I miss punching people in the face.

Beat'Em Ups, or as others may call them, Brawlers, are my favorite genre of video games.  I miss games like Double Dragon, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage.  Remember cooperative play, kids?  When I was a child I would go to the corner store or arcade and drop tons of quarters on TMNT.

Friends. How many of us have them? / Online Gaming

I copped a PlayStation 4 earlier this year after not owning a system since the early days of the PS2 and the Xbox.  It's been roughly 8 years since I had played video games and a lot has changed.

Online gaming is the main thing.  I never did it before owning a PS4.  As much as I love meeting new people online, that's not really the case when it comes to online gaming.  I'm more interested in playing with people that I know to some degree or another.  It's the only way I'm used to playing.  It's funny enough not sitting next to someone.

Ads Can Be Good For You

The earbuds I use for for my daily commute were originally for my 80 gig Zune.  Yes, I know.  Insert your Zune joke here.  They were, and still are, really great.  They have quality sound with a customizable fit for my ears.  The earbuds are still in fine working order, but the cord itself is frayed so I began to Google earbuds because I can't imagine a day without my podcasts or music.

Google's Newest #Android App: Field Trip

Field Trip is your guide to the cool, hidden, and unique things in the world around you. Field Trip runs in the background on your phone. When you get close to something interesting, it pops up a card with details about the location. No click is required. If you have a headset or bluetooth connected, it can even read the info to you.

Is Amazon Changing Digital Music Again?

Last year I mentioned how Amazon launched a digital music service & cloud player.  I was definitely excited to see a true competitor to itunes.  Originally Amazon's cloud player only utilized songs that you already had to upload yourself or song that you bought through Amazon MP3.  You can find out more details about that here.

A New Android Market For Books & Movies

Yesterday Google announced a new Android Market for all phones running version 2.2 or higher of their Android operating system.  Here's what they had to say about the new market:

In the U.S., you’ll be able to rent thousands of movies, starting at $1.99, right from Android Market on your phone. With the Videos app, available in Android Market, there’s no more waiting for downloads, syncing, or worrying about storage space. Simply sign into Android Market with your Google account, and you can rent movies from anywhere – the web, or your Android phone or tablet – and start watching instantly. You can also download movies to your device so they’re available for viewing when you don’t have an internet connection.

Hulu & Facebook Become Closer Friends

Interact. We are excited to announce a new feature that is the first-of-its-kind and one that we think will become a staple at Hulu going forward. One of the most exciting features we are launching today is the ability to comment on a specific moment in time while watching any video on Hulu, and with one click, instantly share those remarks — and the relevant video moment from the program — on Facebook for all your friends to see. When you comment on a Hulu video, that exact moment will appear on Facebook so your friends can jump in and react right away. And since friends can respond to your comments, you can have those water cooler conversations online at any time. We’ve been using this feature in test mode here at Hulu HQ for a bit…and we are officially addicted. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

@CNET's First Look At Google+

My Life As One Of The Most Hated Men In America

A friend of mine recently sent me this blog entry titled, The Short End Of The Stick: Women, Height Preferences, and Hypocrisy.  When I originally saw the title, I was definitely suspicious for two reasons.  One, the friend who sent it has playfully chided me about my height along with her love of Vince Vaughn's height.  She's also thrown around the term, Napoleon complex, once or twice.  Secondly, considering the subject I assumed that me along with my vertically challenged brethren would be the butt of yet another joke at the expense of women and taller men.  I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.  Not only did the blog not ridicule, but it actually read like a blog entry that I have kicked around in my head many times.

Quick Question: How do you use Twitter?

She's No Longer My "Girlfriend"?

Today I was in the middle of my usual online travels when I happened to come across a fairly popular blog post.  The author apparently confused or conflicted with what to call his girlfriend or for that matter, what anyone in a straight and exclusive relationship should call the person that they are dating.  Now, I must admit that throughout my years on this earth I have been called many things, but normal or average guy haven't been one of them.  I'm not saying that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I am far from garden variety.   So when I ask this question it's partly due to the fact that I genuinely don't understand what is wrong.  But, since when, and for that matter why, have the terms "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" been considered bad things?

Never Lose Your @Twitter Links Again! - @Tekzilla Daily Tip

Random Geekery: Preview Of Black Dynamite Comic Book

Press Release

Ape Entertainment, in partnership with Ars Nova, is proud to announce the release of the original 48 page one-shot Black Dynamite: Slave Island, inspired by the major motion picture BLACK DYNAMITE.

How Best To Support Your Favorite Artist

I download tons of free music, most of which is given away by the artists in an effort to promote, but when it comes to artists that I love I go out of my way to support them.  Sometimes I do that through attending a show, but most often its by buying their music. A lot of times that's through Amazon's MP3 store, although every now and again you can get the physical CDs for less than the download for some older albums.  I also like to support my local music shop and you should too. There's nothing wrong with helping a local business keep the lights on if he or she is running a cool establishment.  The following is an excerpt from an NPR article and their show All Things Considered on the best way to get the highest percentage of your consumer dollar to the artist you support.

How To Enable Google Chrome’s Secret Gold Icon

Here’s how to enable to secret Gold Google Chrome icon.

The Legacy Of The CD: Innovation That Ate Itself

by Joel Rose for NPR's The Record

2010 was another lousy year for the music industry – and in particular, the CD. Sales of compact discs dropped last year by nearly 20% percent, according to Billboard. For a while, those shiny plastic discs lifted the fortunes of the recording industry to new heights. But the CD also contained the seeds of the industry's collapse — a collapse that's rattling more than Manhattan boardroom windows.

A Sony factory in Pittman, New Jersey, will see its last CD roll out off the assembly line at the end of this month. At its height, the plant employed 1300 people.

"The overtime, you had it whenever you wanted it," says Jim Jones, who's been driving a forklift at the factory since 1982, when the plant still made LPs. "10 hour days if you wanted it. Saturdays, Sundays — you could get it. That's how busy we were. A lot of times it was mandatory. You had to work, that was it."

Jones met his wife, Cindy, at the plant in the 1990s, when they worked in the warehouse together, rushing out the latest hits. "It's been so long since there was a big hit," she says. "It's just," she pauses, "slow."

Sony will still make CDs at its factory in Indiana. But the closure of the New Jersey plant is telling. Sales of compact discs have fallen 50 percent over the past decade. It's a long way from the early 1980s, when breathless ads and over-the-top hyperbole touted "sound like you've never heard it before."



The CD was invented by hardware manufacturers Sony and Philips. At first, executives at the major record labels didn't like the new format. But they started to come around — thanks in large part to Jac Holzman, the founder of Elektra Records who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next week. Holzman was a big advocate for the CD when he was at Warner Music Group.

"The CD was sexy. And it would bring higher prices — from about 8 dollars for cassettes or LPs at the end of the '70s, to about $15 in the early '80s," Holzman says. "You could resell your best catalogue again. CDs were lighter and cheaper to ship, which is a big consideration."

All of that meant giant profits for the music industry in the 1980s and '90s. "The CD sold so well. And it created this gigantic boom in the industry," says Steve Knopper, the author of Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age. "And everybody got rich. And people just got incredibly accustomed to this. To the point where in the late '90s, the only way that you could get the one song that you liked was to buy the 15 to 18 dollar CD at the Tower Records."

@MayorEmanuel Steps From Behind The Keyboard & Onto Colbert Report

New Improvements To Google Maps & Navigation In Android

From Official Google Mobile Blog:

. . .Google Maps Navigation (Beta) will now automatically route you around traffic. With more than 35 million miles driven by Navigation users every day, this should add up to quite a bit of time saved!

On a recent trip to New York, I was running late to meet some friends at the Queens Museum of Art. I had no idea that there was a traffic jam along the route I would normally have taken. Thankfully, Navigation routed me around traffic. I didn’t even have to know that there was a traffic jam on I-495, and I got to enjoy a much faster trip on I-278 instead.

Navigation now uses real-time traffic conditions to automatically route you around traffic.

You don’t have to do anything to be routed around traffic; just start Navigation like you normally would, either from the Navigation app or from within Google Maps. Before today, Navigation would choose whichever route was fastest, without taking current traffic conditions into account. It would also generate additional alternate directions, such as the shortest route or one that uses highways instead of side roads. Starting today, our routing algorithms will also apply our knowledge of current and historical traffic to select the fastest route from those alternates. That means that Navigation will automatically guide you along the best route given the current traffic conditions.

Not only can you save time and fuel, you’re making traffic better for everyone else by avoiding traffic jams. Keep in mind that we can’t guarantee that Navigation will be able to find a faster way, but it will always try to get you where you’re going as fast as possible.

You can begin routing around traffic with Google Maps Navigation for Android in North America and Europe where both Navigation and real-time traffic data are available.

Jay Smooth - What 'Sensitivity' Really Means

AppJudgment - Froyo Android 2.2 Demo