January 2012
8 posts
The Terrific Game of Thrones Board Game is Full of... →
Kirk Hamilton at Kotaku reviews one of my favorite board games:
The challenge of writing about this board game is that it is very, very complicated. I’d say “Don’t let that scare you off,” but if the idea of a super-duper complicated board game that requires four to six hours to play and many more to master turns you off, well, then maybe this isn’t the game for...
“Pointy-headed football-lovers are a beleaguered crew, despised by pointy-heads...”
– Martin Amis
Money and the App Store: a few figures that might... →
Emeric Thoa offers a glimpse at the numbers behind The Game Bakers’ iOS game, SQUIDS:
In this article, I will present all of the post-mortems and figures I’ve found interesting, and I will also explain how SQUIDS fits into the overall picture. But first, I would like to quickly give my opinion on few of the App Store myths you may believe if you’re not an experienced iOS developer. There are...
Goals For 2012
Goals? Don’t you mean resolutions?
No. Resolutions are almost always phrased as the kind of absolute that is impossible to achieve—I will never do such and such, or I will lose all the weight. Goals are about setting achievable and realistic plans for the coming year.
Last Year’s Goals
Last year I had three goals and I achieved them all. They were to get married, run a half marathon, and read...
Reading 2011
I like to keep track of what I read from year to year, both to challenge myself to read more, and so I can look back at previous years and see what I was reading at the time. In 2008 I read 39 books with a total of 12447 pages. In 2009 I raised the bar to 65 books and 19455 pages. In 2010 I read slightly fewer books—56 total—but they were longer on average, so my page count stayed around the same:...
Non-geek Tech Usage 2011
Like many geeks, I have a lot of non-geeks in my family, and Christmas is my best chance to see how the less geeky side uses technology. Here are my observations for 2011:
Non-geeks know certain brands really well. Everyone knows about the different iPhone models, although they are usually referred to as the “3”, the “4”, and the “new one that you talk to”.
The Kindle is very popular. The...
November 2011
1 post
2011 Hugo Reading Challenge
In 2011 I challenged myself to read 20 books that have won the Hugo award for best novel. The Hugo award is given each year to a science fiction or fantasy book. The winner is selected by the attendees of the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). Along with the Nebula, it is one of the most prestigious awards that can be bestowed on a science fiction or fantasy novel.
The 20 Hugo Winners I...
October 2011
1 post
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The Real News from the Apple Event
All the news from yesterday’s iPhone event focused on the iPhone 4S, Siri, and the new iPod touch, but for me those were not the most important announcements. Apple has sold 250 million iOS devices. At this time last year, that number was 120 million. That is astonishing.
As a developer, numbers like that are motivating. Here are some more numbers from yesterday’s event that make me want to...
August 2011
6 posts
Tor/Forge Books and NASA Jointly Announce... →
This is a cool idea.
In an effort to educate and encourage math and science education Tor/Forge Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, and NASA have embarked on a collaboration to publish a series of science based, commercial fiction books, referred to as “NASA inspired Works of Fiction” around concepts pertinent to the current and future work of NASA. NASA will allow existing and new...
Risk Legacy →
Risk Legacy is a new version of Risk that has game mechanics that permanently alter the game based on decisions made while playing. This includes stickers that permanently modify the board and mechanics that destroy certain game components (tearing up a card). So each time you play the game it evolves a little bit, and you are battling over a world with history based on your previous games. I...
2011 Hugo Award Winners →
The 2011 Hugo Awards were given out yesterday. Click through for the full list of nominees and winners.
Best Novel:
Winner: Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis
Cryoburn, Lois McMaster Bujold
The Dervish House, Ian McDonald
Feed, Mira Grant
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin
4 tags
Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books →
This is a really good list. If you count series I have only partially read, as well as books I am currently reading, I have read 57 of the 100 books listed.
Jacob:
Neuromancer is over-rated. It may have been amazing when it was first published, but it has not aged well.
Stephenson is well-represented, as he should be.
I, too, was glad to see the Thrawn Trilogy made the list.
longshankss:
...
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2011-12 EPL League Table Predictions
Because next May it will be hilarious to look at how wrong I was.
Manchester United
Manchester City
Liverpool
Chelsea
Tottenham
Arsenal
Sunderland
Fulham
Aston Villa
Everton
Stoke
Bolton
West Brom
Wolves
Blackburn
Newcastle
QPR
Norwich
Wigan
Swansea
July 2011
3 posts
George R.R. Martin on Sex, Fantasy, and 'A Dance... →
Happy A Dance with Dragons eve! Have an interview (from The Atlantic) with the mastermind himself, George R. R. Martin.
American McCarver: There's Always Hope →
americanmccarver:
It’s easy to joke that the only thing Americans care less about than soccer (translation for our non-U.S. readers: “the sport called ‘football’ that’s being ruined by Sepp Blatter, rather than the one being ruined by Roger Goodell”) is soccer when it’s played by women. Then again, the…
A write-up—from someone who is obviously not a huge soccer fan—of yesterday’s...
April 2011
6 posts
Videos Posted by Peter Jackson: THE HOBBIT Start... →
Behind the scenes of “The Hobbit”.
Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash: ‘92’s Eerie... →
Snow Crash was really ahead of its time.
Hello, New World! →
This Thursday night, 14 April 2011, the Timbers Army will sing the official “Star Spangled Banner” at a stadium in the heart of Portland, Oregon, and the local football club will play its first home match in America’s top division. The Timbers face Chicago’s Fire. The match will occasion large amounts of beer consumption on premises and in the surrounding neighborhoods, and play its own small part...
AT-AT for America, The Dream →
American exceptionalism.
World's most powerful rocket →
SpaceX announces the new Falcon Heavy rocket.
Space travel is exciting.
March 2011
2 posts
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February 2011
6 posts
2 tags
I'm a romantic says Xavi, heartbeat of Barcelona... →
The Guardian interviews Xavi, whose jersey I am wearing today in anticipation of the Arsenal-Barcelona Champions League match.
It’s good that the reference point for world football right now is Barcelona, that it’s Spain. Not because it’s ours but because of what it is. Because it’s an attacking football, it’s not speculative, we don’t wait. You pressure, you...
Obama’s 2012 Budget Proposal: How It’s Spent →
A New York Times infographic showing the breakdown of spending in Obama’s proposed 2012 budget. I like the tag line they put on this: “Explore every nook and cranny of President Obama’s budget proposal.”
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On Evolution, Biology Teachers Stray From Lesson... →
From yesterday’s New York Times:
Teaching creationism in public schools has consistently been ruled unconstitutional in federal courts, but according to a national surveyof more than 900 public high school biology teachers, it continues to flourish in the nation’s classrooms.
Researchers found that only 28 percent of biology teachers consistently follow the recommendations of the National...
1 tag
How should I get started with programming? Which... →
Short answer: Decide what you want to make, the rest will fall into place.
January 2011
4 posts
How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from... →
A brief story from the early days of Pixar.
IBM’s “Watson” Computing System to Challenge All... →
This should be interesting:
IBM and America’s Favorite Quiz show® Jeopardy! today announced that an IBM computing system named “Watson” will compete on Jeopardy! against the show’s two most successful and celebrated contestants — Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.
The first-ever man vs. machine Jeopardy! competition will air on February 14, 15 and 16, 2011, with two matches being played over...
2 tags
What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on... →
Some of the works that would have been entering the public domain this year, were it not for the 1976 Copyright Act:
Lord of the Flies
Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers
Horton Hears a Who!
“On the Waterfront”
“Rear Window”
“Seven Samurai”
Click through for more. (via Davextreme)
1 tag
Interview: Jonathan Blow & Chris Hecker →
Edge Magazine talks to Jonathan Blow (Braid) and Chris Hecker (SpyParty) about the state of independent games.
December 2010
4 posts
2 tags
Video Games and the Future of Storytelling →
Salman Rushdie shares some thoughts about videogames.
The 10th Annual Year in Ideas →
The New York Times Magazine’s year in ideas.
1 tag
The Boardgame Remix Kit →
This is brilliant.
Liven up your Christmas by remixing the boardgames in your house to make brand new games.
The Boardgame Remix Kit works with all the great family favourites. It’s got twenty five games that you can play using the boards and pieces you’ve already got.
As well as smoothing out or speeding up a standard game, the kit can turn Monopoly* into a family poker...
1 tag
November 2010
7 posts
1 tag
Amazon lets gift givers put virtual books in... →
Amazon is now allowing people to give Kindle editions of books as gifts, even to recipients who do not have a Kindle.
1 tag
20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web →
This is what e-books in the browser should look like. I recommend viewing this in Google Chrome.
2 tags
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Does The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Know... →
Vanity Fair investigates whether Lisbeth Salander could actually pull off the crazy hacks in Stieg Larsson’s bestselling books:
Anyone who has read the late Stieg Larsson’s vastly entertaining Girl With … novels knows that the titular character, Lisbeth Salander, is a hero for our Internet-addicted era: a virtuoso hacker who uses her near-omnipotent mastery of cyberspace to compensate for...
October 2010
5 posts
2 tags
1 tag
Paying for (short) content: Amazon to publish... →
Ars Technica:
Amazon is rolling out a separate section of its Kindle store meant for shorter content—meatier than long-form journalism, but shorter than a typical book. Called “Kindle Singles,” the content will be distributed like other Kindle books but will likely fall between 10,000 and 30,000 words, or the equivalent of a few chapters from a novel.
This is a really good idea.