Month: August 2009

Categories
Gaming Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Books and DVDs, DVDs and books…

A few announcements, since I’ve been asked…

  • I am planning on having copies of my DVDs available at the CCAG show in Cleveland this October. There won’t be a huge number of copies on hand, because frankly, CCAG falls on exactly the same day as OVGE in Tulsa, and I just don’t have it in my budget to do a build-up of a huge number of copies for two simultaneous shows, but there will be some there. These will be at Tim Snider’s table, and all of the DVDs I’ve done so far (PDF, CGE 2K7, Best of CGE ’03 and Best of CGE ’05) will be available there.
  • Did he say Best of CGE ’05? Yes he did. I’m editing Best of CGE ’05 right now, it’s looking good, and although it’s not true HD, it’ll filler yer HDTV with a great big widescreen picture. Best of CGE ’05 will be a two-disc set, however it’ll be a buck or two more than Best of CGE ’03 because one of those discs will need to be dual-layer, and dual-layer Lightscribe discs aren’t cheap (see also: CGE 2K7). This set will be ready in time for both OVGE and CCAG, with online ordering beginning after both shows.
  • What about that book? I had been crazily trying to get VWORP! together in time for October as well, but I have to announce that it’ll be delayed until the beginning of 2010 now. There are several reasons for this: with the OVGE/CCAG weekend being the target date for Best of CGE ’05, that’s the item that needs my attention most right now. Putting VWORP! out anytime before the end of 2009 is kind of like writing a book on everything you need to know about the New World in 1491. There’s a heap of interesting stuff happening right as VWORP! would have to cut off for an October publication date: the tenth Doctor’s final episodes, Sarah Jane season 3, the Hornet’s Nest audios with Tom Baker… it just seemed like the least desirable cut-off point possible. VWORP! will wait until January 2010, where it’ll make a hell of a lot more sense to release it.
  • And the next book after that? A little thing that we around here like to call Phosphor Dot Fossils. Like I was gonna leave that off the list! Hopefully no later than late summer 2010. After the book, I’d think that the next step for PDF – aside from it being the cool web archive that we all know and love – would either be as a TV project somewhat grander than the existing DVDs, or maybe as a brand name for a line of fine cat care products. Between you and me, I’m holding out for TV.

That’s all for now. Whether you’re in Cleveland or Tulsa on October 24th, in a way, I’ll see you there!

Oh, and one other thing – today is the absolute last day for Summer Byte Bundles! Those ordering links will stop working in the wee hours of the morning. Last call!… Read more

Categories
Serious Stuff

Web 2.0: fail?

Not ready for the monolithA friend of mine sent me a link to an article about a group of scientists from Zurich using unusual means to actually obtain an image of a molecule. The story is fascinating stuff.

The comments…less so. It’s just the latest in a long line of incidents I’ve witnesses that has convinced me that the much-vaunted “Web 2.0” paradigm has fallen short of the sales pitch on the outside of the box. Perhaps it’s less than democratic of me to take a big number two all over Web 2.0, whose underlying mantras seem to have been “let everyone comment on everything” and “rely on users to generate new content,” but from what I’ve been able to tell, the experiment has not yielded a resounding success. … Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 Funny Stuff Home Base

The sort of things that I think about

Once upon a time, back in my radio days, I dramatically announced “My dear friends…”, held out my hand like a Shakespearean soliloquoy was right around the corner about to collide with me, and emitted a massive belch. I thought it was kinda funny, perhaps even a little too calculated for sheer incongruity. It sure brought the room to a halt (yes, there were other people there). … Read more

Categories
Funny Stuff

Hooray for the marketing department

So, Microsoft is twisting itself into corporate pretzels (well, not really) to apologize for a piece of international marketing. Their original web site promoted a product with this photo:

Microsoft - U.S. edition

But when they went to promote the same thing in Poland, they photoshopped one of the people in the picture ever so slightly:

Microsoft - Polish edition

But while everyone’s up in arms about that change, no one’s even noticed this version for yet another foreign market:

Microsoft - Fiddygibber edition

This is diabolical. Their photo editing is seamless!… Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 Home Base

I fell off the blogwagon

Sorry, I seem to have fallen off the blogwagon here lately.

One thing I take great pains to not do with my blog – not that I’ve always been able to stick to this and censor myself at just the right times – is bitch and moan about stuff. Sadly, that’s really all I feel like doing lately. I don’t like listening to/reading that sort of thing, and I don’t want to be the guy who decides that everyone else is entitled to listen to him whining. So…I just haven’t said a lot lately, anywhere.

I’ve got a new DVD out, which I’m in the process of writing a semi-technical post about for the 0.8 people who are interested, and I’ve already loaded raw footage into the trusty Avid so I can start editing the next DVD very soon. In and around that, I’m writing, editing and re-writing a book, and getting ready for OVGE this October in Tulsa.

All of this while looking for a job, which has really been the thing that’s had me in a deep blue funk lately. I originally had a big spiel written here, and then remembered that the first part of this post as about not venting uncontrollably in all directions. Oops.

One thing I’m really looking forward to is Evan’s second birthday. It falls on a Saturday this year, and I’m planning a “boys’ day out” to the Tulsa Zoo. Maybe the planetarium if he’s still up for it. I’d like to pick up my dad on the way, but I don’t know what his schedule’s like. I think it’d be neat to get all the Green men in one place…probably at the monkey exhibit, appropriately enough. I’ve never been to a zoo before – talk about a sheltered upbringing – and Evan loooooves animals, so I’ve been looking forward to this to the tune of actually having dreams about it. I just love the look on his face when he’s discovering stuff and figuring it out, and I’m sure this trip will give him plenty of chances to be “wowed.”

Amazing how a trip to someplace two hours away full of animals is becoming the light at the end of the tunnel for me. As long as little E is with me, that’s what makes it a good day.… Read more