CES 2011 – Surface 2

Surface Logo 2.0
EL DOSurface logo

This post is suppost to keep track of interesting news that’s shooting out left and right from CES this week. (Like Xolotl’s dying sperm shots in Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light). (the tragedy here, is that I don’t know ANYONE who cares about this CES tech shit half as much as I do)

Microsoft Surface version 2
(aka Samsung’s SUR40 tv) sounds awesome. AWESOME! I’m stunned this isn’t bigger news. … I guess people see it as a giant iPad that costs more than twice most high end tvs? (or they will soon? if they ever even hear about it?) butttttt. What’s really exciting is the “pixelsense” tech, which claims to be a bunch of camera sensors mixed in with the pixels, turning the whole display into a camera. Apple patented this years ago. but, microsoft made it. HMM! (actually, no one has laid out the tech exactly. who knows how many sensors there are).

I’ll rant more about below, after listing off some interesting tech announcements Continue reading “CES 2011 – Surface 2”

gore gaming (thoughts on the genre)

it's like christmas all over me!

This post was originally ranted out at the Escapist forums, in response to Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s post/article about Splatterhouse and potential gore gaming mechanics:

I think what’s interesting about gore gaming is – the concept of sadism.

If video games are this magical invention that frees you to “do anything you can think of,” then why are you perpetrating all this gore?
Make the game focus on this. If you ignore this aspect of the experience (by making the game about a stylish world travelling treasure hunter, for example) then you’re robbing the gore of it’s punch. You’re making a different genre of game that happens to have some gore in it. which strikes me as lame/irresponsible. Continue reading “gore gaming (thoughts on the genre)”

Kinect Gears of War idea

my dream for a Kinect Gears game (since I can’t make it) (as commented on wired’s Game|Life)

You are the president (of what remains of the human race basically).

A) You give speeches to the troops, with a first person pespective from a podium (minor kareoke mechanic decides if you are reading the teleprompter). Choose different speech pathes (a or b, color coded to indicate angry or heartstrings text) by gesturing to left or right.
Kinect tries to detect if you’re “spicing it up” with swear words or certain gestures. Like Dance Central: for delivering speeches. Continue reading “Kinect Gears of War idea”

Kinect : Gears of War (idea)

…I’ve been obsessing on Kinect all day. Wondering at how to make a serious game with it.

Keep thinking there could be an cool game that mixes two things:
1) the super-photo sleuthing from Blade Runner (“quadrant 3, enhance. go back. turn 10 degrees. enhance.”)
2) giving speeches (reading text aloud. maybe deviating from script if crowd is getting restless. emphatic gesturing.) Continue reading “Kinect : Gears of War (idea)”

game idea: Attack Die!

someone should make a 3rd person game with every in-game character tethered to a giant die. Like a big comical ball and chain, with physics.
annnnd: whatever face is currently up on the die controls the stats. (or maybe which ever face is getting the most light? so you could have three sided die? and puzzles where lighting changes?)

So you’d constantly be choosing whether you want to attack them, or their die.
(maybe have something where high numbers are good for defense, but low numbers are good for fast attacks).

maybe running makes die tumble around, but walking/tiptoeing keeps die stable. (so you could have stealth areas where you try to get a good roll, then drag it slowly through a deadly gauntlet. which would have to have minor bumps on floor for maximum white knuckles).
Like, the die could be contextual, reflecting how low your steps are (in this area).

hmm.
maybe you could “level up” by adding more die. maybe different kinds of die could represent different powers (d3 is tied to your leg if you use fire sword. or a d10 is tied to your leg if you equip to ice shield).
picture these barbarians running around with 10 different kinds of die dragging behind them.

for some reason i find this intensely exciting. 🙂

Sayyy, web browsing friend, have you read this?

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_nicholas_carr/

quote: “Research continues to show that people who read linear text comprehend more, remember more, and learn more than those who read text peppered with links.”

At first, this strikes me as just another dogmatic fear-of-change reaction. ‘we did it one way for hundreds of years, so this new thang must be inferior. or a throwback to primitive animal-brain crap that nobody really wants.’ .
…I guess they do mention that the hypertext distraction isn’t as pronounced as it once was, because people have learned to tune out hyperlinks. but. I don’t think they really believe it.

Continue reading “Sayyy, web browsing friend, have you read this?”

Apple vs. Adobe: My thoughts on the Jobs rant and rebuttals

my view:
Jobs is saying there is a difference between apps and the web.

I think the key is this:
“It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps.”

Some mention that apple could get involved in Adobe’s open screen project, but the whole point of that project is “o provide a consistent runtime environment.” How can you do this between a blackberry and an iPhone?

(degrading features gracefully? that sounds like something for the web, not for an app. !!!).

Continue reading “Apple vs. Adobe: My thoughts on the Jobs rant and rebuttals”

Online Learning – some day?

I have this gut feeling that one day (in the crazy-future?), people will acquire college degree based solely on tests and interviews. Say over a couple of weeks. Learn it “however you like,” and come pay us when you want to be “certified”.

Most information is already available via google these days, and there are thousands world wide who are willing to try and explain things to you.

The magic of transferring Student-teacher interaction online hasn’t been cracked yet, and this is a very limiting factor for the growth of online learning Continue reading “Online Learning – some day?”

Electricritical: what about anti-gun technology?

I was watching this sad video where an idiot kid attacks a giant old viking, and gets the shit kicked out of him. Apparently it’s gone viral
http://www.urlesque.com/2010/02/19/epic-beard-man/
I assume it’s popular because the modern American idiot wonders what fist fights look like.

The tragedy here, methinks (aside from this being a hugely popular video), is that the kid likely will not be going home and learning how to fight. What dweeb cares about such non-lethal human interaction, when you can just send away for the Charles Atlas hand gun? Disgusting. (though it makes me want to mock up an fake advert)

This morning I lay awake staring at the walls, unable to stop thinking about : advancing the equation to a new level. Continue reading “Electricritical: what about anti-gun technology?”