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.

Last night while I was doing my homework I was watching this show on the History Channel that was all about invisibility. The show was called “That’s Impossible” and scientists talked about how this new technology is advancing very quickly. The show was extremely interesting and I actually learned a lot from it. At the beginning of the show it started off talking about deception of the eye and playing tricks on it to achieve this invisibility. Up until now that’s the only way people could obtain some sort of cloaking, the very first type of deception was used centuries ago by ninjas. These ninjas would deceive the eye by hiding in a person’s blind spot until their angle of vision focused on something and then they were able to attack without alerting anyone. The ninjas knew the eye very well and by knowing that they were able to move very stealthy among anybody.

Next the show talked about how in World War 1 the allies used deception against the German’s. Winston Churchill the leader of Britain hired a magician to try to cloak an entire canal and port from the German’s. This task was very difficult but the magician figured it out and his ideas turned out to be extremely affective. To conceal the port he created a fake port a few miles away from the actual port and also made it a little more noticeable by faintly lighting it up. This caused the German’s to be attracted to this fake port and kept the actual port intact. The canal was a different story he had to make a huge canal invisible to the naked eye which took some time to figure out. After a while the magician came up with an idea; the idea was to set up hundreds of spotlights with mirrors that would reflect the light causing the pilots to attract to this point and also disorient them. This deception of the eye was very effective and by maintaining these necessary points the allies won the war.

Before this century people could trick the eye, but now scientists are coming up with ways to actually cloak something. A professor from the University of California developed a “metamaterial” that could clock microscopic items, the first step into invisibility. The way a metamaterial works is that it is able to bend the light waves around an object making that object, invisible. Another professor from Duke also created a different type of metamaterial that was able to conceal an object by bending microwaves around these rings of his own fabricated metamaterial.

There actually has been a leaked top secret account of a tank being cloaked by people over in Britain, but the show didn’t explain that part very much. Also there is a scientist over in Japan that has created a cloaking jacket that is made out of tiny beads that bend the light around the suit making the person look invisible, much like that of Harry Potter. I’m pretty sure that this technology is actually out there and the government just doesn’t want the people of America to know about such a top secret thing. If this technology fell into the wrong hands there could be a national disaster, bombings and terrorist attacks would be coming out of nowhere and people’s lives would be in danger. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen and we can use this technology in the best way possible.

Images from: http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/C/cloaking_device.html

Now when I get home from school I have to stare at a TV that has to Playstation connected to it. This makes me very angry because I used to sit in front of that TV almost every single day and play Call of Duty and now that it’s gone I have no need to play. I sent my Playstation into Sony about a week ago now and I haven’t heard anything from them, it’s really weird not being able to play at all. Now that I can’t switch on my missing Playstation I have more time to do my homework, go outside and even more time to work. YAY!! Not!! This sucks I don’t want to do any of those things I want to play Call of Duty and shoot people in the head. There was something that angered me even more today.

I get home from school to realize that my Playstation was at my door, but it needs a signature to be in my possession. UPS can’t leave the item because of the signature so they left a note on the door saying that they were coming back at the same time tomorrow. Why would they come back at the same time tomorrow if nobody was there today?

So I took the tracking information that slip gave me and I went to ups.com to try to change the time the package would ship so that someone would be at home to sign for it. The website was kind of frustrating because I couldn’t find what I was looking for and once I typed in the tracking code and I wanted to go back a page the web page would expire. Because of this I had to type in the stupid 10 digit number too many times. Fed up I decided to call the number on the notice, I would get even more aggravated when a machine answered. I hate listening to these robots that try to talk to me, why can’t a real person just answer? The stupid thing started to anger me so I started yelling at it and after enough yelling the machine switched me over to an agent.

I came to find out that I can’t even switch the time my Playstation would come; therefore I had to resort to picking it up at an ups store. After all the frustration I realized that I was going to get my Playstation tomorrow and I would be killing people all across the world in no time!

During our week of spring break, Apple came out with its newest and greatest advancement. This device is called the iPad, a highly anticipated piece of technology. Jordan, one of my other friends, and I went on a little trip up to Minneapolis to go to MOA and the casino, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that this device was coming out on the day we were leaving to come back to Rochester. We all then decided to come back a take a peek at this device before we left.

We could tell that iPad had plenty of buyers by the empty waiting lines that seemed to go on forever. When I realized that this device was going to set someone back $500, I couldn’t see how someone would want one. That was before I actually got to examine one for myself.

Essentially the iPad is a giant iPod Touch, it can do everything the touch can do, but in some cases even better. The iPad has a 9.7 inch LED screen, about 3 times bigger than the Touch and its content is given an update. A user can now edit PowerPoint’s, see everything bigger, create a library of books, and much more. The iPad is pretty much a full blown computer that looks like an enlarged iPod Touch. The virtual keyboard it has is surprisingly wonderful; I don’t think I misspelled a single word while I was playing with it.

There are some flaws to the giant iPad; one of those is its size. You can’t really take this device anywhere except for around the house and you can definitely not fit it in any one of your pockets. The price alone would turn me off to this device, but I know for a fact that eventually the price will come down and Apple will release newer ones that are even better. One factor Apple forgot about is the need for a camera, now a day most electronics have a camera and this one does not. Also for the visual quality the iPad has its apps aren’t even full screen and are definitely not in HD.

For more information visit: http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/ (Picture also from here)

While I was playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 on the first day I spring break, I experienced something very detrimental. My Playstation 3 broke right in front of my very eyes. I was about to win a game of team death match on one of my least favorite maps (Derail) when all of the sudden my screen just went black. It was extremely weird and very unexpected, but right before the screen went out CoD gave me an error message I have never seen. I can’t remember exactly what the phrase was, but once I saw that I knew something was extremely wrong.

I seriously had no idea what was going on, I sat there for a few minutes to soak in exactly what happened. But I was lost in my thoughts, so I decided I would turn it on again. Then my Playstation gave me what PS3 users call YLoD (Yellow light of death), it’s very similar to the Xbox’s ring of death. I actually had to look that up online after I observed the symptoms and I was then able to diagnose my Playstation with deadly disease.

This is exactly how it happened; I turned on my Playstation again, then I looked as though it was going to turn on, but it gave me a yellow light and after that three distinct beeps, then a flashing red light. I found a website online that a guy created for people just like me, as I was reading his article I was shocked how exact his explanation was. Everything he described was exactly how I felt and exactly how it happened.

Once I found out that the only way to cure my PS3 was to send it into Sony Playstation and pay $150 just to get it fixed, I was even angrier. I found some videos online of a few people taking apart their whole entire Playstation to re-solder the broken connections on the memory board, but there was no way I was going to try that and have to buy a brand new $300 PS3.

So I called Playstation the next day and they told me everything I would have to do and how to send it into Sony and how I can’t fix the problem myself. Then the person asked if there was a disc stuck inside, and I realized that my favorite game was still in there and Sony is the only company able to get that out. I’m now sitting at home still waiting for Sony to send me back my PS3, so my favorite hobby will have to be put on hold for a little while longer!

I’m amazed how far technology as came in the past few years, everything has been changing at an astonishing rate. For example a few days ago I went to Best Buy and got a 8 gigabyte flash drive for under 30 dollars; Imagine how expensive one of those would have been just two years ago. I remember when a computer’s hard drive could only hold 8 gigabytes of memory and that wasn’t that long ago. There are many other technological advances that have been made in recent years and they’re just going to keep advancing.

As all of you readers of my blog know that my laptop crashed about a week or so ago and I didn’t lose anything, but there are precautions I’m going to have to take. Lately I’ve been looking at buying an external hard drive and I’m really interested in the one terabyte of memory. For those of you how don’t know about this kind of stuff a terabyte is 1000 gigabytes. My parents and friends ask me what am I going to do with such a device and I really have no idea. As of right now I probably wouldn’t need it, but I could store everything for the rest of my life on it. An external hard drive would be extremely nice because if my laptop does crash again I have all of my files backed up onto this external hard drive. These things are not too expensive, but I don’t feel I need to spend 150 dollars on one terabyte of memory, when technology is going to advance and soon enough there will be even more memory to be had.

Not only has the memory space increased the number of hackers and illegal downloads have increased also. There are many programs out there which allow people to download stuff illegally, I’m not going to name any for safety’s sake, but a few years ago companies could control this. Now a day’s almost everyone with a computer does this because it can’t be stopped! Also years ago people didn’t have the knowledge that they have now to create such programs.

There have been many new advancements on all spectrums of technology in the past ten years and there is no slowing society down. From new programs to computer processors to external hard drives we can’t really be stopped, Go Technology!

Yesterday I was on facebook and one of my good friends decided to post a link to YouTube which really angered me. It was all about how the creators of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2(my favorite game) are coming out with new downloadable content for the Xbox only. I was extremely upset with this decision because I have been playing CoD ever since number one and I don’t get to have this opprotunity. Why would the creators, Infinity Ward, do this? The only reason that comes to mind is that the Xbox sucks and they feel bad for these people that are suffering playing on crap.

From what I’ve heard and whats in the video is that the DLC (short for downloadable content)is going to be amazing. So far Infinity Ward hasn’t said too much about it, but as they call it the “stimulus package” will consist of many new weapons, maps, special ops missions, and killstreaks. I have no idea what kind of weapons their going to introduce, but I bet that their going to be pretty crazy. The guy in the video mentioned a lot about the new maps that their coming out with. Infinity Ward said that they have created 3 or 4 new maps and are bringing back some favorites from CoD 4. Otherwise, there’s not much more released about it, the creators just mentioned a little bit about new special ops and possibly a new killstreak called the minibird, or something like that.

The release date of the new content is only a week away (3/30/10) and guess what? I don’t even get to play it till who knows when. I’m such a huge fan of CoD MW2 but this makes me really angry. Plus to make matters worse all of my friends with Xbox’s are bragging about it and are posting links to youtube on my facebook wall, rubbing it in. How are the creators coming out with map packs for the Xbox when the gamers keep finding glitches inside of the maps that were made in the original game. Why do you have to do this Infinity Ward? Why????

My latest addiction is the brand new game called God of War III, it’s a button masher set in Greek mythology. I actually decided to stay up for the midnight release because I love the series and extremely wanted to play it. In fact this addiction is the reason why I’m up so late typing this blog post due for tomorrow or should I say today. For those of you who don’t have any idea what God of War is I can give you a little background, it follows a story of a revenge seeking man named Kratos on his way to kill almighty Zeus because of Zeus’s betrayal to Kratos and the other Gods. This game is rated M for mature and it definitely shows that, from the inappropriate nudity to the extreme gory violence, but that’s what the series is based on and the blood makes it that much better.

Before GoW3 came out I found myself playing GoW2 anticipating what was going to happen in the newest game. After playing my addiction I realized how far the graphics and everything has actually evolved in the past 5 years. Everything in GoW3 is much more advanced and the graphics make the surroundings and the characters look as real as possible. I can see every single detail on every different character; the graphics are of the best I have ever seen. There are many great things about this game, one of them is the numerous ways to kill an enemy, and another one of them is the multiple achievable weapons and upgrades I can get. I also enjoy the fantastic puzzles the creators put in there. With each game the plot line gets even more intense and I can safely say that this is the best on yet!

So far I believe I have played eight hours in the past three days and right now I’m stuck at the fight between Kratos and Zeus, which I fear that I’m coming to an end. I don’t want this game to end I want it to have more replay ability because I love this game that much. I love to kill Gods with my blades of exile and watch how the plot unfolds and the entire dramatic timed button pushes. This is one of my favorite games of all time and I fear that the series is coming to an end. Please Kratos live forever and let me control you!!!

Sorry I haven’t posted since last Thursday, but that’s all because of my unfortunately, unlucky week last week. While I was on my laptop over the weekend it went crazy and gave me the dreaded blue screen no one ever wants to see. I thought to myself what am I going to do? What caused this type of error? There were hundreds of questions running through my head. I decided I would go upstairs to tell my parents about what happened and how angry I am because my laptop is only two months old. I could not get the darn thing to do anything I wanted it to do so I just let it sit there overnight and my mom would call Best Buy in the morning.

That’s exactly what she did and Agent M from Geek Squad told her to tell me that I should bring the laptop in for inspection. Then after school I went home and immediately brought the laptop in; I was so worried about everything, especially all of the documents, pictures, and programs that I had on it and whether or not I would still have them. Luckily the agent how looked at the broken laptop thought that there was an issue with the hard drive and that the repairs would be covered under the manufacturer’s warranty. Both my mom and I were relieved that we didn’t have to pay a penny for a much needed repair.

After a few days, we received an email saying that my laptop was ready to be picked up, but my dad neglected to anyone that we got the email until Best Buy was closed. That upset me a little more knowing that I would have to wait till the next to pick it up. Immediately after school I booked it home to get the receipt and sped over to Best Buy to pick up my much wanted laptop. The guy at the counter handed me my laptop and told me that there was an issue with the RAM (random access memory) and all they had to do was replace. I was dreading that moment when I pushed the power button to see what they had done.

But to my surprise I didn’t lose anything; not even a single picture. As soon as I saw that I jumped up and down screaming ecstatically. Thank God for Best Buy and Geek Squad because without them I wouldn’t be doing this blog and probably playing even more God of War III..

As you can see from the new photo I put up on the blog, there’s a new phone on my wish list. The bad part about this is that it’s only on my wish list and not in my pocket thanks to Sprint’s two year contract. With the advancement of technology every cell phone I get is obsolete within four months; this angers me because I have to have my phone for two years before I can get the full upgrade. This is one of the reasons why Sprint disappoints me sometimes, but there are more and there are places where they succeed.

First I’ll finish what I started and tell you some of the way Sprint disappoints, well I found out about two weeks ago that my phone’s battery can’t be fixed at the sprint store that’s a mile away from my house. Instead I have to drive all the way out to the south side of Rochester just for them to run a battery test. The guy I talked to at the closest Sprint store seemed upset about the movement of the repair shop and he told me that to create a new repair shop, Sprint has to get rid of an old one. I came to find out that the guy who helped me was the repair technician till his job was sent up to Duluth at the newest store. I also don’t like how Sprint forces its customers to have the same phone for two years because technology advances much faster. Plus they could make more money if people kept updating their contracts. Sprint also doesn’t offer the best selection of phones, the HTC Hero is one of three good phones that Sprint has out there; I wish the iPhone was exclusive to Sprint not AT&T.

There are some things that Sprint does well though and those are that they have good service almost everywhere, their now 4g network is very fast, their “good” phones are good, and their plans are fairly inexpensive. My phones connection in school is at full bars and pretty much everywhere I go I have full reception; there are a few spots in the middle of nowhere where I start to roam. Also whenever I check my facebook status on my phone the speed of the loading is extremely fast, it’s kind of nice. The iPhone is definitely the best phone on the market right now, but many companies are finding ways to compete with it and the HTC Hero is very similar. It runs on a new operating system known as “Android”, I just allows the user to download apps and have multiple programs running at the same time. Plus the look of the Hero is very sleek and slim and the colors from the LED screen really pop. The last thing I like about Sprint is the plan that my family has, we only pay around $150 for four phone lines to have unlimited everything, I have no idea how I would survive without my phone and overall I’m glad that I have Sprint.

Man I really hope that by the time my contract ends I’ll have a new phone in mind that’s the best phone on the market, but as for now I’m wishing I had a “Hero”.

I’m so excited for spring break to come because a few of my friends and I are planning to go on a road trip. We’re thinking about going up to Minneapolis and hitting up the Mall of America and just enjoying our senior vacation. After that we wanted to go up to black bear casino and win some money, all of this would be possible through the technology known as GPS.

GPS for those of you who don’t know stands for global positioning system. It works something like this; satellites orbiting the earth at approximately two revolutions per day receive a signal from the GPS and it uses triangles to solve where the signal is coming from. About 30 years ago this technology was only available to people in the military, but now it is a useful tool used by almost everybody. Without GPS we would have to find our way by using complicated maps and run the risk of getting lost. A GPS finds the fastest route to your destination and gets your directly up to the door of that place, anywhere around the world. It’s also great for finding things to do; most GPS’s offer a way to search for anything that sounds interesting. For example, my GPS on my phone can search for the closest McDonald’s all the way to the gas station with the cheapest gas.

Well, I know what I would have to do without a GPS, but since I have one why not use it? These devices are extremely nice to have; they make navigation and traveling so much easier and it’s really interesting how these things work. Thanks to my easy to use GPS I can never get lost unless I type in the wrong address or something stupid like that. We are going to remember this road trip for the rest of our lives and we’re definitely not going to get lost on our way. SPRING BREAK HERE WE COME!!!

This post should have no affect on the last post what so ever, the Playstation 3 is still better than any other console hands down. On February 28 the Playstation network was hacked into and someone planted a virus that affected nearly all of the Playstation, and my PS3 was infected with this bug. I was angered by this, at first I had no idea what was going on but later I would find out what really was happening

Usually when I get an error code it only has numbers but this code was different and it looked like this, 8001050F. Then I decided I would look it up online, but when I tried to access the playstation website it took a really long time to load. When I finally got to type in the error code it basically said that if the disc isn’t the problem then I’ll have to send it in. I knew this problem couldn’t have been the wireless internet connection because my laptop’s internet was working perfectly and I could even access the internet on the Playstation. Therefore it had to be all the Playstation Network’s fault and all I wanted to do was to play some Call of Duty. I couldn’t even play the campaign mode it gave me an error message, “Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game.” I was so mad that I instantly shut it off and went on my laptop to find out what exactly was going on.

Come to find out I wasn’t the only person facing this, it was happening worldwide to almost all of the older “fat” versions of the PS3. Once I found that out I was relieved that I probably wouldn’t need a new Playstation and Playstation Network would hopefully figure something out soon. Eventually that would happen but I would face some other problems along the way.

When I woke up the next morning I turned on my TV and it didn’t work, so then I tried turning on the Playstation and it gave me a different error code. After that I tried to access the internet on my laptop and what do ya know no signal! I was having a horrible day, no Playstation and no TV, what was I going to do? Later that day I found out that someone ran into the charter cable box outside my neighbor’s house. Thanks to modern technology there are always people to fix it, so someone from charter came out to fix the box and later the next day Playstation Network was up and running again.

In the world of modern day gaming there are two consoles out there that stand above the rest and those are the Xbox 360 and the PS3. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, the Xbox 360 is made by Microsoft and is used to play video games. On the other hand the PS3 is made Sony and is also used to play video games and much more, even more than the Xbox. If you can’t tell already I own a PS3 and I believe that the Playstation is the greatest.

Every time I talk to one of my friends that have an Xbox about an exclusive PS3 game coming out soon or anything about the Playstation, they get all defensive. Then the conversation turns into a full on argument, both sides yelling at each that their console is better. This seems to happen every single time and the obvious winner each time is the PS3 and this is the explanation.

The main reason why the PS3 is better than the Xbox is because it has a blu-ray player; normally one of these players goes for 200 to 300 more dollars than the Playstation. Blu-ray has its advantages over the regular DVD’s, the quality of the picture is in high definition and the discs are the future of gaming and movie watching. Go with a PS3 to complement your TV and enhance your gaming experience.

Another aspect that the PS3 excels in is free online; everyone on the Xbox has to pay 50 dollars a year for a tiny bit better online. I’ll give the Xbox some props, they do have more people and their connection speeds are a little better, but playstation is free and it’s just as good. Since the Playstation Network, as it’s called, is free it allows a gamer to create multiple online profiles. While on Xbox you have to pay that 50 dollar fee for each name.

The Playstation can also support a full internet browser while Xbox cannot. While they have a facebook application, us playstation users can be on the actual website.

Another feature the playstation provides is a rechargeable and much more comfortable controller. When an Xbox controller dies they have to go and get two double A batteries and when a PS3 controller dies all we have to do is plug it in through a usb cable. I believe that the Playstation controller is designed more for the gamer; it rests in that persons grasp and can stay there for hours on end.

Although these two consoles are very similar and are pretty equal the Playstation would definitely win in a head to head battle. Both console owners are very protective of their property and if you asked an Xbox owner I’m sure he would say that I’m wrong, but I have experience with both and the PS3 comes out on top.

Photos credited to: http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/malled/tag/sales/
http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/print.aspx?postid=239472

Yesterday I was watching my dad check his email and my uncle sent him a message that seemed pretty funny to him. Then he told me to come check it out, the email was a pretty long one. It basically was saying that the younger generation has everything so easy, but to say this you had to be at least 40 years of age. There were about 25 examples; mostly all of them were regarding the technology we use every single day.

“I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!” That’s just one of the examples this email describes, and another one is “There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!” This email is basically dissing our entire generation and all of the technology that makes life “easy” for us. Technology now a days has its problems though; as many of you can contest finding a credible source is difficult and for someone who gets caught stealing music off the internet faces thousands of dollars in copyright fines.

Our generation does have many advantages over the generation over 40, from having cell phones that have many features such as call waiting, texting, and caller id to internet and all of its features. This generation on the other hand is probably easier than the one mocking us, but they survived with what they had and we will do the same. The middle aged man is saying our lives are easier and just like the title of the email “This is so true!” I believe what he’s saying, but I try to deny the truth because that’s what his generation did and that’s what I’m going to do.

Today when I got home from school I decided to play some Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 since I didn’t have to go to work. For those of you who don’t know about CoD (Call of Duty for short). It’s a modern day first person shooter for all electronic platforms. There’s so much packed into this game, from the continuous unlocks on multiplayer to the intense campaign mode, to the brand new special ops. Call of Duty is mainly known and played for its online multiplayer, and that’s exactly what I played. The online is good because millions of people play, it’s designed beautifully and there is so much replay ability. I love to talk smack to the other team is the pre-game lobby and boast about how I’m better than them, then actually prove it to them by killing them numerous times. This is by far my favorite game, but it might have to contest with a highly anticipated game coming out in about 3 weeks.

That game is called God of War 3, it’s a button masher that follows a very intense man named Kratos on his journey to become a god, and it’s based on Greek mythology. I’m so excited for the release of this awesome game, God of War 1 and 2 were my favorite games back when the playstation 2 was the best gaming system; hopefully it will be even better than those amazing games. March 16th is that day, I just can’t wait I want to see what the creators have up their sleeves and how they’re going to develop the beginning of the end as they call it.

All of these programs are available on all operating systems, but I suggest that all PC users get a copy of Windows 7 just to enhance their computer experience. There are millions of computer programs for all ranges of people, these are just a few excellent programs that are a necessity for anyone using a computer:

1. ITunes
In my opinion ITunes is the most user friend music program, an user is able to play any type of music and all types of other downloader’s, such as Napster, are very compatible with it. Plus it has easy access to the app store and millions of songs and videos, when I look for new music I visit the top 100 in the store. All parts of ITunes are very well programmed and is definitely the best program to listen to music.

2. Mozilla Firefox
There are a few different web browsers and each of them have their pros, as of now I have both Firefox and Internet Explorer 8. Mozilla is much more customizable and more friendly with computer programmers. The browser also has thousands of different add-ons or programs within the program that make Firefox that much better.

3. Internet security (Norton)
This is an absolutely must have for anyone who is on the internet, so basically everyone, it also doesn’t matter what company, Norton, McAfee, or any other. Norton 360 is a great program for that it allows the user to run scans of everything, set backup for crashes, enhance the computers performance, and other important things. With virus protection the computer will last longer and will be less prone to crashing and easier to bring back to live.

4. Microsoft Office
All students must have this program; I won’t say much about it because everyone knows how to use it and knows how useful it actually is.

5. Blender
A wonderful program for the curious and also the graphic designers, plus its FREE! Any program with these features that’s free is a great program to have. It’s also very fun to mess around with and try to figure out since it’s a very complex program.

Today was a pretty good day, but I’m having troubles finding something to research for my AP physics project due at the end of the semester. Maybe some of my guests could possibly share some of their ideas with me (By the way our ideas are due next Friday). Then, my boring school day got better when I was handed an idea that deals with up and coming technology. This idea is wireless energy transfer, its brand spanking new, many of you have heard or seen the powermat at best buy, this device charges electronic devices by sitting on a pad (the photo is from gizmodo.com). This concept is similar to the wireless energy transfer, but it’s not the same. I plan to continue to pursue this topic, unless my classmates could think of something better…

I’m just starting some research on this new idea and hoping to recreate my own type of wireless transfer unit by the time the due date rolls around. Since I’m not an expert on this topic, yet, I can’t share much information about it because I’m also new to the idea. I just wanted to make people aware of what new technologies are out there and how fascinating they really are.

Throughout my blog entries I will discuss topics surrounding all technologies, mostly electronic technologies ranging from computers to video games, even to new medical advances. Keep posted and I hope you enjoy!!!