“There was no peace to make. We were not at war. We made great products, and competition was always a positive thing. There was no [cause for] forgiveness.”

Good Guy Bill Gates

→ The Great and Powerful Reddit

Reddit isn’t meant to inspire sustained political participation; the hive mind is frenetic, and I’m sure it will soon tire of SOPA and move on to something else. Reddit’s powers can sometimes be terribly misused, and sometimes it’s a force for good. Question its might at your peril.

Article is a good primer to the best/worst of Reddit. Also for RSS users I HIGHLY suggest adding the Inline Reddit feed it’s the only way to read Reddit without spending half your day there.

→ The Friction in Frictionless Sharing

So frictionless sharing isn’t frictionless after all. All it does is trade the small friction of having to choose what to share with the large friction of having to think about whether what you’re about to do will be shared.

More proof why blogging still is my preferred way of sharing with people. Everything posted here was written, approved and deliberately consitered by yours truly with no filters. For better, or for worse?

→ Revolt vs. Google’s nosiness spurs record traffic for scrappy upstart

Launched in 2008, DuckDuckGo is a search engine that has recently gained traction among technology pundits because of its dedication to user privacy as well as the accuracy of results; it doesn’t keep track of users at all and keeps no logs of their searches.

I noted awhile back I was splitting my search 50/50 with Google and Bing. Recently I’ve also been using DuckDuckGo. DDG has has some nice features (I’ve been primarily using their !Bang feature) but Google has proven tough to shake. Absolutely none of these other search engines feel as remotely as smart as Google does. It’s just like consoles, every one has somethings I love about them and hate about them where in a perfect world one would take all the great things and make just one great product.

→ Final Transition for Bungie.net Halo Services

Last summer, Bungie and 343 Industries began a transition process for Halo data. On March 31st, 2012 that transition process will be complete, all live Halo data will be managed by 343 Industries, and Bungie will no longer be able to update game stats and player service records, to host new user generated content, or to operate the Bungie Pro service.

Just doing my part on getting the word out that Halo 4 will not be made by it’s original creators. Buyer beware come Fall.

→ ‘Before Watchmen,’ prequels to ‘Watchmen’ comic books, in the works

Writer Alan Moore — an idealist who refuses to have anything to do with his former publisher and refused to cooperate with the recent big-screen adaptation of “Watchmen” — called the prequels “shameless”.

“I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago,” Moore told the New York Times.

You could put that quote into practically any entertainment medium and it would feel like it could fit these days. Quote of the year so far.

→ Should Sugar Be Regulated like Alcohol and Tobacco?

“We’re not talking prohibition,We’re not advocating a major imposition of the government into people’s lives. We’re talking about gentle ways to make sugar consumption slightly less convenient, thereby moving people away from the concentrated dose. What we want is to actually increase people’s choices by making foods that aren’t loaded with sugar comparatively easier and cheaper to get.”

Will

→ Nightmare Customer Service Experience with Microsoft after Xbox Live Account Hacking

What kind of customer service is it to not give the customer the benefit of the doubt in such a simple case as this? Are account thieves reporting their own accounts stolen, going so far as to file Better Business Bureau complaints to try to get them back? Am I omnipresent so that I can be hacking accounts from Russia while living and working in the US? It’s just baffling that Microsoft can treat a loyal customer this way. The 360 was the only console I’ve owned most of this generation, and I’ve spent a great deal of money on the hardware (two consoles since the first got the RROD outside of the 3-year warranty), X-box live memberships, X-box live points and games. I’ve never had any suspensions or other disciplinary action on my account prior to this debacle.

This guy’s story ended up all working out but seriously this guy got screwed over. Another power of the internet story but the moral is to protect your account by all means.

→ Videogamers Embark on Nonkilling Spree

He recently created a new video of him playing “Battlefield 3,” the sort of realistic war game his mother usually forbids. Instead of killing, however, Brock’s on-screen character goes around reviving enemies with a defibrillator. The song he picked out: A cover of the Edwin Starr classic, “War,” which includes the famous line: “What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.”

Video in Question – This story was on the front page of the print paper of the Wall Street Journal. FELIX THE PEACEFUL MONK was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

rycar88 14 points 12 hours ago

Vanberge did a great job posting this to Reddit making this horrible decision known. The orignial Expendables was a great throwback for fans of classic action movies. Making this PG-13 commits the same crime Live Free and Die Hard did and we all know how that turned out. Sly is still my man for the brilliance of Rambo 4 but come on this is BS.

→ Focus On the User

How much better would social search be if Google surfaced results from all across the web? The results speak for themselves. We created a tool that uses Google’s own relevance measure—the ranking of their organic search results—to determine what social content should appear in the areas where Google+ results are currently hardcoded.

Best response I’ve seen on the whole “Search, plus Your World” garbage pushed by Google. This plugin makes the idea of “People and Places” work how it should including the most relevant Facebook and Twitter results and not solely Google+ results. I disabled Social Search immediately but it it worked like this when it was launched I might have given it a shot. Great post here showing the difference with and without the plugin.

→ †he Years – ††† Crosses (The Years)

Anyone else reminded of Phil Collins the first half of the song?
IDSTARTAREVOLUTION2

Crosses is another side project from Chino f/ the Deftones.  I liked Team Sleep but this stuff is better. They have a new EP out for digital download that is rather good even though I like the first one more. Sadly the linked song isn’t included on the new EP but you can get it from Amazon MP3.

→ Does 4K Resolution Matter?

As of this writing, the only readily available content source for 4k is the Sony PlayStation 3, and it can only display static pictures (not moving video!) using the HDMI connection. This may be worthwhile for photographers, but probably not for anyone else.

For games (well consoles) display resolution and refresh rate hardly mean anything. Most console games don’t come close to maxing out that 1080p 240hz display Best Buy wants to sell you. Most console games don’t even have a native resolution higher then 720p or run faster then 30hz. For console gamers the next big step will be native 1080p for all games and 60hz for crisp input response. When that comes nothing else really matters yet for displays, what you already have is more then enough. Sadly nobody is talking about this.

→ Rayman Origins (360,PS3,Wii) $19.99 Free Shipping Toys R Us

Crazy Moves & Gameplay: Rayman Origins is a platformer at its core, but it has elements of many game genres. Rayman, Globox and the Teensies gain unique abilities as they progress through the adventure, including swimming, diving, slapping and the sensational HairlyCopter. The game also features many elements of action, adventure, beat-em-up gameplay and slapstick comedy.

Yeah, this game is pure madness as the description shows . It’s like Super Mario Bros Wii but with some amazing artwork and in HD.  Great local co-op play highly recommended expcially at this price for kids and adults.

→ How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

“I’m not worried about the country’s long-term future,” Mr. Jobs told Mr. Obama, according to one observer. “This country is insanely great. What I’m worried about is that we don’t talk enough about solutions.”

The one article everybody should read this week. Great Jobs/Apple/Obama/Industry insight here. The one unfortunate is the article (not really with a bias) it hardly mentions the same sources Apple contract Samsung, Microsoft, and Amazon do as well. The mass suicide threat from last week was at a Xbox manufacturing facility.

→ Death Growl – Wikipedia

Death growls are sometimes criticized for their “ugliness”. However, the harshness of death growls are in keeping with death metal’s often dark and disturbing subject matter

SOPA, please don’t kill Wikipedia. Articles like are one of my favorite things on the planet.

→ Console Post Of The Week – Xbox 720

Like everything else in the last 2-3 years, this comes down to value, or rather, how value to the consumer is steadily decreasing. Again and again in the last few years, value has been diminished. When is the last time a publisher gave us more instead of less?

Let me just say this: a console without a used game market will fail. I do not believe that the consumer market will support a product with $50-60 games and no possibility of resale. If Microsoft tries this, they are in for a rude, rude awakening.

With consoles one thing people are talking about is used game sales. With online passes and occasional gross DLC something that continues to bother me is the value of actually buying games. If they kill the used game market the only thing I see happening is a  huge alienation of the non-core. So many people exclusively buy their games used at Gamestop. Not everybody finds a huge value in buying all their games new for $60 dollars,

Did a search on Bing and scrolled to the bottom of the page and was presented with the following notification on the bottom.

OF COURSE! I want some better results. Being new to Bing I figured what the hell and asked for them to “Show me” how I could get better results with Bing.

The result?

“Tips” apparently mean being forwarded to the search results for windows phone. Rancid…

Quote of the Year: "Women never fail to underestimate men"

In any story we all gravitate towards the Plight of the Protagonist. In the first season of  24 we spent a single day following Jack Bauer though one of the best theoretical “what would I have done if I was him?” situations. With Red Dead Redemption we took a ride with John Marston, a man with no choice but to go forward on hopes to have returned the only thing that matters to him. In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus the lead is Meursault, a man so ernest and disconnected with everything we needed to finish the tale if just to know if he ever feels anything for anybody other then his own internal monologue.  All these characters have something about them, something that makes us want to experience their tales.

Above is promotional artwork of Adam Jensen the player character in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Jensen a man given great power and influence and Deus Ex is about what he does with that power. In every interaction and combat scenario he pull the strings. He can drive men to suicide or with a little reasoning alter their fate. He can walk into an industrial park guns blazing cutting down anybody that moves, or he can tip toe in the shadows and avoid conflict. The future world of Deus Ex is his to mold. An outsider would look at that picture and see some mechanical man drinking and having a smoke. I see a man with a large weight on his shoulders and having a brief moment solace and contemplation.

In the start I didn’t feel much for Jensen. Before becoming augmented he’s just a smokers voice who’s way too comfortable around his ex-girlfriend. His backstory is filled with hardship so he’s a man who never had it easy. After getting his ass kicked to the brink of death he becomes an over-augmented strongman for his professional superior. When the world opens up is when the game shines and the choices that need to be made slowly are revealed. By the end, the future world altering choice to some could look arbitrary but personally was cause for pause. Some might not like the way the ending is presented but from the eyes of Jensen it was a choice we made together.

By the end this was the first game in a long time I was sad reached it’s crescendo. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is made by adults for adults. Humor is supressed and the combat and stealth elements are not for the light of heart. This is another one of those games that I adored but it’s not for everybody. Much of the action is trial and error and playing on a Xbox 360 it felt at times I was looking at loading screens more then doing anything interesting (Note: Part of this is my own fault playing on “Hard”). The storytelling at times can be strange. Much of this game is what you make of it, maybe that is why I liked it so much? For a single player experience DE:HR did more of what I like about video games more then any other I can think of in years.

Note: This post was written back in September but was reworked slightly since then. Note the time of posting and one can see why it was pulled back.

I consider this site to be the landing ground for everything that I consider most important. I publish the content I care most about here because I own every pixel of the experience. It is also a great launchpad to push fine readers like yourself to other areas of the Internet that I frequent or want to share.

If I wrote the above most of the !outrage! here I bet could have been avoided. A very elegant way of saying what I wanted to do here at vanlandw.com. Conversation these days is so fragmented what I want to share these days will only be posted here.

→ Matthew Stafford provides Pro Bowl performance to clinch postseason

My friends in other cities sometimes ask: Which team is the biggest deal in Detroit? Red Wings? Tigers? I always give the same answer: The Lions, and it isn’t close.

Truth. Looking forward to the Lions looking good (hopefully) in the playoffs. Stafford played great against the Chargers.

→ The Worst C.E.O.’s of 2011

The most complacent chief executive in America has got to be Mr. Weldon of Johnson & Johnson. And maybe the luckiest as well, because he remains in his corner office despite an incredible collection of product recalls from all corners of the company: insulin pumps, syringes, hip implants, sutures, contact lenses, Tylenol (!), Benadryl, Rolaids, the list goes on.

Of course Hastings from Netflix and the RIM duo are on this list but clear winner (based of importance of services) is Weldon.

→ Battlefield 4: Co-op

I think Freddie forgot one thing that everyone maybe doesn’t care: We can see the shadow of the GoPro camera on the ground
ChrisNgWoW 1 hour ago

Damn nitpickers. Freddie’s channel is great and this is another cool video. Somebody should just give him a million dollars and let him make a movie and sell it Louis CK style.  His archives are good particually the video with Andy Whitfield. Still makes me sad we won’t be seeing him in a second season of Spartacus.

→ The Email Person at Amazon Web Services is Really, Really Excited

Has anyone else noticed they’re always so excited there? Here are some screenshots of the intros for almost all their emails I’ve received this year…

We are excited to announce vanlandw.com thought this was a rather clever observance.

→ The Book of Jobs

It has now been almost five years since the bursting of the housing bubble, and four years since the onset of the recession. There are 6.6 million fewer jobs in the United States than there were four years ago. Some 23 million Americans who would like to work full-time cannot get a job. Almost half of those who are unemployed have been unemployed long-term. Wages are falling—the real income of a typical American household is now below the level it was in 1997.

Last link for the year and I leave you with another America is doomed article. No kind words for the big four.

Don Draper:

When a man walks into a room, he brings his whole life with him. He has a million reasons for being anywhere, just ask him. If you listen, he’ll tell you how he got there. How he forgot where he was going, and that he woke up. If you listen, he’ll tell you about the time he thought he was an angel or dreamt of being perfect. And then he’ll smile with wisdom, content that he realized the world isn’t perfect. We’re flawed, because we want so much more. We’re ruined, because we get these things, and wish for what we had.

Season Four of Mad Men is hauntingly amazing and the best season of television I’ve seen since Season One of 24. Catch up on Netflix ASAP

Check this out: If you use Google Chrome to browse the Internet, now you can also use it to play Bastion right in your browser. Our game is now available in the Chrome Web Store. Crazy, but true!

No excuses now. Absolutely everybody should play Bastion, one of the best games of the year (quite possibly my game of the year). I beat it once, then beat it again. Ideally one would play it on the 360 but the free playable prologue on PC should be enough to make you want to buy the rest.

→ Cuts to First-class Mail Will Slow Deliveries in 2012

The cuts would close roughly half of the nearly 500 mail processing centers across the country as early as next March. Because the consolidations would typically lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to processing center, the agency would also lower delivery standards for first-class mail that have been in place since 1971. Currently, first-class mail is supposed to be delivered to homes and businesses within the continental U.S. in one to three days; that will be lengthened to two to three days, meaning mailers could no longer expect next-day delivery in surrounding communities. Periodicals could take between two and nine days.

Recently recieved a “survey” in the mail asking my usage of one of my local post offices I’m sure they are working on closing. Sad to see delivery times lengthening and stamp prices rising once again.

→ Is Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Really the Worst CEO of 2011?

In a very small poll (200+ votes) on TheStreet.com Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was voted as the worst CEO of 2011. More than 58% of the voters selected Hastings, over companies such as RIM or Zynga.

It was just over a year ago when Fortune Magazine named Hastings “Businessperson of the Year.”

The “Quikster” debacle was deplorable but still completely forgivable given Netflix really still being one of the best services ever created. I liked the thought he went from being the absolute best to the absolute worst in one year, not that a poll of 200 people means anything.

→ ‘Steve Jobs’ Becomes Amazon’s Best-Selling Book of 2011

As predicted by Amazon following its release, Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs has become the retailer’s best-selling book of 2011. The milestone is a remarkable one given that the book did not debut until late October.

What type of people use Amazon to buy hardcover books? The type of people interested in Steve Jobs.

→ One Night in Skyrim Makes a Strong Man Crumble

If you have no idea what the Elder Scrolls franchise is, you are probably either (a) an adult woman, or (b) the sort of person who once beat up the sort of person who likes the Elder Scrolls franchise, so herewith a quick primer: Bethesda Game Studios made it; its genre is the genre that has elves; and its subgenre is the open-world RPG.

Another brilliant essay/review by Tom Bissell all his work at Grantland I’m thankful for. Very happy somebody is paying him to keep writing about games. Everybody should read Extra Lives ASAP.

→ How To Rip DVDs to Play on Any Device—For Free!

RYAN GOSLING
But I’m wearing a puffy scorpion jacket and a denim shirt.

BRYAN CRANSTON
Yeah, you are. You’re a douchebag.

Sounds about right…

→ Creed – April 13, 2012

Creed in concert as you have never seen them before, as the band performs “My Own Prison” night one (Friday, April 13) and performing “Human Clay” night two (Saturday, April 14).

Already placed my pre-order for both nights. Who else is coming with me?!

→ Detroit Lions | Gridiron Heroes

Still one of the oldest team fight songs in the NFL, Gridiron Heroes is still played after every Lions score. The tradition has been carried over to Ford Field.

The absolute best fight song ever composed.

→ Metal Gear Solid And The Uncommon In The Common

Throughout MGS, every character and boss reveals to you the ways their childhood and their relationships with family or lack thereof shaped their lens on war and informed their actions. At the end of the game, Snake learns where he himself comes from: He, like his rival, Liquid, are “sons” — direct copies, more like — of Big Boss. Isn’t it interesting to think of your ultimate rival as your original progenitor, an ending that’s a beginning?

Nice look at Metal Gear. The “ending that’s a beginning” is a perfect way of putting it. All the Metal Gear games give you definite endings with a small glimpse into the future. Most games give you half endings selling the future.

→ Van Andel Institute’s cancer research gets multi-million-dollar boost from Dell

kwoodgr November 10, 2011 at 6:13PM

Certainly an encouragment to (again) buy a Dell

The absolute only comment on this press release. Great news for pediatric cancer patients in West Michigan.

→ Dell’s Misleading Graphics Card Buying Advice

While the text is basic, it’s accurate enough for beginners. Instead, it’s the image that contains a dangerous chunk of misinformation.

Speaking of Dell. Repulsive, they should be ashamed of themselves.

→ Samsung Galaxy S Ad 

Just a few things people wait in line for: Playstation 3, Santa’s Lap, and Bruce Springsteen Concert Tickets.We all have things we care about, nothing wrong with being a fan. -chiaofucious

It’s like their message is saying just give up trying to get what you want and are excited for and get this instead. It’s like a Battlefield 3 player going to a Modern Warfare 3 player waiting in line for their pre-order and telling them Battlefield 3 is already out just get that. Both the phones and the games are fine get over it. There has to be better ways to sell products this ad is not entertaining or humorous.

→ Christmas Catalog | Tools and Toys

This is the 2011 Tools and Toys gift guide for the holidays. Forty-seven gift ideas for those who can be the most difficult shop for: picky gadget geeks, music lovers, coffee nuts, movie buffs, and men.

As always, only the finest gifts suggested.

Lots of great high and low end gift suggestions most could go both ways male/female. Some are obvious but all the coffee suggestions are about perfect for coffee lovers.

 → Amazon.com: Moby Dick eBook Kindle Store

Kindle Price: $0.00 includes free wireless delivery

“Call me Ishmael” – It’s crazy how many great free books are on the Kindle Store and Guetenberg Project. I was asked to just read the first paragraph of Moby Dick and really it’s epic I cannot put it any other way.

In Flames and Trivium co-headling. Pure retribution after “The Tragedy of Mayhem Fest“. Couldn’t be more excited to see In Flames in a small venue. This will be a glorious day…

Edit: Dude…

We hope you’ll like the new Reader (and Google+) as much as we do, but we understand that some of you may not. Retiring Reader’s sharing features wasn’t a decision that we made lightly, but in the end, it helps us focus on fewer areas, and build an even better experience across all of Google.

As I’ve written about before this sucks. There were about 10 people I regularly shared links and comments on Reader for years. In a week that’s all gone. Who knows if those people are on Google+ and all my shares and conversations are stuffed in a JSON I have no idea what I’m going to do with yet. This is just another reminder to beware of social services  and to make sure to own your content. A former designer on Google Reader is actually pleading to return to the project to fix it whats currently broken.

→ A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

We all — in the end — die in medias res. In the middle of a story. Of many stories.

Regardless of how one feels about Apple and Steve Jobs this is a must read. There has been so many interesting stories and thoughts about Apple and Jobs since his death his book now becomes a must read at some point soon. I’ve also heard very good things about this book as a companion to Walter Isaacson’s.

→ Aerobie 80R08 AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker

Fast and convenient, the AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker makes one of the best cups of coffee you’ll ever taste. This innovative uses the ideal water temperature and gentle air pressure brewing to produce coffee and espresso that has rich flavor with lower acidity and without bitterness. It makes 1 to 4 cups of coffee or espresso (enough for 1 or 2 mugs), features a micro filtered for grit free coffee, and takes just 1 minute to make coffee (actualpress time takes only 20 seconds).

If anybody wants to buy me a gift. Started making good home coffee with a french press (that I still like) but I broke my FP at my house. Got a pour over last Christmas and like the cleaner cup out of the pour.  Been hearing many good things about the AeroPress primarily the speed and the lack of cleanup needed.

→ Fans Smash Stage After Metallica Gig is Canceled

The four executives of DNA Entertainment Network, the promoters of the gig, were arrested on fraud charges after they refused to refund ticket money for the event. Reports indicate that around 25,000 people had purchased tickets to see what would have been Metallica’s first-ever concert in India.

Sue the crap out of them.

→ Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception AV Club Review

Indigo
What the fuck is wrong with your head? “You know what, I fucking hate cover, I think I won’t use it for Gears – what the fuck, I just died this game is Bullshit”. “You know, I wanna try playing this Mario game like Sonic, so I’m going to go fast enough and the other guys should die – the fuck? I died? How is that fair”

Over a thousand scathing comments…

→ Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Launch Trailer

Players will literally be able to switch between the remastered visuals and the classic visuals in real time with the press of a button in order to see the difference more clearly. Halo: Anniversary will be a full retail game, not a downloadable, but it will only cost $40.

The music in the Halo trailers gets me every time. Best deal is at Amazon with release day shipping, a $10 dollar credit, extra skull, and avatar award for all pre-orders. The Retro Graphics Toggle is great there hasn’t been a game that has done this better. Also the new Terminals in Halo 1 should be cool as I loved the Terminals in Halo 3.

→ C&E