Category Archives: Keep Austin Weird

Things I do or feel like talking about around town.

Keep Austin Weird

SXSW Gaming Expo

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I attended the SXSW Gaming Expo on Saturday. The highlights:

Lots of Oculus Rift demos with insane lines. More on this in a future post.

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A guy playing some shooter wearing a n Oculus Rift and standing on a Vertex human-sized trackpad: use your feet to walk around!
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Paperboy is probably the most popular worst video game ever. Now someone is working on a virtual reality version of it!

A very cool Dallas-based company Captured Dimensions makes a room-sized 3D scanning rig.

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Panorama photo inside the Captured Dimensions digitizer. Yes, those are PowerGloves on the screens. I don’t know why.

They can take your picture, digitize it, and then 3D print figurines, or holograms, or whatever. A 3D printed figurine of Marcos would make an excellent addition to The MKX® Gift Shop, wouldn’t it? I was tempted to make one but I think prices will drop quickly as this technology becomes more commonplace.

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Full color 3D prints of digitized people at Captured Dimensions booth. See the arm in the background for a sense of scale.

We cannot forget that SXSW is, after all, in the heart of Texas. As such, two things can’t be avoided – even in a Gaming Expo: guns and Jesus:

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…even Jewish gamers, I was told.
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This is not a toy gun. This computerized gun sight will shoot to kill.
Keep Austin Weird

F1 Race

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Last Sunday the second F1 race in Austin was held. Nathan B. came over to watch and we went along with little Jaco and Jaimito.

I missed the first one due to previous engagements (pun intended). My racing experience is quite limited but I did learn some things. So in no particular order, my racing spectator tips follow:

  • Bring ear plugs
  • Bring a hat
  • Bring sunscreen

I thankfully ignored the advice of people who went last year (“wake up at 5 AM so you can make it on time”, “the line to the shuttle on the way out is 2.5 hours long”) which turned out not to apply to this year: everything was smooth and quick.

Now that we got that out of the way, I present you with evidence, starting with a quick video I shot with my phone.

I shot some video in slow-motion too, but for some reason that didn’t turn out too exciting. So it’s not posted.

Now, photos:

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At the Salt Lick BBQ two days before the race. This way we didn’t have to eat again all weekend.

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Keep Austin Weird, Music

Austin City Limits Festival 2013

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We went to ACL this past weekend. People were not excited about it because

  1. It was broken into two weekends with exactly the same lineup.
  2. The lineup felt weaker than past years.

But I’m very glad I went. I had a blast. The weather was perfect for it. And most importantly, it’s the first ACL in many that allergies aren’t killing me and/or I’m stoned out of my mind with allergy medication.

Also, the crowds felt lighter (but I heard it was the usual 75,000 souls). Lines for food, bathroom, beer were quick and painless. Getting in and out of the park was a breeze. It was relatively easy to get close to the stages as well. Maybe they’ve been improving the logistics, maybe it was something else, but it really helped enjoy the weekend.

Disclaimer: Lots of photos below. But this year I decided not to carry my excellent MFT camera, instead using my puny little iPhone 5. This means the photos suck.

Also, I assumed that others would bring good cameras, take some decent videos, and post them to YouTube. I was wrong, it turns out my incredibly steady hand is unique among concert-goers. Oh well…

Read more for lots of photos.

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