Daily Grind : Techgaming

Tech & Gaming: You Are Not Wendy Williams--Bad Blogging Habits Exposed

Tech & Gaming — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:21:00 GMT

I have to admit that one of my guilty pleasures is listening/watching Wendy Williams. Personally, I think she's a genius at what she does. Listening to her interviews, it's obvious that she's mastered the art of celebrity psychology. Sure, her ratings don't hurt her ability to bring guests to the show but Wendy's talent for ego chess is a great compliment the success she's already built. Anyone can sling gossip but not everyone can make it an art form.

With that said, you are not Wendy Williams.

Click after click, I find blogs--written or otherwise--that attempt to capture the celebrity slamming vibe Williams is known for and most of them come up short. Either they're too obnoxious or flat out corny. the I'm not saying that all of them suck but a hell of a lot of them do. Worse than that, they try to mask actual writing talent with an overused and now stereotypical persona. If you're getting mad reading this, guess what, it's probably you.

Being a writer on any level takes a certain amount of skill no matter what the subject. You may have a style you want to run with but get the basics down first. When you begin your venture into the world of word manipulation, a writer is what you become. Operative word being "become". That means it doesn't happen overnight and your "exclusive" interview with Lil' Flesh Wound from Dusty City Iowa dissing Jay-Z doesn't cut it. You don't have to have mega star power just blog about something that doesn't make me want to eat glass.

Here are a few things to get you off on the right foot...

There's a groundbreaking invention called "Spell Check" and it's free! A misspelling here and there won't kill you but if you want anyone to take you seriously, knowing the difference between "there" and "their" might help.

Unless you're really not able to control the volume in your voice in real life, caps lock is a no-no.

Do not write jokes on pictures using the squiggly, handwritten looking font. Too many people are doing it already and no one likes biters.

Just because you're interviewing a rapper/thug/prison inmate doesn't mean you have to front like one for them. Real recognizes real beeyotch!

On video, stop talking like a damn mixtape DJ. You're not my boy or my girl and no matter how many times you try to convince me, I'm not going for it.

I'm sure there are some more annoyances that bunch of you have come across. Let me know in the comments below which bad blogging habits get your goat. I'm very curious to see what you all come up with.

-The Blackspot

TECH & GAMING: No Thanks For The Add

Tech & Gaming — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:07:00 GMT

Am I the only one who hates overloaded community site profiles? I'm talking about a profile page that has ten videos twelve audio clips, fifty animated gifs and a bunch of dumb quizzes to let me know what kind of sexual sea creature I am. These types of profile pages make me cringe and make a 'B' line to the close button on the browser. Unfortunately, all that crap playing at the same time usually crashes my computer before I can send the offending window into oblivion.

Don't get me wrong, I know it's your page and you are free to express your creativity in every tacky way possible but please--and I'm asking--calm down. Do you really need a graphic of a group of kids wearing sparkling jeans and a tank top throwing gang signs? Is it absolutely necessary to have Pretty Ricky's discography play as soon as I open the page? No, no it isn't.

What makes these profile travesties worse is that some of them belong to adults! Grown men and women who scour the net looking for a perfect pair of salivating lips to plaster on their page under a bible verse and photo of their baby niece or nephew.

I'm not asking you folks to run with a plain profile page like yours truly but for the sake of all things sane, leave the gaudy pages to the tweens and teens. Your boss might be looking.

-The Blackspot

Tech & Gaming: Hip-Hop's Death By Digitalization

Tech & Gaming — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:30:00 GMT

Call it being somewhat of a purist but the extinction of turntables isn't an easy pill to swallow for me. So when the post from MsTrisBeats popped up about the new touch-screen turntable set, it was a bit of a kick in the crotch.

Honestly, the invention is ridiculously cool. Especially since the whole touch-screen concept is being implemented in uses beyond PDAs and notebook computers. With the ATTIGO, DJs can cut, scratch, sample, loop beats and all a whole bunch of other stuff it used to take racks of equipment to do.

The drawback is that the original artistry of DJing is lost. Sure you can pretty much create a remix on the fly but the limitations of two turntables is what separated the pros from the posers. With something like the ATTIGO, anyone with a bit of technical know-how can sound like DJ Premier or DJ Babu. That sucks because people will be getting way too much credit for reading an owner's manual.

-The Blackspot

THE WEB: So Now It's Come To This?

Tech & Gaming — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:02:00 GMT

Out of the world of YouTube came a video of an alleged 8 year old kid giving a potty-mouthed speech about how he was going to kill president George Bush. After YouTube yanked the video, it was reincarnated by World Star Hip-Hop and began gaining even more traction on the web, even getting the attention of the laptop political pundits.

While perusing the web for different takes on the new hot button topic, I ran into a lot of what you would expect. Conservatives blaming liberals and vice versa, people blaming the parents and a ton of comments about which prison shorty will end up in. Oddly enough, not many people on or off Global Grind even questioned WHY a kid would say such disturbing things. That didn't matter because it was a kid cursing and threatening the president. It goes without saying that the video was a horrible and tasteless display of webcam use but given that, what does that say about the society that we live in and more importantly where it's going?

Judging by shorty's delivery in the video, it's obvious that there was some coaching going on. Children have been used as propaganda tools forever and a day. There's a reason why JJ and James Evans weren't the militant ones on the sitcom "Good Times." The writers believed that during that era, an adult taking on a character like that would have produced a hot failure. That's why little ass Michael was the baby Black Panther. No one wants to hate a kid. Kind of like when everyone thought little Pearl was so adorable in Will Ferrell's "The Landlord" video. Kids are easy to dismiss as not knowing any better. Now in the days of shock media, it's not enough to have a kid with an opinion. Kids must now have the attitude of a maniac to make an impression. Our culture loves bad kids, it's what keeps episodes of "Maury" and "Super Nanny" coming back. Whoever used this kid knew that the video would ruffle feathers and it worked. That is, if it is indeed the work of someone else.

If an 8 year old is responsible for putting this controversy together then we've got a bigger problem than a cussing brat. He along with those third graders who made the elaborate plot to kill their teacher can be silenced now but what do we do about them and the ones without media fame when they grow up? -The Blackspot

TECH & GAMING: Live From The THQ Wrestlemania Press Event

Tech & Gaming — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 05:58:00 GMT

Fresh off the heels of the yearly Superstar Challenge where the WWE Superstars go at it on the latest version of Smackdown vs. Raw (by the way, Elijah Burke won again), THQ held a presentation for their upcoming release. Over the years, the game company has been listening to gamers' requests and finding ways to work them in. This time was no different. The presentation itself seems to be taking on a more comedic approach in order to keep the attention of us gaming snobs. Here's the breakdown of the event below.

Live blogging courtesy of ya boy The Blackspot

11:58- The press is all here from probably every video game magazine or website. News cameras and all that. Oh yeah, the event is for "Smackdown vs. Raw 2009".

12:07- The event is about to start soon. Met a guy who's releasing a mockumentary on wrestling called "Wrestlemaniac". It's pretty funny. Check his stuff out here. Yikes, it's starting now.

12:12- Just saw a video for the "Smackdown vs. Raw 2009." Graphics are bananas! The focus is on "tag-team momentum".

12:14- They show us a slideshow of how they put the game together. It's a comedic thing that they did at the THQ office.

12:19- They just played TNA's upcoming wrestling game by showing a picture their demo with a THQ coffee mug sitting on top. Here's what's new with SVR 09.

Loading time cut shorter. So far, over 50%

Artificial Intelligence wil be rebuilt.The wrestlers are supposed to fight more like the live ones. Did they clear this with HHH?

Tag team features: You can work more as a team, you can do more illegal partner actions, create more drama. You'll be able to hype up the crowd.

Commentary is being improved. Good!

Hit detection is improved. Eh.

Animation has been refined. They're making the moves look more natural and improving their motion-capture technology.

12:25- New features!

New tag team match

Create a finisher - F*** YEAH!!!!!

Road To Wrestlemania

New online features

12:35- Talking about create-a-finisher. Looks really dope. You can link moves together, Create a whole new move. You can also assign new finishers to the wrestlers in the game. So, you can give John Cena new moves. He should be here to see this for real. Yo, you can even add taunts to the middle of the finisher!

12:40- Road to Wrestlemania mode gives you more control over the storylines. Each wrestler will have their own story. As far as online stuff, you'll be able to download stuff. They won't tell what that content will be so don't ask. The roster will be bigger YES!

They will improve the game for the Nintendo DS. Cage, ladder and table matches. Believe it or not, a create-a-superstar mode and a roster of 30. The career mode will be role-playing style.

Controls for the Wii will be better. You can act out wrestler moves during entrances and you'll be able to end matches with shaking hands or slapping your opponent.

Reps from Yukes Interactive-who helped design the game demoed the Wii version. The game play is serious with the Wii controllers.

Like the games before it, "Smackdown vs. Raw 2009" will be out in the fall.

TECH & GAMING: When Keeping It 1337 Goes Wrong

Tech & Gaming — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:37:00 GMT

Could it be that the imperial reign of the Xbox 360 is coming to its end? Judging by 954ACE201's post, this may or may not be the case. Sure the Blu-Ray disc format won the high-definition war and that puts the Playstation 3 in really good position but the price tag still has a lot of people on the fence. Microsoft is planning to cut prices of the Xbox 360 to try and stay on top of the PS3 but console burn-outs like the one Kapital One describes, "They have to do this! 25% of 360s overheat and burn out anyway. I just bought a PS3 because of it" makes Sony more attractive value-wise. Aside from the technical issues with the 360, Sugarbread simply feels that "XBox 360 is garbage." Sounds like it's time for a changing of the video gaming guard.

A few weeks ago, Mac users were frozen with fear at the thought that the "Newton" virus going around would turn their expensive pieces of tech candy into mush. All it turned out to be was an art exhibition/prank. What it does is actually amazing. You pop in a USB stick and it makes your screen collapse into chunks of icons and title bars. After watching the video in the post, Stephen joked "Leave it to Mac to have a "cool" virus".

Don't worry though, it won't destroy any of your files or mail itself to your friends. It just functions to give you a big WTF? -The Blackspot

TECH & GAMING: Kids Will Pwn The World

Tech & Gaming — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:23:00 GMT

Cops will soon be using super-bright lights in place of tasers. Kwame06 brought our attention to the LED (Light Emitting Diode) weapons. Apparently, the light temporarily stuns the brain making the victim unable to function. I think Testbet nailed it saying, "This may not kill you immediately but I bet that someone will be "brain dead/vegetable" within the next few months. The police always abuse whatever is given to them." Certainly, this will be a hot button topic in the future.

Just when you start to go into full panic mode over the next generation, there comes a kid who gives you hope. Playzone4girlz showed us a website designed by an eight-year old girl. Queen34momma says, "I love the minds of children. they are so creative. I am sending this to my son!" As she should! Kids' minds should be stimulated as much as possible. If we don't do it with something constructive, they'd wind up slaves to whatever new dance that comes out.

I like the fact that illwaukeerepresent put up a post on the swarm of racist video games. Could these be training tools for domestic terrorists? Possibly. Shotty 96 commented, "This goes to show you that even if racist views are no longer the mainstream there are still people who believe in these concepts, and teach them to younger grnerations. We are still very far from a recist - free society" Yup, there's a long road ahead.