It’s the unofficial start of the weekend! If you want to see me, I’ll be at Blerdcon this weekend, partying with the geek contingent. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. The big news this week includes Virgin Galactic’s launch, a Super Mario 64 cart sold for 1.5 million, and Microsoft’s new PC streaming service.. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern.
RICHARD BRANSON BLASTS OFF INTO LOW EARTH ORBIT
The big news over the weekend is Sir Richard Branson blasting off into the upper atmosphere. Thanks to Virgin Galactic’s launch last Saturday, the Space Tourism industry has kicked off. Virgin Galactic blasted off from its New Mexico space port and reached an altitude of 53.5 miles above Earth’s surface. The ship was piloted by two experience space fliers, and once Virgin Unity reached altitude, Branson and his passengers unstrapped themselves for a brief experience of weightlessness. Virgin Galactic took off before Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launch scheduled for July 20th. Branson has had a lot of critics, I’m one of them. It’s not exactly fair that billionaires are blasting themselves off on tax credits and taxpayer funded space infrastructure, but…previous generations have had their climbers of Everest, sailors and pilots around the world, and travelers to the lowest depths. A big part of me takes my hat off to Richard Branson because he is one of the world’s pioneers. A civilian (a rich civilian) having blasted off into space. Hats off, Noah!
MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES TECH ALLOWING PCS TO STREAM ANYWHERE
In the, that-sounds-really-cool, category, Microsoft announced a new subscription service users can pay for and stream their PCs to any connected device. Under the covers, it sounds like a play on virtualization technology, but the idea that any old civilian doesn’t have to transport their computer and data to another location is cool. Businesses will get first crack at the service. Keep in mind however, that subscription services like this are often times more expensive than just buying a computer.
SMH! SUPER MARIO 64 SELLS FOR A MILLION
This is a family website and I can’t say what I really want to say, but in, “are you kidding me news,” a mint condition, sealed Super Mario 64 cartridge sold for $1.5 million. This price breaks the record making it the most expensive video game ever sold. Which just means there are some people in this world who have way too much money, and should be taxed heavier. The Nintendo 64 cartridge sold for two the amount of the second most expensive game, an original Legend of Zelda (the gold cartridge one) game sold for $870,000.
And by the way, REvil’s website is nowhere to be found on the Net. The front facing one, or the dark web.