Flappy Bird is proof that no one knows what the audience wants
Everyone in the games industry is trying to figure out what "the people" want.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2014-02-06T22:04:36+0000
The Believer - The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison - @believermag
From the Believer magazine.
Hasnain says:
"We play a demographic menagerie: young jocks with ACL injuries and business executives nursing coke habits. STD Grandma has just cheated on her husband of forty years and has a case of gonorrhea to show for it. She hides behind her shame like a veil, and her med student is supposed to part the curtain. If he’s asking the right questions, she’ll have a simulated crying breakdown halfway through the encounter."
Posted on 2014-02-05T06:18:14+0000
In the Beginning, There Was a Nipple
Ten years ago, 90 million people watching Super Bowl XXXVIII saw Janet Jackson's breast for nine-sixteenths of a second. Our culture would never be the same.
Hasnain says:
"Sitting in his office at the NCTA's sleek modern building in DC, he does not look like a man who wants to spend his time policing boobs on TV. He does not sound like a man who wants to spend his time policing boobs on TV. Since leaving the FCC in 2005, he has declined almost every interview request to talk about boobs on TV. But 10 years later, Powell is finally ready to admit that he never wanted to police boobs on TV."
Posted on 2014-02-05T06:03:22+0000
Far From Home
In today’s hyperconnected world, many developing countries find that their most lucrative export is people. The foreign workers and their families must grapple with an inevitable trade-off: emotional loss for material gain.
Hasnain says:
"The first salary was from a local job selling sporty shoes. Teresa, just out of high school, could not afford to replace the house’s wooden walls with sturdier stone. But she could buy a string of colored lights. She nailed them up on her house in the shape of a Christmas tree. “I did it myself,” she said. “And I went out in front, and the light was there, and I said, I can do this.”
That was the night that Teresa decided she was tough enough for Abroad."
Posted on 2014-02-05T05:43:46+0000
Why Facebook’s Photo Hoarding Matters—LGBT or not.
Looking back on 10 years of playing fast and loose with your most embarrassing and private moments.
Hasnain says:
Deleting things should, you know, actually delete them.
Posted on 2014-02-05T01:09:49+0000
Dell layoffs this week: 15,000 to be hit: report | ZDNet
Insiders say that Dell's anticipated layoff programme will begin this week, with roughly 15,000 employees due for the chop.
How In-app Purchases Has Destroyed The Industry
I don't like writing negative articles that don't include a solution to the problem but, in this case, there is no solution. The state of in-app purchases has now reached a level where we have completely lost it. Not only has the gaming industry shot itself in the foot, hacked off their other foot,…
Hasnain says:
I fully agree with this. The games industry is in a bind when it comes to mobile, IMHO.
Posted on 2014-02-02T00:56:06+0000
absorptions: Mystery signal from a helicopter
Last night, YouTube suggested a video for me. It was a raw clip from a news helicopter filming a police chase in Kansas City, Missouri. I quickly noticed a weird interference in the audio, especially the left channel, and thought it must be caused by the chopper's engine. I turned up the volume and…
Academic Torrents
Academic torrents solves the problems of both sharing and downloading data by providing a distributed repository for datasets which is fast, scalable, and easy to use.
Observation of Dirac monopoles in a synthetic magnetic field : Nature : Nature Publishing Group
Magnetic monopoles[mdash]particles that behave as isolated north or south magnetic poles[mdash]have been the subject of speculation since the first detailed observations of magnetism several hundred years ago. Numerous theoretical investigations and hitherto unsuccessful experimental searches have f...