If you’ve been commenting to my last few blog posts on the World of Warcraft, or you have a scientific hypothesis of your own about the nature of Azeroth and how it came to be that way, or you have too much time on your hands and enjoy thinking about stuff that doesn’t make sense, [...]
Filed under: fantasy, game design, game philosophy, geek culture, geophysics, google, humour, information use, meme, mmorpg, online games, playfulness, science, storytelling, world of warcraft on July 4th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
(This is a continuation of the essay started here and synopsised on video here.) I note that my previous post has sparked some academic debate in certain circles relating to the validity of my research techniques and data. Therefore before we embark into a new area of discussion, I must address some of the comments [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized, environment, fantasy, fiction, game design, game philosophy, geek culture, geophysics, humour, information use, mmorpg, playfulness, science, space, world of warcraft on July 3rd, 2008 | 26 Comments »
In certain circles there’s been a lot of excitement about the Current Cost, a meter that clamps to your mains electricity cable and measures how much power your household is using, comparing usage over time with numbers and little graphs. Evidence shows that having a device like this can save you 15% on your electricity [...]
Filed under: blogosphere, environment, geek culture, information use on May 21st, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Just to assure you I’m still alive… Apparently there are only three countries in the world that haven’t officially adopted the metric system: Liberia; Myanmar; and the United States of America. How richly ironic is it that the USA’s way of measuring things is what they call the English system, and the rest of the world calls the Imperial system? (And they can’t even get that right: there are 20 fluid ounces in a pint, not 16. Please, these things are called ‘standards’ for a reason.) In other news: Space Giraffe is a huge disappointment, and I will deliver some thoughts [...]
Filed under: humour, information use, oh for fuck's sake on August 23rd, 2007 | No Comments »
I know this is all over everywhere, but I enjoy watching people turn everyday tools into playthings. Petition asking Gov. Schwarzenegger to free Paris Hilton—as I write, 16741 signatures Petition asking Gov. Schwarzenegger to jail Paris Hilton—as I write, 29576 signatures
Filed under: information use, oh for fuck's sake, street games on May 9th, 2007 | No Comments »
According to a trusted friend, apparently Websense is blocking its users from seeing this website. Under the category ‘sex’. I am frankly nonplussed. I mean, I don’t think I’ve referred to any particular game as an “abortion” recently.
Filed under: information use, internet, oh for fuck's sake, sex on April 25th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
If you enter the location of an event as ‘TBA’ in Google Calendar, the system will offer you a map to it. Clicking on the link—which of course you would, or at least of course I did—reveals an entirely blank plan of Tabibuga station, Papua New Guinea. I know nothing about Tabibuga, but as far as I can glean from the internest it’s [...]
Filed under: google, information use, travel on April 11th, 2007 | 5 Comments »
Sony has just released full details of the Folding@Home software that’ll be available for the Playstation 3 from the end of March. Folding@Home is a distributed-computing project that uses a computer’s or console’s idle-cycles to process chunks of data relating to the behaviour of folding-proteins related to forms of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Huntingdon’s, cystic fibrosis, and [...]
Filed under: console, information use, internet on March 15th, 2007 | 3 Comments »
In all the hubbub and furore about the commercial success of the Wii, its strengths as a games machine and its viability against the PS3, one thing’s been missed. Nintendo is about to snatch a huge crown out from under the noses of Sony and Microsoft. While the Xbox 360 and PS3 fight it out [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized, console, information use, internet, wii on January 24th, 2007 | No Comments »