Soft and Music

pSometimes it is just plain hard to look at, analyze, and review a game. Sometimes they have caveats that you can just not get into words, or are so unique that you are left struggling to find a way to describe the game. Sometimes, as in the case of RainbowNinja, the game is just not like a game at all. /p pFlash games, and those like them, are simple and easy to play, but they are addictive as hell; RainbowNinja continues this policy. The game is basically a color test, where you either click the color that is written or the color the writing is in. It is just like Brain Age for the Nintendo DS, and it has the same basic challenges. After decoding what color to click, you simply click it, and the new challenge shows up. That is all that this game is. Yet, somehow, it is highly addictive./p pimg src=http://soft-and-music.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/52892.jpg /Now, don#39;t get me wrong, while it seems that RainbowNinja is exceptionally easy, the game is actually quite hard. In fact, the developers even describe it as quot;evilquot; and quot;deviously simplequot;. This combination makes the game fun and enjoyable to play while also making it highly addictive. The game is designed simply to make anybody play it, and it does that well. RainbowNinja is like crack in the gaming world, a game that keeps you coming back for more./p pSpeaking of playability, one of the nice features of RainbowNinja is how easy it is to pick it up. The graphics (not that there are many) are easy for anybody to see and read. The actual game play is exceptionally easy to learn. This game is designed to be used by anybody, and everybody can use it. This sort of inclusive design is reminiscent of Nintendo#39;s Wii design and seems to be doing well in the market./p pDue to the simplicity of RainbowNinja, it is hard to find anything that should be added to, or that is a problem, with the game. To be honest, there is nothing really wrong with the game; it is just missing a few good features. For starters, we should be able to post our high scores from the game onto a worldwide high score board. As this is like every flash game out there, we know that this is an essential part of the game. Additionally, I would like to hear background music during the game. While the sound effects are amazing and downright cool, the lack of background music is a missing feature./p br

Full disclosure: I'm an old fart (62). I've never watched much — no, make that any — of the last two decades' gross-out comedy, not because I'm a prude, or particularly weak-stomached (the sexual stuff makes me laugh, the barfing makes me and everybody else over 25 shrug), but because I have a low cruelty threshold. Just hearing about a dog thrown out the window or "They've killed Kenny!" is enough. I'm outta here. More full disclosure: I would never have watched or even heard of Star-Ving, the new Internet TV comedy on Sony's edgy Crackle network, starring David Faustino (Bud Bundy in Married … With Children) and Corin Nemec (formerly of Parker Lewis Can't Lose), if the director, Seinfeld veteran ("The Switch") Sam Henry Kass, weren't the son of my husband's late best friend, Peter Kass, who taught acting to Val Kilmer and many others. That said, I couldn't stop laughing. I developed a bothersome jones for the next episode. And I came away convinced that if Laurel and Hardy had lived in the 21st century, they'd be doing exactly this. Each episode is a gem of compressed cultural trash (like those diamonds you can get made from a loved one's ashes) five to seven minutes long, featuring drug and alcohol abuse, sex orgies, casual accidental death, and equally offhand chainsaw-massacre cover-up, and other forms of depravity. Every possible disadvantaged group is made fun of — the senile, the retarded, cancer survivors, blacks, Latinos, Jews, Nazis — and all who are able participate with enthusiastic self-mockery. There is barfing, masturbation (albeit depicted graphically from the waist up), and copro-whatever. There is cynical Hollywood sleaze and showbiz hope-and-despair springing eternal like a diseased weed on an abandoned back lot. The attitude of all concerned seems to be that a disgusting culture and species deserves disgusting treatment — and rewards it with outrageous fun. The faux-reality show premise is that Faustino, his glory days as a child star far behind him, now can't get arrested (his ex-wife really does live with Coolio, according to Wikipedia!), and his roommate and fellow overgrown child star, Nemec, is his cheerful enabler in failure. Every episode opens with a manic, inept suicide attempt by David (which reminds me of the joke, "Wait a minute. You said you throw up every morning?" "Doesn't everybody?"), interrupted by the dawning of a great hope — the tantalizing prospect of a job, a break, a comeback. As you can imagine, it comes to no good in a variety of ways. There are a few limits. There's no full frontal nudity, which is made up for by lots and lots of full rearal nudity (it's almost the show's trademark). The director has promised me he'll never harm an animal, even in jest. ("People, no problem.") All signs are that neither will he allow his vilest characters (producers, agents) to get their paws on a child. The show features a startlingly stellar roster of guest stars, among them Gilbert Gottfried, Ed Asner, Katey Sagal, Christina Applegate, Ed O'Neill, Seth Green, and Coolio. If you can stomach the content, which is not easy — but probably easier the younger you are — the form is absolutely classic slapstick. Now excuse me, I need to go watch the new episode.

Are you one of those people who are always looking for the best deal? Do you cut the coupons out of the Sunday morning paper? Do you try and haggle with anybody and everybody just on the off chance that they might break down and give you a deal? If so, then this application from Codedifferent is perfect for you. CompareMe is an application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that is essentially a price comparison guide. You can take two measurements, prices, and discounts/premiums and compare the two. Basically, you have a small program that tells you what to buy. It also tells you how much you save (or how much more you spend) overall. Oh, and for those of you who forget basic math, it also converts units for you. Now, before you start thinking that I am a price-conscious American, I want you to dig a hole and bury that idea six feet under. I go through my money like there is a hole in my pocket, and I rarely am concerned about price-difference. Sure, I will check the per-ounce price, but I really don’t care that much. CompareMe is not made for people like me. No, it is made more for those who buy in bulk. Say you go out to the lumber yard and buy a pile of rocks, or a bundle of lumber. Those do not have a per-pound comparison so it is harder to judge. Plus, if some are on sale and others are not, it gets even tougher. Or say you went to Home Depot and were buying some nails; same scenario and issues apply. This is where CompareMe steps in and saves the day. The application is designed for exactly these sorts of situations, ones where it is hard to tell the price differentials. Plus, if stores offer price matching, you can use this application to show the actual prices per unit. CompareMe is an interesting application. Most that I review and try out happen to be either flashy or expansive. CompareMe is neither; it is a small application, with one screen, that performs only one function. There are no nifty graphics and no interesting menus. Nope, this application is pretty simple. Yet, in simplicity comes usefulness. An application that performs its one duty, and does it well, is hard to come by these days in the App Store. CompareMe does its job flawlessly, and that deserves commendation.

I just finished reading an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal by M. P. McQueen, which suggests that the bear market is creating a bull market for fraudsters. According to the numerous experts cited in the article, the reason for this is economic gloom and doom with a healthy dose of anxiety. This shouldn't be surprising because gloom, doom, and anxiety make effective social engineering tools that can be used to part people and businesses from their money. The article references phishing expeditions that lead to fake Web sites — which often spoof a financial institution or government entity — and entice people into giving up enough of their personal details to drain their financial resources. It also mentions that some of these sites leave behind malicious software on a person's machine, which steal all these details automatically. Also mentioned is the use of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), caller-ID spoofing and cell phone technology to mount texting and vishing attacks. Vishing is merely another method of tricking people to give up personal and financial information via the telephone. In these attacks, the caller ID is spoofed to make it appear as if it is coming from a legitimate institution. Apparently telephone technology is being used to commit other types of crimes, too. Many of our 911 centers cannot identify spoofed calls coming from computers using VoIP technology. This has led to S.W.A.T. teams being tricked into deploying in full battle gear to residential neighborhoods when no emergency existed. Of course, businesses use the same technology to trick people who have caller ID into picking up their telephones. You can even buy a card to do this at will from any telephone right over the Web. It sometimes amazes me how much irresponsible technology there is out there, which is being sold legally. There are even Web sites, with disclaimers, that specialize in making this technology available to the general public. Of course, there are also complete DIY (do-it-yourself) phishing kits being sold over the Internet. Some of these even come with tech support. The phishing kits are illegal, but can be found for sale in chat rooms if you know where to look for them. Sadly, the truth is that these chat rooms aren't very hard to find. The fine line between legitimate enterprise and scams is often a little blurry. The WSJ article quotes a lot of experts, including Gartner, the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, who all seem to agree that scams are on the rise. An interesting phenomenon called out were small fraud charges being found on accounts. I guess taking small amounts, which might be mistaken for bank fees, is a good way to stay under the radar. A lot of people don't realize how many small fees are being charged to their account and it can be quite confusing at times. I guess the crooks are trying to make themselves look like bankers (speculation) and it's probably a good time for all of us to review our statements, carefully.

Internet radios certainly made the hot topic list at this year's CES held last week in Las Vegas. Everyone was talking about new devices that allow listeners to stream their favorite station. Lots of companies introduced new streaming devices: Philips, Acoustic Research, RCA/Audiovox, and VTECH. Chumby's tiny Internet radio/alarm clock was even featured as part of Sony Chairman Howard Stringer's keynote address. Sony will produce a next generation Dream Machine alarm clock in partnership with Chumby. According to sources including the blog Paid Content, Stringer said that in two years, 90% of Sony devices will have connectivity. In addition to streaming table top and stereo devices, Blaupunkt and miRoamer made news and a few "best of show" lists with an announcement of an in-dash Internet car radio, gaining kudos from industry blog Venture Beat and Popular Mechanics award for innovation. Mobile streaming platform Flycast was featured by PC World as one of the best products at the show as well. Thanks to Internet radio, technology and electronics are taking a second glance at radio. During his speech, Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro said Radio is deeply ingrained in the U.S. culture. "Radio in the 1930s lifted the economy out of the Great Depression," he said. People listened to news and entertainment and drew hope and inspiration from the broadcasts. Today, radio continues to play an important role in the consumer electronics industry, which generated $1 trillion in economic activity globally last year, Shapiro said. I'm not sure if Internet radio will lift the economy out of our current misery, but it sure is looking more and more like it might be one of the few bright spots in 2009 and that's a very good prospect.