Johnny Lee (the dude who is the Trickster god of Wiimotes-- KokopeWii?) has an interesting post up on his blog, Procrastineering, about a French company's tech which can make any sufficiently hard surface a touchable interface.
This is the sort of thing that comes along where you watch the video, and then just start looking around your room/office/garage/parts bin trying to figure out new ways to mess around with all your existing stuff, junk, widgets, jobbies, and kipple.
http://timothyplan.com/ProActive/frame-ProActive-videogame.htm
Via Ars Technica
The goods:
The Timothy Plan is an investment group offering a number of funds organized around investing in "moral" companies which do not profit from certain activities. Their website lists "abortion, pörnography [sic], anti-family entertainment, non-married lifestyles, alcohol, tobacco and gambling" as their hot-button issues. They also offer "moral audits" of your investment portfolio.
They've just released two guides on video games, effectively quantizing the moral content of each game on their list. I'm actually pretty happy about this because:
1) They're offering people who care a way to filter the media intake of their children according to criteria they agree upon.
2) The prurient crank in me sees this as an easy way to take the piss and find where all the good stuff is. Too bad it seems to be a lineup of the usual suspects (bang for your buck, GTA IV/Saints Row 2 offer the most offensive content, with Fallout 3 and Manhunt 2 tied for second place. Curious that they are all sequels.) rather than an exhaustive list, but this was the first I had ever heard of Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers.
Ars digs deeper into the role of GLBT content in the ranking schema, which is worth your read as well.
Access Controller now shipping for PS2/PS3/PC - Hack a Day
"[Ben Heckendorn]’s Access Controller is now shipping. The controller is designed to be used with just one hand. It has six openings that the five control modules can be placed in. It’s easy to reconfigure depending on the player or game. While the prototype was built using Xbox 360 controller parts, this newly released unit is available for the PS2, PS3, and PCs. The Xbox 360 version is still being reviewed for final production. [Ben] says that in the coming weeks he’ll post a how-to for building your own modules. There’s always one empty slot and the bus like design should make this fairly simple."
The Play Generated Map and Document Archive
"PlaGMaDA's mission is to preserve, present, and interpret play generated cultural artifacts, namely manuscripts and drawings created to communicate a shared imaginative space. The Archive will solicit, collect, describe, and publicly display these documents so as to demonstrate their relevance, presenting them as both a historical record of a revolutionary period of experimental play and as aesthetic objects in their own right. By fostering discussion and educating the public, it is hoped that the folkways which generate these documents can be encouraged and preserved for future generations. "
Pentagon Researcher Unveils Warcraft Terror Plot | Danger Room from Wired.com
"I'm in ur base, killin' ur manz."
Matt Farrell: Jesus Christ. It's a fire sale.Epic.
John McClane: What?
Matt Farrell: It's a fire sale.
Deputy Director Miguel Bowman: Hey! We don't know that yet.
Taylor: And it's a myth anyway. It can't be done.
Matt Farrell: Oh, it's a myth? Really? Please tell me she's only here for show and she's actually not in charge of anything.
John McClane: What's a fire sale?
Matt Farrell: It's a three-step... it's a three-step systematic attack on the entire national infrastructure. Okay, step one: take out all the transportation. Step two: the financial base and telecoms. Step three: You get rid of all the utilities. Gas, water, electric, nuclear. Pretty much anything that's run by computers which... which today is almost everything. So that's why they call it a fire sale, because everything must go.
Tough Choices: How Making Decisions Tires Your Brain: Scientific American
Nevermind being addicted to pop-science. If games are a series of meaningful choices, what does this mean?
That's it. Videogames are over. Everybody go home. We're all done. There's nothing left to do.
Contemplating doing something other than making games with my new liberty and, oh, would you look at that, Hack a Day has a nice roundup of different multitouch projects. Check 'em out.
But oh crap, they also have a link to a DS Homebrew Guide? It's like their trying to tell me something.
Idle Thought: is "hack a day" the carpe diem version of "hack the planet?"