Antidote to Campers

By accident i came across a blog where this girl describes her recipes that she used to cook while being sleep-walking on ambien medication. Interesting and even fun to read (no matter if its true or not): http://www.imposemagazine.com/bytes/cooking-on-ambien-1-stone-fruit-kiwi-skyr-pie

I was just having a coffee break and looking for some pictures to announce our next Bad Company 2 event on facebook, when i found this video of class A military equipment. I just had to share this with you because it brightened my day.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Px0wErIeJI

Thiago Costa (Lead Technical Director at Ubisoft Digital Arts) released a teaser on his blog about his latest project: The Lagoa Multiphysics Engine 1.0 – and i really hope this is what gaming will look like pretty soon too! There are also a few other projects on his blog that are worth having a peek at… for example if you did not have a chance to see Assassin’s Creed Lineage yet – a short movie about the story just before the beginning of Assassin’s Creed 2 – you should definitely have a look.

Lagoa Multiphysics 1.0 – Teaser from Thiago Costa on Vimeo.

via www.noob.us

Logorama from Marc Altshuler – Human Music on Vimeo.

Recently i have the feeling that more and more people around me (including myself) complain about the current political direction especially Germany is taking – which is supposed to be a kind of role model for the European Union mind you. No matter if it is the bailout of the car or pharmaceutic industry, the banks or the censorship of the internet (and other attacks on the citizen’s privacy), we have the feeling that no matter how we vote, the politicians make their decisions based on all other arguments except our own point of view: Power, Lobbyists, Money – All seems to direct the ones in power. Where is the influence of the people and the good will of politicians to come back to be what they are supposed to be: employees of the public? It is getting difficult for all sides, since a person who actually acts in favor of the public is under suspicion immediately that his/her acts are just a well-planned scheme. The biggest problem we face however is the resulting indifference among us. We should therefore remind ourselves that we still own one of the most powerful tools to influence political and economic decision makers: our money! As long as we still have some, we should use it to make a vote every day to what kind of world we would like to have, what products and ways of production we support and who we want in control.

Every journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step – Here is a list of things i am already doing or starting to do and why:

• Research where a product is produced before buying it and decide between two almost equal products because of their origin – i dont want to support certain governments or company policies and of course like to avoid transports around half the globe.
• Switch from energy saving light bulbs to LED – Why politics is pushing for mercury containing light bulbs remains a mystery to me.
• Buy bio products, preferably even on a farmer’s market and/or butcher – support the local life surrounding me, avoid long transports again.
• Switch to renewable energies – best example of the rule above.

Which other steps come into YOUR mind?

One of the biggest problems of a touchscreen i always imagined seems to have a solution now: using a keyboard on small touchscreen is a challenge that needs practice. Nearly anyone who ever tried it for the first time might agree with me on that one. But even if you think your finger aiming came to a perfection, you always hold the phone in a slightly different angle and your surroundings might shake your whole body while the bus is hitting that one curve too fast. Whatever the reason, your fingers are not lying fixed on the keys like on a “real” keyboard. BlindType is supposed to solve that problem by automatically adjusting the keyboards position and size to where your fingers hit. By the relative position of your key hits and the most probable word you are typing it figures out the position of the keyboard you are actually using (even without you consciously knowing it).

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9b8NlMd79w

http://www.blindtype.com

In recent discussions about apple’s boycott of adobe flash on its iPad we heart about them praising the advantages of their alternative bet on HTML5. What exactly does that mean and does that really give you the ability to implement more interactive content without any plugins? I just came across this graphic which explains the main features of HTML5 and compares which browsers are supporting them.

via http://www.focus.com/images/view/11905/

After i saw the teaser at AUSSERTECH.labz i looked for some more info on the Portal 2, which has been announced for 2011. I loved the first one so immediately went hunting the netz for more info and I found the E3 Demo on Youtube. Some of you might know the indie game TAG and will recognize some inspiration for portal 2’s new puzzle gimmicks.

Since I got my hands on my own computer for the first time (Atari 1040STF in 1986) i was fascinated by the fact that you are able to get sounds out of it. Unfortunately, this hobby fell asleep a couple of years ago. However, I am still coming back to those roots as a Home-DJ once in a while and whether i mix some vinyls or mp3s, i publish those mixes usually on some internet radio station, on Facebook or just sending them to friends so they have something to listen to while being at work.

Now i collected the most popular mixes i have done in the past few years on this blog. You are able to listen to or download them in the new Music section and I really hope you will have some constructive criticism.

P.S.: I remembered that put this blog up and running already one year ago and nearly never posted anything – this is going to change hopefully and why not start by putting some new mixes…