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Thought-provoking stuff and applies to more than just depression but anything that could be considered a mental illness. We can never know when people near to us in our work or personal lives are battling with depression, anxiety or a host of other challenges. We would never express frustration at a diabetic for needing insulin … Continue reading “The Science of Depression”
Thought-provoking stuff and applies to more than just depression but anything that could be considered a mental illness.
We can never know when people near to us in our work or personal lives are battling with depression, anxiety or a host of other challenges. We would never express frustration at a diabetic for needing insulin or for feeling the effects of their condition and how it restricts their lives, the same should be said for mental illness.
Next week is Unite’14, the latest tech/skills conference from Unity Technologies and their partners. We have 8 people going out from the island (that we know of) with fabulous assistance from Honeycomb Creative Works and select assistance from InvestNI. These are: Troll Inc Bitsmith Games Lionrai Games South West College Zenify Newzmonkeys South Eastern Regional … Continue reading “#unite14 – Paddyinvasion revisited”
Next week is Unite’14, the latest tech/skills conference from Unity Technologies and their partners. We have 8 people going out from the island (that we know of) with fabulous assistance from Honeycomb Creative Works and select assistance from InvestNI.
These are:
Troll Inc
Bitsmith Games
Lionrai Games
South West College
Zenify
Newzmonkeys
South Eastern Regional College
And I’m attending as both Digital Circle and Conquest Dynamics.
Most of us are flying out Sunday morning from Dublin and landing in Charlotte for a 5 hour layover before continuing to Seattle and arriving just before 9 pm local time.
Monday we plan to visit Microsoft and we hope to make a flying visit to both Amazon and Valve Corporation.
Tuesday is the Unity Training Day which we didn’t manage to score tickets for but we’re going to attend the Microsoft sponsored Windows Porting Lab for the day and finish up with the Unity Pre – Conference Mixer. Then there’s three days of sessions and talks before catching the plane again on Saturday.
It’s going to be an intense week and we won’t have time for jet lag.
13% of the UK have never used the Internet, though the number for Northern Ireland is actually 22%. 13% of UK adult population have never used the #internet http://t.co/pMqsF1Lv5c #digitalday pic.twitter.com/sAY2hlycHk — ONS (@ONS) August 7, 2014 Looking at the map, however, I would question the methodology. NI is not one blanket region; we have … Continue reading “1 in 5 people have never used the Internet.”
13% of the UK have never used the Internet, though the number for Northern Ireland is actually 22%.
13% of UK adult population have never used the #internet http://t.co/pMqsF1Lv5c #digitalday pic.twitter.com/sAY2hlycHk
— ONS (@ONS) August 7, 2014
Looking at the map, however, I would question the methodology. NI is not one blanket region; we have cities and rural areas and differing degrees of digital transformation. The number may be much worse in rural areas even where broadband access is good and higher in urban areas where access is worse.
The recent “news” that physicists at NASA have managed to break several of the laws of physics and bend a few of the laws of science reporting reminds me of some stuff that Colin wrote for Frontier back in 1996. Frontier is my ongoing attempt to create a background for a science-fiction FTL-capable human community … Continue reading “VEE”
The recent “news” that physicists at NASA have managed to break several of the laws of physics and bend a few of the laws of science reporting reminds me of some stuff that Colin wrote for Frontier back in 1996. Frontier is my ongoing attempt to create a background for a science-fiction FTL-capable human community (and you can read a lot of it here)
But I digress, Colin wrote:
The main large scale power source used by the Earth-aligned societies in the Frontier universe is vacuum energy extraction (VEE, vee or V). This captures the massive energy bound up in quantum mechanical fluctuations in a vacuum. Essentially, energy is extracted from the structure of space-time. No fuel is required, and no pollution (other than waste heat) results. It is a well-understood human developed technology first used about two centuries before the time of the game. Its wide-spread use is one of the reasons that life on Earth has been so peaceful and comfortable recently (no resources to fight over).
At the quantum scale empty space-time is a chaotic froth of creation and destruction. Pairs of particles (always a particle and the corresponding anti-particle) are constantly appearing, travelling in their brief arcs of existence and uniting into nothingness.
A vee power plant has at its heart a chamber containing thousands of marble-sized spheres (any remarks about this being a load of balls would be quite true) called elements. Each of these has a tiny central spherical cavity lined with an almost 100% reflective surface while the outer shell is an unbelievably tough material with excellent thermal conduction and stability properties. Activation and control circuitry are doped into this shell material. Each element is suspended by a wire or thin rod of this shell material, which also carries the control signals and power for ignition.
On ignition, coherent gamma rays (of a wavelength related to the cavity’s dimensions) are generated in the central cavity, which is essentially a spherical pseudo-laser resonator. The resulting coherent electromagnetic field (of fantastically high energy density) thus induced ‘tunes’ the naturally occurring particle pair production in the vacuum to give rise to photons of the same wavelength as the original gamma rays.
Clever Bit Number 1: The photon is its own antiparticle (so each igniting gamma ray photon creates two new photons for free)
Clever Bit Number 2: Under normal circumstances the two new photons would travel on a path which would ensure their meeting and mutual cancellation. But the cavity’s diameter is less than their mean free path, so instead they meet its walls and transfer their energy to it.
Clever Bit Number 3: However on their way they each have induced a new photon pair…..
As a result the element rapidly heats up (to about 5000 K). If nothing else was done the element would eventually thermally expand, thus distorting the cavity until it no longer caught the photons, thus shutting down the reaction. This is prevented by a working fluid (which is converted to plasma by the process) being circulated around the elements, carrying off the energy. Further along the system, energy is extracted from this plasma by conventional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) techniques. On a ground based power station this done until the plasma is cooled into gas, which is recirculated. In a spacecraft’s engine the plasma is ejected through a nozzle, thus acting as a plasma rocket.
The overall efficiency is extremely low (since the vacuum contains about 10 to the power of thirty joules per cubic metre this is quite fortunate), but since the energy is free this hardly matters. As a rule of thumb, 1 cubic metre of power plant elements will generate 500 megawatts. This size is also the minimum size limit of a vee power plant, so there are no shuttles, cars, handguns or wristwatches powered by this technique.
From the outside a vee generator looks like a thick metal cylinder surrounded by the coils of the MHD system and the fluid pipes. The worst foreseeable accident would be a rupture of the plasma pipes or the chamber’s casing, this would be equivalent to a chemical explosive detonation (effects on PCs up to the GM), but is unlikely to destroy a starship. In space combat, this means a hit here will cripple, but not wipe out, a starship.
I don’t have the physics to report on whether the discovery actually works but it delights me that sometimes life starts to resemble science fiction.
Apple doesn’t have to do jack shit: Whether we like it or not, the game has changed. Trials are out. They’ve been out for six years now and we have no idea if they are ever coming back. Upgrades are out, too. Again, we have no idea if they will ever come back. … Marco, … Continue reading “The App Store is only the cash register.”
Apple doesn’t have to do jack shit:
Whether we like it or not, the game has changed. Trials are out. They’ve been out for six years now and we have no idea if they are ever coming back. Upgrades are out, too. Again, we have no idea if they will ever come back.
…
Marco, for as many haters as he seems to attract, is no dummy. I am certain he knew this going in. What rabbit would he pull out of his hat, especially with some of the biggest brains in iOS development to discuss it with? No surprise, he tried something new for the category: freemium. Good for Marco.
…
It’s time for us to change and try something new. Would an app supported by ads work? How about free with in app purchase? Charge for individual features so power users can pay us more? Subscriptions? Or how about just raising prices? Multiple apps so you can cross promote? Move to multiple platforms? Build something useful on the website that people will pay for, too?
Six years of app stores and this is the wisdom?
There is mileage in stating the bleeding obvious but freemium was the way that I was introduced to software purchasing and it is no surprise this is what we turn to now.
Games have been doing it since the moment in-app purchase was released so why not productivity software? Has Elia hit on something new or are the uber-brains of the software development industry just lacking in business or common sense?
I hope not but I’m not convinced…
Elia on the 4Ps of the App Store:
Now, though, you have one choice for place and one choice only: the App Store.
…
Long-term the App Store is the only place to promote, and there isn’t much room for promotion there.
Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.
The internet means you have an unlimited global opportunity to place and promote your product. Did I buy Angry Birds because of the place and the promotion of the App Store?
Of course not.
I bought because it was promoted in the places I was looking. I bought it from a dozen different locations like TouchArcade or PocketGamer. The transaction occurred on the App Store but that was the last link in the chain.
This is like saying that the cash register in the shop is what limits place and promotion. Utter bullshit.
The App Store is only the cash register. You can still sell your software on your web site, you can still promote anywhere on the Internet that will accept your advertisements or your advertorial.
I hope for the sake of the human race and the development of software that this isn’t the final wisdom on the macro-economics of the App Stores. But there’s an awful lot of stupid floating around.
The importance of putting together a team is often ignored by sparky young entrepreneurs. I frequently introduce people in an attempt to see if there is a fire that can be ignited by two such sparks. It’s just like any sort of relationship however. There has to be some sort of chemistry for it to … Continue reading “I’m not investing in your product…”
The importance of putting together a team is often ignored by sparky young entrepreneurs. I frequently introduce people in an attempt to see if there is a fire that can be ignited by two such sparks.
It’s just like any sort of relationship however. There has to be some sort of chemistry for it to work and I’ve had my own share of good partners and bad partners. Sometimes the business works and sometimes it doesn’t but I’m always looking for new collaborators because I know the importance of a team. The investor is investing in the team, not the idea. Anyone can have an idea but execution of the idea requires a team that can function together.
I’m looking for the team for Conquest Dynamics. People I can indoctrinate into my vision and have my vision shaped and moulded by their skills and knowledge into something amazing.
These Fishermen Melt Down the Plastic They Catch to Make Furniture…While They’re Still Fishing Down Coastal Rowing Club – an initiative to build 8 St Ayle Skiffs – 19 or 21ft long narrow boat made from 9mm plywood, rows 4 with a cox Row The Erne – a community based organisation empowering people of all … Continue reading “Before the Mast…”
These Fishermen Melt Down the Plastic They Catch to Make Furniture…While They’re Still Fishing
Down Coastal Rowing Club – an initiative to build 8 St Ayle Skiffs – 19 or 21ft long narrow boat made from 9mm plywood, rows 4 with a cox
Row The Erne – a community based organisation empowering people of all abilities and ages to build and row traditional craft on the Erne Waterway System in County Fermanagh.
and I previously covered Galgael.
It’s kinda scary how many of these TV pilots I watched on late night TV as a teen. It explains everything. I should sue. Related posts: Jonathan Gems on the abolition of the UKFC Let go of the old… Augmented Humans… QFT’s Short Shorts
It’s kinda scary how many of these TV pilots I watched on late night TV as a teen. It explains everything.
I should sue.
John Romero: the big challenge for today’s crop of developers is to get better at marketing. The bigger challenge is how to do it. In my experience, there’s precious little knowledge on how to do it and even fewer people who are able to impart the knowledge and skills. I add this after a conversation … Continue reading “the big challenge for today’s crop of developers is to get better at marketing.”
the big challenge for today’s crop of developers is to get better at marketing.
The bigger challenge is how to do it. In my experience, there’s precious little knowledge on how to do it and even fewer people who are able to impart the knowledge and skills.
I add this after a conversation regarding a game marketing effort which was to commence with a “wine and cheese launch” in a London hotel. For a game that could be called casual at best.
The rest of that article is excellent, by the way.
From the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/…./the-five-most-disruptive-ideas-in-the-video-game-design Procedurality – games could one day create epic and unique stories each time. Asymmetry – it’s not about two balanced teams duking it out. Seamlessness – old divisions between story mode and multiplayer mode could disappear. Performance – Gamers aren’t just players anymore – they share and create. Persistance – The … Continue reading “Disruptive Ideas in Games”
From the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/…./the-five-most-disruptive-ideas-in-the-video-game-design
They go into a bit of detail on each but I don’t think they have captured the “most” disruptive.
I think Persistence is right but it’s the idea that things don’t go away. That resources dwindle or buildings that are destroyed, stay destroyed. The idea of a persistent world is enticing in large battleground type games (like Destiny, Halo). It also means it’s on all of the time.
I think another factor is Aggregation – I’m enchanted by the idea that someone will be enjoying building the buildings that others destroy. Or farming the food that others eat. Or even just running the shop that others will virtually purchase virtual goods from.
The last is Fractionial – and this is not a positive thing. It’s almost impossible to get a complete game at a first try these days. Either a game is “complete” but there’s a bucket of downloadable content (DLC) or a game is complete but you have to pay to progress or pay to compete.