Daily Illuminator Archive for October 2005

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October 1, 2005:

Hospital Chemsniffer

Chemical detection technology of the type David Pulver wrote about in GURPS Ultra-Tech is becoming commoner. Here's a New Scientist article about a chemsniffer that can quickly detect some types of hazardous microorganism . . . so it's a "biosniffer." Watch for these to get cheaper and more flexible . . . . . read article

October 2, 2005:

Illuminated Site of The Week: I Left It Right Here A Moment Ago

Remember Find A Grave? There's even more life in the death business than that . . . read article

October 3, 2005:

Linucon Report

I spent the weekend at Linucon here in Austin. This is a general geek convention - Linux, SF, and a bit of gaming and anime and so on - somewhat modeled after Penguicon . . . read article

October 4, 2005:

Not So Lost After All

Marcus (Forgotten Futures) Rowland advises us that the 1923 silent version of The Lost World is (a) out of copyright and (b) available on line as an MP4 video, here . . . read article

October 5, 2005:

Illuminati Rules Change?

As I work on the new expansion set, I'm thinking seriously about modding the basic Illuminati rules a bit to decrease the chance that the game will essentially be decided in the first couple of rounds . . . read article

October 6, 2005:

Smiling In The Face Of Danger

Tim Emrick's excellent article about miniature gaming with Lego. You can read it on Lugnet . . . read article

October 7, 2005:

Delightfully Dark

Need a horror fix? Looking for something creepy and thematically appropriate to play at your Halloween party this year? . . . read article

October 8, 2005:

The Maps Of GURPS Banestorm

We're all very proud of the beautiful maps that J. Kovach created for GURPS Banestorm. From the threads on the forums, it sounds like some of you are pretty enamored with them as well . . . read article

October 9, 2005:

Links Beyond Mere Humanity

Link collection pages tend to be rather dry, and give a lot of 404 errors unless they're given a regular update. However, calling what Kenneth Peters did to the Transhuman Space links page a "regular update" is a massive understatement . . . read article

October 10, 2005:

That's A Super Idea You've Got

The next Munchkin release I work on will be the first supplement to Super Munchkin. No, we don't have a name yet . . . read article

October 11, 2005:

And Lo, There Was Much Graph Paper

Incompetech. And there was much rejoicing . . . read article

October 12, 2005:

Banestorm Art Comments

Now that GURPS Banestorm is in stores and on your shelves, we're looking for reactions to the art. What pieces do you love? . . . read article

October 13, 2005:

e23 Hits 500 Milestone

We're pleased to announce that e23, our PDF sales site, passed the 500 product mark yesterday. If you haven't visited e23 recently, it's high time you dropped by . . . read article

October 14, 2005:

Off To The Printer!

A few weeks ago we set a deadline for ourselves: GURPS Powers was going to the printer on Thursday, October 13. It did, and that means we're on track to ship the book in late November . . . read article

October 15, 2005:

Help Me Make More Chaos . . . Please!

Does anybody have any dead/trashed percussion instruments, or pieces of them, lying around? I want to build some more Chaos Machine noisemakers, and I could use: Drumheads, or pieces of drumheads High hats, cymbals, gongs - in ANY condition Chimes (metal wind chimes, xylophone keys, triangle, whatever) Metal guitar strings - broken is fine! . . . read article

October 16, 2005:

Writely

Writely is a handy-dandy little online word processor, with about the equivalent functionality of WordPad. What makes it useful, though, is how easy it is to swap files around with other people, either for collaboration or just for showing off . . . read article

October 17, 2005:

And Then There Was Time Off

I had just about forgotten what "vacation" means, but I'm trying to re-learn. Over the last week, I have done precious little in the way of real work, except for checking the GURPS Powers pages before they went out and keeping up with UltraCorps development . . . read article

October 18, 2005:

Chaos Strikes

A few days back, Evil Stevie put out a call for musical bits for his Chaos Machine. But Chaos being the harsh mistress that she is, there was a small glitch in the announcement: The PO box you should send goodies to is our good ol' standard 18957 box, the same one we've had for years and years . . . read article

October 19, 2005:

Coming In February!

Steve Jackson Games is proud to announce this new product for February, 2006: Munchkin 4 - The Need for Steed Munchkin 4: The Need for Steed is the latest expansion for the original Munchkin – 112 more John Kovalic-illustrated cards for killing monsters, stealing treasure, and backstabbing your fellow players. This set introduces Steeds, the trusty mounts of legend . . . . . read article

October 20, 2005:

Sharper Than An Editor's Tooth

I'm always on the lookout for books giving good advice to writers, mostly so I can inflict that advice on the writers around me. 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published (and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might) doesn't just give good advice, it's funny and snarky too . . . read article

October 21, 2005:

Peace On Earth, Goodwill Towards Giant, Nuclear, Self-Aware Tanks

Few things say "Christmas" like depleted uranium shells. Well, the color they tend to make things is pretty Christmas-y . . . read article

October 22, 2005:

Credit Where Credit Is Due

There's a mistake in GURPS Banestorm. Somewhere in the layout process, we dropped the credit for the Lead Playtester, Stephan Pennington . . . read article

October 23, 2005:

Watching As We Descend Into Babble

The Eggcorns site collects and discusses linguistic train-wrecks of a certain type . . . read article

October 24, 2005:

So When Do We Get Warp Drive?

Because according to the Air Force, we are rapidly catching up to Star Trek on the transparent-aluminum front. (Now you know what the windows are made out of in Car Wars . . .) . . . read article

October 25, 2005:

The Powers Is In The Proof

The proof pages for GURPS Powers arrived in the office today, giving me my first chance to see the book's art in its natural habitat -- on the page and in color. We've got some excellent pieces in that book, and looking at them on the monitor screen just didn't do them justice . . . read article

October 26, 2005:

Edible Ogres . . .

We received a batch of tortilla chips with our most recent Ogre Ornaments order. They were mysteeeeeriously cute, so we asked Richard Kerr, the creator . . . "It's something I've been meaning to try out, a silly idea, mostly . . . read article

October 27, 2005:

Now Shipping!

This is the latest release from Steve Jackson Games, now available on the shelves of a game store near you: Munchkin Bites! 2 - Pants Macabre Munchkin is about beating up monsters, taking their stuff, and sequels. Munchkin Bites! is no different. Thus were born . . . the Pants Macabre . . . read article

October 28, 2005:

What's New At SJ Games!

Yes, the time-honored tradition, sadly fallen silent of late, has returned. On Friday, November 4, 2005, Chris Aylott and Sean Punch will be in the Pyramid Auditorium . . . read article

October 29, 2005:

We Have A New Office

The final paperwork has been signed, and we have a new office. The new address, as well as photos, will be broadcast shortly in the official announcement . . . read article

October 30, 2005:

Powers Bibliography Available!

Want to see what inspired GURPS Powers? You can check out the bibliography here, complete with Amazon.com links for ordering the books, comics, and videos on the list . . . read article

October 31, 2005:

Coming on Friday to a Screen Near You

In Nomine fans rejoice! We're publishing new supplements on e23, and the first one goes up this week! . . . read article

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