News-o-matic
September 26, 2006
- RPG heavyweight Bioware is setting up a handheld game development shop. Their first game will apparently be for the Nintendo DS.
- I found Pandora's Box, a system tray wrapper for the excellent Pandora music suggestion system. I had a few problems with an earlier version using tonnes of memory and occasionally crashing, but version 1.2.9 seems a bit better.
- Teeny Linux device from Gumstix, about the same size as a stick of gum. It comes with 64MB RAM, 16MB flash RAM, ethernet and a Compact Flash slot for about US$187. It's pricey, but fairly powerful, and a future version will even have Wi-Fi.
- Apparently there's a Spaceballs animated TV series in production, due sometime in late 2007. No idea whether it will be good or not, but Mel Brooks is involved.
- Super cool melding of a remote control plane with a VR headset, allowing flight from the pilot seat. It's a hobby project for now, so I might have to learn how to work with VR tracking systems, fibreglass and two-stroke engines.
- Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was seriously injured in a rocket car crash while filming the show. Apparently he is making a slow but steady recovery, although it's still early days for such a serious prang.
- Cool developments in the field of prosthetics, with microprocessors to learn body movements and smart motors to deliver active motion.
- More nasty stuff from the DRM swamps - RFID chips may be added to DVDs, in a fairly nebulous and vague attempt to curtail piracy. Region coding is mentioned in the article, which really doesn't please me at all, since region coding is an unholy horror that makes baby Jesus scream in revulsion.
- Australia is on the road to inherit the USA's shitty laws against breaking TPMs. This targets modchips, software locks, region coding and anything else that companies wrap around content to control and limit your usage of it. These are terrible laws in the USA, so it's sad to see Australia bending over for them here as well.
- Hauntingly amazing Flash game - flOw. Explore - it's an excellent demonstration of emergent behaviour and game rules.