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Consumerism, Technology, Video, Funny, Apple
Consumerism, Technology, Video, Funny, Apple Tuesday
06Jan
The revolution has arrived.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 08:12AM The Macbook Wheel is going to change everything. I've already ordered the black one. I get a processor that's a full 30 Megahertz faster than the white one and it was only $1200 more.
--Found via Noah
Friday
02Jan
The Muppets are all up on Youtube
Friday, January 2, 2009 at 09:43AM I don't know how I was unaware of this until today, but there are seven Muppets with official Youtube accounts: Beaker, Rizzo, Gonzo, Fozzy, The Swedish Chef, Statler and Waldorf, and Sam the Eagle. There's not a lot of video content so far, but there are some amusing little touches that make this great: things like their account names (Beaker's user name is "meepmeepmeepow," Statler and Waldorf's is "heckleu247") and the fact that all the descriptions on Beaker's videos read "Meep meep meep."
Above: Beaker's one-man rendition of Ode to Joy.
Thursday
18Dec
On meeting interesting people
Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 09:40AM
This week I got to interview one of my favorite designers working in the games industry today. Edmund McMillen is behind games like Gish, Meat Boy, Aether, and Coil. He's been working independently for 10 years now, eschewing the politics of corporate culture to create the games he wants to play on his own terms. He's got a CD out that collects all of his animation, comics, and games in one place. I highly recommend picking it up.
It's amazing to me: people I've always wanted meet and talk to are taking time out of creating the things I love most to sit down (Skype in, whatever) and explain their process to me. I've gotten to talk to some of the most prolific adventure game designers today. I met the man behind Speed Racer (and the woman behind Trixie). Next week we're running an interview I conducted with one of the extremely talented gentlemen that created Dyson. And there's so much more coming up in the new year.
It blows my mind to see how much attention our little side project has gained over the last few months. I'm extremely grateful to the community that's embraced us, and I hope to only deliver more and better things for them in the future.
Wednesday
17Dec
Forty inspirational speeches from the movies in two minutes
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 at 08:16AM Found via Aja
Monday
08Dec
When did Adam Sandler become Tim Allen?
Monday, December 8, 2008 at 04:57PM Would you look at this? I feel like Eddie Murphy either passed on this or was in some baby mama drama when they were shopping it around.
Sandler needs to be doing more stuff like this:
Is it a Jim Carrey thing? You know, one of those cases where he can do interesting stuff really well but we'd rather watch him get hit in the crotch with something? I thought he was amazing in Punch Drunk Love, Spanglish, and Reign Over Me, and none of them did particularly well. But when he does something like Don't Mess With The Zohan, it grosses $100 million dollars. I suppose if I got my ass kicked every time I did something original, but got handed $20 million for making poop jokes, I'd make a ton of poop jokes.
I guess what I'm saying is: on behalf of America, Adam Sandler, I'm sorry we keep putting you in such stupid movies.
Although I still crack up at Billy Madison, so I'm really more part of the problem than part of the solution.
Monday
24Nov
Blip.tv manages to work around Apple's iPhone Stubbornness
Monday, November 24, 2008 at 01:35PM This post is in response to some news announced by Wired this morning: Blip.tv Brings Video Embeds to the iPhone
(First, as an aside, I want to say I'm really excited about this. We use blip.tv as our video backend for Bytejacker, and I'm so happy that iPhone users will finally be able to watch us-- from our site-- on their phones)
This is, of course, a prime example of Apple’s philosophy with the iPhone: if you want something, work around us the best you can. It’s obvious that people want flash, their daily use of the internet is pretty much TIED to Flash, and yet… no Flash. It’s just not something they want to do. Users are disappointed, of course, but the trade-off is you get to use what is overall probably the best mobile phone platform on the planet for most people. It does a lot out of the box, and does it in a simple, unified, usable way. Compare this to the philosophy behind Android, my current platform of choice: here’s a pretty stable backend, do what you want with it, because we’ve pretty much done what we’re going to with it already. The result is that the phone doesn’t have the same magical, seemless experience out of the box. You get what you normally get with an ‘open’ platform: a lot of clumsiness and stumbling, with the eventual goal of being able to do everything everyone could possibly need. Without Apple’s approval process, the Android Market is full of apps that crash and program descriptions from developers that literally say: “Download this if you feel like it. I don’t care if you like it or not.” Anyone can throw anything they’ve made onto the store, no questions asked (aside from “will this purposely attack/destroy the user’s phone.” BUT: we’ve already gotten a demo from Adobe of Flash 10 running on Android. It’s most likely on its way to us very soon. I woke up this morning to a market app that gives me iPhone-esque visual voicemail. Opera released a beta of Mini 4.2 this morning, so I already have browser alternatives. And from the start I’ve been running K-9 Mail, a fork of the official Android client that adds features the official client doesn’t offer. And we’re not even into January, when developers are officially allowed to charge for Market apps. Once there’s an incentive — or rather, a possible living — in developing for the platform, I’m sure we’ll see even faster innovation. This is why I think I’ve chosen the right platform: months from now, when the iPhone is still only capable of what it’s been capable of, my entire phone could be a fundamentally different device, tricked out and customized to my needs. That just seems a lot more exciting to me than a platform devised entirely of shortcuts, jailbreaks, and workarounds.
Sunday
23Nov
Please stop trying to handle my style.
Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 06:15PM A couple weeks ago, there was a bit of an uproar of my extremely stylish, incredibly fashion-forward salmon (read: not pink) hoodie. You can read all the ferocious controversy in the comments of this episode. Some people just weren't down. Some people didn't understand it. Some people even mocked it.
Well, to all those people who just don't have the sophisticated palette for haute couture that I do, I give you: Heroes of Game Design Showing Love For My Salmon (Not Pink) Hoodie.
;)
;)
;)
;)
From left to right: Erin Robinson, Francisco Gonzalez, Dave Gilbert, and Ryan Keepence. Click pictures to enlarge.
So there you have it. Stylistic vindication- because game designers are nothing if not fashion plates.
in Bytejacker, Life
Bytejacker, Life Thursday
20Nov
Games people talkin' games.
Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 10:21AM Bytejacker's only been around for a few months now and we've already gotten the chance to do some really great things. I mean, I got to meet Speed Racer, fer chrissakes. And then this week came, and all new amazingness came with it.
This week's episodes feature indie game developers Dave Gilbert, Francisco Gonzalez, and Erin Robinson. We talked a bit about the ins and outs of game development, the industry, and where they get their inspiration. We got some great questions for our guests from our audience members and the whole thing was just a lot of fun.
I really love this show, and I think we just have more and more to offer every week.
Huge thanks this week to my partner Jon for doing such a killer job cutting all this footage together and helping to put together an amazing couple of episodes.
P.S. - If you live in New York and you've never been to Scottadito, you are missing out on some seriously delicious food made and served by a super-nice staff.
Monday
17Nov
Because argyle just isn't punk enough
Monday, November 17, 2008 at 03:26PM 
Diesel Sweeties is a pretty funny comic, but the merchandising for it is even better.
Thursday
13Nov
It's a Walken-Off!
Thursday, November 13, 2008 at 10:07AM Francisco Gonzalez and I have an epic battle to see who walks the walk, and -- more importantly -- Walkens their talk.
Spoiler Alert: I lose so hard.