After a week where I had some trouble finding the time to do daily posts, I’ve automated part of the process so hopefully next week these will be more regular. This part 1 of what I read this week is mainly the gaming and computing news I’ve read. Articles are roughly in order of interest for easy skimming. Expect part 2 later today with more general articles.
- General:
- First Look: Javascript Microcontrollers for web Developers – I think that javascript is the perfect first language to learn these days. Simple and usable full stack – including now into embedded systems!
- Is the Peak-End Rule responsible for overlong movies? – I recently read “Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow” which speaks a lot to how our memory focuses on specific parts of experiences. This is right in alignment.
- Intel rejection of Ubuntu’s Mir patch forces Canonical to go own way | Ars Technica – Open source development has a lot of politics that gets more intense when there are large sponsoring companies with potentially incompatible goals.
- New Product Friday: Shield Your Eyes – News – SparkFun Electronics – Expect these every week – I use sparkfun’s new product posts to keep me in touch with a lot of the developments in the hobbyist electronics world.
- Intel aims another barrel at ARM with synthesizable, ultra-low-power Quark | Ars Technica – Intel had tried to license the Atom core before, allowing it to be fabbed at TSMC. Big change here is that the tech is better and that Intel is allowing custom silicon using Atom to be made in Intel fabs
- What to expect from Apple’s September 10 event (and how much we expect it) | Ars Technica – I was curious how wide some rumors I’d been hearing were being discussed. They were not mentioned in this article.
- Meizu Says Existing Samsung Exynos Chips Can Be Upgraded To HMP ‘True 8-Core’ Via Software, New Hardware Not Needed After All – Intel dipped its toes in aftermarket sw up-gradable processors a few years ago – very interesting to see this in phones. Could see a model where you buy a phone that lets you extend its life by upgrading performance.
- Gaming:
- The Concept That Helps to Explain Why ‘Tetris’ Is So Addictive – Interesting connection here with the article on why movies are getting longer. The Zeigarnik effect is another example of how our remembering self focuses selectively.
- Antichamber and the journey of life – Antichamber is a great innovative game. The story behind its creation is a really interesting look into where it came from.
- Play games, make videos, get paid: how to be a YouTube star | Features | Edge Online – YouTube celebrities fascinate me. It is an interesting world to be exposed to and this is a good description of how they got there, at least in the gaming arena. YouTube is a big business and it isn’t open for kids in their bedrooms to get rich/famous on their own anymore. (via)
- How professional gamers say ‘f*** you’ in front of thousands of fans – There is all sorts of BM (bad manner) pro player do when they feel they’ve won and want to rub it in their opponent’s face. Interesting to learn about for those not already in the know.
- Strategy games have entered a new golden age thanks to eSports, Let’s Play videos, boring AAA games – Interesting how after years the role youtube and eSpports has played in the return of the strategy genre in gaming.
- Steam introduces sharing plan for game libraries, with support for up to 10 “shared” systems – Steam is always pointed to whenever people talk about how offering stuff cheaply quiets concerns about the right to resell digital assets. Curious that they’re now opening up a sharing option.
- OUYA wanted to give indie devs $1 million, ended up in a PR disaster, Let’s talk about the Free The Games Fund OUYA – The Ouya team is completely tone deaf in their PR. There were hints of this during the kickstarter, sad to see it continue. I want them to succeed, but fortunately I’m getting my money’s worth without. Really this is the type of drama I should be trying to avoid reading about.
- The Fallout From Fallout 3 – I played 90+ hours of Fallout 3. Keep feeling that playing New Vegas isn’t a priority, but keep hearing that it is the modern one to play…
- CCP’s Dust 514 experiment is a disappointment for Eve Online fans, but there’s hope – I tried playing Dust 514 because I thought it might have been a casual way to be involved with Eve Online without losing all my free time to it. I think that Valkyrie will be a more likely entry point.
- The PA Report – Why Gearbox bought Homeworld, and how they’re putting it back into the hands of those who created it – I played the heck out of Homeworld 1 – expect to fully play the heck out of it again once re-released. Really interested to see how it fairs on tablets.
- DuckTales Remastered: I am tired of your shit, and it’s time to talk about it – This is an interesting counter-narrative to a lot of fawning reviews this game received.
- Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs review: pearls before swine, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is a most unsettling tale for both gentlemen and lady slaughterers – The evolution of horror games is really exciting – Machine for Pigs seems like it will herald the next round of creepiness. I don’t plan on playing myself, but expect to watch @day9tv playthrough what sounds like a fascinating game
- Bad news, PC gamers: The console version of Diablo 3 is much better than the release you bought – I paid some attention to diablo 3 when it came out on PC – interesting how players’ feedback has contributed to a better release on consoles.
- Occulus Rift:
- Virtual Perfection: Why 8K resolution per eye isn’t enough for perfect VR | Ars Technica – The Occulus Rift guys are really passionate and it comes through in their interviews. I like being exposed to the challenges they’re facing in pursuing seamless VR. Also good to see a dig at the ‘retina display’ marketing, but in a different direction than others.
- A machine for fear: Ben spent hours playing Oculus Rift horror games and hated it – Another article on how terrifying even horror experiments are in VR
- Video proof that the Oculus Rift may actually make horror games too scary – I’m turning into a sucker for Occulus Rift news… I expect to get one and experiment with horror games, but first terror and I’ll never look back.