Partly, the problem is down to the fact that it typically requires expensive specialist kit to confirm or deny screen performance stats. If you buy a CPU advertised with a 2.5GHz operating frequency, it's straight forward to get a reliable confirmation that the chip is behaving as promised... Bit-tech.net

Image phootage : Tuexperto

The first of 5 promised "Adventure-Packed Actionsodes" has awesome'd it's way onto a WiiWare, and PC near you. And you should totally give the game a spin (or whatever the digital equivalent of that popular phrase is).

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People tells of the adventures of Strong Bad, a man of mystery, intrigue, and witty remarks aplenty. A citizen of Free City USA, bent on spreading his knowledge and opinion upon all the townsfolk.

In the first episode of SBCG4AP, Homestar Ruiner, Mr. Bad is out to pumel a certain no armed fellow by the name of Homestar Runner (an email he got told him to). When Strong Bad finds Homestar, he learns of the Tri-Annual Free City USA Race to the End of the Race! (do do dooo!). Obviously not enamored with the prospect of Homestar stealing the spotlight, Strong Bad aims to take him down. But when things backfire, Mr. Bad learns that evil doesn't win the race.

Cheating wins the Race.

[viddler id=760dbfec&w=437&h=288]

If you've played a Telltale adventure game before (Sam & Max, or Bone), you'll be in familiar territory. Pointing and clicking to move, examine objects, or use items. The conversation system has been toned down from Sam & Max (where you're presented text), to where your options of dialog are represented with imagery (Such as a characters, or items). At first I wondered if this was simplified for the Wii audience (which could have issues pointing at text ) but I found myself liking the style of it the more I played. One of my main qualms with Sam & Max was that clicking the text was followed by your character reading back that exact text. This way the humor stays fresh.

The game didn't overstay it's welcome, nor did it seem like a pointlessly drawn out version of one of the shorts on Homestarrunner.com. For new comers to the franchise, the humor is funny enough to keep your interest regardless of your level of fan-dom. However, spending an afternoon watching some of the shorts on the site would likely add to your appreciation. As a fan of the site, I was pleased to notice some of the references to inside jokes. The interaction with Homesar is awesome, and it's good to see that he'll be featured more in the next episode. It's also interesting note certain foreshadowing for future episodes, in Homestar Ruiner. The way things are working, I think visual clues like this will add to the excitement of the following episodes.

The game is friendly to newcomers to the adventure game genre, yet it will entertain even seasoned players. You owe it to yourself to at least check out the free demo. While I played on PC, I've been told the Wii version has few differences.

The teaser included for the next Episode has me excited to get my hands on it. "Episode 2: Strongbadia the Free" releases some time this month, but you can pick up Episode 1: right now either on WiiWare or through online distributors.

Until next episode: THE SYSTEM IS DOWN!

KLind

From the New York Times:

The ad features Jerry Seinfeld flexing some new shoes, Bill Gates adjusting his shorts and no mention of Vista. Microsoft says the ad is meant to get people talking, and that other parts of the marketing campaign will actually get into what its software can do.

But the advertising, which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars over several years, is really just “air cover,” according to Bill Veghte, the Microsoft executive who is responsible for sustaining Windows, probably the most lucrative franchise in history.

For more than a year, Mr. Veghte and his team have been developing ways to transform the experience of buying and using personal computers that run Microsoft software.

Corps of Microsoft engineers, for example, have been dispatched to tweak hardware and software to make Vista PCs faster and less crash-prone. Microsoft has stepped into the world of PC retailers in a way it never has before, offering training and advice — and even paying to put hundreds of “Windows gurus” in stores.

By now, Microsoft insists that most of the frustrating technical problems with Vista, which was introduced in January 2007 after repeated delays, have been resolved — and many industry executives and analysts agree.

Step One Get yourself a rig:  The gaming rigs we are used to seeing are behemoths, amazing gaming power houses with quad cores, dual GPUs, and more RAM than you can shake a stick at.  This is completely unnecessary!  Something hardware manufacturers don't want you to know is that most games are optimized for seriously slow machines.  This includes most of your favorite games like WOW,  The new Crysis game, and Spore will even be playable on an old machine.

If you are acquiring a new gaming machine put your money where it counts.  The CPU,RAM, and GPU.  Most motherboards have integrated everything else, and what you can't get integrated you can find laying around somewhere.  Thrift stores and garage sales are notorious for selling computers for a quarter of the price that the components in them cost.  For instance at a garage sale I bought an external USB cd burner 52 x 32 x 52 for nine dollars.  I took the case apart and it was a regular burner, I installed it and saved myself $40.  If you can afford dual core buy it, it will pay off in the long run.

Step Two Get yourself some Games:  There are a million free games especially for Linux based systems, and a whole bunch for windows based systems as well.  Google them, many other places already have lists for them.  If you want retail games on the cheap try eBay and half.com, you will find some decent prices on both of those websites.

The real gem however is target ! I know that may confuse you but their policies are strange and for some reason I constantly find good games on sale there.  In my recently acquired arsenal from target is Supreme Commander for a paltry $12.50, Heroes 5 for $7.50, and Space Rangers 2 for $4.  Every target is different and has different games on sale at the same time, it takes a bit of canvasing but you will find great games for even better prices.  The last method is simply to play old games borrowed from friends.  Older games often lack any real DRM and that makes it easy to swap with friends and relatives. Not to mention the games will run great.  On your old broken down gaming machine

step three the internet:  The internet is the worst part of being poor, but there are ways around this also.  My first line of defense is to by mostly single player games, but I know some people have to play online.  So anyone can easily take a laptop for gaming to any cafe, library, or neighbors wireless connection ( with their consent wink wink).  But with a desktop you can also install a wireless internet card, sometimes for under $20, and use a neighbors net ( same consenting neighbor wink wink).  I actually did this for quite some time till  I could afford my own net.  Assuming none of these are options for you, go old school with a lan party.  Get all the troops together and go to someones house with an internet connection.  Spend a couple hours getting the router going, part of the fun, and enjoy face to face interaction.

Gaming on a budget can be difficult but with a little innovation, and some good old elbow grease you can pull it off.

Any questions or suggestions email me at 10poundhammer@gmail.com

Algunos optan por las campañas virales, otros (Sony) por los anuncios polémicos, pero lo que hizo Electronic Arts con la publicidad de Spore es verdaderamente genial, sino vean estas fotos.

Se trata de un anuncio 14" por 16" que a simple vista no se ve desde la distancia, por lo que es necesario verlo con un telescopio que se encuentra en la zona, y que los peatones pueden ver, para entonces sí apreciar el anuncio del juego.

La misma gente de EA puso ese telescopio ahí apuntando al anuncio (que pueden ver bien después del salto).

Qué les parece? A mí se me hace de lo más ingenioso últimamente. Lamentablemente este tipo de cosas no llegan a muchos lugares, y en este caso se trata de un anuncio que pusieron en San Francisco.

Fuente: Kotaku

PC WIZARD 2008 is a powerful utility designed especially for detection of hardware, but also some more analysis. It's able to identify a large scale of system components and supports the latest technologies and standards. This tool is periodically updated (usually once per month) in order to provide most accurate results.

PC WIZARD 2008 is also an utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, Cache performance, RAM performance, Hard Disk performance, CD/DVD-ROM performance, Removable/FLASH Media performance, Video performance, MP3 compression performance.

PC WIZARD 2008 can be distributed freely (ftp, archives, CD-ROMs ...).

Hardware Information

• Mainboard / Bios (Connectors, ID String, MP Support ...)
• Chipset (FSB Frequency, Norhtbridge, Hub, Direct Media Interface, XMB, NSI, ...)
• Main Memory (FPM, EDO, SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, DDR-2 SDRAM, DDR-3 SDRAM, RDRAM, FB_DIMM, Timings ...)
• Memory Profiles : EPP (SLi Ready), Intel XMP.
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• Processors (Type, Speed, Multiplier coeff., Features, Model Number, Vanderpool Technology ...)
• Coprocessor
• APM & ACPI
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• DMI / SMBIOS
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• Video (Monitor, Card, Bios, Capabilities, Memory, Integrated Memory, Frequencies ...)
• OpenGL & 3Dfx
• DirectX (DirectDraw, Direct3D, DirectSound (3D), DirectMusic, DirectPlay, DirectInput, DirectX Media)
• Keyboard, Mouse & Joystick
• Drives (Hard Disk, Removable, CD-ROM, CDRW, DVD ...)
• SCSI (Card, Controller, Adapter, Devices ...)
• ATA/ATAPI & S-ATA (Devices, Type, Capabilities, S.M.A.R.T. Features, RAID)
• Ports (Serial, Parallel, USB, IEEE-1394)
• IDE & SCSI Devices
• Twain & WIA Devices
• PCMCIA (PC Card) Devices
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• Sound Card (wave, midi, aux, mix, AC'97 codec, High Definition Audio)
• Printers (Local & Network)
• Modem (Features, Speed ...)
• Network (Server, Connexion, Firewall ...)
• Security (Scan Ports ...)
• PocketPC & SmartPhone Devices

System Information

• MCI Devices (mpeg, avi, seq, vcr, video-disc, wave) & ACM
• SAPI
• Passwords (Outlook, Internet Explorer, MSN Messenger, Dialup ...)
• DOS Memory (base, HMA, UMB, XMS, EMS, DPMI, VCPI)
• Windows Memory
• Windows (Version, Product Key, Environment, Desktop, XP Themes ...)
• Windows UpTime (Boot, Shutdown, BlueScreen, System Restore Points ...)
• TrueType & OpenType Fonts
• WinSock (Internet), Telephony et Remote Access
• OLE (Objects, Servers ...)
• Microsoft® Applications
• Activity (Process, Tasks, Threads)
• Modules (DLL, DRV, 32 & 16-bits) & NT Services
• Internet Navigator (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, FireFox)
• ODBC
• CMOS/RTC
• Resources (IRQ, DMA, E/S, Memory)
• System files (.ini, .log, .bat, .nt, .dos ...)

System Benchmarks

• Processor (Dhrystone (MIPS), Whetstone (MFLOPS), Mandelbrot fractal ...)
• L1, L2, L3 Cache, RAM (Bandwidth, Latency ...)
• Main Memory (Bandwidth, Latency ...)
• Hard Drives
• CD/DVD Rom
• DirectX 3D
• Video
• Removable/Flash Support
• MP3 Compression
• VISTA Experience Index

MEMORY and CACHE: These benchmarks measure the maximum achiveable memory bandwidth. The code behind these benchmarks method is written in Assembly (x86, SSE, SSE2, SSE3). Memory benchmarks utilize only one processor core and one thread.

PROCESSOR : These benchmarks measure performance in terms of Integer Millions of Instructions Per Second (Integer MIPS) and Millions of Floating Point Operations Per Second (MFLOPS). The code behind these benchmarks method is written in Assembly (x86, x87, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, 3DNOW!). Processor benchmarks are HyperThreading, multi-processor (SMP) and multi-core (CMP) aware.

Tools

• Can save, print, e-mail a report
• Can save a TXT, RTF, HTML, PDF or CSV report
• Can export any graphics as BMP file
• Can export text and graphic with the clipboard
• Web update Wizard
• Communicate with Motherboard Monitor
• Dump (Hardware registers, System BIOS, video BIOS ...)

Multi Languages

• English
• French
• German
• Serbian
• Slovak
• Russian
• Greek

Use this 100% free software to learn more about your computer and its components, detect/diagnose any problems in your computer, and increase your computer's performance.

Install

• ZIP package : PC Wizard 2008 can be run directly from removable support (CD/DVD, USB Key, ...) Options are not saved.
Don't forget to check "Use Folder Names" into your UNZIP application to create PC Wizard folders.
• Self-installing EXE package : To install PC Wizard 2008 directly on your hard drive.

Commandline Parameters

• Launch PC Wizard in silent mode : no interface appears, the report is automatically created.
• Example : PC Wizard.exe /R T1 C3 c:\reports\report.txt /D
• Result : Save plain text report for Hardware Tab and Processor category only into the c:\reports folder, with detailed information.
• To learn more, see the readme.txt file into the PC Wizard folder.

Special Keys

• The F5 key allows to refresh information.
• The F10 key copies the current page in the clipboard.
• The F11 key allows to save a screenshot as a .bmp file.
• The F12 allows to save current benchmark results to the database.
• The Right Click allows to display a context menu (on graphic benchmark it allows to save graph as a bitmap).

Special Extras

PC Wizard supports the Logitech G-Series keyboard LCD screen. To activate this function go to menu Options (Monitoring Tab )and check it. When you minimize PC Wizard window, CPU information will be displayed into the keyboard LCD screen.

Security

PC Wizard 2008 shows passwords only for your personal goal. No sensitive data is transmitted. No sensitive data is included with any kind of report.

Remove

Go to Control Panel - Add/remove Programs and choose PC Wizard 2008. Click on Add/Remove button and follow the instructions.

Debug Mode

If PC Wizard freezes or crashs your computer, please try to :

• Launch application with Debug Mode (hold down the ESC key until the SplashScreen appears). A new file will be created (C:\pcwdbg.log).
Please report it by sending an e-mail with this file (see Contact the authors).
• PC Wizard Settings shows and you can disable the detection of some components, which may cause problems.

Some computers may have problems especially during:
• IDE/ATAPI device direct-access scan.
• SMBus scan.
• GPU i2C device direct-access.
• SuperIO/LPC sensor detection.
• ...

Contact the authors

If you encounter problems, bugs or incompatibilities, please report it by sending an e-mail at pcwizard@cpuid.com with a brief description.

Please try to include a Report (use Save as... or Send a message - choose Text Format) and a Dump Hardware Registers (menu Tools) when you have a problem.

All credits to www.cpuid.com

*give or take a jillion

Aside from the fact that it was just a lame attempt to try and elevate Microsoft's 'cool' factor, it immediately struck me the same way that the 'Pepsi Challenge' did way back when.  Pepsi was never content with their share of market, always trying to compete with Coke with a series of elaborately overproduced commercials like the one where Michael Jackson's head went up in flames.  From their 'blind' taste tests to their MTV video-inspired spots, their efforts were misplaced on making their marketing sexy instead of focusing on the product attributes themselves, and delivering on that. 

The bottom line is that Apple is cooler.  There's no question about that.

Macs are slicker, sleekier, sexier and just 'ier' all around than PCs in almost every way. 

And the multimedia capabilities, fuhgeddaboudit.

But, to me, it's never really been a contest.  So why is to Microsoft? And to such a degree that they are desperately clinging to a syndicated pop television icon hasbeen to re-ignite their popuarity.

Macs have their place.  So do PCs. 

OS has some key functionality. So does Windows.

Safari and Internet Explorer... OK, so that one gets a little dicey but the fact of the matter is that the entire planet is not ever going to completely switch to Apple no matter how impressive the apps unveiled at the developer's conference are or how many kazillion Gigabytes the new iPhone has.  Short of teleporting you to another location Star Trek-style, mass conversion is not imminent.

What Microsoft should be doing is focusing on the people who are loyal users of their brand and reach out to them instead of trying to appeal a whole other segment of the population who is never going to convert to Microsoft even if they do develop the 'moistest,' 'chewiest' new products. 

And while we're on the subject.................. moist? 

This is an adjective best reserved for those peddling lubricant or touting the right-out-of-the-oven moist and chewy goodness of a Tollhouse cookie. 

But it should never be used to describe software.

Never.

I think that's in the Ten Commandments actually. 

Thall shalt not use the word 'moist'  in vain.

Shame on you, Crispin Porter.

I wonder if they were motivated more by the media frenzy circus resulting from this spot or winning an Addy award than advising Microsoft effectively about their brand. Or maybe the Creative Director 'lost' the strategy brief because it certainly doesn't seem to be meeting any sound communications objectives.

In my opinion, all Miscrosoft's succeeded in doing is alienating their current customers while becoming the laughingstock of the diehard Apple disciples. 

Bill, you're not hip. But that's OK.

You're a trillionaire ten times over; isn't that enough??! Just focus on what it is you do, and do it well.  Leave the glitz and glam to Apple and focus on your productivity suite. Quit spinning your wheels on 'delicious' concepts and sharpen your business game before the forbidden fruit takes a bite out of that too.

In the end, remember it was Coke who taught the world to sing and Pepsi who said, 'we're better than Coke,' and Coke is still the market leader.

Reality Check: The senfeld ad was superb

Posted by Cal

Clique em "more" e veja as novidades!

O Geral:

O Buddy Poke mudou a sua aparência agora. A partir de hoje a interface do Buddy Poke está um pouco alterada e contando com novas funcionalidades. A disposição das opções agora se encontra em cima da tela do BP. Junto com isso veio uma nova aba que mostra um registro do que o seu Buddy fez nos ultimos dias que você entrou no applicativo, nada muito especial, mas por ele você pode "revidar" a pokeada que o seu amigo te deu. Além disso tem o sistema de fotos, que explicarei mais para frente.

A customização:

Aumentou relativamente. Foram adicionados algumas opções novas na personalização do seu personagem e também duas novas coisas. Uma scooter (um tipo de moto) e um Mecha (a lá Gundam) que podem ter as suas cores personalizadas e habilitam novas ações.

Estados:

Foram adicionados uma porção de novos estados.Alguns deles musicais.Agora há mais tipos de utilização da guitarra e também uma bateria! Da para cantar nos mais diversos estilos e pilotar os mechas. Até tem embaixadinhas para você praticar.Nesse ponto a atualização foi valida.

Criando uma Imagem:

Agora, ao inves de mandar o seu Buddy junto com os seus scraps você pode montar imagens divertidas com eles. Você tem a sua disposição diversos balões de fala diferentes para escrever o que quiser, pode selecionar um estado de humor e em que posição da animação ele se encontra e ainda pode definir o fundo, parece ser um bom recurso para montar pequenas tirinhas no paint. Pode melhorar, fazendo as historinhas pelo BP mesmo, e depois publicando-as para os seus amigos.

Para terminar...

O Buddy Poke! deu uma pequena inovada no visual, adicionou novas funcionalidades e eliminou o desnecessário, ainda falta melhorar muita coisa, mas já é um grande avanço. Seria legal se ele ficasse semelhante ao novo Google Lively, mas com o carisma dos Miis.

Mas ideas, mas tecnologías, mas inspiración.

LINK

Todos estan emocionados con la novedad a tal grado que al instalar el pequeño software no leen las declaracions de privacidad (muy comun) y solo aceptan la instalacion por la emocion  de usar el sistema sin haber leido este pequeño parrafo. Y pues yo como todo un profecional (jajaja) me he dado a la tarea de leer este parrafo y les informo  lo que se me hace una reverenda ma*ada que es negativo para todos los usuarios, como dispararce en un pie por parte de google.

Fuente: BLOOD OF QUAKE

O pessoal da Codemasters enviou ao site Destructoid cinco novas fotos da versão pré-alfa do jogo que promete ser a revolução em games de corrida. Segundo a Codies Fuel terá mais de 5 mil milhas quadradas de ambiente totalmente exploráveis, bem como ciclo dia/noite e um sistema mudanças climáticas. O difícil vai ser não confundir Fuel com os outros duzentos mil jogos de corrida off-road com só um nome no título que estão pra sair.

Fuel é produzido pela Asobo Studios, publicado pela Codemasters e estará disponível para Playsation 3, XBox 360 e PC em 2009. Clique aqui para ver a galeria de fotos.

Via [Destructoid]