My quarry stops and looks around confused, but makes no effort to take cover. So I resume firing until my gun yells "Arrrrrrgh!", signifying a kill shot. The LED lights on my opponent's head flash red and he raises his gun into the air. This little tree is proving to be the perfect spot for ambushing attackers. I maybe kind of like pretending to kill people.

——————

Today is BattleSFO, a day-long laser tag capture-the-flag tournament. The field of conflict is a hilly eucalyptus grove in San Bruno, CA, 45 minutes south of San Francisco, in Juniperro State Park. There are about 30 people here broken up into platoons of 5 to 7. Each player is dressed to the nines in varieties of camouflage, some with black war paint under their eyes. They're not quite as geeky as I had expected them to be. Then again, this isn't exactly the kind of laser tag everyone played as kids. The gear is bigger and badder, even if the players are not.

Almost the entire crowd of mostly men has never played laser tag outdoors before. For the most part they're very friendly, though a little shy when I ask them about themselves. One team is made up of four guys who went to college together — an electrical engineer, a carpenter, and an options trader. Another team makes up a local rock band (they seem more interested in drinking beer and running around the woods in battle gear then actually playing to win.) Then there's a group of three middle-aged Asian gentlemen and one of their sons who get together regularly and compete. They found the game on Meetup.com. Raymond Wan, who convinced the others to join him in the woods, explains that normally they play paintball. "The weapons and radio communication make a big difference," he says. "I'm a strategy person. This is more fun."

But among the beginners are some veterans of ray gun war.

The general of these mini-gorilla-armies today is Ziggy Tomcich. Earlier in the morning Tomcich performed his duties as the event's organizer, scurrying around the picnic table area, AKA central command. He's sort of a goofy guy, but his excitement was palpable and I couldn't help but giggle a little bit in anticipation of getting my hands on these fake guns and peering down the sight at some unknowing adversary. As I watched Tomcich untangle headsets, distribute color-coded headbands, and make sure everyone was checking in correctly it was clear that, though his day job is as an audio engineer for the San Francisco Opera, playing laser tag is his true passion in life.

Tomcich has been playing the game since he was a teenager. Running around the Photon indoor arena in Baltimore at 15, Tomcich got hooked. After graduating college he took a job as a designer, marketer, and consultant for several arenas around the country. Then, in 2006, Tomcich took laser tag to the next level. Playing in Armageddon games in the UK and Sweden, where players compete in 3-4 day tournaments, Tomcich played outdoor laser tag for the first time. When he returned to San Francisco, Tomcich realized that the city lacked the kind of gaming he really loved. Being outdoors and playing laser tag was something, he felt, everyone should do.

"To me, laser tag is an extreme sport," he says. For him, part of the fun and the reason why he started his event website SFLastag.org, is the idea that the game is simple to play and creates a highly social environment. "Unlike most other sports, first-time players in outdoor laser tag can do quite well against seasoned players. It's more about strategy and tactics."

Before the first battle "Cypher," aka Todd Robinson, who co-owns SpecOps Live Play, a central California company that provided the artillery, gave everyone a rundown of their equipment. SpecOps imports their guns from an Australian company called Battlefield Sports, essentially an arms dealer that deals in toys. The company custom builds 10 different models of gaming weapons from sniper rifles to sub machine guns – all equipped with real-world laser sights, speakers for feedback, and sensors to keep track of game stats. Guns can emulate any of 69 models down to recoil, and fire and reload rates and muzzle flashes (LEDs, essentially). SpecOps has brought M4 assault rifles, sub machine guns, carbine rifles, and sniper rifles.

During Robinson's speech, Tomcich chimed in: "Do not aim your gun at non-laser tag players. These guns don't exactly look like Hasbro." For this game every weapon has 99 clips of 50 rounds. Those with smaller guns reload in about 5 seconds, the bigger ones about 7-10 seconds, so Robinson recommended taking cover while reloading. "The ‘bullets' will bounce off of pavement," he says. For this game they've disabled friendly fire. But when they hit the laser targets velcro'd to heads that belong to enemies, the guns vocalize the action like weapons with built in sports announcers synthesizing current status of prey as "casualty", "killed" or "already dead".

As he went through the briefing, the look on Robinson's face was more serious then anyone in the eucalyptus grove. Listening to him describe each weapon and how they worked made it clear to me that, though some people are here to play a game, for others laser tag is a way of life. In other words, I better take good care of his guns.

Honestly, the weapons are a little intimidating. First off, they're huge and I'm, well, I'm little. The guns are so heavy, in fact, that I opted for the smallest one I could find. I was also one of two girls on the field. Cypher's father, who co-owns SpecOps, told me that women actually tend to fair better at this type of laser tag then men. Women, he said, will hang back and think tactically about the game. Guys sometimes have a tendency to run out out commando-style and shoot at everything they see. My tactics were set: I'd wait for my enemies to come to me.

The game starts and I take up position. When I shoot people that happen upon my trap, they stood still, look around, and fired recklessly without making much effort to take cover. Those I shoot over 20 times are killed, sent back to the respawn area (AKA Command Center, AKA picnic tables) where Robinson will reset them, reactivate their ordinance and send them back into the fray.

The battle heats up. Despite my overall aversion in life to things that require running and exercise, the real-world feel of this whole day is bringing up the competitor in me that normally only emerges when I'm shit-talking people during video games. It is unclear who is winning at the moment; the command center tracks the flag movement via new GPS-tracking system and the PC that also handles all the on field comms.

But no one is listening back at HQ. The General Tomcich isn't attending to the computer anymore. Instead, Tomcich's standing across from me in the grove defending our Purple flag from capture. "We're encountering heavy resistance," we can hear over the radio. "Wear them down," a player shouts. Minutes later our fellow Purple team members come running through the brush holding a flag. Our opponents are not far behind. But they're too late. This round is ours.

Erin Biba is a San Francisco-based Correspondent for WIRED Magazine who writes about science, popular culture and beer made from primordial yeast. Follow her on Twitter.

It's unclear what the exact details of the argument which led to these lost lives were, but we do know that it was over an iPod. Supposedly David Mapu, the victim, was attempting to run away from the fight when John Chinh Vu shot him in the back. Vu was later fatally wounded by police officers and died after being rushed to a hospital.

Shooting someone over an iPod. That's the sort of thing that make me lose just a bit more of my faith in our crazy society. [King 5]

In a sign of the times, Arlington County police are using YouTube to help catch the Apple Store shooter.

From the YouTube post:

"At approximately 10:15 a.m. on July 3, 2009, an unknown man rang the doorbell at the service entrance to the Apple Store in the 2700 block of Clarendon Boulevard. An employee walked to the back of the store to answer the door. A short time later, another employee heard a gunshot. The victim, a 26 year old female, was found suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to the right shoulder. The suspect had already fled the area on foot. The victim was transported to an area hospital where she remains in serious but stable condition."

Anyone who has information about this shooting or the identity of the suspect is asked to call the Arlington County Police Department Tip Line at 703 228-4242 or Detective Alan Lowrey at 703 228-4199/Alowrey@arlingtonva.us or Detective Michael Austin at 703 228-4241/ Mausti@arlingtonva.us.

There's also a reward:

Crime Solvers offers a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest. Callers to Crime Solvers do not have to give their names and do not need to testify in court.

[Cult of Mac]

Apparently some weaves are tighter than others. (Apparently, some relationships are tighter than others too.) After 20-year-old Briana Bonds told her boyfriend Juan she didn't love him anymore, the a-hole shot up the back of her mid-'90s Pontiac. The rear windshield was shattered, but she was still alive and without major injury, possibly thanks to that weave.

The ladies down at the beauty parlor are not totally convinced, though. Scientifically speaking, the weft (where the weave meets the hair) is where the fibers are interlocked most tightly. But whether or not that makes it any where close to the equivalent of a Kevlar mesh is beyond current beauty-parlor technology to ascertain.

Hair stylist Kim Walton told Kansas City NBC affiliate KSHB, "I never heard of weaves saving anybody's life." Still, if it turned out to be what saved Bonds, she added, "Thank God for weave."

Bonds herself told the news channel that it was more about God than the weave: "I think God was in my passenger seat." As of Thursday, Bonds had a headache; no word on what happened to that dick Juan. [WOAI via Geekologie]

Surprised? You shouldn't be. Violence like this was inevitable. All it takes is mixing one part old man with one part technology, one part handgun and two parts alcohol. Then shake vigorously with an absence of Wheel of Fortune. [KSDK and Kare 11 via Fark]

The unemployed, depressed 24-year-old left his roommate a suicide note containing hazy details of his location along with personal information (like his SSN and bank account). And then he went into a meticulous set of instructions regarding his PS3.

You know my ps3 is special. Similar USED ps3's go for AT LEAST $450-$500. Our landlord guy wants a ps3 like mine. Let him know that $400 would be a GOOD deal. If he doesn't want it, format the drive by going to Settings>System>Format Utility. You can say it "comes with the latest firmware software" to help market it on the internet. In case you don't know, it's the special "100% backwards compatible" (60 GB) ps3.

An awkward moment of kindness preceding the most selfish act of murder. It's hard to understand, but that's probably a good thing. [KATU via Kotaku]

Available this spring, the Duck Hunter is like a WowWee Dragonfly mixed with a lightgun shooting game. The duck launches from your IR blaster, charging in just 10 seconds from a few AAs in the pistol. When the poor, robotic duck takes flight autonomously (and some may say, with a soul), you shoot away until you hit the bird three times. Then it dies.

A base version of the Duck Hunter (as described above) will run $30 while a premium version (including a controller so one person can actually fly the duck while another shoots) will cost $40.

IMAX cameras, which use 70mm film, are much larger and heavier than a traditional 35mm machines. Among the plethora of changes to accommodate IMAX, technicians reinforced gyrostabled remote control camera cranes, crafted sturdier rigs to be mounted on cars, and forced one poor cameraman to actually carry the damn thing on his shoulders in an especially tense S.W.A.T. Team sequence.

When you're done checking the video out, head over to Wired (if you haven't already) for even more information on Christopher Nolan's methods and madness. Helicopters, wrangling with the Chinese government; the making of this movie could be its own movie. [Popular Mechanics]

Apparently it was designed to poke fun at the US obsession with firearms, and it's supposed to tie in with Burning Man's fascination with fire and "radical self expression.”

Whatever: launching a jet of luminous flames ten feet to incinerate a target sounds waaaay more fun than firing a BB-gun on your more "normal" fairground show. You agree, guys, don't you?... or am I just a pyromaniac? [Laughing Squid]
Photo credit: Scott Ashkenaz.

The ST-2 gives exact feedback after every shot, including hit position and a replay of the aiming movement. Results can be saved and kept in a file to record short- and long-term progress. You can even bring your own gun, which can be hooked up to the system's programs. Pricing is on a case by case basis, but you can expect this outfit to cost a pretty penny. Snickering dog not included. [Marksman Training Systems via Born Rich]

It has a wider color palette and can show finer gradations than regular JPEG, but it's also got a better compression algorithm, so even with the extra info, it doesn't drag as hard on the camera. It's not going to be a solution for pros, obviously, who demand RAW, but for the regular people to accomplished amateur range, it'll probably be fine. Exactly how often do you shoot in RAW, anyway? [Crave]

Case in point, officers tried to serve a warrant to a teen suspected of robbing a student of two PS3s. Things turned bad when the kid was unarmed, but may "have been holding a video game controller when he went to the door as it was bashed in by officers." Yikes! In addition, his german shepherd was also "shot to death."

Lesson: don't be holding anything in your hand when police knock down your door. More specifically, nothing black, like a SIXAXIS. – Jason Chen

N.C. police kill student accused in PlayStation 3 robbery, police tried to serve warrant [WHDH]

The guy's in stable condition, but the masked gunmen are still on the loose, and are expected to pen a book in about ten years titled If I Did It: The PS3 Robberies. – Jason Chen

Thugs shoot man in PS3 waiting line [Conn Post - Thanks Desiree!]