June 6, 2008
qDot speaking at Unc's Colloquia Series - Thursday, June 12 - Edges (South Bay)
qDot Speaking at Unc's Colloquia Series
It's time for me to talk again. I'm rather excited about this, I'm the first presenter in Uncle Abdul's "Advanced Colloquia in BDSM" series! It even sounds academic!
This'll be at Edges, a dungeon located in sunny [somewhere in south bay], California. I'll be doing an in-depth presentation on sex technology and its applications to BDSM, which will be as educational for me as it will be for everyone else. Prepare for the wild, ridiculous overuse of the word "panopticon". Foucault's spinning will be my carbon credit equivilient.
Tickets are $16ish after fees, and it's limited to 30 people. To get in, you'll need to preregister online at:
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/117130340
So if you want to get the up close, personal, not-at-a-web-conference qDot treatment (no, I don't know exactly how this treatment is different either), I'll see you next Thursday.
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April 9, 2008
qDot on Panel at Leather Leadership Conference 2008
Yup, it took all of a month for my "no new speaking until I have something new to say" thing to fall apart. But, well, this is different! Really! Somehow. :)
So yeah, I'm now part of the BDSM and Web 2.0 panel at the 12th Annual Leather Leadership Conference. The panel takes place Sunday, April 13th, at 10:30am. The panel will include Thomas Roche (who I was also on a panel with at Arse Elektronika, now of kink.com), Richard Hunter (of Mr. S Leather), Steve Bower (Webmaster for the Society of Janus), and others. Should be fun!
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March 16, 2008
Slides from ETech, and a resolution
Yup, I'm back. Sorta. Just kinda lost that blogging feeling for a few months. May lose it again after I blow the content I've built up from not posting for 3 months (not that any of you have scooped me on much that I'll be posting either, ya lazy bastards).
Anyways, first off, for those of you that missed it at ETech, my presentation slides are now available at:
http://www.slashdong.org/files/ETech2008Presentation.pdf
It's basically the same deck I've used throughout the past few conferences, and it's also the /last/ time I'll use it. That's right, no new conferences until new content. I figure everyone either knows the basics of this by now, or can tune into Vimeo page with my Arse Elektronika Version of the presentation. Here. I'll even embed it for you, again.
Arse Elektronika 2007: Presentation by Kyle Machulis from qDot on Vimeo.
So yeah. No conferences in the pipeline now. And I'm happy for that. Time to make new stuff.
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February 17, 2008
Upcoming Conference List
Yup, it's spring again, and it snuck up on me this time.
First off, it's year 3 of GDC for me. Not speaking during the conference, though you can at least catch me at Brenda Braithwaite's Sex in Games Roundtables on Wednesday and Thursday, plus the various parties (Here's crossing my fingers for another World of Darkness party like last year. More game conferences need dominatrixes).
Wednesday, March 5th, it's off to O'Reillys Emerging Technologies Conference, where I'm giving a talk on the usual. Due to the fact that I'm poor and SD is expensive, I'm only in for the day of my talk, so look for me on Wednesday if you're around.
And then... Nothing. Yes, I have absolutely no planned speaking engagements after that, and I plan on keeping it that way for a while.
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September 2, 2007
Comments and Trackbacks Return to Slashdong
Spent the past couple of days upgrading to MovableType 4, and decided to take yet another crack at opening up comments and trackbacks. We'll see how things go, I suppose.
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August 4, 2007
Hmm, maybe I will have something... (qDot - Live from SIGGRAPH)
Well, got my badge and my program and all that, so let's see what's going on...
*flips through program*
Ooooh, 8 "haptic input device" companies on the show floor...
*flips somemore*
Some of the talks and posters...
- A Ball-Type Vibro-Tactile Space Mouse Using One Web Camera
- An Electrical Muscle Stimulation Haptic Feedback for Mixed-Reality Tennis Game
- Meshless Visual and Haptic Interaction From a Real-Time Depth Image
Emerging Technologies...
- Fibratus Tactile Sensor (capable of sensing 'gentle' touch)
- Freqtric Game (Human skin contact as game controller)
- Gravity Grabber (Wearable Haptic Display to Present Virtual Mass Sensation)
- Haptic Telexistence
- Microsoft Surface (Ok so there's not much haptic here but I have this whole thing about Surface displaying nude people while I eat off of it so I can act like I'm eating at one of those sushi places where you eat off a nude person except like I can be eating buffalo wings out of the freezer or something.... yeah.)
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August 2, 2007
qDot @ ACM Sandbox and SIGGRAPH 2007
Yup. I'll be around San Diego all week for ACM Sandbox and SIGGRAPH. Poke me and say hi if you're there.
If you're interested in updates on the non-sex stuff that's happening there, I'll be trying to blog it at Nonpolynomial Labs (Note: I have a horrid track record in doing this).
If there's ribaldry, you can bet it'll show up here, though I somehow doubt that's gonna happen.
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June 9, 2007
qDot speaking at Writers With Drinks - Saturday, June 9th
I's talkin' again! I sure like hearing myself speak these days...
(Topic for this one is completely undecided so far, so expect to be surprised! I know I will be.)
=====
Writers With Drinks has finally broken out of the spoken-word ghetto and into the slightly larger hipster-entertainment ghetto! To celebrate, we're having an explosion of literary greatness, including:
- Judy Budnitz, author of Nice Big American Baby and If I've Told You Once
- Clifford Chase, author of Winkie
- Sesshu Foster, author of Atomik Aztex
- Anthony McCann, poet and author of Moongarden
- Kyle Machulis aka qdot, who blogs at Slashdong.org
- Comedian TBA
Where: The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd St. btw. Mission & Valencia, San Francisco, CA
When: Saturday, June 9, from 7:30 to 9:30, doors open 7:00
How much: $3 to $5 sliding scale, all proceeds benefit http://othermag.org.
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May 24, 2007
The Face Says It All
Though I'm not sure whose face, or what it's saying.
Me, Johannes of Monochrom and The Virtual Hole at DorkbotSF (more pictures here)
Picture thanks to Shifz
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May 23, 2007
qDot Speaking at DorkBotSF Tomorrow
So I'm all about short notice speaking engagements these days!
I'm speaking tomorrow night as part of a rather impromptu Dorkbot at the Porn Palace here in SF. Who knows, maybe I'll finally get to meet the kink.com/fuckingmachines people. At which point, the universe will implode on itself.
Anyways, info:
Dorkbot SF
Wednesday, May 23, 2007(7:30 PM)
The Porn Palace
415 Jessie Street
San Francisco
94102
To cap off this weekend's craziness and take advantage of
maker faire folks in town being here to party with us,
and due to popular request, we're doing an impromptu
dorkbot this wed.!
Violet Blue - Pain Boys and Electro-Stim Interview with Kyle Machulis
http://tinynibbles.com
Monochrom - and their latest projects
http://monochrom.at
Shifz - Cocktail Robotics
http://shifz.blogspot.com
Team Unicorn (amy jenkins, liisa pine, wendi flybutter) - Triumph of Chastity the Legend of the Unicorn
Amy's flickr set
Kyle Machulis (qDot) - his latest projects
http://slashdong.org
Guest MC and Host Jacob Appelbaum
FREE ADMISSION but donations are highly encouraged. All proceeds will go to the San Francisco Crisis Center
CASH BAR 21+
For full details, including attendance, visit:
http://upcoming.org/event/193005
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May 18, 2007
qDot @ Maker Faire
So, in keeping up with every other blog of anyone that lives in the Bay Area, I shall announce the obvious: Of course I'm going to be at Maker Faire tomorrow. Who isn't? Oh, that's right, all you bitches that decided not to be in San Mateo this weekend. Don't worry, I will take many pictures and gush about how awesome it is.
Feel free to say hi if you see me around. I'll be that guy with the green hair. Yeah, that one.
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May 14, 2007
Sex Hacks Talk, Monday, 05.21.2007, San Francisco
Come see me do my thing! Very possibly the last time before Arse Elektronika (unless I get another speaking gig out of the blue like this)
SEX HACKS
with artists, technologists, designers, & geeks:
>> Norene Leddy: NYC-Based Artist Presents "The Aphrodite Project" GPS Platform Shoes for the Modern Sex Worker (theaphroditeproject.tv)
>> qDot: Offering Up His Custom Built and Frequently Teledildonic Sex Toy Hacks (slashdong.org)
>> Natasha Strange: Beloved San Francisco Dominatrix Demonstrates Hypnotic Electronic Mind Hacks (kittenwithawhip.com)
>> Johannes Grenzfurthner: of international art-technology-philosophy group monochrom on the upcoming sex + tech conference Arse Elektronika (monochrom.at)
Live, explicit demos make this an 18+ affair.
Curated, moderated, & instigated by Melissa Gira (Sexerati.com), for the Center for Sex and Culture
Monday, May 21st, 2007, doors at 7, science at 7:30
@ the Center for Sex and Culture
290 Division at 10th/Brannan, Suite 405
$10 - $20 Sliding Scale to benefit CSC
(no one turned away for lack of funds)
www.sexandculture.org
Mostly Private After Party at Shine
(rsvp here, or to melissa at melissagira dot com)
1337 Mission Street
Between 9th and 10th
www.shinesf.com
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April 16, 2007
Wheee, I'm in EGM!
OMG. I'm in EGM! Rilly! For finally accessing the Sheng Long fight in Street Fighter II! 14 years of work is over!
Ok, not really for the Sheng Long thing. This month's issue is all about the future of games, and while I've got some choice words for a few of their ideas, who cares, I GOT UNSOLICITED PRESS!
I think this is the first time I've shown up in a magazine without knowing it was gonna happen. Someone from the IGDA Sex in Games Mailing List posted about it, which is how I found out.
It's a tiny, tiny blurb in a part of the magazine about sci-fi movies and their real world counterparts. Lists things like CAVE systems vs. the Star Trek Holodeck and 3D Displays vs. Star Wars. Here's the part of the article I'm in:
The flick: Demolition Man (1993)
The flicktion: In the future, people no longer kiss, touch or watch The Notebook together. Instead, they have VR boom-chicka-boom-chicka. When Stallone asks Sandra Bullock to do it the "old fashioned" way, Bullock responds, "Ew! You mean...fluid transfer?".
Reality check: Kyle Machulis, a "teledildonics" researcher, invented the SeXbox in 2005. It goes beyond hi-def nudity to actually reach out and touch special someones in their special places with a homebrew dildo doohickey. More recently, Machulis wrote a programming script that lets denizens of the PC virtual world Second Life use a "trance vibrator" to, er, titillate one another. That's one peripheral we won't be sharing.
Holy. Fucking. Fuck.
THAT RULES.
I CAN NOW ADD GAME MAGAZINE (THAT I WAS NOT SPECIFICALLY INTERVIEWED FOR) FAME TO INTERNET FAME.
Time to break out the hookers and blow.
Except I haven't quite reached the level of fame to afford hookers and blow.
I guess furry porn and twinkies will have to do.
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March 26, 2007
qDot on Bloggers Undressed
Wheee, even more footage of me being a dork at SXSW.
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March 19, 2007
The Look of Post Con Depression
The conference season, he/she/they/it/hir/xir/??? is a harsh master/mistress/whatever the fuck you genderqueer BDSMers call yourselves.
One week, you're standing in a bathroom stall next to the guy who wrote your favorite WordPress plugin, doing fat rails of coke that were divided up using the pocket knife you picked up as swag at the expo booth of some pretentious Web 2.0 startup that won't exist next month.
Then the next week, you find yourself sitting in front of a strawberry sundae you inhaled in record time (with beer chaser), lamenting the loss of the power supply for your bowling pin vagina which you were totally looking forward to using after a bunch of bloggers stuck their best typing finger in it, getting yourself a vicarious handjob from half the hip side of the internet, with the heady thoughts of your 5 seconds of importance because you made a couch vibrate to microblogging fueling your hard-on that could only be described using adjectives that would also make a great tagcloud for a gay porn streaming movie site that you'd totally visit.
So you do what anyone would do.
You go to Toys r Us and buy yourself a robotic pet to rip apart and pervertify to do your own horrific biddings, most of which have absolutely nothing to do with sex but since you're posting it on your big, well-known sex blog, people are just gonna assume.
And then, you end by making it a link post to all the spiffy blogs you've found over the past few days:
- Suicide Bots - This is what I wanted to do with the deathbots.com domain that I got. Yay that they're doing it awesomely.
- Good Math, Bad Math - Back in college, I used to refer to 'bad math' as 'hippie math', referring to the type of math that happens when pot, fractal posters, and a low grade understanding of high school mathematics get together. This is a blog all about kicking people's asses on that. Makes me VERY happy.
- Sexerati - Neat sex blog
- Shake Well Before Use - Another nifty sex + other stuff blog
Now then, back to the bionic kitty project.
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March 13, 2007
Podcast of SXSW Panel on Sex and Technology
The panel is /already/ available (MP3 link). Wow. Damn. Technology works fast these days.
Thanks to everyone that was on the panel, it was a GREAT experience, I learned a LOT and it was really really fun. I really want to work on combining the ideas of patterns plus biometrics (Corey FTW, like, twice) for a synesthetic experience now.
(listening to the stream now... Good lord I talk fast. That was 37 slides in 10 minutes.)
link via Tiny Nibbles
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March 1, 2007
Message Boards Open Again
Did you know we have message boards? Yeah, I kinda forgot too.
I shut down signups sometime last year due to massive spamming, and never did fix it. That is, until now. The Slashdong Boards have returned.
Hopefully they won't turn into a big pile of spam again, but I'm not keeping my hopes up. So go and post your little perverted heart out before I get sick of administrating them again.
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1TrackMind covers me for 29 seconds
Save yourself the trouble and wind in to 2:16.
Titris?
Titris?
TITRIS?!
(Not to be confused with Titler)
Update: Yup, Titris. And there's even a sequel.
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February 22, 2007
Conference Schedule for March
Yup, it's that time again.
I'll be around the Game Developer's Conference (parties Tuesday-Thursday, conference Wednesday-Thursday). Look for me at the Sex In Games Roundtables (12:00pm Wednesday or 5:30pm Thursday) or around the expo, most likely at the Linden Lab booth.
Then it's off to SXSW Interactive for another year of Web 2.0 and Blogs and those other hip things. I'm on the Sex and Computational Technology panel at 5:30pm on Sunday, March 11th in Room 9AB. The lineup includes:
Amanda Williams - University of California at Irvine
Violet Blue - Blogger Open Source Sex
Johanna Brewer - University of California at Irvine
Kyle Machulis - Me!
Cory Silverberg - Author & Educator, Come As You Are & About.com
It should be chock full of awesome.
I'll also be hanging at the Linden Lab booth (notice a trend here?) in the Expo, and at pretty much every single party. Yes. All of them.
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January 1, 2007
opendildonics.org - Now under new management
opendildonics.org - Now under new management
MINE ALL MINE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... er... hi.
Way back in the days of January 2005, a site called OpenDildonics opened their doors with a tutorial on running a vibe motor from a parallel port. This came up right as I was getting ready to launch Slashdong, and almost discouraged me from starting the page at all. However, I went ahead and put this place up anyways, and the rest is history. Unfortunately, outside of their forums, OpenDildonics.org went quiet. I got an email from the wonderful people at Brum2600 offering me the domain last month, and I knew I had the perfect project for it.
For those of you that were alive waaaaaaaaaay back in May, I quietly announced the creation of the Slashdong wiki, and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing with it, due to moving across the country and then getting acclimated to new job, new natural occurances, and new experiences in general. However, now that I'm back in the building mood, I find it much easier to document my projects and thought process in wiki form versus article form like I do here on slashdong.
So, here's what I see happening:
- Slashdong is not dead, not by any means. I've spent way too long
building the brandamassing my army of zombie army through mind-control tags in my RSS feedworking on this page to let it go that quickly. This will still be a blog, and something I can hopefully get back into the habit of updating with a little more frequency than I have in the past 6 months. I'll most likely keep up with the article format on my projects on here, because I have fun writing the entertaining version of the development process. In addition, I also plan on doing reviews of toys from that special soul-sucking, "You could have sex with it but it's more interesting to take it apart" engineering perspective that I seem to have a knack for. Not to mention, since it's a blog, I don't feel quite as bad about being a judgemental fuckwad here. - The Opendildonics wiki will be for long term history and project documentation. I've watched a ton of pages go up and then back down since I started running slashdong, and even though archive.org never forgets, I'd really like to have a centralized clearinghouse for sex tech info. I plan on moving all of the articles on slashdong over to the wiki at some point. The original articles will be preserved, though I may also post more straight forward explanations of them for conciseness sake.
Please note that this wiki is meant to be as open as I can make it without the asshats of the internet fuckering it. I don't have time to do wikipedia style mediation, nor do I think I'll have enough dedicated people who care to do that, either, so while account creation is open, it's limited to talk, and if that gets spammed (much like our poor message boards), I may have to regulate that somehow, too. However, if you are interested in adding information or helping out on the project, or if you have something you'd like documented (of your own work or else already GPL'd or CC'd or whatever open license), email our tips address (tips at slashdong dot org).
I'm really excited about where this project could go. I've met a ton of amazingly smart people in my time running slashdong, and being able to work with them to add information instead of just blogging about them is something I'd always wanted to do. Here's hoping for the best.
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December 17, 2006
Small page updates
So, a few things about the page since I haven't updated in a while:
- Yes, the boards are broken, and will probably be replaced soon. Until then, unless you have an account, you probably won't be able to post.
- For those of you sending me link trade requests: No, I won't link to your page. Bring money, affiliate programs, or free equipment into the equation, and maybe we'll talk, but outside of that, no.
- Things in the works
All this rests on my motivation levels, but honestly, they're higher than they've been in a while.
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November 14, 2006
SXSW 2007 - Here we go again
Apparently they didn't learn their lesson last year, so I'm gonna be back in Austin, Texas March 9-13th for SXSW Interactive 2007. I'll be on the "Sex and Computational Technology" panel with the lovely Amanda "Best Ethnography EVER (But you've gotta ask her about it yourself)" Williams and others who I will announce one I make sure of the complete lineup!
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The Sound of Silence
Yup, it's been mighty quiet here, not due to lack of developments though. Just so you know, I am still alive, and actually starting to get things done again. Though really, when your workbench looks like...
...how can you not be motivated?
Anyways, in terms of building:
- Pictures of me dismantling an OhMiBod unit - Hope to have a full article up on this (review as well as repackaging guide) soon.
- In what was one of the few complete and total "me as fanboy" experiences I've had since I started this site, I finally got to go to a Battery Boys session with Uncle Abdul (the man that wrote the book on estim play) and built my very own TENS unit!
- Work on the SexBox vWhateverTheHellTheLastVersionWasPlusOne is slowly coming back, I'm starting from scratch again because I'm getting to the point where I can learn from my old mistakes of having no clue what the fuck I was doing and hopefully not repeat them
- Been in contact with the boys over at MaleBots, who've been crankin' out new material like a machine! *cringe*
And for those of you that were not aware from the multiple references to it on the page, I live in San Francisco now, and am always up for meeting other builders or whatever. Drop me an email at the tips address.
No word on when steady updates will return, just depends on how life goes. But believe me, I'm tryin'.
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August 25, 2006
I Am Way Too Tired To Make A Real Title For This Post
First off, the corrections:
In qDot's demo, he introduced his Second Life cube avatar to a smaller, more feminine cube avatar.
*nose bridge pinch*
Regina, I think Emilio is a little hurt by you calling him feminine. Yes, he's a little smaller than me, and yes, he's plywood, but that's no reason to say that he's FEMININE. I'm gonna be working for weeks to build his self-esteem up again, he makes a horrible top when he gets in his "mood", and let's not even get into the state my pool is gonna be in.
Fuck, he's so depressed in that picture. I mean, really, feminine? Does he look like a straight line to you, huh?
Anyways.
So you're probably wondering where that code I promised in the video is. Well, it's certainly, um, around. Unfortunately, it won't be up until mid-day tomorrow at the earliest, and even then, it's not clean, it's not nice, it's totally proof of concept, but hopefully someone will take the concept and run with it. God knows I don't have time lately. When it does come up, if you want help using it in your own system, throw email at our tips address on the right side of the page (if you're reading this through RSS, go visit the damn page. :P ). I can't promise I'll get to your request soon if ever, but I'll try. You may also want to gather and discuss in our forums, which I think I've ridden of spam for now at least.
That brings me to my next point, though. Something I've been thinking about, and I'm hoping someone will back me up on this.
I don't really have time to do much development on the SexBox v5/6 lately. This (That's the Lego Mindstorm NXT brick for those of you who might be wondering) has motor drivers (LB1930Ms if I'm not mistaken), bluetooth and USB communication, and open (also if I'm not mistaken) firmware. Slice a couple of motor cables open, attach 2.5mm jacks (and possibly some regulation hardware so we don't smoke the board)...
You thinking what I'm thinking?
(I realize it's a smidge on the expensive side, and technically I /should/ be able to communicate with the RCX brick through Serial->IR, which would be a much cheaper solution. Anyways, you can see the direction I'm going here. Consider this license to beat me to it, start your own blog, and become wildly internet famous like I have.)
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August 22, 2006
Video of qDot's Talk at SLCC
First off, once again, thanks to the people at libsecondlife for making this demo as easy as it was. BTW, if you want to see the first version of this that I made last year, the tutorial is behind this link. Warning: Polygonated Breasticles (And yes, I already called that as a band name, so no, you can't have it)
Now then. Funny story. Notice how I stick the vibe in my pocket around 6 minutes in? Well, my demo program somehow crashed after I was finished show it, leaving the vibrator running at top speed. I'd put it on the shelf in the podium, but that was causing the podium to rumble and make a low sound that you can't hear in the video. My choices were to put it on the cart, where it would make more noise, or, well, in my pocket. So, in my pocket it went.
Really, with a vibrator in your pocket, you no longer need to imagine the audience in their underwear.
Oh. And.
This is the shirt I was wearing during the presentation (I actually got a few questions about it at the conference). It's from Sick On Sin, possibly the best shirt and pin and mirror and other stuff store on the god damn planet. I know I don't advertise on here, but really. Go buy at least 14 of all of their products.
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August 20, 2006
SLCC, In Pictures (Or, well, Picture)
Video will be following soon, hopefully sometime in the next couple of day.
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August 19, 2006
qDot Speaking at SLCC Today, Video Stream Available
I'll be speaking at the Second Life Community Convention today at 1:45pm SLT (Pacific). It's a panel on Sex in Second Life, with me, Regina Lynn of Wired, Stroker Serpentine of Strokerz Toys, and Valadeza Anubis of Van Dungeon Devices. I'll be demoing my new (quickly hacked together yesterday) interface for sex toys in Second Life. Should be an interesting talk, and more importantly, you can watch it LIVE!
The video stream of the conference is here, and will be running through the full conference today.
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June 18, 2006
In SF
Well, I made it without much mental/physical scarring. In SF now. Let the buttsecks commense.
Slashdong should be back on a normal posting schedule sometime this week, once I get all situated and stuff.
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June 12, 2006
Another Quiet Week
Well, it's gonna be a rather quiet week here on Slashdong, as I'm about to head across the country with all my possessions in tow. I'm leavin' Oklahoma (At just the right time, too) and headin' to San Francisco, without a laptop, so I will be withering away without net access until next weekend.
If you would, please wait to do anything interesting until such time that I have net access again and can sufficiently blog it.
See you in SF!
- qDot
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May 26, 2006
What's up with qDot
As you've probably noticed, posts here have been rather infrequent and randomly themed lately. There's a few reasons behind that, and while I don't usually get into my personal life on here, it's only fair to let people know what's up. Not that any of it is bad.
So, first off: I'm movin'. Time to rise up out of Oklahoma, land of fucked up video game laws and religious pandering on state grounds. I'm headed off to San Francisco, land of heathens, harlots, and general sinnyness, to work for Linden Lab, makers of Second Life. That is, until god decides to bitchslap the faultline and we all fall off into the ocean.
Unfortunately, the timing of the move means I will not be able to attend the Sex in Video Games Conference, coming up in a little over 2 weeks. With the absolutely amazing list of people on the panels, it really sucks to have to miss this. So, even though I'm not going to be there, everyone reading this should totally sign up and go.
As for Slashdong, well, there's a few things I'm planning on doing. First off, I'm adding a new section, on DIY/Non-Traditional build projects going outside of our usual technology scope. I'd really like Slashdong to be about all sorts of open projects, not just the crazy electronics stuff I come up with. Many of the fetish scenes have relied on DIY for years ("Home Depot: The Kinkiest Store On the Planet"), and with the current DIY resurgence, I figure I might as well get the hits while I can put together a community of builders, tinkerers, inventors, and others instead of just engineers.
Also, I've felt that my tutorials, while educational and informative as they currently are (as well as damn funny. Probably more damn funny than anything else, actually), have suffered from a lack of crossreferencing and updating capabilities.
Therefore, it's time for the obvious solution: The Slashdong Wiki. This solves multiple problems I've been facing, including:
- Easy to update information
- User/Community Created Content
- Awkward content layout when done in article form
- Other stuff
If you'd like to be a contributor to the Wiki, please email me at the tips at slashdong address. There's a lot of information to add, and I'm gonna do what I can when I can, but with this upcoming move, time will be fleeting until like, September.
Ugh. I know this is going to end well, but the end is a long, long way off.
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May 6, 2006
Review of the SIGCHI Sexual Interactions Workshop
Review of the SIGCHI Sexual Interactions Workshop
So, of course, I haven't had time to write the rest of my experiences in Montreal, so instead I'll just link to someone else's analysis of the workshop. Corey Silverburg, About.com's Sexuality Guide as well as one of the founders of the Come As You Are Sex Toy Store, has written up two absolutely wonderful overviews of the workshop. So, I'll let his writing dig me out of my usual conference blogging procrastination hole.
Workshop Overview - Short Version
Workshop Overview - Long Version - Recommended, as it covers all the presentations throughout the day.
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April 20, 2006
Sexual Interactions/SIGCHI 2006: Day 1
Ok, well, this is at least a conference about sex, versus a conference about video games where I happen to be talking about sex, so blogging it is a little more feasable. But we all know my track record with this shit by now. Being stubborn about conference liveblogging is something that I'll get over someday, but I've got a LOT more therapy before that happens.
So, I'm in Montreal. Usually I'm all about studying up for trips, knowing where I'm going, so on and so forth. This time, nothin'. I got a map like, 10 minutes before I left, just in case. Sure enough, I show up, and my travel buddy, Allen Stein of the Thrillhammer (did I mention it's good shit?) is unfortunatly stuck in the wrong part of the wrong country until tomorrow. So, I'm in a foriegn country. And you know what's in foreign countries?
[American Traveler]
That's right, foreign people! And they all speak funny! Especially when you've been on a plane for a bazillion hours (read: 4)!
My 2 years of high school french is not holding up well at all here, luckily everyone seems to have a better grasp on both French AND English than I do, so it's all good.
[/American Traveler]
Which brings us to the main reason for this trip. Sure, there's a conference and all, but really.
POUTINE
It's my first time in Eastern Canadia, and the legend of the poutine is something that's been passed down over the millenia, through tribes and oral tradition and the internet and has somehow found its way to me. I have recommendations of places to try, and my god, I plan to try all of them. Of course, I'll probably make it to one and then have a raging case of the itis for the rest of the trip, but what can you do.
The search almost began this evening. Getting into the hotel late tonight, I asked the desk guy for places to eat, and he said there was a Burger King down the street. I was not aware that BK had poutine, but it does.
And really, I almost did it. I almost bought poutine at Burger King. But I could't possibly let that be my first real eastern canadian poutine experience. That's like losing your virginity to a crack whore. Which, where the burger king was located, was also an actual option.
Cleanest sex district I've ever been in, though.
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April 17, 2006
Radio Silence
Ok. On the topic of the lack of posts around here, well, I'm traveling pretty much constantly at the moment, and I'm not quite good enough at all this to travel and blog at the same time. However, know that things are going very well, and there's gonna be some major changes coming up soon. If you've sent me email in like, the last month, I'll /try/ to get to it this week.
This week, I'm headed out to the Sexual Interactions Conference at SIGCHI, along with the wonderful Allen Stein of Thrillhammer, because, you know, the Thrillhammer rules, n' shit.
I've got tons of links lined up for whenever I'm in town again, as well as SBv5 instructions, and other goodness. Until then, stick it out, and enjoy blogs like ApogeeVR.
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April 7, 2006
qDot in Xbox World UK
qDot in Xbox World UK (1.06mb PDF)
In the April 2006 issue of Xbox World 360 UK, there's an interview with me on Sex in Games, as it pertains to next gen consoles. (1.06mb PDF)
It's a pretty good article, but I think my favorite part has to be the screen in the background.
That is SO a game interface I would totally design. "Dude, smash the button until she finished the partial differential! YEAH! SURFACE INTEGRAL BONUS STAGE!"
God I'm a nerd.
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March 27, 2006
GDC Conference Wrapup
It's really hard not to sit here, look back on GDC, and not be seriously fucking depressed. Simply put, there's just too much to do in 5 days, and when you're sick (I picked up some sort of con crud on the way in to San Jose, and am still recovering), that makes it even harder. I know I made a lot of great connections, I met lot of really awesome people, I didn't miss too much at the parties (I saw nothing NEAR roomba frogger level at GDC, which obviously means people weren't drinking enough), but still, when you go through your daily blogs and realize "Oh SHIT, that person was there?!", it's kind of a downer. Now, you've gotta realize, there's like, 12,000 people at GDC, and it'd be impossible to ferret out everyone I wanted to meet, but I suppose that'll just drive me for next year. I'm nothing if not oblivious to common sense.
Here's the coverage I've found of the Sex In Games Lecture:
4Gamer Coverage - Japanese Link
YoshiNogi Coverage - Japanese Link
Linden Ops - Phoenix Linden's Observations
While the lecture did go very well, I think the much more important event was the "Murder, Sex, and Censorship" panel, which has been getting a good bit of coverage. Whether you liked their arguments or not, it was good to see some discussion on the issue at a game conference.
In terms of other things bloggable, well, I'll be talking about the AmBX presentation over on Nonpolynomial Labs here in a bit, but I'll just go ahead and say that I was slightly underwhelmed.
Anyways, my takeaways from GDC:
- Don't get sick before conferences.
- Driving sounds nice until you're doing it.
- 15 hours into driving, nothing sounds nice. NOTHING.
- This is a conference about making things that people use to have fun. The bet for the best contacts is to find the people who look/sound like they're having the most fun making things that make other people have fun, and listen to them well.
- Only CEOs can do their hair like that. Don't even try. They go to college for this stuff.
- "Game Design Ninjas" need to learn some social ettiquite
- No one in the game industry wants to hire a robotics engineer. Remember the last robot in gaming? The NES ROB? Yeah. (All of you who know about the Aibo PS2 interaction game Deka Voice get a gold star next to your name.)
- Therefore, be a software engineer. Yes. Software. Recruiters like software.
- It's kinda weird to wave sex toys at a conference and then go hand out your resume. Just make sure to put away that tag that proclaims you "GOD OF TELEDILDONICS" before you hit recruiters row. While it may strike up a fun conversation, it can be a little offputting when you ask "So, what positions do you have open?".
- The talk you go to will probably be good. The other 10 you miss going to that one will be just as good.
- Game design is hard. But really fucking neat.
- Tutorials are way, way better when the presenter is wearing a top hat. (The fact that it's a renowned game designer doesn't hurt either, but the hat, it rules.)
- Come to think of it, hats are an VERY important thing, as long as your hat isn't like anyone else's hat. The Hat People will always find each other. The Hat People are powerful. You will know the Hat People. You will know us by our Hats.
- If you are introduced to someone stupidly famous, STFU and enjoy listening to them talk to someone they actually know. You'll learn way more than just blurting out "HOLY SHIT DID YOU KNOW YOU MADE [insert game here]?!"
- Just because it's a game conference doesn't mean the art wall can't resemble something from a Sci-Fi/Fantasy con. When the Sex in Games lecture features your art wall, maybe you should take a step back and consider your judges (and the "FBI: Female Boob Inspector" pins they're wearing).
- If you are wearing a shirt that lets other people know you are you, make sure that shirt doesn't happen to match the volunteer shirt color.
- Someone will always have a cooler business card than you. Business card envy is a very, very serious matter. If you are at the top of the business card food chain, you wield a position of supreme, ultimate power. Just flash your card and people will "Oh Shinyyyyyyyy" into submission. I'm looking at you, Amaze Entertainment. You know what I'm talking about.
- If you're new and made one decent, lasting connection to someone who's been in the industry a while, consider it a successful conference. However, for every contact you got completely shitfaced with and can't remember their name or what you said, subtract two meaningful contacts.
- And, by far the most important lesson, a lesson I learned from a wise, hat wearing man: everything tastes better in glasses lit up by LEDs, but especially martinis. Having had a lit up LED martini, I must say, motherfuckers need to lay off on the vermouth, but I'll let it slide 'cause damn, it was pretty.
My relatively small flickr set from GDC is behind this link. Mostly driving pictures. And a really shiny dumptruck.
Next up, SIGCHI in Montreal, April 23-24, 2006. Until then, back to Sex Toys.
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SXSW Conference Wrapup
Ok, so I realize SXSW ended like, 2 weeks ago, but I never did get a chance to post about all of the wonderful, wonderful press that came out of our session there.
GuideLive - SXSW: Sex By Southwest
Reciprocal Demand - Austin Chronical
Sex Alive and Well in Video Games - CNet
SXSW: My Blue World: Game Experts Give Red Light Talk
Fleshbot - Sex in Video Games at SXSW
Lots of good press from the panel, but of course, the panel was not the big part of the conference.
Oh, lordy no. If you technorati SXSW and Sex and Video Games, you won't get too many posts.
But just try "roomba frogger", and, well, holy shit.
Yes, I was a picture taking bystander of the rather famous activities happening that night. Thanks you, Daniel, for pointing me out as the "an expert in teledildonics" in the middle of an article already full of dubious activities. It was quite funny to watch all of the forum threads about how many babies we could've killed followed by "Wow, dude, Teledildonics is a fucking awesome term!".
See? Told you Slashdong was about education!
Anyways, my picture set of roomba frogger is up on Flickr now, just in case anyone is still interested in this admittedly aged meme.
Other than that, SXSW was great, I was very glad to be able to party with the Clickable Culture/Make Magazine/Second Life Herald/Electric Sheep Company/The Escapist/whoever else I met up with. I've still got a ton of business cards to go through. Urf.
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March 22, 2006
GDC - Mission Accomplished
I just waved a sex toy at GDC.
My work here is done.
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March 21, 2006
GDC. Wow. Damn. GDC.
So there's a time when you realize you're about to, in however small a part, speak at one of the biggest conferences for one of the fastest growing modern industries, of which you are not currently a part of, and on a topic which is somewhat controversial.
Apparently that time is around 16 hours before it actually happens.
I have many stories to tell, and I'm sure many more to live through before this is all over, and I assure you, if the cold I decided to catch does not kill me (and it's certainly trying. Con crud is NOT supposed to apply to game conferences!), I'll post them here once I get time to write. Which currently looks like sometime in 2007.
But, to sum up the trip so far:
- Made a pilgramage to San Francisco, sex toy capital of the world. Stopped by Good Vibrations, and comtemplated buying a house just so I could take out an extra mortgage at Mr. S. Mr. S is so incredibly full of awesome. Yes it is.
- GDC is overwhelming, and I've just been to the tutorial days. According to just about everyone, tomorrow is going to blow my fucking mind.
I came home early to do final sexbox testing, and pray to whatever diety will still listen to me that the fucking thing doesn't turn into a white smoke generator tomorrow for some reason.
Cross whatever you have that can be crossed for me. I will report back tomorrow.
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March 17, 2006
Off to GDC
Never put salt in your eyes.
Also, never book yourself to get back from one conference, and only have 1 day in between before you leave for the next. Bad things happen, like iPods breaking and bad blocks in the reiserfs system sector of your main storage drive. Basically, anything that will take more than a day to fix will happen on that day.
Anyways, off to San Jose and GDC. I'll be there from Sunday to Friday, and will be speaking as part of the Sex In Games talk on Wednesday at Noon, with Brenda Brathwaite of the Sex In Games Special Interest Group.
I will not be liveblogging this conference, unless someone would like to pay me to liveblog it for their blog. Just email the tips address over there. I need all the cash I can get, people, and you know I'm funny, I know my shit about video games, and I'll be smack dab in the middle of lots of new releases. So come on. Support the dildo fund.
Off to do last minute packing checks. See you in San Jose!
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March 12, 2006
The Boy who Cried Liveblogging
I can't do it. I just can't fucking doing it.
Everyone at this conference is liveblogging. They sit there in the sessions, typing their notes into wordpress or moveable type or blogger or whatever else. They hurry back to their hotels to podcast or vidblog. And I just... can't. I'm either too wrapped up in the session (Speaking of: Everyware by Adam Greenfield, GO FUCKING BUY THIS BOOK. Absolutely fucking amazing session.), or too bored by the session to blog it so I sit on IRC or SL or whatever other medium being bored. Between sessions, I'm too busy networking. Thank god Tony Walsh of Clickable Culture is enough of an ADD blogger social leper studious blogger that he's getting notes for pretty much all of the sessions I'm in.
So, that's it. No more liveblogging for me. I'm never making that promise again. I'll just write when I have time, and am not sufficiently drunk. Or maybe am sufficiently drunk.
Speaking of sufficiently drunk, I did the first public demo of the SeXBox v5 last night at the Second Life Herald Party (Motherfuckers know how to motherfucking party, BTW), and it went... ok! Especially for me having a cup of tequila and a cup of champeign sitting next to each other and accidently forgetting which is which in the middle of the talk. The serial port seems to have somehow shorted in travel, too, so I'll be spending part of the night in my hotel room soldering when I should be partying. Such is the life of a sex toy engineer.
If you're interested in pictures, I'm photoblogging the conference as I get time, though it's mostly weird floor shots and pictures of tiny ketchup bottles. The important stuff, you know.
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March 10, 2006
Liveblogging from SXSW Interative
Dude behind me just totally said "I'm down with RSS."
No, seriously.
WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO.
Anyways, hi, I'm currently in Austin at Screenburn/SXSW Interactive, from today until Tuesday. I'll be living blogging the whole fucking experience because if I have to sit through 5 days of RSS, Web 2.0, Web 3.0 (Hi SLers!), monetizing things, getting eyeballs, etc etc etc, then SO DO YOU.
I'll try to throw some sex toy talk in too, from time to time, so I can stay on track.
So what is your fair sex toy engineer doing here, anyways? Well, other than being an ass and making quite sure I'll never be able to work in blogging, IT, the web, or anything outside of my basement, I'll be speaking on the "Secret Sex Lives of Video Games" Panel on Tuesday.
In Slashdong Relevant news, to those of you that made it this far in the post. The SexBox v5 is done, is sitting in my hotel room, and will be seieng live demos at both SXSW and GDC. Then it's straight from the conferences and to the page, as I'll be posting the tutorial as soon as I get time to write it. The goodness involves: Serial/USB support, expansion slots, and 4 PORTS OF VIBRATEY LUV. Aw yeah. Rockin' it newskewlsextoy in 2006.
My god. See that last sentence? That's what this shit is doing to me. 5 days left, man. 5 days.
If you're here, look for me. I'll be the only guy without a timbuk2 bag.
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March 7, 2006
Pictures from Slashdong 1st Birthday Party in SL
Pictures from Slashdong 1st Birthday Party in SL
Well, the party is over with, I've finally recovered from sitting in front of my computer and drinking heavily, and from the photos, it looks like everyone had fun.
Thanks to Gomi Mfume for DJing throughout the evening, and to everyone that showed up. Photos are now available on my flickr account.
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March 4, 2006
Slashdong Party Tonight on SL!
OMG PARTY TIME
So, to recap, Slashdong Second Life Party tonight. 5PM PST/Second Life World Time, on Saturday, March 4th @ Nonpolynomial Labs, Deneb (222,190)
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March 1, 2006
Slashdong Birthday Party in Second Life - Saturday, March 4th, 2006 - 5PM PST Until ???
Yup, we're havin' a party to celebrate the first birthday of Slashdong!
Now, of course, I'm too damn poor to have a REAL party, not to mention I don't think most of my readership lives in, or near, Oklahoma at the moment, so this is going to be a virtual party in Second Life!
Yes, that's right. I'm celebrating the first year of running a blog by sitting in front of my computer monitor, playing silly music, and drinking heavily. If there were every a more stereotypical way to party about a site about virtual sex, I certainly couldn't think of it.
So, party starts at 5PM PST/Second Life World Time.
It'll be at Nonpolynomial Labs, Deneb (222,190). If you can't figure out how to get there or are just too lazy, send a message to qDot Bunnyhug in world and we'll get you set up with a teleport.
If you don't have an account, well, sign up! They're free! Just go to secondlife.com, all you need is a mobile phone number (or a credit card), for age verification. Other than that, FREE! FREE DAMNIT! FREE!
See you Saturday!
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February 24, 2006
Happy Birthday, SeXBox
One year ago today, I posted the article that would change my life forever. Or at least currently, but I have no sense of time whatsoever, so it seems like forever.
Yup, It's been exactly a year since I posted the SeXBox v1.
Wow. Fuckin' A.
I've got a long, crazy, drawn out post about the history of slashdong, things I've learned, and other stuff, but I really don't feel like finishing it tonight, so it'll be up sometime in the next few days. However, I felt like I should at least say something. I kinda consider this to be the birthday of slashdong to, since before the sexbox, no one (not even me) really gave a shit, heh.
Anyways, thanks to everyone who still reads this, all of the friends that've stuck through finding out I'm a horrible pervert, all of the new friends I've made because I'm a horrible pervert, and most of all, to my fiancee, who, somehow, hasn't broken up with me during my climb up the ladder to BLOGGING GOD, and can still find ways to humiliate me even though I talk about buttplugs in front of roomfulls of people without blushing now. Love you beb.
We now return you to your normal vibratey programming.
(Oh yeah, SLASHDONG BIRTHDAY PARTY - SECOND LIFE - MARCH 4TH - More details to come)
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January 27, 2006
I'm in Wired. Again.
Remember when this was something I was kinda enthused about?
Yeah, me too.
Man, I'm getting jaded.
Anyways, yeah, ol' qDot is in Wired. Again.
This time, they got my name wrong. I am qDot. I am not qDot Slashdong.
The only last name I have with qDot is Bunnyhug.
I do hug bunnies.
I do not slash dongs.
Oh yeah, so, the article. Sex hardware in video games. All stuff you've seen on our front page before, but go read it because you need to hear more quotes from me about this stuff.
Actually, this is the second time this week something I work on has been in Wired. MMOrgy made it into a machinima article. So that's kinda cool. Now I'm doubleWireding. Whole new level of Wiredism.
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January 11, 2006
qDot to speak at Sex in Video Games Conference
qDot to speak at Sex in Video Games Conference
And it just doesn't stop!
I'll be all up in the grill of the Sex In Video Games Conference, in sunny San Francisco, CA, June 8-9th. I'll be doing a talk on adult game hardware, as well as leading a panel of players on topics about sex in MMOs.
This will be, hands down, the awesomest conference EVER.
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qDot to speak at GDC
Wow. GDC. Yeah, like, THAT GDC. I'll be there. Wow. Damn.
I'll be speaking as part of Brenda Brathwaite's talk on Sex In Video Games at , March 20th-24th, in sunny San Jose, California.
Heh. Damn. G D Freakin' C. Something like that... That needs a marquee.
Hell yeah.
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January 5, 2006
Broadcasting live, 1700 miles away from AEE/Internext...
Yeah, that's right. Who needs AEE anyways? Not Violet Blue, and CERTAINLY not me. Why should I spend MY hard earned money getting my ass to the happiest place on Earth to spend a weekend hanging out with porn stars and writing snarky shit about the newest and best commercial sex toys when I can sit here in sunny Oklahoma and pray that the wildfires don't kill my cattle and make Pa fall off the tractor (again)?
No, I'm not jealous of the 3 fucking people who decided it'd be fun to IM me from the SHOW FLOOR today bragging about the parties they're at. Not at fucking all. (If you're there, please send us news tidbits and moblog'd pictures, as we're already going to be stuck with whatever scraps Fleshbot and Regina throw us.)
So, anyways, enough of my little pity fest, welcome to Slashdong in 2006. Once hell week is over (first week of year is always a bitch for me at ye ol' daily grind makin' da robots), I'll be back to updating the page, but for now, here's the status of Slashdong.
That, right there, is a hedgehog. A really cute stuffed hedgehog that I got for christmas. Don't you just want to squeeze it?
Next to that is the AVR dev board I picked up, which, once I figure out this whole microcontroller thing, will be the guts of the first non-controller controlled (That doesn't sound right) version of the SeXBox. That's also the point at which it will stop being the SeXBox, as I will hopefully have come up with some spiffy new name that doesn't make Microsoft employees bristle and call lawyers when I say it in public speeches.
Now, I'm sure you're asking, "WTF, this is a simple motor control board, do you REALLY need a ATMega32? 40 fucking pins? Seriously?"
Yes, yes I do. I think.
Or it could just be the fact that AVR dev boards seemed to be the Tickle Me Elmo of the christmas season this year, and this was one that I could find that was in stock, had USB preinstalled, and was within my meager budget.
The development plan is as follows:
- Make the LED on the board lightup - MILESTONE REACHED
- Do a bunch of other stuff that makes this into a sex toy controller - Current Milestone
- Profit - Goal Milestone
At least we've got that first step out of the way. I wrote to PORTB like a motherfucker, I did. Showed that LED whose boss.
It's gonna be a long dev road this time around, I think.
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December 30, 2005
Searches... We get searches... We get stacks and stacks of searches...
Yeah, it's real, real slow in the sex tech world this time of year. All the bloggers I usually steal scrape aggregate content from are on their little "vacation" from being hard at work typing up what they had for lunch on a daily basis, so I'm stuck coming up with my own shit. We don't need no breaks here at Slashdong, oh hell no.
So, in lieu of actually having anything *interesting* to say, I'll rip off more ideas!
Google's end of year Zeitgeist is always a fun read. But, do ya ever wonder what the search term list of a site like Slashdong looks like?
Oh, lordy, it's entertaining. Lots less pop stars, lots more dildos. Here's a few of my favorites from this month, along with my snide, stupid comments.
- dog knot - Ok, this one always ranks pretty high, mainly due to a rather unfortunate combination of word usage on our Haptic Cow Simulator post.
- linux sex - Yeah. You wish.
- roboraptor owners manual - Oh you poor bastard.
- we are on the fucking moon - Yes, yes we are.
- twister the raper - WTF? There's a few variations on this search every month. I dunno why.
- usb penis - Well, I suppose there's USB everything else now
- robosapien sex - "Mom, why is my robot all sticky?!"
- pervert games - Crisco Twister
- squicked - Well, at least I'm not the only one who uses this term. I just don't like being on the descriptive end of it.
- boy dong boys - That's going on the band name list.
- shit hot motors - Also going on the band name list.
- bananaphone masturbation - No, seriously, ew. No mixing Raffi and sex.
- fosters home imaginary porn - NO. NONONONONONONO. NO. *NO*. (I LIKE CHOCOLATE MILK)
- tons of videos of people having serious sex - As opposed to the flourishing "silly sex" porn video industry
- how make sex toys with home appliances - "Mom, why is my Kitchenaid all sticky?"
- human upgrades motorised orgasm - "Yeah, it's got a hemi"
- slutwifecharms - No, seriously, why didn't anyone get me one of these for Christmas? (Most likely because the page no longer exists. *cry*)
- sex after married - See "Linux Sex" comment
- way of sex by force - Followup to Art of War
- diy hot glue gun dildo - No. Don't put the hot glue gun there.
- mild girls - Mmmm, tepid, tepid ladies.
- masturbating with women s shoes - "Mom why are my Jimmy Choo's all sti.." Ok, really, I'll stop now.
- pussy offer titty twister mp3 - The music the kids listen to these days...
- how to rape a women give a demostration - I don't like the internet sometimes.
- home depot sex toy - Bob Villa would be proud
- her first dangerous dong sex - Lighting it on fire just wasn't a good idea in the first place
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December 21, 2005
My God, I'm SEXY!
qDot on Sexiest Geeks of 2005 List
Wow. Just... wow.
I have been awarded the title of one of the top ten sexiest geeks of 2005.
Thanks to everyone who voted for me, and congrats to everyone else who made the list.
Can I put this on my resume?
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December 9, 2005
See me speak at SXSW Interactive 2006!
LOOKIT ME, I'M TALKIN' LIKE I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!
I'll be speaking at South by Southwest Interactive, on the "Secret Sex Lives of Video Games" Panel on Tuesday, March 14th.
The peanut gallery consists of:
Tony Walsh - ClickableCulture (A spiffy MMOG blog)
Glennis McClellan - Republik Games (Makers of hopefully spiffy MMOVSGs)
Julianne Greer - The Escapist (Makers of that "New Games Journalism" that the kids seem to love.)
Mark Wallache - Who Cares (Peddler of commy pinko yellow journalistic trash media and master of the occult practice of getting book deals about aforementioned trash media)
Kyle Machulis (aka qDot, aka qDot Bunnyhug, aka ME) - Nonpolynomial Labs/IGDA Sex In Games SIG/Slashdong.org/MMOrgy.com (Lord of the Pixel Boobies)
All in all, it should be a good time. Of course, by good time, I mean at least 3 fistfights. I'll have the full rules to the SXSW Panel drinking game posted sometime in early March so everyone can start practicing.
So, if nothing else, go to watch me feel horribly alone in a mass of people who can use terms like "Web 2.0", "blogosphere" and "tagging" all in the same sentence while keeping a straight face AND not joking! I'll be spending my evenings in my hotel room burning myself with my soldering iron to remind me who I really am.
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October 30, 2005
Innovation is Innovation
Note: I don't usually use slashdong as a personal blog like this, but as the page grows, there's a lot of interesting things that happen to the person running it. This post is about the realization of what being a sex toy engineer really means. After this, we'll get back to covering cock sucking machines and aluminum dildo thrusters, I swear. :)
Photography is a wonderful thing. Pictures that make you think. Pictures can combine seemingly unrelated objects and situations that when put into a frame, express some new meaning that would've been missed if it the moment were experienced in the flow of time. You know it's real, you know it hasn't been photoshopped, mainly because you were there, you are *in* the picture. Hell, it was taken with your camera. You remember the person that snapped it for you, thanking them for their time, and wishing you hadn't forgotten the USB cable so you could look at it and upload it right then. Life moves on, lectures to go to, dinners to have, advertising arrows to shoot...
Yet, when you get home, you look at the image, and wonder... Did that really happen?
The last 10 days has been an absolute blur. It feels like I've been gone at least a month, but the relatively short time it took to catch up on my RSS feeds says otherwise. Here I am, back where I started, in front of a desk that's a clutter of wires and sex toys and the iPod I forgot to take with me. This is the first writing I've done since I got home, and it feels like a new beginning.
Before I go into a synopsis of what happened during my grand two stop, one continent WORLD TOUR, I should probably mention that this was really my first time out as what could be considered the "public face" of Slashdong. I started Slashdong back in January, and up until now, I'd never really met with anyone that knew me solely through the site. I joke about it with friends, but they'd all known me well before the site went up. Never had I met people that knew me solely as qDot, sex toy and teledildonics engineer. I was nervous and really had no idea what to expect or how to act (the correct answers being "anything" and "no need to act, just be myself"), as would become obvious later.
There were really a total of 3 events in the trip, though some of them encompassed multiple meetings: Meeting other engineers, the Linden Lab visit, and the Austin Games Conference.
The first meeting happened in San Jose, in response to the message I posted on here about being in San Jose and wanting to meet up with people. Some interested parties responded, and we met for drinks during the startlingly little free time that I had (I was there to work, after all :) ). This meeting was nothing short of amazing. Sure, I talk to ridiculously smart, interesting, and creative people all the time through email and instant message, batting back and forth drawings and schematics, and brainstorming about new things to be built. But facetime with these people is a whole other experience. It's so nice to have real conversations with actual people, on topics we're all almost obsessively interested in, with an amazing amount of diverse experience between us.
It was then I realized, I need to get out of Oklahoma.
I'm sure most everyone is wondering "Well, what did you talk about? What new grand orgasmic schemes were hatched? What amazing, life changing devices will be released?!" To those people, I say, show the fuck up next time. However, it's worth noting that the To-Do board here at NP Labs is now full of months worth of horribly naughty things to build.
The second visit was to Linden Lab, creators of the Second Life world that I'm currently enamoured with. Now, unlike the first trip, this was to a place where I'd done both sex oriented and "clean" projects, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
After a hasty drive from SJ to SF and paying a rather high amount for parking because I didn't want to deal with finding a space on the street, I hiked up the hill to LL (since every direction in SF is uphill apparently), got buzzed in, and then looked around like a deer in headlights until Vektor and Jeska found me and we started the tour.
I had no idea what LL knew of me. Sure, I do neat projects, but there's 60k+ other people in the world too, and they're busy trying to keep things running. How can they keep up with the exploits of a silly engineer with too much free time? Apparently, they never sleep. They either work or are in SL.
It was then I realized, I need to get out of Oklahoma, and work at Linden Lab.
There were two levels of employee reaction to finding out who I was, depending on the project mentioned. Assuming the LifeCycle was mentioned, it would elicit anything from a "cool, that was neat" to a "Oh, have you thought about [15 minute conversation about new ideas which happened REALLY fast since I only had 30 minutes to tour the place]." However, if the Sex In Second Life/Teledildonics projects came up, people seemed to get really giggly and excited, and were all like "DUDE, YOU'RE THAT GUY!!! AWESOME!". Apparently "Teledildonics" has become the Word of the Year at Linden Lab (I better get a plaque for that!).
Now, I suppose I should've expected this. It goes along with the basis of Slashdong. Everyone understands sex. (Almost) Everyone enjoys sex to one extent or another, and it's a hell of a lot easier to understand than all of the logistics of hooking up an exercise bike to a virtual world. I guess I just wasn't used to talking about that specific project in a place that I desperately hope to work someday.
By the end of the week, I'd totally be over that.
After the whirlwind tour of LL, I headed home, then drove out to Austin for the Austin Games Conference. A full writeup of this will be happening over on Nonpolynomial Labs, but I'll cover the Sex In Games talk here, as I'm sure that's what everyone is interested in.
The Sex In Games talk featured Brenda Braithwaite, the chair of the IGDA Sex In Games Special Interest Group, and all around fucking awesome woman. We'd been talking quite a bit through email for the past 6 months or so, but we'd never actually met, so we both had no idea what to expect. Of course, I'd seen her on various TV shows before, but she'd only known me through email and my pages. Oh, the ways I could've turned out. However, we all know how incredibly intelligent, cool, and sexy I am, so the meeting went great. I had just planned on bringing hardware to have on the table while she did the talk, but she actually asked me to speak for a few minutes at the end of the talk.
Hyperventalation insued.
Her talk (or at least, what I saw of it while I was busy scribbling notes to myself about what I was going to say and having the violently nice Jeb Havens of Cyberlore reassuring me that I was going to come out of this alive) was very interesting and funny, covering the history and current climate of sex topics in video games. The crowd was both entertained and receptive. However, since I've got to write about it for at least 2 other blogs than this one, I'm just gonna go ahead and skip the fawning and get to my part. That's the fun of writing for the blogs I own. :)
Public speaking is one of the largest fears of the general population, moreso than death. There's supposed to be a million ways to get over it, including visualization of the audience in their underwear.
Me? I'm taking a butt plug on stage from now on. It's the ultimate equalizer.
I used my 4 minutes of talking time to its fullest, explaining the idea behind Slashdong and the SeXBox, as well as giving a quick software driven demo. Reaction ranged from nervous laughter to laughter of disbelief. In other words, positive. Incredibly positive. No (audible) gasps, noone stomping out the door, just a room full of people having a good time and realizing that yes, you can turn any video game into a sex toy.
After the talk, I had many people come up and say they enjoyed the talk immensely, that it'd made them think about new ways of experiencing video games. Lots of interested press, with not one negative response.
This brings us back to the first picture in this article, as it was taken minutes after the talk ended.
I was smiling, I was happy. This was an awesome way to begin. The hardware worked, the software worked, the hastily prepared presentation worked. Yet, for some reason, all of this roaring success couldn't possibly get in the way of my screwed up self esteem. I'm still not used to walking up to people and saying "Hi, I make adult interaction products for video games." The line I usually use is that I make "Input and haptics research hardware," followed by a somewhat awkward discussion where I explain in painfully technical and geeky terms the products I'm trying to make with Nonpolynomial Labs, and the other person restates them in human terms until we either come to a point of understanding or else give up and talk about the weather. Why this is, I have no idea. I was at the conference to show sex toys, and that's what I did. No shame in it, nor should there be, considering all of the incredibly positive feedback.
This all revolves around the fact that I wasn't planning on Slashdong becoming the main hub of the NP Network, and I'm still coming to terms with not feeling like sex is a cop out for immersive environments for some reason. I was so wrapped up in doing things academically, in creating complex research hardware for universities and think tanks, that when the monster of Slashdong got horribly popular, I wasn't quite sure how to deal.
I was lamenting (er, fuck that, too emo, complaining) about this on the Second Life IRC channel earlier, saying how I was surprised at the fact that the SeXBox was getting so much press. Pathfinder Linden said something that really made me think... "Innovation is Innovation".
Now I realize, I just need to shut up and enjoy it. I'm a genius, and the world is begging for more. Why hold back?
So, with that...
Hello.
My name is qDot.
I am a Sex Toy Engineer.
Prepare to die.
P.S.: Every Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends fan can thank The Woman for the artwork on the SeXBox at the show.
I LIKE CEREAL.
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October 25, 2005
One down, one to go...
First off, Hi to all the people coming from Nana! Nice to see Teledildonics getting international exposure. :)
Well, I'm back at the Slashdong HQ (read: the office in my house) for a grand total of 12 hours before I ship right back out to Austin Texas for the Austin Games Conference (If that link doesn't work, try this one, as their servers got knocked out by Wilma). I'll be blogging the full conference (assuming that's allowed) over on Nonpolynomial Labs, so those of you who couldn't cough up the $145 to show up to an OMG AWESOME conference can freeload off of whatever notes and pictures I take.
Once again, if you're interested in saying hi while I'm in Austin, throw an email at the tips address on the sidebar. Not sure what my evening schedule will be like, but we can try to work something out.
I'd like to say thanks to the cool people I met up with in San Jose (I hesitate to refer to SD readers as "Slashdongers", it just doesn't sound right :) ), as well as the absolutely wonderful people of Linden Lab, who were gracious enough to let me take a tour during one of their busiest days. It's nice to know that I've made "Teledildonics" a household word in places other than my own house. :)
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October 19, 2005
Coming Attractions, and qDot's Two Stop World Tour
So you've probably been thinking "Damn, qDot's all occupied working on other projects, he's forgotten about his roots, his outgrown slashdong..."
Well, check *this* shit out.
That's right. See that? That's the SeXBox v4 (v3 was actually built by a forum member, using an awesome idea about rewiring the save cart slots. Mathias, if you're reading this, please send me the pdf again and I swear I'll post it this time). Now outfitted with some horribly basic circuitry, the sexbox can handle up to 4 toys pulling 1 amp each. One controller provides up to 4 players with haptics, AND the internal haptics motors no longer need to be disconnected!
So, how'd I do it (*cough* motor driver *cough*)? Well, you'll just have to wait and see the tutorial when I get back from my UBER GIGANTIC WORLD TOUR.
I'll be in San Jose, CA from Oct 20th-24th, and Austin, TX Oct 25th-29th. If you're in one of these places and want to say hi, buy me alcohol, or whatever else, just throw an email at tips@slashdong.org. I dunno how much free time I'll have if any in SJ, but we'll see. I'll be in Austin for the Austin Games Conference, so if you're going to be there, just look for the guy drinking too much of the free beer on thursday afternoon and ruining any chances of working in the game industry.
Assuming the venue has decent wireless and I won't get kicked out for it, I'll be blogging the conference over at Nonpolynomial Labs.
As for updating this place, well, it might be a little quiet for the next week and a half or so, but I'll certainly do what I can. Until then, here's some links.
NY Hotties, Blog of an escort in NY. Pretty nifty stuff
Dandith Bondage Plans - Because home depot is a perv's best friend
Tsuba - Tech Fetish Art Thanks to Technorgasmic for this find.
Sex Drive Daily - Regina Lynn steals my readers provides interesting links to sex tech and websites.
IGDA Sex In Games Blog - Brenda is speaking at AGC! Go!
MMOrgy. Because I can't pimp my own projects enough.
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September 21, 2005
Interview on IGDA Sex In Games Blog with qDot
Interview on IGDA Sex In Games Blog with qDot
Ever wonder what it would look like if I actually tried being serious? Well, it'd be something like the 5 questions interview with me that's over at IGDA Sex In Games Blog right now. I think it's a pretty good explanation of why I do what I do, though I had to leave out the whole fame of waving dildos around on the internet and acting like I'm a scientist.
Speaking of game industry news, assuming I can finally stop flaking out and remember to order my pass, I'll be at the Austin Games Conference next month. So if you're going to be there, drop me a line in email or IM or Second Life or whatever, I'll need drinking buddies.
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July 6, 2005
I'm not dead, I swear!
So I've missed a full week of wonderfully silly news thanks to moving, but we're still here! I should be updating the page again in a couple of days (I don't get internet at the new place until Saturday. Raar!), so don't fear, you'll have your pervy tech news soon enough. :)
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June 8, 2005
Elmira, er, Teledildonics 'round the World!
The Wired article has now been translated to Japanese, Spanish, Portugese (Please note: I call "Cibervibradores" for band name purposes. MINE.), and even Canadian! Possibly more, but these are what I found through my referers.
Now, seeing I can hardly speak English (as anyone who's had to proofread my articles realized), I had to throw all of this stuff through Babelfish to see if anything had been added to the info presented in the article. Of course, it just turned everything into incredibly silly gibberish, but once again, it's a slow news day, so I thought I'd share.
From the Japanese Article:
If sight ' slash Don which thinks of the relationship of sexbetween technology' the chairman, the calling ' q dot ' (qDot), only the opportunity it is, you think whether those which does not reach the point where everyone can participate in remote sex.
Portugese:
The initial idea of the creator of the site can take some to consider it a demented person (or not, who knows...): a vibrator that, on to the PC, vibrates fast more depending on amount of people deceased for you in the game "Quake".
I'm honestly impressed with how well language translation engines are doing these days, but it looks like we've still got quite a ways to go.
Note: The post title is a reference to Tiny Toons. Go ask your teenagers who will still admit they watched cartoons in the 90's. Just don't tell them where you saw it.
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June 6, 2005
Thanks + Why Paypal Hates Freedom
Wow, of all the weekend to pick to be away from any sort of internet connection for 2 days... I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that's responded to our requests for help and sponsorship, I'll be getting back to all of you throughout the week, so don't think I've forgotten about anyone. :)
Now then, as for the "Why not just use PayPal?" questions I've been getting... I can't use PayPal because PayPal will freeze any accounts taking payment for ANYTHING sexual. PayPalSucks.com has tons of stories of people getting accounts frozen/closed due to this (including this post, which talks about SlutWifeCharms.com, easily the best place to buy christmas presents for all your loved ones). For those interested in the exact terms that Paypal uses, I've added the Mature Audiences Agreement to the extended part of this post.
The involving minors part is the real problem. Video Game Controllers are normally marketed at kids, so the SexBox would be a big ol' heap of problems.
Don't worry, we'll figure out something in the near future, we've got enough people willing to help now that there should be a solution soon.
Paypal's Mature Audiences Policy
You may not use PayPal in the purchase or sale of, or receipt of donations for, any obscene or sexually oriented goods or services.
In determining what goods or services are prohibited under the Mature Audiences Policy, PayPal will consider some or all of the following factors:
- Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct.
- Representations or descriptions of intercourse, masturbation, excr