Line Golfer, the Love Child of Line Rider and Putt Putt
Take a trip with me, the year 1998, the place a highschool with limited web access. Are you with me, you know on Candystand.com playing flash games based on sugary snacks and EXTREME parachuting. In case you forgot Candystand is still around, still sponsored by Wrigley’s but this time with the love child of a standby, putt putt and the favorite Line Rider.
Line Golfer lets you play mini golf in user created levels much like Line Rider. The game is fun and could easily waste a half hour of your time. The real downer in Line Golfer is that the physics that make Line Rider fun, don’t apply. A ball rolling down a long hill with a ramp doesn’t get nearly the lift one would expect, still playing mini golf on a Mario level has a certain appeal. Come to think of it Nintendo could likely make a killing of Mario Golf on the Wii with levels which take place in classic 2D mario levels made 3D. Does this sound appealing to anyone else?
Would You Digg It?
The new cyber thriller, Untraceable, coming out January 25th features a Killer who has hooked his victims up to a device which kills them quicker based on the number of users visiting the site which runs a streaming video of the unfortunate soul. The FBI warns the public to stay away from the site and BOOM, the victim is dead in a snap. While this situation is far out I wonder what the Digg Effect would be on this type of scenario. You can leave your thoughts in the Poll below.
Loading ...Personally I think the Digg community would be too interested to stay away but some enterprising user will use some web hackery to grab the video and put up a mirror which would either go unregistered or register as one user on the “death machine”. From the knowledge I have seen in the Digg community if such an event would really happen I wouldn’t be surprised to see several users deputized after they assisted the search for said bad guy.
Hilarious Personalized Handwriting Analysis Video
I was checking out Tul.com (pronounced Tool) today after using one of their pens at a meeting the other day and found the Graphological testing lab to be entertaining and funny. The man you see above must have studied under John Hodgeman because he nails Hodgeman’s deadpan humor all while delivering a sometimes scathing analysis of your handwriting based on a multiple choice choice test and a writing sample. You should definitely choose an unfinished ‘y’ in a second test if it isn’t your normal style.
I gotta get to an OfficeMax soon to get a Tul pen, unless Tul decides to send me one free…
Filler, Jezzball on “Performance Enhancing Drugs”
If you used an early Microsoft OS you may have run into Jezzball a filler style game in which you had to trap balls. Tonite I found Filler via Digg and promptly lost 2 hours.
My high score was level 43, just over 100,000. IT is frantic and if you make it to the upper levels the flash game may tax your laptop, as 30 some enemies are on the screen.
Don’t touch this if you have nay deadlines in your near future.
Who Will Lead the Sci Fi Movie Revolution?
Mark Harris of Entertainment Weekly wrote a great (IMHO) article about the State of Science Fiction movies as a genre. He lambasted the genre for being too wrapped up in nostalgia and not taking chances.
Ideally, sci-fi’s next rescuer should be someone whose ideas about the future derive from somewhere — anywhere — other than old sci-fi. It can be done. Just a year ago, no movie genre looked deader than the Western. Then 2007 brought us not only a familiar but lively overhaul of 3:10 to Yuma but also the gorgeously arty mood piece The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and a handful of extraordinary films — the Coens’ No Country for Old Men, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, and even, in its way, Paul Haggis’ In the Valley of Elah — that drew deeply and inventively on different aspects of Western conventions and mythmaking to create something new, often stunning, and not instantly identifiable by genre. Sci-fi desperately needs filmmakers who are interested in bending the form toward their own passions and obsessions as artists. 2001 has come and gone, and right now the future looks too much like something we’ve already seen.
In reading this several authors come to mind but I am pulling a blank for directors at the moment. Do you know who could direct a new science fiction film which would bring the genre out of its nostalgic vegetative state? If so leave their name in the comments.
We need new settings, new plots, new universes, new futures.
I want to see some adaptations or original works from Cory Doctorow, Tobias Buckell, John Scalzi, Scott Sigler, hell not sure Vernor Vinge’s latest is suitable for a movie adaptation but its something different. All these authors bring me to the point that not every future has to be of the “bad guy in the hulking ship with deathstars” universe. We can have all other types of settings, alternate modes of transportation, some steampunk maybe? Can I get a sci fi film with a Dirigible? Alternate futures near and far away, please someone wow me.
I for one will welcome our new Sci Fi Film making overlords…if they don’t muck it up.
Download Squad’s Squadcast - How to Podcast
I just discovered the Download Squad’s weekly videocast called a Squadcast. This week’s episode featured Amber Rhea an experienced podcaster and covers some basics about how to do a podcast. The videocast doesn’t go into too many details but should be seen as a primer with some good introductions to podcasts and podcasting. Check it out below.
Charles Stricklin the man with the plan behind the Wordpress podcast had started a project called Podcast Planning which seems to have been victim to overbooking of time and is currently in a lul still has good information to process if you plan to start a podcast. I have been toying with the idea of producing a podcast for the last 6 months or so but I am still trying to find the void that needs filled
Xbox Live Hits 10 Million 6 mo. Ahead of Schedule
image via Major Nelson’s Flickr stream
Robbie Bach just announced that the Xbox Live service hit over 10 Million users connected! He noted that this was 6 months ahead of the scheduled time! I wonder if this success had/has anything to do with the continuing Xbox Live service issues. Thankfully all Gold members will be getting a free Xbox Arcade game in the near future. I’ll settle for that and working matchmaking in Halo 3! I am hoping that some other cool news comes out at CES over the next few days.
You can tune in to the Bill Gates Keynote live right now.
Bender Ball Ripoff Warning Video from Youtube
In case you need further and possibly funnier proof that the Bender Ball a infomercial product sold by Savvier LTD is a ripoff check out this funny video warning.
Previous Bender Ball Coverage:
Josh Smith is a blogger, database manager and adjunct professor of business and technology. 
