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Why doesn’t Facebook look like this?

The home page features many new benefits: the publisher toolbar enables users to post content from any page within Facebook, saving time in navigating needlessly through profiles; the streams’ two-tiered filter (content type & content contributers) also creates a more coherent structure with the core elements retaining their position throughout most of the site; and the live feed displays a constant stream of all content posted in a users network, which expands upon mouse over.

via Facebook Facelift – Home & Profiles on Vimeo.

Oh – that’s right, because there will be 1000000 people complaining that they liked it how it was, and 100000 new groups saying to “change it back”.

FFS. Progress, people.

Modern Warfare 2: Unleash the Hounds

Hounds indeed.

I’ll admit that the Spec Ops mode certainly tempts me. By all accounts, it sounds completely *awesome* – and if were released as it’s own mini-game (akin on Crysis Warhead or similar), I’d buy it in a heartbeat.

It’s a shame the rest of the game doesn’t quite stack up.

Lag? You bet. Within a matter of minutes I’d been fragged by a bouncing avatar that transported itself across the map, and that doesn’t include the noticeable banana bullets that occur just too frequently to ignore. Based on this, it’s fairly clear to see why they’ve limited the game to nine per side, I’d hate to see what it looks like with Modern Warfare’s original 64 player limit, presumably like a very tedious slide show from a trip to Borneo. It’s of absolutely no interest to me how well the rest of the developed world can play this title online, if it’s a miserable experience for Kiwi players then Infinity Ward have dropped the ball, plain and simple.

[…]

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the PC is simply a next-gen console game with mouse support, in-game text chat and rudimentary graphics options. Infinity Ward have made it pretty clear that as a PC gamer, your platform advantages don’t count, and neither does your community, your history and your considerable modding skills.

via Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PC) – Gameplanet Review.

Ouch.

To say multiplayer MW2 is flawed would be like saying water is a little wet – an understatement if I’ve ever seen one.

GameArena says:

We’re massive fans of Modern Warfare here. Even though purists and elitists may sneer, we had no problem in awarding a 10/10 for Call of Duty 4, because it was such a terrific effort on console AND PC. If you told me three months ago we would be suggesting PC gamers hold off on buying Modern Warfare 2 I would have thought you’re crazy. But if you are buying this game mainly for multiplayer – especially if you’re contemplating serious competitive play at a high level – that’s exactly what we’re saying. The single player story is great, and if your idea of multiplayer is a quick zap with mates maybe an hour or two a week then by all means – it’s great for your purposes. However if you’re a Counterstrike, Battlefield, ETQW or even a COD4 player looking for a serious competitive platform to move to – best wait. Wait and see if Infinity Ward can implement dedicated server support; failing that wait until early next year to see how Battlefield: Bad Company 2 turns out.

via BigPond GameArena – Modern Warfare 2 Reviews.

Don’t get me wrong – from what I’ve read, it’s a great console FPS – fantastic, even. It’s just a huge shame to see the PC side be so neglected, disowned, that it kinda makes you think Infinity Ward have shunned the PC community, Big Time.

It’s not all doom and gloom for us PC players, though – the single player is excellent, and as I’ve mentioned before, Spec Ops will keep you entertained for a decent number of hours after you’ve finished the relatively short single player campaign (roughly 6-8 hours).

It’s current price on Steam is laughable – a cool US $90 for us Aussies, compared to $60 for the same game? Right. I know I can buy it from Steamerica for cheaper, but that’s not the point, is it?

The point is, Infinity Ward have seemingly screwed over PC players.

I think it’s only fair that they get screwed over themselves – but one can only dream…

10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.9

oEmbed, as described at oEmbed.com, is a specification that allows media providers like Flickr, YouTube and others to provide data for consumer applications like WordPress about media. So by including an Embed (Use the File uploader and choose “From URL” and paste the link to the page that contains the media, not the media file itself) in a post or page, WordPress can retrieve the relevant specs on the media file and formulate a properly formatted embed accordingly.

via 10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.9 — Technosailor.com.

You know, I probably couldn’t care less about oEmbed. So I can embed media from different providers, great. Sarcasm intended.

The thing is, I don’t work with media that much. Sure, I’ll stick in the odd YouTube video here or there, and I’ll also use pics once in a while to illustrate a point, but in those cases the standard tools just don’t cut it.

For example, I’ll Press something from a cool YouTube video, and while WordPress will automatically fetch the embed code for me, it’s usually miniscule and doesn’t represent the content I want. By using the custom embed options available to every embeddable video on YouTube, I get to customise things like the border, related content, and size – you’ll have noticed that videos seen on this website will have a grey border, show no related content after the video finishes playing, and, most importantly, are bigger than the normal YouTube size.

From what I understand about oEmbed, it won’t let me customise these options at all – “…and formulate a properly formatted embed accordingly.”

I’d say more about customisability and WordPress, but that’s for another time. 😉

Poker Face – Parody (“Outer Space”)

The sunglasses, head orbiter, and mirror mask are all hand-made. (I’m an arts & crafts nerd.) 😛

[…]*And in response to the comments about the way I sang this: It was not suppose to sound good. I was playing an eccentric, odd alien. It was not dissing Lady Gaga’s voice though, as I know she sings well. But this is a PARODY of her extraterrestrial self. […]

I actually really respect Lady Gaga and really love her music. So this song was a fun spin on her outrageous style… which I actually admire about her.

via YouTube – Lady Gaga – Poker Face – Parody (“Outer Space”).

If anything, she’s prettier than Lady Gaga.

Also, have you seen any of Lady Gaga’s video clips? They’re so out-there that it’s hard to describe what they’re actually doing – interpretive dance would be easier to understand…

Modern Warfare 2- Knifetastic Ricochet Kill

We are working on our review of MW2 single and multiplayer and its taking longer than expected because there is so much to do and unlock. In the meantime we thought you’d like to see DeFranco’s latest trick where he puts his A in geometry, to good use while playing with his Riot Shield and knife setup.

**Note**: If you can’t tell, the knife bounces of the wall and stabs Phil’s victim in the neck for an instant kill.

**Double Not

via YouTube – Modern Warfare 2- Knifetastic Ricochet Kill.