Castle Anthrax will live on in our hearts

We're going on a hiatus from weekend gaming so everyone can get more studio time.
Thanks for playing, guys. I had a good time catching up and chewing the fat. I've posted the world file for posterity. [Link.] The image below links to a more legible world map.

Lecture round-up

• [Link.] [Via.] There are some important insights in this talk about creation and feedback loops. The lecturer says some things about user interface that I don't agree with, but I think that it's been obvious for a while that we're not moving towards One-True-U.I. so I think there's room for everyone's opinion. I myself have what I think are some important insights into art making, feedback, and the proper use of computers, but when I've tried to articulate them they've come out somewhat hippy-dippy. So I'll save them for now.
• [Link.] [Via.] I enjoyed these Alan Watts lectures on my commute this week.
• [Link.] This is a good talk by KRS-One about the origin and spirit of hip-hop. I was at Temple in 2004, but didn't hear about this.
• [Link.] Who knew that bagging on Damien Hirst could be such comedy gold. Thank you, Google filter bubble.

P.S. Ubuntu 12.04 is out. With some trepidation, I typed "sudo do-release-upgrade" into a terminal last night. I haven't noticed any ill effects thus far.

Happy Monday!

El Empleo / The Employment from opusBou on Vimeo.

(Via.)

Borderlands 2... Ready Your Treasure Sack!

Start Your Weekend with Rammstein!

One Billion Dollars

Red Hat Becomes Open Source’s First $1 Billion Baby (Wired)

Maybe something like this could convince the architects in Pennsylvania that open source software can be a legitimate and stable corporate business enterprise.

Dungeons & Dragons News

Dorktower sums it up nicely.

-Players Roll the Dice for Dungeons & Dragons Remake
(New York Times, in January)

Some good critical commentary about the announcement that I stumbled upon.

-5th Edition D&D Is in Development — Should We Care?
(Wired blog - Geekdad)

The links in that article lead to an insightful run-down of why confidence in the official D&D is at an all time low, especially how Hasbro overreached and alienated the gamers.

-Past . . . Present . . . and Future. (the Escapist)

And here is how I accidentally found out a new edition is being developed at all.

-Call for diversity in D&D rulebooks (BoingBoing)

The Calyx Institute

Happy Zombie Jesus Day!

Ladies and Gentlemen; I give you James Howard Kunstler

"In the drunken, drug-crazed twilight of its run as Leader of the Free World, America's collective imagination swerves from one breakdown lane to the other while the highway patrol throws a donuts-and-porn party down at headquarters and the news media searches the gutter on hands-and-knees looking for the spot where it dropped its brains...."