Linkage for April 14th

Videos
Crazy Aussie Commercial
Cool Guitar Hero Split Screen Video
Guy Tries To Eat A Cactus
Official Clerks II Trailer
The Emperor Gets a Job (Star Wars Spoof)

News
Hangover-free Buzz: Star Trek’s Synthehol Now Possible
AOL Censors Email Tax Opponents
Jack Thompson sues Florida Bar
Videogames Help Burn Calories

Articles/Features
Get rid of the Windows Update reboot nag
The Top 25 web sites of 1994

Random
Tokyo Looks Like Gotham City?
How to use your ink cartridges until they’re (really) empty

Today’s Featured Comic
Paris Gets What’s Coming to Her

Today’s Useless Fact
Zachary Taylor, formerly a professional soldier, never voted. He didn’t even vote in the election that elected him U.S. president.

Linkage for April 13th

Videos
David Bowie and Trent Reznor sing “Hurt”
Spiderman DDR Routine
C is for Cookie! (V for Vendetta Spoof)
Japanese Tomato Adventure Commercial
WoW – Health is for the Weak
GBA “Rectal Exam” Ad

News
Ubisoft Dropping Starforce
Afghans selling US army secrets on USB Drives
Blizzard Bans 5,400 WoW Users and Suspends Over 10,000 More
Lucent Technologies Sues Microsoft Over Xbox 360
Battlestar Galactica game under consideration
Spy Hunter movie script leaked?
1930’s Noir Title announced for Revolution – Entirely in Black and White
Vista Aero Unavailable for Pirates
Girl’s heart restarted after ten years
Coca-Cola with Real Coca Leaves Bottled by Indigenous Tribe
200 GB Blu-Ray Drive?
Sega Handheld is April Fools Joke
‘South Park’ Creators Skewer Own Network

Articles/Features
Retronauts – Earthbound
PS2 Due for a Price Drop?
Simon Pegg Talks to CVG
Game Shops Might Screw you out of a PS3
Game Ads A-Go-Go: The Dirty Mind of a Gamer
Nickel and Dime Your Way to Financial Security
Best Light Gun Games for a Re-Revolution
How YouTube became hot property in online video
Would You Like A Franchise With That? (Games, Comics, and Movies From A Hollywood Perspective)
Playstation 3 To Be Fat And Retarded

Random
Game of The Week – Somari the Mario/Sonic Hybrid
Google Calendar is Live
PS3 currently too big and too clever?

Today’s Featured Comic
A little under-dressed?

Today’s Useless Fact
Gold was first known to be used as jewelry in parts of Central and Eastern Europe in 4000BC.

Linkage for April 12th

Videos
Halo 2 “Resident Evil” Machinima
I Feel Great!
Juggling Magician
Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody” Video
Sweet Hellboy Animation

News
Paramount Pictures Teams up with XBox Live
Sega’s New Handheld?

Articles
Sad Story of ‘Boy in the Bubble’
Games that were Too Wild for the West
Top 10 Tuesday: Modern Vaporware
Silent Hill Movie Interview
How I Got My First Computer, and How I Got My First Computer Back
Would You Like A Franchise With That? (Games, Comics, and Movies From A Hollywood Perspective)

Random
Pop culture references in Warcraft
Sexual Moments in Video Game History

Today’s Featured Comic
Vegeterian = Culinary Masturbation

Today’s Useless Fact
During the Renaissance when Charles VIII’s armies entered France, he also brought with him his passion for perfume. Charles even had his own personal perfumer. Rose, orange blossom, and rosemary oil were favorite scents in his court.

Today’s Linkage

Videos
GBA “Bathroom” Ad
Not Exactly the Miracle of Conception (What the fuck??)
Flying Cat
Japanese Shining Force III Commercial
Top Ten Accident Prone Foods

News
Virginia Seeks New “M” Label
Jail employee fired for allegedly striking his wife over Dungeons and Dragons toys
The truth about the Light at end of the tunnel over near death experiences

Articles
The Most Controversial Video Game Ads of All Time
Games That Defined The Dreamcast
Only from Japan – Games of the Far East
I don’t want Windows on a Mac. I want OS X on a PC.
A Multiplayer Melee on Female Gamers
How Wal-Mart Controls Your Games
Getting things deleted from Google’s cache
The Making of 3D Monster Maze

Random
Macintosh Ads Circa 1984
Interesting XBox Live Project
Your favorite NES games, voxalized
Ending to NES Life Force
Awesome Graphics Card Comparisons
Copy and paste between computers
Play Quake III in Your Browser

Today’s Useless Fact
There is evidence to suggest that ginger root is effective against motion sickness and nausea when taken in powdered form

Today’s Comic Goodness
Commissioned Comic

Weekend Linkage

Videos
Japanese Rube Goldberg Machines Part 1 (9 minutes long but worth it)
Japanese Rube Goldberg Machines Part 2
SNL – Star Wars Screen Test
Fearless Music Video
Curt Schilling’s Everquest Addiction
On the set if Silent Hill
My Buddy The Crystal Lich’s Second Video
Zlad – Elektronik Supersonik

News
Star Wars Kid Gets Paid
Next Oblivion Add-on Priced
British FBI-style Logo Compares to Thundercats

Articles
Running Oblivion/Half-Life 2/F.E.A.R On a Machintosh
Tetris from the Top: An Interview with Henk Rogers
Nerds Make Better Lovers

Random
Star Wars Origami
The Top 10 weirdest keyboards ever
Jack Thompson Toilet Paper
Mega Man on Something Awful
11 Craziest Mental disorders

Today’s Useless Fact
Heinrich W. Brandes made the first weather map in 1815, based on data gathered in 1783. Brandes waited so long because it was the only way he could be certain the information was correct.

Today’s Linkage

Videos
Insane 100 Yard Football Throw
Lego Counter-Strike
Night Trap Controversy Feature
Chuck Norris – Oblivion Style
Topless Car Wash

News
Bethesda Comments on Oblivion Gender Bias Concerns
Square Enix commits to exclusive Xbox 360 game
Lara Croft Earns Guinness World Record
Debate rages on use of cervical cancer vaccine
Mario Question Block Girls Will Not Be Prosecuted
Bethesda patching Oblivion, lowers cost of future content download
Red Steel: first Revolution screens revealed
Free Oblivion horse armor coupon with PC version

Articles
The Trouble with Scotland (Video Game Related)
Dark Miracle – A Trip to the Trinity Test Site
You’ve Come A Long Way Game Boy
Famous Final Fantasy Moments

Random
Overload’s Oblivion ModPack-v2.0
Test Your Atari Knowledge
Are You a Console Fanboy?
Google Toolbar v2 for Firefox
Calculate Your Sleep Debt
Total Solar Eclipse as Seen from Space

Today’s Useless Fact
Five baseball gloves can be made from one cow.

Today’s Linkage

Wow! A lot of stuff today. I figure I will make this post every day around 8p-9p EST as that seems to be when the news dies down.

Anyway, enjoy today’s linkage!

Videos
Teachers on Crack
Dog Judo (Get the rest of them here)
The Art of Motion
P.A.N.I.C.S Outtakes
Oblivion Topless Mod in Action
Kokomo Spoof by U.S Soldiers
Japanese Dr. Mario Commercial

Articles
Dvorak Isn’t Crazy
As Seen on TV: Sweet Scent of 80’s Nostalgia
The Lost CD-i Mario Game
There’s ONE page AOL.com hopes you’ll never find
E3 Through the Eyes of a Booth Babe
Game Developers Unleash A Storm On ‘World Of Warcraft’ Players

News
Mac Boot Camp (Dual booting with Windows)
Microsoft Buys Lionhead Studios
Molyneux thinks Microsoft is ‘Perfect’ for Lionhead
Anime Now Available on XBox Live Marketplace
The most significant advance in cancer prevention in the last 50 years
Nipplegate: new Tomb Raider delayed in US
NetFlix Sues Blockbuster Online
‘Gospel of Judas’ Surfaces After 1,700 Years
Desert pinup ogled by Google Earth
Bill Nye Angers Creationists at MCC Lecture

Random
Kingdom Hearts Vibrator
Toys R US Accepting PS3 Pre-orders
Oblivion Hardware Guide
Alliance to Horde Translation Guide
“Dummies” Book Cover Generator
Japanese Walk the Dog Simulator

Today’s Useless Fact
Seven thousand years ago, the ancient Egyptians bowled on alleys not unlike our own.

Today’s Linkage

Well, I finally completed King’s Field: The Ancient City. I can understand why the series never gets good reviews critically as it is definitely a fan’s series. I fully enjoyed the game, but as usual the games are really, really hard.

Anyway, I am changing the method of doing these daily posts for two reasons. One, I am too lazy to post a synopsis for each link every day. Two, the subject of the link should give you enough information to decide if you want to click on it or not.

If you are a friend of mine or someone who has read this blog for any time, you will already pretty much know my view of a particular items.

Videos
Cop Caught Dancing to Billie Jean
Nintendo Cereal Commercial
Super Console Wars puts spin on mascot Gamepires
Fire Fart
Drunk Guy Hijacks DDR
Matrix: Path of Neo Bloopers

Articles
TwitchGuru Analyzes the 1979 film “The Warriors”
Dreamcast 2D Fighters Library

News
Capcom Under Investigation for Fraud
104 Murders An Hour Playing M-Rated Games
Health Problems Related to the Geek Lifestyle
Childhood TV and gaming is ‘major public health issue’
PS3 to be 500 euros (approx $615 US)?

Random Crap
Today’s Download – FreshDiagnose System Information Utility
The Incredible Sega Rap
Oblivion Topless Mod

Today’s Useless Fact
The Nobel Peace Prize medal depicts three naked men with their hands on each other’s shoulders.

Today’s Interesting Items

Optimizing Firefox
Well this is actually four links in one post. I am an avid Firefox user and have been for some time. I refuse to use IE unless absolutely necessary and I have tried many other browsers (Opera and Avant to name two).

One of the coolest things about Firefox is the amount of customization, tweaking and extensions (plug-ins) available. These four articles help you get the most out of your browser by giving some excellent extensions, as well as tweaks to make it run faster.

CNet’s Guide to Optimizing Firefox
This may help Your Firefox Memory Leak
Reducing Memory Usage In Firefox
Firefox Extension Packs

If you are wondering what Extensions I use, here is my Mass Installer file for use with the extension.

How I Work: Bill Gates
An interesting article on how one of the men on top of the world manages his day to day business activities.

Oblivion: PC or Xbox 360?
A good guide to determine which version of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is right for you. Has screenshots, pros and cons of each and much more.

Nintendo’s Power
The always amazing Escapist Magazine has a great article about the seminal video game magazine Nintendo Power. Well worth a read for any video game fan.

PS3 “Lifestyle” Details
Computer and Video Games has information regarding the PS3 online service to compete with XBox Live. It is pretty much the same as Xbox live with a few additional features such as PSP and Eye-Toy connectivity, but be sure to read it for all the info.

Tribute to Video Games
An awesome video that will make anyone who grew up with gaming teary with nostalgia.

New Clerks 2 Trailer
This movie looks so fucking hilarious that I cannot wait for it to come out. The trailer is an internet exclusive trailer which means it has profanity in it. So if you are in an office, might want to keep the volume down.

Old School Sega Sport Commercial
I actually do not remember this commercial but that didn’t prevent it from brining a smile to my face when I heard the good ol SEGA!!

Chrono Game & New Level 5 Online Game Coming To 360?
If this information proves true, the XBox 360 just made my “I now want one” list. Hironobu Sakaguchi is one of my favorite designers (Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger) and if he has some JRPG’s other than Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey coming, I will not be able to resist.

Top 10 Best Gore Effects
The top 10 best gore effects in Video games. It has the requisite Mortal Kombat and Doom references as well as 1 or 2 I haven’t seen myself. Pretty good list as usual from the IGN Top 10 Tuesdays.

Morning Linkage

Apple’s Finest Flip-Flops
A list of Apple’s top 10 public Flip-flops. What is a flip-flop? Basically, it was Apple saying one thing and then turning around and changing their mind. Every company has done it, so it is not as if Apple is the only one. Still entertaining though.

Famicom Keychain
This will so be mine.

Violent video games often not properly labeled
This study found around 80 percent of M-rated games included sex, violence, profanity, gambling or drug and alcohol use, none of which was described on the labels.

Um, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK MATURE RATED MEANS?!? Other than the above, what else would give a game a Mature rating? God I hate the mainstream media when it comes to video games.

Trends: From PONG to Generation Renaissance,
In what is possibly the longest forum post ever, Varian catalogs the history of video games from pong to the future. I have yet to complete this as it really is long. As a word doc, it is over 80 pages long. It really is a good read thus far and I would recommend doing so in chunks.

Super Mario Stamps
The lucky Japanese will be getting Super Mario Bros. stamps at the end of May. A sheet of ten 80 yen stamps goes for 3, 150 yen (US $26) and includes a special case. I might have to import these and add to my “cool shit from Japan” collection.

Monday Morning Linkage

April Fools Burning Questions
Burning questions is a weekly column by Alex Navarro that I read. This week was the April Fools version which cover such topics as "Why don't games cost more?" and "What happened to my controller?"

Find any XP Driver you need
This website has Driver Packs which contain all drivers for that type of hardware. For instance, the Graphics Driver pack contains drivers for ALL video cards in one download. Very, very nice site.

Tiny Ohio town freaked out by Mario prank
This is one for the April Fools Day books. 5 girls from a small town (12,000 residents) decided to place 17 cardboard SMB Power-Up Blocks around town. Well the residents became scared thinking this was some sort of terrorist act and ended up calling the bomb squad. I am not sure who is more stupid in this scenario. The girls for the prank, or the small secluded town thinking that terrorists would bother to attack their small secluded town.

StarForce gets pwned again
So this idiot moderator over at the StarForce forums posted a link to an article that supposedly claims the drivers are safe. The kicker? The site is owned by StarForce and they got called out on it.

Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future
This is an awesome list of predictions that were said about the future that ended up being waaaay off. There are too many good ones to point out so just read the list and discover your own favorites.

NES Zelda cartridge USB Drive
This is a step-by-step manual on how to turn an NES cartridge into a USB hard drive. For geeks like me, this is just pure bliss.

iPod Shuffle & Nintendo Controller Hack
Keeping with the NES modding theme, these are some pictures of an NES controller that was turned into an iPod Shuffle.

Sex in videogames: It's time to grow up
An excellent article by Aaron McKenna talking about how the industry needs to grow up, something that I heartily agree with. A good read for anyone who enjoys video games.

April Fools News Day

I have long hated April Fools Day. I do not like practical jokes and as someone who does news for multiple websites, the fact that I have to figure out what the fuck is real and what is fake as far as news drives me nuts. Sometimes things are obvious, but quite often they are not.

I just find this day to be more annoying than anything else, but I do know quite a few people who enjoy it. Admittedy there are some interesting fake news that comes out of it each year. Here are some examples..

Gamefaqs.com shut down by the ACAA – Anti-Cheat Association of America
GoogleGulp! The sporty new fitness drink from google
Google Hiring for Lunar Base Location
Harmonix announces Cowbell Hero
New game rating clears hurdle
Yuke's developing View game
Duke Nukem Forever Review
World of Starcraft Preview
Use Google Maps to Track Zombies

However, the best resource to look at is the Wikipedia Master List which is constantly updated all day. Just note that if you check many of these tomorrow they will be gone so hopefully you actually got around to reading the blog today.

Thinkgeek Starts Aprils Fools Early

Every year ThinkGeek posts some cool shit for April Fools Day and this year is no different. Check out some of that phat lewt!

Grow Your Own 1up Mushroom Kit
Deep in the basement of an ancient house in Sonobe (tucked in the fields of Kyoto, Japan), an amazing discovery has been made: real 1up Mushrooms. We know this sounds unbelievable, and we laughed when we were contacted by an exporter about them two months ago. But then we were sent a sample, and that's when our lives changed forever….

USB Desktop Tanning Center
Here at ThinkGeek, we fully understand the sun isn't always your best friend. But, unlike vampire rats, the sun is not PURE evil. It does have a few redeeming qualities. Like sunspots and eclipses. It's also used to grow your own 1up Mushrooms. Some people even tunnel sun rays through a magnifying glass to set leaves, insects and ladyfingers in a glorious blaze. One of the strangest qualities of the Sun, however, is that it can make the color of your skin change. And while it is very dangerous to the cells in your epidermis, this practice of changing ones skin color purportedly makes you more socially acceptable in general and desireable to the opposite sex. What geek doesn't want that?..

iZilla Media Monster
Tromping through the streets of downtown Tokyo… crunching tiny white audio players underfoot comes the iZilla. If you've been looking to step-up to a hungry man sized portable media player with incredible tech powers… this is it. First start with a whopping two terabytes of storage delivered by four 500 gig internal hard drives. Up the ante with a sweet 7" TFT-LCD touch screen… then crush your opponents with high-speed ripping capability for CD, DVD, and vinyl. A handy iPod® dock allows you to transfer songs to and from the iZilla…..

Wireless Extension Cords
Because technology is constantly changing, one of the greatest tools to the do-it-yourselfer is the extension cord. Now you can put anything in any room you want – even outside. Every once in a while, though, a long cord across the floor can be more dangerous than helpful. Sure you could just put a carpet or tape over the cord, but why bother? Let technology solve its own problems. Grab some Wireless Extension Cords, and leave the wires where they belong – somewhere else!..

Massive Linkage!

Windows XP: Get Updates No Matter What
A cool little trick that allows you to go to Windows Updates and actually run updates even if you do not have a valid windows CD key.

The alternative is to turn out automatic updates which will also install them without a key. Either way, this is a neat little hack.

Mozilla thanks Microsoft for its monopolistic tactics
Blake Ross posted on his blog basically thanking Microsoft for its tyrannical tactics in the marketplace. It is a pretty good read even though it is obviously sarcastic.

Apple Heroes and Villains
Wired News put together a cool photo album of all the people in Apple's history as well as why they were important.

Steve Jobs' Best Quotes Ever
Keeping on the topic of Apple, they also put together a list of the best quotes from Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Zelda Pacman
Just what the title says. A cool little version of Pacman based on The Legend of Zelda: A link to the past.

SpoofStick
This is a damn good Firefox Extension I came across that allows you to easily distinguish between phishing sites and legit ones. Considering they are getting more and more sophesticated and realistic, it is harder and harder to tell. This extension obviously doesn't replace vigilance and knowledge, but it is well worth installing.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Mods
Planet Elder Scrolls already has a large amount of mods for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. There are quite a few good ones and I have already installed like 10 or 11.

The Dangers of Monogamey
An interesting article regarding World of Warcraft and how it is contributing to the death of PC gaming. While I do not necessarily agree with him, he does indeed bring up some valid points.

PlanetSide Goes Free
The SOE First Person Shooter MMORPG PlanetSide has gone from paid to free. This seems to be the newest trend that began with Anarchy Online and has also affected Shadowbane.

The game is actually pretty cool and has gotten much better since its initial release (which sucked). While I would not play it again, it is well worth a couple of weeks of time.

New Game Videos Website
This site is just awesome. It has tons of video game related videos ranging from trailers, to shows to my current addicition, RETRO!

Office Massacre Game Announced
Office Massacre from UK-based Alten8 is a first-person cartoon shooter, in which players kill workmates and bosses in a bloody "spree".

Do you hear that? That is the sound of Jack Thompson pleasuring himself at the thought of a new target!

GameTap now $9.95/month; GameTap TV announced
I gave Gametap a try when it first came out. It really is an awesome service but at the time, I could not justify the $15 a month for the limited library.

However, with this new price point and their ever expanding library of great titles, I am very much tempted to re-activate my account.

Star Wars Kid is Suing Classmates for $160,000
I can kind of see the kids point because I am sure that the infamous Star Wars video has made his life a living hell. However, if you are stupid enough to let yourself be caught on film doing something like that, it is your own fucking fault.

Monday Morning Linkage

Indescribable DS stylus
Umm…Wow. This has to be the weirdest fucking stylus evar. Of course, something like this would NEVER hit the US, but if you have a hard-on (pun intended) for Phallus-shaped styluses, I am sure you can import it.

The Many Adventures of Link (Part 2)
Part 2 of the History of Link. You can read part 1 here.

Elder Scrolls IV in Panoramic
These panoramic scans show just how gorgeous this game really is in a way that screenshots cannot show.

Japanese Retailers Selling Xbox 360 For Under $170?
Just goes to show you how shitty the 360 is doing over in Japan. Microsoft really dropped the ball with the Japanese launch in a worse way than the original XBox Launch. Microsoft should have known that the Japanese flat out do not like the XBox and probably never will.

More 80's Commercials
I love when X-entertainment does these 80 commerical retrospectives. I have downloaded everyone of them from each post as it is no secret I am a whore for 80's and 90's nostalgia.

Death Star Home Theater
Anytime you think you are a true Star Wars geek, remember something like this.

Massive Link Dump

I haven’t posted links lately and built up quite a few for your reading pleasure. I had a few more, but they are apparently down right now probably due to being digg or slashdot fucked.

Interview: (Possible) World’s Largest Video Game Collection Owner
I posted awhile back about this guy with the huge video game collection. Well, RedWolf over at the always entertaining Vintage Computing and Gaming blog posted an interview with the guy.

Gaming now and then
A very cool look at how games have changed over the past 20 years using side by side screenshot comparisons.

Schilling Grabs Endorsement, Stepping Over Teammates’ Bodies
A funny little story about real-life revenge on the baseball field against an Everquest act of cowardice.

The Elder Scrolls: To Oblivion and Back UGO’s Elder Scrolls Retrospective
An interesting retrospective of the long running Elder Scrolls series due to the recent release of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Top 10 Tuesday: RPG Clichés
This week’s IGN top 10 focuses on the top 10 RPG cliches. Anyone who has played RPG’s for any amount of time has encountered every one of them.

The Many Adventures of Link: Part 1
Another interesting retrospective, this time focusing on the history of the character Link from the Zelda series.

Game Ads A-Go-Go: Guys Freakin’ Out
Redwolf also does a column for Game Set Watch about vintage gaming ads. As you all know, I have a huge collection of vintage computer and video game magazines dating back to the late 80’s so I always love this column. I actually remember all of these ads as well.

‘South Park’ Responds: Chef’s Goose Is Cooked
I meant to post about this when it originally happened but I am sure you heard about it anyway. Isaac Hayes left South Park over a reported dispute over the show’s views on religon. We won’t get into it here, but suffice to say, it was a bullshit reason. Trey Parker and Matt Stone retaliated on a hastily put together episode of South Park featuring the death of Chef. As usual, it was fucking hilarious

MMO griefer crucified in public spectacle
Don’t you just love it when griefer’s get what they deserve?

Atheists identified as America’s most distrusted minority
Amazing that the nations with the highest levels of religious people and the most religious intollerance also have the highest rates of violence in the world. Whatever, fuck all of you too

Wednesday Linkage

Penny Arcade Podcast
Looks like Gabe and Tycho have finally put out their own podcast. As some of you know, I am a total Podcast and Videocast whore having nearly 30 subscriptions so I do not bother adding another if it isn’t good. Admittedly, the sound quality on this one isn’t great, but they have said they will make it better next time as well as adding an RSS feed for it. However, If you are a fan of Penny Arcade, this is a must have and will be added to my rotation.

Starforce enforces DRM by instant reboot (without warning)
As many of you know, I hate Starforce and am one of the many people who boycott it. Well this is just another reason to say FUCK YOU STARFORCE!

In short, the newest Starforce DRM involves installing very invasive drivers on your PC and anytime the software detects something it doesn’t like, it reboots your computer without even asking! You got open documents or webpages? Tough shit – they are gone.

This is a must read for anyone who uses their computer often as this does not just apply to games since Starforce is now being used for regular applications as well.

Desktop Earth 2.0
I came across this awesome live desktop wallpaper yesterday. It does not require Active Desktop to be active nor does it install any spyware or bloatware.

It is simply a wallpaper that displays an accurate representation of the Earth as it would be seen from space at that precise moment. While it may not sound cool, it really is awesome especially if you are running dual monitors as I am.

Lego Aircraft Carrier
The title pretty much sums up this cool link. It is a HUGE aircraft carrier made entirely out of Legos. I am always impressed by the creativity of people.

Play classic NES Games in your browser!

At Arcade.com
This site has a number of the classic NES games that are free to play in your browser. Sure, these are all available via Emulation and ROM’s but this way you do not have to load any software on your work computer and try to close it when your boss comes up to your desk.