School Bans Tag / Touch Footy

Check out CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/18/no.tag.ap/index.html. A school in Boston has banned chase games including Tiggie and Touch Footy for fear of students getting hurt and the school being liable. That is all I did when I was at primary school.

Nerd vs Geek

What is a Nerd? What is a Geek? The definitions have been questioned often and by many people. This definition of a nerd sums it up best I think:

Nerd

A person who gains pleasure from amassing large quantities of knowledge about subjects often too detailed or complicated for most other people to be bothered with.

Often mistaken for Geeks, who aspire to become nerds, yet lack the intelligence, and end up giving nerds a bad name due to their poor social skills.

Non-nerds are often scared of nerds, due to their detailed knowledge, and therefore seemingly high levels of intelligence - and subsequently denegrate them as much as possible as often as possible.

Nerds exist covertly within the fabric of society, often choosing to 'nerd it up' in private or in the company of fellow nerds. It is for this reason they are feared the most - unlike geeks, who are easily identified, nerds can only be found out when casual conversation reaches a subject that they like nerding.

Introducing WhiteWater World at Dreamworld

Get ready to experience the water-powered wow factor as Dreamworld finally does water!

Opening mid December, WhiteWater World is set to revolutionise the water park experience mixing adrenaline pumping thrills with family-style fun in the ultimate Aussie beach paradise.

WhiteWater World isn’t just a new water park, it's a brand new category – the most technologically advanced ‘water ride park’ on earth and the only place in the world boasting all four of the hottest waterslides on the planet.

The $60 million development will be the first new theme park on the Gold Coast in 14 years. Covering over 4 hectares, the park will feature the very latest in cutting edge water park technology from around the world.

Get ready for water like you've never experienced before and feel the ultimate rush at WhiteWater World.

Rambo IV.... Lets hope it is better than Rocky V

Aging filmmaker Sylvester Stallone will write, direct and star in Rambo IV: In The Serpent’s Eye, according to a report in entertainment trade magazine, Production Weekly.

The next chapter finds war veteran John J Rambo recruited by a group of Christian human rights missionaries to protect them against pirates, while they try to deliver humanitarian aid to the persecuted Karen people of Burma. When sadistic Burmese soldiers take some missionaries prisoner, Rambo gets a second impossible job: assemble a team of mercenaries to rescue the surviving relief workers.

Rambo 4 – which has also had the working subtitles End of Peace and Holy War – starts shooting in Thailand in January.

A condom that plays music?!

Looks like you're set to conduct your very own orchestera of love the next time you and your wife get it on in the shack. Ukranians are a very fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on how you look at it) lot as they are set to receive a new condom that was designed to play music louder and faster as lovers reach a climax. The name of the condom is Zaporozhye, which was created by the equally unpronounceable Grigoriy Chausovsky, and these rubber barriers come with an integrated sensor that registers when the condom is put on. The base of the condom contains a miniature speaker which will play a melody from the received signal. A registered increase in speed will play the melody faster and louder. One can only wonder how such a device is powered - via kinetic energy?

Original Post from http://www.davesdaily.com/.

NBL on Free to Air

The National Basketball League has continued the on-going expansion of its broadcast presence with the announcement today that Philips Championship games will be broadcast in Australia via Channel Nine on a weekly basis.

Starting from 15 October, Nine will show a one-hour highlights program every Sunday morning at 11:30am. The first game to be shown will be the South Dragons - Wollongong Hawks clash from Vodafone Arena.

See the full article at NBL.com.au.

UQ Law Revue 05 - You wouldn't steal a ...

I like this one too. Rather than purchasing a text book, would you ever goto the library and photocopy the whole thing? (Back when I was at uni, photocopying was cheap enough to do this sort of thing) Those of us who goto the movies know where this was ripped from...

UQ Law Revue 06 - March of the Engineers

The UQ Law Revue is a night of comedy from the UQ Law students that is put on each year to entertain the general UQ populous. Mostly, it just gives the Law students the chance to add to their self absortion. But sometimes, they provide some nuggets of true genious. I have been to a few Law Revues myself, back when I was dating a Law student and at the time there was definetly some funny stuff. This year, there was a skit that included the UQ Engineer. Check it out!

What Kind of Drunk Am I?

What Kind of Drunk Are You?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

Had to put this one up, it seemed so appropriate...

Which NBA Player am I?

Steve Nash

Take Which NBA player are you? today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

Treo 750v

Here is a first look at the Treo 750v, which I expect will come to Australia in the near future.

Microsoft Zune - New iPod Competitor

Check out the new Microsoft competitor to the Apple iPod. This video shows off the interface of the device. No pricing or release date have been provided at this stage, but this device certainly should hot up the MP3 market.

Forfeits even happen at the top level

It is never nice for a team to forfeit a game. It happens quite regularly in local competitions that I am involved with. But when it is an internationa team at a World Championships, I think it is newsworth. Check out this article from News.com.au.

Lithuania had to forfeit to the Australian Opals because they could not arrive at the venue on time for their game. A flight cancellation meant that the Lithuania's had to travel through a different country to reach Brazil, which required them to receive yellow fever shots before they left. They obviously did not have enough time. Do you reckon their manager will get the sack?

Chad Ford on Brad Newley

ESPN's Chad Ford wrote about the NBA prospects that played for their respective countries at the FIBA World Championships in Japan. Here is what he had to say about our own Brad Newley:

Brad Newley, SG, Australia (currently ranked No. 73)
Stats at Worlds: 20.5 mpg, 8.2 ppg, 46-percent shooting, 43 percent from 3

Newley declared for the 2006 NBA draft, worked out for a half-dozen teams and played in the Orlando pre-draft camp this spring. Scouts raved about his toughness, basketball savvy and his quickness off the dribble. However, he was unable to distinguish himself at the draft camp and made a quick decision to pull out of the draft and try things again next season.

I personally was impressed with what I saw over a one-week period of his training at Tim Grover's ATTACK Athletics in Chicago alongside Shannon Brown, Rajon Rondo, Dee Brown and other top prospects. While the game was clearly more uptempo than what he was used to, he fit in.

Newley made another important step toward the NBA this summer with a solid performance for Australia. Like several of the other prospects on the list, his best game was also against the U.S. He posted 15 points and knocked down three 3-pointers against the U.S. in a blowout loss.

Another year fine-tuning his jump shot and another spring getting acclimated to the speed of the NBA and Newley is a likely second-round pick with a shot at the late first round.

To read the whole article, check out: Chad Ford Blog.

Dunlap to Join Nuggets

Former Adelaide 36ers coach Mike Dunlap is set to take an assistant coach role with the Denver Nuggets!  Dunlap has been at Metro State of late, and been responsible for developing some good talent from Australia.  Luke Kendall, Mark Worthington and Daniel George all attended Metro State under Dunlap.

DenverPost.com - Metro State's Dunlap joining Nuggets

Transformers - The Movie

There seems some dissapointment regarding the upcoming Transformers movie that is being directed by Michael Bay.  Some of the screen shots have let people down and the fact that Bumblebee will be a Camaro not a VB is a bit dissapointing.  Check out this link to see what characters are definetly in.

IGN: Transformers Revealed!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Looks like there will be a fully computer generated movie based around the old cartoon Tennage Mutant Ninja Turtles out sometime next year. Check out the Teaser trailer:

Apple - Trailers - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - HD

EyeTV for Mac

I have recently received a BETA version of EyeTV v2.3.  I am sure that the final release will be out soon, but in the meantime, let me give everyone a heads up.

The new version adds some key features and fixes that really add to the products usability.

1. A bug has been fixed that allows the program to tune to more than 1 channel with a 125 kHz DVB-T frequency offset.  Previous versions only allows either SBS or Nine (but not both) to be tuned, since they both have 625 kHz offsets.  The new version fixes this issue.
2. The new version now supports DivX v6 codec for compression of recorded shows.  This combined with the great editing features (to remove ads) makes EyeTV perfect for recording and archiving TV shows.
3. Elgato have added a great new Full Screen Mode that works in a similiar way to Front Row.  It works with the Apple Remote (and Front Row) and gets users a step closer to full Media Centre support on using Mac OS X.

For more information on EyeTV check out http://www.elgato.com.

Gizmo - The new Skype

Check out this Voice over IP application that I think could take over from Skype as the defacto standard for computer based VOIP communications.

Gizmo – A free phone for your computer

Flock - My Browser

I am now using a new broswer called Flock.  Based around the same technology that created Firefox, Flock has a few extra features to provide access to Web 2.0.  It supports almost everything that Firefox does (including extensions!) but adds a few great features that I use alot of:

1. Blogging - easy links to allow me to blog pages I surf to or imagines I collect as I surf.
2. Photos - easy method to add photos to Flickr.  Hopefully some other services will be supported in the future.

Anyway, download it and give it a try!

Download Flock

Or check out some screenshots over at Flickr: Flock on Flickr.

Video Game Violence

Check out this article on Video Game Violence. It is basically having a go at the stupid people in US Congress who are going after games like GTA, just because they are popular. It refers to a heap of other games that are much more violent, sexually perverse and offensive. Got some great videos in it as well.

Video Game Violence Lesson

Media Central - Mac Media Center Software

My Mac Mini sits with pride in my living room as the centre piece of my entertainment area. Front Row has done some great things for Movie Trailers and Music while Eye TV has covered my DVB-T TV viewing - albeit a little bit more desktop focused. MediaCentral V2 has just been released - could it be the ultimate all in one replacement?

MediaCentral V2

Rocky Balboa - New Trailer

For all you Rocky fans out there, check out the Rocky Balboa trailer at Yahoo Movies. Ok, ok, Rocky V sucked really badly, but the other 4 were great. This one could make up for No 5. Rocky Balboa on Yahoo! Movies.

Nokia E61 Demo

The Physics of Superman

An interesting read about the Man of Steel and some of his powers.  It includes a reference to Super Chickens - any article with that reference must be worth a read. :-)

Astrophysics taking off on Superman

Classic Gaming

Check out this site to play classic arcade games like Donkey Kong, Space Invaders and Asteroids... Gaming Classics.

Space Shuttle Discovery Launch - 4th of July

Northern Uni Games 2006 - Caloundra

The Northern Conference University Games for 2006 are being held on the Sunshine Coast. UQ fielded two Men's teams this year but unfortunately no Women's group. The QUT girls team have a UQ flavour though, with 6 players from their teams play club ball at UQ. Check out the standings at this website: NUG 2006 - Results and Ladders.

Billy

Off to Billy's party on Saturday night. Happy 21st Bill, as usual your party will be a great warm up for Uni Games!

Transformers - The Movie

Michael Bay is directing a new version of Transformers. This time it is a real live action film, not an animation / cartoon. They have just released the teaser trailer, check it out over at www.transformersmovie.com.

Christina Ricci

I got to see 'Cursed' on Foxtel the other night. Pretty dodgy movie, but Christina Ricci is quite attractive. So I thought I should pay tribute.
 

Nokia E61 versus Treo 650

I have just purchased a new phone, the Nokia E61. I will post some info about it here when I get a chance, maybe even a small review. In the mean time, check out the size of the device against the Treo 650.

Qusers.com Initial Motorola Q Review

Here is a video review of the Motorola Q from Qusers.com. At the moment I am on a quest to find a mobile phone that does it all for me.

The Q has some good stuff going for it.

Pandora - The Music Genome Project

Here is another great site. Pandora is based on a simple premise: Enter a song or artist that you really like and let a computer select tracks that are similiar to it and play them for you. Give the computer feedback by rating songs as they are played - good or bad! What do you end up with? Your own Internet Radio station that plays stuff you love.

Pandora Internet Radio

Last.fm

This is a pretty cool site.  When linked with your iTunes or Winamp program, it logs what you play over time and creates a list of most played artists, tracks, albums etc.  Others can head to the web anytime and check out what you have been listening to.  It goes further by recommending arists and songs to you and using the Last.fm player, you can listen to radio stations generated by the site.  Anyway, I have talked about it enough, seeing and hearing is believing, check it out: Last.fm - The Social Music Revolution.

Superman Returns

Superman Returns opens in Cinemas this week. Here are some facts you might not know about the Franchise:

40 Things You Don't Know About Superman