Posts by matt

As we await the posting of Robin’s 24-Hour Comic — entitled M — we can tide ourselves over with actual jpeg evidence that Saheli‘s gone insane. In a good way, natch.

Updated to say: ToastyKen is totally right.

I finally gave in and looked at Processing.org, the programming language for artists, and spent a good few hours today agape at the beauty and creativity on display in the exhibitions. Then I encountered Moovl, which stopped me in my tracks.

Remember the Soda Constructor? Well, they’ve taken that and made it mindblowing.

Moovl applies the laws of physics to your doodles. Remember that Gamespy article about Spore, Will Wright’s new game? The article describes character creation in Spore thusly:

The 3D version of the creature editor was amazing, in that the creature was totally configurable. You could stretch and pull and tug or fatten it any way you liked, almost like working with clay. More importantly, you could add functional elements, like heads, mouths, eyes, tails, fins, claws, even legs and feet. Wright proceeded to add not two, but three legs to his creature. Then he let it loose.

Now, suddenly, his creature could walk. And he did so — he walked right out of the sea and onto the land. This incredible moment in the history of evolution was made even more remarkable by the technology behind it: the game had figured out, procedurally, how a creature would walk if it had three legs (it was a kind of lopsided gait, if you’re curious, with three steps: left, right, then middle.) No 3D modeler created the creature, and no 3D animator was required to make it move around — it was all created out of a gamer’s whim and a computer program smart enough to make it work.

Moovl can basically do that. Not in 3D, but it’s cool enough in 2D that I don’t mind that right now. Draw a hilariously simple doodle of a three-legged blob, train three of the feet to move, and voila, you’ve got a creature.

The official site is targeted to children, and the examples there aren’t very inspiring, even though the applet’s slightly better. I prefer the pared-down version and its examples over at Processing, especially “lovehurts” and “fistycuffs.”

Part of what’s amazing to me is how much those simple doodles in motion seem to suggest narratives. The story and the interactivity unite in these very logical rules and relationships which you have the power to build on or alter.

Something tells me that’s going to be the storytelling model that ultimately turns video games inside out.

Read more…

I was going to post a link to Steven Johnson’s excellent NYT Magazine article called “Watching TV Makes You Smarter.” Now I’ll up the ante by also posting a link to a thought experiment on his blog where he asks what today’s video game detractors would have said if video games had come before books. Both well worth reading.

Want to redesign NYTimes.com? (Via Matt Haughey’s blog.)

That is all. (Via.)

Kevin is the latest to call my attention to a story that’s been roiling the gay blogosphere. Microsoft, long beloved of gays for its progressive partnership policies, done did us wrong (in the eyes of many) by “withdrawing its support for a state bill that would have barred discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.”

Thing is, this isn’t a straightforward “cruel, giant corporation screws oppressed minority” story. This is more like “giant corporation declines to back legislation preventing cruel majority from screwing oppressed minority,” which makes it a bit murkier in my view. Why?

As gay MeFite dirtynumbangelboy points out in the related MetaFilter thread, progressives usually decry corporate muddling in politics. That MS is stepping out of the legislative fray rather than throwing its dirty corporate weight around should give us cheer, right?

While I don’t know that there are any progressives out there who want corporations to have no voice in civil affairs, I do think this is a matter best decided by the Washington state legislature, not Microsoft. A solid, coherent progressive strategy on this front might be to say, “Oh, so you’re withdrawing your voice on legislation now? How about you dial down your attacks on some of these antitrust laws then?” I have a sneaky suspicion that using this to rally for Microsoft’s greater withdrawal from public affairs would have a more positive effect than excoriating them for dooming this bill.

It’s not Microsoft’s fault that employers can still discriminate against gays in Washington, it’s the fault of the legislature. Let’s not forget that.

Douglas Rushkoff, who’s only the coolest ever, not only has a new book coming out (via), but also has a book available as a PDF online — Open Source Democracy: How Online Communication Is Changing Offline Politics.

Lexicon is a game in which you and your fellow players create an encyclopedia for a world that doesn’t exist. For example. (Via.)

Cross-posted from the Beehive, ’cause I’m just that lame, sorry.

Tucked into The Fresno Bee‘s wire feed is this nugget — The Gap will be opening a new chain targeted to boomer women, called … wait for it … “Forth & Towne.”

From the press release:

“We created an address with the name ‘Forth & Towne,’

because we wanted it to evoke a sense of place — to signify a special

and unique shopping destination,” explained Gary Muto President, Forth & Towne. “‘Forth’ references our fourth brand, and ‘Towne’ conveys a sense of community that we want to create for our customers when they shop with us.”

Would it be snarky to point out that they misspelled both “fourth” and “town”? I’m sure they’ll correct that oversight by the store’s fall launch.

“Fitting rooms will be at the center of the store, with ‘neighborhoods’ of merchandise around them,” Gap CEO and President Paul Pressler told the AP.

Oh! Cu-ute! So the checkout counter will be sort of like ‘City Hall,’ and the sales racks will be the ‘crack slums,’ right? And instead of mopping the store, it’ll be like ‘neighborhood beautification’ or whatever. I can’t wait to shop there. Oh wait, I’m not a boomer woman. Totally forgot. Just over-enthusiastic.

In addition: Steve at the other snark blog points out that the F&T ampersand just dodges what would be a very unfortunate acronym, given the store’s target demographic.

Actually, Dijjer.org says,

You don’t need to install anything. Just put a file on your site as you normally do, but add “http://www.dijjer.org/get/” to the beginning of your links. …

When they click a Dijjer link, users will get some of the file from your website, but most of it will come from other people running Dijjer. That’s how you save bandwidth. And when someone clicks on the link who hasn’t used Dijjer before, they’ll get help installing it. After that, downloads happen seamlessly inside their web browser.

Via TRFJ.