Author: Chris Barrus

The return of Fool’s Errand and Cliff Johnson

Eons before Myst, the state of the art in computer-based puzzle games was Fool’s Errand, At The Carnival, and 3 In Three. I burned more hours and brain power on those games than on pretty much anything else before or since. Now you can burn up time too – creator Cliff Johnson has put all three games up on the web.

[via Plastic]

Philip K. Dick in Orange County

Another PKD movie, another PKD article… However this one is better than most and deftly stays away from the “he’s crazy” summation that most of these pieces devolve into. There’s even a PKD story I hadn’t heard of…

Powers remembers a call from Phil: he’d figured out the universe, he said.

“I said, ‘Cool!'” Powers says, “And he said, ‘So can you come over after work?'”

“Yeah, I’ll be right over,” Powers said. “But listen: Can you write it out as a limerick?”

“No, I can’t write it out as a limerick!” Dick snapped. “It’s the secret of the universe-come on!”

But when Powers pulled up on his motorcycle, Dick had a limerick for him anyway:

The determinist forces are wrong
But irresistibly strong
While of God there’s a dearth
For he visits the Earth
But not for sufficiently long

He’d even written an alternate ending:

But of God there’s no dearth
For he visits the Earth
Though just for sufficiently long

 

Kaj Pindal’s “What On Earth!”

Jason Kottke jogs my memory and reminds me of the wonderful Canadian animated film “What On Earth!”. This film shows what many Earthlings have long feared (and what Martians might logically deem to be the case) — that the automobile has inherited the Earth. An animated film, it shows life on Earth as one long, unending conga-line of cars. The Martian visitors judge them to be the true inhabitants of Earth, while we seem to be parasites infesting the autos. I recall seeing this on an ancient cable network in the 70s – probably Z Channel or maybe Select. It’s been on Cartoon Network’s “Oh Canada!” show a little more recently. Still remember the snappy theme music.

Sound To Make An Army Flee

It’s a hypersonic weapon *and* a propaganda device. It’ll turn up in cars and nu-metal concerts too I’ll bet.

Once aimed at the enemy, a focused beam of the familiar noise, played backwards, will be painful enough to make enemy soldiers run for their lives, according to its developers. They call it the “sonic bullet”.

There are 50 soundtracks to choose from, and they are played at 140 decibels. That is akin to standing beneath a passenger jet as it takes off. Hardly surprising, then, that the weapon causes an intense headache in its victim.
…
But the “hypersonic sound system” beams sound along two ultrasonic signals to produce noise only when they hit the target. The weapon’s user doesn’t hear a thing.
…
A hand-held version of the weapon – a thin tube about a yard long, dubbed a “directed stick radiator” – might in theory be used against hijackers in a plane cockpit, though the bouncing beams could deafen passengers as well.

The firm which developed the system, American Technology Corporation, has won approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to market it. It also hopes to offer the device for use in drinks machines. Someone in front of one would hear the sound of a can opening with an enticing fizz.

[via Daypop Top 40]

John Entwistle dead at 57

who-mygenerationThis is just so damn sad and depressing that I feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach.

This is the coolest album ever (not to mention the coolest album cover) and was single-handedly responsible for me to pick up a bass guitar… I was 15 years old and had never voluntarily picked up any instrument, but Entwistle’s bass solo in “My Generation” caused me to obsess over the bass – and a bright red P-Bass clone that cost me $75.
When I was 16 the following year, I blew up my stereo speakers to Entwistle’s bass solo in “Trick Of The Light” – just too damn loud…

*sigh* R.I.P…