Geppettofedora

Mew-Genics is an upcoming Team Meat production focused on cats: Cat breeding, cat sex, the horrors of cat genetic manipulation and, as the below .gif demonstrates, the adorably icky parts of cat birth. Though the cloud of afterbirth is a nice touch, ...

Here in this modern world, you talk to your friends over all kinds of different media: SMS, Facebook, Twitter DMs, GChat, and maybe even AIM if you're really old. These conversations aren't ephemeral and disposable, they are your life, and you want to save them forever. You don't just throw your letters in the trash. You might want them some day.

Unfortunately, you and your friends have become beholden to third-party corporations who don't give a shit about preserving your data. That's because you're not the customer, you're the product. You already knew that, but you go along with it anyway, because frankly you don't have much choice.

I've fixed that for you. Mostly. Here's what I've got:

• sms-backup-iphone ~/Documents/SMS\ Messages/

  This extracts the SMSes from your iPhone backup database, and saves them to a local directory. This only works if you back up your iPhone to "This Computer" rather than to iCloud.

• facebook-rss.pl --messages $USER ~/Documents/FB\ Messages/

  This backs up your Facebook direct messages to a local directory. It only gets things in your Facebook "Inbox" folder, not things that have been shuffled off to the "Other" folder. I'd like to back that up too but I can't figure out how to read it through the API. But you probably never look in that folder anyway.

  You have to create your own "Facebook App" to make this work. It's a pain in the ass. Do that, then run this script once with --generate-session.

• twit-backup.pl --user $USER ~/Documents/Twitter\ Messages/

  This backs up your Twitter direct messages to a local directory.

  You have to create your own "Twitter App" to make this work. It's a pain in the ass. Do that, then run this script once with --generate-session.

  This will only archive about a year's worth of your DMs. As far as I can tell, DMs older than that are completely inaccessible to you now, even via the Twitter web interface. They're just gone now. You missed them.

  This is why you need backups: because companies like Twitter pull shit like that. All the time.

  (Though Twitter provides a way to download an archive of your public posts, that archive does not include any of your DMs. And the guy who wrote that code quit, so don't expect this feature to be updated again, ever.)

• AIM, GChat, Jabber, IRC and whatnot:

  If you use Adium for all the protocols that it supports, it does an adequate job of archiving everything (in "Library/Application Support/Adium 2.0/Users/Default/Logs/"). The interface for accessing those logs is a pain in the ass, and searching has never worked reliably, but at least the bits are there.

  If you use Adium for Facebook Messages, it archives those just fine, but if you ever reply to someone using the FB web site or phone app, Adium will only see and archive their half of the conversation, so that's no good. Thus you still need the FB archiver, above.

Remember: if it's not on a drive that is in your physical possession, it's not really yours.

Previously, previously, previously.

This comic is most definitely based on real life experience. You might remember that I live in a four cat home. Yeah, a four. cat. home. When I lived alone, my two cats were perfect. I had Turk who was my always awesome, very personable cat.. and I had JD, my skittish, schizophrenic cat that managed to keep Turk company while I was at work. When I got married and moved in with Shell, she came with her two cats, Princess and Batman as well – Turning us into those crazy new people in the neighborhood who are always carrying boxes of cat litter into their garage. So now, we live in a house where there is ALWAYS a cat getting into something. I swear, every room you walk into, you see a cat doing something they’re not supposed to be doing. They’re like big, hairy cockroaches. You turn on … Continue reading →

Simple chat program using near ultrasonic frequencies. Works without Wifi or Bluetooth and won't show up in a pcap.

Note: If you can clearly hear the send script working then your speakers may not be high quality enough to produce sounds in the near ultrasonic range.

Warning: May annoy some animals and humans.

Previously, previously, previously.

PS Plus subscribers can download two different free games this week when the PlayStation Store updates tomorrow. Don't Starve will be up for grabs on PS4, while PS3 users can try DmC: Devil May Cry. Don't Starve, from Klei Entertainment, is an ...

Escape, a short film released in October of 2012, is making a comeback, only this time as a feature-length production called Princess In Another Castle. The original film told the story of a young girl who escaped real-world teasing, trouble with ...

Date(s): January 5, 2014

Address: Silo Gallery at Hunt Hill Farm, 44 Upland Rd., New Milford, CT 06776.

Details:

To celebrate the season kick-off, The Silo Cooking School is offering a "live" chance to experience some of the fun, culinary tastes and tradition of the post-Edwardian era depicted in the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants.

Hey, it worked.  Can’t deny the results.

bonus panel

Summing up years of work in one sentence.

Pretty much all of these are amazing.

Shooting people makes them unhappy.
International Security, Tufts

Female condoms are cool. Also, Foucault.
Anthropology, Brown

We dug a lot of holes and still don't know if measuring beryllium in dirt is useful, but it does cost a lot of money.
Geology, Amherst College

Looking for a reason to give up on humanity? Study climate change. That shit isn't changing back.
Environmental Studies, New York University

A mathematical theory of discarding irrelevant crap when making a team decision.
Electrical Engineering, Stanford University

Went fishing for proteins associated with cancer... still fishing.
Chemistry and Chemical Biology, University of Melbourne

The way fire risk at nuclear plants is assessed is bad and we should feel bad. Also, someone please pay me to fix it.
Reliability Engineering, University of Maryland

You can turn Mill into an anarchist if you really try.
Philosophy, University of Minnesota

Wild chimpanzees drink when they are thirsty
Biology, University of Neuchâtel

Wild chimpanzees may or may not eat honey
Biology, University of Eastern Finland

When a space rock goes in front of a star, you can't see the star again until the rock moves.
Astrophysics, Williams College

I Know It Makes More Sense To Relate Contemporary Appropriation to Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel but I'm Going to Make My Life Much Harder and Relate It to Nude Descending A Staircase
Art History, CUNY

Moby Dick is the hero of 'Moby Dick.'
English, Northwestern

Vortex currents off a wing have weird effects on other wings AKA apparently helicopters shouldn't work.
Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State

Soon enough, we'll all be wearing smocks.
Fashion Design and Management, Parsons The New School for Design

Your Favorite Color is Your Favorite Color Because You Like Things That Are Of That Color
Psychology, Princeton University

Your burial typology is bad, and you should feel bad.
Anthropology, University of Mississippi

Rich douches use Super PACS to buy elections so screw voting, there's no point.
Political Science, University of California, Berkeley.

Art sucks, it doesn't work
Art History, Florida State University

The freezer was too cold and fucked up my sample DNA, so here is 20 pages of literature review.
Biology, Stanford University

Male friends in Shakespeare were actually sex-radical feminists, but only if you're horny.
English, University of Pennsylvania

My code doesn't work. I have no idea why... My code works. I have no idea why.
Computer Science, McGill University

Emily Dickinson wrote about the clitoris a lot, and maybe S&M; people fail to pick up on this because she mostly narrates it through birds.
English, Fordham

Coding is just really intelligent copy-paste.
Computer Science, Illinois

We told the DoD they could put guns on it so they gave us money to build this robot.
Mechanical Engineering, Harvard

Doki-Doki Universe is a game about empathy, and that's weird.

In many of the games I played this year, you often solve problems by shooting people in the face. That, I can handle. In Doki-Doki Universe, your antagonists aren't clearly defined, and your progress is measured by your ability to seek out societal problems and solve them indirectly through non-violent means.

Doki-Doki Universe's gameplay lands somewhere in between Animal Crossing and a Myers-Briggs personality test. It's like nothing else I've ever played, and it's pretty awesome...in a totally weird sort of way.

Continue reading Doki-Doki Universe review: Love machine

Doki-Doki Universe review: Love machine originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 10 Dec 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new living sculpture just went up in the Bristol Central Library called Book Hive that will ultimately consist of 400 "moving" books, one for each year of the library's history. To celebrate the library's 400th anniversary, Bristol's creative robotics collective Rusty Squid, with an award of £90,000 from Arts Council England, designed this interactive installation that blends old books with new technology. The swarm of animated books responds to the movements of the library's visitors, opening and closing in breathtaking patterns. The books are displayed in hexagonal cells, hence the name, Book Hive.

Arts Council England south west director Phil Gibby said: “This is an imaginative and inventive installation that brings together past, present and future in a way that is both thought-provoking and marvelous fun.

“We believe that everyone, particularly children and young people, should have the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts, museums and libraries, and by supporting excellent projects like Book Hive, we can bring together the right partners to commission and create something amazing.”

Book Hive will be displayed at Bristol's Central Library until March 7, 2014. Love art installations that creatively incorporate books like this.

Arts Council website
Photos via [Bristol Culture, Bristol City Council]

Good buddy Nate just published a list of some of his favorite books he read in 2013, which prompted me to want to do the same. Only one or two of these was actually published in 2013, but they’re all relatively new, and they’re all books that I read for the first time this year.

Novels

Unlike my colleague, I make an effort to keep up with contemporary fiction. I’m usually a year or two behind, but I try to read a least a smattering of the books and authors getting the most attention in the literary world.

Let the Great World Spin – I first heard Irish-American (or maybe just Irish living in America) author Colum McCann reading and discussing Benedict Kiely’s Bluebell Meadow on the New Yorker Fiction Podcast. He struck me as both perceptive and insightful, so I read his latest novel and liked it enough to pick up Transatlantic as well. Both were good, but I liked Spin a bit more. It blurs the line a bit between novel and short story, in that it’s a collection of stories told from the perspective of various characters whose lives end up inter-relating. The author masterfully accomplishes the tricky task of inhabiting the heads of a quite diverse set of individuals, and the end result is a very readable and satisfying work.

Salvage the Bones – I expected Jesmyn Ward’s novel to be about Hurricane Katrina, but in fact the storm does not hit until the very end. Instead, it’s a quiet, powerful story about a teenage girl and her brothers living in poverty with their alcoholic father in rural Mississippi. Ward handles some potentially tricky subjects, including race, poverty, and dog-fighting, with admirable nuance.

Middlesex – Speaking of potentially tricky subjects, Geoffrey Eugenides’ novel about a Greek-American hermaphrodite surprised me in a lot of ways. Chief among them was that the novel is not only about Calliope Stephanides her (for most of the book) self, but also the story of her ancestors fleeing Greece and living through several momentous events in 20th century Detroit.

City of Thieves – David Benioff’s short novel about life in Nazi-occupied Russia was enlightening, gripping, and surprisingly funny. The ending is rather pat and left a bad taste in my mouth, but it didn’t make me regret reading the book.

The Fault in Our Stars – This was a last-minute purchase for reading on a plane, and I didn’t realize when I bought it that it’s technically a Young Adult novel. John Green’s novel is a good example of the harm done by that sort of ghettoization, because even as a grown-ass man I enjoyed it. The story of two young lovers who meet in a support group for teens with cancer has some predictably manipulative moments, but they’re undercut by enough cynicism and gallows humor that I enjoyed reading it nevertheless.

Short Fiction

Civil War Land in Bad Decline – I’m lucky to have a brother with an MA in English (well, poetry, but he keeps up with all forms of literature) and a good sense of what I like, or I never would have come across this gem. Although George Saunders’ first collection of short fiction is a little hit or miss, the title story, which centers around a civil war theme park overrun by gangs in a dystopic near-future, blew me away, and there are a few other good ones as well. Saunders has a vision and an off-beat sense of humor comparable to those of David Foster Wallace, but stylistically he’s much less avant-garde. The best of his stories seem all silly and playful and then hit you with an unexpected emotional punch at the end. Saunders is frequently compared to Kurt Vonnegut.

Girl With Curious Hair – As much as I love David Foster Wallace, reading his fiction usually feels like work to me. I never regret reading Wallace, but the final story in this book in particular was a bit of a slog to get through. Still, it’s an incredibly diverse collection, both thematically and stylistically, and Wallace is such a master that it would be hard not to find something you like.

Non-Fiction

I didn’t read many long works of non-fiction this year – actually I didn’t read much non-fiction at all – but a new collection of David Foster Wallace essays was enough to make my year.

Both Flesh and Not – Though not on a par with Supposedly Fun Thing or Consider the Lobster, this posthumous collection of Wallace’s work still contains several of the best essays I’ve ever read. I’m not even remotely a tennis fan, but I was fascinated by the title piece about Roger Federer.

Best American Travel Writing 2012 – I was able to borrow this collection from my local library, but it’s worth paying for. I’d never read anything from this particular series, but I generally like Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays. As good travel writing should, it opened doors to worlds I never knew existed and gave me the vicarious thrill of exploration.

 Poker Books

Playing the Player - Explained with simple, intuitive arguments that an experienced amateur can follow, but sophisticated enough that this old pro learned a thing or two, Playing the Player is quite simply one of the best mass market poker books there is. You can hear Ed discuss this book, and a bunch of other great poker strategy, on Episode 25 of the podcast.

PLO Quick Pro – It’s not cheap, but in the right hands, I expect John Beauprez’s book would pay for itself. For more information, you can check out my review or John’s appearance on the podcast.

 

Uh oh, happy holidays!

Final reminder: The Facebook prints giveaway ends this Wednesday. Go here to enter!

Also, this might be the last Optipess comic – well, of the year, at least. With some luck there’s a chance I will be able to post a comic for next week, but I’m not sure. I guess you’ll have to constantly refresh the page to find out!

This is why we can't have nice cities.

Imagine, just for a moment, that you live in an apartment building that offers a special lunch deal. Every morning the landlords put out a tray of 100 sandwiches for their tenants. They're darn good sandwiches -- each one costs $10 to make. Yet the landlords offer a discount, so that hungry tenants can buy a sandwich for just $3. If you don't want a sandwich, you don't pay anything. But if you do want a sandwich, you get a bargain! Neat, right? [...]

The economics of this crazy system quickly spiral out of control. The landlords lose $7 per day on each of the 60 sandwiches they sell. And they also lose $10 on each of the 40 sandwiches that go to waste. That adds up to $820 in losses on sandwiches each day. Spreading those losses across 80 tenants, the building will need to recoup $300 per month from each tenant just to break even on its below-cost sandwich giveaway. [...]

In fact, she finds, most local governments require building owners to prepare expensive sandwiches for their tenants. Some local rules only call for two sandwiches for every three tenants, others require one sandwich per tenant, and some actually require two sandwiches for every tenant. Moving to a different building could mean paying a little more than $10 a day for unwanted sandwiches, or maybe a little less. But no matter where you live, you'll still pay for sandwiches you don't eat.

Previously, previously, previously, previously.

It's been more than a year since the last time I posted a bunch of movie reviews. I haven't been bothering because I've seen a whole lot of crap. For example, here's the review I would have posted last night:

Kick Ass 2: Wow, what a worthless piece of shit. Why did I waste my time on that?

So, yeah, in the last 13 months, I believe I've watched 97 movies, so imagine about 87 more reviews almost exactly like the one above.

Most of those 97 movies ranged between "utterly forgettable" (Percy Instruments: Volume 1: The Beginnining or whatever this week's cookie-cutter Teen Paranormal Romance is) and "so insultingly stupid that they made me angry" (Elysium, Cloud Atlas), or, "wearing out my fast-forward button" (The Hobbit, which I watched all 3 hours of in 15 minutes, like this: Zipzipzip, "Wow, they're still in the house." Zipzipzip "Still in the house." Zipzipzip "Eating, still in the house." Zipzipzip "Singing, still in the house." Zipzipzip "Does that guy really have poop on his head?" Zipzipzip "Oooh, terrible CGI goblins." Zipzipzip, "Wait, it's over?")

Anyway, these didn't suck, in reverse chronological order:

Red 2: Not nearly as good as the first one, but still fun.

Curse of Chucky: I was really surprised, but this is actually a decent little horror movie. And it's a horror movie, not a comedy! I'm one of the few people who actually liked Bride of Chucky, but this one is much more like the first Child's Play than the others.

Fright Night 2: Ok, I was really confused by this, because I had no idea that there had been a remake of Fright Night a few years ago, so I thought this was actually a sequel to the 80s version of Fright Night, or I wouldn't have bothered. And as a sequel to that one, it makes no goddamned sense. I mean, it's been years since I saw that one, so I wasn't sure at first, but no. Still, as dumb vampire hunting movies with boobies go, it's not so bad. Also I just realized that I don't remember the difference between Fright Night and Vamp, because I thought Grace Jones painted by Keith Haring was in Fright Night. No wonder it didn't make any sense.

Pacific Rim: Not bad. Everyone I know was like, "OMG amazeballs!!111" and it's not all that, but it was good fun. Certainly better than Robot Jox. Even so, I think the only thing I can remember about it are the Ron Perlman scenes, and he was in the movie for like 3 minutes. Quality 3 minutes though.

Europa Report: This is really solid hard sci-fi! It's a little slow, but I was not insulted by it, and that's so rare for a space movie. I was afraid it was going to be a piece of shit like Apollo 18. It was not.

The Numbers Station: The plot is John Cusack Shoots His Way Out Of A Room, and I'm ok with that. But the surprising thing here is that there is a Crypto MacGuffin and they actually don't screw that part up. (Also I'm a sucker for anything to do with numbers stations.)

The To Do List: It's a period piece, really. It's set in the early 90s and Aubrey Plaza is a teen lifeguard trying to lose her virginity to the jock. It's half "that movie" and half "parody of that movie".

The Devil's Rock: It's short, but it's a solid little flick about a demonic infestation during WW2. Very, very good practical effects.

Seeking a Friend for The End of The World: This is great. It reminded me a bit of Wristcutters: A Love Story. Which you should also see.

Safety Not Guaranteed: Also great, and in kind of a similar way. Spoiler: contains no actual time travel. This is good news.

Butter: It's about a butter-carving competition between a sociopathic homemaker, a stripper and an orphan girl. I really did not expect this to be as funny as it is.

Date: Dec. 10, 2013

Location: Slovakia

Tags: Peter Uchnar, Writer, tree, Guest Artist, Birthday, forest, poet, fairy

Getting inside an American National Park Kiosk may seem to put you to a relaxing feel away from the hustles and bustles of the city. It can be because of the calming view of trees and blue waters. Or it may be because of the brightly colored flora and fauna. Brace yourself and discover the top 10 US National Parks calling for your attention.

Yosemite National Park

The majestic Yosemite Valley houses massive granite formations crowning the stunning Merced River are what will greet you first in Yosemite National Park. Adding to its beauty is the spectacular waterfall finding its root from the cliff tops forming creeks lovingly made by nature’s hands.

Glacier National Park

At its peak leveling up to 6 646 feet, get a taste of the top of the world feel while you are driving your way to explore the going-to-the-sun road for the drive you will never forget. Surely you will feel closer to the sun as the view would tell that you are at the top of the world’s roof.

Grand Canyon National Park

The Lipan point at this world known park is probably the best spot to watch the sunset. Be inspired as the setting rays come touching your very skin atop this majestic mountain top. If you would prefer to watch it in style, you can do so by lounging in the patio of the famous El Tovar Lodge in the same park.

Grand Teton National Park

If the trip to the wildlife is what fancies you, take a walk over this wildlife watching destination. Feel the rush akin to leaving yourself in the wild as vicious mammals go freely roaming around the place. Wolves and grizzlies add up to the rush while taking the adventure of your lifetime. Plus, get to see the dramatic scenery of the blue waters of Snake River while enjoying the sight of the mountains too.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Mind boggling views are brought right before your eyes when you have been set at the top of the highest mountain peak of the park at 14 259 feet. Get to see the different faces of the wild and the elegant glow of nature’s beautiful scenes.

Zion National Park

Take adventure to the next level while you go on a stroll in this national park. Get to see the world on a different view as this park lets you see a new environment that you may connect to out of the world sites.

Acadia National Park

Get to enjoy the sunset in this park by making your way at its highest point situated in the Cadillac Mountain that is said to be the highest peak too in Maine’s Mt. Desert Island.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Take a glimpse over the ancient world as you finally get to look down at the rock spires situated within the park. This is also a great place to spend time watching the sunset with.

Olympic National Park

Hoh rainforest covered by this park is said to be the wettest land in North America. As it comes to have this characteristic, expect the place shrouded with lichens, mosses and ferns that create just a majestic setting with only a small amount of sunlight peeping in.

Everglades National Park

Ranked 3^rd of the largest national parks, this is a vague place accommodating the wildlife. With activities such as kayaking and canoeing, get closer to the wild by taking your sight over crocodiles and alligators freely moving around the park. But before you go for an adventure make sure to pack up your tools and guts as well.

Ars Technica reports that effective in FreeBSD 10 (currently RC1 is available), processors from Intel and Via Technologies will no longer be trusted as the sole source of random numbers. "Specifically, "RDRAND" and "Padlock"—RNGs [Random Number Generators] provided by Intel and Via respectively—will no longer be the sources FreeBSD uses to directly feed random numbers into the /dev/random engine used to generate random data in Unix-based operating systems. Instead, it will be possible to use the pseudo random output of RDRAND and Padlock to seed /dev/random only after it has passed through a separate RNG algorithm known as "Yarrow." Yarrow, in turn, will add further entropy to the data to ensure intentional backdoors, or unpatched weaknesses, in the hardware generators can't be used by adversaries to predict their output."

You know -- for kids!

"They said they wanted to be open to different monuments," said Lucien Greaves, a spokesman for the Temple of Satan, "and this seems like a perfect place to put that to the test." [...]

But if Christians and Jews can have their monument to the 10 Commandments, then Satanists must be allowed to erect their own statue, said Brady Henderson, legal director of the American Civil Liberty Union's Oklahoma chapter.

"We feel like the Satanic Temple has a very strong argument to say that, if the state allows one religious monument, you have to allow others," Henderson said.

Oklahoma's statehouse grounds already has monuments honoring its heritage and Native American history, said Trait Thompson, chair of the Capitol Preservation Commission. [...]

"We want something big and bold that will be able to stand up to the weather or whatever other kinds of assaults," that may target the monument, he said.

"My favorite idea right now is an object of play for children. We want kids to see that Satanism is where the fun is."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Apparently, we also need a Dutch oven.

I love French food. Chock full of artery-clogging goodness – thick on butter, heavy on oil and never skimping on the fromage – it’s fantastic. Two days and still without a bad meal, i’m not sure if i’m running good or if this is simply what expectation looks like over here. It’s probably the latter. Their gastronomical reputation came from somewhere, right? Well anyway, here’s to a few more days of fat filled fun!

Sweetbreads w/ Game Jus & Roasted Garlic

---

The post I Love French Food appeared first on GodlikeRoy's Poker Blog.

Pikmin 3's parade of premium DLC sallies forth. A new quartet of "Battle Enemies!" stages, which push players to vanquish pre-determined sets of enemies as quickly and efficiently as possible, are up for grabs at $1.99 in the Wii U eShop. The first of these stages is provided free of charge via an automatic update.

The "Battle Enemies!" DLC joins additional "Collect Treasures!" DLC unearthed back in October. The "Battle Enemies!" missions are pulled from locations in Pikmin 3's Story mode and can be played solo or with a friend.

Continue reading Pikmin 3 DLC brings more baddies to the battle

Pikmin 3 DLC brings more baddies to the battle originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 07 Nov 2013 00:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Three-day passes for PAX East 2013 went on sale yesterday, and if you haven't secured one yet, it's already too late. Less than an hour after registration opened for the upcoming Penny Arcade-sponsored event, the group's initial allocation of three-day passes sold out completely.

The Penny Arcade Expo and its spinoff events have grown in popularity over the last several years, leading to near-instant registration sell-outs. Three-day passes for this year's PAX Prime also sold out less than an hour after becoming available in April.

As of this writing, passes for PAX East's Friday and Sunday showings are still available for purchase. Hotel reservations are available here. PAX East will take place in Boston from April 11 through 13, 2014.

Three-day passes to PAX East 2014 sell out in minutes originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 Oct 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Since launching on Thursday, The Stanley Parable has sold more than 100,000 copies, much to the happy surprise of its developer, Galactic Cafe. Though the quality of the game undoubtedly had at least something to do with its success, so did a clever combination of free Stanley stuff.

In a postmortem, Galactic Cafe ruminated on the triumphs and failures of launching The Stanley Parable, including the demo, which dropped on Steam a week prior to the full game's launch and enjoyed an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 downloads. "Essentially we got the press equivalent of two video game launches," the post reads.

Then there was the cadre of Let's Play videos on YouTube and social media posts that bolstered coverage. "Give people a reason to talk, that's all we aimed for, and the rest sorted itself out. Release a whole bunch of things for free in fairly quick succession, then at the end of it put a price tag on the last one," Galactic Cafe suggested. "It was a lot of extra work, but the results feel very much worth it."

The Stanley Parable is a first-person exploration game in which players assume the role of Stanley, a worker drone who one day finds all his coworkers have upped and vanished. In our review, we called The Stanley Parable an "attempt to help you discover who you are" - a personal experiment conducted on players that is "something we should all celebrate."

The Stanley Parable sales exceed expectations by a lot originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 21 Oct 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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To the surprise of nobody:

When Sarah Harling was hospitalized by a minivan driver who made a left turn into her at a stop sign intersection, she says the SFPD officer who filed the police report included a fabricated statement from her claiming that she "approached the stop sign without stopping."

Harling said she tried to submit a response to the numerous "factual errors" in the police report, but an officer at SFPD's Richmond Station "raised his voice to lecture me about how traffic laws apply to cyclists too, how he'd never let his children ride bikes in the city, and then told me repeatedly, 'I'm not telling you you can't leave this here, but you just need to understand that sometimes things get lost.'"

"I left the station in tears," she said.

Harling later hired an attorney, who collected witness statements and a photo, which showed the driver to be at fault and led the driver's insurance company to settle for his or her maximum amount of coverage available.

"To say that the San Francisco Police Department failed to investigate my crash is not quite accurate. Rather, they refused to. Repeatedly," said Harling. "I got the message, again and again, that because I had been riding my bicycle, it was my fault."

Previously, previously.

Plants vs. Zombies 2 is set to reach Android "shortly," having made a "soft" (and squishy) launch in Australia and New Zealand. The Android version launched "successfully" in China last month, and this week's Australasian arrival lets PopCap further play-test the free-to-play follow-up.

PvZ 2 was shambling towards the 25 million mark for downloads at end of August.

Continue reading Plants vs. Zombies 2 approaching global launch on Android

Plants vs. Zombies 2 approaching global launch on Android originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 03 Oct 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ZeptoLab will launch a fully fledged sequel to its mobile hit Cut the Rope this holiday season, the developer announced today.

Cut the Rope star Om Nom has had a busy schedule over the last few years, following up his landmark 2010 debut with multiple expansions and appearances in the iOS and Android spinoff games Cut the Rope: Experiments and Cut the Rope: Time Travel. Collectively, the Cut the Rope games have been downloaded more than 400 million time worldwide. ZeptoLab adds that players have cut more than 60 billion ropes to date, and Om Nom has been fed more than 20 billion times. And yet, he still hungers.

ZeptoLab did not announce its target platforms for Cut the Rope 2, but iOS and Android seem like a safe bet.

Continue reading Cut the Rope 2 severs ties this holiday season

Cut the Rope 2 severs ties this holiday season originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 26 Sep 2013 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's turtles all the way out.

Five months after SimCity made its debut on Windows platforms, EA's latest city-building simulator has finally reached OS X. Anxious Mac owners will recall that the ribbon-cutting ceremony on this version of the game was initially slated to occur in June, but the launch ran into a number of delays.

Unfortunately, it appears that the technical issues have yet to be entirely stamped out. As TUAW points out, EA's official SimCity forums are currently receiving numerous complaints from would-be players. The reported issues range from graphical corruption to having to install and reinstall Origin numerous times just to get the game running. EA has been replying to player complaints and says it is looking into these issues, but so far the publisher has yet to offer any solutions. This leaves players in a situation eerily similar to that faced by PC gamers when SimCity launched in March.

SimCity for Mac is currently available via EA's Origin digital distribution platform in two different iterations: the standard release, which features a $40 price tag for the core game and the "Plumbob Park" DLC pack, or the $60 Digital Deluxe edition, which offers three additional European-themed city packs and the "Heroes And Villains" DLC.

Continue reading PSA: SimCity now available on Mac

PSA: SimCity now available on Mac originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Aug 2013 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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