Tag Archives: seriousgames

href weekly | July30-Aug5 2023

Bits

By pressing a button on the remote, you set off a spring-loaded hammer that strikes a solid aluminum rod in the device, which then rings out at an ultrasonic frequency. Each button has a different length rod, thus a different high-frequency tone, which triggers a circuit connected to a microphone in the television to finish the command. https://www.theverge.com/23810061/zenith-space-command-remote-control-button-of-the-month

The Library of Congress is sponsoring a challenge to help improve public knowledge of civics by asking video game developers to create fun, lightweight video games related to civics that incorporate Library of Congress resources. https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2023/06/help-the-library-of-congress-create-video-games-that-improve-public-knowledge-of-civics/

The beginners guide to becoming a programmer https://pyflo.net

is a powerful tool for manipulating audiovisual files. Unfortunately, it also has a steep learning curve, especially for users unfamiliar with a command line interface. This app helps users through the command generation process so that more people can reap the benefits of FFmpeg. https://amiaopensource.github.io/ffmprovisr/

In this course, we walk you through what it takes for companies to link their systems together. We start off easy, defining some of the tech lingo you may have heard before, but didn’t fully understand. From there, each lesson introduces something new, slowly building up to the point where you are confident about what an is and, for the brave, could actually take a stab at using one. https://zapier.com/resources/guides/apis

Politics & Economics

“What I found on this trip was a changed landscape: gone are the small, clean, cheap motels in the centre of cities, gone are spaces where anyone can find a water fountain, a bathroom, a place to nurse a cheap cup of coffee and human company.” https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/jul/26/america-roadtrip-greyhound-bus


href weekly | July2-July8 2023

Bits

There ought to be exhibitions on Myst and Surrealism; The Sims and interior design; Red Dead Redemption, Albert Bierstadt, and the American West. https://archive.ph/2FGaB

Exploring the tech behind concert led wristbands https://hackaday.com/2023/07/01/exploring-the-tech-behind-concert-led-wristbands/

Enslaved machine learning processes aren’t going to rise up in anger and overturn us, any more (or any less) than markets, bureaucracy and democracy have already. Such minatory fantasies tell us more about their authors than the real problems of the world we live in. https://crookedtimber.org/2023/07/03/shoggoths-amongst-us/

Tiny is a small prize awarded by an equally-small selection committee of online makers to the website which we feel best embodies the idea of a small, playful and heartfelt https://tinyawards.net/

The programmed monopolization of possibilities disables human agency by robbing it of any alternative competency. https://www.noemamag.com/post-anthropocene-humanism/

PhD Simulator https://research.wmz.ninja/projects/phd/index.html

Politics & Economics

Modern propaganda does not try to convert people to a coherent ideology or make them believe that there is a utopia behind the walls of some foreign dictatorship. Instead, it makes people enraged, confused and depressed, and conclude that no truths can be known. https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2023/06/27/Education-Birth-Democracy-Will-Protect-It/

What if there is no crisis, but instead a housing market working exactly as intended? https://btlbooks.com/book/the-tenant-class

B.C.’s largest wildfire on record now eclipses the entire area of Prince Edward Island https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/donnie-creek-wildfire-aftermath-1.6892294

Gap between rich and poor widens at fastest pace on record https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230704/dq230704a-eng.htm

The question is: what kind of agriculture do Canadians want? Growing land inequality undermines the social, economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture. Progressive agrarian and food movements propose a different future — one based on food sovereignty. This would entail equitable access to land for farmers, sustainable livelihoods and valuing farmland for its social and ecological worth, as well as its productive value. https://thenarwhal.ca/prairies-farming-investors/

This kind of policy by Elsevier is not just aimed at Design Studies. Elsevier is already subject to various academic boycotts and editor walkouts around the world. https://www.designresearchsociety.org/articles/the-future-of-design-studies-journal

Arguably, the craziest faction in right now isn’t red-hatted blue-collar guys in diners, it’s technology billionaires living in huge mansions and flying around on private jets. At one level it’s quite funny. Unfortunately, however, these people have enough money to do serious damage. https://archive.li/Idv9F