Daily Illuminator Archive for May 2004

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May 1, 2004:
We don't normally link to puff pieces, especially those which masquerade as actual news, but this CNN story about a new book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, is worth reading. As, no doubt, is the book . . . read article

May 2, 2004:
Apparently something broke during our recent switch to a new mail server; most of our lists are not sending out mail. Messages are being archived, and list members can read messages there . . . read article

May 2, 2004:
As of around 5 a.m. this morning, the mailing lists look to be working correctly once again. It would seem that the downtime we suffered Wednesday left us with a lot of mail to be delivered, and the mailing list system got clogged . . . read article

May 3, 2004:
Another science fiction concept moves toward reality . . . armor that is flexible until it's impacted. Read the Fox News story . . . read article

May 4, 2004:
Taken, with permission, from Randy Cassingham's This is True (very highly recommended by all the Managing Editors we surveyed): BONZER WEB SITE OF THE WEEK: http://www.googlealert.com -- GoogleAlert. Sure, everyone in the world now knows the power of Google, but wouldn't it be great to get an "alert" when something new on a subject of interest gets indexed by Google? . . . read article

May 5, 2004:
Later this year, Gibson will be coming out with a new digital guitar. Read the CNN story here . . . read article

May 6, 2004:
Production artist Alex Fernandez just hit his five-year anniversary here. We celebrated with cake . . . read article

May 7, 2004:
No man is an island, but a handful of them could be their own country. The Aerican Empire strives to make itself known in a world where the little guy gets pushed out of all the good summits . . . read article

May 8, 2004:
Wireless has come a long way, baby. I'm writing this Illuminator in The Green Muse coffee bar, five blocks from my apartment, which I located thanks to the good folks at Auscillate.com . . . read article

May 9, 2004:
Another entry in the "Is this cool, or what?" department. It's a functioning computer . . . read article

May 10, 2004:
The Cassini probe to the Saturn system is now sending back images of Titan's surface . . . images as good as anything we have from Earth-based observation . . . and they'll get better over the next few weeks . . . read article

May 11, 2004:
And here they are . . . the new covers for the two volumes of the GURPS Basic Set. We based it, of course, on Victor R . . . read article

May 12, 2004:
The final ballot for the 2003 Origins Awards was announced Monday, and Steve Jackson Games is proud to have received nine nominations. Only WizKids got more . . . read article

May 13, 2004:
As of 14 May 2004 I will be changing status at SJ Games from full time employee to freelancer. I will be taking over (again) as editor for JTAS, the online Traveller magazine, and I will be resuming the day-to-day management of the GURPS Traveller line, but I will be doing these things as an outside contractor . . . read article

May 14, 2004:
Scenes of death and ghost photography. Disneyland and its phantom government . . . read article

May 15, 2004:
Steve Jackson Games is pleased to announce the following releases for August, 2004: GURPS Basic Set: Characters With GURPS, you can be anyone you want -- an elf hero fighting for the forces of good, a shadowy femme fatale on a deep-cover mission, a futuristic swashbuckler carving up foes with a force sword in his hand and a beautiful woman by his side . . . or literally anything else! GURPS has been the premiere universal roleplaying game for almost two decades. The new Fourth Edition makes it even better! . . . read article

May 16, 2004:
Aaaargh. We had the Burn in Hell cards completely ready for the printer . . . and on the DAY that they were to go in, we decided to postpone publication for a few months . . . read article

May 17, 2004:
Due to disappointingly low demand, we are scaling back the GURPS WWII line. We will continue to release supplementary material in PDF form when the e23 project gets off the ground (it's still some months away) . . . read article

May 18, 2004:
Here are the latest SJ Games releases, on their way to the distributors and then to a game store near you. Ask your local retailer when he expects these in: Knightmare Chess (Reprint) Chess will never be the same! Knightmare Chess is chess played with cards - and what cards! . . . read article

May 19, 2004:
Of yourself, that is. Betterhumans.com is an extensive and regularly updated site for news about advances in medicine, materials technology, computing, and other fields that will someday let us live longer, smarter, and better . . . read article

May 20, 2004:
Joshua Turton wrote a PHP version of the handy fnord generating perl program we use on our web site. Don't know what a "fnorder" is? . . . read article

May 21, 2004:
If you think you've never had a close shave with people trying to invade your privacy, think again. You may be only a hair's breadth from secret surveillance . . . read article

May 22, 2004:
Every so often, some joker calls Warehouse 23 and tries to order something out of the pages of a GURPS book, for example the Chameleon Cloak on page 85 of GURPS Ultra-Tech. That attempt might have been funny once . . . read article

May 23, 2004:
You may remember that a fair while ago, Steve Jackson Games sponsored a contest to design a set of INWO decks built from a single One With Everything set. All of the entries were impressive, and the designers obviously put in a huge amount of work, and the choice was very difficult . . . read article

May 24, 2004:
Along with most of the rest of you, we heard yesterday that Richard Biggs, best known as Dr. Stephen Franklin on Babylon 5, had passed away suddenly and quite unexpectedly at the age of 43 . . . read article

May 25, 2004:
Austin's Republic Square Park became the city's first park wireless hot spot last week, with three others planned over the rest of 2004. (The Austin City Hall and Texas Capitol are also free public hot spots, as are dozens of restaurants, bars, libraries, and so on.) . . . read article

May 26, 2004:
We are about to have at least one, and maybe more, entry-level positions open. These are probably not what you studied for in college, and they aren’t about making games . . . but they’re about helping the people who make the games, and there are definitely promotion opportunities . . . read article

May 27, 2004:
Thanks to the magic of iCal, we are now publishing our calendar online. The URL is www.icalx.com/public/sjgames/Steve_Jackson_Games . . . read article

May 28, 2004:
What's next, "one nation, under the sea"? . . . read article

May 29, 2004:
Agents of Reich-5 are attempting to foil our schemes! Despite the obvious proof and generous rewards, no one has come forth to answer our call for Iconic Lookalikes! . . . read article

May 30, 2004:
Talk Like A Pirate Day website. This is a live recording featuring the composer, Tom Smith, backed up by Luke Ski and, err, me . . . read article

May 31, 2004:
Building on traditions begun after the American Civil War, the United States sets aside the last Monday of May as Memorial Day, a day of remembrance for those who fallen in service to their country. It is an opportunity to reflect upon the price of freedom and security and to offer our gratitude to those who have paid that price . . . read article

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