SESAME THUGS?!!

SESAME THUGS?!!

A couple of days ago I came across this picture of my favorite Sesame Street characters and Oh lord--they are thugs! I mean take a look at the picture above. See how Ernie is standing there with a knife in his hand and Bart with a BUD, Elmo with a Pistol and Cookie monster a machine gun. Not to mention Glover who is smoking a cigar (oh! Did I get the name right?).

This is all so absurd. Who could have done this: Sesam sraat. I love the Sesame Streets it was my favorite children television program when I was a kid and I grew up loving and watching the series in the 80ties. It was fun, I mean really fun when watching those characters make fun of all my favorite bedtime stories. Nowadays I don’t know if the show is still running but I sure was disappointed when I saw this photo. Anyway, just to refresh your memory here is what the Sesame Street gang look like: see picture below.

NOKIA N96: can it be any way better than N95

The Nokia mobile phone series have seen a tremendious patronage through out all series release. The name Nokia is so trusted and common that a local trader in Nigerian villages will quickly tell you to "buy me a Nokia phone" if you offer to buy them a handset (cellphone). Now a new product that has been announced to be coming out in the latest Nseries since February is nearing its release date: October 1st (to be precise). Now lets take a look at some of its features and how well they stand out from the predecesor N95.

General	2G Network	: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	:HSDPA 2100 / 900
	Announced:	2008, February
	Status:	Coming soon. Exp. release 2008, Q3, Oct. 1st.

Size	Dimensions	:103 x 55 x 18 mm, 92 cc
	Weight:	125 g

Display	Type	:TFT, 16M colors
	Size:	240 x 320 pixels, 2.8 inches

Ringtones	Type:		Polyphonic (64 channels), Monophonic, True Tones, MP3
	Customization		Download
	Vibration:		Yes

Memory	Phonebook:	Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
	Call records	:Detailed, max 30 days
	Card slot:	microSD (TransFlash), up to 8GB
		- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate - 16 GB internal memory - 128MB RAM, 256MB storage memory - Dual ARM 9 264 MHz CPU

Data	GPRS:	Class 32, 107 / 64.2 kbps
	HSCSD:	Yes
	EDGE:	Class 32, 296 kbps; DTM Class 11, 177 kbps
	3G:	HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
	WLAN:	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology
	Bluetooth:	Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
	Infrared port	:No
	USB:	Yes, v2.0 microUSB

Features	OS:	Symbian OS 9.3, S60 rel. 3.2
	Messaging	:SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
	Browser:	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS reader
	Games:	Downloadable
	Colors:	Black
	Camera:	5 MP, 2592x1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, video(VGA 30fps), flash; secondary VGA videocall camera
		- Built-in GPS receiver - A-GPS function - DVB-H TV broadcast receiver - Dual slide design - Java MIDP 2.0 - MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA player - 3.5 mm audio output jack - TV out - Stereo FM Radio with RDS - Organizer - Office document viewer - T9 - Push to talk - Voice dial/memo - Built-in handsfree

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 950 mAh (BL-5F)
	Stand-by	:Up to 220 h
	Talk time	:Up to 3 h 40 min

MICROSOFT DIRECT X 11-WHAT IT HAS COMING FOR US ALL

In the not too distant years ago when DirectX 10 just launched ( some time in the late 2006 with the release of Windows Vista), things were looking like nothing better than this API could come out of Microsoft until another five years but lo an behold at Seattle-based Gamefest 2008 on Tuesday, Microsoft was touting the latest addition to its API suite.

DX11 will introduce new shader technology "that lays the groundwork for the GPU to be used for more than just 3D graphics, so that developers can take advantage of the graphics card as a parallel processor."The Microsoft spokesman said during one of their session in Gamefest 2008.

The Microsoft spokesman also said that DX11 will be compatible with DX10 and DX10.1 hardware (as well as new DX11 hardware), so gamers won't have to toss current hardware to play newer games.

When Microsoft made the last Direct3D transition, DX10 was not compatible with DX9 hardware.

Microsoft also said DX11 will also handle multi-threaded resource handling to allow for the exploitation of multi-core machines, support for tessellation and full Vista support.

An exact release date for DX11 is to be determined.

The last time Direct3D transition, DX10 was not compatible with DX9 hardware.

Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) come and gone atlast!

Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2008 in review
What a wonderful week it was-I am talking about last week, the specials of it all have been exposed E3 has come and gone at last. Now lets take a look at some of the high lights:

Sony Playstation brand E3 2008 outing in review
It was truly a remarkable event for the Sony side as they tried all they could to wow the crowd with both old and new software Intellectual properties (IP), the most unavoidable IP on display for this year's E3 is Killzone 2--the famous but not too famous FPS game that have been used time and time again to display the power of the Playstation 3 console. Also on deck for display was Resistance 2, Motorstorm 2: pacific drift, Socom: Confrontation, but don't you forget LittleBigPlanet the game that is looking to be one of the most interesting family-game type of IP to ever come out of Sony line-up of games since the launch of the console. Some of the new games to come out on the show is M.A.G, etc . The Sony PSP was not left out of the show as they were a few announcements regarding new software line up for it, one of such is the resistance: retribution. The list goes on.

Xbox360 E3 2008 outing in review
Microftsoft press conference was full of goodies as well: Gears of war 2 was on display, also there was something about Netflix coming to XMBA, but one of the most interesting announcement to come out of the Microsoft press conference this year is that FFXIII is coming to the Xbox360.

Nintendo brand E3 2008 outing in review
A lot was announced for the Nintendo brand this year's E3 2008, but the thing is that I just can't think of any significant announcement made other than the Wii song some-thing. Sorry, I will get back with something more next month or the other if anything 'important' or significant enough comes up.

In closing I would like you to know that despit all the odds this year's E3 was da Bomb! And all our beloveth console makers did their best to give us a good show this year.

Holy crap! E3 is upon us!

Yeah, at last the long awaited E3 is upon us. For those of you who don't know E3 stands for Electronic Entertainment Expo; one of the world's famous electronic show which takes place every year from July15 to July 17th is here once again. This great event is taking place live in LA .

After the 2006 iteration of the show, however, E3 which used to be a show open to the teeming masses and a big event for the video game industry was dial down by several orders of magnitude and announced to be no longer a show to be view by all and every Dick and Harry who could afford to buy the ticket to the show. Consequently the venue was changed and the show would no longer be held at the gargantuan convention center. Instead, it was moved to a much smaller nearby building in Santa Monica, Calif., and held in hotels.

It became an event that lost a lot of its excitement as it became a much smaller, invite-only affair. Come to think of it i think it 'better served its core purpose of bringing publishers and platform companies together with journalists and analysts'. Well, what ever may have happened wouldn't change the fact that E3 will always be E3 and we all (gamers around the world) love it because it helps us to know more about our games and gives us a glimps of what technological gooddies awaits us in the nearest possible time. Go check it out if you live around that area. If you have any problem locating the place just Google-it.

Gaming is fun!

Have you ever played a game before?
I want to believe some how that you have and that you might have enjoyed playing a game or two. Well, here is good news for you: the next generation of video games will be so cool you will thing you are playing or directing a movie. Graphically they will be as detail as a movie, sound will be as realistic as you being there, characters will animate like their real life replica and most of all physics (how things react to touch, impact, etc) will be nothing short of what you see in real life.

How is that possible?
Technology makes it all possible. If you are as current as I am on latest computer technology you will understand why I am very excited about this so much to post it on my blog. But let me save you the trouble of going on a wild search. From the news I have been able to gather here and there is every course to believe something cool is just around the corner. By next week between July 15th to 17th, in San Francisco, USA, the world's most popular electronic show E3 will be taking place. And we will all hear from the horses mouth what they all have in store for us; from game developers, hardware makers, middleware developers, etc so stay tuned to E3. But in the main time here is what you need to know: nVidia the popular video game graphic card maker is launching a brand of handheld (mobile) graphic cards called tegra which is able to give video output in 1080p i.e HD quality, that also is not the least from nVidia as they are planning to roll out a new set of highly overclocked graphic cards for PCs. Next is AMD, woah! the last time they show something on their next release--new line of board and processors tech demo it was something to behold, what about IBM, Apple 3G Iphone, Sony, Microsoft Direct x 11 coming out with the next windows 7. Good lord! There is much to expect come E3 next week so just like i said before all you need to do is to here and get all your news: n4g.com

Videogame shooters spree!

The game
The gaming world has been in a turmoil ever since shooter genre came into the scene: First Person Shooter, RPG-shooter and so on, many genre that had been before had to bow out just so that investors can be assured they will get back their money in one piece. The effect this kind of games have had in our real world can not be overemphasized: you probably must have heard something on the violent college shooters who claimed to have something to do with the game 'DOOM' (I am talking about the columbine shootings). The debate whether violent games make people violent is still on, in some countries some of these games have been banned but yet more are produced each year and they come out as number one sellers even grossing more money than some Hollywood blockbuster movie titles.

Video game violence: is it good or not good?
I think violence is good in a game so long as it is not being over done and the object of the violence is not a human character. What I am trying to say is that so long as the object
(character) the violence is being vested on is not a human being (character) but a beast, an evil Alien specie trying trying to take over our planet, a demon, etc then it is good. But when it is a human character that is on a good side then such violence is not necessary.

As games get edgier
The gaming industry is growing and new technologies to foster it are coming so rapidly that is hard to keep up with. As games get edgier reality is foreseeable before the next decade. Gamers are itching for more by every seconds that passes by and the game developers are always ready to whet their appetite. It is so had to conclude on any thing right now but one thing is sure: things will get better with time, but don't count on the violence in games getting down any time soon-it will get worst and scarier.