links.lmorchard.com

June 2012

310 bookmarks saved in June 2012

Nelson's Weblog: culture / games / diablo-hardcore-monk

http://www.somebits.com/weblog/culture/games/diablo-hardcore-monk.html
Contemporary games are designed so the player can never lose. No matter how badly you play you can always recover or reload and keep going. It’s good design, it encourages players to explore, it avoids frustration. But not being able to fail removes some challenge. If you can’t lose, then is winning really that interesting? I’m proud because this weekend I got my Hardcore Monk to level 60. Hardcore mode in Diablo 3 is a game you can lose. It’s permadeath; if you screw up your game is done, your character is gone, you have to start over. Most players of Diablo don’t play hardcore; in a normal game if you die you just reload. I played through the game in normal mode first myself. But hardcore is more exciting. And while I didn’t beat the hardest challenge in the game yet, I have played the guy for 45 hours without ever screwing up too badly. The tension is amazing. For example the boss fights; once you jump into the arena with Diablo you can’t leave. One of you is going to die. But the bosses aren’t the hardest part of the game, the optional champion packs are. And there the anxiety is incredible. I see a group with something hard like molten + frozen + vortex and have to make an instant choice. Do I risk fighting them? Do I avoid them and look for easier targets? Most of the time I engage because I’m playing for the challenge. And then sometimes things go badly and I’m running for my life, for my 45 hours invested, and those moments of fear and excitement are some of the most visceral experiences I’ve had playing a game in years. Since playing Eve Online, really. So I’m loving hardcore Diablo. It helps that I’m winning, I imagine I’m going to be pretty angry when I finally screw up. I’m not a very good loser.
#imported:pinboard #needs-tags #shared #ttrss
archive.org #22219

It's Okay To Be Smart • An Alzheimer’s Researcher Ends Up on the Drug She...

http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com/post/25949745551/an-alzheimers-researcher-ends-up-on-the-drug-she
An Alzheimer’s Researcher Ends Up on the Drug She Helped Invent Dr. Rae Lyn Burke was working on a vaccine to help reverse Alzheimer’s dementia symptoms, when she began to succumb to the very disease she was researching. Through her ongoing work in the lab, and now as a patient advocate, she’s calling for more research and especially more understanding of what Alzheimer’s really means: “It would be good to overcome this stigma, particularly for younger-onset individuals. We educate the public about handling physical disabilities but not so well for people with mental disabilities. We can walk fast, but we think slow. People should know more about the nature of the mental disability. Also, we need to educate the public that this is not just a disease of the elderly. Younger people too can be cut off in their prime.” More at The Atlantic, a great read. (via The Atlantic)
#imported:pinboard #needs-tags #shared #ttrss
archive.org #22200

OK Go…Be a Webmaker! | Zythepsary

http://www.zythepsary.com/techie/ok-go-be-a-webmaker/
On Thursday Mozilla Popcorn ran it’s first Storycamp Livecast with Damain Kulash from the wildly successful band OK Go! For an entire hour Damian talked about his band’s web videos, their success, inspiration, where ideas take hold. Damian talked about the web as a canvas and overcoming adversity, sticking to your guns and how failure is part of the process. He talked about coming up with ideas and iterating on them. He talked about creativity, fear, and what the secret of going viral is. While it was fascinating for those of us that have seen the famous treadmill video, I feel like there was a little (and I mean very small) cultural gap between us OK Go fans and the youth participating in Storycamp. (Some of the feedback we received said as much, am I really so old?) Part of the problem is that Damian’s fame likely dictates his schedule, meaning that although he took the hour to speak to all of us, he likely didn’t have time to read into what Storycamp is about. But that’s ok, he was totally on the ball. Damian said a few things that would inspire anyone: And he’s proven with his testimony on Net Neutrality to be a friend of the Open Web. We definitely got some great feedback from all of the instructors running Storycamp in their organizations, and a huge win in week one (and mirrored ever so spectacularly by the weekend launch of the Mozilla Summer Code Party) was our learn by making philosophy. Jacob Caggiano is going to be blogging about the Robots template (will link as soon as it’s written), a project that uses Popcorn to create a procedural story. Everyone is diggin’ the Robots template, so go try it out! Part of what’s awesome about releasing early and releasing often is that the feedback you receive will take your work in directions you didn’t think possible or necessary. I’ve already got initial ideas on how we can improve Storycamp’s content and resources, what new stuff we should create, and how we can better support those brave people that take our Alpha work and run with it. I can’t wait to see what this week’s speaker, Cory Doctorow, has for us, but even more than that, I can’t wait to hear the feedback from the instructors and participants on the ground. We can’t wait to hear what you dislike, what you love, what you wish were different about everything we’re doing. Tell us everything, and share your webmaking experiences! Related articles The weekend the world learned the web (openmatt.org) And we have #StoryCamp liftoff! (zythepsary.com)
#imported:pinboard #needs-tags #shared #ttrss
archive.org #32746

OK Go…Be a Webmaker! | Zythepsary

http://www.zythepsary.com/techie/ok-go-be-a-webmaker
On Thursday Mozilla Popcorn ran it’s first Storycamp Livecast with Damain Kulash from the wildly successful band OK Go! For an entire hour Damian talked about his band’s web videos, their success, inspiration, where ideas take hold. Damian talked about the web as a canvas and overcoming adversity, sticking to your guns and how failure is part of the process. He talked about coming up with ideas and iterating on them. He talked about creativity, fear, and what the secret of going viral is. While it was fascinating for those of us that have seen the famous treadmill video, I feel like there was a little (and I mean very small) cultural gap between us OK Go fans and the youth participating in Storycamp. (Some of the feedback we received said as much, am I really so old?) Part of the problem is that Damian’s fame likely dictates his schedule, meaning that although he took the hour to speak to all of us, he likely didn’t have time to read into what Storycamp is about. But that’s ok, he was totally on the ball. Damian said a few things that would inspire anyone: And he’s proven with his testimony on Net Neutrality to be a friend of the Open Web. We definitely got some great feedback from all of the instructors running Storycamp in their organizations, and a huge win in week one (and mirrored ever so spectacularly by the weekend launch of the Mozilla Summer Code Party) was our learn by making philosophy. Jacob Caggiano is going to be blogging about the Robots template (will link as soon as it’s written), a project that uses Popcorn to create a procedural story. Everyone is diggin’ the Robots template, so go try it out! Part of what’s awesome about releasing early and releasing often is that the feedback you receive will take your work in directions you didn’t think possible or necessary. I’ve already got initial ideas on how we can improve Storycamp’s content and resources, what new stuff we should create, and how we can better support those brave people that take our Alpha work and run with it. I can’t wait to see what this week’s speaker, Cory Doctorow, has for us, but even more than that, I can’t wait to hear the feedback from the instructors and participants on the ground. We can’t wait to hear what you dislike, what you love, what you wish were different about everything we’re doing. Tell us everything, and share your webmaking experiences! Related articles The weekend the world learned the web (openmatt.org) And we have #StoryCamp liftoff! (zythepsary.com)
#needs-tags #shared #ttrss
archive.org #22198

The earliest known panda-like fossils have been found - in Spain!?

http://io9.com/5913676/the-earliest-known-panda+like-fossils-have-been-found-+-in-spain
This little feller is Agriarctos beatrix, which roamed the forests of Spain some eleven million years ago. It represents the earliest known member of the giant panda's evolutionary subfamily, and it was pretty much just ridiculously adorable. Agriarctos beatrix is a member of the Ailuropodinae subfamily, which is one taxonomic level below the Ursid family in which all bears are a member. The Ailuropodinae subfamily is a lonely bunch, with the giant panda the only living member. This particular species, found near Nombrevilla in Zaragoza, Spain, is one of the most distant relatives of the panda that we've discovered, and we only know it from a pair of fossilized teeth. Still, even with so little to go on, the team from Spain's National Museum of Natural Sciences and the University Valencia have been able to make some intriguing guesses about just what the bear was like, as you can see in the reconstruction above. Researcher Juan Abella explains: "This bear species was small, even smaller than the Sun bear — currently the smallest bear species. It would not have weighed more than 60 kilos. This fur pattern is considered primitive for bears, such as that of the giant panda whose white spots are so big that it actually seems to be white with black spots. Its diet would have been similar to that of the sun bear or the spectacled bear that only eat vegetables and fruit and sometimes vertebrates, insects, honey and dead animals." My favorite detail though has to be this one from the press release, which sounds wonderfully unlike typical bear behavior: Agriarctos beatrix, from the Ursidae family and related to giant pandas, would have lived in the forest and could have been more sessile that those bears that tend to hunt more, such as the brown or polar bears. According to researchers, the extinct bear would have escaped from other larger carnivores by climbing up trees. Via Estudios Geológicos. Image by SNIC.
#imported:pinboard #needs-tags #shared #ttrss
archive.org #22191

Bear McCreary – Official site

http://www.bearmccreary.com/#blog/albums/moon-breakers-soundtrack/
There’s little that ignites my imagination more than the swashbuckling outer space dogfights of yesteryear. So, I was excited to write a bombastic, retro-infused soundtrack for “Moon Breakers” – a multi-player online combat game from Imba Entertainment / Uber Entertainment that is now available to play for free on Steam.
#bsg #gaming #imported:pinboard #moonbreakers #music #nifty
archive.org #22190

ZoneMinder - ZoneMinder: Linux Home CCTV and Video Camera Security with Motion Detection

http://www.zoneminder.com/
ZoneMinder is an integrated set of applications which provide a complete surveillance solution allowing capture, analysis, recording and monitoring of any CCTV or security cameras attached to a Linux based machine. It is designed to run on distributions which support the Video For Linux (V4L) interface and has been tested with video cameras attached to BTTV cards, various USB cameras and also supports most IP network cameras. A partial list is given in the Wiki and Support sections, please give feedback in the Forums if it works with yours. ZoneMinder also requires MySQL and PHP, and is enhanced by a webserver such as Apache.
#cameras #imported:pinboard #linux #software #surveilance
archive.org #32748

ZoneMinder - ZoneMinder: Linux Home CCTV and Video Camera Security with Motion Detection

http://www.zoneminder.com
ZoneMinder is an integrated set of applications which provide a complete surveillance solution allowing capture, analysis, recording and monitoring of any CCTV or security cameras attached to a Linux based machine. It is designed to run on distributions which support the Video For Linux (V4L) interface and has been tested with video cameras attached to BTTV cards, various USB cameras and also supports most IP network cameras. A partial list is given in the Wiki and Support sections, please give feedback in the Forums if it works with yours. ZoneMinder also requires MySQL and PHP, and is enhanced by a webserver such as Apache.
#cameras #linux #software #surveilance
archive.org #22127

Why Django Sucks, Except When It Doesn’t « Coffee on the Keyboard

http://coffeeonthekeyboard.com/why-django-sucks-except-when-it-doesnt-664/
If you’re prototyping a new project, or if you’re a start-up and need to ship something, or if you’re just one person working on a little app with a few (even a few tens of thousands) of users, odds are that none of those benefits are worth losing the nice stuff Django gives you, or the time it takes to build APIs (even using existing apps to do it) or abstraction layers between the silos.
#django #imported:pinboard #python #webdev
archive.org #32757

Why Django Sucks, Except When It Doesn’t « Coffee on the Keyboard

http://coffeeonthekeyboard.com/why-django-sucks-except-when-it-doesnt-664
If you’re prototyping a new project, or if you’re a start-up and need to ship something, or if you’re just one person working on a little app with a few (even a few tens of thousands) of users, odds are that none of those benefits are worth losing the nice stuff Django gives you, or the time it takes to build APIs (even using existing apps to do it) or abstraction layers between the silos.
#django #python #webdev
archive.org #22052

News Center being remodeled to facilitate employee relocation / LJWorld.com

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/jun/14/news-center-being-remodeled-facilitate-employee-re/
Also, as part of a plan to re-emphasize a digital and local focus, Mediaphormedia, which created the internationally accepted Django Web framework, released 10 employees and will phase out its commercial software operations to serve only the company’s specific internal needs. The change was announced to employees and clients earlier this week.
#django #imported:pinboard #layoffs #ljworld #to:fb
archive.org #32758

News Center being remodeled to facilitate employee relocation / LJWorld.com

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/jun/14/news-center-being-remodeled-facilitate-employee-re
Also, as part of a plan to re-emphasize a digital and local focus, Mediaphormedia, which created the internationally accepted Django Web framework, released 10 employees and will phase out its commercial software operations to serve only the company’s specific internal needs. The change was announced to employees and clients earlier this week.
#django #layoffs #ljworld #to:fb
archive.org #22050

Issue 128748 - chromium - [Regression] Unable to install extensions by running .crx file downloaded in Chrome - An open-source browser project to help move the web forward. - Google Project Hosting

https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=128748
First of all, we understand that this will be frustrating to extension developers, and our decision wasn't made lightly. We went to a lot of effort in the design of the extension system to make it possible for people to self-host. All of the formats and protocols involved in the extension system were made simple with the idea that developers could re-implement them. It makes us sad to take off-store install away.
#chrome #extensions #google #imported:pinboard #to:fb #web
archive.org #22033

Google's undocumented favicon to png convertor

http://simonwillison.net/2008/Aug/30/favicons/
Google's undocumented favicon to png convertor (via) Showing the favicon of a domain next to a link is a really nice trick, but it’s slightly tricky to achieve as IE won’t display a .ico file if you link to it from an img element, so you need to convert the images server-side. This undocumented Google API does that for you, meaning it’s much easier to add favicons as a feature to your site.
#favicon #google #icons #imported:pinboard #png #webdev
archive.org #32761

Google's undocumented favicon to png convertor

http://simonwillison.net/2008/Aug/30/favicons
Google's undocumented favicon to png convertor (via) Showing the favicon of a domain next to a link is a really nice trick, but it’s slightly tricky to achieve as IE won’t display a .ico file if you link to it from an img element, so you need to convert the images server-side. This undocumented Google API does that for you, meaning it’s much easier to add favicons as a feature to your site.
#favicon #google #icons #png #webdev
archive.org #22032

How I built my blog in one day

http://erjjones.github.com/blog/How-I-built-my-blog-in-one-day
How I did this blog is nothing new, as a matter of fact many have done exactly what I did and it is well documented. This post is just on how I did it and since it is all very fresh in my mind I thought I would write a post about it. For other tutorials on how to do this checkout these:
#blogging #github #jekyll #tutorial #webdev
archive.org #22019

Create Your Own Posterous with Jekyll, PHP, Mailgun, and S3 : jazzychad's blog

http://blog.jazzychad.net/2012/03/12/create-your-own-posterous.html
A few weeks ago, I decided to create an email-powered blog that is hosted in an Amazon s3 bucket as a website. I wanted to be able to email new posts to the blog and have them published automatically. I use the email subject line as the title of the post and the email body as the text of the post (written in markdown).
#blog #imported:pinboard #jekyll #s3 #webdev #webhooks
archive.org #22018

Technology - Alexis Madrigal - The Next Time Someone Says the Internet Killed Reading Books, Show Them This Chart - The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/12/04/the-next-time-someone-says-the-internet-ruined-literature-show-them-this-chart/255572/
All this to say: our collective memory of past is astoundingly inaccurate. Not only has the number of people reading not declined precipitously, it's actually gone up since the perceived golden age of American letters.
#books #imported:pinboard #internet #reading #to:fb
archive.org #32768

Technology - Alexis Madrigal - The Next Time Someone Says the Internet Killed Reading Books, Show Them This Chart - The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/12/04/the-next-time-someone-says-the-internet-ruined-literature-show-them-this-chart/255572
All this to say: our collective memory of past is astoundingly inaccurate. Not only has the number of people reading not declined precipitously, it's actually gone up since the perceived golden age of American letters.
#books #internet #reading #to:fb
archive.org #21961