I recently came across one of the cooler products I will likely ever see in my generation. Digital picture frames!

Its really superb. You take your photos on a digital camera, so why not display them in a digital photo frame? The picture quality is second to none. Theres a setting for which photo to display to display in your digital picture frame.

Also interesting is the frames capabilty, these devices can play movies, mp3’s, display photos. So your digital picture frame can play your wedding song, while displaying a slideshow of the event!!

I cant think of a better gift than one of these wonderful digital photo frames.

Theres something of a variance with his device just as there is in any item, some cars are just 2 seaters while minivans are  larger, both are automobiles and yet they have much different features, digital photo frames are no different.

Some digital photo frames  can only display JPEG pictures. Orthers support a greater variance in media. Some  can also play movies recorded in the digital camera, MPEG & MP3’s. Some frames can even load pictures over the Internet from RSS feeds,  Flickr and Picasa and even from your e-mail. Networked models usually support wireless. Many  frames display the pictures as a slideshow  with an adjustable time interval.

Most digital photo frames often display the photos directly from a camera’s memory card.

 Skype is blaming last week’s two-day nonservice on “massive restart” of user computers worldwide.

Skype says that in a very short period of time users worldwide rebooted their PC’s because of the Microsoft Windows Update.

The Skype system crashed after a flood of request from users requesting authentication to the skype servers, this appears to be a large flaw in Skypes network resource allocation.

Skype claims it cannot confirm  there was no activity that might be called malicious.

How does this look for skype? Not well. Of course Skype is Ebay’s black sheep. Ebay bought skype in 2005 for almost 3 billion. People have always wondered why.

This outage will only serve to make people very leary of Skypes ability to deliver the service.

I like Zookoda, allow me to elaborate.

Zookoda makes things super simple, and by simple I mean a kid could do this. Head over to Zookoda.com to follow along.

You just sign up, and enter the pertinent information for your blog. Let zookoda know when and how often to send a newsletter comprised of your rss/atom feeds to your subscribers. Readers subscribe via a little registration box made fo code zookoda supplies to you. Easy right?

Its quite apparent that sending blog summaries to your readers will boost your site traffic. It reminds your readers that your blog is active and shows them what current content looks like.

I thought I would need to make a second account for a different blog, but I was wrong! Zookoda allows me to have multiple blogs and contains settings for each blog I add. Did I mention Zookoda is free? Yeah, its free and it works!

I am boggled by the length of time it took to get a service liek this to the blogging community, but now that its here I cant imagine not having it. I am pleased I have a way to reach my readers, especially those that may not understand how to use a rss aggregator. Now I can send them my posts at regular intervals. This is email marketing simplified!

  Microsoft announced officially that they will be dropping their price on the Xbox 360 gaming console.  In fact, all three versions will recieve a price cut. The elite will be 449, the 360 will be 349, and the 360 Core will be 279.

Microsoft feels that leading the console market in sales while maintaining their initial price says alot about their product. They also feel that with the Launch of the latest Madden game their numbers will hit record peaks.

Developer “All-in-One Game Software” now has BlackJack!! Black jack adds to the already addictive fun of games like backgammon, poker, and perudo.

Of all the sites I have gone to and enjoyed this is the only one that allows you to play free, in an animated client. It allows you to use 10 languages. (Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, French, Japanese, Danish, Greek and German, and English). This particular provider of interactive entertainment boasts thousands of players networked at any given time. And now that they have BlackJack on the menu you can expect the number to grow exponentially.

The game itself offers high speed play, coupled with stunning visual graphics, each table holding up to 5 players. Each player can choose to create his own avatar which i had a bit of fun with. You can chat with fellow players, and even more interesting, the games possess a “view” mode, which allows other players to sit out and just watch the action!

Backgammon

Backgammon is a board game for two people in which pieces are moved based on the roll of dice. The first player to remove all of one’s own pieces from the board is said to be the winner. It is a part of the tables family, one of the oldest classes of games in the world.

Perudo

Perudo is popular dice game played in Peru, Chile, Bolivia and other South American countries. This game may be played by two or more people and, basically, is made up of guessing how many dice, under cups, there are on the table showing a certain number. The player who loses a round loses one of their dice. The last player having a die is the winner.

Blackjack

Blackjack is one of the most popular casino card games in the world. Blackjack’s popularity is due to the mix of chance with elements of skill, and the publicity that surrounds card counting . Blackjack’s precursor was vingt-et-un (”twenty-one”), which originated in French casinos around 1700, and did not offer the 3:2 bonus for a two-card 21.

Poker

Poker is a popular type of card game in which players gamble on having the better card combination (”hand”), by placing a bet into a central pot. The winner is the one who holds the hand with the highest value according to an established hand rankings hierarchy, or otherwise the player who remains “in the hand” after all others have folded (the player who makes an un-called bet.

Enjoy playing Backgammon, Perudo, Poker, and Blackjack.

I waqs flabbergasted when i saw this.I thought it was a prank. But perhaps the old adage “if you cant beat them, join them” comes into play. Microsoft will not overcome the beauty and grace of the Open Source movement.

Perhaps its not a true concession. When music style changed from the 80’s to the 90’s, instead of retiring Metallica simply adapted their style and still sold tickets and albums. This cost them a few fans but gained them more, and kept them in the game.

And now Microsoft, who once referred to Open Source as communism steps into the fray. In my opinion thats real nice, finally skilled coders can review the drivel put forth by the capitalist giant  and maybe in a round about way Microsoft will turn out some good code.

Not only releasing a few pieces of Open Source code, but also surrendering some of its home grown licenses to the Open Source Initiative, Microsoft is really making waves in the Open Source community.  Whats going on?

I think its simple, in this age, theres no longer 1 single way to do things, and when open source didnt prove to be just a trend, they realized it was a “get in or move on” thing. Blend, and continue with business as usual. A quote from the Microsoft Press release:

“Open source is neither an industry fad, nor a magic bullet.”

Video game creation is difficult. Developers must make a quality, function product, it has to be enjoyable to play, they must dance around the ESRB so they can reach their target market, then the publishers have to liek the game as well. And hopefully the creators will still be proud of it when this is all said and done.

The creation of games is chaotic, you throw things about, shift it in and out, like pieces of a puzzle, finding things that fit and things that do not, what works and what wont. After a few weeks of that, the process really begins.

Often things areleft out of the game, but the code remains intact and within that game. Thats odd you think. But if ti were removed then it may create other bugs in the code.

Example: A dev creates a jumprope minigame and he decides it should be a rhythm type excercise, he goes on to develop the system for the rhythm(algorhtyhms and such), he adds some things like related graphics, and gets it approved and ready to go

Now,the other developers will review this work and see what of it they can build upon, the graphics people will add good graphics to the original devs stuff. These graphics might be exclusive to the jump rope sequence, and they may also be found elsewhere in the game.

In a few months time, the original coders work is used by several other devs in their code, and the art is spread around as well. Then suddenly some higher up cuts the jump rope sequence.

How can you remove such an embedded portion of development? It is present, and functional. Other portions of the development are built upon it, dependant even, the praphics are there as well. What now? Simple, you simply never have the jump rope sequence called by the game, essentially the main program never calls for that function. It doesnt alter any of the code, the sequence is just never seen by consumers.

Most games have “easter eggs”. We see this all the time, and the example above is likely what happened in GTA:SA. Most hidden code is not sexual, but then again GTA:SA is a “mature” rating.

Do we blame the ESRB? Of course not! The hot coffee minigame is only there if you hack it. Sure, its just a single bit, but its a modification to the game files, to play the game in a manner not intended by the publisher/developer.

1. Video games lead to violence in youth.

Citing national crime statistics, youth violent crime hasnt been lower in 30 years. 99% of gamers dont commit antisocial acts. In fact, studies have shown that mental stability and home life are the contributors to violence and not games. How can the guy at home pwning his friends be out and commiting crimes?

2. Video games are marketed at children.

While most kids do play video games, the market is shifting to adults. In fact, 62% of platforms, and 66% of pc gamers is over 18. The original gamers have hit adulthood and are now the focus of developers.

3. Girls arent gamers.

Once that was an accurate statement. The female population of gamers has increased steadily for years. Females out number males on web based games. World of Warcraft is also played heavily by the female market.
4. Video game play is isolating.

On the contrary, much video game play is social. 60 percent of gamers play with their friends. 33% percent play with their brothers and sisters.
5. Video game play will desensitize the masses.

Animal studies show that primates differentiate between play fighting, and that of true violence. Sometimes they seem to be quite amused wrestling each other. Other events see them ripping each other to shreds. Are we not smarter than the apes?

Its my opinion that the PS3 is the best machine. It is superiors in storage capacity and possesses Blu Ray technology. If you consider that the ps3 has free online gaming then in the long run its cheaper than the xbox360.

On the other hand, the xbox is made by microsoft, who have an intimate knowledge on how windows works, meaning PC peripherals used for console gaming will likely be best supported by xbox. thats just my opinion.

The wii gets points for pure innovativeness. No more joystick, no more control pad. No we actually might getexcercise while dominating the electronic battleground. The game base is still thin for the wii console, but its family centric nature gives it an edge in that market.

thats just my 2 cents.

Cyberarmy is real and very much in existence. Just because you cant see something doesnt make it any less real. We breathe air, but we do not see it. But, you say to me, I can feel the air.

And without realizing it you can feel the effects that Cyberarmy produces. First you must understand their goal. Freedom, privacy, and unfettered trafficing in data. They believe in free exchange of ideas, and the freedom to voice your mind.

But you wont see them, they arent in a chat room visibly. They are busy working on things like lobbying for new RPC’s. Or educating the masses on privacy and rallying people to the cause of self governance. Cyberarmy believes in the users are best suited to regulate the medium they use.

They educate and empower users to better undertake the tasks and overcome the challenges that a medium as large as the internet presents. Meanwhile working to keep privacy a factor in the information age, and an age where rights are stomped upon.

Some salute them, others would call them hackers. Without taking the time to understand what this particular group does, its certainly not fair to pass judgement, alot of the members of this organization are prominent members of society, security consultants, programmers, attorneys, the boy next door… It could be a relative, or a co worker.

They maintain an extensive library of manuals, tutorials, and documents for anyone who wants to learn, study, or simply view a given bit of data. They have strong ties to the Open Source community.

I personally applaud the brave and hard working people who seek to make the world better, with no glory in their own name.