The IGF Pirate Kart Entry

In March next year the Independent Games Festival will award a few independently produced games some awards and raise the profile of those titles. A few in the past like Minecraft, Limbo and Mechinarim have had extra promotion which has helped the developers sell more units and raise their profile.

Next year has an interesting entry, the Pirate Kart. This is a single IGF entry of (at time of writing) 321 games.

A download link to the 1.4GB pack is on the Front Page if you feel like playing some very random games.

Zelda Mod For Skyrim

This is one of the better mods I have seen so far for Skyrim. It is a Legend Of Zelda, Link Character Mod.

USS Enterprise Engine Noise

I have often wondered what I would be like to be on the Enterprise and have to put up with the sound of the engines all the time. I have also wondered what it is about the engines that make that noise considering there are no moving parts on the engines and any noise from outside wouldn't carry due to the vacuum of space. There is a video on YouTube that loops the enterprise engine noise for 24 hours.



However a better and higher quality version can be herd from Linux's play app. Use the following command to generate the noise procedurally:

play -n -c1 synth whitenoise band -n 100 20 band -n 50 20 gain +25 fade h 1 864000 1

Google's Memories for the Future Project

To remember The Tsunami that hit Japan earlier in the year. Google has put together a streetview project called Memories for the Future that allows you to see the streetview data before and after the tsunami.

It is a shame the site doesn't support linking, otherwise I would have linked to a few interesting areas.

Elder Scrolls V Skyrim: Master Lockpicking Guide

This is my lockpicking guide for Skyrim. You can either read the description below or watch the video I have recorded. The video is a little dry, but contains all the reliant information. I will add however that if you are in a town and you want to break into a house without being seen; you should crouch and wait for the eye in the middle of the screen to close (indicating that you are hidden) before starting you lockpicking attempt. This will ensure that your lockpicking attempt is conducted in secrecy.

In Oblivion you could lockpick by the sound of the tumblers rising, but this isn't possible in Skyrim. You need to keep looking at the tip of the pick (see screenshot).



If you are on an area of resistance the end of the pick will judder. You need to probe around the lock until you find an area of smooth motion with the pick. Once you have found it, don't rotate the lock all at once. Rotate it gradually, always looking at the end of the pick. If you find an area of resistance, release, move the pick slightly and start turning again. Apply this technique and you will be able to break even master level locks with a low level character.

Playing Skyrim As A Pacifist Character

WestSideLuigi isn't playing as a pure pacifist because a pacifist is someone opposed to violence, but he is playing Skyrim without killing humans, beasts, the undead or even ghosts, and that is interesting.

Equal Marriage Rights in Australia

GetUp! Australia is an action group committed to promoting the environment and a better future for Australians. And they have produced this very excellent video for their Gay Marriage campaign.

SpaceChem is Now Free For Schools

SpaceChem, the indi puzzle game of combining elements to make molecules, is now Free For Schools. I think this is cool because in the advanced levels, you need to use the game's periodic table to make the target compound. SpaceChem comes with a level editor, so educators can create class specific levels to accomplish learning objective.



I find this exciting because it is this kind of thing that will be part of the future of education.

More Musical Tesla Coil Action

Musical Tesla Coil Hat

A guy made a Tesla Coil Hat that plays the mortal Combat theme tune. The video doesn't show the hat itself very well, so checkout The Guy's Blog.

Using Your Old Graphics Card To Run As A Dedicated PhysX Processor

I am currently upgrading from a Nvidia 9800GTX to a Nvidia 580GTX and with the current SLI technology can't have them running together because the GPUs and graphics memory is different on both cards. But a configuration that is supported, is using my old card as a Dedicated PhysX Processor.

I wondered wither this would be better than just letting the 580GTX do all the graphics rendering and physics work. And I found this video when I Googled:



In the video he is using a 8600GTS which isn't as powerful as my 9800GTX, but it is interesting to see that the benchmark scores higher when the 580GTX is allowed to do all the work. I don't think it can be stated strongly enough that the results will change from benchmark to benchmark. But as on overall indicator I don't think I will keep my 9800GTX as even if it could conceivably provides a little extra performance if my 580GTX is under extreme graphics load, the extra heat and power consumption required to keep my 9800GTX makes the whole thing not worth it.

Full Immersion Battlefield 3 Rig

One of the challenges that The Gadget Show set themselves recently; was to create a fully immersive Battlefield 3 playing experience. What they created is rather impressive and makes me wonder why I can't pay to get this kind of experience at somekind of gaming center.



I think one improvement that they could make would be to use electric shock pads, instead of the paintball guns. Not sure if that would work commercially, but would provide better feedback.

Heidi Klum's Halloween Costume

It isn't often that I care about celebrity news, but the Daily Mail did an article on Her Costume At Her Annual Halloween Party. And wow it was impressive.

Happy Halloween

I love this guy's house videos.

Epic Anime Adobe After Effects Fights

One of the things I love about computing is the upward trend towards everything becoming cheaper, faster and more accessible. Where as once computer special effects where for the privileged few, now we are seeing a growing number of independents using them in their film projects. And One of the things I love about martial arts is the rewards you get for time invested. The below videos combine both of these things to good effect.

Cover Up Makeup Advert

This is an advert for Dermablend Pro a skin concealer for scars, tattoos and blemishes for makeup people to use on models, tv people etc.



I love this advert, firstly because of Rick, but mostly because it is a very good advert that has style and demonstrates the product very well.

Japanese Anti-Piracy Advert

In Japan, this is played before every film.

Mercury Arc Rectifiers

The Mercury Arc Rectifier was used in the days before semiconductors to convert high voltage mains current to CD current for train lines. My favorite thing about this is that they are rather complex pieces of glass that wouldn't look out of place on a TARDIS.

First World Problems

The third world has problems like starvation, war, finding drinkable water and lots of other fundamental problems. The first world has problems like, waiting for more than ten minutes on hold when trying to pay a bill and, being unable to find the correct remote control for the TV. The funniest one I have heard is that someone had to see Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows in 3D because the 2D showings had sold out.

Reddit has a subgrop called FirstWorldProblems which is full of these although a lot could be argued to be problems for everyone.
Zach who has a channel on youtube called Funnyz did a rap called first world problems.

Breaking up the Monopoly with Modern Board Game Design

Scott Nicholson is currently on sabbatical at MIT where he is infusing everyone with boardgame enthusiasm. His main research focus while at MIT is to create a toolkit for allowing groups of students to use a boardgame toolkit and simple parameters to develop their own boardgame to learn about a subject.

A few weeks ago he did an open talk about himself, boardgames and what he is doing at MIT and his research focus. He is an excellent lecturer so it is worth a watch.