So begins the saga of the scanner camera -- skip below if you want to see the first two shots..

What is a scanner camera? Well, I'd link to the fellow's page who describes it, but it's totally down now. And the Google Cache doesn't have any photos in it (cuz the site is down). So I'll summarize -- basically, think of a pinhole camera with a really big pinhole and instead of a bit of film in the back, there's a scanner.

We bought the Canon LIDE 35 USB-powered scanner (no extra plugs, super light, small, and works great) at CompUSA (thanks Fred!) and got some boxes from Office Max. We kind of screwed up when we built it because we didn't realize we should get boxes larger than the scanner and put the scanner on the inside. We have gotten some new boxes and will build version two tomorrow morning.



We thought we'd be able to use a regular camera lens, but didn't realize that the fellow who thought this up had actually disassembled the second-hand lenses he found and got the lens itself out. So if anyone has an extra overhead head laying around, let me know. Or a camera lens you don't mind giving away. Otherwise, we'll hunt the SuperFlea next weekend and make due with the Viewmaster lenses we grabbed from the toy section at Target. Why don't kids have cool toys like telescopes anymore???

Anyway, here are the first two images taken with the camera. Well, technically we took some nice photos of "white" and "black" a few times. But you can actually see things in these. These are the houses across the street, shot through a pinhole this evening. I'll post more details about the camera when we get it working better, especially if the other guy's site doesn't go back up soon -- I know lots of people want to know more about this, so we'll share our experiences.

On with the images!

I love open source stuff, but the prevalence of closed, corp software makes the decision something of a pragmatic one. For example, I run a videogame website. I cannot go All-Linux because then I wouldn't be able to play nearly as many games. Although there are some great games available for Linux, it's just not really an option. As a developer of internet media and multimedia, I also feel like it's essential to be able to simulate the user's experience as much as possible, and that means Windows.

But I appreciate being able to modify and customize software, and I believe in open source development and the creative commons and all that good stuff. I've tried to get students to use the free Photoshop alternative, Gimp (http://www.gimp.org) but its hard to justify -- there are like no jobs looking for Gimp skills and thousands looking for Photoshop skills.

So then I found GimpShop. (http://www.plasticbugs.com/) It ain't perfect, but it's pretty dang sweet. It definitely makes it easier to go between GIMP and PS. That's for sure.

The Experimental Gameplay Project: create 50 to 100 games in 1 semester. New games every week.

The Rules:

* each game must be made in less than 7 days
* each game must be made by one person, including all art, sound, and programming
* each game must be based around a certain "toy" ie. "gravity", "vegetation", "swarm behavior", etc.

Some really cool indy games here. Check it out:

My friend Steffan is always talking about doing a game where the rules change everytime. Then I always go, "CalvinBall!" and he sighs at me. Sorry Steffan.

But I found this Game of Nomic Wiki (http://www.nomic.net/~nomicwiki/index.php/GameOfNomic) which explains the Game of Nomic, which is a game where "changing the rules is a move." The game becomes less about aquiring points and more about twisting the rules. It sounds like what all of our politicians should be doing instead of playing Nomic with all of our culture and society.

So I made this thing last weekend. It's a dynamic short story called "So Random" (http://www.shawnrider.com/soRandom). I hope you like it. (e:paul) is helping me do cool things with it. Thanks (e:paul) -- you deserve your own day, like commemorating, like, your birth or something... hehe