http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~coates/video/Red...Video).mpg




So retarded.

Looks cool, but from the guys that made Mario pinball? That game got really bad reviews...

PacPix review

http://www.ntsc-uk.com/review.php?platfo...ame=PacPix

Electroplankton

http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthread....010&page=1

Quote: hoot. I'm back. Played it a bunch last night before drifting off into dreamland.

So actually, I highly recommend you go to the official Electroplankton website and click on the first bubble at the top-left ("donna soft?" for those of you who can read Japanese).　It actually takes you through all 10 plankton, which is basically the entire game. (I know it's not a game, but for lack of a better word, I'm going to refer to it as one.)

Each plankton is like a different mini-game, I guess, with its own unique way of making music. I'll give you a brief rundown of the first five, but be warned -- I HAVE NOT YET READ THE MANUAL, and the game itself gives very little detail as to what you can do with each plankton, so these descriptions are going to be pretty simplistic. :p

01 Tracy -- Each of the seven plankton can be dragged anywhere on the screen to create its own line of sound. First you draw a line (it can be pretty long, actually), and then the plankton will follow it over and over. It even repeats the speed that you draw -- so for example, if you draw the first part reeeeeeeally slow and then the next part super quick, it'll follow the line in the same manner. You can make some pretty cool music (well, with me it was more like noise) when you have all seven going at once...

02 Hanenbow -- This one's kinda neat. One leaf at the bottom shoots a plankton up in the air, and when it hits things (namely other leaves), it makes a noise. The point is to try and rearrange the leaves in such a way that you can keep the plankton bouncing around and making tunes before falling off the screen (you can even press A to display the specific angles of each leaf, i.e. 45 degrees, 83 degrees, etc.). If you press "up" on the d-pad, you can shoot out more plankton manually in addition to the one that comes out every few seconds automatically. Also, if you keep hitting the same leaves over and over, they turn red. I haven't managed to get all leaves red at the same time (they fade back to green if you stop hitting them), but perhaps it might trigger some kind of reaction. BTW, you can also press "Select" to change the leaf layout -- there seems to be four different layouts in all.

03 Luminaria -- I like this one, too. There's a grid with 36 arrows on it, and you start out with a plankton in each of the four corners. Once you touch one, it starts traveling the path of the arrows (which you can change on the fly, of course), making music as it goes. Each plankton has its own speed, too. So you basically make music by sending them around the grid in whatever direction you please. If you keep an arrow pressed for a few seconds, it starts spinning, meaning the direction the plankton goes when it crosses it will be totally random.

04 Sun-Animalcule -- Haven't messed with this one too much, but basically you just draw dots wherever you like on the screen (little suns), which make different tones based on where they are, and as the music loops, it replays the same rhythm over and over. The cool part is, if you leave them alone, the suns will get bigger and bigger each time around until it eventually gets dark and then they turn into little moons. The type of music you can make changes between sun and moon, and if you time it properly, you can have both types going at the same time.

05 Rec-Rec -- This one rocks. It's the one Bill Trinen showed off at GDC, with the four lines of fish that scroll from right-to-left along to a beat (there's a few different beats you can choose, BTW). You record a sample to each one using the mic, and then they all play together as it loops. You can make some pretty funky music with this one.

I gotta get going now; I'll do more later if I have time, but I probably won't, so here's hoping someone else (cough, Jonny) might be able to pop in and offer up some thoughts on the remaining five. It seems pretty cool so far; if you like tinkering around with sound, then you'll probably enjoy it. I'm not sure if it's worth the price of admission ($45 seems a bit steep to me), but maybe that's why they threw in the free earphones. ;p

Later!

Quote:I'm stopping playing now because I need to work Smile. It's lovely, and just as expected - no game, just ten musical toys with charming graphics Smile.. I'll be fiddling with this a fair bit over the weekend, and I'll take it down the pub tonight to see what Elaine makes of it (and the little girl down the pub if she's in, which she often is on a Friday) Smile.

It reminds me how much fun I had with my experimental version of Trip-a-Tron in which you could use KML to drive an external MIDI synth, and roll your own light-to-music stuff Smile. I'd like to revisit that one day with my new lightsynth tech, that'd be lovely Smile.

Gentle, utterly charming, Elektroplankton is a beautiful little chilltoy Smile. Huge respect to Ninty fro bringing such a thing to market Smile.

For those who don't yet know that is the name of the next Xbox. It's not yet official but that's what everyone "in the know" says it's going to be called.

Here's the reason it won't be called Xbox 2:

Quote:The next Xbox will be called Xbox 360. "3" so it doesn't sound inferior to the Playstation 3 and "360" for a full revolution, since Nintendo's system is called the "Revolution". This is almost 100% guaranteed. My source has told us new marketing slogans have already been passed around the game industry with the name "Xbox 360", such as.... "Xbox 360.... the real revolution"

Quote:If you could look into the future what would you see? Reality reset on entertainment? Human energy amplified? A personalized gaming experience that revolves around you?

This is awesome. It's a half hour long Flash of the ending to Final Fantasy VI... with all the characters replaced with videogame consoles, and all the text redone (yes, it is in english.). Watch it now! (dialup-unfriendly, as it's 15mb) I won't put the flash here so as to not steal too much bandwidth.

http://www.hcn.zaq.ne.jp/cabic508/rsf/frame1.html

Yep this little pecker needs to be picked up in Warwick New York at the breeder , I will be also going to NY,NY to see the sites given thats only 40 minutes away I may has well anyways ,I may see ground Zero perhaps as well.

[

Whoo!

p.s. I finished MGS3, amazing game. The story does indeed wrap up nicely, and ties in with the other games well. It also seems to go to nice efforts to point you in the direction of why Big Boss himself defected in the first Metal Gear game. Yummo.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/07/techno...html?8hpib

Quote:Can a New Disposable Battery Change Your Life? Parts of It, Maybe

Published: April 7, 2005

THIS June, Panasonic will introduce Oxyride batteries: AA and AAA disposable batteries that the company calls "the most significant developments in primary battery technology in 40 years." According to Panasonic, these batteries last up to twice as long as premium alkaline batteries like Duracell Ultra ($5 for four), yet cost the same as regular alkalines ($4 for four).

Astounded yet? Then get this: Oxyride batteries are also supposed to deliver more power. The result, the company says, is that battery-operated toothbrushes spin faster, flashlights shine brighter, camera flashes are quicker to recharge and music players produce richer sound.

Play your cards right, in other words, and these batteries might just clean out your gutters, wash the car and do your taxes.

Those are pretty fantastic claims, but Panasonic is certainly right about one thing: the time is right for some technical improvement in batteries. Technology has marched on in just about every other corner of modern life, but people still tiptoe nervously through birthday parties and weddings with their digital cameras, anxiously rationing shots so they'll have juice left for the big moment.

No wonder, then, that in Japan, the Oxyride batteries have captured 10 percent of the battery market in the one year they've been available. In fact, Panasonic predicts that Oxyride will eventually wipe out alkalines just the way alkalines blew regular "heavy-duty" batteries off the map.

Skeptics, however, are surely entitled to scoff, especially at that part about brighter flashlights, faster fans and better-sounding music. Aren't these gizmos somehow voltage-controlled so that they shine, spin or play at a certain rate, regardless of the battery?

Armed with a stopwatch, I spent several exceedingly boring days conducting battery-drain tests with identical pairs of flashlights, screwdrivers, cameras, hand-held fans and swimming bathtub fishies. (Note to the neighbors: You can call off the nice men in the white jackets. It was all in the name of science.)

As it turns out, the power-boosting effect is no marketing concoction; it's real. In identical flashlights, Oxyrides produce an obviously wider, whiter circle of light than Duracell Ultras. You can immediately tell the difference in portable fans, too, because the Oxyride fan hums at a higher pitch, a musical step higher than the Duracell one. The Oxyrides even make power screwdrivers spin faster: 364 r.p.m., compared with 316 r.p.m. for the Duracell Ultras.

Then there's that bit about Oxyrides making MP3 players and CD players produce richer, fuller sound. Panasonic cited a test in Japan in which 80 percent of the players in an orchestra said they preferred the sound from an Oxyride-powered music player. (Panasonic doesn't include sound-quality claims in its official marketing, but it does say it's investigating.)

This one's a tougher call. In blind tests, most people couldn't tell any difference between a CD player with Oxyrides and one with regular alkalines. A few identified the Oxyrides as maybe being a bit richer-sounding, but said that the difference was awfully subtle. All participants confessed, though, that they were not members of a Japanese orchestra.

Amazingly, then, Panasonic Oxyrides do deliver more power, for the same price as ordinary alkalines. To be precise, they deliver 1.7 volts, which is 13 percent more juice than the 1.5 volts of alkalines. (In both cases, the voltage diminishes as the batteries empty.) According to Panasonic, Oxyrides get their power not only from an improved chemical makeup, but also from a vacuum-assembly machine that packs more ingredients into the same space.

But what about the primary claim, that Oxyrides last longer than alkalines? Here, the answer is more complicated.

In rundown tests (put the batteries in, run nonstop till they're dead), Duracell Ultras, and even regular alkaline Duracells, actually beat the Oxyrides. In a krypton-bulb flashlight, the Oxyrides ran for two and a half hours; Duracell Ultras lasted 35 minutes longer. An Oxyride hand-held fan died after an hour; Duracell Ultras had another 25 minutes in them. And in a really cute swimming fish bathtub toy, the Oxyride fish gave up the ghost after 8.5 hours; a pair of ordinary alkalines kept finding Nemo for an amazing 25 hours, nearly three times as long.

Quote:Can a New Disposable Battery Change Your Life? Parts of It, Maybe

(Page 2 of 2)

Now, battery companies generally hate it when well-meaning journalists conduct rundown tests, for a very good reason: nobody uses batteries that way. In the real world, people play, pause and put aside their electronics for days or weeks. Properly conducted battery tests, experts say, are repetitive, expensive and computer-controlled. A battery that's designed to last a long time under real-world conditions may not do well in rundown tests. ("We'd be delighted to help you design valid tests," a battery company representative once told me. "And we'll look forward to reading the results around Christmas.")

And sure enough, when the flashlight test was repeated in a more realistic regimen - one hour on, followed by 30 minutes off for good behavior - the Oxyrides lasted 4 hours 14 minutes. The Duracells still won, but this time by only 10 minutes, and the light produced during the flashlight's final 20 minutes was so feeble it probably shouldn't count. (The Oxyrides tend to die more suddenly than alkalines.)

Panasonic further protested that the Oxyrides were designed to shine in high-drain gadgets (cameras, L.E.D. flashlights, remote-control toys, portable televisions and photo flash units) and moderate-drain gizmos (Game Boys, CD and music players, electric razors), not in low-drain devices like flashlights, fans, radios, clocks, remote controls and bathtub fishies. (So out came the Game Boy and the L.E.D. flashlight, and in went the Oxyrides. Test results: pending. After three days, both of them are still running strong.)

All of this brings us to the World Series of battery competitions: the digital camera test. These days, most digital cameras come with rectangular, proprietary rechargeable battery packs. But if your camera takes disposables, you're already aware of their pathetic battery-consumption record.

The challenge: See how many shots a pair of AA's can take in a digital camera. The test: 50 consecutive shots, alternating flash and nonflash, followed by 10 minutes turned off so the batteries could rest. Then another 50 shots, and so on until "Change the batteries" appears on the camera's screen. (I set the camera to capture low-resolution images, so they'd all fit without having to change or erase the memory card.)

Because this isn't a constant-drain test, you'd expect the Oxyrides to win - and this time, they do. The final score: Regular alkalines, 354 shots; premium alkalines, 566; Panasonic Oxyrides, 844. That's not exactly twice the longevity of premium alkalines, as Panasonic promises (and as PC World magazine found in its own Oxyride battery tests). But it's 2.4 times the life of regular alkalines, for the same price.

Now, even Panasonic admits that Oxyrides aren't the most economical, environmentally friendly, powerful batteries you can buy. That honor goes to rechargeable nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, which cost under $15 including charger. You can recharge NiMH batteries hundreds of times, and each charge lasts longer than Oxyride or any sort of alkaline.

But NiMHs aren't widely available in stores, they lose their charge quickly on the shelf, and the recharging and swapping process requires planning and discipline. Alas, not everybody has the patience; the road to the abandoned-gadgets drawer is paved with good intentions.

(Another Oxyride rival is AA disposable lithium batteries, offered by Energizer in a four-pack for about $23. Five times the power of standard alkalines, at six times the price. You do the math.)

The bottom line: Oxyride batteries may not quite live up to Panasonic's enthusiastic claims in all kinds of gadgets in every situation. But penny for penny, they deliver more power and, in power-hungry gadgets like digital cameras, last a lot longer than alkalines. Don't look now, but the Energizer bunny may soon be squashed by the Panasonic elephant.

http://www.keyhole.com/

Keyhole is this awesome program from Google that uses global satellite imagery to allow you to see a realtime map of anyplace on earth. In major metropolitan areas, you can see every single detail of the city, down to cars parked in parking lots. I used it to see lazy's apartment, since Orlando is one of the cities that has complete imaging. Its not free, but I may just end up buying it, because it's so much fun to play with.