Pandora: Find Your Music Genome

Pandora is an internet radio client aimed at providing music similar to the stations you create. It is a great way to find music that you will like if you are unable to spen hours searching with the Itunes "Genius Bar". Pandora uses the stations you create (whether and artist or song station) to find songs or artists with similiar to the station you are listening to. It has a slick, easy to use interface, but, you are not able to play if yoiu are in another window (unless you use the Opera browser's plugin). My Score:

Pentagon Banning Thumb Drives

It took far too long, but the Pentagon has finally taken a step in the right direction by banning USB flash drives from employees. After "fears of security" they have confiscated all thumb drives from employees and have not said when or if they will be returned. Symnatec has noted that there is a virus "that is easily transferred through external media". This virus, thought to be from China, is most likely the Pentagons concercn.

First Multi-Touch Laptop-HP tx2

If you have seen a Smartboard you were probably amazed at its capabilities and touchscreen. But, it can only be used with one marker or hand at a time. If you watched CNN over the election you may have seen this, a multi-touch computer:



The big screen she was using was made a company specializing in that type of computer called Perspective Pixels. The advantage of a multi-touch computer is that, by using a projector in back of a screen full of sensors, you can use multiple hands and do many different things at once.

HP has released photos of its multi-touch laptop, the tx2. Adding to its already ground-breaking touch srceen desktop computer out (shown below.) Though it will run the not-so-innovative Windows Vista it has a proising application called HP MediaSmart. Unlike most multi-touch computers that run Windows surface (a streamlined, easy to use OS) it will have the standard Vista. It will have a AMD (not Intel) cpu and an ATi video card. It may not be a quantum leap for touch screens but it sure looks promising.

Forum is up!

The *official* forum is up, you can talk about almost everything geeky there. The url is notesfromthetb.roflforum.net

5 Great online games

Looking for a game to play but don't feel like spending half an our on Mario Kart or getting ties up in a conversation in Halo. Well, you could go outside and play a sport and get exercise but if you don't have anyone to play with there only one other option. The computer. You could search endless game sites and never find an actual fun game. So I have compiled a list of some fun, fast, and simple online games.

1.Desktop Tower Defense 1.5
If you like games that make you think and strategise than this is the game for you. In this game you must set up little doodle towers to defeat endless lines of little doodle "creeps."
You can play it at http://www.kongregate.com/games/preecep/desktop-tower-defense-1-5

2.Bubble Wrap
Well, this game is, popping bubble wrap. Plain and simple, yet oddly addicting. This is a great stress reliever, so if you're freaking out over a test or late paperwork you might want to turn on your computer and pop some bubbles.
Play it at http://www.therightfoot.net/mystuff/whatever/swf/bubblewrap.swf

3.GeoWars
If you like games like Star Fox then you'll love GeoWars. GeoWars puts you in command of a red triangle that can shoot tiny shapes at enemies. Your enemies are shapes of all kinds, from green squares to blue "triangle things". I wouldn't recommend this for your geometry homework though. You can play it at http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/390712

4.Kaleidoscope Reef
If you like puzzle game such as I Spy then this is the game for you. It has beautiful hand drawn images and has underlying environmental theme. In this game you must use your mouse to direct coral seed to the correct spot so they stick, then you must direct different colored algae to form them into coral. All the while fending of evil predators that will steal your coral. You can play it at http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/461413

5.Gravitee
I don't really know who would lie this game because almost everyone likes it. Gravitee is a mix of golf and an astronomy/math lesson. You must guide a ball through a hoop by entering the magnetic fields of other planets. You must be carefu of Sunes that wil toast your ball and of the varying strengths of magnetic feilds of planets. As you progress you can build your own levels and customize your ball. You can play it at http://www.kongregate.com/games/FunkyPear/gravitee

What New at Nintendo

So, Nintendo's been a tad quiet lately, or at least apart from leaking new s of a new DS and Wii.

The new DS has been confirmed. Nintendo has decided to take on the Sony PSP and add a music player to the mix. It is also adding a camera so you will be able take a photo of your real dog while playing with a Nintendog. With the release of the 3rd generation PSP in November Nintendo has decided to "step up the game." Don't get to excited though, the new DS won't appear in the US until at least next year.

There are also rumors of a new Wii. The working title for th next generation Wii is the Wii HD. As you can tell from the name, Nintendo has decided to focus more on the graphics this time. After all, the Wii is only about the size of the Xbox 360 HDDVD attachment. There will also be focus more on the hardware and less on the console, as with the previous Wii. Again, don't get excited, the Wii Hd won't come out until at least 2011.

Spore: Your little universe on a gaming computer

    Will Wright has been on a 4 year hiatus since the release of the Sims 2 in 2004.  His latest masterpiece has been around a decade in the making.  Originally Spore was to be called Sim Spore.  The developers (luckily) felt Spore would be a better name.  Spore's box is sleek and shiny, there is really no other way to put it.
      This game on the flip side is very memory intensive.  It takes 12 gigabytes (that's 12,000 megabytes) of memory and an ATI/Nvidea video card.  The only computer I can run this on is my brand new Imac.
     Overall, though this is an amazing game.  The graphics are cartoony and smooths.  Animation is also very fluid, apart from the little "strands" that come from the armpits of your creatures.  The gameplay is also fairly solid, all of the stages are basically stripped down versions of other games made by Maxis. (ex.Civilization series, The Sims, Simcity, etc.)
    The stages get progressively harder but are still fun for a casual gamer on Easy.  The Sporepedia is an online reference table for creatures and creations.  It take about a minute to load something on but other than that it is fairly fast.  You can also sign up for a Spore Online account to share your creations and get medals for achievements.  The one disadvantage of this is there is not chat system to talk with your "spore friends" so you'll have to open aim to chat about your new creature.  So overall I give Spore a 9/10

Google Chrome, the "all in one mentality"

Yesterday Google released its new browser, Chrome.  They set out to create a simple and easy to use browser.  There are large buttons and a simple intuitive interface.  Also, instead of having the web language drivers as one "string" they are each seperate "devices".  They only two downsides are no search box and few add-ons.

Microsoft PhotoSynth

Tired of the same old boring, flat, 2d photographs of all the cool places you've been to? Microsoft PhotoSynth is the solution. Though I'm a big supporter of Mac, this is the most innovative pieces of software I've seen in a while. PhotoSynth takes your photos and finds the angles they were taken at to make one 3d image. You can move scroll around like you were actually in the place of the photo. PhotoSynth uses software called Sea Dragon to activally adjust megapixels as needed. You can also view other peoples "synths" and upload your own using PhotSynth's smooth interface. When the software first launched about a week ago the servers got overloaded with all the downloads.


Also, I ordered Spore so when it comes out, I'll most likely have it. You can expect a review in a week or so.

Awesome Adress: Newgrounds

Since 1995 Newgrounds has been putting out games and movies. It has now grown to be the original and largest, flash portal on the web. But, what is a flash portal and what is flash. Flash is an animation and programming software developed by Adobe under the name Macromedia. A flash portal is a site where users submit flash games and movies. Newgrounds was first started by Tom Fulp as a Neo Geo fansite under the name New Grounds Remix. It eventually grew to a mecca of games, movies, and other cool stuff! With the help many artists and scripters. To see more go to Newgrounds.com

MMO Spotlight:Elf Online

Elf Online, now in Open Beta is a wacky mmorpg (massively multiplayer
role-playing game) created by Happymmo, a fledgling developer. The game has been a big hit in China (where the game is based) as is slowly gaining popularity in the US. The game utilizes a turn-based battle system with zany spells such as Egg Bomb, Missile, and Intense Flame Eruption. The most innovative and fun feature is the use of "trick" items. These items can turn you into a cockroach, put a label saying "Idiot" on it, or even turn your character into a mosaic! I'll let the pictures tell the rest.

Is there any musical creativity anymore?

After the music industry became controlled by businessmen unique music seemed to be few and far between. If you tune in to radio stations playing "hit" music it all sounds the same, rap/hip hop songs about love with pointless vocals and almost identical beats to the song before it. I may be looking at this negatively, but is there any unique music left besides old bands?

Beginning HTML Part 1

If you think you want to start a website but don't want to use a pre-made template made by the company hosting your website then you should try your hand at HTML. HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and is used to create all websites on the internet. I will assume you know how to use a Windows or Macintosh computer if you are on my blog.


The first thing to do to start writing in HTML is to open a simple text editor. For Window this would be Notepad and for Macintosh would be TextEdit.



Once you open the text editor you may start to code. The first line of code for every HTML document is . The "<" and ">" symbols are called tags, they are used to open and close a n HTML statement.