Entries Tagged 'Vintage & Retro Gaming' ↓

Seems many Google executives have children enrolled in the Waldorf schools in Los Altos where computers are not used until the 8th grade and even then only on a limited basis.

As the New York Times reported, computers “are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home,” and from the number of Silicon Valley executives’ families attending the schools seems this double standard is popular.

While Google executive Alan Eagle may “fundamentally reject the notion you need technology aids in grammar school,” four plus years ago the company joined the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Foundation which sponsored giving laptops to children in third World countries.

“OLPC’s mission is to provide a means for learning, self-expression, and exploration to the nearly two billion children of the developing world with little or no access to education.”

So give them to everyone except their own children? do Google execs know something different about child development? Did they themselves not have them and were drawn to the industry because they missed what others had?

Eagle proudly said his fifth grade daughter doesn’t know how to use Google and his eighth grade son is just learning his way around the search engine. Guess he doesn’t know CEO Larry Page grew up in a house filled with computers and even built a printer out of Legos. Or that Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin got his first computer – a Commodore 64 – at age 9.

Steve Jobs, the founders of Yahoo and many others were early users of computers. Eagle’s stance seems a little harsh and even a little insulting to Google and its users.

“At Google and all these places, we make technology as brain-dead easy to use as possible,” Eagle told the Times.

So who are these ‘brain-dead’ users? The rest of us who cannot afford to spend over $17,000 a year on elementary school? The children in third world countries?

The school backs its methods with high rates of graduates going to college and gaining post graduate degrees – not for an instance thinking it could be the influence of the educated parents who would see this not happening as failure.

Guess the Doodle 4 Google program will be dropped some time soon. The “competition where we invite K-12 students to use their artistic talents to think big and redesign Google’s homepage logo for millions to see. At Google, we believe that dreaming about future possibilities leads to tomorrow’s leaders and inventors, so this year we invited U.S. kids to exercise their creative imaginations around the theme, “What I’d like to do someday…”

Guess the Waldorf kids’ answers would be use a computer.

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COMMENT

The spirit of Winston Churchill was recently invoked by MPs battling a terrifying threat to their freedom.

Admittedly, it wasn’t quite the same kind of implacable foe that was faced down by the cigar-chomping wartime premier. Instead, this threat took the form of a risk that MPs might be banned from tweeting in the Commons.

Wisely, MPs voted against a motion that would have banned tweeting inside the Commons but not before some heated debate.

Winston Churchill, WWII leader and Twitter advocate?Photo: United Nations Information Office, new York

So where does Churchill come into this? MP Kevin Brennan said Twitter’s thrifty character limit upheld the tradition of succinct, punchy sloganeering that stretched back to Winston Churchill himself.

Brennan said: “There is nothing new in political communication in trying to get a message across in a pithy, memorable way, as Twitter enables us to do. in fact, I think it was a certain Winston Churchill who said: ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’

“If that statement was issued as a tweet, it would leave 66 of the 140 characters available on Twitter still to play with. that goes to show that those who want to fight the onslaught of technology on the beaches will find that the tide is turning against them.”

You have to wonder what Churchill would have done had Twitter existed during that time of conflict. Perhaps the great Prime Minister would have considered the message complete in itself and left the 66 characters spare for retweets.

Who knows how his measured words would have been met by the Twitterverse, had it existed. Perhaps #GoWinston would have been a trending topic. or might his pudgy fingers have been moved to include a hashtag to further stir British spirits? Alas, we will never know.

But not every MP was in support of the brave new world of communications technology. Sir Alan Haselhurst said: “I am aware that it will give me a good chance of becoming the leading candidate for the ‘dinosaur of the year’ award,” and added: “If it appears that we are being prompted from outside – which is entirely possible if handheld devices are produced in the House – our reputation will decline.”

Damage the reputation of MPs? if only such a thing were possible…

Despite wails of distress from people who wanted an all-new design and iteration number, Apple has gone on to sell more than a few of the iPhone 4S since its launch.

Naysayers completely panned the 4S. It didn’t look any different and it didn’t even have a new number, just a letter. The writing was on the wall for the iPhone.

Unfortunately, these people completely missed the point. in addition, they were so wholly inaccurate with predictions of doom, that they should consider a career as Wall Street analysts.

Earlier this week Apple announced that despite the utter absence of the number 5 anywhere on the packaging, somehow it has managed to shift four million of the blighters.

One of the possible reasons for its success is…

THURSDAY

Community

Strut: 9 a.m. at YMCA, 1684 Robinson St., 533-9622. Weekly. Also Tuesdays.

Tops 2249: 8-9:30 a.m. game room, Olive Hill Mobilehome Community Park, 2921 Wyandotte Ave. 533-8482. Weekly.

Butte County Historical Society Archives: 9 a.m.-noon, 2335 Baldwin Ave. $3 per person per day to research. 533-9418. Weekly. Also Friday.

Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program: 9:45 a.m. Grange Hall, 1477 Bald Rock Road. Cosponsored by Berry Creek Grange 694. 589-2695. Weekly.

Oroville Library: 11 a.m. Babies love Books for newborns to age 3 at 1820 Mitchell Ave. 538-7641. Weekly.

Bolt Antique Tool Museum: 10 a.m.-3:45 p.m. Unique museum with close to 10,000 tools collected by Carl “Bud” Bolt. Located at 1650 Broderick St., one block from Chinese Temple. $3. Group tours by appointment. 538-2528; Museum, 538-2406. Monday through Saturday; Sunday, 11:45 a.m.-3:45 p.m.

Artists of River Town Gallery and Gifts: noon-4 p.m. 1435 Myers St. Display changes monthly. Receptions on the first saturday of each month during regular hours. call during open hours, 534-3227. Tuesday through Saturday.

Fire House Certified Farmers Market, Heart of Southside Neighborhood: 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 3515 Myers St. Fresh foods, free garden exchange, EBT SNAP (food stamps) accepted. Free stall spaces for produce growers, crafters and social service groups. Sponsored by cChaos, nonprofit nutrition and lifestyle education organization. Year round, rain or shine. 624-8844 or cChaos.org. Weekly.

Chinese Temple: Noon-4 p.m., 1500 Broderick St. $3. Group tours by appointment. 538-2406. Temple: 538-2496. Daily.

Write on! Creative Writing Class: 12:30-2 p.m., Family Resource Center, 1720 Daryl Porter way. Learn to write or keep a journal or diary. All ages; taught by local author. 533-1576. First, third Thursdays.

Bingo and Games: 1-3:30 p.m., Feather River Senior Citizen’s Assoc., 1335 Myers St. $8 buy-in for 10 regular games, plus $1 specials. Free cup of coffee; soda, snacks sold. Building also available for rentals. 533-8370. Weekly. Also Tuesday and Saturday.

Oroville Blood Bank: 1-5 p.m., Oroville Sports Club, Washington and Mitchell streets. Have a good breakfast and lunch. Must be at least 17 years of age, 110 lbs. First Thursday.

Pilates: 5:30 p.m. YMCA, 1684 Robinson St. Fees, 533-9622. Weekly. Also Tuesdays.

Oroville Peace Project: 7-8:30 p.m., Oroville Library, 1820 Mitchell Ave. All welcome. 533-8941. First, third Thursdays.

Thermalito Grange: 7 p.m. regular business meeting, at 479 Plumas Ave. Looking for new members. Guests welcome. 532-4539. First Thursday.

Clubs

Oroville Toastmasters: Noon, ARC of Butte County, 2745 Oro Dam Blvd. Learn to listen, speak and lead. Visitors welcome. 533-1385. Weekly.

Oroville Duplicate Bridge Club: Noon, Municipal Auditorium. Sessions open to partners. $3. 533-1957. Weekly.

Southern Butte County Legal Secretaries: Social 5:30 p.m., speaker 6 p.m. at the Depot. RSVP: 538-2451. Membership information: 872-1074. First Thursday.

Paradise Spinning Guild: 6-8 p.m., Feather Canyon Gracious Retirement. Free introductory lessons on how to spin wool and other fibers into yarn. Brooke, 519-1541. First, third Thursday.

Health/emotional support

Early Bird Fellowship, Alcoholics Anonymous: Open meetings, 6:30-7:30 a.m., Oroville Family Resource Center, 2085 Baldwin St. Weekly.

New Beginnings AA: 6:30-7:30 a.m., Alano Club, 2471 Bird St. Open meeting. 534-9960. Weekdays.

Public Health Clinic: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Confidential reproductive health services for men and women. 78 Table Mountain Blvd. 538-7341.

Ultimate Balance Fitness Program: 11 a.m. Grange Hall, 1477 Bald Rock Road. Free class includes yoga, high and low-impact aerobics, stretching. Sponsored by Berry Creek Grange No. 694.

Parkinson’s Disease Support Group: 2-3:30 p.m., Oroville Family Resource Center, 1720 Daryl Porter way. 534-5519. First Thursday.

Alzheimer’s Support Group: 5:15 p.m. Prestige assisted Living, 400 Executive Parkway. Refreshments. 534-8160. First Thursday.

Alcoholics Anonymous, Feather River Fellowship: 5:30 p.m., 2471 Bird St. 538-8180. Weekly.

Gamblers Anonymous: 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 711 Ocasia Blvd., Oroville. 844-4435. Weekly.

Men’s Recovery Group: 7-9 p.m., Feather River Indian Health Center, 2167 Montgomery St. 534-5394. Weekly.

Alcoholics Anonymous: 8 p.m. in summer, Forbestown Community Center. 589-5573. Weekly.

To submit an item for “Oroville Calendar,” please email the pertinent information to calendar@orovillemr.com, fax it to 342-3617 or mail it to: Oroville Community Calendar, P.O. Box 9, Chico, CA 95927. please include your name and telephone number on all correspondence.

Michael Stern Hart, the single-minded visionary from Illinois who created and promoted the groundbreaking online library Project Gutenberg, died September 6 at age 64.

Though I’ve been online since the late 80s, I never personally met Mr. Hart. but for the entire trajectory of my time in digital publishing, he helped define the landscape for me.

Project Gutenberg was inarguably the birthplace of the e-book. Today we don’t think twice about downloading a book to our Kindle, tablet, Web browser, or cellphone. but in 1971, when Mr. Hart officially began Project Gutenberg, or even in the early 1990s, when it began to reach critical mass, e-books were not just unusual—they were unheard-of.

As he wrote in “The History and Philosophy of Project Gutenberg” (1992) in 1971, after having been given $100,000,000 worth of computing time on the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Mr. Hart, then an undergraduate, decided there was no kind of “normal computing” that could repay the value of the computer time he had been given.

His solution: “to create $100,000,000 worth of value in some other manner.” An hour and 47 minutes later, in what has become part of digital-publishing mythology, he typed in the text of the Declaration of Independence and posted it everywhere he could (causing some of those early networks to crash). Project Gutenberg was born.

Mr. Hart believed that he had “earned” his computing time because the Declaration of Independence would eventually be an electronic fixture in libraries around the world. the greatest value of computers, he wrote, was “the storage, retrieval, and searching of what was stored in our libraries.” before ePub, e-books, before Wikipedia, even before the Web, Mr. Hart saw that digital communications had the potential to transform the humanities.

I remember the magic of reading the Declaration of Independence by way of a Telnet connection, long before the Web made such things trivial. It was, at the time, as amazing as going around the world via Gopher servers, a few years later.

Though it would be the early 90s before the project’s list got past 50 texts, what a force it became in Internet culture. Project Gutenberg matured as the Internet did, and Mr. Hart stoutly maintained its mission even as the Web expanded the research-focused Internet into the commercial sector—holding high the flag of the pure potential of an open, digitally connected society.

What made Mr. Hart a hero to many of us was his pragmatic (even dogmatic) adherence to radical openness, via open standards and free access to literature, championing the philosophy that humanity’s historical heritage belonged to, well, humanity itself. That, of course, is the underpinning of the argument for open-access science, humanities, social sciences, and every other field of study, and Mr. Hart’s example became a touchstone.

It’s worth remembering that when Mr. Hart was forming the founding principles of Project Gutenberg, the principle of openness was utterly radical. From the 1970s through the late 1990s, the paradigm of publishing was built on the presumption of ownership. Even if the Declaration of Independence stated that we had certain “inalienable rights,” the right to read that Declaration was pretty much limited to those with library cards, or to those who could purchase a copy from a publisher who had invested significant sums in the composition, layout, printing, distribution, and sales of the Declaration as a product.

To imagine, in the 1990s, much less the 1970s, that the Declaration of Independence (not to mention an Alice in Wonderland, all of Shakespeare, the Bible, and more) could be read, free, by anyone with a connection to a community bulletin-board network, a subscription to Prodigy, or later, an Internet connection—was beyond radical: It was visionary.

‘Plain-Vanilla ASCII’

Michael Hart was a lifelong tinkerer—he was an early garage-experimenter with radio, with hi-fi, and later, with computer technology, from Apple to Atari to CP/M, Unix, MS-DOS, and other operating systems.

His early experiences clearly informed his choices regarding Project Gutenberg. He was committed to lo-fi—the lowest reasonable common denominator of textual presentation. That was for utterly pragmatic reasons: He wanted his e-texts to be readable on 99 percent of the existing systems of any era, and so insisted on “Plain-Vanilla ASCII” versions of all the e-texts generated by Project Gutenberg.

That may seem a small—even retro—conceit, but in fact it was huge. From the 80s on, as the Internet slowly became more publicly manifest, there were many temptations to be “up to date”: a file format like WordStar, TeX, or LaTeX in the 1980s, or XyWrite, MS Word, or Adobe Acrobat in the 90s and 2000s, might provide far greater formatting features (italics, bold, tab stops, font selections, extracts, page representations, etc.) than ASCII. but because Mr. Hart had tinkered with technology all his life, he knew that “optimal formats” always change, and that today’s hi-fi format was likely to evolve into some higher-fi format in the next year or two. Today’s ePub version 3.01 was, to Mr. Hart, just another mile marker along the highway. to read an ASCII e-text, via FTP, or via a Web browser, required no change of the presentational software—thereby ensuring the broadest possible readership.

Mr. Hart’s choice meant that the Project Gutenberg corpus—now 36,000 works—would always remain not just available, but readable. What’s more, it has been growing, in every system since.

Mr. Hart not only championed open access of public-domain material, but open access without proprietary displays, without the need for special software, without the requirement for anything but the simplest of connections. “Public Domain” was not just a legal status, for Mr. Hart, but a rallying cry. Through the principle of “conscious decentralization,” he enabled outside organizations to disseminate Project Gutenberg’s works in full-text form, to anyone interested.

In 2007, Project Gutenberg’s e-texts were included (with multilingual versions) on the platform for one Laptop per Child (a nonprofit program offering inexpensive laptops to children in developing countries), as well as in hundreds of other free e-book collections worldwide. Today, Gutenberg Australia, Canada, Europe, and others are adding to the corpus.

Included in every distributed collection is the Declaration of Independence, as well as every other “e-text” in “vanilla ASCII” produced by Project Gutenberg in the preceding years. Mr. Hart’s grand vision of optimal utility, openness, and accessibility, constructed in the 1970s, continues to bear fruit, 40 years later. his $100,000,000 debt has more than been paid off.

Michael Jon Jensen is director of strategic Web communications at the National Academies Press.

Defy gravity in Aya and the Cubes of Light

Once again, not a whole lot of new games for Nintendo owners this week but there are some quality titles to be found. For Wii owners who like platformers, consider picking up the tricky looking Aya and the Cubes of Light. 3DS and DSi users should give a look into 3D Classics: TwinBee and Break Tactics. Aya and the Cubes of Light is a gravity-defying platformer where you must collect energy packs to power up various cube-like structures in space. Navigating these structures will be challenging since you'll be forced to walk vertically and even upside-down. Light up outer space once again for 1,000 Wii Points. 3D Classics: TwinBee brings back Konami's toony NES shooter in three dimensions. TwinBee can move all over the screen to shoot and avoid incoming enemies. Repeatedly shoot bells out of clouds to earn a score bonus or to pick out one of several power-ups to assist you. Revisit this NES shoot 'em up for $4.99. Escape Trick -Ninja Castle- puts players in the role of a rogue ninja attempting to escape from a royal palace. You must overcome various illusions, enemies, and obstacles by using tools and ninjutsu skills to summon elemental spells. make your getaway from this huge maze for $4.99 / 500 DSi Points. Break Tactics lets you take command of the Lancaster Empire's army to victory. Strategically deploy units to defeat enemy soldiers and make use of Break Points to level up your troops. Gain a better advantage over your rivals by using the surrounding terrain and items. Worth $4.99 / 500 DSi Points to purchase.

Though Kirby’s ability-copying powers are absent in this adventure, there’s a still a ton of variety in the gameplay and puzzles. Mob mechanics are put to good use: you have to split up your Kirbys at times to take branching paths, use them to weigh down platforms, divert them to multiple foes, and put them through obstacles that require some elbow grease. Charming stage designs change up the pace at regular intervals. at various points, you may pile into a thundering tank and shoot your pals as ammo, use your collective weight to steer a hot-air balloon through dangerous obstacles, and climb through a tipsy tree trunk perched precariously by your shifting weight. That’s not even considering the crazy boss battles scattered through the bubbly landscape. Each fresh encounter is wildly different from the last. Mass Attack rarely settles on a single routine for long, yet it never feels disjointed. That’s a big part of what keeps the fun flowing.

Teetering trees: one of many cool new stage designs.

Collecting items and unlocking goodies have always been a staple in the Kirby series, and Mass Attack is bursting at the seams with these extras. Progressing through the main game offers a reasonable difficulty level, but completionists will relish the added challenge and replay value of going back to earn neat in-game achievements and tracking down all of the coins. a few of the many unlockable Kirby-themed minigames also offer nice surprises because they are so complete. Strato Patrol EOS is a fun, competent shooter; the pinball game is solid; and the role-playing game battler yields a pleasant diversion.

Mass Attack doesn’t stray from the colorful, kid-friendly presentation and syrupy sweet platforming that the Kirby franchise is known for, but substantial innovation in the way you play it sets the game apart from its predecessors. The stylus-only controls are a welcome addition, and a terrific balance of familiarity and freshness is what makes this buoyant experience so addictive.

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What game systems have you went through over the years and is there a favorite sysytem that sticks out on your list?

Here is my timeline:
Atari 2600
Atari XE
NES
Sega Monster system (Genesis, Sega CD, and 32X. made one monster of a system once everything was connected together lol)
Sega Saturn
PS1
PS2

Handhelds:
Gameboy
GBA

A lot of great systems out there. I have no favorite love playing them all and experiencing the some of the systems I didn't have through friends and family. Can't wait to get two of the newer ones.

atari 2600
nes
super nintendo
ps1
nintendo 64
gamecube
ps2
xbox 360

handheld
game boy
game boy color
game boy advance
the sega handheld
game boy sp

id say ps2 is the best

Intellivision
NES
Genesis
Super NES
Sega Saturn
Game Cube
PS1
Gameboy
Color Gameboy
Game Gear
GBA

For me it was:

Atari 2600
NES
Genesis
SNES
N64
PS1

Nothing Handheld.

Since I been to college I don't have the time and money to buy those newer systems. I have played on Xbox, PS2, and Xbox 360 on rare ocassion.

I really don't have a favorite system, since each system has their memoerable games for me.

For example,

NES: Zelda Series
Gensis: Sonic Series, Streets of Rage 2
SNES: some Castlevania game
PS2: Resident Evil 4, Guitar Hero
PS1: Final Fantasy VI, Gran Turismo
XBox: Halo

Sorry if I misspelled anything.

You get the idea.

commodore 64
sega masters
nes
super nes
ps1
dreamcast
nes64
ps2
xbox
xbox 360
wii

they all served there purpose throughout my life and i will probally play till i have no more hand eye cordination. i enjoy the wii in small doses. the 360 has been my favorite the games on it are amazing thus far i might get a ps3 but i feel i have kinda outgrown the controller after all my xbox years it just feels uncomfortable. best games on systems

sega masters- shinobi, eswat
nes- mario 3
super nes- mario kart
ps1-ff7
nes64-goldeneye
dreamcast-shenmue, power stone
ps2- god of war 1&2, gta3, ff10
xbox- red faction, brute force, kotor, jade empire
360- oblivion, rainbow 6 vegas, gears of war

Atari 2600
NES
Super NES
Genesis
Turbo Grafix 16
Playstation
PS2
PSP
N64

GB
GB color
Sega Game Gear
GBAdvance for 1 week

NES stands out by far. I never got into the N64 and playstion games untill the last few years. But whe I was a kid, NES was it.

Infact I just got a NES again recently, I selling my PS2 in order to buy the old games.

I also like the PSP. I much perfer that over the PS2

I'm trying to decide whether to buy GS-8, Row 2 or BLCH-39, Row 36 for my son's 1st trip to see the Sox. the GS seats SEEM better, but I can't really tell just by looking at the field map. Anyone?

where can i find a rom of metal gear 1 for the msx with English text. all i can find are Japanese versions

Want free GBA&NDS Roms? Try this site (roms.gooker.net) now!
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You can find them both

in the second disk of metal gear solid 3 substance

cazatrucos.com/imagenes/metal_gear_solid_3_subsistence.jpg

this is a pic of it

I am an architect and designing a building for a car collector… looking for some inspiration and looking for some opinions.

Emblems are big. If he likes say Pontiac getting a GTO Judge emblem off an original car would be cool. also colors the outrageous coloring on the older cars if he likes muscle cars.

Well, I wold first consider what is the person looking for, If I was having a person build me a building to store my cars i I would want it to look like and old garage/gas station. If it's just going to be a storage building and not a musem then it's really not a big deal. If it's a show car place. Then make it big enough to get all the doors and hood and trunk opened without moving the car and maybe some over head storage like a lift to store one over top of the other.

grilles
hood ornaments
name plates <————- those are hot right now – look at ebay
clean – original restored dash pieces.
clean operational quarts clocks

Any mustang from the 67 fastback till the 72 –
Hemi Dodge cars
Any Yenko items
Anything Carroll Shelby had a hand in – very hot also