Nintendo
Wii is fun for everyone, is the cheapest of all the systems, has a revolutionary control scheme, and has Zelda, Mario, and all the other Nintendo games!

Microsoft
Xbox 360 may be a bit more expensive than the Wii, but it has better games, has been out longest, has the best multiplayer, and has HALO!!!

Sony
Oh yeah? Well, Sony may be the most expensive and have the fewest games, but it has the best graphics! And Blu-Ray! Uhh… and Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII (13)!

Well guess what? Scratch off that last Sony point, because FFXIII is coming to Xbox 360 simultaneously!

Honestly, I don’t even care about this. I don’t really like Final Fantasy (*gasp!*). No, this dates back to my elementary school years, as I spent hours upon hours on my Sega Genesis.

I loved that system more than anything else. When I heard about the upcoming Sega Saturn, I could not have been more excited. Except, as we all know, The New Guy just had to barge in, punch Sega in the face, and steal the crown.

Shaken but not stirred, I ponied up for the Dreamcast, positive that delays on the PlayStation 2 would leave video game enthusiasts ready to make the move back to Sega. Alas, it was not to be. Sony’s second system sold more than any other system ever had, and put Sega out of business as a hardware company once and for all.

This is where my irrational hatred of Sony stems from. I loved Sega, and I blame Sony entirely for its lack of presence in my life. Last year, when I saw Microsoft and Nintendo gang up and beat the shit out of Sony, I wept for joy.

But the past few months have been scary. BioShock was ported to PlayStation 3. The PS3-exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4 came out and received universal acclaim. Ars Technica re-reviewed PlayStation 3, upgrading its rating from a 6/10 to a 9/10. Sony added their own version of achievements, and PlayStation Home presented the possibility of challenging Microsoft’s online dominance. All that was remaining was the final piece of the puzzle: the PS3-exclusive Final Fantasy XIII.

But now, on the horizon, hope lies. The Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII will prove to be the banana peel under Sony’s foot that ends this comeback. And my Wii and Xbox 360 purchases will not be in vain.

“I know you think you are [great basketball players], but you’re not. You are over-rated in your own mind. You will not play in the NBA,” he said to the crowd.

While I’m pretty sure that I liked his words, he did say one thing to the crowd that, in my mind, is absolutely unforgivable:

“You are probably not that good a rapper. Maybe you are the next Lil’ Wayne, but probably not, in which case you need to stay in school.”

This is madness. I simply cannot vote for someone who references Lil Wayne as an example of a good rapper. Congratulations Barack, you’ve lost my vote.

The instructions are as follows, character-for-character:

Paste your YouTube or Google Video URL above, or use the examples below.

* YouTube instructions [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgEmZ39EtFk]
* Google instructions [googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-8459301055248673864]
* DailyMotion instructions [dailymotion id=5zYRy1JLhuGlP3BGw]

Any developer will recognize this as a perfect place to put an Easter Egg. Here’s what the examples they give actually link to:

Youtube:

Google Video:

DailyMotion:

So… an adorable cat, an ad, and a video that breaches DailyMotion’s Terms of Use. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed (unless there’s a hidden meaning that I’m not in on). If I was working at WordPress, I like to think I would’ve done something better. Maybe three cat videos! Or even three of these.

Not so sure how I feel about this offering from Google.

Essentially, web developers can embed a Lively room on their website. Then, people who have Lively accounts can log in and chat with other people who are on the website. They’ll be in a room, designed by the web developer, containing various furniture and stuff.

To me, this sounds like a waste of time, but I doubt I’m the target audience. However, I don’t think the real target audience (people who want to socialize more than they already do) will feel any motivation to do this.

The main requirement to enjoy something like Second Life or imvu is the desire to create a 3D representation of yourself (or of who you wish you were) and interact with other people who have the same desire. I think this market has little intersection with the “social” market that Google is targeting here.

Second Life has a fairly high barrier to entry (it’s definitely not simple), but its target audience is geeks, and its main value is the fact that users can script and design their own content and share it with others. I don’t have any experience with imvu, but I believe it’s a similar concept. Lively seems like it’s targeting a different market, and I believe that this market is not interested in the service.

I’ll be very happy if I’m wrong though. Maybe Google gets it exactly right, and people like my sister will see this as a natural extension of Facebook where they can go and semi-interact with their friends in a way that traditional social networking and instant messaging just doesn’t allow for. I just really hope it doesn’t turn into yet another sewer of furries.

Tony Gonzalez, Superman

Tony Gonzalez has had the nickname “Superman” for quite awhile, but he truly earned it today.

With no formal training and no camera crews staging the moment, he saved a choking man’s life by performing the Heimlich when no one else in the restaurant knew what to do.

Publicity stunt? Who knows. He says he didn’t mention it to anyone until it got in the news and people started asking, and he certainly doesn’t have a history of calling attention to himself (he’s a far cry from Terrell Owens), so hopefully this is really a genuine feel-good story

Anyways, unless Lil Wayne does something unforgivable in the next few months (which is actually almost inevitable, but whatever), this will be my last post about him. And it’s not even really my post, it’s someone else’s.

Just read this article, called How to Rap Like Lil Wayne. It’s so perfect, it’s scary. #9 is my favorite.

Microsoft: Can we have you?
Yahoo: No.

Microsoft: How about now?
Yahoo: NO!

Microsoft: How about now?

to be continued…

Before now, one of the major arguing points of Flash haters (as well as more reasonable people, such as myself) has been the fact that text in Flash is not indexable by search engines.

In English, this means that Google doesn’t understand any of the words on a Flash website, unless they’re also in normal text (HTML) as well. This made it difficult for Flash sites to do well in search results, and was a good reason for lower budget organizations (ones that can’t afford to make both a Flash and non-Flash version of their site) to consider skipping Flash altogether.

No more.

As of today, Google has developed a new algorithm that will allow their search bot to go into Flash pages and understand the text. Flash sites will no longer be hindered in search results; Flash text, just like the text on HTML sites, will become relevant searchable information.

In no way does this solve all of Flash’s problems. Flash still responds badly to the Back button, is unavailable on about 10% of internet devices (Adobe would claim just 2%, but they’re ignoring many devices and markets, notably the iPhone and China), is shaky on Linux, and more. But it is one large argument gone (probably equivalent to the size of the age argument against John McCain), and should open up opportunities for new Flash content (both good and bad) all over the web.