1 Feb

• @waxpancake This might cover too much of the same ground as Tetris HD, but there's Futilitris: http://bit.ly/d9qBPg
• As expected, the Dead Space 2 demo is not remotely representative of the actual beginning of the game.
• Photos from the Yosemite trip: http://bit.ly/g4Dzoo

2 Feb

• "Skin gun" heals severe burns perfectly in days: http://bit.ly/dFdrwv
• Do you miss listening to dotted-quarter-delayed synth panflutes over low-bitrate disco beats? Gatekeeper to the rescue! http://j.mp/ihAbrb
• Everything you ever wanted to know about the Penny Arcade Dickwolves issue: http://bit.ly/hVHhyZ
• (Or, if you just want to read a few paragraphs rather than encyclopedia: http://bit.ly/bwAInA)
• http://j.mp/ec4vJ5 Fully independent team, we can make any game we want! I know: let's make another generic first-person Aliens-ripoff!
• Even the marketing is a half-assed ripoff of the inanity that big game publishers put out. Talk about missing the point.
• ALSO IT IS CALLED "INTERSTELLAR MARINES." IT'S REALLY CALLED THAT.
• Austin is crowdsourcing the new name of its solid waste services department. Here's your chance to make a difference! http://bit.ly/gKtXTX

3 Feb

• Augmented reality: http://i.imgur.com/ELLMO.jpg
• Social game design in a nutshell: http://bit.ly/e2VC4I
• Dead Space 2 is pretty amazing. Not as consistent as Dead Space was -- not really a surprise -- but probably the better experience overall.
• Still no body scanners at the Southwest terminal at SFO. I saw an ad for an oscilloscope, though.
• In San Diego 'til the 14th.
• It's kind of astounding to me that Dead Space 2 made a conventional haunted-house-walk work in a game that's already one big haunted house.

4 Feb

• The new music video hotness: deliberately corrupting the mpeg stream. http://vimeo.com/3139412
• More on the corruption technique: http://bit.ly/9r0jvz
• Hrm, match.com bought OkCupid. That wouldn't be so scary except that people are deleting their accounts in response. There goes the culture!

6 Feb

• I'm habitually attracted to shelves of printed media -- then I remember that I'm in seeing a shrine to the obsolete idea of data scarcity.
• (I'm looking forward to feeling the same way about grocery stores.)

7 Feb

• My thought process was very simple: I like butter, I like milk, ergo.
• Me playing Just Dance 2, if you're into that sort of thing: http://j.mp/enxXGr (Also Elena, Shamayel and Evan, if you're into *that*.)
• New best argument against atheism: it makes you fat and nobody will want to marry you. http://bit.ly/eT3M68

8 Feb

• http://j.mp/g73UsA "A UK immigration officer decided to get rid of his wife by putting her on the no-fly list."
• Bill Roper looks back on Hellgate London: http://bit.ly/gkf66a
• @mrasmus Miyuki Miyabe's next project: a novelization of the work of Ansel Adams.
• The second screenshot here really shows off what good lighting can do for even a textureless scene: http://j.mp/iiX1rv
• (From the dev blog of Jonathan Blow's latest project, recommended in general: http://bit.ly/9R5Ubx)
• Backroom footage from the Sushi Emporium: http://bit.ly/eZGWnY

9 Feb

• Hardcore 20 Questions games from the LA trip: MMR vaccine; losing the lottery; Turk's head knot; lightbulb filament; making two eyes in Go.
• ("Hardcore" variant rules: no actual 20 question limit; answerer may elaborate if "yes" or "no" is misleading.)
• The new You Don't Know Jack looks awesome, but I'm reminded that I know next to nothing of this century's pop culture. http://j.mp/fMTzEu
• http://j.mp/h02eA9 "Daily diet soda drinkers had a 48 percent higher risk of stroke or heart attack than people who drank no soda." Hups!
• "That's after taking into account rates of smoking, diabetes, waistline size and other differences among the groups."

10 Feb

• Plucked strings at 30 frames per second: http://bit.ly/MQ9RE
• More fun with the stroboscope effect: Propeller: http://bit.ly/2Uy5FI Vocal cords: http://bit.ly/eSOR4s Water droplets: http://bit.ly/ewFncH
• http://j.mp/gnx6fG "Annoying the TSA isn't a crime. You have the right to fly without ID, and to photograph, film, and record what happens."
• http://bit.ly/ggSxDS "Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code"

11 Feb

• http://bit.ly/e1iZoz "This is FM FUNK MADDNESS!! -- an album of songs by 18 FM synth enthusiasts from all over the world." Creative commons.
• Chipmunk washes self, in slow-motion: http://bit.ly/ectqbR
• @ChrisDeLeon @troygilbert Large video games are trying to be movies. Is a 90-minute story-driven game "small"?
• Australian criminals of the 1920s are the best-looking Australian criminals: https://bit.ly/eYb2t0

12 Feb

• http://j.mp/efJh6J "During the term of 5 years, the apprentice will work 9000 hours of on-the-job training." Programming needs this *badly*.
• Try to find the core of your game early and pare back everything that conflicts with it. Especially do it before your game gets popular.
• When you've got a thousand-strong userbase screaming about "dumbing down" with every change, it's a lot harder to fix your design mistakes.
• (Imagine trying to add flags to Minesweeper after it got popular. I'm getting a headache just thinking about the thread post counts.)

13 Feb

• Still can't watch a sunset without remembering that after the sun goes off the main sequence, this'll all be gone. Life's too short.

14 Feb

• Catalina, by Moullinex, music video shot on Kinect: http://bit.ly/gJ6yBf
• http://bit.ly/fRx3eJ -- Main dude behind Penumbra and Amnesia critiques Dead Space 2. No overt spoilers, but vague outlines of happenings.
• "Simply removing all combat focus and making the game half as long would probably have created a much more interesting experience." This!
• @mrasmus Yeah, probably about 5000 copies. All to me.
• Recreating childhood photos with now-adults: http://bit.ly/dagpLM -- Highlights: http://bit.ly/ha79cA http://bit.ly/hBBMyi
• The Dutch government didn't start giving out free heroin in 2002 to reduce heroin usage. It was just a nice side benefit. http://j.mp/ifxFWs
• The story of 29 reindeer and St. Matthew Island http://bit.ly/i1vWHj -- This'd be a lot less scary if we didn't live in a global economy.
• It's kind of funny how the people who think the Grammy's still matter are also the people who only listen to Top 40. http://bit.ly/gzfRtc
• @mrasmus Too bad that sign is grossly misleading as to what drowning actually looks like. http://bit.ly/agi9XI
• Arcade Fire Grammy award reaction of the year goes to: http://bit.ly/fv10xQ
• No matter how diligently you shield your child from destructive social norms, at some point she's gonna meet other kids: http://j.mp/fJtPWC
• Flight delayed. Gonna miss the last BART. Figuring shit out.

15 Feb

• @jonbeilin Hell, is that a thing that exists? I ended up just taking a taxi :)

16 Feb

• Hey guys, hey guys. "No god, know peace" and "no god, no peace" both rhyme. So how are we supposed to tell which one's correct?

17 Feb

• I donno how they're planning on making a game that matches the tone of the Dead Island trailer. My guess is, they're not. http://j.mp/fOqmXg
• Answered a bunch more questions on Formspring, for those keeping track of that sort of thing: http://j.mp/gEvihz

18 Feb

• Remember when Kotaku's design was just "grimace" bad rather than "run-screaming" bad? http://bit.ly/h3r9yf I guess that was last week?

20 Feb

• Wilbur Sargunaraj provides how-tos covering the range of human experience: http://bit.ly/dSc9iF http://bit.ly/4Bn7UZ http://bit.ly/bVt6uc
• (Wiiilbur Sargunaraj)
• The Final Fantasy X sphere grid: how to make players think you're providing choice when you're not: http://bit.ly/f9UUH8

21 Feb

• You look up from your book and he's removed all your clothing and put every loose object in the house in the dishwasher. http://j.mp/a1C443
• Remember the HL2 source code leak in 2004? "The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2" http://bit.ly/dGzbEK
• If you can't make the start good, you might as well not make the rest at all. Captive audiences are rarer than you think.
• Serial media have this serious problem: the creator can't go back and make the start good, after finding their footing.
• It worries me that George Hotz can't find pro-bono representation. Shouldn't the EFF be all over this shit? http://bit.ly/fZTZr6

22 Feb

• How To Be A Successful Artist: http://bit.ly/fJ4jvL -- How To Be A Successful Black Artist: http://bit.ly/if7rht

23 Feb

• Leaping shampoo, a.k.a. "The Kaye Effect" http://bit.ly/eoSsaU

24 Feb

• The dolls that inspired Winnie-the-Pooh: http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=644
• Colin's dancing bear animation: http://bit.ly/tLUvw -- There are a number of tributes: http://bit.ly/gh7VFX http://bit.ly/icPPHK
• Mark Salud on Yourself Presents: http://bit.ly/tgQdb -- "Amiga desktop mod techno, performed live on San Diego public access TV"

25 Feb

• "Sony?s War on Makers, Hackers, and Innovators" http://bit.ly/gpDJYs
• "Relics to Reefs ... sunken ships, tanks, and subway cars." http://bit.ly/ey40AW
• "Hipster Disney Villains Are Way More Underground Than Hipster Disney Princesses" http://bit.ly/ihHdF7

27 Feb

• Gendered advertising remixer: http://bit.ly/fLO4LU

28 Feb

• Interstellar Marines director Kim Haar J?rgensen affirms the power of imagination in this Rock Paper Shotgun interview: http://j.mp/fKiMwL
• "If enough people want to support [our vision], then anything is possible: it is possible create an immersive sci-fi role-playing shooter."
• The electric flame scallop, "Christmas of the sea": http://bit.ly/bTB3Dn
• Photo of Discovery and the ISS, taken from the ground with an 8" telescope: http://bit.ly/fCNy9n
• Photo set: Nyiragongo Crater. "The team had dreamed of this: walking on the shores of the world's largest lava lake." http://j.mp/g9wSlf
• Are there other terms like "foodies," to describe those deeply into the nuances of common bodily functions? "Sleepies"? "Shitties"?
• @Kotaku The new design takes nearly a minute to load on my netbook, when it works at all. A superficial "blog mode" won't help in the least.

On Twitter: @mogwai_poet