Month: May 2010

Some advantages and disadvantages to iPhone gaming

Many iPhone owners find themselves spending much of their time playing games or using apps downloaded from the iPhone app store. Even non-gamers are often drawn in by the wide variety of innovative new games and old classics available on Apple’s iPhone. Despite it’s incredible popularity as a gaming platform, the iPhone does have some severe limitations.

The main issue many users run into when trying to enjoy iPhone games is the fact that it lacks a control stick and only has one hard button. Even simple games such as Tetris become difficult to play with this control scheme. Many companies have re-issued these types of beloved classics with new control schemes, often times with mixed results. The major workaround involves leveraging the iPhone’s tilt sensor for directional movements. This often results in controls that, while functional, feel floaty and imprecise. The lack of buttons on the iPhone is typically circumvented by using the touch screen to simulate hard buttons. While the success of this method varies by game, it is rarely a perfect solution.

Despite these drawbacks, there are many advantages to gaming on the iPhone, and they often overlap with the disadvantages. For example, the iPhone’s tilt sensor can be inadequate when used to replace directional pads, but when the game is designed from the ground up to take advantage of this unique capability, the results can be quite impressive. While some uses of feature are for novelty apps such as beer drinking simulators, other games manage to use this feature in more innovative and interesting manners. Racing simulators, 3-d shooters and other games take on a new life when played with this manner of control.

Similar experiences can be had with iPod’s touch screen in regards to using it to replace hard buttons. The aforementioned Tetris relies on quick button presses to rotate pieces and properly align them. The problem many users see with games that require these kinds of precise movements and timed button presses is the unpredictable nature of the iPhone’s touch screen. While this screen is of a high quality, accidental misses are a frequent occurrence and can quickly add up to a frustrating experience.

Regardless of its advantages and shortcomings, the iPhone is undeniably an incredibly successful gaming platform that must be experienced before it can be completely understood.

Computer gaming has definitely come a long way from back in 1972 when the game of choice was pong and played on the Atari 2600. Modern technology and video game enhancements have made gaming a serious hobby and a high-tech one as well.

If you have been keeping up with all the advances in the field of computer gaming, you will realize how these advances have been consistent with the advances of high-end technology. Computer gaming has pushed the limits of technology and is credited for many of the advancements in this field for the past generation.

The Xbox 360 is a top performer of this high-powered, top-technology trend. The Xbox 360, from Microsoft is a prime example of how technology has pushed the frontiers of gaming. With a processing power and connectivity that most high end personal computers could only dream of, the Xbox has opened a vista of possibilities never before possible on the older consoles.

Here is a brief rundown of the new features of the Xbox 360.

1. Games that take advantage of the Xbox have increased power and graphical performance. Project Gotham 3, Perfect Dark Zero, Silent Hill 4 and Kameo are only a few of the new games slated to hit the Xbox 360 this year. These games will certainly push the envelope with what is expected of newer generation games.

2. Innovative Accessories. The Xbox has accessories that will make other companies go, I wish I had thought of that. Wireless controllers will allow greater freedom for players to wreak havoc upon the competition. This gives players increased mobility, comfort and enjoyment.

Xbox also integrates internet connectivity so that gaming against a pal who lives across the country or another continent will not have to be a hassle anymore. It is now possible to have search and destroy games among the Xbox community, and you do not even have to leave the confines of your home.

3. Backward Compatibility. The old Xbox games will be fully compatible with the 360. That will amount to over 200 well-loved games from the old Xbox library. This means you will not have to wait for the 360 library to go full stock before wanting to buy one; you could enjoy the old collection along with the new immediately.

4. Mega Power. The Xbox 360 engine runs on three 3.2 GHZ processors. That is a powerful workhorse! This processing power makes the running of complex games a cinch. Many polygon-hungry games will get their fill once they get a load of this much power.

5. Couple that with the 500 MHz ATI graphics processor and you have a tremendously powerful chip that can bring life and action to any game that comes its way.

6. The xbox 360 is versatile and not only serves as a gaming base, but it also works as a CD/DVD player, further making a case for its price. The Xbox is capable of keeping track of a load of data that you may find indispensable. All these extra features ensure that the Xbox 360 can and will be a faithful entertainment tech companion for a long, long time.

While there are many gaming consoles around, it would pay to consider the strengths and weaknesses of them all. However, there is a consensus among gaming enthusiasts that the most important aspect of any gaming console is the technology, processor speed, memory, storage, along with availability and support of consoles and games.

In this regard, the Xbox 360 has room to boast. With a staff of developers currently at work for Microsoft enhancing the Xbox, gamers are sure to be spellbound for years to come.

Writing is an essential skill for any college student. Even if you’re a biologist or a mathematician, you still need to write lab reports and proofs. Every college student has to take at least one writing-intensive course. College level essay writing doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Here are five tips that’ll help you write better essays:

1. If you haven’t read the book, take good notes in class, and discuss the points covered in your notes.

In an ideal world, every student would read every book and turn in every assignment. In reality, that’s not what happens. Things come up. Certain classes begin to take precedence over other courses. You may find yourself having to juggle different assignments in such a way, that one slips through the cracks. Don’t panic. If simply don’t have anytime to finish reading that thousand page Dostoyevsky novel, you can still turn in a quality essay. If you have to sacrifice reading the book, then you better go to class and take out-of-this-world notes. Wrap your mind around the important historical, philosophical and thematic issues, and discuss these topics in your essay. Mine the book for two or three quality citations, and you’ll be fine. This method should only be used as a last resort, because when you turn in essays in this fashion, you might make the grades, but you’ll lose out on your education.

2. If you have read the book, extract an original take from it.

Don’t just regurgitate what you read, analyze it and develop a unique way of discussing the issues covered in the book. In a college essay (or any essay for that matter) you are free to argue whatever point you want, as long as you can back it up with supporting evidence. Don’t write something that you think your teacher wants to hear, and don’t spit your professors’ opinions back at them. Develop your own distinctive opinion, and argue it thoroughly.

3. Try to combine multiple ideas from the course.

Tie in what you’ve learned. Think outside of the topic and weave together different threads from the fabric of the class. Reference your lecture notes, and previous reading materials. Make connections in the curriculum. Professors love that kind of stuff.

4. Include historical perspectives.

Whatever you are writing, you can always find little tidbits of interesting historical facts to throw in. Type your essay topic in an Internet search engine and follow the term with the word “facts.” You will be presented with pages of fact sheets that you can mine for valuable trivia. Whenever you want to add thickness to your argument, couch your claims in a relevant historical context.

5. Don’t ever plagiarize.

Plagiarizing is lazy, useless and dangerous. You want to strive for originality in whatever endeavor you undertake. You should never want the opinions of others to be confused with your own unique takes. Furthermore, plagiarizing can get you in serious trouble. If you haven’t done the work, take evasive action and buy more time. It’s better to turn in an excellent tardy paper than a worthless on-time essay.

College essay writing isn’t a mystery. You need to read your materials, take good notes during your lectures and pick an essay topic. Then you organize your ideas, craft a cleverly worded thesis statement, and set about proving your assertion with supporting evidence. That’s it. Just be original, think outside the topic and always remember to answer the question entirely.

Technology also contributes in finding customers quickly.  If, you just want to type in an address and go, there’s nothing like GPS. It brings the latest Salespeople are finding GPS mapping hardware and software with step-by-step guides helpful in locating the exact address of customers in unfamiliar areas. It helps to track on difficult areas with available alternatives.

With a receiver and mapping software they can avoid delays due to heavy traffic, construction work, or road accidents so that they arrive on time and ready to do business by following alternate paths. It brings a welcome change in modern era to save time, efforts & money to reach in time. GPS technology helps sales people arrive unflustered, unscathed and on time. Technology makes you feel comfortable to find solutions to these fundamental queries. GPS also puts controls on moonlighting. It helps people to find desired path with ease.

GPS can calculate the longitude and latitude of the receiver based on where the three spheres intersect. By using four satellites, GPS can also determine altitude. It’s a very user friendly system to detect the paths & to avoid the sudden traffic problems.  A GPS tracking device can be used to keep track of where you car is or where your teenager is. Some of the tracking devices not only monitor location on a map, but also the speed of the car, how long the car was stopped and more.

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The ubiquity of Facebook is hard to ignore.  It started as a local service that helped college students connect and has expanded into a worldwide phenomenon with millions of users accessing Facebook and associated applications every day.  The size of the Facebook audience makes it a compelling platform for developers as does the versatility of the site.  There are a wide range of applications already being used on Facebook and the possibilities for new applications are limited only to the developer’s imagination.  So let’s discuss some of the basics when it comes to building Facebook applications.

In the Beginning

Any developer who is hoping to write or install Facebook applications must first have his or her own Facebook account and then must install the developer application.  Facebook’s developer application allows you to create, monitor, and configure applications.  In addition, you’ll need to secure yourself a server as Facebook applications run form the developer’s server.  The benefit of this is that you can write the application in whichever language you know best.  For the sake of simplicity, examples in this article will use PHP but the process is the same regardless of the language you use.

Once you have your facebook account, have downloaded the developer application, and have your server ready to go, you’ll be ready to start developing your own applications.  Still, having a bit of understanding of the Facebook platform will help you during the creative process.  First and foremost, the fundamental components of Facebook are clearly outlined on their developer site.  Essentially, the platform is made up of three parts: API, FBML, and FQL.  Of course, APIs determine the ways in which you can connect to and interact with Facebook.  FBML is the custom Facebook markup language which has basically be modeled around HTML.  While similar to Coldfusion or ASP.NET and associated tag-based syntax, FBML helps you to define the pages of your application specifically for the Facebook Platform.  And finally, FQL is the Facebook Query Language which is also a customized developer language for Facebook that is based on SQL.  FQL is especially useful when there are no helper methods in the API but can also be used for tags in FBML giving developers an incredible amount of control over the details of their application.

Facebook Development Tools and Resources

Like any development applications, Facebook features a range of tools and resources that can help developers in a number of ways.  Apart from the core documentation, tools can also help you debug raw API calls or tweak the FQL.  With Facebook resources you’ll find a collection of libraries for PHP and Java as well as links to other libraries like ActionScript, Cocoa, Coldfusion, .NET, Perl, Python, and Ruby.  In addition, Facebook has an ever-expanding community wiki that can help answer any questions you may have about the details of developing Facebook applications.  Because Facebook is a fairly complicated social media network, pages often feature layers upon layers of detailed information and it is certainly in the best interests of the developer to become familiar with FBML and API.  Indeed, FBML and API allow you to manipulate a lot of this information so a more in-depth understanding of these tools and the terminology used on the site.  Experienced Facebook users, for example, will know the difference between the News Feed and your Profile page and so should developers.

Step-by-Step Guidelines for Creating an Application

At this point, let’s discuss briefly the stages involved in building a Facebook application.  Of course you’ll need to get the Facebook Developer Application to begin but from here there are some basic principles that should help guide you through the process.

1. To begin setting up a new application select the “Set Up New Application” option in the developer application.  You’ll want to name your application and you’ll also need to accept the Terms of Service.  Your API key is used so that Facebook can recognize your application and your application secret are used so that facebook can authenticate your requests.  Choose a secret that is easy to remember and also difficult to hack as you would with any online password.

2. The next step involves configuring a number of settings before starting to write code.  Under the “Edit Settings” section you can enter support and contact information, including your email address.

3. A callback URL is required and this would need to be the address where your application is stored on the server.

4. A canvas page URL is also required and this tells us where your application is stored on Facebook.  Developers usually want to match their canvas page URL with their application name so that it’s easy to remember for users.  This URL must be a minimum of 7 characters long and can include only letters, dashes, and underscores.

5. Next, Facebook will ask you whether your application can be added on Facebook, obviously you’ll want to say “Yes.”

6. To continue developing your application click “Save and Continue.”

While these are the most basic steps for creating a simple application, configuring your application to your host still needs to be completed.  Nevertheless, experienced developers will find it an extremely straight forward exercise to develop Facebook applications.  The process is streamlined and simple so as to encourage the addition of new, interesting, and interactive applications from a broad developer community.  Regardless of culture, language, or location applications can be easily uploaded for the enjoyment of the massive Facebook audience.

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