If you can't beat them, join them.

Did you happen to see the Formlabs Form 1 printer? They were at Maker Faire too. They're running a Kickstarter right now, and from the photos and video on there the parts that machine produces look far better than most anything else I've seen. I watched the video of the Tinkerines Ditto on IndieGoGo and the parts didn't look anywhere near as finely-detailed.

I'm quite interested in learning more about the Form 1 and it would be great if someone had a first-hand experience from maker Faire (I'm in Seattle and couldn't attend).

Logitech has a system that I purchased for my home: Logitech Alert.

You didn't specify exactly what you meant by "cheap," but you can get a full six-camera system (the max # of cameras it will support) for around $1,000.

720p cameras, motion detection, video stored on SD cards in each camera and copied to your PC, remote access, email alerts... It's got pretty much everything.

The best part is how ridiculously easy it is to set up. The system uses your home's electrical wiring to communicate between the cameras and the base system, so you literally just plug everything in and you're up and running. I was shocked at how easy it was to set up.

Here's some sample video from the camera on my front porch (which, by the way, I exported from their software to YouTube in just one or two clicks).

More specifically, search for Paul Moller.

July 1967

If you have the urge to make like a Martian, you may get your wish. This is the goal of Paul S. Moller, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, who wants to develop low-cost ($4,000 and up) flying saucers for personal transportation. After installing new engines in his first machine [PS, July '66], Moller recently made a series of successful test flights a few feet off the ground. With a second, eight-foot-diameter, single-engine craft, demonstrated a few weeks ago, he hopes to acheive real flying-saucer altitudes.

March 1987 (advertisement)

For the past three decades, Moller International has been studying VTOL aircraft from every angle, in an effort to engineer the first VTOL aircraft that is safe to operate, inexpensive to manufacture, and economical to maintain. This advanced technology has finally been developed and will soon be available, in the form of the two-passenger Merlin 200.

January 2005

Last August one of the longest-anticipated feats of flight since the moon landing took place in a grassy field in Davis, California. As a small crowd looked on, a red Batmobile-like vehicle shuddered, lurched, and rose a few feet into the air, its eight 50hp rotary engines screaming like hornets. After a few minutes, the craft settled into the ground.

The event might not have seemed like much—it could hardly even be called a flight—but it represented a milestone that inventor Paul Moller, a 67-year-old Canadian, had been promising journalists and investors for more than a decade.

Yeah, a little bit more than a decade, all right. What a crackpot.

Check out games by Stardock (Sins of a Solar Empire) and Kalypso Media (Tropico 3). Those are two PC game companies that have publicly stated positions against heavy-handed, paying-customer-punishing DRM.

In no particular order...

• de Blob
• Boom Blox (& Boom Blox: Bash Party)
• Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure
• Elebits
• Little King's Story
• Wii Sports Resort
• Metroid Prime Trilogy
• Super Mario Galaxy
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Trace Bundy does the live iPhone musical performance better, IMO. It also helps that he's obviously not taking himself too seriously, as the performers in the above video seem to be doing. iPhone music is an amusing gimmick, but not a serious musical art.

So, am I still supposed to believe that Blizzard won't charge a monthly fee to play Starcraft II online? On the same exact network, with basically the same set of services as millions of monthly-fee WoW-ers?

Thanks for posting. When I saw the headline my first thought was "Yes, if by 'new gameplay mechanic' you mean one that an entire game was built around in last year's PAX 10."

From the official Starcraft II FAQ:

How will the expansion sets impact multiplayer gameplay?

The expansion sets will add new content to each race for use in multiplayer matches. This could include additions such as new units, abilities, and structures, along with new maps and Battle.net updates.

However, they are definitely not neglecting single-player. Here's the latest news on all the work they're putting into single-player, and here's a video with a glimpse of the campaign.

What actual hard data does Blizzard have that led them to make such an about-face on LAN from Starcraft to Starcraft II? The ability with the original Starcraft to create a "spawn copy" that allowed friends to play for free in a LAN game was (IMO) a big driver of sales. Why remove such a successful feature? In what universe does removing popular features from your product and pissing off a large base of your fans somehow result in more sales?

1) My list was not intended to be comprehensive, it was just off the top of my head in 30 seconds. Yes, there are plenty of great 2D games out there, and still coming out today.

2) I've been "seriously" gaming since the NES (and before I saved up for my NES I played plenty of Atari 2600), so I've certainly got plenty of perspective. I still disagree with the original commenter's claims that "they" "just stop[ped] making 2D games" and that "2D games are not taken seriously."

You feel free to go ahead and keep complaining about the death of 2D games. If you don't mind, I'll just keep playing and enjoying the new ones that continue to come out. Thanks!

Gotta disagree with you on the point of 2D vs. 3D games. Just off the top of my head...

• Viewtiful Joe
• New Super Mario Bros.
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii
• Loco Roco
• Scribblenauts
• Pac-Man: Championship Edition
• Braid

I could go on and on, but the point is that there are still plenty of great 2D games being made in recent years. 2D games most certainly are "taken seriously" (whatever that means—I mean, we are talking about games here).