EDIT: THQ tell Eurogamer that they still hold 40K rights, so Creative Assembly are taking the Fantasy road. Skaven: Total Warhammer!
The distant rumble on the horizon is the sound of gathering forces. Specifically The Creative Assembly and the Games Workshop. Sega has just announced that the former has set up a special development team to work on the latter’s IP. This is like Everest climbing K2.
(more…)
The 2012 White House Holiday Card, designed by artist Larassa Kabel.
The 2012 White House Holiday card has arrived. And this year's card spotlights the beloved First Family's dog, Bo.
The card was designed by Larassa Kabel, a professional artist from Des Moines, Iowa. Ms. Kabel has been creating photorealistic prints, paintings and drawings for the past 8 years and was featured as a solo artist in the Des Moines Art Center's Iowa Artist Show in 2009, the Iowa Artist 2010 group show and many other solo and group shows in Iowa, Michigan, Texas, Florida and New York. Her work is in several private and corporate collections including Aviva, Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the World Food Prize headquarters. She also has a much-loved dog at home, which is why she chose to feature Bo in this year’s White House Holiday card.
To learn more:
Established in 1963, Weight Watchers is the world's leading provider of weight management services through a points system that assigns a number to each different food and caps your intake at a certain amount of points — so, say, you can eat 10 points a day, you can spend them on steamed chicken, broccoli, and wheat rice, or you could just eat a fucking doughnut. It's more complex than that (and you can read a great article on Wired about how their point system has evolved). There are approximately 1.3 million members around the world who attend a whopping 45,000 combined meetings each week through a network of company-owned and franchise operations. Additionally, Weight Watchers produces its own branded food products, consumed at a rate of $5 billion last year. Earlier this month, Weight Watchers launched a new program called Weight Watchers 360° and with it came a new identity designed by Pentagram partner Paula Scher.
As part of the program overhaul and looking forward to the next 50 years, Weight Watchers also gave its brand a new, highly modern visual system that brings to life the transformation members experience when they adopt a new lifestyle that can lead to significant weight loss.
— Weight Watchers Press Release
Monogram version.
The new identity features a friendly, accessible logotype with the Weight Watchers name set in lowercase. The logotype appears in a gradient that visibly lightens from left to right, embodying the idea of transformation and losing weight. […] Gradation is an essential element of the entire program, symbolizing change. In addition to the grayscale gradient of the primary logotype, the gradation appears in the primary palette of five bright, bold colors. In horizontal elements, the gradation appears from left to right; in vertical elements like logomark, from top to bottom. The transition may also use multiple colors, appearing as a dual gradation, but always moving from dark to light.
— Pentagram case study.
Logos for the Weight Watchers 360° and PointsPlus programs.
Other stuff, in gradients.
The infamous point system.
The old logo wasn't anything terribly exciting and despite its triple-swoosh it wasn't as annoying as one would expect; perhaps because of the more dead-serious typography that gave it a clinical look. The new logo and identity represent Weight Watcher's effort to an "integrated marketing and communications strategy to position the company as a lifestyle brand." In contrast with the old logo and in tune with today's friendly-tization of corporate wordmarks, the new logo meets all the qualifications — lowercase, rounded, huggable — for a more consumer-friendly mark. Based on Jeremy Mickel's Fort type family, the new wordmark extends from here into the next block with a very horizontal presence; it's a nice, long wordmark, very nicely spaced, especially with the left-handed trimming of the crossbar of the "t" giving the counterspaces a great rhythm that you can only achieve with long names. But then there is the gradient. It signifies transformation. Sorry, but no. Transformation means change. Dramatic change. If you were to read into the wordmark and its gradient you would see the same bold (fat!) letters just dressed in different shades of gray but it's still the same "structure" underneath. I'm not saying the solution is the obvious heavy-letters-to-ultra-light-letters wordmark — see yesterday's post about obvious — but for someone as typographically and metaphorically gifted as Scher I really doubt that a gradient was the best possible way to communicate transformation. Were there more daring options presented? I'm pretty sure. Was this the safest? Most likely.
So if you like gradients, this identity is for you. If you don't, then it's a drag. I think there is a point where you have to stop with the gradients. This is gradients on every single thing. And while it works and would be a distinguishable trait on the main wordmark — where its length at least allows for a loooong, stretched out gradient (see the stationery as an example of how nice it actually does look once you get past gradient preconceptions) as opposed to how clunky it looks on the WW monogram — putting it on every trademarked or servicemarked word that comes out of Weight Watchers it becomes repetitive and expected. Where the idea of the gradient works best, and actually looks really nice, is when it's from one color to another, as seen in the printed material below against stark white backgrounds and the logo in color.
Overall, it's a nice upgrade, especially when it comes to application. But the gradient as transformation is just not something I buy into.
Welcome kit and enrollment books.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
--Dog shows
Rose competitions
Obituaries
4-H fairs
Junior rodeos
--"One interesting feature of Communities is that you can share into them from the web using the +1 button. As the promo video demonstrates, if you belong to the foodies Community and find a fun recipe on a random website, you can hit the +1 button and then chose to share with just that Community."
still no
Reader or Die
Today Google+ is announcing its first major new product, Communities, which lets users create groups, organize, and communicate around their interests. It's a clear effort to define Google+ against competitors like Facebook and Twitter. It's not about organizing around friends and family or following your interests in real time. It's an online hub where people, both friends and strangers, can congregate around topics of interest, post their own thoughts, and chat in real time with Google+ Hangouts.
As part of the announcement, Google+ also provides some new stats, writing that, "more than 500 million people have upgraded to Google+, 235 million are active across Google (+1'ing apps in Google Play, hanging out in Gmail, writing reviews...
--huh
Astromech Droid by Steve Thomas
Who Shot First? at Ltd. Art Gallery is their second annual Star Wars themed art show that will feature a variety of talented artist’s unique views taken from the classic films. The opening reception party will be on Thursday, December 13th from 6 to 10 PM and the art show will be on display until Sunday, January 27th, 2013 at Ltd. Art Gallery in Seattle. Costumed characters courtesy of the 501st Legion, special complimentary “Mos Eisley Cantina” drinks and giveaways sponsored by Nintendo will be only a few of the festivities taking place during the opening reception party.
Featured artists:
Steve Thomas, Barry Blankenship, Craig Drake, Michael Fleming, Kim Gordon, Blunt Graffix, Eric Kirchmer, Aaron Jasinksi, MIKEATRON!, Augie Pagan, Devi Pellerin, Brian Rood, Wade Schin, Clarke Snyder, Cat Staggs, Suckadelic, Christian Waggoner, Jayson Weidel, Andrew Wilson, and Wednesday Wolf.
Stormtrooper by Christian Waggoner
That’s No Moon by Jason Christman
images via Ltd. Art Gallery and credited artists
Requested by Jonathan Boucher • Compiled by PF
It sounds like you don’t have enough pent-up rage. Have a conversation with an extreme right-wing conservative and then play the following mix at maximum volume, preferably while reading the lyrics. Then you will understand punk.
01. Fugazi - “The Waiting Room” (13 Songs)
02. Dead Kennedys - “Holiday in Cambodia” (Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables)
03. Wire - “Three Girl Rhumba” (Pink Flag)
04. Minutemen - “Storm in My House” (Double Nickels On The Dime)
05. Gang of Four - “Natural’s Not In It” (Entertainment!)
06. Black Flag - “Rise Above” (Damaged)
07. The Clash - “I’m So Bored With The USA” (The Clash)
08. Ramones - “Judy Is A Punk” (Ramones)
09. The Sex Pistols - “Anarchy In The U.K.” (Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols)
10. Crass - “Do They Owe Us A Living?” (The Feeding of the 5000)
11. Hüsker Dü - “Turn On The News” (Zen Arcade)
12. The Stooges - “1970” (Fun House)
13. D.O.A. - “General Strike” (Punk Rock Singles 1978-1999)
14. Sleater-Kinney - “I Wanne Be Your Joey Ramone” (Call The Doctor)
15. Minor Threat - “Minor Threat” (Minor Threat EP)
16. The Jam - “Going Underground” (B-side of Dreams of Children single)
17. OFF! - “Broken” (First Four EPs)
18. The Replacements - “Unsatisfied” (Let It Be)
19. Bad Brains - “Banned In D.C.” (Bad Brains)
In the United States, there are about 11,500 births and 6,800 deaths every day — and to demonstrate what that would look like on a country-wide scale, Nowhere Near Ithica has created a real-time simulation that shows when and where both stages of life occur. In order to create the simulation, data from the United States Census Bureau was used to determine the birth and death rates per thousands, which was then made to correspond to the populations of each county to decide where they would take place. While the simulation isn't an exact representation of what is happening at the very moment, it's interesting to see the statistics visualized in a detailed map of the country.
Two individual rights that are protected by the US Constitution an the French Declaration of the Rights of Man are that when men work hard, they get paid more, but if they don’t work hard, they get the same amount of money as the women.
Somebody took a picture of their dog everyday for a year kinda like that video on YouTube and it’s so cute :3
PUPPY TURNS INTO A DOGGY!
Cutest gif in the world
HE’S SO HAPPY ON HIS FIRST BIRTHDAY OMG LOOK AT HIM!
AWWWWW!
--"Vastly superior to Belize jails. I asked for a computer and one magically appeared. The coffee is also excellent." 4 stars on Yelp
UPDATE: John McAfee was rushed from jail to the hospital after suffering two mild heart attacks, his lawyer confirmed to Reuters. Whether the heart attacks delay attempts to extradite McAfee to Belize isn't clear, but Guatemalan officials seem intent on deporting him. A spokesman for the immigration department said "immediate deportation had been ruled out," but Reuters quoted two other Guatemalan officials saying they intend to deport McAfee. "He entered the country illegally and we are going to seek his expulsion for this crime," Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla said, according to the Reuters report. Another government spokesman named Francisco Cuevas also said McAfee will be expelled to Belize.
Original story follows:
John McAfee, the fugitive software company founder who is wanted by authorities in relation to a murder in Belize, was arrested in Guatemala today for "entering the country illegally," the Associated Press reported.
Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Mom was right. There really is nothing between your ears. Why did the test subject jump through the lady's head? To reach the cake on the other side! $12.99
--shit
Be always protected by the power of the Triforce and the Hylian Shield! We're sorry for the inconvenience, but the fictional currency of the Zelda universe is not an acceptable form of money... you'll have to pay in American dollars if you want this. $69.99
Senator Al Franken (D-MN), chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, plans to reintroduce legislation that would require companies to obtain express consent from users before collecting, obtaining, or sharing the location data from mobile phones. The Location Privacy Protection Act of 2012 would require location data handlers to disclose what information is collected and allow inform users about how to opt-out of data collection and sharing. In a statement provided by his office, Senator Franken warned of ubiquitous "personal tracking devices" and said that "the law allows companies to collect and disclose our location information without our knowledge and consent." In the senator's fact sheet about the...
--"VICE traveled to South America to document McAfee's run from the law, accidentally publishing a cellphone picture with embedded GPS data"
VICE ruins everything, even bad things. Maybe especially bad things
After three weeks on the lam, John McAfee, the computer programmer and founder of the McAfee security software company, has been arrested by Guatemalan authorities for illegally entering the country, reports Reuters. McAfee is wanted for questioning in the murder of his neighbor, 52-year-old Gregory Faull. VICE traveled to South America to document McAfee's run from the law, accidentally publishing a cellphone picture with embedded GPS data, CBS News reported . The data revealed that 67-year-old McAfee had managed to make it across the Belizean border to Guatemala, where he applied for political asylum in a press conference earlier today. AFP reported that McAfee appeared alongside his newly-retained lawyer, Telesforo Guerra, the former...
Aurich Lawson
Three weeks ago, Jack Friedman got a call from a man with an Indian accent claiming to be from the Windows technical team at Microsoft. Friedman, a Florida resident who is my friend Elliot's grandfather, was told by "Nathan James" from Windows that he needed to renew his software protection license to keep his computer running smoothly. "He said I had a problem with my Microsoft system," Friedman told me. "He said they had a deal for $99, they would straighten out my computer and it will be like brand new."
Friedman's three-year-old Windows Vista computer was running a bit slow, as many PCs do. Friedman is often suspicious of unsolicited calls, but after talking with Nathan on the phone and exchanging e-mails, he says, "I figured he was a legitimate guy." Friedman handed over his Capital One credit card number, and the "technician" used remote PC support software to root around his computer for a while, supposedly fixing whatever was wrong with it.
"I could see my arrow going all over the place and clicking different things on my computer," Friedman said. But that $99 Capital One credit card charge turned into a $495 wire transfer. Then Bank of America's fraud department called Friedman, and said, "somebody is trying to get into your account." Whoever it was had entered the wrong password multiple times, and as a precaution Friedman's checking account was shut down.
Read 35 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Segazine is looking hot, if these submissions to the upcoming black and white publication are anything to go by. The artists behind these pieces, in order of appearance:
There’s no guarantee that all of the illustrations will appear in the zine, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of these make the cut. You can follow Segazine’s progress and purchase a copy when they go on sale here.
BUY Sega game collections
Explodingdog Gelaskins for your iPhone, laptop and almost everything else.
Thanks for supporting Explodingdog
awesome
Sam
Did you know that you can create your own panels for Photoshop & InDesign simply via drag & drop—no coding required? Sure, of course you did. But here Jonathan Ferman shows how to take things to the next level & submit those creations for sale/sharing:
Learn about the different applications available to let you create or package content and products for Adobe Exchange. This video also shows the product submission process, to easily submit your products to Adobe Exchange. Start submitting products today.
Jonathan has also written a post about integrating HTML to drive Photoshop from a panel.
--To play the Devil's Advocate, there's more than one politically notable Clinton.
To shoot the Devil's Advocate in the face, only one is eligible to run for president.
Hey, kids! What's that word for when, you know, you call all the girls by their first name and all the boys by their last name?--uh
According to a Marketwire press release, restaurant chain Pizza Hut Canada has created a very limited-edition Pizza Hut Perfume, a fragrance that smells like “freshly baked, hand-tossed dough.” Only 110 bottles of this unique fragrance were created and they were given to fans of the Pizza Hut Canada Facebook page who shared “their desire for Pizza Hut perfume” in a September 2012 promotion.
When we say “Limited Edition Perfume” we mean LIMITED! The first run is entirely gone. Stay tuned though! #PizzaHutPerfume
— Pizza Hut Canada (@PizzaHutCanada) December 5, 2012
image via Marketwire
via PSFK
--"without code, you can't make a game, right?"
uh
(gets back to work on RPG Superstar)
In today's Gamasutra feature, artist Jay Weston writes about how he was able to ship his first iOS game with almost no programming thanks to using a Unity plugin called Playmaker, and he details the process. ...
--Raspberry PipBoy! Put some 3G and GPS on that motherfucker and take my fucking money!
Christmas presents
Apparently, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. We have been thinking about what to get for the Raspberry Pi owner in your life. Happily, MakeZine have done the hard work for us, and have come up with a terrific gift guide. Head over and check it out – once, of course, you’ve stopped by our own store and bought your Raspberry Pi fan a branded t-shirt, lovingly hand-knitted from Santa’s beard hair by elves*. All profits on the shirts go to support the charitable work of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
*Details about t-shirt production may or may not be strictly speaking true.
Baby monitor
Here’s something I’ve been hoping one of you would produce for a while now. If you’ve got kids, you’ll know that many baby monitors are disgustingly expensive bits of kit, whose price remains as high as it is in a pretty unpleasant bit of exploitation of the fear and worry that every new parent experiences. So I was really pleased to see Matt Kaar, a Pi owner from Virginia, make his own networked, high-fidelity monitor from a Pi and a USB microphone. He’s very pleased with the results: “You can hear a pin drop.” You can follow Matt’s detailed instructions on his website if you’d like to make your own. (Thanks very much for responding to my request to write about it, Matt!)
These are all the parts you’ll need to make your own. Matt says the whole setup was “easier than I’d thought” – this is a project that even beginners will be able to approach.
I’m sure that once the $25 camera board is released in the new year we’ll start to see some cheap camera monitors being hacked too.
Plan 9
We’re very pleased to see that Plan 9 has been ported to the Pi. Plan 9 is an open-source Unix-type operating system, which was originally developed at Bell Labs as a research OS. What’s particularly interesting about Plan 9 is that everything behaves like a file, whether it’s a local or a network resource. We recommend you have a play with it!
Glenda, the Plan 9 bunny
You can download an image for your SD card, alongside documentation and a pdf newbie’s guide.
Raspberry Pipboy
More than a year ago, people on our forums started talking about using the Raspberry Pi in a very specific piece of cosplay. If you’ve played Fallout, you’ll know that no self-respecting apocalypse survivor goes anywhere without her Pipboy. People were wondering whether a Raspberry Pi could be used to drive a working piece of costume, perhaps with a GPS, and definitely with a small screen and lots of blinkenlights.
I thought that particular thread of conversation had died quietly: I was wrong. Ryan Grieve has made a really nice example using a car reversing panel, a tub of polymer pellets, a handful of leds and an Adafruit cobbler.
His Pipboy has functionality including a world map, local map, radio and a twitter client – or at least it did before some shonky home-wiring caused the whole arrangement to burst into flames. Happily, the Pi survived, and photos were taken before the disaster. Ryan also has code so you can put your own together – just please be more careful with the wiring if you make one yourself. Electricity’s not a toy, kids.
Good luck in fixing her back together, Ryan! We congratulate you on your flameproofness.
Gasser
Here’s a project with a more practical application. Gasser is a Pi-based, networked, mobile pollutant sensor for detecting nitrogen dioxide, ozone and sulphur dioxide, developed in Paris.
Gasser v2 prototype
This self-contained unit’s BOM cost comes in at €255 (the majority of that cost is taken up by the very accurate sensor); this is cheaper and smaller than equivalent devices – and it’s still only a prototype! We wish LaboCitoyen all success with the project; it’s great to see a Pi being used to make our cities healthier places.
Cookies
Like Raspberry Pi? Like 3D printing? Like biscuits? (OK, Americans: cookies.) This Thingiverse cookie cutter pattern from Tesla’s Moustache also comes with a recipe to make your own dough.
Learn about relays
Alex from RasPi.tv has some video to show you how to use relays to turn what he calls “useful, real, BIG things” like fans and lamps on and off, according to environmental conditions – too hot and the fan will turn on, too dark and the lamp will turn on. You can also hook the devices up to the network, so you can use a connected device, like your phone, to turn them on and off; and just because he can, Alex has also added some sound effects. This is a great tutorial. If you’re interested in learning about physical computing, it’s well worth watching this video and reading Alex’s blog post. RasPi.tv has plenty of other fun tutorials – I recommend you spend a few minutes browsing through the collection!
RC LEGO car
Finally, here’s a project to use up some of the LEGO you’ve been asking for for Christmas. Tom Rees has instructions on building a remote-controlled LEGO car, steered with an Xbox controller.
--ppht
Two new policies going into effect today on Facebook are making it a lot less convenient for developers to launch games outside the social network.
The policies, which were announced back in August, send a clear message to developers that, going forward, Facebook.com is the only place to play social games online.
Over the past few months, the social network has been working hard at wooing game developers, including hosting a sushi dinner with some of its top publishers. It also created a lot of goodwill last week when it signed a new agreement with Zynga that takes away some of the social game company’s special privileges. But the changes taking place today are more of a strong-arm tactic designed to ensure that game developers stay on their platform.
The new terms will only affect a small number of game developers, and interestingly, one of the companies that will be hardest hit is Zynga.
Here’s the deal: Starting today, game developers will be prohibited from accessing Facebook’s open graph on other platforms. For instance, if a game player has elected to log in using his or her Facebook credentials, developers won’t be able to access that person’s friend list. However, game developers will be able to continue publishing news items to a Facebook user’s stream.
Facebook spokeswoman Malorie Lucich said very few developers were using the provision anyway. “The majority of online social game activity is happening on Facebook.com and with Facebook on mobile platforms, and not on desktop Web sites,” she said. “As a result, we are putting our resources toward canvas [Facebook on the Web] and mobile gaming, where the most demand is.”
In a second provision, the social network is clamping down on the ability of developers to use Facebook.com to drive traffic to external Web sites. For example, when a person searches for a game on Facebook.com or gets an invitation from a friend, he or she can no longer be taken off the site. The exact wording of the provisions can be viewed here.
Clearly, these two steps keep developers focused on building for the Facebook canvas and not for other sites. It’s also worth noting that these new provisions only apply to games, which is how Facebook makes most of its revenue from payments. The provisions will not apply to other companies that have also integrated the open graph into their services. For example, if you log in to TripAdvisor with your Facebook credentials, you can see hotel reviews that your friends have written. A social commerce company like Wrapp, which allows you to send gifts to your friends, has done a similar integration with its mobile app.
Zynga will be affected most by these new provisions since it has worked the hardest at building out a standalone game network at Zynga.com. Zynga allows players coming to its site to log in using their Facebook credentials. Once signed in, Zynga asks players to invite their friends to play and frequently prompts players to send gifts to friends or to ask for help. Based on the changes being made today, Zynga will no longer be able to tap into a person’s friend graph, and instead will need to build up a network of gamers independently.
Facebook confirmed that Zynga will have more time to make the changes on Zynga.com “in order to ensure a smooth transition,” given that the ink is still drying on the contract the two companies signed last week.
Before last week, Zynga would have been exempt from these new provisions. Under the previous terms, Zynga had agreed to use Facebook payments on Zynga.com, which would give the social network 30 percent of all of its revenue. Facebook also was granted the option of handling all the Web site’s advertising. Now Zynga will have a lot more financial flexibility, but it will also now have to comply with the new terms like every other developer.
--Because IT is getting cheaper to train, the job market is thicker with people seeking IT work, and outsourcing is putting pressure on wages?
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
--"Thank you Adobe for the lack of gamepad support in Flash."
Over a year after releasing the demo, the sidescrolling roguelike-like Red Rogue by Aaron Steed hits browsers Kongregate and Newgrounds and is available to download for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Heck, you can even host the game yourself.
In addition to alluring, minimal graphics, Red Rogue has minimal inputs, making it very easy to get into. The dark world illuminates as you and your minion walk around, shove-kill enemies, and level up with just using the arrow keys. The full release also includes a Dogmatic Mode, where time only passes when you're moving or holding down a button.
The developer is taking coffee-equivalent donations, so why not give him money to buy a vending machine cupful or spoil him with a White Russian?
[Thanks, Free Indie Games]
--wrong, fuck off
Time Warner Cable announced that it will bring its metered broadband offer nationwide, leaving many consumers with an inkling of common sense to ask the question: "Why?" The Time Warner broadband plan, called "Internet Essentials," gives a meager $5 discount to subscribers willing to stay below a 5 GB data cap each month.
