Ozzy and family are taking the US by storm with their reality based TV show The Osbournes. The show has apparently just given MTV it's highest first quarter ratings in history. Wonder when we'll be getting it over here in the UK? via metafilter.
I've been using this version of Mozilla for OS X all night and I have to say I'm really impressed, it's a little slower to render than IE 5.1 but the tabbed browsing more than makes up for it. Think I'll stick with it for now.
After my previous mini joiners I thought I'd have a go at something a bit bigger. Switching to lo-res mode on the l'espion gives 80 shots, which although pretty useless for anything else are just about right for doing a big joiner. Anyway see what you think, room joiner, and no comments about the decor :)
Its been quite a week for announcments from Nintendo. First they announced the release dates for the first Super Mario game in 5 years. This was followed by news that PS2 exclusive Timesplitters 2, created by the former Goldeneye team at Free Radical Design, was also due for simultaneous release on Gamecube. Mario Party 4 and 1080 II recieved their Japanese release dates, but possibly the most important announcment of the week was that Monkey Ball creator and EDGE contributor Toshihiro Nagoshi's Amusement Vision division at Sega would be developing, one of the jewels in Nintendo's crown, F-Zero for Gamecube and arcades.
One of my brothers in arms has come up with a little ditty about friends in our industry... "Why do programmers pick their noses?" is the resulting anthem. Give it a listen and why not drop by his portal and big him up while you're at it.
Warp are taking to the road with their Magic Bus tour. The line up includes Keith Tenniswood, Mark Bell, Plaid and Prefuse 73 among others, although Warp's website doesn't make clear which artists are playing which venues. The tour hits Traveller in Newcastle on the 1st of June.
Poor old Finlay Dobbie the self confessed Mac evangelist and frequent contributor to Apple's Darwin system core has been given the chop due to the fact that he is only 15 years old.
I got a l'Espion digital camera a while back after seeing Matt @ Frownland recomending them. This camera is the size of a box of matches and dangles from the end of a key ring, so obviously the image resolution is pretty crap. In an effort to extract a modicum of extra resolution out of mine I've taken to making mini Hockney style joiners. Here's some I took today in Northumberland, Crag Lough, Tracy and Steel Rigg, taken at 2° 23' W 55° 0' N
I saw Darren Aronofsky's Pi for the first time last night. I'd been meaning to see it ever since getting Requiem For A Dream on DVD but never managed to get round to buying it. For those who haven't seen it it's the Kafkaesque story of a mathematics genius and his all consuming search for the meaning of life through mathematical theory. During the course of the film the main character, Maximillian Cohen, visits his old college professor to play Go and talk maths. I was thinking while watching that I'd always wanted to know how to play Go, anyway to cut a long story short guess what popped up on memepool, Go, Go, Go, and if you're feeling social, Go. The film comes highly recommended too btw.
This ridiculous reuters article being linked to by the usual suspects made me laugh. Apparently the use of handheld electronics is causing a mutation in youngsters hands making the thumb their most dextrous digit! I quote:
"In her research, Plant noticed that while those less used to mobile phones used one or several fingers to access the keypad, younger people used both thumbs ambidextrously, barely looking at the keys as they made rapid entries."
Hmm, so to reiterate: people who are used to doing something are better at doing it than those who aren't? Well no shit sherlock.
The guys at Goshu Trading have converted a Mac SE 30, (a machine with no hard drive), to run OSX. via Wired.
I've probably been living under a rock but I hadn't actually realised that these are real human corpses!
I used to love adventure gamebooks so it's a real treat to find this collectors lovingly maintained site which lists just about every one I ever had. The ones I remember best are the Choose Your Own Adventure books, TSRs Endless Quest series, Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy books (of course), and my personal favourites Be An Interplanatary Spy, of which I owned all but the last 2.
The Fighting Fantasy list has relatively few for some reason but the unofficial fightingfantasy.com has ridiculous amounts of information. No cover scans though for some reason.
Gamebooks are sort of a spiritual counterpart to interactive fiction so it's cool to see there was even a Zork series!
What strikes me as odd though is that they're all such obvious contenders for being given a new lease of life online, yet one of the few things I can find that comes close is Jerk Your Own Adventure.
After our extended hiatus we're back like a pantomime cow, with a refined back-end and a cheery new front-end. The two main changes you can actually see are the new playlist sidebar, and the absence of the registration and login system. You should now be able to post comments with a minimum of hassle. Just give a name and away you go. There's also a new "about us" page with a little about who we are and how to get in touch.
As always, if you spot anything untoward or have an idea for a feature you'd like to see on the site, drop us a mail at info@pixelised.com. Oh, and let us know what you think of the changes too.
Visit the archive if you wish to skip merrily through time in a devil may care fashion.
