Calculating God, Mindscan – Review

In the last few months, I’ve read two books by Robert Sawyer: First I read Mindscan and more recently Calculating God. Robert Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer who has won both the Nebula Award (for The Terminal Experiment) and the Hugo Award (for Hominids). More recently and of more relevance, he won the John W. Campbel Memorial Award for Mindscan.

Mindscan takes place in the not too distant future. A company has found a way to scan a brain and copy the exact neural pattern in it into a synthetic body. The procedure is extremely expensive, so the only customers to undergo the procedure are those who don’t believe they will be around any longer – generally the elderly, who want to transfer their consciousness into a body that will live on for longer. Once the procedure is done, the synthetic body is supposed to inherit everything from the biologically original, while the original goes off to live out the remainder of their days on the moon.

Top 8 Worst Video Game Weapons

There have been plenty of useless weapons throughout video game history. That one gun that you never use or that one item you never get rid of, because you think if everything else breaks you may need. here are in my opinion the worst weapons in video game history.

8. THE GREAT KNIFE – SILENT HILL 2

The Great Knife was actually a cool weapon to own in theory, but when it came down to using the beastly blade it was not all it was cut out to be. It was so big and heavy you literally had to drag it behind you. Slowing your characters movement down to the pace of a 90 year old with a bum leg. When you actually swung it it also was a hassle because by the time the blade was coming down the monster had either already attacked you or was far out of the way. Overall it was a weapon lacking so severally in speed it was nearly unusable.

Pineapple Express Review

Every couple weeks or so a shitty “comedy” comes out that everyone says looks amazing, and you feel like you’re the only person who doesn’t think so, and so your friends shun you and hit you with sticks for it.
This is not that film.
I do admit, I was really skeptical about Pineapple Express when I first saw the trailers for it. I figured it would be a wannabe Cheech and Chong, or Jay and Silent Bob, but it really wasn’t (to an extent). Of course it still has the tall, long haired, possibly autistic character, and his more intelligent and large sidekick. However in Pineapple Express, they have motives other than just getting high until flashing colours are the only thing that will hold their attention. Saul, played by James Franco (also known as Harry Osbourne in the Spider Man trilogy) is a drug dealer with a

5 Flash Games to keep you busy at work.

Now of course while at work you are supposed to be, well you know working. However that can toll a hefty price on your brains after 4 straight hours of code cracking, spread sheeting, telemarketing or whatever it is you do. So why not treat yourself to a little entertainment? Who’s to say you haven’t earned it. Now don’t get me wrong, even if you aren’t at work you are welcome to partake in these flash gems.

BOXHEAD: MORE ROOMS

Rating: 3 and a half Severed Lego heads out of 5

You are some guy and there are zombies! ZOMG. Sometimes demons as well lol. It is a great little top view shooter to kill an immense amount of your employers time. The art style very much reminds me that of a cell shaded Lego game. If you enjoyed games like SMASH TV this game has your name all over it. Features include upgradeable weapons, many levels to choose from and destructible items. Overall a pretty solid flash shooter.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? / Blade Runner Review

This review is going to look at Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, a classic science fiction novel, as well as its movie adaptation Blade Runner.

When comparing a movie to the book it is based on, it is important not to expect the movie to just be a visual version of the book. Often the director pursues different themes, though using the same concepts as those the author did. Thus two different versions of “the same” story can explore vastly different ideas, without one being a cheap copy of the other.

I will first give the concept behind both the novel and the movie, and then review each.

Dark knight Review

Seeing as this is my first review, I feel I should start with a bang, and considering *bang* was the sound you hear whenever someone talks smack about this piece of cinematic beauty, I figured it would be appropriate.

When I first heard Heath Ledger was playing The Joker I was extremely skeptical to say the least. Especially after starring in “19th Century Homoeroticism: The Movie” and even though I haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain, from what I hear….Jake Gyllenhaal was the bitch. Think about that when you’re watching the Prince of Persia movie. Anyways, my skepticism and I were shown up while watching Dark Knight because about 5 minutes into the movie I’m pretty sure Heath had managed to terrify every man woman and child in the audience and show the tip of the batshit bonkers iceberg the Joker always should have been. After his second on-screen appearance, most of the rest of the movie is spent waiting for the Joker to do something else absurd and hilarious. As he should, the Joker does have a couple humorous moments. I personally found it hilarious when he was telling Rachel about how he got his scars, and in retrospect probably should’ve calmed myself because I was sitting at the back, alone, laughing hysterically. But every shot the Joker is in just gets better and better. The Joker is without a doubt the best part of the entire film.

Games you should have played… But probably didn’t.

I thought i would post some games here today that I myself really enjoy but, not many have ethier heard of them or played it for themselves.

TOP SHOP

Platform: Playstation

Why it’s worth a look: This is a great Party game. Up to 8 people can play at a time and is very board game like. You spin a pencil in the same fasion as you would dice and move to different spaces along the board. When you land in a space you can choose to open up a store in that space and stock it with high priced or low priced goods. When someone lands on your store they have to buy something making you money. You can also buy multible spaces in the same part of the mall and expand your store allowing for more expensive items and more storage space to hold them. The object of the game is the first to reach a set number of gross income wins. I know when you read this it may sound lame but, let me tell you it is a load of fun. there are many twists that can happen throughout the game as well that can completely change the rules or change the current standings to the complete opposite.

V-TERRIBLE

On the topic of gadgets Lets talk about this little wonder. The brand name vTech. The mere whisper of the word makes my skin crawl, my eyes water and my hands shake. In my house hold we have always had at least 3-4 different phone locations for easy access and so we wouldn’t have to fly down a set of stairs just to get answer it. Until about 3 years ago we were all about the wired phones. They are reliable and one less thing i need to explain to my parents on how to use. Then my sister decided to go out and get her own phone for her room and picked up the most colorful one she could find which just happened to be a vTech phone. She owned it for maybe 4-5 months when the pixels on the display screen started to die out. Then a month later it didn’t ring anymore and about 3 weeks after that you simply could not hear people on the other end.

We got rid of the demon phone once it was less a phone than a flashy paperweight. now for about a year I went on living my life without thinking of that shit phone until… The Year of 2006, Christmas was once again upon us. I fly down stairs like a thief fleeing the police I go down to see a rather big and heavy box. My dad tells me that ones for EVERYONE to enjoy. I shred the paper swiftly only to reveal. . . A SET of 4 vTech phones for the entire house hold. I was prompt to recall our last encounter with this brand of phone and thought to myself maybe it had picked itself up within the past year and fixed it’s products.

I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG.

Ever since that day I have had to live with the worste set of phones that man will ever come upon. They have no HOLD feature to ransfer to other phones. You CANNOT even pick up two phones at the same time so if the phone is answered on the Second floor but it is for someone who is the basement the ONLY way to get to it is to trek up two flights of stairs to the person with it to get the phone. It kinda defeats the purpose of having 4 of the same phone in the house. It has an excruciatingly painful battery life and when it is running out it constantly does these loud high pitched beeps in your ear untill you recharge it again.

In conclusion… I hate vTech phones and I am soon going to wrangle them all up and smash them all and when i do I will be sure to film it and post it here on my blog for you all to see. I hope I have convinced you against purchasing one of these awful, awful machines.

You have taken the red pill

Hello and welcome to the n3rds blog. In this blog I hope to appease a variety of nerds, whether your clutch is video games, gadgets, sci-fi, anime, or whatever the case may be I hope that you can come here and read something that may tickle your fancy as I try my best to update this blog as best i can.

Some may agree with me some will probably not but frankly I don’t really care because these are going to be my opinions and that is just what they are, opinions. So if you are easily offended or just think you are always right maybe this isn’t the place for you.

XBOX LAME

So I haven’t really sat down to play a good round of HALO 3 on XBOX LIVE in quite some time. When my friend called me up to ask me to go play with him, I quickly accepted thinking to myself “this is going to be a great time”. We played one round of Team Slayer when it suddenly all came back to me. The reason I stopped playing Halo 3 online in the first place. The online community SUCKS HARD BUFFALO TESTICLES. I mean yes, I did lose the first round, which is expected as I haven’t really played in a dogs age and call of duty 4 has really screwed up my own minds controller scheme. You would think you just let the world down with how bad you just played the way people talk to you on there. I can take just as much as I can dish the bad talk aswell but, when you are just there having a dis war with a 13 year old kid who came on his brothers xbox to “Own some n00bs” it’s like kickin a dead baby. I mean what is the point. I don’t know maybe it is just me. Maybe I am the only one who plays these little shits every night but, I highly doubt it though.

I like to think of it this way. Would these little online parasites act this same way had they been in range of my fist? Or are they so starved for attention at home that they think that the anonimity of XBOX LIVE will allow them to be as loud, crude and obnoxious as humanly possible just to get some well needed attention. This is and forever will be one of the many mysteries of the internets. For now my MUTE button is the best friend you can possibly have on XBOX LIVE.