Wanna Draw on a Ball?

Let your creativity roam on DrawBall.com. Do you agree with their license agreement? Make sure you let them know if you do. After that you have a certain amount of "ink" to barely leave a mark on their canvas. It looks like the Korean flag is under attack by the Pepsi logo. Have fun.

MMOG PONG!

Yes, that's right, the classic paddle and ball game is now massivly multiplayer and online. When you go to the site, you are automatically assigned to the left or right team depending on how many people are already assigned on each team. The average mouse position for each player on a team determines where the paddle will be placed.

Microsoft makes Digital Divide a 8-Layer Cake

I know, I have gotten a little behind. Even this topic is a bit aged. Microsoft has sense removed the article and denied that this will go into affect, but I want to throw it at you anyway...

Some sources are reporting that there will be atleast 8 versions of Window Vista, well depending on how you look at it. There are 2 versions that will only be in Europe because of antitrust rulings and one that is basically for developing countries with less than compatible hardware.

The other 5 have varying features, comparable to XP Home and Pro, but divided even more.

Motorola RAZR V3X Holds Back Its Potential Power

There currently is a online petition aimed at the Motorola Corporation to release a firmware update for "complete implimentation of hardware accelaration." According the petition, the RAZR has a nVidia Goforce 3D 4800 WMP graphics piece. That is currently the most powerful graphic enhancement in any current generation phone, but is not being put to use on java games on the phone, or any other type of game. I imagine this is due to the battery consumption that would result, but I feel that a switch could be put in place to turn the accelaration on and off.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see someone release their own firmware.

McVideogame: Would you like mad cow disease with that?

I have recently stumbled across a very interesting game at this website, McVideogame.com. This game is not sponsored or endorsed by McDonald's Corporation. The game is similar to The Sims in some respect because you simulate running the McDonald's industry, from the farms to franchise, to the corporate offices.

Very fun stuff here. Not sure what McDonalds is going to do about it though. I find it interesting how someone can express political views through funny video games.

Adium is the Quack

If you are a Mac user and instant messenger user and not using Adium X, I don't think I like you. Adium is the most customizable, easy to use instant messagenger client available. I am jealous that there is nothing comparable for Windows.

I recently stumbled upon 2 great Adium Xtras worth checking out. The first being an emoticon set known as phpBB 2 a favorite among many visitors of Repsoldcom . The second is the one featured in the picture to your right, Indiana Hoosier Adiumy. I am hoping this will soon be available in all the standard Adiumy colors.

I chose to display the offline picture of Adiumy because the Hoosiers looked tired in both their away and home games against Iowa .

If Computer A Can Run Windows Vista, Computer B Won't

According to an article on ExtremeTech.com, One in two PCs won't have the power to run Windows Vista. Due to Windows Vista's "Aero Glass" technique, half of the computer is households today won't have graphics cards that process greaphics quit enough for the OS. This means that most likely, computer sales and graphic cards sales will go up dramatically when Microsoft unvails its latest, most likely Fall '06.

Don't Drink and Squat

According to an article theNewsPaper.com, a man in New Jersey received a DUI while riding a pocket bike.

From the article, "New Jersey Superior Court Judge Ernest Caposela sentenced a man to six months in prison, $1000 fine and a 10-year license suspension for the crime of riding a 20 MPH pocket bike under the influence of alcohol. George Kaiser, 42, had purchased the $150, three-foot-long mini-motorcycle as a toy for his 13-year-old nephew."

Apparently these pocket bikes ride right around a foot above the ground and are not street legal in the US. I have only seen sales for these on Ebay from Canada. The ones I have seen do not ship to the US.

Not exactly tech news here, but I saw a guy riding one of these around by the Auditorium. It looked fun and he got alot of looks. Significantly loud and fast, guessing around 45mph. He did not appear intoxicated.

Songbird Wants to Fight iTunes

Rob Lord released a preview version of his newest media player called Songbird. It's user interface is very similar to iTunes, but doesn't have the iTunes Music Store or iPod support. It does include many other music download stores like Connect (freakin' Internet Explorer only) and Amazon.

In my opinion, its too new and beta'ish to be useful for the average iTunes user. The color scheme and music stores have potential. It appears to have its own web browser built in-potentially highjackable. It unfortunate that iPods don't work in it either.

P.S. What software titles the OK button "Okay"?

We Are TiVo's Younger Sibling

According to an article from Yahoo! Finance, Superbowl watchers enjoyed the game just as much, if not more than than the commericals.

From the article, "Every year TiVo has analyzed how viewers utilize the replay and rewind features, it has been the commercials that viewers most often watched again rather than the action on the field."

It is not the fact that viewers most often watch Super Bowl commercials over the game that comes as a shock to me. I was just not aware that Tivo knows when you are replaying, pausing, recording, etc. The article does say that no personal information is gathered when collecting that data, but I am sure many people like myself assumed their Tivo habits were private.

Are You The Man Now Dog?

YTHMND.com is a site designed for comedic purposes. Its is like a blog site, in the sense, you can create your own ythmnd. They consist of a .gif file and looped sound file. One of my favorites is this one.

The internet allows for new forms of creativity. This is just one of many outlets for someone to express themself online.

The Time for Cyber Stormism is Now

According to an article from Federal Computing Week, The Department of Homeland Security start Cyber Storm, a national exercise that will test federal and private-sector readiness for cyberattacks.

From the article, "Cyber Storm is a federally mandated and funded exercise to 'see how cyberattacks against critical infrastructure might play out and how people react to them,' Algeier said."

Not a bad idea, I guess. Have the fed makes viruses, give it to businesses and see how they react. How will they determine which companies and government agencies are up to par? At what point should the goverment step in and help a company that has been infected?

Steve Wants to Know Why American Games Suck in Japan

GamingSteve wanted to know why games made in America sell poorly in Japan. So he did some research, posted his results, and came up with many, many reasons for why Japanese players generally play Japanese games.

He wanted to know why Japanese games sell better in the US than American games in Japan. Some of his reasons are that it is difficult to find a Japanese publisher to back an American game. Another reason is that Japanese games that make it to America are the games that sell the best in Japan. Plus, those games are then translated and taylored well to fit with the American culture, which is not the case for American games sold in Japan.

Music Video + Young Spielberg + Bad Atari Game = Intriguing

A Band called Wintergreen has released a music video directed by Keith Schofield to there song called, "When I Wake Up". The video features the members of the band playing a classic Atari 2600 game, E.T. which was was so terrible that the makers of the game thought it would be a good idea to bury the unsold copies in a landfill.

The video shows a little bit of the story behind the game and their adventure finding the buried copies. This is an example of how many types of medias are comming together. A TV music video that tells the story of a legacy video game is available to anyone online. Props to Mr. Schofield and Wintergreen. I enjoyed the piece.

Why You Don't Want A Pigeon Over Your Head, Part II

No, there really isn't a Part I, but I think you can guess what that reason would be.

According to an article from Yahoo! News, pigeons are being used to test air pollution. In August, 20 pigeons will carry a cellphone backpack with a basic phone, a GPS satellite tracking receiver, and air pollution sensors.

From the article, "Text messages on air quality will be beamed back in real time to a special pigeon "blog," a journal accessible on the Internet."

Why pigeons will be blogging information on air polution boggles my mind, but it proves information can pretty much be anywhere, even with the birds.

Introducing the BioKnob

Tychi Systems is currently developing a door knob that only lets you enter once it identifies yourself by your fingerprints. They call it, the BioKnob. I personally thing the name is pretty bad ass, but who is going to want or need this?

This product has the potential of recording a log of every person who walks through a particular door. I could definitely see this type of product being used in places of high security, but it has to be hacker proof. Is it more secure than a normal key?