Getting into World of Warcraft for the first time means hours of grinding: performing the same tasks over and over to “level up” a character. But far from being boring, grinding is one of the great unsung joys of gaming.

Last week, I finally decided to start playing World of Warcraft again. And you know what that means: Exciting medieval adventures! Chess-like strategizing with guildmates over raid techniques!

And, of course, grinding.

Hours upon hours of mind-numbing grinding.

The article goes on to discuss the psychology behind grinding, and why despite this truly burdensome element, people continue to pay monthly subscriptions.  Without going into too much psychology, a subject of which I am a novice and an expert in my own mind, let me offer the simplest explanation for the acceptance of grinding.

Essentially, grinding offers users a way to kill time, blow off steam that might be building in real life ventures and simply beat stuff up.  From the very first video games until now, there always was and will be a repetitive idea that lives on in virtual worlds.   Think about simple, but popular video arcade games like Pac-man, Centipede, and Space Invaders.

Sure, the addiction element may not be anywhere near as sophisticated as that found in World of Warcraft or other MMORPGs, but designers today are paid to make addiction happen.  Without addiction, games become yesterday’s news and there is no way they’d last beyond a few months to a year on the replay value scale.

As for my gaming habits, I notice that some of the most fun I have gaming involves repetitive and violent bludgeoning of pixels that resemble an enemy.  In the real world, you might consider how hunters love stalking and destroying their prey.  In the virtual world, the feeling is very much the same with the only consequence being that the time I spend hunting or destroying monsters online is time I could have spent doing something more productive.

“If you can read this, then you’ve more than likely downloaded this album from a peer to peer network or torrent. You probably expect the rest of this message to tell you that you’re hurting musicians and breaking just about every copyright law in the book. Well, it won’t tell you that.”

Lecture averted, he fills the rest of this document sharing an artist’s frustration with current music distribution methods. Jordan stresses donating as a means of supporting the music rather than paying retail outlets who he claims can take up to 8x more from record sales than the actual artist. Also warning against trying to support them via ITunes, he informs that none of their material sold via this method has showed any profit to the actual artist and they are currently in a legal battle with the digital music distributing Goliath.

Instead Jordan stresses purchasing directly from the label Alphabasic.com where “the artists usually receive over 90% of the actual money coming from your wallet”. Not only will the money be going to the party it should, their library contains a collection of lossless, DRM-free downloads. You can even donate directly to the band where 100% of your contribution will go to the band.

And though Jordan states he isn’t certain that the donation method is the right plan for the long term, I’m glad to see the waters being tested. My guess is that the failing of this method will be that while you might initially have groups of people who pay $1 for the album and groups who might pay $20 or something equally overboard to make the band think they are cool, eventually you’ll probably be left with the first group. I eagerly await the results and will keep an eye on Jordan’s blog for continuing information.

The industry certainly needs shaking up a bit, and I can’t imagine a better way to stick bees in the bonnets of the big wigs than artists willingly going to p2p networking. Perhaps inspired by Radiohead’s recently donation distribution method, I have to admire the risk taken by Jordan and I hope to see more of such moxy in the future.

While I may have once been a hard sale on digital distribution, mourning the idea of losing that physical object with its album art and new CD smell, I find myself less and less reaching for a CD and all the more often reaching for my Ipod or firing up Winamp. In fact, the only time I’ve handled music on disk in the last year or so was to burn a mixed CD for a friend or two. My only concern with digital-only music is the cold terror that awakens me at night and makes me clutch my chest in fear; a hard drive crash. Which is why I have about 5 backups of my music collection, as I imagine do many music lovers who keep their collection stored digitally. I don’t know how many backup their music to a hard drive in another state, but I feel confident that I am not alone in my paranoia.

You may see the entire read-me on the label’s site: http://www.alphabasic.com/Please_read.html

Super Smash Brothers, Brawl – Trailer of upcoming  release

Click here to view the embedded video.

I own the Game Cube version and would be interested to see how this might play out on the Wii, based on the new sensor-driven controls.  Just the same, I don’t get what makes the game so popular!  Sure, it’ll make tons of money and perhaps break new Nintendo Wii records for sales in a given time-span, but what I want to know is why?

I know I’m in the minority, so I’ll leave a cookie for the gamers who eat this stuff up. “Cheats and Exploits for Super Smash Bros Brawl“

Now that Blu-ray has won the battle of the next-generation video media, HD-DVDs are going on sale.  Engadget reported it initially and it appears others are blogging about it so I thought I’d share the link.

Here’s one for Amazon: HD-DVD’s 50% off.  I am sure there are plenty more.

Why Nerds hate Valentines Day:

1. You blow 300 bucks on a dinner, date, and a play that could have been put to better use by buying a shitload of gold on ebay for your WoW account.
2. Having to wait in line for an extra 10 minutes to buy a Red Bull because of some douche-bag buying chocolate, and delaying your all-night gaming session.
3. Not having a girlfriend is compounded by the fact that even your Second Life character can’t get any action.
4. No hot girls show up to class
5. Valentines Day candies give you cavities and make you break out with acne

Why Nerds love Valentines Day:

1. Everyone in a relationship is out on the town resulting in faster internet connections
2. You can watch porn in peace without being interrupted by your roommate and his girlfriend
3. You can eavesdrop on your roommate making sweet Valentine’s Day love to his girlfriend later in the night
4. If you have a girlfriend, you become “King of the Nerds” for a night
5. You look forward to a Valentine’s day themed logo on the Google homepage

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Nevertheless, many media journalists believed adult content was going to help determine the winner of the now defunct battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. As will be explained below, porn on Blu-ray is not the real issue, but if anything, these stories conjure up memories of the Sony Betamax and JVC VHS wars of the late 70′s and early 80′s. Let’s take a look back.

Betamax vs. VHS and Porn: A trip down memory lane

Sony’s Betamax was released in 1975, one year before JVC introduced its well-known VHS player.

After a battle that lasted for almost 10 years, VHS emerged victorious despite the fact that Sony’s Betamax was largely recognized as the technologically superior player. The reasons behind VHS’s victory cannot be traced back to one deciding factor, but one egregious difference between the two formats was that Betamax players could, at first, only play tapes that lasted up to an hour in length, clearly not long enough for a standard Hollywood movie.

Another popular theory, though impossible to substantiate, is that Sony’s refusal to allow adult content on its Betamax player allowed VHS to pull away and become the de-facto home video standard for nearly two decades.

Does porn on blu-ray even mean anything?

Sony’s stance regarding porn on Blu-ray is completely irrelevant for a few reasons. For one, Blu-Ray already seems well positioned to overtake HD-DVD as the next HD standard, porn or not. But more importantly, sales of adult-oriented DVD’s are slowing down significantly as consumers are flocking to the Internet to get their adult content for free.

As a funny aside and perhaps a testament to the glorious nature of 1080p!, many porn stars are opposed to Blu-Ray, and HD in general, because it reveals blemishes on their bodies that would otherwise not be noticeable. But I suppose that porn in HD would allow for some interesting titles. Move over “Debbie does Dallas” and say hello to “Patti does Pittsburgh as she goes to a Pharmacy to get Pro-active for her Pimples” and “Vainy Vixens 4″.

According to the experts, there’s a clear-cut winner in the prolonged and drawn out battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

Earlier this week, Warner Brothers dealt what many consider to be the death knell to HD-DVD by announcing that beginning in May ’08, it would release new movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. Interestingly enough, the impetus for Warner Brothers decision was that its customers overwhelmingly prefer Blu-ray over HD-DVD. This leaves Paramount and Universal as the last 2 major studios standing behind HD-DVD, although rumors are circulating that they will both abandon ship once their contracts to support HD-DVD expire. Universal, however, issued a statement today denying that it would opt out of its contract and would continue to support HD-DVD. Tellingly, Microsoft, which has long opposed a Blu-ray supported Xbox 360, recently changed its tune and said that it would consider Blu-ray support for the Xbox 360 if there’s enough consumer demand.

With that said, a larger question to ponder is how consumers are going to get their HD content in the future. Assuming that Blu-ray has in fact won its battle with HD-DVD, consumers will rush to hook up their HDTV’s to the aggressively priced Blu-ray players. As someone who has seen a Blu-ray player hooked up to a full screen 1080p Sony Bravia, I can testify under oath that it will blow you away.

Will Blu-ray dominate the living room?

So will Blu-ray soon become the key component in everyones living room? Not exactly. This isn’t the year 2000 and hooking up an external device to your TV is not the only way to access digital content. The iTunes music store allows you to download movies and stream them to your Television set with an AppleTV set top device. Also, Netflix also allows its users to stream movies onto their computer. Moreover, Netflix recently partnered up with LG Electronics to produce a set top box that will stream Netflix movies from a users computer to their TV. In essence, it’s another version of Apple TV. The wrinkle is that iTunes and Netflix do not yet have HD content available for download, so if optimal picture quality is what reigns supreme, then Sony can sit back and smile as the millions roll in. But don’t expect Apple and other competitors to just sit back quietly.

If anyone has perused the iTunes store for movies, it’s clear that Apple will have to step it up BIG TIME if they want to be a player in digital movie content. Again, the movies are not HD, and their selection of movies is lackluster at best. But with MacWorld a week away, there are already rumors that Apple is going to announce new partnerships with a variety of movie studios that will beef up its current selection of paltry movies.

The War Over Digital Media Is Just Getting Started

So while Blu-ray seems to have won its battle vs the Microsoft/Toshiba supported HD-DVD standard, the war for digital multimedia is just beginning. If streaming HD Content from a computer to an HDTV set becomes common, I imagine people would be less inclined to purchase a Blu-ray player. When you add cable companies into the mix, it becomes a full-fledged battle royale. There is a lot of money to be made with HD movies and cable companies are in a unique position to enter the fray. Comcast, for example, is planning to significantly increase the number of movies it offers to customers via its on-demand service. It’s only a matter of time before people will have the option to choose from watching HD movies on their Blu-ray player, as a video stream via iTunes or Netflix, or through their cable provider. The consumer is clearly the winner in all of this.

If people are particular about their 1080p, however, then Blu-ray will have an early advantage. You see, if iTunes or Netflix comes out with HD content sometime soon, it will be in 720p. 720p is still HD, but 1080p is what Blu-ray is all about! The rub is that the difference between 720p and 1080p is negligible on TV sets smaller than 40 inches. Confusing? Yes. Which is why Warner Brothers taking sides with Blu-Ray is so important. Up until now, the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray was a bottle neck that prevented mainstream adaptation of High Def consumer electronics. With the brunt of that battle almost behind us, we can now focus on the new battles that are starting to take shape between some of the big name players in the HD Arena.

Cookie Monster Song and Dance — ACDC Cover – “T.N.T”

Click here to view the embedded video.

The voice of Cookie Monster is kinda goofy, but the concept is hilarious.

Good stuff!

Though Youtube is clearly the most well-known of the bunch, there are a number of other worthy, and perhaps better, video sharing sites out there. One might assume that all video sharing sites are more or less the same to the extent that they all do the same thing, but there are a number of important differences between them. A few key areas of divergence include video quality, ease of use, revenue sharing, and the maximum file size that you’re allowed to upload.

I’ve used a few of the sites on the list myself and have the following to share: If your main goal is to show your video to as big an audience as possible, then Youtube is clearly the horse to ride on. In terms of quality, however, I’m a big fan of Vimeo. Their navigation is extremely intuitive and they have impressive video and audio quality. Also, they recently began supporting HD content.

Inevitably, the video quality among these video sharing sites will improve to the point where it will be hard to differentiate one from the next, and factors such as site design, social networking, and editing capabilities will be the features that will make the next generation of video sharing sites stand out among the pack.

For the time being, take a look at the list linked above, try some sites out, and upload some interesting videos. Stay tuned, I’ll have add a top ten list with a write up of my own over the next couple of days.

Origami fans—or just people who like money and have a lot of it lying about—might find Enrique Pardo’s iPhone accessory interesting. The Swiss photographer and graphic designer folded a $100 bill in all sorts of clever ways and turned it into a stand for either jesusPhone or iPod Touch. How-to video is after the jump, plus a quick Q&A session with Enrique.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gizmodo: Hey Enrique, how did the idea come about?
Enrique Pardo: I made the stand because I had thrown away the little plastic stand that came with my iPod touch. I was taking the train to Paris and spent 3 hours thinking of how I could make my iPod stand to watch a movie.”

Brilliant. Read the article and commentary: “The $100 iPhone/iPod Touch Stand Made from a Piece of Paper“

Nintendo spokesman says: “We have been running the campaign all year round, but we want to take a responsible stance this Christmas and not fuel demand.”

Why not just make enough damn Wii’s to cover the demand? Is this a case of using demand to create,… more demand? Whatever the reason for this conservative approach to production, I’m sure the brains at the big N know what they’re doing.

Not everyone likes to mess around with hardware and dive right in to having fun with their toys, but Softpedia has a manual that helps make this process easy. They’ve provided very detailed information and numerous screen shots for the gaming and Ubuntu enthusiasts.

Getting started:

1. An USB flash drive or a Memory Card (PS3 can read only SD/miniSD Memory Card, Memory Stick PRO (Duo) and CompactFlash). Or, as an alternative, you can use a portable hard disk with FAT32 filesystem on it.

2. An USB keyboard and mouse attached to your PS3.

3. Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) PS3 ISO image, which you can always download from Softpedia. You will need to burn this ISO image on a blank CD with your favorite CD/DVD burning tool.

Read the article: “Ubuntu 7.10 on PS3 – Installation“

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think the Pirate Bay owners are trying to have the house brought down on them.

the Pirate Bay opens up shop for Music Pirates, Arr!

I’m not a big fan of the RIAA and other net police groups, but it seems that protecting intellectual property isn’t an entirely terrible thing. Recently, artist ’50 cent’ came out and told the industry to adapt because technology has changed the playing field. I’m surprised that an artist has to come out and say that, especially one who stands to lose profits over the long haul. It’s true though, people aren’t going to stop downloading songs because some schmuck wins the RIAA lottery and has to pay $500 or $10000 or even $300k.

You have to think about the psychology of what is happening with pirating music. First, you’re telling people what they can and can’t do without investing the funds in protecting your intellectual property through unbreakable mechanisms. Second, you’re bullying people and when you do that, they are bound to fight back. Third, the recording industry is rightly seen as motivated by greed rather than ‘fairness’. The authors probably don’t get a cent of the money recovered through mass litigation that the RIAA engages in.

As long as greed motivates the industry rather than protecting their artists and finding common ground, the corporate monsters are going to lose.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

NBC’s contract with Apple has expired and all NBC-owned shows are no longer available for purchase on the iTunes store. Fans might be saddened to learn that shows from other channels such as the USA Network and the Sci-Fi network will also be part of the exodus. The two companies were apparently unable to come to a consensus regarding pricing and subsequently engaged in a public battle of contradicting accusations.

Apple maintains that NBC wanted to raise the price of TV shows to 4.99 while NBC asserts that they simply wanted Apple to experiment with a tiered pricing system for only one show as an experiment. Some also speculate that NBC wanted a cut of iPod sales, something that Apple, or any rational company for that matter, would never agree to (sorry Microsoft). In short, neither side caved and this publicity-laden game of chicken ended in a draw for the two companies, leaving us consumers as losers.

Several interesting tidbits that are noteworthy:

First there is Jeff Zucker’s (Preseidnt and CEO of NBC Universal) absurd rationalization for his company’s hardlined stance against Apple. Zucker accused Apple of using its content to further promote the sale of its iPod players. Umm, last time I checked, isn’t that what companies do to sell TVs, DVD players, and an assortment of other appliances? Then, in so many words, he accused Apple of getting rich off of other people’s creative content and screwing the studios in the process. Oh lord, where do I even begin? For starters, the overwhelming majority of iPods are filled with music, not videos. And incidentally, the current writers strike gives you a better idea as to who’s screwing who in Hollywood.

Second, NBC saw how Apple shook up the music industry with iTunes and is paranoid about losing power, and more importantly, the ability to stranglehold partners for more money. Isn’t it ironic that NBC has such a short and selective memory? If you recall, when the NBC show “The Office” first premiered in 2005 it received lackluster ratings. Any viewer of the first season can attest to the genius comedy “The Office” bestowed upon its fans, but sadly, no one was watching. Once “The Office” became available on the iTunes Store, however, ratings didn’t mysteriously creep up, they skyrocketed! Putting “The Office” on the iTunes store not only made “The Office” more accessible to those who were previously unable to watch, but also created a strong word-of-mouth buzz about the show. In a short amount of time, “The Office” was transformed into a show what was on the brink of cancellation into a national hit. Now in it’s fourth season, the advertising revenue NBC has received from the show is probably so exorbitant that it makes you wonder just how greedy these studio execs really are.

Third, there are strong rumors that NBC wanted a cut of iPod sales which only served to complicate the negotiations. Maybe NBC should also get a cut of TV and radio sales. Can you imagine Samsung giving NBC $ for each TV set it sells? Microsoft agreed to give Universal a cut of every Zune it sells simply because it showed up late to the party and had no leverage during negotiations. In effect, NBC is trying to make the “Microsoft exception” the rule and Apple, rightly so, is not playing along — I guess greed knows no bounds.

The story doesn’t end there!

NBC, along with a few other TV partners, have decided to go it alone and offer consumers online videos via their new website, Hulu.com. The website is still in Beta and is expected to be fully functional sometime soon (no date has yet been set). The videos will all be ad-supported and as of now, they only work if you’re running “Internet Explorer, the NBC Direct Player (Windows Only), and the latest .Net framework.” Huh? Also, the video will only play on the computer used for the download and can not be transferred to any type of media playback device.

Will NBC’s attempt to wrestle back control from Apple succeed?

You would think that the bigwigs at the studios would be smart enough to create a service that would run on any browser (Firefox anyone?), on any OS (Mac anyone?) and not require the latest .Net framework (what the hell is that anyways?). The fight for online dominance in the realm of video is underway and Round 1 is about to begin.

Bill Nye said: “the Moon doesn’t emit light, it reflects the light of the Sun!”

Bill Nye, the harmless children’s edu-tainer known as “the Science Guy,” managed to offend a select group of adults in Waco, Texas at a presentation, when he suggested that the moon does not emit light, but instead reflects the light of the sun.

Bill Nye quoted bible passage Genesis 1:16, that sparked the controversy

”God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and
the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”

Christians in the audience scoffed. They were offended, how could Bill Nye know something that authors of the bible did not? A woman made a scene and grabbed hold of her children while screaming “We believe in God!” They abruptly left the demonstration.

Bill Nye is a harmless guy, what was that about?

Bill Nye wasn’t trying to preach to Christians on their turf! He wasn’t attempting to convert Christians into atheists, he wanted to teach science the best way he knew how. His style is to teach people in a way that they can relate. In the ‘bible belt’, it seems perfectly logical to use concepts that the audience is familiar with. Of course, the bible is no laughing matter for some, and any semblance of ‘questioning’ God or religion is unacceptable.

In my view, it’s a wonderful thing that Mr. Nye went the extra mile to bring religion into the discussion. It is a great way to help educate children! Yet for some Christian fundamentalists, the end product of this kind of teaching results in ignorance and hostility towards ‘the truth’.

The ‘outraged’ in this case, was entirely a product of preconceived notions about science and those willing to promote it. It could be that the woman who stormed out of the audience, suffered from mental illness. Bipolar types are prone to religiosity, so who knows. If it is something other than an illness, then I’d dare say it’s a problem that is hurting society and slowing human advancement.