Elijah Meeks's Blog, page 2

But… Doesn't Google own Youtube?

So, I'm trying to get an episode of ST:TOS on Youtube and the rights-management requires an upgraded Flash Player on this laptop and that borks Firefox for some reason, so I figure I'll give Chrome a try because it just happens to be built by the people that own Youtube.

Guess what innovative feature I get to try out?

Testing out Flash on an iPad

Fellow Stanford digital type Carlos Seligo and I checking out the usability of Flash on an iPad by running a remote client and hosting the Flash app on a nearby MacBook.  This was an impromptu investigation, and so I apologize for not performing a more rigorous and involved test run, or showing off a more engaging Flash application, but given all the fuss about how Flash just wouldn't work for iPad for stylistic and technological reasons, I have to say I was shocked at how attractive and...

We tend towards influ­en­tial, frac­tional exem­plars, pa...

We tend towards influ­en­tial, frac­tional exem­plars, partly out of neces­sity (raised to the level of insti­tu­tions) and partly out of habit (raised to the level of tra­di­tions).

Tim Carmody's very insightful "The Trouble with Digital Culture", part of CHNM's Hack the Academy event.

Frank Frazetta Died

I grew up with Frazetta's vision of John Carter and Barsoom.  As a child, I associated Frazetta's work with photography and it was a real shock for me to realize that some human being had painted those works.

Craig Adams put up an excellent essay on the man.

Tarn Adams Interview Up on HASTAC

My interview with Dwarf Fortress developer Tarn Adams is up on HASTAC.  I tried to craft a series of questions that would allow Tarn to discuss issues important to various Digital Humanities scholars, and not just a maps-and-games kind of guy like me.  He obliged:

Whether or not a narrative's representation is effective really depends on what sort of graphics an individual player prefers more than anything, and the time and care put into the narrative are going to matter a lot more than...

Top Ten New Features of HTML5

Now that Steve Jobs has firmly stated that Flash can be buried because rich internet applications can be written in "javascript" (a new and exciting "scripted" language that little is known about, except for the fact that Lowes.com has a javascript store finder that crashes my iPhone) and HTML5, I think it's time to look at the top ten amazing new features available to you some time in 2022, when HTML5 may* arrive!

#10 – HTML5 finally solves that annoying rollover behavior that prevents any...

MacBook Pro Cancels Benchmark: Interrupted by Flaming Hot Magma

The folks at PCAuthority discovered something we already knew:  Dwarf Fortress is for serious performance testing.  Apparently, they used the WorldGen feature of everyone's favorite roguelike fantasy world simulator to turn the i7 MacBook Pro into a really attractive griddle.

This iPhone 4G menaces with spikes of lawsuit.

Cellar door, oleomargarine; oleomargarine, cellar door

A headfoot I noticed:

I think he has too many eyes, don't you?

Commons-Based Peer Collaborative Pixel Pushing

Playpen allows you to draw some extremely pixelated Harkonnens, but it does have Dwarf Fortress.  Don't try to rescue the beard mite, though, it's a lost cause.

Impossible Super Mario Opera

Saw this over at Know Your Meme:

It's absolutely incredible.  The timing necessary to pull this off, and the mastery of the gameplay elements…  I can't believe it's been around for three years and I've never heard of it.