Archives for September 2005
Vanishing Point
Published on 30 Sep 2005 at 5:59 pm.
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Filed under Movies.
I’ve been wanting to watch Vanishing Point ever since I saw it listed as an inspiration for Activision’s Interstate ‘76, waaay back in ‘97. I finally got around to watching it this week, and I’m still sorting out my feelings about it.
(I’m going to spoil the movie now, so if you don’t want to know […]
EVE Online Followup
Published on 28 Sep 2005 at 12:32 pm.
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Filed under Video Games.
Gamasutra has a good interview with Nathan Richardsson, senior producer of EVE Online. He discusses his “Power to the players” philosophy:
Nothing compares to a player that is enabled to affect the universe. We create tools for players to create content. For example, a massive alliance of corporations - our versions of guilds - with real, […]
I Like Short Songs!
Published on 28 Sep 2005 at 8:58 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Music.
This year I saw the next-to-last show on Guided By Voices‘ farewell tour (although Bob continues on).
This morning I decided to play myself a rock block of Guided by Voices. I selected all the GBV songs currently on my iPod, and iTunes replied with this statistic -
82 songs, 2.6 hours
- which breaks […]
Note to Self: Do Not Show Credit Card Number to Photographer
Published on 26 Sep 2005 at 8:48 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Random.
It’s great that the Red Cross is distributing these credit cards to hurricane vicitms. But when this woman’s picture, with the credit card number clearly legible, appeared on Yahoo! and other news sites, the balance on the card was wiped out almost instantly.
So don’t do that.
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Star Wreck Interview
Published on 24 Sep 2005 at 9:37 am.
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Filed under Movies.
I was so impressed by what the Star Wreck team had pulled off, I contacted the director, Timo Vuorensola to hear more.
Grumpy Robot: How many people are in the cast? In the crew? On the effects team?
Timo Vuorensola: The movie is made by mainly 5 guys, but the entire crew consists of about 300 individuals. […]
Finnish Sci-Fi at Its Finest
Published on 23 Sep 2005 at 1:27 pm.
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Filed under Movies.
For six years, a group of Finnish filmmakers have been working on an independent sci-fi parody film. In that time it has grown from a 15-minute “special-effects clip” to a full length film: Star Wrek: In the Pirkinning.
Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning begins with Captain James B. Pirk of the starship Kickstart shipwrecked on […]
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Homebuilt Robotic Sentry Gun
Published on 23 Sep 2005 at 8:53 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under Tech.
You’ve seen them in Aliens (well, the Director’s Cut anyhow), in Half-Life 2, and in Team Fortress - but this guy built his own robotic sentry gun at home.
Using an airsoft P90 replica, a webcam & PC, and some servos, he built a very impressive, functional turret:
Most of the testing involved me directing my […]
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How to Survive a Robot Uprising
Published on 22 Sep 2005 at 8:50 am.
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Filed under Books.
How to Survive a Robot Uprising is along the same lines as the popular Worst Case Scenario series. I like this one better though, because a) it is written by an actual roboticist, and b) there are interesting stories of actual robotics scattered throughout the survival advice.
This book gives you the know-how to defeat all […]
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Turing Test 2005
Published on 20 Sep 2005 at 1:12 pm.
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Filed under Tech.
A British AI chat program named George has won this year’s Loebner Prize.
In 1990 Hugh Loebner agreed with The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies to underwrite a contest designed to implement the Turing Test. Dr. Loebner pledged a Grand Prize of $100,000 and a Gold Medal (pictured above) for the first computer whose responses were […]
RagDoll Kung Fu
Published on 20 Sep 2005 at 8:59 am.
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Filed under Video Games.
Lionhead employee Mark Healey’s independently developed RagDoll Kung Fu has been picked up by Valve (who seem to have spelled his name wrong in the press release) and will be distributed via Steam.
Take a look at the trailer - it looks kooky and fun, and has what looks like a very unusual control system.