GlitchNYC.com

GlitchNYC has moved

After a long and sordid love affair with blosxom, my poor little 133 mhz server decided it didn't want to run perl cgi scripts with lots of plugins and tons of I/O for every single user that visited this site. Blosxom finally slowed to a crawl, and I needed to look for options.

Being a blogger interested in open source, it didn't take me long to hone in on wordpress, and I've been happily using it for a few months over at http://www.glitchnyc.com. In fact, I was so happy with it that I also used it to power the sites behind the GlitchCast, a music podcast featuring new and independent artists, the GeekQuiz, a weekly quiz show for geeky podcasters, and the Transit Strike Podcast, which covered the events following the Transit strike in NYC in December 2005.

If you're looking for new content, please head over to

http://www.glitchnyc.com

If you'd like to get in touch with me, please use the contact page over at http://www.glitchnyc.com/?page_id=132

12:18 am | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

The GlitchCast

I've had several ideas for podcasts brewing for months, and I've finally gotten the first one together. The GlitchCast is a podcast that will feature new and independent music. I'll be playing the best stuff I can find on the podsafe music network and encouraging independent artists to put their stuff up there so everyone can play it.

It's already working! I've gotten the amazing Edie Carey to upload her songs and I'm working with Candid (who I interviewed in the second episode) to get their best stuff up there for people to play. I've also got some crazy ideas about getting comedians to upload their performances to the podsafe music network for podcasters to play, and I'm already working with quite a few here in New York towards that end.

If you're sick of radio and want to find some new, indpendent music, then this show is for you, especially if you're running your own podcast. Everyone I play and feature on this show will be podsafe!

Check it out at http://www.glitchnyc.com/GlitchCast or you can subscribe to the feed here. I recommend "iPodder Lemon" automatically downloading your podcasts.

6:40 pm | permalink | /technology/podcasting | 0 writebacks |

Firefox Hits 100 Million Downloads

Congratulations to the amazing team at SpreadFirefox.com and the developers of Firefox. They've hit 100,000,000 downloads, and 1.0 hasn't even been out for a year.

We ran our NYTimes ad back in December of last year, when we had around 10 million downloads and the uptake has continued to accelerate ever since. Yes there have been several revision to Firefox, and updates are counted as downloads, but this is still a staggering number of people using and downloading a program.

If you're not using Firefox yet, go get it now. It's better, it's more secure (sick of spyware yet?), and it will always be free.

3:16 pm | permalink | /technology/opensource | 0 writebacks |

Getting it Out There

I've been listening to C.C. Chapman's Accident Hash, a new indie music Podcast, for a few months now. He describes his show as "the best mix in podsafe music" and boy is he right. My musical tastes are fairly varied, but I certainly found myself liking his "mellow" themed shows a bit more than his normal all over the map mix.

So when C.C. launched U-Turn cafe, a podcast with nothing but chilled, mellow music, I was psyched. Listening to the first few shows, I heard his call for artists to sit down with a guitar and a mic and just record something raw and fresh, and well, I went and got myself inspired.

Saturday night, I fired up my iRiver 899 and sang + played my heart out. The result is undoubtedly the most professional recording I've ever managed. This is slightly ironic because it was done in 1 shot with a small mic and a little device, rather than the hundreds of dollars of recording equipment I have ready for the task, and the hours I usually spend futilely trying to get a good mix.

I've also gotten in touch with some of my favorite indie artists to encourage them to join the podsafe music network and get their music out there for anyone to play. Edie Carey has taken me up on my suggestion, and her amazing music is now available there. Anyone can go take a listen, and podcasters can download her tracks to play on their show!

I sent C.C. my song with a quick message attached, and pointed him to Edie's music, wasn't sure if I'd get a reply. After all, C.C. is a very busy guy. Was I ever ecstatic when I read his email:

Ok dude, there is WAY to much goodness in this one single e-mail.

Thank you for it all. Everything is perfect.

I checked out Edie's music last night. I was editing together all sorts of music segments that will be played on IT Conversations stream of the Pop!Tech conference so I made sure to get her in there so that she'd have her first play and thus start showing up in the Featured Artist rotation on the site. Damn is she talented.

Now I need to find some time to do another u-Turn. I'm getting such great music!

I LOVE what you did with your whole intro and then the song. I need more people to do that.

PERFECT! Thank you!

-C.C.

That email made my morning.

Now, I realize, I have to get things ready around here - I don't even have a proper music page to point people to!

3:51 pm | permalink | /life/music | 0 writebacks |

Cool Katamari Tee in Pre-Orders

After spending most of last weekend playing Katamari Damacy I had to preorder one of these t-shirts depicting the Prince and his rolling ball, with the caption, "This is how I roll."

Katamari Damacy is the most inventive and addicting game I've played for the PS2 and this amazingly designed shirt is, as Cory Doctorow calls it "A true nerd pride item", but they won't manufacture it unless they get enough pre-orders.

Link (via BoingBoing)

9:15 am | permalink | /technology/games | 0 writebacks |

"From here on in, I shoot without a script."

The Rock Opera "RENT" defined a portion of my life. It led me to an understanding of the world around me, and of myself, that may have taken me years longer to come to on my own. Silly and trite as it seems to feel this connected to a musical, the abstraction of themes and emotions through music allows you to imprint on a story in ways that you simply can't with words alone.

Everyone affected by RENT has their own stories, and feels their own personal connection to the words, the music, and the feelings that they evoke. It's as much a story about love and life, as it is about grief and loss. It's also a connection to who you were when you first really heard it, and first felt these things with the characters.

Not your average musical.

Over the years, I've drifted from the theatre, especially from the musical theatre, and RENT has become somewhat of a footnote in my past.

When I heard that the movie was being made, 9 years late, I was more than just miffed. I was virulently angry. They'd taken a young, twenty-something cast and let them become thirty somethings. They'd replaced the spit-fire Mimi and left everyone else in, trying to play "young." I'm still a big fan of Anthony Rapp and Taye Diggs, but Adam Pascal is the consumate tool now; a Broadway pretty boy.

So when I watched the trailer tonight, I was not expecting this. I was not expecting to be taken back 10 years.

I was not expecting to be moved.

They'd taken moments, tiny moments from the show, and expanded them into heart-wrenching images.

The loss is so tangible, so real, even in just these 2 minutes, that you can't help but feel for this little family.

Watching some of the videos on the rent blog I suddenly understood why so many of the original cast were returning. They simply couldn't let this story go. They had so much to say, so much to bring to it, that they had to see it through. For the first time in 9 years, they were finally able to finish the story that Jonathan Larson left unwritten when he passed.

The cast has been documenting the process on the blog the entire way through shooting, and hearing them talk about their characters and what they hoped to accomplish with this film has brought me full circle. I am now more excited about this than any other movie in the next year.

Add to that the fact that listening to RENT has been synonymous with Thanksgiving for my best friend and I since 1996 (and he is *not* a fan of musicals) and that the movie is coming out November 23rd. I will see this movie the day before thanksgiving, barring an act of god.

• Watch the "Seasons of Love" Trailer at the Rent Myspace page
• See the short "teaser trailer" at the official site
• Watch the full movie trailer at apple
• Watch lots of cast documentary and interview videos at the RentMovieBlog

11:00 am | permalink | /technology/film | 0 writebacks |

How Eric Got His Game Back

Okay. I'll admit it. I don't play video games.

There. I said it.

I'm a supergeek who hates halo. I'm the sole square-enix fan that has yet to finish Final Fantasy 7 let alone any of the games that followed. I'm the only dork more likely to win the Olympic gold in high-jumping* than to frag someone in quake deathmatch.

I just don't have the time.

I live to create, to be productive. If I'm sitting in front of a 70 hour RPG, I know exactly where those 70 hours are going, and the sound of the "Toilet of Lost Time" flushing haunts me every minute I play.

If I'm in front of my computer, at least then I'm trying to get something done, even if it doesn't always work out that way.

This isn't the way it's always been. I grew up loving every game I could get my hands on. It didn't matter if it was even fun, I played it for the sheer love of playing. I spent a great deal of my childhood in front of my 8-bit altar, and my first true geek "call-for-help" was to walk a friend through the second quest of the Legend of Zelda.

Sometimes I miss the hours spent in front of my games with no thoughts of what I could, or should be doing. Don't get me wrong, I still love a good game when there is company around, but then it's a social activity, something to do while hanging out.

No, if I was going to really enjoy solitary gaming again, I needed to find some time that was already wasted and idle. Time when I really had nothing better to do.

How much does it cost to get your childhood back?

Eighty Dollars.

I got a Game Boy Advance SP last Christmas, and I've played it every day on the subway since. I've got absolutely nowhere to be, except on that train. No one is waiting, there's noting better I could be doing. It's the perfect subway pastime.

The games I had were good, and they kept me occupied. I enjoyed the Mario RPG and grew to understand why the original Pokemon game was so addictive that it spawned a TV show and a multi-billion** dollar empire. I played through the new metroid and regained my uncanny knack for working the D-pad and the B and A buttons.

These were fun diversions, but they weren't quite what I missed.

And then Nintendo released "The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap"

This is how games are supposed to be. For the past month, I've poured myself into this game, struggling with puzzles, searching dungeons over and over until I found the one hidden corner I missed. I've spent days thinking about what I could try next to beat a mid-way boss and then found myself giddy when I figured it out. This wasn't just hacking up octorocks and tectites with my sword. This game actually required you to be smart and think of things in new ways. This game was enriching.

I have yet to finish the quest, and I don't mind telling you that I'm stuck again. This game is damn hard. But it's damn good too. Possibly the best single player game ever made for any console, and coming from an 8-bit connoisseur, that's not a statement I make lightly.

If any of you grew up loving Zelda, or simply spend your days waiting for your train to bring you home, seriously, drop the $80 and pick up a GBA SP and this game. Your train rides will never be the same.

*I should note that I have zero aptitude for high-jumping.

**I also have no idea how much Pokemon has made for Nintendo, between the game, the shows, the cards, and the toys. Billions doesn't seem impossible.

1:21 am | permalink | /technology/games | 0 writebacks |

Rochester Fun

We spent this past weekend in Rochester with Kate and Doug and it was amazing as always. We had a great time playing all manner of games, seeing Batman Begins at "the buck" movie theater, and eating some fantastic meals. The first morning we work up there, we were roused by the strangest music you could imagine. An eerily happy and jazzy voice sang "naaaaa na na na na" and was backed by a full orchestra, then followed by some crazy boppy j-pop (Japanese pop music).

After doing some of the morning ritual (my bag was still being "located" by the airline, so I basically just rolled out of bed and put on my pants), we joined Kate and Doug downstairs where they were already preparing us a great breakfast. The music, Kate explained, was the soundtrack from perhaps the greatest game to ever come out for the Playstation 2, Katamari Damacy. I finally got a chance to play the crazy game at the Museum of the Moving Image for a few minutes a month or so ago. The basic premise is that you start out with a little, sticky ball that can pick up things like paperclips and coins. As you roll them up, you get bigger, and move on to bigger objects (like tape dispensers, then toys, then you know, children, pandas, elephants, buildings, and mountains.)

We went out and bought the game later that day, and it's as addictive as it sounds. We beat the game over the course of the weekend, but the great thing is that they challenge you to do each level better, so there's still tons of playability left, and Sara is actually playing it right now.

Between rounds of Katamari Damacy, we played a little Halo 2, some Apples to Apples, a little Clone Wars Risk, Compatibility, and even snuck out to Vertex, the local Goth club for happy hour. It was great to see them, get to know their new dog, Benny, and say hello to their cats, Vega and Io (I have no idea how to spell this, it's pronounced Eye-oh, and he's the most affectionate cat in history. I was trying to write this post our last night there, and he was so intent on getting petted that he wouldn't stand for my hands being on the keyboard of the laptop).

• Katamari Damacy at Amazon
• Apples to Apples,is an easy pick up game that can go as long as you want. Each player gets seven cards with words or names on them. Each round, the "moderator" reads an adjective, and the other players throw in a card they think will match well with it. Whichever one the moderator picks gets a points. Very good for a quick friendly game, and tons of people can play at once
• Compatibilty a great team game where you pick what you think your partner will pick from a stack of cards, based on a different "topic" each turn. Great fun for up to 8 people in sets of two.
• Clone Wars Risk is a twist on the original Risk, with extra rules that would, in theory, make the game quite different. Not wanting to spend 30 minutes re-learning risk, we simply played with the original rules, and it was as fun as ever.
• View the photos - Ooh, it's album 100, neat.

8:58 pm | permalink | /life | 0 writebacks |

Disappearing Flash in Firefox? A quick Adblock fix remedies the problem!

As savvy web surfers begin to upgrade to Flash 8, they're in for a bit of a rude awakening. If you're using Firefox and Adblock (which you should be!) and upgrade to Flash 8, suddenly flash movies disappear. Instead of the expected movie, you get simply blank space.

What's happening is a conflict between Adblock and Flashplayer 8. There's no update yet from either Macromedia or the Adblock developers, but luckily, you don't have to uninstall either tool to fix the problem.

All you have to do is disable "obj-tabs", those little "Adblock" tabs that hang off the edge of flash movies. These tabs give you easy access to block annoying flash movies, since right clicking on a movie will activate Flash's own context menu, rather than the Firefox menu where your Adblock tools normally are for images.

In lieu of the obj-tabs, you can click tools->Adblock->"List all blockable elements" or hit ctrl-shift-a to bring up a list of everything on the page that Adblock can filter out.

Turning off Adblock's obj-tabs is easy. Just click Tools->Adblock->preferences->"Adblock Options" and then uncheck "show obj-tabs." Refresh your page and voila! Flash is back.

2:05 pm | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Wallace and Gromit Come to the Big Screen

I've been a Wallace and Gromit fan (and a fan of AArdman Animations) for quite a few years now, ever since catching the original trio of shorts on PBS.

Chicken Run, the first feature film offering from Aardman Animations was decent, but far from the whimsical, oddball fun that Wallace and Gromit always seem to find themselves in.

Finally, Wallace and Gromit have gotten their own feature film and I was so excited upon hearing that news a year ago that I forced myself to forget about the project so that time would pass more quickly. My theory was that my swiss cheese brain would drop that tidbit of information, and Wallace and Gromit would simply be out the next time I thought about it.

Amazingly the tactic worked, and the movie is now in theaters! You can bet we'll be going to see it soon, perhaps in Rochester on our trip this weekend.

In the meantime, you can read the outstanding and lovingly written New York Times review, play around at the official site watch the featurette at apple, and check out lots more great shorts by AArdman Animations at AArdman.com

1:47 am | permalink | /technology/film | 0 writebacks |

del.icio.us links

Selections from my del.icio.us bookmarks

Usually found by watching the feed of what's popular with other del.icio.us members, Oishii!

Patek style tenor banjo

Good site for an alternative tuning and style for the tenor banjo. This style should be more familiar to guitarists wanting to switch back and forth between instruments

GTD Introduction - PigPog Creativity Wiki

GTD - Getting Things Done - is a book by David Allen, giving a series of principles for managing the day to day tasks and projects we all have to do.

Directions for making Dried Apple Shrunken heads for Halloween

Peach Saves Mario's Ass - Kotaku

New mario game staring Princess Peach for the nintendo DS

Mario Unleashed - Google Video

Live Action Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach take on the marimba.

NYC2123

An excellent cc-by-nc-sa graphic novel, formatted for the PSP but also great for reading on the web

Tobby Pachi

Fun little flash game were you launch a little dog off a springboard to collect gems and rescue the girl. His ears flap in the wind as you launch him towards spikes and over obstacles. Cute.

Fluff Radio

The Fluff Radio Review - A live music, comedy, and talk radio podcast created by the same fine folks that brought you Fluff In Brooklyn - http://www.fluffinbrooklyn.com

Writerisms and other Sins

A Writer's Shortcut to Stronger Writing by C.J. Cherryh

Werewolf - A free, simple, party game

Werewolf is a simple game for a large group of people (seven or more.) It requires no equipment besides some bits of paper; you can play it just sitting in a circle. I'd call it a party game, except that it's a game of accusations, lying, bluffing, second

1:11 am | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Missed Invention Opportunities: HandEase

Years ago, while carrying home tons of groceries in the cheap, thin bags that Key Foods gives you, I was struck by an invention idea. The thin bag handles were cutting into the joints of my fingers and no matter how I shifted, it hurt like hell. All it would take to alleviate that pain would be some sort of stiff layer that distributed the weight from a fishing-line thin razor of pain to a more manageable handle.

Rubber tubing seemed ideal, and I envisioned cutting a garden hose into 6 inch sections and then slitting it down the side so that you could easily pop the bags in, grab them, and go.

Having spent the first few years of my employable life working front end at Price Chopper, I figured that front end staff (such as register workers and cashiers) could churn these things out from cheap garden hose and then sell them for a dollar a piece at checkout. All you'd need would be a good pair of shears to cut the hose and you've got brand new revenue stream built upon your existing stock and labor.

There's a hook in the sale too - you can sell these little hand protectors as reusable items and invite shoppers to bring them next time, but you know they'll forget. For a dollar a pop, how many people will just throw them in again with the order when they forget?

Yesterday, I realized that I'd been beaten to the punch. Whole Foods offers these same devices (but mass produced in cardboard) for free as you walk out of the store. They're called Hand-Ease, and there's only an email address (handease AT cox DOT net) and the store logo printed on them, but I was able to find the website through google.

Designed as a circle that folds easily into your hand with two creases running down the middle, and made of 100% post consumer cardboard, they're much more environmentally friendly than my idea, and stores can simply order big boxes of them as an added incentive for customers to shop there. Brilliant work.

5:58 pm | permalink | /technology/gadgets | 0 writebacks |

Three Droplets

Watering my plants at work left three perfect droplets on the waxy leaf of this baby cherry tree. I was insanely busy, but sometimes you just have to stop, take a moment, and appreciate the beauty around you.

This little trio sat atop the leaf until they evaporated, being perfect photography subjects as I snapped away. I was even able to get the Empire State building in the background of the last shot.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

11:10 pm | permalink | /life/art | 0 writebacks |

The Image to ASCII Converter

As a user of BBSes back in the pre-internet days, I have a special appreciation for ASCII art. Back then, image files were a download you needed to wait hours for (uncompressed bitmaps being prevalent) and then open in a viewer program, either in dos or windows 3.1 if you were lucky.

Instead, images were cleverly crafted from letters, numbers and symbols, squeezing some semblance of UI and page design out of the text only format of most BBSes.

Now, most ASCII art is relegated to .nfo files provided by warez distribution groups. Amazingly, the artform continues to advance - I've seen some of the most impossibly intricate designs weaved around text in those files, despite the crude nature of using other text as images.

A few days ago I added the Image To ASCII HTML Converter to my del.icio.us bookmarks (which you can subscribe to a feed of if so inclined). Today I finally got a chance to run an image through it that's well suited to the artform. Without further ado, I give you the "ASCII snakey worm thing!"

......................................................
......................................................
......................................................
...........................            ...............
.......................  :C@@@@@@@@@@@O:   ...........
....................  c8@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@C  .........
..................  c@@@@@@@8o:..c8@@@@@@@@@O. .......
.................  O@@@@@@O :8. C@:o@@@@@@@@@8. ......
................ .8@@@@@@8 c@O  .@o:@@@@@@@@@@O  .....
...............  C@@@@@@@8 .@O  .8.c@@@@@@@@@@@. .....
..............  :@@@@@@@@@O  o:   :@@@@@@@@@@@@: .....
..............  o@@@@@@@@@@@8o::o8@@@@@@@@@@@@@. .....
..............  O@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@C ......
..............  8@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@8O8@@@@@@@O  ......
..............  O@@@@@O8@@@@@@@@@@o8@8@@@@@@o  .......
..............  O@@@@:    o@@@@@@@@@@@@@@8c  .........
..............  C@@@@8C.     ::cccoocc.   ............
.............   C@@@@@@@@8O:         .................
............   c@@@@@@@@@@@8  ........................
........    .C@@@@@@@@@@@@@@o ........................
.......  C@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@c ........................
......  O@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@8  ........................
.....  c@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@. .........................
.....  O@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@O   .........................
.....  8@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@c   ..........................
....  :@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@:   ...........................
..... :@@@@@@@@@@@@@@8.              .................
..... .@@@@@@@@@@@@@c     ......        ..............
..... .8@@@@@@@@@@c  :O@@@@@@@@@@@@@Oc    ............
.....  O@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@O   ...........
.....  :@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@8  ...........
......  o@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@.  ..........
.......  :@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@c  ...........
.........  :O@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@8c    ...........
............                             .............
......................................................
......................................................
......................................................

8:57 am | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Is Capsaicin the Next Ecstasy?

Capsaicin, the "active ingredient," to so speak, of Cayenne Peppers is powerful stuff. Eating it can cause you to break out in a sweat, screaming "whooo!" while your eyes water. Turned into a spray as mace, it can bring you to your knees. Formulated as a nasal spray it can... Clear your sinuses?

Amazingly, the answer seems to be yes. Capsaicin nasal sprays are said to be Drano of the nose, fixing sinus problems that were incurable with conventional medicine. I actually recommended them to my mother after she lost her sense of smell last year following repeated sinus infections.

Here's where the twist comes in.

As you might expect, blowing capsaicin up your nose f-ing KILLS. Anyone who loves spicy food knows breathing out through your nose while eating something really hot is a bad idea, and that's just a whiff of the stuff.

My good friend Sandra tells the story of trying Sinus Buster after getting some from its creator, Wanye Perry on her myspace blog. It's no big surprise that it hurt. The surprise is that she went back for another hit, and couldn't quite explain why.

She's not alone. Lots of people have commented that Capsaicin not only cleared up their sinuses and relieved sinus headaches, but also gave them a feeling of focus and wellbeing.

OnlyPunjab explains that the rush is due to the natural flood of endorphins triggered by the pepper spray, likening the feeling to that experienced by those who have gotten multiple tattoos or piercings, or long distance runners.

Capsaicin nasal spray is like an instant runners high that just happens to clear the sinuses.

Add to that the fact that endorphins are natural performance enhancers, and it's easy to see why athletes are using sinusbuster or another similar product before every workout. Skeptics will note here that firing burning pepper spray up your nose repeatedly sounds like a pretty classically bad idea. It turns out that for all the pain capsaicin causes, it produces almost 0 irritation to the skin or membranes it is applied to. All that pain is caused by a chemical reaction, and capsaicin is even marketed as a topical pain relief ointment under the brand Capzasin-HP.

It doesn't take long for word of a safe, natural high to spread, and you can bet bottles of this stuff will migrate from the locker room to the club pretty quickly.

I wonder how long it will be before we see batches of people outside the clubs in NYC going *sniff/snort* "Aughhhh ohhhh yeah!" and then shaking their heads and pumping their fists in the air, conquering the pain and then enjoying the immediate rush.

• Read more about "Sinus Buster" and its accidental inventor, Wayne Perry at About.com

1:47 am | permalink | /technology/gadgets | 0 writebacks |

Moonlit Clouds

Our first night in North Carolina was amazingly beautiful. The harvest moon was bright in the sky, illuminating everything in the eerie white glow that defines edges but fails to give you details or any depth to the world around you. The effect was much like looking at a frozen daytime, and I couldn't resist snapping some shots.

The way the clouds are rimmed with light here, masking the full moon, makes me think of classic old werewolf movies. I threw a lot of shots away, but these really captured the amazing brilliance of the moon that night. It was like a sun on a black sky.

There's lots more photos from North Carolina in the album

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

11:04 pm | permalink | /life/art | 0 writebacks |

Sweet Fashions

Dylan's Candy Bar is a crazy candy store on 60th and 3rd in New York City. The store is as much about the experience of shopping and the childlike wonder of being surrounded by more candy than you could ever eat than the actual treats themselves. The posh location and expansive corner windows allow them to do a booming business and have inspired impressive works of sweet window art.

Since the "Dylan" of Dylan's Candy Bar is Dylan Lauren, Ralph Lauren's Daughter, it was only fitting that Fashion Week in NYC would bring some candied costumes, and sure enough, we caught the artist at work this past weekend.

The creations were amazing, covering a wide range of Haute Couture looks and even incorporating an actual Ralph Lauren design among them. Take a closer look at the pictures here. Everything, and I mean everything down to the hair on the mannequins heads, is made from candy.

Sweet.

• View the pictures
• Read about the project at The Costume Cultural Society, which strangely makes no mention of the artist, James, pictured above. The designs will be up through October 31.

11:10 pm | permalink | /life | 0 writebacks |

Open Source Games Roundup 2005

Whew - so it's been over a year and a half since I last looked at open source games at glitchnyc.com and the landscape looks quite different than it did in early 2004.

In January 2004, I was wowed by:

• bust-a-move clone Frozen Bubble
• Tron light-cycle game Armagetron

• the obviously named Bomberclone

February 2004 brought:

• the Arkanoid clone LBreakout2
• lemmings clone Pingus

I would have liked to continue doing monthly spots on great open source games but the truth is that I've been too busy to play many games at all aside from killing time with my GBA on the subway.

One of the difficulties in writing this article is that there is no real resource for finding great open source games. What I'd love to be able to do is sort games by release date, user rating, and other measurements such as look+feel, gameplay, and addictiveness, but currently I have not found such a site. Happy penguin makes a good go of it, but you can't sort all titles by average rating or even really browse past entries. Ideally, I'd also like to be able to filter by titles that have been rated by 10 or more users so that the games rated "5 stars" by the developer or a single excited fan don't float to the very top of the list.

That said, there is quite a bit of development going on the open source game world, if poorly publicized. As with all open source projects, 90% of them don't really get off the ground and stagnate after the lead developer gets bored or hits a development hurdle. I'm a big fan of the SDL engine, which is the multi-platform, open source answer to DirectX. SDL has been stable for a few years now, and the games built on top of that engine which are the exception to the "90% rule" are starting to emerge.

I've found some fun diversions by browsing the games section of sourceforge.net, so without further ado, here's some new ways to waste time on your computer (be it Windows, Mac, or Linux).

Globulation 2

• http://glob2.ysagoon.com/

This realtime strategy game is part risk, part civ III, and part boogers

No really, your army consists of little red slimeballs which walk around and build inns, hospitals, cities, and more. The tutorials are a bit slow, so you might have better luck just starting in and figuring it out as you go, but I definitely had a fun hour creaming the blue army as my cities and armies grew to massive size.

Gameplay

6 of 10 - Too slow for my taste, but being able to give general commands and let the little units get to it was fun.

Visuals

7 of 10 - Fun colors and clean graphics, but nothing spectacular

Addictiveness

6 of 10 - When I have another hour to kill, I'll revisit this game

Armagetron Advanced

http://www.armagetronad.net/

Ride your light cycle, and trap other riders with the wall you've left behind

Everyone gets busy, and the lead developer of Armagetron had to take a year off developing the game, which brought about a new fork called Armagetron Advanced and a flurry of development activity. A year later, the lead developer is back and has joined up with the "AA" project.

The result is a much more slick game than I reviewed last year, and the online play has been tweaked and perfected. Battling against other players no longer depends on your luck in "making the turn" but is now back on solid strategy and good reflexes. To compensate for network lag in this precision timing game, when you're playing online, if you go headfirst into a wall, you get a short window of time to turn.

Turn the wrong way or fall asleep at the wheel and KABLAM! If you manage to tap out the right direction in time, you'll "just squeak in" and get another chance to go after your opponent. It's really addictive, and if I wasn't writing this article, I'd be playing right now.

Gameplay

10 of 10 - it does exactly what it should, and it's dead simple

visuals

8 of 10 - depending on the 3D card in your computer, this game can look anywhere from okay to fantastic. It's still simple colored walls trailing from a "cycle", but the cameras are intuitive and don't distract

addictiveness

10 of 10 - There's always someone better than you waiting online to whup your butt and teach you some new tricks. I think this game is as much fun as Unreal Tournament or Halo without the headache inducing jump-strafe-fire madness. Left and right are the only keys you really need to know, although the brake (back arrow) helps.

Secret Maryo

http://smclone.sourceforge.net/

This Super Mario Clone will feel very familiar to anyone who ever owned a Nintendo

Super Maryo is an SDL powered Mario clone which does more than pay homage to the original. If this were any company other than Nintendo's material, they'd be looking down the barrel of a lawsuit right about now. Luckily Nintendo has been fairly tolerant of fan projects, providing they change the name of the project enough to not be a total rip-off.

I have a few pet-peeves with this clone, as the art seems a bit slapdash and the physics are a bit off from the original (most notably, Mario jumps quite a bit higher than he did in the original games.) I only got a chance to play through the first few levels of this one, but it seems like a fun throwback to have on your laptop.

I'm also excited to see the engines and code behind this one develop further and be available for use in new, creative side-scrolling platformers. Some of the best games ever were built in 2d, and frankly, it hurt my head less when the 3D camera wasn't flying around willy nilly trying to follow the action.

gameplay

4 of 10 - The controls react well, but I'd like to see the physics either match the original or be based on the real world.

visuals

5 of 10 - The hand-drawn feel is okay, but this could be a much better looking game. I feel like the graphics are a place holder while they get the rest of the game in place.

addictiveness

6 of 10 - I can't get enough Mario, so I'll probably play this one again, but I'd rather be playing with a joystick.

Scorched 3D

http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/

The classic DOS turn-shooter is back with great 3D graphics

Turn your tank with left and right, raise and lower your turret to aim, and increase or decrease power with plus and minus. All set? FIRE! Be careful though; if you miss, your enemies get a shot at you before you get another chance. There's tons of different weapons and levels to play here, and this is a great game for 2 or more players on a single computer or online.

If you can't see, hit the number keys to go through the different cameras. I would have certainly liked some of these key-hints in game. I'd say any game with more than just the arrow keys and spacebar to use should pop up an overlay with the keys when you hit F1 or escape, but that's just me.

Once you get the hang of it, the game is a ton of fun, and it can be a hoot to play with a bunch of friends online, taking aim at each other. If you've ever played worms, that game was actually a fun-filled clone of the original Scorched Earth.

gameplay

8 of 10 - there's a bit of a learning curve as you get adjusted to all the keys, but it's pretty simple at the core.

visuals

8 of 10 - lush 3d landscapes are an awesome improvement over the 16 color DOS game from 1992, but, at least on my comp, the frame rate was a little low. Maybe I shouldn't be running at 1400x1050 on my laptop.

addictiveness

9 of 10 - This is another one that keeps bringing you back. You can pick up this game and play a 5 minute set or play for hours and hours online. Scorched 3d is also a great game to play with a group while chatting.

Battle for Wesnoth

http://wesnoth.org/

Turn based overhead army command in a world of fantasy

I've actually played this game the most of all the ones reviewed here. Launched into different scenarios of war, you must summon troops, deploy them, and then complete your mission.

Part of the reason I've spent so much time on this game is the fact that it's too damn hard. Even on easy it takes me almost an hour to complete each mission, and I consider myself a fairly able tactician. I'd like to see my troops be a little more autonomous, and be able to build up to more and more challenging enemies and tasks, and I'm sure that as the game matures the balance between challenge and fun will settle out. There are already a considerable number of downloadable quest files which are a bit more fun than the tutorial mission. Anyone who enjoys risk will probably enjoy this game, but be prepared to sink quite a few hours in.

Gameplay

6 of 10 - the game does what it's supposed to, but it could really be a lot more intuitive. Right clicking on everything to select a menu is okay, but the troops should be able to think for themselves when not directly told what to do. It'd help if they weren't total wimps too.

visuals

8 of 10 - I actually really enjoy the looks of this game's top down perspective, and my complaints about the story-art were put to rest with the most recent revision. This game is really starting to look professional.

addictiveness

7 of 10 - Considering that I want to get back to playing this one and try to find a quest that I can actually succeed at, I'd say the replay value is pretty good, and it can only get better as more players and developers create quests.

The Quake III Engine

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/20/1329236&tid=112

ID Games classic FPS is now free and open source

I'd be remiss not to mention this development in an open source game roundup. Quake III Arena, the game engine that has powered the last few years of great networked first person shooters is now available for anyone to build upon. The announcement was only made in August 2005 at Quakecon, but being able to build on top of such a robust, mature game engine is going to be a boon to the open source game community. I expect to see quite a few games based on the QIII engine by the time I get to the next OS game roundup. I've never been a great fan of First Person Shooters myself (I burned out on Doom and Heretic back in 1997), but fans of the genre will love getting to play this game again tweaked for their system (you should see what people are doing with Quake II, open sourced a few years ago.)

There's also the potential for this to power non-fps games like MMORPGS, much in the way the Crystal Space 3D project has spawned the game Planeshift. There's nothing playable to rate here yet, but I'd keep my eye on any derivative projects in the next few months.

Stacker Blocks 3D

http://stacker-blocks.sourceforge.net/

Tetris with beautiful 3D graphics

Who doesn't love Tetris? Who doesn't love beautiful 3D graphics. This is a rehash of a classic, but it's quite playable, and you really just can't mess up familiar falling puzzle blocks. If you like the game, this is a slick little desktop version.

Gameplay

7 of 10 - Plays just like the classic using the arrow keys. Fast response, nice grid and highlighted drop column make it hard to mess up.

visuals

8 of 10 - The 3D here is both tasteful and serves a purpose. Getting to see the sides of the blocks helps your brain put together what goes where and whether you're lined up with the correct column or not

addictiveness

8 of 10 - Come on. It's Tetris. This is one of the most addictive games on the planet

Open Mortal

http://openmortal.sourceforge.net/

This parody game fulfills one of my boyhood dreams

Mortal Kombat once ruled the arcade, packing kids around to see the real lifelike bloodsport controlled by joystick wielding, button mashing 13 years olds.

Mortal combat was obviously just a collection of images crudely blue-screened and then played back to match the action on screen.

We had a photo developer next door to the arcade in the mall where I grew up, and I always thought they could make a killing by taking the proper snapshots of you in different poses and then put them into a "skin" file to create your own custom Mortal Kombat.

That idea has finally come to pass, and you can play as any one of a bunch of nerds, dorks, and dweebs as they knock eachother about in true Mortal Kombat style.

Best of all, now that we've all got digital cameras, you can take the proper pictures and you and your friends can star in your own Mortal Kombat game!

Gameplay

5 of 10 - It's a bit clunky, and I don't know any of the combos yet, but it plays just like the original MK did. If it's going for accuracy to the original console, it's probably more like an 8 of 10.

Visuals

9 of 10 - Let's be honest. I don't love this game for the beautifully rendered 3D. I love it for the plethora of funny pictures, and the ability to add your own.

Addictiveness

6 of 10 - MK was one of the most influential fighting games of all time, and I'll certainly be back to this one. Once you get your own characters loaded in, I bet this is one hell of a game to have at parties! (Author's Note: it appears that some coding is needed to actually load the characters in. I'd be great to have a "character editor" much like the quest editors available for many games.)

Roundup Wrapup

Well, that does it for this Open Source Games Roundup. Thanks for reading, and hopefully you found at least one diversion in this bunch that suits your fancy. If not, check back at Glitchnyc.com in the next few weeks. There were a lot more games than I could feature all in one article, and I'll have another roundup on the way once I get some time to take them for a spin.

2:54 am | permalink | /technology/opensource | 0 writebacks |

Coloring in the Lines

A few years ago I roughly followed one of merekat's tutorials and learned how to add some pretty good looking colorization to existing line-art.

I came up with this little gem, and it was (and is) the most popular thing I ever posted on deviantart.

Recently I've been reading and extremely impressed with Colleen's friend Kilo's 10,000 Drawings project, and decided to get my old skills out of tool-shed and see if they'd gone rusty. She's re-teaching herself how to draw by doing 10,000 drawings (as a series of slice-of-life and fantasy comics) and she's not even 1/20th of the way through and they're already amazing.

After finishing up the color-job on one of her recent comics, I'm really really happy with the result, especially the clouds and ocean in the "reveal" shot of the second to last pane.

I also got a lot more familiar with the free and open source Gimp working on this project, and I feel like I can do just about anything I do with Paint Shop Pro with it, although I'm still looking for the "lighten" and "darken" brush.

• Read Kilo's 10,000 Drawing project
• Check out Colleen's webcomic, Fluff In Brooklyn. Her photoshoot at Coney Island is featured in this comic.
• Merekat's photoshop tutorials will make you an excellent color artist in a few insomniatic nights.

12:02 am | permalink | /life/art | 0 writebacks |

Weekend fun at the Bronx Zoo

We made our (almost) yearly trip to the Bronx Zoo yesterday, and it was amazing as always. I'm a sucker for Zoo photography, and I always take too many photos, but this time I had good reason. My awesome camera (it's a Canon PowerShot A75 if you're curious) has a great zoom lens, takes wonderful pictures, and gives me lots and lots of control. I'm spending most of my time in manual mode now forcing longer exposures than the camera would choose itself and then taking 5 or 6 shots until I get one in perfect focus without any motion blur. It really makes the colors pop and gives me lots of detail when I get it right.

The camera also allows me to switch to manual focus, and I've been bringing it right down to 5cm and taking some amazing macro shots (as you might have noticed).

I'm going to queue up a few of the best ones here in the blog, but I've thinned the herd a bit already and posted the better ones here

• See the photos

1:22 pm | permalink | /life | 0 writebacks |