Amie Stuart ~ On the Back Porch

Goes on sale in two days! WOOT! Don’t forget I’m doing a contest here. And gettin’ love from my editor here.

Jackie reminded me that there’s a chat Friday night too (8pm Eastern time). She also has strict instructions to NOT let me forget!

Ohhhhhhh LOOKIE! Cobblestone Press is doing a contest for the launch of WICKED (which if you haven’t noticed is only days away!)

Also fellow Wicked author, P Andrews is holding a poetry contest–don’t laugh. Go check it out!

ROPERS RULE goes on sale in like FIVE days! I have to say I’m really excited and plan on writing two more Wickeds as soon as I finish this book. It’s really renewed my excitement for writing erotic shorts. Also for anyone else interesting in doing erotic shorts, Black Lace is going back to doing their anthologies. Check out ERWA if you’re interested.

Also Pocket editor Abby Zidle has an interesting question up at Hey There’s a Dead Guy in the Living Room. You really need to read. I’m definitely fermenting a blog post on this one.

And for Mel…on the Wii Balance Board.

Now, for the second part of this series, I would like to interview the two men behind the development of the Wii Balance Board, the world’s first game accessory capable of measuring your weight and body balance. It’s interesting to note here that the two are from completely different divisions: one is from the Entertainment Analysis & Development Division, which develops software, and the other is from the Integrated Research & Development Division, which develops hardware.

Color me weird but I found this really fascinating!

Iwata: Of course, for Donkey Konga2. That, I would imagine, was easy to visualise as a new type of game controller. This time, though, you were asked to make an accessory that could perform like bathroom scales. (laughs) When you were asked to develop this, what was your first reaction?

Nagareda: To be honest, my first reaction was, “Why on earth would you want to develop that?” (laughs)

Sawano: I was leading the development of a software title called Ningen Copy Manebito4 for the GameCube. As part of the project I worked with Yamazaki-san, who is visiting China today, on creating a camera attachment for the software. The software would have allowed users to import their portraits and create their own original characters. Unfortunately this product never saw the light of day, but what we started there did eventually come to life in the form of Miis.

We were developing a piece of hardware that was to be bundled with a piece of software, so if we couldn’t keep costs down, we wouldn’t be able to sell it. Because of this, the first thing we did was challenge ourselves to push the cost down as much as possible. In the discussions with our development partners, it became clear that using the parts present in typical bathroom scales alone would have made the product much too expensive. We were, essentially, trying to do something that had never been done before. Eventually, we hit upon the idea of using the Nintendo 64 Controller. An optical rotary encoder had been built into the 3D stick8 of the Nintendo 64 Controller, and we decided we could use this encoder in our hardware as well. This was something we’d never attempted before, so it looked like it would be a lot of fun to work on, and we eventually discovered that the encoder could measure weight to a precision of 100g.
Iwata: By the way, this might be a bit technical, but a rotary encoder is a device that measures the number of rotations made by an object. If a depression were to cause a series of cogs to rotate, you would be able to measure weight pretty accurately using a rotary encoder.

Sawano: Exactly. I thought that was a pretty good idea, so we first created a prototype. But then we hit upon another problem. Most homes already have bathroom scales, don’t they?

Iwata: Most homes do have scales, and I can’t imagine people putting them in front of their TVs.

Sawano: That’s why I was worried that just making bathroom scales wouldn’t make a marketable product. Of course, that’s what I was doing because Miyamoto-san told us to do so! (laughs)

Iwata: That’s right, the only instructions he’d given you were to make an accessory similar to bathroom scales! (laughs)

Sawano: I knew that we needed to do something about this problem. Then suddenly, one day while I was at home, this image of sumo wrestlers passed through my head.
Sumo wrestlers are so heavy that when they weigh themselves, they need to step onto two scales laid side by side. I started thinking about this, and thought that it could be really interesting. So I told Yamazaki-san to bring me two scales that can transfer data to a computer, and we immediately started working on a prototype.

Yes I’m writing

Ever have one of those days where you forget something but can’t remember what you keep forgetting?

Well that’s been my entire week.

No writing yesterday–I’m not surprised. We had basketball again last night and I got up so early yesterday by the time I took the kid to practice I was bleary eyed, so I read instead.

Probably no writing again until Monday and here’s why:
a) I have page proofs on NAILED due Tuesday. I’m not done.
b) I’m one of the contest coordinators for our chapter contest and we’re gearing up to mail out judges packets (Sunday).
c) I have an RWA Chapter meeting Saturday and I’m the secretary (I also can’t find my notes from the last meeting and I have to type up the minutes
d) I have a book signing tomorrow with Denise, Mik et all. I have one inch of white roots. Guess what I’m doing tonight?! Yeah.
e) I have to do the second round of edits on Ropers Rule (Saturday night I hope).
f) Spend Sunday with Lynn putting together judges packets…oh and clean tonight so my house doesn’t look like a complete pigsty when she comes over.*note to self: buy candles*

can I please be excused from the planet this weekend? Thanks. I knew I could count on you.

In the mean time, if you’re bored, Raine is on her soap box again at SFC…and the Manuscript Mavens CYOA is still going on!

Hey check it out……I’m a Thursday Thirteen! Thanks Kate for 13′ing me!

Today over at SFC we’ve got Behind the Book with Kelly Parra! You know how I love me some YA so check her out.

And lookie what I got?!?!!? He makes me just wanna lick my screen!

And OMG LOST Is back? Did anyone watch last night? No spoilers…….it’ll be Friday night before I get to sit down and watch it.