firehose

“Why your games are made by childless, 31 year old white men, and how one studio is fighting back”

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The PA Report - Why your games are made by childless, 31 year old white men, and how one studio is fighting back

speaking of why I’m having second thoughts about being a 31-year-old white male childless game designer

TurboTax ran into some problems Sunday night and didn't do a great job of mitigating the fallout on Twitter.

So, uh, I’m #fine (as is OMS)… but I’m probably not getting anything else done today…

BOSTON — Two explosions shattered the finish of the Boston Marathon on Monday, sending authorities out on the course to carry away the injured while stragglers in the 26.2-mile race were rerouted away from the smoking site.

Competitors and race volunteers were crying as they fled the chaos. Bloody spectators were being carried to the medical tent that had been set up to care for fatigued runners.

“There are a lot of people down,” said one man, whose bib No. 17528 identified him as Frank Deruyter of North Carolina. He was not injured, but marathon workers were carrying one woman, who did not appear to be a runner, to the medical area as blood gushed from her leg. A Boston police officer was wheeled from the course with a leg injury that was bleeding.

Neither race officials nor public officials could immediately estimate the number or degree of injuries.

About three hours after the winners crossed the line, there was a loud explosion on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the photo bridge that marks the finish line. Another explosion could be heard a few seconds later.

Smoke rose from the blasts, fluttering through the national flags lining the route of the world’s oldest and most prestigious marathon. TV helicopter footage showed blood staining the pavement in the popular shopping and tourist area known as the Back Bay.

“There are people who are really, really bloody,” said Laura McLean, a runner from Toronto, who was in the medical tent being treated for dehydration when she was pulled out to make room for victims of the explosions. “They were pulling them into the medical tent.”

Cherie Falgoust was waiting for her husband, who was running the race.

“I was expecting my husband any minute,” she said. “I don’t know what this building is … it just blew. Just a big bomb, a loud boom, and then glass everywhere. Something hit my head. I don’t know what it was. I just ducked.”

Runners who had not finished the race were diverted straight down Commonwealth Avenue and into a family meeting area, according to an emergency plan that had been in place.

Original Source

Comics professionals and local stores continue to confirm their safety in the wake of two large explosions at the Boston Marathon's finish line today, with Boston Comic Con still scheduled to occur this weekend.

We were chatting to Natasha Lomas from TechCrunch (no relation to our own Pete) last week about the distribution of Raspberry Pis across the world. Here’s the article she wrote about it. We designed the Pi with the explicit goal of getting kids in the UK coding, but the popularity of the platform has spread well beyond that in the year it’s been on sale, which means we have a job ahead of us. Currently the vast majority of the 1.2 million Pis in the wild are in the developed world, but we recognise that there’s demand in the developing world and will be taking someone on full-time to deal with the work required to get more Pis out to less connected areas very soon. There are some significant problems associated with getting the Pi on general sale in some locations, not least the enormous shipping and import tariffs that many countries impose on electronics imports – a Pi will cost you $85 in Brazil, for example, thanks to those tariffs. It’s a big job, but we’re looking forward to getting our teeth into it.

But Pis are gradually finding their way to all kinds of far-away places, and I saw some tweets a week or so ago from ThimpuTech, who had got their hands on the Kingdom of Bhutan’s first Raspberry Pi. And now, we’ve found out what’s being done with it – it’s been made into a server for Khan Academy Lite, serving up educational content to a local school.

The Kingdom of Bhutan’s first Raspberry Pi

Khan Academy Lite is an offline version of Khan Academy‘s superb curriculum of free learning materials; if you haven’t come across Khan Academy before, head over and have a poke around their website when you’ve finished reading this. You’ll be impressed. With the Pi, a 64GB SD card to put all the learning materials on (which actually costs about twice what the Pi you’ll need to run it on does) and a wi-fi dongle, you’ve got a way to bring the MP4 lectures that make up the core of Khan Academy’s material to areas with no internet. Bhutan’s an interesting place to be doing this sort of thing; the internet didn’t come to the country until 1999, and coverage is still very minimal, so an offline solution is vital.

Khan Academy maths exercise

What this means is that for an investment of about $99 ($35 for the Pi, $50 for the SD card, $5 for a dongle and another few dollars or so for a box and power supply), schools in Bhutan and all over the world can access world-class learning without needing to be online.

We’re really pleased to see the very first Pi in the country being used explicitly to bring educational resources to kids; we’ve been extremely excited about the potential of Khan Academy Lite for a while now, and it’s great to see it in formal use by schools. We hope to hear some more from ThimpuTech soon.

valardaughter:

My dash wanted to finish the poem.

The endless patience of our hard-working machinery.,..

Photos by Sas R [deviantart]

[h/t: earthlynation]

George W. Bush, former President and prolific painter of dogs, gave a rare interview to the Dallas Morning News, in which he addressed the question that's been gripping the nation: What's the deal with those dog paintings?

“People are surprised,” Bush said. “Of course, some people are surprised I can even read.”

He noted that he takes “great delight in busting stereotypes," but didn't really have an explanation for why he decided to take up the hobby, along with other activities such as mountain biking and golf. “You’ll have to call all the people who’ve written these books about me, who claim they know me, the psycho-babblers," he said.

“I like challenges,” Bush continued. “I find that charging up the hill is very rewarding — and frustrating. It’s important to set goals in life and have purpose.”

Continue Reading...

(via Twitter / Boston_to_a_T: Explosion at coply …)

If you are concerned about a loved one participating in the Boston Marathon, you can see the last time they completed a mile here.

The first explosion occurred about 3 p.m. on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the bridge that marks the finish line.

Original Source

willsorrow:

This would be awesome!!!

why are so many nerd cocktails kinda bad

instead try

blue blazer

+

pewter goblet

I mean for Gryffindor’s sake it’s practically what’s on the cover

“A woman saying yes to a date with a man is literally insane, and ill-advised, and the whole species’ existence counts on them doing it. I don’t know how women still go out with guys when you consider that there’s no greater threat to women than men. We’re the number one threat to women! Globally and historically, we’re the number one cause of injury and mayhem to women, we’re the worst thing that ever happens to them. If you’re a guy, try to imagine that you could only date a half-bear, half-lion, like, “Ugh, I hope this one’s nice.””

- Louis C.K. (via unignorable)

Do you still have room in your heart for one more video making fun of Christian Bale's Batman voice? If so, watch this. Even if you don't, you might want to give it a try because it feature the greatest Penguin that never was: Patton Oswalt.

Read more...

Berlin

Illustrator Ben Dewey helped create this unique Star Wars AT-AT walker for Stephanie Kaloi’s four-year-old son who recently underwent surgery on both of his legs. The fun design helped the child overcome his aversion to the walker, which he associated with pain from his first post-surgery use.

To say this is above and beyond any expectations we had is an understatement: this thing is incredible. Dude loves being able to call Darth Vader (his favorite character) for instructions, and has mastered the sound of a laser being fired. More importantly, the goal was accomplished: our son happily walked all around our living room firing lasers at us for nearly an hour without once being scared that the walker would cause him pain. He’ll need the walker for another three weeks, and having him happy to use it is a huge leap forward for his recovery.

images via Offbeat Familes

via Bit Rebels, The Mary Sue

image via Citi Bike

Citi Bike is a new bicycle rental service that recently launched in New York City. Like similar bicycle sharing services in London, Hangzhou, China, and around the world, users can approach a kiosk, rent a bike for a limited amount of time, and return it to another kiosk at their destination. Citi Bike users can currently find a map of in service and planned stations on the service’s website, and a smartphone app for iOS and Android will be available soon. More photos of the newly-installed Citi Bike kiosks are available at Brooklyn Spoke.

photos via Brooklyn Spoke

By Tracey Lien on Apr 15, 2013 at 1:15p

Former CCP president Mike Tinney and his studio FIX: Fitness Interactive eXperience are using games for a healthy cause in their upcoming fitness massively-multiplayer online game, Utilifit.

Announced in October 2012, Utilifit is an MMO that encourages players to be more physically active through completing fitness challenges, leveling themselves up and playing alongside friends and co-workers. Back in January, Tinney —who previously worked on CCP's EVE Online — told Polygon that Utilifit is designed to be a game first and foremost, as opposed to a gamified data-tracking app.

"Other games on the market seem to focus a little bit more on tracking and measuring your workout," he told Polygon. "We focus more on motivating somebody to take action. Our game is more about unlocking features as you play, connecting you to other people who are doing the same things you're doing and unlocking even more features."

In Utilifit's current beta, which Polygon was given access to, players sign up for an account via a web browser, input basic information like their height and weight, and select their fitness level and goals. The game begins by sending players micro-challenges via email or text throughout the day. Players can alter their notification settings and the level of how challenges scale. All challenges fall within the categories of strength, endurance and flexibility, and within each challenge there are different levels of difficulty.

"Taking a leaf from Eve Online, Utilifit is designed to be a socially-connected experience where players keep track of each other's progress ... and use their online competition to motivate each other."

In the current playable mode, if players begins the game at 9 a.m., they will be sent a new challenge to complete every hour, on the hour, for eight hours. These can range from less challenging workouts like completing 30 jumping jacks, walking briskly for 30 seconds and performing stretches, to higher-level workouts like burpees, push-ups, planking and more. The challenges are designed to be manageable for every level of fitness and only require a few minutes to complete, and if players find them too challenging, they can change their difficulty level. Upon completing each challenge players hit the "I Did It!" button, which then increases their progress bar in certain categories. If players miss a workout, they can elect to complete it later. If the player fails to complete the challenge before the end of the day, they may end up falling behind their competition. More modes will be added as the beta progresses, which will gave players more flexibility with when they play and when challenges are sent to them.

According to Tinney, the social experience is the glue that keeps players engaged. If a player were to play on their own, the solitary experience would make it easy to give up and skip exercises. Taking a leaf from Eve Online, Utilifit is designed to be a socially-connected experience where players keep track of each other's progress, have shared goals and experiences, and use their online competition to motivate each other.

Tinney told Polygon that Utilifit isn't designed to be an inaccessible fitness tool. Rather, he wants it to be something anyone can use to increase their physical activity.

"The main thing we're seeing in the space is research showing how unhealthy it is to sit still for long periods of time, and how increased regular activity throughout the day is the third essential component besides diet and exercise for maintaining health and preventing heart disease and obesity," he said. "There's not a lot in this space right now that specifically focuses on that activity level, so we're early, we're well-timed for that and, in our game, working in five-minute increments every hour is kind of perfect to elevate people's metabolism and boost their energy levels."

Utilifit is currently in beta. Sign-ups can be accessed here.

As a followup to the best fake websites shown in TV shows, Brooklyn-based writer and producer Debbie Saslaw edited a great new supercut video for Slacktory of fake websites used on Law & Order.

The real crime is this CSS!

rwise2112 writes "Lithium-ion batteries have long been thought to be free of the memory effects of other rechargeable batteries. However, this appears to be not the case. Scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, together with colleagues from the Toyota Research Laboratories in Japan have now discovered that a widely-used type of lithium-ion battery has a memory effect."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

By Griffin McElroy on Apr 15, 2013 at 1:45p

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim's post-launch support team has moved on to work on Bethesda's next project, marking the end of the game's schedule of major content updates, the studio announced today.

"Parts of our team have also been in pre-production on our next major project," a post on Bethesda Blog reads, "and that game is at the point where it requires the studio's full attention to make it our biggest and best work yet."

The blog post added that though the support team is moving on, Bethesda will continue to provide minor updates to Skyrim "as needed." A representative for the company confirmed to Polygon that "no other DLC [is] coming," meaning Hearthfire, Dragonborn and Dawnguard will be the title's only expansions.

"We look forward to sharing our next adventure with you," the blog post adds.

Four of the five highest-paid employees at Standard & Poor’s 500 companies aren’t chief executive officers. They’re Apple senior lieutenants receiving compensation packages designed to keep management intact in an increasingly competitive industry.

I was gonna answer this ask privately, but my answer kind of spiraled a bit and I want to talk about something.

((This isn’t aimed at you I promise, but this made me think of something that’s been bugging me since my post went viral.))

Yes, geek girls are an untapped and unappreciated group. But we’re not ashamed of coming out of the geek closet; we’re afraid to. 

I wasn’t the one who put my post up on other sites (like Imgur and 9GAG). That was done by other people who thought it was funny and wanted to share it. And yet I still managed to get messages calling me an attention whore or about how it probably wasn’t even my sword or to go use it to make them a sandwich. Some people even commented that it wasn’t funny and I only got as big as I did because I was hot.

I never expected for my post to blow up like it did and even still I wouldn’t have spammed the internet with it myself. 

I made it to make people laugh. I didn’t make it for attention. Hell I only had around 100 followers when I made that post. If you liked my post because it genuinely made you laugh, thank you. That was why I made it. 

I certainly can’t speak for the experiences of other female geeks out there, but this was mine. 

my-beds-perfect-for-hiddleston:

wearejohnlocked:

every-body-lives:

rose-9-10:

captkylej:

hopeyouhateit:

I HAD TO MAKE A GIF BECAUSE I COULDN’T FIND ONE
AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SAW THIS
I JUST

You now realize that the reason that the angels didn’t get her here is because THE CAMERA COUNTED AS SOMEONE WATCHING THEM.

And the only time the angels moved was when sally blocked them from the view of the camera

This episode breaks the fourth wall in more ways than one.  This shows that even the audience can be part of a Doctor Who episode.  Whovians, you’ve always wanted to be in an episode.  ”Blink” was the first.  You also hear the Doctor talking to you about the statues.  The “Don’t Blink” speech we know by heart.  And…what about the angel in the window?  If Sally wasn’t looking at that one, then why didn’t it move?

Because we were watching it.

nonooo i never signed up for this. i dont want to play peek-a-boo with these creepy bitches.

Mr. Dalliard created an informative flowchart that shows Time Travel in Movies (here is a larger image).

via I Love Charts

Late last year the FCC gave cable providers permission to encrypt basic cable, and Comcast is wasting little time in moving ahead with the plan. The company has begun notifying customers in select markets that programming will soon be encrypted, a move that will require anyone not using a Comcast set-top box or CableCARD-enabled device to install an adapter to keep watching their soon-to-be-scrambled shows. As mandated by the FCC, Comcast will be offering these adapter boxes at no charge for two years — so long as you request them during the offer period. After two years (five for Medicaid recipients), each box will demand a $.50 rental fee each month. An adapter will also be made available for Boxee TV owners thanks to another provision of the FCC decision.

"We understand this will be a change for a small number of customers and will be making it as convenient as possible for them to get the digital equipment they may need to continue watching limited basic channels," a company spokesperson told The Verge. Comcast would of course prefer that you upgrade to one of its proper Xfinity packages, warning that the DTA boxes won't provide an on-screen guide or support pay-per-view purchases, among other inconveniences. As for why the encryption process is necessary, Comcast's FAQ page says the controversial decision will "reduce the need for scheduled in-home appointments, providing greater convenience for our customers." The company tells us encryption will be rolled out "on a market-by-market basis" in the coming months.

• Via GigaOm
• Source Comcast
• Related Items comcast encryption basic cable limited basic cable Boxee TV

“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”