Author Archive for Jeff

How Stuff Works: DVDs and DVD Players

Nobody needs to be told about the impact that DVDs, and now Blu-Ray, have had on our home entertainment standards. It’s become all we know in regards to tangible home movie solutions, obliterating the VHS tape out of our lives…

How Stuff Works: Ram

RAM is one component of a computer’s anatomy that most people are familiar with. Tell someone your computer is running slow, and they often reply “maybe you should add some RAM.” Whether they really know what that means or not,…

Hurry Up Hedgehog – Nintendo DS

Hurry Up Hedgehog is not what you expect it to be when you hear the title. Naturally, you first think it’s a Sonic rip-off, given the “speediness” of the title. It’s easy to assume it might be some type of…

Challenge Me: Maths Workout – Nintendo DS

Ahhh, logic games. The DS is full of them, and the bandwagon is led by strong offerings like Brain Age. As with any successful niche, other companies have been trying their hand at developing enjoyable edutainment. I recently took a…

Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles – Nintendo DS

Puzzle games are one of those surprising genres that have seen mainstream success. There are dozens of great titles out there that challenge your brain, get you thinking, and digitally upgrade age-old puzzles that people used to do in activity…

Pirates: Duels on the High Seas – Nintendo DS

Pirates: Duels on the High Seas is a top-down action game that puts you in command of a fancy 18th century pirate ship. Blasting your way through the waterways, fighting Navy forces and other pirates, you command your ship in…

Second Life is Alive

For me, and for millions of others, Second Life has always been about tapping possibility. Without the offerings of creative every day folks, the world would be entirely empty. It brings about the best in the average person that wants…

Second Life is Dead

People view Second Life in a lot of different ways. Its function can be defined differently for every one of its residents. For some, the early web 2.0 startup is nothing more than an advanced video game, offering an open…

MusicSkins for 13” MacBook Laptops

  My laptop is cooler than your laptop. Sure, we both have 13” laptop computers. Sure, mine is pretty worn out, has paint fading and a chunk is missing here and there. But mine is no longer pure white, no…

You’re All a Bunch of Fat, Depressed Gamer Bums

  Researchers’ diving into the correlations between video games and negative human conditions is nothing new. For over a decade, we’ve been reading about the mental effects that violence and subjective opinions of inappropriateness found in game content have on…

Cooking Games: Edutainment Vs. Entertainment

  A week or so ago we took a look at Wii Fit and other exercise games, examining whether or not they truly provide enough of a workout to do any good for the user. While fitness exergaming has become…

Callpod Keeper Desktop

At my last office job, I worked for a fellow with a rather forgetful memory when it came to passwords and logins. Despite most of them being the exact same, he could never remember his credentials to anything – ever.…