Tech Blog

The fall of 2008 saw the release of Dead Space, a brand new survival-horror IP from Electronic Arts and developer Visceral Games, that reinvented the genre with its horrific, visceral encounters with the savage alien Necromorphs and the claustrophobic, nowhere-to-run gameplay moments. It's been nearly two years and although the much-anticipated sequel won't be out until early 2011, EA surprised us this week with the announcement that a brand new Dead Space game will be coming out this fall as a downloadable title for the PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Read more...

It's that time of the year again, the Fan Expo Canada is just around the corner and whether you're a huge gamer like me, or a fan of comic books, anime, sci-fi or horror, there's a lot to be excited for at Canada's #1 hobby expo.

Taking place from August 27-29, 2010, in Toronto, Canada, the Fan Expo is home to over 600 exhibits spanning 25,000 square feet and occupies the massive South Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Last year's expo had a record-breaking 59,000+ fan in attendance. Read more...

Yes, I harp on the whole "you really need to back up your computer regularly" thing. Having bailed out enough friends coupled with said friends' tushies being saved only because they had a backup (or two), I think this is a topic that can always stand a little discussion. Today I'm taking the "you need to back up" to the next level, you need to back up and have a backup backup plan. Why? Simply this: backup drives fail. Often. Read more...

I've been having a love-hate relationship with my host (Dreamhost) of late. My blog has been running slowly and often throwing errors like 404 not found on administration areas (which can't be "not found"). After bantering about with my host's support team (who are rather good and very patient), it became clear that, really, the burden was on my shoulders to fix. And fix I did. The important thing, though, is how I went through the support process. Read more...

In which I finish up my coverage of music you don't care about. Read more...

In which I discuss more jazz you don't care about, as well as the hits of BTO. Read more...

In which I discuss numerous musicians you've never heard of, insult Montreal even though I actually love it, and discuss the sexual partners of Elvis Presley. Read more...

Hate Facebook? Like your family? Catherine tells you how to stay in touch in a world where the default for communication seems to be Facebook. Read more...

I realize that the issue I’ll be discussing in this post doesn’t affect every consumer or laptop owner out there, but I’m really starting to think that it’s time for PC manufacturers to agree on one standard power plug. If you’ve ever owned a few laptops from different manufacturers, I’m sure you didn’t appreciate the clutter that goes with having different chargers for each of them. Read more...

I'm travelling back in time this week. I'm downgrading my iPhone OS. I just can't handle the lags and crashes and delays. My iPhone 3G just can't handle it - and I'm not the only one setting the time machine to go back. Read more...

I had the privilege of attending the exclusive Vancouver launch event for the newest wireless provider in Canada, Chatr. Some of you may have heard about this company already from news generated by their Monday night kickoff event in Toronto. Read more...

I didn't get a chance to play NHL Slapshot at E3--I chose to give NBA Jam a go instead--but thankfully I was able to have a wee go of it at a recent Nintendo event held in Toronto. I liked it. It's really good. Actually, it's so good, I'd definitely put it up there with NBA Jam as one of the sports games I'm most excited about this year (and for a very similar reason.) However, there is a problem. Read more...

With all the blockbuster games that came out last month such as Sin and Punishment 2, Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker, Transformers: War for Cybertron, and Singularity you may have missed a charming, magical title that slipped under the radar on the last Tuesday of the month -- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4. Read more...

If your looking or dreaming of becoming a Pro Gamer, I can honestly tell you that this is the place to start... before starting my own Pro Gaming Career, I wished I had the Virgin Gaming platform to present earlier solutions to the difficulty of attending costly live events. The Future is here... Read more...

When I was a kid, I used to go to the local used comic shop up the street. Their I'd grab the older issues of GI Combat, Sgt. Rock and (of course) the Gold Key editions of Star Trek.
All used. All at 20% to 50% of their initial retail price.
Well a similar sales model is now alive and well in the computer games distribution space... Read more...

I've been fond of puzzle games my whole life. Boulderdash, Dr. Mario, The Lost Vikings, Lemmings, Bubble Bobble, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, you name it, I've likely played it. Most of these games have taken up hours of my time, but there's one puzzle game series that I just can't get enough of -- Nintendo's Picross. The original game to hit North America, Mario Picross for Gameboy, and its successor, Picross DS, are based on 2D nanogram logic puzzles which require you to paint blocks on a square grid that wind up forming an image when you're through, resembling pixel art. Picross 3D, as you might ascertain from the title, takes the franchise in a whole new direction, catapulting the 2D concept into the third dimension. Read more...

Here's a challenge for you, run not just your business, but your entire industry on open-source software. Think you could do it? A lot of industries probably couldn't. There are some pretty specific apps and tools for some tasks, however I think it's certainly worth a try. One newspaper chain that was pretty close to the brink decided to take the bull by the horns and instead of spending millions and millions to upgrade their entire system has tried to do as much as they can with open source (and free) alternatives. I give you—The Ben Franklin Project. Read more...

Now here's something pretty interesting. Turns out that social networks and social media really do give us a warm fuzzy feeling: Doctor Love | Fast Company. From studies of the hormone oxytocin turns out that we get a nice boost when we are giving and share things. When we use a social network and experience the same thing, we get the same hormonal boost … as you can imagine our bodies like this and encourage us to keep it up. Yep, Facebook is an addictive drug. Read more...

If you’ve got a few spare dollars you can help for a good cause this week on 7/7. Mike “Fyrewulff” Kidder, noted Halo fanatic, Bungie community fixture, and owner/operator of Fire Team Zulu, is running a two day BUNGIEDAYATHON to help support the Brian Morden Foundation in the search for the cure for Ewing’s Sarcoma.

What is Ewing’s Sarcoma?

Ewing sarcoma is a malignant round-cell tumor. It is a rare disease in which cancer cells are found in the bone or in soft tissue . The most common areas in which it occurs are the pelvis , the femur , the humerus , and the ribs .

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One of the drawbacks of the iPad is that it doesn't have a file system (per se). You can't, say, save a Pages document to your Documents folder and then connect to it as you need to from your Mac. There are lots of interesting ways to get around this. Both GoodReader and ReaddleDocs (my fav app) let you connect to Dropbox and over WiFi (GoodReader also re-released a USB connector tool last week that let's you skip iTunes), but it's Dropbox that I find most convenient. Why? Oh let me tell you the ways. Read more...

I was already working on this review when Matthew posted his up... and I kept writing. Matt, I love you, but I don’t think you and I are going to see eye to eye on this one.

Transformers: War for Cybertron absolutely must be bought if - and that’s a big if - you were born between 1975 and 1980. For everyone else, it’s still pretty awesome, but for we happy few this is just like Ghostbusters: The Video Game was last year - the sweetest trip down memory lane you can imagine.

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Ok, we’re past the first summer long weekend and summer holidays are well under way for many. And for many, this means many hours spend traveling. I’ve found a few very good iPhone / iPod Touch games that have helped me while away the hours (at least until my battery died far too soon under iOS4, but that’s another rant). Read more...

There are times when I just don’t know what goes on in a typical R&D session at Microsoft, and how all those billions are spent. The latest mobile setback for the company came last week, when it announced that it was going to cancel development and expansion of its Kin smartphones, effective immediately. This comes less than three months after they first unveiled them in the U.S.

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Transformers: War for Cyberton is an Xbox 360, PS3 and PC game (there are slightly different Wii and Nintendo DS versions) in which there are two campaigns: first, a Decepticon campaign in which you learn how Megatron began the titular war (or rather, you make it happen) and then a Autobot campaign where you try and fix what Megatron (you) have done (of course, you could just not play the game at all and it wouldn't happen at all, depending on your philosophy.) Read more...

So I've been hearing a lot about this "Facebook" thing lately. It's apparently quite popular, with 16 million users in Canada alone. That's pretty impressive, huh? I don't use it. Really. Sort of.

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The PlayStation 3's latest firmware update, v3.40, went live last week, bringing lots of new features including the much talked about PlayStation Plus premium subscription option, enhanced functionality for connecting your PlayStation Network account with your Facebook profile, and at least one hidden setting that Sony neglected to mention in their official announcement. Read more...

Tis the season to start travelling. A Calgary area man took his iPhone to Europe and came home to a $7700 bill. Here are some basic tips so it doesn't happen to you. Read more...

More of a bad news week than most; Microsoft leaks and product cuts, Apple has issues with email and reception, but there is an upside or two to this week that was... Read more...