Robot Wifeu: The Geeks Dream

I was reading this article on Wired and it got me thinking. Could you imagine if Robot’s became so advanced we could actually “marry” them or buy one to fulfil certain needs! *laughs*  It would be every Hikkokomori Anime/WoW/Godknowswhat Geeks fantasy. You know those boys who obsess over Anime girls and think that real girls just can’t quite cut it next to those Animated beauties. They would go mad over having Robot women they can buy and would take the place of a normal woman.

For one thing they could customise the robots to actually look like their fav Anime/Gaming/Celeb. Remember that episode of Futurama where Fry downloads Lucy Lui into a blank Robot and then falls in love with her? That would be what the future would hold! *laughs* Can you imagine walking around and people sitting in cafes or making out with Angelina Jolie or Hayden Thingymabob or Haruhi Suzumiyah or bloody Tifa?! It would be mental! But it would be every uber-geeks dream right? They  could obtain women way beyond their limits! Actually why am I limiting this to guys? I mean girls would be just as excited. Actually I bet every Yaoi Fangirl would buy a pair of boys to resemble those in their fav Animes and make them get it on! I can actually see that happening, Yaoi Fangirls watching Kyon and Itsuki get at it. Deary me. Metal Fever!

The other thing about Robot partners is that like you have complete control over them. If you get sick of them you can just turn them off and stick them in a closet till you need them again. Can you imagine having a fight with your Robot Other Half and simply just turning the volume down so you couldn’t hear what they were saying? That would eliminate all of lifes problems. Because even though these are Robot People they would be able to think and have emotions, well I assume they would. They would be like people you could just control.

My prediction for the far far future where Robots are people is that you will get more people staying inside and disconnecting from Society as you do now. *laughs* I mean the internet has people cooped up indoors imagine if they could get sex whenever they want without any effort too with the woman of their dreams?! You’d have trouble getting them out of bed (Laptop, Robot Women and Games Console Controls at near reach).

Of course it may all just end up like the anime Chobits. That wouldn’t be so bad (:

Facebook: In Ur Life Invading Ur Privacy

…”You might not want things you do to be broadcast into facebook, but the evidence says that many people would”…
Facebook have set up this thing called Beacon (see end of post for a bit of a description), which shopping sites can use so that when you buy things from them it shows up on your Facebook Mini Feed. According to the writer over at JbJb this is ok.

So I ask you:

• Do you mind Facebook invading your privacy if it makes the service better?
• Do you want the things you do to be broadcast on Facebook/Any other social Networking site?

I am interested to see how many people would actually want this. So please leave a comment and your thoughts (:
Thank you!

The following is stolen from the blog post :
“Facebook Beacon”

This is the big one - and it’s caused a good deal of controversy in the press this week. Here’s the elevator pitch: add a few lines of code to your company’s website, and when a facebook user makes some kind of action on your site (e.g. purchases a product) this news gets published on their mini-feed and on their friend’s newsfeeds. Users get a chance to opt-out, but not by default. This can be used intelligently with social ads so that people only see an advert for your product when they’ve committed a Beacon action. In other words, it’s a new way for Facebook users to log and broadcast their outside-of-Facebook online activity inside Facebook.

*obsesses*

Maryam made me do this. Okay, I did it a little by myself.

Fucking delicious.

A Procrastinators Dreams

I procrastinate. But to be honest with you I bet all of you at some point get bored when at work/home and randomly search around on Google for things to watch and see.  I was having one of these moments the other day when I read this article on Wired which suggests that we have “evolved” as such so that our computers are an extension of our brains. We look up facts on Google, we don’t remember email addresses or phone numbers now because they are just stored in our Gmail accounts or on our Mobile Phones. Apparently each generation is remembering less and less basic facts due to the fact we can access basic information at the press of a button. Why should we waste the memory space inour head remembering them?

I don’t think I’m so bad at this. I know my own cellphone number, I did know my home phone number till it was changed a few weeks ago, I know my bank account number and sort code and a lot of peoples emails off by heart. The things I forget are usually song titles (I can never tell you what a song I love is called. I just know the band usually) and peoples birthdays. I need to program my friends birthdays onto my phone so I can have a reminder a few days before. But actually Facebook takes care of that for me now. I know that if you took my phone or my laptop away I would probably be a bit lost. Not for information, but I would simply run out of things to do to waste time when I am waiting for something I have to go to or when I am just simply bored.

A lot of us are way too reliant on our computers. I know that I don’t stay in on mine every night of the week but I know people that do and it’s rather worrying I have to say. You can do pretty much all things from your PC now right? Talk to people, watch TV, watch Movies… you have access to everything so it’s easy to see why people tend to spend more and more time on the Interwebs than they do actually going out. I think that extreme is pretty bad, I mean there is a limit to how much you should spend on your computer surely? It’s not very healthy to not get out and about and I’m sure you’ll get some sort of health defects from sitting around all day staring at a screen. Everyone needs fresh air, excercise and a bit of social interaction everyday.

The thing about me and my PC is, whilst I can probably live without it, I wouldn’t want to live without it. Think about it, we have laptops, wireless internet connections, internets on our mobile phones and all sorts now so that accessing the Interwebs has become a norm. You may  not think it would affect you if you took it all away but it would, even if you don’t use your PC that much. One of my friends only uses her computer and is only online when she’s at work. She said she’d cope fine without having the internet on her PC at work but she wouldn’t. Her job is pretty slow and she spends ALL day on Facebook messaging people, browsing Youtube and listening to Last.FM. She would miss the internet if it was pulled. The internet is a procrastiators dream and no matter how much you deny you wouldn’t mind if it died and never reared it’s head again you totally would! You just haven’t realised how much you would yet.

What was the point to this article? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s just the fact that I’ve noticed that at work time would go much slower had I not had the internet on my computer. I read articles on Wired and I read Blogs and I update Pink Domino and before I know it it’s 5pm and I can go home. I am so glad noone is planning to kill the internet. I know I would miss it!

WAY TO KILL THE FRANCHISE, EA

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. What a terrific mess Electronic Arts have made of the latest Need For Speed installment, ProStreet. I was looking forward to next title in the series, hoping for the annoying features of Carbon to have been addressed and the good features to have been developed. How foolish a hope that was.

NFS has, it seems, gone the way of reality. Or at least, as close to reality as you can get in a world where you’re led to believe people can afford to buy, customise, race and crash supercars every day. No, EA has ditched pretty much everything that made the last two titles so enjoyable and gone for a major rethink, and in doing so has produced a staggering turd.

If you’re a regular reader of Pink Domino it’s highly likely you’re a gamer and know the premise of Need For Speed; if not here’s how it works. In the previous two installments (Most Wanted and Carbon) the action takes place in enormous cities that you can drive around at your leisure. You take part in races, win cash to upgrade your car or buy new ones, get involved in Police pursuits to increase your reputation, and once ranked high enough you take on one of the big street racing names. You work your way up the list, with your goal being to take the top spot. Carbon had less emphasis on the Police aspect and essentially replaced it with the game’s trademark canyon duels, but it was pretty much the same formula.

ProStreet is vastly different from the off. For starters, the action no longer takes place in a huge location that you can drive around in. Instead all of the races take place in the form of organised events, at areas such as racetracks, and you access them through the game’s menu system. One or two of the tracks are set in cities, but largely not. So that’s a great deal of the “street racing” element gone already. You can practice on the courses first, but that’s it. Now where’s the fun in that? One of the things I loved about the previous games was the ability to just blast around the gigantic map, hooning around enjoying the car and the terrain until I was ready for a race, at which point I could jump straight in. Now I can’t do that, and it’s terrible.

Probably the greatest appeal about the previous games were the sheer unrealistic nature of them. In Most Wanted or Carbon you could take a corner at 150+mph in a Lamborghini Gallardo, lose control and hit a wall with an enormous crunch, then reverse out and continue on your merry way with nary but a cracked windscreen and a few scratches on the paintwork to show for it. And by God, but that was fun! ProStreet has done away with this, and the cars now get damaged and have been set up to handle as realistically as possible. In other words, you’re going to crash. A lot. Hit something too hard and you total the car completely, and you’re out of the race and have to pay to get it repaired. I found this out almost immediately when playing the game for the first time: setting up your profile, you’re given the option of choosing one of three different assist modes - the game can help you brake and take corners, or you can switch it off. Being something of a veteran I switched it off, my thinking being that I didn’t have the last two games telling me when to brake so I wasn’t about to start now. What a shock it was then when in the first proper race, at the very first corner I come to, I apply the brakes when it feels right and begin to turn. Only the car doesn’t seem to slow down, or turn at all. My Golf GTI goes off the corner, rolls, and is completely totaled. I’m left sitting there holding the controller in a state of disbelief.

Nevertheless, I persevere. I love cars, I’ve bought the game, and I’m determined to enjoy it. I play on, adjusting to the awful controls. I qualify through the first set of races. Great, I think, surely I’ll be able to get a better car now and onto the more exciting races. My reward? A Chevrolet Cobalt SS. Excuse me while I jump for joy. Fuck it then. I go back to the main screen and choose a quick race. These are always good - access to the best cars in the game, on a track you choose, the kind of race you choose. So here I go - Ford GT (fuck yeah), in a straight-out blast across the Nevada Desert. “This should be epic,” I think, as I rev the engine. And it was epic. Epic fail. Thanks to the new realistic controls, I get the car up to 210mph and subsequently cannot keep it on the road. The tiniest nudge on the analogue sticks sends it veering left or right wildly, and I go flying across the sand and into a telegraph pole at full force. You’ve guessed it - my new friend ‘TOTALED’ appears on the screen to taunt me.

So damn you, EA. You’ve ruined one of my favourite forms of escapism. I don’t want to race realistically-handling cars on proper racetracks - I have Gran Turismo 4 for that - I want to hurl jaw-droppingly beautiful supercars and achingly awesome muscle cars around big city streets at ridiculous speeds, safe in the knowledge that should I crash it’s not game over. I want the freedom to just ride. And you’ve taken that away from me.

THIS IS NOT HOW TO BE MEROKO

 

Is that a guy or a girl?

Seriously I have no idea xD

Someone enlighten me.

Neo Anime

As the UK Anime community all know the London MCM Anime Expo recently just passed and once again I was at it Cosplaying and running around after all my friends. I did an unusual thing this time round though, I signed up for a subscription to Neo Anime. Neo Anime seems to be, from what I hear, the UK’s most popular Anime magazine. We all know how I feel about Anime Magazines. I think they are a bit of a waste of time and to be honest with you the guy at the Neo Anime stand was no help in telling me about why Neo Anime was great. He was really unfriendly, I mean I know I went up there and said “I’m not a big fanof Anime magazines, is Neo Anime any good?” But I was being friendly and engaging. I wanted him to convince me that Neo Anime was amazing and wouldn’t just tell me about Anime I had been watching for years of about BLOODY GUNDAM WING every single month but he was a complete and utter idiot. He had no desire to talk to any of us whatsoever and the people who convinced me to sign up were two of my friends that were with me at the time and suggested I may like Neo Anime more that Total Anime or any other magazine I’d come across.

So yeah, well done Neo Anime on being awful at selling your product! It was a great chance for you to engage and you failed so badly.

I got my Issue of Neo Anime in the post yesterday and had a bit of a look at it. They gave away a free Manga with it which I thought was quite cool except I have volume 2 of a Manga that I have never read, surely it would make more sense to give away volume one? But you know I will read it none the less and if I enjoy it I will buy Volume one. What amused me was I was assured it wouldn’t be full of Gundam but it was like the Gundam issue! *laughs* Trust me to sign up to a Magazine that was having a 30 years of Gundam Issue. I couldn’t hold that against them, because unlike Newtype who seem to thrive on Gundam stuff this is the only Issue of Neo Anime I have seen Gundam in. So we will wait till next month to judge them on that.

I would like to complain about Neo Anime but it’s not really that bad. I didn’t read much about the Animes it had in it because I have seen them all before but I liked the other things. I liked the article on Female Japanese Bands, and the cooking section and the Cosplay Section. I liked the article on the Japnaese Anime industry and think that the Magazine is much better than others because they write about Japanese Culture and Anime Culture a lot more than most others do. This makes the fact I have half a magzine of Gundam and articles and reviews on Animes I have already seen a lot easier to deal with. I laughed at the UK Anime Charts *smiles* I would rather see new seasons reviews rather than whats coming to the UK on DVD. Is there no way around this? I’m sure there is a way to review Anime coming out in Japan each season and to do features on them without saying GO AND DOWNLOAD THEM FROM ANIMESUKI.

I am an Anime Snob. What is it someone once said to be? I take nothing seriously but my Anime. Haha I know that that is not the case but I would love something I could read on the train that was up to date. Well done Neo Anime though. Your magazine is decent.

Another case of “WTF?!?” Bought to us by Japan

WHAT THE HELL?!

Seriously What the hell, who on earth would buy this? *LAUGHS* She is pooping Fire. I mean she must have eaten some MEAN curry that night and now has the worst case of the shits known to man. I don’t even know how to explain this to anyone. But this image brings us to our new segment called “CRAZY SHIT FROM JAPAN” where once a week we shall show you what you can buy from the land of Mentalness where anything goes.

Don’t you love shitting fire girl? xD

Welcome to the N.H.K

I realise someone may comment on this entry and say “OLD ANIME IS OLD” but I, like a lot of Anime fans, don’t actually watch every anime every season. I didn’t have internet for about 3 years so I am catching up on Anime from about 2003 to early 2007 whilst watching anything new that comes out. So don’t you OLD ANIME IS OLD me. There are plenty of Anime fans out there who need a recap on Older Animes aswell as having new ones bought to their attention.

I am in love with Welcome to the N.H.K.

I stumbled across it after finding some images on 4chan in/c/ of Misaki and thinking she looked interesting! I am glad I checked out the anime because it is weird and funny and I do think I love it. I always like watching Animes that take a look at the life of the Otaku, even if they do go a bit over the top sometimes with the personality traits of the Otaku. Yamazaki is the classic Stereotype Otaku. One with walls covered in posters of Moe girls, loads of dating sims and echhi images of his favourite characters, he gets angry and upset easily over things like how people see Otaku and the Gaming industry and it scares me to death that I actually know people like him. Not all Otaku may be at that extreme that Yamazaki is but we are all guilty of having our favourite characters and collecting images. That’s what all Anime fans do right? We get into a series, we develop favourite characters and then we collect all images of them we can find. Hence the success of Image board websites and stuff. It’s just scary that you look at Yamazaki and in some ways at Sato, the Hikikomori.

You look at Sato and you think who do I know who would rather sit around and watch Anime than go out and socialise? You realise that there are more and more people who do this. The internet is great and all but people can become dependent on their computers. I mean you can watch TV, watch Movies, download any sort of entertainment, play games and talk to people on your computer. So whilst people who do this are Hikikomori it’s probably not the same as it was say ten or twenty years ago. You can be isolated in your room but talk to loads of people via an instant messaging program. Not that that is healthy in any way but it’s plausible and people do it. Sato is someone everyone can relate too, and this is worrying. Especially when he has a breakdown and goes all Lolicon on us. Animes that hit home draw you in and make you want to watch them.

I’ve only got to Episode 5 of Welcome to the N.H.K but it’s had me hooked from the start. The fact that it’s at the moment focusing on Yamazaki and Sato’s attempt to create an H-Game and Satos fall into Lolicon Otakuism is something that is entertaining to watch. If, like me, you have not watched this Anime yet I seriously reccomend that you do. It’s a good Anime. Besides it has the most kick ass opening and ending themes ever (:

A Drew Update!

Hey kids! It’s me Drew! Sorry about the lack of gaming stuff over the past few weeks. I’m currently in the process of moving, changing jobs, and dealing with some personal issues.

So, I’ll be back in about a week with a backlog of crap and reviews that have been building up over the past few weeks.

Oh, and as a slight preview, Super Mario Galaxy. I’ve played it from beginning to end and I must say, it kicks much ass. BUY IT (when it comes out in a week.) Longer review coming soon…..

So, until I get all settled in my new place, keep gaming PD!