Daily Illuminator Archive for January 2004

All Archives

January 1, 2004:

East Is East, And West Is West

But you just can't be sure of anything anymore, as the north magnetic pole has been wandering around, as much as 40 kilometers a year. So is your trusty compass about to become a useless artifact of camping trips gone by? . . . read article

January 2, 2004:

Illuminated Site of the Week: This Alert Brought To You By The Letters "Uh" And "Oh"

Just how bad are things? Ashcroft can tell you - or rather, his pallor can . . . read article

January 3, 2004:

Shields Up, Stardust

As the comet-exploring spacecraft Stardust approaches the Wild 2 comet's nucleus (closest pass will be Friday, Jan. 2), it has positioned itself with "shields" up to protect it from stray bits of high-velocity dust and rock. SpaceRef.com has the story . . . read article

January 4, 2004:

Does Size Matter?

When it comes to starships it just might . . . While it might be interesting to the geekier among us whether or not a Star Trek photon torpedo could take out a Star Wars Imperial Star Cruiser, there's really no way to compare entirely fictional technologies . . . read article

January 5, 2004:

Create Your Own Epic

The makers of the Historic Tale Construction Kit have taken various bits of art and lettering from the famous Bayeux Tapestry, and loaded them into a web-based application that lets you use the elements to create your own story. No, really . . . read article

January 6, 2004:

Go, Bot, Go!

We've all been watching Spirit with glee and admiration. Isn't it wonderful when something works? . . . read article

January 7, 2004:

We've Got Spirit, Yes We Do . . .

NASA has created a photojournal for the pictures coming back from the Spirit rover. Go here to look at the latest images . . . read article

January 8, 2004:

Inappropriate Behavior

I just got off the phone, and it was the kind of call that makes me shake my head. This is the sort of thing that put Harlan Ellison off fandom . . . read article

January 9, 2004:

Illuminated Site of the Week: Get A Load Of This

It's a gas. Methane, that is, and it's the energy source of the future since everything dies and decays . . . read article

January 10, 2004:

Dragons!

The GURPS Dragons Playtest will begin Monday, January 12th, on Pyramid. Throughout history, people around the world have told tales of dragons . . . read article

January 11, 2004:

Curses! Foiled For The First Time!

Aren't you glad you don't have friends like this? . . . read article

January 12, 2004:

Pink Tank

Now, where would this cammo job be effective? . . . read article

January 13, 2004:

Do You Want Weapons of Mass Destruction With That?

Having seen what the government did when we published GURPS Cyberpunk, we won't even try to order a known terrorism tool like a PDA. However, the good folks at The Register were brave enough to test a terrorist filter for on-line shopping . . . read article

January 14, 2004:

Our Games: Findable At Last

For too long, a misfeature of our wonderful website was the grossly out-of-date Our Games page, which needed SO much update work that it never got any at all. This has been corrected . . . read article

January 15, 2004:

Getting In The Spirit: Free GURPS Mars!

By the time you read this, if all went well, Spirit is off its lander and sitting on the surface of Mars . . . to check up on it, you can visit NASA or that excellent news site, Space.com. To celebrate . . . and believe me, we're a bunch of space fans here and we ARE celebrating . . . GURPS Mars will be free, until the end of January, with any Warehouse 23 order of $100 or more . . . read article

January 16, 2004:

April Releases

Steve Jackson Games will release the following products in April, 2004: GreedQuest Greed Is Good! . . . and it's especially good in the dungeon. In GreedQuest, four to six players race to the bottom level of the dungeon to grab The Hoard . . . read article

January 17, 2004:

Illuminated Site of the Week: Pellucidar On $789 A Day

Do vacations leave you feeling empty inside? Fill those vacant places in your life with the trip of a lifetime . . . read article

January 18, 2004:

Meet Me In . . . New Jersey

Next weekend -- Jan. 22-25 -- I will be in the wilds of New Jersey at the Dreamation 2004 game convention. Pyramid editor Steven Marsh will also be there, along with quite a few other folks bent on a ton of gaming fun. I'll be running Evil Stevie's Gaming Lab, where you'll get the chance to try out some games that are still being developed, plus a big Car Wars tournament (with a trophy and everything!) . . . read article

January 19, 2004:

Leaving Michael In The Dust

Okay, this gets beyond egoboo and all the way to "scary." Google for "Jackson" . . . (isn't it cool that "Google" is a verb now?) When you get past the day's headlines, who is the top entry? . . . read article

January 20, 2004:

What Should They Do To Spammers?

Comments are being solicited here on amending the sentencing guidelines in the new federal anti-spamming act. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that they can be e-mailed . . . read article

January 21, 2004:

The Comet's Face

The folks at Science@NASA have this close-up of the face of the Wild 2 comet that has taken scientists completely by surprise. Read the details here . . . read article

January 22, 2004:

There Are A Million Stories In The Virtual City

Who knew that "The Sims" would become such a sink of simulated depravity? Read the story in The Independent . . . read article

January 23, 2004:

Illuminated Site of the Week: Lemony-Fresh Mythos

An assault by mind-blasting creatures from beyond space and time would go over much better if it came with a fresh, clean scent . . . read article

January 24, 2004:

The World's Cutest Hellboy

Hellboy fans, prepare for a new take on your hero. Joe Acevedo has created custom Playmobil versions of the Big Red Guy, as well has his friends and foes . . . read article

January 25, 2004:

Viva Las Vegas!

Our new Las Vegas warehouse is up and running. The games that are shipping now were shipped from Vegas . . . read article

January 26, 2004:

Changing The World

I'm rereading Guy Kawasaki's Selling The Dream, a marketing book about "evangelism." I've always felt that our best salesmen were the people who play our games, so this book has a lot to say to me . . . read article

January 27, 2004:

Now Shipping

The following are on their way to distributors everywhere. Okay, only on this planet . . . read article

January 28, 2004:

Hubble's Greatest Hits

The folks at news.com.au have put together this retrospective of the most spectacular pictures taken by the soon-to-be-decommissioned Hubble Space Telescope, complete with music. Check it out here . . . read article

January 29, 2004:

If The Errata Are Gone, Are We Perfect Now?

You remember the story about Clerical Errata. We packaged up the misprinted decks from Munchkin 3 - Clerical Errors, along with rules to make the improperly-backed-up cards playable, and put 1,200 sets in Warehouse 23 . . . just enough to let us recoup what we had to spend to reprint the Clerical Errors cards and get them RIGHT . . . read article

January 30, 2004:

Illuminated Site of the Week: Batter Up

Whalers and holes in the ozone aren't enough . . . read article

January 31, 2004:

Crime Lords

The Illuminati: Crime Lords rules . . . the last component . . . have now gone to press. This will now be a March release . . . read article

Top • Daily Illuminator Archives