Last week I wrote about the “Humble Indie Bundle,” where several independent video games were bundled together and offered up to customers for whatever price they felt like paying.
Well, for the week the sale lasted, the publishers raised $1,082,082.
Buyers were asked to allocate an amount of their purchase price to charity, which came out $334,963, leaving $747,119 to be split among the participating game developers.
Not a bad pay day for a week of selling at all.
A blog tracking what’s left of the Canadian media industry – a topic without enough information sources.
PostSecret started as an art project that has since spawned several books.
Frank Warren invites people to send him post cards anonymously that reveal a secret the sender has kept.
The responses range from absurd and humourous, to outright tragic.
The blog is updated Sunday mornings has well, become a regular part of my Sunday morning routine.
Easily my favourite site for finding crazy independent and often free video games to play.
Not much else to say about this one.
Stories from Ottawa’s start-up community told by the people making them happen.
It’s the go-to source to find out what local tech events are happening and other resources for start-ups.
I discovered this blog shortly after finishing journalism school and was getting extremely frustrated with my inability to find a staff job.
This resource for freelance writers got me over my reluctance to go the freelance route and has been providing helpful posts ever since (a good book, too.)
Almost two years ago, I wrote a post about a point-and-click adventure game called Nanobots.
Well, indie game writer and designer Erin Robison has taken the game’s concept further with a full commercial release: Puzzle Bots.
So far I’ve only had the chance to play the demo, but I’m already impressed. Puzzle Bots seem to retain all the retro point-and-click adventure charm of Nanobots (but with voice acting and better graphics,) while creating a more expansive world – rather than having the whole game take place on a desk.
Once again, you’re in control of tiny robots, each their own individual skill, and must switch between them in order to solve puzzles.
This time around, Puzzle Bots costs $14.99, though a free demo is available.
The Christian Science Monitor has an article about a generator-powered video arcade in Afghanistan.
And the Victoria Times Colonist notes that the “Social media landscape is full of charlatans.”
And for a little bonus video. There was a webinar on stock trading going on during Thursday’s 1000 point drop in the Dow Jones and well…the presenter suddenly sounds quite a bit like John Goodman’s character in The Big Lebowski:
Several independent game developers have banded together for an interesting sales experiment.
They are bundling five games together that would cost $80 bought on their own and allowing customers to pay whatever they want.
It’s The Humble Indie Bundle.
By default, the amount paid is divided between the developers and two charities (The Electronic Frontier Foundations and Child’s Play,) but upon purchase, the buyer can choose a different division: all to the developers, all to charity or break is down even further.
It seems to be working out.
A little more than halfway through the sale (there are three days left!) they have raised more than $500,000 with the average customer opting to pay $8.20.
It’ll be interesting to see the stats at the end of the sale.
Google has put out an ad for their Chrome web browser to demonstrate how fast it renders web pages.
Apparently, it’s quite fast.
I handle all my invoicing through a web app called FreshBooks
It’s a browser-based interface that allows me to quickly e-mail out invoices for articles and track them, among other features.
But, what really impressed me was the e-mail I received yesterday.
See, as of July 1st, Ontario and British Columbia will be implementing a harmonized sales tax, merging the federal Goods and Services Tax with Provincial Sales Tax.
I’ll save my feelings on the tax itself for another time, but it’s definitely something that will cause some complications for small businesses without full-time accountants to manage everything.
Well, FreshBooks now has a helpful FAQ to explain what’s going on and how to make the changes on their site to comply with the combined tax.
I’d imagine being headquartered in Toronto, they’re affected as well, so it’s nice to see them passing on some help to their customers (even users of the free service like myself.)
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In an attempt to keep up with the times (as late as I always seem to be,) I’ve decided I should start shooting video.
Enter: The Kodak ZX3
No, it doesn’t look like much, but that’s kind of the point.
Like the Flip and other pocket camcorders before it, simplicity is the camera selling point.
It can be taken anywhere, switches on in a second and is incredibly simple to use. Push the big white button once to record, push it again to stop the recording.
The ZX3 has a bit going for it over its competitors. For one, it’s more durable and weatherproof. Theoretically, anyway, it should hold up to being carried around everywhere and inevitable contact with liquid.
It also has electronic image stabilization which, while no as good as optical image stabilization, does help avoid camera shake.
It can record in full high definition (720p and 1080p) as well as standard definition (which in my tests doesn’t look too bad, either)
Videos shot with the ZX3 still look decent in low light, which is a common weak spot on pocket camcorders.
It lacks some of the fancier features on other models, like an external microphone input and definitely lacks the features of a full camcorder (only digital zoom…which looks about as bad as any other digital zoom.)
However, it serves my purposes so far.
Expect to start seeing some video on this site.
Just as I seem to be spending more time with so-called “social media,” Globe and Mail writer Lisan Jutras went the opposite direction and went full detox, cutting herself off from social media outlets.
The ordeal was described in today’s edition of the Globe, complete with a look at Internet and media addiction in general.
I’ve been meaning to post about this game for a little while now.
Back in March, writer Christine Love released a very retro game called Digital: A Love Story
It’s unique take on hacking simulator games like Uplink but with even more retro flavour.
You’re transported back to the ‘80s, using a simulation of AmigaOS to dial into BBS systems, complete with ANSI art (anyone remember all that stuff?)
Hanging out on message boards (where among other things, you can get into an argument over which is better, Star Trek: The Original Series or The Next Generation,) a plot begins to develop leading you to access a pirate BBS (warez,) hack other people’s accounts and access ARPANET (the Internet before it was known by it’s common name.)
Oh, and the game comes complete with the good old obnoxious carrier tone.
Research for the game was done with the help of textfiles.com
The entire game is relatively short, but it was certainly fun to relive my young computer geek past for a little while.
Plus, the “love story” is pretty decent, too.
Digital: A Love Story is a free download.
