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Archive: October, 2005

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Microsoft reveals Xbox 360 line-up | The Register

Microsoft reveals Xbox 360 line-up | The Register:
Is that all there is?
By electricnews.net
Published Friday 7th October 2005 10:02 GMT

Microsoft has announced details of the games that will be available for its Xbox 360 console, but only a few titles are likely to be on sale by the launch date.

Around 200 Xbox 360 games are currently in development, but only a handful of these will be available in shops when the console goes on sale in Europe in early
In fact, just three titles have been confirmed so far by Microsoft. These include the action-adventure game Kameo: Elements of Power and the shoot-em-up title Perfect Dark Zero, both of which have been developed by Rare, a UK-based games maker owned by Microsoft. Project Gotham Racing 3 from the game studio Blizzard Creations will also be on sale.

Meanwhile, Electronic Arts, the world’s biggest video games publisher, is aiming to have five titles on sale by the time the console is launched, including Need for Speed Most Wanted, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06, Madden NFL 06, FIFA 06 and Road to FIFA World Cup.

According to a spokesperson for Microsoft Ireland, there has been a slight delay in announcing Xbox 360 titles because some are still going through the ratings process. However, the company is due to announce more titles over the coming weeks and it is expected that between 15 and 20 games will be available to purchase by Christmas.

Among the other games that are expected to be launched shortly are Quake 4, Superman Returns: The Videogame, Call of Duty 2, Castle Wolfenstein, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, MotoGP 2006: Ultimate Racing Technology and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 4.

It must just be me, but after all of excitement Nintendo’s created w/ it’s truly revolutionary idea of what a console should be, the Xbox and PS3 seem to be just more of the same, but w/ more polygons.

categories Gaming, Software

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Musings on Nintendo’s Revolution Strategy

WarCry™ Network:
On October 30, 1974, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman faced off in the “Rumble in the Jungle.” The much-anticipated fight featured Ali breaking out a new style, later named the “Rope-A-Dope,” with a seemingly-suicidal strategy. Ali let the hard-punching Foreman hit him and hit him and hit him. Ali played defense, laid on the ropes, and let Foreman wear himself out. Much to the surprise of just about everyone, it worked. Ali survived, George Foreman punched himself into exhaustion, and Ali put together a furious barrage in the late rounds that knocked Foreman out.

Revolution ControllerI happened upon Shannon’s article that lays out where he thinks Nintendo’s going w/ it’s upcoming Revolution console.  Shannon’s theory is that Big N may be waiting for Sony and Microsoft to wear themselves out, based on the fact that they both lose money on each console sold.

If my memory serves me right, Nintendo’s the only company that’s always made a profit on their hardware, and though they’re often underestimated because of it, we have to pay attention to the fact that they are the grandfather of home consoles.  While I’m not completely convinced that Nintendo’s approach was explicitly aimed at pulling a Rope-A-Dope on their two competitors, it’s obvious that they are completely satisfied w/ not competing for the hardcore gamer’s dollars.

If you watch the video they released at the Tokyo Game Show this year, you can see that they’re already starting to market their product to the broader, casual gamer market.  To win this, it’s going to be essential that they come in at a reasonable price.

Personally, I can’t WAIT to see where they’re going w/ that new controller.

categories Gaming, Hardware

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Don’t Trust Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Turns in Student’s Anti-Bush Photo, Secret Service Investigates Him | progresive.org:

By Matthew Rothschild
October 4, 2005

Selina Jarvis is the chair of the social studies department at Currituck County High School in North Carolina, and she is not used to having the Secret Service question her or one of her students.

But that’s what happened on September 20.

Does this seem a bit insane to anyone else?  The picture wasn’t even all that outrageous, either.  I know that the secret service was following up w/ due diligence, but shouldn’t there be some reprimand for the Wal-Mart employee?
Read more »

categories Political

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Bush spoke of Iraq as divine mission – Oct 7, 2005

CNN.com – Palestinian: Bush spoke of Iraq as divine mission – Oct 7, 2005:
In advance excerpts from the television series “Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs” to be broadcast this month, Shaath says: “President Bush said to all of us: ‘I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan’.

”And I did, and then God would tell me, ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq’. And I did.

“And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, ‘Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East’. And by God I’m gonna do it’,” Shaath quotes him as saying.

In response, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters in Washington: “He’s never made such comments.”

Shaath, who at the time was foreign minister under then- prime minister Abbas, confirmed what he had told the BBC.

But he added: “It was really a figure of speech (by Bush). We felt he was saying that he had a mission, a commitment, his faith in God would inspire him … rather than a metaphysical whisper in his ear.”

In the past, this wouldn’t have been a huge deal.  The problem I have w/ this is that we’re supposed to be a nation that’s working on separating church from state.

The president was re-elected based largely on the support of the ultra-conservative states that rallied behind a man who was so openly religious.  I don’t have a problem with this:  the idea behind our system is that people can choose a leader based on whatever their own personal beliefs are.  The guy who wins will ideally be the one who’s beliefs match up best w/ the majority of the nation.

Here’s the rub:  we’re also a nation that claims to be about welcoming all people and honoring *their* beliefs.  If we’re TRULY going to live up to this ideology, then we need to govern our nation w/ some sense of religious neutrality, leading back to the point of separating church from state.

Freeing Iraqis from tyranny is an admirable notion, and it’s definitely A Good Thing™, but committing an entire nation to a war that has no end in sight (which is great news for Halliburton, no?) based on one man’s belief’s is SO two thousand years ago.

categories Political

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Wie officially a pro

SI.com – Golf – Wie officially a pro – Wednesday October 5, 2005 3:36PM:
Officially, a pro
Wie to make pro debut Oct. 13 at Samsung event
Posted: Wednesday October 5, 2005 2:11PM; Updated: Wednesday October 5, 2005 8:22PM

HONOLULU (AP) — There was no Tigeresque “Hello, world” moment.

No, Michelle Wie strode into a crowded conference room with high heels and high hopes and said what everyone already knew.

“I’m finally happy to say I’m a pro starting today,” said Wie, who turns 16 in six days. “The first time I grabbed a golf club, I knew I’d do it for the rest of my life. Some 12 years later, I’m finally turning pro, and I’m so excited.”

Wie has signed endorsement deals with Nike and Sony said to be worth $10 million a year. Her first act as a professional was to give some of it back.

She pledged $500,000 to the U.S. Golf Hurricane Relief Fund, set up by the major golf organizations.

Now that’s just awesome.

I saw her on Letterman last week, and he poked fun at the fact that she wasn’t yet old enough to even drive herself to the golf courses she played at, but when he asked her what a decent shot off of the tee was, she remarked that it was in the 315-320 range.

Wow.

categories General

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Poem to Wifee

The Best Geek Quotes, Sayings, and Phrases – 1 to 10:
Roses are #FF0000
Violets are #0000FF
All my base
Are belong to you

Ok, they’re not ALL funny, but man.. this still has me laughing.

categories Funny

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My Name Is Earl HDTV Easter Egg

High Def ROCKS!HD Beat: “My name is Earl” in HD ROCKS
Posted Oct 4, 2005, 11:08 PM ET by Richard Lawler

As if seeing Randy’s girlfriend Catalina (played by Nadine Velazquez) wasn’t good enough, HD viewers of My Name is Earl (self included) got another treat tonight. During the episode Earl’s brother Randy holds up the sign in the picture above reading “High Def Rocks!!!” which couldn’t be viewed by people watching on non-high def TV’s.

HDTV Image of EarlIn the first picture, you can see a close-up of the sign he’s holding up, which was just off-screen to the left of what’s viewable in standard definition.  Ironically, wifee and I watched it on the regular tv last night, so we missed it. 

This makes me wonder, however, what other nice little touches the broadcasters could do for HD viewers.  Being mindful of the fact that you don’t want to put anything TOO static on the screen (for fear of burn-in), what useful info could be put out there?  News tickers would be nice, but vertical?  Not so sure about that.  For now, I’m just satisfied w/ the higher image and color quality.

categories Funny

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Kanye and Mike Meyers

I found Kanye’s unscripted plea for people to send in money for Katrina relief to be both poignent AND hysterical: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” It was in direct reference to the president’s slow response time to the thousands of injured and homeless victims of Katrina.

Below, you’ll find a youtube video of the clip, and as always, after you press play, you’ll see the video start downloading — I recommend hitting pause until the entire clip loads, and then pressing play, again.

Well, this past weekend, Kanye was the musical guest on SNL, and with my EyeTV set to record SNL every Saturday night, I caught the following gem…

(26.7 MB, Quicktime 7 w/ H.264 codec required)

Read more »

categories Funny

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Butt Fireworks

Next in the series of “It’s Funny Because It’s Not You”…
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categories Funny, People are idiots.

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Made-up words in The Simpsons

Made-up words in The Simpsons – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Several memes, words and phrases (often neologisms) that started on The Simpsons television series have now become mainstream words or sayings. The most famous of which is Homer’s saying: “D’oh!”, which is referred to in scripts, as well as several episode names, as “annoyed grunt”. D’oh is now listed in the Oxford English Dictionary and even in smaller ones such as OUP’s one volume Oxford Dictionary of English (second edition).

1 Achy Breaky Pelvis
 2 Assalhorizontology
 3 Avoision
 4 Balonium
 5 B’oh
 6 BBBQ
 7 Beginulate
 8 Bloodening
 9 Blurst
 10 Boneis Eruptus
 11 Boo-urns
 12 Bort
 13 BYOBB
 14 Chester A. Arthritis
 15 Chocotastic
 16 CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet
 17 Craptacular
 18 Crisitunity
 19 Cromulent
 20 D’oh
 21 Domer
 22 Dorkus Malorkus
 23 Debigulator
 24 Double-Bacon Geniusburger
 25 Dumbening
 26 Embiggen
 27 Forfty
 28 Flunjers, Capdabblers, Smendlers
 29 Frinkahedron
 30 Frogurt
 31 Gamblor
 32 Glayvin
 33 Homersexual
 34 Hoyvin-Mavin
 35 I, for one, welcome our new word overlords
 36 Interslice
 37 Jebeditis
 38 Jebus
 39 Jerkass
 40 Knowitallism
 41 Kwyjibo
 42 Lupper
 43 Meh
 44 Mmm, word
 45 Momato
 46 Monsterometer
 47 Nucleon
 48 Nucular
 49 Ovulicious
 50 Panaphonics
 51 Posturologists
 52 Pull a Homer
 53 “Radioactivity”
 54 Redorkulated
 55 Retirony
 56 Sacrilicious
 57 Saxomophone
 58 Scotchtoberfest
 59 Screamapillar
 60 Skittlebrau
 61 Smarch
 62 Snacktacular
 63 SNUH
 64 “Sticktoitiveness”
 65 Superliminal
 66 Thrillho
 67 Tomacco
 68 Tramapoline
 69 Unpossible
 70 Yvan Eht Nioj

categories Funny

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