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Amazon offers a free screenwriting tool to discover new stories
Amazon's original series have been on quite the run as of late, and the online retailer wants to help both aspiring and established screenwriters get their work discovered. To do just that, the company has Amazon Storywriter: a free cloud-based app for creating screenplays for movies and television. The software provides an alternative for requisite apps that can be somewhat pricey. Of course, Amazon isn't the first to offer a free option, with the likes of Trelby and Celtx already doing so. The Storywriter app automatically formats as you type and supports import/export of PDF, FDX and Fountain file formats. While writers are online, work is saved in the cloud as they go and a Chrome app for Mac and PC allows for offline productivity.
SceneSkim movie app does exactly what it says it would
As much as I love watching movies, I'm not doing it for work and don't really need to worry about finding a specific scene or line of dialogue as fast as possible. But I'm not a film scholar or student, so those folks have it a little tougher when it comes to such matters. To that end, researchers have at the University of California Berkeley have developed SceneSkim. It's a bit of tech that leverages captions, scripts and plot summaries to speed up searching for scenes in flicks rather than manually fast forwarding or rewinding. There's a video of it in action below and it looks pretty slick, actually and should be a boon for the people who need quick access to specific movie scenes.
The Art of Wushu: The war for server time [Updated]
Scheduled events are a huge part of Age of Wushu. While each player has the option of enjoying the game at his own pace, scheduled events mark the major ways people can have an impact on the world at large. Because these events have to occur at a specific time, their placement will always be convenient for some and inconvenient for others. Recently -- and without warning -- Snail changed the server time in response to complaints about various events being inconvenient. This time change was influenced by a vote thread on the official forums, but was otherwise invisible; there were no warnings in the game's launcher or via in-game announcements until days afterward. The lack of communication about the time change was bad enough, but unfortunately, listening to the vocal minority had much larger, far-reaching problems for players. [Please see the end of this article for Snail's appended response to these arguments.] I was going to talk about meridians this time, but addressing this topic was something you requested. You came to the Massively tip jar. You emailed me directly. You messaged me in game. You even came to my house and said, "Hey man, you should write about how messed up the time change is." You asked, and this is my reply.
Python 3.2 lets you write Python on the iPhone
We've posted before about Codea, an iPad app that allows you to code and create LUA scripts. And now here's a new iPhone app called Python 3.2 that, as you might imagine, allows coders to write Python scripts through iOS. The app runs Python 3.2.3 and serves as a full development environment for that scripting language, complete with an interactive interpreter and a number of other Python-related bells, whistles and options. Of course, the issue with both of these script-writing apps is that you're often writing code you can't actually run on the iPhone or iPad, given Apple's restrictions on security and the way it requires apps to be sandboxed. But Python allows you to save scripts as needed and presumably you could just copy them out of the app if you wanted to run them elsewhere. We don't exactly have "Xcode for iPad" just yet, but coding on Apple's iOS platform is becoming more viable.
Final Draft Writer comes to the iPad
Last month I told you about Final Draft Reader, an iPad app from the makers of Final Draft that allows users to view and make notes on their Final Draft scripts on the iPad. Of course, the number one response we got to the story was, "That's awesome, but where's the Final Draft for iPad that allows us to write scripts?" As of today, it's here. Enter Final Draft Writer. Final Draft Writer is Final Draft brought to the touchscreen. The app has actually been in development at Final Draft for over two years, but they didn't want to release it until they got it right. The company actually even brought in a specialized team of iOS developers to port their proprietary Final Draft system to the iPad. What does version 1.0 of Final Draft Writer do? It lets you create scripts from scratch, right on your iPad, for starters. The app offers built-in templates for screenplays, stageplays, one hour TV dramas, and sitcoms. Beyond simply creating screenplays, the app also offers several pro features found in the desktop version, including SmartType technology that remembers your Character Names, Scene Headings, etc; Character Highlighting that allows you to call out specific character dialogue in the script; the ability to show Active or Collated Revisions with colored pages; the ability to quickly switch from one revision to the next; a host of reports including Cast, Scene, and Location reports; a specialized Final Draft keyboard header that easily lets you navigate or add script elements; and much more. Sharing features include AirPrint printing, Dropbox integration, and importing scripts through iTunes or email. Final Draft Writer isn't going to replace Final Draft for OS X, just like no word processor for iOS will ever replace desktop word processors for professional writers that deal with manuscripts that are hundreds of pages long. But what Final Draft Writer does do is give screenwriters the ability to work on their scripts any time and any where that they are away from their computers. For writers, it's a welcome addition to iOS's growing list of powerful word processors. Final Draft Writer is available in the App Store starting today. Best of all, it's available for a introductory price of US$29.99 until September 30th, when it will go back up to $49.99. %Gallery-163575%
SWTOR's Daniel Erickson on pulling players' moral strings
BioWare's Daniel Erickson said that for the writing team, the crunch time came way ahead of everyone else since the script for the game had to be done first. As such, the team has had plenty of time to reflect on how the game's developed while it's moved on to future content. In speaking with GameSpy, the Star Wars: The Old Republic head writer opened up about the difficulties and fun of penning a game with so many personalities, choices, and plot twists. Probably the most revealing is how Erickson admits that the writers are trying to pull players in multiple directions through a series of moral influences: the game's own light and dark side system, players' own morality, companions' own likes and dislikes, and multiplayer dialogue. Ideally, he said, one of the goals of the writing team was to make quests that would challenge players' set paths to make them want to change. "It's interesting to watch all those dynamic forces affect the player, see how they interact with the storytelling method," he said. Erickson also says that the project got initial pushback over the notion of centering it on story, because of the past limitations of MMOs and "the expected norm" that had grown over the years: "It was clear, when you played the early MMOs, that they were trying to put as much as they could in for what was there. There were people on each one of these projects that clearly cared passionately about the lore, and were really trying to get it across to the players. So we knew that that was there and we knew from the single-player games what did it." The interview continues to cover a wide range of writing challenges, including coming up with the script for Huttball, quests that the team was sure would get cut by the ESRB, and how the team enjoyed coming up with intricate stories, connections, and romances for companion characters.
TV broadcasters hope to dominate the second screen with ConnecTV
No one has quite figured it out yet, but there seems to be little doubt that tablet devices have their place on the couch to serve as a second screen while Americans enjoy their favorite past time -- watching TV. In addition to many independent startups we've discussed in the past, the old guard, that already owns most of broadcast TV stateside, has a startup of its own called ConnecTV. In development for two years already, ConnecTV is currently in beta and has the hopes to go live in January. The idea is of course to put what you might want to see on your second screen while you watch the main action on the big screen. This includes sports scores, statistics, as well as what your friends may or may-not be saying on Twitter or Facebook -- and of course advertising. We'd be shocked if most tablet owners weren't already using their slate in front of the TV and can imagine how many more might if there was a great app that brought it all together.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Patch 4.0.3 changes
Last week, Runes of Magic's latest patch brought Knight skill balancing, saw the return of the Juice Festival, and tried to remove some macro functions. All in all, it wasn't a huge patch, but it was enough to light up the RoM forum with a lot of chatter. As it turns out, many vocal players were saddened to see the removal of macro functions that gave them an incredible amount of flexibility. The abilities given to players to make scripts, macros and addons with amazing freedom have been among RoM's strong points, but they also allowed so much freedom that they skirted the boundary between "helpful addon" and "botting." The proposed macro change may be one of the fastest retractions Frogster has ever had to make, but there's also the balancing that Knights received and the Juice Festival to talk about in this week's Lost Pages of Taborea. Grab your favorite juice and meet me after the break.
Spriteloq helps Flash game developers move assets to Corona
Spriteloq is a new tool for Flash developers looking to make iOS games with the Corona SDK, now available on the project's website. The Corona SDK is a third-party software development kit used to put together iOS games and apps (we've covered it and spoken with the creators before). It allows devs to not only develop iOS apps, but also spread them across various other platforms, including Android and even platforms like the Nook and Kindle. Spriteloq is a brand new plug-in for that SDK that allows developers of Flash animations to simply pull them in, whole hog, without having to rebuild from scratch at all. You can watch a video of how it works on the website. You can simply export .SWF files from Flash, convert them using Spriteloq, then quickly bring them back into Corona to use in an actual app. It seems like a really quick and easy way to take a lot of work already done in the Flash environment and bring it over to a much more portable system. Spriteloq and Corona are both free downloads, though you'll need a license for each to actually produce a game or app with them. For the rest of us, this simply means we'll see even more Flash apps making their way over to the iOS platform.
Use SSH scripts to share Safari tabs between two Macs
Our own Brett Terpstra developed two SSH scripts that let you share Safari browser tabs between multiple Macs. This method is perfect for those Mac users with an iMac or a Mac Pro as their main work machine and a Mac laptop as a secondary machine for checking email, instant messaging or light browsing. You know the scenario - an email with your updated project timetable lands in your inbox which is running on your MacBook. You open it in a tab and want to send it your Mac Pro where you have been immersed in work-related research all morning. This pair of tab-sharing scripts lets you do just that. The scripts run over SSH to pull the browser tabs from the front Safari window on one machine to another when the two Macs are on the same network. The scripts can be run remotely, but there are not too many scenarios that prompt you to sync tabs from your home computer while you are working remotely. The procedure requires you to setup keyless SSH between the Macs and to modify or create a ~/.ssh/config file on each machine that will receive the tabs. You also have to setup a remotetabs.rb script on the machine that is the source of the browser tabs and the getremotetabs.rb on the recipient machine. If SSH files and config files pique your interest, then point your browser here for all the nitty-gritty details. What are you waiting for? Roll up your sleeves, flex your scripting skills and start sharing Safari tabs back and forth between your Macs.
Spiritual Guidance: Macros for healing priests
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers healing for discipline and holy priests, while her archenemy Fox Van Allen dabbles in shadow. Dawn also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. Some time last year on Spiritual Guidance, I wrote an article on macros for healing priests. Overall, it was a simple approach to the topic, touching on some basics like binding consolidation, communication, and a couple of utility macros. The article generated a lot of discussion, and several readers submitted some quality macros for their fellow priests. Since a few of those macros are now outdated and I've added a few new macros to my spellbook in the interim, I thought now would be a good time to revisit the topic and look at what I've dug up in the past few months. Since these were accumulated over time, I haven't kept track of all the original authors of these macros, so if you see something in here you wrote, feel free to shake your fist at me.
Director DJ Caruso on using iPads to make I Am Number Four
Here's yet another example of the iPad excelling in a place it was never intended to actually go: making movies. Director DJ Caruso did an interview in an Apple Store recently, and he says that he used the iPad in all kinds of ways to help make his new movie I am Number Four, from controlling on-set lights with an app to seeing scripts, marking up storyboards and even scouting out locations. Caruso says the initial purchase was more for fun, but as he used the iPad more and more, he found he was doing a lot of his filmmaking work on it as well. "I got it, I don't want to say as a toy," he says, "but then I realized about a week into prep that my storyboards were coming on it, my previs was on it, my script was on it, I don't carry my script anymore." That's great. It's a real sign of just how well-designed the iPad is that it can find itself used powerfully in almost any task. Originally, of course, it was just sold as a device to sit on the couch and consume media with, but lots and lots of industries have found a place for the iPad to help out, and it's no surprise that the film industry is the same way.
Terminal Tips: bash cron script to keep an app running
Do you have some apps that you want to keep running all the time? If so, and if you're not afraid of the Terminal or the command line, I have a script for you. When I come home at the end of the day, Dropbox has stopped running on my iMac. I'm running the latest version, and it works fine on my MacBook Pro, but for some reason, this just keeps happening. The script has nothing to do with Dropbox itself; you could substitute any app that you always want running, such as LaunchBar, OmniFocus, 1Password, or any other app that you like. It's fairly simple: #!/bin/sh PATH=/bin:/usr/bin # Change 'Dropbox' to whatever app you want. Be sure to capitalize # it correctly and include any spaces. You do not need to add .app APPNAME="Dropbox" # if the app name _IS_ found in process list, exit ps xc|fgrep "${APPNAME}" >/dev/null && exit 0 # if the app isn't found, open it open -a "${APPNAME}" exit 0 That's it. Now, you save the file (I call mine "keep-my-app-running.sh"); I saved it to ~/bin/, but you can put it anywhere you want. Be sure to type 'chmod +x /Users/luomat/bin/keep-my-app-running.sh' (or wherever it is saved) to tell OS X it is an eXecutable file. (Thanks to Justin for reminding me about this in the comments below.) Now, we need to tell cron to run it. Some folks will tell you to use launchd, but cron works well and it's easy, so we'll use that. To do that, create a ~/.crontab file using your favorite text editor. If it already exists, just keep whatever's there, and add this line at the bottom: */5 * * * * /Users/luomat/bin/keep-my-app-running.sh Change "luomat" to whatever your login name is, and change "keep-my-app-running.sh" to whatever you named the script. This tells cron to check if your app is running every 5 minutes or so. You can change the 5 to something else if you want to change the frequency. The last step is to tell cron to load the new file you've created: crontab ~/.crontab If you want to verify that it worked, run 'crontab -l' to see if your crontab is listed properly. It may also be a good idea to run 'crontab -l' before you begin in order to make sure that there isn't anything already in there. Most likely there isn't, or if there is, you already know about it. Update: As noted in the comments, cron works fine, but launchd can be configured to relaunch Dropbox as soon as it exits. I've enclosed a picture of a Lingon screenshot below, or you can see the plist that it creates. Lingon is no longer developed, but it works fine for me under Snow Leopard. I tried to use launchd to run a script at 0, 15, 30, and 45 minutes past the hour, which I can do in cron using this: */15 * * * * /path/to/script.sh but launchd didn't keep that schedule (for example, it posted at 11:48 and 12:03). So I decided to keep using cron for that, although launchd is a much better option for the 'keep alive' purpose. %Gallery-105694%
Tonight on Fox31: Georgia TV station buys iPads for news anchors
Someone at Fox affiliate WFXL in Albany, GA must have had the brilliant insight that an iPad looks a lot like a pad of paper. That insight is going to save the TV station about $9,600 per year. WFXL purchased 6 iPads to replace the paper scripts that their news anchors use. According to News Director and anchorman Terry Graham, the station is expected to save hundreds of thousands of sheets of paper every year. The scripts are composed in their usual manner, but instead of printing the files, they're now formatted as PDFs and emailed to the iPads. The 16 GB iPads cost the station $499 each, but should pay for themselves in less than 4 months. Graham expects the station to purchase more iPads in the future, and once he's confirmed the savings he'll pass the word to other Fox stations. WFXL also has plans to use instant messaging to link producers and reporters, elicit viewer input through social media, and "enhance the way our journalists gather information." [TVNewsCheck.com via 9to5 Mac]
Why it takes a while for Aion to patch
With the recent announcement of an ETA for Aion's anticipated 1.9 patch, the players are excited... but, on another level, just a wee bit frustrated. After all, it's not like the game's home country has just received the patch -- it's been extensively documented and fairly well-known to the community for some time. So there's the obvious question: what's the holdup? In the most recent Eye On Community, the team does their best to answer the question and give some insight into the process. Almost everyone knows, of course, that translating text from one language to another is rarely as easy as just feeding in words and pressing a button. (Well, not if you want an intelligible translation.) But not only do names have to be translated, scripts have to be rewritten -- and then translated again into French and German, at which point the actual stress testing of the patch can start. Of course, since this is the Eye On Community feature, the article also includes a few highlights from the game's forums. It's an interesting look at how Aion handles their patching system, especially in comparison to games that launch patches worldwide more-or-less simultaneously (such as Final Fantasy XI).
Spiritual Guidance: Macros for priests
Every Sunday (and the occasional weekday) Spiritual Guidance offers holy and discipline priests advice on how to wield the holy light and groove to the disco night. Your hostess Dawn Moore will provide the music. /target reader /wave /use The Mischief Maker There. I love a captive audience. This week I'll be writing about macros for priests. I will touch on why and how to use them, then provide a few useful ones that readers sent in during the past week. This article will not be an introductory guide for the use of macros because... WoW.com already had one of those. Hit the jump for the link.
ICANN set to allow non-Latin characters in domain names, half the world rejoices
In the name of cultural and linguistic diversity, our loyal comrades over at the ICANN are about to approve availability of domain names in non-Latin alphabets. That's right, Chinese and Japanese folks will finally be able to address their websites in their native tongue, as will fans of Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek or Hindi scripts. Basically, linguists of every type are finally invited to the interwebs party, a move described by ICANN chairman Peter Thrush as "the biggest change technically to the internet since it was invented." This follows an extensive two-year testing period for a translation engine that can convert your lazy Latin scribblings into the refined hieroglyphics of modern Cantonese. Pending approval this Friday, the first new domain names will start coming out in 2010, when we can expect a whole new wave of internet land grabbing. [Via Switched]
Concentrate promises to help you get work done
It's crunch time and that big project has to get done. Next thing you know, you're on your favorite website, tinkering with Garageband or tweeting up a storm. We've all been there, but Roobasoft's Concentrate for the Mac is here to help! Concentrate is designed to help you "work and study more productively by eliminating distractions." The simple application offers a number of options to help you get down to business. With it you can: Quit applications that distract you such as games or web browsers. Run applications, and only the ones you need for your task. Open websites you need to use for work. Block websites that you know will distract you (ahem, Facebook) In addition to helping keep you on task by eliminating distractions, Concentrate takes it a step further to help keep you on the right track. Record spoken messages that help to keep you going. Play sounds to let you know how far you've gone. Alter your iChat/Skype status to keep friends from bugging you. The application supports Growl notifications and easily allows you to incorporate scripts to control almost anything. Additionally, you can customize different setups for different tasks. For example, I can set up a "Study" task that will block social networking sites and keep me on task with spoken messages while having another task called "Design" that keeps me working within applications like Photoshop or Dreamweaver. Concentrate sports an elegant interface and an intuitive system to set times and tasks. The developer promises that he has "big plans [for] a few updates to make it even better". Roobasoft offers a 60-hour free trial and the full applications sells for $29 with a money-back guarantee if you're not happy.
Patch 3.2: UI changes coming to the PTR
Well wouldja look at that -- hidden in the just-released Patch 3.2 notes are a whole slew of UI changes to check out. Auto-completion for character names in mail, chat, and pop-up interfaces can now be enabled (and disabled) from the interface options. I believe auto-complete was already in there for mail, but now it'll be everywhere, and/or you'll be able to turn it off if you've sent things to the wrong place in the past. Names are getting a color option according to class, so if "Lolpaladins" is really a Death Knight, you'll know right away. Casting bars near a portrait's target will show whether the spell is interruptible or not. Some boss casts are not interruptible, so now you'll know with a glance. Druids will be able to see mana bars even while shape-shifted, which probably won't change gameplay much, but will be nice for bears and kitties. Item comparisons (like the ability to check other gear for slots while hovering over that gear) are now available everywhere -- hover over an item with Alt pressed to see what's currently equipped in that slot on your character. Macros and scripts can no longer target totems by name -- bye bye totem stompers. The quest log is getting a small revamp: it'll be "double-paned for more easily viewing quest information." We're not quite sure what that means (you'll be able to look at two quests at once? It'll break out the list of accepted quests into its own full-size window?), but we'll give you a look as soon as we see it on the PTR. Vendor prices will now be listed on items even if you're not at a vendor. This was a pretty common feature already, thanks to Auctioneer, but now it'll be built into the standard interface. Keep in mind that these notes are still subject to change -- what's listed here may never make it to the live realms at all. But it seems like there are quite a few changes due in Patch 3.2 are designed to streamline the interface and incorporate a number of elements from common addons. Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
Tweets (and whatever else you want) on the desktop with GeekTool
Mat posted a while back about the magic of GeekTool -- it's an app that allows you to run Unix scripts and show logs in a good-looking pane right there on your desktop. Mac OS X Tips recently did a post about how to put your iCal events up there using a script called iCalBuddy, but industrious reader Ben G. has taken this even a step further, and sent along a link to a similar script called twitterbuddy, which -- as you may have guessed -- will send your latest tweets to GeekTool.As a result, he's got the desktop you see above -- both tweets and iCal events sitting in a transparent pane on top of his desktop background. It will require a little Terminal tripping, but it's pretty easy to do. Just install and set up GeekTool the way you like it, and then make sure the buddy scripts are installed. From there, you can create a New Entry in GeekTool, and run whatever commands you want. It's incredibly flexible, too, because it'll put any Terminal commands you can throw at it right there on your desktop. If you're looking to fill in some of that unused Desktop space, give it a look.
