New Years

Angry Birds and FarmVille have become two of the biggest game franchises in the world. And recently their creators, Rovio and Zynga, have hit the news again, but not because of anymore major game announcements. Zynga, the kings of Facebook gaming from San Fransisco, recently ...more

It's a hell of a lot easier to make money selling an indie game now than it was four years ago. But it's still a rough game. Blitz Game Studios is a large UK developer producing everything from casual iOS games to Dead to Rights: Retribution. In 2008, they started a division ...more

Minecraft has been out nearly two years now. Hard to believe, isn't it? Fans of the game have been spoiled with a lot of new content over that span from its creator Notch, as well as its modders. A couple months ago, Notch tortured the Minecraft community by tweeting some scre ...more

Stewart Butterfileld is one of the last great old-fashioned tech billionaires. He founded Flickr, and then sold the company to Yahoo! for a stupendous amount of money in 2005. Like Mark Cuban and others before him, he was left wondering what to do with the rest of his long and ...more

Grand Theft Auto 4 was a landmark game. It gave yet another reboot to the already rebooted Grand Theft Auto series, arguably the most prestigious video game in the West. It has a 98 on Metacritic, making it by that measure the best game of modern times. Whatever your stance on ...more

Carpe Fulgur translates to something along the lines of "Seize the Lightning" in Latin. Sometimes that is enacted with golf clubs by idiots. But the three intrepid indie video game localizers who work under that name are trying to do it the right way: metaphorically. They are ...more

Netflix may be killing its competitors, but they're losing fans thanks to their reputation for rolling out interface updates without user knowledge or consent. PlayStation 3 owners were upset at the Netflix interface change earlier this year, and now nearly 5,000 diehard Netfl ...more

Dactyloscopy isn’t going anywhere. Forensic science has much relied on fingerprinting as a means of identification, largely because of the massive amount of fingerprints stored in the FBI’s biometric database (IAFIS), which houses over 150,000 million prints. And thanks to the ...more

Do you ever really know someone? I mean really really? Super really? Sometimes we can talk and be with people normally for years and then bam: five people dead, house on fire, dog missing. All the while people shake their heads and regret that if they had just put the little ...more

With the Oscar nomination of "Exit Through the Gift Shop" and Banksys rise to global fame, street art is becoming more and more accepted into the global art establishment and mainstream culture. Shepard Faireys "Hope" poster is now one of the most recognized posters in the wor ...more

Digital distribution games are already firmly established on the PC, and they've infiltrated every present and next-gen console to some degree. Whether you like to play DOS, AAA, PC or indie games, there's a way to purchase most of them without leaving the comfort and warmth o ...more

Sticking with our theme of XBLA games with uninspiring names, we have Outland. This game shares its name with an unrelated sci-fi cult film from 1981, unrelated comic strip from the '90s, and unrelated region in World of Warcraft. Didn't exactly try hard to build name recognit ...more

I was raised in the glory days of Japanese RPG's (JRPG's) on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest were the biggest game franchises, and real gamers could debate their merits endlessly. We remained engaged in the stories of the games, even though ...more

Japanese people are into many things Americans find weird—like YouTube's beloved canine-hosted cooking show or Daito Manabe's light up LED grills or even more insane, a vending machine that distributes live crabs. In light of these cultural oddities, the Japanese phenomenon of ...more

Are you prone to crusades of the overambitious? Well, here's one for you: try to find and identify every animal on earth. You may think scientists have a handle on this, having pinned down 1.4 million animal species so far, but there are millions more are out there, waiting to ...more

Attention all National SCRABBLE Association members: You know that newsletter that you get in your mailbox every month or two? That SCRABBLE News mailing from the NSA? Well, they're axing it. No more printed SCRABBLE News. No more ink on your fingertips. No more surprises in ...more

Where were you in 1993? Thinking about starting a tech company? Starting elementary school? Awaiting a 1996 Daft Punk party after which you would be conceived? It's been eighteen years, but the game that solidified my dorkdom for good is still coming out with new sets, still f ...more

By Ethical Traveler As the world becomes ever more interconnected, being an ethical traveler becomes both easier and more urgent. Travelers today have access to far more information than we did even 10 years ago. We can observe–almost in real time–the impact that smart or sel ...more

A First Timer's Guide When some new guitarists break their first string they stash it in the closet and forget about it. Me, I put the sweaty axe back in its case and asked my parents to take me to the local music store. After a morning full of senseless racket emanating from ...more

We've gathered some of our favorite pranks with the seasonally appropriate for all you college kids out there. You're more than likely cohabitating with a complete stranger, and what better way to make a good first impression and develop a strong personal relationship than sub ...more

Nope, this isn't a flash game version of SCRABBLE. There's already one of those (and a multitude of imitations) for the Apple iPhone, iPod, and Facebook. This is an electronic game, and it's not a "handheld" game like the SCRABBLE Pocket Pogo Touch Screen Game (pictured right) ...more

Hey now! Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay are doing very well in their respective groups. The are all expected to qualify to the final 16. In fact, they are doing better than any other continent. Europe's top flight teams are disappointing, as are the host Africa ...more

Posted with permission via HereComeTheYanks.com What follows is the result of extensive research, history, gut instincts, hope, and just plain guessing. But it may represent the most logical progression through the world's greatest competition: the World Cup. I believe that a ...more

Review: Get Him to the Greek So much puke It's not quite Pixar-like, Judd Apatow's streak of very funny, very good films, but it's close. As a producer, he's as close as it gets to Mr. Automatic, going from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy to The 40-Year-Old Virgi ...more

Good news. Facebook has finally listened. After severe criticism for ignoring the world's privacy norms, Facebook will finally release simplistic, user-friendly privacy settings soon. Wired reports: “'Now we’ve heard from our users that we have gotten a little bit complex,' ...more

A November release week in May It used to be that games marked to be blockbusters (expected to sell more than a million in their first month) would always be released during the holiday September to December season. November was always the month companies chose to release the ...more

Darrin Judkins - BMG Models NYC, Women's Board Booking Agent   AW: How long have you been an agent? DJ: Dear God, longer than most of the people I represent, 20 years.   AW: How did you get your start? DJ: I started as an intern at IMG when I was 19.   AW: What advice do you h ...more

If you've checked out my SCRABBLE World, you may have read "How Controversy Changed SCRABBLE".  In that case, you know that the word JEW is not allowed in regular play, because it was deemed an offensive and obscene word. JEW v JEWED, JEWING, JEWS to bargain with—an offensive ...more

If you've read my blog "How Controversy Changed SCRABBLE", then you know that the word JEW is not allowed in regular play, because it was deemed an offensive and obscene word. JEW v JEWED, JEWING, JEWS to bargain with—an offensive term But this coming July, it will no longer ...more

Did you know it only took five weeks to make FarmVille?  That it currently has over 80,000,000 users?  That FarmVille farmers outnumber real farmers in the United States by a ration of 80 to 1? Crazy, right? And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  There's plenty of other od ...more

Levon Helm... The longtime drummer for The Band , Levon Helm wore many musical hats throughout his long career, including multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, singer, impressario, studio ...more

With more and more vehicle owners simply deciding refuse to pay red light camera and speed camera tickets, private, for-profit companies and municipalities are growing increasingly desperate. America’s second-largest city shut down its photo ticketing program last year largely ...more

We've talked about the deep web before, but we never really covered the details of what's out there. It occurred to me that a nice list of resources would be very helpful to all of you anons out there. Think of this like a helpful brochure to the hidden web. However, I should ...more

Whether you just got a brand new laptop or you've had an old notebook for several years, it's in your best interest to maximize your laptop battery life so you get the most out of your computer. Make sure you "work" the juice in your laptop batteries by unplugging your laptop ...more

This is my first contribution in an ongoing series on detailing the best free, open source hacking and penetration tools available. My goal is to show you some of the quality tools that IT security experts are using every day in their jobs as network security and pen-testing p ...more

TOP MOVIES 2011 The Artist (2011) Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.Dir: Michel Hazanavicius With: Jean Dujard ...more

Facebook's new Timeline feature has been rolling out gradually since its unveiling in September, but yesterday it finally became available to Facebookers everywhere. It's even available on your mobile device, too. Those who want to upgrade to the radical new profile design can ...more

WonderHowTo is made up niche communities called Worlds. If you've yet to join one (or create your own), get a taste below of what's going on in the community. Check in every Wednesday for a roundup of new activities and projects. This week: Create a redstone calculator in Min ...more

Stay off the streets, lock your doors and grab your shotguns, because zombies are infecting the world over. Well… this Halloween season anyway. With the return of The Walking Dead to AMC a couple weeks ago and the subsequent renewal of a third season, it just goes to show that ...more

Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty are some of the most horrific fairy tales ever written, but over the course of nearly 200 years they've become watered down and sugar coated for innocent children everywhere. The original tales by the Brothers Grimm are vi ...more

At GDC 2011 this past March, three of the world's best game designers participated in a contest called Game Design Challenge. Each presented their vision for a game that fit the prompt "Bigger than Jesus: games as religion" before an audience, with applause to determine the wi ...more

This week's FIGRR is all about games that are old-new (or new-old, if you like) school. Each celebrates a different vital, yet largely taken for granted, aspect of video game history in the decidedly new-school world of indie games. Their titles betray them. Blocks That Matter ...more

The small size of most indie game development teams is a strength, but also a weakness. It allows them to take risks and explore revolutionary ideas that a larger company could never justify to its shareholders, but also means they must navigate the game development labyrinth ...more

When Apple‘s iTunes was introduced back in 2001, it rekindled my interest and purchasing of music. I was so excited by the program that I immediately started converting all my rather large collection of CDs into MP3 tracks. I then sold off my CDs and remaining vinyl albums, an ...more

Today concludes our Gamer's Guide to Video Game Software (see Part 1 & Part 2). In our final installment, we will shift away from engines toward video games that allow you to make your own games within them. Many games have featured level editors that allow users to create th ...more

Real-time strategy (RTS) was the most popular genre in PC games at one time. It put Blizzard on the map—one of the biggest game developers in the world. And it buried the once venerable turn-based strategy genre, the only survivor being the Civilization series. But like hair m ...more

If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Although money and mental muscles may seem a natural match, brains, alas, may be more hindrance than help when it comes to getting rich, concludes a new study in the journal Intelligence.”It is still not well understood why some people ...more

Wondering why your inbox is looking a little threadbare? It may be that you've violated a few unwritten rules of email etiquette. Here are a few basic tips that the web-savvy know by heart. Use "Reply All" Sparingly Let's begin with an example. Say that your boss emails a ne ...more

Improv Everywhere's 10th annual no-pants subway ride gave 10,000 New Yorkers an excuse to ride the tubes in their skivvies this month. Good, but not as good as last year's April Fools faux-genital baring ride. Scroll below the video of the NYC ride to see other participating c ...more

On June 23, 2003, Linden labs created a free client program known as Second Life. This program allows users, or residents, to interact with each other in a virtual world by using avatars. Thanks to this program, residents are able to explore, socialize, and create and trade vi ...more

Staying in tonight? Here's something that could occupy you for days. Fimoculous has posted the mother of all "Best of 2010" lists: a collection of over 150 lists from across the web in 37 different categories. Sit back, crack out the champagne, and take in all the amazing thin ...more

boon sent me a Stash Wall or Countertop Organizer and you will have a chance to win it! For your chance to win a white Stash: 1) Visit the boon products page and pick your favorite item. 2) Go to our Facebook page and in the discussion about this post, tell me: a) The favor ...more

There's a couple things you can do to prepare for New Year's Eve this year: stock up on your cocktail recipes, make black-eyed peas (AKA Hoppin' John), or find some fireworks to enjoy. Now add one more tradition to the list: sabrage. The practice dates all the way back to the ...more

Here is the movie trailer for the new animated film "Mars Needs Moms" Movie Plot Take out the trash, eat your broccoli ? who needs moms, anyway? Nine-year-old Milo (Seth Green) finds out just how much he needs his mom (Joan Cusack) when she's nabbed by Martians who plan to st ...more