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Tuesday, December 16, 2003
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When Electronic Arts decided to woo staff from Radical Entertainment, it set up a billboard only a computer nerd could read.Vancouver video-game maker Electronic Arts is using in-your-face tactics to try to recruit employees away from rival Radical Entertainment.
A billboard on Terminal Avenue near Main Street says "now hiring," followed by EA Canada's logo.
What has raised eyebrows at Radical is the fact that the message is in ASCII code -- a computer language in which numbers are used to represent letters -- and that the billboard is only about 100 metres from the company's head office.
Because of its location and its cryptic message, it's clearly aimed at wooing away Radical's software engineers and programmers, Radical chief executive Ian Wilkinson said Tuesday.
[via Canada.com]
Man Breaks Most Body Piercings Record
Brent Moffatt from Winnipeg, Canada, pierces himself with surgical needles as he sets a Guinness record for most body piercings, in Montreal, December 13, 2003. Moffatt inserted 900 needles into his legs to break his previous record of 702 piercings.
Saddam Action Figure For Sale
It didn't take long for a bearded Saddam doll to surface.
An action figure in the shape of a bearded Saddam Hussein has gone on sale on a US-based website.
The Hero Builders have a series of figures including Hussein, George W Bush and a Tony Blair doll called Talking British Ally, for sale.The 12-inch Saddam figure, with an Ace of Spades t-shirt costs $29.95 (£18), plus packaging and postage.
The website also has an action figure of Saddam with a moustache, which can be fitted with S&M gear at an extra charge.
Herobuilder also sells a Dead On Arrival doll of one of Saddam's sons, Uday.
It has two heads, one before his death in a shootout with Coalition troops and the other after.
[via Ananova]
M.I.T. Publish Largest Commercial Book
NY Times: For a Small Kingdom, a Visual History in a Big Book
"Bhutan," to be released today, is five feet high, opens to nearly seven feet wide, and weighs more than 130 pounds. A picture book of 114 pages, it pushes the technological frontiers of digital photography and computer printing.Each book uses a roll of paper 5 feet wide and 400 feet long, a third longer than a football field. Each copy consumes two gallons of ink and takes 24 hours of printer time.
The big book is also a philanthropic endeavor. The plan is to print 500 copies of the book, with a price of $10,000 each. Each book costs about $1,000 to produce; the remaining $9,000 will be a tax-deductible charitable contribution. The proceeds will go to the Bhutan ministry of education and into a scholarship fund to send Bhutanese students to college abroad.
The technical challenges of producing the book were many. To make such large pictures print crisply and clearly requires densely packed image files of about two gigabytes, which strain the capacity of today's software and printers. Pushing the limits of every element of the hardware and software technology at once meant constant tweaking and debugging.
Update: Amazon are selling this book for $10,000 but it's currently out of stock. However, they do allow you to look inside the book. I can just imagine the postman trying to deliver it! [via The Presurfer]
Comet Christmas Game
Pilot Comet & Santa around the training area by using your mouse - the objective is to deliver as many presents as accurately as possible. As you progress through the levels, you will have more presents to choose from.
