Author Archive for Rudeboy

RC Airplanes are fun too

In an effort to get the word out, I thought I’d stick a post out here about my new RC Plane site. I’ve played with RC toys for most of my life, but I thought I’d try selling a few and helping others to find a fun hobby. We’ve got all sorts of cool stuff over there for all skill levels. We’ve got trainers, jets, helicopters, warbirds and stunt planes. Whether you’re a veteran RC pilot or if you’re interested in trying it out for the first time, head on over to RC Plane Pro and check out our selection of planes and helis.

I See You…

It’s not a great picture, but I got a phone snap of a Google Street View car on the freeway the other day.  Nothing special, just thought I’d share.

20080418_022

Office 2007 Color Schemes / Themes

In an effort to keep all us little monkeys up-to-date, we were all just upgraded to Office 2007 here at work and the first thing I noticed was the nasty default “toothpaste” color scheme. Don’t get me wrong… blue is one of my favorite colors, but that shade was just plain offensive. And so I proceeded to search for the “Themes” option to make a quick update. Unfortunately though, Office 2007 is different enough that even if my very existence had depended on it updating the color scheme, I wouldn’t have been able to locate where to make the change. Luckily for you though, I’ve now located this elusive option and I now share this information with you (it’s much easier than I was making it).

First, open any Office 2007 application (besides Outlook) and click on the nifty new “Office Orb” in the upper left-hand corner.

Second, at the bottom of the menu that appears, click on “-application name- Options” (where -application name- equals the app you happen to have open).

Third, on the default “Popular” tab of the new options window, select your color scheme from the drop down menu on the right. Please note that this option changes the color for all Office 07 apps so you can’t set each to a separate color scheme.

There you go. That’s it! You can choose from one of the follow schemes so hopefully you can find one that works with your windows theme. I’m just glad to be rid of “Zesty Cresty Blue”.


 

Peter Venkman Is The Man…

I don’t speak Dutch so I have no idea what they’re saying in the video below, but I do know that the game footage excites me. I can honestly say that the original Ghostbusters movie was one of my favorites growing up (along with Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and the original TMNT movie). If you understand Dutch then this video will make more sense to you, but even if you don’t, it’s pretty easy to see that this game has potential. It could just as easily be total crap, but at least it looks good at this point. You can check out the details released so far HERE.

Sorry about the stupid player and the ads. The vid loads pretty slowly, but just give it a few minutes. You’ll be glad you did.

More Steampunk Goodness

Someday I’ll have the time (but never the creativity) to build something like this. I’m not sure what it is that draws me to these steampunk creations, but they touch a special place in my nerdy little heart. Anyway… check out the entire Gizmodo gallery here.

Those Silly Japanese…

I admire the Japanese for many things… their technological prowess, their ability to produce most of the worlds electronics and of course, their ninjas. But sometimes they do things that we Americans just have to shake our heads at. Heaven knows I wouldn’t ever want to be trapped in a room with a single tv showing Japanese game shows.

Take, for example, the “invention” in the video below. Some enterprising individual in Japans department of transportation was able to take something that seems to be a mundane safety apparatus and turn it into something amazing. Although I can’t say that I’d want to drive on this road any more than once. I’m not a real fan of headaches.

As you can hear, they’ve modified a road with musical “safety grooves”. Here in the US we use these grooves to notify sleep deprived travelers that they should probably turn the music up a bit more, but in Japan they’d rather just use the grooves and cut out the radio altogether.

AWESOME-A-POWA!!!

Amazing Wii-mote Hack

I’ve seen a few Wii-mote hacks over the last year, but this one takes the cake I think. This dude is pretty genius and his creative use of the Wii-mote makes me wonder what fun new tech we’ll see in the next 10 years. Freakin Amazing!

I’m A Sucker For Steampunk…

So I was just hangin’ out at work today preparing for the annual Omniture Halloween bash when this slick bit of Steampunk goodness unexpectedly arrived in my inbox courtesy of my good buddy Andy.

“What is it?” you may ask.

Well, let me tell you. It’s the most essential piece of equipment for any 19th century time traveler. Behold the Steampunk Flux Capacitor! This unique piece was apparently part of some nerds Halloween costume last year. And although he doesn’t have any pictures of the complete costume posted, you can only imagine how sweet it must have been by looking at the rest of pictures in this set.

It’s just unfortunate that I don’t posses the necessary set of skillz to create masterpieces such as this. I suppose I’ll just have to continue admiring the work of others.

The Orange Box is Portal-rific!

Being the good little Valve fanboy that I am, I went out and picked up The Orange Box at Circuit City Wed evening after work (it’s currently on sale for $37.99 btw). Although I could have pre-ordered the bundle on Steam, I generally like to wait and pick up the discs. I’m not sure why this is, but I imagine it has something to do with the need to have some sort of physical reward for my purchase. Something that can sit on my shelf and collect dust instead of just a digital representation of the money I spent (or flushed down the toilet in my wifes opinion). As a fanboy though, I purchased this bundle with high hopes, and so far, I’m gleefully delighted.

Like many of the rest of you who rushed out to buy this bundle, I’ve already beaten Portal. My initial impressions… I NEED MORE!!! This was a very refreshing romp through a world with physics and graphics that we’re all used to, but with a new twist. Source still looks gorgeous after all these years and I found myself being blown away by this new space-bending aspect they’ve introduced. Like all truly great games, this one has begun to bleed over into my reality and I’ve found myself studying any white wall I encounter to judge whether or not a portal would fit there and where I might place the other end.

In short, Portal is one of the best PC games I’ve played in a good long while. In fact, it’s good enough to have torn me away from Phantom Hourglass these last few days. The only downside to the entire experience was how short it was. The gameplay mechanics, environment and generally humorous tone were all pretty much perfect. Incorporating the Portal gun into the final sequence proved to be a bit challenging and quite rewarding when finished. I don’t want to give anything away here, but the closing credits made it all worth it as well as making me hopeful for another installment. What we really need now are some good old fashioned mod community maps.

In closing, if you currently own the Orange Box and haven’t tried Portal yet… shame on you. Get your butt home (or wherever you happen to game) and give it try right now. You won’t be disappointed.

Who Woulda Thunk…

Scott over at ExtraLife.com posted this fun and enlightening video today and I thought I’d share. I haven’t tried this myself yet, but you can bet that I’m going to. This hack is just too good to pass up.