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| 2 hours ago | City Council Meetings to Begin with Muslim Prayers | | In the wake of the battle over a
mosque at Ground Zero
, a move by
Hartford City Council
is sure to have its critics.
The Council announced Tuesday that it has invited local imams to perform Islamic invocations at the beginning of the Council... |
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| 2 hours ago | Inventing to Survive in Cuba | | In 1991, Cuba’s economy began to implode. “The Special Period in the Time of Peace” was the government’s euphemism for what was a culmination of 30 years worth of isolation. It began in the 60s, with engineers leaving Cuba for the Unites States, and continues in part today, under the longest trade embargo in modern history.
When Ernesto Oroza, a Cuban-American designer and artist, began studying the technological innovations that have been made during this period, he uncovered a trove of homespun, Frankenstein-like machines that ordinary citizens made for their survival, out of day to day objects. |
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| 6 hours ago | Google Scribe | | Google launched a very interesting tool that offers suggestions as you type: Google Scribe. It's not exactly the service I anticipated 3 years ago, but Google Scribe works surprisingly well. For example, I started to type "This works sur" and Google suggested "This works surprisingly well", which is exactly what I wanted to type. Instead of typing 14 characters, I could only type "1" or press Enter to select the first suggestion. "Google Scribe provides text completion service. Using information from what you have already typed in a document, Google Scribe provides related word or phrase completion suggestions. In addition to saving keystrokes, Google Scribe's suggestions indicate correct or popular phrases to use," explains Google.The nice thing about this service is that you don't need to use Google's editor. You can add a bookmarklet to your browser and use Google Scribe in Gmail, Blogger, Google Docs or on any web page that includes text fields.Google Scribe only works for English right now, but I'm sure that Google will add many other languages in the future. If you don't like to see suggestions for all the words you type, enable the on-demand mode (Ctrl+Shift+J) and you'll only see suggestions when you press Tab. |
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| 6 hours ago | Google enters music war vs. Apple | | The music industry is rejoicing about the Google vs. Apple music war. Both companies are competing for control of the mobile phone market and in the digital music realm. According to Reuters, Google is currently talking to music labels regarding plans of an online music store and the ability for mobile [...] |
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| 6 hours ago | Super Mario Collection Confirmed as a Port of SNES Version | | In Japan,Amazon has started taking pre-orders for Super Mario Collection Special Pack. The company posted a product description, which appears to have been removed from the listing within minutes. However, those few minutes were long enough for somebody to copy and paste the info into a story atGame Jouhou.
According to the description:
- The Wii game is a port of 1993s Super Mario Collection (Super Mario All-Stars) - No graphical overhaul - Will include a booklet that recaps the 25 year history of Mario - Booklet includes unseen development materials - Will also Include a soundtrack - Soundtrack has music from the original Super Mario Bros. through Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Limited time production- The game will probably come packed in a yellow box. |
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| 6 hours ago | Speed Bumps of the Future: Creepy Optical Illusion of Children | | West Vancouver officials will roll out a new way to keep drivers alert and slow them down: a little girl speed bump. The girl’s elongated form appears to rise from the ground as cars approach, reaching 3D realism at around 100 feet, and then returning to 2D distortion once cars pass that ideal viewing distance. Its designers created the image to give drivers who travel at the street’s recommended 18 miles per hour (30 km per hour) enough time to stop before hitting Pavement Patty–acknowledging the spectacle before they continue to safely roll over her. |
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| 6 hours ago | 22 Common Southern Mispronunciations | | I'm from the south, and don't mind making fun of it. The people are nice, usually polite and very laid-back for the most part. But... sometimes they get a little lazy while they're talking. |
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| 6 hours ago | PAX 2010 Hands-On: Drumskulls (with World-Exclusive Screens!) | | Remember Evan's E3 preview of Rock of the Deadfrom a few months back? Where you could strum specific note patterns to shoot zombies? The problem with that, according to Andrew Laing, creator of the new, never-seen-before-PAX title Drumskulls, is that Rock of the Deaddidn't deviate far enough from the Rock Band/Guitar Heroformula. Despite having zombies as a backdrop, it's still very much in the "music game" genre. Drumskullsis not. It's all about shootin' some zombies... with your plastic drum set.
I had a chance to try out Drumskullsat PAX, and I dug it. It's by a company that's so grassroots indie that they don't have a website yet. They don't even have a name. Andrew Laing is the man in charge, however, and you can expect some big things from him.
So, the zombies marching toward you on the screen are four different colors. To shoot a zombie of a particular color, you hit that drum (it'll be compatible with any Rock Band/Guitar Herodrumset). Despite their slow zombie pace, when a dozendifferentlycolored zombies are coming toward you at the same time, it's gets really intense. Each drum hit is one shot, and each zombie takes multiple blasts to finish off. Hitting a drum pad to shoot a zombie is very visceral; it's quite a different experience than merely using a gamepad. The bass pedal will be implemented in the final product somehow, too, but it wasn't quite ready to be used in the version I tried out at PAX.
The game is on-rails, but there are plenty of secrets to discover; one in particular I found was a red dumpster that you blow away to open a hidden path through the level. The game is still very early in development (they stayed up until 4 a.m. coding the last level, in fact - that's so indie!), and they don't even have a publisher or a platform to release the game on yet. It's situated to be a downloadable title, though, and it's looking good so far.
Check out some gameplay footage from the show floor (and don't mind the dork on the drums - that's just me):
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| 6 hours ago | Building On Faith | | Why, despite the controversy, plans will proceed for building an Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan. |
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| 6 hours ago | Message to FCC: Internet Not Broken | | Is the Internet broken? It appears the FCC would like you to believe that it is. They're in the midst of pursuing an aggressive regulatory overhaul to “fix” the Internet that we all use and enjoy today. But remember the old adage: " If it ain't broke, don't fix it." |
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| 21 hours ago | 2011 Toyota Avalon: Easier Homelink Lets You Forget About Remotes | | The refreshed 2011 Toyota Avalon is the first Toyota vehicle—and one of the first from any brand—to offer a new, much easier-to-use version of Homelink. If you're not sure what we're talking about, it's the built-in universal garage-door opener system that's been quite widely available in luxury cars and some well-optioned family vehicles. |
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