kellee's blog

Microsoft Research Offering Serious Game Summit Scholarship

Note: I have not confirmed, but previously these Microsoft Research Scholarships have been open to Interactive Media MFA students as well. If you are intersted, follow the link to find out who to email regarding further information.

Microsoft Research is seeking 10 female computer science students currently involved in serious game development and research to send to this October's Serious Game Summit in Washington DC.

The selected team of "Microsoft Female Academic All-Stars" will be rewarded with a sponsored trip to the Summit (run by the CMP Game Group, as is Gamasutra.com) to attend its sessions, lectures, and roundtable discussions.

They will also have a chance to convene for an exclusive lunch to meet a yet unannounced industry executive to "discuss the issues surrounding female game developers and to learn about career opportunities in the field."

Information on how to apply can be found here.

Posted by at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Use Google, but please don't "google," search engine says

By Frank Ahrens
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — In July, The Washington Post and other media outlets noted that "google" had entered Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. It was a landmark for the search engine, going from nonentity to common usage in only eight years.

One would think a company that existed only in the minds of two college dudes a few years ago would be happy that The Post and other media outlets prominently marked the occasion.

One would, until one got a letter from Google's trademark lawyer.

Google, evidently, took offense to a passage in The Post article: "Google, the word, now takes its place alongside the handful of proper nouns that have moved beyond a particular product to become descriptors of an entire sector — generic trademarks."

This characterization, the letter warned, is "genericide" and should be avoided.

Google goes the extra mile and provides a helpful list of appropriate and inappropriate uses of its name.

To show how hip and down with the kids Google is, the company gets a little wacky with its examples. Here's one:

"Appropriate: He ego-surfs on the Google search engine to see if he's listed in the results.
"Inappropriate: He googles himself."

But this is perhaps the best: "Appropriate: I ran a Google search to check out that guy from the party.
"Inappropriate: I googled that hottie."

Posted by at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Produced by National Geographic

Fight Science is a show I worked on while at House of Moves during the summer of 2005, and is going to be aired this Sunday at 9pm on the National Geographic Channel.

In it, top fighters in various fields demonstrated their skills while being tested by various biomechanics specialists, to see exactly how they use their bodies. Motion capture was used as one way to see how the fighters were using their body, as well as a way of creating animations to show how their muscles are used, and how their skeleton moves when they are fighting.

It was a really cool project that I had a blast working on, so I highly reccommend it!

View the trailer here.

Posted by at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Made with processing, The Art of Detouch demonstrates how images are altered to improve the look of their subjects. While nothing new, what I like about this examination is that you can select between different ways of seeing the transition from before to after; from viewing only the altered pixels, to only the images themselves, to a hybrid of both. So not only do I see just how different the model is from her final print, I can see exactly how much, and where.

Posted by at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Finally, the truth is out!

"NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend, according to a new U.S. study that found three of four women would prefer a new plasma TV to a diamond necklace.

The survey, commissioned by U.S. cable television's Oxygen Network that is owned and operated by women, found the technology gender gap has virtually closed with the majority of women snapping up new technology and using it easily.

Women were found on average to own 6.6 technology devices while men own 6.9, and four out of every five women felt comfortable using technology with 46 percent doing their own computer trouble-shooting."

Click here for the full CNN report.

Posted by at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)