Privateer Days Video Game Tournament - After Action Report

This past weekend was Privateer Days in Liverpool. It's the annual festival for Liverpool, the kind that every small town seems to have (Grand Falls has its Potato Festival). After the second Liverpool Electronic Entertainment Tournament, the Privateer Days folks came to me and asked me to organize a video game tournament during PD. So I did it and it went great!

OpenStreetMap in Liverpool, Nova Scotia

So I recently rediscovered the wonders of OpenStreetMap. It's a huge collaborative map making project that anyone can contribute to. It's like the Wikipedia of map making. Users can use their GPS units to track their traveling logs and upload that information so it appears on the map. So you can take a walk in one of your favorite walking trails, use your GPS to track the path that you're walking, upload that and there you go, it's now available to the entire world.

Micro Review: Lost

I'm going to have to say something about Lost. You know Lost right? Well, Lost is a TV show that just finished its six year run. It's full of mystery and character development. I love it. I won't be going in too much dept about the series, as men wiser than myself have already done so. I just want to write something about it because it has had such an impression on me.

Canadian tek issues you probably should be doing something aboot

Over the past year, I've been trying to get more involved on issues that I'm interested in. I'd like to give a brief description of a few tek things going on in Canada that you, yes YOU*, should be aware of and perhaps do something about.

Blender 3D

For those who know me, I'm a pretty curious guy. I think it's a good trait to have. I always like trying new things. For example, I've always been interested in 3D graphic design, like you seen in Pixar movies. So I decided to learn the basics of 3D modeling.

LEET After Action Report - April 25th

The second bi-annual Liverpool Electronic Entertainment Tournament was a success. I had to change the game from Modern Warfare 2 to Halo 3 because MW2 does not support 4 player split screen. I am not impressed with you, Infinity Ward! Halo 3 team deathmatch was fun, and we hooked all the consoles together to play a 13 player infection game and a 13 player free for all in the smallest map possible. It was quite a sight seeing 13 players slaughter each other. Team (I need to get their name, I forgot :S ) won the tournament, taking home $90 between the 3 of them.

We also raised $95 for Child's Play, so that's pretty awesome too! I've been speaking with the Privateer Days organizers and there will be a LEET during that festival!! WOOT WOOT! This is a great opportunity to get the word out about LEET by providing a youth centric event for a large festival. We'll be playing free for all Goldeneye and 2v2 Super Smash Brothers. Head over to the LEET site at http://sites.google.com/site/liverpooleet/ for more info.

So remember, next LEET will be on July 3rd, from 1 to 5pm, downtown Liverpool... somewhere.. Join the Facebook group here to keep tabs on updates. 

Steam on the Mac: Strength Through Unity

Once upon a time, years ago ('96 to be precise), a video game development company called Valve was founded. They released their first game, called Half-Life, in '98. This game was a smash hit, winning numerous awards and selling many copies. They continued on making games; Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike, Portal and Left 4 Dead and a sequel to Half Life. Along the way, however, they became more than a video game developer, they became a distributor as well. They created a digital distribution software called Steam, and it is the deux ex machina that will save PC gaming.