Yes, everything is going according to plan...
Below is a video Nicole made of her totally rad Splicer costume that I think turned out pretty well! We’ll post some pics of the finished product sometime tomorrow. Enjoy!
Nicole and I have run into a fundamental problem each week with our posting. Lately we’ve worked toward more original posts and less ‘newsy’ posts because we realized there is way too much happening in geek culture each week to aptly catalog with daily posts. So, starting today we’ll begin posting your geekend updates where you can at-a-glance see all the cool stuff we’ve come across each week. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
Set Up a Whole House Speaker System Using Existing Phone Lines – via Lifehacker
Store Your Boardgames by Displaying Them as Art – via Lifehacker
Procrastinate on This! The Force is Strong Within Adidas (Seriously, this is an awesome video!) – via Fierce and Nerdy
Xbox Live Support to be Pulled for Original Xbox Games on April 15th – via VideoGame Geek
30 Commercial Games Released for Free – via GamesRadar
Splinter Cell: Conviction Release Date Literally Set in Stone – via Kotaku
AVP Multiplayer Demo Now Available – via Destructoid
How To Cheat Your Way to the Heavy Rain Demo – via Kotaku
Get Mass Effect 2 Dr. Pepper DLC Without Buying Dr. Pepper – via Destructoid
The Bioshock 2 Launch Trailer – Enjoy!
Twitterfall – Really neat search utility for Twitter
Apple Paying Back Bonuses on Cost of Defective 27-inch iMacs – via TUAW
That’s all for this week! Have a great weekend and be sure to drive safe in all that snow out there, Columbus!
Todo lists are a staple of personal and professional productivity. They keep us abreast of what tasks we have to perform in any given day or week and give us a plan of attack for our daily lives. However, there are many, many ToDo applications out there to choose from. I’ve seen some really great applications for managing responsibilities and I’ve seen some bad ones. But I’ve also found that if you spend too much time trying to find the perfect productivity, it can become a kind of drain that hilariously, hinders productivity!
One of the hallmarks of any geek is to find more efficient ways to accomplish tasks, but in our age of slickly styled, feature-rich productivity applications, it can become easy to get so caught up in figuring out what works for us that the search itself can steal away minutes, hours, or even days in finding what works best.
Now I’m not advocating you give up on keeping a ToDo. There are some great apps our there to be sure (Evernote, Things, and Remember The Milk come to mind). However, it’s important that if you’re going to explore the merits of some of these that you set limits for yourself. Say 20 minutes a day to try a new app, explore its feature set, and decide on whether it fits your schedule/lifestyle. Then give it a trial run and see if stands up to your demanding schedule. Try to give each one at least a week before writing it off and moving on to the next.
I’m as guilty as anyone else of this and kind of had a moment of realization this week while I was debating what I should use to track what I’m working on. Then it just kind of hit me that the important thing is that you don’t allow your quest for productivity become an outlet for you to avoid doing the things that you’d like to put off. It’d be like skipping work for a week solely to mull over a new car purchase to get you there.
While everyone’s been all hyped up about Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect 2 lately, in the midst of the chaos I found another truly remarkable game that deserves your attention. Canabalt, a 2D escapist platformer may be well known to many of you, but what you may not know is that it made its way to the appstore in the form an incredibly addictive and well-ported iPhone game. In the legendary words of Ron Burgundy, apparently you just run! Alright, to be fair there’s a lot of jumping in there too, but that about covers all the bases. Amazingly, it was created by only three guys over at Semi Secret Software and man did they nail what it takes to make a great game. I’ve always said that solid gameplay will immortalize a title more than aesthetics alone ever could, and Canabalt is certainly no exception. Its gameplay is simple, addictive, and most of all fun. You can purchase it from the app store here for only $.099.
I requested to work the midnight launch of BioShock 2 since BioShock is one of my all-time fave games, and because my manager is awesome she’s also letting me and a couple of my co-workers cosplay as splicers. Of course I’m going to be a spider splicer!
Tonight I was doing some research for costumes and masks and I stumbled across this interesting fellow: Walter Yeo. Apparently he was a WWI soldier who sustained awful facial injuries, and is thought to be the first patient to ever undergo plastic surgery. Sir Harold Gillies was Yeo’s “surgeon” and developed “tubed pedical”, a type of skin grafting. Even without BioShock’s influence this picture is horrifying enough, but if and when you get to play BioShock and encounter Dr. Steinman for the first time, you’ll see why this gives you the chills even more. In the game Dr. Steinman is a lunatic doctor who despises symmetry and admires Picasso – so he attempts to create his own masterpieces on people. Check out the similarities!
There will probably be video and pictures to come like I did with my Silent Hill nurse’s costume, so stay tuned! 
As I write this, I’m sitting at at my desk in the basement with only the sights and sounds of Bioshock behind me. Nicole’s played, I’d say no less than 7 hours or so today, meticulously working through a strategy guide to research every last splicer, recover each and every audio log, and rescue every last little sister. Normally I’d implore her to pop in something we can both play together, but not tonight. No, tonight I’m simply as fascinated watching her play through Andrew Ryan’s twisted and derelict underwater dystopia as I was the first time I entered that fateful bathysphere over two years ago. So why am I so enthralled at the adventure I’ve already experienced? Is it because the sequel is just around the corner, launching next week? Certainly, but it’s more than just that. Read on if you’d like to know more about why I hold Irrational Games’ masterpiece in such a high esteem.
Starting today, I’ve decided to add a new category to our site, Local Awesomeness. It was an easy choice as I got to experience the pure awesomeness of Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace last night and it was a positively phenomenal experience. Dirty Frank’s is located in downtown Columbus and serves a variety of local beers on tap and the best hot dogs I’ve ever had. Period. Previously, I’d held Myrtle Beach’s Sam’s Hot Dog Stand as the holy grail of hotdogs, but Dirty Frank’s just ousted it without breaking a sweat.
I’m sure you’d be tempted to think that they’re ‘just’ hot dogs, but you’d be completely wrong. I’ve never had a Puff the Magic Popper before last night, but eating a poppy-seed bun hot dog adorned with cheddar cream cheese, jalapen?os, & real bacon bits with a side of Tater Tatchos was absolutely delicious.
It’s not just the taste that makes it an awesome place to eat either. Everyone who was working was super nice and talkative even if they weren’t our server. Mine and Nicole’s dogs were out in less than 5 minutes and to top it all off, their prices are incredibly reasonable. About the only thing negative I can say is that it’s kind of a small place, but the atmosphere is vivid and its being packed with a line of people out the door I’m sure is just a testament to what a great place to eat Dirty Frank’s really is.
So thanks for the awesome food guys and rest assured we’ll be back to try every dog you’ve got!
Although I’m a huge music nerd, I never have been one to flock to the mega-super-massive type concert/festivals featuring every band to ever produce a myspace album (Lollapalooza, Warped Tour, etc.). Too crowded, too many bands I don’t care about, too wild. Today while I was browsing MC Chris’ tour schedule I realized the only other date that he was scheduled for was this concert called “The Bamboozle”. I remembered the name vaguely but was immediately hesitant because it gave off the super-concert vibe. However, after reading the lineup, I know now there is no way I cannot attend this gathering.
Apple launched their much talked about tablet yesterday, iPad. As I’m sure most of you know, Nicole and I are big fans of Apple products and had been reading the rumors of the fabled device over the past 6 months, eagerly anticipating the launch of the next hot gadget. While I’d very much been considering building a hackintosh netbook leading up to yesterday, I kept holding out to see if Apple could deliver a comparable experience in an official Apple product. Did they deliver? Read on to find out.
Before I launch into what’s holding me back from running out to grab an iPad in a couple of months at launch, let’s take a look at the raw specs-
iPad is a tablet with a 9.7″ screen, integrated microphone and speaker, weighing in at a mere 1.5 pounds. The screen features capacitive multitouch powered by a custom-built CPU from Apple, the A4 (1GHz). Storage capacity is either 16, 32, or 64GB. As for connectivity, the iPad boasts integrated WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and optional 3G connectivity should you want to sign up for a data plan with AT&T. There is also a 30-pin dock connector and Apple projects over a month of standby time with an average of 10 hours of battery life.
All of this starts at $499, though if you got the 64GB, 3G-enabled version you’ll be looking to spend over $800.
So what does this all amount to? Effectively an over-sized iPod Touch. Yes, there are some differences. For example, Apple has overhauled their default applications to take advantage of the extended screen real estate and many of them (the Calendar in particular) look quite good! Also, the iBooks application which allows you to purchase books online and have them immediately displayed on a very slick looking digital bookshelf the Kindle look decidedly bland.
However, before I can throw my support behind this product, I need to examine who it’s intended for and what market it’s attempting to conquer. The answer is a difficult one, as Apple appears to be defining this new market as the middle ground between the netbook and the mobile phone. However, with their emphasis on iBooks now, they’re clearly looking to make headway in the e-reader market as well. Trying to conquer all of these at once with the iPad is an undertaking indeed.
At first glance their all-in-oneder device looks impressive, though there are some glaring caveats that I just can’t shake at present. Chief among them is again the locked-down nature of the platform. Apple claims nearly all of the apps for the iPhone will work on the iPad, it’s still crippled in terms of serving as a legitimate computing platform. If Apple says you can put an app on there, great! If you want software that isn’t approved though, you’re out of luck (unless of course, you’re into jailbreaking).
Perhaps more than just the locked out software base, the internet’s cries for full-blown multitasking on Apple’s family of touch-based devices have again fallen on deaf ears. Could battery life be impacted by this? Most certainly, but the option should at least be there should we desire. The Android platform is already making headway in this area and it’s a shame to see Apple falling behind in such a basic area of modern computing.
I suppose after considering all Apple has to offer with the iPad, I’m just not completely sure if it’s for me. Sure I’ve been wanting an e-reader for a while and this device clearly outshines the Kindle imho, but I can’t help but think that buyer’s remorse would stalk me down post-purchase, reminding me of all of the tiny missed opportunities for such a sexy device.
What about you all? Will you be picking up an iPad?
Yes, I’m talking to you, bro. I understand that your popped collar and livestrong bracelet necessitate your weekly beer pong in the garage two doors down from me every Saturday night, but I’m not here to talk about that. No sir, I’m here to plead with you over a far less irritating, though certainly humorous, infraction. So if you could turn down that Jack Johnson for a second and take a listen that would be super.
The other night I went to the Mass Effect 2 launch where apparently MAG (Massive Action Game) also launched. Whilst hovering about the counter, making small talk with Nicole and again enjoying the excited chatter of sci-fi geeks all around, eager for their fix, I couldn’t help but notice that two college-aged bros (the most prominent species) had just purchased copies of MAG. The conversation played out like this:
Bro 1 : Dude, I just realized, MAG stands for Multiplayer Online Game! I just now realized that!
Now, at this point I chuckled to myself and waited for Bro 2’s inexorable retort, explaining how that doesn’t fall in line with the practical application of acronyms. But then this happened:
Bro 2 : Oh my God you’re right! How did we not notice that?! That’s awesome!
I literally facepalmed. We always throw the term ‘facepalm’ around on the interwebs these days but with an audible slap, my hand met my face in a most jarring confrontation.
So let this be a lesson bros- While we much appreciate your steady stream of Natty Ice you supply us with and even enjoy the nail-biting, proximity-mine whoring, spawn-point camping you employ in a rousing game of Goldeneye, for God’s sakes, please don’t try to decipher anything deeper than spawn camping until you first conquer the game’s title.
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