Monday — November 24th, 2008
Based on leading-edge videogame technology and interactive training techniques, NSC SafetyWorks™ Lift Truck delivers instruction in OSHA-compliant forklift safety standards and best practices by putting trainees through the paces with tasks that they would commonly find in a real work environment. This software gives users hands-on experience with inspection, traffic rules, load movement, and more, all in a virtual workplace filled with people, vehicles, and safety hazards that they must master. An exam mode lets trainees apply the lessons they have learned, tracks their performance, and gives them feedback so that they can learn from the errors and mistakes that they made.
Learn more about NSC SafetyWorks Lift Truck here. A demo is available here.
March 18th, 2009
I’ll be giving a quick 5 minute talk at tonight’s IGDA Pittsburgh (aka IGDAPGH, aka PIGDA) meeting at the Double Wide Grill. The title of my talk is “5 Game Designs to Make Pittsburgh the Best Place on Earth to Be a Kid,” and it might have something to do with this. Hope to see some people there.
March 17th, 2009
A quick update: the full scale site for the Spark initiative is now online. If you’re an artist, educator, technologist, entrepreneur, or just generally interested, check it out and apply for a grant.
Also, Etcetera Edutainment has now wrapped up the pilot for the Bud Light Hockey Challenge. Details on the CrowdPlay website (devoted to our CrowdPlay technology). CrowdPlay has grown enough recently that it now has its own site.
Finally, I’ll be at GDC next week, so ping me if you want to meet up.
March 4th, 2009
A few weeks ago, I met Jocelyn Horner, the Program Manager for the Sprout Fund’s new Spark initiative, and, impressed with Spark’s mission to make Pittsburgh a better place to be a kid, I have since talked my way onto the advisory committee. As an artist, technologist, businessman, Pittsburgher, and (especially) as a father, I have many vested interests in seeing Pittsburgh blossom into Kids-burgh (their term, not mine), and I am excited to be part of making it happen. Last night’s kick-off event, held at the Children’s Museum, was energizing, with members of the advisory committee mingling with community stakeholders, artists, activists, educators, and others. I can’t wait to meet the members of the committee that I have not yet connected with and to see where this endeavor will take us.
January 27th, 2009
Last week, I attended the first meeting of the Pittsburgh Tech Council’s Art + Technology Initiative. As a member of the advisory committee, I enjoyed the opportunity to meet the people involved and to feel the energy gathered around art in Pittsburgh. This city has a rich arts culture stretching back through the past century, but people (both inside and outside) don’t think of the city as an arts capital. One thought that struck me during the meeting was that Pittsburgh has become a hotbed of technology-enabled art, such as robotics and game design. It seems quite possible that these arts represent a focus for the perception of arts culture in Pittsburgh… I’m looking forward to seeing what this group can accomplish.
January 4th, 2009
I’m slowly getting settled into the new setup here. ComicPress is great (as is WordPress 2.7). Recent projects have been added (NSLT, SafeDock, and Operation Spy), and new pages like Bio and Speaking/Writing have been filled in. Pretty good start. Still have some projects to add and other adjustments to make, but I’m very happy with this new approach so far.
December 20th, 2008
I finally decided that not only do I need to update this site, I need to put something in place to make it easy to update. So for the next few days, ebenmyers.com will be in major flux as I move from straight HTML to a WordPress infrastructure (supplemented with the ComicPress template/publishing add-on). I’m hoping that this will make it easier to update this site with new projects more regularly as well as to add more news items. Stay tuned…
