« December 2006 | Main | February 2007 »

January 31, 2007

DaKing240 Presents:: The Next 10 XBLA Games

 

 

Starting with the first release in February, 10 highly anticipated titles will begin making their way to Xbox Live Arcade, including these (titles are not listed in chronological release order):

· “3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures,” from developer Wanako Games and publisher Sierra Online, allows gamers to putt their way through 36 fun-filled holes of manic minigolf action on wild courses that range from the Old West to outer space and feature a bevy of crazy hazards and obstacles.

· “Alien Hominid HD” from The Behemoth features side-scrolling, hysterical cartoon action with a quirky twist and exclusive Xbox Live Arcade features.

· “Band of Bugs” from NinjaBee is a fast-paced tactical strategy game that offers gameplay deep enough to satisfy tactical genre fans and friendly enough to appeal to casual gamers. Creative gamers can even design their own levels with the built-in level editor, then play them solo or over Xbox Live with friends.*

· “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” from Konami is a faithful version of this legendary classic updated for Xbox Live Arcade and featuring the game’s full soundtrack and memorable side-scrolling vampire-hunting action.

· “Catan,” from developer Big Huge Games Inc. and publisher Microsoft® Game Studios, is a faithful remake of the immensely popular strategy board game.

· “Eets: Chowdown” from Klei Entertainment Inc. is a completely revamped version of the popular PC title of the same name. It offers new items, 120 new levels and the exclusive debut of Marsho Madness, a high-adrenaline action game in which players must keep the impending evil marshmallows at bay.

· “LUXOR 2,” from developer MumboJumbo LLC, sets a new standard for action puzzlers as players match and shoot their way through the land of ancient Egypt.

· “Paperboy,” from developer Digital Eclipse and publisher Midway, is a classic coin-op hit, specially enhanced for Xbox Live Arcade.

· “Root Beer Tapper,” also from developer Digital Eclipse and publisher Midway, features fast-paced reflex action as players scramble to keep thirsty patrons happy without dropping root beer mugs in the scramble to earn the biggest tips.

· “Worms” from developer Team 17 Software Ltd. features armies of adorable weapon-toting worms locked in tactical combat.

 

via 2 feeds you shouldn't miss from the microsoft team if you own a 360:

 

http://feeds.feedburner.com/GamerscoreBlog

http://feeds.feedburner.com/DaKing240

Posted by Steve at 10:25 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

use FeedBurner, save $750 per month

 nice:

Link to Painless Podcasting - Expert Help by PC Magazine

Posted by Steve at 02:17 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

More Ditka wine and cigars - just in time for Sunday

 

 

Binny's pretty much is the best liquor store in the Chicago area.  And you gotta love their Ditka connection.

Binnys Beverage Depot - Wine Search

Posted by Steve at 10:01 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

January 28, 2007

Foxit PDF Reader

Let's face it, Adobe PDF Reader is pretty much the worst piece of software for the PC ever written. It borders on being a virus. It takes about 30 seconds to load, it constantly bugs you for upgrades, and constantly takes up tons of resources on your machine once it's loaded into memory.

I came to realize this wasn't necessary when using a mac.  The in-built PDF reader in OS X takes less than a second to load and display most PDFs.

So surely there must be a PC equivalent?

Yes there is - it's called Foxit Reader, and it's free.  It seems to have no trouble displaying any PDF on my system.  If it works for a few more days, i will purge my system of Adobe Acrobat Reader forever!

 

Link to Foxit Software

Posted by Steve at 04:41 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

January 27, 2007

Feedsparks - New Google Gadget for FeedBurner stats

For everyone who used to use my Google personalized home page gadget to get their FeedBurner stats, I now recommend using this one created by Bernie Thompson.  It's a great mashup between the Awareness API and Sparklines, and does everything the old one did and more!

Link to Leancode » Feedsparks

Posted by Steve at 07:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Amazing Vaio




Japan Tokyo


Originally uploaded by Corbin.Matthew.



This Sony Vaio is about the size of a Nintendo DS, and runs a full installation of Windows XP. I'm regretting not picking one up. Very cool.

Posted by Steve at 07:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 23, 2007

100 Greatest Guitar Solos - Tablature for the greatest guitar solos of all time NOT

stairway #1?  c'mon, i could play that note for note when i was twelve years old.  could you possibly pick a safer choice?  what's more pussy? the guitar world readers putting stairway at #1, or the about.com stating that "Due to legal concerns, the tablature originally accompanying this article has been removed"?

how about #76 - Cinnamon Girl - never has so much been done with one note.  now that would have been a ballsy #1.

comments on your #1?

go to article

Posted by Steve at 01:15 PM | Comments (696) | TrackBack

January 17, 2007

米国No.1実績のRSS配信・管理・広告サービスFeedBurnerに注目！ | Web担当者Forum

 

 

This photoshoot was a lot of fun.  Like most visits to Tokyo, it was straight out of Lost In Translation. 

"More Intensity!"

More pictures in the links below.  "No. 1 RSS FeedBurner"  that's all you need to know.  "Ichiban" means "Number 1"  we heard it a lot.

 

Link to 米国No.1実績のRSS配信・管理・広告サービスFeedBurnerに注目！ | Web担当者Forum

Posted by Steve at 10:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 16, 2007

more MLS rumors - Ronaldo to New York?

 Marca.com in Spain is "reporting" that Ronaldo could be imitating Beckham and leaving to go to the New York Red Bulls in the MSL.  Could be an interesting year in the MLS here.

The article also says Ronaldo, who is just called "el gordo" - the fat one,by the Spanish press - could also possibly be going to a Saudi Arabian team that signed Figo.

All I know is there usually is some basis of truth to most rumors.

Link to Ronaldo podría imitar a Beckham e irse a la MSL - Marca.com

Posted by Steve at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 14, 2007

marusin.com: FeedBurner Tracks Wii Opera Browser Users

 

Mike Marusin finds a nice little nugget in FeedBurner Site Stats - Nintendo Wii as a Browser.  I'll make sure they add the other platforms in there too, just for grins.

Wii Browser Stats from FeedBurner

Link to marusin.com » Blog Archive » FeedBurner Tracks Wii Opera Browser Users

Posted by Steve at 07:25 PM | Comments (25) | TrackBack

HTC: Support: Cingular 8525 FAQs

 

The 8525 FAQ straight from HTC.   I gotta admit, there are some things about this phone that make my day really productive, and others that make it quite the opposite.

This weekend for example, my 8525 just stopped retreiving email from any connection, whether it be Cingular WAP, Cingular ISP, or even Wi-fi.  It actually slowed my phone down to a crawl where I couldn't even accept calls.  Not good!  At any rate, I had to finally factory reset the device, reload all my apps, and now everything is back to normal.  The battery life is still marginal, but better.

That all said, while on vaction over the last week, I was able to pretty much just use this device without ever breaking out my laptop to answer email, do some light browsing, and even to review some office docs.  I can't say that was ever the case with a Blackberry or Nokia.  So it's still a tossup, but the 3G speed and the general utitily of the device is otherwise making me stick with it for now.

 

Link to HTC: Support: Cingular® 8525 FAQs

Posted by Steve at 07:19 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

January 13, 2007

IEBlog : IE Developer Toolbar Beta 3 - Now Available

Developer Toolbar Menu

we're kind of in that stage right now where a lot of applications don't fully support IE7 because it is so new (or perhaps because it isn't standards compliant - i'm not here to argue that) - but anyway, if you are developing for IE7 - you might want to take a look at this debugging aid from the IE7 team themselves.

 

Link to IEBlog : IE Developer Toolbar Beta 3 - Now Available

Posted by Steve at 10:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 11, 2007

It's a whole new Galaxy for Beckham as he heads off to LA in the summer | the Daily Mail

I never thought this would actually happen in a million years.  Well, at least for another 3 or 4.  Beckham is only 31, and not quite over the hill yet, but the I guess the attraction to Hollywood for himself and Posh couldn't be denied and $250 million bones ain't bad either.    Reminds me of when the NASL brought Pele to play for the NY Cosmos in '79.  What, you don't remember that?  Exactly.

 

Link to It's a whole new Galaxy for Beckham as he heads off to LA in the summer | the Daily Mail

Posted by Steve at 11:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Get on the iPhone notification list at Cingular

 If you want to start receiving information from Cingular on iPhone availability, you can sign up here:

Link to Shop Cingular | Cingular Wireless

Posted by Steve at 08:58 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 10, 2007

NFL Bandwagon - which team should you root for?

Even if your team is still in the playoffs, you must go through this great NFL branding exercise.  oh, and you must have the volume on - the voiceover commentary has some real gems in there.

I came up Colts, which is a team I always kinda liked anyway, even though they play inside not.  I'm not a big fan of indoor football.

Link to NFL Bandwagon

Posted by Steve at 09:45 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Matt's FeedBurner interview at Juxtaviews

 We have a saying around here that your best comedy bang for your buck comes from saying what Shobe just said louder.  This interview for the design community is no exception.

Link to Juxtaviews - » FeedBurner - Interview

Posted by Steve at 07:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 09, 2007

iPhone: why Cingular exclusive? here's why

Introducing iPhone
 
This is all conjecture, but here's my guess on why Apple chose to give Cingular the exclusive on the iPhone:
 
I'm guessing this is $800-900 device.  The way these deals usually get done is the manufacturer has to make a deal with the carrier to sell  a minimum X number of phones at a retail price that is palatable to consumers (in this case, $499 or $599 depending on the storage capacity of 4GB or 8GB), in exchange for the exclusive and being able to lock the subscriber up for 1 or 2 years.  Cingular agrees to eat a few hundred dollars per device that they hope to make back by locking you into that contract, and for a device like this, enticing you to sign up for a $39.99 all you can eat data plan to go with the phone and whatever voice plan you choose.  When they don't meet their minimum X, they are generally sold off to secondary retailers and authorized resellers such as inphonic (wirefly.com) or Amazon.
 
If you read your Cingular contract carefully, you will see there is a replacement cost for your phone that will generally exceed the price you are paying by quite a bit.
 
Let's face it, this will be a hot phone, so I'm sure it wasn't a hard deal for Cingular to stomach, even with the steep subsidy cost. Having an exclusive allows Cingular to control their profit or loss on the device. It's good for Apple, because they can get distribution of their device at a retail price that is well below their cost while they work with their manufacturer on finding cheaper components to raise margins for their version 2 device.
 
Apple's marketing plans clearly called for a device to be sold outside the U.S. (read the 10:48 comment at engadget that mentions Europe in Q4 07 and Asia in 08) - so that cut out Sprint and Verizon, whose CDMA networks aren't very compatible with any other place except Korea.  That leaves T-Mobile and Cingular, who have GSM networks.   I'm sure they shopped the deal, but if i were doing this deal, I'd look at the demographics of both networks and probably arrive at the same conclusion.
 

Link to Apple - iPhone

Posted by Steve at 02:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 05, 2007

Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360 Box Art and Bundle Picture - Xbox

Alright, now we're getting somewhere - packaging for Guitar Hero II for the 360 has been released. With downloadable content, that is, you aren't locked into the songs that come on the disc, this will have to be a winner. 

 

Link to Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360 Box Art and Bundle Picture - Xbox

Posted by Steve at 08:51 AM | Comments (376) | TrackBack

Top Keywords for this site

I am always amazed by the keywords people use to get to this blog. I don't get linked to that often, so all my traffic either comes from my feed, or search. here are the search keywords used most often:

4.65% audiovox smt 5600 parts
4.65% mobile porn site
4.65% star blazers download
4.65% how to play music on ps3 while playing games
2.33% boost typepad stats
2.33% newsreader for nokia6680
2.33% skype nokiae70
2.33% do nielsen families get paid
2.33% lacoste music on their site
2.33% most creative plumbing advertisements
2.33% blackberry connect 3.45
2.33% lg cu500 dial-up networking help
2.33% cingular lg cu500 sound player playlist
2.33% sonyericssonw710i-mms
2.33% midp2.0 rss reader
2.33% w810 mobipocket
2.33% porn
2.33% what's new 4.03.38 n
2.33% gears of war ad spoofs
2.33% average xbox360 achievements
2.33% funny certified lines
2.33% psp connect with t mobile
2.33% flickr upload cu500
2.33% real player in audiovox smt5600
2.33% moto razr vs w810 i
2.33% nokian93-1/20.0.026 symbianos/9.1 series60/3.0 profile/midp-2.0 configuration/cldc-1.1
2.33% wonder brick used cell phones
2.33% mobile porn wallpapers
2.33% playstation bb navigator
2.33% netgear wpnt834 sky
2.33% free browser for se w800i
2.33% resident evil youtube welcome jungle
2.33% will blackberry 7230 gsm unlocked phone work with skype

Posted by Steve at 06:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 04, 2007

Montana



i'm always amazed with the vastness of the Montana sky. it really is "big" and this picture doesn't do it justice. just got done with a short vacation (after a 3 day air delay, yes, 3 day) - well, as much as one can take a vacation these days. it's really amazing how good the cell phone reception is at ski resorts. i guess because they can make money by renting real estate for towers at the top! in between skiing (which was truly amazing since i couldn't even walk two weeks ago) i had to take a bunch of calls at the top of the mountain, bottom of the mountain...you name it. and the reception was always better than at my house.

at any rate enjoy this cool rock formation that was in view during this entire run.

Posted by Steve at 10:41 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack