Ive been rolling out some new UI/navigation improvements on Bitpick.org and I thought I would list them all here just to keep you cats up to speed. First off I added a simpler top-bar so getting around is a little more straight forward. Secondly Ive made everything more consistent across the site, now movies, cartoons, and shows all are printed similarly making the site a bit more appealing to look at. Ive added alphabetical navigation for movies, and this will be coming to shows and cartoons very soon. We’ve almost completed adding trailers to all 1100 movies on the site, so now you can get a sneak peak at any film on the site. On the right hand side in the side bar now you will see our latest tweet from twitter.com/bitpick, its usually about movie gossip, and new features on the site. The thing Im most proud of though is the new featured torrent box on the top of the home page. Every week they will change, I pick one movie, tv show, and cartoon to feature. They will usually be hidden jems, but some times just big new releases. Ive got a bunch of ideas for other stuff to add and I will keep adding improvements slowly over time to see what people like/hate.
Archive for August, 2009
Every one has a couple of sites that seem to be a constant time sinks, you burn away hours clicking around on them instead of doing what ever it is that you should be doing. So I thought I would share my sites with you.
Kotaku.com
For a video game junkie this is drug dealer, just about every 20 minutes on the dot a new post comes up. They have a great tips system for users so they always have a constant flow of interesting, if at some times obscure video game news. The new design is very easy on the easy and there ads are nicely integrated so that are complete eye sores.
thisiswhyyourefat.com
I do my best to eat well, when your in a chair most of the day your body cant afford to be inundated with crappy food, but theres something oddly fantastic about thisiswhyyourfat. The community submits photos of some of the most blood thickening food ever conceived, for example Double Bypass Burger, “A burger topped with five slices of bacon, four slices of cheese, two fried eggs, mayo, lettuce, tomato, and onion between two grilled cheese sandwiches.”
PitchFork.com
For someone like my self always skulking around for new music, a love for B-sides, and a pair ears Pitchfork is your spot. They are a more reviews focused site, but they have a good site design, great writing, and just a good vibe about the site. The reviews can be a bit skewed towards the, “you havnt heard of this super new wave, alt, electronic indie band that just released an album of mostly white noise, so thats why I like them” kind of attitude, but its still a great time vampire of a site.
This is the first of a new weekly segment for Aralie, that just highlights a favorite artist of ours for the week. This week its Toronto electronic duo, The Crystal Castles. There self titled album, “Crystal Castles” is a heavy, 8-bit infused, bomb shell. The hole album has a very raw feel to it, like if Karen O(Yeah, Yeah,Yeahs) got her hands on a synthesizer. Interestingly enough the bands first single, “Alice Practice” was recorded accidentally. Alice Glass the bands lead singer was just testing the microphone, and unbeknownst to her the song was released onto MySpace. Glass was not aware that it had been used until record companies heard the song and contacted the duo to offer them record deals. The Crystal Castles have a great dance sound, that is something oddly refreshing in the sea of new age electronic music.
Jolicloud is the first OS that Ive gotten my hands on that embraces this building trend of ‘cloud computing’. For those of you not familiar with Jolicloud it is super polished version of ubuntu built specifically for Netbooks. The UI is very slick, easy on the eyes, and snappy to navigate. After wrestling with my Macbook I got it to boot and Im very impressed. From there site:
Jolicloud transforms your netbook into a sophisticated web device that taps into the cloud to expand your computing possibilities. The web already hosts a significant part of our lives: mails, photos, videos, and friends are already somewhere online. Jolicloud was built to make the computer and web part of the same experience.
Installing apps is quick and painless, which for linux is a major feat. I had no issues with driver support, my wifi, keyboard, mouse, and screen all work fine right out of the box without any fighting. You can goto Jolicloud.com and submit your email for a chance at getting a beta invitation, it only took about a day for mine. If you have a underpowered laptop or even desktop Jolicloud seems to be a clean, simple alternative that can breath life into your sluggish hardware.
Being self/unemployed has some benefits, it lets me work on what ever projects spark an interest in my brain. But it also frees up a bit of time to spend catching up on some games.
Monkey Island 3: The Curse of Monkey Island
Ive always been a huge adventure game fan, Ive played through Grim Fandango more times then I would like to count. But in all my adventuring I never played a Monkey Island game. So in leu of the new Monkey Island remakes Ive been playing through The Curse of Monkey Island. My girlfriend was obsessed with this game when she was younger and insisted I play it. This game has held up well, the puzzles are challenging but not completely rediculous and the dialog and writing are still funny, and the games graphics are still very sharp. My favorite moment so far was challenging a pirate barber to a banjo contest and then shooting his banjo to win is respect.
Plants Vs Zombies
This is the latest big release from Popcap, the leading developer in making games that might as well be made of addictive stimulants category. I started playing this on my Mac about 2 days ago, while taking a break from programming, several hours later my girlfriend came home from work and I was still playing it. So I said, “i know im a bum, but you gotta try this”, several hours later I had to pry her away from the screen. The game is very simple, zombies run from one side of the screen to the other, and you plant plants to stop them. But with a nice art style, clever mini games, and generally a huge variety in enemies, weapons, levels, and gameplay. This game will continue to consume unreasonable amounts of time around my house.
World of Goo
This Wiiware title can be summed up best as the ultimate bridge building simulator, and by simulator I mean a cartoonish fever dream of awesomeness, with cute blobs of goo. You build structures and use the terrain to try and get your goo balls to a pipe so they can be saved. The developers do a insane amount of innovation with this one simple building mechanic. No two levels have even been close to the same, with new types of gooballs constantly being introduced putting a whole new spin on how you approach your challenges. This game is simple, addictive fun.
Chrono Trigger
Ive been playing this classic RPG for the first time on my DS. I decided that given my current economic status it would be better to get as much game for my buck and this has not disappointed. Im about 10 hours in so far, and it doesnt feel as grindy as any of the Final Fantasy games Ive played from that generation, and the world your exploring and the characters in it feel very fleshed out and interesting. This game has held up very well over the years, and the RPG mechanics dont feel dated.