Daily Illuminator Archive for August 2005

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August 1, 2005:
Where are you, Laird? . . . read article

August 2, 2005:
The Pants Macabre cards went to press today, and with any luck, GURPS Banestorm goes tomorrow . . . read article

August 3, 2005:
Chris has been playing our games since the late eighties, and knew he had a GURPS problem when he started buying extra lending copies of rulebooks for his players so that he could keep his own set clean. After a decade of retail management, freelance writing (including a regular Pyramid column), and professional editing, he's honed his skills to a fine edge and developed the kindly disposition of a pit bull . . . read article

August 4, 2005:
OK, we all thought it would happen, but this quickly? Read the BBC story . . . read article

August 5, 2005:
What we really need is a third party to bring its views to the table as regards the origin of "life, the universe, and everything." That won't necessarily solve any problems, but it will sure make them more fun to watch. Robert Henderson's Open Letter to Kansas School Board throws fuel on the fire and raises the intellectual level of the conversation by raising the possibility that the world is the work of the Flying Spaghetti Monster . . . read article

August 6, 2005:
GURPS Character Assistant is now available for download on e23. For those of you who haven't immediately clicked thru in a mad dash to purchase the digital version, GURPS Character Assistant is the official character creation software of GURPS Fourth Edition . . . read article

August 7, 2005:
We're sending Burn in Hell back to press; the initial run is almost sold out, and demand continues high enough to warrant a reprint. This makes me happy . . . read article

August 8, 2005:
The shortlist for this year's Diana Jones Award, promoting excellence in gaming, is up at the Diana Jones site . . . read article

August 9, 2005:
Wow. The GURPS Character Assistant has passed 100 digital sales in just three days on e23 . . . read article

August 10, 2005:
GURPS Cyberpunk, written in 1989 and 1990 and released in 1990, described futuristic (for the time) computer systems. Its extrapolation of (for the time) incredibly large hard drives was based on Moore's Law . . . read article

August 11, 2005:
He very much appreciates all the good wishes. Thank you, everyone. (2) He's at home, keeping his weight off the bad leg, but staying in touch - and even getting a bit of work done - via the net. e23 is not unmanned. (3) No word yet on when he'll be back in the office . . . read article

August 12, 2005:
Early Thursday morning a UPS in our server room failed, and took a server with it, so our web site was down for about six hours. Our apologies to those who tried to reach us during that time . . . read article

August 13, 2005:
Some web games just fall flat, but this one doesn't work unless it does exactly that. The puzzles at Planarity have more twists than a Mason plot, and get increasingly difficult . . . read article

August 14, 2005:
As a species, we just don't get something about backups. Here's a sad story that rings all too true . . . read article

August 15, 2005:
Archie McPhee would appear to have a direct line to Eris. Behold: Bacon Bandages . . . read article

August 16, 2005:
As usual, those in search of our wonderful Stuff in the dealer room will find it at the Adventure Retail booth. I won't be at the con (sigh . . . it's been a LONG time since I've made it to GenCon . . . some year) . . . read article

August 17, 2005:
As mentioned yesterday, GenCon will be a wee short on Steve Jackson Games staffers. However, our MIBs are running a full spectrum of events . . . read article

August 18, 2005:
We have made an offer on the best prospect yet. It has both a shark tank AND a helipad . . . read article

August 19, 2005:
They claim We Are Family . . . read article

August 20, 2005:
As those who have read my Report to the Stakeholders know, one of my long-standing goals has been to step down from day-to-day management of the company so I can concentrate on making games. SUCCESS! . . . read article

August 21, 2005:
Next week will be an exciting one for me. I'm going to have the very great pleasure of visiting Japan as GoH for the tenth Japan Game Convention . . . read article

August 22, 2005:
So just as I'm coming up for air and realizing that it's time to post an Illuminator and nothing I did today was even marginally interesting except the part I shouldn't talk about yet . . . what shows up in my mailbox but a link to this spiffy Lego Serenity. If you are neither a browncoat nor a Lego geek, you did not get an Illuminator today . . . read article

August 23, 2005:
It's time to remind SF, gaming, and Linux fans in the Austin area that Linucon is coming. Just announced as a guest this year is James Ernest of Cheapass Games . . . read article

August 24, 2005:
Gen Con Indy was the most exhausting experience in my year so far, and my feet are very glad it is over. During the next month or two, Warehouse 23 will be adding a large number of new (and new to us) products . . . read article

August 25, 2005:
If you're not familiar with Pen & Paper, it's the ultimate resource for tracking down who wrote that obscure adventure you remember from high school, figuring out which artist did that awesome robot on the cover of GURPS Robots, or finding that game by that guy. Each year, the Pen & Paper Fan Awards asks visitors to its site to vote on the best in our industry in several categories . . . read article

August 26, 2005:
Tired of letting your blood do all the work? Then let Douglas Weibel's "microoxen" do the job . . . read article

August 27, 2005:
You can start by setting up an air force, thanks to this bargain basement sale from South Korea. And every so often an aircraft carrier shows up for sale . . . that one's gone, but there'll be another . . . isn't it wonderful how things come together? . . . read article

August 28, 2005:
But NASA has found dust devils on Mars. The Spirit Mars rover has driven nearly three miles on the surface of the red planet and recently reached the summit of Husband Hill . . . read article

August 29, 2005:
Astronomers have determined there is a bar at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, but apparently NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope doesn't have enough resolution to read the drink list. In the two years the telescope has been aloft, it has located hidden black holes, seen evidence of an asteroid belt in a different solar system, and taken some pretty cool infrared pictures . . . read article

August 30, 2005:
I'm typing this from the lobby of the Yokohama Prince Hotel, that being where the hotspot is. The tenth Japan Games Convention is over . . . read article

August 31, 2005:
Must be something in the ether around here, but we've had a couple of notable weddings among the staff. Wil Upchurch, editor extraordinare, was married earlier this month to Bree Zastrow, who served a stint here in the SJ Games offices as receptionist . . . read article

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