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The Best Third-Party Carrying Case for the Bridge Mixed Reality Headset

Bridge logo spray-painted on the new hard case. Naturally, I had to customize it a bit.

TL;DR: [This is the best case for Bridge](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M75B9XX/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=phlnls-20&linkId=8045185ae65e6ff9c2456801cfed7b5c)

If you work on mixed reality games & experiences for the [Bridge headset](https://bridge.occipital.com/) like I do you might sometimes (ironically, for a super-portable headset like Bridge) have a bit of trouble with getting your headset from point A to point B. The box that Bridge comes in is a great way to store the device when it’s not being used but it’s a little clunky for everyday carry.

## Criteria

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying out several different commodity hard cases, using the loose criteria of:

* Does it securely fit the headset?
* Does it have room for the charging cables, controller, or other small accessories?
* Would it stand up to my daily San Francisco commute?
* Can it be had for under $50?

## The Winner

After trying several cases that failed in one way or another (it’s especially hard to find something with the right height), the “[Khanka Hard Case Travel Bag for Sony PlayStation 4 VR (PSVR) Headset and Accessories](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M75B9XX/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=phlnls-20&linkId=8045185ae65e6ff9c2456801cfed7b5c)” is the best so far.

It safely and securely fits the Bridge headset, controller, cables, and even the lens spacers in the included bag. I re-purposed the lens bag the case came with as a shroud for the Structure Sensor and Wide Vision Lens while in transit, and there’s even just enough room for an external battery if you’re into that. You’ll have to bring your own padding. I used the thick foam that came in my Bridge box, but any foam or egg crate should work just fine.

* Buy case on Amazon.com — ($26.99 as of writing)

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A List of HTML5 Game Engines

[Saved me a lot of time this afternoon.][link] Sometime I’d really like to review all of these.

[link]: https://github.com/bebraw/jswiki/wiki/Game-Engines “Game Engines – GitHub”

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Handheld Designer

[A successor to the “Sweet solution,” an HTML5-based iOS app creator for Macs.][link] Looks great in theory, looking forward to trying it out.

[link]: http://handhelddesigner.com/ “Handheld Designer, Easily create and host beautiful HTML5 mobile web applications for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch”

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Crafty – HTML5 Game Engine

[Promising engine which already includes collision detection, sprites, events, and entities.][link]

[link]: http://craftyjs.com/ “Crafty – JavaScript Game Engine, HTML5 Game Engine”

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Nintendo To Hobbyist Developers: No Thanks

[Reggie Fils-Aime:][link]

>”I would separate out the true independent developer vs. the hobbyist,” says Fils Aime. “We are absolutely reaching out to the independent developer.”
>
>”Where we’ve drawn the line is we are not looking to do business today with the garage developer. In our view, thatโ€™s not a business we want to pursue.”

Small developer shops are only ever going to be able to do more and better things. Tiny Wings would make a lovely 3DS game, but we’ll probably never see it. Nintendo’s dogged insistence on sticking with their old ways of dealing with developer licenses is only helping iOS.

The way Nintendo interacts with licensees hasn’t changed in 20 years. It’s going to have to, and sooner than they think.

[link]: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33595/Interview_Reggie_FilsAime_On_Garage_Devs_And_The_Value_Of_Software.php “Gamasutra – News – Interview: Reggie Fils-Aime On Garage Devs And The Value Of Software”

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Google Now Charging Developers $5 To List Chrome Extensions, Themes, And Apps

[How open of them.][link] The changes are:

>”intended to create better safeguards against fraudulent extensions in the gallery and limit the activity of malicious developer accounts.”

[link]: http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/19/chrome-fee/ “Google Begins Charging Devs $5 To List Chrome Extensions, Themes, And Apps”

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Epic Games Releases Unreal Development Kit

The hyper-expensive and [sometimes-maligned][maligned] Unreal Engine [gets a free / indie version][link]. [The Unreal Development Kit][link] is free for non-commercial use, and $2500 per-seat for commercial games.

[With Unity making a similar offering][unity] last week, the independent games scene is only going to get better.

[link]: http://www.udk.com/index.html “UDK – Unreal Development Kit – Epic Games”
[unity]: http://extrafuture.com/2009/10/28/game-engine-unity-launches-free-option/ “Unity Launches Free Option”
[maligned]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Human#Unreal_Engine_dispute “Epic Games .vs. Silicon Knights”

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How Useful Is YouTube’s 5-Star Rating System?

[5-star ratings utterly dominate][link] the distribution of overall votes. 1 star votes are in “second place”, but as the graph shows it isn’t even close.

Star ratings really don’t work well on the internet. YouTube would be much better off with a simple “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” system, and doing their algorithmic magic on those.

The short answer to the question in the title of this post: not very.

[link]: http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/09/five-stars-dominate-ratings.html “YouTube Blog: Five Stars Dominate Ratings”

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Making It Official

[My friend (and incredible designer) Alistair Morton on taking a “real job.”][link]

[link]: http://peapod.ca/blog/?p=169 “Making It Official. : PeapodStudios”

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Twitter Replies to #fixreplies

[This is maybe the fourth response that Biz has had to write, and it’s the only good one][link]. The gist: Twitter screwed up and removed a feature that a lot of hardcore users loved. When they “fixed” it, [the explanation][expl] of HOW they fixed it made almost no sense to anyone.

Now they’re fixing it for real, I hope. The original setting will not return, though.

[link]: http://blog.twitter.com/2009/05/replies-kerfuffle.html “Twitter Blog: The Replies Kerfuffle”
[expl]: http://blog.twitter.com/2009/05/we-learned-lot.html “We Learned a Lot”

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Dave Shea on Why He’s Backing HTML5

[The points he makes are good ones, and I agree with most of them][link]. The comments are pretty lively on this one, but seem civilized.

[link]: http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2009/04/20/switched/ “mezzoblue ยง Switched”

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HTTP Client – Mac Tool for HTTP Debugging

[Found this useful today in my tracking down a problem with la petite url][link].

(via [Shawn Medero][shawn])

[link]: http://ditchnet.org/httpclient/ “HTTP Client – Mac Developer Tool for HTTP Debugging”
[shawn]: http://shawn.medero.net “Shawn Medero”

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PXR + Cufon = Pxfon

[Shawn Inman’s Cufon-compatible solution for pixel fonts][link]. [Check out the generator][gen]. No anti-aliasing!

[link]: http://shauninman.com/archive/2009/04/17/pxr_cufon_pxfon “PXR + Cufon = Pxfon // ShaunInman.com”
[gen]: http://pixel-portraits.com/pxfon/ “PxFon Generator”