Blockbuster video is filing bankruptcy

Blockbuster’s reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy is much needed. It is hard to predict what they will do to fight off competitors such as Netflix and GameFly, which could the nail to their coffin. Blockbuster has been struggling for some time now evidenced by their current business model, vastly different than when they originally set out, which seems to include equally as many games and movies for sale as to rent or ice cream, chips, candy, and pop to round out your cinema-like home experience. Despite this, their stores continue to close. New ideas being tossed around but few are innovative and mostly seem to emulate their competitors. In Blockbuster’s maligned case, emulation might be their only option.

Toast printer. You know you want one!

If the medium is the message, I'm not exactly sure what you'll be conveying by custom-printing your toast. Time for breakfast, perhaps? In any case, the Zuse toaster allows you to burn custom images into your toast. While it could conceivably be used for, say, a pancake house to print their logo as a fun twist, I prefer to think about the possible communication uses. Text messaging is so early 2000's; I want to see toast messaging. Imagine being broken up with via toast. Or writing directions on a piece of toast, then eating said toast once you arrive at your destination. Perhaps an office where all the memos are printed on toast. It would make the workplace, dare I say, a more delicious place to be. Sound unrealistic? Well, they called Galileo a fool when he said the earth revolves around the sun, and look how that turned out

Droid fucking DOES!

This is a Lego Mindstorms robot powered by an app written for Androind. The app is running on a  Motorola Droid, and communicates with the robot via bluetooth. The phone's camera is used as the "eye" of the robot. You won't see cell phones doing this a few years ago....

Watch This Man on Fire Leap Out of a Skyscraper. Guy has balls.

I'll just leave this here...

WAR! The early Nintendo vs Sega saga

The Great Hyperconcole Wars. Sega vs Nintendo? I always love this one. Remember "Genesis does what Nintendon't?" Nintendo does what Genesis did. You'll see what I mean. In the '80s, there were three worth mention - Atari, Sega, Nintendo. Atari quckly deflated after the great gaming crash of the early '80s, but still, there was Nintendo and Sega. The Master System boasted superior graphics (doubts? just download the emulators and see for yourself), two types of gaming hardware, and a sleek, black and red case. Nintendo boasted third party support, a snazzy automobile trunk-like apperatus for inserting your games, and that ever-satisfying sound of the cartrige being loaded, then pushed down into place. Both systems had a gun. But again, Nintendo had third party support, as well as that little Gyromite robot, and later such accutraments as the Power Glove, and the Power Pad. Nintendo had advertising, licensing, and power.... later super power. The Master System had a nice, sleek black and red case.

Hands down, Nintendo was going to win this battle, and Sega knew it. So, in the late '80s they began R&D for the first 16bit home console. While Sega sat back and waited, Nintendo grew in power, strength, and fanbase. Link, Mario, Samus and Megaman were looked on with as much love as Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior, but ever present was the beast that was Sega, and in 1990 they struck. "Turbo Blast Processing" it was called, but it was only due to the 486 processor located within the heart of the NEW sleak, red and black case. Complete with a headphone jack and a volume slide knob, the Mega Drive was ready for action. Upon it's release in the states, Sega utilized what it had learned years ago during it's fight with Nintendo; Sega finally marketed this new console to the masses. The Genesis finally arrived. Not one to be outdone by Sega, God, or ayone in it's way, Nintendo had been working on a monster of it's own. Not that it mattered, really, I mean Sega was doing things that Nintendo..... not necessarilly couldn't, but WOULDN'T do. The packaged title with the Genesis featured a half-naked Greek man fighting the dead and demons, to ultmately (after about 8 minutes of gameplay) be rewarded with rescuing the princess who had a really big nose. We're talking Streissand. See? Sega was down with using ugly chicks... that shows real balls.

1991 rolls around with the Super Nintendo. Oddly enough, despite using such a stupid American name for the system, Nintendo also used the word Super in Japan. I'd have named it the "Shin Famicon", or Famicon no something. Yeah. What was realeased with the SNES is what made me buy the damned thing.... the single (in my opinion) greatest Super Mario title of all time. This was followed after a long wait by the (again, my opinion) greatest, and last TRUE Hyrule adventure, A Link to the Past. Now, most of the kids I knew had one or the other. Me? After a summer of working my ass of I bought both. See, I was fat, had no real friends, and girls didn't like me, so I bought video games. Still, most kids had only the Genesis, because despite Nintendo having these great titles, most people "couldn't be bothered" with Ultraman, or Sim City, or F-Zero when they were playing Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog, Madden '92, or what have you, so they stayed with Sega. Sega was winning this round!

In 1991, there was an arcade game that revolutionized the gaming world. Street Fighter 2 was unlike aything anyone had dealt with before, and through shrewd planning, Nintendo got "sole rights" to the title. This was the first time Nintendo had gone this far to get a title under it's control... It made a deal with Capcom that would ensure the death of the Genesis with one game, and both Sega an Capcom felt it. Those who didn't have a SNES begged, borrowed and stole to get one, and SNES sales skyrocketed. Genesis sales went nowhere.

The bottom line is: Games are games. Play them or don't, but if you choose not to, make that choice based on the games, not the console. People on both sides missed good titles because they felt that the "other system" had no good games because they only played Revolution X or Zero Wing.

There was a BattleToads cartoon

...and it was terrible.


Battletoads has a place in many an elder gamer’s heart as one of the true challenges of 1991. Loathed, revered, and certainly infamous for its difficulty, gorgeous graphics, and surreal finishing attacks, Battletoads was nothing short of a genuine success. My own childhood frustrations aside, Battletoads proved to be a fairly bankable title after its release, spawning a game boy version, an arcade edition, and even a Double Dragon cross over in which the Battletoads have to team up with Billy and Jimmy Lee to take down their now colluding enemies. Needless to say, it was awesome stuff and everybody knew it.


It was only a matter of time before DIC Entertainment, responsible for such childhood hits as The Real Ghostbusters,C.O.P.S., and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures, smelled blood in the water. With the recent successes of both theSuper Mario Brothers Super Show and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, Battletoads seemed like a top candidate for Fox Kids’ Saturday morning lineup in 1992.


Planned as a prequel to the games, the cartoon was intended to provide a revised origin story for the Battletoads that had been left otherwise unseen outside of the comic books. Unfortunately for DIC, the show was a complete failure. For whatever reasonthe rather absurd tale of three humanoid frogs named after unwanted skin conditions whose hands turn into cinder blocks never struck a chord with, well, anybody. Poorly animated, unfunny, and a little too gross for parents to endorse, the show ultimately floundered. Battletoads never made it past the pilot.

Apple - give us a battery door!

Apple announced that the battery for the iPad will be sealed in so that consumers can’t replace it. Like with the iPhone you’ll have to send your unit to Apple once your battery dies and Apple will charge you $99 to replace the battery, plus you have to pay for shipping and handling.

Apple’s “send your iPhone and iPad to us when your battery dies” policy is the biggest drawback for people attracted to Apple products. Not only do you have to pay Apple’s “battery monopoly” prices, but you also have to go without your iPad for several days. The convenience of owning that cool Apple gadget has just become a lot more inconvenient. Also, by forcing people to send their units back for battery replacements, Apple gives competitors a perfect “unique selling point” to advertise.

First entry

Hello world.
 (programming humor)

So this is my first blogger entry. Stay tuned for more interested posts. I intend to post about tech stuff, and guy stuff in general: movies, video games, TV, gadgetry, etc.

So follow me and you wont be disappointed!