Where can you battle a toaster with a waffle iron? Wield a barcode scanner for fun? Navigate a digital character through a real-life paper pop-up book?
The Game Developers Conference Alt.Ctrl showcase, that’s where. It’s my happy place at GDC, and this year I wanted to share some of the zany magic with ya’ll.
Matt Novak has a banger of a new entry for the Internet of Shit. Over at Gizmodo, he’s discovered a YouTube scam that doesn’t just drain your crypto wallet — it also scams the actors hired to read bullshit testimonials about how they make money while they sleep.
Who needs AI when you can get a real, live human to legitimize your scheme on camera?
I’m still pretty proud of my big story on how Lego builds a new Lego set — but why not hear about the Lego Polaroid directly from its Lego designer? James May, who also recently worked on the BTS Dynamite and Hocus Pocus witches’ cottage sets, has now left the company to start a YouTube channel, design toys for UK schools, and also write for Brickset.
Did they “fall off a truck”? Kinda! Playdate’s Cabel Sasser says the company lost two entire pallets of the tiny yellow Game Boy alternative in Las Vegas, when they were delivered to a nextdoor gas station instead of Playdate’s warehouse.
It seems whoever signed for the handhelds may have gotten, ahem, creative: “Seven of them have been registered to people who live in north Las Vegas.” More at Game File and Game Developer.
I found its bed too small for the stuff I like to print — and I still need to re-test a few issues from my hands-on — but assuming they’re fixed, $400 is a great price for an auto-feeding four-color printer of any size at all.
Bambu says the Mini can also detect additional kinds of errors now, like when nothing’s coming out of the nozzle or molten plastic is clumping on its end. And no, this wasn’t the printer that got recalled.
A decade ago, San Jose broke up “The Jungle,” reportedly the biggest homeless encampment in the US; the feds estimate San Jose still has the highest proportions of unsheltered homeless and homeless youth. It’s not unusual to see a sidestreet filled with sunbaked RVs, or tents lining a creek or underpass.
Now, under new pressure to solve the homelessness emergency that’s never gone away, San Jose is quietly training AI to detect lived-in vehicles. More:
