HUPOMNEMATA

Some months ago, I saw (I think it was in Edge magazine) pictures of people dressed as Pacman and ghosts running around in the street, playing the game (kind of). It looked more like a very funny cosplay than like an experiment in gaming. Now people in Singapore did this, Human Pacman:
“a novel game that mixes elements of physical game play, mobile computing, tangible interaction and multiplayer interaction. The game is based on the original Namco arcade game of Pacman where a small yellow creature moves around a maze eating pellets while avoiding ghosts. In this version of the game players interactively role-play the characters of pacmen and ghosts. Through the use of wearable computers, and wireless networks the players wander around a game area that is defined in virtual and augmented reality. Each player has a helper viewing the events on a laptop to aid in navigation and strategy. Objects are represented in both virtual and reality form to provide novel experiences of seamless transition between different world views.”

their website
another article about the project

“Lesbian couples raise well-adjusted teenagers ” says a new study. Not that we had any doubt about it.
New Scientist article

In the other positive writings of the day, nice interview with Wilco on Wired news about why music is not a pair of shoes. In other words, downloading is good, watermarking is not. Is there a relation between quality of music and position about the download question? (remember Metallica vs their fans…)
wired interview

What to do with old tape recorders : the proposition here is to transform it into a fast racer, win the race and enjoy the glory.
I should maybe try something like that with that enormous Studer reel-to-reel that has been sitting in my living room for years. I think it’s big and powerful enough to use as a mean of transportation for cats or medium sized dogs, if we can solve the power supply problem.
recorder race website

Just browsing away, on a Sunday evening, and I found this site, which featured an interview with a cat.
Why Broodthaers, because I saw one of his works this weekend, and just the fact that he makes me laugh out loud. Thanks Brussels, also the friendly inhabitants, for giving me the French to understand…

On ubuweb there are a lot more arrrrrrty soundfiles.

Instead of worrying about Ohio, I try to convince myself that there are worse things happening in the world. As it is difficult to conceive, I have to look a little bit.

And find this :
“Global warming in the Arctic is happening now, warns the most comprehensive scientific report to date. The reports concludes that the northern ice cap is warming at twice the global rate and that this will lead to serious consequences for the planet.”

and down the same page :
“The Arctic will lose 50% to 60% of its ice distribution by 2100, according to the average of five climate models run by the scientists. One of the five models predicts that by 2070, the Artic will be so warm it will no longer have any ice in the summer.”

The article notes that the oil industry may find some positive aspects in the situation as it shall be easier to tap the arctic reserves… so it seems they have now one more reason to NOT reduce CO2 emissions.

OK, Ohio now…

link to New Scientist article

From the Wired news :
“At first glance, Les Seules might look like an all-girl rock band — complete with sassy attitudes and fawning male groupies — but the Swedish septuplet doesn’t play instruments. They play competitive video games. “We want to show the rest of the world that guys and girls can play on the same level,” team member Louise Thomsen (code name: AurorA) said from the the geeky flurry on the floor of DigitalLife, a four-day technology and entertainment convention. In French, their name means The Outsiders. But in the world of competitive Counterstrike, a first-person shooter PC game, Les Seules have moved to the forefront, thanks to their virtual machine gun and grenade wielding techniques and, well, their good looks. ”
The Wired understanding of French is as imperfect as my English writing. Depending on the context, Les Seules could mean the only ones or the lonely ones, not the outsiders. Anyway, the article present them as popstars for the future.

Today I got an excellent tip from Pieter Van B. where you can see a comic with “standard” figures commenting about… war, politics and economics!

Check it out by clicking on the red words underneath the pink kung fu thingy!!

Thanks P!

For a while now I have been following the blog misbehaving.

I copy paste: misbehaving.net is a weblog about women and technology. It’s a celebration of women’s contributions to computing; a place to spotlight women’s contributions as well point out new opportunities and challenges for women in the computing field.

Just putting this on the weblog, as it could be interesting for certain people, that is, if and when they don’t know this blog already….

And then, just because I sure “like pretty pictures”, v(^o^), I did a google “images” with as entry: “women and technology”.
(google images sometimes is extremely funny and bizarre, funny to see how the search engine system works)

These were my favourites (out of 20 pages of thumbnails):

And there is always some extremely absurd search results: This one wins!

Women and bizaaromundo pants!!!

arrghgh

fashion police?

Come save me from these pants….
( (+_+) )

Tuesday, from my appartment.

Saturday, we tried Singstar. It’s a Playstation game, looking at first like a simple karaoke. Except here you have to hit (and hold) the right note if you want to win (you can also score with an approximation of the right note). So it looks also a bit like an horizontal shooter where you aim with your voice. It could be great, it has the potential to build a new link between your body and the game but there is not really anything more than what I just said. After two hours of really great fun, you come to realise that it would require a good deal of other wild ideas to be more than a gimmick. So now the technique is there, maybe it’s time to find a game designer?

Luc is very good at singing “Take on me”. The worst score of the evening was me and Jean-Michel singing “YMCA” (and it’s only because of me, Jean-Michel is a very good singer)