Light Start – Floating Dragon, Blue Origin strikes again, Gamer Hotel, and another nasty AI

SpaceX are giving their new Dragon hover capabilities – This is what that looks like

SpaceX have been operating as a cargo service for a while but they’re soon going to be transporting passengers to and from the International Space Station. Which is why their Dragon capsule is undergoing an upgrade, as this recently-released footage of the capsule hovering under its own power shows. It’s one thing for a capsule to fall to Earth when there aren’t people inside it but you want an astronaut to have a softer landing. The eventual plan is to use this hover capability to land the capsule on solid ground. In the meantime, it could be used with the company’s SuperDraco engines to lift passengers off the launchpad in the event of an emergency.

Source: SpaceX (YouTube)

Blue Origin successfully re-uses their rocket (and brings it back to Earth again)

There are people out there who would have you believe that SpaceX and Blue Origin, both private space companies, are in competition, in a race of sorts. And it makes for interesting headlines but it’s not, strictly speaking, true. When Blue Origin starts naming ocean barges, then we’ll talk. That said, let’s not take anything away from the Jeff Bezos-founded Blue Origin. The company has taken that rocket they returned from space, polished it up and sent it into space again. And then successfully returned it again, a first for any space-visiting organisation. At all. Ushering in a new era of space travel? Of course they are. But are they doing it alone? Nope. Despite what their ad materials might want you to think. The Blue Origin machine, known as New Shepard, had to have a few components replaced and a couple of software updates done before it was sent up again but this is a very good sign. Reusable rockets are the first step in taking the cost of space travel way, way down.

Source: Blue Origin (YouTube)

A hotel for gamers, located in Amsterdam – What could go wrong? (Er… nothing, as long as there are snacks)

When you think of Amsterdam, you will probably think of tourism. And… other things. But Amsterdam is now also home to the Arcade Hotel, a hotel that has been created with gamers in mind. Formerly known as the Aalborg Hotel, it was redesigned so that each of its 36 rooms feature consoles and games for visitors to avail themselves of. There’s also a comic book library, handheld consoles in the bar and lobby and there are bikes available for visitors, in case they actually want to leave the hotel at some point in their stay. Which puts us in an impossible situation. How do you split your time between a hotel like that and, you know, actually going out in Amsterdam? We’ll think of something…

Source: via VG247

Reginald is a snarky AI who will reply to your mail (and get you fired, most likely)

We’re getting more and more used to seeing artificial intelligence systems running around and doing stuff. Reginald is just the latest, an email bot which will go out of its way to insult (without swearing at) the people in the email that you’ve copied him into. You know, for that mails were you just don’t care about/don’t want to reply to. We know that everyone gets one of those at some point. Just be warned that if you want to see Reginald in action (his website is at the link below), we’re not responsible for what happens to your employment prospects as a result. Either make sure the people you’re messaging have a sense of humour or reap the consequences. That’s it, disclaimer over. Have fun with this (for now) basic bot.

Source: Reginald