I was playing Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 the other day and got a little impatient with the mindless games I had to play to unlock the rest of the mindless games so I decided to get the game save file to load on my Wii to save myself some effort so I could play any mindless game I wanted. Unfortunately the problem with the NTSC version of Rayman is that Ubisoft has installed a lock on the game save that doesn’t allow players to “back up” their save games to SD card. Strangely enough, however, the PAL version of the game does not have this restriction so you can use the RY2P game save if you want it. So moral of the story? Unless you’re Wii is European and plays PAL format games, you’re going to have to suck it up and play all the games and unlock stuff the good old fashioned way–by actually playing the game.

Despite fears that SSBB has reached its saturation point with the hardcore gamers and as a result is now being offered as a bundle with the Wii by more and more retailers, it still seems to be enjoying a healthy sales run. NPD Group just published the sales figures from March and SSBB was the top selling game by far with 2.7 million sold. By comparison, the second best selling game in March was Rainbow Six Vegas which sold 750,000 copies. To put it into perspective, just check out that chart compiled by Next-gen.biz. The figures show the lifetime sales for the original Super Smash Bros for the N64, SSB Melee for GameCube, and SSBB. Except that the SSBB column in red is just its sales from March. That’s right. One month of sales. Nintendo was pleased, saying, “Nintendo systems represented 58 percent of all video game hardware sold in March in the United States. We expect our momentum to continue with big upcoming game launches like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit.”

Super Mario Bros 3

An eBay seller hellokitty11111111111 looks to be selling some old Nintendo Entertainment System consoles with a twist: they each some with a unique sweet-looking custom paint job inspired by your favorite NES classics including Super Mario Bros, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, and Mega Man. Take a look or even make a bid! Read more »

Geeky Pants

http://www.vouspensez.com/2008/04/22/the-geekiest-pants-ever/?kpants

Voice changing helmet

http://gizmodo.com/383240/the-dalek-voice-changing-helmet-will-exterminate-your-love-life

Drivemocion

http://www.prankplace.com/drivemocion.htm

Apple has been granted a patent that could mean an official native instant messenger application is finally coming to the popular iPhone media device.

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BusinessWeek recently surveyed some 2,500 companies around the world and compiled the 17-question responses (weighted 80%) along with revenue and margin growth (10%) and stock growth (10%) to come up with 2008’s list of the top 50 world’s most innovative companies. Apple again took the number one spot followed by Google. No surprises there. What is surprising (but was it really?) is that Nintendo, a company which had not made even the top 50 in the past, suddenly jumped into the elite top 10 and came in at seventh. To give perspective, Microsoft ranked 5th while Sony was 9th. With the brilliant DS Lite redesign and touch screen capability and the casual gamer market aimed Wii, there’s no doubt Nintendo is an innovative company. What surprises me is, how come it took so long?
The full list appears below: Read more »

Sony Computer Entertainment said this morning that the oft-delayed PlayStation Home community online service was to be delayed again, marking the third official delay since the service was announced.

The service was initially announced in July 2007 and promised to “provide users with the ability to create their own avatars and participate in a real-time virtual world,” something like the popular Second Life community. At that announcement, Sony said it would be available in the fall of 2007 but then delayed it until spring of this year.

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1. Do use ASP.NET MVC (or at least learn the web like everybody else)

Don’t deal with ViewState, don’t deal with leaky abstractions of the web in a way that confounds you. You’ll thank yourself for writing cleaner code that you can test, and for mastering the deceptively simple art of web development. “It’s all just markup” is a mantra that will keep you on track when you feel overwhelmed with the new model, but it’s a new model you want to learn. If you don’t want to learn ASP.NET MVC, do yourself a favor and disable ViewState at the page level, and do what you can to avoid using it, whether that’s baking your own MVC-like “markup + business objects” design, or embracing the client-centric development model with JavaScript against ASP.NET controls that don’t require ViewState. Make friends with the Repeater.

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Nikko Citigroup analysts have upgraded their rating for Sony Corporation citing their anticipation that the company will break even or even turn a profit on the PlayStation 3 beginning in August.

If their prediction is accurate, then Sony will break even at least three months earlier than analysts had previously speculated. Sony itself was not sure when it would hit profitability on the console and Sony’s Kaz Hirai said that the company would was shooting for the fiscal year beginning April 2008.

Sony has always said that PS3 production costs will only ever hit break even point when the “65nm Cell processor and the 90nm are shrunk to smaller, cheaper-to-manufacture sizes, and that comes with the side effect of drawing less power and creating less heat.”

It should be interesting to see when profitability occurs because may lead to more price cuts for the consumer.

Professional photographer Diego Goldberg took photos of his family from 1976-2007. You can see the transition from young to old in the photo’s, makes you think.

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