Take a moment to watch this trailer for Steve Swink's Scale. You're welcome.
Scale takes cues from Portal and The Swapper, blending first-person scientific gunning with a mysterious, whimsical setting ripe for exploration and adventure. Players embody Penny Prince, an inventor jailed for accidentally destroying the east coast with a gun that sucks the size out of objects and injects that mass into other things. While imprisoned, Penny slaps together a hodge-podge sizing gun and escapes with the rehabilitative therapy coordinator living in her brain, seeking freedom and her cat.
This is the first declaration of the narrative driving Scale since its unveiling at GDC 2012: The fresh story details come from the ScaleKickstarter, launched today and seeking $87,000 over one month. The game has players resize objects, animals and worlds to solve puzzles and uncover secrets in a beautiful 3D environment, all while the makeshift sizing gun becomes increasingly unstable.
Scale is the brainchild of Cubeheart Games, led by Swink, with voice work by Ashly Burch of Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'? and Sarah Elmaleh of Gone Home, and music from FTL's Ben Prunty and Super Meat Boy's Danny Baranowsky. Scale is due out for PC, Mac and Linux, and Swink is sure to point out that Linux support means Scale is coming to SteamOS and Steam Machines. Check out the Scale Kickstarter details here.
John Carmack is the creator of "Doom." He’s the creator of "Quake." He ran a rocket ship company. And in this talk at Quake Con 2013, he explains the physics behind the games he builds. It’s a fascinating look at video games, but also a surprisingly great introduction to physics.
In utmost secret, Duke Riley trained a flock of homing pigeons to fly one way from Havana to Key West, Fla. Half the birds were flat-out smugglers, running Cuban cigars to the United States.
"I would love an hour in a room with him and a pair of wire-cutters and pliers, so I could inflict the same damage on him that he inflicted on me. But, I do not want to kill him, nor do I want to see him die."
(Est. 1982) "The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) is the recognized world governing body of professional surfing and has been crowning surfing's undisputed World Champions since 1976. The ASP sanctions and crowns World Champions for the following tours: the ASP World Tour, the ASP Women's World Tour, ASP World Junior Tour, ASP World Longboard and Masters Championships. The ASP is dedicated to showcasing the world's best surfing talent in a variety of progressive formats and has revolutionized the way the world watches surfing via their webcasts and other media platforms. The organization is divided into seven different regions: Africa, Japan, Australasia, Europe, Hawaii, North America, and South America.
An anonymous reader writes "Coinciding with challenges in the rollout of the U.S. Affordable Care Act are challenges for NHS. The Independent reports, 'A National Health Service free at the point of use will soon be "unsustainable," if the political parties do not come forward with radical plans for change before the 2015 election, top health officials have warned. Stagnant health spending combined with ever rising costs and demand mean the NHS is facing "the most challenging period in its 65-year existence," the NHS Confederation said ... In a frank assessment of the dangers faced by the health service, senior officials at the confederation say that the two years following the next general election will be pivotal in deciding whether the NHS can continue to provide free health care for all patients. "Treasury funding for the service will be at best level in real terms," they write. "Given that demand continues to rise, drugs cost more, and NHS inflation is higher than general inflation, the NHS is facing a funding gap estimated at up to £30bn by 2020."' From The Guardian: 'Our rose-tinted view of the NHS has to change.' More at the Independent, Mirror, and Telegraph."
Steam is offering a bundle which features Demigod, Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition, Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, and The Political Machine 2012 for $22.49 (75 percent off). By contrast, the same bundle is available on Impulse - formerly owned and operated by developer/publisher Stardock - for its regular $90 price tag.
The bundle and individual deals are available for each Stardock title, including the recent Elemental expansion Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes, until October 21.
Here’s something truly surprising: During the government shutdown, residents of Washington, DC, went to bars more but spent less money.
Which, like: Shocking, right?
The very imprecise data come by way of Foursquare, which analyzed check-in data from within the district from the month of October. (The shutdown began October 1, so the data perfectly align with the month.) The company found some broad trends: Many users, its data indicated, treated the shutdown like an unplanned vacation and went to “fancy bars and Italian restaurants.” In fact, the company says bar check-ins increased by 50 percent.
But as DC residents—and, if we can somewhat tenuously extrapolate, government employees—reached the end of the first week of the shutdown, their habits shifted. Their dwindling disposable income having been largely, er, disposed, they directed their dipsomaniacal needs to a different kind of dining experience: the dive.
“Over time,” says the company in its post, “bars returned back to or below pre-shutdown levels, and more people were going to dive bars than usual.”
The service saw other types of check-ins fall by a quarter or a third, too: hotels, public transit, and (somewhat obviously) government offices. It didn’t, however, note a drop in gym attendance.
Foursquare isn’t the only social media service to record a noticeable change in its data for the Washington region: Dating site Zoosk reports a huge jump in the use of its services. It’s fun to think these trends, representatives of a broad, population-wide change in habits, might be visible to technology companies (though invisible to us until the companies deign to reveal it). The data’s amusing, and, while only a tiddly bit more epistemologically valid than word-of-mouth anecdata (“yeah, I noticed more people at the dive, too!”), it might confirm some the suspicions we pick up from walking around the city.
It’s also fun to think about the number of dates—presumably, fresh from the gym—sitting together, at a badly lit bar, sipping a Natty Boh.
In an analysis of more than 1,000 television shows that aired on 67 cable and broadcast networks during the 2011–12 season, UCLA researchers studying racial diversity in the entertainment industry found that more viewers were drawn to shows with ethnically diverse lead cast members and writers, while shows reflecting less diversity in their credits attracted smaller audiences.
…Yet, according to the study, released on Oct. 8 at the 27th annual National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications conference in New York, ethnic minorities and women remain woefully underrepresented on both cable and broadcast programs as lead actors, writers and show creators.
THERE IS NO FUCKING EXCUSE
READ THIS and then someone magically hire me to write a hit TV show please.
Batman's tool belt has always featured the most advanced gear on the planet, so it's always struck us as strange that the World's Greatest Detective would use Games For Windows Live as his PC platform. Today, Warner Bros. has announced that Batman has given up on the soon-to-be-shuttered Games for Windows Live platform in favor of Steam's collection of similar features and copy protection.
GFWL copy protection and features (including achievements) have been removed from both Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. The upgraded Steam versions now include Steam Achievements, cloud support, Big Picture support, full controller support and Steam Trading Cards.
"If you purchased either of the games on Steam all you have to do is let Steam download the latest patch and you will be fine. If you purchased the games somewhere else you will need to enter the code in Steam," an announcement on Steam detailed. Steam users report a free upgrade to the GOTY editions of each title upon registering their CD key in Steam. Switching to a new copy protection system means that players will be forced to restart the game as saves rooted in the GFWL platform are not compatible with Steam.
This weekend, both Batman games are available for 75% off to celebrate The Dark Knight's upgrade to the industry's preferred PC platform.
Apple has just released the MacBook Air Flash Storage Update 1.1 for the 64GB and 128GB solid-state drives that shipped with some 2012 MacBook Airs. The company has apparently "discovered that a small percentage of flash storage drives in these MacBook Air models have an issue that may result in data loss." If the update applies to your system, it will perform a test of your SSD and update the drive's firmware.
If the drive fails the test, Apple has also launched a MacBook Air Flash Storage Drive Replacement Program that will replace the SSD in your system with a fresh, error-free unit. The program is being offered free of charge, indicating that the drive can be replaced whether your 2012 Air is in-warranty or not (Apple sold the systems from June 2012 to June 2013). You will be responsible for backing up and restoring your data before and after the drive is replaced.
Digging into the update file reveals references to "TS" SSDs, indicating that this is a problem with Toshiba drives specifically.
Andrew Cunningham
While Apple didn't mention which drives specifically were causing the problem (nor just what the problem was, exactly), a quick dive into the update package reveals that the update is intended for 64GB and 128GB Toshiba SSDs. Apple generally sources its components from a variety of suppliers, so if your 2012 MacBook Air shipped with a Samsung SSD this update probably won't apply to your system. If your Air did come with a 64GB or 128GB Toshiba SSD, back up your data and download the firmware update as soon as possible, since SSD failures can be swift and terrible.
In What Are You Playing This Weekend? we discuss gaming and such with prominent figures in the pop-culture arena. We always start with the same question.
Ron Funches is a stand-up comedian based in L.A. After a long stint in Portland, he’s been rapidly working his way through the world of television, starting with an appearance on Conan, and more recently as a writer on Comedy Central’s Kroll Show. He’ll be a series regular on Bill Lawrence’s upcoming show The Undateables. Ron spoke with The Gameological Society about giving his pokémon silly nicknames and the awesome wrestling moves in Saints Row V.
The Gameological Society: What are you playing this weekend?
Ron Funches: This weekend I’m playing Pokémon X, always some Animal Crossing, and probably a little bit of Saints Row V.
Gameological: That’s a pretty wide array between Pokémon ...
you can be anything when you grow up to become a VC
"I did a very exhaustive search for countries. Being that this was a huge piece of the puzzle to even have a remote shot at making it, I pulled out all the stops. I put together a whole campaign where I wrote physical letters to the embassies and governments of every country in the world that had no winter sports tradition."
'In its statement to All Things D, Apple doesn't strictly deny that this is possible, "The research discussed theoretical vulnerabilities that would require Apple to re-engineer the iMessage system to exploit it, and Apple has no plans or intentions to do so." As Quarklabs notes, it isn't trying to say that Apple is already reading iMessages, but it wants to make it clear that within its current implementation, iMessage simply isn't a perfectly secure system.'
Apple is reiterating its stance that iMessages are secure communications, after a security firm published research saying that Apple itself is capable of decrypting and reading them. "iMessage is not architected to allow Apple to read messages,” an Apple spokesperson tells All Things D. Researchers from Quarklabs posited that Apple, should it choose to or if pressed to do so by a government agency, would be capable of decrypting iMessage communications as they moved between a sender and a receiver — a potentially huge distinction from what Apple claimed in June, that "no one but the sender and receiver can see or read [FaceTime calls and iMessages]. Apple cannot decrypt that data."
The vulnerability that Quarklabs points to revolves around encryption keys. "[Apple] can change a key anytime they want, thus read the content of our iMessages," Quarklabs writes. In its statement to All Things D, Apple doesn't strictly deny that this is possible, "The research discussed theoretical vulnerabilities that would require Apple to re-engineer the iMessage system to exploit it, and Apple has no plans or intentions to do so." As Quarklabs notes, it isn't trying to say that Apple is already reading iMessages, but it wants to make it clear that within its current implementation, iMessage simply isn't a perfectly secure system.
The leaks leading up to the Nexus 5's launch have been... sizable. First reported by Engadget, the latest leak comes from Google itself, as the Google Play site briefly listed the Nexus 5 among its roster of devices for sale. The biggest takeaway from the leak is the price: 16GB for $349. Prior leaks have given us a pretty good idea of the visuals, while a leak of the unit's service manual gave us nearly all its internal details. Based on the LG G2, the Nexus 5 sports a 4.95" 1080p display, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 SoC, LTE, an 8MP rear camera, and a maximum storage capacity of 32GB. The phone will launch alongside Android 4.4, which is expected to bring tweaks to the launcher and some big changes to the messaging services.
Google launched last year's Nexus 4 at $299 for an 8GB model and $349 for a 16GB model, matching the expected pricing for the Nexus 5. This approach is similar to their efforts to bring the sale price for tablets down, starting with last year's $199 Nexus 7. The approach also allows buyers to get access to high-end hardware without having to sign two-year contract's with a carrier while avoiding the $600 price that most unsubsidized high-end phones cost. Google's efforts have yielded some results, with many carriers building out plans for buyers to pay the full price for a phone in installments, rather than through subsidies buried in their monthly fee.
There's no telling when Google will officially unveil the Nexus 5, but the holidays are nearly here, so it can't be too much longer.
'The official stenographer who flipped out on the floor of the House as the world watched the vote ending the nation’s debt-ceiling crisis was clocking mind-numbing hours during the government shutdown, her husband said.
Dan Reidy told The Post Thursday that his wife, Dianne, was plagued by sleeplessness since the start of the shutdown Oct. 1.
“Two weeks, waking up in the middle of the night. She’s like, I can’t sleep, God’s got me in the work,” Reidy said, speaking from the living room of the couple’s Maryland home, where they’re raising two twin girls.
“God was preparing her for this vote last night, because this was kind of the culmination of everything,” he continued.
“This was the big one. Everybody’s there. And Dianne didn’t know what she was sharing, she didn’t know when — but she just sensed in her spirit.”
Dan Reidy, a former associate pastor of a Christian church in Florida, denied that his 48-year-old wife has mental problems.
He said she doesn’t drink, smoke or take medications — and that he accepted her claim that she was acting as a messenger for God.
Dianne Reidy was present sporadically during the half-hour interview, but spoke only briefly towards the end.
“I’ve never felt better,” she said, “I’m glad that I fulfilled God’s mission for me, absolutely. It lifted a tremendous burden. It was a very hard burden to carry as you can imagine.” '
“I’ve never felt better. I’m glad that I fulfilled God’s mission for me, absolutely."
"If it had been a $4 million Web site, it would've had higher likelihood of being a success," (Evan Burfield, who founded the relatively small company that worked with CGI to build Recovery.gov,) says. "It's not just CGI. It's any collection of government contractors, if you put them together, will find a way to put together something complex enough to justify $400 million."
The story behind the company contracted to make the buggy Healthcare.gov website | The Verge
It's no secret that the Healthcare.gov website — which is home to Obamacare's health insurance exchanges — hasn't had a smooth launch. The company that won the $93.7 million contract to construct the site is CGI Federal, a subsidary of a Canadian firm called CGI Group. Blame for the botched launch has largely settled on the company, the contractors it hired to complete the job, and the bureaucratic system that awards such contracts. The Washington Post has now profiled CGI Federal, and it turns out the IT company is a relative newcomer to US government contracts — and it doesn't have a spotless track record. You can read the full article here.
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So, you're tired of everyone being so darned "politically correct" all the time. It is true that the internet and much of Portland are riddled with PC whistle blowers who want to tell you how privileged and secretly racist you are, all while also being privileged and secretly racist themselves. So what do you do about it? You make supposedly ironic jokes that are sexist, racist, homophobic, etc. because what used to be regular old bigotry is now somehow edgy. Now we're really seeing your balls! How courageous you are to fight the fascist forces of political correctness!
But maybe you could stop and think for a second today, "Hey, my backlash against the concept of political correctness is actually far more harmful to oppressed peoples than it is to this emotionless concept that I dislike for purely selfish reasons." Because it's not about politics, and it's not about being correct. It's about being a decent fucking person who treats other humans with respect, and it seems that some of you have forgotten that.
Yeah, yeah, my rant it totally gay. Go ahead and get it out of your system.
Here's something you might not have known: Pope Francis owns a Harley-Davidson. And he plans to auction off his hog to support organizations that help the homeless.
How in the world did his holiness come into possession of a Harley?
Earlier this year the pope gave a blessing to hundreds of Harley aficionados (and their rides) in St. Peter's Square, where he was presented with one. Money raised from the auction will go toward a Roman hostel and soup kitchen, the Daily Telegraph reports.
OnlyMrGodKnowsWhy
Scale tells a tale of prison break, atomic science, a cat originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 17 Oct 2013 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Stardock is offering 50 to 75 percent off its library of games and related DLC on Steam.
Batman's tool belt has always featured the most advanced gear on the planet, so it's always struck us as strange that the World's Greatest Detective would use Games For Windows Live as his PC platform. Today, Warner Bros. has announced that Batman has given up on the soon-to-be-shuttered Games for Windows Live platform in favor of Steam's collection of similar features and copy protection.
