The Toronto Zombie Walk is only a day away (Saturday Oct 24, 2009), and Hallowe’en -the best holiday of the year! – is just around the corner, so for anyone thinking of really ghouling it up for the events, I thought I’d pass on some most excellent make-up tips I’ve run across via Instuctables … don’t worry, no gory picture until you click on…
Read MoreThe day after Windows 7 launches, Apple has fired off the latest salvo of spots starring John Hodgman and Justin Long. Although one could argue that they wore out their welcome a long time ago, these just plain old stink. The focus this time round is “hey everyone’s switching to the Mac”, even though according to their own numbers, this is far from true, but then again, the PC/Mac spots were never known for their accuracy. Then again, very little advertising IS accurate (it’s rare, but it happens). The most…
Read MoreUsually, when you hear about patent infringement cases, it’s some patent troll company trying to squeeze money out of another company because the troll happened along something. From all appearences, that’s not the case this time. On their website yesterday, Nokia announced… …it has today filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal District Court in Delaware, alleging that Apple’s iPhone infringes Nokia patents for GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN (WLAN) standards. It further explains that just about every major vendor is currently licensing technology from Nokia, which isn’t too…
Read MoreProving that the poster wasn’t just for fun… maybe this could become an official IFOCE event…
Read MoreTo coincide with the worldwide launch of their new operating system, Microsoft has unveiled a slew of new ads. You know what? They’re actually pretty good. The above video is one in the “7 Second Demos” series, which demonstrates some of the new ‘speedy’ features of the OS. Other marketing ideas, maybe aren’t so good, like this Burger King Japan/Windows 7 ad… Now that the Whopper is out of the way, want to see the rest of the 7 Second Demos… just…
Read MoreWell, it’s not exactly a secret. Microsoft’s well-received OS is now official. Those of you still playing with the free release candidate can keep using the free version until March, but going forward, new PCs will be shipping with Redmonds latest and greatest. When I say greatest, I think it very well may be. After using just about every version of Microsoft’s OS, I have to say that Windows 7 is probably the best they’ve ever done. A few months ago, I might have said that honour would have went…
Read MorePainkiller was one of those love it or hate it FPS titles. If you were in the mood for good bloody fun, of the old school Quake variety with slicker graphics, it was right up your alley. If you wanted a cohesive storyline and emotion, go look elsewhere. I’d recommend the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes”, it’s choke full of that stuff. Painkiller is all about the fragging. In any case, the demo to the sequel is now out for download, (single player only) and I’d highly recommend you give it…
Read MoreThe CRTC has finally ruled in the long standing Bell throttling case. The ruling is a bit of a mish-mash of both good and bad, and a fair bit of haziness. Although there is a requirement of transparency from the major ISPs to both their retail and wholesale customers, it looks like Internet Traffic Management Practices (ITMPs) such as throttling will likely continue at least until the first complaint rolls into the CRTC (which should happen pretty fast). The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today introduced a new framework…
Read MoreThe above clip from This Hour Has 22 Minutes (from Oct 20, 2009) is a great bit about the fears of new technologies and their impact on the recording and television industry. Of course, the fears of new technology destroying the living of artists stretches all the way back to the player piano. Somehow we’ve managed to survive this far… In other news, the Globe and Mail today has an interesting article about how Canadians are being left out in the cold (no ‘snow’ wisecracks please) when it comes to…
Read MoreIf you live in Canada, and were considering picking up Borderlands, the post apocalyptic FPS/RPG for the Xbox 360 or PS3 (it’s out today you know), you might want to run to your nearest retailer and nab it quick. In a promotion similar to Batman: Arkham Asylum, numerous retailers (Best Buy, Futureshop and WalMart) will be selling it for the discounted price of $40. Game Stop/EB Games also has a promotion where you can pick it up for free with 3 select game trade ins, or for $19.99 if with…
Read MoreIf you haven’t already heard about Google Voice, the service promises one number for all your needs, and includes a voice message service, which can transcribe audio message into text. An interesting, and probably unwanted side effect of this is that a small number of these can be found in a google search… site:https://www.google.com/voice/fm/* Into a standard google search. Some of the messages contain the phone number of the sender, and since Google also transcribes the voice mails to a readable form, when the caller leaves a new reply number,…
Read MoreOften, we see demos of great technology, only to see it never come out in a usable form. I was kind of worried that this may be the case with Pixel Qi and its 3Qi display technology. Instead of being a whole new type of display, replacing LCD, Plasma, OLED etc ad nauseum, 3Qi is a layer that’s included in the manufacturing process of garden variety LCD screen. With this inserted layer, it allows a traditional LCD screen to be read in direct sunlight. The display desaturated to almost the…
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