It has been a while since I wrote my last post and losing my internet connection (followed by losing the enthusiasm of writing). Anyway, here I am trying to write something again and it's going to be something fun, yups: it is about a game, to be precise: games.
A friend of mine posted this video about a game called: Crayon Physics Deluxe. I took a peek on it, and fell in love at the first sight. Crayon Physics Deluxe is a puzzle game where we have to solve a problem (mostly to guide a ball to a star) using physics rules, kind of remind me of the old-nice Incredible Machine which I played a long time ago. However, the difference (and the most interesting part) is that Crayon Physics Deluxe allows the user to create objects freely using a "pen" and transforms them into world objects which automatically follow the physics rule. Take a look at this cool video on their website:
It looks like a very nice game, but I'm not a type of guy who's willing to buy something just because it looks nice :) I tried to get more information and trial version of the game which eventually leads me into an another game called Zany Doodle, which luckily offers a trial version of the game. I tried the game and enjoyed it very much even though I only use a normal mouse instead of a touchscreen (which I believe will increase the game experience heavily). Moreover, I found out that the Crayon Physics Deluxe is actually originated from the free game Crayon Physics which is developed by the same person. However, the free Crayon Physics is nowhere as good as its paid counterpart, not even better than the free trial of Zany Doodle since it cannot create objects like a triangle or just a random line.
Should I say anything more? Just download the Crayon Physics here and the free trial of Zany Doodle here. Enjoy!
Scour (currently in beta) is another web 2.0 hype tagged as "social search engine" intended to give user more authority to determine results from searching process. Scour aggregates result from Google, Yahoo, and MSN and combine them with the votes from users to decide the order of the results. Besides voting, Scour also allows users to leave comments for every search results. Sounds like another Digg? Another worth mentioning feature from Scour is the reward system. Users will get a certain number of points for every search or another contribution they make (voting, commenting, inviting friends). After several thousand of points, users are able to convert them into a visa gift card. While this pay-per-search idea is nothing new, I wonder if the social part of Scour will able to keep them surviving in the next few years given the fact that they will probably have to compete with Google (Google is developing their search engine with a similar idea to Scour, I bet without the reward system).
I have tried Scour for around three days now, and I'm sure they want to improve on several things (it's a beta anyway). Currently the results are limited to 3 pages no matter what keyword I use to do the searching. The search results are also lack of highlighting (updated: not anymore!). They have also included a browser-integrated search bar, which is good for me since I want to try it without having to change the way I use Google. However, every time I click on a search result a frame appeared in the bottom of the page which allowed the users to give vote or comment on the result (this frame didn't appear when I tried to open the search result on a new tab instead of clicking it). This might be a good way to encourage users to participate in the voting/commenting activities, but I found it a little bit annoying. Hopefully they will find a better way to do it.
1. I have a big family which keeps on expanding
2. I live far away from most of them
3. I have terrible memory (being old and things like that... you know)
Those are my top three arguments why I sometime (or often) forget about things related to my family. Some examples: the date of my parent's marriage, my brother in law's birthday, or even the name of my one year old cousin. Now I'd like to say goodbye for all those fake arguments by introducing a geeky way to keep all family-related information in a sophisticated way: Family Tree Builder.
Family Tree Builder is a genealogy software (for Windows only) which can be downloaded for free at http://www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder. I like this software a lot, especially since it offers some nice features such as: integration with myheritage.com (allows me to share and let others review the information on the web, though without capability of multi-user editing), photograph for every family member (and events), event reminder (birthday, marriage, etc), and also possibility to input unsure information for date (i.e. birthday around January 1982).
