Filed under: Fun, Games, Open Source
Play yourself at Rock, Paper, Scissors with an open source training glove
Those dark, dreary, lonely nights when you're up to date with your video games and you're out of books. You look at your last good friend, your ever-present ally that's seen you through thick and thin: your hand. Just one more time... I'll get a girlfriend soon, I promise...
I'm talking, of course, about Rock-paper-scissors: the fairest of compromise, the inexorable justice of fates, THE ULTIMATE EQUALIZER. Have you ever played it on your own... or tried to? No, I didn't think so, but Steve Hoefer has; that sad bastard. He cites a love of 'computers interacting with us on our own terms', but we all know it's because his weiner is horrendously chafed and in desperate need of rest.
He simply slips on his glove and goes to work: 'Ick... ack... ock!' (or however you do it in your country... you weird Americans!) -- and all the while, the glove is learning his habits and playing against him! How cool is that?! If you often open with rock, the glove will start with paper. That's about it really, but as is always the case with 'mods' (yes, this must surely be the first 'glove mod' I've seen), it's all about the making. Go check the masterful nerd's site for a complete walkthrough (yes, you can quite easily make one of these yourself!). For me, though, the most interesting bit was the 'open source hardware' used to process the glove's inputs and power the outputs. At its heart is a programmable prototyping platform called Arduino. You can purchase the boards, or make them yourself! The language used to program the platform is also open source-- cool.
It's all a bit nerdy, but as you can see in the video after the break, well worth the effort. No longer will nerds have to carry dice in their pockets to decide what to get for lunch at the canteen.








In what must surely be the least surprising news of 2010, 

Sushi Cat is one of the cutest Flash games I've ever run across. You play a blue cat with a major talent for eating and, fortunately for you, every level is filled with delicious sushi! The controls are simple: you aim and drop from the top of the screen using the mouse, trying to hit as much sushi as you can on the way down. Eat enough sushi, and you can go on to the next level.
Your score depends on how much sushi you eat, and which bucket the cat lands in when it finally reaches the bottom of the screen. The more ...