Just recently I found a website which offers “free” cellphone games for downloading, without any subscription added. I put the free in quotes because usually when it comes to software for cellphones, smartphones and PDAs nothing is completely free of charge. Anyway, the name of the site: GameJump. The premise of the site: Offering free cellphone games with the presumption that advertisements will pay the bills.
So I got there, all psyched up about all the free games that are about to happen to my new cellphone, and although it was not exactly what I expected, it was a pleasent surprise non the less.
When I thought “ads pay the bills” I thought there would be a lot of pop-ups and annoying banners on the website where you download the cellphone games. But there was just the usual one or two banners per page. Flash-forward to downloading the first game, Ghost Hunter RPG (a little roleplaying game with turn-based battles á la Final Fantasy) - you don’t have to register on the site, you don’t even have to specify your carrier and phone number. There is the option to do so, and then you will get your game sent to your phone ASAP, but the second and third option provide safer results: getting a link that you can surf to with your cellphone to download the file directly, or just downloading the file onto the computer and sending it to the phone via USB, bluetooth, etc.
So far, so good. I entered the quick-link into the phone, and moments later I had the game saved on the memory stick.

Upon first starting the game came the great revelation then - the game wants (sometimes, not every start) to shortly connect to the internet in order to load an (picture) advertisement before you’ll play it.
That information really took me by surprise because I haven’t seen such a business model before. And I have to admit, although I hate aggressive advertisement, this one is alright - no flashy screen, no sound, just some message from your “sponsor”. And with todays competition on the cellphone market (at least in europe) GPRS transfer prices aren’t high anymore, so downloading a simple picture won’t cost more than sending a simpleSMS.

So, for everyone who is disgusted by the horrible subscription fees that Jamba/Jamster & Co charge, but is still interested in pastime games, GameJump may be a very wellcome alternative.

Until then, may your MP3 ringtones not give any eldery person a heart attack upon ringing.

If you are going to be worried every time the universe doesn’t make sense, you are going to be worried every moment of every day for the rest of your natural life.

Citizen G’Kar

Finally the Nintendo Wii news channel is about to start this weekend. The weather and shop (go figure) channels were working since the launch in december ‘06 but when you wanted to check out some news on your Wii there was only a message saying “This service is not available yet.”
Now you will be able to get local and worldwide news onto your TV via the Wii. The news are provided by The Associated Press so one can expect objective news at least.
I for one am looking forward to the chance to check out the latest news between changing game discs on the Wii, so I won’t have to boot up my PC just to receive the latest headlines.

Source: Yahoo!

Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at the moment.

Robert Benchley

So true. Too true. I am at work now, it is friday afternoon and the weekend is about to start. Everyone is listening to music or comedy MP3s and tries to get the last few hours of work to pass - although everyone would have something else to do.

Yeah yeah, World of Warcraft, the greatest timesink since women, just recently got an addon. And it is even more addictive than the old program. Everything seems to be not easier, but not as time-consuming as it was in the original. Blizzard really tried to up the ante on quests, instances and the world itself. Instances are faster, there are no more 40 man raids which were an administratorial catastrophe most of the time, and much more little fancy things that make life in Azeroth and now the Outlands easier.
But because every RPG addon needs a new class and/or race, and Blizzard decided not to add a new class, there are two new racees which seem to be kinda forced into the World of Warcraft timeline. Horde got Blood Elfs and Alliance got Draenai. While the Blood Elfs where there from the very beginning in the timeline, the Draenai were not, and they sure as hell were not nice noble warriors of light, there were (and still are, as can be seen in the outlands) demons.

And I for one don’t think demons ought to be Paladins. Well neither are Blood Elfs per se, but the unofficial title for Elf Paladins is Blood Knight, so at least from a fluff view that is almost correct.
But the backstory of the Draenai… is another matter, one which Dark Legacy Comics put into view much better than I could describe it with words:

>> “Sci Fi” at Dark Legacy Comics