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div style="margin-bottom: 10px; font-size: 10px;"posted by Neil/div a onblur="try
{parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"
href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6L1zPW0YW7k/SSdHmeCUOwI/AAAAAAAAL9c/6ucLxvezjQQ/s1600-h/Coraline-movie-poster.jpg"img
style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 270px;
height: 400px;"
src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6L1zPW0YW7k/SSdHmeCUOwI/AAAAAAAAL9c/6ucLxvezjQQ/s400/Coraline-movie-poster.jpg"
alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271260615083834114" border="0" //abr /There's an official CORALINE
trailer out....br /br /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie"
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nZI3X8advPYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1"param name="allowFullScreen"
value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed
src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nZI3X8advPYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /It's
out in English, but this version of it is it in Italian. Because everything sounds better in
Italian.br /br /A few of you have written in asking if I'd done an Alan Moore and taken my name off
the film, or if I'd had a falling out with the studio, as my name isn't mentioned in this trailer,
just Henry Selick's -- and no, not at all. Nobody's name except Henry's is mentioned in the
trailer, and that has more to do with Focus wanting to make sure that if they invoked span
style="font-style: italic;"The Nightmare Before Xmas/span, people wouldn't then assume this was a
Tim Burton film, and go and see it -- or stay away -- based on that. (On the international poster
-- above -- you won't find my namespan style="font-style: italic;" or /spanHenry's.) I suppose it's
a marketing decision.br /br /I chatted to Henry today, and am really looking forward to seeing a
finished film -- the last twenty minutes of the thing weren't done the last time I was sent
anything. And it has music...br /br /Incidentally, thea
href="http://www.amazon.com/Coraline-Movie-Collectors-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0061649708/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8amp;s=booksamp;qid=1227317385amp;sr=1-1"
Coraline Movie edition /ais now out, with an essay by me in the back, and another by Henry
Selick...br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"
href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513N7j%2Bs8bL._SS500_.jpg"img style="margin: 0px auto
10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 500px;"
src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513N7j%2Bs8bL._SS500_.jpg" alt="" border="0" //abr /br
/I've now assembled the same list of passwords for the CORALINE website -- a
href="http://www.coraline.com/"www.coraline.com/a -- that a
href="http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/683120.html"everyone else with access to a search engine
has/a:br /br /span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"stopmotion /span: the
Biggest Smallest movie ever made.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"buttoneyes/span : Meet the
cast...br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"moustachio /span: Bo Henry, art director of Coraline,
shows off his remarkable moustache tricks.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"armpithair /span:
Every hair in the film was placed there by hand...br /br /span style="font-weight:
bold;"puppetlove/span : Director Henry Selick explains what it must be like for the puppets in the
film.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"sweaterxxs/span : Micro-knitting. That's right:
micro-knitting./spanbr /br /...br /br /A small collection of MAD fold-ins are up at a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/03/28/arts/20080330_FOLD_IN_FEATURE.html"http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/03/28/arts/20080330_FOLD_IN_FEATURE.html/a.
I cannot imagine a better time-waster than if someone were to put every span style="font-style:
italic;"Mad/span Fold-in up on line. I could click my way through them forever...br /br /...br /br
/I've started playing with the T-mobile G1. First reactions -- I like it, mostly. It feels good in
your hand. It's reasonably intuitive. (Bizarrely, when it isn't intuitive and I've had to head into
manual land, the phone's software and the PDF of the manual do not always agree with each other.)
I've had fun making ring tones, creating galleries. The way that your contacts list is also your
Gmail contacts is mostly terrific (although it won't let me create entries that have the same email
address as someone already on the list).br /br /The things I don't like about it so far seem huge
and obvious: no Blogger app (when there's a LiveJournal app and several others) seems a huge
omission, seeing it's from Google; it can't read or open PDF files yet; you can send it pictures
and watch them as a slideshow, but you can't save them; the built in Gmail app can't do anywhere
near the things that the gmail program on my N73 can do; the camera is about the same standard as
the iPhone's, which is to say, a bit span style="font-style: italic;"meh/span. I like having a real
keyboard but wish it was a tiny bit bigger -- I find myself typing with fingernails. Battery life
is fine unless you've got Wifi on.br /br /More reactions after it's been on the road with me and
been used for a bit.br /br /...br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Hi Neil,br /br /I just had a
quick question on the span style="font-style: italic;"Who Killed Amanda Palmer/span book. I have
the album already (and have listened to it countless times. It's beautiful).br /br /I was going to
go and order the book, but when I went to the site, I found that the book seems to only be in
packages. I was wondering if there are any plans to sell the book alone, or whether I should buy
one of the packages. The extra CD could make a nice gift.br /br /Thanks,br /Nate/spanbr /br /Let's
see... the book is being desgned right now, then it goes off to the printers. The people who bought
the package version will get theirs first. Depending on where in the world it's printed, this could
be a couple of months before anyone else. Then, when copies come in from the printer, they'll go on
sale -- probably in the early Spring. I think.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Neil!br /br
/I'm re-reading American Gods, and I'm at the point where Shadow first meets Sam. At the diner,
Shadow reads a newspaper story saying "local farmers wanted to hang dead crows around the town to
frighten the others away; ornithologists said it wouldn't work, that the living crows would simply
eat the dead ones. The locals were implacable. 'When they see the corpses of their friends,' said a
spokesman, 'they'll know we don't want them here.'"br /br /Neil, I don't have Time Enough for Love
here at school, but wasn't there something very similar to that in that story? Was your dead crow
story a little Heinlein homage?br /br /And OMG - just realized that Sam's last name is Black Crow,
and that story was about crows. Wow. Sneaky of you.br /br /Chrisbr /br //spanbr /br /When I'm
driving through small-town America I make a point of buying local papers in towns where I stop, and
reading them, preferably in local coffee shops. I read that in a small town as I went, and thought
"It belongs in my book". So I put it there.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Dear Mr Gaiman,br
/I recently finished reading M is For Magic, and I have a question about the story Chivalry. Sir
Galahad was considered the holiest of Arthur's knights; so, how coul he have obtained an apple from
the garden of the Hespiredes? The Hespiredes were a part of greek mythology which was actually a
religeon based on monotheism. So, how could he get something that his religeon said didn't exist? I
am sorry to bother you with this question, but it has sparked my interest.br /br / - a young and
curious reader/spanbr /br /He had to travel a long way.br /br /I don't think it would have been a
problem for early Christians, of whom Galaad would have been one: in span style="font-style:
italic;"The Golden Legend/span, which was the most popular book of stories about saints, collected
in the thriteenth century, Saint Nicholas (the one who became Santa Claus) went up against the
Goddess Diana. Then again, Narnia, a most monotheistic world, had more than its share of nymphs
(just like the Hesperides) not to mention such gods as Bacchus and Silenus (and Santa Claus again)
wandering around. So I would not worry about it, were I you.br /br /span style="font-weight:
bold;"I loved the link to the Sandman Death 20th Anniversary Bookends you put up.br /When should
they be coming out and how much of a dent will they put on my wallet, please?/spanbr /br /According
to a quick Google, a
href="http://www.toymania.com/news/messages/9960.shtml"http://www.toymania.com/news/messages/9960.shtml/a
says they came out in September, and they will cost a wallet-twinging $295. (Ouch.) There are only
a thousand of them.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"This one has almost nothing to do with
you Neil, but since his website is still in the makings I thought you could perhaps forward this to
him.br /I was very sad (like a child whose told there won't be a Christmas this year) to learn that
Dave McKean's appearance this weekend in Buenos Aires was canceled.br /In the event's blog they
posted Dave's email in which he mentioned he couldn't make it because a date was changed (which
sounds reasonable). But it remained unclear if it was the date of ANIMATE (the Buenos Aires event)
which was changed, or if it was one of Dave's previous engagements./spanbr /br /Dave McKean
said...br /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Hi Neil,br /br /Please post this, as I certainly do
feel very bad letting people down:br /br /I agreed to go to Animate in the summer and had to
organize a militarybr /operation of friends and family to take care of our son Liam duringbr /the
proposed week, as he is appearing as Gavroche in Les Miserables inbr /London and has to be
accompanied to and from the theatre each day he'sbr /on, and also be available on 12 hours notice
every day in case anotherbr /actor drops out.br /We managed this, so both Clare and I could make
the trip to Buenosbr /Aires, a city we've always wanted to visit.br /Unfortunately, the date was
changed by the organizers, and so we hadbr /to re-arrange.br /More importantly, it became obvious
that the festival was nowbr /colliding with a variety of previous commitments falling in the
latterbr /half of November, so I decided with great sadness to withdraw thisbr /year.br /I hate
letting people down, and I was really looking forward to thebr /trip (though not the 24 hours
travelling each way, I admit!).br /br /Hopefully there will be another event, an animation or film
festival,br /that will allow me to visit the city in the future. Or maybe we'llbr /just go for a
holiday, and do a signing in a bookstore.br /br /Thanks,br /Dave/spanbr /br /(I think it's worth
pointing out that ten-year old Liam McKean -- owner of the original Pig Puppet -- is in span
style="font-style: italic;"Les Miserables/span in London. If you happen to go and see it, check if
he's in your performance. Get his autograph. Mention pigs. Make his day.) And that reminds me...br
/br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Hi Neil,br /br /I thought you might like to let people know
that Dave McKean is on the BBC4 programme "Picture Book" talking about his illustations for David
Almond's 'The Savage' and how he was inspired by Comic Book's art. The programme is airing (again)
at 19.10 on Saturday and 3.30 on Sunday, and is also currently available on the BBC i-player. a
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fhnb6/comingup"http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fhnb6/comingup/abr
/br /Thank you again for all the stories,br /br /Marjorie/spanbr /br /You're welcome.br /br /span
style="font-weight: bold;"Hi,br /br /Just read that you completed "the Dying Earth story." Huh? Is
there a new collection of Dying Earth stories coming out? Is it an homage to Jack Vance's work, or
what?br /br /Did a search for "dying earth" on your website and saw no other mention of it.br /br
/Thanks,br /Chrisbr /br //spanspanIt's for a
href="http://www.subterraneanpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PRODamp;Product_Code=martin07amp;Category_Code=PREamp;Product_Count=24"this/a./spanspan
style="font-weight: bold;"br //spanbr /...br /br /And finally, Larry Marder talks about why a
href="http://cgi.ebay.com/NEIL-GAIMAN-SANDMAN-Sketch-With-Larry-Marder_W0QQitemZ140282064832QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item140282064832amp;_trksid=p3911.c0.m14amp;_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318"the
drawing we did together/a is so special at a
href="http://larrymarder.blogspot.com/2008/11/neil-gaimanlarry-marder-drawing-up-for.html"http://larrymarder.blogspot.com/2008/11/neil-gaimanlarry-marder-drawing-up-for.html/a.
div class="label_list" style="margin-top: 20px; padding-left: 15px; text-indent: -15px; font-size:
78%/1.4em; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; text-transform:
uppercase; letter-spacing: .1em;"strongLabels:/strongnbsp; a
href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/Coraline%20movie" style="color: #999;
text-transform: uppercase;"Coraline movie/a, a
href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/liam%20mckean" style="color: #999; text-transform:
uppercase;"liam mckean/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/Jack%20Vance"
style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"Jack Vance/a, a
href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/Dave%20McKean" style="color: #999; text-transform:
uppercase;"Dave McKean/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/crows" style="color:
#999; text-transform: uppercase;"crows/a, a
href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/why%20I%20was%20disappointed%20they%20cut%20Bacchus%20out%20of%20the%20Prince%20Caspian%20Movie"
style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"why I was disappointed they cut Bacchus out of the
Prince Caspian Movie/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/G1" style="color: #999;
text-transform: uppercase;"G1/a/div
pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/11/tripping.jpg" align="left"
hspace="4" vspace="2" width="600" height="451" style="display:block;" /Who says you need drugs to
have a good time? All you need is an open mind and a little imagination to tap into the psychedelic
potential of your brain. Oh, and gadgets like the 10 featured here can definitely help. Even if
they don't work, just remember that even without the drugs you still have sex and rock n' roll.
That should be enough for anyone./p pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/11/fiber-optic-wallpaper_02.jpg"
class="center" width="537" height="452" style="display:block;" /Fiber Optic Wallpaper: Designer
Camilla Diedrich has added a 21st century upgrade to drab old wallpaper by adding intricate designs
illuminated with fiber optics. It's a cool ideamdash;but I would still opt for a fresh coat of
paint. [a
href="http://www.bodieandfou.com/productdetail.asp?prod=NATURE_RAY_CHARLES_-_BLUEpid=641cat=13subcat=104#"Bodie
and Fou/a via a
href="http://gizmodo.com/5084729/fiber-optics-may-change-the-way-you-view-wallpaper"Link/a]/p
pobject width="494" height="400"param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" param
name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" param name="movie"
value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1378892amp;server=vimeo.comamp;show_title=1amp;show_byline=1amp;show_portrait=0amp;color=amp;fullscreen=1"
embed
src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1378892amp;server=vimeo.comamp;show_title=1amp;show_byline=1amp;show_portrait=0amp;color=amp;fullscreen=1"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="494"
height="400"/objectPrimal Source Fountain: Earlier this year artist Usman Haque tripped out all of
Santa Monica, CA with a fountain projection that resembled a drug-induced hallucination. [a
href="http://gizmodo.com/5027229/primal-source-fountain-provides-hallucinations-without-drugs"Link/a]/p
pobject width="494" height="400"param name="movie"
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QRrxKlS8gkgcolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcffs=1" param
name="allowFullScreen" value="true" embed
src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QRrxKlS8gkgcolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcffs=1"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="494" height="400"/objectGenso
Kukan Aurora Simulator: This gadget claims to simulate the aurora borealis or "northern lights" on
the walls in your home. The 6-inch tall Genso Kukan Aurora also features a 30-minute sleep timer to
gently send you off on your own mystical journey through the mind. Plus, you will get a lot more
mileage out of the $66 price tag than you would using it to purchase mind-bending substances. [a
href="http://www.himeyashop.com/product_info.php/products_id/5817"HimeyaShop/a via a
href="http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/battery+powered-aurora-light-projector-simulates-northern-lights-an-iffy-proposition-249975.php"Link/a]/p
pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/11/led_table.jpg" class="center"
width="478" height="277" style="display:block;" /Wave LED Coffee Table: The Wave table utilizes 32
near-infrared sensors to detect movement and follow it with trails of light and color from 480
LEDs. As you move your hand or your glass over the surface of the table, the LEDs follow
alongmdash;allowing you to enjoy a similar experience as a stoner that becomes momentarily
captivated by the movement of his own hands. Tables can be made to order for around $1800-$2000. [a
href="http://www.becausewecan.org/LED_Coffee_Table_The_Wave"Because We Can/a via a
href="http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/geek-furniture/the-wave-led-coffee-table-provides-motion+seeking-light-show-278959.php"Link/a]/p
pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/11/magic-expanding-bunny.jpg"
class="center" width="400" height="400" style="display:block;" /Magic Mushroom and the Incredible
Expanding Bunny: Stare at the hypnotic spinning disc for around 20 seconds and then direct your
eyes towards the magic mushroom and the bunny. Magically, they will both expand before your eyes.
Available for around $6. [a
href="http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/magic-expanding-toys/index.html#top"iwoot/a]/p pobject
width="494" height="400"param name="movie"
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Bbgo72EqfNccolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcffs=1" param
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src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Bbgo72EqfNccolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcffs=1"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="494"
height="400"/objectHyposurface: These fabric and plastic walls are driven by thousands of
mechanical pistons to create a morphing movement that is mesmerizing to watch in action. I tell you
what, you had better be drug-free when standing in the midst of one of these Hyposurface
wallsmdash;otherwise it will freak...you...out. [a href="http://www.hyposurface.org/"Hyposurface/a
via a
href="http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/tripping-display/hyposurface-display-makes-walls-dance-and-look-pretty-290919.php"Link/a]/p
pscript type="text/javascript" newVideoPlayer("altered_gizmodo.flv", 475, 376,""); /scriptThe
Good-Old Fashioned Isolation Tank: Nothing offers a drug-free hallucination better than a sensory
deprivation or "isolation" tank. Just ask comedian and sober-stoner Joe Rogan. Earlier this year he
gave away his old tank, and he can be seen here gushing about its psychedelic potential. [a
href="http://gizmodo.com/361693/isolation-tank-makes-you-hallucinate-get-one-free-become-a-nutcase"Link/a]/p
pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/11/ganzfeld_01.jpg" width="216"
height="148" class="left"Ganzfeld Hallucinations: Isolation tanks are great, but unless you get a
hand out from Joe Rogan they are going to be a tad expensive. Not so with this little DIY project.
All you need is a pair of headphones and a ping pong ball that has been cut in half. Apparently, if
you place the ping pong ball over your eyes and listen to white noise through the headphones, you
will be in for a mind altering experience. Being a burn-out probably helps with this one. [a
href="http://gizmodo.com/5092869/headphones-playing-white-noise-and-a-ping-pong-ball-let-you-trip-sans-drugs"Link/a]/p
pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/11/disco-bath.jpg" class="center"
width="500" height="500" style="display:block;" /Disco Bath: Place one of these mini-waterproof LED
lightshows into your bath, sit back and let the psychedelic color patterns take control of your
mind. Pre-order for $13. [a
href="http://www.firebox.com/product/2031/Underwater-Disco-Lightshow?src_t=vid"Firebox/a via a
href="http://gizmodo.com/383991/disco-bath-means-theres-a-party-in-my-tub-and-youre-all-invited"Link/a]/p
pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/11/eyecandy_relax_01.jpg"
class="center" width="494" height="326" style="display:block;" /Eye Candy USB Lollipop: According
to the product page, this curious confectionery "uses cutting edge Sensory Substitution Technology
to transmit vivid emotive images into your mind's eye." It's based on "scientific" research
conducted in the 1970s that the brain can accept certain forms of non-visual stimuli and transform
it into a visual image. Using a charge via USB, Eye Candy lays down a matrix of small electrical
pulses on your tongue in the shape of an object. Theoretically, you should be able to "see" the
object it traces. Now here is where it really gets interesting...the pops come in six flavors
designed to help you achieve the "right state of mind." For example: the pop can trace the image of
a spider on your tongue to help you overcome your fears. Although the product is not currently
available, the goal is to have Eye Candy out sometime in the near future at a cost of around $90.
[a href="http://www.eyecandycan.com/"Eye Candy/a via a
href="http://gizmodo.com/5043052/hallucinogenic-eye-candy-usb-lollies-take-your-brain-to-that-special-place-for-real"Link/a]/p
br style="clear: both;"/ a
href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=cb551bf97817f9ff6428d9f4c93bf025p=1"img alt=""
style="border: 0;" border="0"
src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=cb551bf97817f9ff6428d9f4c93bf025p=1"//a img
src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=cb551bf97817f9ff6428d9f4c93bf025" style="display:
none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=10mzBNFf"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=yav1jqZX"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=Psix0ogZ"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=Psix0ogZ" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=9CBQ1yay"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=9CBQ1yay" border="0"/img/a /divimg
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/QSnzFV4Tols" height="1" width="1"/
Category: Education
Released: Nov 17, 2008
Price: $0.99
Description:
This new children's Talkie Book - written and illustrated by Nick Watson - is first published and
especially made for the iPhone and iPod touch. Your children can listen to the story narrated by
Nikki Saco whilst enjoying the illustrations - or if they prefer - scroll across the page and read
along with the text. The story follows Emma as she contends with rivals for her parent's
affections. Feeling uncertain about the arrival of the twins it falls to her daddy to show her what
counts in life. This involves reinforcing the belief in family values through the introduction of a
toy ark. The ark teaches the enjoyment of sharing and helps the three siblings resolve a dispute
over who is 'the best'. The cubs learn how to appreciate nature's magic in even the most common
place. Snuggle up tonight with your special little people and enjoy this beautiful bedtime story
together. Other Talkie Books available: The Tale of Benjamin Bunny by Beatrix PotterThe Tale of
Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter'Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
Note: The description above is the official one supplied by the application
developer and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of this site or its staff.
La boîte de jeu pour deux joueurs Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra sera disponible le mercredi 25
novembre dans la boutique intégrée à MTGO, après la maintenance
hebdomadaire.
pimg alt="Dark Cloud" src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/imgDarkCloud.jpg" width="150" height="102"
/For all the optimism surrounding the potential of computing in the cloud - lower costs, better
performance, easier scaling - it isn't a perfect system. No matter how distributed and redundant
the architecture or how rigorous the backup system, when it comes right down to it, there's a
complex series of hoops through which the data has to jump to travel between the user and where it
actually resides on a piece of physical hardware. And when a segment of that process fails, all the
benefits of the cloud suddenly seem all the less magical./p pTake a recent unfortunate situation
for a href="http://ylastic.com/"Ylastic/a, a company that provides a single front-end to manage
Amazon Web Services, who was recently an unwillingly participant in one of these cloud bursts./p p
align="right"emSponsor/embr /a href='http://d.openx.org/ck.php?n=12671amp;cb=12671'
target='_blank'img src='http://d.openx.org/avw.php?zoneid=861amp;cb=12671amp;n=12671' border='0'
alt='' align="right" //a/p pYlastic noticed something strange occurring with one of the a
href="http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/"Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2)/a a
href="http://aws.amazon.com/ebs/"Elastic Block Stores (EBS)/a, a service that is "particularly
suited for applications that require a database, file system, or access to raw block level
storage."/p centerimg alt="imgYlastic01.jpg" src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/imgYlastic01.jpg"
width="600" height="227" //center pBut something wasn't quite right. And over the course of a few
hours the story played out a href="http://twitter.com/ylastic/"via Twitter/a as Ylastic noticed
issues with its EBS instances./p centerimg alt="imgYlastic02.jpg"
src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/imgYlastic02.jpg" width="600" height="226" //center pWhen the
problem was finally identified, Ylastic discovered that the data could not be recovered. They were
forced to recover from an earlier snapshot, that contained only a subset of the data. /p centerimg
alt="imgYlastic03.jpg" src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/imgYlastic03.jpg" width="600" height="224"
//center pFinally, after recovering what data they could, Ylastic had to go to its customers with
the unfortunate message:/p blockquote"AWS has finally terminated the frozen instances. But the EBS
volume is still detaching and has been for hours. It doesn't seem like we will be able to get into
it at this point. Some time in the last month or so, our EBS snapshotting of this stuck volume
seems to have stopped working correctly.... We have gone back and run through all the snapshots,
and the last good snapshot that we have is from October 1."/blockquote pWho was at fault? Amazon?
Ylastic? Truly, no one. It was simply a combination of issues. A perfect storm in the cloud, as it
were. And that perfect storm resulted in data loss for Ylastic and its customer base./p pDoes this
mean we should run screaming from the potential the cloud holds? No, absolutely not. But it's an
unfortunate reminder that the system is far from perfect and that those who are relying on the
cloud to serve critical aspects of their business should be ever diligent to ensure that the data
is being backed up./p pFor all the technical magic of the cloud, it's still the basics of data
management that matter most./p stronga
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/dark_side_of_the_cloud.php#comments-open"Discuss/a/strong
pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/UPQZyf5OfuY5Xe_IhJ-dAyXiJug/a"img
src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/UPQZyf5OfuY5Xe_IhJ-dAyXiJug/i" border="0"
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src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=CILctkfl" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=MC6ZRbBH"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=52" border="0"/img/a a
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src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=1034" border="0"/img/a /divimg
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~4/AY4dURXbHOA" height="1" width="1"/
centerimg src=http:/img101.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ellepc031bx6.jpg / //centerbr /br / Voila
qu'arrive un nouveau jeu de STR Stratégie dans un univers Héroïc Fantasy
trés influencé de la bouche même des auteurs par les jeux, Heroes of Might and
Magic ou encore Warlords Battlecry, le jeu bElven Legacy/bbr /br / Dans le même contexte vous
devez créer vos troupes et mener à bien vos conquêtes, le jeu dispose d'un
scénatio en solo et d'une partie jouable en ligne.br /br / Les graphismes sont un peu
vieillots ce qui n'enpèche pas que l'ambiance du jeu peut être trés bonne
néanmoins.br /br / La date de sortie du jeu est indiquée au premier trimestre 2009
pour la France.br /br /b Visionner une vidéo du jeu auprés de nos confrères de
Jeuxvideo a target=_blank
href=http://www.jeuxvideo.com/videos_editeurs/0001/00019641/elven_legacy_f1q0.htmICI/a /b
 OK, I don’t believe in magic, but I’m not quite sure what I’m
seeing here. This new device from Scotsman Beverage Systems fills glasses from the bottom up.
How? I have no idea! It drops the ice in from the top, then the soda or the beer or whatever
somehow enters from the bottom of the glass. Apparently, it’s fast and makes serving loads
of drinks at once very easy. It’s also good at blowing my mind.
http:www.pumaskills.comLearn the secrets of using magic to meet girls. Learn this trick and more
at PUMA Skills (Pick Up Magic Artist)Mystery, the Pick Up Artist from VH1 and The Game uses magic
but he doesn't teach the secrets. PUMA Skills does
Every once in a while we come across a company that seems to have a giant bullseye on it for
acquisition, with a great product, viable business model, and a talented team. Twilio, a company that
has created an intuitive API for a variety of telephony services, is that kind of company (it
also managed to Rick Roll my
boss). The startup has developed a simple API with pay-as-you-go pricing that allows
developers to quickly implement phone services into their applications, opening the door to a
number of services that were previously only accessible to the small sliver of engineers trained
in the dark magic of phone calls. Twilio is launching today in private beta, and TechCrunch
readers can grab an invite here.
CEO Jeff Lawson says that while other web telephony services exist (like Asterisk, an open source project), these technologies tend to be very
complex and difficult to use, even for experienced developers. Lawson says that Twilio is looking
to commoditize these phone services by making them much more accessible to developers, by
introducing a set of very intuitive commands. The API primarily consists of 5 commonly used phone
actions (Say, Play, Record, Dial, and Gather a phone number), each of which behaves exactly as
you’d expect it to. That Rick Roll app we
heard a few days ago? Here’s the code (for you non-programmers, this is pretty basic
stuff):
Lawson showed me a number of other impressive examples, including a project that he said managed
to replicate GrandCentral’s core functionality in only around 15 lines of code. A number of
organizations have already started using the API to build their own applications, including a
non-profit that has now automated hundreds of calls that used to take staff hours to make.
Twilio is adopting the cloud-service model, with no contract required and flat fees for calls
depending on the number of minutes used and the number of phone numbers needed (developers can
also scale their needs based on demand, so they don’t have to worry about their servers
crashing). And while the Rick Roll app was created with the service, Lawson says it was just a
pre-launch joke, and that safeguards are in place to prevent any future applications from making
annoying phone calls.
Twilio isn’t perfect - it doesn’t yet support voice recognition, which is a key
component in many telephony services (though this feature will be released in a future version).
But it is very cool, and will probably be very popular among developers. Don’t be surprised
if this one gets snatched up soon by a cloud service provider like Rackspace or Amazon
(my money’s on Amazon - CEO Jeff Lawson was a Product Manager for AWS).
There are a few of other startups trying to make phone services more accessible to developers,
including Skydeck, which we covered
here.
Martian Reservoirs | Visions from Afar | Massive Stars and MAGIC Crab Nebula | GPCR Structural
Diversity | Light from Below | Promoting Polyandry | Modeling Subcellular Morphogenesis | Dinospore
Control | Wnts and the Brain Vasculature | A Drive Along the Metabolic Information Highway | No
Escape for Insect Pathogens | Long Live the Standard Model | Accelerated Imaging | Mussel-ing in on
Evolution | University Challenge
A few years ago, after realizing that blaming consumers wasn't a particularly effective strategy in
covering up for the entertainment industry's own inability to adapt to a changing market, industry
insiders chose a new strategy: a
href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080701/0241361562.shtml"blame ISPs/a. That sent them down
a path of trying to force ISPs to do a variety of things, such as installing filters, policing
their networks for copyright-infringing material and, of course, kicking users off their networks.
In the mind of entertainment industry execs, a failure to do any of these things should be a crime.
Note how the industry totally shifts responsibility here. Rather than admitting that ithey/i should
change with the market, it's always someone ielse/i who needs to change to protect the
entertainment industry's obsolete business model. br /br / While the industry has been able to get
some politicians and ISPs to agree (amazingly, often against their own best interests), it's now
gone a step further. A bunch of the biggest movie studios (Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures,
Warner Bros Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox
Film Corporation, Disney Enterprises, and the Seven Network) have a
href="http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/268184/film_industry_sues_iinet_over_bittorrent_downloads?fp=2#038;fpid=1"
target="_new"teamed up to sue Australia's largest ISP, iiNet/a, for failing to stop copyright
infringement. iiNet, you may recall, is the same ISP that has been a
href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081118/0331192866.shtml"mocking/a the Australian
government for requiring filters. So, naturally, it's response to this lawsuit is rather direct.
While the studios complain that iiNet isn't doing anything, iiNet responds that this is not true at
all. They pass each complaint on to the police, because if there's a crime, then the police should
deal with it: blockquotei They send us a list of IP addresses and say 'this IP address was involved
in a breach on this date'. We look at that say 'well what do you want us to do with this? We can't
release the person's details to you on the basis of an allegation and we can't go and kick the
customer off on the basis of an allegation from someone else'. So we say 'you are alleging the
person has broken the law; we're passing it to the police. Let them deal with it'. br /br / We are
not traffic cops. We can't stand in the middle of it and stop the individual items that might be
against the law. These guys are asking us to be judge, jury and executioner. /i/blockquote Even
better, iiNet's CEO Michael Malone gets to the heart of the matter: blockquotei I think they
genuinely believe that ISPs have a secret magic wand that we are hiding and if we bring it out we
can make piracy disappear just by waving it. And it doesn't exist. /i/blockquote Indeed, but that
might mean that the entertainment industry has to actually take responsibility for their own
business model failings, and they can't do that. So they ihave/i to blame others.br /br /a
href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20081120/1214592902.shtml"Permalink/a | a
href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20081120/1214592902.shtml#comments"Comments/a | a
href="http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20081120/1214592902op=sharethis"Email This Story/abr / br
style="clear: both;"/ a
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style="border: 0;" border="0"
src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=d65e84553088f608ae6a8afd48b2ea15p=1"//a img
src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=d65e84553088f608ae6a8afd48b2ea15" style="display:
none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a
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pFiled under: a href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/analysisopinion/" rel="tag"Analysis / Opinion/a,
a href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/software/" rel="tag"Software/a, a
href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/cool-tools/" rel="tag"Cool tools/a, a
href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/odds-and-ends/" rel="tag"Odds and ends/a, a
href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/freeware/" rel="tag"Freeware/a, a
href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/iphone/" rel="tag"iPhone/a/pimg vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1"
align="right" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tuaw.com/media/2008/11/snaptellexplorer.jpg" alt=""
/Oh man -- finally, we're getting an app that fulfills the promise of the iPhone. Ever since we
knew the iPhone would have a camera and an internet connection, we've been waiting for a
href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=291920403amp;mt=8"SnapTell
Explorer/a, and now it's here and free. Download and install it on the iPhone, and then snap a
picture of any book, CD, movie, or videogame, and bingo, you've got links to listings for it
(Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Wikipedia, Google, etc.) around the Internet. I have no idea how it
works (some type of picture comparison script hooked up to a database, surely, though it's amazing
that it works that well with just the iPhone's camera), but that's fine, because it makes it all
the more indistinguishable from magic.br /br /The main drawback is that it takes a bit to search
their database -- while wifi or 3G are much faster (obviously), Edge will have you waiting a few
minutes for a find. And at this point, all they have are links to pages -- it would be nice to see
a price comparison right away and/or a quick rating (to see instantly what people think of a movie
if you happen to be standing in a video store making your choice). Finally, it would be nice to see
this extended to all sorts of items -- I tried scanning a few groceries that I might be price
shopping, but for now it's just books, movies, and music.br /br /But otherwise, it's awesome --
even in low light/bad light situations, as long as you can get a recognizable picture of the case,
it works. This is exactly the kind of thing the iPhone is made for, very cool to finally see it in
action.br /br /[via a href="http://waxy.org/links/"Waxy/a]br /p style="padding:5px;clear:both;"a
href="http://www.tuaw.com"TUAW/aa
href="http://www.tuaw.com/2008/11/20/snaptell-explorer-retrives-product-listings-from-the-iphones-ca/"Snaptell
Explorer retrives product listings from the iPhone's camera/a originally appeared on a
href="http://www.tuaw.com"The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)/a on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:00:00 EST.
Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a.br
style="clear:both;"/ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px;
border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a
href=http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=291920403amp;mt=8Read/anbsp;|nbsp;a
href="http://www.tuaw.com/2008/11/20/snaptell-explorer-retrives-product-listings-from-the-iphones-ca/"
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EA Phenomic believes its co-op card-battler BattleForge could be the game to finally establish
real-time strategy as an online gaming genre.
"RTS has never made that transition," producer Sebastian Nell told Eurogamer, highlighting the
tremendous success of online RPGs like World of Warcraft.
BattleForge, however, is more of a hybrid; a mixture of MMO, RTS and trading card game.
There are raids, for instance; co-operative player-versus-environment maps for 12 armies featuring
giant bosses guarding epic loot. In other words, upgrades for cards, to increase health, abilities
and "anything that makes them a lot better". And cards, remember, make up your army.
So cards are the core of BattleForge, and represent units, buildings and spells (frost, fire,
nature and shadow). There are no tech-trees or building queues. But instead, players pick 20 cards,
pop them down anywhere on the map, and fight.
Retail copies of BattleForge will come with four pre-defined sets of cards from each of the four
above powers. Owners will then be able to unlock 10 booster packs containing eight random cards
each, "and we guarantee there's at least one rare or ultra-rare card in there," promised Nell. All
that adds up to around 100-120 different cards from an initial collection of 200.
And then comes the tricky part: micro-transactions. That's how Nell and team plan to support and
grow BattleForge inthe future.
"There have been some misconceptions around that; 'Oh the player who spends the most money has the
most powerful cards and is going to win everything,' and, 'It's a rip-off,' and all that. No it's
not," said Nell.
"We would be stupid if we did something like that. The community has to give us some credit that we
are actually thinking about what we're doing."
The price of the booster packs is not defined, but, said Nell, "It's going to be less than a Magic:
The Gathering booster pack that costs EUR 4."
"The past has shown, and other games have shown, that this is actually enough to fund a life
service like BattleForge - and we see BattleForge as a life service," he added.
"It's not a fire-and-forget project, it's something that has a persistent value for the players to
come back. And we will release new maps for free every month, and release new card editions in a
not-yet-determined cycle. Those cards you will have to buy in booster packs."
Nell pointed out that players needn't "spend a single dollar" on extra cards, but can opt to use
the in-game trading and auction system to shuffle their decks; cards can be attached to mails and
then sent to and fro.
BattleForge is currently in open beta, with a release date expected sometime early next year. Over
2000 invites have been sent out so far, and servers have seen up to 1000 people playing
simultaneously online. Final numbers for the beta are not decided.
Nell joked that he was after "trillions" when the game finally launches simultaneously around the
world, but he's keen to incorporate as much community feedback before then to get everything
tip-top.
There's also, apparently, a chance this may appear on consoles, although this will "definitely not
be for a while". There is no DRM and three year-old PCs should run the game.
"If there's innovation on the PC, players will go back," concluded Nell, hoping you will feel the
same.
Head over to the official BattleForge website if you
fancy a go.
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
Category: Education
xorgtj40
