1up: Ten years ago, Westwood released its point-and-click adventure game adaptation of Blade Runner. Blade Runner was, if nothing else, a towering achievement in terms of evoking the original film’s memorable aesthetic. The game’s mo-cap sprites moved against dim, smoky noir backdrops; every exterior shot felt exhilaratingly accurate, while interior locations were ominous and claustrophobic.…
Video games didn’t start with Pac-Man (1980), Space Invaders (1978), or Pong (1972). Similar:On the spiral staircase that leads from the top deck down to the officers' pub and wa…AestheticsThe U.S. government and Facebook are negotiating a record, multibillion-dollar fine for th…Are you still relying on Facebook to fil…BusinessNo space for over-30s as relaunched…
Great 1972 Rolling Stone article about a foundational computer game. Reliably, at any nighttime moment (i.e. non-business hours) in North America hundreds of computer technicians are effectively out of their bodies, locked in life-or-Death space combat computer-projected onto cathode ray tube display screens, for hours at a time, ruining their eyes, numbing their fingers in…
The new clip improves on last night’s version, I’ve added blinking eyes, improved the nose glowing effect, and moved one of the legs a bit. Update: Here’s the file if you’d like to use it. Reindeer.blend Similar:Frazetta's "A Princess of Mars" painting sells for $1.2 million at auctionI’ve read about 11 of the Edger Rice…
I’ve been using Blender3D for about two years now. Here’s a little Christmas animation I whipped up. That’s supposed to be sparkly glowy things coming from his shiny nose, but it looks more like a puff of breath. I’m pleased with the head motions. I’ve got the eyes rigged up so they can blink and…
AP: A baby Jesus statue here is getting a Global Positioning System for Christmas. The statue, part of a nativity scene, will be equipped with the device after the previous statue went missing, even though it had been bolted down. “I don’t anticipate this will ever happen again,” said Dina Cellini, who oversees the display,…
Spokesman Review: “Our editors (Wednesday) night noticed the similarities in the two photos,” said Paul Emerson, Tribune managing editor. “We are not crime-stoppers here. It is just a weird coincidence. If it did solve a crime, I’m glad it happened. I have seen nothing like this in my 26 years as Tribune managing editor.” A…
The New Statesman: With only few days remaining in 2007, the indications are the global temperature for this year is the same as that for 2006 – there has been no warming over the 12 months. But is this just a blip in the ever upward trend you may ask? No. The fact is that…
In 2002, David Winer bet Martin Nisenholtz that In a Google search of five keywords or phrases representing the top five news stories of 2007, weblogs will rank higher than the New York Times’ Web site. According to Workbench: So Winer wins the bet 3-2, but his premise of blog triumphalism is challenged by the…
I just got this e-mail. Scratch is an amazing tool designed to teach programming to kids. My nine-year-old loves it. I’m planning to use Scratch in my “New Media Projects” class next fall. Because of your interest in Scratch, we thought you would like to know about the Scratch@MIT conference that we are hosting next…
NY Times Elizabeth has nearly eight years to go yet before she would overtake Victoria’s other noteworthy place in the monarchical record books, the length of her reign — 64 hugely eventful years, from the abolition of slavery to the Boer War. But the chances look pretty good: Elizabeth is thought to be fairly healthy,…
News Digest: After a 2006 shake-up at Yum, an executive named Hearl rose to the top position. But now Hearl is out, replaced by someone named Eaton. Yum executive Hearl will retire Eaton to be new development chief By Alex Davis alexdavis@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal Yum! Brands announced yesterday that the company’s chief operating and development…
The special coding Wikipedia has developed for its user-edited pages is powerful. Some shortcuts are simple and elegeant — you just put [[square brackets]] around words to make them into links, and clicking on the link will automatically either take you to an existing page, or let you create a new one. But as Wikipedia…
A student sent me an e-mail asking for advice on how to write a letter to the editor. I found plenty of web resources that are designed to help volunteers write letters designed to get a particular message out — that is, Citizens for the Defense of Rutebegas offer specialized tips for how to write…
This ABC News story following up on an early 1990s story ends on a deftly sensitive note. Since entering prison Smart has completed two master’s degrees, one in law and one in English literature. Those studies have kept her focused. And she said her favorite book is “The Scarlet Letter,” which is the tale of…
News I saw on theonering.net (via Slashdot) has LOTR fans unclenching their hairy, unshod toes and reaching for the tobacco jar: The two “Hobbit” films – “The Hobbit” and its sequel – are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, with pre-production beginning as soon as possible. Principal photography is tentatively set for a 2009 start, with…
I know what you’re thinking, but my story is that I’m gathering information for a research project on gender in science fiction. Yeah, that’s it. Similar:A pleasant Independence Day photo shoot with the daughter.AestheticsPlaywright #AugustWilson Takes Center Stage on U.S. Postal Service Commemorative Forever …https://twitter.com/USPS/status/13548292…CultureLego faces are getting angrier, study findsThe headline is hype. How…
Advice from GameCareerGuide.com resembles what I tell my English literature majors about why they are expected to study and benefit from literary works that they might not choose to read for their own pleasure. (The same goes for students in my Video Game Culture and Theory course.) Before you begin down this path there is…
Anna L. Mallory (Roanoke Times): The game, a takeoff on programs popular before the Internet and Nintendo, blends social-networking and choose-your-own adventure tools. It allows players to not only play games but also create and share their own adventures in user-submitted fictional lands. Mallory also includes some quotes from former Infocom Imp Steve Meretzky on…
In Wired, Jenna Wortham focuses on what blogs typically look like to journalists. Blogs are re-shaping not just news and entertainment, but also publishing, politics and public relations. Robert Scoble, Microsoft’s most famous blogger, is widely credited with putting a human face on the giant company and facilitating an exchange between customer and corporation. Matt…