—IF Comic (David Garcia’s Blog) So far there are three installments of a new interactive fiction comic. I’ll be watching this site. Similar:2001: Stanley Kubrick’s Exasperating MasterpiecePosting this mostly to prove that I can …AestheticsThe Toulmin model for analyzing arguments came up at a faculty pedagogy workshop today. I … AcademiaSinéad O'Connor's open letter to Miley…
I am an animator and concept artist by trade. However, I don’t think my art is really so great that it deserves a “how to”. My devotion to my live steam hobby however, lends my steampunk designs a level of authenticity that often lacks in steampunk art. Therefore, this is just a quick explanation of…
“Looking at this brochure, it’s obvious Paul just wanted to use the ‘wave’ frame effect from that new PhotoFrame 2.0 software package we got last week,” fellow Blue Moon graphic designer Jared Mahaffey said. “There’s whacked-out, psychedelic edges all over the place–on the photos, on the floor-plan charts, even on the text boxes, for God’s…
BioShock will be Ken Levine’s magnum opus. It will be his career defining game. It’s ambitious, unusual and aggressive, mixing the high polish expected of a “next generation” shooter, with equal parts storytelling, politics, and philosophy, all wrapped up in a bloody, underwater, 1940’s bow. […] The most prominent character in BioShock — Andrew Ryan,…
With all the gratuitous use of Shakespeare language and imagery in the series (including its four spin-offs, a successful franchise of feature films and a short-lived animated series), is there an underlying reason to the use of the Bard’s works? Does the combination of classic literature and pop-culture sci-fi result in something greater than the…
Mr. Singhal is the master of what Google calls its “ranking algorithm” — the formulas that decide which Web pages best answer each user’s question. It is a crucial part of Google’s inner sanctum, a department called “search quality” that the company treats like a state secret. Google rarely allows outsiders to visit the unit,…
Bradbury has decided to make news about the writing of his iconographic work and what he really meant. Fahrenheit 451 is not, he says firmly, a story about government censorship. Nor was it a response to Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose investigations had already instilled fear and stifled the creativity of thousands. This, despite the fact…
Cutler has spent much of her time fending off a lawsuit by ex- boyfriend and fellow DeWine staffer Robert Steinbuch, who claims Cutler’s blog publicly humiliated him. He is seeking more than $20 million in damages. […] The lawsuit is being closely watched by online privacy groups and bloggers because the case could help establish…
At the end of their most recent paper reporting these findings, the researchers reflect that it is “ironic, sublime and truly humbling” that this 4,500-year-old limestone is so true to the original that it has misled generations of Egyptologists and geologists and, “because the ancient Egyptians were the original-albeit unknowing-nanotechnologists.” As if the scientific evidence…
This is a great find. I’m a student (with a full time job), who uses the web a lot in my research. I’ve found that there are many insightful comments out there, but failed to use them due to 1) fear of not properly citing them 2) fear that they will be rejected as credible…
CNN is widely credited with initiating the acceleration of the modern news cycle with the fall 2006 debut of its spin-off channel CNN:24, which provides a breaking news story, an update on that story, and a news recap all within 24 seconds. In addition to creating its groundbreaking format, CNN:24 broke many important stories with…
So I pour myself a glass of red wine, settle in with a fresh pair of flannel pajamas and start channeling my inner geek with glee. Primetime or not, I love the Bee. I love it. I love the celebration of intelligence, the championing of nerd-ship, of the brotherhood of brainiac. This is why the…
You may or may not be familiar with V-Tech Rampage, a flash game created by Ryan Lambourn. True to its title, the game allows the player to take on the role of Cho Seung-Hui and re-enact the fateful school shooting of April 16th. The game drew hatred from the mainstream media and gamers alike; many…
For the functions that people use most often, the 1986 vintage Mac Plus beats the 2007 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+: 9 tests to 8! Out of the 17 tests, the antique Mac won 53% of the time! Including a jaw-dropping 52 second whipping of the AMD from the time the Power button is pushed…
In his blog, Flea had ridiculed the plaintiff’s case and the plaintiff’s lawyer. He had revealed the defense strategy. He had accused members of the jury of dozing. With the jury looking on in puzzlement, Lindeman admitted that he was, in fact, Flea. The next morning, on May 15, he agreed to pay what members…
Venus Redemption is a unique episodic casual game created for 30+ female gamers, with a rich plot written by a noted novelist. Unlike other casual games, it features powerful storylines, deep characters, emotion-based interactive conversations and exciting adventure gameplay. However, like traditional casual games, it’s extremely easy to play, requiring only the ability to move…
Playing a game may teach the player that he can optimize the game only in certain ways (or that the game is impossible to win, like Global Thermonuclear War); but it’s open to question whether the optimal game strategy corresponds to an optimal real-life strategy. As we see more of this kind of thing (and…
Don Woods is acknowledged to have the Right Stuff. With long, stringy black hair and a bearish grin, he looks somewhat older than his twenty-nine years. He works at Xerox and wears a dark GAMES T-shirt that contrasts with his almost chalk-colored skin. Pinned next to the Xerox employee badge on his shirt is a…
The film’s extreme stylization — dark backgrounds, glowing neon colors, polygonal landscapes, geometric vehicles, and an absence of external lighting — was an aesthetic decision that embraced the limitations of computer-generated imagery. “The actual process of making something out of polygons, then shading it, became a design influence,” explains Taylor. “Not only was the film…
Thousands of PhDs are now working in various Google labs, and many of these people were hired from other successful businesses. Google has also acquired a number of smaller companies, many of them for either their technology or their technical talent, and these companies bring yet more entrepreneurial DNA into the mix. The company has…