PLAY

Alex from Hide and Seek would like me to tell you about his festival for "social games and playful experiences" which opens tomorrow. It's not your average festival, but then Alex isn't your average man. A bunch of us are hitting the "This is it ..." event and party tomorrow night, so if your lucky enough to have a ticket, see you there.

Like Gaming? Like Games? Then you might like this, it's pretty well done.

Thanks Tom.

Pixelsumo

I’ve never felt the need to post a film on Pixelsumo before until now. I have been waiting to watch the Austrian Our Daily Bread (UNSER TÄGLICH BROT) since I read about it a year ago. This weekend I got to watch it at the Institute of Contemporary Art (25 Jan - 13, 15 - 28 Feb 2008)

Our Daily Bread is a film about where your food comes from in this age of globalization. 92 mins in length, there is no soundtrack, no dialogue and no interviews. Unlike some British TV shows, the film makes no judgement or tries to persuade your way of thinking, it simply presents everything in a raw and seemingly honest way.

Enough of this Guitar Hero nonsense - Rez, the infamously tricky to acquire but critically acclaimed PS2 "synaesthetic shooter" is now out on Xbox Live Arcade in glorious High Definition.

Originally released on Dreamcast, then later in very limited fashion on the PS2 (original copies of the game are still selling for upwards of £40 on eBay), there's now no excuse not to get a piece of the sonic-shooter in your life.

Check out a video of the gameplay and some more screenshots.

Via 1UP.com

SomethingLabs is a hothouse in London for creatives that use technology as part of their practice. Within this shared studio space are like minded people, each working on their own and sometimes swap skills on collaborative projects. We aim to build the space into a community, rather than simple desk rental, and plan to run a series of workshops and a group exhibition.

Started in January 2008, there are now desks available for rent. If you are interested in interaction, build things and take them apart and you are looking for a studio space, email me.

If you around London, its worth getting yourself down to the Royal College of Art interim show, on until 7th Feb. Lots of interesting work, although too crowded as usual on the opening night to get a good look.

Above: Animal Superpowers by Kenichi Okada and Chris Woebken on Design Interactions.

Below: Work on new radio designs by Platform 12 of Design Products

Happy New year everybody...i finally decided to start blogging.I still can't figure out the compulsion to just keep writing stuff (I guess it keeps a lotta people from blabbing on and on)...well, I have been getting loose tongued these days and eroding my famous 'cool' exterior.
I hope (sincerely) that I turn out good contents though...Keep your fingers crossed...and re-visit my blog.
Thanks for stopping by.
Ciao

Found this great site the other day - its all about discovering the city that you live in and sharing those hidden gems (where to drink late in soho - good cheap vietnamese etc).

Its a pretty simple but effective use of 2.0 but speaking to the guy that set it up they're goiung to be adding a bunch more functionality and most importantly they're super into throwing parties for people that use the site - Will and I went to one the other day and it was pretty awesome

ch check it out y'all - http://www.tipped.co.uk/

For those of you harbouring less dancing-monkey happy-droid prejudice than me: check the robosapien foundation - their moto: "making a difference, one robosapien at a time".

Yes you heard right: chromo-shift-robo-reptile. 2 future to be true? Unfortunately yes.

Basically, a snappier, noisier, adrenalised upgrade of the rather clunky roboraptor. Spoiler Alert: the chromoshift is actually just some sort of reflective paint job: think italo-disco, not predator 4. Still, the move away from friendly domestic robots [like the "yes-sir i can boogie" nonsense of dancing monkey boy robosapiens] to more menacing and aggressive droids can only be welcomed. Useful for frightening household pets...

The crew at Jahshaka are holding a competition for people to design a start-up screen for them. Give aways include a Mac Mini, a video iPod and a PSP. Check it out at, http://www.jahshaka.org/content/view/109/46/

we will hopefully see some of you down at the ica tonight, it's shaping up to be a good one. so, after some last minute brainstorming we've come up with a great game for everyone to play that comes in the form of some specially printed cards and we've called protein pacman!

nice.

I found this new open source software that does real-time video editing and effects processing. It also does 3d manipulations. It uses the openGL instead of the CPU to speed things up. Aaaah free software that does all you want...nice
www.jahshaka.org

The hugely popular PlayStation Portable games device has become the latest target for computer miscreants, with the discovery of a "Trojan horse" program that renders the machines inoperable.

The PSP is designed to run only approved games and software, but unauthorised codes, or "patches", can be downloaded and installed in order to bypass these controls. The newly discovered malicious software, or "malware", poses as just such an illicit patch. The problem is that, once installed, it deletes four critical system files, rendering the infected device useless.

Researchers at antivirus firm Symantec say the Trojan, dubbed Trojan.PSPBrick, was found circulating on gaming web sites last week. PSP users who unwittingly install it will see the message "Your PSP 2.0 is hacked, please reboot" pop up on the screen of their console. However, efforts to restart the gadget are likely to end in frustration.

"It's a really nasty trick," says Mikko Hyppönen, director of antivirus research at Finnish company F-Secure. He believes there is no way to remedy an infected machine without taking it for costly repairs. "A hacker as destructive as this obviously isn't thinking straight."

GameSpot has some details from an Interview of SCE Software Platform Chief Izumi Kawanishi that was published in Japanese magazine Famitsu. It includes details on improving direct video downloads and also maybe introduce streaming video, but the most interesting discussed future feature is an email client.

Following earlier news of Hollywood movies on your PSP, comes the inevitable porn releases [NWS].

Adult movies in the PSP-friendly Universal Media Disc format will be released in Japan this summer. Two publishers will offer a total of eight movies specifically for the PSP. Adult-content publisher Glay'z will release five titles starting on July 8, while fellow publisher H.M.P. will release three additional titles on July 16. The movies will be priced between 1,995 yen ($18) and 3,990 yen ($37).

While software releases for the PSP are subject to approval from Sony Computer Entertainment, the Sony gaming division does not hold sway over movies released for the device.

"Unlike games, we believe that UMD movies are an all-purpose media, like DVD movies. We do not control their content in the way that we do with games," commented an SCE representative in a previous interview with Impress PC Watch. "We are not in a position to know what kinds of UMD videos get released."

pre-order yours now at:

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=218&products_id=2979&

As mentioned in our New Year Nostro's and in the preview to this year's Milia "digital-concept-kids" conference, Revamp is now available for download.

Still only in beta, this "Broken" bit of binary, has been described by a leading musical strategists as, "a new paradigm for clubbing, challenging the way we interact to create and perform electronic music." Or in their own words, a "superfly multiuser live techno performance jamspace." Nyce.

In essence, Revamp is a director projector that sits on top of your existing Rebirth 1.5 software and makes the process of producing pukka pieces of audiophonica a pure pleasure. Currently only available for Mac [a PC version is currently in production], they have done away with the hundreds of knobs and installed some funky fresh touchy feelly icons to created a whole new way of musical thinking.

Sounds good? Check out the screen grabs and official explanation on their site for more. But we can let you into a little secret ... we were going to include this "exclusive" in last week's NewzFeed, but Marcus [one of the three RCA students behind Revamp] was suffering from a case of, "ok we've made it, but it's still a prototype" source code shyness.