Puzzling Evidence.NET

Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator! It’s got what plants CRAVE! It’s got ELECTROLYTES!

Sorry for the boring post title, but I’m hoping to be SEO friendly. I’m starting a movement, baby!

Ghost Master is probably my favorite game ever made. It’s a sort of RTS where you control a bunch of ghosts and your job is to scare the mortals out of a building. It has a fun premise, good graphics (ok, a bit dated now), a great soundtrack, and never got the credit or sales that it deserved.

It came out maybe five years ago, and I’ve played it through at least once a year since. The kids love to watch over my shoulder as the ghosts chase people around. Anyway, Ben and I were playing it a couple of nights ago and he asked why there weren’t any more levels. I explained about how expensive video games are to make, and how great it was that some games let people add their own new levels and …

Why not?

So I called Empire Interactive and asked.

I had a pleasant chat with the VP of Sales, who seemed genuinely thrilled that we like one of their games so much. They still own the IP for the game, but there aren’t any plans to release more content or a sequel. He said that he didn’t know whether they would be able to release any tools or specs, but he’ll check.

So, you know, Team Fortress, crowdsource, cheap 3D tools, modder communities, and uhhh… long tail.

I am asking as politely as possible. Empire Interactive, please release the Ghost Master level creation tools.

UPDATE: No dice on the source code. Maybe the’ll release just the file formats so I can build my own tools.

Continuing today’s “I love people” theme, say hello to Tomas Delgado. Mr. Delgado was speeding, back in 2004, when he struck and killed a 17 year old boy.

Iriondo Trinidad’s father told CNN he heard the screeching of the car from the campgrounds. The teen was struck from behind and dragged 106 meters (347 feet) along the rural highway, the father said.

A traffic report said Delgado was traveling 113 km per hour (70 mph) in an area where the speed limit is 90 km (55 mph). An independent expert hired by Trinidad’s family said Delgado was going 173 km per hour (107 mph).

[full story]

Clearly a tragedy for everyone involved. You see, it seems that the act of striking and killing the boy had also caused some damage to Mr. Delgado’s car. So de did what anyone would do.

He sued the family of the boy he’d killed. To pay for repairs to his car.

He has since been convinced to drop the suit, but his place in history is secure. Congratulations, Mr. Delgado, you are the Puzzling Evidence Douche of the Day. You’ve earned it.

I repeat that, over and over again, to remind myself. Because sometimes I forget.

This morning, for instance.

Kimberly-Clark has been running a contest where you buy lots of their stuff and maybe win some home improvements. Fine, but somebody signed up using an email address in a domain I control. Since it’s not a valid address, the emails all bounce to me. Great, somebody doesn’t want to get spammed so they make it my problem. Grrrrr. I looked around for an “unsubscribe me” link, but there was none to be found.

What’s this? One of the emails has a login ID and password. That’s… curious.

The domain looked legit, so I logged in (just to unsubscribe from the emails). Check the profile to see if it’s just some spammer. Uh-oh, it’s real. Personal info. Phone number, home address, everything. Drat.

It seems that an older gentleman, let’s call him Phil*, had created an account but used my email domain. I figured that I owed it to the guy to let him know that he should change his email (and now his password), so I called.

I was exceptionally polite, introduced myself, referred to him as “Mr.”, told him that he’d put down the wrong email address, and requested that he change it.

Of course he was polite to me in return and thanked me for bringing the mistake to his… *sigh* No.

He did not like this phone call. He did not like me. It was his email address. He repeated the name. The address was his name, he explained, and could not be mine. I have a different name, so why would his name be my address? And who am I again?

Yes, sir, but the domain is….

He was having none of it.

This went on for a while. Then a bit longer. I am very proud of myself for remaining polite and respectful for the entire time.

Eventually, of course, he won.

He has no intention to change his email address. When he tells his version of this story, I’m probably some scam artist who tried to scam him into some scam. He’s about my dad’s age (mid-60s), so I really don’t have the heart to do anything about it. I will create a filter rule to send the emails to trash, and that’s the end of it.

Why? Because I. LOVE. PEOPLE.

[*] This is convenient, because his name is also “Phil”. I find that this approach keeps things simple.

If you were an unsigned, indy band, who would you be?

Turns out, this is me. I’m as surprised as you are. I thought that, at the very least, I’d be a man. Oh well, you learn something new every day.

What the heck is this all about? I’m glad you asked. A hot girl explains the details.

What’s that? You want more? You DEMAND more? Normally I wouldn’t do this, but ok. Click on over here and Andi will share some of her sweet, sweet, candies.

So I keep hearing about this cool horror movie from Spain called, “[Rec]“.

Here’s the plot synopsis:

While covering the night shift at a small-town fire department, an ambitious young television reporter and her cameraman follow the crew on a call to rescue an elderly woman unable to escape the inferno that is consuming her home. Upon their arrival at the scene, the calm midnight air is pierced by the sound of horrific screams, and the television report takes an unexpectedly dark turn.

So, yeah, it’s got that Cannibal Holocaust / Blair Witch Project fake documentary thing going on, but clearly that doesn’t bother me so whatever. Besides, this one is apparently so good that a US remake was started before it was even released. Wow, ok.

I checked the tubes, but I couldn’t find anything about a US release date. Darn. Oh well. After seeing how they ruined the ending of The Descent for US the release, I wanted to see the original.

To the torrents, Robin!

Anyway, I found a few copies and downloaded one. It’s so new that there aren’t any subtitles yet, so I watched it in Spanish. Thanks to the Spanish I absorbed from Sesame Street in my own childhood and overhearing years of Dora the Explorer watched by my kids, I understood pretty much… well, nothing. “Basta” means “enough”, I think. That’s about it.

Still, horror movies follow a formula so I was able to follow along. Reporter Goes In, thinking that it’s a standard puff piece. Things Go Wrong. Then, it Gets Worse. “Shut off that camera”. “Keep filming!” (this is where he said “Basta!” :-)) You get the idea.

You already know whether you’ll like this movie or not. It’s “one of those”, although it is a well made one. The acting is better than you probably expect, and the creepy bits are extremely creepy. I liked it, and if you dig these kinds of movies you probably will, too.

Wait for the subtitles, though. There were some explanatory bits that I’d like to understand, and a couple of conversations that looked important. I guess this gives me a reason to see it again.

Oh look, it’s the nine hundredth ‘coming soon’ video for Duke Nukem Forever. Does anyone even remember they’re still working on it? Does anyone care?

Hiroo Onoda eventually surrendered. John Romero did not make us his bitch. We’ve moved on with our lives. It seems like the time for this game has passed, but nobody at 3D Realms wants to be the first one to say it.

Maybe it’s an elaborate performance art piece. It was never about the game. Rather, it’s holding a mirror up to the way that the media manufactures desire. They’re just trying to see how long they can keep it going and… anyway, here’s the trailer. The few gameplay shots look pretty good.

Here’s the ‘coming soon’ trailer from 2001. Those game play shots looked pretty good, too, for their time. Those of you who might not have been following the long, sad saga need to understand that this trailer was the for the same game. It was late in 2001, and it still hasn’t shipped.

“When it’s done”.

“All I did was trade lunchables”.

My OLPC is finally… umm, yes, of course I mean that *the kids’* OLPC is finally here.

I’ve been messing with it for about an hour, and I am deeply impressed. It’s smaller than I expected and the keyboard is a bit cramped for my big, sausage fingers (although they did put CTRL back next to “A”, where God intended it to be). Still, I’m typing this post on it and it’s not as difficult as I had expected.

Yes, this is clearly a 1.0 release. It’s a bit underpowered. The keyboard and mouse are difficult for adult hands. The software has a few rough edges. YouTube sends it to The Sad Place and makes Baby Santa cry.

What excites me most is that it comes with eToys installed. When Julianna ws younger, she and I made fun little gizmos with eToys on the PC. We only had one PC, though, and she couldn’t really use it without me to help. I can’t wait to see what the kids do with it on this device.

The OLPC may or may not change the world by itself, but something very much like it will: cheap, rugged, wifi enabled, and end user programmable. This is not a replacement for your laptop. I think of it as being closer to a chumby that you can program.

It was said of Lou Reed’s old band, The Velvet Underground, that only a few thousand people bought their albums but every one of them was inspired to start a band. The OLPC has that same feel. It feels like The Future.

All in all, I would not hesitate to buy another one for $200.

I absolutely do not understand the bizarre way this thing is being sold. They complain that they can’t bring the price down because they can’t get to scale, but they refuse to sell to people who want to buy them. It makes no sense to me.

I am really looking forward to the new J. J. Abams movie, Cloverfield. It’s his “American Godzilla”, and the idea of doing it all using home video is incredibly cool.

Check out the trailer.

This is basically the same trailer that they released a few months back, and have re-released monthly ever since. What’s really interesting is to watch the special effects getting better with each one. It’s the same shots, but stuff that used to look completely fake now looks completely real. Just amazing.

I have to admit that the collapsing building and dust cloud hit a bit of a nerve, but I’m probably just being over sensitive.

I can’t wait. Gonna sneak in a six of slusho.