Articles by Michael Anderson

Use Google Chrome? Install ‘Chrome for a Cause’ to Benefit Charities!

Do you use Google Chrome? How many tabs do you open in a day? Imagine that by simply opening tabs you could donate a charity! From now through December 19th you can do exactly that – simply install the “Chrome for a Cause” extension and open tabs as you normally would, knowing that each time you do a little Here is a snippet from the Chrome blog: Whether it’s bug fixes to the Chromium open source project, dazzling apps and extensions arriving daily in our Web Store, or boundary-pushing Chrome experiments — the Chrome community never fails to inspire us…

Game Diary, Reviews

Mac / PC Game Review: Left 4 Dead 2

After the protests are over, and the boycotts are all done, what are we left with? A game – that is all Left 4 Dead 2 is, a game. Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) was released in late 2009 for the PC, and recently came to the Mac via Steam. My review is based on having played the Mac version and replaying the PC version for comparison. The Hype: Left 4 Dead 2 is the sequel to the best-selling and critically acclaimed co-op multiplayer smash from Valve, creators of the Half-life, Portal, Team Fortress and Counter-Strike game properties. With multiple…

News & Features

Random Cool Image: XKCD on WikiLeaks

No matter where you fall on the opinion scale with regards to WikiLeaks, the various governments and companies involved, or Anonymous and the 4Chan DDoS attacks and everything else related to this wild ride … you have to admit that this comic is ironic if not hilarious … Source: XKCD

News & Features

Random Cool Video: All 270 Movies Released in 2010 … in Six Minutes!

Every year at the Academy Awards there is a montage of movies released during that year … but at this point they should just cancel whatever contract they have out for that job and license this! Youtube user genrocks compiled this video because, as she says “this year’s movies have legitimately transformed my idea of what is creatively possible”. You can also follow her on Twitter. Here is his description, including all of the music used: This year’s movies have legitimately transformed my idea of what is creatively possible. To commemorate, I’ve remixed 270 of them into one giant ass…

Reviews

Hewlett Packard Mini 5103 NetBook PC Review

I recently reviewed the Hewlett Packard (HP) Elitebook 8440w and loved it, so when I had the chance to look at the recently released HP Mini 5103 my thought was: ‘take the 8440w and shrink it to netbook dimensions and you have the PERFECT business netbook’! At first glance that seems to be exactly what they did, but of course, I needed to put it through the day-to-day paces of my work life to see how it did. And since I have an unhealthy obsession with trying to shoehorn ‘big PC’ games onto netbooks, naturally I had to see how…

Editorials, Game Diary

Caveat Emptor: Have You Had Payment Issues with Gameloft?

Image courtesy of CreStock A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Gameloft Advent Calendar, which planned to offer all sorts of deals throughout the month. I have frankly not paid that much attention since the first couple of days, but Joel recently pointed me towards a post at phandroid that caused me concern: it talks about someone getting charged FOUR TIMES while trying to buy a game from Gameloft. There are three reasons this is a concern: I don’t ever want to recommend something that results in someone getting cheated out of money. Gear Diary folks saw first-hand…

Game Diary, Reviews

DS Game Review: A Witches Tale

Have you ever read a book and then saw the movie based on that book, or saw a remake of a classic TV show into a movie, and thought – HEY, how did you people manage to completely screw up such an amazing premise?!?! That is pretty much my review of A Witches Tale, but let me supply you with a few hundred words of context. The Hype: Which Witch is Which? Liddell is a young witch-in-training who wants to be the greatest witch in the world, but she isn’t willing to work for it. One day, she discovers a…

News & Features

Our Government at Work: CPSC Avoids Lead-Laden Glass Recall By Redefining Audience

Image courtesy of the AP When you think of the target audience for 10-ounce featuring colorful images of characters from the Wizard of Oz or a variety of well-known super heroes, would you say the audience is: (a) Under the age of 12 (b) Over the age of 12 If you guessed (b), then you are thinking along the same lines as the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the government agency set up to help keep consumers safe. When the test results showing the glasses had 1000 times (!) the level allowed in a product for children back in September, the…

Game Diary, Reviews

PSP Game Review: PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe

This will come as no surprise to anyone who has read the seemingly endless stream of Tower Defense genre reviews I have done in various places over the last couple of years, but when I had the chance to take a look at PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe for the PSP, I jumped at the chance! The game was already highly regarded from the PSN release for the PS3 in early 2008, so it seemed likely that the game would be a great fit on the PSP. The Hype: Be the defender of the forest and defend the pathway of your home…

Game Diary, Reviews

PC Game Review: Red Faction Guerrilla

GamersGate offered a sweet deal where you got copies of both Red Faction and Red Faction II for free with a Red Faction Guerrilla pre-order. Red Faction was a 2001 game that gained tons of attention during previews for its destructible environments, and Red Faction II was the critically pummeled 2004 follow-up. So by the time I received my review copy of the game I had replayed both of the original games on my netbook, which allowed me to put those games into proper perspective as I played the new addition to the series. The Hype: Set 50 years after…

News & Features

R.I.P.: Jazz Legend James Moody Dead at 85

Few artists in any field can claim a career that had them active and vibrant across 8 decades. Yet that is the legacy of James Moody, the genial and fabulously talented saxophone and flute player and bandleader who made his first recordings in 1948, and was working right up until his health made it impossible earlier this year. Early this year we learned that Moody was seriously ill and had to undergo surgery, but it was only last month when we learned more details from his wife Linda: “Some of you know that Moody has been ill for quite sometime,”…

Game Diary, Reviews

PSP Game Review: Sudoku (PSP Minis)

Given that the PSP Minis are meant to be bite-sized games with a smaller scope and focus, Sudoku seems like the perfect candidate … well, other than all of those ports of iPhone games. The game itself is a classic Japanese number puzzle that is simple to understand conceptually, but challenging and wonderfully addictive. The Hype: This one is bound to keep you coming back for more, even if you aren’t into Sudoku or maybe just never played it before. Life time statistics for each difficulty will have you comparing your skills with friends and family. Newspaper mode is a…

News & Features

Random Cool Stuff: Steve Martin’s Royalties for His Bluegrass Recordings? $0.13!

OK, that isn’t the full story, but it is a funny enough image! There is clear irony here in saying “People say the music business is suffering, but it’s NOT.”, but what is the main point? Is it that despite being wildly successful across more than four decades, he is now getting royalty checks for as low as $0.03? Is it that while he has made $0.13 the record company has pocketed the vast majority of the money for his work? Either way, it is pretty funny to think about such small checks for such a major star. As some…

Editorials, Events, Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: Spotify Gives Up US Launch for 2010 … Will Anyone Care When it DOES Arrive?

In case you haven’t heard of it, Spotify is a free-or-paid subscription music service that works differently than something like Slacker or Pandora in a few ways. First off, you can immediately stream whatever song you want from their massive library of publisher material. Next, the service integrates with your existing music to form an extended library available for immediate listening online even when you’re away from your home PC. But one of the biggest things about the service is the social aspect – sharing playlists of stuff you love with others is a form of music discovery that has…

News & Features

Random Cool Stuff: Honda’s App Tells If You Were Naughty Or Nice on FaceBook This Year … But Beware!

Since the advent of the web there have been sites like ‘Santa Trackers’ and ‘Naughty or Nice’ tests that would tell you about your behavior based on answering some questions. And since these were aimed at kids they would never ask anything that would allow a truly evil path. But what would happen if someone were to analyze your Facebook history for the past year? If you head to Honda’s Facebook site, you can start the ‘NaughtyOrNice-a-Tron’, which will dig through everything you’ve done on Facebook this year and then spit out an answer about how you have behaved. It…

Editorials

The Death of the Synthetic Green Laser … Long Live the Native Green Laser

If you have heard of Corning Incorporated, it might have been for CorningWare, Corelle or Pyrex dishes in the past; perhaps for the glass on that big screen TV; or even as the ones behind Verizon’s FTTH (Fiber to the Home) initiative; or possibly you knew it was behind the catalytic converter in your car; or maybe you know about Gorilla Glass in so many phones and tablets. But you probably don’t think of Corning as a laser company. Yet one of the big ‘cool tech’ stories from last year, the Microvision SHOWWX projector that was going to offer the…

News & Features

From the Unfortunate Name Department: ‘Mercury’ Playsets for Kids

At this time of year many folks are looking for Christmas presents for their kids, and many people want to get something that is more centered around creative play instead of the pre-packed products that are most popular now. They look to the older toys, to Erector Sets, Lincoln Logs, LEGO sets, and so on. At the same time, as someone who writes some offbeat articles for Gear Diary I end up with all kinds of emails, from consumer safety information to import oddities to … well, badly named kids toy sets! At a time when there are seemingly weekly…

Game Diary, Reviews

PC Game Review: Call of Duty Black Ops

Since the second game in the series, Treyarch and Infinity Ward have alternated development duties for Call of Duty games: Infinity Ward did the excellent first two games as well as Modern Warfare 1 & 2. Treyarch, on the other hand, did the worst-in-franchise Call of Duty 3 and the underwhelming World at War … and has now returned for Call of Duty: Black Ops! Have they finally abandoned their bottom-feeder ways? Read on and find out! The Hype: Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter with stealth and tactical play aspect that puts players in the role…

News & Features

Samsung Galaxy Tab Sells 1 Million Units!

Despite getting some mixed reviews in the press and highly variable pricing, the first major Android tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab has sold 1 million units in the two months since release, according to the Korean news site Chosun. Here is a quote from their article: Sales of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Tab tablet PC have surpassed the one million mark just two months after its debut. Samsung said Thursday that thanks to the strong market response it has increased its sales target for the year to 1.5 million units. Launched via Italy’s TIM in October, the device is now available…

News & Features

Random Cool Stuff: If You Are 30, These Are the Toys You Grew Up With

Over at Milo.com’s Daily Bark, they are featuring a subjective list of the ‘best gifts ever’! It is interesting because it is focused on someone who would have been born in 1980, therefore turning 30 this year. The infograph looks back at what the hot gifts would have been for boys and girls over time. Personally I am too old and my kids are too young to have wanted the kid-centric stuff, but the later stuff … well, who said you ever really had to grow up?!? As I look back over time it is hard for me to peg…

Game Diary, Reviews

PC Game Review: Star Wars The Force Unleashed II

Just like the natural universe, the Star Wars universe seems to keep expanding ever since the Big Bang of 1977. Some of the expansions – such as Splinter of the Mind’s Eye – have been trashed by the ‘canon’ of the films, while others like the Thrawn trilogy have spawned ideas and characters that have carried through into the movies, games, and even further into book releases through the years. Most recently the end of the prequels has thrown open the era of conflict between Episodes II and III (Clone Wars) and III and IV (Jedi Purge, Imperial Control), and…

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