Last Tech News of The Year! Kinect & WoW, Bad Frogger, OGA, and Duke Nukem!!

This will be the last tech news for 2010.  It seems like we just rang in 2010.  Now it's time to bid it farewell.  And with it, we have a great list of topics for this weeks news.
-Kinect Meet World of Warcraft...
-Playing Real World Frogger can be hazardous to one's life expectancy.
-Linux News on the Front Page of Google's Tech News today!
-Bye-Bye Office Genuine Advantage...Says Microsoft.
-Duke Nukem Fan-Film...And yes, it's awesome!

-First up is what will sure to be a warm meeting indeed amongst WoW players who own/want a Kinect.  If you have been living under a rock for the last couple of months, the Kinect is the new motion control camera available for the Xbox 360.  Yes, it looks sweet.  Even more interesting are the advancements being made in the PC communities about integrating Kinect with personal computers.  This particular implementation actually sets up a form of emulation that allows you to map movement to keyboard shortcuts.  See for yourself:


Personally, it looks awesome.  Would I want to run around an open world MMO like WoW while moving around my room.  Probably not, on the other hand it would cut down on the time a person would spend in the game before becoming to tired to play.  As always, it's fun watching the different ways Kinect is being utilized in the PC communities.


Secondly, on Monday December 27, 2010, a South Carolina man and some of his buddies decided to try and play 'Frogger'.  However, instead of breaking out the game console or iPhone.  The decided to play using real world traffic and a road.  I'm sure this sounded much more fun than it actually turned out to be.  He was struck by a Lexus SUV and is in stable condition.  Word of advice, for the younger generation of gamers...This guy is 23 years old and should no better.  Under NO circumstances whatsoever should a person ever attempt anything in the real world, that they can do in the video game world.  Whether it is play 'Frogger', attempt Mortal Kombat fatalities on a younger brother, emulate anything in a GTA style game, etc. This will always end up in a 'poor-life-decision'.  Play smart, and use your brains.


Third in the news is a surprise...I was doing my typical news checking routine this afternoon when I surfed past the Tech News frontpage on Google.  And to my surprise there was a Linux headling about halfway down the list of recent articles.  It read: "How You Know When It's Time to Switch to Linux".  This is a great basic Linux article that lists 10 reasons you know it's time to switch to Linux.  If you have ever been curious as to what advantages you have by switching, do yourself a favor and read this article.  Check it out at:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/214929/how_you_know_when_its_time_to_switch_to_linux.html


In other recent news is the revelation that Microsoft has discontinues the Office Genuine Advantage antipiracy tool.  Good riddance.  I have bumped into more than one issue with the OGA tool saying that a user was using a copyright version of Office.  When in fact they weren't.  Looks like Microsoft has decided to halt that practice.  Windows still has the WGA check to make sure you're using a legit version of Windows, but as far as Office goes, you'll just need to activation key now.  Should you decide to skip the activation process the software will still function but somewhat of a limited capacity.  As always, there's nothing better than the real deal so use legit software.  If you feel you need free software checkout open-source.  There are great, free alternatives which takes us back to the "How You Know When It's Time to Switch to Linux" article above.  For more info checkout:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20026196-75.html


Lastly, in the news is somewhat of a light hearted topic.  On Christmas Day a gift was given to the world from from Finnish Film producers New Dawn.  They released their fan-film teaser for 'Duke Nukem: Fate of Humanity'.  Okay, so what's in the film?  Aliens, action, violence, etc.?  Nope.  Not an alien to be found.  Just the lone Duke, sitting in a strip club.  When a loud crash and earth shaking rumble occurs.  We see Duke grab his pistol and slow-mo run out of the club.  Despite the fact that no pig cops are shown.  we get to see a pretty convincing take on Duke.

Check it out, but keep in mind this is probably borderline NSFW and shouldn't be viewed by children.



Okay folks, that's it.  I hope everyone has a fantastic New Year and let's make 2011 the best, geekiest year ever!  Happy surfing!