Geek Gazette: December/January Edition Online
The December 2006/January 2007 edition of Geek Gazette is available for download [pdf]. The latest edition of the PDF ezine offers holiday tips for geeks, year's end "top ten" lists, thoughts on what makes a good role-player, podcast recommendations, and a geek gift wish list.
That'd be enough for any normal edition, but it goes on with quick reviews of the superhero RPG Mutants & Masterminds, the geek film Clerks 2 and the D&D source book Magic of Eberron, a comic book round up, geek TV, and a hefty convention calendar. In short, if you've been feeling less than geeky lately, this should fix you up nicely.
And gingerbread TIE Fighters zoomed in their heads...
I have my geek tree ... this German geek has a gingerbread TIE fighter. Inspired by Darth Vadar's advanced TIE fighter from A New Hope, this thing features over-sized wings laced with white icing, I can only assume that the brown stuff holding it together is some sort of super-strength molasses. The question is, will this give rise to an entire gingerbread Empire, complete with star destroyers, death stars, and shuttles for little gingerbread rebels to steal so they can sneak on to a gumdrop moon? Only time will tell.
Lifehacker: Achieving Coherence with Mac OS X and Windows
Years ago, Macs and Windows machines had a hard time reading the same floppy discs; now you can run Windows on a Mac, from within Mac OS X itself! This tutorial on Lifehacker explains how to make application windows within Windows XP run seemlessly inside OS X.
Radio Active #41: Harping Monkey's Second Life, SysStat, Model Makers
Sickness and teething played havoc with Radio Active's publication schedule, but the podcast returns with a shorter show that catches folks up on happenings around the thermonuclear burg. In Net News, I take a look at the Harping Monkey Inn's virtual digs within Second Life, talk about the SysStat widget for Mac OS X, and discuss the Model Maker's Podcast, a show dedicated to tips and tutorials for wargamers and modelers.
Getting the Podcast
There are several ways to get the podcast:
2006 Holiday Geek Gift Guide
Stumped with gift ideas for your geek? Can figure out what you should ask for yourself? Then check out Nuketown's annual gift guide, which offers suggestions from movies to MP3 players to music to books to games.
Reason: South Park Libertarians
Reason.com offers a lengthy interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park. In it they discuss the series' satire of the left and the right, and their life long quest for nonconformity. Particularly interesting is the discussion of Comedy Central's maneuverings regarding depictions of Muhammad and Scientology.
This quote from Matt Stone sums things up nicely:
I had Birkenstocks in high school. I was that guy. And I was sure that those people on the other side of the political spectrum were trying to control my life.
Forbes: Giving It Away
Cory Doctorow talks about how giving away his books helped him sell even more of them. It's an interesting world in which a science fiction author gets an article in Forbes, and even more interesting if more publishers start listening to him. Doctorow freely admits he doesn't know how authors (or hell, any creative people for that matter) will make money in a world in which everyone copies and no one buys books ... but he's right in saying that the answer isn't to turn your back on the net and try to throw as many locks and barriers on your content as humanly possible.
20' By 20' Room: A Brief Comment About Race Metaphors in RPGs
A short post at the 20' by 20' Room spawned a lengthy, intelligent conversation about the role of race -- and racial metaphors -- in role-playing games. It'll make you think twice about all those pesky orcs your party has been slaying lo these many years.
Treasure Tables: The Bulk Up the GMing Wiki Project
Martin Ralya is planning an ambitious project to bulk up the GMing Wiki at Treasure Tables. He's looking to find 52 wiki projects for folks to write about in 2007; this thread in the TT forums is brainstorming what those projects should be.
Podcast Roundup for Nov. 2006: Dragon's Landing, Geek Acres, Round Table, Fear the Boot, Geek Fu
My iPod finally decided to connect to my PowerMac, allowing me to finally download a bunch of new podcasts to listen to. First up on my list were for Dragon's Landing Inn, Misfit Brew's Round Table, Fear the Boot and Geek Fu Action Grip.