THE SLINGBOX PRO HD has made major improvement to last year's Slingbox Pro and Pro HD Connect. It not only sends HD video across the network or internet to a computer via component cables (sorry, no HDMI yet), butalso allowing you to watch full HD video anywhere inside the house whenyou use a Slingcatcher. The Slingbox comes with a built in TV tuner.
Because of the high bandwidth used in streaming HD content, an extremely high speed cable or fiber optic connection are the only options to stream HD on a computer. To avoid this, with the Slingbox Pro and Slingcatcher, one can take videos from devices like cable or satellite boxes and stream it to devices like your computer at work, your laptop or your handheld device. The iPhone compatibility is currently in progress and will not be ready until at least 2009. Currently, the only mobile devices which are compatible are Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Palm OS.
The Slingbox Pro can broadcast in highest quality HD at 1080i, and also 720p. The usage of this is most logical in streaming HD on a computer, or watching HD movies in another room when there is only one HD player. Not that you will need a DVR box (optional), the slingbox, an internet connection (minimum 1.5mbps upload and download connection), and a router (UPnP compatibility, 802.11n recommended) to watch TV on your laptop or mobile phone. The Slingbox Pro standalone limits the usage of HD broadcast to a network. However, if you use the Slingcatcher as well, you can pick up high-def content from other Slingboxes. Imagine in the future when you go to the gym or a coffee shop, you can receive crisp HD video streaming if there is a Slingbox broadcasting at the location.
Currently, the Slingbox Pro and Sling Catcher are on the market at $300 a piece.
Virtual Goods: A New TV For The Living Room or A New Emberstone Staff for My Warlock?
As our world becomes more and more accustomed to online usage, we begin to wonder how real the virtual world is to us. When we look into the realm of online shopping, we often think of paying real money for real goods. But now this type of transaction is no longer the only form of major profits for many companies, as people begin to experience the satisfaction of virtual goods.
One of the most popular places in which virtual goods are purchased is through online gaming. Online gamers pay hundreds of dollars every day purchasing new items, weapons or upgrades for their virtual characters. A news article in BBC News reported that because of this new trend and high demand for virtual goods in gaming, this has led to what is known as gold farming--when players dedicate their time to only collecting items from the game through repeating various actions and plays in order to upgrade characters and weapons. But the most surprising factor of this is the extent to which gold farming has grown to. Oh yes, the harvest is definitely ready for reaping.
Not only is gold farming now done by groups of gamers looking to earn a little extra cash--this has become a growing industry in which hundreds of thousands of people, particularly those in developing nations, have seized this opportunity to gold farm as a living. The virtual goods market has become so popular that breadwinners are relying on the profits made from the purchases of virtual goods to support their families! Now that's something to think about the next time you play World of Warcraft.....
Posted on: October 01, 2008
Posted by: Tammy Hu
Reviewarama: Rock Band 2
SHAMELESS PLUG:
Check out Rock Band 2 at Techfair this Wednesday October 1st, 7-9pm at Covel Grand Horizon!
Following the same formula that made Rock Band the bestmusic game, Harmonix has chosen to play it safe and create Rock Band 2 withonly subtle changes. For those familiar to the original Rock Band, you willfeel right at home with this new version. If you never owned the first one, nowis a great time to start!
Gameplay
Not much has changed in the core gameplay. The hardware isexactly the same with only minor changes. The new guitar features a betterstrum bar and better fret buttons as well as a small lens and microphone toauto calibrate your game (yay for lag free HDTV’s!!). The guitar is alsowireless on all systems. The drums see the most significant changes: the padsare much quieter and respond to how hard you hit them, the pedal is nowreinforced with metal (which is great because I’ve snapped 3 Rock Band drumpedals), feature expansion ports for cymbal packs and a 2nd basspedal, and are completely wireless now!
One of the most significant changes is to the solo tour. Nolonger does it follow the old linear format of Guitar Hero, but now is the sameformat as Rock Band’s World Tour mode. In fact, the same band you use for solois used for multiplayer and online play as well (yes, you can now play worldtour online). You can also finally use your character on all the instruments,because we all know that it is in fact possible to learn a 2ndinstrument. The Rock Shop, as expected features more clothing as well as abrand new store with a “Thrifty” theme.
The game also now features a drum trainer mode which teachesyou a variety of beats ranging from basic ones to the crazy ridiculous onesnobody can play. It also features a fill trainer which teaches you how youshould play in those freestyle fills to activate star power so you don’trandomly mash pads offbeat and throw off the rest of the band (you know who youare =P). All in all, this is arguablythe best free virtual drum teacher you can get.
Graphics
There’s not much to say in the graphics department. RockBand 2 follows the exact same style as the first game. The player models tolook like they are higher res and more detailed and the videos going on in thebackground are definitely better. The music videos that sometimes happen arealso a nice addition, especially when you get the psychedelic one!
Sound
All the songs from the original game can be imported intoRock Band 2 (for a small fee of $5 but hey, it changes some covers to mastersso yay!) as well as all the downloaded songs. The new setlist is very nice andfeatures some great new songs that you might not expect in Rock Band (Skaanybody?). Harmonix said that they do plan to release more full albums and for$20, you can download The Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Blood Sugar Sex Magic album. All downloadable songs will work onboth games so if you don’t have version 2 yet, don’t feel left out!
Final Thoughts
Harmonix definitely played it safe when developing Rock Band2. The gameplay is almost identical to the original with some added features tostill make it feel fresh. People who are new to the series will find that nowis a great time to start. And those who have played the original Rock Band religiouslywill still find it fresh and exciting. And hey, $60 for 84 songs is a greatdeal no matter how you look at it!
Gameplay: 9.0 Graphics: 9.5 Sound: 9.5 Grade: A (buy this game!)
SHAMELESS PLUG:
Check out Rock Band 2 at Techfair this Wednesday October 1st, 7-9pm at Covel Grand Horizon!
Posted on: September 30, 2008
Posted by: Zev Solomon
Looking for New Music?
Nowadays, one of the largest industries taking control is the music industry. With new bands and musical artists debuting so often, it's quite difficult to keep up with all of today's popular music. iPods and other MP3 players are being created daily, bringing new innovations that we once imagined would never come about. And in addition to all those overwhelming changes, there are a plethora of computer programs and internet websites that allow you to play your songs.
So which one is the best to use? Some are definitely most popular, but many others are worth taking a look at. Countless innovations continue to make listening to music easier than ever. Here are a few common music programs/sites:
iTunes is definitely one of the top music programs out there. It has many convenient features, and on top of that it's the only syncing software with the most popular MP3 player out there, the iPod (and the iPhone). This program, created by Apple, allows users to easily organize all music file on their computer and quickly create playlists to effortlessly play music. Besides music, iTunes allows users to easily purchase, download, and play videos, podcasts, movies, TV shows, and much more, all with the click of a button.
One great new feature of iTunes is the new Genius Sidebar. This feature analyzes the music within a user's library and finds other songs by similar artists and similar genres that the user may like but not yet own. Thus, even though there are countless songs out there, now a music listener can find all those songs that he or she was missing. Overall, iTunes is one of the best (FREE) music players out there, taking over the market on both Macintosh computers and PCs.
Windows Media Player is the default media player for Microsoft Windows PCs. This program can play a variety of media files, including music files, videos, and images. Another handy feature of this program is the rip feature, which takes songs from CDs and transfers them onto the computer. This program works differently from iTunes in that the library does not encompass all songs on the computer, but instead it contains all songs that were transfered into the Windows Media Player library. Overall, this program is great for playing a variety of media files on PCs, but may be falling behind in comparison to other music programs due to a lack in innovations.
Pandora is actually a free online radio that allows users to choose statioins of music that the user likes. Found at www.pandora.com, this great site is very easy to use and also suggests songs that a user may like. Once this song is played, a user can rate the song as thumbs up or thumbs down, which then signals the website to continue to play similar songs (if thumbs up) or to never play a song of that kind again (if thumbs down). Overall, this site is great to use, especially because it's free, it can be used on any computer, the sound quality is fairly good, and it's really easy to learn.
Although Youtube was created to play videos, a great use that has become common is to play songs through this online video streaming website. Found at www.youtube.com, Youtube has become extremely popular with internet users, as it broadcasts the most popular videos found on the internet. Users are able to play all videos for free and at the same time upload their own videos that they may want to share with the world. One great feature is that users are able to search for songs that others have posted. Usually searching for a song will result in a video with a song in the background, but other times searches may result in the actual music video for that song. Altogether, Youtube is very easy to use, very popular, and although the sound quality is not always the best, Youtube will always be available to use.
All in all, these programs present very different features and attributes. None of them can be awarded as the best, but it all depends on one's preferences. So go out there and try each of these programs, find the others that weren't mentioned, and choose for yourself!
Posted on: September 26, 2008
Posted by: Stephen Pham
Looking for Research?
Welcome to Fall 2008!! So you're starting a new year of college...everyone's talking about the research they're doing, and you're thinking, "Man, I really need to get on that and find a research opportunity...but how do people find stuff like that??"
Well, here are a couple tips on how you might go about it:
First of all, UCLA is a research University, so there are TONS of opportunities here on campus. This website is a helpful resource for Science and Humanities majors alike:
The homepage has a link to Life & Physical Sciences/CARE as well as Humanities & Social Sciences research. This site has info on workshops that will help you find a faculty member to work with, scholarship opportunities, events designed to help you find research, and even a list of professor-posted research positions available!
Most professors at UCLA are doing research of their own. So one of the best ways to secure an undergraduate research opportunity is to pay attention to what your professors tell you about their personal research, and when you find one that you find interesting, just go ahead and approach the professor about it. Ask them if they're looking for researchers or even if you could have the opportunity to participate. This is how most people I've talked to got their research positions (including me).
Even the craziest professors don't have the time to do EVERYTHING on their own...they'll need some help from you!
So go on and seize those opportunities and good luck with your research!
Posted on: September 25, 2008
Posted by: Arlen Kam
A New & Efficient Way To Schedule Group Meetings
Doodle helps schedule meetings and other appointments by collecting all the availabilities from everyone in a group. Doodle is simple, quick, free and requires no registration. Simply set up a poll,send a link to all participants, watch progress online, and finallychoose the most suitable date. Easily done!
http://www.doodle.ch/main.html
Posted on: June 06, 2008
Posted by: Diana Ly
How to... and the most realistic CG picture ever made
Summer is almost at hand! and hopefully that means you'll have a lot more free time on your hands. which raises the question: what to do? want to avoid wasting your days away with tv, facebook, and video games, but don't know what to do?
some ideas:
make doughnuts locate local sex offenders start your own religion increase your real life hit points make Ukrainian Easter Eggs
sounds like fun, I know, but you probably don't know how to do that, but I know who does!
www.howtodothings.comso simple. so self-explanatory.
check out this cool website to learn how to do the super fun things above [[or you could look up something else maybe a bit more fun or useful]] they have hundreds of how to's in 18 different categories! I guarantee you can find something to do.
also, for your viewing pleasure, I bring you....
[[drumroll]]
the most realistic CG picture ever made![and encore] this is a CG of SongHyeKyo, a Korean actress
I don't actually know who this is... but its really quite impressive if you ask me. Far better than anything I've ever drawn on Graffiti or Paint.
hope you enjoied this wonderfulness, and have an awesome summer!
Posted on: June 05, 2008
Posted by: Lindsay Coley
Moo Bella
Moo Bella, faster and easier way to ice cream.
So I really really love ice cream and sometimes I wish there was a faster and efficient way to get some without having to drive to the nearest ice cream shop. Which is why I was very happy to find Moo Bella.
Moo Bella is basically where " taste meets technology " The MooBella team has created a fully automated ice cream process that will change the way we eat ice cream forever! It's basically fresh ice cream, on the spot, made to order. Smooth texture, fresh flavors, great mix-ins. MooBella blends taste with technology to create an amazing ice cream experience for ice cream lovers, like me!
So you're probably wondering how this ice cream machine works. Well according to the website, "MooBella's patented process instantaneously aerates, flavors, and flash freezes the ingredients to produce a freshly made, delicious scoop of ice cream. The PC-based system drives the user interface which allows consumer product selection and entertainment, operator interaction and diagnostic activity. Internet-based wireless capabilities allow the system to communicate accurate sales data, track inventory in real time, and send alerts back to MooBella headquarters".
Enough of the tech stuff, Moo Bella comes in 12 popular flavors and has 6 mix in's that we all love!
But WAIT, Moo Bella is only in Boston for now, but be patient because expect to see it in California soon!
For more information, visit MooBella.com
Posted on: June 03, 2008
Posted by: Christina Nguyen
For All the Aspiring Musicians
If you want a quick and easy website, where you can post up your songs and allow your friends and family to listen and download, then there's a site for you!
www.soundclick.com
It's really simple to use and quick to learn. Basically, you just have to create a user profile and get started from there by uploading any songs you've got.
People will be allowed to rate the song, and you have the option of allowing downloads or not. You can also customize the backgrounds and make it more cool and flashy if you'd like, as well.
Posted on: June 02, 2008
Posted by: Joseph Lam
Monopoly - More than just a game
This article shows how in WWII, a special edition of the game monopoly actually helped prisoners of war escape prison camps by providing them, in secret, with things such as a metal file, a magnetic compass, and a map made of silk instead of paper. Check it out at http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/10021
Posted on: June 01, 2008
Posted by: Matthew Wimmer
Perspektiva Lamp
The Perspektiva Lamp is a new concept from Transparent House based on an idea of incorporating an iconic item into the form and function of a useful everyday object while maintaining certain artistic qualities. Transparent House chose a vintage camera and flipped the whole notion behind the camera: instead of taking in light, the camera is now the source.
Ever wanted to create a family tree? Well I have the perfect website to help you do just that! Geni .com is an easy way to start a familytree where, besides a person’s name, you can upload a picture and/or write in their birth date, place of birth, nickname, occupation and many more details of their life. You can also add friends and family members to the account so they can log on and help fill out the family tree and arrange to receive notifications of their updates. Think this is cool? Go to http://www.geni.com/ for more information.
Posted on: May 30, 2008
Posted by: Diana Castro
101 Fantastic Freebies
Whether you're partial to online services or to downloadable software, we have the Web's best free stuff and it'll keep you productive, secure and entertained.
Free. It's the magic word for an ever-expanding wealth of downloadable software and online services. Free doesn't necessarily mean good, however, and hunting for freebies can mean sifting through a lot of junk.
That's where we come in. We surfed, clicked and installed to find sparkling free gems capable of planning your time, keeping you in touch and tuning and securing your PC, not to mention glitzing up your desktop, helping you stay productive and entertaining you with music, videos, photos and games. We paid special attention to programs and services you may not have heard of before.
We also singled out two free offerings -- one download and one online service -- as the best of the bunch. We want to hear your picks for the best freebies, too, whether they appear in this article or not. Please let us know by joining our forum discussion.
For rest of article click here: http://tech.msn.com/products/articlepcw.aspx?cp-documentid=6729042
Posted on: May 29, 2008
Posted by: Jessica Brown
I see London, I see.. New York City?
It's true! A "giant telescope" now links London and New York City by means of a man-made underground tunnel that runs across the Atlantic Ocean. Although the time difference between the two cities means that while it is day in one city, it is night for the other, glimpses of any activity on the other side of the Atlantic -even of a man crossing the street- is a spectacle to be enjoyed for the curious observers behind the scope. The drills making way for the placement of the identical scopes emerged by the Tower Bridge in London and by the Brooklin Bridge in New York City just one week ago, and the telescope was open to the public upon completion of the project.
Onlookers were awed by the huge emerging drill.
Observers peer into the scope to view the other side other world (kind of.. across the Atlantic anyway) in real time!
Ever get sad that you missed a special Google logo day? No need to cry!
All those creative Google logos you've seen throughtout the past fews years are all stored forever online at the following website:
http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html
Still can't get enough of Google logos? Well, you're in luck my friend.
Google launched a "Doodle 4 Google", a competition where they invited K-12 students to reinvent Google's homepage logo. This year they asked U.S. kids to doodle around the theme "What if...?"
To view the doodles created by the regional winners visit the following link:
And if that still isn't enough, visit the following link to learn about the original Google doodler!
http://www.google.com/doodle4google/doodler.html
ENJOY!!
Posted on: May 27, 2008
Posted by: Roxanne Gowharrizi
AIM Alternatives
There's AIM, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, Facebook Chat, Gmail Chat, and so on and so on. Don't you ever wish that you could just use one client to handle it all? Well, there are options out there. I'm just here to name a few freebies out there scattered in the web.
Meebo.com (logging on to instant messaging as easy as opening a web browser, nothing to install.) Pidgin (formally known as GAIM, this is an open-source instant program. I have been using it for the past few years, and it has served me well.) Trillian (note: there is a free and pro version...this is an old favorite for many people as it supports many of the proprietary protocols.) Digsby (this is a new favorite of mine, it integrates many of the social networking sites as well as instant messaging, email, and SMS.)
Posted on: May 26, 2008
Posted by: Dennis Yu
Case Mods
Ever get tired of looking at that boring, not very attractive computer you have sitting in your room? Well these guys did something about it by creating some of the most interesting and unique case mods I've ever seen. Check them out at: http://devicedaily.com/desktops/10-craziest-pc-case-mods.html
Posted on: May 25, 2008
Posted by: Matthew Wimmer
The Best Player
Do you get sick and tired of downloading a video or music clip that is in some weird format that you can't play. And then you find out you need to download about three to four codecs just to play it?
Well, with the best player, you won't need to worry about that.
Use the VLC Media Player to play virtually any type of format. It's a great, simple, and practical program.
To download it, visit:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
There are many types that you can download for almost any OS!
Posted on: May 23, 2008
Posted by: Joseph Lam
Save Paper!
You know that annoying thing that you have to do when you want to print something from one of the computer labs and it gives you the PDF Creator first instead of the regular Bonney BW printer? Well it turns out that the PDF Creator can actually be an excellent tool for you to exploit if you care lots about trees and little about turning in hard copies of your assignment.
When you print something using PDF Creator, you essentially create a digital file (in PDF format) of that item. You could then send it by email to anyone that has a PDF reader program (like Acrobat!) and reap the rewards of saving your print credit. Remember, printing on PDF does not charge your account with a printing fee. Sweet stuff.
Posted on: May 22, 2008
Posted by: Steven Tan
Microwaved CD
Ever wonder how the science of a compact disc is at its finest? For the sake of boredom and scientific curiosity, someonemicrowaved a CDand captured it on camera. Though the CD is discarded after the experiment, the results were noteworthy of attention. The artwork is shockingly better looking than what most people think would happen, especially to those who are science-mided.
There's not much text in today's article, but since "pictures are worth a thousand words", I’ll let them do the explaining.
Note: Don't try this at home; it is very difficult to capture these images and you'll just end up with a dirty microwave, like this:
For more information, visit MooBella.com
Whether you're partial to online services or
.