Galaxian

Recently I took a portable 8-bit console in the trip. I thought that I didn’t play "Mario" or meditative "Tetris" for a long time and a long trip will allow me to concentrate on the game.

In Dad We Trust! (sequel)

We are proud to announce that our "In Dad We Trust" gift-series were recommended on TV and chosen as a Top Pick for Dads and Grads by the Gift Expert at TheGiftInsider.com!

Don't fear...

Well, gentlemen web designers, web programmers and pro-bloggers, get ready! Judgment Day is coming!

Soon many of you (myself included) will step of the road named Web... And the reason for this is a small project, whose organizers have set themselves a very simple goal: to teach every housewife and others humanitarians =) with subtleties of web design and programming.

RoboCup-2012

While the whole football world prepares for the "Euro 2012" in Ukraine and Poland, the scientific world prepares for the "World Cup" among robots, which will take place in Mexico in June. It will be the 17th tournament in which robots of 40 countries traditionally participate.

Speccy!

Years pass imperceptible, and it comes to the day when ZX Spectrum celebrates its 30th anniversary!

Preacher says words of wisdom

Give and you'll be gifted!

Golden Days

"Golden days" have come for the young dads! Now you don't need to spend a lot of money for the purchase of children's books, and you can easily spend saved money for a more interesting pastime: trips with a child to the zoo, visits of various attractions and Pixar's cartoons!

Let's Write!

If you live above the line of equator, then you probably know the strange, but very pleasant feeling of spring. The feeling that compels girls to get naked almost utterly, and the guys to straighten their shoulders and to play with their biceps...

One iPad For Two Users

A serious problem occurred with my friend while his daughter is growing up (the girl is older than 2 years!)... And it sounds like: one iPad for two users...

Attack on Ableton!

While owners of Ableton rest on their laurels with their multi-multi-multi creative DAW (digital audio workstation), which turns even the housewife into a DJ, musician and producer with a worldwide reputation, some of the sacked personnel has taken a source code and is trying to make money on this and win back a piece of the music market.

Two Magic Kung Fu Warriors (Shaolin Never Dies)

I watched "Ip Man" recently... It's not that... I don't like... I don't believe...

As a child I believed! Believed in "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin" and in "Dancing with the Drunken Mantis"... And now, when I reviewed "Mars Villa" with the feeling of nostalgia I felt a childlike sense of belief in the magic of kung fu (and also a good irony over that same belief), "diamond" shirt and so on... One old friend of mine who said once that I have "children's psychological "kung fu" trauma" ;)

In Dad We Trust!

How to cadge money from your father for another computer game to be placed among thousands of other games which already filled up whole room? How to explain to him that it’s very important for you to purchase any gadget or a trip to a GOA party with your friends? The correct answer is "nohow"... Senselessly, because on all your words he will have reasoned objections and finally - rejection.

I Grew Up!

It happened that on my 30th year of life I suddenly became an i-Guy. And last Sunday during next sync with iTunes I asked myself "How did it happen?"

All that time (ahaha, not really because I got my first PC when I was 6) I considered myself as an advanced PC user. Not geek, not a programmer. But things listed below were easy for me:
- assemblage of PC (incl. BIOS setup and some hardware adjustments);
- installation of MS DOS and Windows (all versions except Millennium and servers);
- installation of lots of desktop software of different kinds and lots of external devices with all those drivers and ports;
- network setup and administration (10 PCs in 1 net with router, DHCP, server and other network stuff);
- mobile devices usage (Windows Mobile, Symbian and so on).
Overall I used to be co-owner of small internet café, so I was advanced)

But it’s all gone! And now I have 3 Apple devices (Macbook Pro, iPhone, iPad) and I even don’t know what is inside them. What processor or how cool is video card? I do not know and if I knew it in the first day I completely forgot it.

8-bit Nostalgia

Technology companies do not stop to amaze us with new products in the IT sector. And not always, these new items carry a some kind of the benefits, or an interesting solution. In any case, all these things are some short term toys and live to the next exit of "another killer of iPhone"... There is no magic in them. That magic, which is a subject of nostalgia for generation of 30-40 years old people, trying to find some calm in listening to vinyl records and tapes, 8-bit games and retro video clips.

But it is possible to go much further in this nostalgia, and try to recreate that magic manually.

Anticipation of the Year

If you do not mind to spend evening in front of the monitor screen, which broadcasts a good boxing match, then you, like me, probably wait for "the third episode" of "Pacquiao-Marquez" epic. I was also very curious. There more that many have bet on the total defeat of Marquez, but his last fights did not bode anything. Except for the hopeless defeat against Mayweather, where Marquez tried to jump above his head and climb up clearly not in his weight, in all other fights after meeting "Pacquiao-Marquez 2" Juan-Manuel defeated all his opponents, and someone even very brutally... I admire the talent of Pacquiao, but if you ever come to the gym, and were brutally beaten, but had the courage to go back there again, then deep in your heart you will always be impressed by such men as Marquez - people with mediocre natural instincts, but with an iron will and perseverance.

MPC or Laptop?

Recently I got some interesting music gadget: MPC-500 by Akai Pro. It is small sampler-sequencer with 12 pads, running on batteries and as well as from AC. I sat above it couple of evenings, experimented with built-in samples, recorded guitar through the entrance, made a house-pattern... But the more I turned the wheel of choice and pressed navigation arrows, the greater was feeling that it's a good old DOS-tracker, but for some reason in a separate box and at value of $500. I did not believe in the fact that somebody can completely finish project in this box, without any help of computer. May be I could not quite figure out all the features, but I didn’t feel intuitive understanding, at least as it was with Korg EMX-1 (although that is an awkward device too).