Boom Boom Sabotage
Check out this interesting interview with Ben Burden Smith of Mainframe Entertainment, which discusses motion capturing Tony Hawk and other local Vancouver skaters for "Tony Hawk in Boom Boom Sabotage".
I can't wait to see this film!
Mobile Games
I recently got a new phone and can finally download and play all the new games that are available. I am looking forward to playing around with some of the dev tools and finally being able to test Flash Lite on a real phone.
There is an interesting article worth reading over at MSNBC with some insights from the man himself, John Carmack.
Trying out Windows Live Writer
A Microsoft WYSIWYG tool that will work to update my WordPress blog?! Now that's interesting.
I am impressed with its simplicity. After reading Brian's review at The Eclectic Side, I decided to give it a whirl.
As Brian pointed out, there is no support for adding categories, but at least it allows me to select any number of categories that I have already defined.
The major drawbacks that Brian found with the tool (browser integration and plugin support for non-IE browsers) are not problems at all for me, as my purpose for this tool would be as a CMS front-end. I have had varying degrees of success training users comfortable with MS Word to use WordPress or Macromedia Contribute. Besides, I can always fit Windows Live Writer beside my browser on this phat 24" widescreen, and I like to keep Firefox free of too many plugins.
I do wish that the default image border was set to "Drop Shadow" instead of "Inherit From Weblog", but this default can be changed.
Thanks Bill, keep it free, keep it simple.
Michiel van de Panne
I stumbled upon some fascinating research papers and projects relating to graphics programming, animation, simulation and sketch-based interfaces on Michiel van de Panne's site.
I found Sketching Character Motions and the Ski Stunt Simulator to be particularly interesting. The Ski Stunt Simulator reminded me of Brad Quick's Dirt Bike.
tNook Beta Site Launch
tNook.com recently launched a public beta for collectors of comic books and HeroClix. People can now add items that are not listed on the site, and enter them into their collections, trade lists and want lists.
In the coming months, we will be working on an interface to allow people to create their own tNooks for other collectables.
moo.fx: the next small thing
Nice little script that packs a lot of scriptaculous-esque effects into a small little package:
moo.fx - the "superlightweight, ultratiny, megasmall javascript effects library"
It's exactly what I needed (too bad I didn't find it until after I had written some simple fade routines last week). Ah well, I had a good time. 
Also worth checking out is the mooflex CMS that mad4milk is building. Very cool and inspirational stuff.
3ds max owns Maya?!
Holy Crap! Autodesk acquires Alias.
This is big news, but $185 million doesn't sound like a lot of money.
IMVU
When I started working at CodeBaby a few years ago, they were working towards building a community like this, but it never panned out. They decided to focus their efforts on creating 3d virtual assistants.
It's exciting to see IMVU giving it a go. It looks promising and works well. It was built using Pixomatic, a software 3d rendering technology from Rad Game Tools.