The best tech writing of the week, May 20th

The best tech writing of the week, May 20th We all know the feeling. You’re sleepless in the sad hours of the night or stumbling around early on a hazy weekend morning in need of something to read, and that pile of unread books just isn’t cutting it. Why not take a break from the fire hose of Twitter and RSS and check out our weekly roundup of essential writing from around the web about technology, culture, media, and the future? ....

Play This: ‘Super Strict Farmer’

Play This: ‘Super Strict Farmer’ The Ludum Dare game jam, themed this year around “tiny worlds,” has previously proved a fertile source of browser games, most recently Extensionism. Super Strict Farmer (built, like several of the others, in 48 hours) takes inspiration from Settlers of Catan or even FarmVille, but in a miniature form that’s limited to twelve rounds. Two players (or one player and a devilishly good....

Twitter blocked by Pakistani government

Twitter blocked by Pakistani government Reports came in this morning that Twitter has been blocked in Pakistan due to tweets regarding a competition to post depictions of the Prophet Muhammad — an act that many believe to be blasphemous. According to BBC News the country’s Ministry of Information Technology directed internet service providers to block access to the site, and there’s no word when the service will come back on....

Charting the futures of science fiction

Everyone who reads science fiction can probably name some of the movements and fads that have come and gone in the last century. Stephanie Fox of io9 has gone a step further and actually analyzed the distance into the future that science fiction was set during different decades. Fox collected 250 random works of science fiction (in book, movie, TV, and comic form, although it’s limited to works readily available in America) created betw....

On The Verge episode 006 teaser: Damon Lindelof on working with ‘Prometheus’ director Ridley Scott

On The Verge episode 006 teaser: Damon Lindelof on working with ‘Prometheus’ director Ridley Scott Getting to speak with Damon Lindelof, the co-creator of Lost and screenwriter of Prometheus, was undoubtably an On The Verge highlight. In this teaser from our show last Thursday, Lindelof tells our own Joshua Topolsky about director Ridley Scott’s strong hand in the creative process during the making of Prometheus — it t....

Preserving video games in the digital age

Preserving video games in the digital age Digital preservation is an issue for just about every medium — from film and literature to the web itself — and video games are no different. And when it comes to keeping the Super Nintendo alive, Byuu is one of the most prominent figures thanks to his bnes emulator, which attempts to emulate Nintendo’s 16-bit console as accurately as possible. This March, after years of work, the pr....

Relive 80s sci-fi in pictures with ‘Creative Computer Graphics’

Today we can use computers to create incredibly realistic graphics, but in the 1980s that wasn’t really the case. But in spite of their relative simplicity, computer graphics from that decade hold a certain amount of nostalgia for many of us, and a great way to relive that is with the book Creative Computer Graphics. While it may not have a creative name, it’s packed with some terrific artwork taken from everywhere from films like....

Play this: ‘Star Drill’

Play this: ‘Star Drill’ In Star Drill you only have one goal: to grab as many diamonds as you can before you die. It’s a kamikaze mission to be sure, but it’s no less addictive because of it. It’s yet another excellent game from the most recent Ludum Dare competition, and it plays sort of like a sci-fi version of Dig Dug. You play as a tiny spaceship burrowing your way through planets in order to harvest diamonds....

Watch this: inside Jim Henson’s animatronics shop

Watch this: inside Jim Henson’s animatronics shop In a video simply titled Animatronics, special effects creator Adrian Parish gives us a brief look behind the scenes of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Highlights include a polar bear from The Snow Queen and a very thirsty Camel from a Volvic commercial, and the entire video is set to a rigorous drum ‘n’ bass soundtrack. Now excuse us while we go and work out where exactly ....

Giza 3D is a historically accurate, in-depth recreation of the great pyramids in your web browser

It’s not terribly convenient for most of us to grab a flight to Egypt and visit the great pyramids of Giza, but a new project is attempting to bring an in-depth recreation right into your home in glorious 3D. A collaboration between software design firm Dassault Syst Share/Bookmark