BioShock EP

pic from NeoGAF

In a bit more BioShock news, an exclusive BioShock EP featuring remixes by Moby and Oscar The Punk was announced. The CD will be bundled with the GameStop and EB Canada exclusive Limited Edition version of BioShock when the title launches on August 21st for Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows®. The CD is also available as a pre-sale gift-with-purchase from video game retailer, Game Crazy. The three remixed tracks on the CD include Beyond the Sea, God Bless the Child and Wild Little Sisters.

Basically you can get it really soon and that's all you'll want/need to know. :)

[Source: GamersHell]

I doubt Darwin could resist these cute boobies

They are not what you are thinking. :) Yes, apparently these cute little creatures are called boobies.

[Source: LiveScience]

Howto: Insert Targeted AuctionAds Into Your Blogger Posts

Recently I joined AuctionAds because they were offering a free $5 signup bonus (who doesn't like free cash? :) ). On their blog, they linked to some other guy's blog about optimizing your site for AuctionAds. So I thought what the heck, I might as well read it. Surprisingly, it actually contains tips that are not listed in the AuctionAds site. Okay, this is not entirely true, since you can find some of the tips if you scour their forums and blogs. But who wants to hunt high and low for information that is summarized into one blog post? What I'm saying is that that page is a good place to start reading about optimizing AuctionAds.

As I was reading through the tips, something struck me while looking at tip 2. Basically it says that you can vary your ads by substituting the keywords in your AuctionAds javascript with your blog's variable for tags, categories or in Blogger's case, labels. And I thought that sounds like a good idea since AuctionAds is serving ebay ads based on keywords that you have chosen. But then I wondered, why stop there? Why don't we go one step further and use the posts' labels as keywords (maybe he was referring to this, I can't be sure since I don't use Movable Type :) )? Surely that would be better than simply the blog's labels?

With this mind, I present to you Howto: Insert Targeted AuctionAds Into Your Blogger Posts. Don't worry about the long title, the process is fairly simple (I think). Here are the steps:

1. Assuming you're signed into Blogger, goto Template -> Edit HTML. At this point, backup your template, by clicking on Download Full Template. Regardless of whether you want to backup your template, you should still come to this page to edit the HTML.


2. Next, as you may have guessed, check Expand Widget Templates. You should see the page reload and the full HTML being displayed.


3. Now, search for this line: <div class=\'post-body entry-content\'>
   If it's not there, then try searching for <data:post.body/>


4. You should see some code similar to the one below. Don't worry if you don't see the blue lines, I added them in to show you where to place the ad code.
   
   
   <div class=\'post-body entry-content\'>
   <!-- Insert here for ads before post content -->
   <p><data:post.body/></p>
   <div style=\'clear: both;\'/> <!-- clear for photos floats -->
   </div>
   <!-- Insert here for ads after post content but before comments, backlinks, etc. -->
   <div class=\'post-footer\'>


5. Once you've decided where you want your ads to be, replace the appropriate blue line with the code below. Code in green is the extra stuff added to make this work, ie it is necessary and should not be changed. Code in red is what you should replace with your own choices, and is also required. Code in orange is optional.
   
   
   <b:if cond='data:post.labels'>
   <script type='text/javascript'>
   auctionads_ad_client = "your own";
   auctionads_ad_campaign = "your own";
   auctionads_ad_width = "your own";
   auctionads_ad_height = "your own";
   auctionads_ad_kw = "<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'><data:label.name/><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'>;</b:if></b:loop>";
   auctionads_color_border = "your own";
   auctionads_color_bg = "your own";
   auctionads_color_heading = "your own";
   auctionads_color_text = "your own";
   auctionads_color_link = "your own";
   auctionads_options = "n";
   </script>
   <center><script src='http://ads.auctionads.com/pagead/show_ads.js' type='text/javascript'/></center>
   </b:if>

And with 5 simple steps, you are done. For an example of this in action, just take a look around. :)

Kat DeLuna - Am I Dreaming

[Wikipedia: Kat DeLuna]
[Official site: Kat DeLuna]

This song is becoming quite popular on the radio ('ve heard it for the second time today) and makes for a nice Sunday song. An attractive young lady singing a catchy pop/dance song is a good recipe for success ("sex sells" as they say), even if it may lead to unwanted attention. She definitely caught my attention and now the song is stuck in my head. Am I dreaming...

Multiplayer Desktop Tower Defense (Flash)

If you're a fan of warcraft or the frozen throne, you should have played at least one custom game involving tower defense. In case you aren't a fan of warcraft or have fairly poor memory, let me refresh it for you. :)

The main point of any tower defense is to defend some location from evil creeps. If too many creeps enter the location, it's game over for you. There are different types of creeps such as land, immune, flying, etc. Typically land creeps are the easiest, followed by the moderately difficult immune creeps and lastly irritating flying creeps (if the creator wants to torture you, you may get flying immune creeps).

The strategy of most players is to form a maze or labyrinth of sorts with their towers. This maximizes the exposure of the towers and hence increases your chances of winning. However, these towers do not float on air, and this is why flying creeps are the hardest to defeat. Unlike land creeps, flying creeps fly directly to the location that you are defending. This is where your slow towers come in. Slow towers are effective in slowing creeps to increase you towers effectiveness.

The last point to note is that tower upgrading is important in any tower defense. Planning for upgrading is vital in ensuring your victory. Usually there will be an "ultimate" tower that will vastly improve your chances of protecting the location. If you fail to upgrade or build this tower, you should probably quit the game early on.

Now that you have an idea of what tower defense is about, let me introduce a new tower defense game. It is called Desktop Tower Defense. Normally tower defense games based on flash are single player only. However, with this game, multi-player functionality was introduced. You can host games for up to 8 players or join others in their game.

This game is just like the single player version of Desktop Tower Defense. The main difference is that you're competing against other people for awards and points, which will allow you bragging rights. They even provide a page for each game just for that, stating how many points and what awards you gained from that game. You could also join groups or add your friends into your collective (something like a contact list).



If you want to join, you should note that currently it is invite only. I do have 5 invites remaining. Feel free to ask for one in the comments.

[Link: http://www.casualcollective.com/]
Source: Digg