A new scheme has come out by Google which allows you to have Wifi acsess, from your toilet...
Extract From The Site:
"#7 Within sixty minutes -- assuming proper data flow -- the other end of your fiber-optic cable should have reached the nearest TiSP Access Node, where our Plumbing Hardware Dispatchers (PHDs) will remove the sinker and plug the line into our global data networking system.
#8 Congratulations, you're online! (Please wash your hands before surfing. "
This is defintly an april fools joke, And i think its one of the funniest to date... Good ol Google!
A few of us monkeys at ThinkGeek had this great shared dream a few months ago. In it, the whole world was 8-Bit, just like the video games we grew up on. We found ourselves having to leap from platform to platform, to search for pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, and to fight scary mutated plants and animals. The music was awesome (and still stuck in our heads) but the coolest part was what we were wearing: a tie. But not just any tie, an 8-Bit tie!
We woke up screaming. An 8-Bit tie - what an awesome way for the drones of Cubeland to show their independence from Corporate America! So, we did what we knew you'd want - we had the ties made. 100% silk, clip on (for easy dressing), and custom designed by us for you. You'll be the envy of the office or, at least, you'll get tons of attention. You'll be just like Mario when he wore a tie to meetings when negotiating his contact with Nintendo. Sure the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 are out there with all their super technology, but sometimes it's nice to remember the beginnings of the video game revolution. Viva la 8-Bit!
A group of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO) shareholders owning 46.1% of the videogame maker's stock succeeded in removing the board and replacing it with six new directors
The upheaval comes as the maker of "Grand Theft Auto" videogames struggles to rebound from a stock-options scandal and return its operations to profitability. Earlier this year, former Chairman and Chief Executive Ryan Brant pleaded guilty to charges in connection with an options-backdating scheme.
A new survey has revealed that the salaries of European games programmers are around a third lower than those earned by their counterparts in North America.
Titled Game Developer Salary Report: 2004 - 2007, the survey was conducted by Game Developer magazine. More than 1000 European professionals took part with the majority coming from the UK, followed by Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands.
According to excerpts shown to GamesIndustry.biz, their responses revealed that the most lucrative jobs in games development are in business and legal work - with the average salary for 2006 standing at around EUR 53k (GBP 36k).
Next on the list are production staff, who earn an average of EUR 45k (GBP 30,500), followed by programmers on EUR 40k (GBP 27k).
Game designers and audio specialists both earn a similar average wage of between EUR 34,500 - EUR 34,750 (around GBP 23,500), while the figure for visual artists is a little lower at EUR 34,300 (GBP 23,200).
At the bottom of the pile are QA staff, who earn an average of just over EUR 26,000 (GBP 17,500).
According to the report, "Europeans in the games industry are earning significantly less than their American counterparts. The only discipline that comes close is QA, which is separated by only 7 per cent in 2006.
"Game designers in Europe are making 25 per cent less, business and legal staff are making 26 per cent less and programmers are making 33 per cent less."
However, the report goes on to note that the salaries of most European games professionals are "steadily increasing". The exception is for those in the audio sector, where wages dropped by 2.3 per cent last year.
The report states that, "The biggest jump was production with a 16 per cent increase in average salary, leaving European producers around USD 16,000 behind those in the US."
Other information included in the full report includes average earnings for the top five European countries, divided into job type, 2005 and 2006 salary averages for each role and the most commonly used methods of gaining employment. The report also offers extensive analysis of salaries in the US.
The Game Developer Salary Report: 2004 - 2007 is now available from the CMP website, priced at USD 2995.
1994: Square Co. releases Final Fantasy 6 for SNES in Japan (That's FF3 in the states, transposition that annoys me to no end). To mark this occasion in gaming history, we could use the wise, balanced opinions of the Official TDIG Final Fantasy Fanboy Club. So hit the comments and let us know what you thought of the game.
2004: Deep Silver releases Singles: Flirt Up Your Life for PC in Europe. Think of The Sims, but your ultimate goal is to bang random acquaintances. You know, The Sims if it were going for realism.
I, personally, feel that 2D has a long way to go, and that people dismiss it simply because early on it was all that was possible. I want to see a 720p or better 2D rpg. Imagine even just remakes of old RPGs with that kind of quality. Chrono Trigger, where the sprites are 128x64 instead of 32x16 or so. It seems to me that the last great 2D high resolution game was GGX. When will we see more. </rant>
British paper Daily Mail complains that kids aren't climbing trees anymore -- because they're playing video games. The story, which mentions trees and the climbing thereof no fewer than 13 times, reports that while the number of kids diagnosed with RSI (repetitive strain injury) has risen over the last seven years, "the number of children treated for falling out of trees" has dropped. Seriously. This is the basis for a newspaper article.
The piece is a wistful reminiscence of days gone by -- the dewy-eyed headline is "PlayStation generation that will never climb a tree." More like, "Daily Mail longs for the time when 472 kids fell from trees every hour." Now that's a headline!
We here at Joystiq are eagerly anticipating the year 3267, when Daily Mail will run a piece entitled "Zyfnort generation that will never hold a SixAxis." (The Zyfnort is a game console you control not with your hands, but, ironically enough, by repeatedly falling out of trees.)
Check out this new portable, auto-butt-cleaning toilet bowl from Toto. It has a folding top for comfortable sitting and controls on the side for a bidet, butt spray (strong), butt spray (soft), and most importantly, the OFF button. It's made of wood (I have no idea why) and all the waste falls neatly into the tray below, so that you can pull it out, throw shit out, and then take the 44-lb potty to the next bedridden user.
The Home Office is considering changing child pornography laws to include cartoon or computer-created pictures.
It is currently an offence to possess indecent photographs or "pseudo-photographs" of children, but indecent cartoons, computer-animated scenes, and drawings are legal.
The Home Office note announcing the consultation says: "Evidence from police and children's organisations is that the availability of such images is growing."
The document states such images could be used to "groom" children for acts of abuse.
The consultation will consider whether to amend the Child Protection Act, create a new offence, or do nothing. The consultation covers England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
The government's preferred option is to create a new offence with punishment of an unlimited fine and up to three years in prison.
"The football-field sized holes were observed by Mars Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) and have been dubbed the seven sisters --Dena, Chloe, Wendy, Annie, Abbey, Nikki and Jeanne--after loved ones of the researchers who found them. The potential caves were spotted near a massive Martian volcano, Arisa Mons. Their openings range from about 330 to 820 feet wide, and one of them, Dena, is thought to extend nearly 430 feet beneath the planet's surface.
The researchers hope the discovery will lead to more focused spelunking on Mars.
"Caves on Mars could become habitats for future explorers or could be the only structures that preserve evidence of past or present microbial life ," said Glenn Cushing of Northern Arizona University, who first spotted the black areas in the photographs.
A project here on Earth aims to refine the visual and infrared techniques THEMIS used to find the Martian caves and to also develop robots that can one day enter the caverns and explore them.
Practicing on Earth
Called the Earth-Mars Cave Detection Program, the project is preparing to enter phase 2, during which scientists will test their approach in "Mars analogue" sites, terrestrial environments with similarities to Martian landscapes. These sites will include dry, blistering deserts, such as the Mojave in California and the Atacama in Chile, as well as frigid environments like Iceland and Antarctica.
During the first phase of the project, the researchers acquired the thermal signatures of a dozen caves in Arizona and New Mexico using an experimental infrared detector flown aboard an airplane, called the Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector (QWIP), as well as data collected on the ground using a handheld thermal camera.
Cave detection using QWIP works by spotting regions in the landscape where temperatures are different from the surroundings. Inside a cave, temperatures are nearly constant due to lack of sunlight. Outside, temperatures fluctuate with the rising and setting of the Sun. At a cave entrance, these two temperature regimes mix together to create a unique thermal signature that, depending on the time of day, can be either warmer or cooler than the surrounding environment.
"The caves show up as hotspots in a sea of cold, or as cold spots in a sea of warmth," said study team member Murzy Jhabvala, chief engineer of the Instrument Systems and Technology Center at NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center.
The data, still being analyzed, look promising. In one series of images, the researchers snapped thermal images of Xenolith Cave in New Mexico over a 24-hour period. The cave opening can be seen clearly in some of the images.
"It jumps out at you," said Jut Wynne, a biospeleologist (cave biologist) with the U.S. Geological Survey and Northern Arizona University. "It lights up like a Christmas tree in the predawn and in the late-night shots. It's a bit more ephemeral during the day shots."
In Phase 2, the researchers will tweak their technique to figure out the best wavelengths to use and optimal times during the day for cave hunting. "In so doing, we're going to take these applications and then apply them to an orbiter platform for Mars," said Wynne, who is also the Earth-Mars Cave Detection Program project leader.
Robotic cave explorers
The project team also aims to design robots that can explore caves on Mars after they have been spotted. Natalie Cabrol, a planetary geologist with NASA Ames and the SETI Institute, will be integral to this part of the project.
Cabrol is a Mars robot veteran. Before Spirit and Opportunity were sent to Mars, she helped engineers perfect their designs by field-testing the robotic rovers in the Atacama Desert in Chile.
The researchers may have to design more than one type of robotic cave explorer. "There are many types of caves," Cabrol said in a telephone interview. "It may be that we come up with one very versatile design ... or we might end up with several designs."
If the caves have a relatively simple structure--like lava tubes, which are caves carved by flowing magma and are relatively simple and straight--a rover-type robot might work, Cabrol said. "I would doubt that a rover, equipped as they are now, would do a good job in a cave" with a more complicated geometry, she said.
Open to ideas
The researchers are also considering other robotic design possibilities, including the deployment of several miniature robots together into a cave.
"You could throw out an array of microbots in a birdshot approach over an area where you think there is a cave," Wynne told SPACE.com . The microbots could then use sonar or some other method to confirm the presence of a cave and pinpoint its location.
Whatever form the team's robotic explorer ultimately takes, it will have to be agile, have some basic sense of self-awareness, sport excellent night vision and have the ability to communicate with one other in some innovative way, since conventional radio communication might not work well in caves, Cabrol said.
"We are very much on the starting line on this," she added. "This is very exciting. This is really the time when ideas are flitting all over the place."
Leave it to Brando -- leaders of the 'alternative' USB lifestyle -- to offer the discerning consumer a card reader shaped like a pig. As to why someone would buy this four-slot model instead of something a little less tacky, the e-tailer helpfully notes "its piggy-like design which is cute and its weight is light so that easy for storage and also as a decoration on working desk." Thanks guys, and while we're quite satisfied with the reader built into our 24-inch monitor, anyone sporting a pair of pink pig PC speakers will surely appreciate this $10 swine.
Despite growing concerns over the UK sleep-walking into a surveillance society, 20 more English towns (including London) have signed on for talking CCTV cameras. Already, an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras already installed across Britain. The new talkies are expected to cost about £500,000 (nearly $1 million) and target those who "litter our streets, vandalise our communities and damage our properties," according to Home Secretary John Reid. He goes on to state that the original trials in Middlesbrough were "hugely popular" where the local councillor says they've prevented fights, criminal damage, and cut litter levels. Is that enough? Cue the Orwellian dystopia chatter... now.
2000: Nintendo announces they are sponsoring motocross rider Flyin' Brian Mason. Apparently since Excitebike brainwashed him into loving real motocross racing, Nintendo felt really bad and wanted to ensure that his medical expenses were covered whenever that day came.
2006: Eidos releases Commandos: Strike Force for PC, Xbox and PS2 in the US. I totally looked over this title until now, missing that the series had gone all FPSy on us. So much for violence being cutely isometric.
The annual Develop 100 report has been released and US developers have come out on top in terms of which studios generate the most cash.
"Whilst the big players retain a massive presence, it' good news to see that new hardware formats and new IP and ideas continue to drive the business commercially and creatively," gushed Develop editor Michael French. Would you be surprised to learn that the team responsible for FIFA and Need For Speed same out on top? Thought not:
10,000 years from now, when future archeologists dig through the ruins of our once proud and mighty planet, they'll assume that this is an image of some ancient god worshipped all around the world, bringing together people from every cultural, racial, and economic background.
The nifty thing? Wouldn't be too far from the truth.
It's a fact of life. For most of us, when we need to get a game, we have to walk into the game store. Some times it's just easier to go down the street for a game then to wait the time it takes to arrive on our door step from ordering online, and don't get us started on shipping fees! That's why Games Radar's latest story about a couple brave individuals who spoke out about their experience working in games retail captivated us so.
The story is broken up into three different parts, each detailing a certain aspect of the job and the pros and cons of such. The entirety of the story spans 17 pages and has eight different anonymous individuals commenting on their current or past experiences working in the games retail space. And if you've ever found yourself on the buyer's side of the desk, smashing your fists against your temples in anger as you scream for the 18th time that you do not want a strategy guide, nor do you wish to reserve anything, it's definitely worth a read.
"LOS ANGELES (April 4) - An Air Force veteran filed a federal claim after undergoing an operation at a Veterans Administration hospital in which a healthy testicle was removed instead of a potentially cancerous one.
Benjamin Houghton, 47, was to have had his left testicle removed on June 14 at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center because there was a chance it could harbor cancer cells. It also was atrophied and painful.
But doctors mistakenly removed the right testicle, according to medical records and the claim, which seeks $200,000 for future care and unspecified damages.
"At first I thought it was a joke," Houghton told the Los Angeles Times. "Then I was shocked. I told them, 'What do I do now?"'
Houghton, his wife, Monica, and their attorney, Dr. Susan Friery, said they hoped to get the VA's attention by going public with the situation.
The claim was filed on Aug. 8 under the Federal Tort Claims Act. If it is denied, Houghton can sue the government in a federal court, Friery said.
Dr. Dean Norman, chief of staff for the Greater Los Angeles VA system, has formally apologized to Houghton and his wife.
"We are making every attempt that we can to care for Mr. Houghton, but it's in litigation, and that's all we can tell you," he said. Norman added that the hospital has made changes in practices as a result of the case.
The mistake appeared to result from a series of missteps, according to Houghton's medical records.
First, a consent form said the right testicle was to be removed and a left vasectomy performed, when it should have been the opposite. Records do not say who prepared the form. It was signed by both Houghton and the surgeon, John T. Leppert, a fifth-year University of California, Los Angeles, medical resident.
Houghton's wife said her husband did not have his glasses so he could not read it.
Next, the surgical site was to be marked with a pen.
Houghton said he was asked to identify the surgical site and pointed to his left testicle, but no one marked it. Houghton's records don't mention a mark.
Finally, the VA hospital required that a "time-out" be taken in the operating room to double-check that doctors were targeting the correct site, doing the correct procedure and operating on the correct patient.
The medical records show that a time-out was called, but it's unclear whether medical personnel consulted any document besides the erroneous consent form.
Houghton still hasn't had the other testicle removed."
ATHENS (April 4) - Archaeologists on a Greek island have discovered a large Roman-era tomb containing gold jewelry, pottery and bronze offerings, officials said Wednesday. The building, near the village of Fiscardo on Kefalonia, contained five burials including a large vaulted grave and a stone coffin, a Culture Ministry announcement said.
The complex, measuring 26 by 20 feet, had been missed by grave-robbers, the announcement said.
Archaeologists found gold earrings and rings, gold leaves that may have been attached to ceremonial clothing, as well as glass and clay pots, bronze artifacts decorated with masks, a bronze lock and copper coins.
The vaulted grave, a house-shaped structure, had a small stone door that still works perfectly - turning on stone pivots.
On a nearby plot, archaeologists also located traces of what may have been a small theater with four rows of stone seats, the ministry said.
Previous excavations in the area have uncovered remains of houses, a baths complex and a cemetery, all dating to Roman times - between 146 B.C. and 330 A.D.
SYLVANIA, Ala. - A woman who went for a horseback ride through town at midnight and allegedly used the horse to ram a police car was charged with driving under the influence and drug offenses, police said Tuesday.
"Cars were passing by having to avoid it, and almost hitting the horse," said Police Chief Brad Gregg.
He said DUI charges can apply even when the vehicle has four legs instead of wheels.
Police in the northeast Alabama town received a call around midnight Saturday about someone riding a horse on a city street, Gregg said.
Officer John Seals found Melissa Byrum York, 40, of Henagar, on horseback on a nearby road and attempted to stop her. Seals asked the woman repeatedly to get off the horse, but she kept trying to kick the animal to make it run, the chief said.
"She wouldn't stop. She kept riding the horse and going on," Gregg said.
After ramming the police car with the horse and riding away, the woman tried to jump off but caught her foot in a stirrup, Gregg said. The officer took the woman into custody and discovered that she had crystal methamphetamine, a small amount of marijuana, pills and a small pipe, the chief said.
Horse not 'in the best of health'
York was charged with DUI for allegedly riding the horse under the influence of a controlled substance. She was also charged with drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting arrest, assault, attempting to elude police and cruelty to animals.
Gregg said the horse, which belonged to York, "wasn't in the best of health, but it's still alive."
York was released from the DeKalb County Jail on $4,000 bond and was being transferred to the jail in Jackson County, where authorities had a warrant for her arrest on unrelated charges, Gregg said.
Jackson County officials said Tuesday that York had yet to be booked, and there were no records indicating whether she had a lawyer.
Atari has announced the appointment of a new CEO following the departure of Bruno Bonnell, who founded parent company Infogrames more than two decades ago.
The role will now be held by Patrick Leleu, who has previously held the title of CEO at Bouygues Telecome. He was also CEO at cable network operator Noos from 2001 - 2005, and became a director at Infogrames at the start of this year.
The move comes just days after Infogrames completed its global debt restructuring plan, and according to a statement is designed to "launch new dynamics of change for the group".
"It is with understandable emotions, but also reassured about its future, that I leave Infogrames after 24 years spent to build this group with the support of all its teams," Bonnell commented.
"Together, we have been able to show its strength and capacity to innovate, even in the worst situations. Time for business developers has logically come, after the entrepreneurial period. It’s now time for Infogrames to conquer and progress on a market as promising as interactive entertainment business."
Leleu added: "I am convinced that Infogrames holds the assets, talents and teams to get back into the industrial competition and recover its dynamics of growth."
Oooooh, this one looks vintage! This invader comes from Ulix, a Kotaku commenter, who saw this little gem on vacation in Paris near the Church "Sacre Coeur". Since Invader, the artist, started putting these tiles up in Paris in 1998, this could be one of the originals as time has obviously seen the wear and tear of time (and possibly vandalism). This inspires me to do some tiling in our new apartment or at least getting a few Space Invader pillows for the living room.
2002: Microsoft releases Dungeon Siege for PC in the US. This game was fantastic, until you realized that your pack mule could die and that meant you no longer had a pack mule. But then you'd stare at the hot chick on the box again, and you'd never even remember your pack mule or that you named her after your favorite aunt.
2005: Eidos releases LEGO Star Wars for all the consoles in the whole Universe. It's like combining the best parts of my childhood with the worst parts of my adulthood. I don't know what that means, but it has a perfect balance of ambiguity and parallel structure, so I'm rolling with it.
American Inventor Spot likes boobies as much as we do. They've compiled a list of the top 10 boobie gadgets that you or your wife can buy. We've covered some of them here before, like the boob remote, mousepad and the breast-shaped shampoo dispenser, but keeping up with these things is a full-time job. That's why we're glad American Inventors are on the case.
Really hate your downstairs neighbors? This bed will be sure to make your bedroom romps more fun, noisy and obnoxious, ensuring that every time you pass your neighbors in the stairwell it'll be increasingly awkward.
I've been debating whether or not to post this thing, but what the hell, you're all grown-ups.
Last time I was in Akihabara, I'd found a 7-story sex store filled with the usual DVDs, mags, fetish gear and cosplay outfits. After floor 2, my eyes just glazed over, senses overloaded. But you don't start hiking up Everest with the intent of half-assing, so I kept on going. On floor 5, I noticed what looked like a bright pink projector in the store window. But instead of a lens, the machine had a faux-flesh orifice with "Heaven" scrawled across the side. And instead of a lightbulb, it seemed to have a motor churning away, tirelessly. Then I noticed lots of disposable looking canisters around with different textured interiors. Aha, a bright pink japanese blowjob machine. Cool.
One geek thought occurred to me after the typical male ones: I bet this could be rigged into an automatic cellphone cleaning mechanism.
Shock Absorber sports bras are a great innovation for the ladies and maybe even some guys with man breasts, especially for marathon runners and intense exercisers, who cite examples of conventional bras actually cutting into them.
Those brassieres have been around for a while, though, but the real eye-opener is the way the company demonstrates the characteristics of its products with its Bounce -O-Meter, a Flash app on its website. It lets you input a bra and cup size and then simulates what happens to those magnificent mamms under various exercise conditions, starting with naked breasts (NSFW), then a normal bra, and ultimately the Shock Absorber sports bra.
Some hungry nerd somewhere really needed to take his bagel with him to a meeting, and thus, the CD Bagel Holder was born. We don't know if the story is true (it's probably not) but it's only slightly more interesting than someone looking at his bagel, looking at his spindle, and wondering aloud whether it would fit.
Now available for your handy dandy arsenal of lightsaber gear is this umbrella. No longer will your lightsaber MP3 player, Skype phone, universal remote or MacBook be lonely. I feel like such a nerd describing this, but the umbrella's handle is a black lightsaber and no part of the umbrella lights up, which is very unfortunate for the diehard fans out there. It is available for $100 and would be perfect to shield yourself and your imaginary date on a rainy evening.
Just when you thought steampunk robots couldn't get any nerdier, along comes Crabfu -- creator of the steam-powered RC Rover and other magnificent creations -- and totally raises the bar. The R2-S2 (R2 Steam Too) claims to be the predecessor of R2-D2, and while its steam engine makes this guy quite the sluggish one, we're sure he still has that same heart of gold we've come to know in R2-D2. Crabfu built the bot out of an broken Hasbro R2-D2 Interactive Droid, and after gutting the electronics, he hooked up a fancy new pair of steam engines to the existing gears, squeezed in an old Cheddar Boiler and slapped on a few Victorian steampunk details for good measure.
It looks like a certain British Ministry of Defense woke up on the wrong side of the bed, as they've got a pretty pessimistic view of what we've got in store for us in the next 30 years. In a newly issued report on what Britain needs to prepare for, they think we've got some pretty sizable and terrifying advancements in technology on the way, including:
• An electromagnetic pulse should be around by 2035, enabling baddies to take down all electronic equipment in a city in one fell swoop.
• Neutron weapons that can destroy human organs without damaging surrounding buildings could be used for "extreme ethnic cleansing in an increasingly populated world." Yeah, that'll be around by 2035 as well.
• Information chips that can be implanted directly into the brain should also be around by 2035.
• The immediate and widespread dissemination of information will enable terrorists and criminal groups to organize "flashmobs," large groups of people that appear to come out of nowhere all at once.
Also: huge class divisions making Marxism more popular, a Middle Eastern population boom, an Islamic war on China, and increased global warming. Now who wants ice cream?
1998: To celebrate selling 10 million Playstations, Sony announces a mall tour to celebrate. Yes, just like Tiffany. Even the great Japanese electronic gods bow to the mighty traditions of preteen female bubblegum rock.
2000: GT Interactive releases Imperium Galactica II for PC in the US. I tried to find something funny/insightful/Kotakuesque to say about this game, but I could only come up with Battlestar Galactica hottie Cylon jokes. And by jokes I mean I actually came up with nothing and then lied about it since "Galactica" was in both titles. My apologies.
See, this is the circle of life. This concept design of a hamster cage almost leaves me speechless. The paper shredder on top of the cage is powered by the hamster and it created the paper that can serve as the hamster bedding. Absolutely amazing is all I have to say about this concept design. Thanks for the work Tom Ballhatchet (awesome name).
A good parent prefers that their kid doesn't hang out with pants full of urine and feces all day, but changing the diaper can be a difficult task if you are particularly lazy and not keen on smelling your child's ass every 15 minutes. This is where there wet diaper alarm steps in. This toy has an included CMOS chip alarm. Once the alarm notices sogginess in the drawers an alarm goes off. I think the most difficult task would be ensuring the kiddo doesn't drop the toy. Come on, give us a little wireless. Also, I would have never thought a urine-and-feces detecting toy could be so cute.
Japan is well known all over the world for its ability to create unique products that simply cannot be found anywhere else: full-automatic toilets, that clean you after your business and play a nice song while you are sitting on them; digital pets in shape of an egg that can really get on your nerves and Adult Hentai Dating Simulations.
If you were looking for an automatic toilet, we unfortunately have do disappoint you, but if you are into adult Anime and Manga and were just waiting for a chance to become part it, then you have found the right place.
In Japan extra ordinary popular, Hentai Dating Games were hardly found anywhere else. Especially because most of the games are pretty much text based and without any Japanese knowledge, it was almost pointless to play them.
Thanks to an eager American based distributor, Play-Asia is now happy to carry a variety of some of the most popular Japanese dating simulations -- fully translated into English language. Our selection is starting with almost 60 different titles, all including full English in game text and mostly without the censorship of the original Japanese release.
2005: EA announces a 6-year agreement with the Collegiate Licensing Company for exclusive rights to college football content. This follows a similar agreement with the NFL. Now if I only cared about sports, this announcement might actually bother me.
2006: Bandai releases Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked for PS2 in the US. It's a game based upon the anime show Samurai Champloo. But just so the game companies have it clear: we don't need any more anime titles until you give us Big O on PS3/Xbox 360/Wii. And another season would be nice, too. Thanks.
1999: Sega announces that their Dreamcast system will run $199. To put that in perspective, they explained that it was only 1/3 the cost of Sony's next, next system—or about the price of a kidney.
2005: Microsoft releases Jade Empire for Xbox in the US. It goes on to become the IGN's Xbox Game of the Year, proving that stepping outside the D&D universe for just a moment can be successful for Bioware. What did you think of the game?
This sweet environmentally friendly house spins to face the sun, helping it stay nice and warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It does this by using triple-glazed glass on one side of the house to keep it warm in the winter, and by super-insulating the other side to keep the house cool in the summer.
In addition, it's got solar vacuum tubes that heat water using the sun. In the end, the house creates more energy than it uses, which is a pretty remarkable feat. Where can I order one?
Universal Studios Florida is finalizing terms to bring a type of “Harry Potter World” to its Orlando resort, according to Deadline Hollywood Daily, which states that the entire themed area would be at a previously unused portion of the amusement park.
There’s been no official world from Universal or from Warner Brothers, which holds the film rights to the franchise, but if the deal goes through it would be the first Harry Potter theme park attraction.
Ooh, what would be in Harry Potter World? Not much if it’s only a portion of the park, because let’s face it, the Harry Potter universe could be an entire theme park by itself. Maybe even more than one park.
Here’s some of my ideas (Universal, feel free to send me a big, fat check for these brilliant concepts):
– Buckbeak’s Flying Adventure: Soar through the air on your very own hippogriff. (Picture something like the Flying Dumbo ride at Disney World).
– Hogwart’s Express: Wait on Platform 9 3/4, then board the magical railroad car roller coaster that journeys to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. (Similar to Disney’s Thunder Mountain Railroad.)
– Harry’s Great Dementor Escape: Hang on to your wizard hat as you ride this super-fast coaster that takes you from 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds - the only way to escape the dreaded Dementors!
– The Golden Snitch: A host of HP merchandise including Quidditch equipment, cloaks, wands, and clothing.
– The Three Broomsticks: Counter service restaurant serving burgers, fries, and butterbeer.
– Honeydukes Sweetshop: For all your favorite candies like Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, Sugar Quills, and Chocolate Frogs.
– Muggle Sundries: A variety of mundane items to choose from like mints, sunscreen, aspirin, and batteries.
– Nearly Headless Nick’s Portraits: This is where you’d pick up pictures you took when entered the Park.
– The Leaky Cauldron Inn: No HP theme park experience would be complete without a night’s stay at this on-site resort within walking distance of the park.
I imagine there’d be areas named for different HP locations, like a Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and Azkaban. And the areas would have street names that would include Diagon Alley, Charing Cross Road, and Privet Drive.
I could go on and on with this, but it’s late and I need to snooze and I doubt I’ll be seeing that check in the mail anytime soon anyway.
If you're a parent, you probably know how much of a pain it is to keep your kids off the Internet and doing whatever it is they're supposed to be doing (that car isn't washing itself, champ). This keyfob from Best Netguard solves all your parenting problems (yes, ALL OF THEM) by letting you turn off the a PC's internet access remotely. That way, you can be sure that your kids aren't IMing or surfing when they're supposed to be doing homework.
Asking them nicely to not use the Internet never works, because they're lying little bastards who will take advantage of you as soon as your back is turned. They learned that from you, after all.
1998: Nintendo announces they will provide N64 units at 1,000 Tommy Hilfiger retail locations. Hilfiger will in turn sell apparel based upon the game 1080 Snowboarding. Gamers are not fooled and Tommy Hilfiger continues to suck.
1999: Showscan announces amusement rides based upon the Wing Commander and Street Fighter franchises. But I don't think these ever came out...anyone out there right the Wing Commander? You know...for real?
YES ! It appears that Sony have done it again. In their zeal to make their DVD movies copyproof (yeah right) they have in fact made their latest releases unplayable on some DVD players, including my Sony DVP-CX995V DVD player. I recently rented “Stranger than Fiction” (2 copies) and “The Holiday” ( please no comments on my choice of movies) both by Sony Pictures. Both load up to the splash title screen and then load no further, then after about 60 secs the player turns itself off!
ALL my other DVD’s and new releases from other movie companies play perfectly
I called Sony Electronics help line and they said to call Sony Pictures 1-800-860-2878 which I did.
The following is a compression of our discussion:
Sony Tech: We know about this problem. Its our new copy protection that’s making these discs unplayable in some players including our own, we do not intend to change the copy protection. The only correction to this problem is a firmware update to your player. The electronics division know about this and should have given you this information.
Me: OK send me the firmware update.
Sony Tech: We do not have one as yet.
Me: OK (a bit frustrated) when will it be available?
Sony Tech: It could be 2 weeks it could be a month, we don’t know.
He then took my phone number and said ”they” would let me know when the firmware update is available, but declined to take my address saying that they would get that when the update was available.
I will say that I got a live person on both support lines within 30 secs.
Here are my questions to Sony:
After spending $350 on a Sony DVD player 3 months ago am I now supposed to avoid Sony Pictures products?
You are still advertising the Sony DVP-CX995V prominently on the Sony USA website but I notice there is no disclaimer that it may not play some new Sony Pictures DVD’s.
Would it not be a good idea to test changes you intend to make on your DVD’s at least on your own equipment so that if you find a problem you could have the firmware update available instead of not only inconveniencing, but alienating your own customers.
I believe this problem is happening on other manufacturers devices, are they working feverishly on firmware updates to accommodate you?
Well thats my rant (yeah I feel a bit better now)
Expect this to be happening a lot more with Blu-ray discs in the future as there are like 4 different version specifications for it.
BLACKSBURG, Va. - A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at a college in Virginia on Monday, killing at least 30 people in the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history. The gunman also was killed, and more than a dozen other people were injured.
“Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions,” said Charles Steger, president of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, in southwest Virginia. “The university is shocked and indeed horrified.”
The shootings spread panic and confusion at the college, which is popularly known as Virginia Tech. Witnesses reporting students jumping out the windows of a classroom building to escape the gunfire.
Authorities said the gunman was dead after he shot nearly 50 people at two locations on campus. Thirty-one, including the gunman, were confirmed dead, NBC News reported. At least 18 others were injured, at least four of whom were in critical condition, NBC affiliate WSLS-TV in nearby Roanoke reported, quoting local hospital officials.
The name of the gunman was not released. It was not immediately clear whether he shot himself or was killed by police.
The man did not appear to be shooting at random, NBC News’ Pete Williams reported, quoting federal law enforcement officials. He appeared to have specifically targeted the two locations, a co-ed dormitory and a classroom housing engineering and business classes.
Law enforcement officials said the gunman carried two weapons, a 9-mm pistol and a 22-caliber handgun, Williams reported. They said they were investigating whether the gunman may have chained the doors of the classroom building so his potential victims could not escape.
Richard Kolko in Washington, a spokesman for the FBI in Washington, said there was no immediate evidence to suggest it was a terrorist attack, “but all avenues will be explored.”
Silent gunman ‘just started shooting’
A student in the engineering class describe an “unreal” scene with “blood pretty much everywhere.”
“None of us thought it could have been gunshots,” the student, who identified himself as Trey Jenkins, told MSNBC’s Chris Jansing in a telephone interview. “... I’m not sure how long it lasted. It seemed like a really long time.”
Perkins said the gunman never said a word. “He didn’t say, ‘Get down.’ He didn’t say anything.” He just started shooting.”
The gunman left the classroom and then tried to return, but students kept him out by bracing the door closed with their feet. “He started to try to come in again and started shooting through the door,” Perkins said, but hit no one.
“I got on the ground and I was just thinking, like, there’s no way I’m going to survive this,” Perkins said. “All I could keep thinking of was my mom.”
Until Monday, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard drove his pickup into a Luby’s Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.
The deadliest previous campus shooting in U.S. history took place in 1966 at the University of Texas, where Charles Whitman climbed to the 28th-floor observation deck of a clock tower
and opened fire. He killed 16 people before he was gunned down by police.
In the Columbine High School bloodbath near Littleton, Colo., in 1999, two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.
The rampage began about 7:15 a.m. ET at West Ambler Johnston, a co-ed residence hall that houses 895 people. The campus was still under lockdown, with students asked to stay indoors and away from the windows, when authorities got word of more gunfire about two hours later at Norris Hall, a classroom building.
Some but not all of the dead were students. One student was killed in the dorm, and the others were killed in the classroom, said Virginia Tech Police Chief W.R. Flinchum.
After Monday’s shootings at Virginia Tech, all entrances to the campus were closed. The university set up a meeting place for families to reunite with their children at the Inn at Virginia Tech. It also made counselors available and planned a convocation for Tuesday at the Cassell Coliseum basketball arena.
Campus, community left stunned
Jamal Albarghouti, a graduate student, said that instead of fleeing, he began shooting video footage on his cell phone.
“I’m from the Middle East, so I’m not used to this sort of thing, but I’ve been in similar situations,” Albarghouti told MSNBC-TV.
“I heard many gunshots,” perhaps 10 to 15 in just 30 seconds, he said. “I don’t know who made the shots, whether it was the cops or the shooter.”
Albarghouti and other students described a stunned campus and surrounding community after the shootings.
Derek O’Dell, a sophomore biology major, told MSNBC-TV that it was “very surreal.”
“At first, I thought it was joke,” O’Dell said. “You don’t really think of a gunman coming on campus and shooting people.”
Albarghouti said: “Everybody here is sad, and you can see that all over. ... We are really looking forward to the end of this, when Blacksburg becomes a really nice town once again.”
Police said there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks but that they had not determined a link to the shootings.
Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, said President Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia.
“The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed,” Perino said.
It was second time in less than a year that the campus was closed because of a shooting.
In August, the opening day of classes was canceled and the campus was closed when an escaped jail inmate allegedly killed a hospital guard off campus and fled to the Tech area. A sheriff’s deputy involved in the manhunt was killed on a trail just off campus.
The accused gunman, William Morva, faces capital murder charges.
“Yesterday, around 4:00pm, I received a phone call telling me that Richard (Dampe) has been in a fatal car accident…”
What a tragic accident. A 15-year-old Melbourne boy is struck and killed by a car that lost control on a wet road. Richard Denton, developer of Ocarina of Time 2D, is dead, and with him a highly anticipated game is no more.
Except I don’t believe that for a second. In fact, I think it’s bullshit. Here’s why.
Richard is supposed to have died on the 23rd of March. The announcement was here, but those forums have since been closed down, with not so much as a memorial message remaining. A final post from the forum is preserved on Digg.com:
Unfortunatley, On March 21st, We lost our great man, Richard (Dampe)
The official police record has read that Richard was hit by a car that had swurved on the wet road, the car WAS NOT speeding. Richard was knocked unconcious and shortly after passed away.
So, did Richard die on Wednesday the 21st, or on Friday the 23rd? News sites invariably quoted the 23rd, which was on the original message. Why was the first announcement off by two days?
Well, we could turn to local newspapers for some clarification. Diligent googling has so far failed to reveal any relevant articles. Never mind, not every single death gets reported. What about death notices? A search of news.com.au and Fairfax classified notices reports no deaths by the name of ‘Denton’. Well, if Richard isn’t going to get himself into the papers, we’ll just have to go to the government.
Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission has an excellent road toll statistics tool, searchable by date, location, victim and injury type. Let’s see what happens when we plug in a search for “pedestrian fatalities, 21-23 March”. Results: One fatality, an 18-20 y/o female killed on the 22nd between 2am and 4am. That… doesn’t sound much like Richard at all.
1. No rain in his area for several days, ruling out death by a car that swerved off the road to hit him. [NB there was 1mm of rain on Wednesday 21 March]
2. No local news in his area mentions the death of a teenager named Richard Denton.
3. No info at local police stations about an accident.
4. There were several Ocarina of Time 2D projects. His was being done in Gamemaker and it was the least impressive.
5. Months and months of work and we get a few screenshots of the Deku Tree.
6. Only 15 years old. I’m the same age and I frequently move from different stuff, getting bored quickly with the same things. He could’ve gotten tired of it.
7. Pressure. People would expect great things from anything with the words “Ocarina of Time” in the title. He might have cracked.
8. “Mention OoT2D on the forum and you’re banned. Forget about it. His family doesn’t want you to talk about it.” ^Short version of what was posted on the site. Why would mentioning it be bad? Why would his family care so much about a project they probably didn’t know or care about? Why would they be so desperate to eliminate all traces of it if they were grieving so much? If I died I think my family would have other matters besides shutting down my accounts on the Sony and Nintendo forums.
10. A bit too perfect. The brilliant young developer is tragically killed and his last words were “I love you” to his girlfriend.
In addition to point #9, Dampé’s YouTube profile shows that ’someone’ was logged into his account as recently as March 28th.
Ask yourself what happens more frequently: a 15-year-old boy is run down by an out-of-control car, generating no press coverage, or a 15-year-old boy gets bored with a project and gives up on it. On the facts available, I can’t accept that Dampé is dead.
This is abhorrent - the gaming community has mourned his death, and this news has upset many people who knew Dampé through the project. The record needs to be set straight. Prove me wrong, if you can. Digg this
Update: Solitary Angel posts on Gaming World Forums:
The thing that kind of makes this topic worse is that Dampe’ is very much alive…
By signing on with an older MSN account (not just me), a few people found out that he was in fact still online…
His reasons for wanting people to think he is dead was so that they would stop adding him and asking about OoT2D, and to also kill his reputation, stopping whatever pressures he may or may not have been under to complete his game…
Nonetheless a lot of us are pissed off and I just thought I’d say this before more RIP posts pop up.
Update 2: Hello, Destructoid! Here’s a list of 8 games the Wii will never get. Update 3: There’s a new YouTube bulletin. And in response to a forum post saying this article is ‘bullshit’, the former host of Dampe’s site has this to say: “But he isn’t dead. [He faked his death] to make sure no one bothered him about OOT2D, he couldn’t take it, his parents were getting angry at him, people were actually calling him.” Well, I hope that Richard’s learned a valuable lesson: being caught in a lie has worse consequences than telling the truth to begin with."
A Virginia Tech senior from South Korea was behind the massacre of at least 30 people locked inside a campus building in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, the university said Tuesday.
Ballistics tests also found that one of the guns used in that attack was also used in a shooting two hours earlier at a dorm that left two people dead, Virginia State Police said.
Police identified the shooter as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a senior from South Korea who was in the English department at Virginia Tech. Cho, a South Korean native, was in the U.S. as a resident alien with a residence established in Centerville, Va. Cho was living on campus in Harper Residence Hall.
The bloodbath ended with the gunman’s suicide, bringing the death toll from two separate shootings — first at a dorm, then in a classroom building — to 33 and stamping the campus in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains with unspeakable tragedy.
"He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," school spokesman Larry Hincker said.
Cho had lived legally in the United States with his parents for 14 years, a U.S. immigration official said on Tuesday. He moved to the United States in September 1992 and lived in Centreville, Va., said Chris Bentley, a spokesman with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry expressed its condolences, saying there was no known motive for the shootings and that South Korea hoped the tragedy would not "stir up racial prejudice or confrontation."
Two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information had not been announced, said Cho's fingerprints were found on the guns used in the shootings. The serial numbers on the two weapons had been filed off, the officials said.
One law enforcement official said Cho was carrying a backpack that contained receipts for a March purchase of a Glock 9 mm pistol.
Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said it was reasonable to assume that Cho was the shooter in both attacks but that link was yet definitive.
“There’s no evidence of any accomplice at either event, but we’re exploring the possibility,” he said.
At least 26 people were taken to hospitals after the second attack, some seriously injured. Twelve students remained hospitalized in stable condition on Tuesday, officials said.
State, local and federal investigators spent the night collecting, processing and analyzing evidence from within the classroom building, Norris Hall. The deceased were recovered from at least four classrooms on the second floor and a stairwell of Norris Hall.
The gunman, who took his life, was discovered by police in a classroom among the victims.
All of the deceased have been transported to the Medical Examiner's Office in Roanoke for examination and identification.
The names of the deceased students and faculty will be released once all victims are positively identified and next of kin notified.
President Bush planned to attend a memorial service Tuesday afternoon at the university, the White House said, and Gov. Tim Kaine was flying back to Virginia from Tokyo for the 2 p.m. convocation.
The people of Blacksburg and the Virginia Tech campus of more than 25,000 full time students struggled to find order in the wake of the shooting.
“For all the children in our community who are afraid,” one woman pleaded in a church service held for those seeking solace.
Another added: “For parents near and far who wonder at a time like this, ‘Is my child safe?”’
Investigators gave no motive for the attack.
It may sound like a game show for accountants, but Claim Your Content is actually the name of YouTube's new content monitoring tool. As near as we can figure, it's an automated feature that accompanies every user-uploaded video. Content owners, including such publicly announced Claim Your Content charter members as the NHL and the NBA, will have the right to log in and yank any content that they feel is an infringement of copyright.
Now, we will be eager to see exactly how this yanking process works, and if there is any room in it for protest, deliberation or out-and-out legal confrontation. Frankly, an automated censoring product seems a little bit scary. What is clear at this point is that this is Google's way of appeasing some of the angrier content owners who have already taken action. According to a wire report, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said today that the tool may at least help play down the allegation that YouTube encourages copyright infringement. "As that product rolls out, the issue becomes moot," said Schmidt.
San Bernardino Country wants to start a new program that would tag gang members with GPS locators upon release from prison. They say that this would help tackle the on-going issue of gang violence, but it seems a little too Big Brother to me. I'm all about trying to prevent violence, but how about rehabilitation while they're in prison, rather than waiting until they are out so they can easily be busted again with GPS? It also reminds me of the fact that my mom wants to tag her prized rag-doll cat with a similar thing in case he runs away, except the cat is a lot more fluffy and cuddly than a gang-banger (maybe)
Remember the pendulum executive desk toys that were so popular in the '80s? Then you'll be familiar with Mrs. Newton's Knockers. A few questions though.
Does Mrs. Newton herself have five breasts? More than five breasts? Are these someone else's breasts? Did she take one each from five women, or are there two women walking around breastless and one with just half a breast? All pertinent questions
2001: THQ and Nickelodeon join forces in a multi-year agreement to produce games based upon the Nickelodeon franchises. I don't keep up much with this sector of the market, but I'm pretty sure most of their titles rhyme with Sponge Bob.
2005: EB and Gamestop announce that they will be merging. Just like Station from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, two somewhat slimy, but oddly effective entities slam together to become one. Yes, that was petty off topic. Yes, that movie is still rocks.
In a continuation of the story reported earlier [found here], Sony has caved into pressure (and probably fear of repeating the same lawsuits that came from the rootkit fiasco) and are now offering replacements for over 20 different DVD titles that contained a new form of protection on them that wouldn't allow them to play in some DVD players.
The issue was caused by an update they made to their ARccoS Copy protection scheme that was supposed to make it even harder to copy. The interesting part of it is that even before this update that they have rolled back all titles with ARccoS were known to be incompatible with a number of DVD players.
I could not find the full list of titles Sony is offering new copies of, but know that it's at least for: Stranger Than Fiction, Casino Royal, and Rocky Balboa.
Anyone who has any of these titles and cannot play them (or even if you can) is encouraged to call Sony's toll free help at 800.860.2878 and complain.
Hopefully with enough complaints (as, for now they are admitting they made the protection incompatability worse, but claim that only one hundredth of one thousandth of people buying these movies have complained) they will replace any disc with ARccoS.
No ‘real’ E3, no authoritative Euro trade show and a proliferation of supplier events have all left retailers frustrated in recent months – but now two major publishers have led the way in trying to solve the problem.
MCV can reveal that THQ and Sega are to work together on a European showcase in June, giving retailers the chance to assess over 20 new titles at what the two publishers are calling ‘a professional and cost effective retail-minded event.’
And there’s real potential for other publishers to get involved – both THQ’s Ian Curran and Sega’s Mike Hayes would welcome further collaborations with their industry contemporaries.
“Without E3 and without a true pan-European event at the moment customers are going to have to traipse off to so many different publisher events,” Sega Europe’s president Mike Hayes stated. “There has been a lot written in MCV recently about how many days retailers have to take out of the office in order to go and see product, so we’re aiming to make their lives more convenient.”
Ian Curran, THQ’s senior VP of international publishing, added: “We believe that we need a purely retail-focused event – there are very few egos involved between THQ and Sega and a lot of mutual respect in terms of what we’ve both achieved in the last few years.
“If someone else approached us and asked to be part of it, and their ideas are in line with ours, I see absolutely no reason why it couldn’t involve other publishers as well.”
As MCV revealed a few weeks ago (‘Retailers are fed up with publisher events’ 02/03), an increasing number of publisher trips has meant that retail buyers are spending an ever-increasing amount of time out of the office. And with no ‘traditional’ E3 to speak of, THQ and Sega have come up with a solution that could please all parties.
Chris Covell has written up a page with 10 short reviews of one of the most obscure Game Boy games! They are: Trip World, Chalvo 55, Peetan, Noobow, Balloon Kid/Balloon Fight GB/Hello Kitty World (Famicom), Heiankyo Alien, Booby Boys, Ca Da, Karamuu-Cho No Daijken, & Ikari No Yousai 2.
The Game Boy never got much credit as a proper game machine with decent games. Oh, sure, games like Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening were miniature masterpieces, but by about a year or two after the GB's release, it had fallen out of favour from me and any other self-respecting gamer, earning the title LameBoy for its blurry, low-contrast monochrome screen. That didn't change until the late '90s, when I finally caved in and bought a Super Game Boy for my SNES. This move let me rediscover some great games from the NES' little brother, and saved my eyesight in the process.
If you're like me, then, there are probably dozens of great GB games that you have passed over for flashier entertainment from the 16-bit and 32-bit systems. So why not take the time to slow down, and appreciate some of the cream of the obscure crop of GB releases? Most of these games were only released in Japan, and have very little hype or popularity to show for their efforts. I promise that there'll be at least one game that you'll fall in love with in this list below. So let's get busy!
We're not entirely sure if Manchester's CIS Solar Tower will be the world's grandest solar tower, but in terms of buildings have moved beyond the drawing board, it definitely packs a punch. Reportedly, the flaky construction led to dilapidating walls, which were then replaced by a much greener solution -- 7,244 Sharp 80W photovoltaic panels, to be precise. Curiously, only 4,898 of the modules are actually functional, but they still soak up enough sunlight to generate 390-kilowatts of energy, or in layman's terms, enough juice to "power 1,000 PCs for a year." Additionally, the roof is home to two dozen wind turbines that generate 10-percent of the total power used in the building. Of course, such an endeavor did ring up at a steep £5.675 million ($11.4 million), but we're pretty certain this solar panel makeover was concerned with matters other than dollars and cents.
