Don't Stay Out Too Late...

I like computer games, especially ones that you play online. I'm not talking about completing jigsaw puzzles over on shockwave.com (although that's enjoyable too). No I'm talking about something a little more action oriented, like storming a computer generated battlefied with a team of friends like in Battlefield 1942 or massacring those same friends in a holographic combat area like in Star Trek Voyager Elite Force. I even played Star Wars Galaxies for a few months, although I grew tired of the grinding monotny of trying to grow my character.

The ability to play against human opponents who think and act unpredictable as opposed to a weak computer drone has been a huge selling point for multiplayer games for quite a while now. Apparently it can even make the online gaming experience addictive.

Consider for example this story I heard about on the BBC. A Malaysian teenager was reported missing by his family, he was found 48 hours later in a cybercafe. He had been playing games there for the 48 hours he'd been missing! While that's not the big point of the story (which I'll get to in a second) the fact that he had spent the past 48 hours playing games amazes me. Being a gamer myself, I find that I can't sit for more than two maybe three hours before the repitive motions from playing games starts to make me sore and the chair I'm sitting in becomes uncomfortable... So how could he stand to sit and play for 48 hours?!?!

However in response to this story, the town of Subang Jaya outside the Malaysian capitol of Kuala Lumpur has decided to institute curfews on gaming in the towns cyber-cafes starting next year...

Oh but that's not all, if you want to operate a cyber-cafe that allows gaming in Subang Jaya you'll need to get a special license and also set aside a seperate area for gamers different from the area for other internet users. Finally, you'll need to shut down your gaming area after midnight.

Special teams will be deployed to enforce the new rules and cafes that don't follow the rules risk loosing their license. Supporters of the plan believe that it will reduce crime and help to prevent gamers from getting addicted... Gamers resent the intrusion (there's a shocker!).

I can't imagine any town in the US getting away with such an intrusion. Most people who game in the US probably do so at home on a broadband connection, and there's no way such a rule could be enforced on home users. I'm guessing that in Malaysia however there aren't nearly as many homes with broadband connections, otherwise affected gamers could just go home and log on...

The other thing that struck me about the story was down at the end. According to the article there are millions of gamers in some Asian companies, it's a professional sport in South Korea, and in China of all places there was a murder over a game...

At The Crossroads of Style and Craptacular....

So has anybody actually bought the iTunes phone? You know the Motorola Rockr?

A phone that single handedly managed to embarass Steve Jobs who couldn't get it to work right when he announced it to the world. The phone that was so eagerly awaited that when the reviewers all got their hands on it they declared it to be positively craptacular! The thing is ugly, difficult to use and has a serious limit to the number of songs it can hold... oh and nobody's been really enthused with it's sound quality either...

Well, it looks like Apple and Motorola are going to try it again. Although the latest Apple/Moto frankenphone will be an update on the popular Motorola Razr... The Dutch website Amobil is reporting that the new Razr V3i will have a version that is iTunes enabled just like the Rokr phone. The phone will have a limited 12MB of memory (it is a skinny phone after all) but will be expandable using transflash memory cards, something that the Rokr boasted as well. It's unknown at this time if the new Razr V3i will be hobbled by the same 100 song limit that the Rokr is hog tied by...

Me, I'll pass. I've never been a big fan of the Razr anyway. Yeah it looked cool, but I wasn't thrilled with using the dialpad. Plus Motorola's user interface design leaves A LOT to be desired. Besides, I've already got a 60GB iPod photo, with a 20GB 4G iPod collecting dust, what do I need another iTunes device for?

But Will it Protect Me From My Id?

LeVar Burton once called it the "grand-daddy of modern sci-fi movies." It's star was a very young Leslie Nielsen who was in just his second movie at the time... The movie is Forbidden Planet...

And now thanks to the folks at Hammacher Schlemmer (someplace that I can't even afford to walk INTO let alone buy anything from) you get one of the most recognized things from the movie... Why for just $49,999.95 you can get your very own lifesize replica of Robbie the Robot!
Now you don't just get a static 7 foot tall statue for your money either... Oh no, the gyros and other mechanisms in his head really work, his head moves and he's programed with some of his lines from the movie. There's more to his built in sound system though, why it's CD quality and synchronized with the neon lights, oh and you can even connect it up to your home theater system! Use him to greet your guests, you can speak through Robby with the included wireless microphone....However unlike the Robbie from the movie, your $49,999.95 won't buy you a replica that will cook, clean your house, make 50 gallons of whiskey on demand, or even walk... although stick this one in your front window and it might freak out your neighbors...

Is This Really a Good Idea?

I found this over on Engadget, it seems some artists in Berlin have been cobbling together a Mac Mini with a projector and a battery. They are then taking this contraption and sticking it onto the side of subway cars with a suction cup. What happens is that the Mini + Projector then projects images onto the walls of the subway tunnels as the train rumbles through...

This is really one of those things that on the surface seems kinda cool... A few eccentric artists trying to brighten up what might normally be a dreary commute...

And then you really think about it...

Some whacko sticking a strange box with wires on the side of a subway train... In this post Madrid & London bombing, post September 11th world, if you saw something like this happen are you going to be thinking "ooohhh cool?" Or are you going to be thinking "Holy Crap RUN!!!!!"