PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
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My life has revolved around video games ever since I could remember. When I was a kid, I was in competition with Bryan Roda. I had an Atari 2600 which I loved, but sometime after I moved next door to him, he got an Atari 7200 which he played on his mammoth 32-inch TV. And it was in his bedroom, too! Between that and the G.I.Joe Aircraft carrier, old Bryan had a few edges on me, and it was quite upsetting.

Flash to middle school, and my life with Nintendo Power magazine. I had a subscription since the first issue, and it guided me through tough times in Zelda and Mario games. High school brought Sega, Street Fighter and NHL 95, and I feel in love with my wife because of her love for Mario Kart.

The video above is named Pixels, and it was done by Patrick Jean. It tells the story of video games – old school video games, no less – popping out of a TV and attacking New York City. It includes classic appearances by Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, and even Pong. Plus the production value is pretty spectacular. You know, I have no idea why I’m vamping on about this thing. Just watch the video because I said so.

Please.

I’m always looking for cool things for my house. See, as an adult male this pains me to say this, but I’m just gonna go ahead and do it. I watch MTV’s Teen Cribs. I know, that’s retarded. But these kids have crazy houses with crazy stuff in them, and I like to see what kind of stuff they come up with. Whether it’s an in-house bowling alley, or a nutty tree house. I love that stuff, but I understand that it makes me a horrible person.

Now I don’t make $5 billion a year – just $2.5 billion, sorry – so I take the things that I see on Cribs and try to figure out how to integrate them into a house that I can afford. Someday, I’m going to have a game room again, with stuff just dedicated to my geeky and nerdy habits. I’m a Star Wars guy, so I love finding Star Wars related items for the home. Like this one.

It’s a Lightsaber Nightlight, and it just mounts on the wall. It’s controlled by a remote control, so if you want to project a Darth Vader vibe in the room, go with red. Or maybe you’re watching a Samuel L. Jackson marathon and want to get all Mace Windu on your room. Go purple. It’s all possible, and looks pretty cool to begin with.

Right now the light is just $24.99, and it’s going to arrive later this year. But if you want to be the first, you can pre order one now. Of course you can just wait until they’re released in stores, but what fun is that?

I grew up outside of Boston, Mass, and when I was little, we lived in this two-story house off of Pleasant Street. It wasn’t much, but it did have a cool patio on the second story, which was pretty neat to me at the time. I was pretty young when we lived in that house, and I was a huge fan of comic books. So my mother decided to get me these Underoos with Superman, Batman and Spider-Man on them. I’ve told this story before, but the end result was that I loved superheroes, and I’ve always wanted to become one.

I caught this on Twitter today, and I’ve spent a good portion of my day lost in the website. It’s called the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company, and they sell all sorts of products for the average superhero. Need a secret identity? Choose between mild mannered, pilot, a cranky head chef or others, and pick them up for a fair price. Maybe you need a lair for your do-good activities. Buy a matter transformer, fancy clock, or maybe just a bucket of gravity in 1-gallon sizes. This place has it all, and it all looks super cool.

I haven’t bought anything from the site yet, but I get the impression that some of it is actually for sale. If you end up buying anything from the site, let us know in the comments. In the meantime, I’m going to spend some money on an invisible phaser. I’ve got an ex-editor that I’d love to use it on.

(Video is mildly NSFW)

I’m not sure when I first discovered it, but someone introduced me to Zero Punctuation and I’ve been following it ever since. Every Wednesday, Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw posts up a new animated short reviewing a video game. These fall under the “NSFW” category most of the time, but it’s the way Yahtzee picks apart these games that makes it so enjoyable.

First, there’s the accent and speed of the clips. He’s from Australia, but his accent isn’t very heavy so it’s still pretty understandable all the way through. Then he speeds up his voice when recording – hence the name Zero Punctuation – which gives the video a sense of urgency. Ultimately though, Yahtzee touches on the main problems with games in general, and really gets to the source of the matter. He doesn’t just play these games for 5 minutes and write a review, he plays them for hours – sometimes until he beats them – and then passes judgement.

Take the review above for example, for Batman: Arkham Asylum (mildly NSFW). He says very clearly that he loves the game, but he’s not just going to kiss butt like everyone else. Instead, he takes the things that he takes issues with, and makes fun of them. But it’s all done very constructively in a manner that not only makes you laugh, but also is done to make games better as a whole.

See, Yahtzee is a game developer himself, and he just wants to play good video games. By pointing out the good ones and slamming the bad ones, he’s working towards making a better gaming industry for all of us. Plus he does it with colorful cartoon characters and wit. Fact is, this is one site I visit every Wednesday, and every time I do, I never leave disappointed. Give it a shot.

Sometimes, normal people do things that just amaze me.

Chad Barraford of Brookline, Massachusetts, saw the movie Iron Man and decided that he wanted to turn the fictional Jarvis – the talking computer in charge of Tony Stark’s home, workshop and  Iron Man suit – into reality. To do it, he used a combination of RFID tags, Twitter, IM programs and did it all using a Mac Mini.

The Boston Globe broke the story, but if you want some of the fun details and videos about the project itself, go to the Project Jarvis homepage. There you can see Chad’s videos of the process, as well as different fun steps along the way.

Of course, something like this seems like it would be pretty pricey to build. The Boston Globe tells a slightly different story.

Compared with much of what’s marketed as “smart home’’ technology, Jarvis is both a marvel and a bargain. He runs on a 4-year-old Mac Mini computer with built-in speech recognition — and virtually no additional bells and whistles. Barraford has calculated, down to the penny, how much he has spent on a DLA that does everything but brush his teeth. To date, the figure stands at $691.98. That includes wall speakers and an xTag wireless microphone.

I love homebrew stuff like this, and I’m pretty stoked to see that Chad made this pipe dream into reality, particularly for so low a cost.

When the XBox 360 first came out, the hard drive that came standard – at least on the higher up model – just seemed like it wouldn’t be enough. After all, with all the DLC that Microsoft was planning for the console, there was no way that 20GB would be enough. The upgrades kept coming along, Netflix was added, DLC got bigger and bigger … Well, you know the result.

So Microsoft decides a little while back to offer a 250GB drive for the 360, and decided to price it at $129. Even the most expensive 250GB drive on NewEgg is still $30 cheaper, and the pricey drive just feels like a slap in the face. Why not just allow people to plug in their own USB drives and do whatever they want with storage? Well, now you can, per Major Nelson.

We’ve just released a system update for the Xbox 360 over Xbox LIVE.

As previously announced, this system update contains support for USB Memory storage devices.

Sometime over the next few hours when you sign in to Xbox LIVE you’ll receive a prompt to accept this mandatory update. If you are signed into LIVE already, you may be signed out and asked to accept the update and you’ll be back online in a few moments.

So what was previously announced? Here’s the good stuff:

On April 6th, we will be releasing a system update over Xbox LIVE for your Xbox 360 that will allow USB flash drives to be used for storing profiles, game saves, demos and more.  I’ve been testing this feature out for a few weeks, and I have to say it’s really great. Once you take the system update on April 6th, you’ll be able to connect your USB flash drives to your console and head over to the memory section to configure your new storage device. Once you do that, the system will conduct a one time performance and integrity check to confirm the drive is working properly. You will then be able to configure how much storage to use on the device, up to 16 GB. The remaining space on the flash drive will be accessible by your PC or Mac. USB Hard drives may work, but like flash memory, you’ll only be able to use up to 16GB of space. Since performance on flash based USB storage is usually better, I highly recommend using flash based instead of spinning media like a hard drive…it’s just going to give you a MUCH better experience.

Nice. I will say that the 16GB limit sucks pretty hard, but hopefully they’ll start upping the limits soon. That way the 360 can become a true home media server, without any extra hacks.

We move to Arizona when I was 12. A few years later, when I turned 16, I started to become a fan of gangster rap. It was 1992, and NWA, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre were huge at my high school, and as a suburban white kid growing up in an upper-middle-class neighborhood, it was required that I buy “The Chronic” on release day. Needless to say, I’m a pretty big Dr. Dre fan, and I’ve got almost everything he’s ever produced or rapped on in my iTunes library.

When the Dr. Dre Beats headphones came out by Monster, I really wanted a set. But like many people, I just couldn’t justify the $300+ price tag. At the time I was working in an office and I could really have used a set of fancy noise-canceling headphones, but not for $300.

Now, I may have to amend that decision. That’s because Monster has introduced the Beats by Dr. Dre Studio Red Sox Edition headphones. It’s like a singularity has been introduced to my head, combining all things awesome in one place. Problem is, they’re super expensive. MSRP is $399, and although they are pretty sweet, I don’t know if I can justify it that much.

But man, they would be sweet.

Well now that was quick.

MuscleNerd from the iPhone Dev-Team has officially jailbroken the iPad. How’d he do it? Turns out it’s a twist on the “Spirit” jailbreak that’s been used for the most recent version of the iPhone, 3.1.3. Now I don’t know much about the process of jailbreaking – I’m not a programmer, remember – but doing this to the iPad seems a little less important than it is for the iPhone.

With the iPhone, the jailbreak process frees you from the shackles of AT&T,and allows you to get out of Apple’s restricted system. With the iPad, well, it’s neat to do it because then you can claim firsties. But the only real tyrannical dictator that you’re avoiding here is Steve Jobs, in which case you have to wonder why you’d want an iPad in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for homebrew and hacking. And if it wasn’t for people like MuscleNerd, we wouldn’t have some of the advances in technology that we’ve got today. But this is one of those products that I just don’t see wanting broken. I just like enjoying it as is, and keeping that homegrown system as fresh as it was from the factory.

Then again, if you can put Super Mario 3 on it, I’ll be next in line to jailbreak one.

Via Macnn

Anyone watching Cartoon Network’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars? I’m a big fan of anything Star Wars, and I could really give a crap about people talking down on the episodes I-III. Sure, they didn’t fit into the canon the way everyone wanted it to, but they were entertaining movies on their own, even if some of it didn’t make a lot of sense.

Back when those movies first came out, Cartoon Network put on a series called The Clone Wars, and I never got to see it. Then when I went looking for it later on, it disappeared from the shelves like it never existed. Regardless, now they have the newest series, with an interesting take on the Star Wars universe.

For the uninitiated, the show takes place between Episode II and Episode III, before Anakin turned evil and all that. Anakin is given his own padawan – Ahsoka Tano – who initially played the “annoying kid” role pretty well. Now though, she’s becoming a well fleshed out character and is less annoying and more kickass.

The preview above is about the season finale for Season 2, and has to do with Boba Fett. Remember, in Episode II, Boba watched his dad get decapitated. Now he wants revenge, and he’s teamed up with some adults to get it done. This episode looks like another good one in a season of excellent shows, and should be a good way to end the year.

If you’re a fan of Star Wars, give the series a shot. There’s some solid action and a good storyline as well, plus new characters that make things more exciting. It’s on Friday nights on Cartoon Network.

Whenever I need to know how my Mac is put together, I go to the website where they take it apart – iFixit.com. As is to be expected with the release of any major new product, they got one and took it apart, all within a few hours of the iPad’s launch. So what can we glean from their tireless efforts?

First, this thing doesn’t seem too difficult to disassemble. The screen comes off with a spudger, although they do report that you might break a few tabs in the process. They also note how balanced the device is, with perfect 50-50 distribution between the front and back panels. Apple also uses the smallest screws that iFixit has ever seen on an Apple product – T4 Torx heads.

There’s really no revolutionary info here – other than the device itself, it seems – but it is a good look at the inside of a beautifully designed product, The fact is, Apple takes as much care on the details from the inside, as well as the outside. For example, check out the antenna. Hidden behind the Apple logo, it’s press fit into a carefully machined insert in the back of the aluminum case, yet sits flush with the surrounding metal. Little details like this are the reason why Apple has so many fans.

Like the iPad or hate it, you’ve got to respect some of the pretty parts contained inside of this new device. Now let’s see what the modding community does with that information.

Normally I’d write this over at Apple Gazette – your source for excellent Apple news, reviews and commentary – but let’s face it; there’s nothing geekier right now than the iPad. I originally thought that it wasn’t worth my time. There was no reason for me to get an iPad when my laptop and iPhone do everything I need them to do. I just didn’t see a fit for it in my life, frankly, and I didn’t want to spend the money.

I did this same thing with the iPhone. God, did I want the iPhone badly, but it just didn’t fit all of the qualifications that I wanted in a device. I figured that if it was an iPod and a phone in the same package, then I wanted it to replace my 40GB iPod Photo entirely. Plus there was no MMS and no other compelling reason to buy the thing – at least in my case. But I spent the next year trying it out, playing with it at the Apple store and slowly falling in love. When the 3G came out, I figured it was mostly all the way up to my requirements, so I jumped on it. I loved the thing so much that I bought a 3GS when they came out, too.

Now it’s iPad time, and I’m in a familiar situation. This time though, I know what I’m getting into. It’s a new device with limited usage. It wouldn’t replace my laptop in travel situations, nor would it be my device of choice for hammering out blog posts. But it would be nice to use instead of my iPhone when it came time to surfing the web or playing a game. For me, I figured that two things would sway my opinion: the apps and touching the thing for the first time.

Well, the apps are here. Do a search for “iPad” in iTunes and you get the screen pictured above. Take a look at WeatherBug Elite for iPad and tell me that’s not one of the most gorgeous things you’ve ever seen. Twitteriffic for iPad? C’mon. Done deal. The final nail in the coffin for me was At Bat 2010 for iPad. Seriously, I could watch the Red Sox from my desktop and have all the stats I want on hand. Brilliant.

Alright, so the Apps are a done deal. What about touching it? Well I, like everyone else out there, won’t get a chance to touch it until this weekend. But when I get the chance, I’m gonna touch it so much that it’ll have to get a restraining order. I think that it’s going to quickly become a situation where, like petting a puppy for the first time, I touch it and want it.

There’s just one last hurdle here, and that’s the price. I’ve already decided on a 3G model, so I’m instantly in the upper price range. Then there’s the memory. I said 64GB, but truth be told, 32GB might fit just fine depending on how I use it. I doubt it’ll be for playing my iTunes playlist, but it’s definitely made for movies so that will suck up some storage. Then there’s all the books and apps I’ll be getting, mostly for reading to my son and playing games. It’s between 32 and 64 for me, so now I just have to decide if the price is worth it.

But now, unlike with the iPhone, I know I want it. Now I just have to decide on the when part.

Oh, the things people do to be different. Take this guy, for example. He went ahead and created one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, and I highly doubt that anyone anywhere will ever own one of these shirts other than him. Why? Probably because it’s not machine washable, but things with a chipset rarely are.

Anyways, here’s how it works: The gentleman who designed this shirt – Chris Bell with the help of his wife Madeleine – uses an Android phone for his main source of communications. That connects to the t-shirt via a bluetooth dongle on the face, which then connects to an Lilypad Arduino. That in turn lights up a series of LEDs that are connected via conductive thread. Those threads run to screenprinted numbers on the side which show how many messages their are in the inbox. It counts by binary as well, so if he has three messages for example, he’ll have the “2″ and “1″ illuminated.

Check out the video. It’s pretty neat stuff, and it makes me a little bit jealous.

via fashionablygeek.com

Got a storage problem? I know I do. That’s why when I first head about these new portable hard drives by Toshiba, I got a little excited. They come in four different flavors: 500GB, 640GB, 750GB, and 1TB, all for under $200. These are USB 2.0 drives, with no eSata or Firewire options. Right now the suggested list prices start at $119.99 for the 500, and move up to $199 for the 1TB, but Toshiba Direct has the 1TB now for $189, thanks to a $10 instant-savings deal. If black isn’t your thing, they also come in silver, blue, green and red, so you’ve got some options there as well.

This isn’t the cheapest drive on the market, though. Western Digital has a 1TB model up on NewEgg for $149, and it comes with a free case. They also have a Seagate FreeAgent model for $149 and it comes with a dock and a case. My theory is that once these things hit the streets that the Toshiba will come down in price, but that’s never a guarantee. Frankly, for the difference  you could step up to a bigger model instead, assuming you’re OK with a larger footprint for the device.

PR Newswire via Geek.com

When I was younger, I was all about Tecmo Bowl. Like any good geek, I wasn’t good at sports. Sure I tried, but it just never happened, no matter how many different sports I suited up for. Because of that, Games such as NHL 95, NBA Jam and  Tecmo Bowl ruled my afternoons. There, in the comfort of my home, I could be a winner just like everyone else.

At this point, Madden has the lock on NFL properties, so you’re not going to get much in the way of competition. In fact, you’re not going to get anything but lame imitation teams, so most people don’t even try. That’s why when I hear about a competitor to the turducken-maker’s franchise, it perks up my ear.

Tecmo Bowl is back with Tecmo Bowl: Throwback. The crew at Game Trailers put up a trailer on Monday, and after discovering it then, I knew my life would never be the same. It’s coming out soon on the PlayStation Network and XBox Live Arcade. No work on a price, but who cares – I’m buying it. But what makes this new version so great?

First off, it’s new but it’s old. Same layout, same overhead view, same basic principles. But this time, the characters are HD cartoon versions of themselves and there’s a 3-D version as well. Not that it matters to me though, because I’ll be playing it full time on OG mode.

Want to see more? There are two videos after the break.

Ever since the iPhone came out, there’s been talk about it moving over to Verizon. Speculation has been going rampant since day 1, and now there’s a new rumor about it coming back up to the surface, but this time it’s from the Wall Street Journal.

Apple Inc. plans to begin producing this year a new iPhone that could allow U.S. phone carriers other than AT&T Inc. to sell the iconic gadget, said people briefed by the company.

The new iPhone would work on a type of wireless network called CDMA, these people said. CDMA is used by Verizon Wireless, AT&T’s main competitor, as well as Sprint Nextel Corp. and a handful of cellular operators in countries including South Korea and Japan. The vast majority of carriers world-wide, including AT&T, use another technology called GSM.

With Apple developing a phone with CDMA capability, its exclusive U.S. arrangement with AT&T dating to 2007 appears set to end.

I’ve been hunting for this quote for a while now, but I haven’t been able to find it. I was under the impression that Apple and AT&T were stuck together until 2012. If it really is 2010, then come this summer, the iPhone may be Verizon bound.

So what does this mean if it is true?

First off, people will flock to Verizon in droves. I know I’m tired of dealing with AT&T and their crappy service, but they’d have to do some fancy things to lure me over for good. Like drop the price a bit, or offer to cover my ETF from AT&T. On the flip side, AT&T is going to have to really kiss some ass to keep people on their side. Cheaper plans, cheaper upgrades, and better service. If I had a dollar for every dropped call I’ve had with AT&T, I’d have 20 iPhones.

I do wonder though if this just makes Verizon that much more of an evil empire. I was never with them before because their plans were always $40 more for what I needed. Will they really be good to Apple’s fanbase, or will they be as evil as they’ve been in the past?

Of course, there could be another interesting twist here. Apple could open it up to everyone if they wanted to. Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon could all get the iPhone potentially. That levels the playing field and gives Apple a huge base. Would the networks be willing to give up exclusivity to have arguably the best device on the market? To know that they’ve got the same as their competitors and the only difference will be the service?

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to hear about Apple’s newest iPhone this summer.

I was perusing Think Geek today to look for some cool items for the office, when I came upon these beauties: Bacon flavored envelopes. I don’t use a lot of envelopes around the office, mostly because I do everything online. But there are occasions when I have to send something via snail mail, and licking the envelope is always the worst part. That nasty gummy tast that comes with first contact, then the after taste that you have for the next three days making everything taste like gasoline on concrete. No thank you.

So what’s the damage? $8.99 for 25 envelopes, which in my case, might last two years. And if that means I’ve got two years without that nasty taste in my mouth, then it’s worth it. I wonder if they’re shipped in a bacon-flavored box. That would be awesome.

A few years back, I was working for my father at his software company, running the shipping department. It got boring over the slow season, so I started asking around about learning how to program. I had dabbled in programming when I was a kid, but now I was in my 20s and more geared towards writing than mathematics. Nonetheless, I decided to give it a shot and tried to learn Visual Basic. How’d it turn out? Well I’m a writer now, if that tells you anything. But that doesn’t mean that my interest in programming has stopped. In fact, I’m thinking about getting back into it, so I figured I’d pose the question to you – the readers – because you know better than me.

I’ve got a lot of ideas for programs for the iPad and iPhone. Problem is, I have no way to get them out there. I do have a friend who programs for both, but he now lives in San Francisco and that’s not as much help. What I’d like to do is develop these applications myself and get them out there, if for no other reason than to help with my own productivity (most of the apps I’m looking at are geared towards freelancing productivity).

But I’ve never learned how to program for a Mac, much less anything for the iPad and iPhone. I know that the SDK is pretty cheap, but I don’t want to buy it if it doesn’t do anything for me. I feel like I’d do best with a WYSISYG editor similar to Dreamweaver, but I’m not sure if that’s how it works.

So I ask you – the smartest people I know – your thoughts. What would I need to do to get into programming for the iPhone? How much does it take and where’s the best place to start? Let me know in the comments and we’ll hash it out there.

One of my staples growing up was Winnie the Pooh. I remember my mother reading me stories about Christopher Robin and his buddy Pooh, and their adventures. It was a theme throughout most of my youth, really, with pooh-themed items running in the house for me, then for my sister. We loved that little guy.

So when I first heard about Aliens Vs Pooh, I was of course, intrigued. It was created by Giant Hamburger, and is a fascinating tale of a honey-obsessed stuffed animal and what happens to him when he discovers a field of alien eggs in the woods, and one of them spawns and latches onto his face. But it’s also all created and colored by Mr Hamburger himself (well, I assume it’s a he), and scanned into the site.

Let me warn you now: This isn’t a good book for kids, so don’t go out there and read it to them. Otherwise they might have nightmares about Eeyore’s new tail or ask questions like, “Why does Tigger operate hydraulic exoskeletons?” These aren’t good questions for a toddler to ask, so you might want to check it out yourself first.

There are a few surprises on the way, but I won’t spoil it for you. I’ll just say that not everything is merry in the Merry Meadows, and there are a few things involved that make the adventure a bit more interesting.

Seriously, go check it out. It’s worth every minute.

Say what you will about Episodes I-III of the Star Wars series, one thing they did very well was the lightsabers. Right off the bat they were slicing through doors, turning robots into victims of a laser-formed ginsu knife, and let’s not even get started about Darth Maul’s double-sided piece of awesome. It was one of the neat things about those films.

So what better way to keep all of that Star Trek fan fiction you’ve been writing in one place than with a pair of lightsaber bookends? That’s right, you too can have it appear like your books are the victim of a Sith lord’s lightsaber, all for just $49.99. But wait, there’s more! Once you install a pair of batteries, just flick a switch and watch the lightsaber glow! Still not cool enough? Then go buy something else, I really don’t care.

Seriously though, I have this empty bookshelf over my desk right now and I’ve been looking for things to put on it and add some personal flair at the same time. I’ve thought about Futurama figurines, Legos, but now, maybe I’ll consider something like this. It’s got just the right mix of Geek and cool all in one.

Boy there’s a sentence I never figured I’d write.

First, let’s do a little backstory. I’m not a Michael Cera fan really, although I have seen most of his movies. He tends to play the same character in all of them – lovable doofus who falls in love and gets the girl. That’s why originally, I had no interest in this movie. In fact, I had no interest even 30 seconds into the trailer. But wait, there’s more.

I’m also a huge Simon Pegg fan. Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz are steady members of my favorite DVD titles list, and his appearance in Star Trek was excellent as well. Edgar Wright has directed both Shaun and Hot Fuzz, so I was excited when I heard he was directing this movie. So put these two together: Michael Cera who I’m mildly interested in as an actor and Edgar Wright who is an excellent director. What do you get?

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. The premise is simple at first: Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Then there’s a problem. Except this time, the problem is a little different.

See, this girl has 7 ex lovers that Scott has to defeat so that they can be together. Sounds weird, right? Defeating them? As it turns out, that’s exactly what she means. Scott has to fight each one of their characters in a series of amazing fight sequences that are almost indescribable. It’s what would happen if X-Men and Street Fighter met in an alley and it all happened live.

I’ve suggested a few trailers here, but this is the one you should go see. Go check out the site now, then tell me how awesome it is. Seriously, it’s awesome.

When the writer’s strike was going on a while back in Hollywood, very few things came out of that time. One of them though was the brilliant Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog [iTunes link], a three-part series featuring Nathan Fillion, Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day, all written and directed by Joss Whedon. Basic plot goes like this: NPH plays Dr. Horrible, a second-tier super villan who wants to get into the Evil League of Evil. Problem is, every time he does something to try to get the attention of the league, his arch nemesis – Captain Hammer played by Nathan Fillion – stops him in his tracks.

[Mild spoilers ahead]

Now that sounds like every other superhero story out there, but this one has a twist. Dr. Horrible isn’t really that unlikable a guy. We want him to succeed, even though we know that means doing some bad things. The other complication is that he’s met a girl and fallen in love. Her name is Penny and she’s played by Felicia Day. Of course she doesn’t know that he’s evil because he’s not in uniform, but then she runs into Captain Hammer and the love triangle begins.

The plot twists and turns a few different times, and there’s a lot of singing in there as well. Thing is, it’s not weird or goofy, it all just fits and flows really well. When you get to the end of the series, you’re left wanting more, but know there probably won’t be any. Well, turns out that’s wrong.

First, there were rumors that they were doing a Dr. Horrible movie. Good idea? Not so much. The short films worked out perfectly, but I don’t see this holding my attention for two hours. But now they’ve released an app for the iPhone, and it’s a comic book. You’ll never guess what it’s called.

“Dr Horrible.”

That’s right. Brilliant, isn’t it? Anyways, this comic [iTunes link] deals more with the backstory of the good doctor and where he began. I haven’t gotten into much of it yet, but so far it’s pretty entertaining. And at the low, low price of just .99 cents, it’s a bargain for everyone.

If you’ve got an iPhone, this is a must-purchase. Go get it now, and prepare to be entertained.

A few months back, my wife and my mother were talking about decorating our then-impending child’s baby room, and the subject of painting the room came up. My mom had painted Sesame Street characters along the wall, so that started the ideas. I’m not sure if my wife wanted to one-up or top my mom or not, but she decided to paint the entire room in Dr Seuss. Characters, background, etc. One giant Dr Seuss room. It took a few months, but she got it done and it’s amazing looking.

Which brought up the topic of what to do with this new talent in the future. We used to have a video game room prior to the baby, so the subject of doing a room painted with a Super Mario Bros scene – level 1-1 we were thinking – going around the perimeter would be pretty cool. Ideas are still flowing, but we’re a little ways off before we’ll start on that project. But I’m always on the lookout to find cool decorations for this room. That’s when I found this bad boy.

It’s a hanger – for clothes, headphones, bodies, whatever – that mounts to the wall via a fairly sturdy system. This would be perfect for our room, and it’s on my to-buy list. The 8-Bit hanger. Perfect.

Of course that led me to the next big find, the Wall Bar. It’s a plain and simple physical version of the very first set of Photoshop tools. I’m not a graphic designer, but I am a photographer and having a piece of work like this near my desk would be awesome. Is it a definite purchase? Not so sure, because it is $69.99. But it’s definitely pretty cool.

See? Random stories lead somewhere eventually.

I was born in Canada, as were my parents. My deepest apologies. Anyways, that meant that I was raised to be super polite. I remember very specifically going to Toys R Us one day, and walking inside the store while my mother waited at the door. I got about 15 feet past the entrance before I noticed my mom was nowhere to be found, so I walked back to her. “Kevin, you open the door for a lady,” my mother said. I argued – something totally convincing from a 7 year old, I’m sure – and she said, “Well I’m not going in until you open the door for me, and that means you’re not getting anything.” She had a point there, so I opened the door for her. To this day, I open the door for my wife, I walk on the outside of the street from her, and I chew with my mouth closed. Just kinda stuck.

So I was at lunch the other day with my old boss, and we both sat down at the table with our phones on the tables. I turned mine on vibrate so that it wouldn’t interrupt the conversation, and then he did the same. Not 5 minutes later, his phone starts blinking. Mid sentence, he stops, looks through the phone for a second, then starts right back up like nothing ever happened. He did this easily 10 times during our hour-long lunch, which pissed me off pretty good. His focus was obviously split between me and that mystery person on the other end. How could someone be so rude while we’re trying to have a conversation?

Well, I’ve been guilty of it before, and it gets me thinking back to that time in front of Toys R Us. Fact is, we’re now in an “always connected” society. Between mobile e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, texting and cell phones in general, it’s almost difficult to get away from communication. You almost have to make a conscious effort to put away your devices to stay out of the loop, and that in itself can be difficult. Ever left the house without your cell phone? I don’t know about you, but I always feel like I’m lost without it.

It can get dangerous, too. There’s been a lot of talk about texting while driving – which in some states is becoming illegal – but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen. I’ve been guilty of checking my Facebook status at a street light or pulling up my e-mail while going down the road. The problem is that it’s addicting – you feel like you’re missing something if you don’t get that text right now or check an e-mail right away. Further compounding that are the people on the other end who expect responses right away. I once lost a job opportunity because I didn’t respond to a Twitter mention within 24 hours.

So what’s the fix? How do we stay in constant contact yet still be polite to the real people in front of you? I’m not really sure, honestly. In my personal life, I try as best as possible to focus on the person I’m with in that moment, but I’ve been known to tear away if I’m expecting an important e-mail or call. I think that eventually this will be figured out by someone like Martha Stewart or another etiquette expert, but until that happens, the only thing I can suggest is this: Keep the phone in your pocket while driving or with a friend, and try to value those in-face interactions. E-mails can be deleted, but those face-to face interactions turn into memories which can last forever.

Well, it’s here. Kinda. Everyone’s favorite program to download illegally, Adobe’s Creative Suite, is coming out in a CS5 flavor soon, and now there’s a teaser site to … tease you. April 12th is the big day, but don’t expect to find CS5 on the shelves come April 13th. Adobe is being pretty coy about how they’re bringing up CS5 on this site.

Counting down to your first look at CS5

Join us online for the exclusive global launch of Adobe Creative Suite 5

Monday, April 12, 2010 at 8am PDT/ 11am EDT / 5pm CEST

So they start by saying it’s a “first look,” implying that it’s not going to be the full release. Then they call it a “launch,” which to me would imply that the product will be on the shelves that day. So what’s the real word?

Well, the rumor mill is saying that CS5 is going to be released in October, and this is just a teaser. Of course, that hasn’t stopped Twitter from going ape over the concept, with designers everywhere working themselves into a pixelated lather.

For me though, it’s not that big of a deal. I used to use Adobe InDesign and to a lesser extent Photoshop every day, but I’m not a designer, so it’s not that big of a deal. I find that most Adobe products crash hard on my MacBook Pro, so I try to use alternatives whenever possible. That doesn’t mean though that I wouldn’t take a free copy should one come my way (hint, hint Adobe).