OK so I’m a big geek. I know, I’m shocking you guys…anyway its true. I love toys and gadgets. Everything from action figures to xboxes and iPads. These are my big kid toys.

Now I’ve gone up another step and have actually bought a Nest? Don’t know what a Nest is? It’s a learning thermostat. It was designed by one of the original iPhone designers. He realized that there was a gap in the thermostat world and decided to fill it.

Learning is the key word here because it learns what you do. All you have to do is turn the dial and an LCD display shows you the temperature you want. It turns just like the old dial thermostats. As you dial in your temp, it starts realizing your patterns. It knows when you come home from work and turn up the heat, it knows when you go to bed and turns down the heat. It learns you. It has a motion sensor and if you don’t walk by it in a few hours it turns the heat down.

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A few years ago I met the developers of Corpse Toss at New York Comic Con. They were a great group of guys and I really enjoyed their game. They gave me a heads-up of their new offering and I have been enjoying it.

The Legend of Fat Ninja is a physics based game in the same genre as Angry Birds. You are a Ninja attacking other Ninjas in an attempt to steal their recipes.

Much like Angry birds you slingshot your Ninja. Then he bounces off of objects while you direct him to the assassins coming to you. Sounds simple but it’s not easy. Its a complex and rewarding game that can’t be beaten easily. If it has a flaw, that’s the one. Its hard. Angry Birds has many levels and you can beat them relatively easily even if 3 starring them can be extremely difficult. Legend of Fat Ninja has many fewer levels but it takes much longer to clear them.

Overall I greatly enjoyed it and recommend you give it a look. If you do, tell us what you thought of it.

Its available for Android and iOS and now has a lite version up on the Amazon App Store.

I’m writing this not to brag but to explain.  Twitter friends asked what components I put in my new PC and I figured I would give some background.

I recently decided I wanted a new PC.  It started out with a random visit to the Apple Store when I bit into the pretty new iMac.  Man those are a work of art.  I’ve been excited for years to get into their photo editing, having iTunes that doesn’t crash and editing some videos.  I was pumped and brought it home.  It is a work of art, but I didn’t like it.  The machine is so pretty and the operating system is beautiful but I realized I didn’t like it.  Nothing wrong with it, I’m just used to Windows and didn’t see a reason to change.  So back it went.

I decided I was fine staying with my laptop.  It did what I needed.  Until JD and Weasel started playing Star Wars the Old Republic.  They played and I realized I wanted to play too.  OK back to the drawing board.  I wanted a nice laptop so I went to BestBuy and found the Asus G74SX-BBK which is a nice Republic of Gaming laptop.  Cost $1200 and she’s a beast for a laptop.  Core i7 with a terrabyte of memory, ran Star Wars beautifully but maxed around 60fps and saw instances of 37fps.  It had the Quad i7 and a GeForce Videocard but they were the mobile type so they’re just not as powerful.

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In October I was able to get to New York Comic Con and experience it. If you’ve never been there, it’s a daunting experience. There’s just so much there including comics, Steampunk shops, LoTR, Video Games, Gamer Furniture, everything under the geek sun.

Accompanying me this year was my 8 year old and one thing that caught his eye and stayed with him was a silly little iOS game called Corpse Toss. He sat down and played it on the floor and was enthralled for 10 minutes. I eventually dragged him away with the promise that we would buy it when it came out.

The premise is simple, you are an undertaker and you like whacking corpses with shovels. The further the corpse goes, the more money you get. It’s a real simple mechanic too, reminiscient of kicking in football games. You have a moving bar dictating your height and another dictating your strength.

As you get money you can level up your character. The meters can go slower, the undertaker’s strength gets stronger, you can buy bombs and trampolines and buzz saws all of which increase the distance. There are also speciality corpses with different bonuses.

I enjoy the overall artistic theme of the program. It’s comically Halloween and fits very nice with this game.

This is a simple game but that’s where it shines. It’s easy enough to pick up for 5 minutes, good enough that my 8 year old played it for hours until everything was unlocked. It’s only a dollar and well worth the money. My boy says it’s one of the best iOS games he’s played.

It’s time once again for the New York Comic Con. Every year they have been improving this convention and I can’t wait to get there tonight! Check back here for coverage as I post my impressions.

Things I’m looking forward to right now include:
Locke and Key failed Fox pilot
Max Payne 3 and GTA3 (mobile edition) by Rockstar!
Mass Effect 3

Wish I could make it to the Podcast Beyond! live recording but it’s not going to fit into my schedule. I’m sure there’s thousands of other cool things I will report back on.

This weekend (June 17th – June 19th) the Philadelphia Convention Center will be blessed with our own little version of geek nirvana. Run on down this weekend to see a multitude of old stars. Currently on the guest list are Bruce Campbell, Adam Baldwin, Pam Grier, Adam West (Batman) and Burt Ward (Robin), Goldberg, and many others.

Make sure to check out the artist alley where you can get some great independent art.

If you’re going, hit me up @Tilt_101

I grew up in the era of arcades. It seems foreign these days as arcades have died out during the past 20 years. Back then you could find a Donkey Kong or Pinball in most diners and bars. Later I remember going to a local pet store to play Dragon’s Lair or spending way too many Saturday nights at the Club House Diner playing Street Fighter and never buying any food. Arcade cabinets were everywhere in one’s and two’s but nirvana lived at the arcade.

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The first Harry Potter book was published in 1997. During these last 14 years it has become this generation’s Star Wars. 7 books, 8 movies, a theme park, countless spin offs, tribute bands and billions of dollars later have been made with no stopping in sight.

Sunday my son and I experienced the latest in this hype train as we travelled to the NYC Discovery Museum to see the Harry Potter Experience. The Discovery Museum takes one or two topics and makes a walkthrough exhibit. The two they’re covering right now are Pompeii and Harry Potter. While Pompeii looked interesting, we only had time to see Harry Potter.

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Until this weekend my iPad wasn’t getting as much love as I expected. It has some games on there that hold my attention for a few levels but rarely do I sit down and play something for hours on my iPad.

Battleheart changed that. I sat down and started playing the game and quickly got pulled in. It reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics with Castle Crasher graphics.

In the game you start with a Knight and a Cleric.

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