These Lego Flowers Won’t Need Your Water (GeekDad Weekly Rewind)

Lego trees

Image by Legofestival.com.au

Australia is famous for a lot of things: amazing landscapes, endless beaches, laid-back surfers, kangaroos, wine and many more… including Lego. And it seems that the Australian Lego community has been fairly spoiled lately! After launching the “Build” program in collaboration with Google Chrome, the Danish toy maker has blessed some lucky fans from the New South Wales outback with a giant Lego forest, yes, just that!

As a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the plastic brick’s arrival in Australia, the Lego group has put together the Festival of Play, an amazing calendar of events, including this Lego forest, spanning over nine months and designed to encourage creativity and play.

This Lego forest is composed of perfectly proportioned flowers and trees, well known by the young Lego fans and their unfortunate barefoot-walking parents. But in this case, there will be no risk of stepping on these bricks, as they come 66 times bigger than their original size. These “now” perennial flowers and trees are just big enough to look life size and fit like a charm in this astonishing outback landscape.

The same Lego forest has been seen in April, as part of the same festival, but this time in downtown Sydney. Such a show leaves me fairly curious about what comes next in the Lego Festival agenda, but this information seems to be kept highly secret.

In any case, if no further use of these trees can be identified, my 180 square feet roof terrace is in desperate need for low maintenance greenery, but not too many, please.

This article, by Max Castera, was originally published on Wednesday.

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Going Shogun: Comic Fiction Plus Dystopia Equals a Great Summer Read

Going Shogun book coverErnie Lindsey’s book Going Shogun is by no means perfect. It tends to display both the best and the worst of what self publishing can accomplish. It needs a copy edit and displays many of the traits which will irritate those who appreciate the value of a traditional editorial team. So, if you are the kind of person who reads a book with a pencil in hand because you cannot help it, stop right here. This isn’t the book for you. However, for those of you willing to allow a writer a few imperfections of grammar and punctuation, then Going Shogun is a tight, snappy, comic joy ride through a near future dystopia.

Brick and Forklift are waiters stuck in a world in which social status and influence have turned into a hardened caste system, a world in which upward mobility only comes through filling out a three page application to The Board. Since birth, they have been indoctrinated to pursue a hopeless quest to climb up to higher levels of status through hard work and applying themselves (pun intended). Despairing of advancing through any honest means, they hatch a plan to steal their employers secret recipes and sell them on the internet. What follows is a hilarious romp through a comic and dangerous underground subculture of hackers, drug users, and wannabes. It is Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure meets a send up of 90s rave and hacker cultures.

The story is also about becoming an individual in a society in which consumption and materialistic progress has become both creed and religion (at one point one of the characters starts quoting The Board’s Prayer). Lindsey is a smart social critic, at ease telling a story which brings to light the difficulty young people have coming of age in a land which no longer provides any upward mobility but still demands fidelity to the material consumption the young can no longer achieve. He also examines how an ongoing sense of powerlessness affects not only an individual’s view of the world around him but also his view of himself.

Not that any of this social commentary is on the surface in Going Shogun. No, the story is all candy coated comic goodness, which will keep you laughing out loud and reading at breakneck speed to keep up with the adventure. It’s just nice to know the chewy nugget center has some nutritional value as well. That makes it a perfect summer read. Going Shogun is now available in both electronic and paperback editions.

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Marian Call European Adventure Quest!!! (GeekDad Weekly Rewind)

The lovely and talented Marian Call is embarking on a tour of Europe and you can help shape the adventure. Even if you’re not actually in Europe there are plenty of good reasons to participate in the Kickstarter, not the least of which is a live album.

There are also some cool physical rewards starting at the $55 level, including the Marian Call dog tags, and other commissioned jewelry. Everyone gets to vote on which countries she should visit, and higher pledges have more say. The tour is initially scheduled for 5 weeks, but stretch goals will enable her to extend that time and hit more locations.

I followed along via the Donor’s Circle as Marian produced her last album, Something Fierce, and embarked on the 49-50 tour. I highly recommend participating at any level you can, just to see how her tours are put together, and get some insight into the creative process.

Check out the video above if you haven’t yet, click over to the Marian Call European Adventure Quest Kickstarter page, and if you have some coin to spare join the party. I promise it will be a fun time.

This article, by Anton Olsen, was originally published on Monday.

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GeekDad Puzzle of the Week Answer: Poaching Berries

Store-bought raspberries. Watery, tasteless and without the element of danger. Image: Flickr/LaGrandeFarmersMarket cc license

The berry bushes down the block are heavy with red, ripe raspberries. And so I believe it is my family’s duty to relieve the bushes of some of their burden, lest the weighty berries do long term damage to the plants themselves. Unfortunately, the plants’ best interests are hampered by their owner who bogarts these berries, likely for some lame use like fruit cake. And the plants are tall enough to obscure my kids from the house, but not tall enough to obscure me, I send them to poach berries. You know, for the greater good.

Here was this week’s puzzle:

If Leif and Kestrel are willing to give me a 20% cut, I’m willing to turn a blind eye. Imagine that Leif picks five berries per poach and Kestrel picks three berries per poach and that they attempt to poach once every day, with the exception of any day just after they’ve been caught. Now imagine that each time they poach berries, they have a 15% chance of getting caught. How many berries can I expect to eat each each week, averaged over time?

There were many answers and much debate, but correctness depended on one of the classic tricks of probability: splitting the situation into its possible states and running a probability for each. Andy wrote it this way:

1. They go poaching and don’t get caught (probability = 0.85x)
2. They go poaching and get caught (probability = 0.15x)
3. They don’t go poaching at all, because they got caught yesterday (probability = 1-x)
Blaine and Felicia (who happen to be this week’s winners of the $50 ThinkGeek gift certificate), wrote the following splendid solution:
Let p be the chance that you ARE sitting out.
Let q be the chance you are NOT sitting out.
Together these are mutually exclusive and therefore add up to 100% (or mathematically we say 1)
p + q = 1
p = 1 – q
The chance you are NOT sitting out, but CAUGHT is 0.15q
The chance you are NOT sitting out, and SUCCESSFULLY POACHED is 0.85q
We know that eventually the two values p and 0.15q end up being the same, so equate them
p = 0.15q
Substitute in 1-q:
1 – q = 0.15q
Rearrange:
1 = 1.15q
q = 1/1.15
The chance we are caught that day is 0.15q
0.15q = 0.15(1/1.15) = 0.15/1.15 = 15/115 = 3/23
And the chance we poach some berries is 0.85q
0.85q = 0.85(1/1.15) = 0.85/1.15 = 85/115 = 17/23
For the sake of completeness that means you have:
3/23 = chance child is sitting out
3/23 = chance child was caught today
17/23 = chance child was able to poach successfully
Now multiply this last number by 8 berries attempted times 7 days and then times 1/5 (20% commission) to get the expected number of berries poached each week.
Berries per week = 17/23 x 8 x 7 x 1/5
If you reduce that to a fraction you end up with:
952/115 = 8 32/115 berries each week
Answer:
8 32/115 berries each week (decimal value = 8.27826086956521739130434… underlined portion repeats indefinitely)
But my favorite answer by far was Breana’s, who wrote that, “My mom gave me this problem to exercise my summer-numbing, soon-to-be 9th grade brain. So I dug out my calculator and got to solving.” She also promises that, “our berries are a tad sour yet, but if you lived nearby, we’d share w/ L&K happily and your take would improve drastically.” Thanks, Breana and please keep playing the puzzle!
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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for July 8

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle, and the previous day’s answer (in invisitext) posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado, we give you…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

According to the most widely used character set encoding system, what would you have if you built a U+2603?

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER (mouseover to see):

Search [motorcade] and find nothing helpful. Search [brunch] to find nothing specific but note that it is a portmanteau, a blend of the two words “breakfast” and “lunch.” Search [motel] and find that it is also a portmanteau. Search [motorcade] again. Find that it was intended to blend motorcar and cavalcade. All three words are portmanteaus.

 

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Can Gaming and Creating Social Good Mix?

On June 21st, I had the privilege of moderating a conversation among game designers, non-profit organizations, and other interested parties in Portland, Oregon, on what we could do to use electronic and cardboard games to create social good. The two-hour conversation covered a lot of ground, including everything from Kickstarter as a means of funding, to creative educational game strategies, to storytelling in games, and beyond. The video of the conversation is now up at YouTube. If you are interested in continuing the conversation there is an open Facebook group which you can join.

Continue Reading “Can Gaming and Creating Social Good Mix?” »

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The Amazing Spider-Man: The Game (GeekDad Weekly Rewind)

Marketing image supplied by Activiion

In my experience most movie-based games fall flat, but once in a while one comes along that makes me think there is hope. The Amazing Spider-Man is one such game. Though to be fair, this isn’t exactly based on the movie since the story and timeline are a continuation of the movie that is opening in theaters today.

I’ll try not to include much of the plot of the game since it does give a few spoilers of what to expect in the movie. Feel free to discuss the plots in the discussion below though, and if you haven’t seen the movie yet, I’d recommend avoiding the comments for now.

Gameplay is well thought out and the controls, for the most part, make sense. Web swinging is fluid and fun, but it does take a little getting used to. The physics are good, most of the time, but occasionally you’re left wondering how Spidey managed to not only survive that face-plant into the side of the Oscorp building, but also transition to running up the wall. All this happens in real-time, but you can also use Web Rush to slow things down and pick your target. Web Rush reminds me a little of the Dead Eye Targeting system in Red Dead Redemption, but you are only able to target one thing.

Continue Reading “The Amazing Spider-Man: The Game (GeekDad Weekly Rewind)” »

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Six Star Wars Fans and the Ultimate DIY Project

The Lars Homestead, all photos by Mark Durmel and Michel Verpoorten

The Lars Homestead, all photos by Mark Durmel and Michel Verpoorten

A long time ago (roughly 35 years), in a galaxy far, far away (well in Africa actually), good old George filmed some of the scenes for his humble little space opera about a (moisture) farm boy, out in the desert near a town called Nefta in Tunisia. His crew scouted for locations and built some sets, they did their thing and left.

The film was moderately successful, and about 20 years later they came came and did it all again for a prequel series – hoping to repeat the success. Some of the sets had to be tidied up and given a new lick of paint, and some new locations had to be found too. When they left this time, the locals saw an opportunity and ran with it, setting up little stalls in the souks, collecting props that had been left behind and generally help to relieve any passing tourists of their money!

Since then, one of those sets in particular has been left to the ravages of the desert. The entrance to the Lars Homestead, affectionately dubbed ‘The Igloo,’ was last seen (at least chronologically) with two smouldering skeletons on its steps as Luke learns of his destiny and begins his quest to restore peace and order to the galaxy.

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Watch the Emerging Geeks: Imagine Cup 2012 Begins

Imagine Cup Infographic

Over in Sydney, Australia, students have gathered from around the world to compete in the 2012 Imagine Cup. GeekDad has covered this event for a few years now, but this is my first time attending and before competition begins I am inspired.

The Imagine Cup is heading into its tenth year. It is a global competition that challenges students to use technology to solve the world’s toughest problems. In the last decade, more than 1.65 million students representing more than 190 countries and regions have participated in the competition and have received more than $1.75 million in awards and prize funds.

This is the type of event any GeekDad would love the chance for his children to participate in. My boys are only 10, 8, and 1 year old, but already I’ve begun trying to figure out how they could have the chance to attend. The students are treated with such respect and supported just as any technology entrepreneur would love to be supported on an international stage. From being met at the airport, through to a decked-out workspace for competition preparation and a platform to promote their work to the world, the driving force behind the event — Microsoft — is certainly respecting these young people.

Continue Reading “Watch the Emerging Geeks: Imagine Cup 2012 Begins” »

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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for July 7

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle, and the previous day’s answer (in invisitext) posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado, we give you…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

You’re in a motorcade on your way to brunch at a local motel when it hits you: Those three nouns all have something in common. What is it?

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER (mouseover to see):

Search for [French artist zinc chromate brown] to find the French artist George Seurat. His 1884 masterwork, ‘Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’ (French: Un dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte) includes zinc chromate yellow pigment that is shifting slowly to a brown color.

 

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