Subject: Galapagos Times, Vol 1 Ren 17
From: Laura Kusumoto
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 21:06:35 +0100
To: All@digi.lego.com

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         The Galapagos Times
         an email newsletter

  SPU-Darwin, LEGO A/S, Planet Earth
 Dateline Wednesday, December 17, 1997

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Stories this week
-----------------
* Car of plastic, car of Thunder
* Darwin exposed
* The buzz on coffee
* Contest: Name the meeting rooms
* Curve maker
* December joy for Lars Bo
* Fond farewell to Gunther
* Another Ga-la-pa-la-pa-gan


Car of plastic, car of Thunder
-------------------------------
“Rubber Duck” is the CD-ROM that accompanied the LEGO TECHNIC submarine,
released in January 1997. “Burning Rubber” is the code name for a sequel
multimedia product, supporting 5 new cars from LEGO FUTURA. The Burning
Rubber project is in full production, and story has evolved to be as
follows.

The scene of this multimedia story is the desert of Planet TECHNIC.
There, an evil doctor with cruel intentions has developed some secret
gadgets. Lately the doctor’s three evil associates have been spotted in
the deep desert driving really fast vehicles. A special squad unit has
been set up to catch the villains and analyze their vehicles.

As an introduction to the product, a short introduction sequence shows
hero Dan Thunder chasing one of the bad guys. Dan's car isn’t fit for
the task and he drives off the road and crashes. He is now prompted to
go back to base and rebuild his car.

The aim of the disc is to get the children to build all models following
building instructions while they are completing a mission. Once at the
base, kids can build the two main models of the box: Cruiser and Buggy.
In addition to building instructions, the base will provide them with
QuickTime VR environments to assist them in the building phase. Kids who
want to know how the car works can find a series of animations with tips
and tricks on steering, transmission and suspension.

When a model has been built, it is taken to the lab area for a spin and
adjustments. Kids select what they think is the right choice of wheels,
engine and suspension, and then they can test the car. If the car passes
the test, the children will be led to a race track in the desert where
they can catch one of the bad guys. This game features a full-screen
animation at the end of the each chase.  When the child succeeds in
catching a bad guy, the chase ends and the plan for the evil guy’s model
are captured. In this title, the rewards focus on the play with the
plastic elements.

Once the child has completed all 3 tasks and has successfully captured
the plans for the three evil vehicles they will appear as building
instructions. In the base there is also a catalogue area which contains
other TECHNIC
products.

Burning Rubber’s current, often night-shift, development team under
Adriana Eyzaguire’s producership includes: Hans Klysner (associate
producer), Karl Longmann (interactive designer), Henrik Nielsen
(multimedia specialist), Jeppe Christensen (art director), Martin
Gardeler (3D artist), Jason Povlotsky (3D artist), and Mattias Lindhal
(3D artist). In addition, a group of developers in Israel, called
Cinnamon, are programming for this project.

Marketing wanted the CD to go out in 10 languages, and the current
status is...8. The team has a 10-month development schedule, and the
product should be hitting the market on 1 September 1998.


Darwin exposed
--------------
Do wonder what the other people are doing around here? Do you secretly
(or brazenly) want to show off what you are doing? Do you want to be
amazed at all the strange new faces? Do you want more communications at
Darwin?

Then BE THERE at the Darwin housewarming event December 19. It starts at
13:00 at LMX. It continues at 13:45 at LDK. It ends with a reception at
14:30 pm in the LDK “Red Carpet Room.”

Thinly disguised as a party, this is actually a work event. While the
focus is on your building, show your current work. No formal “demo” is
needed. Just show what you’re in the middle of. Lots of us are
interested in the details, in how your work really gets done, not just
how it looks at the end.

At the reception at 14:30 there’ll be refreshments and an encore
presentation of the 1997 feature comedy video, “Darwin TV.”

And don’t forget that on December 22 at 14:00, there’ll be a brief
reception to kick off the official LEGO Christmas holiday.


The buzz on coffee
-------------------
The Administrative staff is looking at ways to streamline and automate.
The idea is to enable the Admins to serve the fine people of Darwin more
personally and more effectively even as the organization grows.
Automation also enables us to focus more on improving processes and
adding new services to the organization.

The next step on our road is to make a slight change in the coffee
setups in the LMX building. Actually we will be copying the system that
has worked well at the LDK building for some time.

After New Years, coffee setups will be placed in two central locations
at LMX: one in the hallway in front of DAVE, and one in the kitchen. So
to get your coffee in 1998, you actually get a chance to leave your
computer every now and then, loosen up those tense and sore muscles, and
maybe bump into a colleague and have an inspiring chat for a few
minutes. This new system does not affect meetings rooms, which still
will be stocked.

In January (week 3) we will also install larger-capacity coffee machines
in both buildings, and (hold your breath!) a dishwasher in the LMX
building. All this adds up to a lot of saved time for the Administrative
group -- and we hope you'll appreciate the future services!


Contest: Name the meeting rooms
--------------------------------
Our moves over the last two months have created a new and very serious
problem. Some of our meetings rooms are nameless. To start up our group
scheduling program, we need to name those rooms. And while we’re at it,
why not rename all the meeting rooms at Darwin? After all, it’s
confusing to say that you’re going to meet in  “Barcelona,” and
disappointing when you get there.

Here’s how the contest works. You come up with names for all the meeting
rooms listed below. You send your ideas to Lone at mailto:lonezk. Then
Lone submits the contest entries in anonymous form to a totally unbiased
jury (the Darwin managers) who select the winning entry. The winning
entry will be announced in the Galapagos Times.

The contest rules for accepting entries:
* The concept behind the list of names has to be related to the
Galapagos Islands or Charles Darwin’s work.
* Entries must be submitted by January 12, 1998.
Related suggestions for renaming the buildings will also be considered.

Here’s the list of meeting rooms needing names:
A. “London” at LMX
B. newly vacated upstairs room at LMX
C. new downstairs LMX room (under construction)
D. large room at LDK (otherwise known as the “Red Carpet Room”)
E. Extra names on the same theme are welcomed, to use in the future.


Curve maker
-----------
* Two network licenses for Alias Studio have been ordered for the 3D
modellers in ATG.
* Per Christensen is still working on technical issues with Alias
licenses for multiple CPUs and hoping that the helpful “nisse” comes
along real soon.


December joy for Lars Bo
-------------------------
The newest preoccupied Dad at Darwin has not had time to tell us much
about Baby. But we do know that Lars Bo's boy was born on Saturday. He
weighed 3900 grams and is 55 cm tall. Perhaps next year we’ll learn the
name of this new LEGO customer.


Fond farewell to Gunther
-------------------------
Gunther Jensen returns in January to the consultancy where his paying
employers, DDE. He’ll be filling in for others’ holidays at times in
1998, but it’s time now to express our thanks to Gunther for helping to
keep our networks and modems going during some pretty tough times. We
wish you all the best and we know we can count on you to be out there,
fixing other networks in Denmark.


Another Ga-la-pa-la-pa-gan
---------------------------
We welcome...
* Helle Vestergaard Boldes, Runner/Receptionist, Administrative staff. A
19-year-old from Jelling. Helle finished school (Higher Preparatory
Examination) this summer. She has worked at MD Foods, and she was also a
part-time bartender at Kridthuset in Vejle. Helle is a very active
gymnast (as a trainer as well). Her ambition is travel the world with
her boyfriend and later to become a midwife--but until then she will
help the Administrative staff in its trek up the mountain of work.


Input invited
-------------
Send your suggestions, comments, or new articles to the Galapagos Times
editor, Laura Kusumoto...mailto:laura.


Tak for talk
------------
Thanks for the Galapagos Times contributions this week from Jeppe
Christensen and Lone Klercke.


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Laura Kusumoto ....... Director of Operations
 Lego SPU-Darwin, vox (+45) 75-33-11-88 x 5187
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