Writing Contest Winner to Receive Tesla Tour and Test Drive

In my previous post, I described a tantalizing contest put forward to advertise the game Dark Void, featuring the grand prize of a brand new Tesla Roadster. I have now become aware of yet another competition that I am sadly unable to enter, due to the fact that I don't live in America.

High Gear Media, which operates a number of car websites including the pertinent allcarselectric.com, has now announced a writing contest. The site is encouraging the submission of articles over 250 words, on the subject of car ownership and maintenance, the future of the automotive industry, or reviews of classic or contemporary automobiles. Entries will be marked on factual accuracy, grammar, and technical knowledge amongst other criteria.

The author of the winning article receives the following:

1. A tour of the Tesla store and assembly facility in Los Angeles
2. A one-on-one interview with Franz von Holzhausen, Chief Designer at Tesla Motors
3. An entire afternoon to test drive the 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport

Other perks include accomodation in the San Francisco area and $100 to facilitate the writing of a second article describing the whole experience. I already seriously envy whoever wins this contest. Getting a guided tour of the Tesla store and being able to talk to the lead man on the Model S (Tesla's Sedan) project is something a lot of people would probably pay good money for. Not to mention getting behind the wheel of the Roadster Sport which is a priviledge enjoyed so far by only a handfull of car reviewers and prospective buyers.

If I could submit an entry, I would be tempted to elaborate on an idea I've had for an amusing semi-fiction where Tesla himself has been reanimated somehow, perhaps as a kind of cybernetic organism. Naturally he would enjoy racing around in his eponymous sports car educating people on the advantages of driving and living electrically. Maybe the trick is to turn it into a screenplay and pitch it to Brad Pitt.

Dark Void to Become Movie

In a move that will surely bring yet more curious individuals into the interesting realm of Tesla technology, Brad Pitt's production company "Plan B" has secured the copyrights necessary to turn the game Dark Void into a feature film.

I first stumbled across this exciting information at BLIC Online, which appears to be a Serbian news site, while doing my routine Google News searches for all things Tesla. The article features what appears to be an in-game picture of the main character conversing with the legendary scientist, depicted with his signature moustache.

I was then able to find the corresponding article on Variety.com which confirms the story and suggests that Pitt himself will play the lead role. Presumably, the film will be another year or two down the road, and will likely be met with comparisons to Iron Man which is due for a sequel in or around May 2010.

Both movies feature a kind of jetpack propulsion system (Iron Man has his built into the suit whereas in Dark Void it appears to be more of a strap-on accessory), however it would be neat if they try to go for a bit more of a steampunk feel with the Dark Void film to set it aside from all the other superhero stuff out lately.

As part of the advertising blitz for the game, which is due out January 19th,  a contest to win a Tesla Roadster has been announced. Unfortunately, upon eagerly reading the rules I was disappointed to learn that the competition appears to only be open to those living within the continental United States.

Dark Void: New Game with Tesla, Jetpacks

During one of my frequent Google News searches for the terms "tesla" or "tesla motors", I happened upon this article from http://games.venturebeat.com about a startup studio called Airtight Games and their initial offering, Dark Void.

The article explains that Dark Void's story line centers around a pilot getting lost in the Bermuda Triangle and somehow linking up with Nikola Tesla to fly jetpacks and battle extraterrestrials. If the whole Tesla-Triangle thing isn't quite enough to convince you that this game is clearly going to rule, check out the graphics on the teaser/trailer site:
http://testflight.darkvoidgame.com/

According to the Wikipedia entry for Dark Void, the game will come out for the 360, PS3 and Windows on Jan 12, 2010.

My 2008 Tesla Roadster

Would you believe they're selling these at Safeway now? As awesome as that would be, the harsh truth is that this is a Hot Wheels from Malaysia, and without some combination of Indian In The Cupboard and Honey I Shrunk the Kids technologies I won't be cruising around in it any time soon.

Still, it is pretty cool to be able to pick up a tiny replica of a Tesla Roadster. I am keeping my eyes out for one in Electric Blue, since that would probably be my colour in a full-scale model, should I ever be lucky enough to own one.

Check out some more interesting paint jobs here: http://hotwheels.wikia.com/wiki/2008_Tesla_Roadster

NVIDIA Tesla

Seeing these two words together is like witnessing some form of holy high-tech union. The NVIDIA Tesla line of uber-performance GPUs is a truly a delight to behold. The concept is wicked, a portable, plug-in style box featuring some serious graphics hardware, taking any regular computer and turning it into a rendering dynamo. Or any other high-res task that would normally take something like a farm or grid of machines working day and night to process.

It also comes in server-mountable and desktop-installable flavours, and while tasty, these aren't quite as delicious-sounding as the

Tesla D870 Deskside Supercomputer

Imagine some hardware hacker figures out how to mod an LCD into the side and hauls this baby over to a LAN party... bound to happen sooner or later.

Tesla's Heritage Subject of Edit War

Whenever I'm explaining who Tesla is, which seems to be frequently, it's always a bit unclear where exactly he's actually from. I usually go with Croatian or Serbian. I was amused to find the matter had evolved into a full-scale edit war on Wikipedia's Tesla Article, and has made it onto the Lamest Edit Wars page. The latest seems to be "an ethnic Serb of the Austrian Empire."

Tesla Cooling Technology

While reading a link from hackedgadgets.com about a DIY-Laser etcher setup, I got sidetracked onto the Wicked Lasers site and began admiring their new Blu-ray offerings. I know a few laser hobbyists and as far as quality is concerned these are considered the best.

Imagine my surprise to find the Spyder II GX and BX series lasers have a cool logo advertising their Tesla high-efficiency thermoelectric cooling system. Tempting, to say the least.