http://www.thetechlounge.com Recent News: Internet en-us Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:46:07 -0600 Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:46:07 -0600 Internet news Copyright 2008, TheTechLounge, Inc. 60 http://www.thetechlounge.com/templates/thetechlounge/images/88x31_ttl.png http://www.thetechlounge.com 88 31 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13382/Gmail-Showing-Some-Official-Skin/ "Gmail fans have been building unofficial extensions to spice up their inboxes for a while, but up til now themes haven't been an integral part of Gmail. We wanted to go beyond simple color customization, so out of the 30 odd themes we're launching today, there's a shiny theme with chrome styling, another one that turns your inbox into a retro notepad, nature themes that change scenery over time, weather driven themes that can rain on your mailbox, and fun characters to keep you in good company. There's even an old school ascii theme (Terminal) which was the resu...]]> Recent News: Internet Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:27:54 -0600 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13382/Gmail-Showing-Some-Official-Skin/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13379/Spamming-ISP-McColo-Back-Up/ "There's a good news/bad news update on the rogue ISP McColo and last week's coordinated effort to drive the malware faucet offline. The good news is, the ISP has (mostly) stayed offline, and spam levels a week later are still running significantly lower than they had been. The impact of taking McColo offline seems to have reverberated longer than what we saw from the Atrivo takedown back in September. When Atrivo shut off, spam levels fell, but rapidly climbed back to near-original levels. Post-McColo spam counts have remained lower for the last eight days, but may unfort...]]> Recent News: General Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:05:18 -0600 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13379/Spamming-ISP-McColo-Back-Up/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13375/Adultery-Worse-in-the-Second-Life/ "A woman in Cornwall, England, has filed papers to divorce her husband on the grounds of "unreasonable behavior" after she discovered that his character in the online role-playing game Second Life had been having an affair. Amy Taylor, 28, whose online alter ego is named Laura Skye, said that her husband's virtual infidelity exacted a pain that cut as deep as any extramarital liaison. "It may have started online, but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much," she said. "His was the ultimate betrayal. He had been lying to me." (See the 50 best websites ...]]> Recent News: General Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:52:18 -0600 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13375/Adultery-Worse-in-the-Second-Life/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13360/EA-in-the-Holiday-Spirit/ "According to a post in the Red Alert 3 forum by 'eeapoc' (Apparently, C&C Community Manager Aaron Kaufman) EA is implementing a new policy that will tie your forum login to your Master EA Account. If you get hit with the ban hammer for misbehaving in a forum, you could find that you are locked out of your purchased games as well." Electronic Arts Lays Off Six Hundred ""EA is continuing to make progress against our business plan, but we have the constant imperative to keep our costs in line as we grow o...]]> Recent News: General Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:46:59 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13360/EA-in-the-Holiday-Spirit/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13334/YouTube-CBS-full-length-MacGyver-episodes-for-all-and-other-stuff/ "YouTube is getting its Hulu on. The Google-owned video site has partnered with CBS to air full-length TV shows, starting today (Oct. 10). For now a select group of old and new shows will appear, including "MacGyver," "Star Trek" and the original "Beverly Hills 90210," the season premieres of Showtime's "Dexter" and "Californication," and current episodes of "The Young and the Restless." " CBS is finally catching up with the rest of the pack with this move. The other shows that are available are great and all, but MacGyver? Seriously? It's everyone's fav...]]> Recent News: Internet Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:14:02 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13334/YouTube-CBS-full-length-MacGyver-episodes-for-all-and-other-stuff/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13311/How-Embargoes-Affect-Review-Sites/ "But there is often an untold aspect involved in setting an embargo date: Some embargoes are in place for no other reason than to give another site an exclusive on that review. Let's call bullshit on this process right now. Did that site do any extra work to get the exclusive coverage -- and I mean, real legwork or investigative work, not just putting together the best "deal" for the publisher? No. The only work involved may have been making the review sound effusive enough to justify the high score that allows the site to keep the exclusive, thanks to certain restrictions occa...]]> Recent News: General Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:00:11 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13311/How-Embargoes-Affect-Review-Sites/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13310/Good-Old-Games/ "1. We've got games your 10-year-old won't be better at. GOG.com offers you critically acclaimed games from major publishers in every genre. Don't let your kids mock the graphics; remind them that the classics never go out of style, unlike their totally wicked haircut. 2. So you're cheap. It's okay--we are, too. For less than the cost of a lunch at some lousy diner you can own some of the greatest games of all time. No matter how big the file is and how successful the game was, you'll leave the table satisfied that you got a great deal for your mon...]]> Recent News: General Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:44:18 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13310/Good-Old-Games/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13308/Free-Fallout-1/ "Just in time for the run-up to Bethesda's Fallout 3, GameTap has added both of Black Isle's original Fallout RPGs to its lineup. To celebrate, the company is offering the first Fallout in its free subscription rotation. Hailed as one of the better PC games of all time, Fallout is a post-apocalyptic romp through a ruined American West, featuring a cast of memorable characters and an uncompromising tactical combat system. " It's really, really hard for my work time having to compete with such a wonderful nugget of nuclear holocaust like this. I mean, how am...]]> Recent News: General Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:51:07 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13308/Free-Fallout-1/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13242/Command-Conquer-100-Digital-Free/ "Electronic Arts has announced that they're now giving away the original Command & Conquer: Red Alert as a free download in celebration of the 13th anniversary of the series (and a reminder that Red Alert 3 is totally coming out soon). While the game is free, the actual process of playing it isn't without a little complication. You can head over to EA's official page to download both the Allies and Soviets discs (each disc contained the single-player campaign for its respective faction), but the files are actual ISO images of the CDs themselves. That means that in ...]]> Recent News: General Thu, 4 Sep 2008 10:31:18 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13242/Command-Conquer-100-Digital-Free/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13195/Oh-Teh-Nos-Hot-Pocket-Recall/ "Nestle Prepared Foods Company is recalling about 215,660 pounds of frozen stuffed pepperoni pizza sandwich products, known as Hot Pockets Pepperoni Pizza, because the product might contain small pieces of hard red plastic and other foreign material, which pose a risk of serious injury to consumers. The Mt. Sterling, Ky., company has received four consumer complaints and no reports of injuries. Spokeswoman Roz O’Hearn said the reported foreign substance — hard red plastic as well as clear flexible rubber-like material — might have splintered off from a testing device and so...]]> Recent News: General Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:21:03 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13195/Oh-Teh-Nos-Hot-Pocket-Recall/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13187/Introducing-the-Will-Wright-Minute/ "G4 has figured out the best way to harness the energy of Will Wright. Besides getting him to make a game, of course, which Electronic Arts has already figured out. Instead, G4 has set up a camera in front of him and told him to talk about whatever he wants. They've then taken an interesting minute at a time and made short clips called "The Will Wright Minute". The great thing about these is that Will Wright's off-the-cuff observations are more than interesting enough to make up for the silly animation and the Spore and G4 promos that technically make these "The Will Wrigh...]]> Recent News: General Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:08:03 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13187/Introducing-the-Will-Wright-Minute/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13150/EA-Capitalizing-On-WaterWalking-Glitch/ Recent News: General Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:49:07 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13150/EA-Capitalizing-On-WaterWalking-Glitch/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13129/10-Great-Webcomics-You-Should-Not-Share-With-Your-Kids/ "I am a huge fan of comic strips. The comics section is the first place I go when reading the daily newspaper. (Newspapers, how quaint!) My kids love the comics, too. They wait in (almost) silent anticipation for me to move along to the Sports Section, so that they can get their sticky little hands on the page. We here at GeekDad are dedicated to providing examples of geeky things that geeky parents can do and share with their kids. This is not one of those times. Well, at least not with the little ones! Webcomics began springing up like kudzu almost as soon as Al Gore finishe...]]> Recent News: General Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:49:38 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13129/10-Great-Webcomics-You-Should-Not-Share-With-Your-Kids/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13079/Knights-of-the-Old-Republic-Going-Uhg-MMO/ "EA and BioWare have officially announced a new Star War: Knights of the Old Republic game at E3 2008. A third KOTOR game has long been rumoured but this is the first confirmation that EA has given on the subject. The mega-publisher didn't just stop there though, going so far as to confirm that the next KOTOR game will also be a massively multiplayer online RPG - making it the first Star Wars MMO since the ill-fated Galaxies." Wow, so like, take one of the last few great single-player games and pimp it out, that's, that's nice. Superb. Now you and, like, a ...]]> Recent News: Internet Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:00:07 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13079/Knights-of-the-Old-Republic-Going-Uhg-MMO/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13070/Final-Fantasy-VII-To-See-XBLA-And-PSN-Release/ "Lets just say Square-Enix recognizes how much meat there is on the carcass that is Final Fantasy VII. This title has received more direct sequels, prequels, side stories and general fansterbation than any other title in the series. I won't go into the quality of these titles, but they are out there. Now there is a rumor that says the Squeenix may be bringing the title to XBL and the PSN. This all likely started as the result of the statement hinting at a "big FFVII-related announcement" that will come at next month's DKΣ3713 event. 'Inside sources' (I love h...]]> Recent News: Electronics Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:17:14 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13070/Final-Fantasy-VII-To-See-XBLA-And-PSN-Release/