The New DSi, Oh My!

Nintendo's DSi Pros and Cons.
When I first saw Nintendo's next generation handheld system the DS (Dual Screen), I thought was big, gray, and awesome! It had really cool features and great new games but could still play my old GBA games too. Within a month of the North America release, I bought my very own system. I've spent many hours playing with it but ever since the announcement of the DS Lite, I've been wanting to get rid of my original style Nintendo DS -- or as most like to refer to it as the "brick" -- and get a thinner, all around better version. I didn't want to get a DS Lite, however, because I knew Nintendo was going to come out with a second redesign that would be even better than the Lite. I waited patiently... FOR MORE THAN 2 YEARS and, finally, Nintendo has announced it's third platform, the DSi. It'll have bigger screens, an even slimmer design, and not one but two cameras! But it replaces the GBA slot with an SD card slot, which is both good for new ways to store and view media but also bad since I won't get to relive all those old GBA games again or be able to grip my DS when playing Guitar Hero: On Tour. I'm not sure what to do. The DSi with two cameras sounds like another huge opportunity for more innovative games, but do I really want to give up the backwards compatibility the Lite offers? I suppose I have over seven months to decide on what to do before the DSi comes to America. In the mean time, I'll give my "brick" one last good work out until I buy a Lite or DSi.

Miley Cyrus Dead?

The truth about the Miley Cyrus death reports.
I'm not sure about you but I've been hearing a lot about Miley Cyrus's death on the morning of Friday August 5th. Yahoo and TMZ reported early on about the story claiming she died in a car crash and that there were "leaked photos" of the tragedy.
Here's the truth:
It was an impromptu hoax that presumably started on 4chan's /b/ site (I don't provide a link because I don't recommend anyone going to that site). I was on /b/ when I saw a thread that basically said "hey everyone, let's go to this Miley video on YouTube and post 'rest in peace Miley 1998 - 2008'." Obviously many laughs were shared because the idiot couldn't do math so if she was born in 1998 then she would only be ten years-old. Some members were against it saying it was stupid but others thought it was going to be great fun. After many, MANY posts saying that Miley Cyrus was dead, all the news reports started pouring in out of no where making up evidence as they went along. 4chan kept a good record of all the news stories (there were plenty) but I didn't think to copy them down to post here until the thread was already deleted due to inactivity. Anyway, later Friday evening, photos of Miley at the Fashion Rocks event surfaced which completely disproved Miley dying the morning of.
So there you have it. It all started on 4chan, was reported on based off of nothing, it was exposed as being false, and then everyone on 4chan lol'd (laughed).

U of M, Advice, and Comments

I'm at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor now and I've finally finished unpacking. There are a few little details that need to be sorted out but at least I have the necessities. Hopefully I can keep up the blog posts.

So, to my readers (all five of you), I would like to hear your suggestions for any college or roommate advice, what are the must have things for a dorm, and what's a great way to maximize space in a cramped room.

I'll also be accepting ideas for what you guys want to read on my blog. So basically how am I doing and what can I improve on? I have a bunch of ideas that I might try out although they don't really go with the theme of this blog. I'm open to suggestions and critique.

Thanks.

Photoshop's Got Nothin' On These

Incredible video and photo editing could start a new technological era.
Even though I have a digital camera that can take video, I still want a professional video camera. Why? Because video sucks! It's always grainy and the colors are all wrong. Even expensive commercial video cameras are only a slight improvement. But then I saw this video on Gizmodo. Watch it first and then read on...

Wasn't that amazing?! My jaw was dropped the entire time. This technology is going to change everything. I mean you can finally put that video capturing feature on your camera into action and then just edit it later to make it look like a film crew from a movie set shot it. Then think about all the cool effects you can do with your video. This is going to save so much time and effort for those special effect guys.

This reminds me a lot of another superb editing technology called scene carving. There's a video posted on TechCrunch that you should definitely check out. Go ahead and watch it and read the rest when it's over...

Isn't that sweet?! Just think of the possibilities. Photoshop fanatics will be dying to use this.

Beating The Traffic Cop

The best ways to get out of a speeding ticket.
I've never had to pull over for a cop before not because I'm a good driver (even though I am), but rather I'm a smart driver. I know when a road could possibly have a traffic cop waiting in a hidden driveway and I know when there's absolutely no way a cop would pull me over on a particular road. Here's a few sites that can really help you avoid getting a ticket:

1. Speedtrap Exchange - no matter where you go, be prepared of hot-spots for cops to hang out at and then submit new warnings you come across.
2. Ezine's Four Tips - not only are these good suggestions to never get a speeding ticket in the first place but there are lots of similar links below the article too.
3. SoYouWanna - has some other good tips that you might not think of.
4. LifeHacker - the actual article is ok, but the comments are the best
5. TES - if you're really desperate to get out of a ticket then you can bring up the TES.