Fun for the whole (geeky software types) family!

I’m glad to be a part of helping to organize what should be a super fun local DC tech event: WidgetDevCamp DC. Come one, come all, and let’s talk about modular web applications (psssttt it’s not just widgets anymore), Facebook, start pages, blog sidebars, and the rest. Want to write code? Want to design some UIs? Want to learn what the heck we’re talking about? Join us! Check out the site or join the mailing list.

I’m by no means a serious gamer — with kids and a busy job and such, free-time comes at a premium. But, that doesn’t mean I don’t get seriously blown away occasionally by the craziness that is the gaming industry, as well as the increasingly amazing art direction. And beyond the actual games, even the whole ad/trailer space has somehow gotten really interesting and short-film-like in the last little while. And yes, the opportunity cost of watching some good trailers is way lower than that of staying up all night playing an actual game. The Xbox360 crowd, especially, has some really great ads. Couple highlights for the folks who live without game culture…

Kind of a classic at this point, here’s a game ad, for a shooter no less, that’s really more of a mood piece. Its all about the music, obviously, but someone over at the ad agency (McCann-Erickson San Francisco) had a pretty inspired idea here — focus on the game, yeah, but in a totally new way. Gears of War is the game.

Another interesting ad, though this time more of an interesting urban set piece with absolutely no connection to video games whatsoever. A good ad nonetheless.

And lastly, a trailer for Bioshock (which doesn’t appear to be at all suitable for playing with my toddler). Holy cow.

So, um, go out and buy yourself some video games and waste a bunch of time. Just tell yourself its “art”.

Ok, I realize Flight of the Conchords isn’t exactly a secret, but if you haven’t seen them, they’re funny. And I wanted to share that. Folk parody duo, I guess you’d call them. They have a show on HBO, too. Here’s a song. “Business Time”.

Ok so obviousy the VA Tech thing is not the most uplifting story in the world.  I heard the head of the ENGR dept, Dr. Ishwar Puri, on NPR yesterday though, and thought I’d share.  Interesting interview.  Check out Morning Edition for a listen.

I was playing around with Ning, and I noticed a Google ad on the sidebar for “Blank Plastic Cards”. Intrigued, I clicked on it. Lo and behold, a very pleasing site selling blank plastic cards (makes sense I guess). If ever I am looking for a blank plastic card (maybe a Pantone 242 to go with that Magentic Fields song), now I know where to go.