Dead Island

Just finished watching this amazing trailer for an upcoming zombie game called Dead Island and it looks amazing. This trailer makes you both want to cheer because it looks like it will be fun to play… and cry because it is so emotional. The song is absolutely perfect for the slow motion tragedy you watch unfold. This game already has a cult following and that is just from the trailer alone! Talk about excellent marketing so far. I hope the game is as good as the trailer.

Click here to view the trailer in HD.

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DJAY app for the iPad

So I picked up the new DJAY app by algoriddim for my iPad yesterday. It currently runs $19.99 on the app store (yeah pricey, thank goodness for an iTunes gift card). It emulates your basic DJ setup… 2 turntables and a mixer. After mixing on it for about an hour, I got the hang of it and it was really easy to get the song cued and beat matched without having a set of headphones to cue the next track. You can hook up a pair of headphones, but you need a special splitter to do that.  It’s the most polished of all the DJ programs out right now. Very responsive decks so you could even scratch on it if you wanted to. It loads the songs from your iPad music library and even has an automix feature so you can use it as a regular music player. It allows you to record your sessions if you want to make a quick mix.  In theory,  you could actually DJ a small house party with just your iPad and this App. You do need to have the newest iOS on your iPad to use this app.  Kind of a nice compact way to carry around your DJ rig. Read more about it here.

The Walking Dead

And   I   will   walk   with   the   dead… for as many seasons as they can crank out. Talk about great character development and big budget movie level gore! I found a new TV series to become obsessed with now that LOST is done with. As my friends already know, I’m a huge fan of almost anything zombie related, but this stuff is great regardless of what you’re a fan of. It’s got the backing of several good writers and directors. They did not disappoint the huge cult following the comic has managed to acquire.

Here is a quick synopsis from the AMC site:

“The Walking Dead is an epic, edge-of-your-seat drama where personal struggles are magnified against a backdrop of moment-to-moment survival. A survivalist story at its core, the series explores how the living are changed by the overwhelming realization that those who survive can be far more dangerous that the mindless walkers roaming the earth. They themselves have become the walking dead.”

The show airs on the AMC channel on Sundays. Check out the comic series too if you like the show.

The man is back

Just got my pre-order of CeeLo Green’s new album Lady Killer…. wow is it good!  Produced by several established and some new producers, the result is a very eclectic style covering several genres of music…  all with that classic CeeLo singing style. He adds soul to every track he touches. It could almost be another Gnarles Barkley album (no offense to DangerMouse) by the sound of it. My favorite so far is “Bright Lights Bigger City”. This album will be playing at work and in my car over the next few months for sure. I highly recommend it.

Check it out or buy it here: LadyKiller

Where the hell was I ?!

OK.. OK.. I know I haven’t updated in a long time. But you seriously underestimate my laziness. Just dropping in real quick to let people know I promise to post more content soon. I’ve purchased a lot of gadgets since we last spoke   ; )

The infamous Wolf Shirt

Just thought I’d post one of the funnier reviews of this shirt from Amazon.com

“This item has wolves on it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth 5 stars by itself, but once I tried it on, that’s when the magic happened. After checking to ensure that the shirt would properly cover my girth, I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the shirt on and was immediately approached by women. The women knew from the wolves on my shirt that I, like a wolf, am a mysterious loner who knows how to ‘howl at the moon’ from time to time (if you catch my drift!). The women that approached me wanted to know if I would be their boyfriend and/or give them money for something they called mehth. I told them no, because they didn’t have enough teeth, and frankly a man with a wolf-shirt shouldn’t settle for the first thing that comes to him.

I arrived at Wal-mart, mounted my courtesy-scooter (walking is such a drag!) sitting side saddle so that my wolves would show. While I was browsing tube socks, I could hear aroused asthmatic breathing behind me. I turned around to see a slightly sweaty dream in sweatpants and flip-flops standing there. She told me she liked the wolves on my shirt, I told her I wanted to howl at her moon. She offered me a swig from her mountain dew, and I drove my scooter, with her shuffling along side out the door and into the rest of our lives. Thank you wolf shirt.

Pros: Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women

Cons: Only 3 wolves (could probably use a few more on the ‘guns’), cannot see wolves when sitting with arms crossed, wolves would have been better if they glowed in the dark.”

Why I broke down and became a sheep…

Let me start by saying I hate Apple products because they force you to use iTunes. I try to avoid them as much as I can. But sometimes Apple just has the best features and design.  So my iPod Nano 5th gen arrived yesterday. It’s about the 35th MP3 player I’ve bought so far in my life (not kidding). I go through MP3 players like crazy. Every new feature that comes out, makes the one I previously had obsolete in my mind. I keep wanting my portable music player to do more and more. That’s what led me eventually to the iPod Nano. Now that it has a video camera crammed into it, it became too tempting to resist. I was actually shopping for a small portable video camera and they were all more expensive than the Nano was. I figured I might as well get the Nano as a video camera and still have all the other features it comes with as a bonus. It’s amazing how many things this tiny sliver of tech can do. It’s now my music player, my movie player, my video camera, my alarm clock, my picture viewer, and quick game system. All for less than $140. Since I will primarily use this for making You Tube clips and stuff,  I’ll give a quick review of the iPod’s newest feature, the video camera.

The video records at a 640 x 480 resolution which is more than plenty for all those popular video clip sites. Video quality is better than most phone video recorders, but not better than dedicated portable video recorders. Even if it recorded in 720 HD and you wanted to post it on You Tube or other sites like it, they would downgrade the video to 640 x 480 anyways.  So no big deal there for simple, non-professional filming. The Nano’s 2.2″ screen is super clear and crisp. Makes capturing video pretty easy… except you have to be careful on how you hold this thing. The camera was positioned in the perfect place for you to cover the lens with your fingers when holding the Nano in a natural grip. The lens was placed at the bottom of the Nano and not at the top like the iPhone. This was annoying at first, but after learning how to hold it, wasn’t an issue anymore. Video length is only limited by how much space you have on the Nano and it uses a simple “press to record / press to stop” recording format. Colors are good in the video, but overall brightness can be slightly darker than other portable video camera’s I’ve used. Make sure there is plenty of good light before recording. The mic picks up sound very well and playback now includes audio through a hidden speaker stuffed somewhere inside. You no longer need the headphones to hear anything on the Nano. This is a great addition to the 5th gen model. Video recording also includes 15 cool effects and filters. Not all are really useful, but still fun to try. Many of them taken from the Mac video studio. They are: Sepia, Black and White, X-Ray, Film Grain, Thermal, Security Cam, Cyborg, Bulge, Kaleido, Motion Blur, Mirror, Light Tunnel, Dent, Stretch, and Twirl.  You can check out how they look here: Video Test

Over all, the new 5th Gen Nano makes a very good “All-in-One” device. Well worth the money considering how many things it can do. It’s small, thin, and compact enough to carry around with you everywhere. It’s far cheaper than buying a separate Mp3 player and video camera. Are there better MP3 players and video camera’s out there? Yes. But not package this small and this cheap. So in the end, the bargain of getting a do-all device won over my hate of Apple products.  BAAAaaaaaaa.

10 things about the new PS3

1. The new 120gb PS3 comes out Sept 1st for $299. The current/bigger version of the PS3 has been reduced to sell. It’s bundled with a game and Blu-Ray for $299 also. It used to be $400.

2. It will still have an upgradeable SATA hard drive in it. Take two screws from the front and you can stick in your own hard drive. Easy upgrades makes this WAY better than the insanely high priced Xbox 360 hard drive upgrades.

3. It is no longer backwards compatible with PS2 games. Not so much a big deal for most people, but a pain if you still have a few great PS2 games (God of War 1 &2) and don’t want to use a separate PS2 console just to play them.

4. No LINUX support this time around. The ability to install another OS has been removed from the menu. Most likely there will be a hack to re-allow it shortly after release.

5. Be careful going vertical with this unit. Since the entire unit is now 33% smaller, standing it on its side vertically might be dangerous since it may fall over easier. There is a stand available for $24, but it won’t be released until two days after the console is?

6. It won’t come with the most current version of software. Sounds weird that you will have to do a system update right out of the box, but that is only because the 3.0 software releases on the same day as the new console. All future systems will be sold with the update already on it.

7. Those stupid “touch” buttons are being replaced with good ‘ol physical click buttons. Many a current PS3 owner would have to use braille techniques to find the Reset and Power buttons if it was even slightly dark in your room. Even then you didn’t know if you were touching it in the right place or not. This is America. We like old fashioned buttons that move and click and give us feedback that we have pressed something.

8. No media card reader in the new slim model. Maybe you hardly used it in the 1st place, but when you did, it was a big convenience. Made it so easy to transfer pics from any camera or device that used a media card.

9. Available USB ports are reduced from 4 to 2 ports. This I don’t like. You can never have enough USB ports. What if I wanted to plug in my USB Aquarium, USB Disco Ball, AND my USB Humping Dog flash drive?  You mean I would have to choose only 2 of them?  Not cool.

10. Plays well with other Sony products. The new PS3 can sync with a Sony Bravia HDTV and be controlled using the TV remote. This is really cool if you use your PS3 as your media center or if you just don’t want to grab another remote while watching a Blu-Ray movie.

Real life? or toys in a stop motion film project?

Everything in this video is real. Real people. Real Event. Real cars. Real venue. But with the way it was filmed you will swear they are toys. Especially around 38 seconds into it. The effect is achieved through a technique called “Tilting”. The lens has a hard fixed focus point giving it an “miniature” looking effect. The result is just awesome. Plus the song is kind of good too. Enjoy.

Button Cam

Here is a little device brought to us from Japan. It’s a little video camera that can be disguised as a button on your shirt. Its 4gb of memory can hold up to 90 minutes of VGA video and can be transferred to your computer via the mini USB port. It’s operated remotely by a cool  golden ring you wear which turns the camera on and off.

“One ring to film them all, one ring to spy them,
One ring to bring them all and in the darkness….. masturbate to the footage you took, pervert.”

Not sure of its application in the real world other than perverted or spy related activities. Both of which are liable to get your ass kicked. It’s available in Japan right now and runs about $70. Even though this camera is pretty well hidden, I still think you would look suspicious laying on the street, trying to get women in dresses or mini-skirts to walk over you.

The new DangerMouse album… actually isn’t

The absolutely brilliant samplist DangerMouse has a new album out, but not really.  It’s called Dark Night of the Soul, but due to legal issues with EMI he would be in danger of getting sued if he releases it. So what he is doing is kind of a cool way to protest his record label. He is releasing a blank CD-R with the album picture on it and is relying on his fans to “obtain” a copy by any means they see fit. Does this promote piracy?  Yes and No. He’s just being realistic. It’s going to be pirated anyways and he is just providing a cool disc to burn those downloaded songs onto. It’s not like if he didn’t provide a blank CD-R it wouldn’t be pirated. This way people still get to hear the new album and he keeps his fans happy. The limited edition CD-R comes with a 100 page booklet of pictures taken by David Lynch for $50. He also makes a budget package available for $10 that includes a poster and the CD-R. Both are available at his site   www.dnots.com  

Even though I had the songs downloaded from torrent sites within minutes of hearing the album was out, I’m still going to buy the CD-R in appreciation of DangerMouse’s hard work and dedication to his fans. Had it been out by legal means, I would have purchased it.  The album is made in collaboration with SparkleHorse and features several guest musicians. Highlights on the album for me are Revenge and Star Eyes. For fans of the 1st Gnarls Barkley album, this album is right on course with that. It reminds me of the music the Beatles would be putting out if they were around today. I just have it looped  at work and can listen to it all day. Go out and find it, it’s worth a listen. 

Here are two tracks to get a taste of the sound:

Revenge

StarEyes

CGI finally catch up to reality?

If you saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and thought it was kind of cool how they put old man make up on Brad Pitt and then super-imposed his head in the film, then you were fooled just like I was. Brad Pitt doesn’t even appear in the film for the first hour. Any time you see him as a little old man, it was a pure CGI computer model of his head. Brad basically operated a digital “puppet” using his facial expression. It’s absolutely brilliant technology. Something similar is going to be used in the upcoming James Cameron movie called Avatar. Both movies had to be delayed (for about 10 years) until the technology could catch up to what the directors wanted to film. One of the VP’s over at Digital Domain gave a lecture on how they did it all at the TED convention. It’s a lengthy clip, so get comfortable or watch it later when you have time because it’s simply amazing.

Lego Las

This is the work of former corporate lawyer Nathan Sawaya. He is one of the few Lego Masters who gets regular commissions for huge Lego projects. It’s been his full time job for the last several years. Some of the projects take over 6 weeks to complete and use more than 140,000 Lego bricks.  No idea how he does it, but I’m sure there is some 3D computer modeling software he must use to get the basic layouts. Just thought it would be cool to show people what can be done with “toys”.

New nature/pervert camera lens technology

This is the new Sigma 200-500 f/2.8 camera lens. It currently runs about $24,000. Talk about ridiculous! I guess it allows nature photographers to get up close to their subjects without disturbing them. It also allows that registered greasy fat guy who isn’t allowed to talk to children anymore to photograph you from 12 blocks away. I guess if you are seriously into photography, this is your ultimate lens. It just looks crazy to me.

And here is a nice photo of this model in California. The photographer was in Ohio.

Enibody can ride the EniCycle

The EniCycle is a self balancing electric unicycle that might be going into production this year. It was invented by a Slovanian Electrical Engineer as an alternative to the impossible to ride unicycle. Electronic gyroscopes measure the vertical angle of the EniCycle. If you lean forward, this is detected by the gyroscope and it accelerates the speed of the motor to put the EniCycle back in balance. If you lean back, the speed is decelerated. The EniCycle monitors its position a 100 times per second so the control is fluid.  The speed of EniCycle is controlled by leaning forwards/backwards. Turning is done by leaning the foot pegs of the wheel left or right. It takes less than 10 minutes to learn the basics. Top speed is currently only about 10 mph and the battery lasts maybe 3 hours. The final production model might increase these stats. I hope they get the funding they need to bring this to the masses soon. It would be fun to try and an alternative to the Segway type personal transports.

You can check out a video of it in action here: The EniCycle

When excess gets excessive

This is a new 3D mouse that 3DConnexion has out called the SpacePilot Pro. Yes, that massive control center is a mouse. Who would need this besides Ender or the Galactic Overlords, I don’t know, but it runs about $500 and is available now. It even has it’s own LCD you can program to display porn while your main screen only shows the online Bible study courses you’ve been taking. Technology… ain’t it neat?

Cool in a creepy spooky way

These are some pictures of a few underwater sculptures created by Jason de Caires Taylor in Grenada, West Indies.  They are somehow haunting, surreal and beautiful at the same time. Just how freaked out would you be to stumble across this while diving on vacation if you didn’t know they were there? I would float a brown shark on the spot!

I mean… REALLY? They did that?!

I accidentally came across some old forum post about this and I had to re-visit this subject because I’m stunned it ever happened. It’s so beyond cliche’ and lame that it justified writing about. I never watched the series, but I knew of it. 

In 1983 there was a Knight Rider episode called “Goliath”  where Michael Knight’s evil twin brother, Garthe, creates an big rig named Goliath to do battle with KITT. Goliath is made of the same Molecular Bonded Shell that KITT is made of. So it’s sort of a super truck. And Garthe looks exactly like Michael, only with a mustache and small triangle beard. Oh yeah,  he is also a dick. Garthe along with Goliath set out to destroy Michael and KITT because they feel the world isn’t big enough for two Hasselhoff’s. 

Now for my comments:  Just how hard would it be to avoid a giant big rig with a trailer? Pretty much driving into any city block would lose this huge non-turning slow ass vehicle. I guess that’s why the two vehicles dueled it out in the wide open desert in the end. Tons of people in the forum pointed out the whole David and Goliath theme. Get it? DAVID Hasselhoff vs the evil truck GOLIATH. Uh… yeah… deep man… deep. I bet the writers pat themselves on the back for that one. You clever Hollywood jackass writers. I also can’t believe they had the balls to pull the “evil twin” thing. Even by 1983 standards it was a joke and had been done in soap opera’s for years. Maybe Hasselhoff wanted to show his “range” as an actor. I know he went on to many great things afterwards. And yes, I know Knight Rider wasn’t real. I know it was to just entertain. But come on… did the writers think their entire audience were morons? That episode had to be an insult to watch. I’m stunned writers got paid to write that badly. They sat in a meeting room and came up with this crap… and it got the green light! No one bothered to say how stupid it sounded? Or am I grossly misjudging the American TV audience and they love stuff like that. I hope I’m not in the minority on this one. If I am, we have a country full of dullards.  But then again… all those insanely dumb reality TV shows also have a huge following. OK… now I’m starting to scare myself. I’m going to just keep telling myself it’s not as bad as it seems…  It’s not as bad as it seems…

An old classic gets a modern update

They have finally updated the Pet Rock with a USB port. It still does absolutely nothing but sit there on your desk, but now it sits there doing nothing connected to your computer. If you think about it, this is no more useless than any other gadget we are talked into buying. Doesn’t most of your gadgets end up sitting on your desk or in a drawer doing nothing anyways?  Heck… slap an Apple logo on this and you instantly have at least a few million fanboys thinking they need one.  Awesome idea. I love seeing this kind of stuff we don’t need.

You can pick one up over at ThinkGeek.com