On August 1st 1981 MTV launched, creating a major new outlet for music as a visual art form as well as a new place for artists to get their material promoted. In commemoration of this milestone one YouTube user has pieced together then entire first 24 hours of the station. It is really cool for me to watch the very origins again: While we did have cable at that time, but I was too busy between school, job, friends, music, whatever else to care about the launch of the station. Of course, over the next several years leaving MTV on in the fraternity house was as common as leaving on the radio, and… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It seems just yesterday that the ‘tower defense’ genre of strategy games was basically a historical oddity finding fleeting popularity in a few ugly casual Flash games. Then it exploded and we now have loads of varieties of games from the genre, including the ever-popular Plants vs. Zombies. One of the best games of the genre is Immortal Defense, a small shop indie game that features perhaps the best interwoven story of the genre and a highly interactive variation on the typical gameplay mechanics. Cooler still? The developers, Radical Poesis Games & Creations, has decided to make the game ‘pay what you want’. One catch – you must pay at least $1.75 for the… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Back in early 2008 I wrote a wrap-up of RPGs from the previous year for a now-defunct site, and my RPG of the Year for 2007? You guessed it! The Witcher! Here is what I said: somewhere between the amazing writing, the great setting, the cool combat, the excellent characters, the 80+ hours to make it through, and more – it hits you. Here is one of the truly great RPG’s of all Time. As mentioned in the review “amongst the great things about CDProjekt’s The Witcher are the brilliant setting based on Sapkowski’s novels; the depth, variety and novelty of the plot and quests; the wonderful variety of characters you meet around the game world Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Feeling a bit bored? Try a daily dose of Card Shark! This card game app works on both the iPad and iPhone size devices. Out of all of the solitaire type card games I have tried, this one is by far the best I have come across in quite a long while. Part of its attraction is the fact that Card Shark offers 48 versions of card games and the developer is adding more on a regular basis. Some of the versions as shown in the below screenshot are FreeCell, GoFish, BlackJack, and my Favorite TriPeaks. There… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you participate in extreme sports or if you are simply trying to record those once-in-a-lifetime moments that can only happen when you are outdoors having fun, then you’ll want to check out the new Oregon Scientific ATC9K video camera. This HD camera can handle dirt, grime, water and shaky hands; it’s designed for rugged adventures, and it is small enough that it won’t weigh you down. Measuring just 55mm x 44mm x 100mm (2.2″ x 1.7″ x 3.9″) and weighing a mere 0.2kgs (7 ounces), the ATC9K can be mounted to your handlebars, helmet, dashboard, roll bars, boat, surfboard … whatever, so that the action you want filmed can be filmed in… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Privacy as it pertains to loyalty cards seems to be a hot topic of news lately.  Consumers are concerned that stores might use the information they give along with their store rewards cards for something other than store rewards.  At the same time these stores do want to gain as much consumer knowledge as they can from their customers. Here’s one case where a little information from a loyalty card helped in a big way. A man in central Pennsylvania is in some pretty hot water today.  Apparently Earl Long, 48, made a trip to his local grocery store (a Giant food store) near Harrisburg PA last week.  Only problem is Earl didn’t go to… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you are a PC gamer you likely are aware of the awesome Company of Heroes RTS (real-time strategy) franchise. With great single player and multiplayer modes, the game is still extremely popular three years after release! Back in June it was announced that Relic would be bringing the game Online in a free-to-play multiplayer game. Now RockPaperShotgun lets us know that FilePlanet is hosting a promotion that is offering keys to all subscribers. All you need to do is sing in using this link and grab your key! Couldn’t be simpler!Check out the announcement trailer: Personally I am not sure how I’ll juggle this while also… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The AViiQ: Portable Laptop Stand is ” the world’s thinnest stylish laptop stand”. It folds down to ¼” and offers an optimal ergonomic angle that reduces strain on your wrist and allows air to flow underneath. The angle also improves visibility, decreases screen glare, and maximizes productivity. At 5.5oz it is easy to take with you no matter where you are going. The AViiQ: Portable Laptop Stand has an MSRP of $79.95 and can be ordered at the AViiQ Website but we had one to give away to a lucky Gear Diary winner. And the AViiQ: Portable Laptop Stand is going to our reader… WebPastor Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In a world that often seems filled with poor customer service, companies that just don’t seem to care and story upon story of people being mistreated during shopping I wanted to share two positive experiences I had. Last week one of the premier iPhone accessory manufacturers, Incase, announced the immediately availability of their first two cases for the iPhone 4. Incase is regarded as one of the best when it comes to iPhone cases and I was definitely looking forward to the release. I jumped on over to the Incase website and begun the process of placing an order for an Slider case for the iPhone 4. When my cart was complete I choose… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It’s August and that means … back-to-school. And if your back-to-school shopping list includes a new notebook our Gear Sponsor has a great option for you- The HP dv7 Select Edition. The HP dv7 Select Edition Laptop is newly redesigned and… …sports brushed aluminum chassis in stream argento (metal) finish and measures 1.25-inch thin. It replaces the popular HP dv7t/dv7t Quad Edition. Also featuring Altec Lansing speakers w/Beats audio & HP Triple Bass Subwoofer, TrueVision HD webcam and 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 switchable graphics. The dv7t is a powerhouse and if you customize it so that the MSRP is… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you were watching reports on the Vancouver Olympic games earlier this year, you may have noticed that some of the  biggest buzz (amongst geeks anyway) wasn’t so much about the athletes’ performance, it was over replica Canon 70-200mm L series lens coffee mugs that were given to the press at the Olympic Press Center! Everyone wanted to get their hands on one, and for good reason: the mugs were functional, impossible to get, and they looked amazing! via Nerd Approved One site offered the replica 70-200mm L series lens mugs for Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Cisco recently released a new family of Valet routers. The new routers are stylish and, more importantly, they offer easy setup via their “Easy Setup Key” and Cisco Connect software”. The Valet has an MSRP of $99.99, the Valet Plus an MSRP of $149.99 and the Valet Connector, a wireless adapter, has an MSRP of $69.99. Cisco sent on of the Valet routers for review and I decided to see just how easy it is to set up. How did I do that? I gave the unit to my college-age neighbor Chase. Chase knows almost nothing about computers so I figured he would be the perfect victim uhm… assistant for this experiment. Let’s see… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It seems that more than a million BlackBerry users may have key services in Saudi Arabia and the UAE cut off after authorities stepped up demands on smartphone maker Research In Motion for access to encrypted messages sent over the device. The BlackBerry’s Messenger application (which allows users of Blackberry’s to chat with each across devices in real-time) has spread rapidly in the Gulf Arab region but because the data is encrypted and sent to offshore servers, it cannot be tracked locally. “Certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns,” the United Arab Emirates’ Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said in a statement. The UAE said… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

In the Fire Service one of the things we often struggle with is space, especially on our apparatus.  We want to fit as many tools as pieces of equipment on each piece of fire apparatus as you can but still keep things very organized.  This way every tool you own, as a fire company, is always at your disposal whenever you need it and can be easily found and accessed.  Organization is key and maximizing space is a vital skill to posses. One thing that takes up a ton of space, especially in a fire company’s traffic unit are cones.  We keep a ton in our traffic unit and more on both our Engines.  Cones are bulky, heavy and although stack-able they still take up a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Hope everyone is having a great summer! This is one of those weeks gamers savor for a different reason – it gives you an extra week to enjoy a big release like Starcraft II without the distraction of anything new. Actually there is one decent release – Castlevania: Harmony of Despair which is exclusively for XBOX Live Arcade. Then there is the multiplatform racer Superstars V8 Racing, which appears to be a decent enough game. About half the other games were also on last week’s schedule (again) and are easily dismissed as ‘fluff’. But there are a few other releases… Continue reading on Gear Diary …