It's not unusual these days to see virtual keyboards on the touch screens of portable devices like tablets and phones. These devices lack a physical keyboard but make up for it by displaying a picture of one on the screen and letting the user tap away on that.
But virtual keyboards are not just constrained to the screen. Today almost anything can become a keyboard – from a table top to the palm of your hand.
Korean company Celluon has been developing virtual keyboards for several years and their latest product is the Magic Cube, a small box that fits in your hand yet provides a full-size keyboard when needed.
Switch it on, sit it on a desk and it projects an image of a keyboard on to the surface in front of it. Tap the virtual keys and the corresponding characters are communicated wirelessly to any compatible device, from a laptop to a smartphone.
The principles involved are very simple. The projection of the keyboard is just that – made by a tiny projector at the top of the box. At the bottom of the box beams of infrared light are emitted just above the surface of the desk. As your fingers tap the surface they cut through these beams which are reflected up to a camera in the middle of the box. The camera sees the reflection and works out from its position which key you have "pressed".
Though the Magic Cube is clever it is essentially just a very portable replacement for a real keyboard.
More radical possibilities are on the horizon. Microsoft researchers Hrvoje Benko and Andrew Wilson, along with Chris Harrison of Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, recently showed off a system they call OmniTouch, which turns any surface into a touch screen.
OmniTouch is made up of a shoulder-mounted projector and depth-sensing camera combination. The projector displays interactive images on any nearby surface – a wall, a table, a pad or even parts of the user's body. The camera tracks the user's fingers, working out where and when they touch other objects.
Putting it all together allows the user to, for example, dial a phone number on a keypad displayed on the palm of their hand, or draw projected pictures on an ordinary paper pad.
Pretty much anything, in fact, that you can do with an ordinary touch-sensitive display, except that the display itself can be any suitable surface.
We take it for granted that the size of portable devices is a compromise between compactness and usability. But if the display and controls need not be physically part of the device, all bets are off. It's too early to tell whether systems like OmniTouch will take off. But in a few years they may virtually replace their physical counterparts in many situations, in more ways than one.
2011年11月30日星期三
2011年11月29日星期二
Blizzard’s plans to satisfy their fanbase and still deliver a fresh experience
Waiting in the lobby of Blizzard’s Irvine headquarters, I was overcome by nostalgic reverence. Where most businesses have a mountain of months-old magazines, Blizzard has a museum. It was nothing too extravagant, mind you, but the frames lining the walls were like windows to my childhood. Each piece of classic Diablo art conjured up fond memories of the franchise that’s marking its 15th birthday this November.
It wasn’t always this way, however. Blizzard certainly didn’t begin its existence as a gaming giant responsible for both this generation’s Dungeons & Dragons and the game that has become South Korea’s national sport. Over the years, the company has seen both growth spurts and growing pains, both successes and, er, whatever Warcraft Adventures was. Many incredibly talented people have come and gone.
This is the environment Diablo III has evolved in. To track its development is to see a balancing act made all the more precarious by countless shifts and upheavals. One thing, however, has always remained constant: fandom. I’m not just referring to Diablo’s near-militant community—Diablo’s story is one of diehard dedication on both sides of the table. Most of the original Diablo team, you see, is now gone. In its place is a band of folks who grew up playing Diablo and Diablo II as fans, just like you or I. Now they’re shaping the franchise’s present and future, but—thanks to that ridiculously passionate community—they’re also trying their damndest to avoid losing sight of the past.
“When we started, we really inherited this big scary game,” explained game director Jay Wilson. “There are very few of us who actually worked on the previous Diablo games, so a lot of us came at it more as fans. When you’re building something that you didn’t originate, the struggle that you have is, how do you remain true to it while also being true to your own creative nature? If you make something, you can’t just copy. You have to infuse it with your own personality, your own interests, your own opinions, your own desires. If you don’t, then it will be soulless.”
It almost seems fitting—a game about, you know, the devil that sells its own soul. Sorry, though, Satan: this just isn’t your day.
Everybody’s had those first moments with a new game that really define the entire experience. Diablo III’s origins, then, lie not in some linear extension of the original Diablo’s creative vision, but in those player-driven experiences. Hearing Wilson describe his love affair with the first Diablo drove that point home.
“It was when I bought Warcraft II,” he said. “On the back of the CD case they had an ad for Diablo. It had a picture of the warrior with his sword and shield, standing in front of the church door with the red light streaming out of it. That image was so compelling to me that I wanted to play that game. I didn’t even know what it was and I wanted to play it. I remember, back then there was so little information. You just didn’t know a lot about games before they came out. So to have an image so compel me, I always remember that.
“The day I installed it, I told my wife ‘You need to leave the house, because it’s Diablo time now.’ ‘Diablo’ spoken in hushed tones. And it was all the classic moments: the first encounter with the butcher, the first encounter with the Skeleton King, the first time a hundred goatmen come running at you and you manage to survive by the skin of your teeth. The first time you griefed somebody who was your teammate. There are all those great moments that I think everyone had.”
Hindsight, however, stops being 20/20 when rose-tinted glasses are involved. For Wilson and the rest of Diablo III’s development team, avoiding that trap is the biggest challenge. When is it appropriate to give diehard fans precisely what they want? And—perhaps more importantly—when do you fire back with a stern “No”?
It wasn’t always this way, however. Blizzard certainly didn’t begin its existence as a gaming giant responsible for both this generation’s Dungeons & Dragons and the game that has become South Korea’s national sport. Over the years, the company has seen both growth spurts and growing pains, both successes and, er, whatever Warcraft Adventures was. Many incredibly talented people have come and gone.
This is the environment Diablo III has evolved in. To track its development is to see a balancing act made all the more precarious by countless shifts and upheavals. One thing, however, has always remained constant: fandom. I’m not just referring to Diablo’s near-militant community—Diablo’s story is one of diehard dedication on both sides of the table. Most of the original Diablo team, you see, is now gone. In its place is a band of folks who grew up playing Diablo and Diablo II as fans, just like you or I. Now they’re shaping the franchise’s present and future, but—thanks to that ridiculously passionate community—they’re also trying their damndest to avoid losing sight of the past.
“When we started, we really inherited this big scary game,” explained game director Jay Wilson. “There are very few of us who actually worked on the previous Diablo games, so a lot of us came at it more as fans. When you’re building something that you didn’t originate, the struggle that you have is, how do you remain true to it while also being true to your own creative nature? If you make something, you can’t just copy. You have to infuse it with your own personality, your own interests, your own opinions, your own desires. If you don’t, then it will be soulless.”
It almost seems fitting—a game about, you know, the devil that sells its own soul. Sorry, though, Satan: this just isn’t your day.
Everybody’s had those first moments with a new game that really define the entire experience. Diablo III’s origins, then, lie not in some linear extension of the original Diablo’s creative vision, but in those player-driven experiences. Hearing Wilson describe his love affair with the first Diablo drove that point home.
“It was when I bought Warcraft II,” he said. “On the back of the CD case they had an ad for Diablo. It had a picture of the warrior with his sword and shield, standing in front of the church door with the red light streaming out of it. That image was so compelling to me that I wanted to play that game. I didn’t even know what it was and I wanted to play it. I remember, back then there was so little information. You just didn’t know a lot about games before they came out. So to have an image so compel me, I always remember that.
“The day I installed it, I told my wife ‘You need to leave the house, because it’s Diablo time now.’ ‘Diablo’ spoken in hushed tones. And it was all the classic moments: the first encounter with the butcher, the first encounter with the Skeleton King, the first time a hundred goatmen come running at you and you manage to survive by the skin of your teeth. The first time you griefed somebody who was your teammate. There are all those great moments that I think everyone had.”
Hindsight, however, stops being 20/20 when rose-tinted glasses are involved. For Wilson and the rest of Diablo III’s development team, avoiding that trap is the biggest challenge. When is it appropriate to give diehard fans precisely what they want? And—perhaps more importantly—when do you fire back with a stern “No”?
2011年11月28日星期一
Keys to the unseen future
It's not unusual these days to see virtual keyboards on the touch screens of portable devices like tablets and phones. These devices lack a physical keyboard but make up for it by displaying a picture of one on the screen and letting the user tap away on that.
But virtual keyboards are not just constrained to the screen. Today almost anything can become a keyboard – from a table top to the palm of your hand.
Korean company Celluon has been developing virtual keyboards for several years and their latest product is the Magic Cube, a small box that fits in your hand yet provides a full-size keyboard when needed.
Switch it on, sit it on a desk and it projects an image of a keyboard on to the surface in front of it. Tap the virtual keys and the corresponding characters are communicated wirelessly to any compatible device, from a laptop to a smartphone.
The principles involved are very simple. The projection of the keyboard is just that – made by a tiny projector at the top of the box. At the bottom of the box beams of infrared light are emitted just above the surface of the desk. As your fingers tap the surface they cut through these beams which are reflected up to a camera in the middle of the box. The camera sees the reflection and works out from its position which key you have "pressed".
Though the Magic Cube is clever it is essentially just a very portable replacement for a real keyboard.
More radical possibilities are on the horizon. Microsoft researchers Hrvoje Benko and Andrew Wilson, along with Chris Harrison of Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, recently showed off a system they call OmniTouch, which turns any surface into a touch screen.
OmniTouch is made up of a shoulder-mounted projector and depth-sensing camera combination. The projector displays interactive images on any nearby surface – a wall, a table, a pad or even parts of the user's body. The camera tracks the user's fingers, working out where and when they touch other objects.
Putting it all together allows the user to, for example, dial a phone number on a keypad displayed on the palm of their hand, or draw projected pictures on an ordinary paper pad.
Pretty much anything, in fact, that you can do with an ordinary touch-sensitive display, except that the display itself can be any suitable surface.
We take it for granted that the size of portable devices is a compromise between compactness and usability. But if the display and controls need not be physically part of the device, all bets are off. It's too early to tell whether systems like OmniTouch will take off. But in a few years they may virtually replace their physical counterparts in many situations, in more ways than one.
But virtual keyboards are not just constrained to the screen. Today almost anything can become a keyboard – from a table top to the palm of your hand.
Korean company Celluon has been developing virtual keyboards for several years and their latest product is the Magic Cube, a small box that fits in your hand yet provides a full-size keyboard when needed.
Switch it on, sit it on a desk and it projects an image of a keyboard on to the surface in front of it. Tap the virtual keys and the corresponding characters are communicated wirelessly to any compatible device, from a laptop to a smartphone.
The principles involved are very simple. The projection of the keyboard is just that – made by a tiny projector at the top of the box. At the bottom of the box beams of infrared light are emitted just above the surface of the desk. As your fingers tap the surface they cut through these beams which are reflected up to a camera in the middle of the box. The camera sees the reflection and works out from its position which key you have "pressed".
Though the Magic Cube is clever it is essentially just a very portable replacement for a real keyboard.
More radical possibilities are on the horizon. Microsoft researchers Hrvoje Benko and Andrew Wilson, along with Chris Harrison of Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, recently showed off a system they call OmniTouch, which turns any surface into a touch screen.
OmniTouch is made up of a shoulder-mounted projector and depth-sensing camera combination. The projector displays interactive images on any nearby surface – a wall, a table, a pad or even parts of the user's body. The camera tracks the user's fingers, working out where and when they touch other objects.
Putting it all together allows the user to, for example, dial a phone number on a keypad displayed on the palm of their hand, or draw projected pictures on an ordinary paper pad.
Pretty much anything, in fact, that you can do with an ordinary touch-sensitive display, except that the display itself can be any suitable surface.
We take it for granted that the size of portable devices is a compromise between compactness and usability. But if the display and controls need not be physically part of the device, all bets are off. It's too early to tell whether systems like OmniTouch will take off. But in a few years they may virtually replace their physical counterparts in many situations, in more ways than one.
2011年11月27日星期日
5th Avenue Apple Store Unveils New Glass Cube
Apple unveiled its revamped glass cube at the Fifth Avenue flagship store this morning after five months of renovations. The project began in mid-June and cost Apple a reported $6.7 million. The largest, though not greatly noticeable change, is the replacement of the cube's iconic glass panels from 90 panes with 15 larger, seamless glass panels. Additionally, Apple removed protective bollards, installed new pavers around the site, and reinstalled surrounding water drains. FINALLY—those old drains were always making the store crash.
The flagship is normally open 24/7 but closed yesterday evening at 10 p.m. to complete renovations; as a result, employees were met with a hungry crowd of consumers when it reopened at 10 a.m. this morning. One Apple fanatic, a Brazilian man named Glauver Moreira, told us he was hoping to purchase the iHealth blood pressure cuff designed for the iPad for a friend back home. Gazing at the store from the street, he told us, "It's beautiful. I heard that Steve Jobs spent a lot of money just for the glass [referring to the redesign]. And it's underground. In Brazil we don't have stuff like that."
A longtime user of Apple's mobile products, Moreira declared he had three iPhones before purchasing the iPhone 4 this summer, without a contract. While he finds it frustrating that the latest iPhone must be jail-broken before using without a contract, Moreira says he will continue to support Apple. "It's the magic of marketing", he said. Asked about his reaction to the news of Steve Jobs's death, Moreira replied, "I was in my English classes in Brazil and I came back to my room. I was watching the global news and it was the first story. I was upset. The hair on my arms stood up." After shaking hands, he beelined for the door, passing would-be customers waiting on a reservation line for the iPhone 4S.
Inside, not much has changed. Flocks of people crowded around Apple equipment, many to check their email and Facebook accounts, while others received one-on-one tutorials in a variety of languages. Those in the checkout line shuffled forward as the line snaked through the store. Cameras flashed every so often.
As one of the most photographed locations in New York City, the Apple cube continues to draw attention from visiting enthusiasts. Some might consider it Jobs's final hurrah as his legacy of small—though costly and controversial—tweaks in the name of simplicity live on.
The flagship is normally open 24/7 but closed yesterday evening at 10 p.m. to complete renovations; as a result, employees were met with a hungry crowd of consumers when it reopened at 10 a.m. this morning. One Apple fanatic, a Brazilian man named Glauver Moreira, told us he was hoping to purchase the iHealth blood pressure cuff designed for the iPad for a friend back home. Gazing at the store from the street, he told us, "It's beautiful. I heard that Steve Jobs spent a lot of money just for the glass [referring to the redesign]. And it's underground. In Brazil we don't have stuff like that."
A longtime user of Apple's mobile products, Moreira declared he had three iPhones before purchasing the iPhone 4 this summer, without a contract. While he finds it frustrating that the latest iPhone must be jail-broken before using without a contract, Moreira says he will continue to support Apple. "It's the magic of marketing", he said. Asked about his reaction to the news of Steve Jobs's death, Moreira replied, "I was in my English classes in Brazil and I came back to my room. I was watching the global news and it was the first story. I was upset. The hair on my arms stood up." After shaking hands, he beelined for the door, passing would-be customers waiting on a reservation line for the iPhone 4S.
Inside, not much has changed. Flocks of people crowded around Apple equipment, many to check their email and Facebook accounts, while others received one-on-one tutorials in a variety of languages. Those in the checkout line shuffled forward as the line snaked through the store. Cameras flashed every so often.
As one of the most photographed locations in New York City, the Apple cube continues to draw attention from visiting enthusiasts. Some might consider it Jobs's final hurrah as his legacy of small—though costly and controversial—tweaks in the name of simplicity live on.
2011年11月24日星期四
Local massage therapist has magic in her fingers
"It started about 10 years ago. My husband Mark owns his own business. He came home stressed and very tight in his neck, shoulders and back. I gave him massages to help relieve his stress,” says Terri LaBell. “Amazingly, giving the massage was a release for me as well. I went into a zone and could relax doing the work. I found it very rewarding.”
For eight years Terri, who lives in Avon, worked on her husband at home. As she put it, “I pretended I was a real massage therapist.” During the day she worked as a purchasing agent for one of the area’s biggest design and automation companies. This was 2006 and she had spent the last 23 years working in a cubicle and decided she needed a change. A drastic change.
Terri spent the next two years attending professional massage school after work at the Onondaga Massage School here in Rochester. In 2008 she shut down her cubicle once and for all and began her new career as a licensed massage therapist.
“It’s so rewarding when people email or text me the next day to tell me they are pain free. It makes up for the 23 years I spent in a cube and it’s a great affirmation that I’ve made the right decision. I’m helping people every day, and that feels great.”
Earlier this year the former owner of Massage on University decided to sell the business when she moved to Vermont. Her hope was to sell the business to someone who would run it with as much care as she had for the past 10 years.
Having spent two years learning the ropes, Terri jumped at the opportunity to own the full-service relaxation center that offers more than a half dozen services from scrubs to facials, waxing, manicures, pedicures and, of course, full-body massage. On Oct. 1 Terri officially became the owner of Massage on University, the same place where she worked for the last two years.
“Human touch is so important. I’ve read studies of monkeys who were deprived of social interaction and touch. Ones that were touched, they thrived. The isolated monkeys did far worse,” Terri says, speaking of the famous Harlow experiments performed by American psychologist Harry Harlow.
“I think humans are the same way. It’s a disservice that massage is not readily covered by health insurance. Pills are prescribed freely but massage is held in a different regard when in all actuality many pain sufferers need therapy once a week but just can’t afford it,” she continues.
For eight years Terri, who lives in Avon, worked on her husband at home. As she put it, “I pretended I was a real massage therapist.” During the day she worked as a purchasing agent for one of the area’s biggest design and automation companies. This was 2006 and she had spent the last 23 years working in a cubicle and decided she needed a change. A drastic change.
Terri spent the next two years attending professional massage school after work at the Onondaga Massage School here in Rochester. In 2008 she shut down her cubicle once and for all and began her new career as a licensed massage therapist.
“It’s so rewarding when people email or text me the next day to tell me they are pain free. It makes up for the 23 years I spent in a cube and it’s a great affirmation that I’ve made the right decision. I’m helping people every day, and that feels great.”
Earlier this year the former owner of Massage on University decided to sell the business when she moved to Vermont. Her hope was to sell the business to someone who would run it with as much care as she had for the past 10 years.
Having spent two years learning the ropes, Terri jumped at the opportunity to own the full-service relaxation center that offers more than a half dozen services from scrubs to facials, waxing, manicures, pedicures and, of course, full-body massage. On Oct. 1 Terri officially became the owner of Massage on University, the same place where she worked for the last two years.
“Human touch is so important. I’ve read studies of monkeys who were deprived of social interaction and touch. Ones that were touched, they thrived. The isolated monkeys did far worse,” Terri says, speaking of the famous Harlow experiments performed by American psychologist Harry Harlow.
“I think humans are the same way. It’s a disservice that massage is not readily covered by health insurance. Pills are prescribed freely but massage is held in a different regard when in all actuality many pain sufferers need therapy once a week but just can’t afford it,” she continues.
2011年11月23日星期三
Alter Reality with Augment for Android
There are a lot of different Android apps out there from productivity apps to music players, the selection is vast. Occasionally, I come across an app that’s extremely cool and that’s the case with an app called Augment from AugmenteDev. Augment lets you preview objects & products from the comfort of your home with a simple but futuristic approach.
The first thing you’ll want to do after downloading the app is go to their site and print off a marker. The object you’re trying to view will be bound to the marker (paper) and there are several different sizes you can print off and use. Once you’ve got your marker, pick the object you want to augment in the form of a poster or cube and prepare to be amazed. All you need to do to view your image is press augment, then find the marker in the viewfinder of your phone. You can use posters for a quick view of some premade stuff you can use posters from AllPosters or pre-made cubes from the cubes gallery.
If you want get crazy with it you can do your own poster or your own cube; the cubes are fully customizable as you can set the height, width, and depth along with adding any image to any side of the cube. There are quite a few options like cropping and rotating your custom images, and you can take/save pictures of anything you create. I’m not sure exactly how it works on the technical side of things and knowing would take the fun out of it, so I’m just going to tell you the whole process is done by some sort of funky android magic or narwhals… whichever you prefer.
Augment is by far one of the coolest things we’ve seen in an Android app, and it’s definitely an app that will impress your friends. We had quite a bit of fun playing with it, and never ceased to be amazed when we “augmented” a new image. Augment is a blast to fool around with, and it allows you to do practically anything with an image as you can see by a cubed (and crazy) Gary Busey next to my dog Boo. I highly recommend everyone check out Augment as it’s definitely one of the coolest apps that’s come out for Android. You can grab Augment from the Android market for free.
The first thing you’ll want to do after downloading the app is go to their site and print off a marker. The object you’re trying to view will be bound to the marker (paper) and there are several different sizes you can print off and use. Once you’ve got your marker, pick the object you want to augment in the form of a poster or cube and prepare to be amazed. All you need to do to view your image is press augment, then find the marker in the viewfinder of your phone. You can use posters for a quick view of some premade stuff you can use posters from AllPosters or pre-made cubes from the cubes gallery.
If you want get crazy with it you can do your own poster or your own cube; the cubes are fully customizable as you can set the height, width, and depth along with adding any image to any side of the cube. There are quite a few options like cropping and rotating your custom images, and you can take/save pictures of anything you create. I’m not sure exactly how it works on the technical side of things and knowing would take the fun out of it, so I’m just going to tell you the whole process is done by some sort of funky android magic or narwhals… whichever you prefer.
Augment is by far one of the coolest things we’ve seen in an Android app, and it’s definitely an app that will impress your friends. We had quite a bit of fun playing with it, and never ceased to be amazed when we “augmented” a new image. Augment is a blast to fool around with, and it allows you to do practically anything with an image as you can see by a cubed (and crazy) Gary Busey next to my dog Boo. I highly recommend everyone check out Augment as it’s definitely one of the coolest apps that’s come out for Android. You can grab Augment from the Android market for free.
2011年11月22日星期二
A study in contrasts
If Mitt Romney is weak broth, Newt Gingrich is a bouillon cube. Watching the two Republican presidential front-runners in New Hampshire over two days has been a study in contrasts. Romney is a known conservative ingredient suitable in a main dish. Gingrich is a powerful dose of partisan flavor to be used sparingly.
Gingrich is having his moment now because he offers punchy answers and ready solutions to seemingly insoluble problems. If he endures an examination of his personal baggage, his record on the issues, and his private-sector career, it will be in part because he is the "Republican Ideas Man." But when you listen to those ideas--the scope of the change he is proposing, and the punch with which he delivers his pitch--you get the sense that that voters may not be interested in the Gingrich past because they're too scared of the Gingrich future.
As Romney finished a four-day campaign swing through the state where he has dominated the polls, he touted his recent spending reduction plan and offered his carefully honed lines. President Obama "said if he was unable to get this economy turned around, he would be looking at a one-term proposition," Romney said. "Well, I'm here to collect."
Romney is the safe and steady candidate, and he joked about that when handing out sandwiches at a local diner." This is Mitt Romney "raw and unleashed," he said, referring to a Saturday Night Liveskit that made fun of his boring personality. (It's true: There are reports he returned a VCR tape in the late 1980s without rewinding.)
Listening to Gingrich is a more rock-'em-sock-'em experience. He's a whirring dispensary of ideas and insults. He's going to eliminate White House czars on his first day in office. The supercommittee "is the single dumbest legislative idea" he's ever heard of. Government retraining will be available for lawyers who lose their jobs because of tort reform. The delay in building a border fence is "utterly stupid."
It's easy to see why Gingrich is appealing to Republican voters. They don't need to imagine the stupidity in Washington that Gingrich lampoons. His ideas sound thoughtful. He is good with a political attack or jibe, which is appealing to voters trying to find the magic trick to beating an incumbent. So when Gingrich boasts that he is the best candidate because he can beat President Obama in debates, he adds that Obama won't possibly say no to his suggested three-hour Lincoln-Douglas-style debate because an Ivy Leaguer would never admit to being "afraid to be on the same platform with a guy who taught at West Georgia College."
Gingrich is competing on Romney's turf with that claim about debates. Polls regularly show that voters believe Romney is one who can beat Obama. His business background gives him a good pitch on the economy. Gingrich is trying to leverage his impressive performances in the debates into an argument for why he can go the distance.
Like many of Gingrich's theories, it sounds good--but general election debates will have a different audience. Gingrich won't be pitching to conservatives looking for a fighting champion. He'll be talking to independent and undecided voters. Do they really want Gingrich's message of big change, brusquely delivered?
In scope and personality Gingrich asks a lot. He's talking about profound change. (His boldness is a regular theme of his talks.) But people are already bounced around by change. Do voters really want a constant flow of it from the professor? Even if the strategy is to make government more efficient and get it out of your life, the main takeaway of the Gingrich idea flurry is that everything is going to get thrown upside down.
Gingrich is having his moment now because he offers punchy answers and ready solutions to seemingly insoluble problems. If he endures an examination of his personal baggage, his record on the issues, and his private-sector career, it will be in part because he is the "Republican Ideas Man." But when you listen to those ideas--the scope of the change he is proposing, and the punch with which he delivers his pitch--you get the sense that that voters may not be interested in the Gingrich past because they're too scared of the Gingrich future.
As Romney finished a four-day campaign swing through the state where he has dominated the polls, he touted his recent spending reduction plan and offered his carefully honed lines. President Obama "said if he was unable to get this economy turned around, he would be looking at a one-term proposition," Romney said. "Well, I'm here to collect."
Romney is the safe and steady candidate, and he joked about that when handing out sandwiches at a local diner." This is Mitt Romney "raw and unleashed," he said, referring to a Saturday Night Liveskit that made fun of his boring personality. (It's true: There are reports he returned a VCR tape in the late 1980s without rewinding.)
Listening to Gingrich is a more rock-'em-sock-'em experience. He's a whirring dispensary of ideas and insults. He's going to eliminate White House czars on his first day in office. The supercommittee "is the single dumbest legislative idea" he's ever heard of. Government retraining will be available for lawyers who lose their jobs because of tort reform. The delay in building a border fence is "utterly stupid."
It's easy to see why Gingrich is appealing to Republican voters. They don't need to imagine the stupidity in Washington that Gingrich lampoons. His ideas sound thoughtful. He is good with a political attack or jibe, which is appealing to voters trying to find the magic trick to beating an incumbent. So when Gingrich boasts that he is the best candidate because he can beat President Obama in debates, he adds that Obama won't possibly say no to his suggested three-hour Lincoln-Douglas-style debate because an Ivy Leaguer would never admit to being "afraid to be on the same platform with a guy who taught at West Georgia College."
Gingrich is competing on Romney's turf with that claim about debates. Polls regularly show that voters believe Romney is one who can beat Obama. His business background gives him a good pitch on the economy. Gingrich is trying to leverage his impressive performances in the debates into an argument for why he can go the distance.
Like many of Gingrich's theories, it sounds good--but general election debates will have a different audience. Gingrich won't be pitching to conservatives looking for a fighting champion. He'll be talking to independent and undecided voters. Do they really want Gingrich's message of big change, brusquely delivered?
In scope and personality Gingrich asks a lot. He's talking about profound change. (His boldness is a regular theme of his talks.) But people are already bounced around by change. Do voters really want a constant flow of it from the professor? Even if the strategy is to make government more efficient and get it out of your life, the main takeaway of the Gingrich idea flurry is that everything is going to get thrown upside down.
2011年11月21日星期一
Opposites Attract
If Mitt Romney is weak broth, Newt Gingrich is a bouillon cube. Watching the two Republican presidential front-runners in New Hampshire over two days has been a study in contrasts. Romney is a known conservative ingredient suitable in a main dish. Gingrich is a powerful dose of partisan flavor to be used sparingly.
Gingrich is having his moment now because he offers punchy answers and ready solutions to seemingly insoluble problems. If he endures an examination of his personal baggage, his record on the issues, and his private-sector career, it will be in part because he is the “Republican Ideas Man.” But when you listen to those ideas—the scope of the change he is proposing, and the punch with which he delivers his pitch—you get the sense that that voters may not be interested in the Gingrich past because they’re too scared of the Gingrich future.
As Romney finished a four-day campaign swing through the state where he has dominated the polls, he touted his recent spending reduction plan and offered his carefully honed lines. President Obama “said if he was unable to get this economy turned around, he would be looking at a one-term proposition,” Romney said. “Well, I’m here to collect.”
Romney is the safe and steady candidate, and he joked about that when handing out sandwiches at a local diner.” This is Mitt Romney "raw and unleashed," he said, referring to a Saturday Night Live skit that made fun of his boring personality. (It's true: There are reports he returned a VCR tape in the late 1980s without rewinding.)
Listening to Gingrich is a more rock-'em–sock-'em experience. He's a whirring dispensary of ideas and insults. He's going to eliminate White House czars on his first day in office. The supercommittee "is the single dumbest legislative idea" he’s ever heard of. Government retraining will be available for lawyers who lose their jobs because of tort reform. The delay in building a border fence is "utterly stupid."
It's easy to see why Gingrich is appealing to Republican voters. They don’t need to imagine the stupidity in Washington that Gingrich lampoons. His ideas sound thoughtful. He is good with a political attack or jibe, which is appealing to voters trying to find the magic trick to beating an incumbent. So when Gingrich boasts that he is the best candidate because he can beat President Obama in debates, he adds that Obama won't possibly say no to his suggested three-hour Lincoln-Douglas-style debate because an Ivy Leaguer would never admit to being "afraid to be on the same platform with a guy who taught at West Georgia College."
Gingrich is competing on Romney’s turf with that claim about debates. Polls regularly show that voters believe Romney is one who can beat Obama. His business background gives him a good pitch on the economy. Gingrich is trying to leverage his impressive performances in the debates into an argument for why he can go the distance.
Like many of Gingrich's theories, it sounds good—but general election debates will have a different audience. Gingrich won't be pitching to conservatives looking for a fighting champion. He'll be talking to independent and undecided voters. Do they really want Gingrich's message of big change, brusquely delivered?
In scope and personality Gingrich asks a lot. He's talking about profound change. (His boldness is a regular theme of his talks.) But people are already bounced around by change. Do voters really want a constant flow of it from the professor? Even if the strategy is to make government more efficient and get it out of your life, the main takeaway of the Gingrich idea flurry is that everything is going to get thrown upside down.
Gingrich is having his moment now because he offers punchy answers and ready solutions to seemingly insoluble problems. If he endures an examination of his personal baggage, his record on the issues, and his private-sector career, it will be in part because he is the “Republican Ideas Man.” But when you listen to those ideas—the scope of the change he is proposing, and the punch with which he delivers his pitch—you get the sense that that voters may not be interested in the Gingrich past because they’re too scared of the Gingrich future.
As Romney finished a four-day campaign swing through the state where he has dominated the polls, he touted his recent spending reduction plan and offered his carefully honed lines. President Obama “said if he was unable to get this economy turned around, he would be looking at a one-term proposition,” Romney said. “Well, I’m here to collect.”
Romney is the safe and steady candidate, and he joked about that when handing out sandwiches at a local diner.” This is Mitt Romney "raw and unleashed," he said, referring to a Saturday Night Live skit that made fun of his boring personality. (It's true: There are reports he returned a VCR tape in the late 1980s without rewinding.)
Listening to Gingrich is a more rock-'em–sock-'em experience. He's a whirring dispensary of ideas and insults. He's going to eliminate White House czars on his first day in office. The supercommittee "is the single dumbest legislative idea" he’s ever heard of. Government retraining will be available for lawyers who lose their jobs because of tort reform. The delay in building a border fence is "utterly stupid."
It's easy to see why Gingrich is appealing to Republican voters. They don’t need to imagine the stupidity in Washington that Gingrich lampoons. His ideas sound thoughtful. He is good with a political attack or jibe, which is appealing to voters trying to find the magic trick to beating an incumbent. So when Gingrich boasts that he is the best candidate because he can beat President Obama in debates, he adds that Obama won't possibly say no to his suggested three-hour Lincoln-Douglas-style debate because an Ivy Leaguer would never admit to being "afraid to be on the same platform with a guy who taught at West Georgia College."
Gingrich is competing on Romney’s turf with that claim about debates. Polls regularly show that voters believe Romney is one who can beat Obama. His business background gives him a good pitch on the economy. Gingrich is trying to leverage his impressive performances in the debates into an argument for why he can go the distance.
Like many of Gingrich's theories, it sounds good—but general election debates will have a different audience. Gingrich won't be pitching to conservatives looking for a fighting champion. He'll be talking to independent and undecided voters. Do they really want Gingrich's message of big change, brusquely delivered?
In scope and personality Gingrich asks a lot. He's talking about profound change. (His boldness is a regular theme of his talks.) But people are already bounced around by change. Do voters really want a constant flow of it from the professor? Even if the strategy is to make government more efficient and get it out of your life, the main takeaway of the Gingrich idea flurry is that everything is going to get thrown upside down.
2011年11月20日星期日
Sticky Braves
There are wonders to be had at your local Target. For a mere dollar, you can buy the type of joy that can only be found in foil packs. Yes, your one dollar will get you eight 2011 Topps stickers, and trust me, there’s no better, more exciting purchase you can make in the realm of card collecting right now.
Over the years, Topps has periodically put out sticker sets, but they haven’t put out a set of baseball stickers since 1991. In the past, Topps didn’t always get the stickers right. They would often place two stickers on one card, and the back was a card for a different player. This wasn’t a big deal if you put the stickers in the album that was also on sale. If, however, you tried to collect the stickers like cards, this was a pain in the ass and made it hard to know whether you had a complete set or not. (On the other hand, I’d argue that anyone who wants to collect stickers but not put them in an album is a weirdo. That’s the whole point!)
This year, Topps got the design right. The stickers are not only great looking, but they are printed as one sticker per card, and the backs don’t include player information. If you want to collect these like cards (you weirdo), then you can do so easily. Every team is represented with a representative starting nine and there is a set of nine foil stickers featuring many of the legends of the game. There are also stickers featuring each of the teams logos.
This is the best value in card collecting and you should jump aboard the train now. (Even better news: Topps has already announced that the stickers will return next year.) Let’s take a look at the Braves starting nine.
Three men have defined the Braves since their arrival in Atlanta. In the early days, it was, obviously, Hank Aaron. In the 80s, Dale Murphy was the face of the franchise. For the Bobby Cox years, that man is Chipper Jones. I still find it hard to believe that Chipper Jones is nearing the end of his playing career. I have a hard time accepting that there are players younger than me who are contemplating retirement, let alone one of the Braves all time greats.
Brian McCann, on the other hand, is the Braves best hitter and was still, despite a hard slump following his injury, the best hitting catcher in baseball. Before he was hurt, McCann was one of the best players in the National League, and was going to receive serious attention in the race for MVP. As good as he is though, I doubt he will ever become the face of the franchise in the same manner as Aaron, Murphy and Chipper. Catchers simply don’t have the shelf life. I think it is far more likely that Freeman or Heyward will be the next face of the franchise.
This is a great shot of Chipper having fun and clowning around. I love Topps move to include so many great, close up, action shots in most of their products, but shots like this one humanize a player and increase the enjoyment of a card. As for the McCann shot, I can’t quite figure it out. He looks like he’s smiling. Perhaps, he just watched Alex Gonzalez make a great play in the field? It certainly wouldn’t be the proper reaction if he had just watched Scott Proctor get bitten by a gopher. No one in a Braves uniform would smile at that.
Over the years, Topps has periodically put out sticker sets, but they haven’t put out a set of baseball stickers since 1991. In the past, Topps didn’t always get the stickers right. They would often place two stickers on one card, and the back was a card for a different player. This wasn’t a big deal if you put the stickers in the album that was also on sale. If, however, you tried to collect the stickers like cards, this was a pain in the ass and made it hard to know whether you had a complete set or not. (On the other hand, I’d argue that anyone who wants to collect stickers but not put them in an album is a weirdo. That’s the whole point!)
This year, Topps got the design right. The stickers are not only great looking, but they are printed as one sticker per card, and the backs don’t include player information. If you want to collect these like cards (you weirdo), then you can do so easily. Every team is represented with a representative starting nine and there is a set of nine foil stickers featuring many of the legends of the game. There are also stickers featuring each of the teams logos.
This is the best value in card collecting and you should jump aboard the train now. (Even better news: Topps has already announced that the stickers will return next year.) Let’s take a look at the Braves starting nine.
Three men have defined the Braves since their arrival in Atlanta. In the early days, it was, obviously, Hank Aaron. In the 80s, Dale Murphy was the face of the franchise. For the Bobby Cox years, that man is Chipper Jones. I still find it hard to believe that Chipper Jones is nearing the end of his playing career. I have a hard time accepting that there are players younger than me who are contemplating retirement, let alone one of the Braves all time greats.
Brian McCann, on the other hand, is the Braves best hitter and was still, despite a hard slump following his injury, the best hitting catcher in baseball. Before he was hurt, McCann was one of the best players in the National League, and was going to receive serious attention in the race for MVP. As good as he is though, I doubt he will ever become the face of the franchise in the same manner as Aaron, Murphy and Chipper. Catchers simply don’t have the shelf life. I think it is far more likely that Freeman or Heyward will be the next face of the franchise.
This is a great shot of Chipper having fun and clowning around. I love Topps move to include so many great, close up, action shots in most of their products, but shots like this one humanize a player and increase the enjoyment of a card. As for the McCann shot, I can’t quite figure it out. He looks like he’s smiling. Perhaps, he just watched Alex Gonzalez make a great play in the field? It certainly wouldn’t be the proper reaction if he had just watched Scott Proctor get bitten by a gopher. No one in a Braves uniform would smile at that.
2011年11月17日星期四
Novotel invites you into the room of the future !
Take part in a world first by trying out a completely new experience in the hotel room of the future. Created and brought to life
by Novotel and Microsoft, the room of the future packs the best
of new technologies into an outside-of-the-box architectural concept.
Last September, Denis Hennequin announced Accor's new strategic objective to become the global benchmark in hotels and revolutionize the customer experience. In line with this commitment to innovation, Novotel is offering a new type of room that makes a clean break with traditional hotel thinking by redefining the use of space and adding cutting edge technologies and amenities.
"We wanted to reinvent the hotel room experience by harmoniously melding design and new digital technologies," explains Grégoire Champetier Global Chief Marketing Officer. "It's crucial to take our customers' changing habits and expectations into account. In particular, this means re-thinking our rooms in digital terms.
Guests can try out this revolutionary, yet perfectly realistic experience in the pilot room for the next three months. All of the equipment is fully functional and could be deployed throughout the Novotel network in the near future. Microsoft was at the center of the room's design, notably with the integration of the Xbox 360 console and its revolutionary Kinect sensor, which uses body gesture and voice recognition to control games and entertainment. This partnership between Novotel and Microsoft is the logical next step in a relationship that began four years ago when Novotel started offering Xbox 360 consoles in the public areas of its hotels.
"In the era of technological convergence, Microsoft is as always front and center," says Eric Boustouller, CEO of Microsoft France. "In our partnership with Novotel, we are taking this innovative room concept to a higher level with our best tech- nologies. This new-generation room is an invitation to discover the latest advances in consumer technologies in a creative universe with a unique design.
Discover the unique ambiance of Room 3120 as you walk into the entrance, designed to serve as a decompression chamber between the outside world and a spacious sensorial environment filled with ingenious practical features and interactive technology that surrounds you without being overwhelming.
"We wanted to do something fresh, surprising and imaginative that would unleash people's energy," explains Marcelo Joulia, head of Nao, the architecture firm chosen by Novotel to design Room 3120. "We started by re-thinking the basic space, which meant leaving the stuffy old cube behind. We also worked with light and found ways to keep the furniture from being in the way. Multifunctional, flexible and unhindered, Room 3120 adapts to the guest's desires, not vice-versa.
Although the innovative nature of the experiences available in Room 3120 may be surprising, they are extremely intuitive and ergonomic. The features are also designed for families, so they can play, surf or be entertained simply and easily.
It will only take you a few seconds to get used to the Kinect interface and take command of the Xbox 360 console. You can also try out the brand new Sensorit mirror, also based on Kinect technology, where information tags seem to appear by magic, or turn on the fitness interface. Want to play with the kids? The Surface multimedia table offers numerous pos- sibilities for two more players.
There's plenty for the grown-ups too, with fingertip access to a wide range of multimedia content, as well as music and news. Radio station NOVA (Le Grand Mix) and BFM Business, France's leading business and financial news media, have chosen to partner the Room 3120 project, which makes a point of providing rapid access to world news.
by Novotel and Microsoft, the room of the future packs the best
of new technologies into an outside-of-the-box architectural concept.
Last September, Denis Hennequin announced Accor's new strategic objective to become the global benchmark in hotels and revolutionize the customer experience. In line with this commitment to innovation, Novotel is offering a new type of room that makes a clean break with traditional hotel thinking by redefining the use of space and adding cutting edge technologies and amenities.
"We wanted to reinvent the hotel room experience by harmoniously melding design and new digital technologies," explains Grégoire Champetier Global Chief Marketing Officer. "It's crucial to take our customers' changing habits and expectations into account. In particular, this means re-thinking our rooms in digital terms.
Guests can try out this revolutionary, yet perfectly realistic experience in the pilot room for the next three months. All of the equipment is fully functional and could be deployed throughout the Novotel network in the near future. Microsoft was at the center of the room's design, notably with the integration of the Xbox 360 console and its revolutionary Kinect sensor, which uses body gesture and voice recognition to control games and entertainment. This partnership between Novotel and Microsoft is the logical next step in a relationship that began four years ago when Novotel started offering Xbox 360 consoles in the public areas of its hotels.
"In the era of technological convergence, Microsoft is as always front and center," says Eric Boustouller, CEO of Microsoft France. "In our partnership with Novotel, we are taking this innovative room concept to a higher level with our best tech- nologies. This new-generation room is an invitation to discover the latest advances in consumer technologies in a creative universe with a unique design.
Discover the unique ambiance of Room 3120 as you walk into the entrance, designed to serve as a decompression chamber between the outside world and a spacious sensorial environment filled with ingenious practical features and interactive technology that surrounds you without being overwhelming.
"We wanted to do something fresh, surprising and imaginative that would unleash people's energy," explains Marcelo Joulia, head of Nao, the architecture firm chosen by Novotel to design Room 3120. "We started by re-thinking the basic space, which meant leaving the stuffy old cube behind. We also worked with light and found ways to keep the furniture from being in the way. Multifunctional, flexible and unhindered, Room 3120 adapts to the guest's desires, not vice-versa.
Although the innovative nature of the experiences available in Room 3120 may be surprising, they are extremely intuitive and ergonomic. The features are also designed for families, so they can play, surf or be entertained simply and easily.
It will only take you a few seconds to get used to the Kinect interface and take command of the Xbox 360 console. You can also try out the brand new Sensorit mirror, also based on Kinect technology, where information tags seem to appear by magic, or turn on the fitness interface. Want to play with the kids? The Surface multimedia table offers numerous pos- sibilities for two more players.
There's plenty for the grown-ups too, with fingertip access to a wide range of multimedia content, as well as music and news. Radio station NOVA (Le Grand Mix) and BFM Business, France's leading business and financial news media, have chosen to partner the Room 3120 project, which makes a point of providing rapid access to world news.
2011年11月16日星期三
Novotel invites guests into the room of the future
Novotel has launched a world first: the hotel room of the future. Created in collaboration with Microsoft, the room, named Room 3120, showcases the latest in cutting-edge technology and innovative design.
Novotel and Microsoft have worked closely together to create the revolutionary room that allows guests to sample the ultimate in hi-tech hotel rooms. The visionary room will take guests on a technological journey with cutting-edge features including a Kinect interface, Sensorit mirror based on Kinect technology, a fitness interface and a Surface multimedia table.
In keeping with the forward-looking theme, the room also includes a brand new, state of the art bed system, which is hidden away from view until it is required.
Last September, Denis Hennequin announced Accor’s new strategic objective to become the global benchmark for the hotel industry and revolutionise the customer experience. In line with this commitment to innovation, Novotel has created a new type of room that makes a clean break with traditional thinking by redefining the use of space and adding cutting edge technologies and amenities.
“We wanted to reinvent the hotel room experience by harmoniously melding design and new digital technologies,” explains Grégoire Champetier, Global Chief Marketing Officer. “It’s crucial to take our customers’ changing habits and expectations into account. In particular, this means rethinking our rooms in digital terms."
Microsoft was at the centre of the room’s design, notably with the integration of the Xbox 360 console and its revolutionary Kinect sensor, which uses body gesture and voice recognition to control games and entertainment. Novotel’s relationship with Microsoft began four years ago when Novotel started offering Xbox 360 consoles in the public areas of its hotels and this project takes the partnership to the next level.
“In the era of technological convergence, Microsoft is as always front and centre,” says Eric Boustouller, CEO of Microsoft France. “In our partnership with Novotel, we are taking this innovative room concept to a higher level with our best technologies. This new-generation room is an invitation to discover the latest advances in consumer technologies in a creative universe with a unique design."
“We wanted to do something fresh, surprising and imaginative,” explains Marcelo Joulia, head of Nao, the architecture firm chosen by Novotel to design Room 3120. “We started by rethinking the basic space, which meant leaving the stuffy old cube behind. We also worked with light and found ways to keep the furniture from being in the way. Multifunctional, flexible and unhindered, Room 3120 adapts to the guest's desires, not vice-versa."
The other features of the room include Kinect interface and an Xbox 360 console. Guests can also try out the brand new SensorIT interactive mirror, also based on Kinect technology, where information tags seem to appear by magic, or turn on the fitness interface. The features in the room are also designed for families, so they can play, surf the internet and be entertained by using the Surface multimedia table for two or more players.
There’s plenty for the grown-ups too, with access to a wide range of multimedia content, as well as music and news. Radio station NOVA (Le Grand Mix) and BFM Business, France’s leading business and financial news outlet, have chosen to partner the Room 3120 project, which makes a point of providing rapid access to world news.
Novotel and Microsoft have worked closely together to create the revolutionary room that allows guests to sample the ultimate in hi-tech hotel rooms. The visionary room will take guests on a technological journey with cutting-edge features including a Kinect interface, Sensorit mirror based on Kinect technology, a fitness interface and a Surface multimedia table.
In keeping with the forward-looking theme, the room also includes a brand new, state of the art bed system, which is hidden away from view until it is required.
Last September, Denis Hennequin announced Accor’s new strategic objective to become the global benchmark for the hotel industry and revolutionise the customer experience. In line with this commitment to innovation, Novotel has created a new type of room that makes a clean break with traditional thinking by redefining the use of space and adding cutting edge technologies and amenities.
“We wanted to reinvent the hotel room experience by harmoniously melding design and new digital technologies,” explains Grégoire Champetier, Global Chief Marketing Officer. “It’s crucial to take our customers’ changing habits and expectations into account. In particular, this means rethinking our rooms in digital terms."
Microsoft was at the centre of the room’s design, notably with the integration of the Xbox 360 console and its revolutionary Kinect sensor, which uses body gesture and voice recognition to control games and entertainment. Novotel’s relationship with Microsoft began four years ago when Novotel started offering Xbox 360 consoles in the public areas of its hotels and this project takes the partnership to the next level.
“In the era of technological convergence, Microsoft is as always front and centre,” says Eric Boustouller, CEO of Microsoft France. “In our partnership with Novotel, we are taking this innovative room concept to a higher level with our best technologies. This new-generation room is an invitation to discover the latest advances in consumer technologies in a creative universe with a unique design."
“We wanted to do something fresh, surprising and imaginative,” explains Marcelo Joulia, head of Nao, the architecture firm chosen by Novotel to design Room 3120. “We started by rethinking the basic space, which meant leaving the stuffy old cube behind. We also worked with light and found ways to keep the furniture from being in the way. Multifunctional, flexible and unhindered, Room 3120 adapts to the guest's desires, not vice-versa."
The other features of the room include Kinect interface and an Xbox 360 console. Guests can also try out the brand new SensorIT interactive mirror, also based on Kinect technology, where information tags seem to appear by magic, or turn on the fitness interface. The features in the room are also designed for families, so they can play, surf the internet and be entertained by using the Surface multimedia table for two or more players.
There’s plenty for the grown-ups too, with access to a wide range of multimedia content, as well as music and news. Radio station NOVA (Le Grand Mix) and BFM Business, France’s leading business and financial news outlet, have chosen to partner the Room 3120 project, which makes a point of providing rapid access to world news.
2011年11月15日星期二
10 Fun Games You Might Have Missed
Last year I celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of the Sony Playstation with a piece entitled, “15 Years of the Sony Playstation – 15 Fun Games You Might Have Missed.” It proved to be a pretty popular piece with readers, so this year, in honour of the 10th anniversary of the Microsoft Xbox, we’re going to do something very similar.
Please note this is not a “Top 10″ list highlighting what I consider the absolute best games available on the original Xbox. Rather, this is a look at ten games that have had a strong cult following since they were released on the Xbox, even if they are obscure or unheard of by the mainstream or casual gamer. This list will only include games that were Xbox console exclusives. This means no remakes, no cross-console titles, and no titles that have been re-released on XBLA as a digital download. I’ve also tried to make sure the games are available for thirty dollars or less, so that any gamer can pick them up and see why these titles still hold up a decade later. There is one big exception to that rule though… These ten games will also be covered in alphabetical order, so as not to give the impression that one game is better than another. The unintended side effect of this is that we’ll be starting with the first Xbox game I ever reviewed and ending with the last. Odd coincidence, no? The goal of this piece is to inspire a combination of conversation amongst older gamers, nostalgia over titles both loved and forgotten, and hopefully exposing younger gamers to ten titles that might not have had the largest advertising but still have a loyal following due to their quality. Who knows? If you missed one (or more) of these ten games, perhaps this piece will inspire you to track them down and see why they hold a special place in the hearts of gamers who experienced them.
You might not recognize the name Arkane Studios, but they are the team behind the upcoming first person stealth game Dishonored (being published by Bethesda) and they did the art design for Bioshock 2. This little French development company got its start with this partially open source first person RPG that was originally intended to be Ultima Underworld III. Ultima Underworld might not be a familiar title to younger gamers, but mention it to someone who works in the industry and they’ll probably talk your ear off about it. The Elder Scrolls, Bioshock, Gears of War, Deus Ex, Half-Life 2, and World of Warcraft were all inspired by Ultima Underworld. It’s one of the most influential games ever and it saddens me to see how forgotten it is by the average gamer. Arx Fatalis was meant to be the third game in the series, but Electronic Arts decided not to give Arkane Studios the license or publish the game. A little retooling and rescripting later, and Arx Fatalis was born. Thank Cthulhu for that, as it ended up being one of the best RPGs for the Xbox.
Arx Fatalis takes place in another world – one where the sun is no more. All life on the planet now lives in a series of connected subterranean caverns built by the dwarves of a time long since past. Humans, trolls, goblins, wererats and more now live in these caves, using magic to grow crops and stay alive. The game begins long after the underearth has been settled. You begin by seeing your character enveloped in a blue light and learn he is an amnesiac who knows nothing of the world or its history. Cheesy and cliche, but an easy way to make you learn the history of Arx Fatalis. You are a prisoner of goblins. You escape. You wander around. You discover a Human outpost where everyone was slaughtered horribly. Then slowly a conspiracy unfolds itself…
There are two big things that make the game memorable. The first is the sheer level of detail. Straight out of old SSI AD&D games like Eye of the Beholder, you have to eat. Of course, you don’t want to eat raw food, so you not only half to kill your meat, but cook it too. You also have to mix ingredients to make anything from bread to potions. You’ll have to learn to repair armour, create a fishing pole and many other things in order to reach your ultimate goal – defeating an avatar of the god of destruction. The depth even extends into spell casting. Taking a page right out of 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, your character will need to trace runes in the air and in real time in order to cast a spell, so there aren’t any instantaneous fireballs here. I loved this back in 2003 and I still love it now. It simulates the time and precision needed to cast magic and forces you to consider timing and location rather than just button mashing. If this turned out to be too hard for a gamer, they had the option of memorizing a spell by doing the runes in a more peaceful situation and then pressing Y to memorize it for a quick release down the road. If even that wasn’t enough, you could turn on arcade magic, which just gave you a menu for quickly selecting spells. So no matter your skill level, you still could wield magic properly. I loved the attention to detail in this game, as including so many small things that most RPGs ignore or forget really helped the kingdom of Arx to come alive for me.
Please note this is not a “Top 10″ list highlighting what I consider the absolute best games available on the original Xbox. Rather, this is a look at ten games that have had a strong cult following since they were released on the Xbox, even if they are obscure or unheard of by the mainstream or casual gamer. This list will only include games that were Xbox console exclusives. This means no remakes, no cross-console titles, and no titles that have been re-released on XBLA as a digital download. I’ve also tried to make sure the games are available for thirty dollars or less, so that any gamer can pick them up and see why these titles still hold up a decade later. There is one big exception to that rule though… These ten games will also be covered in alphabetical order, so as not to give the impression that one game is better than another. The unintended side effect of this is that we’ll be starting with the first Xbox game I ever reviewed and ending with the last. Odd coincidence, no? The goal of this piece is to inspire a combination of conversation amongst older gamers, nostalgia over titles both loved and forgotten, and hopefully exposing younger gamers to ten titles that might not have had the largest advertising but still have a loyal following due to their quality. Who knows? If you missed one (or more) of these ten games, perhaps this piece will inspire you to track them down and see why they hold a special place in the hearts of gamers who experienced them.
You might not recognize the name Arkane Studios, but they are the team behind the upcoming first person stealth game Dishonored (being published by Bethesda) and they did the art design for Bioshock 2. This little French development company got its start with this partially open source first person RPG that was originally intended to be Ultima Underworld III. Ultima Underworld might not be a familiar title to younger gamers, but mention it to someone who works in the industry and they’ll probably talk your ear off about it. The Elder Scrolls, Bioshock, Gears of War, Deus Ex, Half-Life 2, and World of Warcraft were all inspired by Ultima Underworld. It’s one of the most influential games ever and it saddens me to see how forgotten it is by the average gamer. Arx Fatalis was meant to be the third game in the series, but Electronic Arts decided not to give Arkane Studios the license or publish the game. A little retooling and rescripting later, and Arx Fatalis was born. Thank Cthulhu for that, as it ended up being one of the best RPGs for the Xbox.
Arx Fatalis takes place in another world – one where the sun is no more. All life on the planet now lives in a series of connected subterranean caverns built by the dwarves of a time long since past. Humans, trolls, goblins, wererats and more now live in these caves, using magic to grow crops and stay alive. The game begins long after the underearth has been settled. You begin by seeing your character enveloped in a blue light and learn he is an amnesiac who knows nothing of the world or its history. Cheesy and cliche, but an easy way to make you learn the history of Arx Fatalis. You are a prisoner of goblins. You escape. You wander around. You discover a Human outpost where everyone was slaughtered horribly. Then slowly a conspiracy unfolds itself…
There are two big things that make the game memorable. The first is the sheer level of detail. Straight out of old SSI AD&D games like Eye of the Beholder, you have to eat. Of course, you don’t want to eat raw food, so you not only half to kill your meat, but cook it too. You also have to mix ingredients to make anything from bread to potions. You’ll have to learn to repair armour, create a fishing pole and many other things in order to reach your ultimate goal – defeating an avatar of the god of destruction. The depth even extends into spell casting. Taking a page right out of 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, your character will need to trace runes in the air and in real time in order to cast a spell, so there aren’t any instantaneous fireballs here. I loved this back in 2003 and I still love it now. It simulates the time and precision needed to cast magic and forces you to consider timing and location rather than just button mashing. If this turned out to be too hard for a gamer, they had the option of memorizing a spell by doing the runes in a more peaceful situation and then pressing Y to memorize it for a quick release down the road. If even that wasn’t enough, you could turn on arcade magic, which just gave you a menu for quickly selecting spells. So no matter your skill level, you still could wield magic properly. I loved the attention to detail in this game, as including so many small things that most RPGs ignore or forget really helped the kingdom of Arx to come alive for me.
2011年11月14日星期一
Photography has ruined travel
Nicotine is bad. Drugs are worse. But we know about them.
There is one addiction that has passed unnoticed into the very heart of modern society, threatening to ensnare the minds of everyone reading this article, and more.
It is insidiously creeping up on hitherto reasonable members of the civilized world, threatening to turn us all into beaming, giggling fools, our faces locked into clownish grins and our brains distracted at the slightest click.
The bane of 21st-century life is the phone camera, a product of such technological prowess and immediate convenience that no one would blame you for “just trying it.”
But one click leads to another; if you don’t like the first hit you delete and try again.
Before you know it you have 300 pictures on your phone comprising beaming, giggling fools, plates of food and cats making funny faces and you have succumbed; you have been dragged in; your life is now defined by images on a handset and the same goes for all your friends.
To give it up now would be just too hard.
The real victims of this click-happy menace are travelers.
Not just the travelers who hope to see a spectacular waterfall in Chile only for the view to be blocked by hundreds of beaming, giggling addicts, but also those camera-phone addicts who are themselves travelers.
Because much like the wretch who drinks to be happy, the snappers are deluded: they think their photos are creating memories, when in fact they are sabotaging them.
My junk was the real deal. Class-A stuff, the cocaine of the photography world -- the digital SLR.
With this oversized device I felt confident. I felt virile. It made me feel superior to the beaming, giggling amateurs fumbling about with their pathetic phones and small, flaccid point-and-shoots.
It took an epiphany for me to kick the habit.
I was diving in Thailand, when a whale shark emerged from the gloom. I snapped away at the beast with my underwater apparatus for the few minutes of air I had left, then returned topside to high-five and celebrate this potentially once-in-a-lifetime experience.
As I scrolled through the 100-odd pictures I had, I realized: they were all I had.
My memories are framed by the 2x2-inch blurry screen of my camera. Not once did I look up to see the fish with my own eyes.
The problem runs much deeper than a small camera addiction too. The technological age has trapped us inside cotton-wool cages.
Just over a decade ago there was no Google to point you to the nearest café. No satellite technology connecting you, via your phone, to a computer to an ATM to the nearest hotel.
When people traveled, they got off the plane and explored. They asked people, real people, where to go for a great night out, not some kind of Stephen Hawking robot girl inside your phone.
Sorry, Siri, you’re not my type. Great fun for profound philosophical inquiries, but when it comes to places to get good dim sum, “25 alternatives within half a mile” is such a turn-off.
Technology treats travel like a puzzle that needs solving. In fact the world is less Rubik’s Cube, more Magic 8 Ball.
Too often the Internet search is a first resort rather than a last, a shortcut that, at least for travelers, gets us to the end while bypassing the means. It is the destination without the journey.
So here’s a challenge: get lost. Seriously. Next time you’re in a new town, ditch the phone. Disable your GPS. Close your eyes, point, then open them and walk. If you need to find somewhere, ask someone.
Even if the place recommended by Real Human is a dive and takes you for US$15 a beer and gives you an intestinal worm and ends with a chase down a dark alley by a chef with a dirty rolling pin, at least you get a good story.
At least you’ve traveled and explored and discovered, for yourself.
But in fact the place recommended by Real Human is far less likely to be a disaster than one randomly suggested by a logarithm.
Getting lost is something to be embraced, not feared.
That’s when you discover the cafe with the weird hallucinogenic soup served by cats in bowler hats that somehow Lonely Planet managed to miss.
Far more fulfilling, I think, than the perfectly efficient evening of hotel-restaurant-hotel, courtesy Google Maps.
There is one addiction that has passed unnoticed into the very heart of modern society, threatening to ensnare the minds of everyone reading this article, and more.
It is insidiously creeping up on hitherto reasonable members of the civilized world, threatening to turn us all into beaming, giggling fools, our faces locked into clownish grins and our brains distracted at the slightest click.
The bane of 21st-century life is the phone camera, a product of such technological prowess and immediate convenience that no one would blame you for “just trying it.”
But one click leads to another; if you don’t like the first hit you delete and try again.
Before you know it you have 300 pictures on your phone comprising beaming, giggling fools, plates of food and cats making funny faces and you have succumbed; you have been dragged in; your life is now defined by images on a handset and the same goes for all your friends.
To give it up now would be just too hard.
The real victims of this click-happy menace are travelers.
Not just the travelers who hope to see a spectacular waterfall in Chile only for the view to be blocked by hundreds of beaming, giggling addicts, but also those camera-phone addicts who are themselves travelers.
Because much like the wretch who drinks to be happy, the snappers are deluded: they think their photos are creating memories, when in fact they are sabotaging them.
My junk was the real deal. Class-A stuff, the cocaine of the photography world -- the digital SLR.
With this oversized device I felt confident. I felt virile. It made me feel superior to the beaming, giggling amateurs fumbling about with their pathetic phones and small, flaccid point-and-shoots.
It took an epiphany for me to kick the habit.
I was diving in Thailand, when a whale shark emerged from the gloom. I snapped away at the beast with my underwater apparatus for the few minutes of air I had left, then returned topside to high-five and celebrate this potentially once-in-a-lifetime experience.
As I scrolled through the 100-odd pictures I had, I realized: they were all I had.
My memories are framed by the 2x2-inch blurry screen of my camera. Not once did I look up to see the fish with my own eyes.
The problem runs much deeper than a small camera addiction too. The technological age has trapped us inside cotton-wool cages.
Just over a decade ago there was no Google to point you to the nearest café. No satellite technology connecting you, via your phone, to a computer to an ATM to the nearest hotel.
When people traveled, they got off the plane and explored. They asked people, real people, where to go for a great night out, not some kind of Stephen Hawking robot girl inside your phone.
Sorry, Siri, you’re not my type. Great fun for profound philosophical inquiries, but when it comes to places to get good dim sum, “25 alternatives within half a mile” is such a turn-off.
Technology treats travel like a puzzle that needs solving. In fact the world is less Rubik’s Cube, more Magic 8 Ball.
Too often the Internet search is a first resort rather than a last, a shortcut that, at least for travelers, gets us to the end while bypassing the means. It is the destination without the journey.
So here’s a challenge: get lost. Seriously. Next time you’re in a new town, ditch the phone. Disable your GPS. Close your eyes, point, then open them and walk. If you need to find somewhere, ask someone.
Even if the place recommended by Real Human is a dive and takes you for US$15 a beer and gives you an intestinal worm and ends with a chase down a dark alley by a chef with a dirty rolling pin, at least you get a good story.
At least you’ve traveled and explored and discovered, for yourself.
But in fact the place recommended by Real Human is far less likely to be a disaster than one randomly suggested by a logarithm.
Getting lost is something to be embraced, not feared.
That’s when you discover the cafe with the weird hallucinogenic soup served by cats in bowler hats that somehow Lonely Planet managed to miss.
Far more fulfilling, I think, than the perfectly efficient evening of hotel-restaurant-hotel, courtesy Google Maps.
2011年11月13日星期日
Toy Hall of Famers: Dollhouse, Hot Wheels, blanket
The blanket, an all-purpose plaything and a comfort for generations of thumb-suckers like Charlie Brown’s best friend in the “Peanuts” comic strip, landed Thursday in the National Toy Hall of Fame along with Hot Wheels and the dollhouse.
The three take their places at The Strong, a children’s and cultural history museum in upstate New York, alongside 46 other classics ranging from the bicycle, kite and teddy bear to Barbie, Jack-in-the-Box and Mr. Potato Head.
Curators said the blanket was a special addition in the spirit of two earlier inductees, the cardboard box and the stick. They praised its ability to serve either as recreational raw material or an accessory transformed in myriad ways by a child’s daydreams.
“Every now and again we like to shake things up, remind folks there’s play experiences that happen purely creatively ... rather than coming with rules, a path, a backstory you feel constrained into,” said Christopher Bensch, the Rochester museum’s chief curator.
“Blankets have been keeping people warm for centuries, but they’ve also been heating up kids’ imaginations,” serving as magic carpets and superhero capes, a peek-a-boo veil, a chair-draped fortress or “an island of safety surrounded by sea monsters.”
For Linus, the comfort imparted by his precious blue blanket blends with its “play function” as a lasso, a whip, a Snoopy towrope and, in later adventures, “when he talks about turning his blanket into a sports coat when he grows up,” Bensch said.
Longevity is a key criterion for getting into the 13-year-old hall, which was acquired in 2002 from A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village in Salem, Ore. Each toy must be widely recognized, foster learning, creativity or discovery through play, and endure in popularity over generations.
Trying to create a toy that would be as big a success with boys as Barbie was with girls, Elliot Handler hit upon an idea for miniature die-cast vehicles with sleek designs. Hot Wheels were introduced in 1968 and the brand became a big hit.
Handler, who died in July at age 95, grew Mattel Inc. into the nation’s largest toy maker along with his wife, Ruth, who created the Barbie doll in 1959.
The dollhouse evolved from 16th-century “baby houses,” wooden cabinets in which wealthy European women displayed their collections of miniature furnishings.
German toy makers produced variations for youngsters to furnish with tiny chairs, tables, beds, tapestries and floor coverings and, by the 19th century, mass-production methods enabled dollhouses to grow in popularity.
“The dollhouse has gone on to hold a special place in the hearts of children everywhere,” said Patricia Hogan, the museum’s curator of toys and dolls. “From the most elaborately crafted mansions to the simplest home-made structures, the dollhouse gives kids an ideal environment for creative play, from furnishing and refurnishing rooms, making up stories and collaborating with friends and siblings.”
More than a few heavyweight nominees fell short in 2011, including the puppet, the pogo stick and Rubik’s Cube.
The three take their places at The Strong, a children’s and cultural history museum in upstate New York, alongside 46 other classics ranging from the bicycle, kite and teddy bear to Barbie, Jack-in-the-Box and Mr. Potato Head.
Curators said the blanket was a special addition in the spirit of two earlier inductees, the cardboard box and the stick. They praised its ability to serve either as recreational raw material or an accessory transformed in myriad ways by a child’s daydreams.
“Every now and again we like to shake things up, remind folks there’s play experiences that happen purely creatively ... rather than coming with rules, a path, a backstory you feel constrained into,” said Christopher Bensch, the Rochester museum’s chief curator.
“Blankets have been keeping people warm for centuries, but they’ve also been heating up kids’ imaginations,” serving as magic carpets and superhero capes, a peek-a-boo veil, a chair-draped fortress or “an island of safety surrounded by sea monsters.”
For Linus, the comfort imparted by his precious blue blanket blends with its “play function” as a lasso, a whip, a Snoopy towrope and, in later adventures, “when he talks about turning his blanket into a sports coat when he grows up,” Bensch said.
Longevity is a key criterion for getting into the 13-year-old hall, which was acquired in 2002 from A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village in Salem, Ore. Each toy must be widely recognized, foster learning, creativity or discovery through play, and endure in popularity over generations.
Trying to create a toy that would be as big a success with boys as Barbie was with girls, Elliot Handler hit upon an idea for miniature die-cast vehicles with sleek designs. Hot Wheels were introduced in 1968 and the brand became a big hit.
Handler, who died in July at age 95, grew Mattel Inc. into the nation’s largest toy maker along with his wife, Ruth, who created the Barbie doll in 1959.
The dollhouse evolved from 16th-century “baby houses,” wooden cabinets in which wealthy European women displayed their collections of miniature furnishings.
German toy makers produced variations for youngsters to furnish with tiny chairs, tables, beds, tapestries and floor coverings and, by the 19th century, mass-production methods enabled dollhouses to grow in popularity.
“The dollhouse has gone on to hold a special place in the hearts of children everywhere,” said Patricia Hogan, the museum’s curator of toys and dolls. “From the most elaborately crafted mansions to the simplest home-made structures, the dollhouse gives kids an ideal environment for creative play, from furnishing and refurnishing rooms, making up stories and collaborating with friends and siblings.”
More than a few heavyweight nominees fell short in 2011, including the puppet, the pogo stick and Rubik’s Cube.
2011年11月10日星期四
The blanket, Hot Wheels and dollhouse join 46 other classics
The blanket, an all-purpose plaything and a comfort for generations of thumb-suckers like Charlie Brown’s best friend in the “Peanuts” comic strip, landed Thursday in the National Toy Hall of Fame along with Hot Wheels and the dollhouse.
The three take their places at The Strong, a children’s and cultural history museum in upstate New York, alongside 46 other classics ranging from the bicycle, kite and teddy bear to Barbie, Jack-in-the-Box and Mr. Potato Head.
Curators said the blanket was a special addition in the spirit of two earlier inductees, the cardboard box and the stick. They praised its ability to serve either as recreational raw material or an accessory transformed in myriad ways by a child’s daydreams.
“Every now and again we like to shake things up, remind folks there’s play experiences that happen purely creatively ... rather than coming with rules, a path, a backstory you feel constrained into,” said Christopher Bensch, the Rochester museum’s chief curator.
“Blankets have been keeping people warm for centuries, but they’ve also been heating up kids’ imaginations,” serving as magic carpets and superhero capes, a peek-a-boo veil, a chair-draped fortress or “an island of safety surrounded by sea monsters.”
For Linus, the comfort imparted by his precious blue blanket blends with its “play function” as a lasso, a whip, a Snoopy towrope and, in later adventures, “when he talks about turning his blanket into a sports coat when he grows up,” Bensch said.
Longevity is a key criterion for getting into the 13-year-old hall, which was acquired in 2002 from A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village in Salem, Ore. Each toy must be widely recognized, foster learning, creativity or discovery through play, and endure in popularity over generations.
Trying to create a toy that would be as big a success with boys as Barbie was with girls, Elliot Handler hit upon an idea for miniature die-cast vehicles with sleek designs. Hot Wheels were introduced in 1968 and the brand became a big hit.
Handler, who died in July at age 95, grew Mattel Inc. into the nation’s largest toy maker along with his wife, Ruth, who created the Barbie doll in 1959.
The dollhouse evolved from 16th-century “baby houses,” wooden cabinets in which wealthy European women displayed their collections of miniature furnishings.
German toy makers produced variations for youngsters to furnish with tiny chairs, tables, beds, tapestries and floor coverings and, by the 19th century, mass-production methods enabled dollhouses to grow in popularity.
“The dollhouse has gone on to hold a special place in the hearts of children everywhere,” said Patricia Hogan, the museum’s curator of toys and dolls. “From the most elaborately crafted mansions to the simplest home-made structures, the dollhouse gives kids an ideal environment for creative play, from furnishing and refurnishing rooms, making up stories and collaborating with friends and siblings.”
More than a few heavyweight nominees fell short in 2011, including the puppet, the pogo stick and Rubik’s Cube.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The three take their places at The Strong, a children’s and cultural history museum in upstate New York, alongside 46 other classics ranging from the bicycle, kite and teddy bear to Barbie, Jack-in-the-Box and Mr. Potato Head.
Curators said the blanket was a special addition in the spirit of two earlier inductees, the cardboard box and the stick. They praised its ability to serve either as recreational raw material or an accessory transformed in myriad ways by a child’s daydreams.
“Every now and again we like to shake things up, remind folks there’s play experiences that happen purely creatively ... rather than coming with rules, a path, a backstory you feel constrained into,” said Christopher Bensch, the Rochester museum’s chief curator.
“Blankets have been keeping people warm for centuries, but they’ve also been heating up kids’ imaginations,” serving as magic carpets and superhero capes, a peek-a-boo veil, a chair-draped fortress or “an island of safety surrounded by sea monsters.”
For Linus, the comfort imparted by his precious blue blanket blends with its “play function” as a lasso, a whip, a Snoopy towrope and, in later adventures, “when he talks about turning his blanket into a sports coat when he grows up,” Bensch said.
Longevity is a key criterion for getting into the 13-year-old hall, which was acquired in 2002 from A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village in Salem, Ore. Each toy must be widely recognized, foster learning, creativity or discovery through play, and endure in popularity over generations.
Trying to create a toy that would be as big a success with boys as Barbie was with girls, Elliot Handler hit upon an idea for miniature die-cast vehicles with sleek designs. Hot Wheels were introduced in 1968 and the brand became a big hit.
Handler, who died in July at age 95, grew Mattel Inc. into the nation’s largest toy maker along with his wife, Ruth, who created the Barbie doll in 1959.
The dollhouse evolved from 16th-century “baby houses,” wooden cabinets in which wealthy European women displayed their collections of miniature furnishings.
German toy makers produced variations for youngsters to furnish with tiny chairs, tables, beds, tapestries and floor coverings and, by the 19th century, mass-production methods enabled dollhouses to grow in popularity.
“The dollhouse has gone on to hold a special place in the hearts of children everywhere,” said Patricia Hogan, the museum’s curator of toys and dolls. “From the most elaborately crafted mansions to the simplest home-made structures, the dollhouse gives kids an ideal environment for creative play, from furnishing and refurnishing rooms, making up stories and collaborating with friends and siblings.”
More than a few heavyweight nominees fell short in 2011, including the puppet, the pogo stick and Rubik’s Cube.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
2011年11月9日星期三
The art of Apple architecture
Just as Steve Jobs transformed the notion of the personal computer and the cellphone, he left an indelible stamp on architecture, especially the retail kind, traditionally a backwater of the profession.
The work of architect Peter Bohlin and his colleagues for Apple is sleek, transparent, inviting, technologically advanced - and expensive. In many ways, the retail architecture of the Apple Store is simply the largest box in which an Apple product is wrapped. Jobs, who died in October, was famously attentive to every detail in an Apple product's presentation and customer experience.
The extensive use of glass in structures like Apple's cube on Fifth Avenue in New York, its cylinder in the Pudong district of Shanghai or its soaring market hall on the Upper West Side of Manhattan have become so distinctive that Apple is seeking to patent the glass elements. Bohlin's firm has won 42 awards for its work for Apple, and Bohlin himself was awarded the American Institute of Architects' gold medal in 2010.
When Bohlin arrived for his first meeting with Jobs, he wore a tie. "Steve laughed, and I never wore a tie again," Bohlin recalled.
Thus began a collaboration that has extended from Pixar's headquarters, completed in 2001, to more than 30 Apple Stores around the globe, all designed by Bohlin and a team of architects from Bohlin Cywinski Jackson led by Karl Backus - and
The notion of glass as Apple's signature architectural statement first appeared in the staircase in the company's New York store in SoHo, housed in a historic building.
"We had a two-story space, which is a great challenge to get people to go up or down," Bohlin said. "So we thought of glass. Steve loved the glass stairway idea. He got it. You make magic. We made these stairs that were quite ethereal."
Just as Jobs obsessed over Apple products, he pushed Bohlin to make the glass structures ever more refined and pure.
"We got James O'Callaghan involved. He's brilliant, a British structural engineer with offices in New York and London," Bohlin said. "Now we're cantilevering the stairs from top to bottom."
In the newest Apple store, in Hamburg, Germany, the stairs float in space, attached only at the top and bottom. "You get this magical sleek profile when you look up the wall." Bohlin said.
"This is the kind of detail Steve wanted," he added. "We've been driving for this, doing more and more with less and less. This has been a vision of architecture since earlier in the last century. Modernism, some people would argue, is doing more with less. Steve wanted us to push the edge of technology, but it had to be comfortable for people. Sometimes that idea got lost in modernism. It's an interesting challenge, how to marry the two."
Apple's use of glass in retail architecture emerged as a design and branding element at its Fifth Avenue store, which opened in 2006. The site had the initial challenge of luring customers into an underground plaza that had been inhospitable as a retail destination. The solution was a glass cube and staircase flooded with natural light.
"We came to the conclusion it had to feel inevitable," Bohlin said. "The adjacent GM Building has a tall, narrow facade, and its best aspect is directly across from the Plaza Hotel. Everything in the area is rectangular. So we thought of a square of light. It looks easy, but it wasn't."
Customers started lining up 42 hours before the store opened, and lines have formed ever since, with crowd control often required. The building is being renovated. In keeping with Bohlin's and Jobs' quest to achieve more with less, a new cube will feature larger glass panes and fewer visible connecting elements.
Despite its popular and critical success, Bohlin and Apple have not simply repeated the glass cube in other cities.
The Apple store in Shanghai is a glass cylinder using huge seamless panels of curved glass. Like the cube on Fifth Avenue, it leads to a large underground space, but the area around it isn't rectilinear, and the most prominent local landmark, a towering television tower, is at an oblique angle to the shopping plaza.
"We had the idea of a circle," Bohlin said. "Steve said, ÔWhy isn't the entire plaza around the entrance a circle?' I said that was a great idea, but that's beyond our control. The plaza was already under construction. Somehow he got the developer to agree to redesign and redo it."
Both Apple Stores in Charlotte - at Northlake and SouthPark - are in malls and not freestanding structures. Still, their glass facades are striking.
For someone as fascinated - some would say obsessed - by design and architecture as Jobs, it's surprising that he lived in a relatively modest Tudor-style house in Palo Alto, Calif., built by a developer, and never lived in a house he helped to design. That might have changed had he lived longer. He and Bohlin had been at work for years on plans for a new house.
"It wasn't a very large house," Bohlin said. "We don't know if he thought we were finished. I remember when Steve first hired us, he said: ÔI hired you because you've done very good large buildings, and you've done great houses.' If you're doing houses, then you're thinking about the subtleties of a building.'"
The work of architect Peter Bohlin and his colleagues for Apple is sleek, transparent, inviting, technologically advanced - and expensive. In many ways, the retail architecture of the Apple Store is simply the largest box in which an Apple product is wrapped. Jobs, who died in October, was famously attentive to every detail in an Apple product's presentation and customer experience.
The extensive use of glass in structures like Apple's cube on Fifth Avenue in New York, its cylinder in the Pudong district of Shanghai or its soaring market hall on the Upper West Side of Manhattan have become so distinctive that Apple is seeking to patent the glass elements. Bohlin's firm has won 42 awards for its work for Apple, and Bohlin himself was awarded the American Institute of Architects' gold medal in 2010.
When Bohlin arrived for his first meeting with Jobs, he wore a tie. "Steve laughed, and I never wore a tie again," Bohlin recalled.
Thus began a collaboration that has extended from Pixar's headquarters, completed in 2001, to more than 30 Apple Stores around the globe, all designed by Bohlin and a team of architects from Bohlin Cywinski Jackson led by Karl Backus - and
The notion of glass as Apple's signature architectural statement first appeared in the staircase in the company's New York store in SoHo, housed in a historic building.
"We had a two-story space, which is a great challenge to get people to go up or down," Bohlin said. "So we thought of glass. Steve loved the glass stairway idea. He got it. You make magic. We made these stairs that were quite ethereal."
Just as Jobs obsessed over Apple products, he pushed Bohlin to make the glass structures ever more refined and pure.
"We got James O'Callaghan involved. He's brilliant, a British structural engineer with offices in New York and London," Bohlin said. "Now we're cantilevering the stairs from top to bottom."
In the newest Apple store, in Hamburg, Germany, the stairs float in space, attached only at the top and bottom. "You get this magical sleek profile when you look up the wall." Bohlin said.
"This is the kind of detail Steve wanted," he added. "We've been driving for this, doing more and more with less and less. This has been a vision of architecture since earlier in the last century. Modernism, some people would argue, is doing more with less. Steve wanted us to push the edge of technology, but it had to be comfortable for people. Sometimes that idea got lost in modernism. It's an interesting challenge, how to marry the two."
Apple's use of glass in retail architecture emerged as a design and branding element at its Fifth Avenue store, which opened in 2006. The site had the initial challenge of luring customers into an underground plaza that had been inhospitable as a retail destination. The solution was a glass cube and staircase flooded with natural light.
"We came to the conclusion it had to feel inevitable," Bohlin said. "The adjacent GM Building has a tall, narrow facade, and its best aspect is directly across from the Plaza Hotel. Everything in the area is rectangular. So we thought of a square of light. It looks easy, but it wasn't."
Customers started lining up 42 hours before the store opened, and lines have formed ever since, with crowd control often required. The building is being renovated. In keeping with Bohlin's and Jobs' quest to achieve more with less, a new cube will feature larger glass panes and fewer visible connecting elements.
Despite its popular and critical success, Bohlin and Apple have not simply repeated the glass cube in other cities.
The Apple store in Shanghai is a glass cylinder using huge seamless panels of curved glass. Like the cube on Fifth Avenue, it leads to a large underground space, but the area around it isn't rectilinear, and the most prominent local landmark, a towering television tower, is at an oblique angle to the shopping plaza.
"We had the idea of a circle," Bohlin said. "Steve said, ÔWhy isn't the entire plaza around the entrance a circle?' I said that was a great idea, but that's beyond our control. The plaza was already under construction. Somehow he got the developer to agree to redesign and redo it."
Both Apple Stores in Charlotte - at Northlake and SouthPark - are in malls and not freestanding structures. Still, their glass facades are striking.
For someone as fascinated - some would say obsessed - by design and architecture as Jobs, it's surprising that he lived in a relatively modest Tudor-style house in Palo Alto, Calif., built by a developer, and never lived in a house he helped to design. That might have changed had he lived longer. He and Bohlin had been at work for years on plans for a new house.
"It wasn't a very large house," Bohlin said. "We don't know if he thought we were finished. I remember when Steve first hired us, he said: ÔI hired you because you've done very good large buildings, and you've done great houses.' If you're doing houses, then you're thinking about the subtleties of a building.'"
2011年11月8日星期二
Ian Thorpe's comeback on track despite failing
Thorpe had just about missed the start, but with the same methodical stroke that has brought him five Olympic gold medals, he caught and then passed his younger rivals in his heat of the 100m freestyle.
In the closing lap, Thorpe faded badly and finished sixth in 50.21sec. But the swimmer himself saw hope from yesterday's failure.
"Literally, if I went 22 one-hundredths faster I would have been really happy with it, it's kind of the psychological barrier around 50 seconds," Thorpe said.
"It's nice to see the glimmers of possibility in what I can do but they are usually taken away pretty quickly when lactate sets in or whatever else."
Just over an hour later he swam in the 100m individual medley heats.
He missed out on that final, too, with a 56.70sec performance, ranking him ninth overall. It was, however, .04sec faster than his 100m individual medley in Singapore.
It is clear there is much work for the champion to do with just under five months until the Olympic trials.
Yet Thorpe was never going to produce magic in this World Cup series in Asia, said head coach Leigh Nugent.
Yesterday Thorpe was almost three seconds slower than he was at his peak in 2003 when he swam 47.82.
Nugent dubbed Thorpe's first freestyle of his comeback as "pretty solid".
"I don't think it was ever purported for Ian to come here and make some massive breakthrough, but fairytales are written and are usually not performed," Nugent said.
"We are in the reality of sport here and progression back can be an exponential thing. So as time moves on I would expect him to improve with a more rapid progress later on."
Thorpe will swim in the 100m butterfly heats today.
He admits he is struggling in the transition from intense training sessions to racing but quickly replied "ah yes" when asked if he was still aiming for the Olympics.
In the closing lap, Thorpe faded badly and finished sixth in 50.21sec. But the swimmer himself saw hope from yesterday's failure.
"Literally, if I went 22 one-hundredths faster I would have been really happy with it, it's kind of the psychological barrier around 50 seconds," Thorpe said.
"It's nice to see the glimmers of possibility in what I can do but they are usually taken away pretty quickly when lactate sets in or whatever else."
Just over an hour later he swam in the 100m individual medley heats.
He missed out on that final, too, with a 56.70sec performance, ranking him ninth overall. It was, however, .04sec faster than his 100m individual medley in Singapore.
It is clear there is much work for the champion to do with just under five months until the Olympic trials.
Yet Thorpe was never going to produce magic in this World Cup series in Asia, said head coach Leigh Nugent.
Yesterday Thorpe was almost three seconds slower than he was at his peak in 2003 when he swam 47.82.
Nugent dubbed Thorpe's first freestyle of his comeback as "pretty solid".
"I don't think it was ever purported for Ian to come here and make some massive breakthrough, but fairytales are written and are usually not performed," Nugent said.
"We are in the reality of sport here and progression back can be an exponential thing. So as time moves on I would expect him to improve with a more rapid progress later on."
Thorpe will swim in the 100m butterfly heats today.
He admits he is struggling in the transition from intense training sessions to racing but quickly replied "ah yes" when asked if he was still aiming for the Olympics.
2011年11月7日星期一
Brisbane 2011 Film Festival – Fantastic Fest Weekend
Following the initially fascinating but ultimate tedium of black-magic mumbo-jumbo Shaw Brothers oddity The Boxer’s Omen (1983) as the highly anticipated ‘Mystery Film’ choice from Fantastic Fest, Sunday evening’s Drive-In Delirium Presents… double bill mash-up was something to get seriously geeked out about.
Ozploitation extraordinarie Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood) and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s ‘Weird Wednesday’ programmer Lars Niels presented their film clip compendiums; the first of which, Trailorpalooza, compiled a collection of cult film trailers plucked from the last 50 years and featured some of the most ludicrously over-the-top scenarios ever conceived. What was most surprising however was the calibre of former Hollywood heavy-weights who actually agreed to sign up to such straight-to-the-trash can concepts.
Ray Millard in The Thing with Two Heads – a supposedly humorous transplant tale with a white man/black man splicing that defies definition; Joan Crawford in (what ultimately became her swansong) Trog - an exploitative and blatant King Kong rip-off featuring one of the most woeful pre-historic ape suits known to man in an hilariously implausible but apparently deadly serious yarn about a killer anthropoid on the loose. Then there was the cautionary LSD expose The Big Cube with an aging Lana Turner and singer Cher popping up as the titular tear-about Chastity: “a bummer, a drop-out, a looser” as the trailer narrator dead-pans. Funniest of all was the Z-grad SFX flying critter contraption at the centre of The Giant Claw or the screen’s most laughably lame men-in-monster-suit threat ever imagined for The Alligator People.
But perhaps most notorious was The Mutations – an apparent Freaks re-hash from (of all people) renowned cinematographer Jack Cardiff and Cripled Avengers – Shaw Studios mentally handicapped Kung Fu extravaganza that has the audacity to proclaim itself as “A sophisticated story of the handicapped”. Firm favourites Enemy of the Ants, Ivan Reitman’s debut Cannibal Girls, The Baby and titillatingly Jesus Franco’s Sadomania – (half-naked lesbian fighting squad) all make welcome appearances interspersed with corny cautionary ‘Intermissions’ on fire hazards and drug abuse – the later of which featuring Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry mode warning audiences about the deadly consequences of cocaine. This was aptly pursued by a vintage “Coming at Ya!” advertisement for 3D features – tailed by shorts to the freaky feature Parasite – which is apparently deemed too shocking to show in a 3D trailer – and Pieces: “It’s exactly what you feel inside!”.
Lars Niels contribution – 50 Best Kills – compiled some of the most elaborate deaths to ever grave the silver screen and hilariously commenced with Brad Pitt’s roadside comeuppance in Meet Joe Black. All the infamous screen demises were present and correct: Scanners’ exploding head scene, Raiders‘ melting Nazis showdown and the notorious ice-cream girl shooting in John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13. But also included were some nice unfamiliar oddities including the Godzilla rip-off Light Blast – featuring plastic miniature dinos in a surprisingly vile duel to the death, Yaphet Kotto’s elongated death scene in Vigilante and the melting-corpse-due-to-dodgy-wine death in Street Trash. Rambo, Driller Killer, Maniac, Peter Jackson weirdy Bad Taste and, err, Paul Reiser’s sudden death scene in One Night At McCools were all accountable too.
Ozploitation extraordinarie Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood) and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s ‘Weird Wednesday’ programmer Lars Niels presented their film clip compendiums; the first of which, Trailorpalooza, compiled a collection of cult film trailers plucked from the last 50 years and featured some of the most ludicrously over-the-top scenarios ever conceived. What was most surprising however was the calibre of former Hollywood heavy-weights who actually agreed to sign up to such straight-to-the-trash can concepts.
Ray Millard in The Thing with Two Heads – a supposedly humorous transplant tale with a white man/black man splicing that defies definition; Joan Crawford in (what ultimately became her swansong) Trog - an exploitative and blatant King Kong rip-off featuring one of the most woeful pre-historic ape suits known to man in an hilariously implausible but apparently deadly serious yarn about a killer anthropoid on the loose. Then there was the cautionary LSD expose The Big Cube with an aging Lana Turner and singer Cher popping up as the titular tear-about Chastity: “a bummer, a drop-out, a looser” as the trailer narrator dead-pans. Funniest of all was the Z-grad SFX flying critter contraption at the centre of The Giant Claw or the screen’s most laughably lame men-in-monster-suit threat ever imagined for The Alligator People.
But perhaps most notorious was The Mutations – an apparent Freaks re-hash from (of all people) renowned cinematographer Jack Cardiff and Cripled Avengers – Shaw Studios mentally handicapped Kung Fu extravaganza that has the audacity to proclaim itself as “A sophisticated story of the handicapped”. Firm favourites Enemy of the Ants, Ivan Reitman’s debut Cannibal Girls, The Baby and titillatingly Jesus Franco’s Sadomania – (half-naked lesbian fighting squad) all make welcome appearances interspersed with corny cautionary ‘Intermissions’ on fire hazards and drug abuse – the later of which featuring Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry mode warning audiences about the deadly consequences of cocaine. This was aptly pursued by a vintage “Coming at Ya!” advertisement for 3D features – tailed by shorts to the freaky feature Parasite – which is apparently deemed too shocking to show in a 3D trailer – and Pieces: “It’s exactly what you feel inside!”.
Lars Niels contribution – 50 Best Kills – compiled some of the most elaborate deaths to ever grave the silver screen and hilariously commenced with Brad Pitt’s roadside comeuppance in Meet Joe Black. All the infamous screen demises were present and correct: Scanners’ exploding head scene, Raiders‘ melting Nazis showdown and the notorious ice-cream girl shooting in John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13. But also included were some nice unfamiliar oddities including the Godzilla rip-off Light Blast – featuring plastic miniature dinos in a surprisingly vile duel to the death, Yaphet Kotto’s elongated death scene in Vigilante and the melting-corpse-due-to-dodgy-wine death in Street Trash. Rambo, Driller Killer, Maniac, Peter Jackson weirdy Bad Taste and, err, Paul Reiser’s sudden death scene in One Night At McCools were all accountable too.
2011年11月6日星期日
Braves Could Have A Higher Payroll In 2012
As fans of the Atlanta Braves we know that Frank Wren is doing all he can to make next year's team stronger than the one that collapsed down the stretch this year. He got creative and moved quickly to rid himself of as much of Derek Lowe's contract as possible. Initial off-season reports after that seemed to indicate the Braves would make very few moves, but that's not what Ken Rosenthal is hearing:
The Braves are up to something. How can they not be after their historic collapse in September?
No one should be immune from trade discussions. And, apparently, no one is.
Yes, the Braves would move right-hander Jair Jurrjens and left fielder Martin Prado, the two players whose names surfaced in trade discussions with the Royals, according to Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.
Heck, the Braves would trade just about anyone for the right price - and moving Jurrjens, in particular, could make sense.
In addition to making trades to secure better pieces, and create openings in the rotation for their talented young starting pitchers, the Braves ownership may also be (finally) giving the team (and their fans) some relief by increasing the self-imposed salary cap. Once again, here is Rosenthal:
The Braves operate at a different financial level and, sources say, intend to increase their payroll from $87 million, their Opening Day figure last season.
That is EXCELLENT news! Liberty Media, the team's "owner," has mainly been hands off, which has allowed the baseball people to make mostly good baseball decisions without meddling owners getting involved. But that hands off approach has also meant that the owners don't really seem to be personally invested in whether the team has the resources to compete in a division where more teams are spending more money.
Creating salary space by trading Lowe, and possibly Jurrjens, while also being allowed to raise their overall salary total could give the Braves significantly more money to spend this off-season than what was previously thought. The beat writers and bloggers presumed that the Braves had about $10 million of additional money to spend after trading Lowe, and after all estimated arbitration raises were accounted for.
Now consider that if they are able to trade Jurrjens, that's another $5 million. We won't know how much Liberty will allow the team to expand their salary total, but I'll venture a guess that it's somewhere between $5 and $10 million. Add all that together and the Braves could possibly have somewhere between $20 to $30 million to spend this off-season. That's enough money to make a significant splash in the free agent market if they choose, but more likely it's enough money to greatly expand the possibility of players that the team could trade for this winter.
If all of this is accurate, then we could be in for a much more active off-season than previously thought, and we could see the Atlanta roster change much more than previously thought. I'm excited at this prospect of more cash to spend. It should be pretty apparent that the Braves will have to increase their salary total, stagnant for the past several years, to stay competitive with Philly, New York, and now Washington -- all of whom could spend more than the Braves next year.
Of course, the last time this front office had money to spend, they spent it on Derek Lowe and Kenshin Kawakami. Hopefully they make better choices this time.
The Braves are up to something. How can they not be after their historic collapse in September?
No one should be immune from trade discussions. And, apparently, no one is.
Yes, the Braves would move right-hander Jair Jurrjens and left fielder Martin Prado, the two players whose names surfaced in trade discussions with the Royals, according to Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.
Heck, the Braves would trade just about anyone for the right price - and moving Jurrjens, in particular, could make sense.
In addition to making trades to secure better pieces, and create openings in the rotation for their talented young starting pitchers, the Braves ownership may also be (finally) giving the team (and their fans) some relief by increasing the self-imposed salary cap. Once again, here is Rosenthal:
The Braves operate at a different financial level and, sources say, intend to increase their payroll from $87 million, their Opening Day figure last season.
That is EXCELLENT news! Liberty Media, the team's "owner," has mainly been hands off, which has allowed the baseball people to make mostly good baseball decisions without meddling owners getting involved. But that hands off approach has also meant that the owners don't really seem to be personally invested in whether the team has the resources to compete in a division where more teams are spending more money.
Creating salary space by trading Lowe, and possibly Jurrjens, while also being allowed to raise their overall salary total could give the Braves significantly more money to spend this off-season than what was previously thought. The beat writers and bloggers presumed that the Braves had about $10 million of additional money to spend after trading Lowe, and after all estimated arbitration raises were accounted for.
Now consider that if they are able to trade Jurrjens, that's another $5 million. We won't know how much Liberty will allow the team to expand their salary total, but I'll venture a guess that it's somewhere between $5 and $10 million. Add all that together and the Braves could possibly have somewhere between $20 to $30 million to spend this off-season. That's enough money to make a significant splash in the free agent market if they choose, but more likely it's enough money to greatly expand the possibility of players that the team could trade for this winter.
If all of this is accurate, then we could be in for a much more active off-season than previously thought, and we could see the Atlanta roster change much more than previously thought. I'm excited at this prospect of more cash to spend. It should be pretty apparent that the Braves will have to increase their salary total, stagnant for the past several years, to stay competitive with Philly, New York, and now Washington -- all of whom could spend more than the Braves next year.
Of course, the last time this front office had money to spend, they spent it on Derek Lowe and Kenshin Kawakami. Hopefully they make better choices this time.
2011年11月3日星期四
Rubik's Cube is no toy in this Morningside Elementary classroom
When it comes to solving a Rubik's Cube, chances are you are not smarter than these fifth-graders.
All but five of the 24 students in Brad Culbertson's class at Morningside Elementary can conquer the 31-year-old puzzle. One of them can solve it in less than a minute, and some of the students are so fast, they beat their own teacher's record.
Culbertson is one of a handful of teachers in Florida who are using the popular toy to teach his gifted class problem solving and math skills. The class has its own set of cubes, and students are given time to play with them daily.
"They learned through the process of accepting the fact that not everything is going to be easy in life," said Culbertson, who was featured in an Oct. 27 article in U.S. News & World Report for teaching with the cube. "Despite being gifted students, they had to persevere through some adversity with the cubes."
The cube is the creation of Erno Rubik, a Hungarian professor of architecture who made the first version in 1974 to help students better understand three-dimensional objects. Rubik also sold his "Magic Cubes" at local toy shops, but the device really hit it big in 1980 when an American toy company introduced the renamed puzzle to the rest of the world.
Culbertson has been using Rubik's Cubes and its "You CAN Do the Rubik's Cube!" program with his Morningside students for two years. According to the educational program, Culbertson is one of 11 teachers using it in the state and the only Treasure Coast teacher it.
Besides teaching geometry topics, such as edges, faces and vertices, Culbertson said there are some unattended consequences too.
"If the kids have the cubes by their desk, they work faster and harder on their work so they can get more time on the cube," Culbertson said. "They're focused during class time and then they're automatically using something that is quiet and directed."
His students say they've learned skills like discipline.
With a time of 53 seconds, 10-year-old Rylee Nelson is currently the fastest in the class at solving the puzzle.
"I think it helps you learn hand-eye coordination and patience," Rylee said. "It teaches you patience because you can't get it right away and you have to wait before you can do some steps and it can take quite a while before you can solve it."
Even though Winter Pepitone, also 10, can solve the cube in two minutes and four seconds, she said she keeps playing with it over and over again, sometimes in car rides and even at the dinner table.
"I keep doing it over and over again because it's so fun. I never get bored of it," Winter said. "You have to have a lot of patience. I got frustrated at times."
Co-teacher Mary Masciello also notices a difference in the students.
"It teaches them to plan ahead for their next move, it teaches them the patience to wait until they learn the next step and committing it to memory," Masciello said. "I tell them 'the way there's tricks and patterns in the cube, there's tricks and patterns to remember your science facts, your reading comprehension. Put it together as a pattern.'"
All but five of the 24 students in Brad Culbertson's class at Morningside Elementary can conquer the 31-year-old puzzle. One of them can solve it in less than a minute, and some of the students are so fast, they beat their own teacher's record.
Culbertson is one of a handful of teachers in Florida who are using the popular toy to teach his gifted class problem solving and math skills. The class has its own set of cubes, and students are given time to play with them daily.
"They learned through the process of accepting the fact that not everything is going to be easy in life," said Culbertson, who was featured in an Oct. 27 article in U.S. News & World Report for teaching with the cube. "Despite being gifted students, they had to persevere through some adversity with the cubes."
The cube is the creation of Erno Rubik, a Hungarian professor of architecture who made the first version in 1974 to help students better understand three-dimensional objects. Rubik also sold his "Magic Cubes" at local toy shops, but the device really hit it big in 1980 when an American toy company introduced the renamed puzzle to the rest of the world.
Culbertson has been using Rubik's Cubes and its "You CAN Do the Rubik's Cube!" program with his Morningside students for two years. According to the educational program, Culbertson is one of 11 teachers using it in the state and the only Treasure Coast teacher it.
Besides teaching geometry topics, such as edges, faces and vertices, Culbertson said there are some unattended consequences too.
"If the kids have the cubes by their desk, they work faster and harder on their work so they can get more time on the cube," Culbertson said. "They're focused during class time and then they're automatically using something that is quiet and directed."
His students say they've learned skills like discipline.
With a time of 53 seconds, 10-year-old Rylee Nelson is currently the fastest in the class at solving the puzzle.
"I think it helps you learn hand-eye coordination and patience," Rylee said. "It teaches you patience because you can't get it right away and you have to wait before you can do some steps and it can take quite a while before you can solve it."
Even though Winter Pepitone, also 10, can solve the cube in two minutes and four seconds, she said she keeps playing with it over and over again, sometimes in car rides and even at the dinner table.
"I keep doing it over and over again because it's so fun. I never get bored of it," Winter said. "You have to have a lot of patience. I got frustrated at times."
Co-teacher Mary Masciello also notices a difference in the students.
"It teaches them to plan ahead for their next move, it teaches them the patience to wait until they learn the next step and committing it to memory," Masciello said. "I tell them 'the way there's tricks and patterns in the cube, there's tricks and patterns to remember your science facts, your reading comprehension. Put it together as a pattern.'"
2011年11月2日星期三
The ’21 Jump Street’ Trailer is Surprisingly Hilarious
In case you couldn’t tell from the recent slew of familiar 1980′s storylines, Hollywood loves its remakes. Hoping to cash in on your nostalgia, we’ve seen reboots of everything from Footloose to The Thing this year alone. Back in 2008, however, everyone cocked an eyebrow when news broke that Superbad’s Jonah Hill was going to write and produce a re-telling of TV drama 21 Jump Street. Yes, that show — one of Fox’s first successes about baby-faced cops Johnny Depp, Richard Grieco, and friends who went undercover as high school students where they busted drug baddies and more. The first trailer for the film has arrived, and if you had any doubts about the movie before, it’s probably safe to shelve them now: the three-minute long clip is hilarious. Hit the jump for our thoughts and a peek at the red band trailer.
Yeah, three minutes seems like overkill (save some of the jokes, fellas), but perhaps audiences needed a little extra convincing. Jonah Hill — or at least half the actor we once knew — stars alongside Channing Tatum (who’s currently filming male stripper story Magic Mike) in the action-comedy, which finds the comedic duo joining the secret Jump Street unit of the local police department. They go back to class undercover as ham-handed detectives trying to break up a drug ring, but find themselves facing their traumatic high school pasts. We get a peek at that hilarity through the awesome flashback scene.
Scott Pilgrim writer Michael Bacall lends his funny to the script, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs directors Chris Miller and Phil Lords take the reins here. It seemed like an odd grouping at first, but you might recall that Miller and Lords’ remake of the Judi Barrett book classic was surprisingly clever and damn funny for what could have been average CGI porn. It seems as though everyone went the smarter route here with self-aware humor, approaching the story from a more original standpoint. Dave Franco (being a jerk), Ice Cube (talking about Twitter!), and Brie Larson are amongst the film’s other players. Johnny Depp (the TV series helped launch his film career) also appears in a cameo role. Check out the preview below, and let us know what you think. Will you be in theaters when the film hits on March 16?
Yeah, three minutes seems like overkill (save some of the jokes, fellas), but perhaps audiences needed a little extra convincing. Jonah Hill — or at least half the actor we once knew — stars alongside Channing Tatum (who’s currently filming male stripper story Magic Mike) in the action-comedy, which finds the comedic duo joining the secret Jump Street unit of the local police department. They go back to class undercover as ham-handed detectives trying to break up a drug ring, but find themselves facing their traumatic high school pasts. We get a peek at that hilarity through the awesome flashback scene.
Scott Pilgrim writer Michael Bacall lends his funny to the script, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs directors Chris Miller and Phil Lords take the reins here. It seemed like an odd grouping at first, but you might recall that Miller and Lords’ remake of the Judi Barrett book classic was surprisingly clever and damn funny for what could have been average CGI porn. It seems as though everyone went the smarter route here with self-aware humor, approaching the story from a more original standpoint. Dave Franco (being a jerk), Ice Cube (talking about Twitter!), and Brie Larson are amongst the film’s other players. Johnny Depp (the TV series helped launch his film career) also appears in a cameo role. Check out the preview below, and let us know what you think. Will you be in theaters when the film hits on March 16?
2011年11月1日星期二
Nick Walshaw on the last day of the Jockey Challenge
One of those jockeys all sharp threads and gold jewellery. Hair a hurricane couldn't mess. Even boasted a sports car with his nickname - "Magic" - stickered down the sides.
Yep, debonair right up until the day he committed suicide.
Which kinda has us wondering what, if anything, we've achieved this week with The Daily Telegraph's Jockey Challenge? Sure, over eight exhaustive days we've starved, stumbled and sweated.
But have we really lived like a jockey? It's a question that truly hit home about 6am on Melbourne Cup Day. When, wearing black trackies and a green garbage bag, I entered that Terrigal Crowne Plaza sauna for the second time in nine hours - throwing myself into an unhealthy procedure many hoops endure three, four times a week.
Within 30 minutes, I was gone. Nauseous.
Adding the experience to those headaches which hit me every afternoon around four o'clock. The dark mood swings that, by day three, had my kids seeking adoption papers.
So tired, hungry and tell-the-editor-to-shove-this-idea-up-his-clacker spent that, when mowing the backyard late on Saturday afternoon, I simply started dry retching.
And this, remember, was in eight days. An experiment where the finish line was always in sight.
There was no going 48 hours without food as some hoops are known to do. No three layers of clothing for sauna sessions over 90 minutes. No rehydrating for the next eight hours on little more than an ice cube, either.
Yes, we ate the sushi and handfuls of cereal. Ran the treadmill and boxed badly. Even have a new yoga mat which, once this yarn is written, will be tossed into my garage beside the Ab Cruncher. But how can anyone truly understand the darkness brought on by the constant drain of wasting? An insidious grind that, in recent years, has been considered partly responsible for more than half a dozen jockeys taking their lives.
"No matter how much people wanna help, they can never understand," Hugh Bowman had warned when we started this madness a week back. "When you have those real dark days, those times when you dunno how you're gunna get through ... there's just no one to help you."
Indeed, according to a 2004 Victoria University study - which spent three years studying the impact of wasting on Australian jockeys - a staggering 13 per cent conceded they'd suffered suicidal thoughts. Think about that for a minute.
Of all the riders currently battling away on tracks around this nation, 13 of every 100 have thought about ending it like "Magic" Mahoney. That brash Brisbane boy who, after a string of suspensions at age 42, was found dead inside his car, a hose running in from the exhaust pipe.
A tragedy that proves Bowman's right.
When it comes to really understanding what a jockey goes through ... impossible.
Yep, debonair right up until the day he committed suicide.
Which kinda has us wondering what, if anything, we've achieved this week with The Daily Telegraph's Jockey Challenge? Sure, over eight exhaustive days we've starved, stumbled and sweated.
But have we really lived like a jockey? It's a question that truly hit home about 6am on Melbourne Cup Day. When, wearing black trackies and a green garbage bag, I entered that Terrigal Crowne Plaza sauna for the second time in nine hours - throwing myself into an unhealthy procedure many hoops endure three, four times a week.
Within 30 minutes, I was gone. Nauseous.
Adding the experience to those headaches which hit me every afternoon around four o'clock. The dark mood swings that, by day three, had my kids seeking adoption papers.
So tired, hungry and tell-the-editor-to-shove-this-idea-up-his-clacker spent that, when mowing the backyard late on Saturday afternoon, I simply started dry retching.
And this, remember, was in eight days. An experiment where the finish line was always in sight.
There was no going 48 hours without food as some hoops are known to do. No three layers of clothing for sauna sessions over 90 minutes. No rehydrating for the next eight hours on little more than an ice cube, either.
Yes, we ate the sushi and handfuls of cereal. Ran the treadmill and boxed badly. Even have a new yoga mat which, once this yarn is written, will be tossed into my garage beside the Ab Cruncher. But how can anyone truly understand the darkness brought on by the constant drain of wasting? An insidious grind that, in recent years, has been considered partly responsible for more than half a dozen jockeys taking their lives.
"No matter how much people wanna help, they can never understand," Hugh Bowman had warned when we started this madness a week back. "When you have those real dark days, those times when you dunno how you're gunna get through ... there's just no one to help you."
Indeed, according to a 2004 Victoria University study - which spent three years studying the impact of wasting on Australian jockeys - a staggering 13 per cent conceded they'd suffered suicidal thoughts. Think about that for a minute.
Of all the riders currently battling away on tracks around this nation, 13 of every 100 have thought about ending it like "Magic" Mahoney. That brash Brisbane boy who, after a string of suspensions at age 42, was found dead inside his car, a hose running in from the exhaust pipe.
A tragedy that proves Bowman's right.
When it comes to really understanding what a jockey goes through ... impossible.
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