jayroe

Getting better all the time in Georgia:

In a modern Alpharetta office building, nearly 50 employees at Hi-Rez Studios have been working on a “spyfi” video game called “Global Agenda” for more than two years.

The effort has cost owner Erez Goren millions of dollars. But he’s hoping he’ll enjoy a huge payoff: 100,000 or more players worldwide paying $12-$15 a month for a taste of intrigue in a virtual world.

In the real world, the action centers on the game industry’s rapid growth and where the new jobs will go.

Georgia is eager to be a player.

At the first Southern Interactive and Game Expo — SIEGE — which opens today at the Crowne Plaza Perimeter Hotel in Atlanta, one of the sponsors is the Georgia Economic Development Department, which doled out $10,000 to impress the game enthusiasts.

SIEGE is expected to attract affluent game businessmen, cash-strapped students and hundreds of others over the weekend.

“It’s a big deal,” said Bill Thompson, deputy commissioner of Georgia’s Film, Video and Music Office, a division of the Economic Development Department.

SIEGE was organized by the 2-year-old Georgia Game Developers Association, which has about 60 member businesses and a mailing list of 350.

“We’re looking to make Georgia the new game mecca,” said Clinton Lowe, the association’s co-founder and chairman.

Read more: Georgia a player in booming video game industry | ajc.com

Good times, good times…

EarthLink, Inc. today announced a corporate restructuring plan. This plan will reduce operating costs across the company. The restructuring will begin immediately and be completed by the end of the year…

Approximately 900 jobs will be eliminated and the company will close its Orlando, FL; Knoxville, TN; Harrisburg, PA and San Francisco, CA offices and substantially reduce its presence in Pasadena, CA, and Atlanta, GA. EarthLink expects to record facility exit and restructuring costs of $60 - $70 million associated with the plan. These costs include $30 - $35 million for certain employee-related costs, $10 - $15 million for lease termination costs, $8 - $10 million for other costs to streamline operations and $8 - $10 million non- cash asset write-offs. EarthLink expects that these facility exit and restructuring costs will be recognized primarily in the third and fourth quarters of fiscal year 2007.

Source

The Atlanta Chapter of the GGDA is meeting at the American InterContinental Univeristy, Buckhead Campus (conveniently located right by the Buckhead MARTA station). I assume that anyone is invited because the email I got has a link to tell a friend. The synopsis reads:

Join us for snacks, networking, and quick journey through one of today’s industry-leading game-building kits. Get plugged in, tweaked out, and powered up as Mr. O’Gorman goes on a rampage through the Torgue Game Builder and demonstrates exactly how to jumpstart your next game project.

Date: August 14, 2007 (Tuesday)
Time: doors open at 6:30PM

After having a great time at the Atlanta Game Developers Meetup last month, I decided to join the Georgia Game Developers Association:

GGDA is a non-profit trade association of businesses and professionals of the video and electronic game manufacturing industry of Georgia. GGDA is committed to the growth and development of this industry and the success of its members as they compete internationally.

- http://www.ggda.org/

I have read about using lava lamps and the stray firings of CCDs, but this is a new twist to generating true random information:

Yuzoz draws upon computerized data sets from a variety of space probes that have been observing terrestrial weather, auroral displays, solar flares, the solar wind and even Venusian cloud movements. Manber is hoping that the outer-space angle will add a coolness factor to Yuzoz’s random number generator - which, for what it’s worth, has been certified by Technical Systems Testing.

“We’re the first people to brand a random number generator,” Manber said. “And the value that comes from that has to do with trust, transparency, honesty.”

Source: Random Access to the Stars via webjones