Light Start – A drone delivers, GoT Season 6, Facebook: Word Hunter, and Aido

The first drone delivery at sea has taken place, package dropped from 5 metres

We’re waiting for drones to start delivering things like socks and DVDs and all the usual detritus of life that clutters up our time. But first: Drones have completed their first delivery at sea. Maersk Tankers claims to have completed a test delivery to a tanker at sea, a test which took place near Denmark. It involved the drone taking off from a tugboat (rather than from land, due to weather conditions) and dropping a package on the tanker. From a height of 5 metres. Obviously there was nothing breakable in there. Maersk is thinking of using drones to deliver items to ships and tankers rather than paying for delivery via barge, just because of the cost savings involved. Since they estimate that they could save between $3,000 and $9,000 per vessel per year and Maersk has 100 vessels… yeah, you do the math. Seriously, we’re terrible at it.

Source: via G-Captain

Season 6 is coming (and Jon Snow better not be dead, dammit)

Yes, yes, the new Game of Thrones Season 6 trailer is now available and the Red Band version (above) provides more than a few hints about what to expect from the new season. The first half of the trailer fills us in on the backstory and just how… screwed… most of the characters are before segueing into action. Violent action, because this is Game of Thrones and there isn’t any other kind of action. Well, there is one other kind of action. Yes, there’s some of it in there too. As for the fate of Jon Snow, that’s still left up in the air but we suspect that Longclaw’s wielder will be coming back. One way or another. Watch the trailer closely, you’ll see.

Source: HBO (YouTube)

Facebook might be on the lookout for the new words you keep on making up or repurposing

Facebook are coming for your words. Not the ones you usually use, the ones that you haven’t thought of yet. The bits and pieces of slang that have yet to be invented are in Facebook’s sights, thanks to a new patent that the social network has been granted. The patent describes a system that scans and stores emerging terms, nicknames and words into a ‘social glossary’. Because it’s not enough that eventually the slang will be overused, now Facebook wants to track down and imprison “slang, terms of art, portmanteaus, syllabic abbreviations, abbreviations, acronyms, names, nicknames, re-purposed words or phrases, or any other type of coined word or phrase” before they get a chance to really live a little. Great move, guys. That’s not overlordish at all.

Source: Business Insider

Aido – Because your home needs a creepy, ET-looking personal robot

It’s the 21st century and we’re supposed to have robotic servants by now, dammit. Here’s one, as a matter of fact, called Aido. Aido is up for pre-order and it does… a whole mess of stuff. Like wake you up, augment your cooking, runs apps and follows you around like a puppy while looking like a digital version of ET the Extraterrestrial. We’re not going to lie, Aido comes across as a bit creepy. But it’s a portable, connected projector at the very least and an actual robotic assistant at best. We might wait for a later model but the process has started. Soon all homes will be controlled by robots. Wait, what?

Source: Aido (YouTube)