At first glance, this game looks like it can be a lot of fun. Well, it can once you get past the lack of content in the game itself. Lets have a look at some of what the game has to offer:
- A decent variety of songs (of course, no where near some of the more costlier games on the market)
- The joy of rhythm based games without the need to have any extras hanging around
- A quirky variation to the plain old ‘hit the notes and you win’ formula

Battle of the Bands offers some classic favorite songs such as Black Betty and Jungle Boogie; mixed in with some fun songs like Feel Good Inc. by the Gorillaz and Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones. Though the songs are few, they’re good to play.

Unlike some of the other rhythm games, Battle of the Bands uses only the wiimote to hit notes (left/right/down/stab/shake). It’s a fun concept, though a little tiring on the wrist at first on some of the higher difficulty levels. Also, if the wiimote is tilted it often doesn’t hit the note. Once you get used to this though, it’s a fantastic workout for your wrist.

Above all else what makes this game worth playing is the presentation itself. The game is one big battle, so you’re always in a versus mode against either an AI or a Player. Each band gets to choose a style of music, for example country and hip-hop. While playing, if the country team is in the lead the song which they’re playing will be done in a ‘country version’ (IE redneck accent and banjos). As the teams battle, the song jumps between the two bands’ type. It’s a riot when the types are conflicting as they switch seamlessly.

Another cooky part of this game is that you can attack the opposing player. Teams get the option of 3 weapons to use, all with different steak counts. Once a team has a streak to the length of the weapon, it will fire causing the other player to miss a beat if not blocked (hitting B). It’s quite off tilt to have a battle of the bands where you can shoot lightning at the drummer on the other team, but a blast none the less.

Overall, I can understand why this game is so cheap (I got it for $15) because though the concept of it is amazing, the final execution of it is lacking. If they had access to a larger library, or even if they had more modes or unlockable content it may have made it a little more interesting. For what the game is though, it was worth the cash and I’d suggest it to any music lover out there if not only for the music player feature that allows you to switch between styles without having to actually play the game.

To start off, I was going into this movie with big expectations since 2008 seems to be the year of the vampire. I wouldn’t consider this a good representation though.

A quick summary: Girl (Bella) moves to new town and becomes the new girl in high school. New Girl falls in love with outsider kid (Edward Collins) who is a vampire.New Girl and Vampire have strange relationship, girl almost gets killed by evil vampire. End.

The nitty-gritty that bothers me of this movie is not only the inconsistency within itself, but the fact that the attributes of these vampires seem to be lacking towards those that we commonly know. For example, these vampires do not sleep at all (aka no coffins). I can live with this I suppose, it doesn’t effect the plot. However, they also are able to survive sunlight. In fact, not only does it not harm them at all it makes them shiny. Worse off, the Collins’ family states they only drink animal blood and it is left at that. Well there goes the entire vampire aspect of these people.

The plot itself that annoys me is that for the first hour and twenty minutes of this movie you could replace the ‘vampire’ factor of Edward (the male love interest) with just a pale emo kid and it wouldn’t change the plot at all. There is no real vampire-human obstacles that they’re overcoming here, just a lot of him saying “I don’t know if I resist myself”. *yawn* Now at this 1h20m point, it does a complete 360 degree turn here and suddenly they’re being chased by an evil vampire (who was awkwardly placed in the story might I add) and they’re trying to kill Bella. So it was 1h20m of high school emo garbage then the final 30 minutes is a horribly cliche fight scene.

As an added bonus to this pathetic attempt of a movie, Edward is able to read minds. He can’t, however, read the mind of Bella. He also often refers to her as ‘the one’ or similar there of because she has a different scent from the rest of the humans. It might just be me, but I’m pretty sure I already saw this before…Oh yeah, on True Blood. Suki (the female on True Blood) has the different scent and she can read minds. She is also in love with a vampire named Bill. It looks to me like somebody stole somebody else’s idea and just mixed it up. I think I like True Blood better.

Final Summation: Avoid this movie, watch True Blood on HBO instead. If you don’t have HBO, run over your face with a lawn mower, it’s still more entertaining than this movie.
Score: 4/10

Ever wish that you could have a cheat sheet for a webpage? Get through all that useless junk that the author wrote? I’m sure that most of my readers do. And thus comes Webnotes.

Webnotes is a new web-working tool designed at letting users add annotations and highlighting to websites. They combine two of my personal favorite things: Post-it notes and websites, it was just a matter of time. The utility is easy to use, just install the toolbar (Firefox plug-in FTW) and you’re set. There is a button to create a sticky note, button to highlight text and a button to share what you’ve done. It’s that easy.

Once you have that done, it’s easy to place sticky notes around. I know I’m going to have the bad habit of putting them on every site I visit (I have 29 of them in sight right now around my desk offline, yikes!). The good use for this is that you’ll be able to see a site, put your options on it then send it to your friend so they can see it how you see it. Here, check out I R Blogging with some annotations I put in (I may have put a few too many…).

Some uses for this that I came up with:

• Looking at somebody’s website and giving them pointers.
• Studying notes and highlighting the parts that would be important.
• Adding reminders for the next time you visit the site (like checking out a certain link that you know will be a time-sink)
• Being used as a bookmark when going through archives.

The only thing I can think of right now that this is missing is a social aspect of this. For example, if I could make my notes, send it to a friend then have them add some of their notes and send it back to me (displaying both sets of annotations) it would make it a great collaboration tool. Also, being able to select the color of sticky note would be pretty cool as well.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a few invites (Thanks Ryan!), so for those of you interested in some just leave a comment to this post. Be sure to include your email address when filling out the comment form, I’ll be using it to know where to send it.

To explain myself further, take the gore. Being a zombie-based movie, there was a scene where a group of zombies ripped apart a body and it broke into was looked like puzzle pieces (as one was a perfectly straight line cut from shoulder to bottom rib on the other side of the chest) as well as resulting in tons of blood just spraying everywhere. Were that done with today’s mindset, I’m sure they’d have ripped the limbs off and left the torso as well as less blood that was shown. Another great thing was the way they did the explosions: it actually looked real. I find personally that today’s “special effects” are just that, effects and not realistic looking so was a nice change.

Did I mention that it had a sex scene and boob shots? Well it did. As well as a melting penis, which almost made me vomit. It also had very subtle comedy thrown in. There was one section where the girl said “I don’t fucking care” (or something along that line) and the guy replied “I like the way you say fuck”, and she retorted “fuck you” followed by him taking his shirt off.

So as far as an awesome movie goes this had zombies, a sex scene, explosions, blood and zombies. It’s definitely a “guy’s movie” if there ever was one.

Total: 9/10 I dare you to watch this and try not to say “Duuuuuuuude” or “Oh my god!” at least once.

Gmail: This is Google’s web-based email service that is quickly growing to the top spot, passing competitors like Hotmail. What is pulling most people into this from other email providers (aside from being completely free) is that they give you a TON of email storage. When I say a ton, I mean a lot. As of writing this article the limit on my gmail account is currently 2906mb, that’s 2.9GB. That’s HUGE. This means that people no longer have to worry about their boxes getting full, they can simply archive it.

This brings us to our first feature: Archiving. Gmail allows it’s users to archive emails, without the need to sort what they are into folders upon folders they’re never going to check anyway. We all get those emails that somebody will say something and you think ‘I should keep this in case I need to use it later’ well now you can. Hit the handy dandy archive button and you’re set. To find it again, you can use the search feature for the words, date, from, etc that you’re looking for through all the messages in your mailbox. If throwing your messages into the dark isn’t your thing, you can also use classic folders if that floats your boat.

Another nice feature is the ‘Stared‘ system. This allows you to put a little star beside the email to show it’s importance. It can be used for whatever reason, be it an important email, a note to yourself to reply to it later or just because you think the subject looks good with a star beside it. Gmail also lets you view all your currently stared items at once, so you can combine the star system with the archive system to keep your inbox clean.

One of Gmail’s best (or some say most annoying) feature is the ability to turn email into ‘conversations‘. When an email is a reply to something already sent, instead of the reply showing up as a completely new email it will attach itself to the email sent. Gmail forms them all into a conversation thus allowing you to view previous emails as drop down (instead of the random format that most email clients choose). An easy way to think of it emails being stapled together into a booklet instead of just laid out on the desk. Another space saver from Google.

Google Alerts: These little notifications are amazing. Once you enter a term Google alerts will notify you whenever anything around the net mentions that thing. Let’s say you’re interest is toast. You can enter toast as your search term. Whenever toast is mentioned (news/blog/web/group) you’ll receive an email with a link to the article. Before you think ‘well I’m sure my topic gets mentioned a lot, I’m going to get spammed’ you can also select if you want emails as-it-happens, once a day or once a week. This can be a very useful tool if you want to stay on top of a subject and be one of the first people to know about it. A definite must for bloggers (especially if you blog about toast!).

Some Helpful Links:
Gmail Tools & Plugins @ Robs Blog
Gmail Tips and Tricks Monster Roundup @ LifeHacker

PROs
+ Easy to use: Click and type. Editing is simple, double click on the section (title or description) that you want to edit and correct it without the need to go to another ‘editing’ screen which is useful.
+ RSS feed enabled for user or EACH LIST!
+ You can attach an image/video, related link and description to each list item.
+ Others can add comments to lists as well as add items to the lists you create.
+ ‘Digg’-like system allowing users to add points to lists for rating/popularity purposes.
+ Easy embedding. Just go to the bottom of the list, choose your colors, paste the URL. Sure you could just make a list using HTML on your site, but why? This way they can link back to ListBums to use the comments/additonal features as well.
+ Fun layout/theme. Funky faces, tons of graphical elements and (for the most part) easy to navigate.

CONs
- When creating list you have to add the item then add the description after you add it to the list. A field where you can put in both item title and description before adding would save time.
- I can’t for the life of me get the ‘reverse order’ button to work!
- Pain in the ass to figure out where the widget part was. It’s at the bottom of the list you’re viewing. Easy once you know where to look, I was looking for a ‘widget’ button for at least 5 minutes at the top of the screen.

In comparison to Listography (which I reviewed awhile ago here) I think ListBums is in the lead as far as quality goes. Listography seems to have simple ‘ it’s there and it works ‘ look to it, where as ListBums has more of a ‘ look I listed stuff and it’s pretty! ‘. That brings me to think that though both social sites based on lists, the targeted markets would vary. I’d think that Listography would be more for people who want to just get something down and be done with it, where as ListBums is for those who want to have fun with the lists.

This site was pointed out to me by a comment when I reviewed Pagii by Mark who actually works for ClutterMe. You’re off to a good start when you come to me for a review

At first glance, ClutterMe looks like a a really simple site. It features webpage building tools as well as the ability to add friends, comments, etc. However, It gives me more of an impression of a site one of your friends might make in their spare time more than a big company site. This has both flaws and benefits. Flaws being that people may not take it as seriously, but the benefit that those who stick to it will likely stay because they feel like part of it.

Now as far as the interface goes, this is where I’m having problems. Unlike other sides that have seperate pages to input information, you put everything down directly on the site you’re editing. This is a good and bad because everything is click-drag-done with this site, but that’s as far as everything is going. I’m finding it hard to come up with anything more than a blocky site. Their widgets are few and I’m finding them to work into a layout. For example the ‘about’ widget allows you to hover over to focus on it, but it doesn’t seem to want to work unless I click once first. But clicking once also changes it to the ‘add info’ mode where you can input information (thus expanding it so you can add info) and it makes it hard to position correctly on the page.

The site also has some nice features though that I have to mention. First off is instant text. Simply click anywhere on your site and start typing and it will appear. This is great because there is no need to add a text block or anything and position it, just type. This feature is good for adding titles or maybe quick links (yes, it seems HTML does work in this feature, yay!) Also since you’re constantly in Edit mode, you might not be seeing the site exactly as it will be seen, so you can click the Edit button in the top right and the site will switch from Edit to Non-Edit mode so you can see it as it is. This is nice because in addition to that the site saves as you’re working, so switching doesn’t require a lot of load time.

The best feature however BY FAR is being able to write on people’s sites. Yahoo’s Mash seems to be trying to do this, but ClutterMe does it better. Click anywhere on a ClutterMe site and start typing. When you’re finished your profile pick will show up with the comment written beside it. I love this idea, using the entire site as a wall, they did a good job on this and need to be commended.

What I’d like to see improved:

• Change the info widgets. If 1 click is used to access the panel (to move) then require a double click to edit the content. Chances are I’m going to be moving it more than editing it, so I don’t need it to display every time.
• Add a widget for a text area. Yes, I can just click and type but if I want to add in some code longer than a link (say adsense for example) it’s easier to be able to see exactly what I’m putting in and be able to click through my text in there after.
• Layering would be nice. When I add a new widget/image it goes to the top left corner. If I have anything else already there, I have to move it so that I can get to the newly added widget, This makes it a real pain if I want to give the site some depth.

Those are really the only problems I have with it, because I see a lot of potential in this site. And yes, I’m a sucker for the little guys and can see myself sticking to the site if it makes improvements (which from what they’re saying, they’re working on it). ClutterMe is one of a few sites that seem to be developing that are using both the ‘social networking’ platform and the classic ability to modify a site (without using a predefined template) together. I’m going to watch this site over the next few months to see how it plays out and will most likely do a follow-up review, so keep an eye out for that.

Google Blog Search: This is always a great place to start. Blogs aren’t always personal journals, simply weblogs. Most sites today are done using a ‘blog’ format, the smarter ones make sure to get indexed in the blog search. There is much more content and nowhere near as many ads in this engine. This works especially well for finding answers to questions.

Google News: A search engine for news. There are many news sources listed, all compiled into one big blob or site for your viewing pleasure. The only issue I have with this is smaller sites aren’t often considered as reliable sources (which can be a good thing) so are not listed. Blog Search (listed above) can help if you’re not finding what you want.

Google Book Search: An interesting feature, this actually lets you see what’s inside of books. A great tool for checking to make sure you get quotes right. However, there is a limitation of what books are in this engine because of copyright laws.

Google Images: I have to point this out because I talk to SO many people who don’t know about this. On the main page simply click the image text (as seen in the image) or go to images.google.com. From here you can search and it will come up with images, so you don’t have to search through a ton of sites looking for an image you want, Google has already found them for you.

Google Directory: Categories, categories who has the categories? This is a FANTASTIC way to search, cut down your results by category. This tool makes it easy to cut down exactly what you want, where you want it. The only problem is that this doesn’t seem to be as up-to-date as the normal engine (they need to get on updating that better).

Here’s some more neat tricks you can do with Google, simply type:

• “Define: word” and you’ll get a definition of that word from multiple sources.
• A mathematical equation (such as 4+4) and Google will solve it and show you the answer.
• A conversion statement (such as 100 lbs to KG or $10 USD to CDN) and it will figure it out for you.
• “Weather City-name” This will give you a 4 day forecast (available in most places, you may need to include province/state)
• “Spell: word” to have Google check to make sure the word is real.

More Helpful Links
Google search features @ Google
7 Clever Tricks Worth Knowing @ Marc and Angel

This is a hub, simple as that. There is no need to jump around for everything, it’s all there on one page (Bing bang boom), You can add ‘stuff’ aka gadgets that you want displayed such as a preview of your gmail inbox, active doc files, your recent rss feeds in your reader, the top videos on youtube, picture of the day, news articles and even the weather! You can add more by clicking on the ‘Add stuff’ in the right of the screen. You can even add a new tab (left) so it’s like running a complete secondary igoogle window (great for those of us that are too organized)You can also add a ‘theme’ to the site, though it’s very limited. You can use some of the tweaks (see helpful links) to make it a little better.

We haven’t covered all of Google’s Greatness this past week, just the tip of the iceburg. Here are some honorable mentions that almost reached Greatness:

• GOOG-411: A free 411 (information) service from Google. A good alternative for those who still pay for this info.
• Google Talk: Google’s instant messenger service. A good product, but still behind in users compared to others.
• Google Earth: It’s the earth. All of it. Google has mapped it out and is now even starting on outer space, a great look.
• Google pack: A Wonderful package of free software. The products are not google-made, but are free and recommended. A great collection.

Some Helpful Links
15 iGoogle Gadgets for Web Word Productivity
Pimp your iGoogle with Greasemonkey @ Mashable