For those of you that don’t know what the Konami code is, here’s the wikipedia outline:

The Konami Code, known in Japan as the Konami Command (コナミコマンド Konami Komando?), is a cheat code that appears in many Konami video games, although the code also appears in some non-Konami games. The code was first used in the 1986 release of Gradius for the Nintendo Entertainment System but was made famous in North America in the NES version of Contra, for which it was also dubbed the “30 Lives Code”. While pausing the game or during the title screen, the player could press the following sequence of buttons on the game controller:

Konami Code for google reader

Now head on over to google reader and push those keys, you’ll get those 30 extra lives, next to your feeds, a ninja and the like button will change into a heart, which has a wicked animation when used.

25 amazing years of Tetris, and the millions of variations was created by Alexey Pajitnov, a computer engineer who was working for the Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

It has sold over 70 million copies, and was first available on the IBM computer, but didn’t become worldwide until it hit the game-boy in 1989 (shown left).

Pajitnov came up with the name Tetris by combining the words “tennis”, his favourite sport, and “tetra”, a Greek prefix. The variously shaped groups of blocks that fall down the screen are called tetrominoes.

want to remember the good old days? then get a coffee sit back and prep your hands on the arrow keys, here’s neave’s remake.

Tetris today, still makes it into jokes for such shows as family guy:

Bring on the future of Gaming, Home Media and computing, and welcome Project Natal, announced at E3 by Microsoft, as a competitor for the Wii, although with a couple of massive upgrades.

Instead of sensing controllers, it uses two camera’s and sits underneath your TV, just like the WII sensor bar, But without controllers, and adding camera’s, 3D Motion Detection Voice recognition and face recognition! project natal is on a completely new level.

Read on for some videos of project natal in action.

The thing that really grabs me, is that its not just focusing on games, Microsoft bringing this into the media center for the Xbox 360, so you can control your media without a remote, say like minority report.

So theoretically, not long after its release, this could be used with pre-exiting computer systems as well, to control the interface, who knows, maybe there’s some hidden features embedded in windows 7 already!

Live Demo

Project Natal, Hands on at E3 2009

Microsoft explains how it works:

Compatible with any Xbox 360 system, the “Project Natal” sensor is the world’s first to combine an RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and custom processor running proprietary software all in one device. Unlike 2-D cameras and controllers, “Project Natal” tracks your full body movement in 3-D, while responding to commands, directions and even a shift of emotion in your voice.

In addition, unlike other devices, the “Project Natal” sensor is not light-dependent. It can recognize you just by looking at your face, and it doesn’t just react to key words but understands what you’re saying. Call a play in a football game, and players will actually respond.

External related links:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/projectnatal/

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/03/project-natal-video-hands-on-impressions-and-further-details/

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/01/project-natal-video-features-smack-talking-scruffy-teenagers/

So to get the ball rolling, I’m welcoming Wordpress 2.7 with open arms! My first blog, surprisingly really, since that i have been a webmaster for coming up to.. 5 years now?

I will be publishing articles on new technologies and how-to’s from around the globe, mostly computer based.

Your comments are welcome; I hope you enjoy your stay at Life Burner.