Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Camp registration information now available for 6th grade through 12th grade gamers interested in creating games.
VideoGame.Net announced today the VideoGame.Net Experience 2004, a series of interactive summer camps focused on teaching kids in 6th through 12th grades how to make video games.
The VideoGame.Net Experience was conceived by Ed Fleming, President and Founder of VideoGame.Net, as an educational and entertaining program designed to help kids get more from their academic learning experiences. Started as a summer camp at Penn State Great Valley in 2003, the VideoGame.Net Experience has grown into a year-round program at six university campuses.
The VideoGame.Net Experience provides gamers first-hand experience with the tools needed to develop video games. The VideoGame.Net Experience programs teach gamers how to use Flash, Photoshop, Game Maker and other software for designing web-based games. Beginning in the fall of 2004, VideoGame.Net and the universities will expand the program to offer 3D game design courses, video game journalism and engineering.
While the VideoGame.Net Experience focuses on teaching students about video game development and design, it also provides a mechanism to teach kids additional skills. "In addition to teaching what is involved in making video games, the program also focuses on writing skills, critical thinking, presentations, sciences and math concepts," said Susan Fleming, Vice President of Curriculum Development. "When these traditional academic skills are presented in the program they are directly applied to the game, so it is fun and academic at the same time."
"The summer program focuses on game design and the history of game making," said David Kramer, VideoGame.Nets Director of Art Programs. "However, one of the other really cool things about our program is the Arcade at each campus. We offer the kids a chance to play some of the very best new and pre-released games as well as retro-classics for the old NES and Atari. Including these games within our lesson plans gives the kids a holistic perspective of where videogames came from and where they are going."
The 2003 VideoGame.Net summer camp was very successful and attracted hundreds of gamers from across the country. "To continue the success of the summer camp, we are teaming up with a number of campuses to deliver this yearҒs program," said Susan Fleming. VideoGame.Net is working with five Penn State University campuses and Hofstra University to offer open enrollment for the VideoGame.Net Experience summer programs. Additionally, a number of other colleges and universities are preparing to offer courses in the fall or next year.
The VideoGame.Net Experience 2004 summer program is a series of two-week, 80 hour, summer camps. The first program starts on June 21, and new sessions follow every week thereafter, through August. Starting in September and October the universities will also offer after-school and Saturday programs. A complete schedule can be found in the Make Gamesђ section at the VideoGame.Net website.
"I really love where VideoGame.Net is going with the Experience program because its win-win for the children and the parents" stated Ed Fleming, President and Founder of VideoGame.Net. "The kids love the program because we are able to provide them with skills to make games. The parents love the program because the skills we are teaching can also be used in other professions, such as the sciences, computing, medicine, the arts, bio-tech, management or any other 21st century profession."
For information on attending the VideoGame.Net Experience program visit the Make Gamesђ section of the VideoGame.Net website. At the website you will find a complete schedule of the participating universities and links to their registration information.
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on 06/16 at 01:06 AM
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Saturday, June 12, 2004
Built by a fan for fans, Metal Gear Online celebrates their first year of service by reflecting on the past year and looking towards the future.
"If you build it, they will come." From the time those words from Field of Dreams echoed throughout theaters nationwide, they have inspired many to live out their dreams in whatever they envisioned. Such is the case for one fan site that sprang up from the murky depths of Geocites and became a thriving place for news, media and fan interaction.
Metal Gear Online (http://www.metalgearonline.org) began one year ago because of one mans vision, brought forth through the coaxing from fellow members at Gamewinners, and became a haven for casual and hardcore fans to visit, discuss and read about the upcoming games in the series. Now celebrating its one year anniversary, Metal Gear Online has successfully eclipsed the 100,000 visitor mark and continues to grow a fan base worldwide. Hosting a vast library of videos, a message forum and with fan hungry visitors from the United States to Japan; and from the United Kingdom to Australia, Hideo Kojima's game series has not only inspired the ingenuity of sites like this, they have also captured the hearts and minds of people all over.
As part of the one year anniversary, Metal Gear Online is proud to launch (for a limited time) their former site Metal Gear Universe (http://www.metalgearuniverse.com) as a way to show visitors how the current site got started and to display the transition between domains. Metal Gear Universe originally came into existence by way of a free site located on Geocities. The aim and original theme consisted of utilizing a web based service to construct a detailed profile for active members from Gamewinners and Ignitegaming for the online clan "FOXHOUND". After the eventual dissolving of "FOXHOUND", the focus shifted from clan orientated identification to a news and media based outlet with the theme "Your one stop source for all things Metal Gear."
Metal Gear Online was founded by Otacon, a member of the Metal Gear Solid Series forum and Moderator at Gamewinners. Special thanks goes to MGM and Kyvek, former members of Gamewinners and current administrators of Forever Gaming for their efforts and support in the creation of the original site, as well as all the members and visitors past and present for their continued support.
Posted by
on 06/12 at 09:02 PM
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Thursday, June 03, 2004
A recent study claims that dust on computers and other electronics contain a chemical residue that can possibly pose a long-term health threat.
From CNET, "In a report published by Clean Production Action and the Computer TakeBack Campaign, two groups studying environmental and health issues related to computers, researchers contend that potentially dangerous elements of brominated fire retardants are turning up in dust samples swiped from computers. The research indicates that the most commonly found example of these substances, widely used fire prevention compounds known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, have been found to cause health problems in lab animals."
Posted by
Al on 06/03 at 02:26 PM
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Friday, May 21, 2004
Hackers rush to exploit the first serious hole discovered in the Apple Computer's Mac OS X.
From WIRED, "First discovered in February by a German Web designer, but not reported publicly until Tuesday, a vulnerability in OS X opens systems to potential hijackings when users simply visit a website.
Because of the way OS X handles certain protocols, a machine can be commanded through a Web link to run applications, scripts or Unix commands.
Though no victims have stepped forward yet, nefarious uses of the exploit are potentially unlimited. Experts warn machines could easily be hijacked to erase hard drives, spread viruses and spam, and report bank account numbers and passwords.
Apple said it is aware of the exploit and is investigating. 'We take security very seriously at Apple and we are actively investigating this potential security issue,' the company said in a statement.
The security hole first gained attention Tuesday after Secunia, a Danish security company, issued a security advisory. By Wednesday, Secunia upgraded its advisory to its highest rating because of an outburst of scripts and applications designed to exploit the hole."
Posted by
on 05/21 at 01:15 AM
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Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Afer being given the task from her professor, a Dubin City University student decrypted 2 declassified US miliatary documents.
From The Register, "An Irish graduate student has uncovered words blacked-out of declassified US military documents using nothing more than a dictionary and text analysis software.
Claire Whelan, a computer science student at Dublin City University was given the problems by her PhD supervisor as a diversion. David Naccache, a cryptographer with Gemplus, challenged her to discover the words missing from two documents: one was a memo to George Bush, and another concerned military modifications to civilian helicopters.
The process is quite straightforward, and according to Naccache, Whelan's success proves that merely blotting words out of declassified documents will not keep the contents secret."
Posted by
on 05/19 at 12:53 AM
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