Nintendo DS games for Girls

I am a father of a wonderful 8 year old that loves to play games.  I’ve sorta watched her to see what games she likes to play and it seems to me that her genre of games seems to be builder type games.  Like Sims, Garry’s Mod and Roblox.  She could spend hours playing these games.  So last year I bought her a Nintendo DS Lite and she’s been playing with that quite a bit but I was looking around the net for DS games for girls and pretty much found a few titles I didn’t realize.  Games like Cooking Mama and Animal Crossing seems to be good titles.  She had requested Club Penguin Elite and a few other titles for Christmas and she has Nintendogs so trying to find the right title is sorta hard.  I mean, I’m a pretty hip father.  I try to stay in the know on games and i’m somewhat of a gamer myself but I need input just as well.  So, if anyone has any thoughts on this, feel free to comment on this.

Mass Effect fix graphics are choppy

Mass Effect slow and unplayable?  Is it real choppy and performance is not what you expected?  I looked all over bioware’s forums for an answer but I kept seeing the same pattern:

“Update your drivers you noob”

“Get a Better Processor you noob”

“Your video card sucks you noob”

ad infinitum/nauseuem

Anyways, my son told me about Direct X 10 for XP, i told him, no such thing.  He said install it and find out for yourself so me being the explorer that I am did so.  The end result was amazing.  Installing the DX10 for XP and rebooting was the cure.   I have everything set on max/ultra high and 1680×1050 resolution.  And that was all that was needed.   What my problem was was it didn’t matter what settings I picked in game, there was still this choppy effect going on.  Processor looked fine.  But now after this DX10 for XP, it works flawlessly.  Thanks Matt!

here’s the file: http://www.mainsteam.net/files/dx10-xp.rar

have fun!

Verified: There is water on mars

We’ve seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted.

From article: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080731.html

Think Global Warming is real? Think again.

I do my homework on a lot of things, and this Global Warming Issue we hear a lot about troubles me.  Media hypes up and ramps up the real problem.  Whenever something is going on in the world and it needs to be covered up, in comes “GLOBAL WARMING…EVERYBODY PANIC”  Ok.  What doesn’t make sense to me is the fact that ambient temperatures haven’t varied much over the years.  In fact, it’s been pretty constant.  But you still get the people that say “Man, it’s HOT out there.” or “Man, this is the hottest summer we’ve had.”.  Ok.  Let’s flash forward to some realism.  Like actual numbers, this is the part I like.  Find your state and then find the record temperature and it’s date.  You’ll find much hasn’t changed.  Read it and weep.

State    Temp    Date          Station                   Elevation (feet)
Ala.     112   Sept. 5, 1925   Centerville               345
Alaska   100   June 27, 1915   Ft. Yukon                 420*
Ariz.    128   June 29, 1994   Lake Havasu               505
Ark.     120   Aug. 10, 1936   Ozark                     396
Calif.   134   July 10, 1913   Death Valley              N/A
Colo.    118   July 11, 1888   Bennett                   5,484
Conn.    106   July 15, 1995   Danbury                   450
Del.     110   July 21, 1930   Millsboro                 20
Fla.     109   June 29, 1931   Monticello                207
Ga.      112   July 24, 1952   Louisville                132
Hawaii   100   April 27,1931   Pahala                    850
Idaho    118   July 28, 1934   Orofino                   1,027
Ill.     117   July 14, 1954   E. St Louis               410
Ind.     116   July 14, 1936   Collegeville              672
Iowa     118   July 20, 1934   Keokuk                    614
Kansas   121   July 24, 1936   Alton                     1,651
Ky.      114   July 28, 1930   Greensburg                581
La.      114   Aug. 10, 1936   Plain Dealing             268
Maine    105   July 10, 1911   N. Bridgton               450
Md.      109   July 10, 1936   Cumberland and Frederick  623, 325
Mass.    107   Aug.  2, 1975   New Bedford and Chester   120, 640
Mich.    112   July 13, 1936   Mio                       963
Minn.    114   July  6, 1936   Moorhead                  904
Miss.    115   July 29, 1930   Holly Springs             600
Mo       118   July 14, 1954   Warsaw and Union          705, 560
Mont.    117   July  5, 1937   Medicine Lake             1,950
Neb.     118   July 24, 1936   Minden                    2,169
Nev.     125   June 29, 1994   Laughlin                  605
N.H.     106   July  4, 1911   Nashua                    125
N.J.     110   July 10, 1936   Runyon                    18
N.M.     122   June 27, 1994   Lakewood                  N/A
N.Y.     108   July 22, 1926   Troy                      35
N.C.     110   Aug. 21, 1983   Fayetteville              213
N.D.     121   July  6, 1936   Steele                    1,857
Ohio     113   July 21, 1934   Gallipolis                673
Okla.    120   June 27, 1994   Tipton                    1,350
Ore.     119   Aug. 10, 1898   Pendleton                 1,074
Pa.      111   July 10, 1936   Phoenixville              100
R.I.     104   Aug.  2, 1975   Providence                51
S.C.     111   June 28, 1954   Camden                    170
S.D.     120   July 15, 2006   Kelly Ranch/Usta          2,339
Tenn.    113   Aug.  9, 1930   Perryville                377
Texas    120   Aug. 12, 1936   Seymour                   1,291
Utah     117   July  5, 1985   Saint George              2,880
Vt.      105   July  4, 1911   Vernon                    310
Va.      110   July 15, 1954   Balcony Falls             725
Wash.    118   Aug.  5, 1961   Ice Harbor Dam  475       475
W. Va.   112   July 10, 1936   Martinsburg               435
Wis.     114   July 13, 1936   Wisconsin Dells           900
Wyo.     116   Aug.  8, 1983   Basin                     3,500

Source: U.S.
  National Climatic Data Center (last updated August 2006)  

Dell dropping XPS line in favor of Alienware?

Word on the street has it that Dell is planning on dropping the XPS line altogether in favor of the Alienware line.  So it looks like Dell is going to do some internal structuring with their product lines.  I don’t think they are going to drop their other laptops (Inspiron/Vostro) but one would assume that the XPS Technical Support will also get another round of employee layoffs and calls diverted from Tech Support from the XPS que will get siphoned over into the Alienware que.  Good luck!  Dell has a nice severance package so hang in there til they give you your pink slip!

iPhone Alternatives

Apple’s iPhone 3G hits store shelves on Friday, but if you haven’t been struck with iPhone fever, don’t fret. There are plenty of alternatives that offer similar style and features. And they may even be easier on your wallet in the long run.

To some Apple fans, phones such as the Samsung Instinct or the HTC Diamond are simply iPhone wannabes. But to others they are cool phones in their own right with unique features and capabilities. Below I’ve compiled a cheat-sheet that highlights key features and points out short-comings of seven possible iPhone alternatives. I’ve also thrown in pricing information, not only for the phone, but also for the service plans that go with them.

But before I dive deeply into these iPhone alternatives, let’s take a look at what the new iPhone 3G offers and what it’s still missing.

The biggest change to the iPhone in the new version is speed. As the name implies, the iPhone 3G will operate over AT&T’s HSDPA 3G network. Today, that network can theoretically deliver download speeds of about 3.6Mbps. But in the real world, speeds are closer to 400Kbps to 700Kbps. Recently, AT&T’s wireless chief said the network is being upgraded and will soon offer theoretical download speeds of 20Mbps and actual download speeds of between 4Mbps and 6.6Mbps.

Apple also added GPS to the iPhone 3G, allowing the device to take advantage of location-based applications and services. The company also opened up the device to third-party developers and will soon launch an Apps Store for new iPhone applications. The new iPhone will also support Microsoft Exchange server, which means subscribers will be able to get their work e-mail on the iPhone 3G. And finally the company has greatly improved the battery life of the device stating that it should get a solid five hours of 3G talk time.

But there are also plenty of features that Apple left out of the iPhone 3G, including support for multimedia messaging or MMS. This means users can’t send or receive pictures taken on cell phones via the MMS messaging platform. The device also lacks video recording and voice command. And it only supports Bluetooth for headset voice calls, which means it won’t allow Bluetooth file transfers to and from the iPhone.

These missing features could help give some phone manufacturers an edge with consumers looking for the perfect multimedia smartphone. But features aren’t the only thing that consumers consider when buying a new phone. They also consider price. And even though AT&T is selling the 8GB model for the subsidized price of $200, the carrier still charges more than any other mobile phone operator for its bundle of services, making the iPhone 3G one of the most expensive to own phones on the market. For 450 minutes of talk time a month, unlimited data, which includes Web surfing and email, and text messaging, AT&T charges about $90 a month. Add unlimited voice and the price shoots up to $150.

Below is a list of seven alternatives to the iPhone 3G. All of these phones have a touch-screen. All are 3G capable. All offer MMS messaging, which the iPhone doesn’t offer. And all come with a full HTML browser. Some offer Wi-Fi, which even the original iPhone offers, and some have embedded GPS just like the iPhone 3G.

LG Voyager – $199

LG Voyager

Carrier: Verizon Wireless

Carrier service plan pricing: Verizon’s premium smartphone service with all you-can-eat data and messaging starts at $79.99 per month for 450 minutes a month of talk time. Add unlimited voice, and the price is $139 per month.

What makes it cool? The LG Voyager, which has been on the market for nearly a year, supports Verizon’s VCast Video service, which offers a slew of TV channels, including CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, and NBC 2Go. It also offers VCast Music, which allows users to purchase music directly over the cell phone network. By contrast, the iPhone plays movies and TV shows purchased from its iTunes media store and doesn’t allow for over-the-air music downloads. The Voyager also flips up to expose a full QWERTY keypad.

What are its shortcomings? The phone doesn’t offer Wi-Fi, which means it can’t access the Internet when not in cell phone range. The lack of Wi-Fi also means that users can’t Web surf at super fast speeds when in a Wi-Fi hotspot. And lastly, it’s not integrated with Microsoft Outlook, which means subscribers can’t access work email. They can only get Web email.

LG Voyager CNET Review

LG Dare – $250

LG Dare

Carrier: Verizon Wireless

Carrier service plan pricing: Verizon’s premium smartphone service with all you-can-eat data and messaging starts at $79.99 per month for 450 minutes a month of talk time. Add unlimited voice, and the price is $139 per month.

What makes it cool? The LG Dare has a touch screen that allows icons to be dragged and dropped so that it can be customized for shortcuts on the home screen. It offers a sketch pad that allows users to draw pictures that can be sent via MMS to friends. It also has a 3.2 megapixel camera with face detection, panorama photo stitching, and SmartPic technology designed for taking photos in low light. It offers an embedded camcorder. And like the Voyager, it can be used with Verizon’s VCast Music and Video services.

What are its shortcomings? The Web browser and media player is not as good as the iPhone, according to CNET Reviews editor Nicole Lee. There’s no Wi-Fi. And also no integration with Microsoft Outlook to access work email.

LG Dare CNET Review

Samsung Instinct – $129.00

Samsung Instinct

Carrier: Sprint Nextel

Carrier service plan pricing: Sprint’s “Simply Everything” plan with 450 minutes of talk-time and unlimited messaging, data services that include email and Web surfing costs $69.99 per month. Add unlimited voice, and the service costs $99 a month.

What makes it cool? This is the “first cell phone we’ve seen that throws some direct competition Apple’s way,” CNET editor Kent German wrote in his review of this phone, which just hit the market last month. Physically, the Instinct looks a lot like the iPhone. It also has integrated GPS and works with Microsoft Outlook to allow people to get work email on the phone. But it also offers some unique features. Unlike the iPhone 3G, the Instinct offers Sprint’s mobile TV service and has a built-in camcorder.

What are its shortcomings? The screen lacks multi-touch functionality. This means you can’t pinch a page and blow it up like you can on the iPhone. It also offers much less memory than the iPhone. It doesn’t support Wi-Fi or instant messaging. And German said he wasn’t impressed with the email interface. And its call quality wasn’t up to snuff to boot.

Samsung Instinct CNET Review

LG Vu — $299

LG Vu

Carrier: AT&T

Carrier Plan pricing: Subscribers can get 450 minutes of talk time, unlimited mobile Web, texting, and live broadcast TV for $105 per month. Add unlimited voice, and the service is $165 per month.

What makes it cool? The coolest thing about the LG Vu is that it offers live broadcast TV. AT&T uses the MediaFlo network to deliver the service, which is operating in more than 55 markets in the U.S.

What are its shortcomings? The device lacks GPS and doesn’t support Wi-Fi. The MediaFlo TV service isn’t available everywhere yet. And the monthly charge for the live TV service along with the data and messaging service charges, makes this an expensive phone to own.

LG Vu CNET Review

BlackBerry Bold: $300 (estimated price)

BlackBerry Bold

Carrier: AT&T (expected later this summer.)

Carrier plan pricing: This phone hasn’t officially launched on AT&T’s network. But judging from AT&T’s current BlackBerry service plans, subscribers can expect to pay $90 a month for 450 minutes of talk time, unlimited data and unlimited texting. With unlimited voice, that price jumps to $150 a month.

What makes it cool? This device is the first touch screen from Research in Motion. But it also offers a full QWERTY keypad for CrackBerry addicts, who also like to type. The device offers Wi-Fi and RIM’s push-email system. It also features an improved Web browser that allows the option of viewing pages in a full desktop HTML style or a mobile version. And it has an embedded camcorder and GPS for location-based services.

What are its shortcomings? The phone isn’t available yet. It is expected to be available on AT&T’s network this summer and will likely be added to the other carriers’ line-ups later in the year.

LG VU CNET Review

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 -pricing not yet available

Sony Ericsson Experia X1

Carrier: This phone will be released mid-September. And a U.S. carrier hasn’t been announced yet.

Carrier service plan pricing: Not available.

What makes it cool? This is the first Sony Ericsson phone to use Windows Mobile from Microsoft. It also has a very cool arc slider design. The phone has a touch screen on top and a full QWERTY keypad underneath. It has Wi-Fi and comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera, assisted-GPS, a multimedia player, 400MB of internal memory, and a microSD expansion slot.

What are its shortcomings?

It won’t be available until mid-September and even then it could take a while before any U.S. operators pick it up.Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 CNET Review

HTC Diamond –$700 for an unlocked phone without a subsidy

HTC Touch Diamond

U.S. Carrier:Not announced yet.

Carrier service plan pricing: Not available.

What makes it cool? The HTC Touch Diamond has a cool 3D interface and what CNET reviewer Bonnie Cha calls, “a beautiful touch screen.” It uses Windows Mobile 6.1 and offers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. It also offers voice recognition for dialing and a pre-loaded YouTube application for viewing videos.

What are its shortcomings? The Touch Diamond won’t be available in the U.S. for months. And the current version isn’t optimized for the U.S. market. Cha also described it as sluggish and said the call quality is subpar.” There’s also no expansion slot for more memory.

HTC Diamond CNET Review

Mars possibility for supporting life?

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In this AP exerpt:

Like a chemist, the spacecraft mixed the soil with water brought from Earth into a beaker the size of a teacup and stirred it. Sensors inside the beaker detect the soil’s pH and probe for traces of the nutrients.

Preliminary results showed the soil had a pH between 8 and 9, researchers said. A pH less than 7 means the solution is acidic, while a pH over 7 means it is alkaline. Phoenix also detected the presence of magnesium, sodium, potassium and chloride in the mixture.

“It’s very typical of the soil here on Earth minus the organics,” Kounaves said during a teleconference from Tucson, Arizona.

On Earth, asparagus, green beans and turnips could be planted in such an environment and chemical-loving bacteria would thrive there, he said.

What this tells me is that the next step for this is to see whether plants can be grown using the native soil. The solution to this would be to send a probe that has a small greenhouse on board to scoop up the soil, plant a seed and saturate with water. If a plant can grow in the soil with a little help from some earth water, I think living on Mars wouldn’t be such a far fetched idea. The plants would release oxygen in return for the carbon dioxide rich atmosphere that Mars already possesses. This brings to the table some interesting findings and I would be curious to see if anything can be grown in martian soil.

DivX Pro Review

Use DivX to convert all of your media! Buy Now

We all know what good work DivX codec does, or its competition, XviD (DivX spelled backwards). Besides the codec that everybody knows or heard about, DivX also released its own player and converter. There are few users that actually employ DivX player as it does not support too many video formats. But few users actually know about the .divx video extension.

This video format is like nothing you have seen before. The quality is taken to extreme and most of you have never seen such clarity of the image. It is only normal for the quality to be insane as 2′8” of video ate up 195MB of space on my HDD (the “Transformers” trailer from stage6.divx.com). To be frank, I knew of the capabilities of DivX, but I never imagined they could take it so far.

The Converter

Since the format is so good, there was an acute need for a converter to do the job. DivX converter is part of DivX Pro for Windows pack that also includes the player and the codec. The pack costs $19.99.

The interface is almost inexistent, however, the application is designed to be managed by all users, both novices and experts. The support for drag and drop is supported, so you do not have to search the “Open” option. On the other hand, clicking the “View List” button will also let you add the files and it will give you access to some settings for the output result. Right clicking inside DivX converter will open a context menu that gives you access to the Preferences menu of the application.

There are not too many options available and the user can only set the temporary and output folder for the final results. Also, you can set the application to check for new versions at startup.

As soon as you have added files to convert, the
application will display the number you have in queue. It is time to make the output settings of the file. These include the Certification Profile (which can also be set in the main window of the application by clicking on the left/right arrow), limitation of the file size, setting the resolution and limiting the total average bitrate (video, audio and total).

In the case of VOB files converting, the Media Options the user has the chance of choosing are the audio tracks and subtitles to include in the output result. If you want to add more than one file, then the default file is selected by using the right hand arrows.

The best thing is that the converter allows you to create menus to the output video, containing all the video files you added for conversion. The only catch for this aspect is the fact that all the files have to have the same resolution and framerate. Also, the feature is not available in the case of VOB files. The result will be a .divx video that contains a preset menu that can be accessed by using DivX player.

However, if you choose a different player (I used GOM and MV2 Player), the menu will work, but the quality will not be the same and you will need the DivX menu navigator. Although I do not recommend using a different player for the DivX menu videos, you should give it a try and see the distortions created.

The Player

You have all used video players before so why should DivX Player be any different? Well, it is equipped with a function that you do not really see in a regular video player. It has a burning engine ready to write video files on the disc, both DVD and CD.

Also, the application will let you navigate freely through the menus created with DivX Converter. Additionally, you can connect directly to the DivX video website (stage6.divx.com) and download the movie files in there using the Download manager utility included in the player.

The Publishing Manager allows the users to publish the movies on the stage6.divx website. For this to happen you will need to create a DivX account, which is free. This way you will be able to both download the videos from the different channels available as well as upload them.

In its initial state, the player will display all the features it has (Burn to Disc and Media Library), but the user can restrict the display only to the playing area. The arrows on the sides are the key for this. The playing options are shown at the bottom of the application.

I do not know why, but despite the intuitive interface, I felt the need of tooltips and I do not think that I am wrong when I say that most users are accustomed to the tooltip display when hovering the mouse pointer over the buttons. Also, the lack of a Help menu does not contribute to revealing the options.

The burning part of the video player is not as complex and efficient as the codec provided by the developer. In fact, it is just a simple tool that will write the video files to the disc. No speed setting, no multisession setting, just Volume Name. The operation is easy and all you have to do is drag a file and drop it and press burn.

The disc displayed in the Burn to Disc window will show you the size of data the video will take from the disc and the burning progress of the file. After all the writing is done you will be informed about the success of the burning and the disc will be ejected.

The Preferences menu is not as rich as one would think and the most interesting section is Video. Here you can set the brightness, contrast and saturation of the video.

The Codec

This one needs no presentation as it is one of the leaders on the market. It has been helpful enough by now and it will continue to help us in our encoding tasks. It is also a necessary component for video playback as a great deal of the videos are encoded with it.

The quality of the result can be set by dragging a simple slide bar up to the 10th level. Rate control mode and the bitrate calculator included (duration, filesize, number of frames, fps, audio bitrate) will allow you to make your movies of a certain size when encoding.

The codec section allows the user to select the desired quality for the encoded file. Check the picture on the right and see the speed/compression rate in order to choose the suitable option (the better the quality the longer the time to finish the job). Bidirectional coding option is available.

The video section of the codec lets you choose the video resolution, the resize filter (bilinear filter will soften the image, as opposed to bicubic which will sharpen it), interlacing (progressive interlacing or de-interlacing the source).

The Good

The best features of the pack are the converter and the codec. No need to mention that they are also the most expensive, as all the other included items are free.

The Converter is pretty fast and easy to manipulate and the results are worthy of DivX mark. The codec needs no boasting as we all know the quality it provides and if you are not yet familiar with it, check out stage6.divx.com.

The multithreading support of DivX codec will give you better performance on dual core systems.

The Bad

The Converter cannot join the files into one single DivX video. The VOB files have to be converted one by one. The downside of the converter is that you cannot set the framerate of the videos. You will have to use a different software for converting the framerate.

The Truth

Let’s get serious. Nobody will take the whole package for the player (including the web player). The stars of the package are the codec and the converter (in this order) and the codec is insanely good. The converter still has some mischiefs, but it’ll convert your files. And the 15 days trial period for these two applications is sufficient for you to test them.

RingCentral Review

On and off over the last couple of years, I had tried out a few of the online virtual pbx systems. The old telephone company standard wasn’t meeting my needs anymore yet the costs kept going up.

The good news is that if you wait long enough, some smart entrepreneur will create a technology solution that meets exactly the needs you are looking for. That’s what happened to me with RingCentral

This virtual pbx service is easy to use and has a bunch of options to meet just about any small business owner’s needs.

A couple that sold me on the service were the call announce and follow me.

* When you set up call announce, your callers are asked to give their name. Then RingCentral rings your particular phone number and tells you who’s calling. You can decide whether to take the call or not. And you can set up your answering rules to indicate business hours so the phone rings only during specific times of day and days of the week.
* Follow me service is great for the entrepreneur on the go. You can set the service to try different phone numbers (up to 10 in a sequence) before it gives up and sends your caller to voice mail. This is also a great option for a small business with virtual employees.

What’s also pretty cool about this service is that you can place a Ring Me button on your website and your callers can just press to tell you a visitor wants to talk with you. You can call them right then and discuss whatever they are looking for.

And it has fax capability too. If that’s all you’re looking for, you might want to hop over and read through my online fax review of other services available.

There are way too many features of this service to list here. Suffice it to say that I love RingCentral and it meets my needs perfectly. For the last three months it’s been a great phone choice for my business. If you want to give it a test run, you can Try RingCentral Fax FREE.

Acronis True Image 11 Review

Buy True Image 11 from Acronis Today!

Are you like many people who store huge amounts of personal data on your home computer or your laptop’s hard drive and who think performing backups to DVDs is all you need do to be safe? Think again. Hard drives can’t be trusted and DVDs are even less reliable. Are you surprised? Then continue to read. If not, read on anyway because this review covers some cool software that will impress your friends when you recommend it to them.

How many times have you heard of people having hard drive (HD) issues, returning their computer to the repair shop to get something fixed? It happens a lot more frequently as more people have access to computers and as hardware becomes cheaper.

How about DVDs? Did you know that recordable DVDs have major issues two or three years after burning them? I learned that the hard way. As an amateur photographer I take a lot of digital pictures and save them to my hard drive, then backup them on DVD. Recently, I had to access a DVD that I had burned about two years ago and I had a really hard time being able to read it on my laptop. I had to use an external DVD burner that is better able to read errors. Still, I lost access to some files. Not nice! Then I remembered I had a backup on my external USB 2.0 hard drive. A lot of people don’t get this lucky.

This is where a tool like Acronis True Image 11 Home can save the day.

Acronis is quickly becoming the main reference for disk management tools. Their suite of products caters to everyone from the casual home user to the IT professionals. Acronis True Image 11 Home is obviously designed to be a product for the home user. However, the name and the price tag are not by any means an indication that it’s a lesser product than any of the professional versions. Acronis True Image 11 Home is a great tool with some impressive features. The friendly user interface makes it a pleasure to use and very easy to learn.