Author Archives: Dina Ely

Dina is a thirty-something would-be heir to the Florentine monarchy, eking out a living writing in the suburbs of literary hub Manhattan. When she's not geeking out over Tolkien or drowning herself in comic books, she's gleefully snarking her way through the esteemed pages of ForeverGeek. She's mother to a surprisingly ambitious cat and a thoroughly obese frog, and still misses her Casio calculator wrist watch to this day.

Pioneer One: Not Lost in Space

by Dina Ely
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Pioneer One: Not Lost in Space

Here’s a bold statement: episode three of Pioneer One may go down in history as one of the most program-revolutionizing episodes in a series, ever. In this episode we saw a complete gear shift – characters were fleshed out and brought to life in a hitherto unexplored fashion, giving far more depth to the show on the whole. The actors, whether under some adjustment of direction or simply achieving comfort in their roles, seemed to blossom and take a giant step forward towards achieving their potential. In some cases, such potential was revealed where it had previously not been clear. Before I go any further into my review, I must Read more »

Wins and Fails This Week in Geek v 20

by Dina Ely
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Wins and Fails This Week in Geek v 20

-1 to keyloggers, +1 to pioneering TV, -1 to collegiate education, +1 to privacy and, of course, a big old +1 to robots, too. Not sure what the preceding means? Read on and learn all about it in this, our milestone twentieth edition of Wins and Fails This Week in Geek. WIN: +1 Google receives 1 skill point for reinventing the wheel as they roll out their Facebook “like”-esque feature called “+1”, which allows users to share content they enjoy with others. To use +1 you need a public Google profile; your name will be displayed along with your vote. The feature isn’t fully implemented yet but Google users are Read more »

Wins and Fails This Week in Geek v 19

by Dina Ely
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Wins and Fails This Week in Geek v 19

More of Australia in Internet security news, while donations to Japan fail, stealth robots take evasive action, Duke Nukem takes evasive action too, and geek TV gets some good news. It’s been a busy week, so onward we go. WIN: Stealth Robots Lockheed Martin have developed a robot that’s programmed to hide while mapping its environment in 3D. Acoustic sensors allow it to detect footsteps to remain stealthy and take evasive action, while it creates images of its whereabouts with a laser. It’s the latest in reconnaissance technology and NewScientist has the scoop. Read more »

Wins and Fails This Week in Geek v 18

by Dina Ely
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Wins and Fails This Week in Geek v 18

You’d be lucky to own the Sun, but you might want to steer clear of emoticons on XXX. If the preceding made no sense, it’s because you haven’t been keeping up with this week’s wins and fails in all things geek! Read on for the scoop… WIN: Selling the Sun Since Oracle announced it’d be decommissioning the Sun.com web site, which came with the $7 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems, speculation has been overflowing about whether or not they’d sell it – and what kind of price the domain would fetch. In addition to being a valuable 3-letter domain, it’s the 12th oldest .com domain on the Internet. Brokers say Read more »

Wins and Fails This Week in Geek v 17

by Dina Ely
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Wins and Fails This Week in Geek v 17

I’m up in arms over ham radio legislation and BioWare’s back-ends, while Australia’s up in arms over cyberwarfare and nobody in particular seems upset about the massive onslaught of Star Trek in Discovery’s final voyage. But whatever side you take on the major stories, there’s no denying it’s been a particularly interesting week in geek. Let’s jump in. FAIL: Everything About the Following Story So, an alleged troll gets all up in BioWare’s thang on their forums. NBD, right? Happens all the time. BioWare sent the troll scurrying back under his bridge with a forum ban. The kicker? A back-end option in Dragon Age II permitted BioWare to ban his Read more »

Looking Forward to Our Geek Future

by Dina Ely
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Looking Forward to Our Geek Future

As we cross over into the second week of the month, I’ve been reflecting on March’s news thus far. Several pieces that point to interesting developments in our collective geek future have caught my eye. Here I’ve whittled them down to digestible bites to give you a quick glance at what we can anticipate, looking forward to this month and beyond. Speaking of digestible bites… …A team of scientists and culinary students produced edible printed objects using pureed foodstuffs instead of printer ink. While I’m not really sure what this means for our foodie future, aside perhaps from edible menus as automatic appetizers (bread baskets are so 2010), they’re printing Read more »

Digital Download: An Anathema

by Dina Ely
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Digital Download: An Anathema

If you’ve ever been to your local game shop chances are you’ve noticed the selection for PC games is, well, pretty much piss poor. And this is somewhat understandable. Consoles have been the focal point of many gaming companies for aeons now. The PC, despite the fact that it can offer a very rich gaming experience with far more flexibility (see Marvel Ultimate Alliance, which on PC can be modded with your favorite characters, albeit not “officially”…on console, you’re stuck with the original line-up), is just not the darling of the game world anymore. So much so that I’m amazed any companies are still producing PC games, for all the Read more »

Wins and Fails This Week in Geek v 16

by Dina Ely
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Wins and Fails This Week in Geek v 16

Hot geek threesomes (who’da thunk it?), French kiss (leave Meg Ryan out of this), Microsoft oopsies (not that a Microsoft mistake is newsworthy), Verizon being daft (when are they not?) and Amazon on the warpath (Amazon vs. Netflix will be more interesting than the entire catalog of either company’s on demand video). It’s a steamy week in geek, so let’s get to the good stuff. WIN: Chess, Algebra and Music It’s a triple threat this week! Jonathan W. Stokes, blogger and man clearly gifted with superior intelligence and entirely too much time on his hands, used algebra to turn famous chess games into piano music, which he then turned into Read more »

Army of Me

by Dina Ely
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Army of Me

I already divulged my love for RPGs some months ago, and was pleased with the majority of your suggestions when I put out the call for decent RPGs my new big bastard, monster gaming machine could tackle. Well, the machine is a few months less new now, but it’s still a monster. I’ve tried your RPGs and enjoyed many. But now a new hunger grows. A hunger for leading armies and hordes to rain destruction down upon my enemies. A hunger for exploration and for conquering. A hunger for riches and for glory! Read more »

Wins and Fails This Week in Geek v 15

by Dina Ely
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Wins and Fails This Week in Geek v 15

What do you get when the DHS, trivia ‘bots, Facebook stress and comets collide? You get the wins and fails this week in geek! Read on to discover the best and worst this week had to offer. FAIL: Doing Your Homework …which is precisely what the Department of Homeland Security failed to do when it yanked some 84,000 sites offline during a massive Internet raid for child pornography and counterfeit goods. To be fair, they got it right with a whopping 10 sites which deserved that increasingly infamous DHS seizure image. But the 84,000 which did not have received little to no acknowledgment of the fairly substantial “oopsy”. The problem Read more »