On the back of the shirt we have all the standard connectors you could want, from the (nearly) bygone SCART and S-VIDEO through to HDMI and digital inputs/outputs.

On the front, simply a standby button and a phones jack.

Sadly, this is just a printed shirt, with no working or moving parts (other than the human body wearing it, of course). I’m surprised it doesn’t come in an iPod version.

$18.

Tee (Via)

Some of the products that caught a lot of peoples’ attention were new Black Rock Shooter (BRS) figures manufactured by Good Smile Company. For those of you not familiar with BRS, it started out with some artwork by a person called Huke with a character closely resembling Miku Hatsune, but with a darker aura, a sword, a rocket launcher, and a blue flame coming out from one eye. Eventually, a story developed and more characters like Dead Master were created. As with many people, the unique character designs were what drew me to BRS, and the Wonfes figures reproduced those designs perfectly.

I was rather impressed with the detail that went into the BRS nendoroid. My only concern with it is how they’re going to keep the final product balanced with such a big rocket launcher attached to the arm.

The Dead Master figures look really nice too. It’s too bad the prototype for that first one hasn’t been painted yet.

If you’d like to see more of BRS, there are videos on youtube with music by Miku Hatsune. There’s also an anime coming out this spring based on BRS. The promo can also be found on youtube, and if it’s any indication, the animation quality will be superb.

Images from HobbyStock

A Japanese company is giving us hope though. Eamex says that it has developed new technology that will extend the life of Lithium Ion batteries. Just how much longer will they last? If reports are to be believed, these new batteries can be charged and discharged for more than 10,000 times. Even better, they will last for 20 years. That’s far longer than most gadgets will last the average person!

Just to give us an idea of how the technology works, Eamex says that they have solved the main problem of short battery life: the weakening of the bond between the particles of an essential part of batteries: the tin-coated resin. If this bond is made to be stronger for longer, then batteries will last more than they do today. Again, Eamex claims that it has solved this problem. The forecast is that by the end of this year, they will be able to launch the new battery. Now I wonder how much this will cost?

You can go with geeky/kid by getting animal earbuds, these are earbuds with animals on the outside so it looks like there are animals sticking out of your ears. There are a total of seven styles of which one is not an animal but a diamond or in other words, bling bling. I’m not sure I would want to be caught walking around using these earbuds, I already look young for my age, these earbuds would make it more obvious.

If you also want more sound quality then you have to go with UrbanEars which are totally retro looking. The UrbanEars has a remote and microphone on it that is compatible with the iPhone and other phones. While with earbuds you can easily let a friend listen with you by sharing one of the earbuds, the UrbanEars have a “Zound plug”. This plug lets your friends plugin their own headphones into your earcap to listen along.

I like the UrbanEars more, they are simple, retro(they remind me of “That 70’s Show”) and actually functional. The animal earbuds costs 15 dollars while the UrbanEars costs 68 dollars. Whichever your preference the choices of headphone styles are endless.

Animal earbuds page
UrbanEars page

Realm of Kings - Son of Hulk #1

Realm Of Kings: Son Of Hulk #1 offered for me quite a nostalgic flavour, with appearances of the Psyklop (who look quite freaky now), the legacy of Jarella (one of the Hulk’s former girlfriends), and former Micronauts Arcturus Rann and Marionette.  After the relaunch of those characters by Image Comics and then Devil’s Due, I remain confused as to who exactly owns the licence on these characters.

Still, while the majority of people’s attention is focused on the barbaric Skaar, the tale of Hiro Kala shows that the smaller of Hulk’s offspring is probably the more dangerous of the two, and definitely the most destructive, leaving the wreckage of Sakaar only to cause the destruction of a second planet Giausar, weakening the planet’s crust, causing it to descend into warfare and then dangling it like a doggy treat in front of the great devourer Galactus.

He is not a nice guy.  In fact he is the definition of the angry young man, rejected, formerly enslaved, abandoned and master of a power that he hates.

And now he is loose on Jarella’s world?  They have called the Hulk to save them from a new assault of the Psyklop, but of course the Hulk no longer exists as such, and anyway Hiro Kala and his crew were near the Fault, and thus are the next best thing. My childhood memories of great stories are quaking in the cupboard, simply wanting to survive.

I doubt they will.

This is not the best jumping on point for Hiro-Kala’s story, but I still recommend it, I’m sure any of the politics between this Son Of Hulk and his crew will soon become obvious.  But how can you turn down Micronauts and Jarella? (Well, her niece at least.)

The coming Realm Of Kings is looking more and more promising.  Especially since it looks like the Magus will be a player after all!

Amagawd! Every geek HAS to have PajamaJeans, I swear to the geek gods! It’s a must to enhance the lazy geek experience. Admit it, you guys have your slug days and moments, too. And slug days (lazy, do-nothing days) are never complete until you don’t take a bath, haha!

Rawr, I want one.

Just because I’m having a slug day doesn’t mean I have to dress like a slug! And sometimes, I have slug moments in my fiance’s house. I usually complain that it’s so bothersome to dress up when I’m just going to hang out at their place. What’s the point of me wearing uncomfortable denim jeans when all we’re going to do is lie down in his bed and watch DVDs the whole day. But then I really can’t dress down since it’s quite embarrassing if his siblings or worse, his parents see me in ratty pajamas. We might be engaged, but I personally think that’s way beyond my comfort zone, haha.

And the best yet, you can just jump out of bed, do errands and people won’t have to know that you literally just got out of bed! Unless they get a whiff of you, hehe!

Where to buy: PajamaJeans
Price: $39.95

How many times have you found yourself outside in freezing cold, taking of your glove to do something on your smart phone with touchscreen? Especially iPhone users who have to swipe the screen to answer a call.

A perfect gift for your geeky other half in this cold winter month. They come in various colors from the kinda tacky red shown above to the more classic and neutral colors; Cobalt Blue, Slate Grey, Mocha Brown and Black. This current model is made of 70% cashmere and 30% wool which makes them pretty expensive at 70 dollars a pair. They have less expensive ones but they are sold out or going like hot bread.

I find these gloves way better then the ones with all finger tips removed, obviously. Most of the other less expensive models are already sold out , by the time I get one it will be spring already. But this one is definitely one for the must-have list.

Product website

Here’s a charmer. In the same way that we enjoyed the antique fascination with the world of Machinarium, Jakub Dvorsky and his team (we’ve interviewed them before) are releasing the complete soundtrack of this wonderful game on vinyl. When you purchase the game online, you also get the digital version of the entire soundtrack (a really good deal!) but for any audio geek in the know, there’s no comparison to the quality of good old vinyl.

This is of course a limited edition run courtesy of Minority Records, on clear yellow and black vinyl. Every copy will be signed by Tomas Dvorak, creator of the Machinarium score. There are only going to be 555 copies available in this limited run. Each copy fetches a street price of 12.50€.

Printing technology, then, continues to evolve. Yet while most people are looking for better laser and inkjet performance, Hoyoung Lee has designed a printer that works using pencils.

Seriously.

OK, the first time I saw this printer I was hoping that the pencil was controlled on some kind of robotic arm in order to form the letters by drawing them (logical, right?). In fact, the concept would grind up old pencils and then use electrically charge the wood and graphite dust and fuse it to the paper.

As if that notion wasn’t just a little surreal, there’s also an eraser section that — yep, you guessed it — grinds up pencil erasers so that previously ‘printed’ documents can be erased.

The mind boggles.

Via

Buffy The Vampire Slayer #31

During a quiet and rather wet weekend, I was feeling more than a little nostalgic. So to recapture my lost youth (not that I lost it all that long ago), I decided to sit down and have a good read through IDW’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight. I had been following the series on and off since it began, but not frequently enough. Some issues in isolation were not fantastic and I let the reading slip.

However, taken in total they are a damn fine read. With the concluding episode of Buffy, a spell was cast so that thousands of Slayers were ‘Chosen’ across the world. This was not spectacularly received by the fans, at least the ones that I know or read of. However, in this Joss Whedon approved series, that aspect is played out nicely, even if it does rather force the Slayers into the role of the X-Men, protecting a world that fears and hates them.

In fact everything that used to occur in the Buffyverse in relative secrecy now appears to be making headline news. The vampire Harmony has her own reality TV show (how does she appear on camera?), the Slayers are seen as some evil cult, and the witch Amy and the now skinless Warren are working for the US government.(Cheney must be hiring again.)

I had forgotten just how infectious the whole Buffy-style (or more appropriately Willow-style) of speech was, until after spending an afternoon reading, I found myself uttering many such phrases myself. I soon, like, regained control of the speech-type thing, and by the next morning made no more word messiness. At all. Zilch. Nada. Complete absence of.

There are a number of points in the story that I’m not totally sold on, but the truth is that everything in the series progresses logically, and if you liked the original TV series, then I think you will like this, hopefully for the right reasons. Don’t be put off by the latest rather retro cover, because as ever, the surviving Scooby Gang members lives are really messed up.

My recommendations for this weeks shipping? Nova #34 (of course), the conclusion of Ghost Rider:Heaven’s On Fire, Realm Of Kings:Son Of Hulk, two more conclusions – Superman World Of New Krypton and Blackest Night Wonder Woman, and if you have any spare coins left, try out The Authority, about to embark on a whole new voyage, so now is a fairly good jumping on point.

Oh, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer #32 of course.

With the MU Space portable pillow-bed, however, you can at least have the comfort something nice to lay your head on. Of course, since it is also a portable bed, you will have a layer of comfortable material between you and the hard bench (or floor). More than that, however, you also get the added plus of listening to music! There are rotating speakers inside, which will pipe in music to relax you as you wait for your flight. The unit is USB and memory card compatible.

As you can see from the picture, MU Space is easy to carry around, being a whole unit on its own. The casing actually reminds me of a bowling ball case or a makeup kit. To be honest, it doesn’t appeal to me that much – in terms of looks anyway; however, the idea of having a bed and pillow PLUS music (with no headphones, by the way) is just impossible to resist. And even if you don’t plan on traveling anytime soon, you can always stash the kit in your workstation and catch some zzz’s during your break!

Its the day after patch day! I call Patch 3.3.2 the 5-Man Dungeon Nerf patch. If you haven’t read the latest patch notes, the latest patch mostly dealt with the nerfing of some of the 5-man dungeons.

The Forge of Souls

• The Devourer of Souls will now cast Mirrored Souls less often.
• The Spell Reflect ability has been altered on several creatures. It now has a cast time, only has 2 charges, and has a 75% chance of reflecting spells.

The Nexus

• Anomalus will now use the Create Rift ability only once, down from 3 times.

The Old Kingdom

• Elder Nadox now only gets one Ahn’Kahar Guardian during the encounter.
• Jadoga Shadowseeker now only ascends once during the encounter.
• Several enemies between the Befouled Terrace and The Desecrated Altar have been removed or had their pathing altered.

Utgarde Pinnacle

• Skadi the Ruthless can now be removed from his drake with 3 harpoon strikes, down from 5.
• Svala Sorrowgrave now casts Ritual of the Sword 1 time during the encounter, down from 3.

I personally think the nerfing of some of the dungeons is a good thing. Badge farming is going to be so much faster, therefore making it easier to get better gear for our toons. And for those players who only log-in to do their Random Heroic Daily, its going to be faster for them to get their daily Frost Emblems x 2 as well. I know a few players who try to sneak in an hour of WoW playtime while at work, hehe!

My fiance was wondering why Blizzard making the game easier. He personally thinks its destroying the game. But I think that Blizzard is only doing this because the new expansion is just around the corner, and by nerfing something every patch day, it’s going to help new players actually catch up with the veterans, in terms of experiencing game content.

So the guys from GameJam Australia came up with a similar concept: a game that actually uses the mic to kill all enemies and get through obstacles. Since it looks a lot like the 8-bit Zelda we came to love, I’m sure these guys based their creation as a tribute. Of course, it’s so much more hilarious today as screaming or “gamer rage” is a necessary part in the overall experience.

Watch the video till the end and see how he deals with the bosses. Don’t lose your voice.

This great office comes at the very steep price of 14,950 pounds in the UK, including installation and tax. The OfficePOD has an integrated desk and storage, heating, cooling and ventilation. Also LED lighting, windows blinds and insurance approved lock which is invaluable considering you’ll be keeping your computer, printers, etc. in the OfficePOD.

As a homeworker myself I can see myself buying one if I had a garden and cash for it. I live in an apartment where you cannot shut out your work. I should make good use of Gmail’s filters to tune out work email when not working. But it isn’t a perfect situation. A cheaper alternative to the OfficePOD would be a work laptop only where you keep all work related stuff including email. So getting away from work is a matter of turning of the laptop and putting it away. But if you have 14,950 pounds lying around and garden space an OfficePOD would be the way to go.

Having the working environment pictured above would make it more a joy to work then being closed-in in an office surrounded by office noise and what not.

This way of homeworking might as well become popular in the future now that working from home is becoming more common these days saving people time otherwise spend tackling traffic-jams and bad weather like we have been experiencing lately. With an OfficePOD it would be a matter of stepping outside a few steps to your office and get to work.

Products website

A couple of days ago someone sent me a link to an article about gadget discounts. When I visited the site, not only was the link to the manufacturer not hyperlinked, but the left mouse button had been disabled when the pointer was over text in order to stop copy and pasting.

I had to type in the URL because I could neither click through nor C&P.

Huh?

When I examined the code I noticed some other “niceties” such as a ‘ban’ on right-clicking over images.

The code looked for anyone using Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator (seriously, what decade are we living in?) and, if they dared to right click on an image, a pop-up box spewed out a copyright message.

They hadn’t bothered to do a complete job on the code, mind, because using Safari I was quite able to copy the image.

That said, I would have been able to copy the images and text anyway. Automated scrapers would’ve managed it. Anyone intent on ’stealing’ content would have done so regardless.

The only people this tactic hurts are regular surfers who just want to use their PC and the web in the way it was designed.

Hyperlinks. Full mouse functionality. Copy and paste.

It really shouldn’t be too much to ask.

Web designers: if your client asks you to ‘protect’ their web pages, please politely decline, inform them that there’s no way to stop people determined to copy content, and then design to standards and principles that don’t crap all over your visitors.

Thank you.

The SideWinder X4 claims to handle the problem of ghosting — where it’s impossible to determine exactly which of multiple keys have been pressed — by detecting up to 26 keys at any one time.

Quite who can press 26 keys in one go is another matter, but the facility is there in case you have two friends round to help you.

In addition, the keyboard offers macro recording, allowing gamers to record a series of commands to a single key, in addition to a macro repeat feature.

There’s also adjustable backlighting, so you can set a comfortable level no matter how much light there is in the room, and mode / profile switching for calling up different settings for each game.

Developed by Microsoft’s Applied Sciences Group, the Sidewinder X4 will be available from March priced $59.95.

UK charity Computer Aid is looking for people who are willing to donate their old gadgets. They are accepting ANY kind of gadget as long as it is still working. (So yeah, forget about that desktop PC that you’ve chopped into pieces trying to make good use of its parts.)

Computer Aid is an established charity that refurbishes computers and then donates them to those in need – usually in other countries. To date, the charitable organization has given more than 160,000 refurbished computers in 100 countries. You and I may take our computers – and other gadgets – for granted but we have to realize that there are so many other people in various parts of the world who do not have access to technology as we do. School children in many developing countries, for example, are hard pressed to gain access to computers that may be essential to their educational experience.

If you do not feel like just giving away your gadget (SCROOGE!), you may opt to sell it on eBay and give Computer Aid a cut. Does that sound better? Maybe, but your conscience will probably haunt you…

Anyhow, visit Computer Aid’s web site for more details. Come on, you know you want to give.

I live near a plaza with lots of restaurants. It’s basically two long strips of coffee shops, boutique stores and restaurants. It’s a lovely strip. The fact that the two rows are parallel makes for a great wind funnel allowing me to sit outside while I listen to my audiobooks and drink coffee. Then the silence is broken. In the corner of my eye I see a platoon of “casual runners” all dressed up in their expensive Nike’s and branded running gear. And they want you to notice. While everyone else is enjoying an evening of carbo loaded dinner, these guys flaunt their sport bands and running gear. And the shoes. There’s a store nearby that sells running shoes. It has a machine that “measures” your feet dynamics and recommends a shoe based on a simulation. OMG, has it become that commercialized?

Well, I was surprised to see that recent studies show that despite all the running technology put in shoes, the best bet is still running barefoot. The only thing that’s stopping you is your feet not growing callouses. It’s a behavioral thing. People who run barefoot apparently land differently: they land on the middle front of their foot, decreasing shock and damage to the back of the foot, which apparently is what causes apparent damage to your legs and spine. So wearing shoes — at the very least wearing good shoes mitigates this damage, but we’ve been had.

“Our feet were made in part for running,” Lieberman says. But as he and his co-authors write in Nature: “Humans have engaged in endurance running for millions of years, but the modern running shoe was not invented until the 1970s. For most of human evolutionary history, runners were either barefoot or wore minimal footwear such as sandals or moccasins with smaller heels and little cushioning.”

No wonder taking off your shoes can feel so liberating. I was at a wedding function and everyone knew one another so one of the aunts said over the PA system, “I encourage everyone to remove their shoes tonight, it’s so liberating!” Apart from being half intoxicated, she had a point. People started removing their shoes.

So the next time you go looking for a pair of shoes, you might want to grow those callouses instead. Or, find shoes that have less “shoe” in them.

However, I am wondering if the fact is that the collection of its users are just more careless / stupid.

Security firm Sophos reckons there has been a 70% rise in attacks on social network sites, while nearly three out of four companies think workers’ behaviour online puts their business at risk.

Three out of five users say they have been spammed via social networking sites, while one in three says they’ve been sent malware: both up around 70% on last year.

Worrying statistics, or proof that the increasing popularity of social networks with the less computer-literate is the reason they seem less secure?

Given that many novice computer users don’t know what firewalls and anti-virus software are, far less actually use them or practice personal safety online, it’s hardly surprising that threats seem to have increased.

It’s true that social network spam is particularly insipid, because it purports to come from someone you know. Perhaps that’s a good reason to only befriend people you trust — I know the Facebook spam I receive would never have genuinely come from those whose accounts have been compromised because it’s not in their character to try to sell me Viagra. Really.

Should social networks be doing more to educate users on what are real threats and what are fake? The recent “unnamed app” scare, for example, has in fact been hijacked by criminals, preying on those worried about their online security.

Maybe people shouldn’t be allowed to go online without knowing at least the basics of Internet safety. Yeah, OK, that’s never going to happen, but it’s a thought.

What do you think?

First off, lets start with an anime fan. Like I said before, most people already know what an anime fan is so I won’t get into much detail. Anyone who watches and likes an anime can be considered an anime fan. This can be any type of anime from simple children’s anime like Pokemon to more complex ones like Evangelion. Anime fans may also buy a few anime-related trinkets like key chains and cell phone straps, but simply said, if you’ve watched an anime and liked it, then you’re a fan.

An otaku is a step up from an anime fan. The term otaku actually has a negative connotation in Japan, usually being applied to people who are so obsessed with anime/manga/video games that they barely have any real social interaction. Outside of Japan, however, otaku is usually used to describe people who like more than just 1 or 2 anime. They are usually also interested in manga, Japanese video games, and Japan in general. Otaku may buy or collect items related to their favourite anime, attend anime conventions, and try drawing their favourite characters, but if you spoke to an otaku, you would not know they were one unless you asked about their interests.

Weeaboos are basically otakus taken to the extreme; they are what the Japanese are usually referring to when they call someone an otaku. While an otaku (not the Japanese kind) would probably not stand out on the street, weeaboos can easily be identified. While many otaku may have cosplayed before at anime conventions, weeaboos will dress up as their favourite characters in public or wear something that can only be related to anime. They also try to learn Japanese and use it every chance they get. While I applaud the courage and commitment it takes to wearing an anime costume in public and learning a new language, sometimes people go a bit too far. I’ve seen a guy wearing a maid outfit and others ordering coffee in Japanese when it’s obvious no one else knows the language.

So there you have it, the three main classifications of anime watchers. I know that these terms overlap with each other, but generally speaking, obsession increases as you go from anime fan to otaku to weeaboo. If you feel I’ve left something important out or disagree with my classification, then you’re welcome to leave comments with your thoughts.

This is a post long overdue! The photo above was taken last December when we went to Boracay for our friend’s beach wedding.

Of course, being the geeky couple and avid WoW player that we both were (though if you ask us again, we’ll probably deny it and pretend to be ‘cool’, haha!) we decided to get matching Horde Insignia henna tattoos at the beach!

This is probably the closest thing I would get to a tattoo. I’ve been actually thinking of getting a tiny one, but the thought of needles and pain is giving me the heebeejeebies.

Getting His and Hers WoW henna tattoos is probably one of the geekiest things we’ve done as a couple, haha! My fiance’s henna tattoo turned into one big allergic reaction and turned into a big red Horde Insignia blister.

I actually find it cool, but for my fiance, it was a very itchy experience, hehe.

This is the deepest indoor pool in the world. The Nemo 33 was constructed back in 2004 and if you’re from Belgium, you’ve probably enjoyed 30 degrees Celsius of spa water (it’s non-chlorinated!) all year round. At over 33 meters deep (that’s about a little bit more than a hundred feet) the pool caters to the public who want to get away from the winter cold and to divers and would-be divers who are taking their certification courses. At over a hundred feet deep, you can actually take your open water and advanced open water courses here as the pool will suffice for a deep dive.

Within the pool are several holes and tunnels which divers can explore all year round. No fish. If you’re ever planning on stopping by Belgium, do check this place out. The facility is huge, and it’s not just all pool. The place houses a bar and restaurant as well, turning it into a total recreation destination day and night.

The only thing I don’t like about the Nemo 33 is their really ugly website.

[photo via techeblog]

I don’t think that I know anyone – not even the geekiest and most gadget crazy person I know – who would need 80 USB ports at a single time, do you? I guess the people at Thanko might have bought one gadget too many. They’re the ones promoting this board with 80 USB ports, and they seem really excited about it.

As you can see from the picture, it does look like you have an army of shiny little things in a sea of red. It can look impressive, I have to admit, but impressive does not mean useful. Think about it, this board can accommodate 80 devices with USB connectivity but it doesn’t do anything but charge the devices. It does not even have the capability to store data! Sure, it has some features such as adjustable voltage (for different devices, obviously), but for almost $200, it’s just too steep!

Think what you can buy for $200. Even if I had that money to burn, I definitely won’t waste it on this thing. Is there anyone here who can change my mind? Maybe I am missing out on an important detail here.

I remember the first time I hacked into X-Com’s hex codes. I was in middle school and it was right about that time when Norton DOS came out. Apart from the colorful menus and new command lines, it came with a Norton code editor and it was then I discovered the joys of manipulating the in-game weapon values.

I found a way to edit the weapon templates so after saving a copy of the original file I’d have a little fun with the values. For instance, the stun rod was an instant kill. I changed the grenades and rockets to armor piercing, which became really hilarious to kill people by simply throwing a grenade or hitting someone with a huge rocket that didn’t explode. Oh and I turned Blaster Launcher ammo to an unlimited value.

Ah, X-Com. Those were the days. Now we can relive those days with Steam’s weekend deal putting the entire X-Com series from UFO Defense to Apocalypse for only USD $2.00. You end up saving almost thirty bucks. The complete set:

UFO Defense
Terror from the Deep
Interceptor
Enforcer
Apocalypse

Honestly, the others are crap. The first two are the ones worth playing.

In other news, you can also get Freedom Force for the same price, but only for this weekend!

There are only 50 units fabricated of PLEN, each costing 2999 dollars. So this is a very expensive limited edition android-robot. The PLEN is sold as an assembly kit, you’ll only need a cross point screw driver and some time and patience to get it assembled and going.

This robot looks like a true collectors item for robots fans out there. The fact that you can program its own motion makes it even more attractive to have. If it wasn’t that expensive I might consider buying one, I always wanted a robot which I could program basic motions for. Much cooler way to learn the basics of robot programming instead of using Karel the Robot.

Check out more details about PLEN on its own website or go ahead and order one at Audio Cubes.

It definitely isn’t a Modern Warfare 2 killer as I thought. As a fan of the Battlefield series from way back, Bad Company 2 brings back the same tactical excitement with the addition of vulgarity and adrenaline. So the short of it is if you’re wanting that fast, arcade action from shooters, Modern Warfare 2 is the Diablo II “quick in, quick out” of this genre. But if you’re looking for a deeper experience where “there is no I in team” and squad based tactics matter, Bad Company 2 should not be ignored.

The depth of BC2 lies primarily with the fact that you can opt to respawn within your squad. In the past, big battlefield games would force a respawn at your team’s starting point, which later on evolved to spawning on a control point which your team had to capture. When games like Company of Heroes and Dawn of War introduced squad reinforcement, this real time strategy feature was applied into shooters. So with that one detail in, the gameplay changes. The only map available on the PC beta is a RUSH scenario, where players on offense have to destroy a series of communication arrays, which in turn the defending team must protect. Killing off players is just the first part of offense — you need to make sure you get all four squad members down lest you encounter a virtually unlimited supply of reinforcements. A typical defense would consist of three guys on assault holding an area, with the medic entrenched where a tank can’t reach (which is of course virtually impossible). When squad members die, they can easily respawn at the medic who can also in turn pop med kits.

The respawn strategy works in many ways — when a squad member grabs control of a tank, you can suicide kill (in game it’s called an “EPIC FAIL”) and choose to respawn as the tank’s gunner. If the entire squad is wiped out, you start from the beginning of the stage, in this case via paradrop if you’re on offense.

Bad Company 2’s beta time is about a month in resilience and we’re expected to still see a number of improvements (apart from the crashes). Hey, it’s beta. But squad tactics — that’s the heart and soul of Bad Company.

Are the Martians coming?

So, despite the fact that the real Captain America has been wandering around the Marvel Universe for a couple of months now, this week has finally seen the conclusion of the Captain America Reborn mini, and it had everything that we could ask for. Wrap-around cover, the Red Skull possessing a giant robot body, an army of baby M.O.D.O.K.s….

I mean, who can argue with an army of baby M.O.D.O.K.s?

Right, fan-boy gushing aside, there was little in this series that grabbed me. After about the second or third issue the story was predictable, and so all I was waiting for was the series to conclude. And is it me, or was it very very late?

I’ve come to expect from a story at least a few elements of what is featured on the cover. Now I appreciate this would have been a big story had it shipped on a reasonable schedule and the cover is highly symbolic, but I would have preferred a cover that didn’t feature practically everybody.

There were a few nice touches, such as Sin being hideously disfigured like her father. (Euwwww, that is not a thing to call a nice touch!)

Even more enticing was the vision of the War Of The Worlds type scenario, with giant tripods walking through the ruins of New York. Only these tripods look more like something that would come out of the Fault.

Maybe my hopes for the Realm Of Kings storyline reaching earth will come true after all.

Ever since I read the original Guardians Of The Galaxy, or maybe even dating back to the ancient days of Amazing Adventures, I have always wanted to read a skilfully executed version of the Martians invading the Marvel earth. Unfortunately the GOTG never provided that, the best I can think of is actually the Wisdom mini-series, but that invasion was cut short. (And of course, the Martians first strike in that series was where it should be, London.)

Does this one panel make up for a rather lacklustre series? No, but it does whet my appetite for what comes next.

I read somewhere that Batman is also bouncing through time. Well considering he was killed in a space-time well caused by Darkseid’s descent and should really have been resurrected alongside the rest of the universe by Superman’s use of the Miracle Machine at the culmination of Final Crisis, I suppose that makes sense. More sense than a chronal bullet in an assassination attempt. Let’s hope the return of the Bat is a little more spectacular than Cap’s.

I couldn’t put my finger on what I found disturbing at first: the Samsung Corby Pro is a sure winner for 2010. It has filled the niche for an el-cheapo phone that comes with QWERTY keypad layout and WiFi … all this for about USD $200.00. SO why was I so averse to it when I took the phone home?

A fashion disaster. OMG. Just look at the back. This reminds of a story where I once went out with a friend and she told me, halfway into dinner that I’ve been wearing a fashion no-no: apparently stripes on stripes isn’t supposed to be a good thing. I had a nice striped top on with very minute pinstriped pants. So from afar it looked like I was wearing gray, but upon further inspection, I turned out to be a “fashion disaster” (and this is according to her .. I could care less). But it was when I took the Corby home that I finally knew what she meant.

Just look at it. Black on white is acceptable, but the swirly bits PLUS the back of front piece is colored RED?!? It’s too much. Just too much for the eyes. Unacceptable. Who could have let this slip?!

DESIGNERS!!!!

If you’re an Excel geek you should have been aware of the many Battleship modifications for spreadsheets since Excel ‘07. So while I was hanging out with some buddies from Microsoft, one of the tech specialists showed me yet another demo of Battleship (download it from my Skydrive account).

Technically speaking you can play with any Excel file on Office Web apps as long as you have MS Office 2010 installed. So in this case, you have two “boards,” one for placing your ships and another for your targeting radar. Essentially, it’s the same for player two, except that his targeting radar are your ship placements and so on. This is actually one of the best ways to demo the collaboration features for Microsoft web based apps but to be honest, the best game of battleship is still our favorite 80’s style with the pegs and plastic.

[Wikipedia images]

A few highlights of the iPad:

• iPhone apps work on it.
• Full screen mode
• 10 hours of battery life
• Apple’s own processor; 1GHz Apple A4

When the presentation was done my Twitter stream sprang back to life with lots of comments, mostly people questioning the lack of Flash support, lack of multitasking and just overall complaining that the iPad is below their expectations. My opinion on this is, Apple makes great products but they are not almighty, they cannot satisfy everyone’s need in one product and still keep the price reasonable.

The biggest complaint against Apple products has always been “they are too expensive” well now they are giving you the so much awaited tablet starting at 499 dollars. You get a superior design, a super fast tablet according to John Gruber who had hands on experience at the presentation. You can browse the web, listen to music, watch movies, read e-books, create documents, presentations, e-mail, play games, etc.

Lets take the Kindle DX for example, for 489 dollars you can browse Amazon’s bookstore, buy books, read them and take notes. That’s it, for 10 dollars less then the cheapest iPad you get to do those four things on the Kindle with no touch screen. Apple will compete with Amazon with their own iBooks store. Five of the six major publishing houses; Macmillan and Hachette Book Group, Harper-Collins, Penguin and Simon & Schuster have signed a deal with Apple. Only Random House hasn’t…yet. You will get the same shopping experience in the iBooks store as in the iTunes store and a nice library on your iPad.

The iPad will also be supporting the open ePub format in contrary to Kindle who have their own proprietary format. This opens the door for smaller publishers and individuals to sell their e-books in the iBooks store if Apple allows them, which seems the logical thing to do. It would open the market more for Apple against other e-book readers.

Did I mention that the iPad has the ability to manually drag a page like you do with real books? Beats clicking a button to browse pages.

Then you have the HP Slate of which we don’t know the specs of, we only know what it looks like, that it runs Windows 7 rather then Windows Mobile and that it also has a full multitouch screen. The design is nothing as sleek as the iPad. I would rather walk around with the iPad that weights 0.68 kg than with a boxy HP Slate that looks like it weights 1 kg.

Considering the HP Slate will be running Windows 7 it will probably run MS Office on it. Now I wonder how fast that could be? Even on a regular computer you need quite some RAM and CPU to run Windows 7 and the latest MS Office smoothly, keyword here people, “smoothly”. And you would probably multitask too on the HP slate so I predict a remarkable slow down of the system and fast battery drain.

Apple’s prime reason for not offering multitasking is to prevent the system being slow and to keep the battery from running out too fast. They even re-did the entire iWorks suite to be intuitive and fast on the iPad, this shows that they really invest in speed, intuitive interface and long battery life.

Then we have the issue of 3G. The iPad will use the newest sim card, the Micro SIM also known as 3FF-card. In the US only AT&T offers the Micro SIM which makes the fact that the iPad is SIM lock free a moot point. But T-Mobile will probably introduce the Micro SIM soon in the US and thus be competing with AT&T. This is only a temporary setback, it’s not hard for providers to start using Micro SIM so my guess is that before the year’s end AT&T will have competition for data plans on the iPad. I find it too soon to already form a full opinion on this. Right now it’s an AT&T market only but with still two months before they start selling the iPad anything can happen.

My conclusion on all this is that Apple released a great product, not perfect but pretty great for a first generation release. The apps that will be released will make the experience of the iPad better, just think about all the times you cursed the small screen on your iPhone when trying to read or do something.

As for the Apple users being underwhelmed by the iPad I subscribe that to being spoiled by Apple, they keep wanting more and more. Some people were so disappointed I was like “What? do you want the tablet to be able to cook for you and make your bed?”.

Regarding the lack of video and camera I quote Franky from Blogging Pro

“Do you want to be the moron recording video outside, holding a 10″ high tablet in your hands? I know I don’t.”

So people get some perspective, we are still two months away from sale. If you paid attention during the presentation Steve Jobs demoed websites with Flash on it showing a clear plug-in missing icon I find this suspicious. Software wise a lot can change between now and in two months. Even so with the hardware specs they aced it pretty much with this first release. It can only get better from here on with new app releases and software updates.

And closing up do read about the accessories that will be available for the iPad, especially the keyboard will be very useful.

Apple iPad product page

One of my guild mates got hacked a couple of days ago. Unfortunately for us, she was one of the officers of our guild. Our guild bank ended up getting hijacked. The hacker was able to steal all our pots, flasks and food buff that we have been saving for months. And then we were left with a measly 20k gold. I’m not sure how much gold we had originally but I definitely think we had more than that in our guild bank.

My guild mate on the hand had most, if not all of her toons (alts included) stripped down to the bone! And to think she was one of our main tanks in the guild. Ouch! The hacker also hijacker her account and change her password so she couldn’t access her account at all.

With that being said, I want to remind all WoW players to try to keep their accounts secure and here are a few tips on how to.

1. Change your password regularly. This does not only apply to World of Warcraft. It’s actually applicable to all your accounts online, especially the more important ones like Paypal, credit card accounts and bank accounts. Its healthy to change your password at least once a month. And when changing passwords, remember to make them ’strong’ by using combinations of words and alphanumeric characters.

2. Use a different email from your regular email. As much as possible, don’t use the email that you are using for your social networking sites as these sites are prone to security breeches.
3. Buy an authenticator. Blizzard is selling these gadgets called authenticators. They are small, tiny gadgets. As small as a keychain. You link one to your account, and every time you log on, you press a button and it gives you a series of numbers that act as the password. Without authenticator, you will not be able to log in your WoW account. With that said, make sure that you don’t lose the authenticator or else, you will have to email or call Blizzard so you can be able to access your account again. The authenticators cost around $6 if I’m not mistake. But if you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you can actually get the World of Warcraft Authenticator App for free!

Anyway, do you have a special way of keeping your WoW account secure? Tell us how!

Guardians Of The Galaxy #22

I’m wondering just how big the Realm Of Kings is supposed to be, when it finally arrives. In this week’s Guardians Of The Galaxy #22 we will see the birth (or not) of a dark god that impregnated itself within Moondragon and is welcomed by the Universal Church of Truth. (So finally Moonie becomes the Celestial Madonna as she always wanted, only to discover it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.)

We saw last week in Realm Of Kings Imperial Guard, Quasar loose in the Fault, yet hasn’t he already reached Earth? Or at least a version of him with scary eyes did, currently mooching around Project Pegasus.

Then we have the weird Leviathan organisation in Secret Warriors, and of course in the endlessly repeated prologue of Fantastic Four #575 we have chaos in the underworlds. The Old Ones awakening perhaps?

I doubt it, but then again it would be nice. If nothing else Marvel has proved that it can do interlinked story-lines with the recent few years of offerings, that from an editorial perspective are up there with the first and greatest of them all, Crisis On Infinite Earths.

However, Realm Of Kings could offer a great enough threat to finally reunite the Marvel Universe and restore the status quo. After all, there are still a lot of grudges and feuds remaining after the events of Civil War, Secret Invasion et al; and there is nothing like the risk of everything being wiped out to erase such meddlesome distractions.

Still, in the meantime, we have Siege to get through, which is shaping up to be a more interesting story than I first gave it credit for. And dawning over the horizon is coming the Heroic Age , a new direction for Marvel as it casts aside al the darkness of the past few years.

Hmmm. Cast away the darkness? Just as The Fault opens the universe to another where life has won, death is vanquished, and cancerous gods look for new space to expand into?

Yeah. Good timing, that!

Mr. McCormick founded a British company that manufactured the ADE-651, a bomb detector that doesn’t need any form of battery to be powered. By harnessing the kinetic energy directly from humans, the mere holding of the device powers the ADE-651. The bomb detector claims to work in the same way that a dowsing or divining rod for water functions. Every type of bomb has a specific frequency, identified by a number of cards that supposedly carries a signature which the bomb detector can find by matching its frequency.

The problem is, the whole set up is a fake. The ADE-651 is nothing more than a glorified divining rod. Upon opening the cards, as this seems to be the heart of the product, it became apparent that no data can be stored in these regular grocery store grade security cards.

The disturbing part is obvious: this isn’t as simple as con-artistry. The bomb detector has been exported in bulk to the Iraqui government and deployed in checkpoints. The cost is more than USD $53 million with the government paying up to USD $60,000 per device whereas the regular selling price is pegged at USD $18,500. There have been more than three explosions from bombs that made it through the checkpoints since 2008 and the casualties in infrastructure and human life are great.

What a farce. How inhuman. It’s things like this that really piss me off. While people are dying, McCormick bought a new Prsche Cayenne.

[BBC]

It’s all very well drooling over the latest Canon or Nikon DSLR whose body alone costs a few thousand dollars without even adding some decent lenses, but that outlay counts as nothing when up against an auction to be held in Vienna later this year.

The world’s oldest commercial production camera, the “Daguerreotype”, is a wooden sliding-box camera made in Paris in 1839 by Alphonse Giroux.

There are only a few of these cameras still surviving, possibly because not many were produced in the first place as, not unlike today, technology advanced pretty quickly and the price of newer cameras dropped.

It’s an amazing piece of photographic history, which is why the estimated auction price is a minimum half-a-million Euros ($700k) rising to a cool €700k ($1m). It even comes with the original German manual.

You won’t be taking this to the bar to photograph your mates ready for Facebook embarrassment. Well, yeah, duh!

It would have been perfect if I had one of these water bottles with me. I stumbled upon the LightCap 300 Solar Powered Lantern & Water Bottle at Amazon, and my interest was immediately caught. It’s really just a water bottle (definitely need drinking water on a camping trip) but it also has the added feature of 4 bright (super bright they say) white LEDs. That should be enough to light up my tent, shouldn’t it?

Even better, this lantern does not need to be plugged in to an electrical outlet to get charged. Just make sure to expose it to natural sunlight during the day and the installed solar panels will do the job. It really is perfect for where we’re going as there is nothing there but the sand, the sea, and the sun.

Other details: it weighs a mere 10.5 oz and has a translucent supposedly unbreakable cap. It also has focusing lens for brighter light.

How much will this nifty bottle set you back? Only $29.99 and shipping comes free. The bottle cum lantern comes in two colors: red and black.