Month: May 2008

GTA IV is making waves

Wired…article

NYT…

“To the actors it is a simple issue of equity: equal pay for equal work, regardless of the medium.”

“Grand Theft Auto IV is such a simultaneously adoring and insightful take on modern America that it almost had to come from somewhere else. The game’s main production studio is in Edinburgh, and Rockstar’s leaders, the brothers Dan and Sam Houser, are British expatriates who moved to New York to indulge their fascination with urban American culture. Their success places them firmly among the distinguished cast of Britons from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards through Tina Brown who have flourished by identifying key elements of American culture, repackaging them for mass consumption and selling them back at a markup.”>”Grand Theft Auto IV is such a simultaneously adoring and insightful take on modern America that it almost had to come from somewhere else. The game’s main production studio is in Edinburgh, and Rockstar’s leaders, the brothers Dan and Sam Houser, are British expatriates who moved to New York to indulge their fascination with urban American culture. Their success places them firmly among the distinguished cast of Britons from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards through Tina Brown who have flourished by identifying key elements of American culture, repackaging them for mass consumption and selling them back at a markup.”

Class WIKI

Everyone please start contributing to the class wiki because it’s super easy and there are a few too many keywords not edited– just check it out and spend a few minutes fixing it up– trust me, you’ll feel good about it…

And here’s a video that will lighten your finals weeks for sure:

[youtube 4DVNVXZ9O3o]

Video games and politics blog

Sorry to post so much, but this blog is absolute money. Here Barack Obama says that kids are spending too much time watching TV and on video games. A professor is disappointed by Obama’s stance on video games.

Also, according to Ian Bogost, social networking and youtube have taken over the role of video games in this election cycle.

windowsPhone… (windows is pronounced ‘i’)

I found the latest on a mobile phone manufacturer (HTC) that has created a new Windows Mobile Device called the HTC Touch Diamond… of course it copies all of the iPhone functions and tries to make it look more aesthetic, but no, it just won’t work. I do think that sales will be pretty good though, considering all of those die-hard PC fans out there.
It won’t be coming out in the US until later in the year (by then Apple will have created a whole new revolutionary product anyway).

HTC Touch Diamond

htc-touch-diamond-angle.jpg

embedding

hey joe,
Can you tell me how to embed something that’s not from youtube? I have the code from a site but it’s just not working. do i need to hit the “code” tab in wordpress? the embedded code starts off “embded src = “blah blah blah” but i can’t get it to work. any thoughts would be great.

another last supper

In response to Steve’s post, here is another Last Supper image, constructed as a part of the marketing for the current season of Battlestar Galactica. The fun thing is that it plays off the same kind of world of fandom that sparked the creation of the Star Wars Last Supper image, but it’s from the show’s creators and has its own symbology. Very cool. This site gives hints for interpreting the image… Only one true spoiler here, though I doubt that many of you are fans.

Starbucks is Satan

Another thing I read in “The Globe” that made me want to throw-up my dining hall coffee.

Also, another reason why I hate flash.

Starbucks has decided to make a slow moving flash program that asks you questions about your taste preferences and then tells you what to order next time you go in. It is supposed to stimulate interaction with a real-live barista.

When a computer program tells me what beverage to drink is when I start to agree with those individuals that say the digital age is dehumanizing and can be detrimental to societal bonding.

Creepy much?

After our “Twitter” discussion, I remembered an interesting iPhone app (available only to those who hack their phones) called Twinkle. It adds the ability to Geo-locate your twitter feed via the phone’s built-in cell tower triangulation GPS system, and the ability to map people whose Twitter feeds indicate they are nearby. I don’t want to call this creepy…but i just did.

Article Link

commenting

weird, i’ve tried twice now to post a comment to Ross’s post but both times it just never showed up. here’s the article in relation to GTA
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/30/grand.theft.auto/index.html?iref=newssearch
it talks about how GTA could make $400 million this opening weekend, most for any opening weekend for any movie or video game.