Author: Dan Dickinson

1) The Magic Box is reporting on something that makes Capcom cool again:

Capcom announced they will release the PS2 online board game Catan in Japan this summer. Capcom is planning to distribute the game for free, there will be a monthly fee for playing the game online. Beta test of the game will has begin on April 10.

That’s right, folks, Settlers of Catan on the PS2. You have no idea how much time I blew playing Gnocatan sophomore year. In fact, I think I’m going to go reinstall it now.

2) Thanks to Nicole, I have acquired a legitimate IIDX 5th Style. Due to a massive number of other games being picked up by me in a relatively short period of time, my IIDX playing has diminished, and between that and my controller sticking to a ridiculous degree, I’m sucking quite nicely these days. Oh well, it’s fun to finally play a new batch of songs, even if it’s a bit heavy on the house and hip-hop on this particular version.

NYT article about a new sound technology, HyperSonic Sound.

Norris is demonstrating something called HyperSonic Sound (HSS). The aluminum plate is connected to a CD player and an odd amplifier — actually, a very odd and very new amplifier — that directs sound much as a laser beam directs light. Over the past few years, mainly in secret, he has shown the device to more than 300 major companies, and it has slackened a lot of jaws. In December, the editors of Popular Science magazine bestowed upon HSS its grand prize for new inventions of 2002, choosing it over the ferociously hyped Segway scooter. It is no exaggeration to say that HSS represents the first revolution in acoustics since the loudspeaker was invented 78 years ago — and perhaps only the second since pilgrims used ”whispering tubes” to convey their dour messages.

I eagerly await widespread application of this. [via Boingboing]

Brian Flemming at blogcritics has posted a well written one-act play described as “Ten years, twenty years, thirty years from now, people will ask the former U.S., “Why is it that you broke with the rest of the world and violated international law to invade Iraq?” Here’s how the dialogue might go.”