Stephen E. Dinehart's IMD Blog

For those that missed our show, i.e. everyone, I�ve decided to upload some of the tracks that we, The New Mother-fuckers, recorded @ Ground Zero last week. Despite the hot signal distortion from the sound board, the tracks turned out like some true blue Rockn�Roll; check �em out via the links below:

1. Those Ancient Nightmares Download MP3

2. Girl Download MP3

3. Calliopese Download MP3

More Geoff Geis @ GeoffGeis.com

For purposes of moving forward with my artistic efforts, I need a new mobile Lifelog media gleaning device. I have been envisioning this particular device for a few months.

SCRIBE is an intelligent personal communications agent. Scribe can take notes, act as a sketch book w/ artist tools, in addition to recording audio and video on the fly, Scribe also offers editing tools for mobile post and upload of the finished digital media.

With Scribe, I believe I could realize the Lifelogging game system, that I have been equally been conjuring, described below:

DIGITAL VAGABOND (DV), is a real flesh and blood game that encourages play within the open system of life. The goal of the game is agency, and stories. The players are part of an online community of DV�s, who share their stories of real world agency, in the field, with Scribe and moblogging.

It’s a strange thing, when life drops in an old friend,a character from your past to remind you who you are, were, will be. It’s like a memory staring you in face, smiling and taking you back to a place you forgot you ever existed. My old friend Richard Morgan flew into LAX from Beijing on Friday evening to stay with me for the weekend. It’s been almost 10 years since we last saw each other. We met in the third-grade playing war in our friend, the infamous Scratcher, Mike Sue’s back yard in Wilmette, just outside Chicago. We battled side by side that day, I with my found stick rifles and Richard with his Laser Tag Photon Bazooka. It was the start of a great friendship, despite the fact that his arsenals of incredible Laser Tag gear made me loathe the fact that I could not play with guns. After our violent meeting on a stick ridden infrared battleground, we went on to make films and various RPG adventures, for years, before he went abroad. His presence was a refreshing taste of bliss.
I was sad to see him go.

Two senors I�d like to play with:
1. Taos TCS230 Color Sensor
The TCS230 has an array of photodetectors, each with either a red, green, or blue filter, or no filter (clear). The filters of each color are distributed evenly throughout the array to eliminate location bias among the colors. Internal to the device is an oscillator which produces a square-wave output whose frequency is proportional to the intensity of the chosen color.
2. Devantech SRF04 Ultrasonic Ranger
The SRF04 works by transmitting an ultrasonic (well above human hearing range) pulse and measuring the time it takes to "hear" the pulse echo. Output from the SRF04 is in the form of a variable-width pulse that corresponds to the distance to the target.

I was just the victim of a good marketing campaign, targeted very well to the college male I am. I was walking with my friend Tyler, across campus to get coffee, when we ran into a couple of booth-babe type characters. They were touting Leisure Suit Larry baby-tee�s, and had a satchel of these jimmy caps. Apparently there were also giving out copies of the game in Taper Hall. I remember playing the original series in the fourth grade, trying to prove you'rr thirty-five at that age is hard. It was a blast when I was 10... could a low-poly 3d voyeur game be enjoyable as an adult, nostalgic perhaps? Research I don�t care to delve into at the moment, besides, it's currently PC format only� I broke-up with Windows a year ago, and I�m happy to say, I�m almost over it.

Watch the Trailor

I saw this crazy kids toy @ Radioshack; VR for tweens!

This was a great class, it really felt like everyone created some great works. I'm really excited to see them all refined next week.

I had an interesting experience yesterday� EA Sports was on campus marketing games with, well, games; it�s the NCAA 2005 Football Challenge. There was a big tent pitched by Tommy Trojan full of PS2�s running NCAA 2005 Football. The process consisted of enlistment, i.e. gathering of marketing data; dissemination of marketing materials, T-shirts, and badges, and then assignment to a slot within a traditional branching tournament system.
The game had very little pick-up-and-playablity, leaving my competitor and I a bit confused for the first three quarters. I lost 6-0. I�m not much of a sports player virtual or otherwise, it was an interesting experience nonetheless and a marketing campaign unlike any I have seen outside a convention hall.

Thanks to those of you that provided me playtesting feedback on the alpha and beta. Here is the final version.

Please do some play testing and let me know what you think.

As before:
Ahhhh�friggin' freelance. I�ve been working with a small Venice Beach firm to create a game for Nitro2go, a power drink sold at 7-11. It�s simple, a little fun and a little buggy, but hey it pays the rent!

My field study on urban mapping was a telling experience. My attempt to grab to space and create a representation of it was futile at least. Space, or the perception thereof, is a symphony of perception, audio, visual and otherwise. To attempt to capture it is difficult, much more so than creating artificial expressive spaces, such as those created by cinema.

Urban mapping proposes an interesting series of dilemmas and questions. There seems to me to be only two reasons for spatial mapping, expression or art, and for utilitarian purpose. The ideal spatial map should be an accurate navigation tool for reality, within a margin of reason. This raises interesting questions. What is objective reality? How is it mapped? What is required to recreate accurate perceptual representations of space?

I don�t know, but I think it is foolish to assume space, or reality, could be mapped accurately, searchable and sold to us via a service like Google. It�s a long time off, that�s for sure. I�m afraid the maps would be terribly subjective. I do not believe that reality could be mapped and represented objectively for even a moment.

What different kinds of representations of reality would be created by the world given a set of authoring tools to create accurate spatial recreations?

What interests me is the inherent abstract nature of trying to rebuild representational virtual spaces.

NOVEMBER 2, 2004
This was taken with my 3650, and has not post effects added.

Sun's still to bright, but nonetheless I was working outside yesterday in an old farm pasture with my dog at 25 degrees Fahrenheit.

Thanks to everyone, classmates, faculty, and administration that helped to shape this semester. It was a highly educational experience the like of which I would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.

Sorry I couldn�t be there for the final reviews today. I make my plans well in advance, according to the syllabi. Will it�s nice to think that the DIM community exists in a classic workshop studio approach; the fact is we are at a University on a semester system, and
I live out-of-state.

Semester 3:

Course(s) review and critique:

Pros:
- Increased diversity in DIM faculty
- Greater Sense of internal community
- New facilities (ZML, EA Game Innovation Lab)
- New equipment
- Hands-on interactive entertainment production
- Relatively open ended assignments
- Engaging discourse

Cons:
- Poor planning
- Week-to-week busy work assignments (532)
- Lack of adherence to the predetermined syllabi
- Ad-hoc teaching methods
- Assignments with little scope
- On a week, off a week faculty
- Lab Technical difficulties

Personal Review and critique:

Pros:
- Increased Enthusiasm
- Better networking
- Real World Interactive Entertainment Experience (WBIE, EA)
- Connected with various industry professionals
- Continued Entrepreneurial pursuits
- Better understanding of personal/professional direction
- Increased personal/artistic independence
- Lack of direction in class has motivated me to be self directed
- Better communication with professors
- A plethora of new ideas (original IP)

Cons:
- Attitude
- Arrogance
- Lack of in class consistency
- Lack of class project driven group integration
- Overall frustration led to decreased ROI

Favorite assignments (class code):
- Spatial Mapping (532)
- Interactive project concept dev (534)
- Interactive project concept refinement (534)
- Mobile Media assignments (532)
- Interactive Entertainment Internship research paper (495)

This project has become a different beast as it has grown. After struggling to get the Pulletry interface (Reed actuated lever switch w/ Basic Stamp interfacing MacBS2 with Flash using FLOSC) to work, I realized that the interface had nothing to do with the work. It was simply a function of an old concept that I was adhering too. What is more important to me, and this project, is the content and it�s meaning from a narratology aspect. What happens when I try to create the impression of user navigated story out of a montage of my Lifelog database? This is the question that interests me most. Ultimately I see this being less fixed and more dynamic, drawing images dynamically from a server, to create montage sequences. I see this as an A/V diary of the dream that is my life.

It's come along way...
Wow, what an awesome f----ng game; Prince of Persia: Warrior Within by Ubisoft is quite a game. It�s incredibly challenging, compelling and beautiful. While I could complain about a number of things, the �alternative� rock sound track for instance, overall the product is so good I would give it a solid 9/10. Play it.
www.princeofpersiagame.com
Ubi's Prince o' Persia Blog

What is Xbox Live? How does it impact gameplay? What implications will "Live" have on the future of Entertainment? These questions and more will be pondered @ my first MC @ 542OPENMIC.

This Tuesday, Jan 18th. 2005, 3:00, ZML.

Today I'm having fun working with the could team in the ZGL. This is a concept I just created in the Game Lab. Jenova's thumbnail concept really got me going. Mind you this is just a concept, and up to much modification and continued experiementation.

View our project blog

I aim to blend my poetry slamming with a worn, hand-triggered sampling device. In my research, or should I say googling, I found this great site with all kinds of cool performance sensors, and a custom authoring tool.

Performance Sensors:infusion

my alter ego: iami

Local:
Los Angeles Natural History Museum
An awesome inspiring venue of the past and present, with rotating exhibits. Check out dinosaurs and rose gardens.
I see great potential to create punlic interactive installation works on the grounds around NHM.

Non-local:

Chicago's Millenium Park Recently opened next to the Art Institite of Chicago, and Grant Park, between the Loop and the lake, this new amazing venue is full of possibilities. The list of attractions includes, gardens, theatres, sculpture plazas, and fountains.

What is a Thesis?
A thesis is an assumption that one may seek to prove using a means of experimentation, and the scientific method.

What do I seek to prove?
That the worlds of my imagination can come to life, so others may take witness.

Why do I want to prove this?
All of my life I have seen unthinkable things, of subconscious imagination, I need to share them with others, fundamentally I suppose, for approval and understanding.

Why do I seek approval of my dreams, thoughts and ideas?
Everything I know to be true I was always taught to be untrue, except by the exceptional few that stumbled through my life sharing similar dispositions. I want to prove to my family that my lunacy has purpose, to my friends that my longing was not illusion, to my classmates, and the world, that I�m more than a blithering out-spoken fool. Most of all I want to prove to myself, that my loves, my beliefs, which slowly die within me, are righteous and manifest.

1. Area of interest
a.Gesamtkunstwerk; The convergence of cinema and games

2. Q�s
a. How can an interactive experience be as compelling as a cinematic one?
b. Where is the balance between authorship and user participation?
c. How can the arts be combined to provide a total artwork experience?

3. Method
a.Short Film-games

4. Topics
a. Anima-comic book pop
b. RTS
c. Epic Sci-Fa adventure
d. Transpersonal film noir

5. Definition and Market
a. Next Gen Video Game; 18-35 Males;

6. User term
a.Player

German artist Joseph Beuys, strongly believed that the spiritual nature of human beings is expressed throught creativity and ability, in vigorous opposition to negative forces, what he called �the principle of Auschwitz.

He wanted to make a new kind of sculptural object that would include �Thinking forms: how we mould our thoughts�Spoken Forms: how we shape our thoughts into words�[and] Social Sculpture: how we mould and shape the world in which we live.�

He believed that all art belongs to the same sphere of human activity, no matter what medium the creator uses. He created one-person performances in which his stylized actions evoked a sense of mystery, profound human meaning, and sacred ritual. \

Beuys, in such performances, considered himself as a shaman carrying out actions to help �revolutionize human thought,� so that each human being could become a truly free and creative person. Most of his performances were not public events, but were witnessed by only small audiences.

Through the effect on viewers, and even more, though the efficacy of the acts themselves, the artist believed that the world could be changed.

In my performance for 542 this Thursday, I hope to accomplish something inspired in this vain.

Download QuickTime Movie File

Please feel free to check on our progress on the Cloud Project Blog

1. A Title:

Poetic elemental

2. A brief description that includes genre/material:

My poem will live and speak on its own. My poem will never be the same twice. My poem knows when you are close, and is swayed by the subtleties of mood.

The PE is a sculptural object embedded with sensors, a small computer and an AI system that draws on a database of words and to dynamically create three line poems.

3. Subject matter/topic:

Dynamic database poetry generation

4. Something about the experience:

Noise ratio = happiness vs. sadness
Colors = inspiration
Vicinity = Recite rate

5. Something about significance:

My poetry will leave me and embody an autonomous agent; it will become an emergent system, a �living� poem.

GOAL:

To awaken the richness of life�s splendor on USC�s campus; this will be the goal of my ideal kiosk remake.

POSSIBLE IDEA:

I would like to alter the kiosk to become a mysterious entity on campus, a unearthly visitor. The form would be modified to represent an organic form (as Illustrated below). During the day the neo-kiosk would gather audio and visual data, �listening� to its surroundings; perceiving. At night it would sleep, and from its slumber would arise dreams, remixes of the days data, abstract stories of color, light and sound.

I've started playing around with some of the tools used to create LOTR The Battle for Middle Earth, here @ EALA. They are such wonderful, easy tools, I'm amazed at their quality. I'm excited to work with them a whole lot more...

OK; so I've learn to design w/ the Sage Engine WorldBuilder tool; now I just have to work on making the maps playable for Multiplayer! LOL.

New ideas, new conditions:
-polymorphic IP
-the story of a hero and his multiplicity
-a story of transformation
-dynamic interacitve narrative structure
-Fun
-Abstract
-playful
-HD
-Mobile
-Flash
-Real Time Strategy/Side Scroller
-Designed with an surreal urban theme
-interfaced via console controller

I've been picking up tips from the map makers and level desginers here @ EALA. This is the plan for my second map which I hope is beautiful and playable! While the World Builder tool is very intuitive, and therein prone to improv; I want to plan and excute this map with professional precision, wish me luck!

First Contact

I've been in communications with Takahashi Keita, creator of Katamari Damacy. Problem is we don't speak each others languages; so we have resorted to pictures.

Second Contact

hi,Stephen

> I can't speak Japanese...yet

I can't speak English...yet
haha.

The gorilla is laughing.
I want to make the game that not only man but also the animal understands.
It is difficult.

Anyway, mail thank you.
It is glad to get acquainted with various people.
--
takahashi keita

Here is some concept art I created last night.

I. Title
a. Flown Away with the Pink Elefant
II. Abstract
a. I am trapped between many dimensions, my being spread out over a multiplicity of existences. Each one a dream of the next. I traveler, poet, philosopher, player; no simple empiricist science can bind and explain my perspective; pulled from the past and placed into present. Each space, each place, each dimension, imbued with meaning, shadows and symbols of a string of being; interwoven into a fabric of what was will be. This is a journey, through mind, spirit, space and time; come let us play and create the story that is experience.

III. Influences:
a. Sun Ra
b. George Clinton
c. Salvador Dali
d. DJ Qbert
e. Wassily Kandinsky
f. Alex Grey
g. Stan Lee
h. Richard Wagner

Consciousness is the only reality. Every conceivable energy state exists. If a universe can be imagined, it exists.
http://www.manyuniverses.com/

Conscious reality exists as a series of relative experiences; displayed sentient for one to behold. As ones being moves through the forth dimension it displays the characteristics of a string, a point displaced over time. What one can quantify empirically are fragments of data gleaned from the localization of totality. Ones life can be summed up as a series of multidimensional experiences interwoven over time. Thus the story of one�s life maybe: I was at 1, and I saw 1F, I then acted, and it brought me to 2B, as so on.
My thesis will follow this model.

Updated
V 0.2

>>>Here it is, the first playable of my attempt @ Stereoscopic Flash Work.

Another iteration is avaiable for playView File

1.
The Fourth Dimension; Rudy Rucker; Houghton Mifflin, 1985

Absolutley mind blowing; Dr. Diane Voss, my former professor, had me read this for a class I took on "time". It helped me form for much of my current understanding of realitys' structure.

2.
Flat Land; Edwin Abbot; Dover Publications, 1880
This book helped reinforce Plato's "Allegory of a Cave", helping me to understand my condition.

3.
The Mission of Art; Alex Grey; Shambala Press, 2001
Great art and writing?!? Yep. Alex really helped me to understand my purpose, a blessing and a curse, as an artist in this world.

4.
Concerning the Spiritual in Art; Wassily Kandinsky, 1911
I love Wassily. He tried to speak in a language few have the eyes to see.

I rode the 4.6 miles from my place over the Fashion District this after. My goal was to find affordable fabric for our 542 Kiosk project. As I expected I found a store in no time. I managed to pick up two great pieces of fabric for projection testing; one Lycra and the other Cotton; each measuring 60�x144� and costing $2.50 per yard. This evening we need to project on them to see how they appear. We then need to make a few decisions about the screens, so that this week I can print and tailor them.

I've completed V1.1; check out the PDF @ThisLink

Download PDF file

My friends and I have been having a blast playing Team Training mode (the only matchmaking mode for Team Slayer w/ guests) on xbox live.

Playing online is fun, but playing with 5 friends the same room on two screens is amazing. Team gaming takes on a whole new nature when you are playing w/ your friends against a team of strangers.

It's amazing, with the life extension Xbox Live provides games, $50 doesn't seem like a bad price tag for a title. Usually even the best titles get shelved within a month or two. Halo2 is still being played strong @ my house thanks to Live. There is just no comparison to human opponents; the AI of most titles grow boring and repetitive, with poeple the game continues to remain dynamic. I'm always learning from my opponents, good and bad.

I've been playing around with Flash Lite 1.1 for my Nokia 3650. I'm so excited to get into it over the summer and create a dynamic mobile app. Just for kicks I created a test to see if I could create a stereoscopic flash file for my phone. What do you know, it works!

I think steroscopic mobile devices could have great potential. The possibilities for z plane data orginization structures are very exciting.

Hope someone out there can play this!

More on Flash Lite 1.1
Test the app
*see the macromedia website to get the player for your device

Here is a better version of my thesis proposal. I resolved the publishing issues assciated with version 2. Yea:] I'm done, for a minute.

Download PDF file

Relaxing fantastic. Got some help from Amoeba Records, stepping up the Dub collection. Scientist made a few ablums in the early eightes that are video game themed; early examples of the impact of video games on global pop culture.

Dum dum twe diddle dee... dum dum

I had the honor of serving as a volunteer. Jenkins spoke his dream, shared his vision of educated gamemakers and educating games. I did my best to help.

I interviewed w/ Jamdat today. What a great place. Lots of youthful creative energy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

I had the honor of volunteering for the IGDA's E3 party hosted @ hotel fig. The turn out was amazing, and you couldn't ask for a better space. I love IGDA.

Interactive
Flashing throbbing
Subwoofer HD central
Overwhelming sensory
Saw spoke to Steven, Spielberg
J Allard was cool
Gave me the time of day
Looked me in the eye
Made me believe in the mission

While on the floor
Big boobed booth bimbos
Dropped trash and snapped
Sultry posed soft smut photos

I made my way into the XBOX VIP lounge, what a nice friggin setup. I was lucky enough to sit in on some Xbox 360 presentations. The new features of Live are exactly what I'm looking for, as an avid user, they seem to know exactly what I want.

I was lucky enough to have a 5 minute 1-on-1 w/ J Allard. I told him about how his GDC talk has greatly influenced my thesis direction. He seemed really cool, honest, and genuine. I look forward to his feedback on my thesis.

N70

PressRelease
Q3 2005...

I know what mobile devices I be developing my thesis for...

I released my newest album today, Mudapple. It is a blend tracks from my sound experimentation over the past four years in Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles; aimed at the creation of an organic, yet electronic, turntablist inspired poetics w/ spoken word and beats.

The album is available for download on my website www.mudapple.com; you can purchase hard copies for $7.98USD in the Hip-hop section of Amoeba Music on Sunset Ave.

I've been listing to the Sin Tzu's Art of War lately, I find it much more powerful than reading it.

It has me thinking a great asset within a program or University like our own would be an open intranet database of audio lectures by professors and visiting scholars. When someone wants to hear about particle dynamics, Hindu ritual, the nature of microbial life, or the future of interface design, they could search the database for lectures on said subject. In this way, curious students, like myself, would be able to access and use the knowledge of the University to it's fullest; our education would be expanded to reach all the knowledge wells across our University.

Strange... a couple weeks back I was thinking it would cost little man time to create a Etch-a-sketch app, and it looks like somone was ahead of the ball. I just don't know about the phone interface, the old skool knobs were key to the EAS experience.

@ the guardian.co.uk
@ yahoo news

Subversiv Rec, a German hip-hop label has released volume 2 of their compilation LP series, OFFBEATS the last track on the album is my track "Shit Mazes"; While I don't see any revenue from this, it's cool to be pressed to vinyl and to know that some DJs in Europe are rocking my beats and poetry.

mudapple.com (my full album
subversiv_rec comp page
The Shit Mazes Music Video

I had the honor yesterday of walking into Amoeba Music on Sunset in Hollywood, crate digging, and purchasing my first pressed vinyl right out the Hip-Hop section. Sure I’ve made plenty of Cd’s, sold them at stores and on the streets, but there is something about feeling like I now contribute to the great lexicon of artists that have pressed their waveforms to wax. Just gets me excited, makes me feel satisfied. I was so geeked I asked some of the people at the store to click this pic of me.

This makes me feel like it wasn’t all for nothing; I make shi-at all the time; but then it just sits; I try to distribute it to no avail; having a small record label take interest and press me on wax feels like my first musical success. I feel as if I need more now to create to distribute, I suppose one might call it addiction, I just need to one up myself now; press my own and make something of it…

This is the game of games; I still love playing it via Emulator; it is the basis of my mobile killer thesis app.
http://www.dqshrine.com/dw/

Robert Moog has left this planet, no doubt to meet the mother ship somewhere on cloud 9. What would the world be without Mr. Moog? Electronic music would certainly be very different. I first encountered one of his modular Moog’s @ the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Rob Drinkwater would challenge everyone of his students to try and get the Moog to say it's own name. What a fantastic device, and a sure reminder that analog is king, compared side to side, digital synthesis has nothing on these beautiful machines. Thanks to Mr. Moog, for brightening this earth w/ his marriage of audio arts and technology.

www.moogmusic.com
The BBC Article
More on Moog from the Synth Museum

Wendy Carlos' 1968 Grammy-winning album, Switched-On Bach, which brought the Moog synthesiser to the lime light. Before long many musicians and groups, including the Doors, the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, were using Moog synthesisers.

I began my adventure today as a Private Contractor, Machinima Movie Maker, for Activision. Thanks to Jen for passing on this connection!

Nokia launched this phone in Germany this month (read the article), looks allot like the i-mate JASJAR just anounced (read the article) , both devices also run on the new Microsoft operating system Windows Mobile 5.0

It sure will be fun when handsets like this become available in north america, the development possibilities seem endless. I am convinced 3G adoption and the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) will have great impacts on the way we learn, percieve and work. It stinks to be in north america when our Euro and Asian buddies get to play in our tomorrow today. While we wait for 3G the rest of the modern world is already looking to 4G. I guess I should be happy that the major bugs will hopefully be ironed out by the time UMTS really hits us here.

I wonder if Apple has a Nokia i-book in the works? I would be nice if the enviornment reflection worked so that the virtual world of the mobile would match our wired home space; a mobile telepresence of our home dataspace, if you will.

Concept art for the Triwizard Task level in the forthcoming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire game (Warner Bros copyright); a BBC article about the new Harry Potter game and the influences of fine art upon it's art direction

Free, yes, free J2ME game developers book from Jason Lam.
Altough I have yet to review it myself; from the looks of thinks this looks a pretty striaght forward guide to making your own shooter for a hand-held device.

Download it!!

Go ahead try it, the mobile field is way open, and the best game makers out there suck, and so do thier games (aka JAMDAT); you can rule like Nintendo in the old skool!

Tonight Los Angeles had a fire in the sky.
I still have goose bumps; I was driving up Vermont and all the traffic stopped for some reason, so I quickly turned onto Olympic, and there it was. I've seen meteorites, meteor showers, and a few other things fall from the sky, but this....

It was falling, a white object, behind it a tail was left of crimson blue fire, a meteor, a nuke, no a missile...no a burning space craft, the white ball continued it's path and the tail grew larger and the object more clear, the it stopped in mid-space and poof it created this spherical ball of white light, moved forward then rather than continuing towards Earth, took of in another direction in the sky....

Myself, and everyone around me, was snapping photos on their camera phones and proclaiming "what the ---- is that!"

I searched the radio for some news, nothing....but Louise Armstrong singing "What a Wonderful World". Jenova saw this, I wonder what other people saw, what heck it was, and it there will be any answers.

If I was a primitive man, I would make cave paintings on the subject for the rest of my life.

Logic tells me it was just a mysterious meteor, but suspicion leads me to more.

"Unburned fuel particles and water drops in the rocket's contrail freeze in the less dense upper atmosphere and get reflected by sunlight at high altitudes to generate such breath-taking scenes."

This just burst the bubble of the seeming stable nature of my reality; everything felt thrown into some surrealist LALA land for a while there, I'm still just waking from the dream.

Experimental Military space craft...

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/stpr1/

Back to it's roots huh... looks pretty un-80's to me; and leveraging the WB music catalog isn't exactly counter culture!

Nonetheless, MTV has partnered with Warner Music to offer music videos for mobile devices. It is not immediately clear what kind of business model MTV will be using for the Momuvids (that's kinda catchy...). Article

The US and Chinese governments are collaborating on a GPS tracking system to monitor panda movements in a reserve, in remote Shaanxi province. Panda sexual activity, as there is little known of their sexual habits, seems to be the focus, apparently it is very difficult to breed them in captivity.

"Tracking them with advanced technology and observing their sex activities might help us find ways to avoid their extinction," an official said. China's scientists have come up with a series of more or less surprising ideas for improving panda reproduction, including showing them sex education videos.

There are only 1600 wild pandas left.

Read the Article

This was snapped last year...but I just witnessed it for the first time.
Yea for well spent tax dollars! Life sure is beautiful.

Halo is coming to a mobile device near you. Frankly if it doesn't have a multiplayer like Xbox live then it can f----off, otherwise blowin-the-shi@t out of strangers could be fun on the go. I never was too much into the campaign mode!

It will be interesting to see how it translates, and when it will become available. I imagine it won't be for a year or two, unless they launch a dedicted mobile hardware device, which would sell like...well....Halo2.

Read the article on IGN

I couldn't resist blogging this, in looking into the Halo Mobile makers IN-FUSIO; I noticed they were creating Age of Empires II for mobile...that's right an RTS on the go; I'd love to get my hands on it.

"You chose to let her view the images on your telephone and told her that she might have nightmares."

Careful what you do with that picture phone, you just might get locked up for it!

from london

*side note why does my Textile2 MT Text formating not work on the main blog?

Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Labs, has announced a PC for the poor children of the world to cost less than $100. It's Wi-fi compatiable, 500Mhz, Linux based, and uses a flash drive in stead of a hard-drive. Heck it even comes with a hand crank, talk about cool.

Read the Article

Vodoo Pad
I was dreaming up this application with Kellee one night; a sort of local multimedia diary, in the form of a blog, but without the public aspcect. Kellee said former IMD student Leonard Lyn was sure to know if there was something like that already out there and sure enough there is.
read about it on the website

Salling Clicker v2.2.1
My friend Millusy told me about this, and the subject just came up within the beta testing group I'm involved in with Macromedia Mobile and Devices, it's a program for remote control of everything from your laptop to your TV using your favorite mobile device. You can even create custom scripts to control seeming anything. I'm going to download it asap. It really seems like a great app.
read about it on the website

TOKYO (AP) - The common electric socket will serve as your home's connection to broadband with a new chip developed by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. - doing away with all the Ethernet cables or the hassle of hooking up to a wireless network device. Products are still being developed, but gadgets embedded with the chip from the Japanese manufacturer of Panasonic products can hook up to a broadband network by plugging into the common electrical outlet, company officials said Thursday.