BIOSHOCK 2 GAMEPLAY TRAILER!!!!

BioShock 2 is in the works! The 1st one was a great game. Excited to see how the 2nd one turns out. Here is a video that shows off some game play.

Solar Panels Power Home Theater

Four roof-mounted solar panels power 100-inch screen, 5.1 surround sound "guiltless" home theater.

April 17, 2009 by Steven Castle
Can a home theater really be green? The Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA) says it can—and has built what it claims is the first “off-the-grid home theater” powered by solar panels.
The “Guiltless Green Home Theater,” which has a 100-inch screen and 5.1 channels of surround sound, uses energy collected from four roof-mounted solar panels. The 175-watt Sharp solar panels collect up to 700 watts per hour during the day, which the HTSA says provides about 22,000 watts per week, enough for 19 hours of off-the-grid home entertainment per week. (The figures are based on an average of 4.5 hours of sunlight per day in the Northeast and the theater’s 1,150-watt-per-hour draw, at full capacity. The house has other electrical draws as well, so we’ll consider the figures theoretical.)
The solar PV system is also tied to the grid, so when it’s making more power than the house is using, it sends power back to the community’s electrical system and turns the meter back at the house.”
“It’s time we address the energy use of the systems we install, because their environmental impact and expense are not trivial,” says Richard Glikes, Executive Director of HTSA. “When people see this project, they’ll learn that a solar home theater isn’t something out of science fiction. It’s a practical solution we can install today, and one that ultimately pays for itself.”
According to Glikes, the theater cost about $29,575 with modest modifications to a room, and the solar system $5,800 to install. Though the solar system will earn a 30 percent federal tax credit and another 35 percent state tax credit, bringing its cost down to a little over $2,000. It will also earn credits from the local utility for producing power, and Glikes said the system will pay for itself in three years.
The theater is installed in a model home at the White Horse development of builder Nolen Companies in Pennsylvania, and the solar system was installed by LG Energy Solutions.
HTSA member HiFi House did the electronics installation, which includes a Sharp XV-Z15000 1080p DLP front projector, 100-inch Stewart Filmscreen, five Speakercraft in-wall and in-ceiling speakers and a subwoofer, Integra A/V receiver, Sharp Blu-ray player, Monster power conditioner, lighting by Lutron, control by Universal Remote Control, wiring by Monster Cable and Salamander furniture.
Other green features are provided by the Monster power conditioner that can cut power completely to some components, which eliminates vampire or standby power loads, and the Salamander theater recliners that use no harmful chromium in the leather tanning process.
We’ll no doubt see other home theaters powered by the sun and wind and other renewable energies. And maybe we’ll see some powered directly by alternative energies, much like many solar thermal systems heat hot tubs and pools.
Click here to view additional photos.
Check out a time lapse video of the theater construction:

Hollywood scores win over Pirate Bay, 4 convicted

(AP) A crowd of journalists press to get a copy of the Pirate Bay trial verdict Friday April 17, 2009 at...Full Image
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STOCKHOLM (AP) - The entertainment industry won round one Friday in a legal battle against file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay, with guilty verdicts and one-year prison sentences handed down to four men accused of running and financing the popular site.
The defendants vowed to appeal, setting the stage for a lengthy copyright dispute between music and movie corporations and an online swap shop they say has deprived them of billions of dollars in lost revenue.
In its landmark ruling, the Stockholm district court convicted Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom of helping millions of users illegally download music, movies and computer games.
All four received one-year terms and were ordered to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) to entertainment companies, including Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures.
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"We can't pay and we won't pay," Sunde said in a defiant video clip posted on the Internet. Mockingly, he held up a hand-scribbled "I owe U" note to the camera. "This is as close as you will get to having money from us," Sunde said.
With an estimated 22 million users, The Pirate Bay has become the entertainment industry's enemy No. 1 after successful court actions against file-swapping sites such as Grokster and Kazaa.
Lundstrom helped finance the site while the three other defendants administered it.
Defense lawyers had argued the quartet should be acquitted because The Pirate Bay doesn't host any copyright-protected material. Instead, it provides a forum for its users to download content through so-called torrent files. The technology allows users to transfer parts of a large file from several different users, increasing download speeds.
The court found the defendants guilty of helping users commit copyright violations by providing a Web site with "sophisticated search functions, simple download and storage capabilities, and through the tracker linked to the Web site."

(AP) A crowd of journalists press to get a copy of the Pirate Bay trial verdict Friday April 17, 2009 at...Full ImageThe case focused on dozens of works that the prosecutor said were downloaded illegally. They included songs by the Beatles, Robbie Williams and Coldplay, movies such as "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and computer games including "World of Warcraft - Invasion."
Judge Tomas Norstrom told reporters that the site was "commercially driven," which the defendants have denied.
John Kennedy, the head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, called the verdict good news for anyone "who is making a living or a business from creative activity and who needs to know their rights will be protected by law."
The Pirate Bay had assured users the trial wouldn't affect the site, and it remained operational after the verdict. Authorities temporarily shut it down in May 2006 after seizing servers and computer equipment during raids in several locations in Sweden. But it soon reappeared, running on servers elsewhere.
Andre Rickardsson, a computer expert and former investigator for the Swedish security police, said the ruling could encourage the entertainment industry to threaten Internet operators with lawsuits unless they block access to the site.

(AP) One of the servers of Swedish file sharing Web site Pirate Bay is seen exhibited at the Technical...Full ImageFile-sharing wouldn't go away, he added, but users would likely turn to more advanced technological tools to hide their activities.
"It's not as if people will turn around and say 'oops, I'll have to stop file-sharing now.' Instead the reaction will be 'oops, what can I do to protect myself from getting caught'."
Sunde's lawyer Peter Althin said he was confident that higher courts would dismiss the case against The Pirate Bay, which he described as a battle between the corporate world and "a generation of young people who want to take part of new technology."
The verdict comes as Europe debates stricter rules to crack down on those who share content illegally on the Internet.
Last week French legislators rejected a plan to cut off the Internet connections of people who illegally download music and films, but the government plans to resurrect the bill for another vote this month.

(AP) Pirate Bay founders Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, left, and Peter Sunde arrive to the Stockholm...Full ImageOpponents said the legislation would represent a Big Brother intrusion on civil liberties, while the European Parliament last month adopted a nonbinding resolution that defines Internet access as an untouchable "fundamental freedom."
Earlier this month, Sweden introduced a new law that makes it easier to prosecute file-sharers because it requires Internet Service Providers to disclose the Internet Protocol-addresses of suspected violators to copyright owners.
The country of 9 million has one of Europe's highest rates of Internet penetration, but has also gained a reputation as a hub for file-sharers.
Statistics from the Netnod Internet Exchange, an organization measuring Internet traffic in Sweden, suggested that daily online activity dropped more than 40 percent after the law took effect on April 1.
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WIRELESS UPGRADE

Blackmagic Computers received a call from a customer that said he wanted to make his house wireless. The customer stated that he lives in Traverse City and owns a large chunk of property that extends out into his back yard. In his back yard he wanted to be able to have wireless signal about a quarter mile out from the back of his house.

We arrived at his house and spoke to the customer we noticed that in deed he did have a large backyard. We knew that we were going to have to hook up a omni antenna to be able to extend the wireless signal.

The customer said that he would like the signal to be secured so that his neighbors

cant connect to it. We installed a 12dbi omni antenna on a pole 26 feet in the air. Installed a weatherproof box with a router and 1 watt amplifier. We also installed a light on the pole with a control box that would turn his light on when it was dark. We ran the lines into his house where they plugged into his Charter Communications Cable Box and 24 port switch.

We hooked up the 5 computers in the house 4 desktops, 1 being connected with a wireless card. 1 Laptop that was also set up wireless. While in the house we noticed that the customer had a Xbox 360 & Sony PS3 Gaming Console in his basement connected to a 24inch computer monitor.

He has stated that he had a Pioneer 54inch HDTV upstairs in his living room. I asked why he didnt have the 2 gaming consoles connected to his HDTV? He said that he didnt want to run wire from the basement where his cable modem box was to the upstairs living room. I advised him that we could connect the Xbox 360 and PS3 wireless so that he wouldnt have to run any network cables. He said that would be great and loved the idea of being able to play his games on a 54inch HDTV. So we connected the Xbox 360 & PS3 wirelessly.

I asked the customer if he had a media center computer to play media to his HDTV? He said no but he would love to have something like that set up. We made one of his computers a media server so that he could watch video's wirelessly to the HDTV in his living room. Not only that he also was able to play music through the media center to his home theater system he had connected to his HDTV.

After getting the networking set up and connecting his computers and gaming consoles wirelessly we went out to his backyard and tested the wireless connection. We were able to take his laptop approximately 1/4 mile out to the woodline in his back yard and not lose connectivity with the wireless router. We were able to access his network shared files on his media center and play a movie on the laptop from 1/4 mile away.

After finishing everthing up the customer stated that he would like us to come out on a later date and look at his daughters computer which he believes has viruses & or spyware on it.

How Dust Can Damage Your Computer Hardware.

I recently went to a customer's home to fix a computer and when opening the case noticed that the computer was filled with dust and dirt. It was apparent that the computer had not been cleaned in a long time. When starting up the computer it would boot to a black screen. If you restarted it enough times it would eventually boot to the desktop.

On of the major causes of hardware failure is from having dust and dirt inside your computer case. Dust and dirt can actually cause components inside the computer to overheat which can lead to hardware failure.

It is very important to clean out your computer case at least 3 or 4 times a year. If you computer tower is on the floor or in an area that regularly collects dust you may want to clean it out more frequently.