Articles by Michael Anderson

Vanilla Ice’s ‘Ice Ice Baby’ Celebrates 20-Years of Poser ‘Gangsta’ Pretense

While it might seem incredible to some that it has been 20 years since the release of the hit hip-hop single Ice Ice Baby by rapper Rob Van Winkle (Vanilla Ice), look at that outfit … I … I really just don’t even know what to say. To celebrate the anniversary, here is the version I have always preferred: Jim Carrey before he hit it big doing a parody for the Wayan’s Brothers variety show In Living Color: It is interesting looking back and realizing that late the prior year when Vanilla Ice was unsigned, he had released it as…


New Dragon Age Patch Breaks DLC, the Solution? Patience!

There is nothing worse than starting up a game and getting an error message like the one above – you have done everything right, installed everything, logged into the account, even played before using all of this content. But now, you log in and cannot start the game, and are told that you are not authorized to use the content and that the owner of the content needs to log in. ARRGH! After doing all of the usual stuff – logging in and out of my in-game account, restarting the game, checking my online profile and so on … I…


Random Cool Video: Blue Man Group Uses Giant iPhone-Like Devices On Regis & Kelly

If you have ever seen the Blue Man Group live, you know how amazing their performances are. If not, you are missing out on some wonderful live entertainment and should make every effort to check them out. They are always interesting and always changing things up. Recently Playbill noted that the Blue Man Group would be bringing out a new performance piece called ‘Screenhopping’ July 21st on the Regis & Kelly show. In a very timely fashion the so-called ‘video pillars’ look very much like over-sized iPhones, with app buttons and all. Once it gets started it is all classic…


PSP Mini Game Review: Mystery of the Crystal Portal

As I mentioned in my iPad review, I had bought that version of Mystery of the Crystal Portal for my iPad when I was heading out on vacation. When I got a message from G5 offering a review code for the PSP Minis version, I quickly accepted but also immediately knew there might be significant enough control and graphics differences that I would need a separate review. Unfortunately … I was correct. The Hype: Embark on a brain-bending adventure that’s full of unique hidden object fun. Journalist Nicole Rankwist has always been close to her archaeologist father. So when her…


180 Gram Records Unveils Everly Brothers Collector’s Edition LP Box Set!

I remember reading a report early this year from the UK showing that in an age of declining physical music media sales, the only positive note was that sales of LP’s, those classic 12″ 33-1/3 RPM vinyl records, had doubled in 2009! Of course, the numbers are still small but they show there is an audience for classic vinyl records. Personally I have moved more and more to digital music. For quite a while I would buy CD’s and rip to WinAMP / MusicMatch / iTunes, recreating how I would buy LP’s and play once just to record to cassette…


World’s Largest Gummy Bear … What is the Serving Size?

Sometimes you never know what a friend from a forum is going to send you. A site named Vat19 has launched what they are calling the ‘Worlds Biggest Gummy Bear’ (WLGB) and are actually selling it online! They also have a cool tagline – These are real. They are awesome. You can buy them. Here is what they say: The World’s Largest Gummy Bear is the lion of the candy world. There is no candy more magnificent or more powerful. This five-pound beast is the equivalent of 1,400 regular sized gummy bears and packs a whopping 12,600 calories. Its monstrous…


iPhone Game Review: mTanks!

I am embarrassingly tardy with this review, but the reasoning is actually good news and worth mentioning. I had been playing mTanks on my iPod Touch but then the kids got out of school, we went on vacation, and I got busy getting my iPod Touch set up for my wife to use to read ebooks on vacation. Long story short, I forgot about the game completely. Before I finish the story, let’s see what this mTanks is all about: The Hype: 4 days ago NASA’s Spirit rover discovered a growing army of tanks beneath the surface of Mars. The…


iPad Game Review: Mystery of the Crystal Portal

I had bought Mystery of the Crystal Portal for my iPad when I was heading out on vacation. While I was quite occupied with Puzzle Quest 2 on the DS, I love the occasional ‘hidden object’ game, and have been VERY happy with stuff from G5 games (like Mahjongg Artifacts) … so I figured I’d give it a try. When I came back I got a message from G5 noting that the game was being released as a PSP Mini and offering me a review copy, which I quickly accepted! I figured that I would be able to quickly decide…


PSP Mini Game Review: Mahjongg Artifacts Chapter 2

Not long ago I reviewed the recently released Mahjongg Artifacts, which was a sequel to one of the earliest PSP Minis, Mahjongg Artifacts Chapter 2. Recently Sony announced that more than 1 million PSP Minis had been downloaded worldwide … and guess what game was #8 on the ‘top ten most popular’ list? That’s right – Mahjongg Artifacts Chapter 2! So to celebrate that achievement the kind folks at G5 have provided us a review copy of their hit game. The Hype: Mahjongg Artifacts: Chapter 2 is one of the most popular mahjong games on PC now available on PSP…


Random Cool Video – ‘Balloon Accelerator’ Made From Dyson Bladeless Fans

If you have ever used any of the products by British inventor James Dyson (who also does his own commercials), you know they are pretty cool. At Gear Diary we are all about technology that is cool, so this video immediately grabbed our attention. The image at the top shows how the fan technology works in terms of the mechanics, and the image below shows the flow-front produced. The fan draws in random air from behind and pushes it out with 15x the force in a nicely focused beam. Using the focused draw and push of the fan design, folks…


What Classic Author Do You Write Like?

Most people who do any sort of creative writing aspire to be like one of their favorite authors, from Emily Dickinson to James Joyce to … well, whomever you like! And chances are, if you have read and reread authors over the years some of their style has bled into your everyday prose. By way of a tweet from a friend I learned that there is now a site called I Write Like that will analyze your writing and match your style with one of the authors in its database. So as a test I took some of my Thanks…


What a Recording Artist Needs to Sell to Make Minimum Wage

Image Courtesy Kevin Dayhoff’s Blog I had seen this image a month or so ago, but had lost the link – but it remains stunning to think of what is required for a musician to simply make minimum wage, let alone scrape by a reasonable living! The graph below shows how many of their recordings an artist would need to sell to make a mere $1,160 per month. Of course, that is gross earnings, not counting any taxes or other niceties paid to the various federal state and local governments we feed … First off, that number of $1,160 per…


The Netbook Gamer: XIII (2003, FPS)

Wait – wasn’t XIII called out specifically in this article a couple of months ago? Yep – but through perseverance I managed to get it uninstalled and re-installed and properly running … so naturally I played it again and am here – well, quite frankly I’m here to stop you from bothering! XIII is one of those milestone games that tells a good and bad tale from my gaming life. I was very interested in this game based on what it offered – a quality FPS presented in a stylistic graphic novel presentation with a compelling story of mystery and…


Thanks Amazon for Linking Me Up With Old Friends … um … I Think …

Before I start this story, here is a Public Service Announcement – if you use Amazon.com’s Wish List feature, be aware that unless you explicitly link each list to an address, it will direct shipments to whatever your default address was … WHEN THE LIST WAS CREATED! Please do yourself a favor and make sure your list isn’t sending stuff to that place you lived in 2002 when you created your first list for fun. OK, now back to our story … When I jumped at the possibility at writing for Gear Diary last year, one reason was that I…


Princess Leia Seized on NYC Subway!

You really have to hand it to the folks at Improv Everywhere – they sure know how to put on a show! Here is their description of their latest project: For our latest mission, we staged a reenactment of the first Princess Leia / Darth Vader scene from Star Wars on a New York City subway car. The white walls and sliding doors on the train reminded us of the rebel ship from the movie, and we thought it would be fun to see how people would react to a surprise appearance by the iconic characters. We spread out the…


State of the ‘Obese-itude’: CalorieLab Releases the 2009 State-by-State Obesity Map

While the numbers displayed are staggering, that map only tells part of the story: – It is only about adults. – It displays obesity, not % overweight. CalorieLab has been tracking obesity in states for several years, and has been tweaking their methods over time, now depending on a three-year rolling average to smooth out spikes and look at long-term issues. Somewhat disturbing is that they have had to change their scales (pun intended) because the obesity trends just keep getting worse: because of the overall increase in obesity, CalorieLab this year again shifted the color coding used in its…


nVidia Optimus – Not Ready for (Gaming) Prime Time

It was supposed to be a great day … I had written first impressions about the original Alienware m11x and about how I was ordering the new one as soon as it became available. And while I was away on vacation my order shipped and arrived, so it was waiting for me upon my return. I was thrilled and couldn’t wait to get busy with it. After all, I loved so much about the original Alienware m11x (now called R1), including: – Near-netbook portability. – Better than netbook battery life (on integrated graphics) – True gaming laptop performance. – Better…


Suffering ‘Product Recall Overload’? There’s An App For That!

The other day we were watching the news and there were three product recalls in a row and my wife mentioned hearing on the radio a report about ‘recall overload’, how so much stuff is being recalled so frequently that we become numb to it all. In fact, this week there are reports on various news sources about the issue. Well, apparently the government agencies issuing these recalls are aware of this, and have launched a mobile app called ‘Recall.gov’. It brings together data from the relevant agencies – Consumer Product Safety Commission, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Food and…


Prince Sez No Digital Tunes 4 U!

For many people, digital music stopped being a revolution – or even something to debate – a long time ago. Apple’s iTunes is the largest music retailer, and more and more sites seek a piece of the ever-growing digital music pie. But not THIS guy: Prince, in an interview with the UK paper the Daily Mirror said: “The internet’s completely over,” Prince told the paper. “I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.” Ah ……


More Quickie Jazz Reviews: A Few New, and a Few That Slipped Through

Image Courtesy TheLastMiles.com Recently I wrote a rather large article full of ‘quickie reviews’ for recent Jazz music releases – and the response I have gotten has been amazing! I have heard from musicians, jazz lovers, general music fans and folks who simply wanted to express appreciation that I was supporting the ‘indie’ movement even thought they had no interest in the music. Even as that article was published, I had a couple of new releases I was listening to, a couple new recordings that were about to release … and a couple that should have been in the article…


Do Kinect and Move Make PC Gaming Look Like a Bargain?

An interesting thought came up in some post-E3 discussions with friends: with the introduction of the new Kinect for the XBOX 360 and Move for the Playstation 3, has console gaming become more expensive than being a PC gamer? Common wisdom through the years has been that PC gaming is more expensive, that you need bleeding edge equipment and a two-year upgrade cycle, and will pay up to 10x the price of a console for a decent gaming computer. But is that still true? Over the last four years since the latest console generation arrived PC prices have plummeted, and…