Need Your Pre-Dark Knight Fix? Got Deep Pockets?

It’s always a good idea for a movie-goer to get the original movie sharp in mind before going to see a sequel. Confusing references can ruin the experience. Studios re-releasing the first movie immediately prior to the premier of the sequel isn’t a new practice, but Blu-Ray can allow it to be reinvented, and that’s just what Warner Bros. is attempting with the Batman Begins Limited Edition Blu-Ray Gift Set.

The film speaks for itself of course, a dark retelling (or some might say first telling) of the origins of Batman. A fan of the film no doubt would be interested in seeing it on Blu-Ray, and any self respecting consumer wants to get the most out of their coin, especially when the inflating prices of everyday essential needs force us to think again before spending our money on superfluous entertainment. So, does this set deliver or make you wish you’d taken the receipt out of your pocket before washing your jeans?

The set is full of extras, on the disc and in addition to it. It definitely attempts to integrate with the forthcoming Dark Knight, including a mini-comic and a storyboard book depicting the first scene as well as the actual footage of the first six minutes, which are shot on an IMAX camera for the best quality high definition. The fact that the scene itself is on the disc makes the comic and booklet irrelevant. Perhaps if they would have included Frank Miller’s graphic novel on which parts of the film were loosely based, this concept would have worked better.

Another thing that would have been nice to include for the $33 price tag is the Batman: Gotham Knight disc, an animated feature which was released on the same day on Blu-Ray and weaves six animated shorts together to fill in a few of the gaps between the two films, as well as go a little more in-depth with the genesis of the Caped Crusader. There is a nice little fold out of DK promotional photos though. (Have I mentioned how hard it is to convey sarcasm in text?)

Once all the trash is pushed aside to actually get to the disc itself, the true gem of this set reveals itself. The first scene of the new film is a great addition to the disc, as it is the ultimate teaser to the film. Following with the theme of most other promotion for the movie, it really seems to push the late Heath Ledger’s Joker more so than Christian Bale as the Dark Knight himself. Although it’s almost appalling to think that the studio might be attempting to use the tragedy of the star’s death to generate more profit for the project, there’s no doubt it’s working and that the performance deserves to be pushed. Disappointingly, the scene doesn’t seem to be presented in 5.1, but it doesn’t take away from the goosebumps that rise when the Joker comes on screen to say “Whatever doesn’t kill you, only makes you stranger.”

Batman Begins is in 5.1 TrueHD and full 1080p resolution, a great way to become immersed in the epic and pump up for the hopefully gratifying continuation. Gotham never looked so slick outside the theater, and the sounds of the streets make Christopher Nolan’s attempt at reality from a comic book all the more convincing.

Features on the disc are interesting, but most seemed to be ripped straight from the DVD, 480i and all. The only unique feature outside of the DK scene is what’s called the “In-Movie Experience” which works sort of like a commentary on steroids, giving you picture in picture insets of the different people involved with the film as they speak, which is great for those of us who are constantly annoyed by collaborative commentaries where there’s no indication who is speaking. The “Experience” also includes little making-of insets, such as the first battle between Bruce Wayne and Ducard at the monastery being synced with an inset showing how they filmed the scene. All of the bits are relevant to an event in the film and pause for long breaks allowing you to still enjoy the movie.

All in all, the set is entertaining but not worth $33, the only saving grace being that it does come with $7.50 in “movie cash” to see Dark Knight in participating theaters. (Emphasis on participating.) If it would include the animated feature and a Frank Miller novel, or even just ine of the two, it would be a steal no doubt, but it seems even entertainment can’t give our pockets a break this time.

Sony Releases Firmware Patch, Writer Inserts Foot In Mouth

This is how it goes sometimes isn’t it? Sometimes the Gods of Journalism spin the roulette wheel and choose a single opinion blogger to whom they will serve a freshly peed in bowl of Cheerios. Maybe I’m too bias. Maybe I’m too one-sided. I don’t know.

For those of you who are wondering what I’m talking about, it has to do with this fancy new firmware Playstation released last week that I basically wrote an advertisement rather than an article about. I was baffled today when I switched on my PS3 and saw the “Update Required” message pop up. With a little bit of investigation (courtesy of CNet.com) I found out that the update has caused a few consoles to nearly crash. Well, I must have been granted immunity, because my system has been problem free, but it doesn’t make the fact that I talked the update up in excess of 500 words sting any less.

Sony was quick to release a patch, and although I haven’t been able to find any statistics, CNet reports that the problem only affected a small number of consoles. It also doesn’t appear to be a fatal bug. According to CNet, a simple call to Sony support has been able to fix many of the major issues. So I can still report a small victory in the quick response time of my beloved Sony, and the fact that no consoles were completely ruined. Plus, v2.41 includes an updated replacement to the bland trophy icon. Yippy.

I was write a review of the newly released Batman Begins Limited Edition Blu-Ray Gift Set, but this development has humbled me and I’ve decided to take a day to gather my confidence before I can write a worthy review. In the meantime, make sure not to fall off of the edges of your seats in anticipation. That would only further compound my guilt.

NCAA Football 09 Looking Good

Ah, the joys of this new generation of gaming consoles. I remember the days when a guy had to wait for a Pizza Hut promotion or subscribe to a pricey gaming magazine to get his hands on some upcoming game demos. Then, if that didn’t work you had to wait for your rich buddy to buy a game, then go over to his house, throw a few please and thank you’s his mom’s way till she asks you to stay for dinner, then politely excuse yourself from the table to figure out whether Mortal Kombat 13 is really as cool as it looks on TV.

Nowadays, with the Information Age in full swing, all you have to do is pick up your controller. Xbox Live and the Playstation Network have enabled us to preview thousands of titles right from our couches. NCAA Football 09 is one of the newest demos on PSN, and it’s definitely worth a look-see. Sure, you might be skeptical. Last years demo, with no announcers, weird camera angles and horrible frame-rate kept me from buying the game. But this years effort is much smoother, sleeker, and packed with as many features as EA could cram into a gig and a half.

The Play Now option puts you in control of Ohio State or LSU as they battle it out at the Shoe in Columbus. The graphics as the game opens are much improved from last year. The shadowing is much more realistic and even the crowd passes as convincing. Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit talk about key players as they have in previous installments, but the demo doesn’t show the players on the field. This is hopefully just a symptom of it being a demo, and not something that carries over into the actual game.

The players then line up for the kick off, which is said to be one of the many instances that the game will allow players to insert their own music. The demo doesn’t allow it, but that’s to be expected. It does give a glimpse of improved animation though. In the past, the kick off teams were stiff as statues until the kicker approached the ball. Now the players move freely, stretching, jumping up and down, just as they would in real life.

Once the ball is kicked, the returner fields it and as you advance him up the field you’ll notice a more human flow to the jukes and spins as he tries to avoid defenders. There’s no noticeable change to controller layout. I didn’t play last years title as I said, but the controls here were nearly identical to last year’s Madden. Throw an interception or go for a game winning kick and you’ll notice a change though. When you throw a pick, your QB’s composure will drop, causing a slight drop in attributes and the inability to check your pre-play play art. All is not lost however. Immediately after the interception, you’re taken to a screen where you’re asked to pick which play the defense ran. Choose correctly, and you get a portion of the composure back. If you’re wrong, you lose more. On game winning field goals, the kick meter ices over and accuracy is hard to come by. There’s also a rather distracting thumping sound meant to simulate the nervous kicker’s heart.

If you get bored with the Tigers and the Buckeyes, you can try out the Mascot Game feature, which is making it’s debut on the new consoles this year. You can choose between Florida’s Gator or the Texas Longhorn, but it doesn’t really matter because all mascot teams have maximum attributes. The major draw of this feature is the almost comical athleticism of these players. Go for a juke and the ball carrier will do a mid-air cartwheel to avoid the defender. The only real flaw of this mode in the demo is when the Gator QB lines up under center. A graphics glitch makes the centers tail go right through the middle of him. Maybe the actual game won’t have this, but even if it does, it doesn’t take anything away from the fun of being able to plow through defenders with superhero-like power, all the while dressed in a ridiculous alligator suit.

This is definitely one of the better sports demos available and a must-have for any football loving gamer. So save your money and stop taking advantage of your rich friends. You don’t even have to put on a pair of pants. Just download and enjoy.

Qore Episode 2

As many of you know, the first article on My Take/System Attic was unprofessional and sloppy and had a very “thrown together” feel to it. (And it was less than a month ago. How things change. Or do they?) In that article, the first episode of the new Playstation 3 series Qore was basically slammed, and well, rightfully so. The bang for the buck just wasn’t there. It also seemed a bit thrown together, and although it may seem hypocritical to criticize that due to the aforementioned unprofessional nature of our first article, our article was free. I mention this because the host of Qore, Veronica Belmont, commented on the article in defense of her show, and I feel the need to clarify that her comment in no way affected the objectivity of this review. In fact, if anything, it may have caused a harsher judgment in an effort to prove credibility.

Now, that’s out of the way, so here we go.

Right from the get-go in episode two, there’s an obvious increase in the amount of work put in. The biggest thing to notice is that in three of the four features, Belmont is actually present for more than just the introduction. This adds a whole new degree of entertainment to the equation. Belmont is the anchor of the whole show, and should be involved in as many aspects as possible. Game programmers and producers deserve respect for what they do, but let’s face it, they’re boring. The presence of anyone else while these guys drone on is an improvement, but Belmont, with her wit and liveliness, keeps attention from drifting during the segments. In the Resistance 2 and Silent Hill: Homecoming features, she is able to entertain us with her very human approach to the interviews, while not taking away from the information presented by the interviewees.

In the R2 feature, there’s a segment where Belmont asks to try on a mocap suit that you can’t help but smile at. In the Silent Hill feature, she has to watch a suspenseful demo of the game while openly admitting to being a “wuss”. While this segment could have gone a little more in depth with the shots of the game itself, her reactions, especially the last one, appear to be very genuine and are also worth a smile, maybe even a little giggle.

The Naruto and Madden 09 features weren’t quite as in-depth and interesting, but they were third and fourth listed in the menu probably for that reason. The downloads were all up and running this time and started with no trouble at all, as apposed to being completely unusable in the first episode. (Granted, I got there after it had been out for 10 days.) The ads between each segment are puzzling considering that the episodes aren’t free, but they are skippable after the first 10 seconds or so.

If you still think $2.99 is overkill, consider this. Your average magazine is going to cost you anywhere from $1.50 to $3 at the newsstand and around $12 to $24 annually. This is video. This is interactive. This gives you free dowloads on top of what you get in the video itself. There are hidden features to find. And how many magazines do you know that have a hot, charismatic host? This is worth what you pay for, especially if you can afford the year subscription, which saves you about 12 bones plus the free download of Calling All Cars which would set you back $9.99 normally.

The first episode should have been free. It wasn’t worth the money, but it did give you a vague idea of what you were in for. This episode showed improvement, and there’s a lot of potential in this media form. We can only hope that the effort to realize that potential doesn’t waver, but just like anything new, it all depends on how much interest the product generates, and how willing the creators are to work at generating more.

That really wasn’t very harsh at all. Well, uh, 1.7 GB is too much hard drive space! There, take that.

Technology Has Taken Over My Life!

Tonight, as I was surfing the web looking for something to write about, I came across an article about how Time-Warner has begun to initiate bandwidth caps on their cable internet users. Now, before tell you what happened, I want to go point out that this will have no affect on me whatsoever because I’m not a Time-Warner customer and I use DSL (Also, I don’t think I consume near enough bandwidth to constitute a cap). But regardless of those factors, a tiny inkling of panic still rose up from the bowels of my technology-reliant soul. “Oh NO! They’re cuttin’ me OFF!” Eventually though, I regained my common sense and the panic subsided. But this got me thinking. What if all of the technology that so many of us have allowed to be ingrained in our daily lives was suddenly in limited supply, or worse, disappeared completely?

Now, I know what most of you are thinking. “This guy couldn’t find anything worthwhile to write about so instead chose to bore us with a hair-brained, nearly impossible scenario that doesn’t matter in the least.” Well, you’re right. But think of it. No iPods, laptops, cell phones, Playstations, X-Box 360’s, PC’s, internet, HDTV, DVD’s, Blu-Ray’s, CD’s… Now I don’t want to get too crazy, so let’s not take it clear back to the Stone Age. But imagine if the only TV in the house was on an antenna, if all we had for music was LP’s and cassette tape, if all the phones had cords, let’s say, 1980. (Wow, how the world has changed in 28 years.)

Now, we all know we wouldn’t die, (Hell, it would probably be good for most of us) but it certainly would change the way we do things. There’s not a whole lot that most of us do in our daily lives that hasn’t changed in 30 years. I wouldn’t have my iHome to wake me up each day. No reason to check blog hits or e-mail, or even a way to do it. No HDTV to watch while eating breakfast. No iPod dock to plug my non-existent iPod into to listen to music while I showered. No XM Radio for the commute to work. No Homestar Runner or Tekzilla or Wine Library TV to entertain me once I got there. (I do love to read though, so that’ll always be there, unless we descend all the way to a Fahrenheit 451-esque world.)

The true point of this rambling is simply this. When that tiny inkling of panic rose up after reading that article, I realized how much I’ve allowed myself to become a slave to this wonderful technology. Now, I’m not planning on becoming a monk or anything, or even changing the way I live my life, but I think it’s important for every tech loving soul out there to just take a moment every once in a while, breath deep, and realize that yes, we could live without this. Let’s not take it for granted, and most of all, let’s not let it take over our lives.

Favorite Firefox Extensions

Firefox 3 is great isn’t it? It looks great with my OS and is a formidable, if not nearly superior alternative to Safari or Internet Explorer. A huge part of what makes it so great are all these nifty extensions you can get for that can streamline your online experience or just make it more fun. I’ve decided to make a list of a few of my favorites in hopes that many of you can get as much enjoyment out of the browser as I do.

PicLens
Probably the coolest extension I’ve yet come across, PicLens allows you to view images on certain websites in full 3-D thumbnails. The PicLens interface takes over your screen and allows you to search for images on popular sites such as Google, Yahoo, Flickr and Photobucket and view the results in a totally awesome scrollable reel without having to go through page after page like you do on normal thumbnail searches. PicLens can also be used to scroll through videos on YouTube and your friends photo albums on Facebook. The only drawback I can see is the fact that you can’t use it on every site, but with the coolness factor skyrocketing through the roof, I’d say that day isn’t far off.

Autofill Forms
This one is pretty self explanatory. Much like the stock feature you get with Safari, it fills out online forms so you don’t have to. When you first download it, you’re asked to create a profile where you enter all of your info. Then find a site with a form, press the button and presto! It isn’t automatic, and it sometimes fills in the wrong info in the wrong box, but it’s pretty accurate for the most part, and if, like me, you’re partial to Firefox over Safari, you can’t beat it.

Download Statusbar
Ever get tired of having to click back and forth between windows to check the status of your downloads? Well, I did and this little accessory took care of that. It also is pretty self explanatory. It simply creates a status bar at the bottom of your browser which, well, shows the status of your downloads. It only shows up when you start downloading and goes away as soon as you either click on the finished download or clear it off by pressing clear on the right side of the bar or selecting clear from the pop-up menu on the left side. It’s handy, neat, and out of the way.

Password Exporter
Another self explanatory app. This was a lifesaver when I dumped my PC in favor of my Mac. It’s cross-platform compatible, obviously, and can store your passwords in a variety of different file types. You simply save the file on one computer by pressing the export button that shows up in your security menu after installing the extension, then transfer the created file to the new computer by whatever means you have, install the extension on that computer and press import. Viola!

Anyone have any cool extensions they’d like to share? Drop me a line or leave a comment. I love new neat things to play around with.

New Firmware Makes PS3 Social

One of the major weapons of PS3 bashers since it’s inception has been the almost total lack of social compatibility online. Compared to the 360 (Or so I’ve been told since I don’t play one) the PS3’s online experience has been very lackluster, not even allowing you to invite someone into a game while playing. But, the greatest thing about the Playstation 3 is it’s almost creepy ability to adapt to the ever-changing needs of its users, and this need is no exception.

On Monday, Sony officially announced the newest firmware update, 2.40 which is due for release today and will answer the cries of online gaming junkies everywhere. You know that nifty Xross Media Bar (XMB), the user interface of the PS3 and the PSP’s home screen? Well, the new firmware update will allow you to access the XMB and all of its features in-game. That’s right, you can scroll over to the Network option and shoot an invite to a friend, and on some titles, you’ll even be allowed to access your music collection in place of the game default music.

According to Sony, the in-game XMB access will not only be limited to multi-player. It sounds as though it will entirely replace the black, limited option screen you’re brought to by pressing the PS button. This will allow you to configure your system settings, monitor your downloads, sign in to the Playstation Network all while in the game. I assume that you will also be able to quit the game and shut off the controller and system as well.

The update will also include a trophy system for select online titles with bronze, silver and gold trophies to be awarded upon completion of several titles. According to the official press release announcement:

“Super Stardust™ HD, a PLAYSTATION Network-exclusive released in June 2007, will be the first game to leverage the Trophies system and will offer a variety of trophies*. The following first-party games are also slated to offer Trophy support:

• BUZZ!™ Quiz TV
• LittleBigPlanet™
• MotorStorm™ Pacific Rift
• NBA 09 – PS3
• PAIN*
• PixelJunk™ Eden
• Resistance 2™
• SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation
• Warhawk™*

*Requires a game update to be downloaded and installed.”

No mention yet of a release date for the on-demand video, but I’m sure that it’s not far off. Even die-hard XBOX fans have to admit that Playstation 3 has come along way since it’s sub-par debut. Sony has been smart enough to realize that their worst critics and most trusted advisers are the people who buy and use their product, and have engineered a system which is constantly reshaping to fit those needs.

In this writer’s opinion, the only reason why Sony should even think about a PS4 (and probably already are) is because most of their market is capitalist, and sooner or later they will have to release something new to compete. With proper firmware updates, this system has potential to stay relevant for years to come. Eventually processor speed, hard-drive storage and RAM will catch up to them, but the sheer capability of this machine is staggering in comparison to anything of it’s kind on the market, and that is not just my bias talking. I think anyone with a passion for gaming, or even a much more vague passion for home entertainment in general, really must agree.

Is Lossless Encoding Worth It?

As an avid reader of Rolling Stone magazine, I’m aware of the music industry’s struggle since the advent of P2P networks and digital music. Do I feel sorry for the record companies and artists? Well, in a way. I still don’t buy the whole sob story that Metallica and other bands were polluting MTV with back in Napster’s heyday when they all tried to convince us that they would go broke. It’s obvious now that it’s a more serious problem than I originally thought, with thousands of record company employees losing their jobs, but that’s not the main reason I feel bad. That has to do with the quality of product we’re subjecting ourselves to because we don’t want to pay.

MP3, WMA and AAC files are so compressed that you’re likely losing 75-90 percent of the quality of the master tracks. (Kind of like pissing on a Picasso.) Like many of you, for years I was perfectly content with my MP3 files on my 2-channel stereo system while I was doing my homework, or (more likely) playing video games or glued to the computer. It was when I got older and obtained this wonderful thing called income, with which I could invest in a 5.1 channel surround system that I started to wonder why this sounded so weak.

Nowadays, it’s rare to open a copy of Rolling Stone and not see a quote from a legendary record producer stating how much we are cheating ourselves with this compression. It’s gotten so bad in fact, that several producers don’t even attempt to perfect the sound of their albums as much as they once did because they know how few ears the master tracks will actually reach, and worse, the fraction of those that will notice the difference. Thankfully for those of us that some may call audiophiles, (although to refer to myself as such is probably an insult to the term) there is still hope. All it takes is a little extra hard drive space, a little extra time and probably (the point where most people will stop reading) a little money.

Lossless encoding is the only way to get close to the artists intended sound in digital form. Apple and Microsoft both have their hands in the lossless game (Apple Lossless Audio Codec or ALAC, which you can compress to and play on iTunes and WMA Lossless, accessible via the Zune software) and even Sony’s in on it (ATRAC Advanced Lossless) but most hardcore audiophile blogs warn you to stay away from these in favor of open source codecs such as FLAC, which cannot be played in iTunes or Zune (I use Songbird). I personally can’t tell a difference and I wonder if the preference has more to due with anti-corporate sentiment than actual sound quality, but I could be wrong.

There are several major drawbacks to lossless codecs, beginning with compatibility. Each codec can only be played using their respective encoders programs and hardware (unless you use Songbird or a few other open source programs) and to my knowledge there is yet to be a universal lossless codec that will play on anything. The second drawback is drive space. No matter which codec you choose, they all take up considerably more space than MP3, AAC or WMA files. Third is availability. If you’re so inclined, you could search for torrent files of albums in these codecs, (which are few and far between, not that I look much…) but the safest and most available route is to buy the CD and rip it in your desired codec. Which of course, isn’t free.

Just like every other choice in life, this is simply a question of priority. And my personal opinion is that the majority of people who like dabble in the dark arts of digital music collecting aren’t bothered by the loss of quality and would rather miss out on the subtle, yet beautiful nuances heard in a master copy of Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song”. The music business has yet to find a way to recover from the financial damages caused by the digital music revolution, but I think their day will come. The art of music production however, may never be the same again.

Watch New Release Movies Without Leaving Your House

Lately, if you haven’t noticed, the cost of going to a movie is ridiculous. Anywhere from 5 to 10 dollars for a ticket, not to mention the price of drinks and popcorn. To be able to truly enjoy a movie at the theater by yourself you had better be ready to part with about 15 bones, if not more. Not to say that movie theaters don’t deliver. There’s a reason they still show movies in theaters. Because they allow you to experience the movie the way it was meant to be experienced. Full immersion into the world of the film. But if you just want to see the movie, there are alternatives. You could wait for it to come out on DVD (or Blu-Ray or VHS, whichever you prefer) or with some of the more popular titles, just wait a few days after the release, then log on to Watch-Movies.net.

W-M.net is a site that hosts videos that are uploaded by users onto other viral video sites (YouTube, MegaVideo ect.) and sorts the links to each film onto their own separate pages complete with the movie poster and a user rating of the film itself. There are usually several different links to different sites for each film, and each link is rated good or bad by users as they watch them depending on how well the link works, and a percentage of good or bad votes is displayed below each link.

Newer films are typically separated into four or six sections to raise the overall file size and therefore raise the quality. It can be a bit of a pain when the Hulk is just about to tear into Abomination and the section ends and you have to click the next link and wait for it to load, but hey, it’s free. None of the new release films I’ve seen are what I would call great quality, the audio sync is often delayed, the video is grainy, and depending where it came from, some of them tend to have Japanese subtitles. There’s also the possibility of laughter during the comedies or the occasional theater-goer who walks in front of the camera, but files with these flaws are typically rated lower by the users. To avoid these flaws altogether, and if there’s nothing in the theater you want to see at the moment, the site also carries a wide array of titles that have been released to DVD.

If you’re worried about legality, Watch-Movies.net is totally legal. It doesn’t host the files themselves, just links to them, and there’s nothing illegal about providing links. The links tend to go down now and then as the files are deleted from their host sites, but the administrators to a pretty good job of rounding up more.

If you love movies and there’s one out there that you’re really excited about, I say shell out the bucks and really enjoy it. (If you’re a girl, just get a guy to take you.) I think this site is great for a casual movie fan or for a film you may enjoy but don’t want to pay for. All that’s required is a decent broadband speed, but you’ll probably need pretty good speakers for a lot of the in-theater files for obvious reasons. Like I said, the files are hit or miss, but that shouldn’t stop you from checking it out.

Websites I Couldn’t Be Without

In the vein of my previous post about Gadgets I Couldn’t Live Without, I now bring you a number of websites that I absolutely must visit on a daily or weekly basis, because they’re cool. Now, some of these you may have heard of, some of them not, but the point of this is to invite you to enjoy the same wondrous websites that I do. Sharing the wealth and all that. It’s good for the ol’ karma.

Homestar Runner

If you haven’t been here, and you are breathing, you need to go. HR.com is a flash animation website with an extensive library of videos and games created by the Brothers Chaps. The cartoons are hilarious if you have a tendency to occasionally regress to the mental capacity of a six year old, as I often do. It’s your run-of-the-mill every day heavily innuendoed cartoon featuring colorful characters and exciting adventures. One thing about this site: If the first one… or five cartoons you watch don’t grab you, give it more of a chance. I wasn’t wowed at first either.

Wine Library TV

If you’re at all interested in wine, and even if you aren’t, you need to see this site. It’s hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk (If you watch Conan, he’s the guest who ate cigars and dirt), an overly charismatic, highly animated and boundlessly entertaining man with a heart of gold. Even if you don’t know squat about wine and never wanted to, Vaynerchuk’s personality alone could entertain for hours. He keeps a platoon of wrestling action figures on his desk to help describe his feelings on certain wines. Still not intrigued? Well, then this list may not be for you.

Tekzilla

Tekzilla is an awesome show for techies like me who want to know what’s going on in the tech world, and see some really cool toys that I may never afford in action. It’s fun, very informative and very entertaining.

Rolling Stone Movie Reviews

In the world of movie critics, Peter Travers is king. Enough said.

CentSports

Centsports is a really cool website. It’s dominated by advertising and pop-ups but there’s a reason for that. The advertisers give every member of the site a dime. And with this dime you can bet on any sporting event. If you win, you could double your money, and advertisers sponsor each bet for up to a 100 percent increase.

For instance, you bet your dime on a money line for the Red Sox to beat the Yankees and you could win 16 cents. You then have the option to have an advertiser sponsor the bet, which takes you to a page where you can cycle through sponsorships until you get a 100 percent match, which puts you at a chance of winning 32 cents. It doesn’t sound like a lot but it adds up, and the best part, if you lose, you just get another dime and try again. You have to win $20 before you can cash out, but some folks on there have up to $1,000.

It’s completely free and legal and lots of fun.

If you’re bored or if you’re curious, trust me, one of these sites is bound to tickle your fancy.