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Bobwise - who has written 17 posts on ArsGeek.

When he's not writing for ArsGeek, Bobwise (Bob, to his friends) is a Computer Science student in western Michigan with a passion for movies, television, and video games. A self-professed geek, his free time (free time? What's that?) is spent hanging out with his friends and playing World of Warcraft.

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Comcast Sets Bandwidth Cap, Effective October 1

Sunday, August 31, 2008

7 Comments

The Associated Press reports that Comcast will be officially placing limits on the amount of data its subscribers can download and upload, effective October 1. The limit will be set at 250 GB per month, with a $15 fee charged for every additional 10 GB over the limit.

Bionic Commando: Rearmed is Heavy on Nostalgia, Light on Gameplay

Friday, August 29, 2008

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Bionic Commando: Rearmed is Heavy on Nostalgia, Light on Gameplay

In 1987, Capcom unveiled a new franchise - Bionic Commando. Bionic Commando started as a standalone arcade game, in which the the main character was a soldier equipped with a bionic arm used for swinging, grabbing, and ass-kicking. In 1988, a sequel was made for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Two weeks ago, Capcom released a remake of the 1988 NES classic on the Playstation Network, XBox Live Arcade, and PC gaming systems.

Book Review: You Call This the Future? by Nick Sagan

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

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Book Review: You Call This the Future? by Nick Sagan

The new book by Nick Sagan (son of Carl Sagan), You Call This the Future?: The Greatest Inventions Sci-Fi Imagined and Science Promised, is characterized by explanations of some of the fascinating technologies envisioned in classic science fiction along with explorations of the progress modern science has made towards achieving those visions. Classic science fiction references appear side-by-side with summaries of state of the art scientific research.

The Invasion Has Begun: Death Star Spotted Above San Francisco

Monday, August 25, 2008

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The Invasion Has Begun: Death Star Spotted Above San Francisco

Initial reports are beginning to leak out of San Francisco that a mysterious object has been seen in the sky, blotting out the stars and staring down ominously at the peaceful inhabitants of The Golden Gate City. An intrepid amateur videographer has posted footage of the mysterious object on Youtube. Star Wars aficionados may recognize the massive moon-like invader as none other than a Death Star - a space station and weapon capable of destroying an entire planet - previously thought to be mere fiction.

Fantastic Contraption: Release Your Inner Engineer

Saturday, August 23, 2008

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Fantastic Contraption: Release Your Inner Engineer

In the world of time-wasting, flash games may be the ruling elite. Simple games like Motherload and Portal: The Flash Version have gotten me through countless long days at work. And now that I've discovered Fantastic Contraption, I just might never work again.

The Bridge Across the Uncanny Valley

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

4 Comments

Checkout this awesome video describing Image Metrics' animation process! Image Metrics is credited for facial animations in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Devil May Cry 4, and others.

Adam Savage Is a Geeky God

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

50 Comments

At the end of July, the H.O.P.E. (Hackers On Planet Earth) conference was held in New York. One of the featured speakers was Adam Savage, co-host of the Mythbusters. Savage talked about his geeky passion for creating and learning, and described (among other things) his personal recreation of a dodo skeleton. He also took questions from the audience.

Awesome Twitter Visualiser: Twitscoop

Sunday, August 17, 2008

6 Comments

Twitscoop is a service that scans the global Twitter feed for recurring words and constructs a tag cloud from the most-used words on Twitter. Moving the mouse cursor over the words in the cloud brings up a popup window with a few twitter updates using that word.

Book Review: The Way Toys Work

Friday, August 15, 2008

6 Comments

Did you know that the inventor of the erector set won an Olympic gold medal in the pole vault in 1908? Or that the Slinky was named by thumbing through a dictionary looking for a word that sounded like the motion of a toy? Or that (despite popular belief), Furbies do not listen for new words to add to their vocabularies (and therefore should never have been banned from government property)? Neither did I, until I read The Way Toys Work:The Science Behind the Magic 8 Ball, Etch A Sketch, Boomerang, and More.

Fringe: A Prequel to a Prequel

Monday, August 11, 2008

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At 8:00 PM on September 9, Fox will air the series premier of Fringe, the new TV show from JJ Abrams (the creator of Felicity, Alias, and Lost, as well as Mission Impossible III and the upcoming Star Trek movie). The show follows an FBI agent, a gifted high-school dropout, and his mad scientist father as they attempt to unravel the mysterious "Pattern" - a series of strange occurrences around the globe.

World of Warcraft + God of War = Too Human

Friday, August 8, 2008

7 Comments

World of Warcraft + God of War = Too Human

Too Human is a 3rd person action-RPG developed by Silicon Knights featuring a combination of intense combat, in-depth character customization, and a rich, compelling storyline. The mythology of the game (planned to be a trilogy) is based on a modified Norse mythology. The player controls the character Baldur, son of Odin. Baldur is one of the Norse gods – a cybernetically advanced human tasked with protecting the human race. Baldur is considered by the other gods to be less advanced than the rest, thus “too human”.

Goonies Never Say Die! Goonies 2 On the Horizon!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

23 Comments

Goonies Never Say Die! Goonies 2 On the Horizon!

Finally, I get to rejoin my childhood heroes in an adventure for the ages! And with many of the original actors returning for the sequel (Sean Astin and Corey Feldman especially), Goonies 2 will actually feel like a sequel.

Lemur CATTA Says ‘No’ to Annoying Comments Online

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

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Lemur CATTA Says ‘No’ to Annoying Comments Online

The problem with traditional CAPTCHAs is that as image-recognition software becomes more and more advanced, CAPTCHAs need to become more and more distorted to defeat them. Eventually in order to weed out the image-recognition software, CAPTCHAs will become unrecognizable to the legitimate humans as well. Lemur CATTA is a system that aims to circumvent the downfalls of traditional CAPTCHAs, by using a combination of three levels of identification, with varying difficulties of completion.

iPhone Nano to be Released Before Christmas 2008?

Monday, August 4, 2008

15 Comments

iPhone Nano to be Released Before Christmas 2008?

The Daily Mail reports word from a trusted industry source that Apple, Inc. will be releasing the iPhone Nano in time for the 2008 holiday season. The slimmer, cheaper version of the hugely succesful iPhone will not have internet access and will be limited to the 3G network.

Cuil (Pronounced “Cool”) Search Engine is Anything But.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

3 Comments

Cuil (Pronounced “Cool”) Search Engine is Anything But.

On Monday, July 28, 2008, a new search engine known as Cuil (pronounced "cool") went online amidst a flurry of press coverage. The expecations were understandably high. Cuil is led by CEO Tom Costello, who has formerly developed search engines for Stanford and IBM. Also on the team are his wife Anna Paterson (a former employee of internet giant Google), and two other former Google employees, Russel Power and Louis Monier. Armed with the technical experience gained at Google and $33 million in venture capital, the Cuil team set the lofty goal of attempting to overthrow Google as the most popular search engine in the world.