my.bicycle

Since TiVO is testing banner-ads during fast-forwarding over advertisements , would someone please patent my idea of running banner-ads in the black space on the top and bottom black space in letterboxed content? Caveat: You must have enough money to defend the patent, and you must refuse to license it to anyone. ’k-thx-bye. This whole era of DRM and unspoken social contracts that imply advertisements are being watched to fund TV, not watching them is “stealing” is rife with silliness. It gets the people making products focusing on appeasing the content providers instead of consumers.

Warren Ellis’ BAD SIGNAL maillist informs that DC/Wildstorm has released the first issue of StormWatch and Planetary are available for free download. Digging around the site a bit, it turns out that Alan Moore’s ABC Comics ( Top Ten: 49ers, Tom Strong , and a host of other titles) also have free downloads available. Update: Despite some impressively excessive file sizes (Yay, poorly implemented graphics inclusion in PDFs!), some of the other free previews are actually just a few pages long, not entire issues. The two that Warren Ellis announced are full issues, and quite interesting.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ( 4rthur links )

Nicely integrated CG and traditional cel animation styles come together under Winsor McCay style skies in Gorillaz ’ Feel Good Inc. ( .asx ) ( 4rthur links )

More robust, no-rap bastard pop: Boulevard of Broken Songs ( .mp3 ) from Party Ben mashes Green Day and Oasis, as well as some Travis, and Eminem, and a tickling of Aerosmith. Teh hawt. ( del.icio.us )

If you’ve ever been insterested in the Gaiman-interpreted character of Lucifer Morningstar , you can read the first 48 pp. of Mike Carey’s ongoing comic chronicles of the character. ( PDF : requires Acrobat Reader or similar.)

“My fellow citizens, at this hour, brave administration and congressional forces are in the early stages of an all-out attack on Social Security, with the ultimate goal of bringing down the oppressive legacy of the New Deal, and big government itself,” Bush said. “Through bold and decisive action, we will liberate our grandparents and our grandchildren from the threats of the system established by Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide retirement compensation for America’s workers.” Bush Launches Preemptive Attack On Social Security

Like many people, I listen to a wide variety of music, and some of it is, ahem, more appropriate at certain times of day than others. We here are not responsible for adverse affects from playing the wrong music at the wrong time. Hope some of this is enjoyable. DavidByrne.com , DB’s online journal (“don’t call it a blog”) is offering a streaming audio channel of music that he digs. It is teh kewl. ( boingboing )

Something Awful time-travels back to an age of questionably-flared pants and postively sass-riddled undergarments, and speculates on The Scene at length. (from sean , who has provided an inspired initial scene for an action TV show based on these garments)

Just an update about how much Blogger is pissing me off: The last month has seen significant slowdown in the publishing and saving drafts feature of the web-based tools, and the past couple days alone have generated unexpected server errors, quite frequently. I always want to verbally pimp slap people who complain about free stuff, so feel free to do so in the Comments if desired. However, I’m mainly feeling duped — I’m not sure how hard it would be to convert everything to an alternative, or even if they’re any better. Several solutions require that I run them on my own server, but my webspace ISP doesn’t support that function. Any ideas?

The Legend of Zelda ad ( .wmv ) from Super Famicom era ( tokyopia forum )

A more detailed look atGDC’s “ game developer’s rant ” — and a counter-rant . Reading through the comments, it’s annoying to see how many people, presumably consumers with little-or-no understanding of the relationship between developers and publishers, are getting into a blame the victim frame of mind about this panel’s content. (via tokyopia forum )

Gamespot ’s #1 game today is last year’s surprise PlayStation 2 hit, Katamari Damacy ; the ranking is achieved by the number of users selecting that product’s page. A testament to the questionable design of the professional, for-pay site includes the problem that Gamespot’s main page on the product , which is a summation of recent activity for the game, offers no immediate clue as to why this game that has been out for half a year is suddenly displacing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas , arguably king-of-that-hill since its release. Scanning for new information, I see that a new screenshot has been added to the gallery. I also see that a user-created FAQ has also been recently uploaded; another source unlikely to push it to number one. Finally I see a tiny, purple “DS” in the corner — a new version has been added! Katamari Damacy will be on the Nintendo DS . Who knows what this means for the multiplayer possibilities, or how the touchscreen will ...

IGN is running a story on the PSP Launch: Hot or Not? Not what I’d been expecting, to be honest. It’s actually a relief, if Sony isn’t automatically successful in this arena, because it’d be a bleak, competitionless environment for hand-held if Sony managed here what it did in the home console realm. I love my PS2, but I think competition is critical for growth.

Amateur and soopah-kewl visualization of They Might Be Giants’ Bloodmobile (Flash) ( boingboing )

Music, rendered as a list . Ben Folds Five and Shatner’s Common People as a comic.

Boingboing is reporting that conservatives are upset about the liberal slant of the sayings found on drink cups, and now “ right-wing Starbucks customers have gathered to protest this, demanding that Starbucks give equal representation to 'conservative' thought .” No. Shut up. Go away; your own beloved Reagan is the one who deregulated the public airwaves, doing away with “equal time” for the USA, leaving us with Rush and O’Reilly and Crossfire . Additionally, this is a private company, and unaffected by those rules. Quit acting like little victims, get in your SUVs, and go vote with your many dollars at a different establishment. Good luck trying to find a more business-friendly coffee house than Starbucks, though.

Toy Lab

Check out these pictures of a crapoflaged Mac Mini . ( boingboing )

Video: monkey pwns tiger . (via mefi , where this unlikely cover of Total Eclipse of the Heart also was found in comments)

(writ a week ago; snoozed ’til today) Today has been an unusually StarWars-y day. First there is the stunning new trailer (mentioned previously), and now Bow, Nigger , an article ostensibly about the multiplayer function in Jedi Knight II: Outcast , but more about getting our models of reality to conform to actual reality. There is SW: Revelations , a fan film with stunningly accomplished effects. The Lego Star Wars game (Flash) now has a PC demo available .

Too many TLA s in here, but: Sony Japan is re-re-releasing the PSX with new PSP connectivity features. Presumably this includes compressing PSX-recorded video and music and shlepping it onto Sony’s proprietary MemoryStick flash-RAM. For the curious, the menu and navigation system on the PSP is nearly identical to the one on the PSX. I wonder if I’ll be able to upgrade my DSR-5500 to use these features. (via spong , which apparently couldn't be bothered to provide a simple link to Sony’s page on the topic.)

Ico’s sequel, Nico , er, Wanda and the Collossus , er, Shadow of the Collussus has new footage and screens up , as well as an interview with the producer. (via joystiq )

Edinburgh’s Rockstar North Ltd , makers of Grand Theft Auto series (and Manhunt ) are now hiring. Can you imagine the number of applicants they’re swimming in right now?

6. NFL Locker Room Towel Snap III: Terrycloth Terror 7. Big Gun, Small Dick 2: Die, Bitches Die! 8. Madden Jelly Donut Pigfest 2005 9. Conflict: IKEA Storm (via kotaku )

SciFi channel hosts a blog for Battlestar Galactica . This is where you can get the podcasts for the show , letting you hear creators’ commentary during the show’s initial broadcast.

Consensuality issue: A sexual act with a corpse is generally considered socially unacceptable; the presumption being that the person would not have consented to the act while alive, it amounts to the rape of a dead person. Virtually all human societies condemn abuse of the dead as a form of symbolic disrespect. In rare cases, however, necrophiliac acts can be consensual: for example, in the Armin Meiwes case, the victim gave his consent to the mutilation and death inflicted upon him. Necrophilia — Wikipedia Some days this planet just makes me shake my head.

Electronic Arts To Institute Limited Overtime Policy Officials from Electronic Arts are have internally announced a change in the company’s overtime policy, which will see some workers begin to be paid for work done outside their normally contracted hours. According to an internal email sent company-wide by Rusty Rueff, EA’s director of human resources, and reported by the San Jose Mercury News: “The employment environment at EA was built to allow you flexibility as professionals, with the expectation that time on the job could be managed without watching the clock. Unfortunately, labor laws have not kept pace with this spirit of entrepreneurialism, innovation and creativity.” He continued: “Hourly compensation marks a profound change in the entrepreneurial culture of EA and Silicon Valley. It will come with trade-offs. The newly overtime-eligible employees will have very structured work days and structured work hours.” The price for overtime payments...

Check out this killer coin-op themed video from DJ Format. (via tokyopia forum )

Depending on their paycheck, some people in the industry think that the current creative rut is just a natural part of the industry's evolution. Others see this as a crisis point. This year at the Game Developer's Conference, a special panel was set aside toward the end of the show, specifically for industry veterans to rant about the problems that they feel need to be addressed. 'Rant' seems like too sterile a word. What transpired was an emotional catharsis, a spewing of pent-up rage. Like Ahab facing Moby Dick, if their chests were cannons, these developers would've shot their hearts upon the white humps of Sony and Microsoft. Judging by the packed auditorium and occasional standing ovations, the sentiments expressed were views widely held. I was surprised the lecture didn't end with the passing out of pitchforks and torches. People were angry! GameSpy: Game Developers RANT! at GameSpy

I’ve been waiting for another Pacific Rim quake since the horrible Asian tsunami incident, and we just got it. Just off Kyushu, a -6 (meaning “just less than six” in this case) on the Japanese scale — I’ll probably find out later today what that means on the Richter Scale. It was nothing but a wobbly roll here, but Fukuoka looks bad. It took five minutes to travel all the way here, and we still felt it. Must’ve been huge .

One thing that has not changed—and will not change—is our nature as a form of entertainment. Like any other entertainment medium, we must create an emotional response in order to succeed. Laughter, fear, joy, anger, affection, surprise, and most of all, pride of accomplishment . In the end, triggering these feelings from our players is the true judgement of our work. This is the bottom-line measurement of success. Secondly, we must always weigh challenge and reward. How much work—and frustration—a player is willing to withstand? Depends on the personality and skill of the player. Core gamers have a huge appetite for challenge. Casual gamers want less difficulty. At Nintendo, we believe it is our responsibility to make games for all skill levels. And most definitely, that includes people who are not playing our games now. The third thing that has not changed is the importance of the idea. Of course it is valuable to devise an extension or offshoot of a current idea. But it is invaluable...

Check out this laptop with a case made from repurposed wine crates . Charming. And when it gets old, you can just claim that the PC is “vintage.” (via boingboing )

My new favorite put-down: “And, just to complete the trifecta of you being wrong...” ( The Future Is Open: The OpenDocument Format )

Weird what happens when ego-surfing : I find a band with my own name, WANAMAKER . I kinda like the songs they’re giving away.

My company, Yuke’s Company Limited ’s game Rumble Roses (warning: annoy-o-Flash) made Kotaku’s Worst Game Moments of 2004 , but in a good way. Yes, I’m running through my drafts and cleaning up. Why do you ask?

A collection of my friends and acquaintances, The Misfit Library has announced their first collection of works. I’m going to buy it .

If you’ve got a PSP and want media connectivity with your computer — but don’t own a Macintosh — now there’s intelligent Picture and Sound Pusher (iPSP) for Windows . (via tokyopia forum )

Someone, please stop me from buying Spaced Out ( Amazon , iTMS ). It’s only one mouse-click, and it could be oh-so-exquisitely horrible.

Check out Batman’s greatest boner . (via waxy )

Winchester police say William Poole, 18, was taken into custody Tuesday morning. Investigators say they discovered materials at Poole’s home that outline possible acts of violence aimed at students, teachers, and police. Poole told LEX 18 that the whole incident is a big misunderstanding. He claims that what his grandparents found in his journal and turned into police was a short story he wrote for English class. “My story is based on fiction,” said Poole, who faces a second-degree felony terrorist threatening charge. “It’s a fake story. I made it up. I’ve been working on one of my short stories, (and) the short story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school over ran by zombies.” -- Student Arrested For Terroristic Threatening Says Incident A Misunderstanding (via Zombie Entertainment tribe and MeFi )

A comparison in presidencies: Nixon and Bush . ( anticlown )

Mep Ball : light fun, unless you’re OCD. Then it’s just a bad habit. ( deathboy links )

Sequential Pictures, the questionable-taste genii behind the fan film parody, A Glitch in the Matrix have released a doozy: Star Wars Episode III: A Lost Hope . It's funnier than the Matrix parody, but then, maybe prequel-era Star Wars is easier to make fun of than the Matrix? (thanks, kristen — how did I fail to put this up on the 17th?)

iPSP: intelligent Picture and Sound Pusher is a Mac OS X application which integrates the Macintosh with Sony PSP. ( tokyopia forum )