Coffee Tables Of The Future

So the "Big Announcement" this morning from Microsoft was... a coffee table. A third offering from their Entertainment Devices Division, following the Xbox & Zune. For the time however, this is not aimed at the casual consumer, with a estimated price tag of up to 10 grand. It uses the same sort of multi-touch technology you will see in the iPhone, but with a 30 inch screen and lots more functionality, it could be very interesting in the years to come.

Check out the video below and you will be impressed. It certainly looks amazing, something I would buy if the price were right (sub $500). I would have posted earlier but I was busy eating tacos and watching The Daily Show. Enjoy.



More Via Gizmodo

Gettin' Paid To BBQ

For this first time in my life, I got some national paid holiday time today, which was amazing. It's too bad there are only 6 of them a year, or I would be set. My friend Noodle told me to post about it on my site, so I figured I would mention it along with a few other things. If you ever get to chance to hang out at a party eating burgers and drinking cream soda while getting paid, I highly recommend it.

I spent most of this weekend (while not at the mandatory parties and graduations) playing Halo 3 Beta. It was both exhilarating and frustrating. I am not the best Halo player out there, but every once in a while I would get the highest score in a game. But no matter how times I did, I never ever got the MVP award. Tyler was winning awards and medals almost every game, so I think there is some new anti-Phil tech built in...

The graphics are fantastic, and we were playing on a standard def TV so I expect they will only get better. They brought back the original Assault Rifle, but there is still no pistol option, although this may change for retail. Two new weapons they added I really enjoy, The Missile Pod and the Spartan Laser. One shoots a dozen missiles very quickly, and the other is akin to a tank gun. It takes a few seconds to build up, but it is insta-death with splash damage once it fires.

The coolest new feature (so far) though is the saved films. You can't edit or change them yet, but being able to save a game where you got a dozen medals or hit someone from across the level is very neat. No more "You should have seen the time I..." since now you can save it and share it on Live.

Oh, if you are ever in Chicago, you should eat at this bar called the Twisted Spoke. Amazing burgers.

I am trying to come up with some must play Xbox games for a friend. Send me an email with any you might recommend so I can make a list. Enjoy the rest of this short-lived holiday!

never eat a pig

You Scratch My Back...

What's fair is fair. I promised Andrew a link as soon as he got his site updated at least once. So he went out and updated it several times yesterday, taken by some unseen fury, as often possesses men like him. Ladies and Gents, I present to you now,(and a permalink on the right),

AndrewTolbert.com

Comedy, Cats, Coding, Cheeseburgers, Really Expensive Running Shoes, and Life*


*Yea, I totally made up that tagline. I really just have this thing for alliteration, I don't know what got into me. Just click the link already and find out for yourself. Bad Beets are Barely Bearable, Black Bear. Haha.

Flash Friday Fun VII: Ellipsis

50 waves of geometrical insanity! Psychedelic madness! More fun than clipping your toenails! But seriously, this is a fun and simple point'n'clicker game which only requires a mouse and fast reflexes. You think it is easy, but wait til you are at wave 30+..

My Rating: 73

My Hi-Score: 80000

Play: Ellipsis

Got a good idea for a Flash Friday? Send me an email!
Missed an earlier Flash Friday? Check them all out here. Enjoy.

A Season For Heroes

This year's television season is slowly winding to a close, so I thought I would spend a few minutes to do a recap. At this point all of my "Must-Watch" shows have finished, and most others will have their season finales within the next couple weeks. Which means it is time for crappy summer filler and reality TV to hit the airwaves! Nobody wants that, so I will recommend a few shows to tide you over until Fall.

Rookie Of The Year: Heroes on NBC. I can not say enough good things about this show. I would tell you to watch it, but you probably already have. If you are one of the few who slipped through the cracks, check it out online, or grab the DVDs when they drop. It is only going to get better.

Lost had a decent year. A little slow at the beginning, but the last few episodes really paid off. Rumor has it there is a definite endpoint now by 2010, which I think is a good thing. They can pace themselves but still know they will need to answer all of my questions before the show finishes.

The Office (US) continues to entertain. NBC has a really strong Thursday lineup with Office, Earl, Scrubs, & 30 Rock. Even if there is one in there you don't like as much, it is still a really enjoyable and funny 2 hour block, and it looks like it will stay that way for next season. Very rare nowadays.

The Dresden Files/Eureka! on Sci-Fi were both really excellent if you are into that, but Battlestar Galactica is getting a bit too "off the beaten track" for my tastes. Stargate closed its doors after a wonderful 10 year production, so hopefully I will find something to replace it.

I haven't been able to keep up with everything now that I'm saving lives fulltime, but with internet television and used DVD boxed sets, there is always something worthwhile out there for me to catch up on.

Lots of shows ended or canceled. I try to no longer invest myself into a show until Season 2 is in production, but there are so many great shows that get axed after the first season to make room for "The Simple Life 9" that it is a bit sickening.

One show this summer that I recommend watching is "Traveler" on ABC. I saw the pilot last year and have been waiting for it ever since. That and some good DVDs will hopefully tide me over til Fall. We'll talk more then. Enjoy.

Telenet? Intervision? I'll Stick With Internet TV (Not iTV).

UPDATE: I decided to make this its own post so there would be less cross contamination.

Here is a quick note on a new feature that I am absolutely loving. This wouldn't have been possible a few years ago, and for some of you it still won't be (Get Broadband!!!), but the coolest thing the networks are doing this year is online television. It is like free time&place shifting, with limited commercials. You can watch the last 3-4 episodes of your shows, and they usually add new episodes the morning after they air. Also, some shows have their entire season online, so you can enjoy it DVD style. Yes, they do have commercials, but they are usually only 3-4 30 second slots, and they are all from the same sponsor so you are not bombarded. You will need a decent connection for high quality fullscreen video, but even the normal options are reliably viewable.

ABC - The best of the bunch. Requires a small download, but has the largest feature-set and the most viewing options, as well as a wide selection of shows.

NBC - They are adding more full episodes, but don't have a full library as of yet. Still, lots of good shows, and they also do cool online only webisodes for some of my favorites.

CW - A bit underfeatured, but they are a tiny station anyway, so it is good to see them keep up with the bigg'uns.

CBS - The CBS Innertube (not joking). Requires a javascript download, but acts much like the ABC player, although with less variety. Unless you like CSI, because they have all 31 flavors.

FOX - FOX On Demand is mashed into MySpace, but at least they offer something.

Either way you slice though, free is free. You can't go wrong with that. Enjoy.

If I Were Only $30,000 Richer

UPDATE: Looks like it got pulled from the listings. According to the PS Museum site, they are now going to sell things individually. Looks like nobody else had 30 large either.

Do you like Playstation in all of its forms? Do you have a large room in your house and don't know how to fill it? Are you sitting around with 30 grand burning a hole in your pocket? Then I have found the perfect sale for you. It seems the Playstation Museum (I didn't know it existed either) is having a liquidation sale, and everything must go. In one of the largest videogame related eBay sales I have ever heard of, thousands of games and consoles, limited editions, autographed, and misprints are on sale. Check out the posting and lots of pictures here. (changed to their eBay store) Crazy.

Quick Site Notes

I've been learning quite a bit about New Blogger and HTML, like a fresh orange I am peeling away the rough outer layer to get to the juicy secrets inside. From now on I'll try to make the Flash Friday pictures linkable to the games, and am working on other tweaks and "upgrades" as well. Hopefully you are enjoying the new domain name, and I've learned how to make links open in a new tab (or window if you still use IE), for ease of page management. I've also learned how to use the drafting features for Blogger, so I can create a surplus of posts when going out of town and siphon them out as needed. Which brings me to my next paragraph...

I was out of town this weekend enjoying some delicious barbeque in Kansas City while visiting with college friends. I know how you all need your sustenance, I'm the same way. Mmmmm, BBQ... We had it almost every day, but my favorite place was actually inside of a gas station. If you are ever in KC make sure you hit up some BBQ and Blues places, but if you have allergies pack a healthy stock of Claritin, as they certainly seemed to have a higher than average pollen count.

Also, since I want to be cool like Penny Arcade, I too want to have italicized lyrics at the bottom of my posts. But only the Monday posts. Otherwise it is just going too far. Later.

His backpack is all that he knows

Goliath Online

Well folks, it is finally here. Almost a decade after the original was released, the friendly devs at Blizzard pulled the curtain off their latest endeavor. Announced at the World Wide Invitational in Korea this week, millions of voices cried out for joy. Not much is known yet, but as long as they have Goliaths and it releases before 2009, I will be happy. Here is a tiny CGI trailer, check the official site for more movies. Enjoy.



More Via Joystiq

Flash Friday Fun VI: Destruct-O-Match II

UPDATE: If you missed some of the earlier Flash Fridays, you can always find all of them here, or just click the flash tag below the post.

This is an enjoyable puzzle game, very simple at first but it gets much more difficult as you continue. Destroy colored blocks for points, simple right? But the strategy is in clearing the entire screen, and blowing up larger chains of blocks will offer up larger multipliers. It is part of a much bigger website that offers a lot of other things, but you don't need to sign up or login just to play their flash games. Some say it is only for "thirteen year old girls", but I like collecting points in any game I play, so you can check me out here. Besides that though, just play the Standard or Extreme games, and let me know how ya do!

My Rating: 68

My Hi-Score: 2400

Play: Destruct-O-Match II

Let The Betaliciousness Begin

Disclaimer: I still do not own an Xbox 360. I know, I know. Soon(ish). Until then though I have access to one, and that is enough. Trust me.

And so it begins. The Halo 3 Beta officially starts today, so don't be surprised if you are unable to locate any of your gamer friends for a while. I am out of town this weekend sadly, but once Tyler is home for the semester I expect I will be logging more hours than usual in his basement, learning the ropes and whetting my appetite for the inevitable purchase I will be making this fall.

For those of you who haven't given in yet, here is a little something to make you join the legions of fanboyism. The first official video from an MS employee.

I present, "Betalicious"



You can check out more Halo goodness here.

Mother (And Father) Of Pearl

More hilarious nonsense from everyone's favorite two year old. After doing some research I found out that the site is actually owned by Will Farrell's company, which would explain the exclusivity of it. If you missed the original when I posted it a few weeks back, check it out first here. FunnyOrDie seems like a mini-YouTube but with a sink or swim voting attitude. If anything else catches my eye I'll let you know.

Flash Friday Fun V: Dice Wars

UPDATE: Some of you were asking about a multiplayer version of this game. There is one called kDice, but it is a bit slow and you have to wait for other players to join.

This game has gotten me through many a long night at the Hospital. I used to be able to play it almost subconsciously, as if the dice were an extension of my own desire for power, crushing enemies into dust on one computer whilst I watched TV on another. The beauty of this game is in its simplicity to learn, but difficulty to master. You only need to know how to move and click to play, but there are many Risk-like strategies you can use. I have gotten to the point that I can win most of the time after choosing a decent starting point, but of course brain power over AI should win most of the time anyway. Let me know how you do in an 8 player game, since there is no score-keeping per say. Enjoy!

My Rating: 84

My Hi-Score: Won With 7 Enemies

Play: Dice Wars

Tada! Domains Galore!

So here is the big surprise. Were you expecting it? I mean, what did you think it would be? It's the internet after all, not like I could give ya a pony. But enjoy the new, non-acronym version of How Do You Phil? now at www.howdoyouphil.com. Feel free to bookmark it :-). So now I'm 20 bucks into this bad boy, but with all my awesome AdSense revenue, I'll definitely have it paid off in the 5-6.. years. But let us enjoy it while it lasts! Thanks for visiting!

This Power. Feels Good..

The long awaited Spiderman 3 review at last! I will try to keep this spoiler free, but I might put something at the bottom with some tags, or I won't be able to give it a complete review.

So let me just come out and say right now, I did in fact enjoy this movie. It cost hundreds of millions to make, and the quality shows. The CG was on par with any AAA movie out there, and the set and costume design were impressive as well. For those of you who just want numbers, fine.

My Rating: 70

Now for the complaining. The movie felt a bit long. Not LOTR 3 long, but still it started to drag a bit at the end. Also with so many villains/allies in one movie, it started to get a bit crowded at times. I loved Raimi's rendition of Venom, but I wish more had been done with him. The acting was a bit more stiff than the first two, especially between Peter and MJ. While I enjoyed the movie, I did not like it as much as the original. There were parts where I felt something should have been added, or something was left in that wasn't needed. Also, my biggest criticism with the movie was how the black suit was handled. While I am not a comic fanboy who says that every single ounce of a movie has to follow the comic plot, I felt a little saddened by how Emo they made black suit Spidey. Seriously, he was borderline Goth. I was at the midnight airing, and the crows was screaming "Just go kill yourself!" at certain points. Don't even get me started on the hair.

But hey, the cameos were excellent. So what can you do?

Highlight and read this text only after watching the movie. You have been "warned".

SPOILER ALERT
My number 1 complaint with this movie from a continuity standpoint.
How in God's green Earth is it possible for one bomb to stop inches from Harry's face, and the only thing that happened to him was a slight burn/disfiguration to a part of it? Then, another bomb blows up feet away from Eddie Brock, covered in Symbiote, and it completely obliterates him??!?!?!? I mean, nothing, not even ash.
Also, why did Venom never refer to himself as "We", and during the entire movie they never even used the word "Venom".
Finally, what is up with Sandman and Spidey at the end. I was the real guy who murdered your Uncle, but I didn't mean to. My bad. Oh don't worry about it, I already killed one guy for it, so you are forgiven. Now go fly away to rob some bank for your daughter. Alright man, later.
.... What?
Also, whoever decided it would be okay to allow Kirsten Dunst to sing, should be fired.
END SPOILER

Spring (Update) Is Here!

For all you non-hacking Xboxers out there, MS finally dropped the Spring Update at 0200 this morning. It includes lots of little goodies, but of course, the major feature addition is the Xbox to Windows Messenger integration. So now your buddies can IM you in the middle of a game, movie, nap on the couch, etc. But of course, to fully enjoy this new functionality, you might want one of these (not out yet, sold seperately).



Beyond Windows Live Messenger, the Spring Update for Xbox 360 includes hundreds of new features and enhancements including the following:

• A richer Achievement notification pop-up will showcase the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value without needing to leave the game to check the Achievements list.

• Enhanced family settings features for Xbox LIVE communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.

• A new Xbox LIVE Marketplace blade lets Xbox LIVE members access the content they seek — whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States) — from one place on Xbox LIVE.

• Updates to Xbox LIVE Arcade allow owners to quickly see which Xbox LIVE Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox LIVE members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list. Expanded Tell a Friend capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.

• A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox LIVE Arcade games.

• New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

• Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.

This still leaves millions (myself included) asking, "Where is the DIVX!?"


Via Press Release

Did you ever notice how Public Relations and Press Release have the same initials? So would you say that today, PR released a PR?

Tonight We Dine In.. Coach!

A nice little quick spoof of 300, high above the clouds. There are a few videos on the page, but this one is special because I know someone in it! Shout out to Jeff Victor, Spartan in 15C. Enjoy, and vote if you like it!



In Other News,

Spiderman review in the works, still letting it soak in. Heroes tonight, only 3 left! We finally hit the big 100 unique users, in only 22 days. Thanks for all your help in that regard! I am working on a special surprise to commemorate the event. Stay tuned.

Flash Friday Fun IV: Nanaca Crash

Who knew bicycle accidents could be so fun? The entire point of this game is to keep the guy flying through the air for as long as possible. You can do extra aerial crashes as well to boost your speed, but mostly you want to use the people on the ground to help you along. There are combos and boosts and different angles, but beware of the green girl. She is very much in love with you, and will stop you in your tracks. You have been warned.

Also, the whole game was in Japanese originally, so I just sort of learned as I played. But if you want to know what the different people do immediately, click the Information link at the top. Let me know how you do, but if you break 10,000 I'll need some screenshots. Seriously, it is hard.

My Rating: 87

My Hi-Score: ~9000 (Still can't break Tyler's fabled 10K run)

Play: Nanaca Crash

Mini Post: Games I'm Playing

I wanted to do a quick update since yesterday was all about revolutions and riots, there was no "me" time. So here is a quick update, mini post, whatever you want to call it.

GenCon is right around the corner! Well event signups are at least, so I have my spreadsheets and event list and I'm going to be playing a lot of HeroScape this year, as well as some Magic with my Dad most likely. They haven't added video games to the list yet, but I might dabble in some Halo or Super Smash tourneys again, even though I got pwned by the l33t dewds last year.

I finally beat GTA: San Andreas a week back. It was great, but I expected nothing less from Rockstar North. Lots of great weapons, cars, planes, and jets. I also liked the new mini-RPG elements in it, so you can improve your skill in sprinting, driving, various guns, etc. as you progress in the game. There were over 100 missions as well, and a very large map to enjoy.
A few downers though, which will allow me to try out a... bullet list.

• Eating. I shouldn't have to stop whatever I am doing to find some Cluck'n Bell every 30 minutes or my health starts draining.
• Gym. Shooting guns and driving cars to get better at them is fun. Lifting weights and running on a virtual treadmill so I don't get virtually fat is not.
• Houses. I like finding new properties to buy all over the place. But since I own more than 15 homes, it would be nice if there were more assets to them, over than just some place to save.
• Map. The map was huuuuuuge this time around. Which was great, but also really annoying after awhile. It takes like 10-15 minutes to go from one place to the next in a car, and you can't fly planes until near the end of the game once you get your pilot's license.

Other than those issues, it was very enjoyable. I'd give it a 90.

Just started Final Fantasy XII. First thoughts are this is a Playstation 2 game?? The graphics are amazing. I even went out and got a Hi Def cable so I could enjoy all of it's 480Pness. I'm already 20 hours into it, so it looks like it quite a long story, but I'll let you know how it turns out.

That's all for now, I've got an hour left at work, and then it is Spiderman 3 time. Where will you be a minute after midnight? Assuming I drive really really ridiculously fast, I'll be at AMC 30.

The Digg-ital Riot

Subtitle: Can Numbers Be Illegal?

UPDATE: The MPAA can take down all the sites they want, but can they take the shirt off your back? Most likely not, so if you want some hex pride and are to lazy to make your own, Nerdy Shirts has a solution.

Some of you might have been sleeping last night, but a huge riot was breaking out all over the internets. In what will be remembered as the Digg Revolution of 2007 (by me, at least), thousands of users swarmed Digg.com, making sure a certain story could not be removed fast enough. The site even went down for a while, when it came back up the founder had these words to say;

"Today was an insane day. And as the founder of Digg, I just wanted to post my thoughts…

In building and shaping the site I’ve always tried to stay as hands on as possible. We’ve always given site moderation (digging/burying) power to the community. Occasionally we step in to remove stories that violate our terms of use (eg. linking to pornography, illegal downloads, racial hate sites, etc.). So today was a difficult day for us. We had to decide whether to remove stories containing a single code based on a cease and desist declaration. We had to make a call, and in our desire to avoid a scenario where Digg would be interrupted or shut down, we decided to comply and remove the stories with the code.

But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.

If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.

Digg on,

Kevin (Rose)"

Long live freedom of speech!

The controversy started when a user posted a link to a story about a key being found that essentially lets you crack the DRM on the new HD-DVDs. The story was removed, and then another went up. That was pulled as well, and like a mythical hydra every time one story was deleted, two more would spring up in its place. At the height of the chaos this is what my newsfeed looked like:



There were fake stories, a new MySpace, blogs about blogs about it, or sometimes just the key itself, over and over.


I am not going to post this magic key for legal reasons, but if you are really curious... Did I mention the pictures were clickable?

Timeline Via Consumerist