Papercraft Friday #84: Pinhole Camera

This week’s paper model comes from Ravensblight.com, and is great for a science project, or when you just feel like making more than a static model.  The concept of a pinhole camera was pretty common when I was a kid, but in the digital age some kids don’t even know what film is!  Now with some paper and a few odds and ends, plus a roll of 35mm film, they can make their own working camera.  No batteries required!  As Ravensblight points out, pinhole cameras take soft focus pictures, which are good for spooky or dreamlike settings.  Check their site for the model, instructions and sample pictures.

Make one now while you can still buy 35mm film!  Send me some shots from it if you do!

Not keen on this one?  Want more?  Check out other Papercraft Friday posts.

Free Doctor Who: Freakshow

It’s been a good week for free Doctor Who stuff! Once again, Doctor Who Magazine has teamed up with Big Finish Productions to offer an exclusive audio adventure free for DWM readers.

Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles – Freakshow
A new adventure for the Fifth Doctor, Turlough and Tegan
Starring Mark Strickson as Turlough and Toby Longworth as Winklemeyer

Aboard the TARDIS, Turlough records a testimony about a recent adventure. A trip to Buzzard Creek in the USA, where he encountered the sinister Winklemeyer, who claims to have discovered a cure for every known illness…

If you missed it on page 12 of the 31 March issue, hit up www.bigfinish.com/dwm and enter the code 5844.  The offer has been running for awhile and expires 26 May 2010, so don’t delay.

While you’re there, why not subscribe to some of their ranges?  I currently subscribe to two.

To Victory! And Free Dalek Posters! And More!

If you watched the Doctor Who episode Victory of the Daleks (and 7.81 million viewers did when it aired, making it the fourth highest programme on BBC One and the eleventh highest on all British television for the week, not even counting those of us oversees who don’t watch BBC One live), you might have dug that retro WWII era look to the Daleks, complete with Union Jack markings on their dome and military green paint jobs.  One standout from the production was the wartime propaganda-style Dalek poster, which is available for free from the BBC Doctor Who website. While you’re there, check out the pages for other recent episodes for downloads a River Song diary dust jacket and a Patient One wanted poster.  Perfect stuff for your Doctor Who room!  (What, doesn’t everyone have a Doctor Who room!?!?)

You Are Here: Earth From Mars

I have no idea how I missed this photo, which was taken in 2004  (click on it above for a larger view).  Especially in light of my current blog banner.  I follow these things pretty closely, get Astronomy and Sky & Telescope magazines, and so forth.  But the photo above was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on March 8, 2004.  The first photo of Earth from the surface of another planet… it gives me goosebumps.

The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been operating on the surface of Mars for over 6 years.  Spirit became indelibly stuck in a sand trap last May, but continued to function.  It skipped a planned communication with NASA on March 31st and may be in hibernation mode during the Martian winter.  On Thursday April 29th, it will surpass the Viking 1 lander’s record for the longest running mission on Mars, assuming it survives the low power mode and wakes up in a few weeks.  If not, Opportunity is sure to break the record, as it continues to chug along towards a giant crater called Endeavor on the Martian plains of Meridiani Planum on the opposite side of the planet.  It landed on Mars 3 weeks after Spirit back in January 2004, and will surpass the record on May 20th.

Not bad for two little rovers that were only supposed to last 3 months.

via Boing Boing

Flash Games: Ultima IV Quest of the Avatar

Wanna play a real Ultima game via Flash in your browser, instead of suffering through Ultima branded strategy games like Lord of Ultima?  Blair Leggett is happy to oblige, with a Flash version of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar.  Included in the Flash versions are three new top-border icons that link to help, game documents and email assistance.  Have fun!

Bookmarked: Boxer

I stumbled upon Boxer by sheer happenstance.  I was looking for a picture of the box side (or a flattened box scan) of Worlds of Ultima: Savage Empire (or Ultima: Kyouryuu Teikoku) for the Super Famicom.  I have the cart, and thought maybe I could make up a sleeve for a universal game case for it, but I only have pics of the front and back covers, not the side (if anyone has one, please let me know!!).  While surfing around, I saw a mention in a forum somewhere of playing games in DOSBox, an open source DOS emulator that is quite often used to play DOS games on modern systems.  The forum post mentioned that for Mac users, Boxer was the way to go.

Boxer is a DOS game emulator for Mac that takes all the hassle out of messing with DOSBox settings and drive mounting and so on.  Just drag your DOS game folder or CD onto it.  If the game needs to be installed, Boxer will install it, and leave you with a “gamebox” that you double-click to start the game.  It’s pretty much as simple as that.  As with any program, some old games come with complications, and Boxer lets you tweak as you like.  But in many cases it’s not necessary.  They even have some ready-to-play demos and games available to download in .dmg files, all ready to go.  When I saw Ultima IV and Ultima Underworld in the ready-to-pay group, I knew I’d be hooked.  Plus it works with many of the DOS-bases GOG.com games as well.

If you feel like rockin’ some old skool gaming on your Mac, try out Boxer.  Let me know what you think.

What else have I Bookmarked?  Click and find out.

Papercraft Friday #83: Relief Earth Globe

In honor of Earth Day, this week’s model is the Relief Earth Globe from paperpino.net.  Relief Earth Globes show the Earth’s surface and undersea topography.  This one uses 2006 images from the National Geophysical Data Center – NOAA Satellite and Information Service.  The 19-page model and instructions are pretty detailed.  The box in the picture can also be built, and has an internal starfield that you would place the globe into.

Thanks to Giuseppe (Pino) Civitarese for making this model (and several others) available on paperpino.net.  And in honor of Earth Day, build this one out of some good stock recycled paper.

Not keen on this one?  Want more?  Check out other Papercraft Friday posts.

What LEGO Oughta Sell: Mass Effect Normandy SR-2

I generally have the creativity of a brick. Maybe that’s why I like LEGO bricks so much, particularly set with nice instructions I can follow.  But I admire  the people that can take a pile of LEGO and make something really cool out of it.  I often look at such creations and think “this is what LEGO oughta sell!”  LEGO creators can use LEGO Digital Designer to design models, from which they can upload instructions and box designs that people can then order real, custom sets from.  But designers are often good enough to make MOCs (My Own Creations) from scratch and don’t bother with the program, leaving us just to dream of what could be.  Like Ben Fellowes’ build of the Normandy SR-2 from the Mass Effect 2 videogame.  Compare the shot above with a shot of the ship from the game!

The Normandy SR-2 was built for Commander Shepard by the rogue, black ops organization Cerberus.  It’s based on the Systems Alliance’s SSV Normandy SR-1 starship, although about twice as big.  The LEGO model reflects that in being huge – over 4 feet long!  It has a nice Cerberus logo stand, and in a separate build Ben made a UT-47 Kodiak shuttle that fits inside (and was designed with LEGO Digital Designer, so you could make one too).

Check out Ben’s website for lots of shots of the Normandy SR-2, the UT-47 Kodiak, and other Mass Effect builds.

Exaspirations: Avatar’s Duplicitous Earth Day Release

As a way to supposedly celebrate Earth Day, 20th Century Fox is releasing Avatar on Blu-ray and DVD.  The film’s environmentally friendly message is deemed a perfect fit with the annual environmentally friendly day.  So what’s the issue?

The DVD and the Blu-ray/DVD combo discs being released are as bare bones as you can get.  Just the movie.  No extras, no specials, no trailers.  No extended scenes, no commentaries, no making-of, nothing but the movie.  Why?  So in November they can release it again as a Special Edition, and next year they can release it again with 3D!  To placate buyers, the 1st release will contain a code for viewing some bonus content online, and reportedly a coupon for the November release.

Are you kidding me?!!?  To honor the Earth, 20th Century Fox is releasing 3 versions of the same film, which with Blu-ray and DVD will amount to at least 6 different cardboard and plastic packages!  Because I’m sure people won’t buy a better version down the road (with the provided coupon no less) and dump this neutered release in the nearest landfill.  Way to take care of your pocketbook the planet, James Cameron… you are a shyster an inspiration to us all!

Game Impressions: Final Fantasy XIII

Introduction

Of the recent main series of Final Fantasy games, I really enjoyed Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XII.  I didn’t play FF XI very long, mainly because after a certain point you were pretty much required to group with people to advance, which really didn’t suit my playstyle or available time.  Final Fantasy XII took me two years to complete, though I mainly played it in two large blocks, with years in-between.  I loved the style and most of the gameplay mechanics.

I tried to avoid a lot of news or info on Final Fantasy XIII before playing it, but it looked to be similar to both of those titles, making it a must-get game on release day.  But games like FF XIII require quite a large time investment.  You could probably play Halo 1-3 and ODST in the same time it’d take you to finish FF XIII.  So was it worth the time and effort, or will it be my Final Fantasy?  (I had to go there.  It’s over now.)