NerdyLoft
Who Needs A Journal When You Have The Internet!
Facebook is now “Trending”?
OK, I always seem to go on a rant about Facebook’s new features when released. Some are good, some not so good but one new feature they released earlier this month is “trending” content. This can be popular articles that are posted by Facebook users (trending articles), popular videos (trending videos), you get the picture.
This is obviously designed to resurface interesting or popular content to people who might find it interesting, but really at least recently it almost feels like Facebook are trying harder and harder to be more like twitter.
Facebook’s goal is to connect yourself with the people around you for a more connected world. I guess they are now trying to connect you with news stories instead of your friends? A few quick searches across Google reveal that lots of people are pretty annoyed with trending articles, lots of ‘how do I disable trending articles’ sites out there. It will be interesting to see how well this does, if Facebook refine this idea more or if they remove it entirely.
How To Upgrade Samsung Galaxy S2 (i9100) to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
I recently upgraded my Samsung Galaxy S2 to the latest version of Google’s new Android 4.0 operating system ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ and I must say, things have improved A LOT! There are many things that were missing from previous releases that we android users just took for granted, some features of which have been a staple in the iOS ecosystem for a while now but now that Android has these nailed down it is truely the killer OS out there at the moment in my opinion.
Many things that Android has done better compared with its competitors are things phone/tablet users use every day, rather what it’s competitors do which are questionably used as frequently.
A few of the new features include:
- Resizable Widgets
- New lock screen actions
- Quick responses for incoming calls
- Improved Text Imput
For a closer look at the feature set of this new release please check out the android developers – Android 4.0 Platform Highlights page for more information.
Naomi Kyle – Puts the ‘I’ncredibly ‘G’orgeous into IGN.com
Gamers in general are associated with many (mostly negative) stereotypes but of all places it’s the gamer girls in the world that are slowly giving gamers and gaming in general more credibility and possibly even making gaming cool?
A former model who’s always had a passion (or even obsession) for gaming is Naomi Kyle, host of IGN.com’s video productions including the popular show ‘The daily fix’.
Born in the small town of Ste-Agathe-Des-Monts, Quebec, Naomi grew up with two younger brothers and a strong inclination for the arts. Whether it was singing or performing mock TV shows in front of her parents, it seemed entertainment would no doubt be her future calling. Throughout her high school days, Naomi was never one of the popular kids, so she instead found herself playing lots of video games and indulging in sci-fi/fantasy movies in her spare time. Little did she know that this would lead her to a wonderful, future career. – Source: ign.com
Naomi started her modelling career shortly after high school and quickly became involved with many high profile advertising campaigns such as work for Adidas, Guess, Virgin mobile and many others.
She then became the host of the Gameloft podcast and since then, hosts a number of video productions for IGN & AskMen.com. She frequently attends gaming shows and plays A LOT of games.
A powerful and positive role model for girl gamers everywhere and is helping to solidify the growing popularity of gaming in the mainstream.
For more on Naomi Kyle:
http://naomikyle.com/
http://www.facebook.com/NaomiKyleFans
http://people.ign.com/naomi-ign
http://twitter.com/#!/naomikyle
Grand Theft Auto V – Multiplayer News
Rockstar games have announced that the upcoming Grand Theft Auto V will let players establish groups of friends from other rockstar games such as Max Payne 3 known as ‘crews’ that can carry over to Grand Theft Auto V’s multiplayer component.
This kinda sounds crap, basically means that friends you meet in Max Payne for example can play with you in other online games. Nothing really new there! Hopefully the announcement of this multiplayer ‘feature’ means Rockstar are just getting closer to completing the game so we can finally get it in our hands and play it!
For more info head over to IGN’s coverage of this story here.
How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse (With Naomi Kyle) CCC
Ever wanted to know how to survive a zombie apocalypse? IGN’s Naomi Kyle will show you how. If you’ve never caught an episode of ‘Cheap, Cool Crazy’ where have you been hiding? The show sources fun stuff online you can have on the cheap, that may just be cool or crazy!
The uprising of E-Sports and what it means for competitive gaming
The rise in popularity over the last few years in respect to competitive gaming or e-sports as its becoming commonly known is quite amazing. When you sit down and watch a football game you can hear the cheer of the crowd, possibly some commentary in a set of headphones tuned to the radio with all the excitement and atmosphere that goes along with that. Competitive gaming is the next frontier of sports, and boy has it changed.
I remember about 5-6 years ago competitive gaming was very ‘underground’ and not many people really knew all that much about it. Back in 2004 I actually went to compete at the world cyber games qualifiers held in Melbourne playing Warcraft 3, I didn’t do too badly but not well enough to advance but back then there were a few major sponsors of the event but not a very big turn out of people came to watch the event. When I talked to friends at the time, some who were into gaming and some weren’t didn’t really know much or anything about the WCG or what competitive gaming really was all about.
Around the early days ~2000-2001 there was an interesting thing taking place in Korea where they would televise starcraft and starcraft brood war touraments across the country. Very soon Starcraft became almost like the national sport of Korea and it only looked like a matter of time before it started really getting a grip in North America and Europe, then finally the rest of the world.
Fast forward to 2009 and competitive gaming really started to see a momentum swing. With the launch of the StarCraft 2 beta most notably a crowd of esports followers really started to build, and a big part of that momentum had to do with a rise in popularity circulating replay’s online from tournaments and perhaps more enjoyable was watching those ‘in the know’ online commentate these replays. These types of people eventually became known as ‘casters’ or ‘broadcasters or competitive gaming’.
I’m mostly talking about competitive gaming in relation to RTS (real time strategy games) with this article, but that is not to say these types of games are the only games played competitively. First person shooters were really one of the first genre’s of games people started playing competitively, especially with games like CounterStrike on the PC and Halo on the XBOX.
People like HuskyStarcraft and HDStarcraft on YouTube really propelled the movement forward around the StartCraft 2 beta days posting videos of their commentary of Starcraft replays from big tournaments. Both these two eventually got enough support behind them to host a tournament of their own which was a big success and helped both commentators subscription base on YouTube explode.
With the release of StarCraft 2 in 2010 competitive gaming really exploded. Sure it had gained plenty of momentum well before this but since the release of starCraft 2 until today the number of competitive gaming leagues around StarCraft 2 jumped from 1 to 4-5 today. Most notably:
- GSL (global starcraft league)
- IEM (intel extreme masters)
- IPL (ign pro league)
- MLG (major league gaming)
just to name a few.
In this time the number of professional sponsored starcraft 2 teams that participate in each league has increased quite substantially. Gone are the days of individual players sponsoring themselves in tournaments (although some pro’s still do) most players can receive a salary playing starcraft 2 for a living.
The ‘Team Liquid‘ starcraft 2 pro team are perhaps the most well known, offering advise on their website to new players as well as players trying to improve their skills. Their professional player list is quite distinguished, and were one of the first teams to find a good mix of Korean and ‘International’ (outside of Korea) players actually had a positive impact on practice sessions and made the team more versatile.
With big technology companies such as Intel, MSI, ASUS and others sponsoring big events it will only grow the audience of professional gaming more and more. All e-sports really needs now is to have big events sponsored by companies outside of technology such as red bull, coca cola, etc and who knows where e-sports is headed.
With more money being pumped into e-sports from an ever growing number of sources its only a good thing for competitive gaming, it brings in more players from around the world and with entrance fees to events organisers can start seeing some benefit in staging events. Every investment in e-sports, whether it be time or money can only help the sport progress.
I’m looking forward to what the future holds for e-sports, and looking forward to see how far it can go because in a relatively short period of time it has grown in leaps and bounds, and mostly because of community support.
Break But I’m Back, New Stuff in a Few Days!
I’ve been on a bit of a break from blogging over the past month or so, really needed to focus on work and other areas of my life but now that I’ve been away from writing for quite a while I’ pretty eager to get back on here sharing some cool stuff with technology, gaming and just simply stuff that nerds love doing.
Sit tight, I’m back in the saddle and more to come in the next few days with a view for new content every day!
Blade Runner 2 To Star Harrison Ford?
There is a new Blade Runner film in the works and has been for at least the last few months, but recent news has indicated that Harrison Ford is in talks with the film’s producers, changing the film from a potential crappy reboot of the 1982 hit, to possibly a direct sequel (which would be much more interesting)!
These talks are apparently in very early stages, but according to Twitch film blog producer Andrew Kosove has absolutely no intention on casting Harrison Ford for a sequel, saying ” In no way do I speak for Ridley Scott but if you’re asking me will this movie have anything to do with Harrison Ford, the answer is no”. Source: Breaking: Harrison Ford in early talks for Ridley Scott ‘s new Blade Runner.
I personally am hoping Harrison will be cast in the new film, it would be much more interesting than watching (yet another) Hollywood remake. A sequel this long after the original fuels all sorts of great story ideas for the new movie. Here’s hoping for greater minds to prevail and make something worth watching!
MW3: Stay Back and Wait It Out! [Gameplay w/ Commentary XBOX 360]
A modern warfare 3 demolition match on underground. Finished the game with 27-7 which isn’t too bad for me. Highest K/D ratio on the team which was nice and just 1 kill off topping the match scoring. Still a decent game for me.
Rather than running around like an idiot which always gets me killed, I decided to hang back and get into better positions to defend objectives and catch enemy players running into objectives for easier kills while trying to give myself better protection. I’m learning the more games I play that watching your own back is much more important than trying to rack up kills as quickly as possible. Being successful at one will make me better at the other.
MW3: TDM on Bakara – No More Bouncing Betty’s!
Back with another call of duty modern warfare 3 gameplay w/ commentary. For a change here’s a team deathmatch on the map Bakara. Finished 27-7 on this map, pretty good but still room for improvement.