The End of TVWritten by Jesse S. Somer
Television will soon be another reason to hook up to Internet.In not-so-distant future TV as we know it, will cease to exist. This is going to have huge ramifications on whole of human society, or at least so-called 'wealthy' countries that sit in front of 'magic-story-box' religiously everyday. I say 'so-called' because we obviously measure wealth in terms of material gain and not internal peace or gratitude for life. When television first appeared, like telephone (see last article on changing world of voice-communication: 'Internet nerds are actually secret prophets who change way our world works. Check out Skype, a type of future communication technology.') TV was an incredible addition to our collective reality. However, we are in 'Information Age' and this means that ways we do things as a species are changing faster than you can say, "Humans humorously hunt for humble hints at how to have more happiness." The coming of Internet spells end of television era, and this could also mean end of years of walking around with mindless advertising jingles in your head. The other day when I was washing dishes I absent-mindedly started to sing slogan from one of my local TV channels, "Bringing it home to you." If these silly songs are what they bring home to me, I am going to quite happy when they're gone. Thankfully, as TV shows are already putting episodes on-line these hard-core advertising techniques may soon disappear altogether. TV on Internet means many things for viewer. As show is coming straight to you instead of through old channel medium, you can have more control of show, with elements of video, like pause and rewind coming into play. Watching a show straight through without commercials sounds like a godsend indeed. TV websites will still need corporate sponsorship for promotion elsewhere, so concept of 'product placement' that has already come into play will most probably evolve further, especially in case of International companies whose products are available universally. Hopefully these 'placements' don't go too far from reality thus taking us metaphorically back to times of 'canned' laughter and obviously contrived dialogue. I can just imagine Homer on 'Simpsons' suddenly changing beer he drinks from 'Duff' to Budweiser because it 'tastes great and is less filling.' As if he ever cared whether his doughnuts came from Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Doughnuts, or cared about his weight for that matter! So of course with all changes in life come both sides of coin of positive and negative outcomes. Still, having TV integrated as another of infinite capabilities of your personal computer makes life more simple, not to mention that quality of broadcast will be equal to latest in digital technology.
| | 3D Magic Mahjongg ReviewWritten by Alexei
This is a game that goes to show, nothing is quite as simple as it seems. Similar to other versions of Mahjong, 3D Magic Mahjongg is much more interesting on account of mood set by 3D visuals, soothing music and Chinese temple ambience that you encounter when you first download game and start playing.Unique from earlier variations of Mahjong, it has advisory levels that warn you if you are going wrong so you can take corrective action. Other features are, that you can have game statistics for each board, score tables to list best times achieved and a camera panel that allows you to view game from different angles. Two versions of game are available so you can choose tile sets and holiday themes. These have been done really nicely. The tiles are colourful and pretty and some are pretty confusing and it is fun to ramble around choosing which tiles or formation you want to play with. The settings add to fun. The holiday settings are well designed and put you in a festive mood.
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