image courtesy of toothpaste for dinner Cloud computing. It is here. It is powerful. It is growing. It is a good thing? Had you asked me a week ago my answer would have been a resounding “Yes!” A week later, I’m not sure sure. Read on if you care to join me in my wireless nightmare … For many years, Dial-Up was the only way most people could get online reliably, and the two main sources of internet access seemed to be AOL and to a lesser degree, MSN; because I wanted to be different, I went with MSN, and I thought it was great because Dial-Up was all… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Image courtesy of xkcd There is a lot being made of the claims of some Christian groups that the so-called ‘Rapture’ will occur on May 21st of this year. At 6pm. By time zone. Apparently this orderly ascent of ‘the chosen’ is well detailed in coded messages in the Bible (despite direct statements in the same book in direct conflict with such knowledge), as revealed in an NPR interview: On May 21, “starting in the Pacific Rim at around the 6 p.m. local time hour, in each time zone, there will be a great earthquake, such as has never been in the history of the Earth,” he says. The true Christian believers Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Last night I had my first opportunity to sign back on to the Playstation Network and also to the music service Qriocity. I had waited more than 72 hours for the ‘within 24 hours’ reset email response, but it allowed me back into my account – and let me take another look at the service and how it integrates with my PSP. It was … as I remembered, so I started my review again. This morning I wanted to try Qriocity while I was doing a bit of email work after my workout before everyone woke up, and found that the site was down. I did a quick search and found that a… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

My father-in-law still longs for the days of Pleasantville. Too bad for him that Pleasantville wasn’t even Pleasantville! Yes, the “good old days” were old, but they weren’t necessarily any better. And they sure didn’t offer the wide range of gadgets we have all come to rely upon! So if you are looking for a gift for your father or father-in-law, you MIGHT get them the complete Father Knows Best series on DVD, but maybe you ought to consider one of these instead… For the iPod nano-loving dad Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Gamers are a funny group when it comes to controllers, and none are more particular than PC gamers with their mice. I remember years ago buying a BOX of Microsoft Intellimouse 3.0 mice … that is 5 mice! That way I had one for any situation or possible computer I would access. The reason? The two side buttons were perfect for games like Jedi Knight II where I could assign them to Force Push and Pull. The question now: is the Fierce Laser Gaming Mouse something to inspire that sort of idiotic devotion? Read on and see! The Hype: We’ve taken everything that made the original Fierce Laser Gaming Mouse great… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This upcoming download exclusive Batman game adds wild mayhem, character customization, multiplayer options and first person shooter action amid the classic hero showdown with The Joker.

We are all feeling the financial pinch!  Blue Plate Special is a weekly review of bargain apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Nothing over $.99. I remember a day when gaming was simple. The graphics were simple but made the point and game play required timing and easy actions to get as many points as possible. It is not that I do not love new games with fancy graphics and complicated game play, but sometimes it is fun when I have a few minutes to kill to go old school with a nice side scroller where timing is… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Have you ever wondered where all of that internet bandwidth is going? Apparently the answer is Netflix, according to a recent study by sandvine reported at TechCrunch. Here are some details: Netflix video streaming is now the single largest source of peak downstream Internet traffic in the U.S., according to a new report by Sandvine. The streaming video service now accounts for 29.7 percent of peak downstream traffic, up from 21 percent last fall. That puts Netflix above HTTP websites (18 percent), BitTorrent (11 percent), and YouTube (10 percent) as a source of downstream traffic during peak times in North America. (BitTorrent still accounts for half of all upstream traffic). As whole Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today is launch day for The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings, the sequel to one of the best RPGs of the last decade. I have highly recommended checking out the original and recently did a Retrospective. I also suggest buying it from Good Old Games for two reasons: first, they are part of the same company, and second you get the game DRM Free! This means that so long as you keep the install file you will always be able to re-install and play the game. But there is more – like many… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The rise of tablets and smartphones has thrown the market for non-mainstream traditional eBook readers in some jeopardy. There’s a market for them, but the number of people rushing out to buy an eBook reader that doesn’t have WiFi or other perks is dubious at best. So I’m not at all surprised to see that Aluratek, makers of the Libre brand of eBook readers, have debuted two new wireless eBook readers. One of them, the Libre Air, is an update of the Libre I reviewed last year, with a redesigned D-Pad and the addition of WiFi. It’s a bit pricey at $119, but the saving grace on pricing is that it uses ePaper, not eInk… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Okay, okay, we get it: your phone can also be your GPS. Good for you but there are a lot of folks out there who still want their phone to be a phone and their GPS to be their navigation system. If you are one of them we have we got a deal for you today! The Garmin nuvi 2350LMT has a 4.3-inch backlit TFT color touchscreen display. That makes it sunlight-readable. (Try that with your phone!). It comes with free lifetime map and traffic updates, voice-prompted turn-by-turn, trafficTrends historical traffic and myTrends predictive routing. Rounding it off is a microSD Card slot. The Garmin nuvi 2350LMT GPS Navigator w/ Lifetime Traffic & Map… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

A few months ago Linksys announced their new E4200 Wireless N router. Linksys was kind enough to send out a review unit, which I have been using for a few weeks. The dual band router sports both a 2.4 and 5 GHz radio setup and a six-pack of internal antennas to maximize wireless coverage and throughput. Wireless N is pretty much the standard these days, and as you all know the force behind WiFi N is the need for streaming media. With all the new web connected TV’s and streaming media services, the last thing you want is your router causing a bottleneck when connected to these pricey services. The E4200 is no doubt the best… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I cannot help but feel a bit bad for the BlackBerry PlayBook. After all, the device has a great form factor, excellent build quality, a responsive touchscreen, and two things that are lacking on most tablets: both the front and rear facing cameras are quite good and the forward facing stereo speakers don’t sound half bad. Still, weeks after the device was first introduced into the market, the number of high-quality applications for it is disgraceful low. The result is a device whose utility continues to be all but crippled as a result. I would not keep it hanging around except for the fact that, as noted, the cameras and speakers work better than… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This is a limited time offer to celebrate the release last week of Supermarket Mania 2. I reviewed the DSiWare version here and said: Pretty much every DSiWare game I have played has been either a cut-down version of an actual game or a bite-sized original game with a single small concept. Supermarket Mania is a full-blown game that will have you forgetting it is supposed to just be a $5 ‘mini game’. You will pass several hours playing through the game, and it is fun to pick up and play every now and then since the customer flow and requirements are random each time! Now G5 Entertainment is… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

… but sadly the song of choice is ‘But not for me’. Sony has announced their restoration plans, their ‘Welcome Back’ plans – which include the PSP incidentally – and other things. I will list those details in a bit. But unless you have a PS3, you will NOT be doing anything anytime soon! How bad is it? Sony pretty much assumes that PSN = PS3, as noted in the header message on the PSN Blog Thank you for your patience and encouragement over the last few weeks. As covered in the post from earlier today, you can now update the firmware on your PS3 and change your password. Kazuo Hirai just Continue reading on Gear Diary …