Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

This was a Kickstarter project to make a movie, it was released nine years ago! Thanks to motodraconis for posting this yesterday (or Friday). It's a pastiche of 1985 cop/kung fu TV shows and is absolutely brilliant. They actually succeeded in getting David Hasselhoff involved in it!



Kung Fury 2 was made a few years ago, sadly they didn't crowd fund it and there's been disputes with the money people and it's now tied up in court and doubtful that it will ever see the light of day. Which is very sad, as it starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as the President of the USA!

You can easily find the actual Kickstarter release on YouTube, but it requires you to sign in and verify your age, whereas this link does not.

I designed a game much like this called Waste of Celluloid, where you design the worst/funniest movie headlines and tried to sell it to your fellow players. In Tabloids, you design the most outrageous tabloid headlines and the players vote for the best. The Kickstarter is fully funded, ends in 69 hours from this post, and can be yours for only $19 plus S&H.

But wait! There's more! For only another $30, you can also get....

The game Conspiracy Theory!

Steve Jackson Games are very well known for many, many games, like Car Wars, Gurps, Munchkin, but especially for Illuminati! Conspiracy Theory is sort of a combination of Illuminati and Cards Against Humanity. The player whose turn it is to be judge announces a card, such as "I no longer believe in (blank)" and the players go through their cards to fill in the blank, and the judge selects the winner. And they can use multiple cards to fill in the blank if they so desire.

In my ever so humble opinion, this would be a great combination with Cards Against Humanity...., just like Bards Dispense Profanity combines well with CAH.

I went ahead and bought both.

You can also pay more and get the Illuminati board game, but personally, I find it a bit tedious. I enjoyed it when I was younger, but I prefer funnier, faster games now that I am in my dotage.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sjgames/tabloids-a-game-by-steve-jackson

I just backed this Kickstarter, ordering two of these puppies. The most common power adapter for international travel is just a plastic block with plugs that slide in and out to give you AC power. It probably adjusts the voltage for whatever country you're from.

This device is quite cool. It does the plug conversion for you, but it also has USB-A and C fast charge outlets! So theoretically when you travel, you can leave all your little adapters at home and just plug in to this device and charge five or six devices at the same time!

It's not hugely expensive at about $65 for one, I'm backing for two and a couple of cables. My thought is to keep one in my backpack and have the other so we'll have two adapters for international travel.

The Kickstarter is open for another two weeks, they're expecting to ship in July.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iblockcube/swift-the-smallest-120w-gan-12-in-1-travel-adapter

It's called the Arsenal, and it is one really kick-ass photography assistant! It's good for any skill photographer, but more oriented towards a more serious photographer, someone who's going to spend time focusing on composition and will use a tripod.

It also only works with certain models of cameras, don't expect it to work with inexpensive point and shoots. For example, my $400 Lumix is not on the list.

It's the second generation of a gadget containing a GPU that attaches on your camera's flash mount and plugs in to your camera's USB port. It connects to your smartphone, probably via BT, and uses an app to let you select what you want your camera to do. Deeper color, major panorama, eliminate people, etc. You really need to watch the video to appreciate what it does.

Basically, everything it does, I can do in Photoshop. But it takes a fair amount of work in Photoshop. If I can eliminate a lot of that up-front, it's a net win, yes? And it can take into account aspects of the environment that I may not be consciously aware of with its programming. As much as I don't want to admit it, in some ways my brain is slowing down. My composition is still great, but some of the technical bits might be falling by the wayside. This will definitely help catch those.

There's two levels of the product, a plastic casing and an ruggedized metal/ABS housing, I opted for the later. It works with my Canon 6D, doesn't with my SL1: gee, I might have to buy a new camera?! Shucky darns! I think it also works as a wireless intervalometer, which could be very convenient.

This is the second generation of the product. They created the project to fund at $100,000 - they're at over $2.1m. It's a pretty popular project. The first Arsenal sold over 100,000 units.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2092430307/arsenal-2/

You may or may not have heard of the Pebble, but it is arguably if not the first, one of the first, smart patches. They debuted with a Kickstarter campaign that was awesomely successful, and I kinda regretted not getting in on it but I was unemployed at the time and just couldn't see spending the money.

Well, I'm in trouble. I now am earning a decent salary and they're launching a new Kickstarter campaign.

They've completed engineering and testing for their next generation watch, the Time. The first Pebble, like this one, uses the eInk display found in the original Kindle and the Nook paper white ebook readers, it only uses electricity when the display refreshes, so the Pebble could last upwards of a week between charges.

The Time makes a few changes. It's a bit thinner and designed with a slight curve so it conforms to your wrist. It has a microphone and you can use it as a voice recorder. It also now has a color display, which is kinda cool. It's also water resistant, you can shower and swim with it. But the big change is how it's used: the paradigm is very different than the original Pebble, and you really need to see the video to appreciate it. And the video is quite good, so I would recommend it regardless.

If you back the Kickstarter, you can get one before anyone else, and you'll save $20 off the $200 list price. And the Kickstarter is funded, so it'll be made. And boy, is it funded! They were asking for $500,000 and they currently have $11,700,000. There's 26 days remaining in the fund drive, and yes, I think I'll get one.

You see, there's one thing that I haven't talked about: they're programmable. You can download different watch faces, and there are 6,500 watch faces and applications available, and they're mostly, if not entirely, free. I want to code my own watch face. Even though I make my living with computers and have so for over 30 years, I eschew digital in certain ways, and one area in which I do is watches. Why do I need to know that it's 1:04 right now? I want my watch to say 'Just after 1:00'. And then 'Almost a quarter after'. Or 'About 1:30'. I like the abstract. The last three watches that I've owned have been analog. I don't normally wear a watch, but I think this could be fun and useful, especially having the voice recorder. I've dictated a lot of game design notes while driving to Las Cruces or Phoenix, 100 and 500 miles respectively, but using the one in my iPhone isn't very convenient. In the previous generation of iOS, Siri wouldn't turn on the voice recorder on command, which makes it useless while driving. Now it does, but when I'm driving, I'm usually listening to podcasts. So this wrist voice recorder, assuming it's easy to activate, could be quite useful to me.

Anyway, if you have a smart phone, you might find this interesting. And I think it's more than reasonably priced.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-time-awesome-smartwatch-no-compromises

And I also like sharing it.

Last year on Project Kickstarter, there was a project to fund researching, recording, and releasing under a free Creative Commons license a new recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations by pianist Kimiko Ishizaka. Apparently transcripts of classical music are as locked down as modern music today is when it comes to licensing, so part of the funding was for the original folios to be researched and a new score to be transposed. It was also to pay for Ms. Ishizaka's services in recording this project.

The project is now done!

In addition to being able to download all the music for free, you can also download an app for the iPad that lets you follow the score while the music is playing, and you can download the score which can be used in the MuseScore app, which I know nothing about.

This link lets you download tracks individually in MP3 or Flac or if you scroll down a bit there's a 132 meg zip that you can download or Torrent down. I was really happy to help fund this project, I should be getting my CD in the mail real soon now.

http://www.opengoldbergvariations.org/

Shaenon Garrity's web comic Narbonic, a great collection of mad science, is finally being collected in a single volume! Now's your chance to support it, not that it really needs it: it's doubled its funding goal.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/250007708/narbonic-the-perfect-collection

The comic, though complete, still runs daily at http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic_plus/series.php

First, the Open Goldberg Variations. From the Kickstarter page: "We are creating a new score and studio recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, and we're placing them in the public domain* for everyone to own and use without limitations on licensing.

Bach wrote his seminal work over 270 years ago, yet public domain scores and recordings are hard or impossible to find. Until now!

This project will start by creating a new engraving of the Goldberg Variations using the MuseScore notation software. The edition will be subject to scholarly review, and when it is finished, it will be available to everyone to own and use without limitations.

Then we're working with pianist Kimiko Ishizaka to create a professional studio recording of the Goldbergs. This recording will also be made available to everyone to own and use without limitations."

http://kck.st/e4L7NX


Next, game designer Daniel Solis is funding production of his new game, Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple. It funds on May 24, and the original $4,000 being looked for has been slightly exceeded and is already up to $21.6k.

Do is a story-telling game, "You tell the story of young travelers who mean well, but spend most of their time getting into trouble. You use your creativity and strategy to create a humorous coming of age story. It's like a comedic crossover between Avatar: the Last Airbender, the Little Prince and Kino's Journey."

http://kck.st/fwk4DD


Both are getting some bucks from me.