Sometimes it makes you wonder if Blizzard Entertainment called their MMORPG World of Warcraft on purpose, as it has a very convenient abbreviation, everytime someone makes that exclamation of surprise, a lot of people would be reminded of 'that game'. The results in the Urban Dictionary give us some insight into the term and popular thought and have some interesting links with what Wow is supposed to mean these days:
World of Warcraft. A game in which people with little to no life interact. Like the real world ...only not. - Zym1982
A very dangerous computer games that involves, but is not limited to, killing social life, decreasing GPA, developing hermit-like characteristics- I warn you
A game that consumes your life and eventually decays your friendships - Tony
And to end this quote section properly, read this explanation of the term WoW.
Wow... I've seen the iPhone in person, even held it in my hands and fiddled around with it a while! It's truly a great gadget. You want to slide away all day with something like that. Don't know about the phonefunction as it's not working in Europe yet. Of course I went to have a look for all of the other functions. Unfortunately no wireless access point in the neighbourhood so no trying out of the internet and all other online functions. Still from what I could use and see the device is worth every penny. The zoom in/out function is amazing, really intuitive, makes you want to use it for everything.
After finally doing some updates on my third gen iPod, I was curious about the iPod function on the phone. From what I heard the sound without headphones is not really something you want to listen to. The interface in horizontal way is perfect, you can use Cover Flow (like in iTunes) to slide through all of the albums you have on there which is as intuitive as it is an ultimate cool way to go through your albums/songs.
To be able to turn around your phone and the screen is turning with it, that's a simple idea but really great looking. It gives the user the opportunity to use a bigger keyboard for some text related applications. I tried the keyboard out on the smaller vertical version, which left me slightly in doubt of it, as I had to press a couple of times to get the 'b' on my screen instead of the 'N'. Apple also paid a lot of attention to detail, touching the screen and sliding your picture makes it bounce slightly, typing characters makes it flash out to a bigger version, closing the camerafunction gives a soft image of a closing 'camera eye', the box it comes in is typically Apple, perfect. It's all slick and smooth and my little get to gether with the iPhone convinced me even more that whenever it comes out in Europe I should get one.. someday.
I think Fischerspooner would do a great job in Guitar Hero for some reason. They remind me in some way of Freezepop, my favourites in Frequency, Amplitude and Guitar Hero.
Fischerspooner is an art and performance project created and helmed by Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner that makes music, dance, fashion, film and photography. Straddling genres in art and entertainment, the project is renowned for outsider pop shows bursting with stage effects presented in both art galleries and traditional concert venues. They have released two full-length albums of music: #1, a punked-up digital party record trussed with conceptual lyrics; and Odyssey, a rich emotional fantasia with a deep, expansive sound.
Oh yeah.... totally wanted drummania for years now, as I wanted guitar freaks. And then came Harmonix. Talked about Frequency and Amplitude earlier on this blog, but what Harmonix comes up with now..after Guitar Hero.... I really really want it!
Currently fiddling with my blogger template. Wish I had access to Skitch already, so I could easily show my old template/layout of my blog. Guess I have to do it different then and actually upload it the old way.
Quite the hassle to find a picture perfect template which you don't have to tweak too much. Unfortunately lost all of my links as I had to convert to the classic template style in Blogger, so had to take some detours and backtracking to get those back, even if I had made a backup of the template beforehand... silly widgets placed my links somewhere else than the sourcecode, unless I haven't looked well enough. Haven't used the sidebars in the last two years that much so I might as well just change things in the xml/html code instead of actually using those 'handy' widgets. Still happy with labels though, so keep up the good work Blogger.
Anyways, what do you think of this new template? (kudos to caljrimmer and bloggertemplates) Not very web 2.0 like, but I might keep this until I find something better. And yes there is this issue with old posts having tiny little font you can barely read. My font screwed up somehow (as you can read here, oh searching for that blogpost I notice now that anonymous gave a tip about changing fonts, should have a look at that. Also want to change the (content of the) navigation bar somewhat, but I'll have a look at how to tweak that later.
Old layout:
Quite pinkish my old one, thought to have a go with something more neutral but also elegant now.
At some point today when browsing I came across Viddler. It's an 'open video sharing platform' where you can upload your own video's, record video's directly from your webcam (!), put them online and tag them with your own comments at every frame/second, part of the video you like (timed tags/comments) and let others comment as well. This gives you the chance to put online a lecture and tag them for specific parts so you don't have to watch the whole thing time and time again plus you can point the users to part of a video by a specific tag instead of a timeframe. Go check it out!
She explores a broad range of player behavior, including cheating (alone and in groups), examines the varying ways that players and industry define cheating, describes how the game industry itself has helped systematize cheating, and studies online cheating in context in an online ethnography of Final Fantasy XI. She develops the concept of "gaming capital" as a key way to understand individuals' interaction with games, information about games, the game industry, and other players.
Lots of information there, should be an interesting read.
Following from the cute sock puppet Plasq (the mascotte for Plasq) which I noticed via Twitter, I arrived at the site of Skitch. It's an app that makes it easier to share your images, or more likely your actions on your screen at that moment. Of course you can type what you just said to your friend, or upload a screen to Photobucket but why all the hassle? Skitch is the next answer. Haven't been able to try it out yet (it's in beta and works with invites) but I am always up for something new and handy. Good thing I have a macbook, as the people behind skitch also gave us the brilliant Comic Life. You got to love 'em.
Was just watching the first episode of the NBC series Heroes where so many people are talking about lately, I just had to check it out for myself. Halfway through two of the characters were in a bar in Japan and in the background I spotted two guys doing Karaoke, singing along some Backstreet boys song. All of a sudden I got this revelation that those might actually be the Back Dormitory boys from Google Idol. Turns out they weren't but that it was a tribute to them. It's simply amazing how internetculture and tv, or popculture as a whole gets crossmedial more and more. So many references to be found, I love it.
