I'm... too sexy for your money...

What's sexy, red and shiny, costs a small fortune and is set to exist only in ten iterations throughout the whole of the world?... any guesses ?

Yes that's right... the um, hot new Vulca S. by... uh, (*logs onto Vulca website*)... ah yes, the Vulca S. by the Italian car makers for the most absurdly wealthy, Faralli & Manzatti.

Sleek and carefully hand-crafted over the span of 11 painstaking months , the Vulca S. sports a look that almost screams 'you'll never afford me !'... which is in fact true, I'll never afford a Vulca S. (assuming I would even want one in the first place )... but yeah, this car goes 0 to 60mph in 3.9 seconds, and boasts a top speed of over 200mph... I can almost imagine going 200 on a New Jersey highway... talk about a short trip from point A to point B (in more ways than one )...

There are only 10 Vulcas set to be to be produced by Faralli and Manzatti; apparently this is one of them... (*eyes the leather pattern*)... hm, no comment .

Wired's Autotopia featured the Vulca today (seeing as it just went on sale on Monday), and I thought it looked kinda sexy. In terms of practicality though, there are some glaring flaws... especially considering how supposedly 'expensive' and 'exclusive' this car is supposed to be... (judging from the rear windshield, lets hope the future Vulca drivers know how to back up carefully )...

That said, if you've got about 300,000 euros then the sleek Vulca S. can be your... oh wait no, that's right, there's only 10 of them set for production . So not only must you be filthy rich, but you've also gotta win a lottery to top it off ... So yes, none of us will ever drive a Vulca, but you can still read up more on the exclusive sexytrosity over at Autotopia and The Motor Authority ...

It may be time to take the plunge

I'm seriously giving consideration to finally taking the plunge and buying a laptop... and essentially abandoning my desktop (for matters outside video editing and whatnot). I know I realize it's 2009 and I'm somewhat behind on the times... but after having compared the costs of what it would take to fully upgrade my desktop as opposed to buying a decent laptop, I think a laptops is the only reasonable way to go.

I'm thinking Toshiba, HP or Dell... Macbooks are far too expensive for the time being. I just need something stable/reliable, with decent RAM and battery life, and helpful customer service (i've heard my fair share of horror stories already). Any suggestions from laptop enthusiasts out there?

Evil Dilemmas

I'm still somewhat agonizing over whether or not I should purchase this game. Granted everything about the latest Resident Evil looks great... it's one of those quintessential 'next-gen' games (for whatever that amounts to)... but the reviews I've been seeing have left me somewhat hesitant to lay down the 60 bucks. I mean replay value anyone? If I'm going to be paying almost $100 and all I'd like to enjoy it more than 12 hours ...

Plus a big sticking point is the (forced) two player co-op... For a survival horror game to force a second computer player to tag along from beginning to end kind of seems... unnecessary. I just gotta wonder why ?... Just Chris would've been good enough for me .

I'm still on the fence, but I'm starting to lean one way more than the other. I'm thinking maybe just purchasing, playing through and returning (unless of course it turns out fantastic)... or just avoiding it altogether... Decisions, decisions ...

Samsung says the Future is Solid

Is Samsung on the cusp of a future wave in storage? Well I can't say for sure, but apparently the emanating dread i'm feeling from my standard hard drive gives me the impression they might just be onto something .

Now I have to say I'd never paid much attention to Solid State Drives before Monday. So I was wondering, what exactly is the difference between a Solid State (SSD) Drive and a standard Hard Disk (HDD) Drive. What are the benefits to having an SSD drive over an HDD drive... and just how much more powerful can they get compared to say, standard a Raid array... Suffice to say the tech guy's at Samsung have really amazed me.

So basically a drive with no moveable parts (i.e. quieter), faster memory access, far better reliability than standard Hard Disk Drives, and less power usage? I'm sold... but what's the catch?... Well the 'sold' part it seems . The cost and size of these drives still leaves something to be desired. But like most hardware, that should eventually come into alignment as the technology progresses heading into 2010 (and beyond).

LA Times features largest pool on Earth

Yesterday the LA Times featured a travel location far, far south of the border. In Chile to be exact so I guess it's pretty much as far as you can possibly get . Anyhow, apparently this massive pool (ironically enough located on a beachfront) currently holds the Guinness world record for the largest man-made water structure on the face of the earth.

The only question I have regarding this aquatic monstrosity is why?... Why would anyone in their right mind construct a pool large enough to allow for kayaking, sailing and scuba diving? And why place this 19 acre pool right beside the ocean... when, um, the ocean is like a couple feet away?

Also, why am I here blogging when I could be enjoying myself at a paradise pool the size of a beach ?

Ah yeah, almost forgot... this 1,000 meter pool still happens to be located in Chile and of course lo and behold it's part of a resort. The San Alfonso del Mar to be exact. A pricey resort that runs at about $1,300 per week (and that's just for one bedroom )... ah well, I'll save my planned visit for my dreams I guess ...

All your files are belong to Google?

...Maybe all your files won't exactly 'belong to Google' so to speak, but soon enough in a couple of months the way you store your computer's memory may be changed forever. Believe it or not, the image you see below is a real map of the internet. Somewhere in this mass of interconnected webs will one day lie 1 terabyte of space set aside by google... just for you ...

Google, the same great company which single-handedly expanded the world of blogging on a massive scale, mapped out the entire face of the earth, created their own phone and e-mail service, and of course just happen to stand alone as the primary go-to web search engine, have devised their newest online innovation set for release in 2009; A cheap (maybe even completely free) 1 terabyte online drive stored on google servers aptly named Gdrive...

Basically a drive synchronized with your computer's folders, allowing you to access your files *wherever* you go, whenever you want, on any computer of your choosing. Just imagine the possibilities of being able to access any file you want anywhere ... And having an online backup hard-drive that would render the fear of losing all your files a thing of the past. Once again Google's genius truly shines through (for our convenience of course ).

Read more on Google Gdrive...

On the fence...

I'm on the fence regarding whether I should actually shell out another $60.00 for this latest iteration in the Prince of Persia series. The game looks amazing enough, but as I'm sure anyone who owns a system is well aware nowadays, looks can be deceiving... as of now I'm still sitting on the fence...

Although this review may have just knocked me over the tipping point... and not in a positive way ...

Is it really that hard to make a game both gorgeous and challenging all at once? Or does one negate the other when it comes to these platformers... Not unexpected really, especially considering this latest Prince title originates from the same people who brought out another gorgeous yet overly simplistic game (which I foolishly purchased). As thing's stand, my wallet is saying "don't do it"... but my mind is saying "just maybe"... I think my wallet may have the last word on this one .

Apocalypse.... today?!

You would think so considering the fuss that's being made surrounding the activation of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) set to go online later today. From accusations of possible Earth-consuming black holes, to doomsday lawsuits, to even some extreme cases of death threats being leveled the scientists working on the project... I don't think an ambitious multi-national scientific experiment has received this much attention since... well, since the last ambitious multi-national scientific experiment.

Although I do find the thought of an unforeseen cosmic catastrophy or the immediate and total destruction of Earth to be kind of amusing, the likelihood of this machine having the power to bring this about is ultimately small. Or infinitesmaly small to be exact...

For those of you not entirely familiar with what this particle smasher is meant to accomplish, there's a couple of scientists over at CERN who've apparently managed to find enough free time to cram an entire explanation... into 5 minute rap ...

Uh... yeah (*cringe*)... what was that about a cosmic catastrophe again? If the world does end today, I think we'll know exactly where to lay all the blame (...at least during that last split second of panic) ...

The devil's in the details...

Once the euphoria of purchasing your new Iphone3G has subsided, reality tends to make an unannounced visit and settle in with both your wallet and bank account ... AT&T recently revealed it's structured payment plan for the new Apple Iphones set to be available in stores next Friday. Apparently, the cheap Iphone prices of $199 (8gb) and $299 (16gb) models will be subsidized by AT&T themselves (hence the lower prices)... while the non-contractually obligated Iphones will be selling at a somewhat heftier (deterrent?) price of $599 and $699 respectively... Monthly price plans will range from $70 a month for 450 minutes, to $130 a month for unlimited voice calling. The kicker in all this though is that text messaging is now priced separately. So that's up to $20 a month extra were you to go with unlimited text messaging plans. Ouch ...

Almost makes me wish a new version of the Itouch would be coming down the pipeline sometime soon... but what can you do ? Check out the AT&T pricing structures here for the new Iphones (US models) coming out next week.