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Founded in January 2009, PubliCola is a blog about Seattle written by journalists who are dedicated to non-partisan, original daily reporting that prioritizes a balanced approach to news. Started by longtime local editor and award-winning reporter Josh Feit, PubliCola is the first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol.

PubliCola was off and running. In June 2009, PubliCola hired another award-winning journalist, super-sourced Seattle city hall reporter Erica C. Barnett.

People were afraid that blogging would change journalism. Instead, we believe journalism can change blogging. Twenty-first century journalism may look and feel different, and yes Erica isn't afraid to get cranky, but we're committed to making sure online news still delivers independent, reliable, even-keeled coverage. And most of all, we're committed to making sure the coverage sparks honest civic debate.

Bringing you cola for the people, PubliCola is named after Publius Valerius PubliCola, the alias for the authors of the Federalist Papers—the original bloggers.

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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

Xbox Christmas. Believe the Hype.

News   April 15, 2010 at 4:43 pm Sam Machkovech

I’m silly about Microsoft’s new motion-sensing gizmo coming to the Xbox 360 this Christmas season, but it’s been a pain getting friends to understand my excitement.

So far, Project Natal (not the final name) and its wild mix of cameras and infrared sensors haven’t been demonstrated publicly very much. But I’m starting to find concrete proof to match my hype—for starters, this leaked video from a Microsoft event in Tel Aviv yesterday. (Sorry, Viddler doesn’t allow embedding.)

It’s a quick demo—about two minutes—and shows off the major tech feature, full-body motion detection, more so than any Natal video preview to date. The demo renders multiple users on screen at once and—apparently—uses facial detection to sense who’s who.

Quite frankly, the clip makes last week’s PlayStation Move demo in Seattle look like garbage. Good on you, MS.




  • md

    So when are you going to start typing “Microsoft fanboy” as your by-line?

  • dirgeO

    Would have been nice if they'd had a gymnast up there for the demo. It also wasn't clear exactly how well the avatar was handling the occlusion.

    Also, a tech demo really doesn't tell us how easily third-party developers will be able to integrate the control scheme into their games. The Move tech demo was just as technically smooth, even if it was smarmier.