Bill Loguidice's Blog, page 75

Up to 90% off 11 bit Publisher DRM-free and Steam games!

The 11 bit Publisher Sale will be live through Monday, January 8 at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Here’s the link for up to 90% off!

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Pay what you want for The Humble Comics Bundle: Judge Dredd by IDW & 2000AD

The Humble Comics Bundle: Judge Dredd by IDW & 2000AD

Here’s the link. Offer expires 2018-01-10 11:00:00 PST.

This bundle really instills Dredd. From 2000AD and IDW Publishing comes a truly Dredded collection. Get judgmental with over $220 worth of awesome comics, including the brand-new Judge Dredd: Mega-City Zero;Judge Dredd: Deviations; all up-to-date issues of Judge Dredd: The Blessed Earth; Judge Dredd: Anderson, Psi-Division; and more!

Pay what you want. All together, these comics would cost over $224. Here at Humble Bundle, you choose the price and increase your contribution to upgrade your bundle! This bundle has a minimum $1 purchase.

Read them anywhere. These comics are available in multiple formats including CBZ, PDF, and ePub, so they work on your computer, e-readers, iPads, cell phones, and a wide array of mobile devices! Instructions and a list of recommended reading programs can be found here.

Support charity. Choose where the money goes – between the publishers, IDW Publishing and 2000AD; and the charities, Traveling Stories and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund via the PayPal Giving Fund. If you like what we do, you can leave us a Humble Tip too!

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Infographic: 12 Famous Accidental Innovations

Infographic and associated information courtesy of GetVoIP.

The technological progress of the human species is amazing. Throughout history, the world’s most brilliant minds have continuously pushed the boundaries of science to develop new and exciting innovations.

Most innovations are painstakingly created through vigorous testing and experimenting, some are predicted by pop culture, and others are simply accidents.

Important innovations such as the pacemaker, x-rays, and even matches were the result of total happenstance. We have the sheer randomness of the universe to thank for these, and other, critical inventions.

We’ve put together a visual that details 12 of the most famous accidental innovations and the unusual stories that led to their discovery.

Accidents happen, and apparently, sometimes they lead to groundbreaking innovations.

Who would have thought something as deeply ingrained in our daily lives as a microwave exists by pure chance? Or that a life-saving device like the pacemaker was created by mistake?

The story of the creation of Scotchgard, in particular, demonstrates how potential innovations could be right around the corner and all we need to unlock them is a different perspective. Had Patsy Sherman’s assistant not spilled the Scotchgard mixture on their shoe, Sherman would not have discovered the dirt-repellent properties of Scotchgard.

Considering how whacky some of these stories are, many of these innovations might not have come to fruition had one or two things gone slightly differently. Thankfully, the creators of these handy inventions were able to turn mishaps into important innovations.

And these happy accidents aren’t limited to the innovations listed above. In fact, a number of our favorite food items were created by accident:

Corn Flakes
Potato chips
Coca-Cola
Popsicles
Ice cream cones

 

Even children’s toys like the Slinky and Play-Doh were developed by accident. If nothing else, this teaches us that it’s okay to fail and we should embrace making mistakes.

Who knows, our next frustrating gaffe could actually turn into the next big innovation of our time!

The post Infographic: 12 Famous Accidental Innovations appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Name your own price for The Humble Book Bundle: A Galaxy of Stars in Sci-fi & Fantasy by Open Road!

The Humble Book Bundle: A Galaxy of Stars in Sci-fi & Fantasy by Open Road

Here’s the link. Offer expires 2018-01-03 11:00:00 PST.

Sometimes you just need a little space. Take some time for yourself to explore new worlds in this science fiction & fantasy bundle! You’ll find flights of fancy from Ursula K. Le Guin, Patricia C. Wrede, Greg Bear, Octavia E. Butler, and many more. Some of the stories deal with pretty dark matter, but if it’s any constellation, remember that once you star-t to read, you just might meteor new favorite author!

Pay what you want. All together, these ebooks would cost over $297. Here at Humble Bundle, you choose the price and increase your contribution to upgrade your bundle! This bundle has a minimum $1 purchase.

Read them anywhere. These books are available in PDF, ePUB, and MOBI formats, meaning you can read them anywhere at any time. Instructions and a list of recommended reading programs can be found here.

Support charity. Choose where the money goes – between the publisher, Open Road, or the charities, Direct Relief and Worldreader (via the PayPal Giving Fund). If you like what we do, you can leave us a Humble Tip too!

The post appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Name your price for Humble Book Bundle: Be a Coder by No Starch Press

The Humble Book Bundle: Be a Coder by No Starch Press

Click here to name your own price for the bundle. Offer ends 2018-01-01 11:00:00 PST.

Learn you some coding for great good! No Starch Press is back with a new bundle of great good books. Get Wicked Cool Shell Scripts, The Book of R, Gray Hat C#, The Art of Debugging, Code Craft, Data Visualization with JavaScript, Ruby Under a Microscope, Understanding ECMAScript 6, and other resources to help learn you a thing or three!

Pay what you want. All together, these books would cost over $599. Here at Humble Bundle, you choose the price and increase your contribution to upgrade your bundle! This bundle has a minimum $1 purchase.

Read them anywhere. These books are available in PDF, ePUB, and MOBI formats, meaning you can read them anywhere at any time. Instructions and a list of recommended reading programs can be found here.

Support charity. Choose where the money goes – between the publisher and the Electronic Frontier Foundation via the PayPal Giving Fund. If you like what we do, you can leave us a Humble Tip too!

The post appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Layers of Fear and Soundtrack free to buy for 48 hours

Pick up Layers of Fear plus its Soundtrack for free and get 10% off your first month of Humbly Monthly! The offer expires Wednesday, December 20 at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Here’s the link.

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Review: Asani PLA 3D Printing Filament

In my ongoing quest to track down the best PLA 3D printing filament, I decided to try out the Asani PLA 3D Printing Filament. The 1.75mm 1kg spool of filament comes in Black, Blue, Green, Red, White, and Wood. I’m specifically reviewing the Blue. It’s a vibrant, lighter blue color.

The box.

What’s inside.

As you would expect, the filament comes shrinkwrapped with a desiccant pack inside a cardboard box. The spool itself has filament slots to help with storage, as well as a small viewhole about three quarters of the way down to see when you’re running low.

Mounted on my Flux Delta+.

Since this is standard PLA, there are no special print temperature or heated bed requirements. The former can range from 195 – 210 degrees Celsius, while the latter can range from 0 – 60 degrees Celsius. I’m testing it on a Flux Delta+, which has no heated bed, using its standard highest resolution output settings.

 

A post shared by Bill Loguidice (@bill_loguidice) on Dec 17, 2017 at 12:02pm PST

For a change of pace, I decided to test print a silly Poop Emoji from Thingiverse for my youngest daughter. As you can tell from the photos, the end result was excellent, with smooth output of uniform color. It’s clear that Asani has a winner of their hands with this filament.

Finished!

Front.

Side.

Rear.

Pluses:

– Accurate dimensions

– Consistent color

– Smooth, silky output

– Reasonable price

Minuses:

– Nothing of note

Summary:

You’ll be happy with the output of this high quality PLA filament.

Thanks to Asani for the discounted review unit.

The post Review: Asani PLA 3D Printing Filament appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Review: BittBoy FC Mini Handheld – 300 game Famicom/NES system

The BittBoy FC Mini Handheld is a 300 game Famicom/NES system. While the case design is reminiscent of an original GameBoy, it’s in a considerably more compact form factor.

The box.

Contents.

The BittBoy is available in Black, Blue, Red, White, or Yellow. I’m reviewing the White.

Front view.

Rear view.

Angled side view.

Here are the BitBoy’s Key features:

300 built-in Famicom/NES games
2.2″ IPS display
TV out (cable included)
Removable 3.7V 700mAh rechargeable battery (rated at ~3 hours per charge, Game Boy Advance SP compatible)
microUSB charging port

 

The main menu is simple enough to navigate with the d-pad, although it’s not presented in alphabetical order. It’s the expected mix of original games and hacks of original games you would typically find on your average x-in-1 Famicom/NES multicart. The display does cut off some of the longer names at the end of the menu. Similarly, the screen tends to show the overscan area of games, so you sometimes see screen elements or programming tricks that are hidden when playing the original system on a CRT.

The screen is bright and vibrant in person.

The overall quality of the screen is excellent, with good brightness and clarity. Unfortunately, my unit had a dead pixel in the lower left quadrant of the screen. There was also uneven backlighting or some other issue starting in the upper right of my screen and extending all the way down. It’s like a light stripe and some dark areas. I doubt this issue is present in the entire production run, so I’ll just chalk this up to a faulty unit, but it’s nevertheless something to keep in mind.

The dead pixel on the lower left quadrant of the screen.

The screen anomaly of the right side of the screen.

Sound-wise, it sounds close, but not quite perfect versus the original system. There’s also no headphone jack – a curious omission for a handheld – so you’re limited to the onboard speaker, which gets reasonably loud. At the highest volume level, there is a persistent hiss, which is really only noticeable when there’s no sound.

The onboard controls work well, with a nice, oversized d-pad, and good action buttons. There is the expected Select, Start, and A and B buttons, as well as turbo buttons for A and B. The R button returns you to the main menu.

Although not every game runs perfectly, they’re close enough. I had a blast playing games like Super Mario Bros. and Raid on Bungeling Bay, despite the somewhat cramped distance between the d-pad and action buttons my adult hands had to endure (the span of the handheld’s controls is only about 2.5 inches). It of course warmed my classic gamer heart to see a lot of my favorite arcade and computer Famicom/NES ports on there as well.

Here’s a few video snippets via the BittBoy’s TV out:

Super Mario Bros.

 

Lode Runner

 

Full Menu

 

The BittBoy is fairly inexpensive at $39.99, and includes a TV out cable. And, as long as it lasts, there’s a Christmas Promotion for 20% off using coupon code xmas20.

Pluses:

 Compact
Inexpensive
TV out cable is included
Has several prominent games
microUSB charging port
Replaceable rechargeable battery (Game Boy Advance SP compatible)
Good selection of games with lots of action classics

 

Minuses:

Screen is a bit on the small side
My screen had a dead pixel and some type of anomaly on the right
Speaker buzzes at all times at maximum volume
No headphone jack
Game order on menu is random with no customization options
Mediocre battery life
Filler and duplicate games with minor variations
TV out cable is easy to bump, temporarily losing your display
Can’t seem to charge while using the TV out (buttons are unreliable)
TV output is mediocre
Unauthorized
Mock microSD card slot

 

Summary:

In spite of its negatives, the BittBoy FC Mini represents a decent value worth investigating for portable Famicom/NES fun.

Thanks to BittBoy for the review unit.

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Get a FREE copy of Company of Heroes 2 for next 48 hours!

We’re giving away FREE copies of Company of Heroes 2 for 48 hours (or while supplies last) in the Humble Store! This promotion lasts until Saturday, December 16 at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Here’s the link.

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Clapboss, clap-based smart home controller, is now on Kickstarter

Clapboss by Astrohaus – the makers of Freewrite and Sprinter – is a consumer electronic product that controls your smart home with a clap. It’s now available for backing on Kickstarter. The small device is configurable to listen for multiple clap patterns and assign each one to an available action such as turning on or off lights, requesting a Lyft, or ordering your favorite Domino’s pizza. Using a Wi-Fi connection to the Internet, Clapboss interacts with a virtually limitless number of services and products.

According to Astrohaus: “The design of the Clapboss is meant to bring a fun, low cost product to the neutered world of smart home appliances. Its monochromatic color screen and bright silicone ‘ears’ provide a welcome interaction for users of all ages. While simple to use, Clapboss has advanced internal algorithms that identify hand clap sounds and ignore everything else.

Clapboss brings back a simplicity to controlling home appliances. With the growth of smart home devices like connected lights, thermostats, locks, and outlets, simple things have become more complicated to control. What you could once do with the flip of a switch now requires a smart phone or a voice controlled personal assistant. Clapboss adds a fun and simple way to control your smart home, all with a clap!“

It’s available in a variety of colors.

Just plug it into any outlet.

There’s a pass-through and outlet control option.

The built-in screen can provide simple, meaningful info.

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