The Latest from Boing Boing |  |
- The EXAMINE'd Life: Keeping Interactive Fiction Alive
- A fast food morning with the Tesla Roadster Sport
- Folk covers of punk classics
- Gopher protocol reborn
- Tell the FCC to say no to Hollywood's insane "Selectable Output Control" kill-switch
- Bikini Leia and stunt double catch some rays
- Wintertime on Mars: lonely Phoenix Lander, blanketed in carbon dioxide frost
- Homophobia in Venezuela
- Fisk on USA's role in Karzai's re-election: Vietnam 2.0
- Ken Seagall on his old boss
- Three-armed baby costume
- Richard Metzger heads up LA Times' Brand X blog
- African tech Twitter List
- Most potential recruits for US military too fat, dumb, or drugged out
- Creepy alien springs forth from earth, in China
- Two guys who travel the US making free and awesome commercials for small businesses
- Videos of exploding capacitors
- Thieves who stole from child get a public shaming
- Mind control with sound and light
- Edmund Wilson's all-purpose "get lost" letter
- Scutigera Coleoptrata: In Your Bathroom, On Your T-Shirt
- Dodge Viper logo is an upside-down Daffy Duck.
- Car Finder app for iPhone
- UCLA: livers for sale!
- What Role Should GM Food Play in the Future of Agriculture?
- Test-driving the Electrobite, a trilobite-shaped DIY vehicle (BB Video)
- Crucixion and beheading for child rapist in Saudi Arabia
- New antitrust suit against Intel, this time from NY State AG Cuomo
- More on secret copyright treaty: your kids could go to jail for noncommercial music sharing
- Seventh Son: Descent Part IV
| The EXAMINE'd Life: Keeping Interactive Fiction Alive Posted: 05 Nov 2009 04:43 AM PST  As with my earlier column on the new vanguard and returning classic franchises that are keeping point and click adventures alive a decade or more past their prime, there's one other genre that all but the hardest-of-the-core and its tight-knit community itself seem to have forgotten: the text adventure. It's a genre that -- if you grew up gaming -- probably makes up some of your earliest memories: my own definitely revolve around waiting impatiently for the TI99/4A's cassette deck to finish screeching its way through loading Scott Adams' Adventure series (now playable online here) and pondering the etymology of "pieces of eight", continuing through my teens to the unmistakably British worlds of Graham Cluely's Jacaranda Jim and Humbug (the games that first taught me the word 'whinge'). And it's a genre that certainly is flourishing deep in the underground at places like The IFDB, the IFWiki, the yearly IFComp(etition), and the tireless work of people like Emily Short, but it took an Indiecade finalist and an iPhone app to hook me back in, with a short-list of the top games to try included below the fold.Everybody Dies [Jim Munroe] It was the inclusion of Jim Munroe's Everybody Dies (pictured at top) as a 2009 Indiecade finalist that provided that first hook: a tale of life, death, suburban ennui and toilet-cleaning that inter-weaves the various employees of a remote Cost Cutters department store. Like most IF, it's a story and set of characters that you would be hard-pressed to find outside the text-only genre, and a setup that would be impossible to get through as neatly in almost any other way. Visit Munroe's post to play the game via Java (a necessary conceit to get the full impact of Michael Cho's interspersed artwork). Playing Munroe's game, though, reminded me that there was a huge body of work at my fingertips that I'd long been neglecting, with the early App Store release of Frotz, an iPhone interpreter that lets you browse, download, and play a staggering number of IF games on the go. It was with the reinstallation of Frotz that I went back to complete the one game that I'd heard repeatedly referred to as the new modern IF classic:
Now already more than a decade old, it doesn't take long to realize why the game's still only talked about in hushed, reverant tones: its own inter-woven tale is told so delicately and subtly, its emotional hooks and jabs hit you so softly you aren't even quite sure until minutes later that you've even been punched. Photopia's also unique in the way it utilizes color -- that is, simply the background color over which the text is overlaid -- as signifiers and symbols tied to the story itself. It's dream-like, sobering, and a struggle to recommend without giving away any information that would spoil the story. Play it via Frotz, or play in your browser through the free App Engine interpreter Parchment by clicking this link.
And finally, the last game I've made my way through in recent weeks took top prize in the IFComp's 2008 competition, Jeremy Freese's Violet. Like both games above, it's a premise that seems virtually untranslatable to any other genre of games, but one universally recognizable: your goal is simply to write 1000 words of your grad school dissertation, hounded constantly by another thousand tiny distractions. What sets it apart, though, is how it plays with the narration of text adventures themselves, as it describes your surroundings and actions via the lovingly chiding and pet-name-calling mental-voice of the main character's (current? ex?) girlfriend, an omni-presence but a player never actually in the room. Again, it's an essential play and perfect ambassador to the new guard of interactive fiction, playable again via Frotz or via Parchment by clicking this link. Obviously by no means exhaustive, this article should whet your appetite for the hundreds more games available: please leave suggestions for least of all me as we dig down further via the comments below! |
| A fast food morning with the Tesla Roadster Sport Posted: 05 Nov 2009 04:27 AM PST  Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of taking the 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport out on the town in Menlo Park, California. It's the latest from the eco-friendly, Silicon Valley-based super-fast all-electric-car company started by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk. I can't really afford one in my everyday life (this orange beauty retails at $150K), so I decided to test its street cred by taking it out to some classy American locales. There was drive-thru Jack in the Crack a few blocks from the Tesla showroom, so I decided to stop there for a cup of coffee.
It was lunchtime, and there were a half a dozen cars merging into the drive-thru lane from two entrances to get their fix of Ultimate Cheeseburgers and Jumbo Jacks. A Jeep Cherokee let me cut in even though he was clearly there first. (That would have never happened in my RSX.) The Roadster Sport looks slick, but it is strangely devoid of typical sports car characteristics in the way it sounds and feels. Like its predecessors, the Roadster Sport doesn't have gears &mdash it has single speed transmission. Instead of a gear shift knob, there are buttons labeled P, R, N, and D. This means there's no rumbling or jerkiness when you accelerate; it just shoots up smoothly and silently like one of those crazy free fall rides at the amusement park. But still, this is one fast machine! It does 0-60 in 3.7 seconds--that's faster than a Porsche Carrera GT. As I rolled up to the giant menu billboard, some guy in a beat up Toyota revved his engine and winked at me repeatedly. I smiled politely and ordered a coffee with extra sugar and a few packets of ketchup.
The Roadster Sport has one cup holder which folds out from the center console to the passenger side. I like that it provides utility without impeding on the clean design, but that also meant that the coffee resided under my passenger's legs, which made it hard to reach for. In a way, this car is more like a drivable computer than an ordinary car. It runs on Li-Ion batteries, charges its internal battery at any electrical socket, and needs the occasional firmware upgrade. You never have to go to a gas station or get an oil change. Looking at the company's DNA, it's not hard to figure out why — only a third of the Tesla Motors' 500 employees were hired out of the auto industry. The rest are mostly Silicon Valley types, including industrial designers from Apple and engineers from Google and YouTube. The company claims that the car averages about 244 miles per charge, driven at a normal speed. Each full charge costs about $4.90 worth of electricity at an ordinary 120V outlet in California. That means that it is very economical and ecological if you're rich enough to afford one. It's not ideal for road trips longer than 244 miles, though — what are you supposed to do if you run out of juice in the middle of a highway?
The great thing about Menlo Park is that, despite its vicinity to some of the greatest tech companies in the world, it is not devoid of good old suburban charm. To my delight, there was a Target just minutes away from the Tesla showroom — the ultimate place-to-go-to-buy-things-I-never-knew-I-needed. Some of the luxurious accessories on my Tesla were things I never knew I needed, too — a USB port, an iPod dock, two screens, inflatable lumbar support, and a carbon fiber exterior from France.
...but not before giving it a friendly Hello Kitty makeover. |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2009 10:37 PM PST  Boyhowdy sez, "The folk covers of Straight to Hell I compiled last year were so well-received by your readers, I thought you might also be interested in this week's entry, which compiles folk and acoustic covers of more songs from Punk's first and second waves. From banjo-tinged Stooges covers to countrified Blondie, singer-songwriter Bad Brains covers to smooth and ghostly Clash transformations, there's likely something here for everyone. Especially fun for uke-fans: a cover of Ramones classic I Wanna Be Sedated from Allo, Darlin'." Don't miss the bluegrass "Lust for Life" and the king-hell sweet Japanese acoustic "Lost in the Supermarket." Previously:
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| Posted: 04 Nov 2009 10:32 PM PST Ars Technica covers the renaissance of Gopher, the text-based menuing system the presaged the Web. My first net-industry job was building a gopher site (halfway through, we scrapped it in favor of a website). Good times. Cameron Kaiser is a programmer on the Overbite Project, which brings better Gopher support to Firefox versions 2 and 3. When he writes about the relevance of Gopher in a Web world, he rejects the nostalgia for a "simpler time."The Web may have won, but Gopher tunnels on |
| Tell the FCC to say no to Hollywood's insane "Selectable Output Control" kill-switch Posted: 04 Nov 2009 10:29 PM PST Alex sez, The battle over your home entertainment equipment is heating up again and the time to make your voice heard is now. Hollywood wants the FCC to grant the studios permission to engage in so-called ""Selectable Output Control." SOC is a tech mandate that would allow movie studios to shut off video outputs on the back of your cable box and DVR during the screening of certain movies over cable. Yes, you read that right. The studios want the right to randomly switch off parts of your home theater depending on which program you're watching. And the FCC is taking this batshit proposal seriously. So do something. Tell the FCC to Say "No" to the Cable Kill Switch (Thanks, Alex!) Previously:
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| Bikini Leia and stunt double catch some rays Posted: 04 Nov 2009 11:01 PM PST  Here's an on-set shot of Carrie Fisher in her iconic "bikini Leia" mode, along with her stunt double, catching some rays during the filming of Return of the Jedi. Bikini Leia and her stunt double nap in the Tatooine sunshine (via JWZ) |
| Wintertime on Mars: lonely Phoenix Lander, blanketed in carbon dioxide frost Posted: 04 Nov 2009 07:08 PM PST  New images of the Mars Lander, covered by wintertime carbon dioxide frost on Mars. When it's September on Earth, it's the heaviest time of frosts there, the JPL scientists believe. Something about this snip from the NASA press release makes me feel sad for the little fellow, out there in the cold all by his lonesome -- he's had no one to talk to for an entire year: The Phoenix Mars Lander ceased communications last November, after successfully completing its mission and returning unprecedented primary science phase and returning science data to Earth. During the first quarter of 2010, teams at JPL will listen to see if Phoenix is still able to communicate with Earth. Communication is not expected and is considered highly unlikely following the extended period of frost on the lander.More images, and more about the images, here. Also, here's a higher resolution of the image above, compared to a shot taken during the previous earth-month. Hey li'l Lander? If you can hear me, I dedicate this song to you tonight. |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2009 06:19 PM PST Police in Venezuela are rounding up gay/lesbian/bi/trans folk into vans and hauling them to jail by the dozens, according to reports. "Our IDs and mobile phones were taken away, we were beaten, [and] our sexual orientation was insulted." (Thanks, Antinous) |
| Fisk on USA's role in Karzai's re-election: Vietnam 2.0 Posted: 04 Nov 2009 05:52 PM PST Robert Fisk writes: "As in Vietnam - where Saigon was a lonely kingdom of brutal power totally isolated from the rest of the country - Karzai is going to rule over an equally tiny island of corruption, protected by US mercenaries while the Americans perform their familiar role of propping up a dictator." [Independent, via Ned Sublette] |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2009 04:25 PM PST |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2009 04:17 PM PST  My friends Christy Canida and Eric Wilhelm of Instructables dressed up their lovely daughter Corvidae as a three-armed happy mutant (!) baby! Naturally, they posted an Instructable about it: This year we were a Nuclear Family for Halloween, with our 4-month-old daughter Corvidae dressed up as a 3-armed happy mutant.Happy Mutant 3-Armed Baby Costume |
| Richard Metzger heads up LA Times' Brand X blog Posted: 04 Nov 2009 03:05 PM PST  Our dear friend and guest blogger alum Richard Metzger (show here with his wife Tara in a photo that Coop took) is now in charge of the This Is Brand X blog. Brand X is the Los Angeles Times' entrant into the "alt weekly" market, edited by Deborah Vankin. There are over 100,000 copies in distribution boxes around town. Richard is the most knowledgeable and most interesting cultural critic I know. The LA Times scored a major coup when they signed him on. From the press release: Richard comes to Brand X with a decorated background, most notably as one of the New York Post's "top 20 most important new media executives" and having also been named one of the "top 100 people on the Internet" (twice!) by Silicon Alley Reporter. He's a Webby-award winner and was recently given the "New Business Award" by the Tribeca Film Festival for co-founding The Disinformation Company Ltd., a New York-based book publisher and DVD distributor, where he served as the company's creative director for 11 years. |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2009 03:04 PM PST @Whiteafrican compiled this neat Twitter List of Africa tech folks: mostly people from Africa or working in Africa, doing interesting things with technology on that continent. |
| Most potential recruits for US military too fat, dumb, or drugged out Posted: 04 Nov 2009 02:55 PM PST About 75% of Americans eligible as military recruits couldn't serve if they wanted to: they're too obese, intellectually challenged, diseased, or they're stoners. [Wired Danger Room] |
| Creepy alien springs forth from earth, in China Posted: 04 Nov 2009 02:48 PM PST Dear god, the overlords have arrived. I found that terrifying (but work-safe) photo through Graham Linehan on Twitter, who muses: "Imagine the fuss if this was in the shape of Jesus instead of a wonky bug-eyed tenting alien." |
| Two guys who travel the US making free and awesome commercials for small businesses Posted: 04 Nov 2009 02:32 PM PST I love this commercial for a mobile home liquidator produced by I Love Local Commercials, a couple of guys who travel around the country making free commercials for independent businesses. |
| Videos of exploding capacitors Posted: 04 Nov 2009 02:26 PM PST Video of exploding capacitors shot at 300 frames per second. The real fun starts at around 2:30. |
| Thieves who stole from child get a public shaming Posted: 04 Nov 2009 02:18 PM PST  Evelyn Border (above) and Tina Griekspoor of Bedford County, PA got some old-timey style public shaming for stealing gift cards that a child misplaced in a store. "I'm just standing out here being humiliated in front of people," Griekspoor said.Thieves must proclaim their deed |
| Mind control with sound and light Posted: 05 Nov 2009 03:04 AM PST  From a slew of new brainwave toys and bionic monkeys to advanced brain scans and wireless neuro-implants that will soon enable paralyzed people to remotely operate computers with their minds, the gap in the human-machine interface is closing. But while mind-reading gets all the glory, other researchers are developing new amazing non-drug methods to control the brain as well. We've posted many times about zapping regions of the brain with magnetic pulses, called transcranial magnetic stimulation, to treat depression, boost creativity, or even improve reaction time. And brain "pacemakers" are increasingly common treatments for epilepsy, Parkinson's, and even depression. What's next? Mind control through sound and light.
 Arizona State University researchers are using ultrasound pulses to stimulate activity deep inside the brain from the outside. The sound waves cause brain cells to spew certain chemical neurotransmitters, ultimately resulting in physical movements or other effects. The technique may also be used to lower the brain's metabolic rate after an injury to reduce secondary damage. "We're trying to develop the technology to the point where we can do away with the electrodes that are used in vagus nerve stimulation and deep brain stimulation," ASU professor William J. Tyler told IEEE Spectrum:
The low frequencies used can travel some distance through the air. So could you be zapped with a mood-altering blast from across a room? Probably not, Tyler says. In theory, the ultrasound technique could work from up to about a meter away, he says. "The farthest we've tried so far has been roughly 50 millimeters." Meanwhile, other researchers are exploring how light, rather than sound, can be used to reprogram the brain. The field is called optogenetics and lies at the intersection of optics and biotechnology, specifically genetic engineering. By introducing genes that encode for channels and enzymes that are light-sensitive, scientists can "probe" the brain with light to learn about neuronal function. A fiber optic cable is literally plugged into the skull to excite the appropriate brain bits, essentially introducing an on/off switch in the head. (See the image at top from Stanford University's Optogenetics Resource Center, led by optogenetics pioneer Karl Deisseroth.)
One of Deisseroth's colleagues designed a paddle about one-third the length of a popsicle stick. It has four LEDs: two blue ones to make neurons fire and two yellow ones to stop them. Attached to the paddle is a little box that provides power and instructions. The paddle is implanted on the surface of the brain, on top of the motor control area. The lights are bright enough to illuminate a fairly large volume of tissue, so the placement doesn't have to be exact. The light-sensitizing genes are injected into the affected tissue beforehand. It's a far easier surgery than deep brain electrical stimulation, and, if it works, a far more precise treatment. Researchers at Stanford are currently testing the device on primates. If all goes well, they will seek FDA approval for experiments in humans. |
| Edmund Wilson's all-purpose "get lost" letter Posted: 04 Nov 2009 02:48 PM PST |
| Scutigera Coleoptrata: In Your Bathroom, On Your T-Shirt Posted: 04 Nov 2009 11:23 AM PST  Joy! You can now buy a T-shirt featuring the likeness of everybody's favorite horrific-looking, behind-the-toilet-dwelling, cockroach-eating centipede. Will Bower from the Facebook group House Centipedes Are Your Friends sent a link to these great shirts, available on Etsy (where else?). The centipedes look hardcore, and (as you can tell by looking at the models) simply putting a Scutigera Coleoptrata on your chest is sure to make you appear 10x as hip as normal. Scutigera Coleoptrata T-shirt |
| Dodge Viper logo is an upside-down Daffy Duck. Posted: 04 Nov 2009 10:43 AM PST |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2009 10:37 AM PST  Leander Kahney of Cult of Mac spotted this $0.99 app for the iPhone 3GS. It's called Car Finder and it helps you find your parked car. The app uses the iPhone's camera to overlay the direction of your car and how far away it is. The app relies on the camera and a digital compass, and is compatible only with the iPhone 3GS running 3.1 or later. Car Finder iPhone App Uses Augmented Reality To Find Your Wheels |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2009 10:49 AM PST According to 60 Minutes, the UCLA Medical Center moved a notorious Japanese mobster to the head of the liver transplant line after he donated $1 million to the program. |
| What Role Should GM Food Play in the Future of Agriculture? Posted: 04 Nov 2009 09:52 AM PST The number of people affected by food shortages is starting to rise again. Is the solution a new biotech version of the Green Revolution, or a green Green Revolution based on organic farming? The New York Times brought together six experts to address those questions. Most fall squarely on one side of the fence or the other, but I'm interested in the more balanced opinion of Jonathan Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. I've done a lot of research on agriculture issues recently, both for National Geographic News and Discover magazine, and Foley's "third way" seems to make the most sense to me, in context with what I've been hearing from global agriculture experts.
Can Biotech Food Cure World Hunger, in the New York Times, via the Science and Development Network. |
| Test-driving the Electrobite, a trilobite-shaped DIY vehicle (BB Video) Posted: 04 Nov 2009 09:18 AM PST Watch: MP4 download, YouTube, Dotsub (with captions/text translations). This trilobite-shaped DIY vehicle was created by "Oilpunk" enthusiasts Kyrsten Mate + Jon Sarriugarte, with help from fellow makers Amy Jenkins and Tansy Brooks. Pesco previously blogged about the little bugger here -- it's even been to Burning Man, where it no doubt terrified some trippin' hippies.
Previously:
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| Crucixion and beheading for child rapist in Saudi Arabia Posted: 04 Nov 2009 08:19 AM PST A court in Saudi Arabia will uphold a ruling to behead and publicly crucify a 22-year-old man who raped five children and left one of them to die in the desert. |
| New antitrust suit against Intel, this time from NY State AG Cuomo Posted: 04 Nov 2009 08:23 AM PST NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo files antitrust suit against chip maker Intel. Intel is charged with violating state and federal law by abusing its leading position in the chip market to keep rival AMD at bay. |
| More on secret copyright treaty: your kids could go to jail for noncommercial music sharing Posted: 04 Nov 2009 07:50 AM PST Michael Geist sez, "According to the official agenda, in a few hours the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement talks will continue on the Internet provisions and then move into the criminal provisions chapter. It is worth highlighting the ongoing criminal provisions as well. As previously leaked, the U.S. and Japan supplied the initial text for this chapter. Their proposal included extending criminal enforcement to both (1) cases of a commercial nature; and (2) cases involving significant willful copyright and trademark infringement even where there is no direct or indirect motivation of financial gain. In other words, non-commercial infringement could lead to criminal penalties. Plus, jail time for unauthorized camcording of films and even for fake DVD and CD packaging." ACTA Negotiations, Day Two: What's On Tap (Thanks, Michael!) Previously:
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| Posted: 04 Nov 2009 07:43 AM PST  Welcome to the fourth serialized installment of J.C. Hutchins' SF thriller 7th Son: Descent (part 1, 2, 3), a novel set in present day featuring human cloning, dangerous technologies, and "beyond Top Secret" government conspiracies . THE STORY SO FAR: Yesterday, seven men were kidnapped and brought to a secret government science facility. There, they discovered that they were unwitting human clones, with identical flesh and childhood memories. Their creators assembled them to stop the man behind the recent assassination of the U.S. president: a psychopath code-named John Alpha ... the very man they were cloned from years ago. John, Kilroy2.0, Father Thomas and the other "Beta Clones" were told that Alpha's plans for chaos were just beginning, and he had terrifying technologies at his disposal that permit him to record and implant human memories into anyone. Further, he abducted Dania Sheridan, the woman the clones remember as their mother ... and left a clue for them to find him. |
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