![Interstellar explained in one simple timeline [Warning: SPOILERS]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--GWZtA6uR--/dngrzl9smrxolr6ykxer.gif)
If you watched Interstellar and didn't fully understand its time dilation and loops complexities, the following timeline—sent to SPLOID by Frametale's Dogan Can Gundogdu, a designer from Istanbul, Turkey—explains it all very clearly. Warning: Don't continue if you haven't watched Interstellar yet.
If you're finally ready to upgrade a console that comes from a generation that got its start way back in 2005, Best Buy might just have the holiday season's most appealing upgrade offer. Through November 15, customers can get up to $150 toward a brand new Xbox One when trading in their old Xbox 360 or PS3 at participating stores.
The "bonus" offer here is actually in the form of a $50 coupon toward a new Xbox One, which is given in exchange for "any working Xbox 360 or PS3 console." Add that to the "minimum $100 gift card" the store is offering for 250GB Xbox 360 units or any "slim" PS3 unit, and you're well on your way to paying for a console that starts at a $349 asking price. Best Buy will also give you $10 each for up to four working wireless controllers you trade in with the system.
Even without the bonus offer, Best Buy's $100 for working, recent Xbox 360 and PS3 systems is a pretty good value. Gamestop currently only offers only $60 for a 320GB Xbox 360, and $90 for a top-of-the-line 500GB PS3. Amazon offers "up to" $80 to $115 for various PS3 slim units, and $75 to $95 for Xbox 360 S systems, depending on condition. The Microsoft Store offers $100 for any working Xbox 360 or PS3, but only if you use the money towards an Xbox One.
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A team of researchers in Japan lead by Akira Asano of Burton Inc. have developed a 3D aerial display capable of projecting text and imagery in mid-air. The Aerial Burton works by firing a 1kHz infrared pulse directly into a 3D scanner which in turn focuses and reflects the laser to a specific point in the air. Molecules at the end of the laser then ionize, releasing energy in the form of photons. While the full potential for such a display has yet to be seen, Asano suggests it could be used as a communication aid in the event of a disaster by communicating evacuation routes or broadcasting the location of emergency supplies. Personally, I would be satisfied with a 3D laser butterfly in my backyard. (via DigInfo)
Thai authorities announced Tuesday that they arrested Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij (aka “Tiamo”) at the northern border with Laos.
Neij famously flaunted a Swedish arrest warrant while publicly living in Laos (although his Facebook profile states he lives in Bangkok) following his conviction for aiding copyright infringement. In 2013, he famously told a Swedish filmmaker: “I can sit here and jerk off for five years. And I will.”
Neij’s arrest marks the third and final member of the remaining Swedish defendants who were originally convicted in 2009 for aiding copyright infringement. All members have lost all their appeals since. The men claim to no longer own The Pirate Bay, and it has continued to remain functional over the years.
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Over the years, people have battled and captured hundreds of Pokémon. And while everyone has their favorite, no pocket monster is as infamous as "Missingno." That's because Missingno isn't quite a Pokémon at all.
Let me explain. As Pokémon veterans and gaming history buffs know, Missingno is a glitch that players can find in Pokémon Red and Blue. I thought I'd take this opportunity to break down the many reasons why Missingno stands as one one of the coolest, most notorious glitches in gaming.
When people talk about Missingno, they typically refer to a very specific normal/bird type Pokémon that looks like this:
But it can also look like this:
If none of these look like normal Pokémon, that's because they aren't. They're known as "glitch Pokémon," and they happen because of something funky in the programming of Pokémon Red and Blue (we'll get to that in a second). This aberration is why Missingno can sometimes look like a fucked up barcode, and why it has a type that doesn't actually exist in the game ("bird" is a Pokémon type that eventually got cut in Red and Blue, presumably replaced by "flying" type Pokémon. If you're curious, bird-type Pokémon function exactly the same as normal type Pokémon, in terms of strengths and weaknesses).
In addition to that, while all of those sprites might have different characteristics from one another, the most famous type of Missingno—the backwards L-shaped one—can sometimes appear well over the normal level 100 limit placed by the game, and it knows the move "water gun" not once, but twice. The ghost and fossil versions of Missingno, meanwhile, have movesets that are determined based on Pokémon that a player has in their party. The version of Missingno that players encounter in the game depends on the player's in-game name. Finally, none of these Pokémon can evolve, though funnily enough, Missingno has the highest base attack stat in Red and Blue, as well as the lowest base defense stat.
Unless you're actively looking for Missingno, chances are slim that you'd ever encounter the glitch randomly, especially if you don't have the right in-game name. But, if you're interested, you can go hunting for the Pokémon through something known as the "old man glitch."
Here's what you need to do. First, you talk to a man found in the northern part of Viridian City, a location in Pokémon Red and Blue. He looks like this:
You'll want to let him teach you how to catch a Pokémon—yes, even if you already know how to do it. After his demonstration, you should fly to Cinnabar Island, another location in Red and Blue. From there, you need to surf on the eastern coast of the island. The trick is that you can't go off into the water—you have to keep "surfing" on the land touching the water, like so:
While doing this, you might encounter random Pokémon with all sorts of wild levels—but occasionally, you might encounter Missingno.
Here's a visual aid filmed by RFSmediaproductions, in case you want to see this glitch in action:
And you can find a breakdown of what letters in a player's name leads to what specific Pokémon appearing while surfing here. If you want the 'classic' Missingno, however, Bulbapedia says it'll appear "if the character in the third, fifth, or seventh slot of the player's name is the end-name marker, G, H, J, M, S, T, :, ], a, b, c, m, o, p, or v."
This is where things get complicated. Missingno's appearance in player's games is a combination of a few different things. The way the original games are programmed, they use variables to refer to specific Pokémon. Variables are stored as powers of two—so, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 and so on. There are 151 Pokémon, which means you need 151 variables. 151, however, is not a power of 2. The first usable variable that can fit all 151 Pokémon, then, is 256—a number large enough that it leaves 105 variables empty.
This is where Missingno comes in—Missingno is short for "Missing Number," and is the stray Pokémon THAT the game potentially spits out when it doesn't know what Pokémon it's supposed to let the player encounter. For whatever reason, the little strip of land on Cinnabar Island is programmed such that things can spawn there, but not programmed to know what specific Pokemon should spawn there.
So we know that Missingno is stored in the game, and we know that there's a patch of land that can potentially let you encounter Missingno. But why? This is where the old man glitch comes in. When you let the man show you how to capture a Pokémon, the game temporarily changes a player's name to "Old Man." It still stores your old name, too—but for some reason, during your encounter with the old man, it'll throw that information to where the variables for Pokémon are kept. The game will grab that info and revert back to normal once a player gets into another encounter...unless of course the next encounter happens to be on the patch of land on Cinnabar Island, where the game has no specific encounters programmed.
Remember when I said that Missingno is influenced in part by the player's name? If a player goes to Cinnabar Island after speaking to the old man, the information kept in storage for what Pokémon to encounter will be the player's name, which can then lead to the game thinking it has to load a Pokémon that doesn't actually exist. Boom, Missingno (might) appear.
This, however, is the oversimplified version of why Missingno appears in Pokémon Red and Blue. If you'd like the more complicated version, which dives deep into how things are programmed on the Game Boy, I highly recommend reading this write-up by Smogon.
Why not?
More pragmatically, there are uses for the glitch, too. A side effect of encountering Missingno is that the sixth item in a player's bag will be multiplied. Want more than a hundred Master Balls, or more than a hundred Rare Candies? Try the Missingno glitch.
Another useful aspect of the Old Man Glitchis that players can totally make the game spawn a Pokémon of their choice at a high level, provided they have the right in-game name. Endless powerful items, combined with the ability to spawn powerful Pokémon, makes the glitch worth doing even if you don't care about Missingno at all. Yes, even if it messes up the way the game saves your Hall of Fame data.
I have a few theories.
First, Missingno isn't just a glitch you view, or a glitch that happens to you. You can go out there and seek it out on your own, myth-hunter style, and capture it. It's the equivalent of putting Bigfoot in a cage. And while the rest of the Pokémon in Red and Blue are 'normal'—they often reference creatures we know in real life, like pigeons and dogs—Missingno is a Pokemon that defies everything you know about Pokémon. No Pokémon is like it; the only one that comes close is Porygon, a Pokémon made out of programming code. But Porygon just kind of looks like a bunch of geometric shapes together, and it evolves into something that resembles a duck. Players wish it was as strange as Missingno.
Missingno is also the rare instance where a myth that 'everyone' hears about happens to be true, which instantly makes it cooler than legends like "you can revive Aeris" or "you can find Mew under a truck." Plus, every player's encounter with Missingno is somewhat unique, given that so many of its aspects are dependant upon the player's name. There might only be a few different versions of Missingno, sprite-wise, but the Missingno I capture will likely be way different than the Missingno you capture.
Missingno has also spawned all sorts of creepypasta and theories regarding its significance in the Pokémon world. Some people say that Missingno occupies the slots of deleted Pokemon that didn't end up making the cut. One of my favorite fan theories posits that Missingno can be considered an intentional inclusion. Consider Cinnabar Island, and its Pokémon Lab. The player uses the Pokémon Lab to resurrect fossil Pokémon, but it's also where scientists created Mewtwo, one of Pokémon's most famous legendaries. That is to say: Cinnabar Island is a place where messed-up experiments have taken place, all in the name of engineering new Pokémon. How perfect is it that a player would encounter a monstrous, inexplicable thing on Cinnabar Island? Or the fact that this Pokémon is number #000, or that it's capable of learning any move? How perfect is the fact that all of its forms are liminal things, like glitches, ghosts and fossils? How perfect is it that, should a player use Missingno in battle, other sprites may become scrambled or reversed? How perfect is it that when Missingno cries out, it sounds like garbled versions of other Pokémon we know and love?
Lavender Town might be the most famous Pokemon creepy story, but Missingno is, in my mind, the scarier tale. Missingno isn't supposed to happen, but it does—and if you think about it, the fact it exists makes an unsettling amount of sense.
Players have also found ways to trade Missingno into other games. They've imported Missingno into games like Pokémon Stadium (where it'll appear as an item known as doll, or a Ditto in the case of Stadium 2). And players have even inexplicably found something that resembles Missingno in Pokemon X & Y.
No Pokémon fascinates people quite like Missingno, and at this point, it would probably be impossible for Game Freak to create anything else like it. (So why not just make Missingno an official 'mon, Game Freak!? One can dream...)
MissingNO is a programming quirk, and not a real part of the game. When you get this, your game can perform strangely, and the graphics will often become scrambled. The MissingNO Pokémon is most often found after you perform the Fight Safari Zone Pokémon trick.
To fix the scrambled graphics, try releasing the MissingNo Pokémon. If the problem persists, the only solution is to re-start your game. This means erasing your current game and starting a brand new one.
Way to be party poopers, Nintendo.
But while Missingno isn't officially supposed to be a part of the game, and while it can actively corrupt certain pieces of the game, I sincerely doubt anyone is going to stop tracking Missingno down in Red and Blue. Some glitches are just too tempting.
Image by Sam Woolley.
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Abdulaziz AlhamidiThe good
The optional $40 gamepad is a fantastic, console-quality input device. It's Bluetooth and will work with anything.
Accurate voice search that pick up actor names that other systems will stumble on.
Side-loading is awesome! The Nexus Player handled nearly everything we threw at it.
The bad
Random slowdowns, including multi-second load times for screens.
Consistent slowdowns, like the inability to smoothly play some of the limited Android TV game selection.
Only about 70 apps and games.
8GB is nowhere near enough storage. Install a few games and the Nexus Player is full.
Random remote disconnects. There is a dedicated Bluetooth pairing button on the underside of the box, and you'll need it.
Search results from the main screen only show content from Google Play and YouTube, not third-party apps.
The Play Store doesn't show app pricing in the results list—you have to dig through the interface to see the price. There are also no reviews or ratings anywhere.
The bugs. Lots of them! Netflix not opening, games not installing, icons not downloading, everything just stopping for a few seconds. This software isn't ready.
Android TV supports live TV apps, but the Nexus Player doesn't.
The ugly
A video player that can't smoothly play video.
Just about every major tech company offers some device that will put Netflix and YouTube on a TV screen—a Chromecast, Apple TV, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, Fire TV, or a Roku 3 will all do the job. For Google, the Chromecast was rather successful in this area because it was dead simple to use and the cheapest out of the bunch at just $35, but the company has decided that something more is needed. Today, Google is back with yet another device that will try to take over your living room: the Nexus Player.
The Asus-built device is a standard set-top box in the same vein as the Apple TV or Fire TV. The "Nexus" in "Nexus Player" indicates that this is the launch device for Android TV, Google's new living room software that replaces the lackluster Google TV OS. All these TV OSes look similar—grids of content thumbnails—but Android TV is based on Android 5.0 and throws an app store and Google's excellent voice search into the mix. Unlike some earlier Google TV devices, the Nexus Player doesn't do anything with live TV or with your DVR—for that you'll have to switch TV inputs.
The Nexus Player has 3 components. For $99, you get the set-top box and remote control, while another $40 gets you the optional Nexus Player Gamepad. The total package is a $105 premium over the $35 Google Chromecast, but the Chromecast is just a streaming stick. While the Nexus Player supports Google Cast (the retconned name for the Chromecast protocol), it also brings a dedicated TV interface along with local apps and games. In other words, it's a smartphone for your television. The addition of a gamepad is interesting. We've been tracking rumors of a "Nexus TV" product that was considered to be Google game console, and this appears to be it.
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The Aaron Sorkin-scripted Steve Jobs biopic has had a tumultuous casting process, and it's just hit another speed bump: according to The Hollywood Reporter, Christian Bale has decided against playing Jobs, despite prior reports suggesting that he was all but locked in to play the role. The Reporter says that Bale decided he was not right for the part, though it isn't stated why that is. Bale has previously adapted quite a bit in order to play challenging roles, so it's surprising to see him drop off here. Leonardo DiCaprio was previously in line to play Jobs before dropping off as well.
Batdad hasn’t released anything in a while, but it was totally worth it considering that this compilation is absolutely hilarious! Check it out!
[Batdad]
Abdulaziz Alhamidihttp://www.museumofplay.org/blog/chegheads/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/David-Mechner-Running-Courtesy-of-The-Strong-Rochester-NY.mp4?_=1
http://www.museumofplay.org/blog/chegheads/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Prince-of-Persia-Commodore-Amiga-1990.mp4?_=2
A century ago, Max and Dave Fleischer, two brothers from Brooklyn, developed a device that allowed animators to capture live-action events frame by frame. They tested their system on the roof of Max’s apartment building, where Dave, wearing a black clown suit, cavorted in front of a white sheet. Max captured the movements on film and projected them onto a glass plate that he then used to trace out pictures of individual movements. The result was rotoscoping, an animation technique that Max patented in 1915 that produced amazingly life-like movements.
Drawing from Max Fleischer Rotoscope Patent Application
Seventy years later, Jordan Mechner, another New Yorker, used this same animation technique to revolutionize computer graphics when he filmed his brother running, jumping, and climbing and then used rotoscoping to produce lifelike movement in video games.
Jordan began his pioneering work while still an undergraduate at Yale University. Dissatisfied with the stilted movement of characters in computer games, Jordan borrowed the technique of rotoscoping that he had learned about in his history of cinema class. In 1983 he began experimenting by filming his karate instructor, Dennis, doing a variety of martial arts moves. Then he traced images from the film and used a Versawriter graphics digitizer tablet to copy the images onto the computer. On March 19, 1983, Jordan finished a test of this to see if it would work in a game he was developing, and in his diary he recorded his excitement: “When I saw that sketch little figure walk across the screen, looking just like Dennis, all I could say was “ALL RIGHT!”” Jordan’s game Karateka (1985), a Japanese-themed karate game, became the best-selling title in the country and Jordan had established himself as a video game designer even before he had graduated!
After college, Jordan began work on what would become one of the great games of all time, Prince of Persia. For this Arabian fantasy of a hero who rescues the princess from the evil clutches of the sinister Grand Vizier Jaffar, Jordan sought to create even more lifelike actions by perfecting the rotoscoping techniques he had used to make Karateka. The materials he has donated to The Strong document how he went about doing this.
First, he videotaped his younger brother, clothed all in white, running, jumping, and climbing.
Then he took prints of individual frames and highlighted the body shapes so they would be easier to trace and digitize.
Once computerized, he combined these individual frames to produce lifelike, fluid movement in Prince of Persia. A clip of the game (recorded on an Amiga as part of ICHEG’s video capture project) shows how well Jordan translated his brother’s movement from film into the game. It’s not surprising, that when Broderbund first published Prince of Persia in 1989 it too became the best-selling game in America.
Prince of Persia pushed computer animation to new levels of realism and sophistication, and we are honored that Jordan has chosen The Strong to preserve these materials for posterity. These records—which include videos, business records, correspondence, artwork, games, and much more—will provide scholars the resources to understand one of the great achievements in the history of computer games.
Communication agency Aptitude created uncropped versions of iconic album covers.
Above: Sims have more to interact about than ever before, including a wide variety of emotions.
Electronic Arts reported earnings today that made a mockery out of Wall Street’s expectations for the second fiscal quarter that ended Sept. 30.
The publisher reported an earnings per share (EPS) of 73 cents compared to estimates of 53 cents. Non-GAAP revenues for the quarter were $1.22 billion versus Wall Street estimates of $1.16 billion. That compared to net income of 33 cents a share on revenue of $1.04 billion a year ago. In after-hours trading, EA’s stock price is up 2 percent to $38.35 a share.
The Titanfall and EA Sports publisher is on a roll, and this is a sign that the overall video game business is also in good shape.
“Electronic Arts continues to put our players first, delivering new experiences, innovation and new ways to play,” said chief executive Andrew Wilson in a statement. “It was an excellent second quarter, with strong new titles, deep player engagement in our live services and ongoing digital growth driving continued momentum.”
“By emphasizing player engagement and our digital live services, we’ve grown revenue, expanded gross margins and delivered EPS well above prior year and our guidance,” said chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen in a statement. “We are raising our annual non-GAAP net revenue guidance by $75 million to $4.175 billion and annual non-GAAP diluted EPS by $0.20 to $2.05.”
EA launched big games such as The Sims 4 and its mainstay sports titles, Madden NFL 15, FIFA 15, and NHL 15, in the quarter. In the second fiscal quarter, players logged more than 1.9 billion hours playing EA games on consoles and the PC.
The giant publisher saw great success on mobile this quarter. The monthly active user count for EA’s mobile offerings was 155 million. EA Sports games averaged more than 40 million monthly active users in the quarter, up 250 percent from a year ago, thanks to Madden NFL Mobile and FIFA 15 Ultimate Team Mobile. Players have logged more than 89 million games of Madden NFL 15, up 48 percent from a year ago.
The Sims 4 was a disappointment, as it received a rating of 70 out of 100 on Metacritic, a review score aggregator, compared to 86 for The Sims 3. EA also didn’t have one of its usual games. Sports game fans suffered a blow last year when EA cancelled NCAA Football 15 due to lawsuits from ex-players and the NCAA’s decision not to renew its license with the veteran publisher.
Before the earnings came out, Adam Krejlik, an analyst at Eilers Research, wrote that he believed the poor showing of The Sims 4 would be offset by strong demand for the sports games. A huge slice of EA’s earnings come from digital revenues, which includes downloadable content for The Sims 4 and the sports titles.
In the near future, EA launches Dragon Age: Inquisition on Nov. 18. EA postponed the launch of Battlefield Hardline, which takes the combat series into cops-and-robbers fighting, until March 17. EA is also expected to launch Star Wars: Battlefront in 2015, according to Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia.
EA offered guidance for the third fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31. The company expects to report non-GAAP earnings per share of 90 cents (GAAP 41 cents) and revenue of $1.275 billion (GAAP $1.1 billion).
For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015, EA expects non-GAAP revenue to be $4.175 billion ($4.375 billion GAAP) and non-GAAP earnings to be $2.05 a share (GAAP $2.06).
EA now has $2.3 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, compared to $1.4 billion a year ago. EA’s market capitalization is now $11.7 billion.
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for ... read more »
A table tennis champion has been stripped of his $45,000 prize money for kicking an ad hoarding in an over-excited celebration.
Chinese player Zhang Jike fly-kicked two hoardings after beating Ma Long in the final of the Liebherr Men’s World Cup in Düsseldorf. Now, the International Table Tennis Federation has decided to withhold his prize money in light of his actions.
The match on Sunday between compatriots Zhang and Ma is said to have been one of the most exciting, dramatic finals ever witnessed. But celebrating his victory, Zhang ran across the arena and jump-kicked two separate hoardings, putting his foot through them, before throwing his shirt into the crowd.
“I am very sorry for what I did”, he said afterwards. “It was not acceptable behaviour and I am sorry.”
Check out this short video of Zhang’s exuberant celebration:
Zhang isn’t the first elite athlete to be fined for behaving inappropriately during a game, and he won’t be the last. There will be many who feel that $45,000 is a high price to pay for a moment of exuberance, but the advertisers can’t complain too much – a lot more people probably looked at their hoarding this weekend than if Zhang hadn’t put his foot through it.
Sources: Toychan, ITTF
Top image: YouTube/ITTF
Origin: Chinese table tennis champ stripped of $45k prize after emotional outburst【Video】
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.
Above: Colbert promos his GamerGate piece.
This was inevitable. You can’t have something as ridiculous as GamerGate go on for this long without attracting the attention of Stephen Colbert.
On tonight’s episode of The Colbert Report, the faux-conservative host examined the GamerGate controversy that has resulted in the repeated harassment of several prominent women in game development.
The comedian poked fun at the claim that GamerGate is “actually about ethics in games journalism” before inviting critic Anita Sarkeesian, best known for her Feminist Frequency videos, on for an interview.
Check out the full segment below:
In a match for the ages, Mike Tyson faced off against his famous digital self in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! last night, pitting the retired, 48-year-old boxer against a roughly constructed 21-year-old version of himself in front of the Tonight Show audience. Tyson appeared a bit hesitant to begin the fight, and we can't blame him: his digital self serves as the final fight in Punch-Out, which really shouldn't be taken lightly. "I would be killed, man," Tyson says after Jimmy Fallon issues him the challenge. "He beats everybody. I met one little kid, around 10 years old, who said he beat me." Tyson gets into it once the fight is going, but as many have discovered, enthusiasm isn't always enough.
Submerged explores a vaguely serene, post-apocalyptic world that is, well, submerged, thanks to global warming, melting icecaps, and poorly constructed window air conditioner units. We've been tracking it for awhile, through screenshots and Vines, and now the Australian studio Uppercut Games has released a full trailer. Seeing this thing in motion teases out the Ico-ness of it: the sense of melancholy, the earnestness of its central relationship, the way it explores a brown palette without looking, like, all brown everything.
The game is due out next year.
Si digo que esto es un vídeo de dos tipos arrastrándose por la hierba no creo que muchos de vosotros lo veáis. Sin embargo, recomiendo fervientemente que lo hagáis porque además estaré diciendo la verdad, pero, como siempre, la verdad tiene matices.
En este caso, la gente de Corridor Digital ha decidido grabar una especie de persecución haciendo parkour sin los peligros que éste entraña.
El único punto negativo del resultado es que es demasiado corto. O sea, que es un punto positivo.
Visto en Geeks Are Sexy
Ver más: deportes, stop motionOh my god please watch this video please.
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In the 1970s, Japanese college students began dressing up as manga and anime characters. These young people had grown up on a steady diet of comics and cartoons, and when they attended manga and anime conventions (as well as school and university festivals), going in character was, as in the West, a way to express fandom.
Sci-fi conventions had existed in Japan since the 1960s, but in 1975 Comic Market (aka Comiket) launched, creating a venue for self-published comics. It was a fan convention and, in this environment, what would become cosplay in Japan started to flourish. There was already a Japanese term to express the concept of dressing up: kasou (仮想).
However, the word carried a nuance of disguise and didn't quite capture the spirit of what cosplay had become. In the West the word 'masquerade' could be used to refer to costuming, but when Takahashi and some university friends tried to translate 'masquerade' into Japanese for a magazine article they were writing, it sounded 'too noble and old fashioned'. According to Takahashi, 'We needed to find another way to express the concept.'
Various terms were floating around. 'We had heard the English word "costume" and seen events with names like "Costume Show", "Kasou Show", "Hero Play" and whanot,' says Takahashi. In Japanese, English and other foreign words are often combined and/or shortened, for brevity's sake. For example, the Japanese for 'remote control' – rimooto kontorooru – is shortened to rimokon. 'So we started to think of different combinations,' Takahashi says. 'Finally, we came up with "cosplay".' The term was a portmanteau of 'costume' and 'play'. It was perfect.
Expand
(images courtesy of Nobuyuki Takahashi)
Takahashi's cosplay article appeared in the June 1983 issue of My Anime (above). It covered the fans who dressed up as manga and anime characters from the Comiket convention in Tokyo. The article featured an array of cosplayers in elaborate costumes: superheroes like Kamen Rider; realistic robot costumes from anime such as Techno Police 21C; anime heroes from Lupin III and Star Blazers; as well as sexy cosplay, like Lum Invader from Urusei Yatsura. There was even a special feature on female cosplayers who dress as male characters, something that continues to be popular today. Many of these types of characters – superheroes, robots and sexy characters – are still prevalent in both Japanese and international cosplay. Yet already in the early 1980s, cosplayers were excelling at them.
The My Anime article refers to both 'costume play' (コスチュームプレー, kosuchuumu puree) and 'cosplay' (コスプレ, kosupure). Then there's the article's English title, 'Hero Costume Operation'.
There's a reason for the discrepancy. According to Takahashi, 'When we were putting together that article, we were still in the process of thinking what we should call this activity. That's why it wasn't yet summed up in one word.' (Good thing 'hero costume operation' didn't catch on, huh?) While it's possible others in Japan also hit upon the term 'cosplay' at around the same time, this was the first time the word appeared in print.
At Japan's biggest comic book convention later that year, few people knew the term. According to Takahashi, a year or two later 'cosplay' was in wide use among fans attending manga and anime conventions. It wasn't until the '90s, though, after the subculture was introduced on television and in magazines, that the word finally hit a wider audience in Japan. Even Takahashi is surprised that, 30 years on, the term has caught on worldwide.'
Cosplay is a fan's expression of his or her love for a favourite character,' says Takahashi. 'Drawing a piece of artwork, writing a story, animating a movie and showing this to others is a manifestation of that love. And cosplay is one of those expressions in which fans use their entire bodies.' But has he ever cosplayed? 'Nope, not even once,' says Takahashi, who heads up a design and planning company for publishers and broadcasters. 'Typically, I wear casual clothes at the office. Whenever I wear a business suit, that's me cosplaying. Cosplaying as a businessman."
Mark Zuckerberg did a public Q&A session today — in Mandarin Chinese. Yes, the Facebook CEO set out to learn the (very difficult) language in 2010, in his spare time.
“On Wednesday I did my first ever public Q&A in Chinese at Tsinghua University in Beijing!” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook after the event. “We discussed connecting the world, Internet.org, innovation, and the early days of Facebook.”
Zuckerberg barely uttered a single word in English — just one quick “I’m sorry,” when he misspoke.
After the CEO gave a short answer to the first question, loud applause, laughter, and a couple of gasps could be heard from the audience.
He made convincing inflections. He made jokes. He seemed totally relaxed.
Here’s the first part of the Q&A:
You can find the full video here.
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 1.15 billion monthly active users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 w... read more »
IKEAs are terrifying. The thought of spending a weekend inside the Swedish furniture giant is the stuff of nightmares for many. IKEA Singapore takes the idea one step further by incorporating the famous Big Wheel scene from The Shining. Watch as an adorable kid wheels slowly through a dimly lit labyrinth of sofas and high-end tables, even as lights flicker and skeletons sup in designer kitchens. Gasp at the excellent camera work, and make sure to watch the clip all the way to the end. It's not quite as slyly creative as HORRORSTÖR, but the finale is adorable enough to justify the extra time.
Abdulaziz AlhamidiPretty cool!
A British maker has built Pi-powered tapes that recreate our physical connection to music for the digital age.
Remember what it felt like to press play and record at the same time? Back before streaming and downloading and blogs and YouTube, music meant CDs and Smash Hits and the NME and taping off the radio -- and this delightfully retro Raspberry Pi creation recreates that physical connection with music for the twenty-first century.
Raspberry Pi is the low-cost computing system that allows you to build all kinds of bespoke gadgets from basic components, teaching novices how to code and limited only by your imagination. British developer and maker Matt Brailsford has used the DIY system to combine the technology of today -- Raspberry Pi, Spotify, and NFC tags -- with the retro tech of yesterday to build a media server that streams different playlists when different cassette tapes are inserted. Hit play on the video to see how it works:
CNET caught up with Matt to find out why he combined old and new tech, how he created the next-generation tape player, and how a rapping cartoon cat figures into all this.
What was your inspiration?
A friend of mine happened to tweet about a gift he had received for his birthday called the iRecorder, which is a speaker for your iPhone in the style of a cassette player. That brought back tons of happy memories of creating mixtapes for (potential) girlfriends, and recording the charts every Saturday whilst trying not to get the DJ's voice in the recording -- an artform I was particularly good at -- and it reminded me of how substantial these types of players were back then. Large chunky buttons, which had a level of resistance when you pressed them, not like your rubber or touch sensitive buttons of today.
With those memories flooding back, I thought why not actually make the iRecorder for real? A digital music player, with as much of the original player's touch-and-feely nature as possible and so this is what I came up with!
How does the media server / tape player work?
Inside the cassette player, all the standard components have been removed and in their place a Raspberry Pi and several helper modules have been added: an NFC tag reader which you can just see through the hole in the metal frame top left -- the red printed circuit board (PCB); an amplifier which is the blue PCB below that -- the original volume potentiometer is connected to this to control the volume; and a custom circuit board to connect the buttons of the cassette player to the Raspberry Pi's General-purpose input/output (GPIO) via micro switches glued beneath the buttons.
The Raspberry Pi itself is running a version of MusicBox that has all the Spotify streaming features built in. A custom module was written to handle the button presses, and read the NFC tags that are stuck inside the cassettes to select the playlist to play.
When the player is turned on, MusicBox starts up and loads the custom module, which then waits for Spotify to connect and loads a list of spotify playlists into memory. It beeps whilst it's waiting.
When a cassette is then loaded into the player, the custom module reads the tag's ID and looks for a playlist associated with that ID -- to associate a Spotify playlist to a cassette, simply add the tag's ID somewhere in the playlist's name -- and if one is found, it is set as the active playlist. Then whenever a button on the player is pressed, the cassette player performs that action.
Play, Pause, Stop, Next, and Previous are all supported, with a beep noise to signify the command has occurred. If a cassette is removed the custom module will detect this, give out a beep, unload the active playlist and stop any playing tracks, and wait for a new cassette to be loaded. All cassettes are also double sides, so you can have Side 1 and 2 playlists for each cassette, just like when you were a kid!
How long did the project take to complete?
I think it was two or three weeks (I forgot to keep track). The majority of the time was spent figuring out the best way to lay everything out internally as there wasn't much room, and gradually removing internal components if I was certain they wouldn't be needed -- it's not easy putting stuff back you Dremel-ed out if you get it wrong -- as well as choosing the best or most space-friendly components to use.
Writing the custom module wasn't too bad as I had a few example code snippets to work from already -- one for reading NFC, one for working with the GPIO, and one as a basic module for MusicBox.
All the rest I either worked out from the documentation, or from the community on the Mopidy and MusicBox forums (who are super friendly and helpful by the way).
NFC has a lot of potential but hasn't quite caught on yet; how do you think NFC will develop?
To be honest, this was my first attempt at using NFC myself. I just knew I needed a way to detect the cassettes without the user having to tell it anything, purely by the cassette's presence, so NFC worked great. It's easy and cheap to expand too -- just buy more stickers and more cassettes. Heck, the cassettes are more expensive than the tags nowadays.
I think NFC just needs more creative people to play around with it. We all knows of its uses for boring things like keyless door entry systems, or security tags in retail stores, but it has so much more potential, especially with the Internet of Things (IoT) becoming so prevalent in everyday devices. Having a cheap and easy way to identify "things" is a great feature to have. For me it's about integrating it in a way that is just logical, but you don't even know it's there -- like a device that knows when a cassette is put into a cassette player for example!
What was the first tape / record you ever bought?
Oh god, I don't know what's more embarrassing, the track itself, or the fact I still know all the words. The first cassette I ever bought for myself was "Skat Strut" by MC Skat Kat -- you know, the animated cat from Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract" video. See, told you. And no, I won't sing it for you.
What other Raspberry Pi projects are you proud of, and what's next?
I'm actually rather eclectic and like to jump from platform to platform dependent on the needs of the project I'm working on, so this has probably been my biggest Raspberry Pi project to date. However I am currently looking at converting a robotic Luxo lamp I built for a different platform to run from a Raspberry Pi so that is definitely high up on the list.
If your UK readers are interested in seeing either the cassette player or the Luxo lamp in person, then keep an eye on Barnsley.IO -- a maker group I have set up in my local town of Barnsley, Yorkshire -- and events throughout the country such as Derby Maker Faire this weekend, York Raspberry Jam the following week, and Maker Day Sheffield in November, as they often make personal appearances.
You can keep up with Matt's latest geeky projects on his YouTube channel or at his new blog circuitbeard. For a look behind the scenes at Raspberry Pi, check out ourAdventures in Tech: The Making of Raspberry Pi.
The driving force behind some of Ubisoft's most successful franchises and best moments is no longer with the game maker as of today. Jade Raymond, executive producer on Assassin's Creed II, Watch Dogs and Splinter Cell: Blacklist, has left the company after ten years of service, the company announced. To do what, exactly? That's anyone's guess. She's been in the AAA space for a good portion of her career, working on The Sims Online prior to joining Ubisoft and being a key voice in the creation of the first two Assassin's Creeds. Given her experience running Ubisoft's Toronto studio, though, it might not be much of a stretch to imagine her going indie and assembling a quick and nimble team entirely of her own -- it wouldn't be the first time we've seen it happen.
In an interview with Metro last year, she lamented that she'd love to make a game where it was a challenge for an elderly player character to even make it to the bus stop, but went on to say that when you're dealing with a $100 million budget that type of experimentation just isn't possible. Maybe this will be her chance. Either that or she could go majorly left-field and start brewing craft beer.
[Image credit: ZCooperstown/Wikimedia Commons]
Abdulaziz AlhamidiWelp...
Last night an apparently refreshed model of Google's Chromecast streaming dongle popped up in FCC filings (as pointed out by Zatz Not Funny), just like the original did in March last year, but don't get too excited. Unfortunately, the documents don't show any real difference that we could find, and missing features like support for 5GHz WiFi will still be absent whenever the H2G2-2A hits the streets. Need more confirmation? Six members of the Chromecast team took part in a coincidentally-timed AMA on Reddit this afternoon, and according to Google Jacky Hayward "we don't have any new user-facing features planned for this device." Whatever changes there are in the new model "it will have the same features as the original and most users won't notice a difference."
Of course, that doesn't stop us from thinking of features we would like to see in a new device, and the AMA did result in a few new nuggets of information. Beyond the recent "Backdrop" feature to give users more choice in terms of the info that pops up on their screensaver, there's a new Chrome OS files app coming (seen in developer builds, and as of today, in the beta channel) that will let users cast photos and video directly from Google Drive. They're also "looking into" gapless playback for Google Music, are working on smoother transitions for the device, and plan to "continue to innovate" when it comes to HDMI-CEC.
Meet Jaemy Choong, a graphic designer and co-founder of Kickatomic Creatives, a ‘graphic lab’ based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Their incredibly clever designs have been used in logos, prints, corporate identities, and even for Malaysian TV channels.
Discovered by Bored Panda last week, Jaemy C.’s currently ongoing project involves cleverly manipulating postcard-sized movie posters so that they blend in seamlessly with background people, objects, and even a cooked chicken! Join us after the jump for some visually fun movie mash-ups.
Jaemy Choong sums himself up in the following way on one of his social media accounts:
“Awkwardintroverted Malaysian. I play with movie postcards & @Kickatomic in a graphic lab co-founded by my crazy.”
If that description doesn’t immediately pull you in, check out his company’s business pitch:
“Hire us for the mere fact that we are externally crazyfun but internally superserious when it comes to getting shit done. We are young (kinda), willing (please don’t bend us over) and learning (our sponge is thirsty) and we believe in giving our best to our projects. Yes we do.”
They’ve certainly got our attention!
We’re sharing Jaemy C.’s movie postcard mash-ups below, complete with his own witty captions. Which ones especially appeal to you?
▼”Looks like the stress finally got to the team at @Kickatomic. #TheShining #Freakyfriday”
▼”Ladies and gentlemen, slasher porn sleeping beauty. #hostel#hostelpart2 #eliroth”
▼”Love makes balancing on balls so easy. #theLoveGuru #MikeMyers#movieposter”
▼Beware their weapons of mass destruction. #FreddyvsJason#movies #horror
▼”Happy #horny Tuesday.#howtotrainyourdragon #mashup#artstagram”
▼”Hope everyone’s gettin’ back in the action nicely after the holidays.#007 #skyfall”
▼”May the odds be ever in your favour. But first #letmetakeaselfie.#theHungerGames #katniss”
▼”Groot things come to those who are willing to branch out. – by jaemyc#GuardiansoftheGalaxie #GotG#Groot”
▼”Hook, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, Patch Adams, Jumanji, What Dreams May Come, Bicentennial Man, Happy Feet, The Crazy Ones! Grew up watching so many of his movies. (and one tv show i guess). So many #win of characters that fueled my imagination in life. Watched #Hook and #Jumanjiidontknowhowmanythousandtimes when i was a kid. Thank you for the journeys. #RIProbinwilliams”
▼”For inspiring the crazy one in all of us. (technically not a movie but for u we’ll make an exception today, Robin) #riprobinwilliams#thecrazyones”
▼”Will always be a fan of this legend.#RipRobinWilliams#bicentennialman – by jaemyc”
▼Last one dedicated to the amazing#RobinWilliams. My favourite dragny. #MrsDoubtfire #drag#nanny #ripRobinWilliams”
▼”Doughnuts anyone? – by JaemyC#thesimpsonsmovie#thesimpsons”
▼”Sometimes being a superhero really sucks.- by jaemyc#AmazingSpiderman#Spiderman”
▼”Stylo yoga #xenomorph on the prowl. #avp #alien#alienversuspredator – by @JaemyC”
▼”In brightest day, on #friday night, no evil shall escape my sight.#worldpeace #greenlantern#haljordan – by @JaemyC”
▼”Careful, this chick bites. #jaws#chicken #foodporn – by @jaemyC”
▼”#Kaiju Squarepants dominates our poor #Jaeger. A sad Monday it is.#PacificRim #movies – by JaemyC”
▼”To achieve that much-desired sexy back, stand still, straighten posture, and slap on a #MattDamon movie poster. #Elysium – by @JaemyC”
▼”#Throwback movie tribute – Reloaded with a new actor. I think he “fits” the role rather nicely.#matrix #reloaded#matrixreloaded – by @JaemyC”
▼”‘ET, Balik Kampung.’ (ET, go home) The #SciFi Mashup piece.#ET #DarthVader #StarWars#extraterrestrial #balikkampung – by @jaemyC”
▼”I think the orange fro added depp to his character.#EdwardScissorhands – By @JaemyC”
▼”Going to war is jus a walk in the park for this #Spartan. #300 – by @JaemyC”
▼”Hanging out with the stars.#theFaultinourStars – by @JaemyC”
Be sure to check out Jaemy C.’s official business website or any of his personal media sites listed below for more samples of his ongoing creative projects!
Sources/images: Bored Panda, Kickatomic Creatives, Instagram (jaemyc), Pinterest (Movie Postcard Project)
Origin: A little perspective: Malaysian graphic designer cleverly mixes movie posters and real life
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.
Making good on CEO Evan Spiegel's announcement earlier this month, Snapchat ran its first ad this weekend. The brief spot was a sponsored story for the upcoming horror film Ouija, and it's safe to assume that more ads of that stripe are on the way.
Snapchat promised earlier this week that its first ads wouldn't be "creepy," and the end result seems to be fairly unobtrusive — more in line with the teasers that have popped up on other platforms like Instagram and Vine. However, some users were a little creeped out by the movie popping up in their feeds:
Why is Ouija on my Snapchat? Not today Satan, not today.
— Gustav Olivares (@guseter) October 18, 2014
Snapchat... y u scare me with that Ouija post
— Esma (@esmailyas) O...
