Extenuating Circumstances

• Sulka's Game – Package tracking excitement
  Sulka, I love you for giving me awesome ideas :)
  (tags: sulka package delivery tracking storytelling)
• Jonathan Blow: The Next Phase
  The full Blow
  (tags: jonathanblow braid interview challenge story gamedesign narrative interactivity badmovie storytelling gaming)
• Gamasutra – Braid 's Blow: Game Challenges Clash With Good Story
  "If we eventually become no interaction and all story, then we're just a bad movie, right?" – Jonathan Blow on challenge/story. Yes.
  (tags: jonathanblow braid gamedesign story interaction challenge)
• Wallstats – The Art of Information
  (tags: information design visualisation statistics infographics government graphicdesign)
• Sure, Why Not?: Dude Laser Etches All The Levels Of Super Mario Land Onto His Eee Pc – Geekologie
  I misread this as "Sure, Why Not?: Dude Laser Etches All The Levels Of Super Mario Land Onto His Eye" and thought – man, that's hardcore
  (tags: laser eee etch misread)

• http://www.harpersglobe.com/
  What EQAL did next
  (tags: cbs eqal harpersglobe)
• OSCAR.com – 81st Annual Academy Awards – Nominees
  Really quite disappointed
  (tags: oscar nominations 2009)
• Amanda Open Source Backup
  (tags: amanda zmanda backup mac enterprise)
• Bacula, the Open Source, Enterprise ready, Network Backup Tool for Linux, Unix, and Windows
  (tags: bacula mac backup enterprise)
• The Setup on waferbaby
  Desk/productivity porn.
  (tags: productivity porn setup desk)
• Scott Brown on Why Hollywood Needs a New Model for Storytelling
  "A little square, no? With the snazzy Brown Ziggurat, however, Die Hard will look like this: John McClane, NYC cop, arrives in LA to reconcile with his estranged wife—but we already know all about their failing marriage from the ARG we've been obsessed with for the six months leading up to the movie's release. (McClane's potemkin Tumblr blog was especially illuminating.) With exposition rendered obsolete, we open instead on a Sprite commercial, which transitions seamlessly into furious gunplay. "
  (tags: scottbrown wired arg storytelling future humour dystopia narrative interactive entertainment)
• How Future Stories Will Be Told? | PSFK
  "John McClane, NYC cop, arrives in LA to reconcile with his estranged wife—but we already know all about their failing marriage from the ARG we’ve been obsessed with for the six months leading up to the movie’s release. (McClane’s potemkin Tumblr blog was especially illuminating.) " – Ha
  (tags: storytelling narrative future dystopia psfk)
• New staff find White House in tech Dark Ages – Washington Post- msnbc.com
  "One member of the White House new-media team came to work on Tuesday, right after the swearing-in ceremony, only to discover that it was impossible to know which programs could be updated, or even which computers could be used for which purposes. The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing. The team was left struggling to put closed captions on online videos." – Where's your CIO now?
  (tags: whitehouse cio obama administration it)
• Obama's West Wing: Can reality match the liberal White House fantasy? |
  Awesome. I hope the Guardian keeps this up, they should do an episode guide and recaps.
  (tags: obama westwing government usa whitehouse america guardian)
• Future TV 2009 conference – 3rd Annual Summit in New York City
  "PANEL DISCUSSION: The year of interactive?!? Analyzing the current state of interactive television and how the industry can overcome challenges in mass deployment"
  (tags: deepfocus 42e 42entertainment multiplatform interactive entertainment conference future tv tvshow)

My Twitter account’s private. 

I have met pretty much everyone who’s following me.

It’s mostly about my cat.

If you’re interested in what I’m doing as part of my work, then please follow oh_sixtostart (“overheard at Six to Start”) for the irreverent stuff, and sixtostart for the more serious stuff.

If I don’t know you, I won’t let you follow my personal account. Sorry! Social media’s like that sometimes.

• Prometha – Home
  Oh, go on then. Is this part of Routes? :)
  (tags: prometha genetics via:mildlydiverting)
• Portal Gun – a set on Flickr
  Promising career in prop-making
  (tags: portal videogame gun cosplay prop)
• Professor Layton and the DS Adventure Game Revival | MetaFilter
  Metafilter on adventure games and the DS
  (tags: metafilter gaming games adventuregames ds nintendo professorlayton)
• Keeping up with Lost – Boing Boing
  "if you're trying to synthesize the entire history of the show, the proper form for conveying all that information is not a linear narrative. It's a relational database." – Johnson on Lost
  (tags: stevenjohnson lost narrative database showbible tvshow boingboing)
• Hugh McGuire: Bookcamp: the Books are All Right
  Awesome. Bookcamp made huffpo!
  (tags: bookcamp huffpo)
• ReportLab – Open Source Software
  python pdf library
  (tags: python pdf reports)

• :: Perceptive Pixel ::
  Jeff Han's company is doing the tech for today's CNN stuff
  (tags: perceptive pixel touch multitouch jeffhan cnn)

• Outerlight
  Developers of The Ship – didn't know they were based in Scotland!
  (tags: outerlight developers games gaming gamedesign studio scotland edinburgh)
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 Review: 33. Conclusion: Digital Photography Review
  Not yet, then
  (tags: panasonic dslr 43rds lumix dmcg1 dpreview review camera)
• Microsoft's SkyBox sync service set for a February unveiling, new Windows Mobile UI confirmed? – Engadget
  I predict it will still suck. Still, it looks pretty.
  (tags: microsoft skybox skyline skymarket windowsmobile)
• Palm investor McNamee details Pre's neat location-based features – Engadget
  Palm is back in the game: " First up, the phone can be configured to check out your calendar every morning and automatically download all sorts of information about the people, places, and companies you're going to visit, including maps — an especially awesome feature if you're dealing with spotty 3G coverage. Even cooler, though, has to be the lateness notifier — the phone uses GPS to determine where you are, compares it to where you're supposed to be at the moment, and if it figures out that you're screwed, it'll let you know."
  (tags: palm place calendar smart software socialsoftware)
• http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/bushrecord/documents/appendix_acc_for_web.pdf
  You cannot be serious
  (tags: bush politics usa whitehouse)
• BBC Internet Blog – Obama's inauguration on BBC HD
  "We tracked down an HD feed, and although some of the BBC News input will be in SD, I hope that you will enjoy the chance to see this historic event with every line of detail." – I'm reading Interface at the moment
  (tags: bbchd obama inauguration)

• kottke.org – home of fine hypertext products
  It's not yellow anymore
  (tags: kottke)

• Better Bankside – Home
  (tags: bankside se1 southwark community business forum local place)
• BANKSIDE 1/2/3
  Bankside southwark development
  (tags: bankside southwark sumner tatemodern london development commercialproperty)
• Legends of Zork – The legendary adventure returns, to your browser.
  (tags: zork interactivefiction story textadventure game gaming videogames browser casual freemium)
• Gamasutra – Interview: Jolt's Collins On Bringing Back A More Casual Zork
  Freemium browser version of Zork. I KNEW IT. 3-5 month team, 6 months dev so far.
  (tags: zork legendsofzork browser freemium activision)
• Gamasutra – British Award-Winner Revealed Behind Doom 4 Story
  "Developer Id Software hired English novelist Graham Joyce, the recipient of several British Fantasy Awards, to assist with the script for upcoming first-person shooter Doom 4."
  (tags: doomiv doom4 story author grahamjoyce)
• JOE 2008 examines changes/trends in the geopolitical and military landscape | MetaFilter
  "One portion picked out by the media: Mexico and Pakistan are the two countries most likely to undergo "sudden collapse"."
  (tags: forecasting future trends)
• Earth 2100 :: Welcome
  A mainstream-ish world without oil
  (tags: worldwithoutoil broadcasting participation roleplaying video abc 2100 sf forecasting)
• John Murphy – The Surface Of The Sun – Free MP3 Stream on IMEEM Music
  Surface of the Sun / Sunshine Adagio in D Minor
  (tags: sunshine fringe wolverine adagio dminor soundtrack music cue)
• John Murphy – Surface Of The Sun (DVD Rip) – Free MP3 Stream on IMEEM Music
  Surface of the Sun / (Sunshine Adagio in D Minor)
  (tags: sunshine fringe wolverine trailer music soundtrack cue johnmurphy)

• Google Code Blog: Changes for Jaiku and Farewell to Dodgeball and Mashup Editor
  Jaiku looks quite interesting…
  (tags: jaiku appengine oauth)

• Olly Moss
  (tags: design illustration graphicdesign tshirt portfolio art posters)