→ Half a billion dollars: why Apple’s acquisition of Anobit matters

Anobit—like Apple’s other recent silicon design acquisitions, PA Semi and Intrinsity—is a fabless design house. Its specialty is creating, testing, and verifying new designs that implement its technological innovations, and then licensing the designs to companies like Apple. By buying up Anobit, Apple can keep its flash storage improvement technologies all to itself as a competitive advantage.

I like how Apple only seems to make acquisitions they seem to need. SSD intergration going forward for desktops and laptops is big too. The speed leaps on SSD has been a major reason I haven’t gotten a new PC as I wait for prices to even out.

 → Playing Video Games makes me sick

While there is little research into video games and what has been called “simulation sickness“, estimates suggest that between 10% and 50% of people may suffer to various degrees.

Recently I’ve been having problems more with eye strain and headaches more so then nausea. I remember playing Gears of War years ago and doing the roady run would always be painful. Though experience to avoid The Sickness I would suggest proper diet, hydration, lighting, and taking breaks (as easy as that sounds) is the best thing one can do.

→ Battlefield 3 Xbox 360 update today!

Xbox 360 users are getting a client update for Battlefield 3. Read on for the full change list. Note: this is very similar to the recent updates on PC and PlayStation 3.

Nice to see the post release support especially to the single player but EA is killing me with these mandatory 2gb title updates for their games. Many 360 owners are still on 20gb HD’s. I have 60gb  and it’s jam packed. Making us install a 2gb texture pack then download a 2gb patch just to play your game hurts.

→ Peace Walker T-shirt

You seek for the non-plus-ultra of perfect preparation whatever the mission ahead: Convinced that even your basic equipment requires being highly functional, robust, durable and stylish, you do not go for just any T-Shirt.This officially licensed Metal Gear Solid T-shirt, made from 100% soft cotton meet highest demands.

If anybody wanted to buy me a Christmas gift (size small please!)…

→ Caelondia Masons T-Shirt (Black)

Now you can join Rucks and the Kid as an honorary member of the Caelondia Masons Society, the hard-working folks who built the City and the Rippling Walls. The Masons Society insignia prominently displays the Cael Hammer, lifelong friend to all Masons, as well as the Star of Caelondia, the symbol of the City.

If anybody wanted to buy me a Christmas gift (size small please!)…

→ Original Danish Style School Bag

The Danish style School Bag also has a zipper pocket flap cover with two velcro tab closures and lets not forget the 12″ ruler that comes with this bag. This shoulder bag makes an excellant soft briefcase for your everyday work detail. Colors: Black – Olive Drab

Had to dig up an email from 6/6/06  for the millionth time to find a link to my messenger bag. I still use this bag daily so it comes recommended. The only thing that would make it perfect is if it was a little smaller. After the holidays I plan on replacing my current bag…with the same bag since I can’t find anything better.

→ Brominated battle: Soda chemical has cloudy health history

To help stay alert all night, each man has an open can of “gamer fuel” inches from his keyboard. “I’ve seen some of these dudes plow through six sodas in six hours,” said Brian Smawley, a regular at the gamer bar.

Another horrible cliche filled article around gamer culture but at least the information about BVO is informative. Yes, only people who play video games funnel soda down their throats…

→ A Long-Time Apple Nerd’s Review of the Galaxy Nexus and First Experience With Android

If you’re on a road trip and want to use the 4G LTE network to provide you with driving directions, your drive had better be shorter than 4 hours because even when plugged into a car charger, the battery will not last.

Seems everybody with Android phones are having complaints about battery life. As a feature phone user current devices still don’t feel like they are just there yet when these things can’t even last a day of use.

→ HTTP Status Cats

404 – Not Found
The requested resource could not be found but may be available again in the future. Subsequent requests by the client are permissible.

→ Census data: Half of U.S. poor or low income

 About 97.3 million Americans fall into a low-income category, commonly defined as those earning between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that is designed to provide a fuller picture of poverty. Together with the 49.1 million who fall below the poverty line and are counted as poor, they number 146.4 million, or 48 percent of the U.S. population. That’s up by 4 million from 2009, the earliest numbers for the newly developed poverty measure.

Merry Christmas everybody! Nobody has any money everything costs more nobody is going to survive.

→ Modern Warfare 3 Passes $1 Billion in Sales in 16 Days

The sales did not just shatter previous video game records, but also surpassed benchmarks for movie sales. The popular 3-D movie “Avatar” took 17 days to reach $1 billion in sales.

The gaming comparison to movies is so stupid. Activision doesn’t understand that AAA games are a premium product sold at $60+ dollars. Mass market films are sold to the consumer for a large fraction cheaper and hits a wider audience. Also note they don’t tell you how many copies of the game they actually sold to consumers. Who knows who bought those games that could just be the amount of product shipped to retailers. So stupid.

→ No Copyright Intended

Remix culture is the new Prohibition, with massive media companies as the lone voices calling for temperance. You can criminalize commonplace activities from law-abiding people, but eventually, something has to give.

Everything’s a remix. Make sure to click though to check out Pulp Fiction in Chronological order. Don’t believe something like that didn’t make it as a DVD extra by now.

→ Best Buy’s Overseas Strategy Is Failing In Europe And China

After a few months of speculation, today Reuters reports that it’s likely Best Buy will abandon its stores in the UK altogether, blaming the move on the “economic downturn, low brand recognition and a stiff competition from British market.”

Sure this makes everybody happy. Strangely enough some of the best deals I’ve gotten this year have come from Best Buy. Their Rewards Zone program is still a joke.

→ Time’s Non-Award-Award

Most importantly shouldn’t this award be awarded to something that fits the title — you know — an actual person?

I don’t care who gets this “award” but I’m sure everybody remembers “You” being the Person of the Year and how stupid it was. This years “winner” is much better then last years at but we cannot expect an individual to dominate a year like 2008 Obama every year.

→ Love Letter To a Bridge

Many players will realize it’s somewhat playing on the fragile “rope bridge in the wilderness” trope – this, like a lot of the psychology in level design, is largely a function of culture. If you had never seen an American action film that uses the trope, you might not “get it” as quickly as a player who has.

Nice throwback to Counter-Strike. de_aztec is a classic and one of my favorite CS maps. That map has just brutal choke points. Nice look at the bridge brought back some memories and some interest in CS:GO if just to take another run at the classic maps.

→ I JUST PISSED ALL OVER MYSELF

I am currently microwaving Hungry Howie’s pizza. Die Hard is playing via instant streaming Neflix on my tv. I am completely trashed. This is a good night. I may only cry for about 30 seconds tonight as I go to sleep, as opposed to the usual 17 minutes. In addition, I may only rub myself down briskly with some very fine sandpaper, as opposed to cutting myself deeply with the usual serrated steak knife.

Stream of Consciousness blogging at it’s finest.

→ Scare Your Friends

You are not sorry at all. I got some quotes for you.

“Dicks”

Don Draper:

When a man walks into a room, he brings his whole life with him. He has a million reasons for being anywhere, just ask him. If you listen, he’ll tell you how he got there. How he forgot where he was going, and that he woke up. If you listen, he’ll tell you about the time he thought he was an angel or dreamt of being perfect. And then he’ll smile with wisdom, content that he realized the world isn’t perfect. We’re flawed, because we want so much more. We’re ruined, because we get these things, and wish for what we had.

Season Four of Mad Men is hauntingly amazing and the best season of television I’ve seen since Season One of 24. Catch up on Netflix ASAP

→ Surprise! Bastion Now Available in the Chrome Web Store 

Check this out: If you use Google Chrome to browse the Internet, now you can also use it to play Bastion right in your browser. Our game is now available in the Chrome Web Store. Crazy, but true!

No excuses now. Absolutely everybody should play Bastion, one of the best games of the year (quite possibly my game of the year). I beat it once, then beat it again. Ideally one would play it on the 360 but the free playable prologue on PC should be enough to make you want to buy the rest.

→ Cuts to First-class Mail Will Slow Deliveries in 2012

The cuts would close roughly half of the nearly 500 mail processing centers across the country as early as next March. Because the consolidations would typically lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to processing center, the agency would also lower delivery standards for first-class mail that have been in place since 1971. Currently, first-class mail is supposed to be delivered to homes and businesses within the continental U.S. in one to three days; that will be lengthened to two to three days, meaning mailers could no longer expect next-day delivery in surrounding communities. Periodicals could take between two and nine days.

Recently recieved a “survey” in the mail asking my usage of one of my local post offices I’m sure they are working on closing. Sad to see delivery times lengthening and stamp prices rising once again.

→ Is Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Really the Worst CEO of 2011?

In a very small poll (200+ votes) on TheStreet.com Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was voted as the worst CEO of 2011. More than 58% of the voters selected Hastings, over companies such as RIM or Zynga.

It was just over a year ago when Fortune Magazine named Hastings “Businessperson of the Year.”

The “Quikster” debacle was deplorable but still completely forgivable given Netflix really still being one of the best services ever created. I liked the thought he went from being the absolute best to the absolute worst in one year, not that a poll of 200 people means anything.

→ ‘Steve Jobs’ Becomes Amazon’s Best-Selling Book of 2011

As predicted by Amazon following its release, Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs has become the retailer’s best-selling book of 2011. The milestone is a remarkable one given that the book did not debut until late October.

What type of people use Amazon to buy hardcover books? The type of people interested in Steve Jobs.

→ One Night in Skyrim Makes a Strong Man Crumble

If you have no idea what the Elder Scrolls franchise is, you are probably either (a) an adult woman, or (b) the sort of person who once beat up the sort of person who likes the Elder Scrolls franchise, so herewith a quick primer: Bethesda Game Studios made it; its genre is the genre that has elves; and its subgenre is the open-world RPG.

Another brilliant essay/review by Tom Bissell all his work at Grantland I’m thankful for. Very happy somebody is paying him to keep writing about games. Everybody should read Extra Lives ASAP.

→ How To Rip DVDs to Play on Any Device—For Free!

As the season comes to a close it looks like I only made the playoffs twice…