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RandomDorm is a new site that's following in the footsteps of the
explosively popular random video chat service
Chatroulette, but adding its own twist: it's for college students only. To use RandomDorm, you
need a .edu email address or a Facebook account with a .edu address as the primary email.
RandomDorm is also limited to the US right now (it's "geotarded," as Lee is fond of saying).
Despite the word "Random" in the name, RandomDorm definitely offers a much smaller variety of
characters than Chatroulette. Half the fun of Chatroulette is meeting pranksters and talking to
folks in other countries. Randomdorm is definitely about as heavily male as Chatroulette, but so
far I've noticed much less full frontal male nudity. I consider this a plus, but tastes may
vary.
What might really help RandomDorm take off is the dating angle. Chatroulette has gained unexpected
traction as a matchmaking site, with people even posting Chatroulette missed connections all over
the web. Well, take that and narrow the pool to college students ... it's bound to be a dating
goldmine. No surprise, then, that RandomDorm was developed by the creators of GoodCrush, a
matchmaking site.
Greetings, PlayStation Nation! It’s time for a proper introduction. I’m Sid Shuman, and
I’m the newest recruit of the PlayStation.Blog team! You might know me from my 11 years with GamePro, where I served as writer and senior editor
covering my favorite topic in the world: video games!
In my new role with the PlayStation.Blog, I’ll be working with fine folks like Jeff Rubenstein and
Chris Morell (a fellow
partner-in-crime from my GamePro days!). My day-to-day focus will be updating and maintaining
PlayStation’s official Twitter account (Follow us: Twitter.com/SonyPlayStation) and Facebook
page (Facebook.com/PlayStation),
as well as helping moderate and maintain our new PlayStation.Blog Share, where you can submit your own great ideas to the
PlayStation team. We read every one of them!
I’m proud to be a part of a PlayStation team and, especially, to be serving you. So without
further ado, let’s take a closer look at the week’s posts on the PlayStation.Blog. See
you on the internets!
Wakeboarding HD Coming to PSN March 25 — If you love Jet Moto, Hydro
Thunder, SSX, or Crazy Taxi, you owe it to yourself to check out this gorgeous hi-def PSN
title. Dodging sharks while busting monster wakeboard trick combos: yeah, I’m pretty sure
that’s a win.
ModNation Racers Release Date, Pre-Orders and Box Art! — Zoom, zoom,
zoom! I played this nimble kart racer at GDC 2010 for the first time, and was pleased by the
tight controls (epic drifting!) and the adorable character designs. Better yet, the track
creator is one of the best user creation tools I’ve ever seen. This one deserves your
attention.
God of War III Launch Special Tonight on SPIKE TV + Midnight Launch Events!
— The Game To End All Games is (finally) here, and the midnight launch festivities
couldn’t have been more epic. Catch up on the Spike TV special, too, hosted by
GameTrailers’ Geoff Keighley and featuring a special appearance by God of War III
director Stig Asmussen.
PlayStation.Blog God of War III GDC 2010 Meetup Recap — Epic game +
epic fans = epic community meetup. San Francisco will never be the same after our
record-shattering God of War community event, featuring a blistering Challenge of the Titans
competition, countless raffle prizes, and a special God of War III play session. Intense!
Coming to PSN this Week: Patchwork Heroes — In this charming PSP
game, you carve pieces off gigantic airborne battleships using a saw. Epic AND cute:
what’s not to like? The theme song deserves extra points, too.
God of War III Out Today! — The wait is over: Kratos will have his revenge.
The first level alone is enough to take your breath away. What are you waiting for?
New Limited Edition Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker PSP Entertainment Pack
— This limited edition PSP Entertainment Pack is a killer deal. Fully loaded with a 2GB
Memory Stick, free PSN movie voucher (US only), exclusive DLC, plus the slick “Spirited
Green” PSP-3000. And, of course, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the
latest chapter in Hideo Kojima’s powerful series.
Meet The Tester Cast Members Luge and Doc in PlayStation Home Tomorrow
— Regular viewers of The Tester might have wondered whether Doc and Luge had “a
thing” for each other. If you made it to our in-Home meetup with these popular
contestants, you’d have gotten the chance to ask them for yourself!
3D Dot Game Heroes Walkthrough — If you’re elderly enough to remember
the 8-bit and 16-bit generation, 3D Dot Game Heroes will be right up your alley. It’s
both a tribute to, and a parody of, the Golden Age of Gaming. Let Atlus’s Aram Jabbari
give you the full tour!
Introducing PlayStation.Blog Share — Since starting with the fine folks of
the PlayStation.Blog, Share has been a near-obsession of mine. The concept of fans contributing
fresh ideas to PlayStation, and voting on them, is a powerful one. Have you Shared today?
make.believe: thatgamecompany — thatgamecompany is famous for introducing
Flower and flOw to gamers worldwide. But where did this innovative independent game studio come
from? How did they get started? All secrets are revealed in this short, beautifully shot
documentary video.
PlayStation Comics Store Update — Comic geeks, rejoice! The PlayStation
Comics Store grows ever-larger: highlights include Dragon Age # 1, Star Trek: Nero # 3, and The
X-Men (1963) # 6 through #10. Remember: reading is fundamental!
The Tester – Episode 5 Available Today —
With only three episodes left, The Tester is heating up! If you’re a newcomer to the
show, there’s never been a better time to check it out. There’s only three episodes
left! No spoilers!
PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap Coming to PSN this Spring + PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe
on UMD — Dylan “Mr. PixelJunk” Cuthbert gives the skinny on eagerly
anticipated updates to the smash-hit PSN game series. With PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe hitting
the PSP on UMD for only $20, and PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap getting a beefy upgrade on PSN,
now’s the time to dive into this celebrated retro-styled series.
First MAG DLC free, coming next week — Zipper Interactive
wasn’t kidding when they said their support for MAG had only just begun. Rejoin the fight
with potent new Flashbang Grenades, new Light Machine Guns, and a double-XP weekend starting
March 25th. All hail MAG!
PlayStation.Blog Moves East next week. Come Meetup with us! — Meet
Jeff and the PlayStation.Blog team in Boston and New York next week! Of course, we’ll
have cool prizes and gaming swag to hand out. But the real attraction will be hands-on sessions
with PlayStation Move, our state-of-the-art motion controller coming later this Fall!
PlayStation Network Video Content Update — Lots of scrumptious new
video content to peruse this weekend on the PSN Video Store, including Twilight Saga: New Moon,
Ninja Assassin, Universal Soldier: Regeneration, and my personal favorite History Channel TV
show, MonsterQuest (This week: Sasquatches!).
ModNation Racers: Redesigning Kart Racing — Building a Better Kart
Racer: Get a better ‘handle’ on ModNation Racers’ controls and feel with this
informative new video.
Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake Trailer and Interview — Learn more
about the exclusive new content planned for the PSP version of this team action-RPG, including
new modes, new maps, and a beefier (cakier?) story mode. Viva la girthiness!
Eye of Indra Bundle with Rika and Pinkerton skins to be released in North
America – Covered in full detail on the PlayStation.Blog, the Eye of Indra motion comic bundle will be available
for purchase on April 1 in the US, Canada and Mexico. You can get the Rika and Pinkerton
multiplayer skins by purchasing the bundle and we’ve made sure that anyone who has
purchased all the individual episodes also get the skins.
Player spawn point updates being rolled out – Over
the past couple of weeks we noticed that our spawn points needed some tweaking. We announced
this week that we’re rolling out updates to UNCHARTED 2 over time to our multiplayer maps
to alleviate unfair player spawning during matches.
The Art of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves – out in April 2010
– Ballistic Publishing, SCEA and Naughty Dog are pleased to reveal the
upcoming 272-page art book of concept art, production art and character models. The art book
will come in three flavors for collectors of all kinds. You can pre-order now, and
there’s even a limited release pre-order bonus – a 15 minute
video walkthrough of 3 concept pieces.
If you’re a gadget-lover fed up of filling your home
with ice white this and brushed aluminum that, then check out this selection of totally
stylin’ items offering a design blast from the past.
Retro, vintage, old school or just classic, whatever your interpretation, we’ve dug out ten
gadgets that boast classic good looks as well as bang-up-to-date functionality.
Olympus’ Pen E-P1 is chock full of digital goodness in a design that harks back to the SLR
glory days and the original Pen’s release back in 1959, which made a big impact on the
camera market with its small dimensions. With a 12-megapixel sensor and capable of capturing
movies at 720p, the modern micro four thirds snapper offers digital SLR-standard pics in a more
compact format with those vintage looks that are good enough to lick.
Science and Sons’
Phonofone II is a wickedly old-fashioned iPod speaker, or in the words of its creator
“audio console.” Using no power, the gramophone-styled device utilizes passive
amplification and cunning acoustics to boost the audio output of standard earphones to around 55
decibels. With an entirely ceramic construction, it’s as much sculpture as it is
speaker.
So far only released in Korea, LG thrilled fans of retro style when it revealed a classic CRT
television, complete with bunny ears aerial and channel-changing knobs. The 14-inch set stands on
chrome legs and if you’re doing the back-in-time trip all the way, can display in black and
white or sepia. Despite its vintage appearance it offers a digital tuner and does come with a
remote control for when you get bored of fiddling with the knobs.
A professional USB mic, the Snowball from Blue Microphones claims to offer plug’n'play ease
of use with both Macs and PCs but the power to capture anything from the softest vocals to the
loudest garage band. Angled as ideal for podcasting, the vintage appearance of this modern
peripheral may serve to remind users of the rich heritage of broadcasting and inspire them to
podcast about more than the hilarious antics of their cat. That, and it will look wicked-cool on
your desk.
Available in black, white, red and an outrageously retro avocado green, say goodbye to fiddly
modern earbuds with these totally cool cans from Panasonic. The Panasonic Old School Monitor
Stereo Headphones, to give them their full title, offer leather-cushioned listening comfort you
can only dream of if you’re used to in-ear audio efforts and look so darn cool you’ll
be tempted to wear them out — even when you’re not listening to music.
Sure, headsets are all well and good but there’s no romance in looking like a call center
phone operator. The P*PHONE from Hulger will give you the satisfying feel of a proper chunky
handset in your hot little paw and turn a VoIP call into a conversation. Available in white,
black, red and green, the P*PHONE is offered on its own for $50 and with a cool desktop base for
$99. As well as working with certain mobiles (and certain others with adaptors) the P*PHONE
offers easy USB hook-up to a PC.
Back in the olden days folks would create real-life music “tapes” with
playlists recorded on to them to either share with a friend or loved one or enjoy themselves
(“Best Driving Songs Ever”, “My Breaking Up With Dave Tape”, etc). Help
make sure the art of the mixtape is not lost with this USB effort that takes on the form of an
old analog blank audio cassette tape (complete with sleeve that you can scrawl the track list on)
but with a brand spanking new USB flash drive nestled in the middle.
Mathletes with a penchant for the past will enjoy this retro calculator’s baby blue looks
and oversize dimensions. Whether you’re totting up the cost of your new flared jeans, or
calculating how much cheese you’ll need to melt to make the perfect fondue, your numerical
queries will be solved in Seventies style.
You’d be forgiven for mistaking this for a vintage deck, but in fact it offers more modern
tech than many music systems. Sure, there’s the option to take your vinyl for a spin, but
there’s also playback from SD memory cards and USB storage devices as well as from iPods
and other MP3 players. In addition to normal playback this turntable can record your records to
your computer, which means you won’t have to re-purchase all your vinyl to get it
digitized, and it has an FM radio.
While the wider world gets hyped up about Sony’s Move and Microsoft’s Project Natal,
sit back, relax and enjoy some 8-bit gaming with the Retro NES USB Controller from ThinkGeek,
described as perfect for creating old school gaming nostalgia on your laptop. With a USB
connection, it’s perfect for MAME and other emulators and is sooo much cooler than trying
to save the princess using your keyboard.
MediaLoot is compared by its creators with a “club” where people get a chance to
download as many graphic content as they want by merely paying a monthly fee. This graphic content
includes icons, print designs, textures, brushes, vectors... reading the full list would put you to
sleep. It suffices to say that if you are keen on getting any kind of graphical component or
element to use in any assignment, the likelihood of you getting exactly what you are after here is
very high.
I didn’t have the same problems at SXSW this year
that some people did. Was it too crowded at some events? Sure.
But there were plenty of alternative things to do. Did some of the keynotes bomb? Yes.
But there were plenty of other things to listen to. Did AT&T fail? No. Actually, they
did an awesome job keeping the
network up. Instead, I had a problem of a different kind: check-in fatigue.
Seeing as location was this
year’s Twitter at SXSW, and seeing as I write a lot about location, I wanted to try to
use as many of the services as I could during the actual conference. I drastically underestimated
how much work that would actually be.
At first, I was using all of the services I had on my phone to check-in when I arrived at a place
in Austin. This included: Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Whrrl, Brightkite, Burbn, MyTown, CauseWorld, Hot
Potato, Plancast, and (at certain places) Foodspotting. Even with great AT&T service, this would take a
solid 10 minutes or more to check-in to all of them. And it took even longer when I’d have
to pause to explain to my friends what the hell I was doing on my phone all that time.
This was at every venue we stopped at. The situation simply wasn’t tenable.
By the second day, I had cut the services I would check-in to in half. It still wasn’t
close to being something I would consider doing on a regular basis. By the end of my
time in Austin, I was down to using only two services — yes, the two in the
midst of the
“war” — Foursquare and Gowalla.
Pretty much everyone I knew in Austin were also using both Foursquare and Gowalla to send out all
their check-ins. And all seemed to agree: it was still too tedious to use even just two services
to do the same thing. In the end, there should be only one.
And so it should be no surprise that a few companies are already working on a solution for this
problem. One is by the creators of Brightkite, who managed to obtain the killer check.in domain name. The team showed me a preview of the app at a party
one night, and I immediately knew it was exactly what I needed (see a
preview of it here).
But there’s a problem with this solution too. Currently, Gowalla’s API is read-only,
which means you actually can’t use another app to check-in to the service. I spoke with CEO
Josh Williams a bit about this just prior to SXSW, and he noted that the main thinking behind
this is to maintain the user experience Gowalla is looking for (a very Apple-like argument). But,
he did say that eventually he thinks they will open up a two-way API — maybe
once they have time to create some best practices documentation, he noted.
Another problem is that currently each of these check-in services has their own places database.
That means that a place on Foursquare may be slightly different than a place on Gowalla, even
though they’re technically the same place. Worse, there are plenty of duplicates for some
venues since people are allowed to create their own. Check.in works around this place problem by
doing a look-up on each service and letting you pick the correct check-in spot. But it’s a
bit slow, and still seems rather tedious.
A better solution would be for the various services to adopt a standard for places. The Activity Streams group is working
on such a concept. Yahoo may also be able to implement such a system on top of its WOEID system. Of course, any
service that adopts such a standard would be risking at least part of their business since these
place databases are one of the keys to each service.
Meanwhile, Facebook is thinking about aggregating data from
both Foursquare and Gowalla for its own upcoming location implementation. Might that be the
one location stop to rule them all (of course, the writing back to Gowalla would still likely be
an issue)? Not if Twitter has anything to say about it.
During our Realtime Crunchup last year, I brought up this issue during our panel on
location. All the players on stage (including Twitter, Foursquare, Hot Potato, Google
Latitude, GeoAPI, and SimpleGeo) seemed to want to say that they could all get along and play
nicely together for the betterment of location as a whole. I didn’t buy it then, and
I’m definitely not buying it now.
From a business perspective, it doesn’t make sense for these guys to all play nicely with
one another and make it so you don’t have to use their services. The need to take steps to
ensure that you will use their
service, and will do so instead of a rival service. That’s the way it works, and
that’s the way it has always worked. And that’s why it’s a war. Right now,
it’s just the early stages where all sides are arming themselves. Soon, they’ll try
to kill one another. And that may not be such a bad thing.
Got a great idea
for a hat or weapon for Team Fortress
2? Valve wants to hear about it -- better yet, Valve wants you to make it. The TF2 blog
reports that Valve has already
seen plenty of solid submissions -- items you can get a hold of in today's update. If you're the
creator of one of these items, you'll find a special version waiting for you in your backpack.
Hooray for bragging rights!
And for you budding designers out there, don't just think of it as a way to get some experience
under your belt, but think of it as a service for these guys. Heavy above always had an image
problem (thanks, male pattern baldness!), but now he's feeling good and going out on dates like
every night!
Got a great idea
for a hat or weapon for Team Fortress
2? Valve wants to hear about it -- better yet, Valve wants you to make it. The TF2 blog
reports that Valve has already
seen plenty of solid submissions -- items you can get a hold of in today's update. If you're the
creator of one of these items, you'll find a special version waiting for you in your backpack.
Hooray for bragging rights!
And for you budding designers out there, don't just think of it as a way to get some experience
under your belt, but think of it as a service for these guys. Heavy above always had an image
problem (thanks, male pattern baldness!), but now he's feeling good and going out on dates like
every night!
En ouverture de leur saison musicale 2010, les Amis des Orgues de Saint-Volusien proposent un
concert avec Pierre PINCEMAILLE, organiste titulaire des grandes orgues de la
cathédrale de Saint-Denis depuis 1987 et concertiste international, le dimanche 28 mars
à 17 heures, en l'abbatiale Saint-Volusien de Foix.
PROGRAMME : César FRANCK (1822-11890), Pièce héroïque - Prélude, fugue et
variation - Troisième choral.
Louis VIERNE (1870-1937), Extraits de la 2e Symphonie : Allegro, Choral, Scherzo.
Maurice DURUFLE (1902-1986), Choral varié sur le "Veni creator"
Pierre PINCEMAILLE, Improvisation Tarif général : 10 E Adhérents : 8 E / Etudiants, demandeurs
d'emploi : 6 E / Gratuité pour les moins de 18 ans.
-//- agenda Concert Classique - FOIX, Ariège (09) - le 28-03-2010 -//-
If you don't already have plans to attend PAX East in Boston next weekend, consider a drive to
Brookfield, WI instead for the Midwest Gaming Classic, a two-day "all-encompassing electronic
gaming trade show" running from March 27-28.
Of course, the event will have hundreds of arcade and pinball machines to play and show off, but
it also features lots of other entertaining attractions like the Classic Gaming and Computing
Museum with its five display/play rooms devoted to vintage consoles, modern consoles, "underdog"
consoles, family games, and versus games.
The show has a number of notable speakers booked to deliver presentations: Robotron and
Defender co-creator Eugene Jarvis, High Voltage Software's Keith Hladik, console modder
Benjamin Heckendorn (who will be bringing his Bill Paxton Pinball machine), Sword of Fargoal creator Jeff McCord, and many others.
There will be several film screenings (Tilt: The Battle to Save
Pinball, Pinball Passion, and Pinball 101), tournaments (e.g. Super Mario Wii, Space
Invaders), and other events (e.g. The benheck.com Experience) at the Midwest Gaming Classic,
too.
En ouverture de leur saison musicale 2010, les Amis des Orgues de Saint-Volusien proposent un
concert avec Pierre PINCEMAILLE, organiste titulaire des grandes orgues de la
cathédrale de Saint-Denis depuis 1987 et concertiste international, le dimanche 28 mars
à 17 heures, en l'abbatiale Saint-Volusien de Foix.
PROGRAMME : César FRANCK (1822-11890), Pièce héroïque - Prélude, fugue et
variation - Troisième choral.
Louis VIERNE (1870-1937), Extraits de la 2e Symphonie : Allegro, Choral, Scherzo.
Maurice DURUFLE (1902-1986), Choral varié sur le "Veni creator"
Pierre PINCEMAILLE, Improvisation Tarif général : 10 E Adhérents : 8 E / Etudiants, demandeurs
d'emploi : 6 E / Gratuité pour les moins de 18 ans.
-//- agenda Concert Classique - FOIX, Ariège (09) - le 28-03-2010 -//-
It may sound like two big companies fighting over who gets what. But there's plenty at stake in
this court fight for other content creators and Web site operators.
Researching topics such as health, diet, and
(especially) the effectiveness of dietary supplements can be hard and time-consuming. Obscured by
thousands of marketing tricks, finding the truth takes days, if not weeks of research.
So, when someone puts in the time to do the research and create an infographic that makes certain
aspects of these topics easy to understand, it can be a huge time saver. Read on for some of the
best health-related infographics we’ve found online.
As always, consider the figures in these infographics with a grain of salt. No one guarantees
that the numbers are correct, and some of them are definitely open to interpretation.
1. Dietary Supplements
This is, without exaggeration, the most amazing and useful infographic I’ve ever
encountered. It looks fairly simple, but it took many hours of research to create it, and it is,
to my knowledge, the best resource about the actual efficiency of various dietary supplements out
there. From the author:
“This image is a “balloon race”. The higher a bubble, the greater the evidence
for its effectiveness. But the supplements are only effective for the conditions listed inside
the bubble.”
The graphic shows the effectiveness of health supplements on the Y-axis (higher is better), and
uses the size of the bubbles to illustrate the popularity of that particular supplement among US
adults. Anything below the “worth it line,” doesn’t have enough evidence of
medicinal benefit and is probably not worth your time, according to the graphic’s creators,
who looked at data from over 1500 studies on both PubMed (US National Library Of Medicine) and
Cochrane.org. The infographic effectively
combines data on both popularity and medical benefits to create a resource that points out the
best health supplements, as well as which ones American consumers believe in the most.
Check out the interactive version, which lets you filter the supplements by function, here.
2. Should You Drink Tap Water?
This is a look at five most and least polluted water systems in America (in larger cities),
showing that not all tap water has been created equal.
If you’ve been struggling with the issue of drinking tap or bottled water, this info might
help you make a decision. Of course, the data in this infographic, created by GOOD, covers only 10 cities, but it
highlights an important point – not all chemicals that can appear in tap water are
regulated. The graphic illustrates how many pollutants are found in each water system, how often
they’re found, and what type of bacteria exists.
Obesity is a known problem in the USA, but which states are affected the most? This is the most
recent infographic on the subject we could find, listing obesity rates in all US states, as well
as obese and overweight children rates in the USA.
Besides these numbers, this attractive infographic highlights several important points; such as
overall high rates of obesity among high school students, as well as the direct and indirect
costs of obesity to the US budget.
Right now, one of the most debated topics in the USA is health care reform, and how much the
proposed health bill will cost individuals and business. But how much are people paying for
health care in other countries around the world?
This infographic, created in a collaboration between GOOD and Way Shape Form,
shows the average life expectancy in various countries (indicated by the fullness of the IV
bags), as well as several other health-related stats, such as infant mortality rates, and the
cost of health care.
This visualization was created by David
McCandless, the creator of the Snake Oil infographic mentioned above. It’s a slightly
morbid chart, showing the average fatality rates for known diseases — the size of the
bubble indicates how likely you are to die from a given disease (larger is more fatal).
It comes, however, with an optimistic second chart. The X-axis shows the fatality rate, but the
Y-axis shows how long the cause of the illness can survive outside of the body in ideal
conditions. Lesson: wash your hands!
Know of any other great health-related visualizations or infographics? Let us know in the
comments!
A non-profit organization
called Reboot has a mighty challenge for you this
Friday night: Power down your cellphone, let your FarmVille crops languish and sign out of Skype
for a full 24 hours. What do you think: Can you hack a single day sans technology?
We’re seen efforts of this nature before — remember when John
Mayer wanted you to make like a Luddite for the first week of 2010?
But this event, which Reboot is calling The National Day of Unplugging, goes the extra mile with
promotions (ironically enough) through Facebook, Twitter and
a website called the Sabbath Manifesto (the day itself is part of a larger movement called the
Sabbath Manifesto, a movement started by a group of Jewish artists, writers, filmmakers and
social media professionals seeking to integrate traditional rituals into their modern lives).
There will also be a series of events in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco (according to
Reboot, they’re private and space is limited). All guests at these events will be asked to
check their phones at the door, where they will sleep the next 24 hours away in a cell phone
sleeping bag [pictured above].
Tanya Schevitz, a Reboot rep, told us that the idea is spreading. “We are hearing from
people all over the county –- and beyond –- that they will
create their own events, gather with friends, family, etc. to embrace the Sabbath Manifesto and
the National Day of Unplugging,” she said.
Participants are also encouraged to sign on to the Sabbath Manifesto website and report back on their technological withdrawal
experiences.
This venture is certainly interesting in light of recent stats that point to our society’s
obsession with technological
communication and increasing fascination with social media.
“There’s clearly a social problem when we’re interacting more with digital
interfaces than our fellow human beings,” said Dan Rollman, Sabbath Manifesto creator and
founder of the Universal World Record Database. “Rich, engaging conversations are harder to
come by than they were a few years ago.”
What do you think? Do you think digital communications are eroding our ability to truly connect
with others? Or do you think Twitter, Facebook and the like serve as channels to bring people
together? Let us know in the comments.
If a developer is entitled to due compensation for their contributions to any project, why
would two terminated employees have to sue to get paid? A little over a month ago Jason West and
Vince Zampella, two of the lead developers at Infinity Ward and creators of the Call of Duty:
Modern Warfare franchise, were terminated by Activision. Several weeks later Jason West and Vince
Zampella filed a complaint against the publisher. The complaint alleges ...
Of all the iPod docks I’ve come across (and I’ve seen a lot), this one is now my all
time favorite. It’s the most interesting one I’ve looked over, without
it being a cheap novelty device. This would be great for anyone that enjoys the
industrial look or just wants something new that stands out from the rest of their
electronics. Plus, for being a dock, it’s somewhat budget friendly.
This whole thing was created using parts found in a second hand hardware store.Â
Being from used parts, it gives the dock an extremely unique look. Even if the
creator were to make several, none of them could ever be exactly alike. The dock is
compatible with all sorts of different iPods and all of the iPhones. It’ll
even work with the iPod shuffle, which is a rare thing to find. You can purchase the
double sided dock for $95 through Etsy.
"Palm Inc., creator of the Pre smartphone, fell the most in more than 15 months in Nasdaq trading
after forecasting sales this quarter that were less than half of analysts' estimates. Revenue in
the period ending in May will be less than USD 150 million, Chief Financial Officer Doug Jeffries
said yesterday on Palm's third-quarter conference call, compared with the USD 300 million average
of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The company also reported its 11th straight quarterly loss."
Lt. Dan Choi spoke following his and Cpt. Jim Pietrangelo's court appearance in D.C. today. As I
mentioned earlier, both Choi and Pietrangelo pleaded 'not guilty' and opted for a trial rather
than to pay a fine. The trial will take place on April 26.
Said Choi, in part:
"There was no freer moment than being in that prison. It was freeing for me, and I thought of all
of the other people that were still trapped - that were still handcuffed and fettered in their
hearts. And we might have been caged up physically, but the message was very clear to all of the
people who think that equality can be purchased with a donation, or with a cocktail party, or
with tokens, that are serving in a public role. We are worth more than tokens. We have absolute
value. And when the person who is oppressed by his own country wants to find out how to get that
dignity back - being chained up and being arrested - that's how you get your dignity conferred
back upon you. And so I think that by actions, my call is to every leader - not just talking gay
leaders - I'm talking any leader who believes in America, and the promises of America can be
manifest. We're gonna do it again. And we're going to keep doing it until the promises are
manifest. And we will not stop. This is a very clear message to President Obama and any other
leader who supposes to talk for the American promise and the American people. We will not go
away."
Watch MetroWeekly's video of Choi's remarks, AFTER
THE JUMP...
"Apparently HRC is on lockdown, out of fear that gays civil rights advocate, angry at the
organization for providing cover for the President's and the Congress's in action on DADT and
ENDA, might try to stage a sit-in. I hear that even staff had to use key cards to get into the
building, as everything was locked up tight (normally the front door is open). Locking the
building down like the gay CTU is certainly one option. Another is simply doing your job. NB
"Inaction" is incorrect. The White House is quite literally not interested in doing DADT this
year. And HRC is publicly misleading the community about it. That's why Barney Frank had to come
out last Monday and ask the White House, publicly, to say that it wants DADT repealed this year."
"Palm Inc., creator of the Pre smartphone, fell the most in more than 15 months in Nasdaq trading
after forecasting sales this quarter that were less than half of analysts' estimates. Revenue in
the period ending in May will be less than USD 150 million, Chief Financial Officer Doug Jeffries
said yesterday on Palm's third-quarter conference call, compared with the USD 300 million average
of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The company also reported its 11th straight quarterly loss."
If you are bored to death with the typefaces that come by default on social sites and you long for
a more jubilant experience when typing down anything, then this site might be of aid. In essence,
it will empower you not only to find and download cooler fonts, but also to design typefaces of
your very own to go with.
The creator itself will let you come up with your own smileys and illustrated words, and webcam
support for capturing your own illustrations is provided.
If you've been
following closely, there are really two sorts of input available to the PlayStation Move. The one that gets the most
love and screen time is the camera-based, 3D meatspace tracking that the PlayStation Eye performs
in conjunction with the fancy colored ball at the end of the PlayStation Move wand, but most of the
actual gameplay we've seen is in truth much more similar to the Wii's MotionPlus than Sony might want to let on. The
MotionPlus and PS Move have very similar configurations of gyroscopes and accelerometers, and
actually use the same software from AiLive (co-creators of MotionPlus) for developing the gesture
recognition that goes into games. We actually got to see the LiveMove 2 development environment in
action, and it's pretty impressive: basically you tell a computer what gesture you want to perform
(like "fist pump," for instance) and then perform a bunch of examples of that movement. LiveMove
then figures out the range of allowable movement, and in playback mode shows you whether you're
hitting the mark. AiLive showed us gestures as complicated as a Graffiti (of Palm OS yore)
handwriting recognition in the air, built with just a few example movements from people back at
their offices. So, this is great news for developers dealing with the significant complication of
all these sensors, but at the same time we can't help but be a little disappointed. LiveMove 2
doesn't even use the PlayStation Eye, and as we mentioned in our hands-on
impressions of PlayStation Move, we could really sense that a lot of our in-game actions were
built from predefined gestures, not us interacting with the 3D environment in any "real" or
physics-based way. It's great tech either way, but hopefully that's something that can be improved
upon by launch or soon after. Check out a demo of LiveMove in action after the break.
First off, let's be crystal clear: this is a work of pure imagination, not some sort of leaked
image of the next HTC HD device. What's so impressive so me is the quality of the
mock-ups...you'd never know that this was a mock-up of a phone that doesn't exist...until you
look at the specs, because that's where things start to look a little too creative. The creator
wants a 1.5 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, but as far as I know, that speed of processor
doesn't exist yet. The 1 GB of RAM seems like overkill, but the 16 GB of internal storage sounds
about right. The 4.5 inch screen running at 800 x 1280 sounds cool, but that's not supported
resolution of Windows phone 7. 4G? Nah, we won't see that yet. USB host? Nope, not compatible
with Windows phone 7. 8 megapixel camera that can record 720p video? Maybe...just maybe. I've
heard rumblings about phones this year being able to do HD capture.
So that's the mythical HD3. What would your dream Windows phone 7 device have on it in terms of
hardware? Yeah, I know you want copy and paste, but what about the hardware?
For those of you not in to Twitter or who don't follow Jeff Atwood (codinghorror), creator of StackOverflow.com, you might find
his tweet from today
annoying/amusing, depending on how much of a Notes-head you are:
websites with page extensions ending in .nsf are like little "abandon all hope ye who enter here"
signs
Personally I found it kind of funny (because it's true), although I did reply and ask him to
substantiate it with some examples. I'll let you know if he does.
Alone in the Darkand Little Big Adventure creator,
Frédérick Raynal, is apparently at work on a new title for Ubisoft that may be set
for release later this year.
The as yet unannounced title is being teased on the developer's personal site, with the message
scrawled in French on a chalk board: "The name of the
As part of a larger event called Unknown Pleasures, celebrating the life of Ian Curtis on the
30th anniversary of his death, Un-Convention has been commissioned to develop a very special
version of the event. Un-Convention have teamed up with the creators of iconic indie-rock
footwear, Converse, to search for 300 of the UK’s most promising creative minds.
This is your opportunity to attend this spectacular free event –
8 bands
60 music industry professionals
300 people
12 hours to record, produce and release an album.
This is Un-Convention Factory
Get involved...watch the bands record the tracks live, design the sleeve, debate ideas, learn
about releasing music, explore new digital platforms and create a unique piece of history.
At Un-convention Factory, a mill space will be transformed to contain all of the elements and
processes involved in creating and releasing a record. You’ll be free to explore everything
that is going on, interact with music industry professionals and ultimately make all the
decisions along the way.
We’ll even provide food, drink, a free pair of trainers and a CD of the finished album by
the end of the day for everyone who attends.
And to cap it off, the day will end with a free evening show featuring the bands involved, with a
line up including Reverend Soundsystem, The Whip, I Am Kloot, New Education, Young Fathers,
Virginmarys and more.
Music industry professionals include Peter Hook (New Order), Graham Massey (808 State), Har Mar
Superstar, Andrew Dubber (New Music Strategies) and Karen Piper (Radarmaker).
It’s all taking place on 8th May 2010 at Un-Convention Factory in The Heritage Centre,
Macclesfield.
If you’re in a band, make cool videos, design amazing things, run a cutting edge blog or
are just keen to get involved then tell us about it and you could be coming to Un-Convention
Factory. For the chance for you and a friend to attend this free, once in a lifetime event visit
www.unconventionhub.org.
Michael Scott points us to a
rather surprising (given the source) piece in Ad Age asking if copyright is "the
buggy whip of the digital age." Of course, most regular Techdirt readers will not be surprised
to find that I agree with that statement wholeheartedly. It's a tool for a very different system
that isn't needed. If anything, I'd argue the situation is worse than with buggy whips. At least
with buggy whips, they could just fade away as the automobile grew in importance. Buggy whips
couldn't get in the way of the automakers. Copyright, on the other hand, is regularly used
to stifle and hold back new forms of creativity and to silence expression.
The article itself, by Judy Shapiro, is really a conference report from an event called "The
Collision of Ideas 2010," put on by the Copyright Clearance Center. It looks like they brought in a
lot of fantastic speakers, highlighting how copyright law doesn't fit well with what content
creators are trying to do, and how it's often being used to actively harm content creators. For
example: Mr. Hoffman, the filmmaker, gave a presentation where he confided how challenging
current copyright laws are for artists. As an example, he gave us detailed insights into the
challenges he had creating his critically acclaimed Sputnik documentary. He explained that half his
budget was spent on copyright fees alone. Most unfairly, he had to pay exorbitant copyright fees to
a network for old news footage they did not even have but which David himself had spent time to
ferret out. David openly concluded that, "it was better to open the floodgates" and let anyone use
his content than constrain its distribution. Unfortunately, Shapiro is getting beaten up in
the comments on that piece by folks who are doing the kneejerk thing of saying "but copyright is
good, because otherwise who will create!" Still, it's good to see that this debate is reaching a
wider and wider audience through conferences like this one and in the pages of AdAge. While you can
always expect the kneejerk response from folks who have always been told that copyright must be
good, the more people examine the actual issues, the more they'll recognize that as a tool, it's
current design is woefully misguided and very much against the principles for which it was
created.
A Times Square protest is currently underway in support of jailed activists Lt. Dan Choi and Cpt.
Jim Pietrangelo.
Protesters are reportedly chanting: "Release the DC 2! Now!" "We are out, let us in!" I
recognize some members of Queer Rising and that's Rainbow Flag creator Gilbert Baker on the
right.
Choi and Pietrangelo's D.C. arraignment is scheduled for 1pm at Courtroom 115, 500 Indiana NW.
Frédérick Reynal, veteran French developer and the creator of Alone in the Dark and
Little Big Adventure, is due to release a new game this year in tandem with publisher Ubisoft. So
says the website for his company Ludoid (via Kotaku and NeoGAF).
At the bottom of his "Ludography" is an entry reading (in French): "Coming in 2010 with [Ubisoft
logo]". Then there's a picture of a blackboard on which is written: "The name of the next game is
written on the back of this slate."
Click on the slate and the name is cheekily rubbed out, but there's a sad footnote for Little Big
Adventure fans.
—Zynga: The FarmVille creator has hired Steven Chiang as president of the
development studios, CEO Marc Pincus announced on his blog this week.
Chiang co-founded EA-owned Tiburon Entertainment, the studio best known for the Madden NFL
franchise. A longtime EA executive, he was most recently SVP and group GM for EA Sports.
—Fairchild Fashion Group: Patrick McCarthy, chairman and editorial
director of Condé Nast’s Fairchild Fashion Group and de facto editor of the fashion
magazine W is leaving the company at year’s end. He joined Fairchild as a reporter
in 1977, rising to chairman and editorial director in 1997.
—Emmis Communications: One we missed earlier this month: Greg Loewen added
president of Emmis Publishing to his role as chief strategy officer. The units regional and city
mags include Texas Monthly and Los Angeles. Loewen replaced Gary Thoe, who left
to focus on his family business, MidCountry Media, Inc. Loewen joined Emmis in 2007 from the
Toronto Star, where he was VP-digital media and strategy.
—Zynga: The FarmVille creator has hired Steven Chiang as president of the
development studios, CEO Marc Pincus announced on his blog this week.
Chiang co-founded EA-owned Tiburon Entertainment, the studio best known for the Madden NFL
franchise. A longtime EA executive, he was most recently SVP and group GM for EA Sports.
—Fairchild Fashion Group: Patrick McCarthy, chairman and editorial
director of Condé Nast’s Fairchild Fashion Group and de facto editor of the fashion
magazine W is leaving the company at year’s end. He joined Fairchild as a reporter
in 1977, rising to chairman and editorial director in 1997.
—Emmis Communications: One we missed earlier this month: Greg Loewen added
president of Emmis Publishing to his role as chief strategy officer. The units regional and city
mags include Texas Monthly and Los Angeles. Loewen replaced Gary Thoe, who left
to focus on his family business, MidCountry Media, Inc. Loewen joined Emmis in 2007 from the
Toronto Star, where he was VP-digital media and strategy.
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If you’re a gadget-lover fed up of filling your home
with ice white this and brushed aluminum that, then check out this selection of totally
stylin’ items offering a design blast from the past.
I didn’t have the same 
If a developer is entitled to due compensation for their contributions to any project, why
would two terminated employees have to sue to get paid? A little over a month ago Jason West and
Vince Zampella, two of the lead developers at Infinity Ward and creators of the Call of Duty:
Modern Warfare franchise, were terminated by Activision. Several weeks later Jason West and Vince
Zampella filed a complaint against the publisher. The complaint alleges ...
Recommandations
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and reject those that you are not interested in
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