Co-produced by :CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria
So, CivCraft is a brand new sandbox FPS-cum-RTS game by Larkon Studios! Yep, You read right! CivCraft is designed to be both a First Person and a Real Time Strategy game, and you can switch between these modes whenever you wish. You can rule your kingdom in a huge and open world, or go on adventures with the character you created.
That is some serious ambition from the team behind the game but a brilliant idea none the less.When you start off, you get to choose between the Warrior, Wizard and Builder classes. You can go on quests, level up, or build a powerful kingdom to rule the land of Ellaria with large cities, a working economy, farming and resources. You don’t just play as your character - you control armies, lay siege to cities, and carve out an empire, in a non-linear gameplay!
CivCraft has been in development for three years and the makers are offering the chance
to play CivCraft just a few weeks after the campaign ends on Kickstarter.
CivCraft's Kickstarter
campaign was launched with the modest sum of 12,500$, but relies on stretch
goals that will allow the developers to add even more features to CivCraft,
such as espionage, controlled siege weapons, multiple wizard classes, an arena,
and tons of improvements to graphics, playability, as well as support for
multiplayer and Modding. CivCraft's Kickstarter campaign was funded in 4 days!
The
Kickstarter campaign offers unique rewards to CivCraft's backers, such as a special
edition, unique artwork and the ability to design your own spells, items,
levels, quests and characters inside the world of CivCraft, as well as to place
your name in CivCraft's in-game credits! Ha! How awesome will that be?
“As we are an Indie
company with a fresh concept, we would like to develop and publish the best
game possible and with as many features as we can", said Arik and Adrian,
the CEO's of Larkon Studios. "We would like to give you the opportunity to
play CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria sooner than the official Steam release, as
well as contribute and make suggestions to our developers about which direction
we should take CivCraft. This means that the more backers we will have,
CivCraft will be published better, quicker and with more features."
Make your
mark on CivCraft - visit the project on Kickstarter
CivCraft's
concept is very refreshing and has huge potential, and we will continue following their campaign.
Till Next time.
POWER OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE
Had been going through some articles lately on a local news site and one
particular article caught my attention.. liquid waste into organic charcoal. I was quite impressed
by this innovation which was supported by the government. "There is still hope
for technology and innovation for my great country Ghana". It made this article, which had been in the pipeline for while, quite relevant and interesting which was inniially motivated by an article on LinkedIn by GE ( power-to-the-people-its-boom-time-for-distributed-power
) . For developing countries like mine energy has a direct bearing on almost
everything. Increase in crude prices can literally increase cost of everything
in the country. Most industries rely on the national grid for power which is
cheaper and when this isn’t available for a period they have to resort to diesel
powered generators which increase cost of operation. I believe that these companies should look further to find solutions to this problem and one such solution for these companies is ‘Distributed power’.
Distributed power? "Distributed power" from“Distributed generation employs small-scale
technologies to produce electricity close to the end users of power. These
technologies often consist of modular (and sometimes renewable-energy)
generators, offering a number of potential benefits. In many cases,
distributed generators can provide lower-cost electricity and higher power
reliability and security with fewer environmental consequences than traditional power generators”.(introduction DG) (
2013-jenbacher-infographic.pdf)
Distributed generation differentiates itself from
the normal large-scale generation located far from where the energy is most needed. They involve
using smaller but numerous plants and systems providing power onsite with
little reliance on the distribution and transmission grid. Distributed generation
technologies yield power in capacities that range from a fraction of a kilowatt
[kW] to about 100 megawatts [MW].
A whisky distillery in Scotland uses mash residue to power its
factory and produce steam for distilling while a brewery in Germany uses its
own waste water to generate the electricity, steam and hot water needed to make
its products. Elsewhere, tree bark, sewage sludge and even rubbish from
landfill are all turning into one thing: power.
More and more companies
are using waste products for power generation, thanks to the growth of
distributed power. It’s efficient and it can produce backup power when
intermittent renewable sources such as wind and solar aren’t delivering. A
number of factors have combined to bring about the sudden interest in this type
of power.
Firstly, distributed power is now a viable option.
The technology is smaller, more efficient, and cheaper than ever, so there are
more companies than ever considering it. Distributed power can also be rolled
out quicker and with less risk than large power plants. Users can also scale up
quickly. So it’s easy to see why there’s a lot going for distributed energy.
Sure, there will always be a need for large centralized power stations but the
decentralization movement is in full effect. (power-to-the-people-its-boom-time-for-distributed-power)
Now let’s
come to sub Saharan Africa precisely Ghana. With a fast growing economy it needs
a steady and reliable flow of energy to sustain this growth. Sadly this isn’t
the situation. Grappled with a power crisis which has adversely affected it's industry sector it has pushed the country to search for other energy sources to find a lasting
solution to the power problems. There are many contributors to the current
energy problems such as generation capacity and fuel availability and affordability
just to name a few. Coal fired plants
have been named as viable alternatives with significant public resistance due
to its environmental impact.
After years
of struggle by the capital city officials to dispose of liquid waste, they contracted
a company to process this waste into compost. This was their original mandate
but the company, Slumson Ghana limited, has made an exciting discovery. They were
able to produce marketable ‘organic charcoal’ with quality equal to the
one found on the market. This is immense because such a discovery could be a
game changer. Firstly, it will reduce the rate at which trees are felled for
the sake of charcoal production and also help get rid of liquid waste which is
quite a task. My excitement is actually in the Distributed power potential it holds.
According to this BTU chart ( Btuchart ) charcoal is
quite close to coal. With the right tonnage of this charcoal I believe a manageable
steam turbine can be powered with steam ,similar to coal plants, to augment,the power needs of an industry willing
to invest in this research. liquid waste into organic charcoal
BUT! The engineer
in me raises pertinent questions. All the facts stated here are purely theoretical. the only fact is such a discovery exist . Actually i haven't come across a generation unit running on charcoal(this was the closest Charcoal-Fire-Powered-Generator) , which is largely due to the environmental impact associated with charcoal notably the felling of tress. Also what is the process involved in getting the
charcoal? If it requires a lot of energy to produce this organic charcoal then it isn’t economically
viable. In the article it stated a process of heating to a temperature of about 400°C which is high and demands energy. There isn’t much info about the
emission properties of the charcoal which is quite important if one is
interested in using it as fuel for an electricity generating plant.
In any
case this is a bright innovative spot and my hope is it becomes a driving force for the future in the energy and power production sector in the country.
LATEST IN RENEWABLE ENERGY
As the
battle rages on in the micro technology world another battle is raging in
the world of clean energy. Over the years countries have depended on various
forms of energy. There is the ever reliable energy from water (Hydroelectric dams) then gas/crude oil
through the Gas Turbine with solar energy, wind energy and also nuclear and coal energy following. Environmentalist like to hear
close to nothing on the latter two energy sources listed. They frown on the environmental impact and hazards their byproducts pose.. but to some
engineers, politicians, corporate organizations the power these energy sources produce is much more important to
them than the byproducts. Efforts have been made to make such energy sources clean
with some great success but 100% is always better than 70% clean.
Leading the
way for the clean energy campaign is solar energy and wind energy. We all know the power of the sun and how much
energy it can produce (www.yourturn.ca/solar/solar-power/how-much-power-does-the-sun-give-us/ ) and we have also heard of the all the exciting
capabilities of wind power. There are other forms of renewable energy making
head way in energy sector with particular reference to tidal wave energy.
Harnessing tidal wave energy is one nasty
business basically due to rough impact of sea water on metal and also the
relative unpredictable nature of sea waves. Sad to note that quiet recently big
players in the energy industry Siemens pulled out of this sector after it
had acquired Bristol-based tidal turbine Development Company in 2010 citing that the industry wasn’t growing as
fast as it expected(http://renews.biz/79710/siemens-abandons-ocean-energy/ ).. that sucks..
This article from Eco Watch (tidal
wave energy race ) throws more light on the capabilities and problems major
players in the industry are facing. It also states the steps EU is taking to
stimulate interest in tidal wave energy. In
2014 the EU launched what it called its Blue
Energy Action plan to finance and encourage development and Africa should be LEARNING something from this. I
am glad to say that there has been positive news for wave energy
technology particularly the one currently steadily progressing in Australia known as the Carnegie
Wave project.
In
2012, the Ocean Renewable Energy report found that near shore wave energy
between Geraldton and Tasmania is around 1300 terawatt hours (TW h) per year.
This is nearly five times Australia’s total energy demand. A Carnegie Wave
Energy project is aimed to harness some of that energy to provide electricity
and desalinated water to coastal areas. "Utterly impressive" is my take on this
technology because this tech could “kill two birds with one stone” with just a
push of a button. Imagine a plant that can produce fresh water at one point and
then electricity at another...or BOTH!!.. with all the energy coming from sea waves.
How
does wave energy work?
''Ocean waves
are movement of energy through water. Water molecules do not travel with waves
but oscillate in a circular motion. You may notice this when swimming in the
sea beyond the wave break: you bob up and down as waves pass through the water.
Wave energy
converters use wave movement to produce energy that powers electrical turbines.
Unlike tidal energy, which is diurnal (daily), waves occur at predictable
intervals of around 10 seconds. Because wave energy is so regular it can be
relied upon 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
North
Fremantle wave energy project uses an innovative form of wave converter
technology named CETO after the Greek marine goddess of stormy seas. Ceto was
also the mother of Medusa, a gorgon who had snakes for hair and could turn
people to stone with a single, withering glance.
NOW THAT’S
INNOVATION!'' (water
wave energy pdf ). They plan to supply freshwater to a Naval base in Australia through a desalination process.
Thumbs up to this project and hope they make great strides in the coming future. Visit their site
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE:
NYTimes_Catching_Waves_and_Turning_them_into_Electricity ..Enjoy!!
MICROCONTROLLER PROGRAMMING 101..
Nana’s
Corner…BRINGING TECHNOLOGICAL GROWTH TO
AFRICA.
• Every
day we hear new things happening in the
hottest and innovative market, the electronics industry. Smart phones have
become a key component in the lives of the teens and adults. There is a ragging
battle between Samsung, Apple, HTC ,Sony, LG, Nokia to name a few of the
established brands, to get an edge in
the industry.
We have the iphone series from apple, the Samsung galaxy series from Samsung and the experia series from sony . The keyword that runs through this industry and many other electronics industries is and will always be the microprocessor. Depending on the microprocessor in these devices, their capabilities are greatly increased. From voice analyzing software’s to thumbprint scanners. Microprocessor tech has advanced over the years (http://www.computerhope.com/history/processor.htm). CPU is fabricated as a single chip (or as a part of a single chip) = microprocessor chip. Microprocessor works with ones and zeros like a switch in either on or off state. Processors are categorized by the number of one and zeros it can handle at a time called word or bit size ie 4-bit,8-bit, 12-bit etc microprocessors. This can be further classified into general purpose microprocessors (GPM) and microcontrollers. GPMs like the ones in your laptop and phones are versatile, can run many applications while there is the microcontroller which are basically programmed to run a particular kind of program.
We have the iphone series from apple, the Samsung galaxy series from Samsung and the experia series from sony . The keyword that runs through this industry and many other electronics industries is and will always be the microprocessor. Depending on the microprocessor in these devices, their capabilities are greatly increased. From voice analyzing software’s to thumbprint scanners. Microprocessor tech has advanced over the years (http://www.computerhope.com/history/processor.htm). CPU is fabricated as a single chip (or as a part of a single chip) = microprocessor chip. Microprocessor works with ones and zeros like a switch in either on or off state. Processors are categorized by the number of one and zeros it can handle at a time called word or bit size ie 4-bit,8-bit, 12-bit etc microprocessors. This can be further classified into general purpose microprocessors (GPM) and microcontrollers. GPMs like the ones in your laptop and phones are versatile, can run many applications while there is the microcontroller which are basically programmed to run a particular kind of program.
• Well this stuff is sophisticated, I
am not a computer geek I can’t possibly
program.. WRONG!!!. Anyone with a logical mind can program and with basis in
c/c++ programming one can easily program a microcontroller. Furthermore
with adrino and raspberry pi microcontroller programming has become a lot
more easier.
• I am a PIC guy and program using MikroC Pro for PIC.
In the coming weeks I will take u through simple pic programs
aimed to help any of you make fantastic projects.
Till then sharpen your c/c++
skills and we will meet again.
iOS... most secure mobile platform
According to Gamma Group, Apple's iOS is the most spyware-proof mobile operating platform. This is certainly a big positive for the Apple family.
This was determined after a series of tests conducted by FinSpy that is developed by the Gamma Group. News has it that FinSpy is used by law enforcement agencies for surveillance of handheld devices. FinSpy can remotely access phone call records, contacts, messages, etc.
Unlike Apple's iOS, the Android, Blackberry, Symbiam and Windows Mobile platforms can be breached easily. Nonetheless, the test revealed that only jailbroken iOS devices were vulnerable. Also, the exercise excluded Windows Phone 8 and Apple's iOS8.
In other news, a group of researchers at Georgia Tech claim that iOS is indeed vulnerable. In the words of the researchers, “Many people believe large-scale infections of iOS devices aren’t possible. We want to show that’s not true...” “If you connect to any of those compromised computers, it becomes a jumping off point to deliver the exploit to your phone...”. There will be a demonstration of their findings in the coming weeks.
It is safe to say that until another credible security-breaching exercise is undertaken, Apple's iOS remains the most secure handheld. Where the Android users at??? lol
Innovation in Clean potable energy!
So, a few days ago, i was frantically going through my email to check if the job i had applied for had replied. with my disappointment i stumbled on an email from kick starter highlighting a number of their favorite projects. "Biolite Camp Stove" a stove that can charge your phones and other electronic gadgets. i was immediately interested coming from a region where electric energy supply to certain areas is non existent or if it is, not affordable to all.i visited the company's website and i came across something for that i thought would be very useful to people from developing countries and that was exactly what it was; The BioLite Home Stove!
2.It ensures 95% Smoke Reduction leading to improved health
BioLite has created a low-cost biomass cookstove that, by converting waste heat into electricity, reduces smoke emissions by up to 95% while simultaneously providing users with the capability to charge mobile phones and LED lights.
The Key advantages of the BioLIte HomeStove are
1. It ensures that 50% Less Wood is consumed hence ensuring Time and Cash Savings
3.Nearly Eliminates Black Carbon and thus,Protects Climate(very green)
and finally Generates Electricity for charging Phones & LED Lights.
The HomeStove converts heat from the fire into usable electricity via a thermoelectric generator housed within the orange power pack.
This powers a fan that blows air back into the burn chamber for improved combustion. The surplus electricity is then sent to a USB port, allowing you to charge your devices.
Checkout the stories from some of the developing countries the project has been launched in here. You can also check out their other products and how BioLite is make an impact in providing cleaning energy and making lives better on their website.
Source: http://www.biolitestove.com/homestove/ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/biolite/biolite-basecamp-stove-turn-fire-into-electricity
