Archive for June, 2010

software games in public

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

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While computer games are meanwhile having quite an impact on our societies (here again a link to a video about cognitive changes in people due to computer gaming) the reflection about computer games is rather at the beginning.
Thus not so much is known and documented about early computer games and/or the history of computer games. So it is good that the Computerspielemuseum Berlin (-> earlier randform post) is now going to have a permanent exhibition venue in Berlin. The patron of the museum is going to be Ralph Baer (please see this randform post) the director will be the in the earlier randform post mentioned Andreas Lange. The venue is going to be the former Cafe Warschau on Karl-Marx-Alle. There will be a concept presentation on Friday Juli 2nd from 10.00 to 12.00 o’ clock. If you want to participate please give a note to Mr. Gerstenberger, his adress and the announcement for the museum opening are here.

-> for those who can’t make it to Berlin: museogames exhibition in Paris from June 22 to Nov. 7 2010

On the occasion of the opening of the museum a small randform collection about the architecture of pachinko’s after the click.

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Days of Harmonics

Monday, June 28th, 2010

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The International society for the interdisciplinary study of symmetry ISIS (not to confuse with Isis Healing or other Isis disambiguations) is soon organizing a conference called “Days of Harmonics” (Regular registration fee: 400 Euro) (Aug. 23 – Aug.28 2010, AUSTRIA). The proceedings are probably going to be published in the journal visual mathematics by the mathematical institute Belgrade.

Bright Green Design

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

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BerliNordik is a rather new forum for sustainable design, it is

“an international platform that brings together young talented designers from Berlin with their colleagues from the Nordic countries on the subject of sustainable design. “

The berliNordik blog informs amongst others about activities of BerliNordik. Recently BerliNordik coorganized an exhibition called “Bright green design” where I attended the opening. For the exhibition few product design objects were chosen. I actually had also sent in a proposal but unfortunately –again– it wasn’t chosen (maybe I write later about that project in product design). Below some images from the opening.

There are images from three projects in the images. One project is featuring a partially wooden bike called “Holzweg”. Here I was asking myself how good the different material components can be dissassembled. Another project is the Yellowone Needle Cap – a protective cap that turns an empty soft drink can into a safe depository for used needles, by Hân Pham. The third project is “Spot on the BUOY” by Adrian Paulsen. In this envisaged project a buoy is supplied with a paper towel for oil spills and e.g. lights so that the buoy acts as a kind of sensor for oil spills. Clearly the buoy would only be appropriate for rather “light” spills it would certainly not be addaped for the recent oil spills in the gulf of Mexico. Any paper would be totally overstrained with this spill.

(Images of the other projects from create berlin )

In the below images you can see also the discussion of jury members and organizers about “what is green design“. One key issue here was the quandary of eco-designers, which is that to a great extend the task of a designer is to communicate a product and thus in part to encourage more consumption, which is against sustainability. It is also in part the task of an eco-designer to greenwash a product. Last but not least sustainability is often in conflict with economic interests, i.e. due elaborate production methods and materials and e.g. longer durability often only small profits can be made which is a problem in our economic system. Moreover next to the demand of incorproating new green technologies, questions about certification of eco-efficiency, compliance to new standards etc. are making the design process difficult.

->Video of the opening
Interview by Lilli Green with visitors of the exhibition about “what is green design” (-> video)

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response to comment by Zaza

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

This response to a comment by Zaza may be useful not only to Zaza.

national cuts

Monday, June 7th, 2010

flautenkreuzIMG_0023-500 “Flautenkreuz” photography by Brad Löw

According to what I read in the study Ökonomische Auswirkungen einer Laufzeitverlaengerung deutscher Kernkraftwerke (in german) which was made on behalf of the BDI (the “umbrella organisation of german industries”) (BDI site) the operational life-span of nuclear power plants in Germany to
-40 years would lead to a financial gain (via cost saving) from:

    approximately 3.3 billion Euro/year (2015) to approx. 6 billion Euro/year (2020) (table 3-1, p. 34 of the study),

extending the operational life-span to
-60 years would even lead to a gain from:

    approx. 8 billion Euro/year (2020) to approx. 10 billion Euro/year (2025) or approx. 9.3 billion Euro/year (2030) (from table 3-2, p. 35, of the study ).

So on average one can roughly say that the life-span extension of nuclear power plants would lead -according to what I read in this study- to a financial gain of -very roughly averaged- at least 5 billion euros per year. Since it is expected that electricity prices will be made according to market value and not according to that gain which is due to unexpected life-span extensions one could infer that this gain will be the gain of the electricity industry. Consequently the german government (which is planning a life-span extension of nuclear power plants) is planning to demand a share of that prospected gain for their new cuts plans in the socalled “Sparpaket”. According to Spiegel Online the current plans are to ask the electricity industry for a share of 2.3 billion per year. Thus if I conclude rightly this means that the electricity industry may keep a gain of at least 2.7 billion per year (or up to 7.7 billion per year depending on life-span extension) . It is not clear how much of that would be reinvested into renewable energies. Social cuts according to Spiegel Online on that page.

I don’t know, wether the life-span extension of nuclear power plants means that this study is going to be extended.

I also don’t know wether inspection optimization is planned.

laughing

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Recently someone didn’t like my laughing – here another laughing.

Lost world of Old Europe at the Ashmolean

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

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The program in Oxford was very packed however I fastly managed to sneak into a museum. Thus before I go to Goettingen I fastly post some recommendation for a fantastic exhibition which is currently at the Ashmolean in Oxford called the “Lost world of Old Europe”.

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