Yup, it’s that time of the year again. When you don’t exactly need a calendar to tell you that the year is getting renewed, you can just feel it in the air. Or at least you’re supposed to, unless like me you’re stuck in the cold of Toronto. On Thursday [March 20th], 01:48:19 AM, year 2567 (1387) of the Persian calendar begins. From what I already know, this year is going to be one of _THE_ most important years of my life. Full of ups and downs and adventures. There’s much that’s about to happen, and I’m very much looking forward to everything. I hope that this year is going to be a good year for all of us, and although I have my doubts as to whether the current “situation” in Iran is going to change in any positive way, but I’ll still keep my figures crossed. So happy new year everyone, and best wishes from me, Ahoo, Aasemoon.
Yes yes, I did receive an invitation from the Twine cast and crew. =) Honestly I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and I’m happy to say that I haven’t been disappointed with what I have seen so far. The truth is, I also do have the same feeling as Genox about the number of current social networking websites, as well as their quality. [Which is: not a very good feeling!] But now after having used Twine for a day and half, I can say that it’s something new. Yes, finally something new! I still have to use it quite a bit more before I can talk more about what it does and how it’s like, but from what I’ve seen so far, to put it simple, it really is a way of sharing knowledge and interests! It’s like Wikipedia + del.icio.us + Digg + a public weblog, and it has social networking tools and abilities too. I’m currently very much curious about the “behind the scenes” of it, and I guess I have some digging to do. 😉 Oh yes, I also have to mention that although you get a warning when you try to log-in using Opera, saying that the browser is not supported, but actually everything works just fine on Opera, including the bookmarklet.
Also: The online version of Zine #13 is out! Yes, it is, finally! Click here to read.
Has any of you folk, reading is blog, heard about Twine yet? I guess I could start with giving you some background as to what this is about. You know how I have this habit of digging around the web for..well.. for everything? Including useful tools to add to my website for organizing this and that, and the latest big bangs of the web world? Well last night I was looking at my own blogger profile and the ton of interest links that don’t exactly do much.. and then I thought to myself, that maybe just like my little link organizer, I should fix a little something of my own that would give me the ability to organize my interests in a somehow more useful way, instead of just having a repeated bunch of words in every profile that I have on every website, including my own. But then… organize the interests to do exactly what with it? For example on my blogger profile, if you click on each listed interest, you get a list of other people with that interest. That’s kinda cool, but not so much since a good many people using blogger never really create a profile. And half of what you do get is actually pretty outdated anyways. Not much of a good way of figuring out exactly who may be able to help me out with my Pliant problems [the programming language that I like and somehow nobody else does]. And I have to add this, the “interest search” feature in most of the networking websites isn’t exactly much better either. So, I figured I needed some ideas, and the googling started. My first query was “organize your interests online”, and the first result that popped up was this article on techcrunch.com talking about something called “Twine”. Following the link to the Twine website and having a look around, I figured that this, is probably the 10000 times more advanced version of what I was looking for. The ultimate way of organizing what you’re into, and finding out that you’re not quite the only person with that certain weird interest that you think nobody else in the entire universe has. So, marvelous all of that, lets give it a try! But hey, not so fast apparently. Just when I wanted to sign up, I saw that tiny little banner saying that this a beta and invite only. Meh. Now my interest is boiling and I can’t get inside this thing. Ah well, I thought I should probably ask my friends! I got into every other invitation only beta by asking friends! But no luck, nobody has even heard of this. Ok then, lets ask google again. Maybe I can find something. And yes, I should probably post an article about it, maybe someone gets back to me. So I was halfway writing this post when I found this weblog: Minding the Planet. The latest post on that blog says that if I write an article about Twine, and send the author of that blog the link to it, and if it passes all tests, I miiiiiiiiiiiiiiight get an invitation. Of course it’s a pretty big “might” since from what I read, there’s a good 30,000 people waiting out there for an invitation. But well, I already wrote this, I may as well send it in and see what happens, right? =)
Nowadays, it seems that there are more weblogs on the net than anything else. Weblogs of all sorts, for all topics and purposes, with all the various looks and designs that they have. Or.. do they? Well, not really! Honestly it seems most weblogs these days are somehow the same, design-wise, that is. Blog templates are pretty repetitious, and well maybe I’m a bit of a visual person, but I would like it better if the text and the looks have something to do with each other… if the blog is supposedly the reflection of the persons mind, isn’t it a good idea if the blog template is too? At least to some extent? Anyhow, I’ve had a lot of people telling me that my weblog looks somewhat “unusual” or “different than what’s out there”. Well, if you think my blog is different, wait till you see the new template of Genox.ch! Just check it out… now this is what I call difference. =)
Is any of you guys reading this blog into comic books? Well, I am! I can’t say that I’m reading them all the time, but every once in a while I just like to drown myself in some good comics. That being said, lately I came across a 3 volume comic set of a certain genre that I don’t read just thaaaat often. But hey, I found these ones pretty interesting! The comics are called “Lazarus”, and they’re about a guy who is on the run after a horrible experience… it’s a bit of a painful and horror-like story, created by Diego Cortes and Juan E. Ferreyra. So if you’re into comic books, check this one out.
On yet another completely different note, I just put together an FLV demo video collection in my gallery [viewable on the web]. The collection, which is not that large yet, is mainly for “demonstration” purposes. The idea was basically handed to me by some of the folk attending the demoshows, saying that it would be nice to have an easy/quick way of showing what you mean by “demos” when you’re talking to somebody about them. Specially if it’s such that you don’t have to search YouTube for some good demos, when you don’t know many names! So there ye go! =) And yes, I am planning on expanding the collection, and do drop me a line if you have some videos to add to this.
Yes yes yes, ooooook, about 50 emails so far. =) I know, I know, I swear! So yes, Zine #13 was released this morning, Europe time, which explains why I was asleep at the time it was released, so please let me wake up first and then [now] I will certainly write about it. 😉
The much anticipated 13th issue of the Zine digital magazine, as it was apparent from the headlines that were released earlier, has a great deal to offer. At the first glance, the interface is definitely one of the cutest ones I have seen, and at the same time it’s very smooth and simple to use. The music selection is also a nice complement to the good looks. Of course the most important part of any magazine would be the article, and the Zine team has definitely done an excellent job with that as well. There’s a wide range of articles about all things Demoscene related, and I would say that for all of your guys and gals out there who are curious about different aspects of the Demoscene, this is certainly a must read. So, go ahead and check it out!
If by any slight chance you have problem viewing the magazine, as far as I could find out from bitfellas.org, there is going to be an online edition sooner or later. So don’t worry too much.
And well, yes, that is my picture on the thumbnail. Read the magazine and you shall know why. 😉
Last night I was notified that the Zine #13 headlines has been released! This intro which has been created by ASD, Brainstorm and Bitfellas gives you a general idea as to what you can expect to read in the upcoming Zine issue, but that sure is not all that it offers! The modeling of this intro has been done by Navis, and the music has been created by aMUSiC, which mean that YES, there is an ASD mini demo here that you really don’t want to miss. =) The intro looks quite similar to the “Beyond The Walls Of Eryx” that was created for last year’s Intel demo competition. And well you see, it has mini robots. And I guess I’ve already made it clear how I feel about mini robots. =D Wee! I have to mention that aMUSiC has definitely done it again with the superb music. As for the headlines, honestly I couldn’t read every single word of it. But from what I was able to get out of it, seems like Zine #13 is going to be quite a ride, as was the case with #12. Hey, I know that you know what I’m talking about because almost everyone reading this blog had checked out the “Life Force Development Journal”. 😉 So, I’m very much looking forward to reading the upcoming issue. Meanwhile, don’t forget to check out the intro!
Update:
I know some of you guys have problems running the intro or reading the text. I’m still looking for a video version or the pure text for the headlines, but so far no luck. I tried capturing it myself, didn’t work out too well. I will definitely let you know as soon as I find something.
On the other hand, some guys seem to have problems seeing the pouet.net page for the intro. Well, not surprisingly I also have the same problem. I have not been able to see any pages on pouet.net for half a year now! I think it’s a problem with our beloved provider the bloody Rogers with their perfect DNS system. [Did I mention I bloody hate Rogers?] Instead I use pouet.scene.org and that works just fine. So the working link would be this one. Or you can download it directly from the ASD website with this link.
And yes, something weird had happened to some of the comments while re-publishing this article and they were showing up in the wrong place. I’ve fixed that and moved the comments back here.
UPDATE:
Well well, ladies and gentlemen who couldn’t run the demo or read the text, worry no more! =D We’ve been saved by Genox^Vantage^Calodox a.k.a my Other Half, as he has just captured a video of the intro. You can download it from here: http://genox.ch/pub/asd_-_zine_13_headlines.m4v
