One year older, one year… wiser?

As some of you might know, we had our one year bash this past weekend and for those of you who couldn’t make it, damn, you missed out.  The booze flowed, the midgets wrestled, and yes, there was even break dancing.  And midget wrestler break dancing.  Like I said, if you weren’t there, you missed out.

The night started off with Crutchboy and I arriving just a bit late, perhaps even fashionably, to the party.  Having already set up the banner and the table, we arrived just in time for the first drink and to set out some of the swag we’d picked up just for the party.  Looking quite fashionable in our “birthday” suits, we opened the night with a couple more drinks when the legendary Timothy Danger showed up to greet us.  While Timothy had elected to dress a bit more casual, he completed the core of the Reckon Crew and that’s when the party really got started.

The crowd filtered in as the night went on with our good friends Jay and Holly and our newest friend Ashlee helping to man the swag table while the Reckon Crew mingled with the crowd… or wandered aimlessly after drinking a bit too much tequila.  I won’t name any names but that might have just been me doing the tequila thing.  Tiffany showed up to represent the lovely Gamettes and promptly put the horns on me.  I looked even more smashing sporting the horns but again, that could have just been the tequila.  Shortly after her arrival, one of the Micro Wrestling Federation pantomimed performing a lewd act on Tiffany.  I laughed.

Photographs were snapped, stories were told, and pool was played as the night wore on.  Punk Rock Josh made the trip from Sequin to attend the party as did his lady Brea, who showed up in the nick of time for the champagne toast with our newest shirts.  As I poured the champagne, I was pressed into service as the toast master by the rest of the Reckon Crew.  I raised my glass and being the wordsmith I am, I concocted a lovely toast right there on the spot.  Elegant in its presentation, flowing like music… Actually, I said, “Thanks for coming out, here’s to another year,” and promptly drained my glass of the bubbly.  Then we passed out some t-shirts to our guests and I think they made up for the toast, if only just.

The lovely Kari made sure the Reckon Crew made it to the after party which she graciously hosted at her new home.  More drinks were consumed as was a rather large quantity of pizza rolls as the night winded down.  Still in my suit, I leaned back in a reclining love seat with one thought bouncing through my alcohol drenched mind…

“I hope we have this much fun at our second birthday party.”

Here’s to another year and finding out the ”hard” way.

 

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Microsoft blacks out China…

Ah, China.  They hosted the Olympics this year and won a ton of Gold Medals, they’ve got that big wall over there, and somewhere in their country, a General named Tso taught us to love eating chicken all over again.  And now, they add another cultural distinction to their already impressive list…  Microsoft is targeting their software pirates.

Software shennanigans and hijinks in China have long been a thorn in Microsoft’s side.  Lax copyright laws encourage reverse engineering and knock off products to propagate the Chinese market.  And why pay for the genuine articles when you can buy imitations for a fraction of the cost?  Well, Microsoft has decided to up the ante for the country’s 200 million computer users with the “Windows Genuine Advantage” program.  And it has a lot of Chinese users hopping mad.

The “Advantage” program is simple; systems running fake or illegally copied software eventually fail a validation test at which point, the offending user’s desktop turns black.  No icons, no start button, just… black.  And it’s already grabbing attention and offending the offenders.

Some users may not even realize the copy of Windows they’re running is fake but Microsoft isn’t in a forgiving mood.  Already defending the move on their website, Microsoft states that it is “part of Microsoft’s commitment to help protect its intellectual property and to help you avoid problems before they happen.”  Many Chinese feel differently.

The outcry from some users is leaning towards legal action.  Microsoft may find themselves up against the courts in China should the software giant’s attempt to “protect its intellectual property” be viewed by lawmakers as violating China’s Criminal Law.  If it’s proven that the “Advantage” program actually intrudes in the same fashion as malicious hacker software, the big “M” might be facing substantial fines.

Keep in mind that Bill Gates announced, along with his retirement, that he would be headed for China and has already began using the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation to do things like help distribute the Hepatitis B vaccine and fund campaigns to cut down on tobacco use.  I’m not sure how popular this latest move will make him with the general population regardless of the charity work he has began.  Retired or not, Gates will always be associated with Microsoft and the “Advantage” program might just be too much for the average Tso to swallow.

While I agree that something should be done about the various copyright problems China suffers, I’m not sure attacking one of the world’s largest base of PC users may be the brightest idea.  But we’ll just have to see how this unfolds.  I just hope Bill’s wearing a “vest” on his visits…

 

Gritskrieg – End of Line

I never learned to E-READ!!!

Ever since the introduction of the tablet PC, I’ve had this vague notion that I’d like to partake of my books and novels in an electronic format.  I already forego the newspaper in favor of reading daily events on the web so it seemed like a logical step.  But tablet PCs were just a bit too pricey to use for reading something on a gaming website (ahem!) or to get my fix of The Onion.  And then e-readers came into the picture.

Less expensive, lightweight (kinda), end eco-friendly, more companies are starting to take notice of the e-reader market.  It’s about time considering how often I find myself reading a story on my Blackberry, wishing there were something big enough to get more than a few sentences on the screen at a time but light and small enough to fit into my backpack without giving me back problems.

Hoping to do for books what the I-Pod did for music, companies like Amazon and Sony have already ventured into the market with the Kindle and Reader, respectively.  Unfortunately, while the two devices are impressive, they don’t include that one little feature that would warrant theirprice tags.  Wi-Fi.  How can you introduce a portable device made specifically for reading text documents and not include Wi-Fi?  Nonetheless, Sony’s Reader beckons to me with it’s touchscreen, zoom-able text, and built in LED lighting.  The $299.00 price tag and lack of network connectivity make it a bit hard to warrant such a toy in my collection of gadgets, however.

Granted, more devices from multiple companies are on the way.  At the Frankfurt Book Fare, several merchants were on hand with their latest and greatest forrays into the e-reader market.  And many of them boasted Wi-Fi.  Sorry, Sony, I might have to cheat on you if I can stand to fork over the cash for one of the new devices.

Book publishers are already simultaneously releasing both paper and digital versions of their books and many of them are digitizing their backlist.  How much longer before a bestseller manages to make it onto the list because of its e-book sales?  When it happens, will we be looking at the end of the printed page?  Already mediums such as comic books are making the move to the digital age.  Surely we can save a rain forest or two if more of us make the move to digital print.

It might be a ways off, that distant future, when I can finally feel alright about having a small library with me on my travels because that library is on a memory card.  But when it comes, I can only hope that someone remind me to blink…

Gritskrieg – End of Line

In a galaxy not so far away…

Maybe you’ve heard of J. J. Abrams.  He’s that guy who’s the executive producer on “Lost”.  Personally, I don’t watch it but I hear it’s pretty big on that whole television thing.  He also produced “Cloverfield” and is working as the executive producer on another show that looks like it could be big called “Fringe”.  The man has a busy schedule, especially with his new project on the way.

J. J. has decided to bring his talent to the Star Trek universe.  He’s admitted that he’s more of a Star Wars fan than a Trek fan but that might just be a good thing considering *when* the story is taking place.  It’s the original crew, if not the original cast, and it’s the beginning of their adventures.  A fanboy might take the movie in the wrong direction but someone who admits they like lightsabers more than phasers might be able to keep in on trek… err, track.

Then there’s the cast.  The only member of the original cast who will have a role in the upcoming movie will be Leonard Nimoy.  Nimoy will be playing the role of, unsurprisingly, the elder Mr. Spock while a cast of “yungin’s” will be portraying the roles of his shipmates as he takes a stroll down memory lane.  Zachary Quinto who plays Sylar on the show “Heroes” will be filling in as a young Spock.  Stand Quinto and Nimoy side by side and it’s a scary resemblence and Quinto is excellent in his role as Sylar so this was a solid choice.  Chris Pine, of whom I have seen very little except in the shoot ‘em up “Smokin’ Aces” will fill the role of a young Kirk.  I don’t have an opinion on this except that Pine looks very little like William Shatner.  We’ll see…

Some of the other choices are a bit odd but I have to admit I’m looking forward to at least one of them.  Simon Pegg will be playing Scotty…  If you don’t know who Simon Pegg is, pick up a copy of “Shaun of the Dead” or “Hot Fuzz” and you’ll see why I’m immensely amused by this choice.  Karl Urban, Eomer of “Lord of the Rings” and the less celebrated John Grimm of “Doom”, will be filling in as Dr. McCoy.  Another one I’m not sure about but he’s not a bad actor so we’ll just have to wait and see.

As a die hard sci-fi fan, I have to say I’m looking forward to seeing how well J.J. pulls this off.  If it fails miserably, I can sigh and chalk up another Bad Trek movie on the board.  If it succeeds… Well, I don’t want to get ahead of myself.  Let’s just say I might have to dust off the old pointy ears if Abrams manages to do with Star Trek what he did with “Lost”.

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Election Incrimination!

So as a nightly ritual of playing addictive quick games on the net, I stumbled upon a new one in Yahoo! games called “Election Incrimination”

In it, you pick a candidate… McCain or Obama, and you have to hide incriminating evidence in the white house before the reporters show up, the more levels you proceed to, the more ridiculous the stuff you have to hide (I played McCain and had to hide everything from Viagra pills to a walker, to a George Bush dartboard and even David Duke in a KKK outfit)

Not the classiest game, but worth a good 5 minutes of kill time

 

Timothy Danger

www.busygamer.com

Army looking for Helm of Telepathy… +2.

Some of you may be in the know in regards to the announced launch of a “mind reading” headset by a company called NeuroSky.  The headset, cleverly called the Mindset, will allow players to use only their thoughts, some of us call them brainwaves, to control the action on screen.  What many of you might not know is that the new technology has peaked the interest of good ol’ Uncle Sam.

That’s right, the United States Army has a keen interest in the way the headset functions and wants something similar built into troop helmets.  Only they want theirs to be able to let their troops communicate with one another quickly without the use of speech instead of controlling an on screen avatar.  The idea is for troops to be able to think a message to a teammate in the form of a text message, voice mail, or, if at all possible, straight into their head.

An Army grant, of an as yet undisclosed amount, has been awarded to three institutions; the University of Maryland, the Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of California, Irvine.  The first step in the research is to come up with a way to compose a message using on thought processes while the second phase will actually focus on sending that message to a person or object, for instance, another soldier or a radio or text device.

The technology, known as synthetic telepathy is nothing new and has certainly been something scientists have worked on over the years.  But with the success of recent companies in the field, namely NeuroSky and Japan’s Keio University, we may be closer to “mental cellphones” than we think.

Mike D’Zmura from the University of California, Irvine and the lead scientist on the research project certainly seems to be leaning towards the less militant applications of the technology should the project be successful, stating, “It will take a lot of research, and a lot of time, but there are also a lot of commercial applications, not just military applications”.

Certainly the military uses would be limited but the commercial applications could be limitless.  Mental emails, nonverbal communication with your co-workers…  Mental Spam from advertisers.  Hey, I’m just thinking out loud here.  And you might be as well if this project pans out.

On the other hand, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if it gave us a heads up on what our women folk were thinking…  Now *that’s* a practical application!

 

Gritskrieg – End of Line

A Force Unleashed Movie?

Rumors are spreading of an upcoming film set in the Star Wars world based on the latest LucasArts game The Force Unleashed. This flick would be covering events that took place between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope. In a quick gist it’s  the story of the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, dispatched by the Sith Lord to wipe out the few remaining Jedi, which survived the post-Clone Wars purge.

Considering that a new movie would probably be more of CG rendition, I’m not sure. Yeah the art was fantastic but we all know the series was lacking some of things we were used to seeing. Come on George, vindicate your fans. Give us a live action film and a new cast. We want it.

Gmail should get a prize for this.

Have you ever “drunk dialed”, “texted”, or “emailed” someone you shouldn’t have?

Yeah it can be kind of a hassle when you wake the next morning after sending a message to some girl you probably shouldn’t have sent because you were highly inebriated… and you know how YOU can get when you’ve had a couple…. and have to do damage control the next day. Hey we’ve all been there (if it’s one thing we at busygamer do, its drink waaaay too much and say things we shouldnt.)

So now Gmail has this nifty feature called “Google Goggles” This lets repeat offenders *Ahem* (we started a support group in the office) set up their preferences for the hours you may need them most (the hours you are more likely to be drunk and not in your right mind), Google Goggles will make you figure out a series of math problems to make sure you are in your right state of mind.

I would like to see this done for Ebay (I have a habit of bidding on ridiculous star wars merch at 2 in the morning

I would LOVE to see this feature added to a phone for SMS text messages. Geez that would save about 90% of us out there.

Think your last breakup was bad?

This couple got divorced.

They sawed their house in HALF

Next time, just let her take those Prince records, you don’t need them anyway

 Timothy Danger

www.busygamer.com

Microsoft wants a piece of Japan, Godzilla says room for only one giant on the island

So Microsoft was at the Tokyo Game Show (surprise, surprise) and has announced that it will be releasing games developed by top Japanese developers for the Xbox 360.  I’m confused by the announcement, however.  I mean, could they have gone over there and done differently?  Maybe they could have gone all the way to Japan and announced that they were going to completely forego Japanese developers and go with, I dunno…  top Swedish game developers.

 

Yes, there’s just a tiny bit of sarcasm here and for good reason.  You see, the next release of Final Fantasy will be coming out on the Xbox 360.  Just not in Japan.

 

Take a moment to let this sink in.

 

Microsoft, the company trying desperately to compete in the Japanese console market against Nintendo and Sony, finally lands one of the most coveted console titles of all times and then turns around and doesn’t launch it in the place that birthed the title.  I’m having a hard time imagining what the business reasons behind this thinking must be.

 

Maybe they’re waiting to see what Sony will bring to the table so they can top it with extra features but seeing as how it will still be under the control of Square Enix, I can’t see that happening.  It seems to me that it’s a major flaw in their battle plan though.  They haven’t quite reached a million consoles sold in the Land of the Rising Sun and they’re bypassing what could potentially be a big reason for some holdouts to finally pick up their system.

 

Maybe they’re holding out to see if GTA IV is going to drive sales of their console or if Square Enix’s Dragon Quest will help out.  Again, those don’t seem like good reasons to hold off on the launch of one of the top selling franchises of all time in its own backyard.  Call me kooky…

 

When questioned about the lack of the title’s launch in Japan, John Schappert, the vice president of interactive entertainment declined to comment.  It wasn’t that he didn’t have something to say about it, he flat out declined to comment.  Wow.  Keep in mind that Mr. Schappert is the gentleman making the big announcement that the “Xbox 360 is the platform best equipped to help Japanese publishers succeed on a global basis”.

 

Globally, perhaps.  Back home, not so much.

 

Gritskrieg – End of Line