Microsoft Store

It seems like Microsoft is looking to get into making stores that only sell their merchandise much like Apple.  These stores will sell and give support for the various computers, gadgets, and gaming equipment they sell.  They have sections for the Zune, the Kinect, and a large selection of Xbox 360 games.   So far, there are only seven locations as opposed to the 300 that Apple has.  I hope that Microsoft expands these stores to more locations because I prefer PCs for their gaming. I always thought it was awkward to see all the jewelry stores in a mall to be next to each other, it must be tense with all the competition.  I can't imagine if that happened with Apple and Microsoft stores seeing how big both companies are.  I wonder who will win this battle.

Bite Me (web series)

Machinima is teaming up with Epic Level Entertainment to bring out a web series about three losers who try to survive aganst a zombie apocalypse.  This seems different to me in the fact that rather than this video be made with some sort of 3D imaging, it is filmed with real people.  Either way I think it will be very successful because it will still appeal to the large gamer audience Machinimma attracts.  What gamer doesn't like something about zombies.  It seems like a lot of major entertainment companies have been working zombies lately and this is no different.  The first webisode is on youtube or on tubefitter to view.  Although there is no zombie action, you get to know the characters by showing them in their regular lives and a creative stat sequince showing bars that show  how much of a skill they have.  Personally, I think it will be a great series and am looking forward to new episodes.

Website Usability

I did a website usability test on www.welsfargo.com  the questions and results are as follows

1. Check todays Home Equity Rates. . . . Pass
2. Find closest location of a Wells Fargo. . . . Pass
3. Contact Customer Service. . . . Pass
4. Report an E-mail fraud. . . .  Pass
5. Learn when Wells Fargo was established. . . . Pass

My findings are that it was a very usable site.  All the features of the website could be reached via the homepage.

Website Mockup and Palette

Original Lolcats by me

Magical Land of the Internet

Wired News has found an artist named Randall Munroe who has made a map of the internet.  The lands are based off of the size of a website from how many people use it daily.  This map which can be seen on his website,  I find, is very humorous and also pretty true.  You can find the Troll Bay 4chan has its own Island in the island grouping of forums.  One of the largest of the lands is Facebook with state/provinces of farmville.  I think it is a very good look into our internet culture.  There also was a map made by Munroe back in 2007 where Myspace was huge and facebook was much smaller.I have a picture of the map but here is a link to a bigger map that will make exploring this land easier.  
New map:  http://xkcd.com/802_large/  

Can Fallout Happen In Real Life

The threat of nuclear war is still very real in out world.  GT tv asks if the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout could be a reality.  For their answer they looked to Dr. Michio Kaku.  He stated that fortunately we wouldn't have a planet overrun by mutants.  Unfortunately, that is because the radiation would kill most people and for one mutation, there would be thousands of babies that wouldn't make it an hour out of the womb.  Also the radiation would last for hundreds of years making agriculture impossible.  Dr. Kaku also compared this apocalypse to the fall of Rome saying that a nuclear war would throw us into a Dark Age that would last way longer than that of the previous dark age.  It was a great article that is a good reminder of why we should be careful with our nuclear arms.