The War continues

The war between the demo and soldier continued this weekend. Although the numbers have most likely changed drastically, the last count puts the soldier in first with 3,021,214 kills against demomen. The demomen trail behind with 2,802,215 kills on soldiers. The battle is heating up, who are you routing for? Here are brief descriptions of each class

The Soldier

Though he wanted desperately to fight in World War 2, the Soldier was rejected from every branch of the U.S. military. Undaunted, he bought his own ticket to Europe. After arriving and finally locating Poland, the Soldier taught himself how to load and fire a variety of weapons before embarking on a Nazi killing spree for which he was awarded several medals that he designed and made himself. His rampage ended immediately upon hearing about the end of the war in 1949.

The Demoman

A fierce temper, a fascination with all things explosive, and a terrible plan to kill the Loch Ness Monster cost the six year old Demoman his original set of adoptive parents. Later, back at the Crypt Grammar School for Orphans near Ullapool in the Scottish Highlands, the boy's bomb-making skills improved dramatically. His disposition and total number of intact eyeballs, however, did not.

TF2 update, Let the war begin

Valve has recently announced the new dual update. Soldier and Demo time! The intriguing part is the war being waged between the two classes. Whatever class gets the most kills on the other wins a 4th item. Im personally rooting for soldier, I was playing as him all night last night. Get to it!

UPS delivers packages on bike

A small number of employees are using trailers and bikes to deliver packages this holiday season. What a sweet job.

Chrome OS on Mini 10v

Dell is going to be releasing their Mini 10v with the option of having Googles Chrome OS on it. Sounds pretty awesome. Its great to see Linux based OS's coming pre installed on computers from major companies. Its sounds great for the mini laptops

Duludubi Star the ultimate Mario Galaxy Rip off

Duludubi Star is the ultimate Mario rip off. You take control of a little dinosaur. It has a ton of similarities, like flying through space, coins, even pirahna plant looking boss. Im going to check it out pretty soon, then I will compare the too. Watch the video!

Royal Navy To issue PSPs to sailors

The Royal Navy is going to be issuing sailors a psp. They intend for them to use them as study materials, too read and practice tests while in personal quarters. I personally dont get the decision considering the price of PSP's. They probably could find a cheaper device to issue them, but who cares. At least sailors will be able to play games.

More confirmed characters for Super Street Fighter 4

A few new confirmed characters for Super Street Fighter 4. Guy and Cody from final fight join the brawl, also Adon. Check out the Video!

Impressionist Art

Artist Brock Davis made a series of impressionist paintings depciting classic arcade games. There are a few he made that I find very interesting. The dig dug one is really awesome. Check out the rest of them one flickr

New Super Mario Bros. Wii Bundle

Amazon is selling a sweet Mario Bros. bundle. The bundle comes with a T-shirt, a lunchbox, wii-mote covers, and of course the game. The t-shirt it comes with is a large so i dont think many kids will be using this lunchbox. Cool collectors item.

Chromium OS

Google just released chromium OS the precursor to the highly anticipated Chrome OS. The release is a source code package. You need to download and build it off a pre existing linux kernel. Chromium currently supports building off of Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 or newer (Karmic 9.10 recommended). This was probable because Google is working with multiple companies one being Conical. So go home and build it!

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Im really excited to play the new Super Mario Title. The game is going to feature 4 player cooperative play. The game has some funny ads in Japan, Check them out!

30 seconds to Mars music video

Just saw the 30 seconds to Mars video Kings and Queens. Its a pretty funny video that features people from Midnightridazz. The video is well shot and looks pretty nice but there is one scene that is just ridiculous. The scene features a rider getting hit by a car and smashing the windshield, then he falls to the ground and is unconscious. The scene is ridiculous because the riders friends don't come to the aid of him at all. The driver says nothing either. It then cuts to a horse running randomly. The biker gets up and then rides away, without saying a word. What the heck was that!? Check it out here

Cartman Sings Poker face

Wednesdays episode of south park featured Cartman singing Poker Face by Lady Gaga in Rockband. I couldn't stop laughing and i think It was one of the best clips from the season. Check it OUT!

Virtual Box for Mac OSX

Sun Microsystems just released Virtual Box 3.0.10 for Mac OSX. This is an awesome program that I suggest to people who need to run windows programs on a Mac. the program allows you to install an OS into the program and can be uninstalled at any moment. It runs a windowed OS inside your OS. This allows people running Linux or Mac Operating systems to use windows programs without having to set up new partitions. Awesome program, but it doesn't support 3d acceleration so you cant play PC games on your Mac yet, Sorry! Well check it out here.

A spooky Halloween from Valve

They updated Team Fortress for Halloween. I love that they did this for a special occasion. They adapted the community made map harvest but added a few new entities. Now they have pumpkins everywhere (some with explosive charges attached that kill people when exploded, which is an awesome achievement to include) and also a ghost that makes you scared and sends you into third person. They replaced all the taunts with the move from thriller. They also replaced health packs with candy and pies. sometimes when people die they drop a bucket o candy that gives you critical hits for a short period of time. I love that Valve updates TF2 as much as they do. This is my personal favorite in the FPS genre and I suggest if you are a PC gamer to pick up this title immediately ( its only 20 bucks!).

Slope causes death

Just read this post on Japan Probe.

Apparently many japanese train platforms have slight slope of about 1%. This is to prevent pools of rainwater from collecting on the platform. One station, Tamagawa, has a slope of 2.5%. This slope caused the death of a wheelchair bound lady. She fell on to the tracks and died. Maybe they should flatten the platforms and install drains. The picture shows how she left the elevator and rolled down the slope. She was with her daughter leaving the elevator when er daughter left her for a second. The thing that shocks me is that the nobody was able to stop her from falling in. Most stations are incredibly packed.

Adorable kitty video

Just saw an adorable video on youtube. 3 cats 1 steak (not a shock video) is pretty cute. These cats are all munching on a piece of steak at the same time. The steak is taunt from the pull from the cats. This video is just adorable.

Fall of The Golden Arches

Everybody has been hit by the recession. Iceland's Economy has been hit pretty hard. Mcdonalds in Iceland no longer exists. The Franchise owner decided to part ways with serving up Big Macs because it would cost to much to import the ingredients from the Europe. Im going to Iceland This winter so im excited to not see any golden arches. There on every corner here in Los Angeles.

Internet around the World

Found this Link that shows the cost and speed of internet through out the world. Of course, heavily wired Japan cost the least at 27 cents a month for an average of 61mbps. Second is korea, which is also a heavily wired country, they get an average of 46mbps at 45 cents. U.S. comes at 15! We get an average 4.8mbps at 3 dollars and 33 cents. Greece has the worst speeds in their study. They didnt do much of Africa though and I was interested in seeing what they got. Interesting study.

Google Doodle

Just found Googles archive of doodles. Love the design of a lot of them. There are many there that we have never seen because they only released them in other countries. Theres a ton of them! Check it out! This is probably my favorite.

Eric Carle Design

NIntendo teams up with Nvidia

Not that it would interest most of you, but nvidia (computer hardware company) is in line to work with nintendo on there next handheld system. The processor they intend to use is the Tegra processor. It has a Ge-force graphics core. Basically this means that by winter 2010 nintendo should be releasing a handheld console capable of full 1080p HD. This can help deter the rising competition from the itouch and fend off any competition from the psp. I personally think this will be a fantastic gadget.

Think about this though. Many people are in the market for mobile media players as well. If Nintendo offers users large amounts of storage for video files, people could watch high quality HD videos on the go. If this device had internet access everywhere people could stream high quality video on there gaming device. This product could give Nintendo the ability to fend off competittors and hold dominance as the top handheld console. I think they deserve this spot due to all the great handhelds they have made over the years (gameboy, gameboy color, gameboy advance, nintendo ds). It would also be cool to see what kind of handheld gaming graphics nintendo could muster up with this hardware. Hopefully a new Super Mario title.

Gamefly and USPS stuck in legal battle

Gamefly, the online video game rental service, is in a legal battle with United States Postal Service. Gamefly is claiming that there 1% of broken discs that come through the mail is due to the mishandling by the U.S. Postal Service. They claim that they handle Netflix and Blockbuster rentals by hand and with more care. USPS claims that Gamefly uses poor packaging. The legal battle ensues. Maybe this is a sign to leave the disc behind and use some sort of flash storage. One that you plug into your computer and it formats and puts a new game on to the device when connected through a secure server. This device would work through usb and could hold as much memory as you wanted to.

Beneath A Steel Sky for IPhone

Beneath a Steel Sky is a game the runs on the Scumm engine that was developed by Revolution software in 1994. The game is a great point and click adventure that is similar to Lucas Arts' game Monkey Island. The game has a great story and is definitely one of my favorite scumm engine games (besides Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis). The game is being released in the app store for the iphone. Hopefully they will release more scumm engine games for the iphone. Other wise people will have to jailbreak their iphones to play a scumm game on it.

L.A.'s new conductor

This weekend i watched a performance by the new conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Gustavo Dudamel is only 28 years old. This weekend he played at the Hollywood bowl. I didnt see his performance there but I saw him on television. The kid is a prodigy of our time. He lead a youth orchestra in a masterful performance. I hope I can see him live one day

Uboard

The new product from Pyramid Distrubition is a glass monitor stand. Looks great with Imacs and has a built in 3 port usb hub. On top of that it has a cup holder. Great to save space and prevent accidental spills on your keyboard or work space. I think that this beats the monitor stand me and my brother built out of wood.

Nintendos B-Day

Today is Nintendo's 120th birthday. The company has spawned some of video games greatest titles from The Legend of Zelda to The Super Mario Brothers. The company originally started out by making board games and Hanafunda cards. The company started out in a little building in Kyoto in 1889. They now have some of the most famous video game characters under their belt. Congratulations on 120 years of great entertainment!

Next Ubuntu Release Name

Mark Shuttleworth confirmed the name of the next Ubuntu release. Ubuntu 10.04 will be named Lucid Lynx. This name follows up the trend of quirky names for past versions of Ubuntu. Older names include Hardy Heron, Breezy Badger, Dapper Drake, and recently Karmic Koala. I love the names they give the releases. Excited to try it when it comes out.

MicroCell Booster

AT&T is releasing the microcell booster. It uses your broadband connection to increase the signal strength for your phone and for 3g. This is great for people who have terrible 3g signal in their home. Its not out on the market but there doing public testing in CHarlotte, North Carolina. Why there and not Los Angeles or some other city plagued by 3g dead zones. Sounds like a nice product though.

Eensy Printbrush

Just read abouot the printbrush. This thing prints in 600dpi and works just by swiping left and right on paper. Its apparently silent so it would be perfect for laptops on the go. Its expected to be around 200 dollars. Surprisingly it was actually developed and expected to be released in 2003 but was scrapped. Hopefully I will get my hands on one of these

Doctors support public health option

In recent times the main debate in our country is what to do with health care. Many Americans recieve no health care and the costs for simple medical procedures is obsurd. Many want to create a public option while others believe that the private option is better. While Americans debate over this and are pretty fairly divided between liberal and conseratives, doctors seem to agree more with the public option. NPR reports that 63% of doctors believe there should be a public and private options, 10% believe in a complete public option, and 27% believe in a soley private option. Doctors should know the true expense of medical coverage and be able to give the best insight for fixing this system. God knows how many doctors are just in it for the big bills though. I just dont understand why we havent seen any change. The two sides can argue and bicker all they want but if action doesnt take place many people will experience financial burdens and/or unhealthy lives. Why dont we just try what the majority of doctors agree upon first. Its not like theres no room to amend a public option if its not working out. Maybe people will just never get over the fear of socialism. give me a break.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/15/majority-doctors-public-option/

Chinas suicide rate

Apparently Chinas suicide rate is one of the worlds highest. Chinas suicide rate is unique for two reasons. First off its the only country in the world where the suicide rate is higher in women than in men. Also its the only country whos suicide rate is higher in rural areas than in urban areas. 287,000 people end their lives on the Chinese mainland every year. The common suicide method is jumping off a building. Lets hope these numbers decline.

Polaris

I just read about this little robot Polaris. It acts like a desktop secretary. You put your phone in it and it reminds you of task and things you should be doing. It can navigate on flat surfaces all on its own. Looks like a cool gadget for a desktop set up to increase productivity. Its not out on the market yet but it should be out soon.

Vivid seeks for streamable content on PSN

Vivid recently expressed interest in offering streaming adult content on the PS3. Japans DMM already offers streaming adult content through the PS3's browser. However Vivid head Steven Hirsch expressed interest in offering the service through the PlayStation Network. I wonder if the service will be offered in 720p or full 1080p.

Youtube to offer rental services

Just watched the feed podcast. Apparently youtube has been talking with major movie studios to allow movies to be streamed for a fee. Youtube has talked to Lions Gate, Sony Pictures, and Warner Brothers. Not sure how well it will do considering that Netflix and Itunes already offer pretty flexible prices to stream many movies. The days of going to the video store are over. Read the article over here.