The British Video Recordings Act 1984 was a law that required video games and movies to be classified by the British Board of Film Classification. Which in essence was the law that made it illegal to sell violent video games, and sexually charged films to minors.

However, it has recently been discovered that there’s a loophole in the existence of the law. In order for a law to become official in Britain it must notify the European Commission before it can be enforced. It just so happens that the VRA of 1984 never made it’s way to the EC.

Barbara Follett, the Culture Media and Sport Minister sent out numerous letters to industries saying this, “Unfortunately, the discovery of this omission means that, a quarter of a century later, the VRA is no longer enforceable against individuals in United Kingdom courts.”

What this means specifically now is that no person can be charged with selling inappropriate materials to minors. Any case that was closed before this discovery can’t be brought back for re-evaluation though. Which is a sigh of relief considering how many cases there have probably been since this act began.

It’s crazy to think how something so vital could be forgotten, but as it stands now nothing can be done about it. A new law or ratification must be enacted which will then be sent to the EC. My guess is that someone is typing something up as I’m writing this.

[via: BBC]

One answer might be to run deals by the pirate companies that legalize the trade so that downloading of games and movies is no problem for the production companies concerned. There are many companies that have done just that, not by bartering a deal with pirate companies, but by simply allowing people to download as much as they want for a subscription fee. This model seems to work, for example one called Metaboli allows you to download top game titles for just a small monthly fee.

Surely this is the answer. Subscription models that offer such a deal should drive people to simple cough up a small meager fee for the privilege of downloading what they want.

In April, it became apparent that Pirate Bay, a large file sharing company, was being bought by a Swedish software company called Global Gaming Factory X. Pirate Bay found itself facing huge litigation procedures that resulted in a one year jail term for its founders and paying millions in damages to the big boys of the industry such as Warner Bros and Sony Music. The argument has been raised that while this is good for the industry, it introduces a level of commercial control that sucks yet more freedom from the internet.

A report by the Guardian revealed that Pirate Bay made it public on their site:
“It’s time to invite more people into the project, in a way that is secure and safe for everybody. We need that, or the site will die. And letting TPB die is the last thing that is allowed to happen! “

The payment model may not be subscription based but rather like pay-per-view where users will pay for the files they want to access. One good side here is that users can also earn money by sharing their files. This will turn the file sharing industry into a mutually bound legal trade between the file sharing company and the consumer with content legally provided by the official distributors.

The business will commence in August once the final deliberations on how to manage the legal side of the business are concluded. The site will of course also attract advertising revenue.

There is speculation afoot already that it could fail due to what has happened to Napster’s falling subscriber base. Napster was shut down due to illegal music downloads and re-launched as a legal service in 2003. But ever since then, their subscriber base has been falling. Some may argue that this could be due to the lack of support in the industry for legalizing file sharing services.

Mr Pandeya representing the Swedish company told the Wall Street Journal at WSJ.com:
“We have plenty of investors who want to join this project,” he said. “Raising the capital won’t be a major issue.”

If the Pirate Bay site does re-launch as a legal business, could this be just the start of a more successful trend to legalize the whole file sharing business? Only time will tell, and the cooperation from investors. Perhaps there are too many servers available now to gain control though this move towards controlling a large operation like Pirate Bay is a shining new start.

Facebook Fan Box allows website owners to add a Facebook widget to their website that allows users to become a fan of that site. It also allows those users to check out what’s going on with other fans of the site, find out how many fans there are, and keep up with the Facebook activity related to the site.

Fan Box essentially introduces the excitement of Facebook right into the very frames of your own website. It’s a great marketing trick that will help mere site visitors become site fans, thus keeping aware of everything happening on the site.

According to Facebook’s developer site, it takes only a couple of minutes and a few lines of Java script to get the Fan Box on your own site. Fan Box features includes getting a real-time update of how many Facebook users have already become fans of the site, find out which of your friends are fans, check out website posts, and (thanks to Facebook Connect) become a fan with a single click.

So far, several major sites have implemented the Fan Box into their site, like Coca-Cola, ABC News, Blackberry, and others. According to one social networking reviewer, “it’s yet another tool for blogs and website owners to capitalize on the massive reach of the social network.”

In a revolution that some are calling today’s Tiananmen, these protestors have something their Chinese counterparts didn’t: access to social networking sites and modern technology. While it may not be true that Twitter is changing everyone’s life (remember, most Twitter users leave after the first tweet), Johnson is nonetheless correct that the social network is changing lives. And it’s giving a voice to some who would otherwise be silenced. That is certain; that is obvious.

But are the Iranian people giving Twitter a voice that would normally be shut out after the first use? Today as I listened to the news, I heard screaming protestors in Iran, but I also heard a lot of hype about how Twitter has become the people’s media. And in the comments following the news program, I heard an interviewee who would otherwise not use social media explain why she had become a Twitter user and how she felt this was a crucial tool for the media. Now she’s promoting Twitter to like-minded, middle-aged friends.

Every major news network is now sharing how Twitter is opening the world’s eyes to the reality of what is going on in Iran. Traditional media outlets are thus giving a voice to the new media—Twitter. Because of this unconventional twist, people who would have never otherwise heard of Twitter are now joining to get in on the latest news feed phenomenon.

But will the news followers remain after the activity in Iran has died down? That is as much of an unknown as is the longevity—or outcome—of Iran’s political situation. But what is likely is that other situations will occur in which average people will have a voice through Twitter. And for that reason, many may remain and become permanent users. Will they actively Tweet? Perhaps not. But they will follow. So, perhaps, Mr. Johnson, you are correct—Twitter just might be showing us the future of innovation.

For both sites, some common sense needs to be employed when it comes to releasing personal information. Facebook allows you to exclude anyone not in your respected and known groups through their ‘friends’ system. Twitter accomplished this by having the option to follow a conversation or not.

But this doesn’t stop your profile being found and targeted by spammers.

Let’s look at the issues currently being addressed by both sites. Recently, Twitter was hacked and this caused a lot of controversy over its ability to secure personal details. The prevalence of this came to a head when Britney Spears and a St Louis Cardinals Manager by the name of Tony La Russa found fake profiles being used in their names.

Twitter are combating this problem with a verified account service which adds a seal stating it is verified. Though this feature initially will only be open to the elite few i.e. celebrities, public officials and blue chip corporations. However, this service does need to open up to everyone quite quickly as recent security compromises have raised the red flag on ‘how secure is social networking with Facebook and Twitter?’

The emerging threats have raised concerns globally amongst industry practitioners and online social communities. Real-time communications are now so widely used, not to mention other sites like MySpace, that the need for further security procedures has become a requirement.

So, which is more secure? Is it down to the user’s common sense or is one more secure than the other? Let’s look at some salient facts. Facebook updates your page as it is updated in real time as does Twitter. Facebook changed some aspects such as no longer having the user messages begin with the user’s name. Also, Facebook further protects privacy by a recent change to the status message. It used to be ‘What are you doing right now?’, and has suitably changed to ‘what’s on your mind’.

This introduced a profound difference in the level of security and does place Facebook on a higher level of security as compared to Twitter. There is a mutual agreement between accounts to become friends that can’t be altered in any way. Conversely on Twitter, users can decide to follow you easily. Twitters simply look for conversations that they find useful, or a sales angle, and follow the conversation with no hindrance from the user whom started the conversation. Yes, you can then block them but you are already being followed – username known.

Surely, this infringes on personal privacy and freedom. Do you want those people to follow you?? Reciprocation goes out the window.

In April, a password stealing attack by some frivolous phishers compromised Facebook’s security credibility. A “justfuns” scam directed users via a mail box message to a web site full of spam messages like Viagra ads and such like advertising. Twitter fell foul to the “mikeyy” worm attacking user accounts in May which hijacked user profiles and sent unauthorized tweets through them.

Again, we must come back to common sense. Has your username and password become ubiquitous? If so, it’s just a matter of time before it will be found by criminals whom use scripts to search the web for a defined set of passwords, so reset your password often. Additionally, Facebook is safer than email, much less chance of being phished despite worms like “mikeyy”.

In conclusion, Twitter allows many sites like Tweetdeck and Twhirl to access twitter accounts without having to log into twitter: this is a security compromise. Your information becomes very available to 3rd party companies plus users can follow you whenever they desire.

To that end, right now, Facebook offers more security than the more accessible Twitter.

The U.S.’s war reporting has an active following on Twitter. Frequent disclosure of U.S. activity overseas keeps family members, military followers, veterans, and the average U.S. citizen in the know about their family members, colleagues and fellow patriots. It’s a great way to get plugged in to the national spirit. It’s a real-time way of keeping current. And that is precisely the intent of the Twitter updates. The new administration wants to posture itself as open and communicative about its actions. The government is now trying to disclose more about their actions and activities—at least in this aspect.

Critics have lambasted the venue as inappropriate. After all, some of the tweets might go something like this: “3 US troops killed during surprise insurgent attack.” Since Twitter is typically viewed as a light technological social adventure, many have disagreed with the government’s use of Twitter as a way of reporting war casualties. As one news report conjectures, “it is interesting that the Pentagon has chosen to embrace a channel of communication that has not yet proven to be effective in delivering serious news.” However, not everyone uses the social forum for “light” dialogue. After all, many companies use it to drive sales, update their constituents, and keep current with technology. Twitter has more uses than merely to incessantly report the random wanderings of bored minds.

Now, Google has provided a way for this comfy setting to be home to other e-mail users as well. Now, it is shockingly easy to transfer your contacts from Hotmail, AOL, or Yahoo. The transfer is automatic, and apparently error-free. At least, there are no pandemic reports of failure and destruction. Gmail also allows its users to import contact lists from Outlook, Outlook Express, and the Mac OS X contact manager.

Currently, Gmail does not have the same following that Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail enjoy. Right now, it boasts a subscription list that is nearly 30 million users long. This number may be changing. Now, as easy as it is to take your contact list and important it in Gmail, the balance of power could swing as defectors take Gmail for a test drive. Besides, Google boasts considerable upside to the user frustrations of AOL and the fee-based approach of Yahoo.

Gamers across the globe are holding their breath, waiting to see if online rumors that World of Warcraft is coming to the iPhone are true. Vollee, a company whose main purpose is to develop software to allow mobile 3G phones to play CPU intensive PC applications over the iPhone network, may have struck an agreement with Activision Blizzard to stream the MMO.

This isn’t the first time the possibility of World of Warcraft for the iPhone has been visited. In June last year, Vollee indicated they were in talks with Activision Blizzard.

While no official announcement has been made (and Vollee’s website is down at the time of writing), a video has emerged that appears to show the game fully functioning on an iPhone. Much of the online debate is about whether this video is real, or an elaborate hoax, with most concluding that it is genuine.

Vollee was responsible for bringing virtual world “Second Life” to the iPhone earlier this year. ‘What we have developed is a service which, for the first time, allows you to access a rich persistent virtual 3D world the way it is supposed to be experienced on your phone,’ said Martin Dunsby, CEO, Vollee. ‘This is a true ‘before and after moment’ in which mobile is living up to its potential in serving as an always on, connected platform.’

The amazing news comes all the way from Brisbane, Australia. This is where Dr. Brent Coker, of Melbourne University conducted a study, relating internet browsing in the work place to productivity. During his study, Coker coined a phrase that should spark a workplace-internet revolution: WILB (Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing).

According to Coker’s study, workers who spent 20% or less time engaging in WILB were found to be more productive during the day. 9% more productive than those who aren’t WILB’ing to be exact. Of course, anymore than 20% and you’re really cutting into work time which would go against the nature of the study.

Dr. Coker has a very common sense theory as to the increase in productivity, “People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration. Think back to when you were in class listening to a lecture – after about 20 minutes your concentration probably went right down, yet after a break your concentration was restored”

Coker says that taking short little breaks at certain intervals during the day is like a restart for the brain. Of course, there needs to be a limit. As staying on all day of course causes the opposite effect.

So, if your boss walks by and catches you browsing the internet at un-related activities for work, just tell him/her you’re trying to keep your concentration.

“No matter what the level of your ability, you have more potential than you can ever develop in a lifetime.” -James T Mccay

Although McCay was talking about human beings, I think the quote rings true for OnLive. Its performance will unlikely catch up to its full potential. Before we get too philosophic about things, I should probably explain what OnLive is.

Announced at GDC 2009 (Game Developer’s Conference), the OnLive service has really been turning heads in the gaming industry. OnLive is a cloud computing service, only it runs video games. So, at its core OnLive will allow people to play games through their systems on a browser plug-in. The idea of it is astounding. This basically makes hardware spec requirements obsolete; everything but a fast connection that is.

When OnLive launches this is how it will work. You’ll sign up for the OnLive service, which will undoubtedly have a monthly subscription attached to it. You’ll download the OnLive browser plug-in, and from there you’ll be able to stream games to your computer through their service. We’re not talking Flash games, or old console games but new release titles. The great thing is that none of it will require any of your machine’s power to run. Here’ a video from IGN, of Crysis running through the OnLive service…

Some other cool features with OnLive is that you’ll have the option of directly receiving the service on your TV. If you buy their micro-console, you can directly input the stream to your television set. Nothing else is required. Except a mouse-and-keyboard, or the OnLive controller. The other feature that will be available is something called Brag-Clips. They work like a DVR setup, you’ll be able to record 10-second videos of the game that you’re playing.

A large number of publishers have already signed on to have their games available through OnLive: EA, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Epic, Atari, Codemasters, Warner Bros., THQ and Eidos.

Ok, I stated in the beginning of the post that this service is unlikely to meet the potential it presents. Which is sad for me to say, because I’m beaming over it. The first problem is bandwidth, and connection issues. I know that most people reading this, and myself included have got killer broadband connections. Having a 5/Mps connection might not be something too advanced in our minds, but it’s the entire consumer base that matters. OnLive has stated that a 1.5/Mps connection will be required to run games in 480p, with 5/Mps required for a 720p signal. While broadband is making its way into more homes everyday, not everyone has it.

The problems don’t stop with the user’s connection. I don’t think very many of us realize how much bandwidth is required to send a gaming signal out. Even with an outstanding compression rate. The videos that have been showed off are incredible, but what happens when more than a thousand people are streaming games in? then millions? That’s a lot of strain to put on a network. Let alone the machines that have to physically run the game that’s being played.

Even with connection issues, the service could take off if the price is right. The keyword in that sentence is “if”. The largest challenge for OnLive will be fixing on a price point that appeals to consumers, while at the same time making sure they have enough money to keep the service running. That’s a tricky balance to consider. And one that I think is the make, or break point. These are figures that I came up with, none based on any fact but just to give you something to think about…

Cost of OnLive Service: $50
Cost of a full game: $35
Cost of Micro-Console option: $80

Ok, so let’s say you buy a single game a month. What would your first year costs look like? $1,100. That’s quite a large budget for just purchasing a single game a month. Maybe some months you don’t even buy a game at all. Of course, a rental service would be an adequate means of alleviating the financial burden.

I want to say this again though, this is all speculation and brain storming on my part. OnLive hasn’t announced anything about pricing structure yet.

The more I think about OnLive, the more I keep thinking of the Sega Channel service from back in the mid 90′s. To me, that was one of the most ‘ahead of its time’ ideas ever in video gaming. It was a service that transferred game data through a cable outlet to your Genesis. It provided gamers with close to 50 games a month, and every month more games appeared. It was amazing. Yet, the consumer base didn’t get into it. It was too advanced for its time.

I get that same feeling when I think about OnLive. Here’s hoping I’m wrong though.

Wait a second. You already knew all of that? No, it’s not exactly breaking news, but the potential for disaster created by all of this is often overlooked. The issue is that bandwidth is not unlimited and all of the above use it up by the boatload. InfoWorld has a fascinating five-page article about this, citing conflicting prophecies from different analysts. Some believe broadband prices will skyrocket or more caps will be implemented.

Some believe bandwidth will become a utility and providers will charge by use like water or electricity, which would presumably cut down on wasting. I can see the RIAA having interest in this, if only for that it would likely reduce illegal downloads by a substantial margin. People would at least be forced to be more selective in what they downloaded, because they would no longer be getting the goods for free.

Sites like Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, etc. would have a huge fork thrown in their spokes if such a thing were to occur. You’d see a sudden drop in the viewing of streaming video, a business that is just starting to get into full swing (YouTube is finally being monetized).

It’s interesting to note that Wall Street might be part of the problem too. Broadband providers want to “open the pipe” as InfoWorld puts it:

But such large investments have been slow in coming, mainly because Wall Street dislikes them. Every dollar on capital improvements reduces carriers’ profits, and investors tend to punish capital investments by reducing carriers’ stock prices, notes the Free Press’s Turner. Because most broadband providers have little or no competition, he says, the Wall Street pressure usually prevails.

“It’s unrealistic to have all entertainment be delivered digitally [over the Internet],” says a Gartner analyst. “You would need fiber to the home [everywhere] to be able to have unlimited capacity.”

Isn’t that what the Matrix is for?

You should really read the InfoWorld article to get the whole picture. There are more sides to this story than I care to get into here. Like I said. It’s a five-pager.

Here’s an in-store tip. Shop around! How often have you heard that before? Seriously. Have in mind what you want, go to some place that they know their stuff, learn more about it, check out their prices, then go to a couple more places. Once you’ve found that same item in another store at a lower price, record it, and if you’d rather not get it at that store, go back to that first one and see if they will lower their price for you. Sometimes they may mark down some of your other items just so you’ll shop there with them. A sale is better than no sale to some places. Not all places will do it, but it’s worth a shot. The worst they can say is “No” after all, and then they lose your business as you walk out the door. Yes, it takes more time than just going to one place to get everything, but believe it or not, some places are less expensive than others! And we’re not just talking about a box of cereal.

Do not forget to shop online–there are some fantastic deals there as well! Some stores may have a good price in the store, but check their website also, because sometimes they have “Online Only” specials on their merchandise. Some internet-based stores are excellent places to go for your holiday shopping needs, like Amazon.com or if you like to take chances, try Craigslist.org or eBay.com.

Hope something in here sparks an interest in your holiday shopping needs. Maybe some of the best deals are happening right now AND during the intense holiday season? I do know one thing: if you get on it now, it’s better than the hassle of the shoppers traffic, and headaches, just to find out they are sold out of something.

The art of hacking in a technological world is generally a negative thing. To hack into something, usually means a breach in security and some form of data altered. However, hacking, and being particularly skilled at it, can pay off – if the skills are used appropriately.

Shane Kelly, age 16, became the world’s youngest person to pass the Certified Ethical Hacker course. Because of his dedication and precision, there are some big people very interested in utilizing his mad skills.

Hacks can be used for good! Programming something to “hack” into a problem you’re encountering, like with say your website development or network. Hacking can be viewed as a positive thing, and quite frankly, the biggest networks and programs are developed by hackers. You have to know how to get into it to be able to prevent access to it, right?

Now, by no means am I saying that it is okay to hack into someone else’s property, or copyrighted works like programs and applications, but hacking should not always be viewed as illegal. Take those skills and go work for someone who can really benefit from them. Internet companies, software companies, police departments. Fight crime! Slip into your bat-suit and get involved in the criminal investigation sector of a police department. After all, they are likely to more fully utilize your hacking super-powers (and you’d get paid for it).

Hard to stomach, I know so imagine how he feels.  Apparently MSNBC was enamored with the Baltimore Examiner’s article and with a slight tweak they spread the news far and wide.  The doctor who did the questionable stapling is in court defending his end of the proceedings.

Read on for the original article.

BALTIMORE – A man alleging a Maryland doctor stapled his rectum shut during an operation — causing him to go without defecating for 17 days — took his federal lawsuit to trial Monday in Baltimore.

Ronald Watkins, 64, of West Virginia, is suing Manuel Casiano, a doctor in Frederick County, for allegedly botching a 2004 surgery that left Watkins with permanent bowel problems.

“The reason for suing Dr. Casiano is very simple: His rectum was stapled shut,” said Julia Lodowski, who with attorney Emily Malarkey is representing Watkins and his wife, Brenda.

Lodowski told jurors in U.S. District Court that Watkins now experiences “rectal discharge” and needs to wipe himself between 12 and 15 times a day.

He’s also had to have four “unnecessary surgeries” because of Casiano’s actions, Lodowski said.

The doctor’s attorney, Conrad Varner, said Watkins’ bowels merely became “swollen shut” because of medical problems — not because of stapling.

Varner said Watkins’ habitual smoking — two packs a day — contributed to his bowel problems, because nicotine constricts blood vessels.

Watkins underwent surgery Sept. 8, 2004, for a newly diagnosed rectal tumor, during which Casiano made the mistake, according to his lawsuit against the Foris Surgical Group.

Watkins then complained of increasing rectal pressure, and an inability to pass gas, his lawsuit states.

In a subsequent surgery, Casiano found that Watkins’ rectum was closed because of staples, according to the lawsuit.
“He couldn’t get past the staple line,” Lodowski told jurors.

“How else do we know that his rectum was stapled shut? Most importantly, Dr. Casiano said so.”

A graduate of New York School of Medicine who works at Frederick Memorial Hospital, Casiano has no record of any disciplinary actions, according to the Maryland Board of Physicians.

Watkins’ lawsuit does not seek a specific amount of damages.

The trial is expected to continue for four days.

Hopefully there will be a happy ending.

Technorati Tags: butt, ouch, staple, medical problems

Here’s a guy who claims he is channeling aliens via an energy beam directly to his hairy, slightly repugnant sweaty chest.  The very same chest he then makes an interviewer feel to confirm the alien-beam sweat.

The worst part is, the aliens sound like something out of a 1930′s serial featuring slightly evil aliens with German accents and horrible pronounciation.

As a bonus, the sweaty indivudual being interviewed even includes static as if to signify he’s connecting up with the alien power hour.

Technorati Tags: aliens, sweat, bear-man-chest, sf, fantasy, video, did I mention sweaty chest

Gabriel tells of a relationship that starts early in his childhood with an Atari 2600 and plays out much like the story of every adult gamer’s life. During his teenage years, he discovers two overriding passions: freestyle club dancing and Blizzard’s classic RTS Starcraft. I can’t personally sympathize with the former; the club scene has never been anything for me except a mindless churning of intoxicated bodies, a dead-end excersise who’s only real virtue is the physical discipline it requires. Too many people I knew in high school went down that bottomless spiral of meaningless social mingling, destructive relationships, and drug and alcohol addiction and found themselves in their late 20s with no skills, no family, a dead-end job and few true, reliable friends.

You might then imagine my confusion when Gabriel characterizes his relationship with dance clubs as a constructive force in his life and his personal obsession with video games as a youth-stealing, mind-rotting, addictive plague on modern society. You see, in my case, video games defined my life, my career, and my passions in a positive way that led me to a successful career, a happy marriage, and a great group of friends who share my interests. Like Gabriel, I started off with the Atari, worked my way up through the Nintendo, the Super Nintendo (still my all time favorite console), the Playstation, and then the plethora of online PC games that grew in popularity during my teenage years. As dedicated gamers, my friends and I became heavily involved in PC modding and tuning, always trying to squeeze out that extra frame per second. It built our technical skills and provided the foundation I needed to to eventually get a job as a PC technician, after years of dead-end work in civil service I’m still trying to forget.

That experience also led directly to my eventual career choice as a web software developer and web designer. As the geekiest and most technically inclined of my group, I assumed the responsibility of building guild websites, handling server administration, and a brief stint of game programming when we spent some time off from Command and Conquer and Quake to build a MUD – a Multi-User Dungeon, a prototypical MMO with an all-text interface, for those of you who came along after Ultima Online and Everquest. The skills and social connections I developed while pursuing my gaming hobbies are more valuable to me than any other character-building experience in my life.

Without video games, I can’t predict exactly where my life would have ended up, but they provided me the focus that helped me develop my own personal talents into a successful career much the way Gabriel developed his based on his passion for dance. The similarity and contrast between our lives leads me to wonder, once again, at the impact articles like his will have both on gaming culture and on clinical and popular psychology – by further diluting the meaning of addiction and confusing cause and effect in the case of obsessive behavior, involving video games or anything else. The plight of real addicts with debilitating chemical addictions is mocked every time someone characterises an obsession as an addiction, and likewise people with unhealthy obsessions may be suffering from a fundamental misunderstanding of the cause and consequence of their problems which prevents them from seeking and finding the help they need.

I also worry that it provides a skewed view to the already misinformed older generation, as well as the members of our generation who never quite got on the boat, who are still playing the politics of fear we gamers are oh-so-familiar with. Every generation in the past century has been the first to embrace some amazing new technological or cultural advancement and each has had to deal with ignorance and fearmongering that big changes like these bring about. It’d be nice if we could look past generational lines and find the common ground we share as the children of a rapidly progressing society. Certainly Gabriel is welcome to tell his story. I hope that he, and others like him who have allowed a single facet of their life to become an overriding destructive obsession, will someday have the maturity to admit that the problem is theirs, and accept responsibility for their actions and their lives instead of placing blame on the object of their obsession.

(thanks to QJ.net for the image, used without permission, sorry!)

Technorati Tags: video, game, obsession, addiction, addict, obsessive, personality, bohemian, gabriel fransisco

Comcast has always reserved the right to cut off users who use “excessive” bandwidth, but had never previously made the specific number public.  When users would regularly surpass Comcast’s limits, they would be asked to curb their usage or pay for a more expensive business subscription.  Now they will simply be charged a fee.

While this new imposition might seem initially frustrating, keep in mind that the typical bandwidth usage is only 2 or 3 GB per month.  A user could download more than 125 standard-definition movies before they would approach the bandwidth limit.

How do you feel about the bandwidth cap?  Should Comcast be allowed to cut off excessive users?  Leave your comments below.

Technorati Tags: Comcast, internet, bandwidth

If you’re willing to pay an additional $5.98 in shipping, all this an dmore can be yours.  Here’s the release from the big A itself.

Gamers have been asking for it and Amazon has answered the call. Amazon.com Inc. today announced that it will offer release-date delivery for “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09,” “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,” “Fable 2” and “Gears of War 2.” For $5.98, Amazon customers can upgrade their shipping option for guaranteed delivery of these titles on the first day of availability to all addresses within the continental United States. Additionally, Amazon Prime customers will receive release-date delivery for free.

“We are excited to delight Amazon customers by offering guaranteed release-date delivery of these new video game titles so that the games can arrive at their doors the first day they’re available,” said Greg Hart, vice president of video games and software at Amazon.com. “This means that thousands of gamers across the country can start playing the games they love on the day they’re released without having to stand in long lines or stay up all night to do it.”

Technorati Tags: video games, shipping, amazon.com, tiger woods, force unleashed, fable 2, gears of war 2

We have no way of knowing what it is that the inhabitants of the Death Star want, or even if they are friendly. But one thing is for certain. On the fateful day when we must finally engage our enemy in combat, the greatest weapon available to us will be Jeff Goldblum and his Macintosh of Doom.

Technorati Tags: Jeff Goldblum, Star Wars, Independence Day, Macintosh, Death Star, San Francisco, video

Fantastic Contraption is a flash-based physics game in which the player is given a variety of tools to use in order to construct a device capable of moving a red ball into a goal.  Devices can be as simple as a single wheel pulling the ball, or as complex as a catapult used to hurl the ball over a barrier.

The levels get progressively more and more difficult, but they are never impossibly hard.  After you have completed a level, you can look at solutions that other players have used.  This often gave me ideas to use in later levels (Oh, I can string together a whole bunch of little sticks to make a chain…)

Fantastic Contraption consists of 20 levels that you can play for free.  For $10, you gain access to a level editor and player-created levels.

Technorati Tags: Flash games, Fantastic Contraption, games, video games, pc games, free games, physics games, game reviews

Remember in grade school there was this kid who could make fart noises with his armpit? How cool that was? You wanted to be able to do that too, but never seemed to be able to pull it off. And remember how in high school, the same kid was still making fart noises with his armpit? But now you thought it was gross (You never admitted to anyone you still tried to make it work alone in your room).

Have you ever wondered what happened to that guy?

Well, you’ll be happy to know he’s alive and well. And he’s still making fart noises (though he’s since traded armpit farts for hand farts, less rashes I guess).

Meet Gerry (Jerry) Phillips. Gerry calls himself a manualist. A manualist is someone who plays music with their hands and no other instruments.

Sounds easy? Try it.

Gerry has a real talent. He’s got over a hundred videos posted on YouTube. And they are all amazing. He handfarts his way through all sorts of old favorites (Bohemian Raphsody, Killer Queen, Mario Bros. Theme) and makes some songs better than they’ve ever been (Hit Me Baby, One More Time, The Final Countdown).  Here’s Peter Frampton:

I highly suggest you check him out if you’re looking to waste some time, get a good laugh and be totally amazed. Here’s a link to his YouTube page:

http://www.youtube.com/user/gunecologist

Technorati Tags: geek, manualist, handfart, music, classic rock, super mario bros.

Technorati Tags: media player, songbird, video, audio, album art, beta, software, cross platform

One of the primary hurdles that Image Metrics faces on a daily basis is the Uncanny Valley.  The Uncanny Valley is a term that refers to the observed revulsion of people viewing objects demonstrating near lifelikeness.  You have experienced the Uncanny Valley any time you’ve been creeped out by a baby doll.

Technorati Tags: Uncanny Valley, animation, facial animation, Image Metrics

The best part of the video is when Adam breaks from the itinerary to show a slow-motion video of fellow co-host Jaimie Hyneman slapping him across the face in an attempt to sober Adam up.  While locating the file on his laptop, someone in the audience points out the somewhat suspiciously named “Batman The Dark Knight.avi” on Adam’s desktop, to which Adam responds, “Well, I hadn’t seen it yet.”

The video is an hour long, but totally worth watching.

Edit: It turns out the video in question was just the trailer of Batman.  But still, Adam is a Batman fan, he recreated a Dodo skeleton, he hand-drew a map of Middle Earth, and his official occupation entails blowing stuff up on TV.  He would be hard pressed to be any geekier (or cooler).

Technorati Tags: Mythbusters, hackers, H.O.P.E., Adam Savage

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.

Twitscoop is a great tool for quickly visualizing what people all over the world are thinking about right now.  For example, right now the cloud usually contains at least a few references to Olympic athletes and events.  I can also see this being a great app to leave open on your desktop or iPhone, so you can glance at it from time to time to see what people are talking about.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitscoop

Maybe Cyber Command wasn’t entirely ill-informed. Think about it; who’s always flying around in starships, fighting interstellar wars? That’s right, the Navy. Who forms the front line of defense against the insectiod alien menace? Always the Marines. If the Air Force is going to remain relevant in the Hollywood version of the 23rd century it has to start thinking about fictitious threats it could potentially defend the country against. Having already been written off by most of the science fiction genre, they had few options left to them: either they could focus on post-apocalyptic radioactive mutants or scary uber-hackers and their spam cannon equipped bot-nets. With the Cold War having so recently ended (in military years), the choice was clear: the Air Force took the red pill.

Technorati Tags: cyber command, united states air force, usaf, hackers, fearmongering, fiction, stupid

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Then I got some neato iPod Touch apps, including a Twitter updater and reader called Twittelator and suddenly rediscovered Twitter.

Anyone still using this?  If so, feel free to pop in and say hi!

Technorati Tags: twitter, geeks, internet, etc

IMPORTANT: Your DVD shipments might be delayed…

We’re sorry to report that we’ve been experiencing issues with our shipping system, so some of you are not receiving DVDs in a timely manner and some of you have not received emails letting you know we got a DVD back from you.

We apologize and we’ll be automatically issuing credits to all of you whose shipments have been delayed. Our goal is to ship DVDs as soon as possible and to provide a personalized email update to you if your DVD shipment was delayed.

We’re sorry for any inconvenience we’ve caused you and thank you for your patience.

The Netflix Team

Technorati Tags: dvd, netflix, system issues, oops

Hopefully no one was hurt!

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