Wired has translated and posted an academic essay by Italian film scholar Federico Giordano on the problems with archiving video games:

Videogames come to us as a form of media which have, on the one hand, some affinities with other previous forms such as cinema, television, technological parks, board games or role-playing games, and even panoramas and dioramas. It is this aspect in itself that makes videogames a medium that can be “archived.”

On the other hand, videogames seem to be a decisive break from these forms. They develop themselves as a specific system of relationships between the text and users.

He identifies three guidelines (borrowed from the KEEP project) for archiving – a) storage, b) transfer and c) emulation.
Here’s a section on emulation:

The “emulation” of Bionic Commando, as with other such games, is not the same as its “storage.” Emulation fails to preserve in detail the experience of the original game, and it certainly cannot store the physical support which was part of the game experience. Generally, emulated games alter the game rhythm, the rendering of the graphics, and the sound, changing the spatial and temporal performance of the original games.

Amiga can be reproduced only partially by WinUAE or other emulators, due to the internal limits of the software. The response time of old joysticks and keyboards, which are different from Gamepads and today’s controllers, make it intrinsically impossible to reproduce the game experience.

via The Escapist

Seth Godin: The realization is now:

I regularly hear from people who say, “enough with this conceptual stuff, tell me how to get my factory moving, my day job replaced, my consistent paycheck restored…” There’s an idea that somehow, if we just do things with more effort or skill, we can go back to the Brady Bunch and mass markets and mediocre products that pay off for years. It’s not an idea, though, it’s a myth.

John Gruber on the slack all the reviewers are giving to iPad’s competitors:

I don’t understand why so many reviewers bend over backwards to grade these things on a curve. If the iPad 2 had the problems and deficiencies the Xoom and PlayBook have, these same reviewers would (rightly) trash it, and declare (again, rightly) that Apple had finally lost its Midas touch.

These aren’t “beta” tablets. They’re bad tablets. It’s that simple. It’s true that their hardware seems closer to iPad-caliber than their software, but improving software is the hardest part of making products like these. By the time RIM releases “a serious software update or three” the entire market will have changed. The truth is, Motorola, Samsung, and now RIM have released would-be iPad competitors that pale compared to the iPad. Just say it.

I’m obviously a fan of car metaphors and they seem to be going around lately in the tech world.
To rephrase Gruber’s response, if the PlayBook was a Ferrari (I’m partial to the 458), it would be a Ferrari that can’t make left turns and doesn’t have adjustable seats. Yes, it’s a Ferrari, and it’s fast and grips the road like a jungle cat, but it’s incomplete. It’s missing important features.
To digress a bit, this is one of the reasons I love BBC series Top Gear (not the crap US version) – they don’t pull punches. If a Bentley handles like shit, they say so. The tech world would be wise to take some notes from Jeremy Clarkson and team*.
* For a great example see Top Gear’s review of Alpha Romeo’s 8C, at around the 3:40 mark is when Clarkson lets the honestly flood gates wide open.

I came across some great pictogram posters while hunting around The Noun Project’s blog. There’s a whole set of posters up on Flickr.

The Noun Project collects, organizes and adds to the highly recognizable symbols that form the world’s visual language, so we may share them in a fun and meaningful way.

Richard Florida on What Makes Nations Thrive:

Our results indicate that the factors that contribute to happiness differ in high- and low-income countries. In low-income nations (defined as those with less than $11,000 in per capita GDP), happiness turns on income. But it matters much less in high-income countries. In these countries, people are affluent enough to cover the basics which are essential to a base level of happiness. Two factors matters in particular over and above income in these more well-off nations. The first is the nature of the job market: people are happier in affluent nations where more of them work in knowledge-based, creative, and professional jobs and fewer work in blue-collar working class jobs. Values matter too, especially openness and tolerance toward ethnic and racial minorities and toward gay and lesbian people.

via The Escapist

The new VW Beetle is no longer cute and iconic. It looks a little bigger, a little uglier and ill-proportioned.
Like a teen going through puberty.

The 1991 Nissan Figaro probably one of the cutest and most well-done retro cars I’ve seen. Too many retro models try too hard.
This guy is just a happy little bastard. I love it!
via Motoriginal

Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!

–Rocky, Rocky Balboa

Above is a Notgeld or emergency German currency during the post-WWI inflation period.
More beautiful examples over at Words and Eggs.

The Escapist: Computer Built in Minecraft Has RAM, Performs Division

Last October, I showed you guys a simple CPU that a user named “theinternetftw” created in Minecraft that used torches to ignite redstone wires to add numbers and output that information as binary code. Now, a Minecraft player known as Salaja has created an even more complex machine that is capable of loading 16 lines of code into its RAM, and then performing operations before displaying the results on a screen in hexadecimal notation. In one example video, Salaja loads the “division program” and then successfully divides 9 by 5. The only downfall is that the computation takes a little while for the charge on the redstone to travel, but Salaja’s home-designed computer within a computer game is still quite a mind-boggling feat.

I understand what this guy did on a fundamental level, but trying to fully comprehend this is like trying to fully comprehend infinity or a black hole.
via Missile Test

From the MegaPhone product page:

Passive Amplifier for iphone made of ceramic. the form is designed to amplify and optimize the best sound output. the amplifier is based on a thin wooden frame that allows the object to float off the table. this in order to increase the vibration of the object and to optimize the emission of sound. designed for the iPhone is perfect for listening music without headphones, for audio conference to hear the person on the phone as live voice.

Badass.
via Co.Design