Here’s a video of Blake Griffin, the NBA dunk machine, turned into Blake Griffin, NBA Jam’s best player.  The fun part of this video is the classic NBA Jam sound-effects:  the announcer’s voice, the player noises, the obnoxious digital squeaking of shoes on the floor… all that stuff is great.  I wish they would have done more with the dunks (last one aside) to make them look more NBA Jam-like, but the video is fun and I’m glad for the attempt.

Here’s something staggering, though.  Blake Griffin was born in 1989.  NBA Jam debuted in 1993.  Anthony Davis, the star Kentucky player who swept the National Player of the Year awards, won the national championship for John Calipari, and who will be the top pick in the NBA draft, was born in 1993.  In a few short years, the NBA will be comprised solely of people who grew up playing NBA Jam, or who were born too late to play NBA Jam.

It’s official:  I’m getting old.

When is an iPad worth $10,000?  If you ask me (and you didn’t), that’s never.  However, a man who has somehow gotten his hands on an prototype of the first generation iPad put it up for sale.  A protype iPad was sold on eBay for $10,000.  Granted, it does have 16gbs of storage and a prototype second dock connection port, but it’s not even an iOS device; the iPad prototype is powered by an OS called Switchboard.

“Judging by how Apple works, it’s most likely stolen, but I’m not sure about that… I can’t give much information about the Apple device without revealing who specifically I am,” says the seller, an eBay user called aaps69.

The second port was included on the original iPad to allow users to dock it either vertically or horizontally.  However, at the last minute, Apple decided to scrap that and force users to simply use the vertical dock.  However, that horizontal dock is still there, and still usable.  There’s just one problem:  you have to crack open or cut through the case to get to the second port, since there is no access to it.  Still, if you want to save $9500, that’s the way to do it.

On this Memorial Day, we pause to honor those who have served the United States of America in wars near and far, current and historic.  No matter your feelings on war, you have to admire the courage and dedication of the men and women who fight them for our country around the world.  This day, Memorial Day, is to honor their sacrifices, both on the home front and on the battlefield.

Thank you, men and women of the armed forces, for all that you have done and for all that you will continue to do.

I get the feeling that Marvel Comics wouldn’t turn down a chance to make a buck off its comic properties.  Particularly hot right now are the Avengers:  Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, and their support characters from SHIELD (like Nick Fury).  I get the feeling that this Iron Man scooter isn’t an official thing, but the work of a dedicated and very skilled fan.  Even with that taken into consideration, the Iron Man Scooter is awesome-looking, isn’t it?

I love the red and gold layout, and I really like that the helmet looks like Iron Man’s helmet, but there’s only one small problem.  Rather than having two lights on the front wheel, there needs to be one super-bright light, akin to Iron Man’s arc reactor.  Maybe one of those extra-bright halogen lights would do the trick.  I’m not a fan of the moped as a mode of transportation (they’re as obnoxious as bicycles and just fast enough to make drivers act obnoxiously but not fast enough to stay out of the way), but I’d love to see this one on the street sometime.

Remember back in the mid-90s when the Internet was this strange, weird thing that nobody understood but the technologically savvy and those with disposable income and an urge to be on the cutting edge of technology?  I do, but only barely.  Well, apparently, back in 1994, Julia Stiles was a guest on the PBS show Ghost Writer.  Fittingly enough, she plays a little hacker girl with a gypsy nose ring, crazy curly hair, and an awesome toque.  Feast your eyes on 1994′s idea of what the Internet was like, console cowboy.

This is probably the best thing ever, especially in hindsight.  Apparently, in 1994, someone on Ghost Writer‘s staff was a big William Gibson fan, hence the Neuromancer reference.  Little did I know that my indulgence in William Gibson (about 7 years after this aired) would be my preparation for next wave, new wave, and dream wave.

Image: xkcd

If you believe Blizzard’s numbers, Diablo III has become the fastest-selling computer game of all time.  When the game went on sale on Tuesday, March 15, Activision-Blizzard estimates that the game sold a staggering 3.5 million copies in stores and online.  That’s an impressive number, but it gets better.  Blizzard estimates that there were 4.7 million players on launch day, with the store sales numbers combined with the amount of Blizzard fanatics who got Diablo III free for signing up to play World of Warcraft for a year.  That’s 24 hours!

If you extrapolate the numbers for the first week, Activision-Blizzard says that 6.3 million copies of the game were sold, which is over half of the WoW user base.  Considering the fact that a lot of people had to go out and upgrade their desktops and laptops and such to play the game, the sales numbers are really impressive.  Did you go out and get a copy of Diablo III during launch week?  If so, do you enjoy the game?  I’ve been curious about it, but not curious enough to go out and pick up a copy/upgrade my desktop for it.

How the mighty have fallen.  At one point, Internet Explorer was the unquestioned king of the browserverse.  Then, Firefox came.  After Firefox weakened the king, it looks as though Google Chrome has dethroned him.  According to StatCounter, Google Chrome has become the most-used web browser in the world.  For the second week of May, Google Chrome did just under 33 percent of web browsing, while IE racked up 32 percent.  Firefox held onto about 25 percent, while Safari had about 14 percent and Opera was under 2 percent of worldwide usage.

Of course, here in the US, IE is still top dog, so I imagine these different metrics are a reflection of web traffic, and not actual user base.  IE is still the default for Windows, and Windows is still the default for the world, so it might be awhile before Chrome makes a dent in the amount of total users.  Still, the trends seem to be going in Google’s favor and the question must be asked:  does install base matter, or does use matter?  Which carries the most weight?

I think it’s a combination.  There may be a billion NES consoles in the world, but what does that matter if most of them don’t get used or are broken?  What matters is install base and use.  If Chrome users are more active on the web, that should mean something.  If IE is the default browser of choice for most people, that should also mean something.

Are you feeling a little down?  Well, depression is one of the most common ailments in the United States, and depression affects every part of your life.  Everything changes, from social relationships to job performance.  Depression even changes your Internet usage habits, according to researchers from Missouri University of Science and Technology.

The researchers, led by Sriram Chellappan, collected Internet use data from 216 college students enrolled at the university.  The information was collected anonymously, so as not to interfere with their browsing patterns.  The participants were administered tests to determine depression, then their online exploits were examined and analyzed.  According to the study, if users were depressed, they spent more time using file-sharing programs, chatting, and sending emails.  Other popular activities were online video games and watching online video clips.

Admittedly, these things are popular all the time, but the difference in a depressed person’s habits is duration and fluctuation.  A depressed person might send an email, watch a video, play a game, do some chatting, and just keep bouncing from activity with no purpose or focus.  That seems to be how I use the Internet all the time even when I am in a great mood.  I question the validity of this study.

This show has become my new obsession.  The weekend before the second season started, I watched the entire first one in two days.  Then, it started.  Since I review the show for Den Of Geek, it’s a good that I’m into the show, but I had no idea just how addicting it would become.  I’m obsessed with Game of Thrones right now.  I’m watching the show, listening to the audio books, and am even falling for viral videos related to Game of Thrones.

Hence, my joy when I found this.  The Game of Thrones theme song, rendered in 8-bit Nintendo-style music.

If that’s not geeky enough for you, how about the Game of Thrones theme song done in 8 floppy disk drives?

The thing that makes HBO compelling television is that they aren’t bound by the conventions of television, or the conventions of movies.  Shows on HBO can do pretty much anything they want, hire any actors they want, and break all the rules they want with impunity.  No matter how sacred the cow, an HBO show can turn it into burger.

Image via Failblog