Wireless Hobo

Game Essentials: Lego Games

Um, yeah.  No, really.  You got kids?  No?  So?  Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga and Lego Indiana Jones: The Video Game are simply two of the best games out today.  It’s the graphics?  Chicks dig the graphics?  No, not the most advanced graphics.  Really, not the most advanced anything.  The short list:

• You play all six Star Wars movies and the first three Indy movies.
• Available in some format on anything that will turn on.  (iPhone Lego Indy anyone…whip the phone to whip Indy’s…whip.  Yeah, I can see it now…)
• A tremendous amount of humor.  Oh, come on, they break apart when you beat up a bad guy — how is that NOT funny?
• You can play it with your kids or your Mom.  Did I mention that there is no swearing or blood?  Take a break from GTA4.  Mom can only off so many hoodlums before it gets old, right?
• Easy to pick up.
• Easy to put down.
• Heavy on the fun factor.  Frankly, that stupid grin at the end of a level.
• Two player cooperative play is a blast.

Ok, I am unlikely to ever work for Gamespot reviewing games.  You want that kind of review, go to Gamespot Star Wars or Gamespot Indy.  I can recommend this game on any system for anybody and any gender.  Have fun!

Ribbit

My son and I went to the Mobile Exploreum today.  We watched an IMAX flick, Amazon — it was “ok.”  The cool part was the frogs!  The exhibit was a bit small, but with the movie, the hands on roller coaster maker upstairs, and the fun area at the back of the Exploreum — worth the trip!

Game Essentials: Call of Duty 4

My friend Shawn told me to get this game nine months ago.  Over and over.  And over.  I bought it on sale for the 360 from Target.  Then he told me I should play it.  Over and over.  And over.  I finally did about a month back.  Really, it was tough for any game to follow in the footsteps of Bioshock (see here and here).

Story-wise, if you are into straight-up modern warfare, you will find nothing better out there.  Nothing.  Gameplay, nothing.  Fun, nothing.  After pondering this for a bit, this game is easily in my top 5 of all time, up there with Halo, Bioshock, Knights of the Old Republic, and Infocom text adventures (yes, I am THAT old).  Now, I could do like other sites and write multiple pages of review on the games I play which would prevent me from pulling a paycheck, getting my butt whupped by Dylan in Lego Indy (another excellent game, BTW), or examining the insides of my eyelids; but I won’t.  Try it if you can, then buy it.   I think it is still up on XBox Live.  It is even out for Mac (yes, Mac does get Triple A titles when the moon and stars align).  On second thought, just go buy it already.

Call of Duty 4 PC Demo

Software Essentials: Adobe Air

I took my first hit of Adobe Air last week and wow.  You have probably been a good little netizen and used Adobe Portable Document Format… Acrobat?… PDF, anyone?  Air reminds me of the promise of Java — write once, run everywhere.  You write your software one time and it runs on Windows, Linux, Mac, toasters, etc.  After a while, I heard this comment applied to Java, “Write Once, Debug Everywhere.”  Ouch.

Air, thus far, seems to really work and look darned sexy while doing it.  The applications are not only functional, but dare I say, beautiful.  First, hit that Adobe Air link above and install Adobe’s new free wunderkind.

Now, head over to the Application Showcase or the Air Marketplace and peruse some of the cooler Air apps!  To get you started, may I recommend My Media Player.  MMP brings the online Hulu.com TV service to the desktop in a good looking way!

SCS Sport Karate Promotion

Sam and crew promoted their first black belts last night.  Great ceremony.  Great retrospective.  Great demoes.  I took a couple hundred photos, but just couldn’t get my finger, head, and camera synchronized for great photos.  I posted 37 of the what I thought were good photos in the photos section.  Enjoy!

Software Essentials: Firefox Plugins

The extensibility of Firefox (FF) beats the tar out of Internet Explorer or Safari.  I thought I might do a quick list of my favorite plugins that might appeal to the typical user:

• Colorful Tabs colorizes the tabs at the top making tabs easier to discern.
• Greasemonkey customizes the way webpages display on the fly!
  
• Stylish used with Better GMail 2 below and loaded with this style to make GMail look amazing!
  
• Better GMail 2 adds fantastic features to make, well, GMail better.
• Better GReader provides similar features to Better GMail 2, but for Google Reader and all in one package.  Look for the built-in Mac theme if you are on a Mac.  Golden.

I hope you like these plugins as much as I do.  They really make Firefox pop!

Software Essentials: Free Antivirus for Home

Are you using Windows?  For my non-business computers, I like Avast! for home or non-commercial usage.  I love the interface and the speed of the product.  A lot of Internet sites review AVG extremely well as well.  Pay attention to the licensing and capabilities.  Yes, they provide the basics.  Yes, they are better than nothing.  Note that they are not for your work computers!  For those, contact your IT department or look for one of the myriad of antivirus shootouts.  Commercially, I prefer Kapsersky.

Firefox Download Day!

Don’t forget that today, June 17, 2008, is the release date for Firefox 3, the most powerful web browser available and it is FREE! So head over to Spread Firefox and help create a world record!

Be careful to download version 3 and not the old version 2. It should be released a little after noon today.