“There was no peace to make. We were not at war. We made great products, and competition was always a positive thing. There was no [cause for] forgiveness.”

Good Guy Bill Gates

→ The Great and Powerful Reddit

Reddit isn’t meant to inspire sustained political participation; the hive mind is frenetic, and I’m sure it will soon tire of SOPA and move on to something else. Reddit’s powers can sometimes be terribly misused, and sometimes it’s a force for good. Question its might at your peril.

Article is a good primer to the best/worst of Reddit. Also for RSS users I HIGHLY suggest adding the Inline Reddit feed it’s the only way to read Reddit without spending half your day there.

→ The Friction in Frictionless Sharing

So frictionless sharing isn’t frictionless after all. All it does is trade the small friction of having to choose what to share with the large friction of having to think about whether what you’re about to do will be shared.

More proof why blogging still is my preferred way of sharing with people. Everything posted here was written, approved and deliberately consitered by yours truly with no filters. For better, or for worse?

→ Revolt vs. Google’s nosiness spurs record traffic for scrappy upstart

Launched in 2008, DuckDuckGo is a search engine that has recently gained traction among technology pundits because of its dedication to user privacy as well as the accuracy of results; it doesn’t keep track of users at all and keeps no logs of their searches.

I noted awhile back I was splitting my search 50/50 with Google and Bing. Recently I’ve also been using DuckDuckGo. DDG has has some nice features (I’ve been primarily using their !Bang feature) but Google has proven tough to shake. Absolutely none of these other search engines feel as remotely as smart as Google does. It’s just like consoles, every one has somethings I love about them and hate about them where in a perfect world one would take all the great things and make just one great product.

→ Final Transition for Bungie.net Halo Services

Last summer, Bungie and 343 Industries began a transition process for Halo data. On March 31st, 2012 that transition process will be complete, all live Halo data will be managed by 343 Industries, and Bungie will no longer be able to update game stats and player service records, to host new user generated content, or to operate the Bungie Pro service.

Just doing my part on getting the word out that Halo 4 will not be made by it’s original creators. Buyer beware come Fall.

→ ‘Before Watchmen,’ prequels to ‘Watchmen’ comic books, in the works

Writer Alan Moore — an idealist who refuses to have anything to do with his former publisher and refused to cooperate with the recent big-screen adaptation of “Watchmen” — called the prequels “shameless”.

“I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago,” Moore told the New York Times.

You could put that quote into practically any entertainment medium and it would feel like it could fit these days. Quote of the year so far.

→ Should Sugar Be Regulated like Alcohol and Tobacco?

“We’re not talking prohibition,We’re not advocating a major imposition of the government into people’s lives. We’re talking about gentle ways to make sugar consumption slightly less convenient, thereby moving people away from the concentrated dose. What we want is to actually increase people’s choices by making foods that aren’t loaded with sugar comparatively easier and cheaper to get.”

Will

→ Nightmare Customer Service Experience with Microsoft after Xbox Live Account Hacking

What kind of customer service is it to not give the customer the benefit of the doubt in such a simple case as this? Are account thieves reporting their own accounts stolen, going so far as to file Better Business Bureau complaints to try to get them back? Am I omnipresent so that I can be hacking accounts from Russia while living and working in the US? It’s just baffling that Microsoft can treat a loyal customer this way. The 360 was the only console I’ve owned most of this generation, and I’ve spent a great deal of money on the hardware (two consoles since the first got the RROD outside of the 3-year warranty), X-box live memberships, X-box live points and games. I’ve never had any suspensions or other disciplinary action on my account prior to this debacle.

This guy’s story ended up all working out but seriously this guy got screwed over. Another power of the internet story but the moral is to protect your account by all means.

→ Videogamers Embark on Nonkilling Spree

He recently created a new video of him playing “Battlefield 3,” the sort of realistic war game his mother usually forbids. Instead of killing, however, Brock’s on-screen character goes around reviving enemies with a defibrillator. The song he picked out: A cover of the Edwin Starr classic, “War,” which includes the famous line: “What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.”

Video in Question – This story was on the front page of the print paper of the Wall Street Journal. FELIX THE PEACEFUL MONK was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

Took this picture for someone special and decided to clean it up a little bit. To everyone else, I promise this photocrop was worked on while listening to the most masculine metal on the planet.

No two words…

EL SHADDAI

No two words have ever been uttered that carry the same weight and gravity since mankind learned to speak.

Define EL SHADDAI. What does it even mean? These are pertinent questions, however one does not just simply “define” EL SHADDAI. To think EL SHADDAI can be confined to any single definition is ignorant and the ultimate act of mankind’s hubris. One must take necessary caution even trying comprehend the totality in culture that is SHADDAI.

Exhibit One: Amy Grant – EL SHADDAI. The linked video contains a beautiful Contemporary Christian song that is the perfect track for a car full of drunk adult middle class white males. The video description demands “watch and please add comment and rate” but goes all scumbag and disables comments. Is this the true message EL SHADDAI whats to give? El-Elyon Na Adonai for sure.

Exhibit Two:

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is an action video game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles. It is developed and published by Ignition Entertainment. The development is led by Takeyasu Sawaki, who was a character designer in Devil May Cry and Ōkami.  The game was released on April 28, 2011 in Japan, on August 16, 2011 in North America, and on September 9, 2011 in Europe. [1]

1.^The above was directly lifted from Wikipedia.

In all seriousness El Shaddai is a Japanese game made by lunatics and everybody should at least check out the first couple levels because of how crazy it is. That’s what El Shaddai means to me.

Note: This post was adapted from a draft from burgetta.

Note Two: Burgetta has unleashed his vastly superior post.

rycar88 14 points 12 hours ago

Vanberge did a great job posting this to Reddit making this horrible decision known. The orignial Expendables was a great throwback for fans of classic action movies. Making this PG-13 commits the same crime Live Free and Die Hard did and we all know how that turned out. Sly is still my man for the brilliance of Rambo 4 but come on this is BS.

→ Focus On the User

How much better would social search be if Google surfaced results from all across the web? The results speak for themselves. We created a tool that uses Google’s own relevance measure—the ranking of their organic search results—to determine what social content should appear in the areas where Google+ results are currently hardcoded.

Best response I’ve seen on the whole “Search, plus Your World” garbage pushed by Google. This plugin makes the idea of “People and Places” work how it should including the most relevant Facebook and Twitter results and not solely Google+ results. I disabled Social Search immediately but it it worked like this when it was launched I might have given it a shot. Great post here showing the difference with and without the plugin.

→ †he Years – ††† Crosses (The Years)

Anyone else reminded of Phil Collins the first half of the song?
IDSTARTAREVOLUTION2

Crosses is another side project from Chino f/ the Deftones.  I liked Team Sleep but this stuff is better. They have a new EP out for digital download that is rather good even though I like the first one more. Sadly the linked song isn’t included on the new EP but you can get it from Amazon MP3.

→ Does 4K Resolution Matter?

As of this writing, the only readily available content source for 4k is the Sony PlayStation 3, and it can only display static pictures (not moving video!) using the HDMI connection. This may be worthwhile for photographers, but probably not for anyone else.

For games (well consoles) display resolution and refresh rate hardly mean anything. Most console games don’t come close to maxing out that 1080p 240hz display Best Buy wants to sell you. Most console games don’t even have a native resolution higher then 720p or run faster then 30hz. For console gamers the next big step will be native 1080p for all games and 60hz for crisp input response. When that comes nothing else really matters yet for displays, what you already have is more then enough. Sadly nobody is talking about this.

→ Rayman Origins (360,PS3,Wii) $19.99 Free Shipping Toys R Us

Crazy Moves & Gameplay: Rayman Origins is a platformer at its core, but it has elements of many game genres. Rayman, Globox and the Teensies gain unique abilities as they progress through the adventure, including swimming, diving, slapping and the sensational HairlyCopter. The game also features many elements of action, adventure, beat-em-up gameplay and slapstick comedy.

Yeah, this game is pure madness as the description shows . It’s like Super Mario Bros Wii but with some amazing artwork and in HD.  Great local co-op play highly recommended expcially at this price for kids and adults.

→ How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

“I’m not worried about the country’s long-term future,” Mr. Jobs told Mr. Obama, according to one observer. “This country is insanely great. What I’m worried about is that we don’t talk enough about solutions.”

The one article everybody should read this week. Great Jobs/Apple/Obama/Industry insight here. The one unfortunate is the article (not really with a bias) it hardly mentions the same sources Apple contract Samsung, Microsoft, and Amazon do as well. The mass suicide threat from last week was at a Xbox manufacturing facility.

→ Death Growl – Wikipedia

Death growls are sometimes criticized for their “ugliness”. However, the harshness of death growls are in keeping with death metal’s often dark and disturbing subject matter

SOPA, please don’t kill Wikipedia. Articles like are one of my favorite things on the planet.

→ Console Post Of The Week – Xbox 720

Like everything else in the last 2-3 years, this comes down to value, or rather, how value to the consumer is steadily decreasing. Again and again in the last few years, value has been diminished. When is the last time a publisher gave us more instead of less?

Let me just say this: a console without a used game market will fail. I do not believe that the consumer market will support a product with $50-60 games and no possibility of resale. If Microsoft tries this, they are in for a rude, rude awakening.

With consoles one thing people are talking about is used game sales. With online passes and occasional gross DLC something that continues to bother me is the value of actually buying games. If they kill the used game market the only thing I see happening is a  huge alienation of the non-core. So many people exclusively buy their games used at Gamestop. Not everybody finds a huge value in buying all their games new for $60 dollars,

Let me introduce everyone to Riddick Vutha. He’s of Redguard descent, apparently Dragonborn, and a former prisoner and now refugee for border crossing.

Historically when a RPG gives the choice of character creation I normally create a  pale white bald guy slightly modeled to my residual self image. For Skyrim I was compelled to disobay and actually attempt to “Role Play“.

In some ways Riddick is modeled after myself but in the face clearly he’s a medieval doppelganger of The Rock.

Nearly 40 percent of American primary care doctors and about 25 percent of hospitals use electronic patient records. Thousands more are expected to adopt them this year to qualify for financial help under the 2009 federal stimulus package.

Good article on the state of EMR that focuses on Epic Systems. Didn’t expect to see EMR adoption numbers to be as low as they are it’s easy to just to think everybody was using them.

→ The Assclownification Of The MPAA

Let’s say that both SOPA and PIPA are passed — does piracy stop? Of course not. It will find a way. No matter what happens, it will always find a way.

The best way to combat piracy is to remove barriers, not to put up new ones.

Truth. I would also add I’ve always felt pricing on almost all media feels high. If pricing was more competitive more people would buy. Just look at Steam. Their sales are insane and they have only been growing and growing in the face of PC game piracy.

→ Quentin Tarantino’s favorite films of 2011

This time it is an official Top 11 (12 to be exact, it includes one tie), and there are some goodies attached below! This is now a full awards show ladies and gents, there are some other categories, some best director and writer awards in there as well.

Didn’t see many 2011 movies and none of his top 12.

→ Irrational Would Love it if You’d Party With BioShock Infinite’s New ’1999 Mode’

We want to give our oldest and most committed fans an option to go back to our roots,” said Levine. “In 1999 Mode, gamers face more of the permanent consequences of their gameplay decisions. In BioShock Infinite, gamers will have to sweat out the results of their actions. In addition, 1999 Mode will demand that players pick specializations, and focus on them.

Bioshock Infinite will probably be my next day one. Giving players a reason to revisit your campaign is always a good move. I wish Call of Duty would do something like this with their campaigns. Always though a “realism” mode where you don’t practically have unlimited ammo, include meaningful weapon management and the enemies don’t hit you every three seconds but where those hits mean something in return.

→ Bit Brigade – Live @ MAGFEST X – Megaband full show

Programmer beats Mega Man 2 while live band plays the soundtrack in time with his playthrough.

Another reminder of how good live performance can be.

→ Dish to shut more Blockbuster stores than planned

“We are committed to keeping the profitable stores open that are generating positive cash flow, but there are ones that aren’t going to make it,” Clayton said in an interview. “We will close unprofitable stores. We will close additional stores.”

Related: Firm quote from Dish’s CEO. I know they are closing additional GR BB’s.

→ Companies who Spam Their Best Customers

Getting junk mail and advertisements from companies I don’t do business with is annoying enough. But getting it from the companies which I have been a long-time and deeply invested customer is quite annoying.

The above is really completely true. AT&T almost weekly send me garbage in the mail trying to sell me cell phones. Comcast, weekly sends me crap for Xfinity. I’ve had a Fifth Third account for practically half my life and they consistently for a time they were calling my personal phone and selling additional services.  It’s a thin line between acceptable and just tacky.

This is a screen capture from their video Hole In The Earth.

Ladies, keep this in mind when watching all their new videos where he looks rather handsome.

Did a search on Bing and scrolled to the bottom of the page and was presented with the following notification on the bottom.

OF COURSE! I want some better results. Being new to Bing I figured what the hell and asked for them to “Show me” how I could get better results with Bing.

The result?

“Tips” apparently mean being forwarded to the search results for windows phone. Rancid…

Fucking Awesome Fucking Awesome Fucking Awesome Fucking Awesome Fucking Awesome Fucking Awesome Fucking Awesome Fucking Awesome
DeathMelodicGirl

Retribution is upon us. Michigan is the second stop on the tour and I sure as hell know I’m ready. Really cannot beat In Flames and Trivium co-headlining in the smallest venue these bands will really ever play again in the states.

→ Vanberge/Vanbergs/Vanlandw – Wrestlemania 2000 Knockout Matches

The game is Wrestlemania 2000 and this is a “Knockout Match”. You can setup a game type with three players players in a “3-way match” and set the rules where the only way to win is by knockout. This is a great example of this match type and clearly the best way to play this game.

Related: Found this video while browsing some old folders and came to discover it was no longer online. A perfect example of a proper Knockout Match with myself the winner of course. This is a must watch…

→ What Went Wrong With The 360 Dashboard?

So, what’s going on? The obvious conclusion is that the SDK Microsoft is believed to have supplied to third-party video partners is limited to 720p only, leaving Microsoft’s host service with a clear quality advantage. The message we draw from this is that the platform holder wants to expand the take-up of the Xbox 360 as a media-streaming device, but very much on its own terms with its own content getting the best quality, and the user’s “homebrew” media not being given much importance at all.

Related. Yeah something is up here. Netflix and DVD video kinda looks like crap on my setup. I’ve moved back to the PS3 for all media stuff. Contrast and gamma on my games also have been really dark. On Modern Warfare 3 I have to crank the brightness all the way up in the settings to actually see something where I used to not have to do that in the past. Skyrim also there are times the game is practically a black screen.

→ Indiana, Amazon.com, reach sales tax agreement

According to the agreement between Amazon and the Department of Revenue (DOR), the company will voluntarily begin to collect and remit Indiana sales tax beginning January 1, 2014 or 90 days from the enactment of federal legislation, whichever is earlier. The state will not assess the company for sales tax for other periods.

Michigan will be next…

→ Official Google Blog: Search, plus Your World

Google Search has always been about finding the best results for you. Sometimes that means results from the public web, but sometimes it means your personal content or things shared with you by people you care about.

Google has officially lost their minds. This is horrendous change. Thankfully “with a single click, you can see an unpersonalized view of search results”. Best article I’ve seen explaining and showing how this is a horrible change.

→ Microsoft’s Share Of The Search Market Is Finally Bigger Than Yahoo’s

It (Bing) is now the second largest search engine in the U.S., just edging past Yahoo for the first time in December, according to the latest comScore data.

Since Bing is the default search engine at work I decided awhile ago to give it a shot. 95% of the time it’s really not so bad. For blanket searches it gives me what I need but it doesn’t seem as “smart” as Google can sometimes. Also the rewards are nice I’ve been able to grind $5 of Microsoft Points and a $5 Amazon Gift Card.

→ Apple CEO Tim Cook didn’t really make $378 million in 2011

On paper, the shares were worth more than $376 million when the grant was made. But in 2011, they were worthless. Half of them will vest in 2016, five years after they were granted. The other half will vest in 2021 — “subject to Mr. Cook’s continued employment with the Company.”

“As of September, it (Apple) had $81.57 billion in cash and marketable securities in the bank and zero debt.” That alone is so cool.

→ Michael Clayton – George vs Tilda

He so OWNED her at the end, fuck her!
95Godfather 1 week ago

*SPOILERS* – This is the ending of the movie so beware. George Clooney delivers one of the best lines ever in a movie, if you’ve seen the movie you’ll know what one it is.

WOULD IT FIX THE PROBLEM? Probably not, and even if it made some progress toward reining in rogue sites, the collateral damage would be significant. Under the terms of each proposed bill, the federal Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, could seek a court order against a Web site that illegally hosts copyrighted content and then wall off the site permanently.

No better way to start the year then with discussion about the most reviled peice of legislature around.

→ The Hideous Marketing of ‘Modern Warfare 3′

Here’s how the Modern Warfare 3 commercial ends. Two smug, A-list clowns strut toward the camera, rifles hanging over their shoulders, explosions consuming the city of New York, and then the words: “THERE’S A SOLDIER IN ALL OF US.”

No, there’s not.

Written by former paratrooper with U.S. Army and he nails it. I despise these commericals and practically most of EA’s and Activision’s marketing. Sadly they continue catering to the lowest demoniator with no signs of it ever stopping. Don’t forget: some game advertising can be fantastic…

→ Are we on information overload?

It’s more connected to other pieces of information and more open to debate. Organizations — and even governmental projects like Data.gov — are putting more previously inaccessible data on the Web than people in the pre-Internet age could possibly have imagined. But this change raises another, more ominous question: Is this deluge overwhelming our brains?

Overwhelming I think is a great way of putting it. It feels there’s infinte subjects I want to learn about, read/write about, or dedicate time to and it never feels the resources are there. The Internet is just another beast…

→ Why Best Buy is Going out of Business…Gradually

The numbers only scratch the surface. To discover the real reasons behind the company’s decline, just take this simple test. Walk into one of the company’s retail locations or shop online.  And try, really try, not to lose your temper.

Over the last year I’ve ended up shopping at BB increasingly due to enjoying their store pickup option but for browsing I’ve learned what sections to avoid. The article details the worst example of staff soliciting cable service and it’s really gross. The only reason I don’t think BB is going anywhere is that they sell the stuff everybody wants.

→ 21st century manners — or the lack thereof

Dear Mr. Dad: We’ve always taught our kids to say “please,” “thank you,” “excuse me,” and the other basics. But where are the rules about texting and using cell phones and all those other things that didn’t even exist when our parents were teaching us how to be polite?

A: Great question.

Phone etiquette is something I’ve practically given up giving a crap about. It will always bother me, there’s nothing I can do about it, and it’s a lost cause. Personally I  just try to lead by example but the article has some good rules of thumb but everybody lives by their own rules right?

→ Skyrim – Dovahkiin (Dragonborn) FULL SONG

The song is sung by 30 people 3 times, so that 90 voices are heard on the final track.

Honestly one of the best main themes I’ve ever heard  When the Morrowind Main Theme kicks in I cannot put into words…it’s so cool. The song is about how amazing your player character is in Skyrim. Couldn’t resist anymore picked up a 360 copy and this beautiful guide. That reminds me still need to make that best main themes post.

→ Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing (FXAA)

Anti-aliasing has an intimidating name, but what it does for our computer displays is rather fundamental. Think of it this way — a line has infinite resolution, but our digital displays do not. So when we “snap” a line to the pixel grid on our display, we can compensate by imagineering partial pixels along the line, pretending we have a much higher resolution display than we actually do.

Nice write up on the second worst plauge making your games look like shit. Particularly for 360 people low internal memory (RAM/eDRAM) resulting in texture issues (popin/low quality) are plauge number one. Graphics technology has always been interesting to me.

→ Still on the fence? Just google “Santorum”.

2. Senator Rick Santorum.

Clearly definition 1 is not ‘sfw’ but comes to show the power of the Internet is awesome. Has anybody at all heard anything positive (sane?) coming out of the republican party? No way in hell any of these buffoon candidates are going to take down Obama. Note: Screw Santorum what a dick he’s gross. Note 2: Don’t vote for Rick Santorum he’s clueless.