Simple to sum-up, and probably a devil to deliver: I’d like a way to automatically post all the pages I have as tabs in my browser to my del.icio.us. LazyWeb, hear my call…
S.H.I.E.L.D. gets support in Edinburgh
S.H.I.E.L.D. gets support in Edinburgh
Originally uploaded by blackbeltjones.
On the Grassmarket in Edinburgh, where I was staying last week, some wag had been chalking slogans of support for S.H.I.E.L.D. – the UNCLE/NATO-alike global security organisation in the Marvel Universe.
More curiously, they also seemed to have a thing for Solomon Kane, the dour puritan-swordsman hero of Robert E. Howard‘s pen.
On visiting wikipedia to find that REH link, I spy that today is the anniversary of Virginia Dare’s birthday and hence also the disappearance of the Roanoke colony…
Hell, yes.
Preacher Sterling sermonises Siggraph:
“Having conquered the world made of bits, you need to reform the world made of atoms. Not the simulated image on the screen, but corporeal, physical reality. Not meshes and splines, but big hefty skull-crackingly solid things that you can pick up and throw. That’s the world that needs conquering. Because that world can’t manage on its own. It is not sustainable, it has no future, and it needs one.
It is going to get one from you.
Now let me briefly tell you how I think this process will play out.
Listen to this: ProE, FormZ, Catia, Rhino, Solidworks. Wifi, bluetooth, WiMax. Radio frequency ID chips. Global and local positioning systems. Digital inventory systems. Cradle-to-cradle production methods. Design for disassembly. Social software, customer relations management. Open source manufacturing.
These jigsaw pieces are snapping together. They create a picture, the picture of a new and different kind of physicality. It’s a new relationship between humans and objects.”
Can I get a…
Hell.
Yes.
It’s a tubthumping tour-de-force arguing for tangible computing, transparent technological change and sustainable society. Oh, and “Spimes”.
See also McCullough’s “Digital Ground” (or Andrew’s excellent review), and my “Remap” riff.
» When Blobjects Rule the Earth by Bruce Sterling
[via foe’s del.icio.us]
EIGF: Day two: Peripherals: “reaching out”
Really enjoyed the panel on peripherals, and tangible/embodied interaction unsuprisingly perhaps. It also gets bonus points for showing lovely pictures of peripherals past, like the colecovision steering wheel, the microswitch and metal ‘slik-stick’; and even more impressively namechecking McLuhan and paraphrasing Russ Meyer / Silverfish at the end.
Rough notes below:
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EIGF: Day two: “The Hollywood Model”
First panel, lead by the bloody-mary mixing Seamus Blackley, made some interesting points about process and organisation in creative industries. Rough notes below, but I’ll just pick out an interchange between Blackley and Neil Young of EA/Maxis:
“NY: EA: interdiscplinary ‘pods’ of 5-25 moving towards ‘cells’ of 7 “magical number” organising like a social network.
SB: the structure you’re describing is Hollywood, except no one company owns all the talent.
Hollywood is a social network. the ‘meet and greet’ you introduce two creative people simply to see if they will get along. a very serious meeting.
If there is a spark then the infrastructure is built very quickly around that to turn it into a creative team. if there is a shared understanding of a common process across an industry, then the need for one company to own all the talent disappates, this allows flexibility and creativity.”
Foo-camp for designers
Andrew Otwell has announced a ‘homebrew’ style event, much in (un)structure like Dave Winer’s bloggercons, with “activities” like the O’Reilly FOOcamps.
Called Design Engaged, it’s happening in November 2004, in Amsterdam. I’m going to try my hardest to get there – should be excellent.
The gun of the future
While at the games festival in Scotland, this preview of the overlap of gaming, conflict and animal rights from one of Scotland’s finest living sons [via LinkMachineGo]
See also Patrick Farley’s “Spiders”.
And also about a 100,000 articles about games and the US armed forces.
EIGF: Panel: Virtual Cash- New World Order
The panelists
EIGF: Virtual cash – new world order
Rough notes from panel produced by Aleks K from The Guardian Gamesblog, and chaired by Ren Reynolds of Terranova fame.
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EIGF: Keynote: Games are the new rock and roll
Here at the Edinburgh International Games Festival and just seen an invigorating keynote by Steve Schnur, head of music for EA.
Basically his pitch is that games are the new medium for the promulgation and promotion of popular music.
A choice quote:
“In a typical EA sports game: songs rotate 2x an hour of gameplay, and games are approx 50 hours of game play. A song featured in fifa will be played 700million times… more than any no.1 record in any country.
Here are my rough notes:
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Petafloptimism 