We are upgrading our database server tonight so there is going to be some downtime -- hopefully not more than 15 minutes or so.

Edit: We didn't get to it on Tuesday night so the delay might be tonight (Wednesday).

A loose shoelace led to the downfall of the Qing vases. It's amazing museums don't lose more art to random acts of clumsiness/stupidity.

I've been working on creating a map for all the members similar to Frappr, but a little more focused on accomodating 4000 member locations. The PJ world view map will have around 150 locations -- one for each country in the world.  When you click on a country on the map you'll have a detail view with all the map points for just that country. 

I'm slowly, but surely going to transfer every member (who has posted their location) to the new PJ location system.  This will calculate Longitude and Latitude based on country and/or city.  I've written a script to parse out recognizable cities, states, countries for members, but most people entered their locations in a casual format so it's going to take a long time before everyone is in the system. If you are interested in helping simply go to "Edit Profile" and update your location (Country/City).

Although it is nice to have a map for PJ members, the main reason I'm doing this is so I can get a good handle on how to integrate Google Maps and a geocoder system into a site. 

Hopefully you'll see a full map with all 3800+ PJ members sometime in the next few weeks.  Suggestions welcome!

Satirical look at the United States government's new and improved fascist outlook on dealing with their citizens.  Patriot Search's mission statement says it best...

Our mission is to provide the best possible search engine to you while at the same time, making sure the government is informed should you search for something obscure, illegal, or unpatriotic.

Lyle in Cube Sector is a cool new freeware game made in Multimedia Fusion. The gameplay is similar to the Metroid games (acquire new abilities to reach new areas), and it's got cool NES-style graphics.

The 'story': "Ohno! Lyle's kitty has been stolen and now he must journey through the wonked out lands of the Cubesector to retrieve his meowmeow companion!"

I played through it a bit and it's pretty hard, but lots of fun.

Check eet!

The wonderful c64s.com site has all sorts of retro-gaming bliss that run through a Java emulator.

Bless the nostalgic nerds that bring forth such wonderful technology.

Tad Stones, who is supervising director and supervising producer for the two upcoming straight-to-DVD Hellboy animated movies, continues to update the blog for the projects and has revealed a first look at the animated Abe Sapien. Read the blog for more information on its progress.

Side note: Some character design work was partially done by a great comic artist, Cheeks (aka Sean Galloway), who is also a member at deviantart. Check out his gallery.

You may not know the name Aziz Ansari now, but rest assured you soon might.  

While researching programming stuff at work I stumbled across a breathtaking 10 minute standup MP3 on fluxblog.org by a fella named Aziz Ansari. After an intense round of googling I came upon Aziz's website with a sometimes-hilarious video series called Shutterbugs. It's a series about children agents and it's oh-so-deliciously wrong.

This Japanese blog has some incredibly fun Java applets. It's mostly in Japanese, but on the right there's a handy list of 'games'. World of Sand (my personal favourite) also has a higher resolution version.

(Note: The navigation on the right is at the bottom of the page in Internet Explorer)

Disaffected! - a videogame parody of the Kinko’s copy store, a source of frustration from its patrons. Disaffected! puts the player in the role employees forced to service customers under the particular incompetences common to a Kinko’s store. From a new series of persuasive games we call anti- advergames.

Take that you corporate fat cats! The developers have been nice enough to make the game available for both Mac and Windows.

I hate to ever bring up the whole Mac/Windows/Linux Pandora's box (I have used all three and don't understand a fanatical devotion to any of them), but Apple's new advertisement with Intel is so stupid on so many levels.

I'm not sure why Intel feels the need to call millions of their customers braindead sheep in the new Mac ad.  It just doesn't seem like good business sense.

The hard-hitting news force at The Onion has uncovered Take Two's (developer of Grand Theft Auto) new direction for creating games.

That steaming pile of self righteous indignation Jack Thompson would be proud.

Nintendo really seems to be pushing the interactive experience with their controllers lately. Their new interactive floor tech would certainly change how we play games (assuming it's affordable enough for the average gamer). Too bad this tech isn't run by a smuttier company than Nintendo. The possibilities are endless.

Watch some peeps stomp some virtual fish

You can catch a quick little teaser trailer of Nicholas Cage as Ghostrider here.

Enjoy!

This movie trailer about the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11/2001 has certainly stirred up some controvery in the USA. Is it too soon to be recreating these tragic events?  Will people line up to see a movie where they know all the protaganists are going to die at the end?  How much do we really know about what went on up there? 

I've blathered on about the "i am 8-bit" book previously, but a digg post reminded me just how effing cool the art is. Check out the gallery featuring Excitebike, Kirby, Mario, Centipede and a bunch of other classic games as interpreted by top notch artists.

I saw some signs on the subway, prompting readers to visit this site. Since I always do whatever the ads tell me to, I gave it a visit. Boy was I in for a surprise! Not only can I calculate my impact on the environment, but I get to watch some isometric pixel art while I do! No matter how niche your interest be (whether it's gay porn involving midgets dressed as historical leaders or discovering your carbon footprint while watching tiny pixel people) chances are you aren't alone on the internet!

Check eeeet!

I spend a lot of time browsing the web (endless hours better spent working and sleeping and loving and learning) and I still managed to miss some of the Top 10 Web Moments of 2005. The Flying Spaghetti (so damn hard to spell that) Monster movement is a personal favorite.

Any other neat web stuff out there that we might've missed this year? 

The impact of classic videogames on pop culture seems to be getting renewed life in the world of kitsch fashion.

Some gauche accessories for your favorite Generation X-er... Tetris T-shirt,  Space Invaders Scarf, Super Mario Bag and Super Mario Mouse.

Old news perhaps, but this little website is a delight for anyone who's a fan of the comedy of Ricky Gervais aka David Brent from award winning British comedy The Office.

Read all about Gervais' 80's new romantic band 'Seona Dancing' and listen to a couple of sample tunes. It's great just to see the photo comparison. Ricky looks more like David Bowie than David Brent! 

Pixel art with Rubik's Cubes is all the rage these days.  A Paris based artist named Invader is creating "pixel art" with the old mind teaser toy.

Check it out

Hey, funny story. I was looking for Halo stuff and I accidently typed hako and i thought, wth why not. Went down a little and found that it's like that fold up geometrical cut out shapes thing y'all did at school but more advanced.

Take a look!