Chawlk

1. Drawar
2. Fenxy
3. Decaflon
4. Two Credits
5. Wriging
6. Loose Suits
7. Chixe
8. Dud3s
9. Wing Colors

 

I encountered the same issue Saturday. Huge discussion in the Apple dev forums, with folks trying all sorts of approaches to resolve it.

Any chance you've visited ESPN.com recently? That seems to have initiated the problem for a lot of folks -- causing other sites to start flaking out as well. Late Sunday, ESPN seemed to roll back to a previous version of their flash code. After that, a browser cache flush and reboot seemed to solve the problem for most.

Crap. I stop paying attention for a day and look what I miss. :-/

Whoops. Thanks for the catch, estarla. Fixed!

I typically use the photobloggies to pick up hot new talent every year and then track them via rss. The most recent winners are here.

Some long-term favorites:
http://www.mexicanpictures.com/
http://rion.nu/
http://moodaholic.com/
http://www.overshadowed.com/
http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/
http://trivialmatters.blogspot.com/
http://arcbody.cocolog-nifty.com/nakahigashi/
http://www.travisruse.com/

Nice rundown, Scrivs. I still remember the raw pain I felt seeing "The Fall of an American Icon" alongside the Apple logo on the cover of Business Week back in the Spindler era.

And I remember that 1997 Macworld well, too, with Bill Gates appearing among the Mac faithful like Darth Vader in the Cloud City. Classic stuff.

As a long time Apple devotee (I had a Mac 128), I think you're right to say they ain't out of the woods yet. As iPod ages, the question becomes what their next big thing will be. Clearly, iPhone is Apple's short-term answer, but what's beyond that? Is there another iPod+iTunes-like game changer in Apple's future?

It's easy to doubt, but I also remember when folks were amazed by the turnaround shepherded in by the iMac era. Apple was finally off death row and had a jump on the competition with the "internet computer for the rest of us." Then the iPod hit and made the iMac stock jump look like an anthill. Let's hope Apple is still on that trajectory.

hthth: Yep, we definitely investigated. We walked all around the weaved mirror and saw the mess of circuit boards in back as well as the controller and a monitor. Pretty neat stuff. The camera for both mirrors is right in the center. You can see it in this image (the slot just over her right shoulder).

Regarding U-Ram: they still have one of his pieces in bitforms over the desk area, so if you're ever in the states... :-)

Great stuff! Thanks for starting the thread, hthth. I particularly like the Ferrofluid, which I hadn't seen before. Fascinating. And that Baby Watching Ball stuff is pretty disturbing, RightOn. Right up my alley.

I had the good fortune of seeing Dan Rosen's work last weekend (we spent a good half hour playing with his various displays) and a U-Ram show at the beginning of the year, both at bitforms, a fantastic newish gallery in Chelsea, NYC that represents both artists. Here are some direct links to more images and video on the their site: Daniel Rozin // U-Ram Choe.

I've got some reactions to the U-Ram Choe show at microscopiq.

Thanks for pointing this out, folks. I never thought about it before.

Looking around the web, though, it's clear that a big majority of the sites I respect avoid full justification like the plague. Needless to say, I just switched my blog's text alignment left and, while it will take a bit of getting used to for me, it does seem to read better.

Tyme: Interesting point on the DRM. I was thinking of the tracks being basically the same as what you get in the GH "track packs" (they're locked into one game) except they expire when your subscription lapses. There is some value add in getting the game version of a track because they include beat tracks (GH) or a intonation guides (KR). Still, you could imagine a future agreement that would allow you to download a song from iTunes and later pay a little extra to enable it for play in a music game. I wonder how that would do in the market.

Ozone42: It sounds like your wife is exactly the audience I was thinking of. Does she tend to play one song over and over or skip around a lot? I noticed in Koreatown that, given a large enough library, folks had no interest in going back and playing the same song again...

Thanks for the ideas, folks. I knew the perceptual change had something to do with my increased (or at least different) creative thoughts but couldn't quite figure out why. The notion of novelty is a nice way to explain it. Routine is the enemy of art.

I wonder how a sudden (or slow) change in perception changes the art one makes. Has there been any exploration how the the work of Beethoven, Milton, Homer, and others changed? Suffering a permanent loss of vision or hearing has to devastating but somehow artists persevere. There have got to be some fascinating stories in there somewhere.

On a related note, I heard an interesting interview with Sarah Polley today on her new film Away from Her, which deals with the onset of Alzheimer's and how it changes a husband/wife relationship in both good and bad ways. Somewhat tangential, but I wonder about the effects of memory loss on artists as well...

I'll take the other side and say I actually think a schedule helps. Not that spewing whatever you have on-hand at the time is reasonable, but I've found that (if I let it) knowing I've got a "deadline" coming up can actually be a boon to getting the writing flowing rather than an impediment.

Honestly, my blog went in fits and starts until I set a goal for myself to try to write something unique once a week. It's been an important creative outlet for me during some tough times, but it wouldn't have happened without putting myself on a fairly strict schedule and keeping to it.

Ah, Zork. First pillar in the Infocom empire! Their games were extra clever. And the box art and pack-ins were (and probably still are) second to none.

These days, you can play a bunch of them without leaving the comfort of your web browser. I still play a bit. :-)

I pull out 2600 Adventure from time to time, too. Still awesome.

I waited in line at the Times Square TRU on launch day. Never done anything like that before, but Wii somehow talked me into it. :-)

I was psyched about Wii Sports and Zelda but the title that totally sold me was Rayman Raving Rabbids. Personally, I think the Rabbids are the first stand-out characters to appear in the "next generation." I picked up Excite Truck later and it rocks, too.

Check my blog for more on my early Wii experience.

Hey, Alday.
Thanks for the suggestion on Saibot. I didn't know about him. In order to focus things a bit, this list looks only at characters that are the major playable in a game, so he wouldn't quite fit.

Well, I think one reason it matters is that there have only been roughly 10-20 videogames with black folks in major playable roles in the past 16 years. That sounds like disproportionate representation to me, but I hope it's changing.

Do you know some characters the list is missing?

If I had to pick one game, I'd have to say...

Wii Sports - just because I've had more fun with friends this year playing that game than any other in a long time -- and friends that haven't played a game since Ms. Pac-Man.

Zelda and Okami are close seconds, though. (How could nobody else mention Zelda?? ;-)

My top 8 are here...
http://microscopiq.com/2007/01/games-that-rocked-2006/

Another example is Serious Games, that is, games that are both fun and have a learning goal (also on wikipedia). I find the Games For Change branch of the community particularly inspiring.