text:
CCS Insight: dedicated VR headset sales to grow tenfold by 2020
30th August 2016 @ 11:33
Global sales of smartphone VR headsets will grow fivefold and sales of dedicated VR headsets will grow tenfold by 2020, according to CCS Insight.
The research firm said that sales of smartphone VR devices – including Google's Cardboard products and more advanced devices like Samsung's Gear VR headset – have already exceeded its earlier expectations.
CCS now predicts that 14.5 million smartphone VR headsets, worth over US$500 million, will be sold in 2016, rising to 72 million by 2020.
The forecast says that dedicated VR headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are also "performing well", with approximately 2 million of this type of device tipped to be sold in 2016, rising to 21 million in 2020.
"The momentum of 360-degree content is palpable and that's driving sales of VR headsets. All major content providers are piling into this area, and user-generated content is poised to explode as more affordable 360-degree cameras come to market," said CCS Insight chief of research, Ben Wood.
"Although it's early days for dedicated virtual reality, it's a promising market. HTC and Oculus VR struggled to meet demand when they launched their products and we expect a further wave of sales when Sony launches the PlayStation VR headset."
CCS Insight estimates that the total VR device market will be worth US$1.5 billion in 2016 and will climb to US$11 billion by 2020.
Dedicated VR headsets are expected to play a "critically important role", accounting for 85% of total market value despite having only 23% volume.
Tags: CCS Insight, Google Cardboard, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, Samsung Gear VR, VR headsets
Ateliere Creative Technologies teams up with Amdocs' Vubiquity
Ateliere Creative Technologies, a developer of media supply chain solutions, has teamed up with communications and media software and services giant Amdocs to address the needs of media companies. Ateliere has selected Amdocs' Vubiquity unit as its preferred managed services partner. Customers with media supply chains fully managed by Ateliere Media Services, also running on Ateliere Connect, […]
High View to broadcast more channels with new SES agreement
High View, an independent Munich-based media company, has expanded its partnership with satellite operator with a deal that will see it lease additional satellite capacity on SES's prime TV position at Astra 19.2° East to broadcast four free-to-air SD channels. Starting on February 1, High View will further grow its established Deluxe Music brand and […]
Samsung reported to be looking at third party deals for Samsung TV Plus
Reports are circulating that Samsung has been offering its streaming service Samsung TV Plus to rival smart TV manufacturers. First cited by Lowpass, the Korean giant has reportedly held discussions with major players include TCL. If that's the case, it signals an ambition at Samsung to accelerate the expansion of its AVOD/FAST business. So far, […]
Roku promotes David Eilenberg to head of content
Roku has promoted David Eilenberg to head of content. He takes over from VP of programming, Rob Holmes, who leaves the streamer in March after six years. Eilenberg, who was previously head of originals, only joined Roku in March 2022. But he comes with a robust track record having worked with ITV, Turner and Mark […]
JW Player names ex-Brightcove exec as CTO
Deutsche Telekom to offer UEI remote for Apple TV service
UK government extends Freeview UK multiplex licences until 2034
Smart TV market to surpass US$430 billion in value


text:
Archive for category Schizophrenia
How Drugs for Schizophrenia Sow Seeds of Resistance
Posted by psychieblogger in Atypical Antipsychotic Drugs, Brain Area, Chemical Changes, Chronic Administration, Chronic Treatment, Clozapine, Cognition And Perception, Detrimental Effect, Drug Resistance, Genetic Reasons, Groundbreaking Study, Health-related, Javier Gonzalez, Journal Nature Neuroscience, Medicine Report, Mount Sinai School, Mount Sinai School Of Medicine, Mouse Models, Psychology, Psychotic Symptoms, Research, Schizophrenia, Schizophrenic Patients, Technology, Therapeutic Effects, Treating Schizophrenia, Treatment Resistance on August 14, 2012
A new study has identified why certain drugs have mixed success in treating schizophrenia; effective at first, but with chronic administration becoming less and less so.
In the study, reported online in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists investigated the external genetic reasons (called epigenetic factors) that cause treatment-resistance to atypical antipsychotic drugs.
Use of antipsychotic drugs is the standard of care for schizophrenia. Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine report that 30 percent of individuals with schizophrenia do not respond to currently available treatments.
Researchers discovered that, over time, an enzyme in the brains of schizophrenic patients, analyzed at autopsy, begins to compensate for the prolonged chemical changes caused by antipsychotics, resulting in reduced efficacy of the drugs.
"These results are groundbreaking because they show that drug resistance may be caused by the very medications prescribed to treat schizophrenia, when administered chronically," said Javier Gonzalez-Maeso, Ph.D., lead investigator on the study.
Researchers found that an enzyme called HDAC2 was highly expressed in the brain of mice chronically treated with antipsychotic drugs, resulting in lower expression of the receptor called mGlu2 and a recurrence of psychotic symptoms. A similar finding was observed in the postmortem brains of schizophrenic patients.
In response, the research team administered a chemical called suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), which inhibits the entire family of HDACs. This treatment prevented the detrimental effect of the antipsychotic called clozapine on mGlu2 expression, and also improved the therapeutic effects of atypical antipsychotics in mouse models.
Previous research conducted by the team showed that chronic treatment with the antipsychotic clozapine causes repression of mGlu2 expression in the frontal cortex of mice, a brain area key to cognition and perception.
The researchers hypothesized that this effect of clozapine on mGlu2 may play a crucial role in restraining the therapeutic effects of antipsychotic drugs.
"We had previously found that chronic antipsychotic drug administration causes biochemical changes in the brain that may limit the therapeutic effects of these drugs,"said Gonzalez-Maeso. "We wanted to identify the molecular mechanism responsible for this biochemical change, and explore it as a new target for new drugs that enhance the therapeutic efficacy of antipsychotic drugs."
Mitsumasa Kurita, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Mount Sinai and the lead author of the study, said, "We found that atypical antipsychotic drugs trigger an increase of HDAC2 in the frontal cortex of individuals with schizophrenia, which then reduces the presence of mGlu2, and thereby limits the efficacy of these drugs."
As a result of these findings, Gonzalez-Maeso's team is now developing compounds that specifically inhibit HDAC2 as adjunctive treatments to antipsychotics.
Source:The Mount Sinai Hospital/Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Advocacy and Policy, Atypical Antipsychotics, Brain and Behavior, Dissociation, Frontal Cortex, Genetics, LifeHelper, Medications, Memory and Perception, Mental Health and Wellness, Neuropsychology and Neurology, Personality, Professional
Face in the Mirror More Distorted in Schizophrenia
Posted by psychieblogger in Research, Schizophrenia, Schizophrenia Patients, Schizophrenic Patients, Strange Face, University Of Milan, Zago on August 12, 2012
Individuals with schizophrenia experience more intense perceptual illusions while gazing into a mirror than do healthy people, according to a new study.
The new research also showed that patients with schizophrenia were more likely to believe the illusions they see in the mirror were real.
The research highlights the underlying ego dysfunction and body dysmorphic disorder found in schizophrenia.
According to the researchers, gazing at one's own reflected face under low light can lead to ghostly experiences called "strange-face in the mirror" illusions. No study has previously focused on mirror gazing in schizophrenic patients, who already experience delirium, hallucination and self mis-attribution.
Stefano Zago of the University of Milan conducted the study to compare strange-face apparitions in response to mirror gazing in 16 patients with schizophrenia and 21 mentally healthy controls.
Subjects took a 7-minute mirror-gazing test, after which they filled out a specially designed questionnaire asking them to describe their strange-face perceptions.
The results show a number of differences between patients with schizophrenia and mentally healthy controls. Patients on average reported a greater total number of strange faces than controls, at 2.8 versus 1.5.
The types of strange faces also differed between patients and controls. Hugely deformed features were seen by all schizophrenia patients and 71% of controls, archetypal faces by 50% of patients and 19% of controls, and monstrous faces by 88% of patients and 29% of controls. Patients' archetypical and monster faces were typically described as satanic beings.
Furthermore, patients tended to report greater intensity in the strange faces and were more likely to say that they felt real than controls.
Of note, mentally healthy participants felt dissociative experiences during the strange-face illusions and never identified with them.
Overall, the research suggests that strange-face illusions in schizophrenia can be caused by ego dysfunction, body dysmorphic disorder, or by misattribution of self-agency, said Zago.
The research is published in Schizophrenia Research.
Source: Schizophrenia Research
Apparitions, Archetypical, Brain and Behavior, Cognition, Delirium, Dissociation, Dissociative Experiences, Ego, Face In The Mirror, Featured, General, Hallucination, Intensity, Memory and Perception, Monster Faces, Participants, Perceptions, Perceptual Illusions, Questionnaire, Schizophrenia Research
Why We Can't Live in the Moment
Posted by psychieblogger in Duke University, Marc Sommer, Psychology, Research, Schizophrenia, Study Participants, Visual Attention, Visual Decision, Working Memory on August 10, 2012
The sought-after ideal of "living in the moment" may be impossible, according to research conducted at the University of Pittsburgh, which pinpoints an area of the brain responsible for using past decisions and outcomes to guide future behavior.
The study analyzes signals associated with metacognition, which is a person's ability to monitor and control cognition — a term described by the researchers as "thinking about thinking."
"The brain has to keep track of decisions and the outcomes they produce," said Marc Sommer, Ph.D., who did his research for the study as a University of Pittsburgh neuroscience faculty member and is now on the faculty at Duke University. "You need that continuity of thought. We are constantly keeping decisions in mind as we move through life, thinking about other things."
Sommer said the researchers "guessed it was analogous to working memory," which led them to predict that neuronal correlates of metacognition resided in the same brain areas responsible for cognition, including the frontal cortex, a part of the brain linked with personality expression, decision making, and social behavior.
The research team studied single neurons in three frontal cortical regions of the brain: The frontal eye field, associated with visual attention and eye movements; the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for motor planning, organization, and regulation; and the supplementary eye field (SEF), which is involved in the planning and control of saccadic eye movements, which are the extremely fast movements of the eye that allow it to continually refocus on an object.
Study participants were asked to perform a visual decision-making task that involved random flashing lights and a dominant light on a cardboard square. They were asked to remember and pinpoint where the dominant light appeared, guessing whether they were correct. The researchers found that while neural activity correlated with decisions and guesses in all three brain areas, the metacognitive activity that linked decisions to bets resided exclusively in the SEF.
"The SEF is a complex area linked with motivational aspects of behavior," said Sommer. "If we think we're going to receive something good, neuronal activity tends to be high in SEF. People want good things in life, and to keep getting those good things, they have to compare what's going on now versus the decisions made in the past."
Sommer said he sees his research as one step in a systematic process of working toward a better understanding of consciousness. By studying metacognition, he says, he reduces the big problem of studying a "train of thought" into a simpler component: Examining how one cognitive process influences another.
"Why aren't our thoughts independent of each other? Why don't we just live in the moment? For a healthy person, it's impossible to live in the moment. It's a nice thing to say in terms of seizing the day and enjoying life, but our inner lives and experiences are much richer than that."
The scientist said that patients with mental disorders have not been tested on these tasks, but added he is interested to see how SEF and other brain areas might be disrupted in people with these disorders.
"With schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, there is a fracturing of the thought process," he said. "It is constantly disrupted, and despite trying to keep a thought going, one is distracted very easily. Patients with these disorders have trouble sustaining a memory of past decisions to guide later behavior, suggesting a problem with metacognition."
The study was published in the journal Neuron.
Source: University of Pittsburgh
Alzheimer's, Brain and Behavior, Brain Areas, Cardboard Square, Cognition, Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex, Duke University, Frontal Cortex, Frontal Cortical Regions, Frontal Eye Field, General, Living In The Moment, Marc Sommer, Memory and Perception, Metacognition, Neural Activity, Neuronal Correlates, Neuropsychology and Neurology, Neuroscience Faculty, Planning And Control, Regions Of The Brain, Saccadic Eye Movements, SEF
First Marijuana Use Linked to Psychosis in Vulnerable People
Posted by psychieblogger in Harvard Medical School, Psychology, Research, Schizophreni, Schizophrenia, Substance abuse, Vulnerable Individuals on July 26, 2012
Among individuals with psychosis who are also heavy marijuana users, the age they first used marijuana is strongly linked to the age of their first bout of psychosis, according to a study of 57 patients.
Although marijuana use by itself is neither sufficient nor needed to trigger schizophrenia, "if cannabis use precipitates the onset of psychosis, efforts should be focused on designing interventions to discourage cannabis use in vulnerable individuals," Dr. Juan A. Galvez-Buccollini and his associates said.
This caution pertains to someone with a first-degree relative with psychosis, which is "the highest risk factor for schizophrenia," said Dr. Lynn E. Delisi, senior investigator for the study, a psychiatrist at the Boston VA Medical Center in Brockton, Mass., and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston.
If someone had a first-degree relative, "I would caution them about the consequences of cannabis use and the association with schizophrenia," she said.
Findings from previous research has shown that marijuana use is associated with an earlier age of psychosis onset in people abusing multiple substances, but studies have not looked at a possible link between the onset of cannabis use itself and resulting psychosis.
Because of this, Dr. Galvez-Buccollini, a psychiatry researcher at VA Boston Healthcare System and Harvard, and his colleagues interviewed 57 patients with a current diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, or psychosis not otherwise specified, who also had a history of heavy cannabis use before the onset of psychosis. They defined heavy cannabis use as 50 or more uses during a one year period.
Average age of the subjects was 25 years with a range of 18-39 years. Of the total, 83 percent were men, and 88 percent were not married. The average age of psychosis onset was 22 years, and the average age for first psychosis-related hospitalization was 23.
Schizophrenia was the most common psychosis (42 percent), followed by schizoaffective disorder (32 percent). The average age of first marijuana use was 15, preceding psychosis onset by an average of 7 years.
During the study period, the prevalence of daily cannabis was 59 percent with another 30 percent reporting use 2-5 days per week, and the remaining 11 percent reporting weekly use. Alcohol abuse was 16 percent and alcohol dependence was 8 percent.
The researchers found a statistically significant link between the age when cannabis use first started and the age when psychosis was first diagnosed. This association was consistent after researchers excluded patients with any diagnosis of alcohol abuse or dependency during their lifetime.
The analysis also showed a strong link between the time a patient first smoked marijuana and their age of first psychosis hospitalization.
Marijuana affects dopamine receptors and can have other neurochemical effects.
"There are two components of cannabis, one that potentiates and another that antagonizes psychotic symptoms," said Delisi. The balance between these two effects can differ among various strains of cannabis, she added.
22 Years, Alcoholism, Boston Va Medical Center, Caution, Colleagues, Current Diagnosis, Diagnosis Of Schizophrenia, First Degree, Galvez Buccollini, General, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Medical School Boston, Healthcare System, Hospitalization, Interventions, Marijuana Users, Previous Research, Psychiatrist, Researcher, Risk Factor
Genetic Link Found to Rapid Weight Gain from Antipsychotic Meds
Posted by psychieblogger in Health-related, Research, Schizophrenia, Symptoms Of Schizophrenia, Treatment Regime, Type 2 Diabetes on July 25, 2012
Scientists have discovered two genetic variants associated with substantial, rapid weight gain occurring in nearly half of patients treated with antipsychotic medications.
The results from two studies from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Canada could eventually be used to identify which patients have the variations, enabling doctors to choose strategies to prevent this serious side effect and offer more personalized treatment, the researchers note.
"Weight gain occurs in up to 40 percent of patients taking medications called second-generation or atypical antipsychotics, which are used because they're effective in controlling the major symptoms of schizophrenia," said Dr. James Kennedy, senior author of the study.
The weight gain can lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart problems and a shortened life span, he noted.
"Identifying genetic risks leading to these side effects will help us prescribe more effectively," said Kennedy. Currently, the center screens for two other genetic variations that affect patients' responses to psychiatric medications.
Each study identified a different variation near the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) gene, which is known to be linked to obesity.
In the latest study, people carrying two copies of a variant gained about three times as much weight as those with one or no copies, after six to 12 weeks of treatment with atypical antipsychotics.
The study had four patient groups: Two from the U.S., one in Germany, and one from a larger European study. Three of the four groups had never taken atypical antipsychotics.
Different groups were treated with drugs such as olanzapine, risperidone, aripiprazole or quetiapine, and compliance was monitored to ensure the treatment regime was followed, the researchers said. Weight and other metabolic-related measures were taken at the start and during treatment.
"The weight gain was associated with this genetic variation in all these groups, which included pediatric patients with severe behavior or mood problems, and patients with schizophrenia experiencing a first episode or who did not respond to other antipsychotic treatments," noted researcher Dr. Daniel Müller.
"The results from our genetic analysis combined with this diverse set of patients provide compelling evidence for the role of this MC4R variant. Our research group has discovered other gene variants associated with antipsychotic-induced weight gain in the past, but this one appears to be the most compelling finding thus far."
The gene's role in antipsychotic-induced weight gain was identified in a study published earlier this year in The Pharmacogenomics Journal. Researchers
found a different variation on MC4R that was linked to the side effect.
For both studies, CAMH researchers did genotyping experiments to identify the single changes to the sequence of the MC4R gene — known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) — related to the drug-induced weight gain side effect.
The MC4R gene encodes a receptor involved in the brain pathways regulating weight, appetite and satiety. "We don't know exactly how the atypical antipsychotics disrupt this pathway, or how this variation affects the receptor," said Müller. "We need further studies to validate this result and eventually turn this into a clinical application."
The recent study is published online in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Source: The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
DNA photo by shutterstock.
Addiction And Mental Health, Antipsychotic Medications, Archives Of General Psychiatry, Aripiprazole, Atypical Antipsychotics, Camh, CAMH, Campbell Family, Canada, Dr James Kennedy, Family Mental Health, General, Genetic Link, Genetic Risks, Genetic Variants, Genetic Variation, Genetic Variations, Genetics, Germany, Health Research Institute, Heart Problems, James Kennedy, Life Span, Medications, Mental Health Research Institute, Obesity and Weight Loss, Olanzapine, Patient Groups, Psychiatric Medications, Quetiapine, Rapid Weight Gain
You are currently browsing the archives for the Schizophrenia category.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Text color is changing in Android Studio but not showing on phone I have browsed through a few places but can't find anything "exact" to solve my issue. I set code in Android Studio and the display showed my top text as orange and the bottom text as blue...which is what I intended. When I tried running it on my phone, the text color did not show as it does in Android Studio. (Just is gray text on my phone)
This is a simple bit of code as I'm currently learning from Udacity and a couple other places. Any ideas why code would show as working on Android Studio but wouldn't work on the phone? (especially when dealing with something as simple as text color?)
The code is as follows:
     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/activity_main"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context="com.example.saoiray.happybirthday.MainActivity">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:text="I'm awesome! Birth of a developer (^_^)"
        android:textColor="#FF5722"
        android:textSize="32sp" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView2"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:text="Oh yeah, Stephen is awesome!"
        android:textColor="#3F51B5"
        android:textSize="32sp" />

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/androidparty"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:src="@drawable/androidparty"
        tools:ignore="ContentDescription" />
</RelativeLayout>

A: I had the same problem, and i disabled the "High contrast fonts" from the Settings-> Display -> Visibility enhancements , of the phone and now the textColor appears like in Virtual Device

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Róbert Wessman
Students seek inspiration from Alvogen's incredible $1bn journey
In August 2018, I was at Harvard, where I regularly speak to students. This time, I presented a Harvard Business School (HBS) case study, which documents the "dazzling Alvogen story of profitable and global growth." It charts how we turned Alvogen into a one-billion-dollar business, just nine years after we started the journey. This was the third Harvard Business Case on my career with Alvogen and Actavis. Actavis and the Winning Formula was published in 2007 and Alvogen business case in 2012.
Among those in attendance were the Adidas global executive team and groups from the Harvard executive program Endeavor, which "equips entrepreneurs with the resources needed to succeed."
The case study 'Alvogen: Scaling Entrepreneurship' provides young entrepreneurs with a framework to build their own successful business.
The study's authors, Professor Isenberg, Professor William R. Kerr, and Alexis Brownell examined three key factors that have proved to be significant growth drivers for us at Alvogen: people, culture and systems.
The case study found that harnessing the power of an entrepreneurial culture, while simultaneously implementing effective systems designed to achieve optimal economy of scale, anything is possible.
It also demonstrates why company dynamics need to evolve from an agile startup to a scalable business, while still holding onto the drive, initiative and passion of the founding business leader.
Professor Isenberg urged entrepreneurs to sit up and take note of the case study: "The serial success that Wessman and his team have shown, first at Actavis and more recently at Alvogen, are stellar examples of how to challenge existing market and reach the top through vision, leadership, teamwork and agile but disciplined execution."
He also noted that over a thousand students at HBS and other top business schools have been inspired by Alvogen to "achieve more for themselves than they ever thought possible."
It was an honour to be given the opportunity to speak to so many students.
Róbert Wessman is Chairman & CEO at Alvogen, and founder and Chairman at Alvotech. "My mission is to improve people's lives."
More from Róbert Wessman
3 Lessons I learned from my failed startup even after selling it for $1M
Saurabh Vij
Here's What to Expect From SaaS Financing in 2019
Tim Sprinkle
How to Start a Massage Business
Rajam Roose
Daily Horoscope: Moon in Cancer
Dunnea Rae
Our newest ventures, four months on
Year Here in Year Here
Paradox: Why booking non-refundable hotel rates is more expensive
Judith in DreamCheaper
Founders Column.
Civic Innovation Lab
Henriette Danel On Success As A Business Coach & Empowering Entrepreneurial Journey
Surabhi Verma in The Inception


Hello again! You may have noticed that we've been MIA for the past couple of months. Steven keeps insisting that Graduate School is time-consuming, and I, well, I've had a change of philosophy.
Halfway through this unfortunately messy season of Justified, I gave in to the enormous social media pressure (and some well-timed peer encouragement) and renewed our HBO subscription so that we could experience True Detective with the rest of the world. We waited until the week after the finale and then consumed it in one, big, feverish gulp. It was mesmerizing. It was beautiful. It was dark and complicated and heartbreaking and weird and scary and confusing and every other thing you could want from a TV show.
Steven commented afterwards that he wished we had been watching from the beginning so that we could recap it. But I was thankful that we had waited. For one, watching one episode each week would've made me CRAZY. It's just that kind of show. And because it was that kind of show, it led the rest of the world to dive deep into their crazy wells of theories and philosophies and mysteries and rabbit holes.
In my experience, a show never holds up well to that kind of scrutiny. It makes people critical of the end product, because of course, nothing can hold up to every single possible theory you had about it. It made me think that maybe we're doing a disservice to these shows and ourselves by critiquing them on an episodic level.
Critics were disappointed in Breaking Bad for not shocking them. For me, Breaking Bad was always leading to one ending, one possible way out. And it was WIDELY discussed and dissected for multiple years by millions of people. How could it NOT have been predictable? Did that make it unsatisfying? Not to the fans who watched because they loved the show. The only negative responses to the finale I read were from the critics who were paid to produce provocative content. To them, the finale was just too simple. Similarly, they were disappointed in LOST for not being the show they thought they were watching. Ditto for How I Met Your Mother. But shouldn't it be the creator's right to tell the story they want to tell? If we get it wrong is that their fault or ours?
So I decided to make True Detective an experiment. I read a few tweets and headlines here and there about the show. I knew going in that viewers loved the finale and critics found it "problematic." I knew that it had caused massive speculation and theorizing, especially in the week before the finale. I knew the basic premise of the show. That's it. I didn't read any theories, but had been alive and conscious enough to hear the words "The Yellow King" and "Carcosa." I was able to watch the show, unspoiled, from beginning to end in about 3 days. I expected to feel compelled to theorize, to become engrossed in the central mystery. It was the most confusing part of the experience for me because there simply wasn't enough weight given to the mystery to cause me to think too much about it. I was far more interested in the lives of Marty and Rust and trying to follow along with Rust's drunken philosophies. I wanted to know more about how they came to be and what happened to them. For me, the central mystery was just a plot device, the procedural structure that moved the show forward and connected these two through time. But it didn't matter to me who the man with the scars was.
SPOILER ALERT PORTION: I figured out who the guy was the first time we saw him. If you've seen any of these shows, it was pretty obvious. The fact that it was so obvious signaled to me that the mystery wasn't the important part of the show. The creator of the show, Nic Pizzolatto, tried to reduce the rampant theorizing and build-up to the finale by solving the central mystery at the end of the penultimate episode. And still, people couldn't accept it. That was by far the most confusing part of watching the show after the fact. What were all those people talking about the week leading up to the finale?
To me, True Detective was never about the central mystery of the serial killer. It was about finding grace in a dark world, and learning to confront our flaws and have a little faith that we can overcome them to be good people. I found the finale tremendously satisfying, and a perfect ending to the story of Rust and Marty. That final scene outside the hospital with Rust admitting that he wanted to live, finally able to see that the light was beating the dark, and Marty, tough as nails, so annoyed with Rust's philosophizing, was so kind to him in that moment, listening and helping to meet him where he was. That was the breakthrough moment of the series to me. That was the climax. All the other stuff in-between was just the vehicle. To have so many "professionals" miss that and get bogged down in how simple it was for Marty and Rust to find and kill The Yellow King just made me sad. /END SPOILER ALERT PORTION.
At the end of this experiment, I came away wondering what the purpose of this blog was anymore. Steven and I still love TV and we love talking about TV with other people. But we don't love dwelling on TV's flaws. There's more than enough of that on the internet anyway. So I think for now, I'd rather use this blog to talk about things that I love. To share funny clips and try to convince you to watch Million Dollar Listing and Enlisted and Ground Floor and Parenthood and About a Boy and Trophy Wife and The Mindy Project, etc, etc.
So there you have it. Our new mission is to help you watch at least one more hour of television a week. It'll be tough, but we have faith. Stick with us and we'll give you all the tools you need. Good luck, godspeed, and stay tuned.


text:
INEOS Group News Shared News INEOS Enterprises Announces Technical Partner for its European Biodiesel Growth Strategy
INEOS Enterprises Announces Technical Partner for its European Biodiesel Growth Strategy
INEOS Enterprises has announced the appointment of its key technical partner for the delivery of its European biodiesel growth strategy.
DeSmet Ballestra Oleo has been awarded the biodiesel technology contract and has begun its partnership with INEOS Enterprises by undertaking the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for the new biodiesel plant at Grangemouth in Scotland, which will be at least 500 ktes capacity.
DeSmet Ballestra Oleo is a world-class engineer of plants to process oils and fats, and is one of the leading suppliers of vegetable oil refining and biodiesel technologies.
Harry Deans, CEO INEOS Enterprises comments: "We are pleased to welcome DeSmet Ballestra Oleo as a key partner to help us deliver our significant growth ambitions in biodiesel. Our aim is to achieve at least 2 million tonnes of biodiesel output by 2012, with some 1.2 million tonnes by 2010."
INEOS Enterprises' new biodiesel production facility at Grangemouth was announced in May 2006 and represents over €90 million investment in the region. Subject to planning consent and other permissions, it is expected that the facility will be operational by mid 2008.
INEOS Enterprises has more than 10 years experience in the biodiesel sector. The Company has already successfully secured French government support for its existing biodiesel plant at Baleycourt (France), which is currently undergoing a €70 million expansion to double output by 2008. In December 2006, INEOS Enterprises announced details of its proposals for a major investment in a new biodiesel facility at the INEOS site at Zwijndrecht in the Port of Antwerp.
Giuseppe di Carpegna, CEO of DeSmet Ballestra Oleo, comments: "We are delighted to have been chosen to work with INEOS Enterprises to deliver its biodiesel investments. We have more than 60 years of experience in the supply of plants and equipment for oils and fats and the oleochemical industry in particular, along with significant experience in seeds extraction, vegetable oil refining and biodiesel manufacture."
Andy Currie, Director of INEOS Capital and Chairman of INEOS Enterprises comments: "As part of the world's fastest growing chemicals company, INEOS Enterprises is extremely well placed to make these investments and has an excellent track record of pursuing market opportunities and developing world class businesses.
"INEOS is well skilled in commissioning and operating low cost, high yield commodity plants and has the size and scale that is essential for success in this business. By building on the ready made synergies with our existing European refining operations, coupled with our existing client base and market contacts, we firmly believe that we have the competitive edge and can develop into Europe's premier biodiesel company."
Craig Welsh, INEOS Enterprises Press Office
Email: craig.welsh@ineoschlor.com
INEOS is a leading global manufacturer of refined products and basic, intermediate and speciality chemicals. The Company is made up of multiple decentralised businesses, each with a major chemicals company heritage.
The INEOS production network spans 68 manufacturing facilities in Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa. The combined INEOS Group generates more than $33bn in revenues and has more than 15,000 employees. This makes INEOS the third largest independent chemicals company in the world and the largest in the UK, as well as the country's largest private company.
INEOS Enterprises is a portfolio of eight leading businesses manufacturing chemical products in Northern Europe and Southeast Asia, with sales of these products to customers around the world. The Company is focused on the developing needs of customers and rapid growth through investment in new products and manufacturing facilities or by acquisition. INEOS Enterprises employs some 500 people across sites in the UK, France, Germany and Thailand and has an annual turnover in excess of €600 million.
The crude oil refinery at Grangemouth is operated by INEOS Refining, which is the largest independent refiner in the EU. The Grangemouth refinery supplies ultra low sulphur diesel and petrol to the fuels markets of Scotland and northern England.
The INEOS site at Baleycourt is operated by INEOS Enterprises and has been producing biodiesel for more than 10 years. The site is in the heart of France's second largest vegetable oil producing region, and the new investment currently underway at the site will allow around 400,000 tonnes of locally produced rapeseed to be transformed into oil and then biodiesel for supply to the French, Belgian and German fuels markets.
The INEOS site at Antwerp is operated by INEOS Oxide. It has a strategic location at the heart of Europe's largest and the world's second largest petrochemical centre with close proximity to raw materials via sea, road and rail and to Europe's prime customer base via pipeline, sea, inland waterway, rail and road transportation networks. Investment in biodiesel at Antwerp would provide INEOS Enterprises with an excellent supply point for Northwest Europe, and with excellent customer/supplier synergies with the adjacent refining operations.
Biofuels are sources of energy that are manufactured from renewable resources, for example rapeseed. Specifically, biodiesel is an alternative fuel produced from renewable sources such as vegetable oils that can be blended with diesel and used to power conventional diesel engines without modification. It can also be used as a replacement fuel for oil in industrial processes.


Before you buy Indigo, make sure it's what you want. It doesn't work like other natural dyes; the procedure may be more complicated than you expect. A blue chemical dye might better suit your needs. Before this sounds too negative, be assured that the blue obtained from Indigo is extraordinarily lovely and rewards you well for your effort.
Why is Indigo different? It is not water-soluble. It is a substantive dye, needing no mordant, yet the color achieved is extremely fast to washing and to light. Indigo is one of the most ancient and revered of all dyestuffs. The three recipes here all tell you how to dissolve Indigo, and how to dye with it. Deeper history and chemistry may be found in any good dye book.
Recipe #1 and Recipe #2 are quick, reliable, and very colorfast. Recipe #3, the fermentation method, is slower and less certain—but it's the easiest method to start with.
First a note about the chemicals. They should be treated with care and common sense, but without panic. Keep them dry, out of children's reach, away from food and use clean dry utensils for measuring. Always measure the water first, into in a clean container; then add the chemicals to the water, so that you start with a weak solution and gradually get stronger.
Lye is very caustic. Wear rubber gloves, don't splash, especially keep out of eyes.
Put the water in a glass jar that has a close-fitting lid. Slowly add the Sodium Hydroxide while stirring. The Solution may get quite hot. This is a strong alkali and should be handled very carefully. Close and label the jar. This can be kept indefinitely, but should be clearly marked. If any gets on your skin, wash with lots of water.
Put the water in a quart jar. Add the Hydrosulfite (or Thio-Urea. Stir gently to dissolve. Hydrosulfite will generate an unpleasant odor, and will keep for a few days only; the Thio-Urea should be good for several weeks. Close up and label jar.
In a glass or enamel pan, stir one ounce Indigo Powder into ½ cup water, until thoroughly moistened. Stir in ½ cup of Solution 1. Dilute to one quart with water (add about three cups of water); and heat to 120°-130° F (never above 140° F). Add ½ cup Solution 2, and let stand 30 minutes. At this point you should see a yellowish solution beneath the blue surface (Indigo on the surface will oxidize back to the blue insoluble form). A drop of this solution running down a glass surface should turn blue in 20-30 seconds.
In your large enamel dyepot, heat 2-3 gallon water to 120° F. Add 2 ounce (about 4 tablespoons) of Solution 2. Let stand 10 minutes. Then add 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) of Indigo Stock Solution. Let stand 30 minutes.
This should be clear and yellowish and is now ready for use. Enter the washed, wet fiber (preferably soaked overnight). Avoid making bubbles, and stir only enough to submerge the fiber. After 30 minutes--with occasional light stirring--lift fiber out without squeezing and allow to oxidize (hang it up) for another 30 minutes. Repeat this dipping and airing pattern until the desired depth of color is reached. Add more Indigo Stock Solution--2 ounces at a time--as needed for color. If you are dyeing large skeins (4 ounces or more), use 4 ounces of Stock Solution so that the dyebath won't be depleted as rapidly. If the dyebath turns blue, add another 2 ounces of Solution Two and allow to stand for 15 minutes. Always keep the dyebath at 120°-130°F. After about four additions of Indigo Stock Solution to the exhausted dyebath, the chemistry gets tired and complex. It's simplest to start a new vat.
When the dyeing is done, treat the fiber to neutralize any remaining alkali, and to set the dye. First rinse in lukewarm water with about one cup of vinegar added. Next rinse in cool water. Wash gently in hot soapy water. Finally, rinse in clear water.
If you want a dark navy, use the increased-strength Stock Solution given below. Prepare Solution 1 and Solution 2 as in Recipe #1.
Stir Indigo into 2 tablespoons of water; stir in 2 tablespoons of Solution 1; dilute to one cup with water; heat to 120°-130° F; add 2 tablespoons of Solution 2.
To dye dark blue: prepare vat as before; add 3-4 tablespoons of Stock Solution; dip about ½ pound of fiber. After every other dipping, add 3-4 tablespoons of fresh Stock Solution. You'll have a moderately dark blue after the third dip, a very dark blue after the fourth.
Our thanks for the above Recipe to Devin McQueen, Susan Emmons, USDA Bulletin #230, Rita Adrosko's and Violetta Thurstan's books.
Combine the above ingredients and let stand in a warm place for about 2 hours. At the same time, dissolve 2 level teaspoons Natural Indigo in ½ cup non-sudsing Ammonia (let sit for about 2 hours).
Add the Indigo and Ammonia to the Yeast-Sugar mix in a half-gallon jar. Fill to the top with warm water, stir once, cover with plastic wrap, using a rubber-band to seal. Don't use a rigid seal, the fermentation can burst it. Let this jar sit several days in a warm place. The liquid will clarify to an even yellow. The Yeast has removed all the oxygen, enabling the Indigo to dissolve. If your jar stays blue, add more yeast (if this doesn't do it, add more sugar also). When it goes yellow, immerse some pre-wetted fiber, and leave in over-night. Remove carefully (not dripping into the jar, adding oxygen). Hang in the air for 20-30 minutes. Repeated dips will deepen the color.
The not-very-pleasant smell will disappear from your dyed goods with the final rinse (see Rinsing, Recipe #1). With thanks to the Boston Area Spinners and Dyers, and to Fred and Willi Gerber.
Don't be surprised with any of these Recipes if your work fails to pick up color in the dyebath. It's not supposed to. The Indigo color doesn't bloom until air (atmospheric oxygen) has worked on the Indigo infused fiber. Magical, truly it is.


text:
Computer Network and System Administration—BS
Computer Science—BS
Cybersecurity—BS
Electrical Engineering Technology—BS
Mechatronics-BS
Software Engineering—BS
Computer Engineering (CoE)—BS
General Computing Major
Computing Learning Center
Open Source Resources
Computer Science—MS, PhD
Cybersecurity—MS
Health Informatics—MS
Mechatronics—MS
Student Research Positions
Education, Society, and Profession
Human-Centered Computing
Programming Languages and Software Engineering
Scalable Architectures and Systems
Systems and Networking
External Advisory Boards
Websites, Social Media
Applied Computing
Student Recruitment and Enrichment
Learning and Research Facilities
Campus and College Enrichment
High Impact Giving
1010 with ...
You've got #tenacity
The Class of 2020
Computing Bits
Computing News Blog
Minerick Appointed Interim Dean of Pavlis Honors College
karenjoh
Announcements, Applied Computing, Computer Science, Michigan Tech News, News
Jacqueline Huntoon, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, announced that Adrienne Minerick, dean of the College of Computing, has agreed to serve as the interim dean of the Pavlis Honors College beginning February 1, 2021.
Minerick will be the successor to Lorelle Meadows, who will retire at the end of January. Dennis Livesay, currently dean of the College of Engineering at Wichita State University, will become the dean of Michigan Tech's College of Computing on Feb. 1, 2021.
Huntoon said, "I hope the campus community will join me in thanking Adrienne for her willingness to take on this new role at Michigan Tech. I know that the Honors College will benefit from her leadership and I look forward to continuing to have the opportunity to work with her."
Huntoon thanked Meadows, who came to Michigan Tech in 2014, for her service to the University. "She has provided the leadership necessary to move the Honors College from an idea to a reality," Huntoon said. "I have enjoyed working with Lorelle since she arrived and will miss hearing her perspectives and ideas in the future. Thankfully, she does not plan to completely sever her ties to the University and will maintain affiliation and continue to pursue her research interests."
Minerick has served as dean of the College of Computing since its launch in July 2019. Prior to that she served as dean of the School of Technology (2018-19) and was the associate dean for Research and Innovation in the College of Engineering from 2015-2018.
Achievements and Awards
Students of CS
Vijay Garg, UT Austin, to Present Lecture Feb. 19, 3 pm
1010 with … Tim Havens, Weds., Jan. 20, 5:30-5:40 pm
Chuck Wallace Quoted in The Verge Article
Software Engineering Program Ranked Among the Best
2021 Innovation Week Is January 25 – 29
Rekhi Hall 221
computing@mtu.edu


Large near-term projected snowpack loss over the western United States.
Peak runoff in streams and rivers of the western United States is strongly influenced by melting of accumulated mountain snowpack. A significant decline in this resource has a direct connection to streamflow, with substantial economic and societal impacts. Observations and reanalyses indicate that between the 1980s and 2000s, there was a 10–20% loss in the annual maximum amount of water contained in the region's snowpack. Here we show that this loss is consistent with results from a large ensemble of climate simulations forced with natural and anthropogenic changes, but is inconsistent with simulations forced by natural changes alone. A further loss of up to 60% is projected within the next 30 years. Uncertainties in loss estimates depend on the size and the rate of response to continued anthropogenic forcing and the magnitude and phasing of internal decadal variability. The projected losses have serious implications for the hydropower, municipal and agricultural sectors in the region.
Fyfe, J.C., C. Derksen, L. Mudryk, N.C. Swart, N.P. Molotch, G.M. Flato, X. Zhang, H. Wan, V.K. Arora, J. Scinocca, Y. Jiao (2017): Large near-term projected snowpack loss over the western United States. Nature Communications, Vol. 8, article: 14996,. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14996.


Questioning the Value of Literacy: A Phenomenology of Speaking and Reading in Children, Eva-Maria Simms 3. The singular contribution of this Handbook is to lay the groundwork for colleagues across disciplines to redraw the map of their separately figured worlds, thus to enlarge the scope of scholarship and dialogue as well as push ahead into uncharted territory. Where Worlds Meet, Ana Maria Machado Point of Departure, Katherine Paterson 29. Where Worlds Meet, Ana Maria Machado Point of Departure, Katherine Paterson 29. Censorship: Book Challenges, Challenging Books, and Young Readers,. Reading Literature in Elementary Classrooms, Kathy G. Reading Literature in Elementary Classrooms, Kathy G.
School Libraries and the Transformation of Readers and Reading, Eliza T. The singular contribution of this Handbook is to lay the groundwork for colleagues across disciplines to redraw the map of their separately figured worlds, thus to enlarge the scope of scholarship and dialogue as well as push ahead into uncharted territory. Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and indexes. The Art of the Picturebook, Lawrence R. As scholars debated the merits of cultural literacy Hirsch, 1987 —itself a rehashing of an age-old cultural heritage debate-versus more student-centered e. Chapters include commentary on literary experiences and creative production from renowned authors and illustrators. Reviewing Children's and Young Adult Literature, Michael Cart 34.
African American Children's Literature: Researching Its Development, Exploring Its Voices, Rudine Sims Bishop Point of Departure, Jacqueline Woodson 17. School Libraries and the Transformation of Readers and Reading, Eliza T. School Libraries and the Transformation of Readers and Reading, Eliza T. Chapters include commentary on literary experiences and creative production from renowned authors and illustrators. Chapters include commentary on literary experiences and creative production from renowned authors and illustrators. A Burgeoning Field or a Sorry State: U. Genre as Nexus: The Novel for Children and Young Adults, Mike Cadden Point of Departure, Philip Pullman 22.
Comics and Graphic Novels, Robin Brenner Point of Departure, Gareth Hinds Point of Departure, Raina Telgemeier 19. The singular contribution of this Handbook is to lay the groundwork for colleagues across disciplines to redraw the map of their separately figured worlds, thus to enlarge the scope of scholarship and dialogue as well as push ahead into uncharted territory. Public Libraries in the Lives of Young Readers: Past, Present, and Future, Kathleen Weibel, Virginia A. Readers, Texts, and Contexts in the Middle: Re-imagining Literature Education for Young Adolescents, Thomas P. Archives and Special Collections Devoted to Children's and Young Adult Literature, Karen Nelson Hoyle Point of Departure, Leonard S.
Dime Novels and Series Books, Catherine Sheldrick Ross Point of Departure, Candice Ransom 15. Certo Point of Departure, Janet S. The Economics of Children's Book Publishing in the 21st Century, Joel Taxel 36. Readers, Texts, and Contexts in the Middle: Re-imagining Literature Education for Young Adolescents, Thomas P. International Communities Building Places for Youth Reading, Michael Daniel Ambatchew Point of Departure, Jane Kurtz Point of Departure, Yohannes Gebregeorgis 32. Readers, Texts, and Contexts in the Middle: Re-imagining Literature Education for Young Adolescents, Thomas P. Reviewing Children's and Young Adult Literature, Michael Cart 34.
Part two introduces analytic frames for studying young adult novels, picturebooks, indigenous literature, graphic novels, and other genres. The singular contribution of this Handbook is to lay the groundwork for colleagues across disciplines to redraw the map of their separately figured worlds, thus to enlarge the scope of scholarship and dialogue as well as push ahead into uncharted territory. Readers, Texts, and Contexts in the Middle: Re-imagining Literature Education for Young Adolescents, Thomas P. Dime Novels and Series Books, Catherine Sheldrick Ross Point of Departure, Candice Ransom 15. The singular contribution of this Handbook is to lay the groundwork for colleagues across disciplines to redraw the map of their separately figured worlds, thus to enlarge the scope of scholarship and dialogue as well as push ahead into uncharted territory.
Folklore in Children's Literature: Contents and Discontents, Betsy Hearne Point of Departure, Julius Lester 16. Wilson Point of Departure, Penny Colman 21. Instead, I found a cache of books on a shelf in the library workroom that very likely set the course of my career. Certo Point of Departure, Janet S. Spinning Off: Toys, Television, Tie-Ins, and Technology, Margaret Mackey 37. The singular contribution of this Handbook is to lay the groundwork for colleagues across disciplines to redraw the map of their separately figured worlds, thus to enlarge the scope of scholarship and dialogue as well as push ahead into uncharted territory. Part one considers perspectives on readers and reading literature in home, school, library, and community settings.
Sipe Point of Departure, Chris Raschka Point of Departure, David Wiesner 18. The Art of the Picturebook, Lawrence R. Comics and Graphic Novels, Robin Brenner Point of Departure, Gareth Hinds Point of Departure, Raina Telgemeier 19. Distinguished by its multidisciplinary approach, it describes and analyzes the different aspects of literary reading, texts, and contexts to illuminate how the book is transformed within and across different academic figurations of reading and interpreting children's literature. Folklore in Children's Literature: Contents and Discontents, Betsy Hearne Point of Departure, Julius Lester 16. Sipe Point of Departure, Chris Raschka Point of Departure, David Wiesner 18.


text:
PlayStation Vita God of War idea was "floated" by Ready at Dawn
The studio shares its love of the Vita with us and talks all about preparing for next-gen gaming
James Brightman
Editor, North America
Ready At Dawn
PlayStation Vita has sold over 1.2 million units worldwide so far, and the key to the platform's long-term success will be software, of course. Unfortunately, Vita won't be receiving any titles from God of War PSP developer Ready at Dawn, who confirmed to GamesIndustry International recently that the chance to make a Vita God of War game was considered.
Ru Weerasuriya, co-founder and CEO of Ready at Dawn, acknowledged, "It's an idea that was floated as far as what could happen on the Vita. And especially with a platform like that, we were enticed I think by the prospect of doing something on that platform, but it just didn't align with what we wanted, so I'm hoping that they do something on that because I definitely think that they should. There's so much potential for it. But it's something we toyed with for a little while."
With Nintendo's 3DS faring quite well now, following early stumbles, and the portables market feeling the pressure overall from the smartphones and tablets sector, Sony certainly has a challenge on its hands, but Weerasuriya believes in Vita's long-term prospects.
When we asked him whether he thought Vita would do well over the long haul, he quickly responded, "I do, actually. You know, I'm really proud of the way they handled this one because I know how the development of the PSP went, and it was a great first handheld to put out there. But the one thing that they totally nailed with Vita is that it is a handheld gaming console for our time."
"We know what we feel next generation games should be like... And we have very specific goals that we want to hit that I don't think are being hit right now in the market"
Ru Weerasuriya
He continued, observing Vita's advantage over 3DS and iPhone: "I love my 3DS. I play with my 3DS. I used to play with my Game Boy a long time before. I love my Nintendo platforms, but the Nintendo platforms were almost a different kind of gaming experience. The one thing that the Vita does that I think that no other platform still can do - and I know that people argue that iPhones and iPads do - but you still cannot create the kind of content that you could create for a home console on a handheld outside Vita."
"I mean there is some stuff on there that just amazed me and made me almost want to go like, 'Wow, maybe we should have done this, maybe we should have split into two teams.' I don't know, but I think it's got a bright future. It just needs the content."
For Ready at Dawn, splitting into two teams is simply not an option. "I think one doctrine we've followed since the beginning is one game at a time... We want to get everybody's heads on the same thing," said Weerasuriya.
So now Ready at Dawn is taking its one team and applying it to work on an unannounced next-gen project. According to Weerasuriya, it's what his team has always wanted to do.
"When it came to really decide what we wanted to do next, I think most of the guys internally just wanted to do something that, in some ways, we had built this company for. It's taken us time to get there and we've wanted to do new IP, we've been working on it for a while, and we felt the time was right and it was just the perfect alignment of everything that was happening," he said.
"And I think the big thing for us was just that we took the decision early to just skip a generation. I know that most people would have jumped on the current generation... most people ask us that, how do you go from a handheld to a next generation console? I think it's the right thing to do. Sometimes you've just got to make your bets and live by them."
Ready at Dawn currently employes about 60 people, but the goal is to grow "dramatically" as the company gears up for next-gen. "We're actually talking internally about 100 people and that's not counting what we'll need probably outside as well," Weerasuriya said.
So what's the studio working on? What platforms? Needless to say, Weerasuriya wouldn't divulge any specifics, but he did tell us this: "What I can tell you is that it's going to follow the lines of the type of games we make. It's going to be an action/adventure game, single player driven mainly, and there might be other components to it, but really, our goal is to tell a story where we want to be a story telling kind of team the way we built ourselves."
He also explained Ready at Dawn's desire to be prepared for next-gen from the start.
"I think it's in some ways a bigger scale of what we've tried to achieve in the past when we've tackled PSP. The cool thing is that it's a new platform and we're targeting everything that we're doing towards working on those platforms because when those are going to be out you almost kind of [have to be there at launch]. The thought behind PSP, when PSP was out, the thought behind being at the forefront allowed us to really maximize what we could do over its lifetime. So our goal for this game and this IP is really to do that," he said.
"We know what we want to do out of the gate. We know what we feel next generation games should be like, as far as on the graphic side, on the design side, on many fronts. And we have very specific goals that we want to hit that I don't think are being hit right now in the market. And I can't say much. We've achieved some of them already in our development. We know the path ahead of us, and we've made some good decisions on what we wanted to do."
Even with next-gen on the horizon, Weerasuriya admitted that the first titles we see probably won't represent a massive leap forward. "The funny thing is that usually the last titles on the previous generations are very comparable to the new titles on the new generation," he said. "So it's going to be a matter of time before people really take advantage of the new console... but I think out of the gate, because we've actually jumped a generation, we've been a lot more focused on doing something without having to think about the current generation, which might be a benefit I think for us."
Finally, we tried to press Weerasuriya on whether he already has a PS4 or next Xbox dev kit or if he's working with estimated PC specs. He wouldn't comment on whether he has a dev kit, but he did note that Ready at Dawn always works from a PC engine, "so we always know that our PC engine works regardless of what happens with other platforms."
"That does allow us to have some freedom when we want to test things, where we don't have to either wait for dev kits or do stuff. And sometimes, like I said, you have to make bets. It might not be the right bet when the dev kit comes out, but at least it allows us to always have something working. And that's something we've kept alive now for nine years."
Sign up for The Daily Update and get the best of GamesIndustry.biz in your inbox.
Is "creative ADD" the key to avoiding burnout?
Ready at Dawn's Ru Weerasuriya on why his studio has mostly avoided sequels, the rise of VR and eSports, and the demise of portables
By James Brightman
"I'm doing this because I'm a gamer"
Ready at Dawn's Ru Weerasuriya says he puts fun and creativity above profit; he talks to us about VR and his new co-op melee game De-formers
Latest comments (21)
Private Industry 7 years ago
The PSP GoW games where great and good luck to them for their next project. I would have loved to see a GoW game from them on the Vita but it makes sense that they want to get into the home console market.
The smaller graphic leap between final current gen games and launch next gen makes also sense because unlike last gen there isn`t that jump from SD to HD.
Given they are not that huge of a studio and working already on next gen I wouldn`t be surprised if they are backed by Sony given their previous cooperation that went very well and he usually talkes singular instead of plural :D
Bruce Everiss Marketing Consultant 7 years ago
Someone the other day described the Vita to me as Luddite, which was not unfair.
The iPad 3 overtook the Vita on total sales after just 2 days in the market. Says it all.
Doug Paras7 years ago
Bruce you are so blind it makes me sad, if I bought a iPad which I won't it would be for Internet and movie watching abilities. I would never buy an ipad for playing games, cause it just doesn't have the tools for a true gaming experience. Acting all superior cause the Ipad which has a vast larger Target Audience then the Vita is so foolish. Bruce you remind me of those who talked about how Written print would die cause of the Internet, well the Internet is over 50 years old now and I still buy newspapers.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Doug Paras on 21st March 2012 8:28am
Show all comments (21)
@ Doug. False analogy.
The WWW as a mass consumer service is not 50 years old. And newspaper sales are plummeting. And Amazon sell more electronic books than paper books.
The Vita is closer to the Sam Coupe. Old technology brought too late to a market that had moved on.
I would suggest that you are a games enthusiast and thus in no way representative of the wider mass market. The 700 million Angry Birds players are mostly not games enthusiasts.
Terence Gage Freelance writer 7 years ago
@ Bruce - "The 700 million Angry Birds players are mostly not games enthusiasts."
Precisely; the majority are unlikely to ever want a games system which has been very clearly targeted at core gamers, so I don't understand why you insist on continually making this comparison. You seem to believe that the iPad/iOS is cannibalising the handheld video game system without exception, and that they absolutely cannot co-exist. Surely the sales of the 3DS prove that there is an audience for a proper portable console (even if it is dwarfed by the number of people who want tablets or smartphones), and further I would question whether you can show me any iOS or Android games which have the content, depth or complexity of something like Mario Land 3DS or Wipeout 2048.
Old technology? The Vita has a better CPU than the iPad 3 and doesnt waste resources on a too high resolution. Like it or not but iPad is not for core games. Its shape is a problem for once you cant hold it in your hand and play yoi habe to put it on a table and who cares about 600 million angry bird players, the vita just needs to sell more than the psp to be a success. There are not 600 million core gamers but that doesnt mean its not a viable market.
Charlie White Software Support Analyst 7 years ago
@Bruce Go play a Vita and get familiar with its games and OS.
I dare you ;-)
It's only then you can make a more coherent argument.
@ Charlie.
I am not a hard core gamer, so I may just as well buy a house brick and carry it around with me.
@Werner
The CPU doesn't matter. More people play Angry Birds on ARM processors than there are Xboxes, Wiis, and Playstation PS3s put together in the world.
Consoles were a blind alley. They were a walled garden forced on the market to act as an anti piracy dongle. Now publishers have found other business models and other platforms they are allocating their resources accordingly.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Bruce Everiss on 21st March 2012 11:10am
iOS apps are great, its a starting point for people to the world of gaming. Especially younger people who grow up then wanting larger gaming experiences and go to pc, consoles or handhelds but it doesnt work the other way around that gamers say that skyrim, batman, uncharted, cod or any other game gives them too much and they would rather play angry birds and stop playing those games.
You can buy a normal car or a Ferrari, 99.9% buy a normal car and 0.1% a Ferrari, but that doesnt stop them producing and selling them and making money out of it just because its not aimed at several hundreds of million people doesnt mean its not a viable market.
The business model is better if you dont make core games. Apple lacks the support given to core games that you have on consoles. You make games for the platform where your audience is, you wont see EA going to switch to iOS and bring their core games out there and give more priority to that than to consoles. If you think that you dont understand the core games market.
The 600 million angry birds players who play only iOS are not the customers who will buy your core games. The core gamers will not migrate to iOS.
The Japanese market has a huge mobile gaming business for over 10 years and neither thit that kill consoles or handhelds nore did it kill core games. Its not black and white, either or. There is viable market for both and you fail to understamd this. Because you are not into core games doesnt mean that nobody else is.
Dr. Chee Ming Wong , Opus Artz Ltd7 years ago
@ Bruce
I tend to walk around with my IOS for reading mags, books and productivity. There are a few casual games on the IOS, but it does not garner as much game time as the hand held 3DS or Vita, which is where all the gaming can get done during travel time.
As Werner put it eloquently, horses for courses - please be a grown up and accept that not everyone will have the same view, but please feel free to contribute to good healthy games discussion and debate.
On topic though, I do love Ready At Dawn and look forward to their next project. I was under the impression from stories on Eurogamer that it was likely to be a PS3 project, although they seem a little evasive on the issue so I wonder if it is going multi-format, or they've transferred development to next gen.
I feel it's good that they're not going back to GoW for the time being; give them space to creatively stretch their wings and create their own IP. That being said, if they want to make a GoW Vita in the future, they're more than welcome to :)
EA paid $300+ million to buy Playfish so as to get a leg up into social gaming.
Madden NFL 12 is on iOS, as are FIFA, The Sims, Tiger Woods etc etc.
In fact just look here to see what EA are doing: http://xyologic.com/search/Iphone/ANY?dev=37511
And core gamers are migrating to iOS. Mobile is taking lots of sales away from console. It is the main reason the console market has been shrinking for the last 4 years. The world is moving on. Console development studios are being closed down all over the place. Mobile development studios are being set up at an incredible pace.
I am sure that there is room for a set top or built into the TV device to play cloud and app games. But consoles as we know them in this generation are rapidly on the way out.
Shrinking? 360, PS3 and Wii sold more combined units than the last gen consoles thats an increase not decrease. If you add DS and PSP you look at 500+ million units this gen. 3 years in a row a game beats all sales records and outperforms the best crossing movies of all time with ease and all 3 console makers make profit compared to last where only Sony made a profit. This gen is doing a lot better than last gen and console sales for MS and Sony are still increasing year to year.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Private on 21st March 2012 12:15pm
Guys, please. We've had this conversation many times, and there's obviously no shifting Bruce's viewpoint on the matter. Clearly there are few of us who wholly agree with him, but he is of course entitled to his opinion.
NO doubt, setup boxes will feature prominently in the near future and I suspect Sony will always be wanting to push the envelope in terms of technology.
What is getting pretty annoying is having every single piece of thread related to consoles being hijacked by inane one track "the end is nigh" please bring your tinfoil hats.
Can we just celebrate that Ready at Dawn want to make something for Next Gen.
For that mass core game appeal, (it doesnt matter what platform its made on) as long as it has great production values and entertainment.
At some point, a USB controller will probably be the universal controller for input.
John Bye Lead Designer, Freejam7 years ago
This site needs an "ignore poster" option...
Robert Barrow Information Security Analyst 7 years ago
I play Angry Birds on my iPad (my kids love it) and also Infinity Blade. They are the pinnacle of the iOS gaming experience and fall so far short of the big screen console experience it's almost embarrassing. The Vita has already managed to transfer that experience to a hand held one which is nothing short of incredible (Uncharted).
The thing with the pick up and play games is that they lack any depth of experience. They are the Macdonalds of the gaming world.
As for core gamers migrating to mobile!? What are they migrating to? There is nothing. And seriously for the price of an iPad you could get a Xbox and a PS3 or a Wii. Or a PS3 an Vita and transfer your big screen experience to a mobile experience as and when you need.
The whole mobile market has a long, long way to go yet if it is to make a serious challenge to any of the core experiences offered by their peers. In the meantime Sony, MS, and Nintendo are all evolving their spheres to engage the simpler tastes and expectations of the throwaway market.
Matthew Eakins Technical Lead, HB-Studios7 years ago
I don't mean to be disrespectful but I think you might be trying to delude yourself. I think you have made a bet on the mobile market and rather than take a really hard look at the business model you are trying to convince yourself on the idea that somehow the hard core game market will magically collapse and move to the mobile market.
"Consoles were a blind alley. They were a walled garden forced on the market to act as an anti piracy dongle."
This statement is just false. Piracy wasn't really an issue when the first consoles came out. When consoles came out their primary purpose was a (relatively) cheap consumer product when PC's were too expensive. Even as modern PC's came down in price consoles were still viable because they offered a consistent development environment. It wasn't until about the Playstation One era that anti-piracy became an important consideration.
"Now publishers have found other business models and other platforms they are allocating their resources accordingly."
I don't dispute that there is a games market on mobile devices but you seem to be suggesting that somehow they are cannibalizing the rest of the industry. Publishers are *expanding* in to mobile and social markets not migrating. EA is still publishing titles for the 360, the PS3. They are publishing games for the iPad, but they are also publishing titles for the 3DS and, yes, even the Vita.
"It is the main reason the console market has been shrinking for the last 4 years."
All of the marketing data out there says that he console market has not been shrinking, it is still expanding. It's not expanding as fast as it was a couple of years ago but that could easily be explained by the PS3/360/Wii all ready have massive market penetration and those consoles are nearing the end of their life cycle. Basically almost everyone who wants one all ready has one and those that don't are waiting for the next generation of consoles.
"The CPU doesn't matter."
No but gameplay does. The iPad is not an ideal platform for first person shooters. I think it's fair to say that there is a significant market for FPS's.
"And core gamers are migrating to iOS."
You have all ready stated you are not a core game. I am. I may have a limited sample set to work with but I don't know anyone who would describe themselves as a core gamer who has suggested that they would give up their consoles for their iPads. They have both, and they expect different experiences on both.
"Mobile is taking lots of sales away from console"
Oh, I'm sure there are some conversions, but a significant portion? I doubt it. Unfortunately I don't think there is any way to empirically figure out which of us is right. But to use an analogy, does it really make sense that selling a copy of Angry Birds on an iPhone meant someone didn't buy a copy of Call of Duty on their 360? It's apples vs. oranges. It could be argued if we were talking about the same game on both platforms but then you are only 'stealing' from yourself. And in that case you would need to do a market analysis to see if the lost sales were justified by the additional sales on the new platform.
"Mobile development studios are being set up at an incredible pace."
This is my favorite one of them all, do you remember the .com boom? Same thing. There is a significant market for mobile but unless you hit a Tipping Point (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point), like Angry Birds, or you have significant brand awareness, like EA, then you have better odds at a craps table in Vegas. The proliferation of free apps on mobile devices has created a user culture where users spend very little on mobile apps. Granted a very little piece of an enormous pie is still significant but unless you have a truly outstanding product and a way to really effectively market it then you have a good chance of falling in to obscurity like 99% of the apps that are all ready out there.
To finish I would like to say that I honestly and truly wish you nothing but success in your endeavors. But I beg your indulgence on this: please stop trolling these forums. You are entitled to your opinion but repeatedly making unsubstantiated and inflammatory statements is fairly unprofessional.
To expand on Matthews comments some issues that Apple needs to overcome before there is any chance of them competing with handhelds or even consoles and getting core gamers on board. I know Bruce you wont change your mind and view but I like those conversations and to make a final comment for the last time on this so to not further hijack anymore any other articles with this here we go.
The app store doesnt offer good visibility. I would reckon they would need to improve the approval process because right now you can put everything on the app store even almost 1:1 copies of other games. What do you think how happy will publishers be if anybody can make a bad cheap almost 1:1 copie of their game and just give it a slightly different name and apple leaves it up there? Compare that to the console submission process that for once makes sure you cant just copy another game and release it on the console and for the most part makes sure the games are not completely useless junk. That doesn`t mean there are no bad games on consoles but there are no fart games where you just press one button to make a fart noise that sits next in the store between CoD and Skyrim, while there are 50 other similar usefull "games" in the shelve while you have only 2 core games among plenty of not very good stuff. The console manufacturer care about the publishers and the games the consumers get because they need to care about both of them in order to make money. Does Apple need games to make a huge amount of money every year? I doubt it so they don`t need to care about other companies so why make the submission process strickter to get a higher quality or help promote games that would maybe even decrease their profit because it blocks out profit from the smaller apps that sell more versions? The console manufacturers need the developers and publisher hence they give them visbility and support them by promoting them. Apple doesn`t sell more iPads by giving Fifa visbility and promoting the game. It`s the same reason Steam is doing great and has plenty of games they give games the visibility they need and promote the games because they need them. There is a clear symbiosis between the device(service) and software(dev/publisher) that is not present with apple products because they dont depend on core games and they are not willing to give them what they need.
The controlls would are an issue because a touchscreen doesn`t give you precise feedback. As example the iPad isn`t good to hold if you want to play, you need to put it on the table you can`t just hold it in your hands like a controller for more complex games. Apple would need to make a compromise with their designs to make it functional for gaming (see Wii U controller or Vita) and the same point as the submission process why would Apple care and adapt their designs just so games can be played properly on it? That wouldn`t make them enough money and upset the Apple fanboys/fangirls. Apple doesn`t even care if their iPhone is good to hold in the hand or not because the flat back is really bad to hold compared to all other phones with a curved back. It just needs to look fancy.
The hardware and its pricing is another thing. Apple products are overpriced for the hardware you get and they fragment the space by releasing every year a new version with upgraded specs that make newer apps not playable on older devices. I got my PS3 5 years ago for 600 euro and it still plays all games new and old and looking at games like Uncharted 3 it still holds up very well technicaly with current graphics. You got your iPad1 2 years ago for at least 500 and probably if you want to be able to use all apps need to upgrade to iPad3 jsut like many new apps for the iPhone work only on the 3G and 4G. That strategy is fatal for core gamers even PC gamers can play in 3 years all games when they make a PC now, not with the highest settings but they can play them. Apple only upgrades just enough to varant being able to sell the device for the same price as last year that is a little bit better. That kind of strategy doesn`t go down well with core gamers.
It might come to a simple TV box at some point, but it won`t be Apple who is challenging consoles unless MS, Sony and Nintendo went bankrupt because they have a huge amount of the big IP`s that people can only get on their devices and without those IP`s any competition has it more than difficult to challenge consoles. The market is in constant shift and nobody can predict if consoles still exist or how consoles will look like in 8-10 years when the next generation comes out. Nobody knew how consoles will be in 2010 when the PS2 came out because there is always that constant shift and progress in tech that it can`t be pridcted how things turn out. Who knows maybe in 10 years Apple is in a crisis and can hardly shift units. If there is one thing thats for sure it is that nothing will be a success forever and that every company will at some point have problems. Sony did amazingly well in the best in every area they where making devices and now the struggle making a profit.
Lets just all enjoy the games we like on the devices we like without trying to force what we like on others. The Sony E3 show in 2010 with Kevin Butler was actually very fitting for what is going on recently.
Good luck to Ready at Dawn again for the future and it doesn`t matter what business model they go after and what platform they are on, ALL are viable options may it be iOS/Anroid, facebook, home consoles or handhelds depending on the game you make and they are great at what they are doing. :)
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Private on 22nd March 2012 2:04am
This is why we could do with a forum :)


text:
A Letter From a Gentleman in Transilvania to his Friend in America - 7
1 2017-03-19T08:01:57-07:00 Will Fenton 9e3bf7727b68fc64e416bcd18efaefb81d06944c 7200 1 (annotation) plain 2017-03-19T08:01:57-07:00 Will Fenton 9e3bf7727b68fc64e416bcd18efaefb81d06944c
added, that those of the Emperors' Religion had behav'd in such a cold indifferent manner (a few in Weissenburg excepted) as plainly made it appear that they were as well affected to the Emperor as himself;---that their principles in Religion and the maxims by which they and their Ancestors were govern'd for one Thousand years, were peculiarly adapted to support the Emperial Family;-----that these things being consider'd, he cou'd not expect their firm attachment to his person, or their general concurrence to his measures; and therefore in good policy they ought not to be trusted at such a criminal conjuncture. He therefore desir'd the Council to to give their opinions, whether any other Sect was to be trusted as Magistrates in the Government, besides the Piss--brute-tarians, a Sect whose principles have ever been diametrically opposite to Monarchy; and not only * sworn Enemies to the Emperial Family, but murder'd one of their Emperors before his own palace; and have always been the foremost in all the Rebellions that have been rais'd against his Successors ever since. He also said, that there was a few of his Enemies, who have dared publickly to espouse the Emperor's cause, and whom he "mark'd" out for punishment; he wish'd it cou'd be with the Loss of their heads, instead of their Commissions. The Enemies were Pottonius, Paulinus, Mortonus, and Trumponius, the last he was somewhat sorry for, as he suppos'd his Ancestors were great Musicians; for they had taken a name, to perpetuate their posterity, by which, some Nations call a Jews-Harp.
*This has reference to their solemn League and Covenant.
Contents of this annotation:
1 2016-08-19T12:58:56-07:00 Will Fenton 9e3bf7727b68fc64e416bcd18efaefb81d06944c A Letter From a Gentleman in Transilvania to his Friend in America - 7 1 A letter from a gentleman in Transilvania to his friend in America : giving some account of the late disturbances that have happen'd in that government, with some remarks upon the political revolutions in the magistracy, and the debates that happened about the change. Humbly inscribed to Counsellor Quondam by his friend Isaac Bickerstaff, of the Middle Temple. 2016-08-19T12:58:56-07:00 Hunt, Isaac, approximately 1742-1809. LCP Am 1764 Hun 1082.D.5 New-York [i.e., Philadelphia], : Printed [by Anthony Armbruster], in the year 1764. Signed on p. 12: Jack Traveller. Weissenburgh in Transilvania, August 1st, 1764. Attributed to Isaac Hunt in the Dictionary of American biography. Ascribed to the press of Anthony Armbruster of Philadelphia by Evans. Signatures: [A]? B_. 12 p. ; 17 cm (8vo) Evans, C. American bibliography, 9701; English short title catalogue (ESTC), W13301; Hildeburn, C.R. Pennsylvania, 2007 2007 13 7 Will Fenton 9e3bf7727b68fc64e416bcd18efaefb81d06944c