Technology

Today during class Nate, Josh, and I were talking to me about a new game that came out at 12:01. From there we started watching some videos, instead of during our homework, and I found out it was something I want to spend my money on. The only problem with that is my checking account is running low and I’m going to have to buy something expensive before my next paycheck, therefore I won’t be able to get it at least until Friday. The game is called Red Dead Redemption and I would come out with a review of the game if I had it, but since this will probably be my last blog post that’s not going to happen.

From the videos we watched in class today the game looked very interesting and it’s much different than Call of Duty, so I can add a new type of game to my arsenal. The game is set in the Wild West and consists of a fantastic storyline and amazing multiplayer. Since the game play is in the Wild West the gamers control outlaws on the backs of horses and also shoot weapons of that era, such as revolvers, sniper rifles, lever action shotguns, Gatling guns, and much more. The game is viewed from the third person and every part of this game seems very realistic, almost as if I’m actually in it.

The graphics in this game are amazing; they’re probably the best of our time. From the videos I saw it seems much like Grand Theft Auto (one of my favorite games of all time), the single player as the same attributes but with different people, setting, and plot line. Not only will the single player be amazing, the multiplayer will be the heart of this game, consisting of many different game modes. The most famous will probably be free roam, but it will also have team deathmatch and other new game types. All the while playing this game, the user will be leveling up and constantly achieving upgrades and such. I can’t wait to play this game, hopefully it lives up to all the hype!

I just found out a few days ago that Infinity Ward, the creators of Call of Duty, is coming out with a new map pack. Once again Xbox is buying an earlier release date so their gamers can play the new maps a month before anyone else. I really hate this, why would Microsoft waste their money like this just to have their gamers play overly priced maps before PS3. It’s not as if they’re going to gain more Xbox users because they can buy a map pack. This doesn’t affect the fact that the PS3 is better than Xbox, no matter what Xbox does. Anyway the new downloadable content is going to be insane and the new maps are even better than the first ones.

Infinity Ward is calling this DLC the “resurgence pack” and it’s once again consisting of three brand new maps and two that IW is bringing back from the first Modern Warfare. The two maps that their bringing back are Vacant and Strike. If it were up to me they should just bring back every single map from CoD 4 and have forty or more maps to play on. Vacant was a map with indoor and outside action, it had a building with a connected garage, long hallways, and an opening in the middle; this was definitely one of my favorites. The second map, Strike, is set in a dusty Arabian landscape with many different long range sniping spots. These old maps will be revamped and enjoyable to the maximum.

IW is also creating three more completely different maps known as, trailer park, fuel, and carnival. From what I’ve listened to on youtube.com, from the creator, the Carnival map sounds like the most fun, it’s just a straight up carnival, not rundown or anything, gamers shooting out of a clowns mouth and on top of rollercoaster’s. The creator also said that trailer park is going to be basically just like a maze; making the gamer search around the map for opponents. I didn’t hear much about the last map, fuel, mostly because if was angry that it was being released to Xbox users again and didn’t want to hear anymore from the guy. These maps will be a little overpriced but definitely worth it they’re expected to come out for Xbox on June 4th and for PS3 about 30 days after.

Photos from: http://www.perezstart.com/sony/ps3/new-mw2-resurgence-pack-screenshots/10339/

Man do I miss playing Call of Duty, all I’ve been doing lately is working and studying for school. I was scheduled to work eight days in a row, which really sucks because I basically go to work instantly after school gets out. School is a full time job and on top of learning I have a part time job, therefore I have no time to do anything until eight at night. I never seem to be able to have enough time to play anymore.

I remember back when Call of Duty 4 came out, I played that too much. I believe that I logged 24 days of online play in a matter of six months to a year and that’s a lot, believe me. I was tenth prestige aka the gold cross; prestige mode is a way to up your status online in CoD, what happens is that you lose everything you earned in 55 levels to get a new symbol and start over with a fresh slate. That may sound lame and you might ask why anyone would to that. Well, the only answers are boredom and also to get a super cool symbol. I did that ten times, it took me maybe 15 days of being in actual game play to achieve this prestigious symbol. I was also able to achieve golden camo weapons that could only be unlocked if you completed everything for a certain class of weapons. I was clearly addicted to that game and since I didn’t want to do my homework back then and had nothing else to do outside of school I resorted to this amazing game. I don’t regret it at all it gave me bragging rights to all my friends, but since I have matured I have logged less and less time on these games.

This brings me to the next Call of Duty game, known as World at War. The creators, although they were different, copied the format from CoD 4, but added some twists in, such as some different perks, weapons, attachments, and Nazi zombies. Even though it sounds different, the basic concept was the same, but set in World War 2. In this game, since I didn’t play it as much, I only got to 7th prestige, and I mostly used my time to beat my last Nazi zombie level. Call of Duty has been known for its online play and compelling story line, CoD 5 had both the Nazi killing was something that stood out and made the game that much better. Therefore I didn’t spend 24 days online, I cut it to about half of that and focused a lot of time on massacring zombies.

This then led to the most recent Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2. I’m also addicted to this, but since I have no time to sooth my addiction I’m not able to play as much as I did in the past. This is definitely the best one by far, they revamped the online by overhauling the perk system and also giving me a better choice of what to put on my gun. I love this game and lately I’ve been suffering with withdrawals because school, AP tests, and work keep getting in the way. I can’t wait until this summer when I can play for however long I want and almost whenever I want.

Photo From: http://www.product-reviews.net/2007/12/24/now-at-prestige-on-call-of-duty-4-cod4-what-next/

At 11:33 my final AP test was over and that means that there are no more high stress tests, finally! These high stress level tests make me feel as though my brain is going to explode. AP tests suck horribly and I’m extremely happy that they’re all over; now I can focus on my other school work. NOT! Since these AP tests are over the curriculum in the classes has decreased in strenuous studying for instance in Physics we’re only working on projects while in AP Lit were reading “100 Years of Solitude”. The major I’m going into at UMD, which I posted earlier, is computer engineering. I found a great website with a teacher from Harvard who teaches computer science; so I think I’m going to watch all of his lectures before my first computer science class next year. I would much rather learn about computers than take AP tests or any class at all.

For those of you interested in computer programming I suggest you visit his site and maybe do what I’m going to do, here it is, http://academicearth.org/courses/introduction-to-computer-science-i. From this website you can basically complete an entire semester of computer programming from a professor at Harvard; how sweet is that! I hope to take a lot of information from this guy and hope that this betters my future career.

The professor is a pretty good teacher and tries to make his lectures fun, so far I only watched his first two about binary code and algorithms. These lectures were interesting and I intend on watching all 32 of them and increasing my knowledge in the field of computer programming.

Next year almost all of you will need a laptop and there are only two choices to choose from, Mac or PC. Both these types of computers are pretty equal, it’s just how much you’re willing to take out of your wallet. I would much rather prefer a PC over a Mac, but that’s just me. I’ll let you decide which one you will like better.

A Mac is definitely a very nice computer and most of these users are extremely happy with they’re performance. There are both positives and negatives to these computers though. I’ll start with the positives, no matter what type of Mac a buyer gets they always look sleek and sexy. There’s not much of a selection for apple computers because they’re the only supporters of Mac, but they do make up for it in the long run. You could just get the MacBook and upgrade the specs from there or you could get the MacBook Pro (the one I would get) which is a little better than the regular MacBook, plus it has a different look to it. You could also get the MacBook Air, one of the thinnest laptops in the computer industry. All of these Macs have a different look to them, but they all have great battery life and you can also choose how big of hard drive and RAM you want. An apple computer is widely known for its video and photo editing system; this is very sophisticated and extremely useful if you’re into that. Another great thing about a Mac is that they are NOT prone to viruses. There are things that set the Mac back and those are the price; Mac’s usually run two times more expensive than a good PC. They’re operating system, known as Snow Leopard is not as good as Windows 7. Plus a crucial part they are missing is the installed games on the hard drive; it doesn’t even come with solitaire. LAME!

PC’s are way better and much easier to buy and there practically compatible with every single program out there. If I were to buy a top of the line MacBook, which would never happen, I could get a PC of the same cost and ten times better. If I could spend $1200 on a computer I would probably get a top of the line gaming laptop with twice the RAM and five times the amount of memory. The one part about a PC that isn’t the best is the amount of battery life they have, but that’s alright. Plus, the selection of laptops running on windows is much larger than that of Apple, there’s about seven different computer companies and each of these has probably 20 different makes. PC’s are much more customizable, everything about them is just better; the processor, the memory, the operating system, the choices, the programs, and even the graphics.

If I were reading this blog I would definitely listen to the author and go with a PC, it’s extremely worth it. You may be drawn to a Mac, but don’t fall ill to them it’s just a waste of money, look around and do your research on what you need and then you can decide which PC best fits you!

Yesterday was the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 stimulus package. The package or DLC, as the modern gamer calls it, which is short for downloadable content consists of 5 multiplayer maps and nothing else. Guess what that costs? Maybe $5 or $10, NO! It was $15!

Let’s say that you need a bottle of pop and it’s your favorite pop that you drink all the time and the company suddenly raised the price. You have to get it because it’s the only thing that tastes good, but you know that their charging way too high of a price. Yes I compared CoD to pop and that’s exactly how I felt about this stimulus package, I had to get it because I knew it was going to be awesome, but I was shocked by the price. The map packs for the other Call of Duty’s were only $10 and I believe that those were much more worth the money. Why did you do this Infinity Ward? You just knew that most people are like me; it’s a necessity to have this upgrade and you understood that the gamers were more that likely to disregard the price.

The creators didn’t even construct much of a map pack. They brought back two maps that were from the first Modern Warfare, not anything creative, but they were my two favorites, Crash and Overgrown for those of you who know what I’m talking about. Therefore it was a good choice, but it definitely didn’t need to cost $15 and the other three maps are actually stunning. They each have a completely different feel, one of them is called Salvage, it’s a smaller map set in a junk yard in the dead of winter. Another is called Bailout, this map takes place in an urban area with both short and long range combat. The last map of the bunch is known as Storm, set in a rundown power plant gamers get tons of cross fire from rooftops and also from soldiers on the ground

The Stimulus package is definitely a success and it was 34 days ago when it was released to Xbox owners. Microsoft paid extra money for the map pack to come out for Xbox users earlier, why couldn’t we both get it at the same time? Who knows? I do know that I will enjoy this map pack as long as Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 stays around and that Xbox is LAME!!

I haven’t got to sign on the my Playstation and play some Call of Duty lately cause I’ve been too busy with work, school, and homework. Another thing that is interrupting my use of my PS3 is Skype; this is a program that allows people to chat with each other. It’s a free program that every computer user should have, it’s similar to aim and facebook chat except that you can talk through a webcam. I showed my parents what it was and told them that it would be a necessary program that they would need once I leave for college next year. Plus there are over 12 million people on when I sign in every time I turn my laptop on. Skype is awesome because you are able to actually see the person you’re talking to, which is really cool because it adds a whole other dimension to talking and once again it’s FREE!!

I really wish that I had more time to play CoD, once summer starts I’ll have the time and it will be awesome. I can’t stress how amazing this game is and since I’m really good at it, it’s even more fun to play. Maybe since I’m such a beast at this game I could join a clan and possibly become a professional gamer and have my absolute dream job. This dream is very unlikely though because these professional gamers are the best in the world and this is all they do and there’s no possible way I could play this game all day no matter how fun it is.

As for now I’m hoping to become a computer engineer and hopefully work for a successful company such as Sony or Microsoft and build some extensive hardware for them. I think it would be sweet to join the Playstation team and help design the next next generation gaming system. With the knowledge I will obtain throughout college I will definitely be able to do anything with a computer and even be able to manipulate the hardware to make a system function much better. Although the salary is very good, that’s not what draws me to this career and I can’t wait for college next year!!

Soon enough our nation will never have to leave their house for anything, all the necessities will be accessible via cell phone or something else. I was looking on the New York Times website and they had an article about a device that they iPhone has that allows the user to make payments with their credit cards. If Apple can create something like this then imagine what’s going to happen in the future.

The gismo makes it able to pay any sort of bills that a consumer has or allows them to make donations to many different groups. The device plugs right into the head phone jack and can somehow read the magnetic strip on the card and then it transfers the selected amount of money. This invention is very useful if the user is very lazy, but this technology can lead to much more technology.

The iPhone also has another application that allows two different people to transfer money between their accounts through a bump of each iPhone. This app makes it extremely easy for a friend to pay them back and through this technology it could completely eliminate the use of cash. The iPhone is definitely the best phone out in the market, but it’s only accessible for those people who have AT&T. If I could have any phone it would be this one, but since I have Sprint I could not easily get an iPhone. There is a way of getting this phone, but I would have to buy a $600 unlocked iPhone and then crack that so it is able to work on the Sprint network. By doing this there’s a chance that it would not work and that would be $600 down the drain. I have heard talk of the iPhone wanting to switch phone companies because AT&T pretty much sucks and hopefully it would switch to sprint!

Now to switch over to the topic of electronic money, I believe that in the future the need of cash will not be a need. Everything will be accessible via credit card, were starting to switch over to that technology now with the sensor on the sliding devices that does not require the user to slide their card. Eventually all places will have this technology and swiping will be the new trend not sliding!

Photo from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/technology/29cashless.html?ref=technology

Today I’m driving up to Duluth to register for college with my mom and it made me realize how much I don’t really talk to her. She asked me what I’m doing in school and I told her about physics and how interesting it is. In Physics Mr. Howard is teaching us about quantum mechanics and quantum theories; it really baffles me how people of modern physics think. For example, what was Einstein thought process when he was wondering what it was like to travel next to a beam of light? Or what’s a modern physicist do? Physics is definitely the most interesting and intriguing science class and almost everything relates back to it. Mr. Howard told us today that back in chemistry we were actually learning about physics and quantum theory and how chemistry is just an extension of physics.

Quantum physics is pretty crazy because these genius physicists don’t even know exactly how it works and particles at the atomic level behave completely different. We just learned how when you shoot protons at a double slit the proton splits into two and then it gives a pattern on the sensor that would be just like a wave. But when a device is watching the protons, the protons behave just like they’re supposed to, quantum physics is crazy!! We watched a video about Hugh Everett, a famous physicist, who created the theory of a parallel universe. If an atom can split, and were made out of atoms, can we split too? Who knows? Crazy stuff!

Last week the physics class took a trip to Chicago and we went to see Fermilab, a place where physicists do a bunch of stuff. But what this place is known for is its particle accelerator, where they accelerate protons around a 4 mile track and then collide them. I won’t get too deep into that because I fear I might just lose you guys. But soon Fermilab will be overtaken by a more sophisticated accelerator or in Switzerland called the CERN hadron collider. CERN has a much larger accelerator and the intensity of the beam is also much stronger. This collider is looking for what physicists call the “God” or the higgs particle, which is the basis of everything and could lead to much better technology or even other dimensions, these scientists don’t know what’s going to happen with this accelerator.

My mom and I then got into talking about what the future is going to look like and how much technology has changed and it has. She mentioned what the technology will be like when I’m her age and what kind of things we will be able to do. It’s pretty crazy to think about the technologies we will have such as, traveling and possible living on the moon or how communication will advance. I can’t wait to see what happens and am amazed how our generation will be leading this technology movement.

Photos from: http://www.blacklightpower.com/theory/DoubleSlit.shtml http://www.djibnet.com/photo/atlas/the-large-hadron-collider-atlas-at-cern-2046228644.html

After a long wait I finally went and picked up my playstation from the UPS store. As I was driving home all I could think about was how I’m going to kill some people. Then when I was getting the Playstation out of the back sit I turned around and the box slipped coming out of my hand, but luckily I caught myself and saved myself from buying a brand new one. After that almost accident I brought my dearly loved possession inside and brought it downstairs to my gaming zone. I flipped open the box cutter I got from work and sliced right through the packaging tape as fast as possible. I was surprised to see how brand new the Playstation looked; I swore Sony said this thing is definitely broken so we’re just going to give this person a brand new one. There was no way Sony could’ve cleaned my playstation up to look that good. Then I had to take it out of the Styrofoam to see the PS3 wrapped in a thin protecting screen that I had to peel off. The whole time I was opening it I was thinking to myself how awesome it’s going to be when I finally log on for the first time in three weeks.

I came to find out that they replaced my hard drive and everything that was previously on it was wiped clean. I actually had to re-set up the whole PS3, and that process took longer than I thought, so technically I didn’t start playing until an hour later. Before I could play I had to pick my language, date, time, set up wireless connection and my account. Then I was able to play the greatest game ever created, CoD MW2. Since Sony replaced my hard drive I lost all my saved game progress, so if I were to play the campaign mode I would have to start all over, but I can play online where I left off because that has nothing to do with the single player. This whole process isn’t the first time that it has happened, a while ago about three months after I got it, it broke and I had to do all of the same steps. Thank god I didn’t have to talk to anyone stationed over in India or else I probably would have been even angrier.