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senocular writes "Maxis has recently released an update for The Sims 2 (both CD and DVD versions). One of the major issues resolved in the update is the incessant jump bug which caused Sims to erratically "jump" out of social situations making the game unplayable for many players." Another nasty bug (fixed in this patch) that I've encountered is one where stranger Sims walk off the lot with a baby!

TexasDex writes "Wired reports: The NASA Space Solar Power project--a method of collecting solar energy efficiently from space and beaming it down to earth--was canceled in early 2001 after enjoying intermittent attention from scientists. NASA officials cited a policy shift toward the International Space Station and the space shuttle program. But there is still hope for it yet. A conference this month in spain hopes to advance the cause, dispite the fact that there is no public funding available in the US for this project. Some even claim that microwave power is essential for farther explanation. Accordong to the folks at Maxis, Microwave power should be available around 2020, depending on which version of SimCity you play."

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its article discussing the quashing of rumors regarding media giant Viacom buying Electronic Arts, with Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone (also in the process of privately buying into Midway) saying: "We have looked at the obvious companies like Electronic Arts... but their price is so high, it would be dilutive to our earnings. We have ruled it out." Meanwhile, EA's annual financial report has been released, showing "net revenue for fiscal 2004 was $2,957.1 million, up 19.1 percent", and also confirming "an [in-progress] workforce reduction of approximately 117 personnel in development and administrative departments", following the closure/relocation of "the majority of our leased studio facility in Walnut Creek, California and our entire owned studio facility in Austin, Texas." The financials also note that rising online sales from casual gaming portal Pogo.com was "partially offset by a decrease in subscription net revenue from The Sims Online, Ultima Online, and Earth & Beyond subscription services."

Thanks to GameSpot for its pair of articles discussing initial proceedings of a day-long Stanford-hosted symposium on games, and further discussions on storytelling in games from the same event. Highlights included Kevin O'Hara of Sony Online Entertainment discussing "encouraging players to create the content for the game themselves" in Star Wars Galaxies, and Will Wright of Maxis commenting, with relation to storytelling in games: "I've never really wanted to tell a story in a game", with Sheldon Pacotti, writer on Deus Ex and its sequel, arguing "...a good game lets players create their own stories."

friedmud wrote in to tell us about a comment from a Maxis developer, Don Hopkins, who did a partial linux port of "The Sims". You can find his post here (3rd one down, comment from Don Hopkins titled "Reality check from a game developer") in a LinuxGames.com forum. I don't know if I agree with his assertion that Wine is the best way to have games happen on Linux but his comments on the economics of Linux games development and especially the costs of keeping versions concurrent on multiple platforms are insightful.

Ocean Quigley writes: "These researchers at Case Western University are making liquids float in magnetic fields, just as if they were in Zero G. By varying the strength of the fields, they can emulate changes in gravity. Take a look at: http://www.cwru.edu/pubaff/univco mm/liqbridge.htm." Very neat thinking on the part of these researchers -- don't fight gravity directly, but merely counteract it! Unfortunately, it doesn't look like a technique that can be applied to human beings yet, so you still need a plane or an elevator for your low-G experiences ;)