The gaming landscape has changed somewhat since the last article. Grand Theft Auto (GTA) IV and Wii-Fit, two of the biggest games of the year, were released to critical acclaim and not a little media circus. Although these two share top billing they couldn’t be more different. One game is marketed squarely at the twenty something hardcore gamer whilst the other sets its sights on the family gaming market. However, scratch beneath the surface and they have something fundamental in common – the opportunity for increased well being. This is obvious for Wii-Fit but how so with GTA IV?

 I don’t know why I like this product.

After reading about food shortages, an economy that is fast sinking into the crapper and crime rising in the streets, I guess my survivalist instinct is kicking in.

I want to own the new Leatherman K502x & K503x; my “machismo” screams for it.

Can opener, bottle opener, bit driver (with six screw bit tips), even a carabiner clip.

The hidden carabiner is neat. It stays hidden until you need it, nesting with other components to save space. Then a simple thumb action is all that is required to hang the Leatherman knife on a backpack, rope or belt loop. Plus, it locks into place so attachment is easy.

The carabiner also acts as a bottle opener.

Full features of the K502x and K503x:

Blade opening: Thumb stud
Blade material: 154CM
Lock mechanism: Lockback
Closed length: 4.5?
Open length: 7.6?
Blade length: 3.1?
Weight: 7.2 oz., 204 grams
Blade grind: CNC flat
Blade style: Straight edge (k502x), combination straight and serrated (k503x)
Blade finish: Polished and ground
Handle material: Glass-filled nylon with rubber overmold, stainless steel bolsters
Included Bits:
Phillips #1 & #2
Screwdriver 3/16? & 1/4?
Screwdriver 1/8? x Torx #15

With the decline in PC gaming players and the rise in console only titles the questions comes up, will PC gaming suffer due to the release of the console only (for now) multiplayer GTA4?

Since mid-January 2008, I’ve been working on several new projects at my college. One of them has been our TV channel, which was supposed to air last semester. Rather than waiting for the TV club to get their act together, I’ve been going behind them and adding my own video content to the channel. Unlike websites, I’ve never had a huge experience with running a TV station. Ok, I’ve never had any experience running a TV channel. I’d imagine that none of you out there have either.

Hit the jump button to read my insights on how to run a TV channel.

Ever go on a vacation and didn’t have a laptop, Blackberry, or any other device that you could read your email with? I thought it would be fun to go on vacation and escape it all. Little did I know that there would be a massive uncontrollable build up.  400 emails later, I began to write this post without a doubt that email is obsolete and inefficient.

I’ve stored thousands of emails all tucked away in folders and many, many sub-folders. Years later, I’ve come to realize, what’s the point?! Why do I store this information and forget about it?

Email is impersonal. Social networking websites have taken over and writing on someone’s wall is now more important that sending out forwards with hundreds of contacts. See their face, quickly respond, and forget the whole thing ever happened.

It’s great not having to pick out spam and delete pointless messages with social networking sites. I’ve just spent hours going through all of these emails. Random messages, some important while others not so much.

Reality has now come back to bite me in the ass.

Yes I am a Trekkie and as such I hate when companies/people screw with the franchise. No this post isn’t about the new J.J. Abram 2008 film, this is about a little developer called Perpetual Entertainment. Most likely you’ve never heard of this company before. They’re the developer behind the upcoming Star Trek MMORPG. Formed in 2004 Perpetual has received over $9 million in funding and has yet to release 1 game.

In the business world usually you need a product to stay a float and now in the age of casual games releasing cost-efficient video games that sell thousands of units is a possibility. But no Perpetual has tried to make the most epic games without having any skill set to back them up.

Apparently a company can survive for a long time with $9 million of funding. Massively Multiplayer Online games take a long time to develop. Even more time is needed if the company wants the game to be good.

It appears that Perpetual was purchased by an undisclosed company. This unknown company has said that they want to make Star Trek more casual gamer friendly. Does that mean it’ll be a cheap free to play MMO game like the crappy Pirates of the Caribbean Online?

Thankfully one real developer is making a new Trek game to be enjoyed this Holiday season! Thanks to Bethesda Softworks PS2 and Wii owners will be able to enjoy Star Trek: Conquest similar to last year’s Star Trek Legacy. However the price of Conquest will be $19.99 for the PS2 and $29.99 for the Wii version.

Bethesda’s definitely offering this game for bargain bin value. Whether you want to look at that as a good thing or a bad thing is up to you. Personally I see it as a crap hitting the fan.

It has always been difficult to find good Star Trek games and the problem doesn’t seem like it’ll go away anytime soon.

I’ve been using Gmail for a couple of years now (maybe a bit more) and I haven’t encountered any such thing, but it is best to stay on your guard. Network World has run an interesting article on one complaint that Google is facing at an alarming frequency: Disappearing e-mails.

Even though Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail each have more users than Gmail, it appears that there are actually more Gmail users complaining of missing e-mail. Many clues point out towards this being a technical issue, such as the incident with Jessica Squazzo, who lost every single e-mail that she received precisely in 2007. Google denies this, claiming that the user is at fault (phishing attacks, passwords, you know what).

Even though this is something to be wary about, there are some points you need to think about. Even if this is Google’s fault for losing the e-mails, the users aren’t guilt-free - at least the ones mentioned in the article. From the article:

Moreover, both Sessum and Squazzo, interviewed separately via e-mail, question why a malicious hacker would go through the trouble of trying to access someone’s e-mail account in order to delete messages, instead of acting stealthily to harvest information they could exploit, like credit card numbers.

Well I can’t answer that, but it might be related to why some viruses delete all the data on your hard disk and/or corrupt it, as opposed to stealing your private information and your credit card numbers, which you oh-so-trustfully keep in a non-encrypted Notepad file in your My Documents folder with the name “CREDIT CARD NUMBERS.txt”

Sessum is actually “building a small company on Google’s back” and therefore trusts Google, a free internet service to not lose her data. I say bullshit - free internet services are not the first choice for building companies on. She complains about the Google support system like so:

“Google’s back-end support function is MIA. You can’t find a number to call. You have to tap our personal network of friends to find a name and a way in through the back door, do a dance and rub a stone for good luck, and hope that someone will help,” she said.

Well you didn’t pay for it , so you should expect the same treatment. I’d be grateful Google even has a support system (which I didn’t know till now).

And most importantly, for all of those complaining about how they lost all their important and/or professional data on Gmail: Gmail is in beta. Yes, it is in beta. No guarantees, no nothing. You lose something - all your fault. You build a business over a free e-mail service in beta stage and lose all your e-mail - your fault. Anything goes in beta.

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