lumpley games: Before the Flood

"Look to the sidebar on this page for the list of the Gods' Domains. Divide those Domains up among you, however seems best. You might read them out, waiting for a player to claim one before you read the next. You might begin on your left and have each player choose one, going around the circle again until you've chosen them all. You might draw them from a hat or deal them out like cards. It makes no difference."

An amzing new take on RPGs. I want to try it.

Violet Books: Forgotten Cities

"Haggard invented a new type of fantasy adventure for which the term 'the lost race novel' was later coined. Writers virtually fell over each other, following in his footsteps — as they do in the wake of every literary innovation. "

When I was a kid I had a copy of the Collected H. Rider Haggard, a bookcase full of National Geographics, and Reader's Digest Mysteries of the Ancient World. For some reason, I thought that the three novels in the collection I owned were every novel he ever wrote. I now find, to my great joy, that I was grossly mistaken.

I am like a kid at Christmas

Improv Everywhere HQ

"You know, there's another Starbucks right over there, I bet this is all happening there, too."

Link thanks to Philos.

The Observer | UK News | The vagina monoliths: Stonehenge was ancient sex symbol

Feng has pointed me to Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy Screens.

Bloomberg.com: U.S.

"The U.S. military plans a worldwide on-line futures market to help it predict events in the Middle East. Traders could bet on the likelihood of events ranging from the overthrow of a government to the collapse of an economy or the assassination of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat."

Commuter Cars

"Thank you for visiting Commuter Cars' web site. You may have seen us driving the Tango proof-of-concept car around Spokane or Montréal or racing it at Woodburn, Oregon (sans body) and wondered 'what the heck is that thing?!' This site, which will evolve with the Tango, will try to provide all the information you're looking for."

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

"Bob Hope, ski jump-nosed master of the one-liner and favorite comedian of servicemen and presidents alike, has died, just two months after turning 100. Hope died late Sunday of pneumonia at his home in Toluca Lake, with his family at his bedside, longtime publicist Ward Grant said Monday."

Disney World goes to Potter as Harry fans swoop in for Nimbus conference

"The title was changed in the United States to 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.' Rowling's American publisher said it was because Americans wouldn't buy a book with philosopher in the title. But the real genius, Granger says, is that sorcerer is the trigger word for American fundamentalists. The well-publicized objections of some religious groups to the books was great marketing."

In the words of the inestimable Philos, Archon on Steriods.

The Island of La Maddalena

Updated 07/27/03: Here is a more satisfactory link to this little island off the coast of Sardinia.

ABCNEWS.com : Why Does the U.S. Flag on the Moon Have Ripples?

"The wrong coating had been applied to the telescoping rod, so it wouldn't fully extend, which is why the flag looks like it is waving in the wind. Ironically, that famous picture of Buzz Aldrin posing next to the flag is often cited as evidence by conspiracy theorists as proof the mission to the moon was a hoax. "

WSJ.com - Battle-Scarred Author Takes On Web Pirates

"One publishing executive who displeased him received a dead gopher in the mail. He sustained a decades-long feud with Gene Roddenberry because the 'Star Trek' creator meddled with his script for the classic episode 'The City on the Edge of Forever.' After winning a copyright battle with Paramount Pictures over a TV show, Mr. Ellison bought a billboard outside the studio that said: 'Writers -- Don't Let Them Steal From You!'"

Escape Veolicty Nova has finally been ported to Windows

"EV Nova is the third game in the Escape Velocity series, and is by far the most ambitious installment to date. With a completely redesigned gaming engine, EV Nova thrusts you into a sprawling universe dominated by a myriad of warring factions, each sharing a common bond, but so philosophically different as to make conflict inevitable."

British doctor can be deported, but he remains in jail

"A Seattle federal judge ruled yesterday that immigration officials could deport a British doctor who worked with homeless teens in the Bronx and helped to treat victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."
[...]
But in an action that Handa's lawyers characterized as 'vindictive and completely inappropriate,' the government decided to detain the doctor for at least three more nights. "

U.S. to doctor: Thanks for your help, now leave

"When hundreds of injured New York City firefighters, policemen and other victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks inundated NYU Downtown Hospital, Anuj Handa joined other physicians who rushed to their aid. But neither that act in the nation's dark hour nor the three years he spent helping homeless children in the Bronx spared Handa, a British citizen, from being arrested and held in detention in Seattle for overstaying a visa. "

Listen, all you foreigners out there. If you can't be bothered to attend to the letter of the law, for G** sake, get a good immigration lawyer. Do you really want to be trusting to the good will of the overworked underpaid border guards of a nation that's been targetted by terrorists?

"'It just slipped my mind,' Handa said. 'It didn't occur to me until I was driving up to Vancouver -- I was looking at my card, and it said March 2.'"

Thanks to my wife for the link.

I, Cringely | The Pulpit

"Whom do you trust? If you are a policeman, you trust the police. How much information is enough? When it comes to the electronic gathering of intelligence information, it appears that no amount of information is enough. These two concepts have collided in America with the result that creating the very capability of gathering electronic intelligence is putting all of us in greater danger. The supposed cure may be worse than the disease. Maybe -- and only maybe -- we know a little more about what the bad guys in our society are doing, but it is coming at what might be a horrible cost. And a big part of the problem is that if you are a policeman, you trust the police. "

Flying Robot Attack!

"Staff at the Magna Science Adventure Centre, in Rotherham, were forced to inform aviation authorities after the 'flyborg' floated off into the sky as it was being moved."

New Tarantino Film to Be Released in 2 Parts

"Miramax Films will take the unusual and potentially risky move of releasing 'Kill Bill,' the much-anticipated Quentin Tarantino martial arts action-adventure film, as two movies, the first to open in the fall. Miramax will in effect be taking a three-hour film with a 200-page script and turning it into a serial."

CNN.com - Save Our Spooks - May. 30, 2003

"The outrage among the intelligence professionals is so widespread that they have formed a group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, that wrote to President Bush this month to protest what it called 'a policy and intelligence fiasco of monumental proportions.'"

Who is Buried in Bush's Speech?

"The case for the defense is a classic illustration of what lawyers call 'arguing in the alternative.' The Bushies say: 1) It wasn't really a lie; 2) someone else told the lie; and 3) the lie doesn't matter."

Taking effects Beyond the Matrix on a budget.

Link thanks to one.seven design studio

Levitated | Pond Code XML | Macromedia Flash open source

The cleverest XML navigation metaphore ever.

The Forge :: View topic - Danger Patrol to the Rescue

"a burning magnazeppelin heading straight for rocket city full of deadly magnetic plasma! Cindy Cannon, the two-fisted daredevil, had leapt out of the zeppelin without any sort of parachute and was now freefalling at 5 miles up (magnazeppelins fly at high altitudes). Iron Mask, the atomic ninja, was still on board, trying to avert disaster. "

Check out the playtest discussion for Danger Patrol, the Atomic Pulp RPG that Feng is writing.

CNN.com - Giant Chilean beach 'blob' identified - Jul. 11, 2003

"Chilean scientists said on Friday their study of a huge blob of flesh found on a Pacific beach about three weeks ago concluded it was the carcass of a sperm whale, ending speculation of a giant octopus. "

Here's Uncle Zeus, Aunt Hera, the Twins ...

"For years, his father, Harold Newman, had pursued a hobby — an elaborate genealogy project — trying to link all characters from Greek mythology in a single family tree. Judge Newman wanted to finish it.


Now, the Newmans' work has been published by the University of North Carolina Press as 'A Genealogical Chart of Greek Mythology: Comprising 3,673 Named Figures of Greek Mythology, All Related to Each Other Within a Single Family of 20 Generations.'"

FLY GUY is now my favorite computer game ever.

Speakeasy lets you become your own Wi-Fi ISP

"Seattle Internet service provider Speakeasy yesterday introduced Wi-Fi NetShare, a service that allows Speakeasy customers to share high-speed Internet connections with their neighbors in a 300-foot to 500-foot range."

Surprise, matey! 'Pirates' is better than you'd think

"Given its heredity (inspired by the Disneyland ride and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who is responsible for some of the sloppiest and noisiest action blockbusters of the past two decades), the high-spirited, comic swashbuckler 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl' is a slight but disarmingly entertaining surprise."

The top 20 Home Computer Games of all Time
...accroding to me

Last night, Philos, Feng and I got into a converstaion about our favorite PC games of all time. And so, I present the results. For purposes of brevity, I've lumped games that improve the technology but dont' significantly change the gameplay (such as Domm I/II) in one entry. I've also refrained from listing games that are of the same genre and technological era (such as Starcraft and Age of Empires), choosing instead the one I think is best.

1. Apeiron - It's kind of weird for me to put an arcade game as my all-time favorite (and a Mac game at that), but Apeiron epitomizes everything that Ambrosia Software stands for, because Apeiron has the most sought after and rarest quality in a game developer: they know what is fun. They've made a living re-tooling arcade favorites with stunning sprites, sound, and gamplay (like the centipede-inspired Apeiron).
   
2. Civilization I/II/II - I once convinced my brother-in-law to let me install Civ I on his 8086 so his kids could play it as an educational experience. It took about 45 minutes to set up the world, but it ran. When I went to grad school, a copy of Civ I spanned across floppies was one of my prized possessions. I still play this game today.
   
3. Doom I/II - I still hear doors opening and closing in my dreams... I played Doom II with Simpsons sprites because I was still creeped out by Doom I.
   
4. Thief I/II - A truly unique game that still has not been duplicated. Thief II didn't really hold a candle to I, but it was still a fun game.
   
5. Counterstrike - Real men use a deagle.
   
6. Zork I/II/III
   
7. Starcraft
   
8. Asylum I/II - Asylum was a first-person view puzzle/rpg that was written for the TRS-80 model 1. The pixels were as big as my fist. Nevertheless, my next door neighbor and I spent over a year finishing Asylum I. It is truly a forgotten gem of gaming.
   
9. SimCity I/II/2000 - many, many lost hours.
   
10. Jedi: Outcast - MHO, the first real addition to FPS gameplay since Doom. Sure Oni and a host of other titles advertised seamless fun hand-to-hand combat, but Jedi delivered.
    
11. Realmz - I almost put Pool of Radiance here, but then I remembered Realmz. Realmz beats Pool because Realmz has the best sprites and terrain of any game of the era, better sound, and you can build scenarios for it. Unfortunatlye, the scenarios are buggy in the poor PC port of this Mac game.
    
12. Wing Commander
    
13. Ultima Underworld - UA was released somewhere between Ultima 4 and 7 as a sort of spinoff game. It is still my favorite first-person view RPG.
    
14. Nethack - if this is all that open source gives the world, it shall have been worth it.
    
15. Hearts of Iron / Europa Universalis I/II - I'm counting HOI as a sequel to EU and EU II. These games broke the preconception that a world-conquest strategy game had to be built on a grid... you know, the way the real world is build on a grid.
    
16. Air Flight Simulator
    
17. Ultima 4 - I knew I was a gamer when I saw this game.
    
18. Half-Life
    
19. One on One: Bird vs. Jordan - This isn't so much a game as it is an archetype of personal combat.
    
20. Escape Velocity - Another game by Ambrosia and the only member of the top-down real time combat and trading space rpg genre of which I am aware. EV also allows you to build your own scenarios. Best of all, there's a PC port in progress!
    
21. Stars! - Stars! is a perfect example of what happens when a team of capable developers decide to design the game they've always wanted to play and then carry it out in close dialog with their players. It may not be your cup of tea, but in the genre (turn-based space strategy and resource management), it is the best there is.
    
    

Yes, I know that's 21.

Honorable Mentions:

• Dark Forces - Dark Forces was the first FPS to have levels where you could go over and under, laser turrets, dual-mode weapons, and tossable grenades. I didn't list it in here because I think of it as a sort of "Half-Life I".
  
• Lode Runner - Here you have everything you need to know about platform games. Duke Nukem 2 was fun too.
  
• Age of Empires - Starcraft gots its spot because Starcraft has flame throwers and flying buildsing. Sorry, AOE.
  
• Pod Racer - I really hate racing games. I really like Pod Racer, though.

All the new kids on the blog

"Before posting an entry in his personal weblog, Robert Scoble always pauses and considers how he would justify its contents to three people: his boss, his wife and Steve Ballmer."

Microsoft begins to wrestle with the question 'what is a blog?'

Why Virtual PC Rules: Reason 54:

For when you wake up in the morning with an uncontrollable urge to play that DOS game you used to love.

Warlords II

3 masked men caught trying to raid a Denny's

"16 customers and employees at Denny's on Rainier Avenue South were the targets of robbers and were temporarily locked in the restaurant's walk-in refrigerator."

Link thanks to my wife, who reads the newspaper.

Neat

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Giant blob baffles marine scientists

"The specimen was at first taken for a beached whale when it was washed up a week ago but experts who have seen it say it appears not to have a backbone. "

News

"In an astonishing announcement on global warming and extreme weather, the World Meteorological Organisation signalled last night that the world's weather is going haywire."

Tied in knots over no intent to wed

Deslauriers says agents always started their speech the same way: "'It's not a right to come to this country.' I felt like I was a child getting a hall pass to go to the bathroom. "

Coke deal could make schools target of suits
That would be Coke the soda, not Coke the drug, though some might argue successfully that they are related. (I write this knowing that Mr. Feng of Shootingiron.com might send me an email in protest.)

Salon.com News | Giant sea creature found in Chile

"Fishermen found the 39-foot-long carcass of a sea creature on a beach in the south of Chile, and conservation specialists were trying to determine if it was an octopus. "

I was thinking that the world is going down the tubes, that it's impossible to get proper service anymore. When we buy things, they almost always break right away. For example:

• We bought a first alert smoke alarm with a 20 year battery. The battery was dead.
  
• We bought a new chest of drawers. The top drawer broke the first day.
  
• We are on our 3rd CD player in two years.

And when you order something, the order always comes wrong. Examples:

• Games Workshop habitually ships my gaming orders with the wrong bits, or the wrong number of bits.
  
• We orderd some baby stuff and had it shipped Fedex so we could have our sun tent for the long weekend. Only one problem; the tent had to be back ordered, and they didn't tell us.
  
• We bought slippers online - but they shipped the wrong color and in a women's size instead of a men's size.
  
• Hardware habitually ships with drivers that don't work properly until you download the patch

But then I realized that as some companies get worse, others improve their services:

• Speakeasy.net not only gave me an Xbox for switching to their DSL, they have now send me new hardware for my new, faster connection at no increase in cost. Then they phoned me up on the day my service switched to make sure I wasn't having any problems setting my new IP.
  
• The new Google toolbar blocks popup add (21 blocked today!), but doesn't block new windows for Microsoft OWA email the way some other popup blockers do.

Long live customer service!

Levitated | Walking Things

"Walking Things is an environment that generates small, walking computational organisms. Each walking thing is built up from totally random conditions. Appearance, behavior, and walking characteristics are all assigned from a range enabling effective, functional mobility."

I am a soldier in Dumbledore's Army.

All Too Flat : Pranks : Cube

Link thanks to Philos