The most valuable supply of worthlessness on the web
I’ve mentioned a few times before how much I like Cory Doctorow’s stuff. Here’s Cory podcasting his short story “Return to Pleasure Island” for download under a Creative Commons license.
This is the story of the ogres who run the concession stands on Pleasure Island, where Pinnocchio’s friend Lampwick turned into a donkey. Like much of my stuff, this has a tie-in with Walt Disney World; the idea came to me on the Pinnocchio ride in the Magic Kingdom, in 1993.
[tags]Cory Doctorow, podcast[tags]
Here’s a half hour video in which Will Wright talks about his current gaming project – Spore. This looks to be one of the most fascinating games ever, as much as that sounds like hyperbole. After just watching a few minutes, I find myself extremely curious about this game. I haven’t kept up with anything about the game prior to watching this, but I’ll have to go back and find what else is known about it, now. About 8 minutes in, you get to see the subject of the demo facing a bigger, and presumably tougher, opponent. Wisely, Will Wright moves away rather than challenge this new opponent. (via Dubious Quality)
[tags]Will Wright, Spore, gaming[/tags]
So many interesting projects that I can’t write up an article for all of them. Check these out for some pretty neat projects.
Nixie Tube collectors and designers – A Yahoo group dedicated to Nixie talk
The digital hourglass – I want to build one of these some day. More information here.Now that’s a lot of reading for you to catch up on. And me, too. I’m so far behind on my techie/geek reading.
[tags]MAKEzine, MAKEblog, MAKE, link dump[/tags]
Building your own lightbulb this way is not economically feasible (the author estimates $50 to do one bulb), but it’s just so dang cool. I may seriously have to try this out myself and then do it with my kids. I think they have enough of my geek genes to appreciate the cool geekiness of this project. And I’ve learned about how lightbulbs work just reading about how to build one.
It’s a whole lot easier to just displace the air with an inert gas that’s at the same pressure as the surrounding air, which is how most modern bulbs work. Common household lightbulbs use a mixture of argon and nitrogen. Fancy krypton flashlights and xenon headlamps use those eponymous heavier noble gases to allow the filament to burn longer and hotter.
So you don’t even need a good vacuum pump – just a reliable way to get inert gas into the bulb. The article even covers that (he used helium).
[tags]Light, DIY[/tags]
This is so unrelated to anything of interest to most people, I’m not sure I should even post it. But hey, this is my bandwidth, and I get to put what I want. So, up goes the story of the black hole flight simulator (New York times web site – registration required).
The “Black Hole Flight Simulator” was created by Andrew Hamilton, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado, for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The 23-minute show contains segments that required 90 hours of supercomputer calculation for each on-screen second. You can see the trailer here (and look out for the guy in the canoe).
Wow! A 23 minute show that required 90 hours of computation for each second displayed? Let’s see, that’s 23 minutes times 60 second per minute times 90 hours per second showed. Work that out, and you get something like, ummmm, a whole buncha-lotta-wowza time required to build that (actually, I think it comes to about 16.5 years of computing time required to build the video).
I’m going to have to watch that video when I get some time to sit and watch it all. Sounds fascinating. Now, when will they make a game out of this?
[tags]Black hole, Flight simulator, event horizon[/tags]
I honestly have no idea if this is any good, but it certainly sound interesting. A MMOG development platform with no upfront costs.
THE COMPLETE MMOG PLATFORM
Our platform is in beta! Early developers sign up here!
Independent game developers, the revolution is here! For the first time, you will be able to:
- Make a complete Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) or virtual world for less money and in less time than you could have dreamed possible.
- Participate in the game industry’s most exciting frontier.
- Build the features that make your game unique, leveraging the expertise of the networking and infrastructure experts who helped build the web.
- Deliver your vision to a built-in market of players–without having to ask a publisher’s permission or give up your intellectual property.
- Get filthy rich! *
*Or just comfortably well-off. Your mileage may vary.
There are no upfront costs. We only make money when you make money, and if you never charge a cent, you never have to pay us anything. What are you waiting for? Start building your MMOG now!
I probably lack the skill to do anything with this, but I am at least going to learn more about it and see if I can learn enough to do something with it.
[tags]MMOG, gaming, game development, multi-player games[/tags]
Today’s Cool Tool is the Yaxtrax Walker. A handy way to get better traction in that slick stuff we call ice and snow. These would have been handy to have around here a couple of weeks back when the ice/snow passed through Memphis. I didn’t take any falls, but still would have appreciated the additional sure-footedness these could have given.
[tags]Cool Tool, yaxtrax[/tags]
While looking around at new plug-ins to use on the site, I stumbled across this site to write words using Flickr images. Totally useless, but that’s kinda what makes it so, um, cool.
[tags]Flickr, Spelling with pictures[/tags]
Here’s an interesting set of myths and truths in science. I’ll just start with the first one I saw:
It takes seven years to digest gum
While it may prove a bit more difficult to break down than organic foodstuffs, chewing gum gets no special treatment from the digestive system. Doctors figure this old wives’ tale was invented to prevent kids from swallowing the rubbery substance.
and another interesting one for anyone with kids:
The five second rule
Having an arbitrary rule justifying the consumption of food dropped on the floor within a certain time frame is convenient, especially when said food is a brownie. Unfortunately, tests (and logic) confirm that germs will stick to most foods right on contact.
[tags]Science, myths[/tags]
I know you are tired of hearing this, but man, I need to get one of these. I don’t think my wife would approve, though. (via Engadget)
No doubt about it, the original Digi-Comp I is a rare itemâ€â€Ã¢â‚¬â€in more ways than one. For example, there’s the Yahoo group FriendsOfDigiComp… How many other educational toys can boast their own Internet fan club? Remarkable, considering Digi-Comp is over 40 years old and has been off the market for at least 30… Which explains why the originals (if you can find any) are so scarce, commanding $100 or more on eBay.
But perhaps the rarest thing about Digi-Comp is the combination of hands-on and minds-on fun it affords. It definitely still has things to teach*, like Boolean logic and problem-solving… and it’s rewarding to build and use. That’s why Minds-On Toys decided to reintroduce it in an affordable kit format, with a thorough and professional revamp of the original documentation.
[tags]Digicomp, 3-bit computer, Kit computer[/tags]
Here are half a dozen LEGO sets that look a lot like familiar games of old.
[tags]Classic videogames, LEGO, retro-gaming[/tags]
Over at Worthplaying, there is news of the just announced Dungeon Runners game from NCSoft. Very few details are available right now (such as when it will be avialable), but check out the nice screenshots.
[tags]NCSoft, Dungeon Runners, Taipei game show[/tags]