The Paul Christoforo Story: PR Failure to Internet Meme In Less Than 24 Hours

Today much of the enthusiast video game community have been abuzz talking about the saga of Paul Christoforo and the Avenger video game controller add-on for the Xbox 360 and PS3 Controllers. When Dave, a concerned customer that had bought the Avenger product early this month, sent a concerned email to Paul Christoforo, the now-former PR representative for the Avenger product, he received several unfortunate and unprofessional responses from Paul.

Finding the Boundaries of Social and Personal With Between

I saw an interesting post over at the Geek Dad blog on Wired about Between, a mobile app made by a South Korean start up that is a social network for two people. In many Asian cultures sharing photos and other details about personal lives is against the norm, so Between was created to be a social network for people in intimate relationships to give them some of the advantages of a traditional social network while keeping things private.

In all of our admiration of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Anybeat, it can be easy to forget where our boundaries of our personal lives end and our online social networking lives begin. It is easier to find these boundaries on some social networks as opposed to others, but regardless our constant connection to the online world has made us take for granted the value of intimate moments and relationships.

There is always room for socializing with other people, but it is ideas and apps like Between that really let us appreciate human connections instead of casual connections. Some of us can still have intimate moments without anybody intruding on Facebook, and some of us can even have similar moments with people outside our traditional friends list on networks like Anybeat, but for those of us that want something that is purely intimate, Between looks like a great app.


Source: Wired Geek Dad

Why eSports Matters

Audience at Starcraft 2 finals of MLG Anahiem 2011

Recently I have been enthralled by sudden growth of the international competitive gaming scene, but I still cringe when some claim that eSports will explode into mainstream popularity. While gaming itself has now embedded itself into mainstream culture, competitive gaming has not reached the same level because it remains a niche pastime for the minority of the population. Despite the presence of gaming consoles in almost every household, we will not be seeing "Halo: Reach" or "Starcraft 2" tournament replays sharing airtime with conventional sports on any of the popular network channels. The diversity and vast scope of mainstream gaming is not compatible with the narrow focus of competitive gaming, and any attempts to introduce it into the mainstream awareness are bound for failure.

So is eSports a lost cause destined to burn out with the trends and fads of yesteryear? Actually, no. What makes eSports unique is that it does not need the mainstream to grow, and if it continues the rapid momentum it has built up over most of 2011 it can easily become a global juggernaut in online entertainment.

While We're Talking About Webcomics

Check out Dresden Codak's webcomics. Actually, I would hesitate to label it as a webcomic, they're more works of art. His works are somewhat comparable to the webcomics over at XKCD, since both share a pretentious-intellectual-bordering-on-sarcastic-genius tone, but otherwise Dresden Codak's recent works are simply amazing in their beautifully created fantasy grandeur and the sheer length of each 'comic'. Be warned though, there's a fair amount of historical snarky-ness that will have you running back and forth between the comics and Wikipedia. Dresden evidently has a love for re-casting notable historical figures in unique situations.

While we're wasting time on the Internet, you also should check out Tim Rodger's description of why living in Japan sucks. His amusingly titled 'Japan: It's Not Funny Anymore' up on Kotaku is a VERY long read (I've written that much, but only for research papers), but it's a captivating piece that highlights the very weird things about Japanese culture that makes it almost impossible for foreigners to live and work there. He uncovers the not-so-glamorous side of Japanese life and business culture after years of living and working there, so it's an eye-opener. By all means check it out. I'll put some choice quotes below;

• "It's not just comedy. Japan is land of the abundant "Famous For Being Famous" class of entertainers. If Paris Hilton were Japanese, they'd literally have her anchoring the fucking national news."
• "Japanese television is a way of programming the mannerisms of tomorrow's society and/or/by propagating the mannerisms of yesterday. It scared the shit out of me." 
• "It's hard to find a garbage can in Tokyo. That's why the city is so clean — the people carry their garbage everywhere. In addition to being a metaphor for the en-masse bottling-up of passive aggression in Tokyo, it's also the truth."

Source of first image: Dresden Codak

Oh Geek Culture, How I Sometimes Don't Understand You

This webcomic by Caldwell Tanner is probably the best example of geek culture right now; full of constant in-references built upon years of re-translating elements of pop culture. I can count no less than four references in this comic, which is pretty amazing for a webcomic. Browsing through Caldwell Tanner's webcomic/blog looking at his other works for web-famous College Humor, there is a amazing diversity of comics about stuff I've heard about, and other stuff that's left me slightly confused.

Of course, College Humor has it's misses and hits in terms of genuinely funny things, but it doesn't change the fact that geek culture has grown so much in the past decade that now it's referencing itself. Internet memes are probably the best and most memorable example of this. Thinking (or in my case reading about) geek culture back in the 90's, it was pretty much the realm of Star Wars nerds, Star Trek nerds, and Dungeon and Dragon nerds. Geek culture today is such a monstrosity that it defies any attempts at definition sometimes. Trying to keep track of the countless memes and Internet in-jokes is a full time job, which some people have made a living off of.

At any rate, one thing is for sure; one day geeks will take over pop culture. It's only a matter of time, and as the influences of the Greatest Generation wanes, the eccentricities of the Geekiest Generation shall reign. I for one, welcome our geek overlords.

Source: loldwell.com

Another Awesome Japanese Music Vid, Part XVIII

The title does not lie folks. I've lost count of how many trippy insane Japanese videos that I've watched so far, but this one is one of my new favorites. If you stay to enjoy the whole vid, it gets better and better, so watch it till the end. Enjoy.

Edit: Youtube video here.

Tech Predictions for 2010

Instead of having a Best Game of The Year or a List of 10 Things in 2009 That Were Hella Cool, I shall now gaze into the all-seeing crystal ball and look into the future. Let's just hope that I don't look in the wrong place and see my roommate naked or something. Ugh. Anyways, without further ado, Justin's Totally Thought-out Predictions for 2010.

1. 2010 will be a year dominated by gaming sequels - Sequels to Gears of War, Resistance, Halo (ok maybe not a sequel, but it's close), Gran Turismo, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Splinter Cell, and Call of Duty will almost certainly coming out next year. And there isn't an original IP that looks like it will stand out from the crowd.
   
2. The Wii will see a gajillion consoles - Duh.
3. Google will release their much hyped 'Google' phone - Because they can. Headline in 2012: Google takes over the World, Bill Gates sobs.
4. Speaking of Google, Chrome OS will not be released - Official word says late 2010, but I personally doubt it. There's some tech hurdles that need to be jumped, a highly skeptical public that needs to be convinced, and more solid-state netbooks that need to be released.
5. Japan will make another robot for...something weird - Another duh. But I gotta have these freebies in here so this list sounds somewhat legit.
6. The Xbox 360 will continue to be in 3rd place behind the PS3 in monthly sales - This might seem like blasphemy coming from me, but the future for the 360 isn't bright. Of course, I have a very good chance of being wrong, especially if Natal comes out in 2010. But otherwise, Halo: Reach and Gears of War 3 won't guarantee sustained dominance over the PS3 for 2010.
   
7. Apple tablet announced - Cupertino has been playing around with us for so long that it's impossible to deny the existence of one without angering legions of Apple fanboys. Plus, it's guaranteed to sell like hotcakes, and it does make sense, so it's a win-win situation.
8. More torrent trackers will bite the dust - With the departure of Mininova and Pirate Bay to more legitimate shores, it's only a matter of time before unregulated torrent trackers die off. But hey, someone can always place a tracker in Russia or China...
9. Yahoo will be bought by someone - Yahoo's sucking right now, and they're overdue for a change in direction and focus. Either someone's going to shake up the leadership over there, or Yahoo will go the way of Earthlink into irrelevance.
10. I will continue to make a fool out of myself on this blog - Guaranteed.

And yes, I did say hella.

So, I heard there was a Halo anime

So you know how I was talking about the Halo anime earlier?

Yeeeea.

Anime this isn't. While the animation and art might might be anime-inspired, the writing and dialogue were clearly created by the same dudes who write all the stuff that show up on Cartoon Network. Judging from this clip, it doesn't look horrible, but Halo Legends isn't something that I'd consider quality.

Of course, this isn't a surprise to anybody. But watching this clip did fulfill my weekly quota of Master Chief punching Brutes to death.

To Tweet or Not To Tweet

I went out with a couple of my friends the other night, and to my surprise they were talking about how stupid Twitter is. As revolutionary and mass-based Twitter is, they did a have a point. Nobody cares about what you had for lunch, or about how boring your PSYCH 112 lecture was.

At least, nobody but your stalker does.

That's a bit harsh. I guess friends and family would find your twitter interesting, but even so I'm hard pressed to care about stuff like what people post as their Facebook status. It takes a certain kind of person (namely someone who's probably 17 and loves Twilight) to have friends who demand to know every moment of your waking life. Like the person who tweeted her own pregnancy. Live. As it was happening.

I'm sorry, but what the heck was the doctor thinking? "Breathe slowly, in and out, in and out. Oh, and go ahead and tweet on your iPhone while you're doing this. It's A-OK."

On the flip side, there's interesting Twitters like Shaq's or the various Pokemon ones. So while people can have dumb tweets, there's still some very interesting ones out there. And if you want to tweet yourself? Keep it tasteful and interesting. Trust me, tweeting about how many pounds you can bench won't impress anyone.

Yet another Japanese video

SOUR / 日々の音色 (Hibi no Neiro) MV from Magico Nakamura on Vimeo.
But this one is tons better. The Japanese Rock/Pop/Jazz hybrid is awesome by itself (even if you don't know Japanese), but the video collage made up of various international fans via web cam is even more awesome. Enjoy :)

Another Example of How Crazy the Japanese Are

The Vocaloid voice synthesizer program has been around for a long time, but this is the first one that I've really paid any attention to. Ignore the nauseatingly-sweet J-pop, and listen to the video for a few seconds. While it's still easy to tell that this is a voice program, and not an actual person singing, the latest Vocaloid program is still pretty darn close to the voice of the singer Megumi Nakajima (anime nerdgasm: she was Ranka's VA in Macross Frontier).

Yea, the program was based upon her voice samples, but for a program that allows you almost infinite freedom in making music, it's impressively close to actual human voice. So will these robotic voice synthesizers take over the J-pop industry in 5 years or so?

I would say no, but then again I wouldn't have predicted that the Japanese would make a 18 meter tall Gundam complete with lights and moving parts. If there's anything we can learn from this, the Japanese sure love their robots. You heard it here first folks; A Jpop-belching, maid-uniformed, 18 foot robot girl will be built in Tokyo in 2012. Believe it.

For ages 6 and up, even if you're 20

It's been a childhood dream to go to Legoland, and I finally went yesterday. I went with my brother's family (with all 2 nephews and the niece), and I realized how old I am, since I was easily 3 times older than the average kid there. Nothing can make you more depressed when you realize you've outgrown your favorite theme park.

That, and being kicked off the go-karts because I was too old didn't make it any better.

So I was of course, I was pleasantly bored of the place for the first couple hours. But then we hit Miniland USA, where the scale model cities (made out of Lego of course) were. Looking around at all of the little Lego people, their cars, and the massive scale model replicas of famous buildings in the US, a little something began to grow within me.

And it wasn't the burrito I had for lunch.

Fast forward a couple hours, and I was browsing the gift shop when I saw the Lego bulldozer set above. What caught my eye was not the set itself, but the tank treads that it had. All of a sudden I went into full-blown Lego constructor mode, building in my mind that battle tank I've always wanted to build. So I laid down the $43.50 for the set, and never looked back. When I got back home, I broke out my old Lego suitcase (yea, I have quite a lot from my childhood), and started constructing.

I stayed up well past 5 in the morning finishing that battle tank up. Now I'm tired as hell, my back hurts like no other, and I have stud-shaped indentations in my feet, but my 1:10 scale model Lego battle tank is AWESOME. Once I'm able to, I'll get pics of it up.

So the moral of the story? You're never too old for Legos. The other moral of the story? Don't throw me into a Lego shop and expect me to get out without draining my bank account.