blog dot cameronbanga dot com

As many of you most likely know, the official Super Smash Bros. Brawl website was opened to to the general public yesterday. The site claims to be giving daily updates on the upcoming Wii game. So far, not a whole lot of new information has been revealed. The most important piece of information released by Nintendo may have been the announcement of all the different musical composers working on the soundtrack.
However, if you take a look at that screen shot, something interesting sticks out if you pay real close attention.
If you check out the "How to Play" icon, you will notice a horizontal Wiimote. Could this hint at a possible control scheme for the Wii fighter? The website is already hinting at a list of possible characters in the game with the addition of certain music composers from famous Japanese gaming series. Could this be another hint that the game will be played with the Wiimote horizontally much like NES games are played on the Virtual Console? Back when the Wii was still the Revolution, Nintendo stated officially several times that gamers should hold on to a GameCube controller for Brawl because the game would not take full advantage of the motion sensing controller.

Again, I must state that this entire theory is just speculative. However, it does not seem too far fetched of an idea. The Wiimote in the icon could have easily been placed vertically instead of horizontally. We must also assume that web designers in charge of the site have a fair amount of knowledge about the game because they have been working with the team and Sakurai-san to produce the website.

Post your comments on how you think the game would play with a horizontal Wiimote control style. Personally, I see it working quite well with the 1 and 2 buttons working to preform attacks. The B button under the controller could preform grabs and shaking the controller could make the character jump.

The official site looks like it will be updated regularly, so we should see some information on the control style soon. Until then, feel free to speculate away. Please be sure to leave a comment with your opinions on the control style and let me know what you thought of this post by e-mailing me at TeenageFanboy@gmail.com

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For all you Diggnation fans, I just wanted to let you all know about this ringtone I made.

It is a small mp3 file from an episode a couple months ago where Kevin was trying to sing Toxic by Britney Spears.

If you need a way to get the file to your cell-phone, I suggest www.mobile17.com

Here is the file, I hope you enjoy.
http://s11.up-file.com/download3/cfd76c164564_53lgw5qtyt6aa0vs/Diggnation-Ringtone.m4a

Also, for you gaming fans on the site, I wanted to let you all know about my new project. I recently helped launch GamerDebate. The site is a forum/podcast/essay community which revolves around gamers arguing popular topics in the world of gaming. It is a been a success so far and I invite all you gamers to check it out. We're always looking for more gamers to jump into the debates, exspecially PS3 or XBOX 360 gamers. Check it out at www.gamerdebate.com

I'll be getting some more posts in soon.
-Cameron

So, a week or so ago I was helping my dad with my MacBook. He wanted to watch some snowmobile movie that was on a DVD he had received in the mail. It was one of those homemade kind of DVDs that he most likely overpaid for, but that doesn't really matter. Anyways, I placed the DVD in my MacBook Super Drive and the DVD the DVD became stuck in the drive. I kept pressing eject to no avail. The drive made made a continuous noise that indicated that some sort of problem was occurring, but nothing ever came out.

I decided to search the internet for some solutions and I found very little help. Several topics on the Apple Support forums talked about the problem occuring on a MacBook Pro and these topics suggested the use of a credit card. Several different posters on the forum indicated that the problem is caused when the DVD or CD can not clear the top part of the Super Drive slot. The CD continues to hit the top of the slot and bounce back into the drive, causing the noise.

I initially tried this, but to no avail. I don't know how different the MacBook and MacBook Pro drives are, but a credit card was too thick in my opinion. I had no success with a credit card. The forum posters appeared to be correct about the problem. The top of the DVD was not clearing the top of the drive and the DVD needed to be guided out of the drive. It made sense to use the credit card to guide the DVD out of the drive, but the credit card was too thick.

Then I had an idea, I decided to try a thin business card. The business card fit into the slot with relative ease. I had finally found a tool to help me with my problem.

I must make note quick, I DON'T CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE YOU DO TO YOUR MACBOOK WHILE TRYING THIS. YOU MIGHT SCREW UP YOUR COMPUTER THIS WAY. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK AND CONTACT APPLE BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT THIS.

After a couple minutes or messing around, I found a successful technique. First, insert the business card or any other type of card which has a similar thickness into the drive. Then, position the card so that it is partially on top of the CD. You do NOT want to insert the card all the way into the drive. You want your fingers gripping the card at all given times. When the card is partially over the disc, position the card so that it is centered in the drive with about 3/4 of the card in the drive. The other 1/4th of of the card should be firmly grasped by your fingers. The card should now act as a guide for the top of the DVD. Press the eject button on your MacBook and the DVD should slide out with ease.


AGAIN, I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE YOU MAY CAUSE. ATTEMPT AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Anyways, this method seemed to work for me. If anyone else has any suggestions or tips about how to do this any easier, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at TeenageFanboy@gmail.com.

Check out WiiChat.com!
Subscribe via iTunes.
Digg this podcast.
Check out our MySpace.
Join our Facebook group.

Sorry, I skipped a couple of weeks.

So, last week the WiiChat.com crew traveled up to New York City for an interview with Erik Rhey for the WiiChat.com Show. Erik is a Senior Editor for PC Magazine. To check out our interview with Erik, visit this link.

Upon arriving in New York, we headed straight to the Ziff Davis building. The Ziff Davis building itself was extremely impressive. When you walk in the door, you are immediately greeted by two large plasma TVs and a large display case with the latest issue of every magazine that Ziff Davis publishes. We were met in the Ziff Davis lobby by the Rosen Group PR representative who helped set up the interview. An elevator took us up to the PC Magazine office on the 11th floor of the building. This might be off-topic, but the elevator was easily the fastest elevator I have ever been on in my life. The elevator went up 11 floors in about 10 seconds, no joke.

When we exited the elevator, we were greeted by Erik in front of two huge glass doors. There was a keypad at the door to keep out any unwanted visitors who would happen to get past the security in the lobby. We introduced ourselves to Erik who let us take a free issue of the latest PC Magazine from a sweet little display stand which held about 20 or so issues. We then began our tour of the PC Magazine labs.

Erik used a nifty little thumb pad to open two large sliding glass doors. When I say large, I mean real large. These doors were abouy the size of two to three regular doors put together. Once the doors opened, we entered into the PC Magazine labs. This was just a nice sized room enclosed in all glass walls where the different PC equipment they test could be found. My first thoughts upon entering the room all revolved around the sheer amount of tech equipment which could be found in the room. I would assume that PC Magazine sees a lot of computers in their office. However, I didn't really know that so many would be set up at the same time. At first glance, the room seems to be really unorganized. However, after Erik gave us the tour I realized just now neat and orderly it is. Computers are sorted based on what purpose they serve for the magazine. New PCs for review are in one area. Another area might house computers which are used for testing MP3 players. One area was full of printers. One of the most popular areas was full of iPod accessories. It was apparent after the tour that the iPod accessory market is definitely a market with staying power. PC Magazine might need to hire a new editor or two just to keep up with all they latest iPod stereos they will review.

The area of the laboratory that drew my attention the most was the video game area. Three large televisions were set up. One housed a Wii, another housed a X-BOX 360, and you guessed it, the last housed a PS3. Before the interview, I was skeptical as to if a PC Magazine editor had enough gaming knowledge for an interview on Wii injuries. This tour put to rest any questions I have. These guys are serious gamers. Erik and I were talking about this and he really explained it well. The PS3 and the 360 have expanded gaming to the point where a magazine like PC Magazine must cover these machines because they basically are PCs. Erik also stated that as a tech magazine, the Wii must also be represented because of the massive impact of the console in the tech world.

The people we met in the PC Mag labs were all great too. They all had a real love for technology. Any question we had was immediately answered with the utmost authority.

After our tour, I had my interview with Erik. The interview was held in the PC Magazine podcast studio. On our walk from the PC Magazine labs to the podcast studio, we walked through a decent amount of cubicle space. If you have ever seen the 1UP Show, you should have an idea as to what the cubicles look like. Basically, just imagine plain cubicles full of tech goodies. This was a decent sized conference room which they dedicate to their audio podcasts. If you search iTunes, you can find these podcasts with no problem if you want to see what kind of content they put out. If you watch our video interview, you will see Erik and I sitting at a table. In the corner of the room, a similar table is set out with 4 nice microphone/headsets. It was a pretty sweet set-up for a audio podcast. As a podcaster myself, I found this room really interesting. It was cool to see the audio set up they use in order to have an extremely professional sounding podcast.

I had a great time at the PC Magazine office. Thanks again to Erik for the tour and the interview, it was really awesome. If it isn't apparent through my blog and video podcast, I have a real passion for technology. I also enjoy writing and sharing my opinion about technology. It was really cool to have the opportunity to see how people with a similar passion make a living through writing about technology.

A wise man once said,"Pics or didn't happen." I didn't take pictures while at the office. However, I have put together this low-budget model of the PC Magazine office floor plan. This should help give an idea as to what the office looks like. Hopefully, this will verify that the trip did in fact happen.