As I’m sure you all know, when things float in space, they keep on moving until something stops them. So after traveling many eons through various galaxies, the Star Wars opening script is finally getting stopped by the first object crossing its path: Earth.
My friends and I were bored one day during Christmas Break and decided to make a quick movie. We shot this in 30 minutes and only used 8 minutes of tape. I then proceeded to spend 3 and a half weeks putting in the visuals for the film. Special thanks to the Action Essentials 2 kit from Videocopilot.net, and Jason Lee for his Enterprise model.
Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Afsaneh Rabiei recently invented a new material that is actually stronger than stainless steel but lighter than aluminum. Rabiei’s metal foam is primarily made out of hollow steel spheres surrounded by aluminum. According to the following news report, it can absorb seven to eight times the energy absorbed by other similar foams. Check it out:
Nintendo Power magazine, which launched in 1988, has just published its 250th issue. A kind geek posted some teaser scans of the issue, which features “250 Reasons to Love Nintendo.” Among these, there are classic quotes, favorite heroes, favorite villains, things we love to hate, etc.
I agree with a lot of these lists, and have come away with a fuzzy nostalgic feeling. I almost feel like making the crotchety declaration that kids today are missing out because they aren’t experiencing unidentifiable pixelated creatures saying things like “A WINNER IS YOU” and “THIS STORY IS HAPPY END” and of course “I AM ERROR.”
Kudos for including Phoenix Wright on the list of heroes, because lawyers don’t get nearly enough video game cred. And of course there’s a (well-deserved) pattern in heroes, villains, and damsels-in-distress, with these pairs in the #1/#2 spots in each: Mario/Link, Ganon/Bowser, Peach/Zelda. Even if the video game world isn’t all about Nintendo like it was when I was a kid, I bet there are still a lot of people who have bought Nintendo consoles just to play Mario and/or Zelda.
And my biggest wholehearted agreement with these lists: The wallmonsters in Zelda were evil, evil things. Oh, the frustration of having to play through most of a dungeon again!
Bubble Tanks 2 is a fun shooter-like game where you must travel through giant bubbles, destroying enemy tanks and taking their bubbles to fuel your growth. As you grow, you constantly evolve and get ever better weapons. Ultimately, you’ll have to face the ultimate adversary and defeat it to win the game.
It was International Data Privacy Day yesterday. That’s doesn’t appear to have led to any restaurant or bar discounts or formed the basis of an awesome themed party, but it did produce a series of events and speeches to promote the issue.
The day is promoted by The Privacy Projects, an organization which researches and debates the issue of online privacy. Last year the date was officially recognized by both the US House of Representatives and the Senate. It also has some degree of recognition in Canada and 27 European Countries.
Microsoft marked the day by releasing a report into the way your online reputation affects your employment prospects. It showed a major disparity in the US: 7% of the public believe online data could affect their job search, while 70% of recruitment professionals say they have rejected candidates based on information they’ve found online.
The study also showed that just 16% of German recruiters and 14% of French recruiters had rejected candidates on this basis, though if it’s not clear if this is a cultural difference.
Back in the US, the study showed that 75% of companies now have a formal requirement for human resources staff to check online when considering a candidate, with another 4% doing so on their own initiative. The most common reasons for rejecting a candidate from the resulting data are concerns about a candidate’s lifestyle, inappropriate comments written by the candidate and unsuitable photographs or videos.
For its part, Facebook marked the day by publishing comments from seven data experts and politicians about their views on privacy. The most striking comment came from Ontario’s information commissioner Ann Cavoukian who said “Our right to control the collection, use and disclosure of information about ourselves is the right upon which our other freedoms rest.”
In the world of politics, the European Commission’s information chief Viviane Reding gave a speech noting “we cannot expect citizens to trust Europe if we are not serious in defending the right to privacy.” She detailed some of the Commission’s work on the issue, including persuading social network sites to set all profiles for users aged under 18 to be private and excluded from search engines, taking legal action over Phorm (a company which takes internet use data direct from an ISP to deliver ultra-targeted advertising to users), and investigating how the use of RFID chips could impact upon privacy.
DMs are the unsung heroes of tabletop RPGs. They get a bad reputation (sometimes deservingly) for being a little power hungry, often times controlling, and frequently heartless when it comes to playing games. But the truth is that every DM has their own style of DMing and their own approach to the game. Some like the whole edge-of-your-seat-omg-you’re-all-gonna-die approach; others want the game to be fun first and foremost.
However, regardless of personality or style, DMs are truly the center of any tabletop RPG. They’re the creative force behind adventures and the grand master orchestrators of the game. As such, they do deserve the respect of their players (so long as they deserve it; I’ve heard of instances where DMs go far beyond the realm of decency). With my last two DMs as models I though I’d put together a few tips that, hopefully, lead toward peace, respect, and fun at the gaming table.
1) “Tolkien called, he wants his plot back.” Don’t criticize the world. I have the fortune of being married to one of my DMs, and I know how much work he puts into each and every encounter, not to mention the mountains of research behind every setting (and we’re talking almost as much time as a part-time job would require). Saying stuff like, “Ooooh, a tavern scene. I’m soooo surprised” might be funny to say once or twice, but it’s important to remember that—especially with some DMs—work on a given session takes hours and hours. Sometimes they do have to rely on convention (as is expected). If you’ve got issues with the storytelling, it’s better brought up in private and not in front of the rest of the company.
Bubble Tanks 2 is a fun shooter-like game where you must travel through giant bubbles, destroying enemy tanks and taking their bubbles to fuel your growth. As you grow, you constantly evolve and get ever better weapons. Ultimately, you’ll have to face the ultimate adversary and defeat it to win the game.
