firehose

While there are a number of unofficial BBC News apps, one in particular has caught the attention of the british broadcaster. Lawrence Gripper, a technical account manager at Microsoft, has been forced to remove his BBC News app from the Windows Phone and Windows 8 app stores. Describing the apps as a "labor of love," Gripper revealed the removal of the apps on his personal blog. "It is with great sadness today that I removed both applications from the store."

Gripper developed both of the applications, that provide access to BBC News articles, before joining Microsoft — although the company encourages employees to build apps. They're still available temporarily, and a number of other unofficial BBC apps remain listed in the Windows Phone and Windows stores. The Verge understands that the removal was related to legal pressures from the BBC. Gripper isn't commenting on the issues, though, simply offering a word of thanks to the half a million users who downloaded the apps over the past few years.

The BBC has not yet released any official news applications on Windows Phone or Windows 8. The company recently announced plans to support its iPlayer streaming service on Windows Phone, with an application expected to arrive shortly. We have reached out to the BBC to comment on its role in the removal and whether the company is planning its own apps, and we'll update you accordingly.

• Via A-A-A (The Verge Forums)
• Source Lawrence Gripper
• Related Items bbc news bbc windows 8 windows phone apps applications developer windows store windows phone store lawrence gripper

We just got an ergonomic keyboard for the first time and absolutely love it. But the look of this keyboard hack has us second guessing ourselves. [Will Pretend] pulled off an absolutely stunning wooden retrofit for his USB keyboard. Be warned, his project log includes 175 photos, and most of them have captions.

He started off by taking apart the original USB keyboard to see what he was working with. Before digging in to the valuable wood stock he cut test pieces using some thin MDF. But once he had a clear plan to get to the end of the project it was full stem ahead.

The keys are not simple Chicklet style overlays, they have depth like you would expect to find on low-grade plastic peripherals. This was accomplished by milling each key, then sending them through the laser cutter to each the letter on top.

Take some time to make your way through the entire project (here’s a thumbnail layout if you get frustrated). Unfortunately [Will] says he doesn’t actually use the keyboard because of grains catching and the keys move around a bit too much. But it does work.

Charles Nicod. Les Grands Prix de Rome v.5 1907: 3 | RNDRD

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

By Craig Pearson on March 29th, 2013 at 10:08 am.

If you’re not a regular Eve Online player, and it if you don’t own Sony’s LittleBigUncharted emulator, the PS3, you might not be aware that the PC players of Eve Online can now drop orbital strikes into the free-to-player shooter, Dust 514. CCP have decided it’s time to trailerise such an event, so for 2m51s there will be some footage of a console game on RPS. Don’t worry, though. I got your back.

It’s actually to show off the next Dust 514 update, Uprising. But until they announce it for the PC, I refuse to look at the full trailer. Instead I asked my girlfriend to watch it and write me a watching guide. If you intend to just watch the PC bits, get a friend or relative to shout out when you can and can’t look at the screen. Below is a handy guide.

Eyes open from 0 to 21s
Eyes shut from 21s to 33s
Open from 33s to 37s
Shut from 37s to 46s
Open from 46s to 55s
Shut from 55s to 1m07s
Open from 1m07s to 1m11s
Shut from 1m12s to 1m15s
Open from 1m15s to 1m20s
Open from 1m20s to 1m25s
Open from 1m25s to 1m32s
Shut from 1m32s to 1m43s
Open from 1m43s to 1m47s
Shut from 1m47s to 1m54s
Open from 1m54s to 1m56s
Shut from 1m56s to 1m58s
Open from 1m58s to 2m04s
Shut from 2m04s to 2m12s
Open from 2m12s to 2m29s
The rest is logos.

If you do have a console, the game is in open beta already.

By Craig Pearson on March 29th, 2013 at 12:11 pm.

Hello, readers. I am alone in the RPS forbidden chatroom of mystery, which means that I am in charge of RPS until someone comes and takes it away from me. They actually forgot I was here and took Good Friday off without telling me! I am just a freelancer. So today we’ll have none of the usual nonsense that passes for RPS posts these days. News? Schmews! Faetures? I can’t even spell the word. GDC? I just checked and it doesn’t mean “Gloriously Decadent Chips”, so I don’t know why John and Jim are there. My autonomy means I get to do stuff like this. ArmA 3′s creative director pointed me towards a lovely ArmA 2 mod. An inquisitive six year-old’s first ArmA 2 addon. In the middle of all the horribly detailed war bastards that are usually built for the game, the wee boy made a table. Being a huge sap, I asked for more screenshots and details. They are EXCLUSIVE and below.

Daddy and modder Myke Henkel explains what it’s like building an addon with his son around: “He is always interested when I’m playing ArmA 2 and when I’m working on making addons. So I get a lot of questions asked: ‘What do you do, how does this work?’, etc. So I thought best way to explain is work with him to create an addon from scratch, explain how things are done, what he can do, how he can do and so on. We did the modelling together as well as the textures. He worked on them and I assisted to fill the knowledge gaps. The result was a table. Please note that Sam had the control and I was just standing next to him to tell him what he can do next.”

The second I saw the glorious table-top design, I knew I had to get in touch and ask for more screenshots of it. You know there’s never been a table made in any game that’s been done with this much care and attention. If you want it, you can grab it from the forum post.

I have made all the images clicky for all you tabular enthusiasts. Just remember, one of the PC’s biggest developers took take time out to make this happen. RPS and Bohemia Interactive proudly presents Samael’s Table.

By Tim Stone on March 29th, 2013 at 1:00 pm.

last year I gave up commas for lent this year ive decided to go the whole hog apologies in advance if this makes following the following difficult following a reluctant name change achtung panzer is now graviteam tactics rather than sulk the dispossessed devs have chosen to embrace the timelessness of their new moniker by releasing an add on set in eighties angola after a brief beat around the bush war i scamper off to waylay russell davis a man who is to atc simulation what jonas savimbi was to guerilla warfare

hmm i can see this punctuation fast fast becoming annoying as its one of gods busiest days of the year I doubt hell notice if i take a couple of hours off.

Gosh! Deploying that full stop felt good. Almost as good as smashing an Olifant-heavy UNITA/SADF assault with a perfectly timed T-55 counter-thrust.

Achtung Panzer is dead, long live Graviteam Tactics! Displaying characteristic pluck and quirk, the folk behind a wargame series that conveys the swirling uncertainties of 20th Century battle better than any other I know, have just packed their pride-and-joy off to southern Africa. If you’ve played Steel Armor: Blaze of War or happen to be an Angolan, Cuban, Russian or South African veteran Operation Hooper’s vast Cuito Cuanavale map may ring bells. For most, however, the scrubby stage and the scurrying war-ants upon it are likely to seem decidedly strange.

This is not a T-34.

This is not a Puma.

This is not a Pak 40.

This is not Stalingrad.

This is a wargame developer crediting us with a little curiosity… daring us to leave a foxhole fetid and familiar from long occupation. This is a dev delving into domestic history (The Soviet Union sent thousands of ‘advisors’ to Angola.) and enthusiastically exploiting personal connections (Graviteam CEO Vladimir Zayarniy’s military past means he almost certainly knows men that served in Angola).

The longest of the trio of included operations runs for 15 turns (Graviteam Tactics’ real-time battles are triggered by turn-based manoeuvres on an operational map. Several scraps can be generated per turn). All three ops focus on a pivotal few days in the defence of Cuito Cuanavale. Demoralised government troops with their backs to the twining Tumpo river, are facing annihilation at the hands of advancing UNITA/SADF forces. Can the timely arrival of Fidel’s finest stop the rot? £10 and some seriously sweaty soldier stewarding sessions will furnish an answer.

Cold War tech like Sagger missiles and night vision devices transforms AT warfare and nocturnal skirmishes, but it’s the 10x12km map itself that is the real revelation. Operation Hooper’s greenery-festooned plains and potentially treacherous ditches hide movement and fray LoS far more efficiently than Operation Star’s bare hills and clustered thickets. My early forays suggest infantry are living longer and infiltrating better. Front lines are fuzzier, advances tenser. Blizzard-blasted Taranovka feels an awfully long way away.

Controlling Interest

Air travel in Florida is about to get riskier. The FAA are planning to close 14 towers in the state, and Russell B. Davis, the godfather of ATC simming, is on the verge of letting anyone with a PC and a passing interest in pushing tin try their hand at marshalling the metal birds flying in and out of Sarasota Bradenton International.

Russell’s previous sims, ATCsimulator and ATCsimulator2, were heavy on realism but short on sunlight. You spent all your time glued to a glowing ARTS-IIIa radar display. In Tower Cab, his current project, controllers can – weather, distance, and volcanic ash clouds permitting – actually see the aircraft they’re addressing.

Intrigued by the vector change, the extensive feature list and promising WIP images, I thought it was about time two flare path fashioners chewed the fat.

RPS: What influences and events turned you into a career ATC sim creator?

Russell: I was an air traffic student in 1987. But a family crisis disrupted my training, and I was not successful. I left the program with a deep connection and respect for the occupation; I fell in love with air traffic control.

Since my background was in computer programming, I decided to use that skill to create an atc simulation. My original vision for ATCsimulator came about in 1988 after returning to conventional employment. (As a side note, I used the name “Aerosoft” as my company name in 1988, long before Aerosoft GmbH existed. I derived the name as a combination of “Aerocenter”; the name of the airspace used in training, and “Microsoft”). I then went on to work for McDonnell Douglas, Boeing and the FAA as a programmer. In the mid-1990s, after realizing the FAA was spending as much as $250,000 per year on a cheesy TRACON sim, I decided I could “build a better mousetrap” for a lot less. That is when I got serious about creating a new air traffic simulator. I first pitched the idea to the FAA to replace the costly sim they were using. They turned down my idea. So, I pursued it on my own. The time span between my first real idea for a simulator in 1988, and the actual release was 13 years. It’s now been 25 years since I started down this road. I have spent the majority of my working career in programming, in pursuit of this goal.

RPS: Did you consider using FSX as the basis for Tower Cab?

Russell: Early on I had considered using it; but my two choices were the FSUIPC SDK and/or the FS-SDK, I do not really like either. My skillset is in Visual Basic. I do not use C#, C++ or OOP for that matter. The SDK’s for FS are aimed at C-languages; languages I don’t care to learn. Most professional programmers consider VB just a “hobby” language. Well, I am here to challenge that myth. I am trying to build my own brand of tower sim that can stand on its own. IMHO, since Bill Gates left Microsoft, they have truly lost the vision for Flight Simulator, and I don’t want to build an app dependant on a product that has reached the end of its development. I’m sure FSX will live on for a long time, but I wanted to start with clean slate and do this my way.

RPS: Will Tower Cab be realistic enough to cross-over into the training arena?

Russell: I would think so. My other product, ATCsimulator2, is used in numerous universities across the US in FAA approved training programs. In creating KRSQ, I am utilizing as much material to create the airport such as SIDS/STARS, the FAA’s 7110.65x air traffic manual, captured historical flight data, etc. I even took 300+ photos of the airport for visual reference in recreating the buildings in the scenery. The ground image is a satellite photo of the airport location. I am making this as accurate as I can with whatever I can get my hands on. But I have no interest in becoming a supplier to any established commercial training venture in air traffic control. Once I do that, they dictate the direction of the product. This product is purely for entertainment, but complex enough to be used in that arena, if there will be interest for that.

RPS: I’m guessing Sarasota Bradenton International won’t be familiar to most potential buyers. Why is it your default airport?

Russell: For a couple of reasons. 1. KSRQ has a mix of both commercial aircraft (domestic and international), business jets, and GA aircraft. It’s not extremely busy, but enough to make it interesting. 2. Sarasota is a favorite vacation spot for my wife and I. It is also the location where I completed writing the manual for ATCsimulator just before its release in January of 2001. So it holds a special meaning for me on a personal level.

RPS: The potential for airport add-ons, both user-made and commercial, seems huge. Are expansions part of your plans?

Russell: Oh yes, add-on airports will definitely be next. But Tower Cab will not be designed in a manner where users can create their own airports. They will be able to modify certain aspects of the game, but not create an addon in its entirety.

RPS: Thank you for your time.

The Flare Path Foxer

…is off hunting Easter wabbits. Sorry. Back next week.

Keen-eyed Kelron, sweep all those Meissen figures, Fabergé eggs, and plastic darts trophies off your mantelpiece. The finely-crafted Flare Path flair point you scooped for locating last week’s elusive elk first (hard luck guygodbois00 and JabbleWok) deserves a surface all to itself.

All Skyrim DLC half-off until April Fool's Day originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 29 Mar 2013 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

the-absolute-best-posts:

unfierce:

THIS I S THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN

My lovely followers, please follow this blog immediately!

xombiedirge:

Heisenbert Sesame Street by The 80s Kids / Store

“…including internet speeds up to 200 times slower than Korea, at twice the price.”

The Los Angeles-based comedy group Extremely Decent introduce us to The First Honest Cable Company in their new entertaining commercial. It’s truthfully refreshing and extremely rude all at the same time.

via Gizmodo

A Fix with Sontarans (by TheNextDoctor)

that time Jimmy Saville crossed over with the Sixth Doctor that nobody ever wants to mention ever again

mynewroom:

blueandbluer:

gaypocalypse:

Diane Sawyer: So, have you thought, how many women is enough? How many women [on the Supreme Court] would be enough?
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Nine, nine. [Applause.]
Sawyer: Oh! Oh. [Laughs.]
Ginsburg: Well, there’ve been nine men there for a long long time, right? So why not nine women?
(x)

RUTH FOR ALL THINGS

RBG 5evar

comedycentral:

Click here to watch six-and-a-half minutes of Peter Dinklage being the absolute best on last night’s Daily Show.

Reblogging this so hopefully my girlfriend sees this on her last day of work and it brings a smile to her face, since I often say “Ca-caw!” really loud in the apartment, but pretend it’s a sound I think a monkey makes.

Love you, sweetie.

Submitted by: dsasera
Posted at: 2013-03-27 07:58:05
See full post and comment: http://9gag.com/gag/6920264

esemojica:

.99 steps of progress III

Reynard the Fox

Reynard the fox is a trickster figure from European folklore, much like Coyote or Raven from certain First Nation traditions. Primarily written in a satyrical context to poke fun at  the aristocracy or the clergy, Reynard uses wit and cunning to get the better of his enemies. His favourite ploy seems to be faking his death and planning posthumous revenge, which says something about the naivety of his antagonists, as it totally works a bunch of times. In the anthropomorphic kingdom ruled by Leo the Lion (with other inhabitants like Bruin the bear or Tybalt the cat) Reynard  has many enemies that often team up to bring the folk hero down, but none are as formidable as his nemesis Isengrim the wolf.

Luckily, Reynard has castle Maleperdius to seek refuge in, that has so many trap doors and secret passages that you’d think it was designed by the same guy that did Wayne manor or that mansion from Clue. 

Reynard became so popular in France especially that his name actually became the word for fox. The original word “goupil” was replaced by “renard” as farmers once believed that saying “goupil” brought bad luck.

Soyuz Rocket Launch - the moment of ignition, as-seen from their target, the Space Station.

By Philip Kollar on Mar 28, 2013 at 11:30p

Game designer Jane McGonigal began her GDC talk this year with a quote from author Jack Finney: "It seems too bad — this universal craving to escape what could be a rich, productive, happy world." Finney was writing about the ‘40s, but McGonigal said the trends he was talking about are magnified in our modern culture, especially in gaming.

McGonigal pointed to statistics, such as that people spend 300 million minutes a day playing Angry Birds or 170 hours per year per player in Call of Duty. These numbers help make sense of why some people are concerned that gamers only want to escape reality, she said, noting that psychological studies link escapism to suicide, anxiety, eating disorders, alcoholism and addiction.

While that sounds dire, McGonigal clarified that all is not lost. There are actually two forms of escapism: self-suppression and self-expansion. She described self-suppression as running away from unpleasant thoughts, perceptions and emotions; self-expansion is actively seeking new skills, stronger relationships and positive experiences. According to McGonigal, the difference between these two is comparable to the difference between saying, "Everything sucks, so I'm going to go play games," versus "Life is better when I have time to play games."

McGonigal said it can be difficult to tell the difference between self-suppression and self-expansion because the actual activity of playing games is exactly the same; it's a mental difference. To illustrate this, she highlighted a number of seemingly contradictory headlines about different studies on games. One study showed gaming increasing depression, while another showed it leading to more happiness. One study said gamers get lower grades while another said they get higher grades. According to McGonigal, all of these studies are valid — they're just looking at different people who are playing different games for different reasons.

As an example of video games being used positively for self-expansion, McGonigal referred to Snow World. This game was created for burn victims to play as their wounds are being treated. It turned out that playing Snow World reduced pain by 30 to 50 percent for the most severe cases and worked better than morphine.

In the second half of her presentation, McGonigal explained some of the ways in which games can have a negative effect, focusing around two key problems: aggression and sitting. McGonigal cited studies showing that violent gameplay is okay, and co-op violent gameplay can be great, but competitive violent gameplay — especially against strangers — raises aggression. Scientific studies have shown that defeating someone you don't know in a competitive game causes testosterone to surge, urging players to show their dominance over that person. On the flip side, beating someone you're familiar with in a game causes testosterone to drop and makes it more likely that you'll be nicer to the person in question.

The "sitting disease," as McGonigal said it has come to be referred to, is a more complicated issue. McGonigal pointed to studies noting a severely increased likelihood of death if you sit for more than six hours a day. She said the solution isn't as simple as taking games away from people; studies show that taking away screen time doesn't actually encourage kids to be more active, for example. Better solutions offered by McGonigal included shorter games and games with an element of physical input such as Kinect and Wii titles. She also pointed to a Kotaku article about the value of playing traditional games while standing.

Criticisms aside, McGonigal was clear that a wide range of popular games can be a great, healthy addition to peoples' lives, including games like Call of Duty, Skyrim, Battlefield 3 and World of Warcraft. McGonigal showed off a popular YouTube video of a grandson introducing his grandfather to Call of Duty (above) as an example of games building relationships as well as helping the elderly age gracefully. She also referenced evidence that action games increase attention span, that games can enhance social skills for autistic youth, and that kids can learn to manage difficult emotions like fear and anger through age-appropriate scary games.

Ending her talk by addressing developers looking to make healthy, self-expansion-focused games, McGonigal gave a number of direct recommendations to consider:

• 30-minute play sessions
• co-op
• fast-paced, complex action
• long-term goals and challenging gameplay
• age-appropriate intensity
• diverse avatars

McGonigal said that developers do a disservice to players by thinking of games as escapism alone and urged them to do a better job of connecting games to real life. You can find links to much of the research and sources that McGonigal used for her presentation as well as a PDF of all of the slides from it on this blog post.

In This Storystream:

• Mar 28 2013, 11:30p

  Jane McGonigal on the good and bad of video game escapism

• Mar 28 2013, 11:00p

  The Kickstarter darling comes home: hands on with the Ouya

• Mar 28 2013, 11:00p

  Mass Effect 3 live producer says multiplayer modes are a service, not a 'ship and forget' package

• Mar 28 2013, 9:00p

  Hitman: Absolution AI developed to create story-driven yet spontaneous combat scenarios

• Mar 28 2013, 8:48p

  Infinite Crisis is a friendlier, more approachable MOBA

• Mar 28 2013, 8:30p

  Ubisoft Montpellier developers discuss 'Reinventing Rayman'

• Mar 28 2013, 7:30p

  The creator of Just Cause 2 on running a next-gen sandbox developer

• Mar 28 2013, 7:00p

  Activision Blizzard researchers talk next-gen characters and believable performances at GDC

• Mar 28 2013, 6:00p

  Authenticity vs. reality: designing DayZ

• Mar 28 2013, 5:30p

  Crytek talks tech, educational outreach with CryEngine 3 at GDC

• Mar 28 2013, 5:29p

  IGDA apologizes for dancers at GDC party, hopes to reconcile with resigned members

• Mar 28 2013, 4:50p

  Game designer Jason Rohrer designs a game meant to be played 2,000 years from now, hides it in desert

• Mar 28 2013, 4:30p

  QWOP creator says developers can learn lessons from real-life sports at GDC

• Mar 28 2013, 3:30p

  How inexperience and failed pitches led to Tokyo Jungle

• Mar 28 2013, 3:03p

  Total War: Arena announced at GDC, will be free-to-play, multiplayer-focused

• Mar 28 2013, 3:00p

  Dragon's Dogma was originally twice its current size

• Mar 28 2013, 2:30p

  If you don't go, you don't know: Why Dishonored's art director traveled to build Dunwall

• Mar 28 2013, 2:00p

  Tenya Wanya Teens is a game about saying 'I love you' and peeing, and not confusing the two

• Mar 28 2013, 1:46p

  IGDA draws backlash, member resignations over female dancers at GDC party (update: IGDA responds)

• Mar 28 2013, 12:30p

  Women in the gaming industry share their number one reason to be in the business

• Mar 28 2013, 9:00a

  Killer is Dead's episodic structure explained

• Mar 28 2013, 8:30a

  Game industry veterans discuss how to motivate developers

• Mar 28 2013, 8:00a

  Total War: Rome 2's Battle of Teutoburg Forest puts players on the losing side

• Mar 28 2013, 1:00a

  Assassin's Creed 3's cross-studio work 'holds the keys to next generation development'

• Mar 27 2013, 11:43p

  Journey sweeps the 13th annual Game Developers Choice Awards

• Mar 27 2013, 11:00p

  Nintendo hopes to win app and web devs to Wii U with JavaScript tools

• Mar 27 2013, 10:30p

  Tropes vs. Women creator says we need to understand motivations behind online harassment in order to prevent it

• Mar 27 2013, 10:00p

  Finding feature inspiration at CD Projekt Red

• Mar 27 2013, 9:00p

  Dishonored co-creative directors advocate attracting players, not dictating their actions in GDC panel

• Mar 27 2013, 8:45p

  Injustice: Gods Among Us app launching for iOS

• Mar 27 2013, 8:30p

  Media perception of video games can be changed with diversity, say industry veterans

• Mar 27 2013, 8:00p

  Rune Factory producer on why not all RPG heroes have to save the world

• Mar 27 2013, 7:58p

  Miiverse to come to smartphones and PC by May, 3DS version in the works

• Mar 27 2013, 7:30p

  FarmVille 2 director encourages developers to 'never insult your players'

• Mar 27 2013, 7:22p

  Game Composers Get the Shaft, Argues Rights Attorney

• Mar 27 2013, 7:00p

  Full Sail study explores the value and hidden weights of Metacritic

• Mar 27 2013, 6:00p

  Developers should 'think like a fan,' be transparent when pitching on Kickstarter, says Double Fine producer

• Mar 27 2013, 5:30p

  Halo 4 designer chronicles building the Prometheans

• Mar 27 2013, 5:00p

  Kojima Productions L.A. building campus in Playa Vista, the 'Red Fox' to Tokyo studio

• Mar 27 2013, 4:33p

  PlayStation 4 specs detailed further at GDC

• Mar 27 2013, 2:11p

  Metal Gear Solid 5 is The Phantom Pain and Ground Zeroes in one game

• Mar 27 2013, 2:00p

  Opinion: Battlefield 4 totally eclipses the heart

• Mar 27 2013, 1:00p

  Vendetta Online iOS port will allow players to transition seamlessly from desktop to tablet

• Mar 27 2013, 12:25p

  Limbo on PS Vita won't feature touch controls

• Mar 27 2013, 2:23a

  Battlefield 4 executive producer Patrick Bach on the next-generation of 'human, dramatic and believable' Battlefield

• Mar 27 2013, 1:31a

  Battlefield 4 17-minute trailer hits, game arrives on PC, PS3, PS4 and Xbox 360 this fall

• Mar 27 2013, 1:00a

  Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z's anti-hero is part cyborg, part foul-mouthed comic book killer

• Mar 27 2013, 12:20a

  Spec Ops writer thinks violence is too easy

• Mar 26 2013, 10:30p

  Blizzard GDC panel elaborates on the challenges of localization

• Mar 26 2013, 10:00p

  Character diversity means better games, says Microsoft Studios writer

• Mar 26 2013, 9:30p

  Look to LucasArts adventure games for exploration cues, Blizzard AI engineer says

• Mar 26 2013, 9:00p

  How Halo 4 developer 343 Industries made Forward Unto Dawn on a 'threadbare' budget

• Mar 26 2013, 7:30p

  TowerFall brings the bow and arrow craze to indie games

• Mar 26 2013, 7:00p

  Harmonix narrative designer discusses authorship 'myth' and challenges of narrative

• Mar 26 2013, 6:04p

  Magicka: Wizard Wars streamlines the PvP experience of the original and makes it 'twitchier'

• Mar 26 2013, 5:30p

  Warren Spector says gaming can only borrow and steal so much from other narrative media

• Mar 26 2013, 5:00p

  Dust 514 narrative and beta structure designed to encourage player-driven stories

• Mar 26 2013, 4:25p

  Piracy and plush counterfeits key to Plants vs. Zombies' surprise success in China

• Mar 26 2013, 3:31p

  Sex, religion and violence: The big concerns for international game ratings

• Mar 26 2013, 9:00a

  Cut the Rope developers expanding with four new games this year, focusing on quality over quantity

• Mar 26 2013, 8:00a

  Wideload Games on the difficult transition from console to mobile development

• Mar 25 2013, 11:00p

  Assassin’s Creed 3 is a marriage of narrative and mission design

• Mar 25 2013, 10:00p

  Game AI should evolve through gameplay to better serve players, says Blizzard dev

• Mar 25 2013, 9:56p

  Limbo coming to PlayStation Vita later this year

• Mar 25 2013, 9:43p

  Spelunky coming to PlayStation 3 and Vita this summer

• Mar 25 2013, 9:34p

  The time to evolve emotional game content is now, developers say

• Mar 25 2013, 9:33p

  Blacklight: Retribution and Primal Carnage: Genesis coming to PS4

• Mar 25 2013, 7:30p

  ZombiU's permadeath mechanic built to move narrative forward, says writer

• Mar 25 2013, 7:00p

  Authentic games require the 'flavor' of an experience, not the whole package, narrative designer says

• Mar 25 2013, 6:30p

  Mark of the Ninja devs explain 'the theory of failing quickly' at GDC

• Mar 25 2013, 3:50p

  Oculus Rift developer kit hands-on: As advertised

• Mar 25 2013, 3:50p

  Some of the best virtual reality experiences will come from indie devs, Oculus Rift developers say

• Mar 20 2013, 3:00p

  Open Me! heading to PlayStation Vita in North America, playable at GDC

• Mar 20 2013, 2:00p

  GameStick shipping to developers next week, will make first public appearance at GDC

• Mar 19 2013, 12:30p

  Square Enix's Japanese arcade shooter Gunslinger Stratos will be playable at GDC

• Mar 15 2013, 1:00p

  GDC Experimental Gameplay Workshop returning for 11th year with Journey, Uncharted developers

• Mar 12 2013, 7:15p

  Among the Sleep headed to Kickstarter and GDC this month

• Mar 8 2013, 1:00p

  GDC 2013 Game Design Challenge will be the last one

• Mar 4 2013, 3:45p

  GDC to run 'bootcamps' for iOS developers, animators and producers

• Mar 4 2013, 10:15a

  GDC Play 2013 announces 'Best in Play' winners

• Mar 4 2013, 6:01a

  Sony to host 'Overview of PS4 for Developers' at GDC 2013

• Image Source
• Jane McGonigal

Back when Ksplice was just a research project at MIT, we all spent a lot of time around the student computing group, SIPB. While there, several precocious undergrads kept talking about how excited they were to take 6.828, MIT's operating systems class.

"You really need to understand pointers for this class," we cautioned them. "Reread K&R Chapter 5, again." Of course, they insisted that they understood pointers and didn't need to. So we devised a test.

Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby do officially present the Ksplice Pointer Challenge, to be answered without the use of a computer:

What does this program print?

#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
  int x[5];
  printf("%p\n", x);
  printf("%p\n", x+1);
  printf("%p\n", &x);
  printf("%p\n", &x+1);
  return 0;
}

This looks simple, but it captures a surprising amount of complexity. Let's break it down.

To make this concrete, let's assume that x is stored at address 0x7fffdfbf7f00 (this is a 64-bit system). We've hidden each entry so that you have to click to make it appear -- I'd encourage you to think about what the line should output, before revealing the answer.

printf("%p\n", x);

printf("%p\n", x+1);

printf("%p\n", &x);

Well, let's see. & basically means "the address of", so this is like asking "Where does x live in memory?" We answered that earlier, didn't we? x lives at 0x7fffdfbf7f00, so that's what this should print.

But hang on a second... if &x is 0x7fffdfbf7f00, that means that it lives at 0x7fffdfbf7f00. But when we print x, we also get 0x7fffdfbf7f00. So x == &x.

How can that possibly work? If x is a pointer that lives at 0x7fffdfbf7f00, and also points to 0x7fffdfbf7f00, where is the actual array stored?

Thinking about that, I draw a picture like this:

That can't be right.

So what's really going on here? Well, first off, anyone who ever told you that a pointer and an array were the same thing was lying to you. That's our fallacy here. If x were a pointer, and x == &x, then yes, we would have something like the picture above. But x isn't a pointer -- x is an array!

And it turns out that in certain situations, an array can automatically "decay" into a pointer. Into &x[0], to be precise. That's what's going on in examples 1 and 2. But not here. So &x does indeed print the address of x.

Result: printf("%p\n", &x) prints 0x7fffdfbf7f00.

Aside: what is the type of &x[0]? Well, x[0] is an int, so &x[0] is "pointer to int". That feels right.

printf("%p\n", &x+1);

cdecl> declare y as array 5 of int;
int y[5]
cdecl> declare y as pointer to array 5 of int;
int (*y)[5]

And thus concludes the Ksplice pointer challenge.

What's the takeaway? Arrays are not pointers (though they sometimes pretend to be!). More generally, C is subtle. Oh, and 6.828 students, if you're having trouble with Lab 5, it's probably because of a bug in your Lab 2.

P.S. If you're interested in hacking on low-level systems at a place where your backwards-and-forwards knowledge of C semantics will be more than just an awesome party trick, we're looking to hire kernel hackers for the Ksplice team.

We're based in beautiful Cambridge, Mass., though working remotely is definitely an option. Send me an email at waseem.daher@oracle.com with a resume and/or a github link if you're interested!

Submitted by: Unknown

Okay, this is memorable.