... leaving only 2083 messages in my "1. Active" pile and 460 in my "5. Blog It!" pile.
Sigh.
Expect a large number of stale, no-longer topical posts over the next six months as I reduce the above numbers to something manageable.
-the Centaur
Posts published in “Uncategorized”
I'm a big free speech advocate, and I'm strongly against most well-intentioned attempts to protect us from ourselves - or, more cynically, to protect some people from people whose preferences are different - so this is worth mentioning.
The Independent Game Developer's Association is filing an amicus brief in the court battle over California's attempt to ban the sale of violent video games to minors. Details on the case are here:
http://www.scotusblog.com/2010/04/court-to-rule-on-violent-videos/ The Supreme Court agreed Monday to rule on the constitutionality of a state law banning the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The Court accepted for review an appeal by the state of California, urging the Court to adopt a new constitutional standard that would enable states to ban such games for those under age 18. The case is Schwarzenegger v. Video Software Dealers Association (08-1448). The Court apparently had been holding the case until it decided another First Amendment case involving violent expression — U.S. v. Stevens (08-769). In that ruling, issued last Tuesday, the Court struck down a federal law that banned the depiction in videotapes of animal cruelty. In that ruling, the Justices refused to create a new exception to the First Amendment free speech right. The Court could have opted to send the California case back to the Ninth Circuit Court to weigh the impact of the Stevens decision. Instead, it simply granted review; the case will be heard and decided in the Court’s next Term, starting Oct. 4.From IGDA's call to action:
The IGDA in partnership with the AIAS, is working with the ESA to put together an AMICUS brief to support the decision to revoke this ban and declare this law unconstitutional. With the concept that video/computer/electronic games are a new form of media and art form, our industry should be afforded the freedom of speech protections that have been fought for and won by print, audio and video groups from newspapers to rap artists to filmmakers across the country. We need your help in securing powerful arguments that explain how this industry has evolved into a true profession over the years, and a medium that touches children and adults around the world every day.So, if you care about your rights to buy videogames, or about giving government yet another tool to control what we see and hear, you might consider weighing in - if not on this court case, if to your elected representatives asking them what on Earth they were thinking in the first place. -Anthony
Warren Ellis's comic Red is being made into a movie, and a friend of mine commented how reasonable Warren Ellis seems to be about adaptation (as opposed to, say, Alan Moore, who is of course entitled to his own opinion). From Warren Ellis's blog:
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=8099 The tone: no, the film isn’t as grim as the book. The book is pretty grim. But it’s also pretty small. When I sell the rights to a book, they buy the right to adapt it in whatever way they see fit. I can accept that they wanted a lighter film, and, as I’ve said before, the script is very enjoyable and tight as a drum. They haven’t adapted it badly, by any means. People who’ve enjoyed the graphic novel will have to accept that it’s an adaptation and that by definition means that it’s going to be a different beast from the book. The film has the same DNA. It retains bits that are very clearly from the book, as well as, of course, the overall plotline. But it is, yes, lighter, and funnier. And if anyone has a real problem with that, I say to you once again: Helen Mirren with a sniper rifle. I mean, if you don’t want to see a film with Helen Mirren with a sniper rifle, I’m not sure I want to know you.Amen to that. -the Centaur
So I'm a fan of the highly obscure but highly funny comic "Bear and Fox" - with cute characters, a wry sense of humor, and a nerd factor of approximately 9.0 on the Geek Hierarchy scale, it's right up my alley. Well, Randall Christopher, the creator of Bear and Fox, is at it again, and is looking from some help kickstarting the project!
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Hi everyone, The first two pages of the new Bear and Fox comic book are posted online! I am still trying to raise the funds to get the comic book printed. I've raised a little over a third of the amount needed with three days left to go. Thanks to all who have pledged so far! If the funds are not raised by midnight monday, the project will go unfunded and no one will be charged. The new comics! http://www.bearandfox.com Where to pledge: http://www.kickstarter.com ps. if anyone wants to help me out by blogging this, stumbling it, diggin it, facebooking, friendstering, etc by all means, yes |
UPDATE: The Kickstart was successful! Here's to Bear and Fox 2!
Avoid the cloud, the device. Eats my posts and notes, they do.
-the centaur
UPDATE: Now that I have a keyboard, here's the story. I'm reading Twilight as an audiobook, and wanted to do a quick "story so far" review. (In 11 words with punctuation: Twilight isn't bad - it's delightfully concrete - but I'm not it's demographic.) That's short, so I thought I'd try a quick review while I was leaving the campus of The Search Engine That Starts With A G.
But the voice recognition got HILARIOUSLY bad. It was actually comical, like the phone was fighting my review of Twilight - at one point the phone confessed that it WAS Twilight. Go figure. Finally I got to the car, sat down, and in the quiet tried to finish the review - and lost the connection to the voice recognition server. Sighing, I started to type the last line - and then the screen went kazoo, the app went away, and the phone returned to the home screen. Frantically, I returned to the app.
Every. Word. Gone.
Now, that's in part the fault of the WordPress Android app; it should have saved intermediate versions, like the WordPress web interface is doing every few minutes or so right now. But this isn't limited to the WordPress app; it's happened to me on other apps, in particular a note taking program. And in this case, I blame Android; from what happened to the screen and my experience with the software, I'm almost certain it was something in the main Android OS and not in the app itself that caused the app to go away (with the caveat that, again, it was the app's responsibility to save versions.)
So: pfui on you, as Nero Wolfe might say. I'm still going to stick to Android, as I can in theory write my own app with its own save behavior and not have to give somebody a stevejob just to get it accepted into the App Store. (Note: the iPhone is a high quality piece of hardware and I no more dispute Steve's right to mess it up with weird conditions than he disputes my right to use a buggier phone).
...if this was a real post, I'd say something substantive, like that I suspect if the top post has an image in it, it can cause the header to move up and be covered by the banner image, which is wrong. Stay tuned...
-the Centaur
UPDATE: No and yes. If a post has a WordPress-style image in it, it can chomp its own header, regardless of whether it is the first post. Got a little bit of debugging to do...
UPDATED UPDATE: Teh problem wasn't that the image had a theme error, the problem was the post had no title. Easily fixed: add a title, OR update the theme to write "This Post Title Unintentionally Left Blank" in the box... :-)
UPDATED UPDATE POSTSCRIPT: And I award Chrome's Developer Tools (themselves based on the WebKit Inspector) the prize for helping me find this bug by giving me an easy way to navigate down to that element and see that it wasn't just squeezed out (which had happened in an earlier iteration of the theme I'd tested locally on my laptop via MAMP) but was indeed missing its content. Hm. Another fix for hte bug would be to set a minimum height on the div for the title of the post ... interesting ...
More Frost Moon news ... the Amazon $0.99 promotion (in turn, caused by the iPad $0.99 promotion) is having good effects:
http://ireaderreview.com/2010/07/01/some-interesting-friday-kindle-book-deals/ There are lots of good kindle book deals doing well on the charts today ... 7.Frost Moon by Anthony Francis has made its way into the Top 100. It’s rated 4.5 stars on 30 reviews and is just $1.It's almost like my hard working publisher's efforts to promote my book are, uh, working. Yaay Bell Bridge Books! -the CentaurIn an alternate Atlanta where magic is practiced openly, where witches sip coffee at local cafes, shapeshifters party at urban clubs, vampires rule the southern night like gangsters, and mysterious creatures command dark caverns beneath the city, Dakota Frost’s talents are coveted by all. She’s the best magical tattooist in the southeast, a Skindancer, able to bring her amazing tats to life. When a serial killer begins stalking Atlanta’s tattooed elite, the police and the Feds seek Dakota’s help. Can she find the killer on the dark fringe of the city’s Edgeworld?Quite a collection of deals.
Almost easy enough to do when taking a walk.
Easier to use voice input.
Almost. It didn't successfully read the previous sentence (or this one) but it was close.
- the centaur
Clipped by a friend:
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #58 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)Wow. I'm flabbergastled. Rest assured, though, Blood Rock is at the publisher and Skindancer:Liquid Fire and Spellpunk:Hex Code are underway! -the Centaur
#22 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Contemporary Fiction #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fantasy #4 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
Actually it was quite an adventure just getting this far, for which I've taken notes that I plan to blog. But I thought I should make the following points:
- Yes, I know a number of widgets on the site are broken.
- Yes, I know a number of parts of the theme are messed up.
- Yes, I know there are parts of the theme that are messed up, that I don't yet know are messed up. :-(
...same bat domain, different bat fully qualified URL, different bat RSS feed. The Library of Dresan blog is now at http://www.dresan.com/index.php (actually, http://www.dresan.com/ should work). Please update your RSS feeds to: http://www.dresan.com/?feed=atom ...
-the Centaur
BWAH HA HAHAAHAA!
Posting to the blog is LIIIIVE again.
And for those that don't get it, "The Dawning of Val Mar" is a private in joke that about 3 people on Earth will get ... that was originally the "first post" on my WordPress blog before I had to delete it.
The post is gone, but the in joke lives on. Massive flurry of posts to follow, God willing. Peace out.
-teh Centaur
Blogger has discontinued FTP, so I am migrating to WordPress. (No, I have zero interest in remaining with Blogger when they have discontinued the feature that made me select them, and having spoken with the team, I'd love to say I respect their reasons, but ... well, if you don't have anything good to say (and, really, I most sincerely don't) then vote with your feet.)
In the meantime, because writing novels and spending time with my wife and cats has to take precedence over Webworks, I let the deadline to migrate lapse before my WordPress installation was ready. SO I can make any necessary announcements for those who read this blog via Reader or RSS feed, I have reluctantly ported the Library of Dresan to http://blog.dresan.com/ - don't get used to this; it is going away.
Further announcements forthcoming.
-the Centaur
In the meantime, because writing novels and spending time with my wife and cats has to take precedence over Webworks, I let the deadline to migrate lapse before my WordPress installation was ready. SO I can make any necessary announcements for those who read this blog via Reader or RSS feed, I have reluctantly ported the Library of Dresan to http://blog.dresan.com/ - don't get used to this; it is going away.
Further announcements forthcoming.
-the Centaur
The Dragon Writers, the alumni of Ann Crispin's 2002 Writer's Workshop at DragonCon, now have a group blog about our writing experiences. Oh, and you can get our logo on a t-shirt. Check them out...
... in one of those instances which exposes really how shallow you are, I find myself gratified that it, indeed, has finally happened. What is it?
Professional recognition.
Since I was a child I always wanted to be a "real science fiction writer". For some reason, I got it in my head that this meant membership in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Not sure how that happened, but it did: the external approval of that group of strangers somehow came to matter to me. So I tried to join.
First I wrote a science fiction short story that got published in 1995 in The Leading Edge magazine, but when I checked I found that the Leading Edge was not eligible for SFWA.
Then I wrote an urban fantasy novel that got published in 2010 by Bell Bridge Books, but when I checked I found that Bell Bridge was not eligible for SFWA.
Then, I missed the deadline to register for Comic-Con this year, and decided, what the heck, I'll try to register as a professional. After all, I've written an urban fantasy novel, drawn its frontispiece, and even created a webcomic. And for years I've felt that comics are my future as a creator. So, what the heck, why not?
Ding:
Dear Comic-Con Creative Creative Professional Attendee,
Thank you for registering for Comic-Con International 2010: San Diego
Please take a few moments to review your registration information...
Well. Allrighty then.
Yes, it's shallow of me to base some part of my evaluation of my personal self worth on the approval of others. Yes, this shows a deep-seated insecurity that needs to be addressed by a deep increase in maturity. Yes, yes, yes, I'll work on that. But still ...
... it's finally happened.
Well, enough basking. Back to work on Blood Rock. But wait - it is indeed working.
Boo-yah.
-the Centaur
Upcoming AAAI Workshop: AI and Fun:
Papers due March 29...
Interactive entertainment (aka computer games) has become a dominant force in the entertainment sector of the global economy. The question that needs to be explored in depth: what is the role of artificial intelligence in the entertainment sector? If we accept the premise that artificial intelligence has a role in facilitating the entertainment and engagement of humans, then we are left with new questions...
Papers due March 29...
Sorry, commenters, but the signal-to-noise ratio of anonymous comments was approaching zero. :-( It was getting to the point I almost rejected some real though short comments because they were looking like the spam comments I was getting - I apologize if I dinged a real person by accident. But when you don't know who's sending a gift, you never know what's inside the wrapper.
-the Centaur
Pictured is my cousin Bryan Norman, receiving a joke gift of a mailbox at last Christmas's White Elephant gift exchange - though I dispute the Wikipedia article, I lived 38 years in the Southeastern United States and never heard it called a "Yankee swap" - always "White Elephant" or the less-politically-correct "Chinese Christmas".
So, at GDC 2010, I saw Starcraft II in action for the first time.
Screenshots cannot do it justice.
You know, Starcraft has always had a kind of muddy, visually busy, hard-to-grok visual style which made it less impressive in screenshots than it is when playing the game with knowledge. Starcraft II takes this to a whole new level - it's still busy, but the tiny incomprehensible units are now clearly visible 3D models, and they're constantly engaged in animation which displays their personality or explains their shape or just makes them interesting to watch. And there's some new visual filigree which makes it easier to see what your actions in the game will take.
So if you're into Starcraft, don't bother torturing yourself with screenshots. Just get the game when it comes out.
-the Centaur
Every year I go to the Game Developers Conference to keep tabs on how artificial intelligence in games is developing. Each year I take copious notes. And each year I promise myself I'll blog my notes online, and yet I never do.
Until now.
GDC 2010 seems smaller than GDC 2008, but it doesn't feel wrong. In the past few years it's been held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, taking up the massive Moscone West building and the North and South halls. I say 2008 because 2010 feels about the size of 2009, but where 2009 felt outsized, this year they've ditched Moscone West, filling out North and South "just right" for a smaller, saner, but still vibrant conference.
The show floor is still massive, going on and on, filled with books and tools and technologies and games and career opportunities and just about anything you can imagine.
And I mean just about anything. Steve Weibe? Really? No offense, but that seems more of an E3 or Comicon thing. Of course, maybe he's super cool, but since I missed him at the booth it was just a bit jarring to see the machine there all by its lonesome.
The South Hall held the AI Summit and many interesting talks. I'll talk about the AI Summit, Starcraft, indie games, and future technologies (past and present) in a subsequent post.
But there is a whole other hall, where more talks are held. The AI Roundtables occurred here, as did talks on the Sims 3; I'll fold these into the above posts.
But the thing that strikes me about the North Hall (other than the giant black hole of cell reception and borked wifi) is the churn of people going to talks, coming from talks, talking about IP and licenses and techniques and advances. Here, simply because of its physical layout you really can see the industry's creative malestrom churning.
"I want YOU to make games." Indeed.
-the Centaur