Author: TruXter

Top Ten Podcasters of the Year: TruXter’s Choice

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Well the year has brought so much news to the tech world, Via podcasts. Since that is a media source, TruXter tech Review will list the choice of podcasters for 2009. From tenth place down to the number one spot.

These podcasts are not necessarily  all tech, it’s the means in which this media is brought to us that makes it tech. There is great talent and tons of devotion in these people, that is why they are making the list. There are some that are very talented but had no devotion or motivation to carry on this year as they had in the past years. So this year they will not be making it to this list. Some are great talent but a bit slacking this year so their scoring isn’t as wonderful as it could be. This post is not to bash, but show apreciation, keep that in mind if your or your favorite podcaster is not in the top 2.

There will be no award that can be given other than readers of this site, a chance to listen to the media on the podcaster’s site. So i hope they enjoy the notoriety, no matter how small the traffic might be or low the number of interested link followers their are.Well without further  blathering, this is the list of 2009’s podcasters we hope to hear more from during 2010.

If you know someone with a podcast that should have made the list, leave their link. If it’s your link please let me know. i will gladly listen to more than one episode. probably every episode you do within 2010. Just respond to this post.

#10. Leslie Katz-Cnet News Daily Podcast, voice is kind of cool and not disruptive. Topics are clear and interesting.

#9. Alex Albrecht-Diggnation He drinks with Kevin Rose and reads from digg.com frickin a.d.d. train wreck lol!.

#8. Kevin Rose- Diggnation Gets drunk with Alex and gets off topic so often, I love it. Weekly Show.

#7. Andrew G.R.-Jobacle.Com s.Mostly writing there now. but still doing shows.

#6. Bryan Lunduke–Computer Action Show Computer Action Show. Seems like it’s up to twice a month nowe.

#5. Chris Fisher–Computer Action Show Computer Action Show. Seems like it’s up to twice a month now.

#4. Veronica Belmont-TekZilla New episodes: Thursdays usually around 45 minutes.

#3. Patrick Norton-TekZilla New episodes: Thursdays usually around 45 minutes.

#2. Leo Laporte –The Tech Guy Podcast Two Podcasts a Week for this show, Hours of entertainment while at work in a Zone.

#1.  Andrew McCaskey- Slashdot Review SDRNEWS SDR News Producer and Host – Slashdot Review about 15 minutes of just straight to the point tech news. No worries if you get super interested and can’t keep up, he has show notes on his website.

Zynga Sends Cease Notice To kid

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Zynga the company that owns Mafia Wars (a game played on Myspace and other locations) , Launched their new toolbar application two days ago. after a year of my kid having a toolbar for mafia wars, they decide to make their own toolbar. Since my kid’s toolbar had greater page rank, they send a cease and desist notice to conduit, the company my kid uses to make his toolbar.

After you read this cease notice, I want you to remember, all that my son had in his toolbar was links to his favorite websites that where focused on Mafia Wars for Myspace. Well he removed everything from his toolbar and started a new one focused on his own website (about Myspace Mobsters Family HFS). Soon after, Conduit removed the link to his toolbar from their search engine (powered by google) and then, the following day (today) Google removed him from their search. Wow, zynga threw a big tantrum because they  had an idea to late and could not out PR a teen age kid. Remember though.  THIS IS MY BOY we are talking about. I give high props to my son. I totally respect his intentions to shut down his toolbar before it got all covered in stupid, and I appreciate his modesty and integrity for allowing Zynga to capitalize on it’s income a little bit further.

I do suggest and recommend that Zynga go ahead since they threw the hissy fit, to register with conduit and take over the name of that toolbar because it’s PR, I would respect them a little bit more if they compensate  him for his efforts in keeping people interested in their game. I on the other hand will discontinue my Zynga account, and spend all efforts in promoting the fun created by playdom (mobsters). Zynga has lost my respect. I am not trying to rally troops and cause everyone to quit the games they create, Their games are fun, but man, they sure have no idea how the internet works and what free advertisement is worth. They need to respect their users a bit more.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Legal <Legal@conduit.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 7:03 AM
Subject: “Mafia Wars” toolbar – violation of the Publisher Agreement
To: *******

Dear Publisher of the “Mafia Wars” toolbar;

Thank you for choosing Conduit to power your community toolbar.

It has recently came to our attention that the community toolbar that you publish [CT2101201] [http://mafiawarstoolbar.ourtoolbar.com/] contains materials (such as marks, signs, images, or texts) that allegedly infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties [your toolbar name, logo, links, pictures and / or other contents include contents which were taken from or referring to Zynga’s Mafia wars application without receiving their written permission first].

This activity is considered a violation of the terms and conditions of the Publisher Agreement that you have approved prior to using the Conduit platform  (http://www.conduit.com/license.aspx).

We kindly ask you to remove any content that may violate the terms and conditions of the Publisher Agreement from your toolbar within the next 12 hours [or less] from the date of this email. If you fail to address the issues described in this email within such timeframe, we will be forced to take the required actions to resolve such violations. For the avoidance of any doubt or misunderstanding please be aware that all Zynga’s related materials should be removed from your toolbar [This includes your toolbar name, logo, and all the content which is related to Zynga].

We kindly request that while utilizing the Conduit platform, you will refrain from using material or content that is legally owned or licensed by third parties without receiving an approval from such third parties.

Thank you for your cooperation. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions.

Regards,

Conduit Compliance Department

They would not have acted out like this after year of the toolbar, if Zynga had not just launched theirs two days ago and saw they Suck at Page Rank

Digg This Please

Patch 5 For GTAIV Is Success For online Gamers

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Grand Theft Auto IV, has had a rocky run since the start. Many of us had a smooth install and smooth gameplay from the getgo. But many people had issue that almost seemed to be unresolved. The forums at gtaforums.com  practically flipped upside down. Many of the issues turned out to be someone poorly overclocking a computer and then putting the first real bit of stress on it, since the overclocking. Many had the issue of over heating, or not enough memory, wrong service pack or poor drivers.

Well Rockstar Torronto Spent a great deal of time  weeding through the posts on gtaforums.com checking and double checking for computer stats, and hardware configurations to see who all had what so they could re-test their build of the game and produce a patch.

After five tests, they have it ..  For more information go here.

The online patch now allows us to ban people who join  games we serve.. Actually made to kick out jerks and cheaters.

Today we released patched 1.0.0.4 for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV. The patch features a number of updates and fixes including the conversion of all region SKU’s into the same SKU, more freedom for users to customize controls, and several multiplayer fixes. The full patch notes can be found below. Please visit http://updates.rockstargames.com/patches/gtaiv/GTAIV_MAINTENANCE_UPDATE_1004.rar to download the patch.

Version 1.0.0.4 – November 10, 2009

GENERAL:

  • Convert all region SKU’s into the same SKU.
  • Include support for all languages within single exe.

CONTROLS:

  • Allow controls to be double mapped on keyboard.
  • Added option in controls menu to disable mouse controls in helicopters.
  • Adjust keyboard control sensitivity in hood cam view in vehicles.

MULTIPLAYER:

  • Security Updates to deter cheating in multiplayer.
  • Hosts can now immediately Kick users from their games in Lobby and in game via Cell phone without having to rely on peer voting.
  • Fixed a bug in Cops ‘n Crooks mode where Host would drop out and prevent remaining players from leaving game.

Got My Google Wave

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Here is a screenshot of the first 5 minutes of usage  of Google Wave I have 5 more invites left, looking for actual friends that will use it, that’s the hard part.

for some of you out there, yeah I know, it took me almost two weeks longer than everyone else. yadda yadda.. Well I got it. Most people don’t.

The settings, well there are none, so far it seems I have to use my real name instead of the screen name I have used for the past 12 years. Then again most of the people on there will know me by my real name… right?   well no not really. All of them people know me on hotmail, everyone else has my gmail address. I have learned to use my gmail account for everything because the Google team really does a great job stopping the spam. but ok, back on track.   It looks like you get up to 8 invites into your buddies, so you better hope you have a tight circle of friends, where every friend you have has each other added, or it could be two or three years before that one friend you have, gets around to signing up.

Invite says

Google Wave is more fun when you have others to wave with, so please nominate people you would like to add. Keep in mind that this is a preview so it could be a bit rocky at times.

Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to lick.

Happy waving!

Could use a little bit of tweaking like twitter integration, not auto tweet crap like everything, but checks all of your twitter friends and sees who has wave and incorporates them in, without giving unwanted email addresses out, gives them the chance to accept or deny the invites.

Same with your Myspace and Facebook. and what ever social network comes up and fizzles out (like digg).

This actually has the potential of being as big as chatrooms used to be, but a tad bit more elitist and segregated. HMM a public chat addition would be nice but really no one seems to want that in their software anymore.

From the looks of it, it just looks like the place that gmail should go, like an add on or replacement for the google chatbox/im box.

Well when I get the chance to talk to people and see wtf it does,
I will message more on here or start a new thread.

For now it’s just an instant messenger and my buddy list sucks.

Modern Warfare 2 c.o.d. XBOX360

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Throwing knives 1 at a time. Can scavenge and get more, but not at the same time.. So throw kill, pick up the dead guy’s kniufe, throw kill pick up the dead guy’s knife if he still has one.

infinity ward / Activision produced and manufactured the game.

Olympic deaths- when you die you do flips and twists, kinda cool and funny.

Cash instead of blood- latest patch killed the bloody deaths while in multy player. Instead of blood everywhere you see money fly up.
No cheats no glitch, glitch report feature, and all the cheated Xbox’s have been banned.
Vaseline-eye gone. This refers to the blurry background and scenery area that xbox used for every game that first came out to reduce the amount of imaged teh machine has to render, making it easier to  draw deeper detail in the images it is focussed on. Was a cheap scam if you ask me.  when you die, you get blurry though.

Predator drone missile, lets you do a lock on location while an air strike is performed, you guide the missle.
Auto and barrette at same time, means sniper and machine gun  as secondary weapon, pretty fricken cool if you ask me.
Leader board shows total time. Shows wins.
leader board . Shows accuracy shots. 1v1 with buddy = pad scores. one guy on there had 700+ kills zero misses. He logged in and was 1v1 with his other xbox and shot up the zombie machine.. causing zero misses. Kind of  frooty if you ask me..

Fast pace. Game moved at a rate not seen other than on Soldier Front.

Game was cool, I give it a 8/10.

I no longer have access to the game  or the console. ..

Expect a clear review when it hits PC

T-Mobile G1 Late Review

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Goods
The aps are free-cheap and very usefull.
The screen is huge compared to bb8100.
Sim cards are such a luxury.
Qwerty!
Touch screan menus.
Text messages organized by senders.
Youtube actually plays.
Streaming radio aps and a aux connection in car means way more stations than xm radio. For free!
Camera super high quality.
I’m writing this with G1 and a wp-ap.
Video recorder up to 30 minute videos.
Barcode scanner. Helps me find things that I already have but no idea where to get more of. That is a huge plus.
Opera mini!!!!!

Bads
Battery life is trash .
Cold days kill touch screen make it innacurate.
Many aps crash.
Costly service.
No close feature foe browser. Page back.
# button hard to do while recording voice mails.
Huge learning curve. More like a laptop than a phone.

WooHoo, My G1 Arrived

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Logged into my ups account and checked tracking. They left the dang thing on the front porch. A $400 phone left on the porch. Really?

Oh well had family at home to bring it in for me. So I called.

Good thing, after the scare I had last night with my Blackberry 8100 (lol just look at last night’s post.) I have two phones in my pocket. Only one has the sim card, the other is ready and waiting for just in case the BB8100  craps out on me.

I have no idea what to expect of the phone.

Blackberry 8100 Late Review

Posted onAuthorTruXter

I myself do not have the funds to be an early adapter. I find this convenient because by the time I purchase the cool stuff, it is already on the second edition, all of the bugs are worked out, and tons of people have tweaked and modded it to make so much more use of said products.

So here we are on my fifth month using a Blackberry 8100.

Moving up from my Motorolla Rizr to the bb was a huge step up. I didn’t actually need to install  opera mini on it but i did it anyway. Everyone had millions of applications to use on the device. Applications that where out from “mod my moto” that actually worked 100 times better on the blackberry version. Opera mini actually worked better on the blackberry, but I got a better advantage from the moto though.. moto browser just sucked bad.

I had issues with the firmware though. As I tried to install themes, my Blackberry started crashing a whole lot. I mean I was getting lock ups all the time already, but  it got really bad when I downloaded themes and activated them. so I hobbled over to the Forums at blackberryforums.com and found a thread about upgrading blackberry firmware . Great thread . Leads you to the actual firmware . See it seems the firmware we have in the united states that is on the blackberry website, or in the u.s. is like version 1.? (that is one point something or other). The version on the Asian server is like version 4.0 something or other. It’s crazy how it works. It actually took me off what the heck ever network I was on and put me on the edge network. oh just for a heads up. the people at Tmobile informed me that if you see a lowercase “edge” in the signal area, you have a crappier signal than if you see it all caps.

I got locked out of my blackberry after a theme install

Techy Tools use that to sync up with your Blackberry.

Ok while I am writing this. I kind of had to throw out some links I thought you may want while I goof around and try the newest version of the firmware. So.. there’s the links. Right now while I am typing this, I am 5 minutes into the upgrade

screenshot of the actual install

screenshot of the actual install

and crossing my toes and keeping the page on “previous versions” hot in my clipboard and the page open. in case it all goes wacky on me. Also I might look around and see if people have a specific choice of versions. maybe I will see why and try them all. I have just hours before my g1 shows up in the mail, I will use that one for a week or so and then sell it on ebay or what ever at barely used price. I will check it out just to review, but I really love my blackberry and all of  the tweaks out there for it. from browser to notepad.

Er crap.

Just got a bad error saying that some junk had to be saved as a back up and I should reload and restore.  i think my cat jumped on it and wiggled it loose before the install was complete. Ok freak out time. 1 am and I have to work tomorrow.  So now I am doing it all again, but not selecting the “back up” feature. I already have a back up of everything still in good. I don’t want it to back up the crap version, over the full version.

Ok crap just got the notice again.. This time I copied so i could paste it here for everyone to see.

A fatal error has occurred while updating your device’s software. Please try again.

Device communications error encountered. [A:0x00000025]

Yeah this isn’t good. so.. I go off and try and fix this.. meanwhile I se a black screen and blinking LED.

Erm.. Uh oh.. Now the program does not detect anything on the end of the usb cable..  did I mention the “uh oh” part?

Battery pull time… lol the action of a desperate  man.

Dang… Blinking light… now I run back to the forums!!!!!

Ok that was scary. computer wouldn’t identify the usb device (my fricken phone) so none of the software would work.. I left the  update program open at first page disconnected the phone, yanked out the battery and waited a second or so, plugged back in and bam… windows identified it. I am updating now :-)

Erm

Error 507 a circle a square a triangle with a circle around them all and line through the circle..  so I disconnect reconnect and rerun program

Newp No good.

Life saving post here wipe it and reinstall cross fingers and hope for the best

Free Online Games That Don’t Suck

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I have to say , ” My hat is off to ijji.com”  These people took some game engines from I have no idea where and made new games. Or they made their own games from complete scrap. But what ever the deal is, they made them good, they made them free. They even have done extensive measures to reduce the cheaters.

IJJI.COM Has a huge set of games. I’m not fond of the racing one. It seems kinda like an old 80s arcade game, always eating and wanting more quarters. all of their games you can add money to your accounts and get more stuff, kinda like the games on myspace. It’s great to not pay for anything and be able to slaughter the people who spent tons on the extra equipment. On another note, to have the ability to slaughter them people without buying, but go ahead and buy anyway because you just have to see what it does, must be natural because I really want to try everything. I know, you might not have an idea what i am rambling about, no worries.. You will soon. Very soon.

My favorite IJJI game is

Soldier front Fast paced Capture the flag type games in a small area so the battles can go nuts and be loud almost seem chaotic at first. Once you settle into the game, it is so addictive you get 8 hours consumed and not ever notice.

Another game like soldier front is called

A.V.A. Extreme graphics on a free game

Man you can crank the graphics up really well on this one, be sure and check the “manual” check dot. If you do not have at least 2 g processor and an nvidia 9 card with  2 gigs mem, I would not suggest you  crank anything up. By all gaming means these days, those are low low low specifications.   from what I see, the better settings they have are at 720p. it may go higher but I didn’t push a whole  lot of my Rig.

AVA screenshot

AVA screenshot

The fire looks crappy, will remind you of grand theft auto III, with a crappy gif looking flame in the middle of it.

Now a good game that will remind you of doom and quake

Gunz just not enough people on it.  looks a bit like  anime . If you have a network of computers at your house and a bunch of friends over to play a game, this one is perfect for that. because it is a great game, but not enough players for anything fun to happen of it. Not to be played alone.

Ok for the nvidia

Warmonger These guys need to take a tip from ijji and clean and lean up the game a tad bit. a bit to taxing for a freebee.

Then there is Huxley.

This game is the game to make halo look like pacman, to make grand theft auto play like doom1.

The in game looks like cutscenes from starcraft II. if you know anything about stracraft cinema , you know there is major extreme detail in their characters and images. The  terrain looks amazing.The skin has pores, the hairs are all single images and dimensions, instead of one blob with  hair drawn in. IJJI has out done everything there is to play. and the fricken game is free.

Kills me that while I was in my game testing phase, the game was still in beta. and I  only have videos to go by. The smoke looks like smoke, the explosions are  unruly real explosions.

These have to be the best of the best free first person video games. The internet needs more of these.

If you know any video games that are totally free and legal to download, please leave some information here in a response

HDTV Online?

Posted onAuthorTruXter

I watch tons of Television on my computer. Really the whole High Def world is multitudes better online than  any other source , well except for local broadcast. So I have a whole bag of websites I go to.

http://hdtv-divx.com Not really High def, but more like a 16×9 view area.

cbs.com Really high def, but fix any advertisement blocker you have or you will not see jack squat.

Diggnation Kevin and Alex

Joost

Yidio  <–I think what they are doing is illegal, so I am not linking them and I do advise leave your popup and spam blockers on.

and that is how I watch tv online, without the freaks and the spammy just. I warn never click that junk that comes in you email.