I was bored this morning. I went about my usual Sunday morning routine: Wake up, go to 7:30 Mass, eat a Bakers Square breakfast, come home, check blogs/websites for updates.

I finish at about 10am. Having nothing to do, I browsed aimlessly. I decided to check up on deviantART for some reason. I haven’t been to the place in years. I remember that I have an old account from as far back as age 13. Should be fun to see what I had back then, right?

WRONG. I was highly disappointed in what I found. Amongst the hackneyed, default-filtered Photoshop jobs, I found this:

[Click to englarge]

A screencap of my desktop from years back. I don’t think any image on the internet consists of more fail and AIDS than this one. Let me give you a run-down of everything that sucks in this picture.

1) The number one problem: AOL. Yes, I once had AOL. And it looks as if I had version 7.0 AND 9.0. Lucky me. T_T. I couldn’t stand AOL. Never in a million years will I ever use anything by AOL again, be it an internet service provider or beta-stage news.

2) 800×600 resolution. The computer I used was fully capable of running at 1024×768. Was I blind as a child?

3) StyleXP. Now, StyleXP was pretty decent despite the fact that it is a gigantic resource hog. However, better alternatives (read: Neowin’s UXTheme patch) were available at the time of this screencap. The dark theme isn’t that great, either.

4) Some stupid-ass cursor effects program. Just look at the cursor. It’s BLACK and it has FLAMES. I specifically remember double-clicking and screencapping soon thereafter so that the flame effect could be seen. God, was I cool or what? Nothing like setting the screen ablaze every time I fire up AOL! Shit.

5) Winamp. Dammit. (*edit* 12-24-07: look here for explanation)

6) The Dock. This is probably the most embarrassing ‘feature’ thus far. Did I really need that many shortcuts? Of course not. But I did, and that’s all that matters. Let’s criticize from left to right.
a-b) We already covered my TWO, count ‘em two, versions of AOL.
c-h) We can skip the Adobe/Macromedia programs (Flash, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, PS7, ImageReady CS, Photoshop CS), as they are the only applications that can possibly redeem my sorry ass.
i) That next icon is for a SONY digital camera. I used the software that came with it. Hold on while I get the noose.
j) That ‘X’ shaped icon to the right was some Flash text effect generator called FlaX. I used it well before I had any [legitimate] experience with Flash. It can output some decent results, but it did everything for you, thus rendering it anything but fulfilling.
k) IS THAT FUCKING PAINT?!
l) The film strip wrapped around the world icon is Ulead Gif Animator. I fully endorse its use to this day. It’s probably not the best in its class, but I sure as hell don’t find myself churning out gifs every day, so don’t take my word for it.
m-n) I really have no clue as to what the paint bucket and film strip represent. NEXT.
o) The icon with the green text is Bitmap Font Writer. Another exception in terms of this image’s consistent ass-baggery.
p-q) Camtasia was decent, but not for the reason I used it. I used it to record my screen as I played emulated retro games. Productive, right? WRONG. I SUCKED. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to skip around a bit.
Norton. Do I even have to explain this one? Norton is the most asinine anti-virus suite the industry has known. Much like AOL, it is nearly impossible to get rid of it once its installed. I could go on forever, but I’ve got more highly insignificant things to complain about.
Kazaa. I think this post has hit its all-time low. You don’t get much lower than Kazaa. I really…I just…I’m speechless. The shame is overpowering.
While the dock in that screenshot blows more d than the entire cast of internet pornstars, I take pride in the fact that it doesn’t look as bad as it used to.

What the hell was I thinking back then? I really hope I don’t stumble upon any more of this. Looking back on this made me realize how hard I used to suck. My enthusiasm for writing this post has dramatically decreased since I began.

DAMN. Now I’m ANGRY. Thanks, Wordpress.

Now this is absolutely insane. The game engine for Crysis, CryENGINE2, is MAD. Just watch the video below to see how intricate it is. Jesus. How far we’ve come in terms of graphical capability is truly amazing. You might want to turn the volume down, unless your ears enjoy deafening, tympanic membrane rape.

It seems as though USB 3.0 is slated to arrive early 2008.

“The present day USB 2.0 delivers a transfer speed of upto 480 Mbps, whereas USB 3.0 promises 10 times of this speed taking the transfer rate to 4.8 Gbps.
Moreover, It will be backwards-compatible with USB 2.0, which is backwards-compatible with the first USB 1.1 definition.”

[SOURCE]

It’s about time I posted something tech-related. I’ve noticed I’ve been highly emphasizing the gaming aspect of this blog a bit too much. I even categorized this blog as that of a ‘Console Gaming’ nature in that BlogRush box to the right. The original intent of MOAR PLOX!!1! was for it to be tech-based, so I’m going to be focusing more on that. So here’s somethin’ for ya.

What you see above is Reactable in action. A proper name for such a device. What it’s doing is dynamically generating sound through a tabletop interface. Bunchofnerds.com explains it a tad better:

“Reactable…a multi-user electronic music instrument built into a tabletop interface. Imagine if you will, a life-size Elektroplankton! Yeahhhhh. With it, users are able to create complex and dynamic sonic “topologies” (music compositions) by moving physical objects over the table, controlling virtual generators, filters and modulators in a graspable flow-controlled programming language.”

Neat, huh?

Microsoft revealed a new product a while back called Microsoft Surface. Supposedly, it introduces a new way of going about your digital life. And this isn’t just the same thing that’s been plaguing the technological world for the last century or so–oh no, this time, it’s interactive. T_T.
Microsoft states that,

“With Surface, we can actually grab data with our hands, and move information between objects with natural gestures and touch!”

Wow! Just what I need! A new way to get my greasy-ass fingers ALL OVER my electronic device! How can I resist?! They’ve even provided a video to demonstrate this treasure chest of pure innovation:

Who could pass up such a grand invention?!

I can. What the above video really strives to get across is the following:

Oh Microsoft, it’s that thing that you do.

Also, see this. [Thanks Andy]