The LA Times has an article ("Gamers rack up losses") about how gaming has created some social problems in South Korea where Internet connectivity is almost universal and gaming centers are all over the place. It uses as its jumping off point the recent death of a gamer after 50 hours straight sitting and clicking. The article itself is pretty hilarous with lots of juicy alarming bits like: "South Koreans may be providing the rest of the world with a scary glimpse of the future" and one terrible game spokesman saying: "of course, you can't force people not to play games, just like you can't force them not to smoke." Read it here on yahoo >>

A while back I mentioned an open-source screenplay and collaboration software that was available. I'm now one of the alpha testers. From what I've seen so far, the next version is going to be just what the doctor ordered. New GUI, lots of new features and ... um .. less bugs! I've already converted my next screenplay project to the new version. See more at celtx.com >>

I've been helping a designer build a housing development site. Check it out here >>

Last Thursday when I and a few dozen humans were greatly enjoying the human-based entertainment of Hamsa Lila and DJ Cheb I Sabbah little did we know that on the same day researchers at the University of Tokyo were demonstrating an act which may represent the end of human rule and the beginning of robotic domination. As you can see by the shocking image to the left, traitorous Japanese have given humanoid robots the ability to get up from a lying down position. Now the last defense humans have from rampaging headless iron monsters - namely that we can push them over and they just struggle on their backs like turtles - is truly gone. Sure, the prototype robot there (named after the Isaac Asimov character) cannot yet get to a standing position; you know that it will come just as soon as the Japanese decide to make that happen. This New Scientist article ("Rock 'n' roll robot regains its feet") talks about the occasion with unusual neutrality. I reencoded the original movie in Clipstream in case the traitors at the so called Laboratory for Intelligent Systems and Informatics decides to remove the evidence.

Scientific American magazine is answering the current hooey supported by fundamentalist - pandering politicians in the U.S. with an article debunking the 'intelligent design' proponent's arguments (.pdf). It should be noted that intelligent design is no theory in itself; it is just pin pricking at the vast body of evidence supporting evolutionary theory. A theory that is not disprovable is not science (note: disprovable, not disproved).

In a move that was long in coming, I'm now looking for a place for myself beginning in the next month. If you know anyone who wants to let out their basement to a nerd / writer / news poster / game player, let me know. I just started looking online of course. My roomie of the past six years showed me this amazing tool called HousingMaps.com which takes the information from postings on Craigslist.org and then uses Google Maps to display the locations and posting info. Where I was looking the postings were a bit sparse, though.

Last night Sarah and I caught the legendary DJ Cheb I Sabbah and opening acts Hamsa Lila at Richards on Richards. Although I have a couple of Cheb's CDs I hadn't ever seen him live. Neither of us knew what to expect from Hamsa Lila and we were totally blown away by this San Fransisco group of musicians and singers. They are a global groove (what else can you call it? Ethno funk?) group featuring two gorgeous singers - one of whom dances - and a quartet of excellent string, percussion and electronic musicians. If you have heard any Six Degrees branded acts you know the kind of music they play but I'd never caught any such groups live. Anyway, Hamsa Lila's set were extremely danceable, some trippy, a very good counter balance to the beat-heavy Cheb I Sabbah set (the half an hour I caught). The fortyish, top-knotted Cheb I Sabbah played the crowd like an old master of the ... CD decks? That's right, no LPs in sight, only a set of CD turntables and a big fat wallet of CDs. It was good stuff but unfortunately it was getting late so we had to turn in, but not before seeing Sabbah play with live accompaniment with two percussionists and even a belly dancer. The night was partly produced by Beats Without Borders, a local DJ collective who produce mostly global groove. Listen to Hamsa Lila samples here >>

In my browsing today I came across this site of metal soldier diaoramas which the author Joe Carvalho has arranged in a story sequences over a 30 year span. It is just the type of thing you would only see on the Internet. But I am totally in love with it especially this one about Mexican bandidos. One of my fondest visits to Victoria as a youngster was to Miniature World, a tourist spot filled with tiny towns and cities and most of all meticulously arranged battle depictions. That was probably the event that solidified my love for military history, especially the eras where uniforms were bright and soldiers marched in lockstep. Not long after I joined a war gamers club (while my brother and friend played D&D) but alas I was too young and not much for reading the rules or keeping with club discipline. I remember being ousted for leaving ketchup on a table. As for painting figures or building models, I wasn't much for that either.

For the last month I've been playing Battlefield 2 (which is actually the third Battlefield game but who cares) and while it isn't the same longterm addiction that Civilization 2 is, nor is it the religion that was Counter-strike for me, the game is the only thing taking time out of productivity for me currently. However, after crawling through the first two ranks I've formulated some criticisms of the game structure. The gameplay itself is fine - basically the same gameplay as the previous Battlefield games. You shoot people and can drive tanks or fly planes/helicopters. Cap flags.

However, over top of this the Dice people put a ranking structure that frankly is a big grind. You collect points for everything you do successfully in the game (kill people, heal people, fix things, blow things up, capping flags). Those points count toward a rank which, once attained, allow you to unlock a new weapon.

The trouble is, these weapons really aren't that much better than what you already have as the defaults. And the real killers in the game are vehicles which any newbie can get into. After Lance Corporal levelling to Corporal has been agonizingly slow and all I have to look forward to is a choice of only slightly better small arms. What would be useful is maybe a better rocket launcher, mines; anything that would allow you to defeat vehicles. Even better constitution (fatigue, reloading speed perhaps) would actually be an advantage. Let's face it, most firefights take place between short and medium ranges. Therefore having a better rifle isn't that much of an advantage.

The fact is, I'm not like some Korean guy who is going to play 50 hours straight (and die) just so I can level a rank. Battlefield 2 should take a page from RPGs on levelling pace. In most RPGs the first few levels come very quickly AND what you attain by levelling keeps the pace quick because you get more stuff, more abilities. As it is, I'm not very motivated to make Corporal before, say, Christmas.

I decided that it's now or never to pursue creative activities. At work I've changed to a four-day week so that I can dedicate one day to personal projects - for which I am thankful for an understanding employer. I also replaced the used Dell Lattitude laptop I had bought last year with a new Dell Inspiron 6000. So far all I've done is plug it in and copy files over. It has a really nice screen, it's pretty heavy but it should last awhile wherever I am (9 cell 80WHr battery). One thing I noted right off the bat was the plethora of unsecured wireless networks available both in the downtown office I work at and in my home building - naughty naughty. Secure your networks people!

The Globe and Mail is running a series of articles on WWII as part of the 60th anniversary of the surrender of Japan (V-J day). Last week there was a revolting article about how sufferers of Japan's notorious biological warfare experiments in China still haven't forgotten (or forgiven) those responsible who were never tried for their genocide. After I read it, I seethed with anger, even though I knew about it before. Today's article is about the young Chinese-Canadians who engaged in espionage and sabotage in Japanese occupied territories for allied forces even though they were discriminated against by Canadians and were denied the vote. One man recounted how they had to learn how to swim in commando school because at the time no Chinese were allowed in public swimming pools. Another man remembered that the first time he was served in a downtown restaurant was when he wore his uniform. The interviews with the veterans are quite moving.

I admit it. I am a sucker for industrial concept designs. Whenever Ford or GM come up with some wacky futoooristic concept that exists only as a 3D model in some designer's CAD software I gush - meanwhile they are really only producing the same boxy crap for next year. Nevertheless, if Specialized comes close to their concepts for advanced bicycles they have featured in this recent press release, I am soooo there (after first selling my car so I could afford one of these Jetson bikes). If I ever saw one of these parked in front of my apartment I would fucking steal it.

-- UNFORTUNATELY - that page is a fake.

I built a quick site for a monthly digital video filmmaker contest sponsored by the DVInfo.net community people. I designed and built everything. Check it out >>

The reason I haven't been posting much recently (or announced anything creative) is because I sold my house in Burnaby - the one I owned a third of that is. For anyone who hasn't sold a house; it is a lot of necessary BS. But still this wasn't as hard as I thought it was going into the process.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an article about how Seattle city planners are looking north to Vancouver as an example of a city that has successfully made a downtown core that people actually want to live in ("Vancouver offers tips on vibrant urban living"). Parks, thin buildings, height restrictions and requiring builders to account for green space are touted as reasons why there is a much larger downtown core population, especially families, compared with Seattle. Developers point out that Vancouver, after Expo 86, had a large swath of industrial and post-festival land to build in whereas Seattle has to make do with the landscape they already have. I live in Yaletown in the same neighbourhood as one of the locations the article describes (the Roundhouse). My own particular slice of urban heaven includes a view of the back alley behind the loud Atlantis night club - fights every weekend) but I'm not complaing. I'm a renter.

Here is a feature article in the eponymous journalism site Editor & Publisher talking about how for decades the U.S. Department of Defence and the Atomic Energy Commission suppressed film footage shot of the effects of the Hiroshima bomb. Hundreds of metres of black and white and colour footage shot by both American and Japanese newsreel camera crews (some of whom contracted cancer from longterm exposure) sat in vaults (or was destroyed) with orders not to be released in the U.S. The intimation of the article is that at the height of the cold war, the authorities and the media didn't want the public to know just how horrible the effects of an atomic bomb were on a city and on people at ground level. One military archivist explained it this way: ".. the AEC were sorry they had dropped the bomb. The Air Force--it was also sorry. I was told by people in the Pentagon that they didn't want those images out because they showed effects on man, woman and child. " Reuters notes that in May the LA Times conducted a survey of six months of newspaper coverage of the war in Iraq and largely ignored imagery showing western casualties, even as that number doubled. Together, it paints the picture of the media largely self-censoring what it believes the public doesn't or shouldn't want to see: troubling images at the time of war.

Here are several links to photos and articles about Sean Casey and Greg Eliason's converted Ford F-450 that he and his crew made into an armoured car suitable for filming tornados as closely as possible. They make IMAX films in the heart of hurricane country and to do so modified the pickup with steel plates, a turret and called it the Tornado Intercept Vehicle. They are planning to build a second version that may not look like it was made for the Mad Max movies. Read about it here, here, and here