I’ve yet to see Cloverfield. I’m a massive JJ fan, I’m watching LOST tonight, but I was out of the country when the stuff went down, so I’m not clicking the link below. But if you want the backstory, and are really into being a geek, be my guest. Cloverfield’s Secret Japanese Origin [io9] ShareThis
I have yet to see Cloverfield. I’m a big JJ fan, I’m watching LOST tonight, but I was out of the country when the stuff went down, so I’m not clicking the link below. But if you want the backstory, and are really into being a geek, be my guest.
I never got the whole Guitar Hero, Rock Band and their fake guitars playing thingie, which require so much practice to master that you may as well use a real guitar to become as good as Satriani. That’s why I love the idea of Guitar Rising, which can use any real electric guitar, from a Fender Telecaster to a Gibson Les Paul. The software teaches you how to play actual songs, tracking your accuracy much like Guitar Hero would do, as their demo video shows.
According to GameTank’s CEO Jake Parks, the connection to the guitar would either work “via a guitar-USB adapter, a microphone, or directly to the sound card.” He told us that they are planning to release for both Mac and Personal computer.
The cool thing about Guitar Rising is that it isn’t a easy videogame, but combines the fun of playing and beating scores to actually teach you how to play the real thing. While they “are in the process of licensing popular rock songs, and we’ll announce them on our website as soon as we finalize the deals,” there will be different songs for different levels of difficulty to ease the learning curve, as well as different speed settings, so you can begin slow and progress until you master the song at real speed. In fact, they state that the song selection will include stuff easy for beginners but also songs challenging for experienced players.
In other words, you will actually learn to play guitar and try to be a Keith Richards-wannabe rather than just pretending to be Jeff Vader pretending to be Keith Richards. If you want to give it a try, they will be at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco to visit us in the OMPR/IBM Pavilion, booth 6241. [Guitar Rising]
If you’re really into miniatures, and want your PS3 to double as a board for your figure-based strategy game (I know Warhammer 40,000: Vegas is coming out soon), this sort of thing is plainly for you. A lot of work has gone into this completely impractical conversion, which was made for an Ubisoft promotion. I’m […]
If you’re really into miniatures, and want your PS3 to double as a board for your figure-based strategy game (I know Warhammer 40,000: Vegas is coming out soon), this sort of thing is plainly for you. A lot of work has gone into this completely impractical conversion, which was made for an Ubisoft promotion. I’m more a fan of modding your case into a something, well, awesome, instead of a (albeit sweet) diorama. PS3 Rainbow Six casemod [Technabob]
So, this new Transportation Security Administration blog is both endearing and creepy. Endearing, because it’s cute when bureaucrats try to act like real people with real lives and feelings and whatnot, but creepy because of things like its subtitle: “Terrorists Evolve. Threats Evolve. Security Must Stay Ahead. You Play A Part.” Anyhoo, some real bloggers, like Scott at Laughing Squid pointed out to them that at some airports, specifically San Fran’s, security people were being dicks about gadgets in bags—making you pull out everything from cords to BlackBerries, not just laptops. The bloggercrats checked into it and guess what? Not kosher!
Consequently, we’re treated to a triumphant little post titled HOORAY BLOGGERS!, touting bloggers’ “first official impact on [the TSA’s] operations.” That’s right, making local TSA offices follow standard agency procedure is “a win for the blogesphere” [sic, though blogosphere isn’t a real word like “the,” so maybe I’m being the douche now]. I’m still debating which parts of this are truly disturbing. I’ll get back to you. [TSA via BoingBoing]
As usual, Samsung will be the first to bring a 3D plasma HDTV to the US market next month in 42- and 50-inch versions. Most of us at CG have seen a demo of this within the last six months and it’s safe to say how darn cool it is. If and when you decide […]
As usual, Samsung will be the first to bring a 3D plasma HDTV to the US market next month in 42- and 50-inch versions. Most of us at CG have seen a demo of this within the last six months and it’s safe to say how darn cool it is. If and when you decide to purchase one you get the appropriate software and 3D glasses. Don’t fret because you can still watch your 2D moving photos as well. Prices haven’t been announced, but Samsung states it won’t be too much more than what plasmas are priced at now. A video demo can be found down there.
Okay, so I tried to put myself in this kid’s shoes. I’m looking at a steel hole. Not very exciting! I’d rather go play with a bright, flashing object instead. Apparently, we don’t have the same thought process, ’cause this kid decided to dig deeper. Guess what he found? A whole bunch of OMGI’mStuck. Enter brave firefighters, who have to rip the defenseless washing machine apart with the jaws of life to free the kid. Me? I’d have just gotten a new washing machine on the spot. [WKYC via Fark]
Toshiba’s Gigabeat V81 portable TV packs 8GB of internal memory (double the previous version) and a 3.5-inch screen, beating yesterday’s mini Bravia on both counts. But since it’s also only for 1seg digital broadcasts, you won’t get much use for it outside Japan.
The V81 can fit about 40 hours of recorded Television on its internal memory, and if that’s not enough you can boost it with an SD card. The 3.5-inch display has a 320 x 240-pixel resolution, and the battery gives you about 10 hours of broadcast viewing, or 13 hours of playback video viewing. It’s also WMA, WMV and MP3 compatible, measures just 4.5 x 3.0 x 0.6 inches, and is available February 15 in Japan for ¥34,000 ($330) [AV Watch and Akihabaranews]
Researchers in Budapest have spent a lot of time examining dogs barking for some reason, and they’ve figured out a way to create software to decipher exactly what your pooch is saying. That’s not to say that Rex is suddenly going to begin saying “My, Joseph, you have been sitting around the house all day in a dreadful state. Don’t you concur that it would be to both of our benefits if you took me out for a jolly stroll?”, but it will let him state “Walk! Walk walk walk! Walk! Walk Walk! Walk!”
That’s because, apparently, dogs have six types of barks depending on what they want or are doing. There’s the “stranger” bark, the “fight” bark, the “walk” bark, the “alone” bark, the “ball” bark and the “play” bark. Knowing what these barks all sound like will grant software that decodes them to be built and, presumably, stuck in small devices on their collars. That way, when your dog barks, you’ll know exactly what they want. Not that it’s ever that hard to figure out anyways. They’re just stupid dogs, after all, it’s not like they ever want anything other than meat or a good scratch behind the ears. But hey, at least you’ll know. [Tom’s Hardware]
I never got the whole 
So, this new Transportation Security Administration blog is both endearing and creepy. Endearing, because it’s cute when bureaucrats try to act like real people with real lives and feelings and whatnot, but creepy because of things like its subtitle: “Terrorists Evolve. Threats Evolve. Security Must Stay Ahead. You Play A Part.” Anyhoo, some real bloggers, like Scott at 
Okay, so I tried to put myself in this kid’s shoes. I’m looking at a steel hole. Not very exciting! I’d rather go play with a bright, flashing object instead. Apparently, we don’t have the same thought process, ’cause this kid decided to dig deeper. Guess what he found? A whole bunch of OMGI’mStuck. Enter brave firefighters, who have to rip the defenseless washing machine apart with the jaws of life to free the kid. Me? I’d have just gotten a new washing machine on the spot. [
Toshiba’s Gigabeat V81 portable TV packs 8GB of internal memory (double the previous version) and a 3.5-inch screen, beating yesterday’s 
Researchers in Budapest have spent a lot of time examining dogs barking for some reason, and they’ve figured out a way to create software to decipher exactly what your pooch is saying. That’s not to say that Rex is suddenly going to begin saying “My, Joseph, you have been sitting around the house all day in a dreadful state. Don’t you concur that it would be to both of our benefits if you took me out for a jolly stroll?”, but it will let him state “Walk! Walk walk walk! Walk! Walk Walk! Walk!”
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