Best Buy opened a huge location five minutes away from my place. So I decided to go for a small stroll and browse through the wares my big blue and yellow neighbour had to offer. Especially since there is a three story Future Shop --which was acquired by Best Buy in 2001 for a thrifty $500 Million-- three minutes north on Yonge Street. As some of your may know, I have been homebound for a while yet I was curious to see what a futile exercise in laissez-faire capitalism looks like these days. Obviously I have been out of the personal electronics must-have's loop for some time. As little did I know the first pentad of the new millennium has been utterly overrun by the MP3 player. Sure music is valuable for self-expression and one of the highlights of being human, but since when do people must have a musical player attached to their ears everywhere they go? I swear I can't count five people down the street without one bopping their head left to right to some unheard beat. You would think them crazy if it were not for the tell-tale cables running from their pockets to their heads. No Sony, your Walkman is been buried and dead, so don't even try it, I won't be writing about you. Just stick with your cellphones and playstations. Any who, I simply could not believe the store, aisle after aisle, if not of MP3 players themselves than of accessories for the damn MP3 players. So who is the man in this $4.3 billion MP3 player market you ask? Who is at the top of the hill and the source of ravenous envy to all its competitors? Why the aesthete that is the Ipod of course. With 70 million sold in the last five years the Ipod commands now what Apple has been having wet dreams since its inception back in '76: A mass audience who also happen to be rabid consumers. As I walked through the rows of Ipod speakers, car holders, stereo add-ons and the ever needed Ipod socks (just $39.99 for a pack of six) really, I am not kidding. I could not help feeling a little stupefied by all of this. Perhaps 'overwhelmed' would be a better word. After all, Apple is not the only one throwing their weight around. Other companies like Dell, Toshiba, Scandisk, Samsung and many others have jumped into the bandwagon. After all, if you build it even if it sucks, someone is bound to buy it. So on that note, just when you think you can see the end of the party crasher's line. Here comes big brother Microsoft, elbowing everyone --as usual--out of the way as it tries to get in before MP3 players are passe. Microsoft obviously not happy there is a market in its road to world domination it has yet to get its sticky fingers on has created what they call an 'Ipod killer.' So what is the name of this late entry? It is the Zune. Now on paper this product sounds great. It has a bigger screen than the rest of the competition, Wifi and as such you can share MP3s on the go. It sounds all great and good until you start finding the Wifi will only work with other Zunes. That you can only play transfered MP3s three time in three days, after that the song becomes unplayable, unless you buy it from their on-line store. This includes your own collection which you may own fair and square. Heck these includes your own creations! So if you are a musician, don't put your original work in the Zune. What is the point of sharing then? However what I found out on my trip to both stores is that at this point in the MP3 market companies are not just selling you a digital player. Oh no. You see, a music player is no longer just music player. It is much more than that. At least that is what millions spent in marketing keep on stating, shouting and dancing in ad after ad: 'Our Music player doesn't only play music. It more... It's cool. Its a media and social event all by itself. It's an artistic expression, a bold reflection of your raw and unadulterated id for God's sake! It will get you laid! What are you doing standing there? GO BUY ONE NOW! Just remember before you buy any of Microsoft products --and in fairness any other product in the future-- the Zune is a first generation device. The reviews have been negative for the most part. Not to say that even big brother might not have a good thing going in the future. However right now, they don't. If you decide to purchase it anyway for this Christmas season, don't be surprised if you get a little too acquainted with windows such as this one: Oh, one last thing. The future is in all-in-one devices. Not just on Mp3 players and media players and so on. Apple and its competitors are slowly heading into that direction but will surely take their time until consumers wise up. For those who are wondering what I have used when needing a music player: I bought myself a smartphone almost two years ago. Put a 1 gig memory card on it and since then I had a colour screen bigger than an Ipod, a phone, a media and MP3 player, plus a voice recorder, pda and Internet browser all for $250. It pays to be an educated consumer, even if does not look as cool as an Ipod. Update 18/11/2006: Man uses Mp3 player to hack ATM's in the UK! Read here.

Alright, this is not the average post and I am a bit of a computer geek, which is no surprise since I work in IT. Now, this post will probably not mean much to you unless you work on computers everyday. By 'working with computers everyday,' I do not mean creating just word files and spreadsheets. Not to say this post would not benefit those individuals. Anyway, even if you know a bit about the Windows Power Toys line up you know is not something that you can use to impress the opposite sex with, however it can save time by making those little things you do with your computer everyday either easier or a less bit annoying. For example: Alt-Tab Replacement With this PowerToy, in addition to seeing the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open. Or SyncToy With new sources of files coming from every direction (such as digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops), SyncToy can help you copy, move, and synchronize different directories. Now they are all free downloads, although some of them may ask you to prove that you have not have a pirat--, I mean 'borrowed' version of Ms-Windos. So without any further ado, you can check the complete list of power toys by clicking here. Cheers!

This is not the usual type of post I do, however I had to share what I found. Just released, Prey (pictured right) is a game that innovates the FPS with the ideas of portals. Yes, those holes in reality that if walked into take you to a different place altogher.
They are just there for the foolish to walk in.

HOwever, below is the is the first look at Valve's new game, called Portal which redefines that whole idea. For those who are reading this and going, 'who the hell is Valve?' They are the materminds of a small game called HalfLife. Now for those who are now reading this and saying what the hell is HalfLife?' I would say, HalfLife is as it stands one of the most sold games in the history of gaming with sales in the millions. Also it was a revolutionary game in the areas of playability, graphics, and story telling. Making you the player feel like if you were living your own thriller\action movie.

Event the way the game starts would not be out of place in movie, but unlike most blockbusters the plot is actually rather engaging. Either way a gamer's geek delight.

Anyway, this is their new game, called Portal. I would like to tel you what it is about, but nothing, and I mean nothing beats just wathing the demo: HERE.

Even if you are not into video games --which I am not-- you will still find it very interesting. Even if it is at how amazing computers have come from the days of Pong and Pacman.

Just click on play button below to see the demo.

Oh, and as desert, watch this stop-motion photography rendition of some ancient games. Now done with REAL humans! Thanks to some bored students in Switzerland.
HERE.

I have never bothered to own a Sony Playstation. However, five years ago I was able to acquire one on loan for about three months. How? Simple. A guy trying to impress my then girlfriend lend it to me in order to get on her good side. How bruck is that? Sucker. Anyway, one of titles that came with my bamboozled unit was a unique game called Silent Hill. ‘What an odd name,’ I thought at the time. Why would anyone entitle a game, or a town for that matter, after a hill? But just not any hill but a silent hill? Guess we all eventually get tired of being around loud, obnoxious, bitchy hills? Makes sense. That’s like Cuba changing their name to ‘Communist Island,’ or ‘Hemingway Got Drunk Here Isle.’ Such honesty won’t entice gringos or tourist in droves. Which is what the town of Silent Hill is trying to do. Its citizens aught to get a tax break for life to make up their forefathers bequeathing them with such an unimaginative name. Alright, pragmatism aside what I did not expect was to play one of the most engrossing games I have ever experienced. So absorbing in fact, my little teen sister who was too scared to actually play the game, devoted herself to watch the action transpire from over my shoulder as I put my own psyche on the line. With a disturbing ambiance thanks to minimalist –yet quite off-putting— music, grotesque imagery and a general sense of desolation due to exploring a mostly deserted town that chips away at your comfort level. Silent Hill is as creepy as games get. You hear things stalking you but can’t see them and only the uncomfortable hiss of a broken radio as your only means of knowing if they are closing in on you for the kill or not. The game immerses you into its world whether you like it or not. Sure you want to see how the thing ends but I remember at one point feeling such dread while playing it, I ended up giving myself a day or two just get the heck away from it. It was like playing through an experience akin to watching the exorcist. Which I have to say made it a great game that ultimately ended inspiring three sequels. Which I never got to play as I gave the unit back to the sucke- I mean, my girlfriend’s friend who perhaps realized lending me a Playstation would not yield the expected results he hoped for. Duh. Fast forward to a few months ago. As we all know, all cash cows whether be in print, TV or even a video game are nowadays the first victims to be turned into film. However since seeing the trailer of Silent Hill on the big screen I found myself totally engrossed, again. Its portrayal of a parent searching for her lost child in a surreal town which periodically slips into hell gave me hope director Christopher Gans (The Brotherhood of the Wolf) had somehow grasped the underlying sense of despair in the game and transposed it onto film. Memories of the dread I had felt before began to resurface. I wanted to see it, I wanted to feel disturbed…yeah, we humans are a strange bunch. When the movie was released, I could not find anyone to go with. Women I asked were afraid of the movie or simply not interested in the movie. Friends were put off because it was based on a video game, which historically translates into an incoherent jumble and thus a waste of the viewer’s life. Movies like Mario Bros., Street Fighter, Wing Commander, The Resident Evil series and the recent theatrical bomb called Doom come to mind, each an atrocity on celluloid in their own right. As I could not find anyone to go see it, I did the only thing I could think off, I downloaded it off the net and watched it for free on my laptop. Yes, you heard me. You overpriced movie theatres can all go to hell! You hear me? HELL! What did I think? Director Christopher Gans created a visually perfect adaptation of a world first portrayed by a bunch of mentally deranged game designers. Bravo! Quite a spectacle to behold and if a feast to the eyes is your thing, you could do much worse. Too bad the same cannot be said about the script, which in true video-game-turned-into-film fashion is a mess. Something about witches, a little girl’s soul desire for vengeance and the fate of the surviving town folk. The plot gets so convoluted at times that I was not sure what was going on-screen. The screenplay also fails by committing the cardinal sin of having characters act stupidly in order to move the plot along. Or worse, subject us to painfully obvious statements over and over. At one point (55:55min), after the town is enveloped by a never receding fog, has been cut off the rest of the world by a bottomless chasm that appeared out of nowhere and a zombie attack, two main characters chat: -‘They used to say this place was haunted.’ -‘I think they were right…’ Duh. Someone please kill that first character off. Luckily, someone eventually does. Thank you. The problem is video game plots have yet to be able to carry the weight and length of a movie. Since a gamer is generally too busy playing the game to be concerned with secondary things like plot. As a result, during the script writing process writers are forced to fill in gaps normally filled in by the player. So far with mostly life sucking side effects to the audience. Sadly, Silent Hill is no exception. This is the course of the video game movie. I really wanted to like this movie. Visually is one of the better movies I have seen this year, watch for the scenes where the town is absorbed into the nightmarish and rusting ‘Otherworld.’ A Dante’s Inferno inspired vision that is almost worth the price of admission. The musical score, from soft piano pieces to industrial clatter is a big factor and right on and adds to the perversely bizarre pictures on the screen. The plot and dialogue cannot match the rest of the film and are a let-down. The movie was so close to breaking the video game course that it could almost taste it. Alas, that coveted title will not go to Silent Hill. But compared to the pile t came before it, we can at least take solace in knowing it could have been much, much worse. Now, if I could only get another zap to lend me their Xbox.