It's again time for this week's Blu-ray goodies and we're sure that some sci-fi buffs out there will be jumping for joy at this batch. We've got Gattaca, Independence Day, I, Robot, and Appleseed Ex Machina. If you aren't too fond of sci-fi flicks, this batch also includes Dan in Real Life and Sleuth, among other movie titles. Check out the full article for more info.

It's no surprise that aside from PvP'ing, another leading cause of game addictions in the World of Warcraft are the quests. Literally numbering in the hundreds, WoW's game quests are the player's bread-and-butter - giving them plenty of ways to kill time, level up, and get much-needed gear as they progress.

But aside from the traditional "kill 65,340,285 Boars" sort of grind-fests we're familiar with, there's also the sort of quests that leave us enjoying every minute of the trip - the sort that leave us appreciating the 3 hours or so we spent trying to get it right.

That's the topic of a recent thread over at the WoW Europe forums, as Edition discussed the Cortello's Riddle quest. What made this quest unique and memorable, according to Edition, was that it challenged players to solve a riddle, as compared to WoW's traditional fare of mob hunts, or escort missions.

Other interesting quests mentioned by the forum members:

• "The marmot quest! I haven't even done it yet (only seen it done) because I save it for a special moment." - Ommra
• "Quest chain which starts from Learning the Language in Draenei starting area is quite cool and fun. Also The Kessel Run and Tree's Company are quite fun too." - Elyssa
• " Nothing beats the hellfire flying bombing and the exorcist quests, i was all fired up for TBC after seeing them as starters, then we get dumped back with nessingwarys dull-a-thon." - Smitey
  

For our part, we've got our eye on the "You, Robot" quest, if only for the Transformers and Asimov parodies. What about you guys - any particular quests you've had exceptional fun with?

Second Life is a 3D virtual world that is conceptualized and built by its residents. What they can and cannot do is limited only by their imaginations. In maybe over the 200,000 or more inhabitants this house built by Seifert Surface, will raise your penchant for the unknown and the unexplainable.

He takes on his inspiration from one of the Big Three of Science fiction - along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke - Robert A. Heinlein's "—And He Built a Crooked House—" published in Astounding Science Fiction in February of 1941. It delves into what the main character (Quintus Teal) thinks is a brilliant idea to save on real estate costs - build a house shaped like the unfolded net of a tesseract.

The moment you step into Seifert's house you'd immediately be transported into an alternate reality. The madness begins when you push the button by the foyer and start going from room to room as shown in this video.

“It’s the eight cube sides of a four dimensional hypercube,” Seifert explains. “Just like a normal 3D cube has six square sides, and a normal 2D square has four line sides, so the sequence continues. And just like if you were an ant walking on the faces of a cube, if you go four times in one direction, you end up back where you started. Also, if you make three ninety degree turns, you come back where you started.”

The only question left is, how it's done. The rooms are programmed to literally move, so that the person that is inside the house is always in a hypercube. And that he’s a grad student of three dimensional topology and geometry at Stanford. That's how.

“When you step into a room, the other rooms cluster around it so that they’re always connected together the right way. But it only works for one focus.”

Practical robotic servants (some of which look eerily lifelike) are becoming a reality - and Japanese industry is leading the way.

In preparation for this,  Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is formulating safety regulations for the next-generation robots. This set of rules is  a "beta" version of the first of Asimov's Laws of Robotics, first written down in the 1940 novel, I, Robot:

"A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."

Manufacturers will be required to install sensors so robots avoid collisions with people. Lighter, softer materials shall be given preference (for obvious reasons), as well as easily accessed emergency shut-off buttons.

The Japanese are understandably concerned about this problem. Industry is tooling up for increased robot manufacturing because of a predicted labor shortage in geriatric care in that country.