A good friend noted how quiet her friends list at Livejournal had been recently, and remarked that they had all headed to sites like Facebook and Twitter, where they can post quick updates on their activities more recently and with fewer characters. With the ability to keep people up to date on every aspect of their lives at any time, she mused, does that spell the end for services like Livejournal, Blogger, or even the traditional long-form blog? Why would anyone want to write paragraphs about their lives or their activities when they could simply post to Twitter in 140 characters on the spot from any mobile device they chose?

She’s got a point – with the rapid and meteoric growth of Twitter and even the venerable Facebook falling in line behind it and trying to adopt a more “microblogging meets social networking” position (as shown by its most recent redesign-the one that looks a lot like Twitter) it makes sense that people are still managing to stay in touch, just without quite as many words.

Being someone who’s hopelessly addicted to Twitter myself (you can follow me at @halophoenix) but also who loves to blog, I say she’s wrong…but she’s also right. It’s not so simple as to presume long-form blogging is dead in favor of 140-character news; although there’s a definite and very real trend towards bite-size news and snack-sized culture. We can absorb a lot in 140 characters, and sometimes it’s all we need, but sometimes we need more: a lot more. Get more below the jump:

Continue reading Spinning Gears :: Is Blogging Dead in the Age of Twitter?…

Is it even possible to build a PC that can play all of the latest games for less than $500? The guys at ExtremeTech think so, and they’re reviving their iteration of the $500 gaming PC build with some updated parts and components. Surprisingly, they managed to come in under budget (sorry if that’s a spoiler) and they have enough horsepower under the hood of their rig to power some of the most system intensive games out there.

They didn’t do like I did and blow a whole lot of cash on a massive Core i7 system or anything, so the parts aren’t absolutely top of the line, but that’s the point – you don’t HAVE to have absolutely top of the line parts to play the hottest games right now at excellent quality – and that’s the tradeoff. Some of the games they tested have super-extremely-high-end features that can only be turned on if you’re running some of that top of the line hardware, but if you’re willing to turn the graphics settings down just a smidge and deal with not cranking everything to 11, then you can get really serious performance without having to spend a ton of money.

The new $500 gaming PC is backed by an AMD Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition, which only cost the guys $69. See what I mean? There are some seriously powerful components out there for little to no money if you’re willing to step back a little bit and don’t need to be on the bleeding egde. Me? I prefer that edge, but if you’re looking to upgrade on a budget, there’s nothing wrong with hanging back a bit!

Read on, and plan your new rig today!

[ ExtremeTech :: Build a $500 Gaming PC ]

Netbooks are all the rage these days, and while they’re usually cheap, you find some that are on the other end of the spectrum like Dell’s Adamo and Apple’s MacBook Air – portables that are in many ways more like netbooks than notebooks, but cost a lot more money. In the middle of the road though is the lineup of traditional notebooks and laptops that we all know and love, and all of the features we’ve come to expect from them.

But if you’re looking to buy a netbook, does that mean you have to compromise on all of the features you want? Does that mean you have to give up all of your horespower in exchange for an overblown Web browser? Not necessarily: Cisco Cheng, writing or PC Mag, has an excellent roundup of notebook performance versus netbook performance, and a great lineup of what features you can expect to get in a netbook for the price.

For example, you don’t be doing any high-end gaming on any netbook –or most notebooks for that matter– but there are some surprising results. Cisco tested ripping audio, transcoding video, and resizing high resolution images – all pretty system intensive tasks. He tested an array of netbooks, including the Acer Aspire One, the Dell Studio 15, the Lenovo Ideapad Y650, and more. Head over to see the results!

[ PC Mag :: Comparing Netbook and Notebook Performance ]

I have to admit, I haven’t been this excited about an operating system for a long time, and that includes Mac OS versions that I normally get excited about. Microsoft released the first (and perhaps final) Windows 7 Release Candidate to the public yesterday, and anyone who wants to give the new OS a try has the opportunity to download it, grab a key, and install it on a system they choose.

Windows 7 RC is so polished that I know a number of people who are already using it as their primary operating system, although I still wouldn’t reccomend it – it’s not finished and it’s certainly not final – but it’s complete enough for most tasks, and even heavy PC gamers I’m familiar with are reporting that it’s much improved even over Windows Vista.

The fine folks at PC Mag have the full scoop on the release here:

[ PC Mag :: Microsoft's Windows 7 RC Released to Public ]
[ PC Mag :: Hands on with Windows 7 RC ]

And if you’re interested in trying out the RC of Windows 7 for yourself, you can download it here:

[ Microsoft :: Welcome to Windows 7 ]
(I love how the guy on the right in their video is obviously using a Black Macbook, but they put the “I’m a PC” stickers over the logo to cover it. Nice Microsoft, nice.

You didn’t really think I could let this one go when I saw it, did you?

That’s right – one fine Maker by the name of Ani Niows has made what I think may very well be the holy grail of steampunk culture – a vibrator that works completely off of steam (or in this particular case, compressed air – more on that in a moment).

Just plug up your steam boiler to the little thing and you’re off – so to speak. Apparently it works as designed, and I have to admit, it’s pretty ingenoius. Considering most vibrators are designed to essentially rattle themselves apart, I’m curious how this one is designed. The creator runs it off of compressed air at the moment due to some…potential unpleasantness with the heat transfer from the steam engine she’s tested it with:

it weighs about a pound and is pretty damned smooth to the touch. when I tried to run it off of steam earlier though it got REALLY hot, you have to wear like welding gloves to hold it and even then its almost too hot to handle. another reason I’m using compressed air for the moment.

Uh – ow. Ladies beware. Compressed air until there’s an insulator of some type, or she works out the whole heat dissipation thing. In any event, it’s damned cool, damned sexy, and I’m happier just for knowing this thing exists. Rock on, Ani!

[ The Steampunk Vibrator (Flickr Photos - SFW) ]

I’m a gamer, and I like to bathe. Frequently. Now if only I could convince some of my fellow gamers to do the same, or even some of my fellow anime fans when I hit conventions – wow, the con funk can be pretty strong. Well, if you loathe to get up from a gaming session or put down your iPod to actually go take a shower, I have the soap for you: Digital Soaps!

Lovingly hand crafted, the soaps made at Digital Soaps look so much like PlayStation, XBox, and Wii controllers that it’s absolutely uncanny. The creator even has old school classic Nintendo controller soap that looks like you could plug it into your old NES and start playing. The XBox 360 controller above fooled me at first when I saw it – they’re really good.

Best of all, the soaps are affordable! So if you’re looking to add a little gaming personality to your bathroom, or you just want to send a message to your beloved hardcore gamer reminding them to hit the showers every now and again, DigitalSoaps make the perfect gift!

[ DigitalSoaps @ Etsy ]

I know for a fact that I don’t need any more USB drives, but the fact that this one looks like a key and fits on your keyring is kind of compelling for me. LaCie has released the iamaKey USB Flash Drive that’s slim, tiny, shaped like a key, and even has a hole to fit on your keyring with the rest of your keys!

The drive comes in both 4GB and 8GB flavors, priced at $26.99 and $36.99 respectively – very affordable considering the size and portability. The drives are metal, not plastic, and look pretty sturdy–which they’d have to be if they’re going to live on your keyring. Besides, at least you can say that a drive like this will never get lost!

[ LaCie iamaKey USB Flash Drive ]

Ah GMail. I can happily say I was one of those users clamoring for a GMail invitation back in the day when you needed one to get on the service. Remember back then? Before anyone could create a GMail account whenever they wanted? Yeah – I remember those days.

That being said, I’ve been using GMail for a long time and Google keeps adding features. I read about them, I even use some of them, but if someone came to me and said “show me how to be a GMail power user,” I wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to help them. I use a fraction of GMail’s full potential, and would love to use more. For people like us, Eric Griffin at PC Mag has put together An Unofficial User’s Guide to GMail, which walks us through some of GMail’s most useful and even some of its most advanced features.

The Guide will show you how to use labels, dots and plus-signs in your addresses to see who signed you up for spam and make it easier to create filters, some mobility tooks and tweaks and how to get your GMail on the go, even how to get GMail on your desktop. All this and more in an article well-worthy of a bookmark if you have a GMail account, or even want to know what makes GMail so special.

[ PC Mag :: An Unofficial User's Guide to GMail ]