake (currently available for download and in an extremely limited theatrical run) includes a number of amusingly candid quotes along the lines of "What the fuck is Nibbler?" You'd be forgiven if you were thinking the same thing; the 1982 release's mix of Pac-Man and Snake gameplay failed to impact the arcade marketplace at the time, and it wasn't a massive seller for jukebox manufacturer Rock-Ola, either. But the game did catch the eye of Tim McVey, who became the first person ever confirmed to score 1 billion points on any video game in early 1984, winning himself a Nibbler arcade cabinet in the process.

McVey's feat was only possible because Nibbler is part of a certain subset of classic arcade games that are amenable to marathoning. Because the game continues to give extra lives at regular intervals (and because the game's speed and endlessly repeating mazes stop getting harder at an early point), the only thing limiting a skilled player's score is their ability to stay awake and focused at the machine for hours at a time. While a Donkey Kong high score run only takes three or fours hours to complete, getting a top score on Nibbler can easily take 40 hours or more of mind-numbing repetition (save for occasional breaks where the player trades a few extra lives for a few moments of rest).

Microsoft's Terry Myerson details the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. (credit: Microsoft)

The next major Windows 10 update, the Anniversary Update, is going to be released just slightly too late for its namesake event. The operating system first shipped on July 29, 2015. The Anniversary Update will come a few days after the first anniversary of that release, on August 2.

To celebrate the update, Microsoft is running a promotion until August 14: buy a Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book along with an Xbox One from the Microsoft Store and you'll get $300 off the price. Dell is offering a free TV to students buying any system costing more than $699, and other OEMs are likely to run promotions, too.

The current intent is for the PC release to be simultaneous with the phone release and the Xbox One release. The software isn't done yet, so it's always possible that last-minute bugs will derail this plan, but with PC, phone, and console all building from a common base, Microsoft should be able to update them all in tandem.

The OnePlus 3.

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OnePlus is back with its fourth device, the OnePlus 3. The upstart Oppo subsidiary has slowly been maturing since entering the market in 2014, and the OnePlus 3 feels like the company's first phone that "normal" people can safely consider.

The biggest reason is that OnePlus has done away with its lame invite-to-purchase system, meaning potential customers no longer have to fight to hand over their money. Thanks to that change, it really feels like there are no catches now: OnePlus is offering a Snapdragon 820, a whopping 6GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and an aluminum body for $399 (£309), and it's actually going to work with LTE networks outside of China.

Design

The OnePlus 3 is easily the best-made phone OnePlus has ever produced. The aluminum unibody is a big upgrade over the plastic-clad OnePlus One and 2, and it's more durable than the glass-backed OnePlus X. The back design looks like an exact copy of an HTC One M9, but it's hard to care too much about originality when the build quality is this good. Overall, the OnePlus 3 is as well made as a top-tier phone from HTC or Apple; it's just offered at a much lower price.

Members of HomeSharersSF, speaking at a rally at City Hall in San Francisco before the big vote on the Airbnb Law in October 2014. (credit: Kevin Krejci)

It’s not every day that a major tech company sues its hometown. But that’s exactly what’s just happened: on Monday, Airbnb sued the City and County of San Francisco over a new law set to go into effect next month.

The new law expands upon a previous ordinance, which Airbnb itself helped initially draft. The earlier law went into effect in February 2015—it defined and began to regulate short-term rentals. The additional legislation, set to take effect in late July 2016, now requires that listings on sites like Airbnb clearly publish this new registration number and holds both the host and the "platform" (Airbnb) potentially civilly and criminally liable for non-compliance.

In its civil complaint, Airbnb argues that it should not be found liable under the new ordinance, as it is exempt under federal statute. Specifically, Airbnb says that it is protected under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—the famed law that protects "computer service" providers from being found liable for speech made by its users.