Mmm... Foosball with Gumballs

I have always loved foosball, so this gaming apparatus which combines a gumball dispenser with a table soccer game would have been a dream come true! The only way to make it better would have been if they were played with malted milk duds. The war against children's teeth just got a whole lot harder for parents and dentists!

How can you NOT be a Phillies fan after seeing this?

One Laptop Per Mod-Blogger

Proving yet again that I am an unmarried bachelor who loves technology too much, my OLPC XO-1 has arrived! I purchased one with the Give1Get1 the day after they started accepting orders (and another one for a family member) and the unit arrived yesterday! I took some unboxing photos for those who might be interested.

So far, the device is very interesting. It does not work quite like any computer I have used before (which is saying a lot considering I have worked on Commodore 64s, Apple IIs, Macintoshes, Amigas, IBM PCs of various generations, Linux Boxen, every version of Windows, and many, many more). But I was able to browse the internet and install Doom without too much trouble. Hopefully, this weekend I can take the time to really start to become expert with it.

One More Techie Post for the Day

OK, I admit to being in a techie zone right now - probably the Bluetooth Headset got me back into this mood - but I wanted to share one more cool device. Zonbu is offering a $99 PC (not laptop) which offers a Linux distro that claims to be "as easy to use as a Mac", an Office suite, Multimedia applciations, and more. They offer $12.95/month service as well which automatically backs up all of your data over the internet in case of a hardware failure and will replace your unit free of charge if it fails within 3 years of purchase.

Very cool, although exceedingly lightweight. Might be useful for getting a new PC for grandma to do e-mail on, or for the computer-phobic. I could also easily see this being popular in Libraries where you want to offer internet to the masses, without paying a lot or using a lot of energy. Or if you have young children that you want to allow to surf and do homework, but want to ensure that there is NO chance of a virus slipping thru.

Yes, we have a Wii...

...and if you own a Nintendo Wii, you know what that means. If you don't, you probably think it means hours of lost sleep. Nope. It means I am sleeping like a BABE, because I am so exhausted from playing this console! I read about the recent diagnosis of "Wii Elbow", and laughed at the out-of-shape people exhausted by playing video games. But, I can tell you that playing even NON-sports games, is EXHAUSTING. But I must say it has been GREAT for my health, as I am now exercising regularly and can really feel the difference as I am more flexible, stronger, and my back has not felt this good since I had surgery years ago. A quick review of the games I have played so far:

Wii Sports: This comes free with the console, but is also EASILY the most fun game I own. And this is not a dig on the other games. But Wii sports - which is a fairly simple set of sports-themed games like tennis, boxing, golf, and bowling - IS simple which means you can start playing on day 1, and have some serious fun. And it is also the most aerobic of the games, which means playing it for 1/2 hour each day counts as exercise.

Wii Play: This game comes free with an extra controller (or is available without, by why bother?) and is focussed on showing what kinds of things you can with the Nintendo Wii's innovative control methods. You race cows, play air hockey, ping pong, and play something like Duck Hunt among other games. Quite fun, but not nearly as fun as Wii Sports. It is worth the extra $10 with a controller, but definitely not worth buying on its own.

Red Steel: This is one of the first First-Person-Shooters for the Wii, and takes advantage of the unique controls to not only shoot guns, but also fight with a sword in each hand. It is a blast to play, although exhausting because you turn and aim by pointing your arm at the screen. However, while is rated "teen", parents should be aware that the weapons include not only bullets and swords, but also every curse word in the book. It is recommended if you are in a house with children (or like me, in a 3-family house with children in a different apartment) that you turn the volume WAY down... or get a different game.

Spider-Man 3: Spider-Man has not only been among the most successful of the super hero adaptions on the big screen, but also among the most successful video game adaptions out there. Spider-Man 1 was fun because you actually got to be the Wall-Crawler. Spider-Man 2 was GREAT because you could swing free-style around the city - I spent hours just exploring for the pure zen peace of it. Spider-Man 3 takes it one more step by allowing you to actually spin webs by flicking your wrists, which gets VERY tiring very quickly. It may actually be MORE tiring than Wii Sports, which is really saying something.

Overall, I have no regrets with buying this system, aside from waking up sore almost every day. But it is that good kind of soreness after a mildly strenuous sports (or marching band) activity, which means you will be stronger tomorrow. And if you want to share your Wii friend code with me, let me know.