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Monday, May 19, 2008

CW: Watch a Clip of the 90210 Spin-Off


Monday May 19, 2008


CW has released a promo clip of the upcoming 90210 spin-off.

In the above footage, an announcer declares the new 90210 will be "cooler, sexier, more provocative," as images of the cast appear on the screen. There's also a shot of the West Beverly Hills High sign.

The cast, which includes original 90210 star Jennie Garth and Full House star Lori Loughlin, recently landed another familiar face.

Melrose Place alum Rob Estes has been cast as the principal of the high school and father of the Mills family, who are at the center of the show.

Click here to see what's happened to your favorite '90s stars.

Flying PENIS disrupts some sort of Russian meeting.

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The Conduit gameplay trailer released

Independent developer High Voltage Studios has released the first gameplay trailer for The Conduit, a first-person shooter for the Wii with an impressive game engine behind it. As for the new trailer, we don't see the water and shadow effects that initially piqued our interest. Instead, we see a science fiction shooter reminiscent of Perfect Dark, Starship Troopers or Halo with solid, but not spectacular, visuals.

The Conduit currently doesn't have a publisher. Compared to what does get published on the Wii, that's a shame someone hasn't jumped on this yet. Given the Wii landscape is a bit devoid of quality FPS, we're curious to see how the game progresses. We just don't want to get too caught up in hype, especially after Wii shooter Red Steel ended up drowning in it.

[Via NWF]

40 Hours Of Illustrator, Time-Lapsed


Over several months, one artist put roughly 40 hours of Illustrator drawing work into a piece called "Science Machine." And over that time, he had his computer screencap the project every five seconds. The result, along with some B-roll and a soundtrack, is what you see in this video. And despite a few issues with Vista, he remains a loyal fan of the OS:

I thought you might like a screen cast I made of me working in Vista on Adobe Illustrator on a 40-hour project. It's pretty much a music video as well. I've screwed with my install of Vista a lot, so I got some crashes and some BSODs, but obviously those were not captured. On the whole, I've been very happy with the OS, though.
If I could make neat stuff out of nothing, I'd be pretty happy, too. You can purchase a print of Science Machine here.

Learn to Play an Instrument Online


Chances are at one point or another, you've either purchased an instrument or considered doing so with the intention of learning to play it; most of us, however, never get around the the learning part. The internet is a glorious fount of freely available information, and it's slowly filling up with excellent tutorials for getting good at just about anything—including playing a new instrument. Hit the jump for a handful of great resources for getting started with a new instrument online for the low, low price of free.

Hit Up YouTube for Free Tutorials

1learn-drums.pngAs free hosted video sites proliferate around the web, more and more people have begun using them to share their skills with the world at large. Just spend a few minutes on YouTube searching for a musical topic of interest and you will find tons of videos to suit your interests, from how to play drums to how to play piano. You're likely to find the most videos, though, focusing on playing the guitar.

video-tabs.pngAspiring guitarists should check out web site Video Tabs, which scours YouTube for guitar-specific instructional videos and posts the best to their site.[via]



Improve Your Guitar Chops with iTunes

The second most popular podcast on iTunes is Beginning Guitar 101, a free instructional video from iVideosongs. The site itself is chock full of instructional videos that you can pay $5 to $10 for, but iTunes features six instructional videos for the beginning guitarist to devour for free. Then, of course, if you're hooked, you can head to the site for more. [via]

Learn Guitar on Your iPod

Web site and now software iPlayMusic (original post) offers several free videos for the beginning guitarist through their freeware iPlayMusic player. iPlayMusic requires a registration to get started, and it's put a commercial face on a lot of its videos, but the free beginner tutorials are a great place to get started; even better, they export for watching on your iPod on-the-go.

Learn to Read Tablature

1tab.pngThe best way to get up and started in no time is by learning how to read tab (a simple notation for translating what you're supposed to play that's way less complicated than reading music) and then finding a good tab site or two. Honestly, whenever I'm searching for tabs I just hit up Google and grab the first or second result. That said, I'm a big fan of sites like Ultimate Guitar for their auto-scroll features, which scroll the page for you so you don't have to stop playing. A lot of tab sites are riddled with pop-ups, but sometimes that's the price you pay.

Learn the Drums While Playing Video Games

rock-band-drums.pngOne of the coolest things about the video game Rock Band is that—while the guitar bears no relevance to actual guitar playing—you can actually learn a little something about drumming by playing Rock Band. No, Rock Band isn't exactly "online" (though you can play with friends over Xbox Live), but Wired has rounded up some great tips for Rock Band drummers looking to hone their skills (original post).

As you can tell, the hobbiest's instrument-of-choice is definitely the guitar, and you're likely to find a lot more guitar-centric how-tos than the rest. However, with a little digging—and YouTube really is your friend for this—you can get a basic understanding of and get started with just about any instrument. If you've got your own tried-and-true resources for honing your musical talents online, share it in the comments.

Calgary woman recovering after robotic arm removes brain tumour

Last Updated: Friday, May 16, 2008 | 5:17 PM ET
Dr. Garnette Sutherland of the University of Calgary reviews the groundbreaking surgery by a robotic arm to remove a woman's brain tumour.Dr. Garnette Sutherland of the University of Calgary reviews the groundbreaking surgery by a robotic arm to remove a woman's brain tumour. (CBC)

A surgical team in Calgary on Friday extolled the virtues of using a robotic arm to perform groundbreaking surgery to remove a woman's brain tumour.

Paige Nickason, 21, was discharged from the Foothills Medical Centre after surgery Monday by Dr. Garnette Sutherland of the University of Calgary.

"Paige's brain surgery represents a technical achievement in the use of image-guided robotic technology to remove a relatively complex brain tumour," Sutherland told a press conference.

"This is wonderful and represents the beginning of something new in surgical care," he said.

"I had to have the tumour removed anyway, so I was happy to help by being a part of this historical surgery," Nickason said in a press release on Friday.

Mimic surgeon's movements

The two mechanical hands of the robot, known as NeuroArm, mimic the movements of the surgeon with incredible precision while sensors and microphones recreate the sights, sounds and touch of surgery.

A surgeon is able to control the robot using levers at a computer workstation in a room next to the surgery. Sutherland said human ability to manipulate robotic surgery techniques can be credited, at least in part, to the explosion in popularity of video games.

"We would all agree that our young children who have become immersed in video games represent the future generation of surgeons," he said. "[They] will be experienced in the integration of hand controllers with images and …will have enhanced hand-eye co-ordination with highly developed spatial orientation."

The technology works in conjunction with real-time magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, to provide surgeons with unprecedented detail and the control to manipulate tools at a microscopic scale for operations ranging from repairs of blood vessels to removal of brain tumours.

Precision, accuracy, dexterity improving

Microsurgical techniques that evolved in the 1960s have pushed surgeons to the limits of their precision, accuracy, dexterity and stamina, Sutherland said in April, with the world's best surgeons being able to get within three millimetres of the mark.

The arm was designed and built in collaboration with engineers at MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, known for creating Canadarm and Canadarm2 for NASA.

Hang Drum Solo

Water balloon at 1000FPS

Samsung demos 82” 2160p HDTV

Los Angeles (CA) – Samsung draws attention at this year’s Society for Information Display (SID) International Symposium with a 82” Quad HDTV that offers four times the resolution of today’s 1080p high definition TVs.

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The prototype display has a massive 82” size and features a resolution of 3820x2160 pixels, which results in a total screen resolution of 8.3 megapixels. Current 1080p TVs run at 1920x1080 pixels or 2.1 megapixels. According to the manufacturer, the TV integrates a red/green/blue LED backlight, which raises the color saturation to 150%. The image refresh rate is 120 Hz.

What makes this screen especially interesting is the fact that Sang Soo Kim, executive vice president of the LCD Technology Center at Samsung Electronics, called it the “optimal display for future TVs.” Quad HDTVs have been available before, but were exclusively marketed to markets that have a need for high resolution image display – such as the oil and gas industries. For example, Westinghouse has been offering 2160p TVs with sizes up to 52”.

The Westinghouse Quad HDTV is not sold on the open market, but our sources say that you won’t be able to buy one for less than $40,000 at this time. So we don’t even ask how much that 82” 2160p TV could cost and wait until we win the lottery first.

Samsung said that it will have a few other products to show at its SID show booth, including an 82” e-board with a “multi-touchscreen” that could replace whiteboards and beam projectors, the company believes, as well as its previously announced 15” blue-phase LCD and a foldable 2.3” e-paper display.

SID 2008 runs from May 18 to 23 in Los Angele

MARIOKART for WII


Well I finally broke down and bought marioKart for WII. It is fantastic!!! I can go on for hours here, but let me tell you. 32 tracks, online play, MarioKart Wii Wheel.....It is Fantastic!!!