Apple IPad?

Going to air late last year, MAD TV Seems to have been onto something...




Poor Mr. Jobs.... here's a full Jobs style rundown of the new Apple wonder device.

Video - Robin Williams talks about video games...

Video Games | | robin williams talks video games

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Zero Punctuation: Darksiders

Ghostbusters 3 Coming In 3D?

So it’s really starting to look like Ghostbusters 3 is a go, but we’re living in a post-Avatar world which means just about anyone making a big summer tentpole like this is bound to be looking for ways to take things up a notch. For Ghostbusters 3, that may mean 3D.

Marketsaw claims that director Ivan Reitman is planning to push the Ghostbusters into three dimensions by shooting his movie in stereoscopic 3D. Stereoscopy is a process used to record an image giving it the illusion of depth. If true, that should put it on par with most of the great 3D we’re getting used to, you’ll be able to throw on your Real D glasses and watch Slimer float over the audience.
I’ll be the first to say that not every movie needs to be in 3D, and the recent rush to respond to Avatar by forcing them all into the format has, in some cases gone too far. But not here. Ghostbusters 3 is the ideal candidate for a great 3D experience. It’s an effects heavy film, full of floaty ghosts and weird plasma explosions; great fodder for a 3D hungry audience.

The last word on Ghostbusters 3 was that Ivan Reitman is on board, confirmed as director. The script is being written somewhere over at Columbia Pictures by Lee Eisneberg and Gene Stupnitsky. Most importantly, the cast all now seems to be on board with doing it. Sigourney Weaver recently gave in and said she’d be up for another spin in Ecto 1 while Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson are all expected to return in some capacity

Linky...

Movie News - Avatar spurs on George Lucas' Star Wars 3D plans

By Marc Chacksfield

Star Wars 3D has been given a new lease of life thanks to James Cameron's Avatar. According to Star Wars creator George Lucas, the project had been stalling but after seeing Avatar become such a success at the cinema, it has given him, ahem, a new hope to make the project a success."I'm happy it's so successful, and worked very well in 3D," Lucas explained to Access Hollywood about Avatar. "I haven't been a big fan of 3D, but that movie definitely improves in [the field of] 3D."

Star Wars struggle

When prompted about his own 3D plans, he noted: "We've been looking for years and years and years of trying to take Star Wars and put it in 3D ... But, the technology hasn't been there. "We've been struggling with it, but I think this will be a new impetus to make that happen." Any Star Wars release has always brought with it a sense of occasion. When the Original Trilogy finally came to DVD there was much fanfare and we're expecting the same sort of response when they finally make it to Blu-ray.There's not a fixed date on Blu-ray plans but we expect plans to be announced soon, maybe at a similar time as when the 3D versions of the film are announced for cinemas.Once that happens you can pretty much call the Star Wars franchise one cash cow that's been well and truly milked.

linky...

Game Video - Mass Effect 2 Launch Trailer!

Mass Effect 2 is just a week away from release from release on January 21st and BioWare has just givin us another tease with their launch trailer. Man this looks good... watch it full screen and just take it all in.

Science - Dinosaur "Death Pits" Created by Giant's Footprints?

Brian Handwerk

for National Geographic News

Published January 19, 2010

Following in a giant dinosaur's footsteps could be fatal—but not for the reasons you might suspect.

Mysterious "death pits" holding the fossil skeletons of nearly two dozen small dinosaur species may actually be the 160-million-year-old footprints of an ancient behemoth, a new study suggests.

The first of three dino-filled pits was unearthed nearly a decade ago in northwestern China's remote Xinjiang region.

Inside the 3.5- to 6.5-foot-deep (1- to 2-meter-deep) depressions were the largely complete skeletons of several species of small theropods, bipedal raptors from the lineage that includes Tyrannosaurus rex.


The stacked fossils included Guanlong, or "crested dragon," a T. tex ancestor with a Mohawk-like head adornment. Limusaurus, also found in the pits, was a probable herbivore with an intriguing hand that some experts believe links dinosaur limbs to bird wings.

Even as scientists celebrated these rare fossil finds, a mystery remained: What created the death traps in which the animals were entombed?

Treacherous Tracks

Analysis of the rocks surrounding the dinosaur fossils shows that the unfortunate animals were stacked up inside in a mixture of volcanic mudstone and sandstone, say geologist David Eberth and colleagues, whose work was partially funded by the National Geographic Society.

"All of the geological data indicated to us that we're dealing with sediments that were originally very rich in fluids," said Eberth, of Alberta's Royal Tyrrell Museum. "These were never empty holes in the landscape."

read more...

CO-OP Video - Gaming Reflections 2009, Part 1

VIDEO Fairwell to the Tote.... we will remember you

Golden Globes - Ricky Gervais Pokes Fun at Mel Gibson VIDEO

Game News- Final Fantasy XIII Video

Coming March 9th Final Fantasy come to the next gen consoles. Watch the video and try to ignore the really shit house music..... and the female orientated pitch in the first half.

Game News - Let your Xbox 360 blog for you..?

Well this is a strange discovery. Apparently you can log into a website with your Xbox Live gamrtag and then you're xbox will start blogging on when you're doing online. It's really quite odd and the box seems to be a little dirty and a real try-hard, not the kind of person I'd be hanging out with. I'm not sure if I'm going to give it a go or not but I will have a look at some others....

Here are some examples of the Boxs writing proweless.

GTCv Deimos' Xbox - Jan 14 2010

GTCv Deimos is awesome! Just plain radical even... I say that because we played some games. Did you know our gamerscore is 24,577? He opened up Gears of War 2, Space Invaders Extreme, and then it felt like he threw my controller and I was like, TAKE IT EASY SHEESH and we stopped. 

Stallion83's Xbox - Jan 10 2010

Stallion83 decided to game yesterday and we rocked out like the three musketeers, except there were only two of us... 407,649 points of total gamerscore and counting... That is an increase of 355 points over last time! He made some progress on Darksiders adding an amazing 7 achievements to master the game, Fallout 3 finishing 4 achievements, Planet 51 gaining an amazing 9 achievements, BAYONETTA adding 3 achievements, and after we were done, Stallion83 hugged me with his eyes. It was one of those platonic hugs... you know... 

homepage..

Zero Punctuation: Torchlight

Internet Speeds And Costs From Around The World

Here's a handy little graphic that makes us all jealous of Japan and lament Australia's plans....

Science News - Scientists ready to create a second sun?!?!?!

Sounds like a Harry Harrison novel no? 

 
Holy smokes... Scientists in Southern France are in the middle of making an artificial sun that will be used as a renewable energy source. Can humanity really control such a force? Sounding like something that destroyed the planet in Fallout 3 the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is due to be completed in 2018 and has totally taken me by surprise. The idea is to create controlable fusion on a small scale using huge woven magnetic fields to contain the 150 million kelvin plasma (149999726.85 °C if my math is correct).


Costing around €10bn involving backing from several national and supranational parties including the EU, India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and the USA this project is on par with the ambition of the LHC.



A very cool piece of science news and there are other options for our future fusion needs including DEMO, Wendelstein 7-X^, NIF, HiPER, IFMIF, and JET.

Want some more on ITER? 

New Scientist Aricle: Building a second sun: Take $10 billion, add coconuts

Official ITER Website - (Warning, it's all in French)

Video - We got that B roll!

Video - Arni Goodness...

I'm a huge Anri fan from way back. I mean Commando is one of my favorite action films, well favorite in the land of the B reel. Here are a few random commercials from Arnold Schwarzenegger's past...

Movie News - Newish Iron Man 2 Trailer

oooooHHhhh man... this looks sweet.

Video - Microsoft Office 2010: The Movie

Microsoft's latest viral campaign..... Office 2010: The Movie



Official Site.

3D TV: Comcast CEO Talks Monies

When he was interviewed by CNBC at CES, Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts discussed Comcast’s acquisition of NBC-Universal and showed some real exictement about 3D TV.

CES News - Discovery and ESPN Hop on the 3D TV Bandwagon

Once deemed a novelty, 3D is now being heralded by some (like uber-mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg) as the future of the movie industry. It might also be the future of television, as companies like Imax, Discovery and Sony team up to bring 3D programming to the small screen.

The joint venture is expected to be officially announced sometime today. While all three companies will hold an equal stake in the channel, it will be distributed by Discovery Communications. According to The New York Times, the channel will showcase a mix of 3D content. (Imax and Discovery partnered together in the early days of HDTV.) You can read Discovery’s official announcement here.

3D TV is expected to be a hot topic at CES this year, with companies lining up to announce their plans to bring the digital 3D experience to consumers’ homes. Last week, we reported on DirecTV’s plans to launch a 3D HDTV channel in March.

DirecTV and Discovery aren’t the only companies to announce engagement with 3D HDTV; earlier today ESPN announced its plans to launch a 3D channel in June. ESPN 3D is expected to showcase at least 85 live sporting events in its first year, kicking off (so to speak) with the World Cup soccer match on June 11. The station will go dark when there are no 3D events — much like ESPN’s initial HD coverage.

Of course, to enjoy these new 3D HDTV channels, consumers will need to own a 3D-capable HDTV set. Manufacturers will have plenty of sets on display. Like HDTV, the risk for 3D television is the relative expense of producing and broadcasting the content in relation to the number of homes with compatible devices installed.

However, the slow-as-molasses conversion to HDTV could actually benefit 3D TV technology, as consumers may decide to upgrade to a 3D-capable set when moving to HDTV or replacing an aging HD unit.

What do you think about 3D TV? Is this something you could see investing in?

Full Article...

Tech News - CES News : The Skiff Reader

We had a chance to sit down with representatives from Skiff and Sprint to get a first-hand look at the new Skiff Reader, and came away suitably impressed.

In an increasingly crowded eReader market, Skiff distinguishes itself by taking a more platform-oriented approach than a device-specific one.

With a large, 11.5-inch form factor, the Skiff Reader is geared toward bringing newspapers and magazines to digital life more so than the primarily book-oriented approach of several of the other eReader devices out there (Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Spring Design Alex, for example). You’ll still be able to download and read books from its content store (which at launch will include an undisclosed volume from a variety of publishers beyond Hearst), who is heavily involved in backing the Skiff project. read more...

Tech News - Forget the Googles Nexus One, We Want the Coke-Powered Phone

From Could sugary sodas power your next phone? Chinese designer Daizi Zheng thinks so. He’s created a conceptual model of a phone, for Nokia, that would run on bio battery, using enzymes to generate electricity from carbohydrates.

Essentially Zheng’s conceptual phone would only need a sugary soda to operate.
We don’t know about you, but we’re totally fascinated by the idea and intrigued by the notion of getting refills for our phones in the future. No word from fast food chains on whether or not a soda phone refill will cost extra.

Dezeen has the scoop on the story and shares Zheng’s idea and photos. In Zheng’s own words:

“Through out my research, I found that phone battery as a power source, it is expensive, consuming valuable resources on manufacturing, presenting a disposal problem and harmful to the environment.

The concept is using bio battery to replace the traditional battery to create a pollution free environment.

Bio battery is an ecologically friendly energy generates electricity from carbohydrates (currently sugar) and utilizes enzymes as the catalyst.
By using bio battery as the power source of the phone, it only needs a pack of sugary drink and it generates water and oxygen while the battery dies out.

Bio battery has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium batteries and it could be fully biodegradable.”

Source Article...

Got some free time for time lapse?

Got some spare time at work? Want something cool to look at with no narative? Welcome to Time Warp. A scientist, teacher, and artist Jeff Lieberman  teams up with high speed camera expert Matt Kearney to do some really cool stuff.  They've finished season 2 for America's Discovery Channel and I'm hoping for more. If you can ignore the super cheezy voice over it's well worth a look.

Here's a best of video from the first season... I think.


Their Homepage on Discovery... or maybe go through some selected videos frame by frame

Games to look forward to in 2010

From Switched.com
by Evan Shamoon — Jan 4th 2010 at 12:45PM

'Heavy Rain'
What It's About: A murder mystery set in the northeast, 'Heavy Rain' is a dark, film noir-style thriller. The graphics are nearly photo-realistic -- so good, in fact, that when Sony saw the developer's early tech demo at E3 2006, they were so impressed that they decided to pick up and publish the game themselves.

Why It's Important: 'Heavy Rain' is French studio Quantic Dream's latest attempt to reinvent narrative in video games (their last game, Indigo Prophecy, got about halfway there). Even games ostensibly about "story" ('Grand Theft Auto,' 'BioShock,' et al.) are essentially action games; 'Heavy Rain,' however, is very much its own beast, about normal people and only punctuated by moments of action. It's a mature take on video games, and is full of moral choices, inventive control schemes, and emotional depth. Now, of course, we just need to wait and see if it's actually any fun...

Release Date: February 16, 2010
Video: Trailer
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God Of War III
What It's About: Greek gods doing very, very violent things to one another. Essentially hack-and-slash action gaming at its finest, 'God of War III' will be more, bigger, stronger.

Why It's Important: The 'God of War' series is a perennial favorite of many a PlayStation 2 owner, and 'GoWIII' represents the first game in the series designed for Sony's PlayStation 3 hardware. The series has always been known for being over-the-top: enormous, screen-filling bosses, spectacular environments, and Mount freaking Olympus. Combo chains will be longer (as many as 50 consecutive hits), weapons will be more diverse (the Cestus, a pair of gauntlets shaped like lion heads, are actually able to smash through rocks), and some truly spectacular set-pieces (flying on the Wings of Icarus, anyone?). Full 1080p graphics and Sixaxis tilt functionality round out what is going to be a very gory package (not for the kiddies, this one).

Release Date: ???
Video: Trailer

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'Battlefield Bad Company 2'

What It's About: A war game set along the borders of Russia, 'Bad Company 2' is about soldiers with bad attitudes (and big guns).

Why It's Important: After it became the highest-grossing opening weekend entertainment product of all time, it's tough to follow up 'Modern Warfare 2.' But 'Battlefield: Bad Company 2' is a different beast: rather than the scripted set-pieces of 'MW2,' 'Bad Company' allows players to play through its missions using their own approaches and techniques. Destructible environments allow for complex tactical operations: players can now completely destroy entire buildings, for example, and a complex physics engine means the environment (and enemies) around them will react realistically. There will be new vehicles in 'Bad Company 2,' such as a quad bike, a two-man patrol boat, and a UAV helicopter (controlled via laptop). The game takes itself less seriously than most military games, and the multiplayer mode promises big things.

Release Date: March 2, 2010
Video: Trailer
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'Mass Effect 2'

What It's About: Sorta like an interactive 'Battlestar Galactica,' 'Mass Effect 2' is a sequel to the 2007 Bioware hit.

Why It's Important: 'Mass Effect' was a jack-of-all-trades: taking elements of RPGs, shooters, and interactive storytelling, everything congealed to make a rather epic space opera. But none of these elements was superb: the shooting was so-so, and the RPG and story were a bit convoluted. 'ME2' looks to smooth things out in every way: action is more fluid, and regenerating health means players don't need to be constantly looking for pesky "medi-gel" packs. Character animations have been ramped up from 20 to more than 200, and the number of available weapons has more than quadrupled. The stylized graphics and soundtrack out of an '80's John Carpenter film are back, all of which should make 'ME2' a must play -- particularly for those who can't get enough outer space in their lives.

Release Date: January 29, 2010
Video: Trailer

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'Final Fantasy XIII'

What It's About: The Japanese RPG at its most spectacular. Technology versus nature, good versus evil, and strategic, command-based battles, all wrapped in some of the most mind-blowing graphics you've ever seen.

Why It's Important: The game just sold 1.8 million copies in a struggling Japanese games market on its opening day, and will undoubtedly do similarly huge numbers that when it launches here in the US. This is the first true 'Final Fantasy' sequel in over three years, and the first for the Xbox 360/PS3 generation of consoles. This is about as big as games get, with gorgeous graphics and more feathered haircuts than a Morrissey concert.

Release Date: March 9, 2010
Video: Trailer

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'Lost Planet 2'

 What It's About: A science fiction shooter set atop snow-capped mountains and inside lush jungles. Oh, and you can climb into (and wreak havoc with) more than a dozen awesome mechs.

Why It's Important: The original was something of a surprise hit for Capcom, and the sequel takes place on the same (lost) planet 10 years later. The RPG elements and ability to fully customize your hero adds a great deal of variety to proceedings, and the enormous boss battles look absolutely terrifying. New to the sequel is four player online co-op support for the campaign mode, and the 16-player versus mode looks infinitely more polished.

Release Date: February 10, 2010
Video: Trailer

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'Starcraft II'

 What It's About: Fast-paced strategy gaming at its finest (and most addictive).

Why It's Important: The long awaited sequel to what is arguably the quintessential realtime strategy (RTS) title of all time,
Starcraft II' brings back the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg factions for more interstellar warfare. The multiplayer aspects of the original were a huge hit around the globe, particularly in Korea (where the game is still popular today, some 12 years later); unsurprisingly, multiplayer will be a huge part of the sequel. A new "ladder" system for ranked games and a new matchmaking engine should finding and fighting opponents an even smoother process, and cinematic cut scenes are once again implemented to keep the plot moving.

Release Date: Q2 2010
Video: Trailer

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'Alan Wake'

What It's About: A "psychological action thriller" from the folks who brought you 'Max Payne,' the game concerns Alan Wake, a bestselling writer, who finds himself trying to find his kidnapped wife in the small town he initially sought out for creative refuge.

Why It's Important: 'Alan Wake' has been in development for more than five years, which is a long time even in big-budget video game terms. The game does a series of very interesting things: for one, the story takes place in an episodic format, with a television-style presentation (of which the game represents the first season). One of your character's main "weapons" is a flashlight, which is used to combat the game's dark forces; likewise, the player will be forced to use Alan's surroundings to his advantage (fire, explosives, other light sources). Once developer Remedy can get past its writer's block and get the game out the door, it should be well worth the wait.

Release Date: Q2 2010
Video: Trailer

Microsoft's Project Natal SPECIAL!

2010 is a big year for the gaming. The conglomeration of various game production houses, some of the biggest titles to be released on the next gen consoles (even though they may have been held back to avoid the overwhelming sales power of Modern Warfare 2) as well as improving Video On Demand services and the addition of a some very special new pieces of hardware. Microsofts Project Natal (Natal?) Has been doing the virtual rounds since June last year when we were given a visual treat as the below video was released at E3...

Older Release Video


Newer Demo Video




Now it all looks very cool and it's been announced three of the games shown at the E3 press conference will  become launch titles along with the promise of further demos involving adaptations of Beautiful Katamari and Space Invaders Extreme being released.

Oh Katamari, you will rock so hard if this comes to fruition.... epically the new version in HD :)

Anyway, the basic idea behind Natal is that the camera can process your bodies movements in 4 cm chunks and recognition of 31 different body parts in any video frame. No controllers, no wiimotes nothing just you're body movements (AKA Super Eye-toy). It's also been programmed to recognise the location of your hands even when they may be obscured from view understanding that most humans have two hands, feet legs and so on. If you're a meat packer with only one limb you may be in for some trouble but I doubt that Xbox's new peripheral is the biggest of you're concerns.

Microsoft collected "terabytes" of data from people in poses likely to crop up during game play, both in motion capture studios and their own homes. Frames from the home videos were manually labeled to identify key body parts, and the data was then fed into "expert system" software running on a powerful cluster of computers. The result was a 50-megabyte software package that only leans on the 360's processing power by around 10 - 15%. Not bad considering the number crunching involved. Also it can recognize any pose in just 10 milliseconds, not quite as good as Hollywood's Motion Capture tech millimetre precision but decent enough for us regular gaming folk.

With Sony releasing the PS3's Motion Controller (or Magic Wand... see video) set for a Spring 2010 release Natal is starting on the back foot  with it's own Christmas 2010 release date. I'm sure that more info and demo's will become available over the coming months so stay tuned. Maybe there will be a Tracy Jorden type announcement of a Porn Videogame "Goregasm: The Legend of the Dong-Slayer" with no controls.... just sweet sweet gestures. Hummm....

Free 8-Bit Take on Left 4 Dead

Ahhh.... memories of Double Dragon and Battletoads comes to mind. This reworking of the hugely popular Left 4 Dead throws a slice of nostalgia down this little monkeys throat and has prompted me for crack out my old NES. It's interesting how game styles have been affected by improving hardware and graphic capabilities. I doubt that a game like this would have gone anywhere in the world of 8 bit, or even 16 bit gaming.  It goes to show what you can do in your mum's garage over a few weekends, and is quite cool for those pixel twits out there as the sprits looks pretty good.




Link through of Mr. Eric Ruth's homepage where you can download this game and more... I personally really like "The Angry Video Game Nerd" Game based on the below video.

Tech News: "Witch hunting" on the web. The latest Korean fad?

By Jiyeon Lee - GlobalPost

Published: January 6, 2010 06:32 ET

The most wired country in the world has always been on the forefront of internet trends. Now, they're on the cusp of cyber-violence.

SEOUL, South Korea — One day you wake up to find your personal life plastered all over the web — photographs of your school days, anonymous comments you made on websites and images of your Facebook page. What do you do?

Most South Koreans would advise you to “disappear” for a while. When a university student, who was recently attacked in such a way, responded by posting more things on the web, it only served to fuel the fire.
The student, dubbed “loser girl” by the public, found herself in the web spotlight after appearing on a popular television show, saying: “I don’t want to go out with men under 180 centimeters … . Short guys are losers.” She tried to apologize, but her efforts led to further cyber-attacks.
South Korea, the most wired country in the world, has been at the forefront of many internet-related problems — such as internet addiction. Now that South Korea is experiencing an escalating number of these cyber-attacks, dubbed "witch-hunting" by the local media, it finds itself again on the cusp of a troubling trend. This, more violent, internet-related problem challenges law enforcement jurisdictions and demands fast answers.
Despite the flurry of comments — some, particularly ill-minded against the student, like, “I guess the next news we’ll be hearing is about the loser girl committing suicide” — the case ultimately fizzled, with the television program issuing an apology for not filtering their content before airing it.
The word “loser” soon became a buzzword, and many web users added humor to the case by circulating postings related to successful men who are under 180 centimeters. “Is it Tom Cruiser and Martine Loser King then?” read some of the postings playing on the Korean pronunciation of the word loser.

But the fiasco also made people question whether web sabotage should go unaddressed. Earlier this year a popular boy-band leader, who is Korean-American, was forced to leave his team after someone dug up a posting he had made on MySpace speaking in negative light about Koreans. Read More...

 

Zero Punctuation: Awards for 2009

So the ever angry Yahtzee has his round up for 2009, handing out awesome awards like the "Razor Blade Filled Vagina Award". Hopefully 2010 will bring the poor angry pom something to rave about.

Super looking Flash Animation - The last of the dashkin

Loads of work has gone into this.... I want more!

Japanese Photographer Bends Electricity to His Will

By Jon J. Eilenberg

Whether making ultralong exposures of movie screens or photographing museum dioramas to look like real scenes, Hiroshi Sugimoto has always used his camera to explore unseen phenomena — artifacts of time, light, the elements, and human perception. But for his latest project, called Lightning Fields, the award-winning photographer traded optics for electricity. He wields a Van de Graaf generator to send up to 400,000 volts through film to a metal table. The resulting fractal branching, subtle feathering, and furry whorls call to mind vascular systems, geologic features, and trees. “I see the spark of life itself, the lightning that struck the primordial ooze,” Sugimoto says. Although some of the effects happen by chance, the artist does try to exercise control. “I have a kitchen’s worth of utensils that produce sparks with different characteristics,” he says. “But there are many variables — weather, humidity, perhaps even what I had for breakfast — I’m never sure what influences the results.” more pics...

Zero Punctuation: Saboteur