Filed under: Interviews, Blu-ray, News

Killzone 2 producer Steven Ter Heide and Guerrilla Games managing director Herman Hulst would be out of jobs if it weren’t for the PS3 and Blu-ray. In an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine UK, Heide and Hulst tag team to deliver major props for their system of choice, all while bashing a certain competing console.

“We really need Blu-ray to make the game. I don’t know how you could fit it on Xbox 360 without taking some shortcuts”, producer Heide explains. And with graphics like those seen in this 25 minute video, there’s little doubt that he isn’t just speaking the company line.

Continuing on about Killzone 2’s Blu-ray dependency, Hulst adds, “Blu-ray isn’t important for watching movies; we need it for making games”. Something tells us that a few companies beg to differ.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), DaimlerChrysler (DAI), Money and Finance Today, Countrywide Financial (CFC)

Richest & Poorest States in the Nation
Maryland is now the wealthiest state in the union, as measured by median household income, according to the latest stats from the Census Bureau. The typical Maryland household earned $65,144 in 2006, propelling it past New Jersey, which came in second with earnings of $64,470. Connecticut, Hawaii and Massachuetts round out the top five richest. Mississippi, West Virginia and Arkansas are the poorest states in the U.S.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/28/real_estate/wealthiest_states/index.htm

CEOs Make More in One Day Than You Do in One Year
The average CEO of a large U.S. company made roughly $10.8 million last year, or 364 times that of average U.S. full-time and part-time workers, who made $29,544, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the liberal Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.
CEO-to-worker pay appears to narrow - Aug. 29, 2007

Home Prices See Steepest Drop in 20 Years
U.S. home prices fell 3.2% in the second quarter, the steepest rate of decline since Standard & Poor’s began its nationwide housing index. 15 of the 20 cities in the S&P/Case-Shiller monthly survey saw home prices drop from a year ago.
Home prices: Steepest drop in 20 years; no recovery soon - USATODAY.com

From Cheap Stand-In to Shelf Star

Savvier marketing and better-tasting products are driving up sales of private-label food products. From Costco’s Kirkland products to Target’s Archer Farms, store brands are now a $50 billion business.
From Cheap Stand-In to Shelf Star - WSJ.com

Bottled Water Is Draining Your Bank Account
You don’t often think of bottled water along the same lines as smoking, drinking alcohol or gambling. But when it comes to wasting money, it’s just as bad a habit. Try tap water and save some $1,000 a year — and drink water that’s just as good.
Bottled Water Is Draining Your Bank Account -

Make the Most of Student Discounts
College-student status is the key to saving on computers, travel and more.
Making the Most of Student Discounts | SmartMoney.com

Head Overseas for 5-Star Care at Motel 6 Prices
A growing number of patients head overseas for more-serious procedures, such as hip replacements, heart bypasses and kidney transplants. Why travel halfway around the world for a medical procedure? Because you could pay a fraction of what you’d pay in the U.S.
Adventures in Medical Travel - Kiplinger.com

Return to Dress Code
Marketing students at Illinois State University’s College of Business face a choice — business casual attire for class or a zero for the day. It is the only public undergraduate business school in the country to implement a dress code for students.
Return of the Dress Code

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Now is this a nifty device or what - the Wall-Mounted Digital Scale And Clock comes with a removable food scale that can be placed on a countertop or table, helping you save on space by merging two devices in one. The scale features touchscreen controls and will slide over the clock, locked in place when not in use. It will be able to weigh food or items up to 7 lbs, utilizing an infrared signal to transmit its measurements to the backlit display that is mounted on the wall. During non-gastronomic times, the display will show the current time and room temperature. It is powered by seven AAA batteries, so you might want to get rechargeables in the long run. The Wall-Mounted Digital Scale And Clock retails for $89.95 and makes a great housewarming gift.

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Filed under: Cell Phones, iPhone

While it’s easy for parents parents to monitor their childrens’ Web surfing on home computers (thanks to multiple software programs), the task of monitoring a child’s cell phone activity is much more difficult. What’s more, modern phones (particularly smart phones) can view just about everything a computer can, which includes pornography and other questionable sites for monitors.

AT&T is one of the first to address parental cell phone control with its Smart Limits program. Smart Limits allows parents to prevent phone use during certain hours, block text messaging, and filter the sort of Web-based content that can be viewed on the phone.

According to an overview at WSJ.com, the program isn’t perfect: While it will filter Web access through the AT&T network, it doesn’t block Internet content when accessed via the iPhone’s Wi-Fi connection. So, if you bought your (lucky, spoiled) kids an iPhone, maybe you’d better hurry up and have that talk about where they can and can’t go online, lest they find someone else’s version on YouTube.

From textually.org and WSJ.com

Related Links:

• ‘Pre-Teen’ Lara Croft Creator Tells All
• Toddler Dials 911 From Cell Phone 287 Times
• Kid Drowns in Lake After Cell Phone Sinks

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Filed under: Game Patches, News

It seems like September is Motorstorm month this year. A patch today prepares the game for the upcoming Coyote Revenge update and vehicle packs out in the coming weeks. A community editor for the official European PlayStation forum has revealed the patch list (novel idea, right Sony?) and we, in turn, are revealing it to you. Find it below.

• Vehicle Select enhancement - your last-used vehicle in each class will now be presented as the default choice during vehicle selection.
• Assigned player colours are now displayed in the lobby to make keeping track of your friends and rivals easier during online races and Eliminator matches.
• Further Player-Stat Improvements.
• Purchasers of ‘Coyote Revenge’ can now race this track in Online and Time Attack.
• Purchasers of Eliminator Mode will find results from this mode also contribute to their Fame Ranking.
• Track Exploits for Grizzly and Raingod Mesa have been addressed.
• Headset support - An occasional firewall conflict with headset communications has been resolved.
• Headset support - voice comms output now available exclusively through headset.
• Many other improvements and tweaks throughout the game.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Handhelds, Portable Audio

In case you haven’t heard, Nokia’s blowing it out tomorrow, London style. We can’t be certain what exactly is going to get announced until the curtain drops, but as the date and time draw near, we’re hearing whispers from across the ‘nets about what we can expect. Latest across our desks is this itinerary from The Nokia Blog, detailing the day’s events; from it, we can see that the N81 and 8GB N95 are both on the docket, ensuring that the high end will be well represented. Also up are the rumored music store and the revamped N-Gage platform we’ve been hearing a solid buzz about recently. Stay tuned, we’re just a few hours away now!

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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With Amitabh Bachchan not being happy about the final product of Sholay’s remake ‘Aag’, RGV’s next film Cobra has come to a stand still. As reported earlier, the Amitabh- Abhishek and Ajay Devgan starer Cobra was RGV’s next ambitious project with the Bachchan clan. After the disastrous response from both public and critics, this project […]

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Might be a little expensive, but would not that be cool to have a giant CNC machine print your most awesome pictures on toast every morning? Found on ComputerWorld.

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Drama, Scripts & Screenwriting, George Lucas, War

Once he’s finished producing Indiana Jones IV (still no official title, sigh), George Lucas will make a movie about the Tuskegee Airmen … finally. Apparently, he’s been talking about doing this since Howard the Duck (according to Harry Knowles’ memory), and it was long assumed to be a dead project. While I don’t remember anything from twenty years ago, I do recall Lucas and Rick McCallum mentioning this to IGN back in 2005. At the time, the movie, titled Red Tails, was expected to begin production within the year and the producers were meeting with Tuskegee vets. Two years later, Lucas has just now found his screenwriter: John Ridley. Apparently Ridley has written Spike Lee’s L.A. Riots script, Lucas got his hands on a copy, and sees Ridley as the best fit to write about African-American pilots in World War II.

Personally, I’d have already pinned Ridley as perfect for the project by imagining a mix between the screenwriter’s past work (Three Kings meets Undercover Brother? Yes!). However, it could be a little more serious than we’re used to from him. After recently meeting with Tuskegee vets in Texas, he may want to give the survivors a respectable tribute. It may still be awhile before we get to see Red Tails, which will be overseen by Lucas but produced by McCallum and Charles Floyd Johnson (CBS’ Navy NCIS), because Ridley is just getting started on his script. The writer also has his directorial debut in the works, an adaptation of James McManus’ Positively Fifth Street. Although viewers have already seen the Tuskegee story in a 1995 made-for-HBO feature (The Tuskegee Airmen, starring Laurence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding, Jr.), Lucasfilm’s movie sounds to be a lot bigger, with ILM doing the aerial fight sequences. As long as it doesn’t look as cartoony as the WWI-set Flyboys, that could be appealing. Almost like the Star Wars space battles, but with planes!

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Filed under: Breakfast, Grains, Recipes, Baking, America

Back in the early 1970’s, my mom had a friend named Melinda who had a small business making homemade granola. One day, on her way home from shopping for several weeks worth of ingredients in her VW Beetle, she was rear ended. She was not hurt, but the force of the impact sent oats, nuts, raisins, oil and honey flying all over the interior of the car. Even after the body work was completed, the car was never the same. She stopped making granola sometime soon after that. Customers all over the Bay Area mourned her choice, as it was very, very good granola. Thankfully, before she closed up shop, she shared the recipe with a few fortunate people. I thank my lucky stars that my mom happened to be among that number.

This much-coveted recipe is after the jump. It is delicious eaten with yogurt, given away as gifts and eaten as a before-bed snack, right out of the jar or bag in which you are storing it.

Continue reading A granola recipe from my mom’s hippie youth

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