I came down with a cold, which fucking sucks. Its not the ordinary type of cold either, its one of those bitches that give you a headache and when you lay down the get up later, it feels as though your head is extremely heavy, like its full of water. So right now my nose kinda hurts and is chapped, and all I have to put on it is that stupid Goldbond (which fucking /stings/).
Anyway so I watched the first 2 seasons of Doctor Who (again, for the 4th time) with Peyton on Saturday and Sunday from 12-10pm, and good times that was.
The point is: I didn't see her Friday [and regrettably didn't see Chris either]; so I had from 4-3 Friday, 7-12 and 10-12:30 Saturday, and 9-12 Sunday to game. This meant that I beat another one of my borrowed games (The Force Unleashed. If you add Fable II, which I borrowed earlier, that makes 2 games beaten in 1 week) so I can now return that for another one. More importantly it finally gave me time to play The Darkness, and some of the other games I had 0/1000 achievement points for (it just looks bad to have that + I wanted to play the game). I quickly gave up on playing Rainbow 6: Vegas, and Splinter Cell DA (DA sucks, and Vegas just wasn't what I wanted to be playing) so I sat around and played The Darkness. This game is a lot of fun surprisingly, apart from the fact that the main character looks like a complete tool.
However that isn't the point of this post, its to point out that if you look to the right, under the nice little thing showing that the lag order is still in effect, you see my gamercard, and the gamer score has reached over 10, 000 (no thats not a cheap dragon ball Z comment). I got more then 1k this weekend alone; The Darkness netting me 405 for far, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed netting me a cool 625.
the achievement that got me into the 5 digit category:
Take a Look at the Sky Take down 6 airplanes. 50
If you ask me: this was one of the lamest 50 point achievements.
My friend asked me how to put movies onto a Ipod video, because apparently it isn't a really simple click and drag type thing. When I couldn't come up with an answer (having opted out of getting a video ipod) and none of my video-ipod wielding friends were online I went to the next best source of information: google.
While typing in "how to put videos on an ipod" I noticed a very amusing set of search results come up for "how to" and "how to put", see below.
For "how to" there are some pretty understandable searches "how to tie a tie", "how to make a website", "how to write a resume", "how to draw". The fac that there are some sensible ones, means that there are some that just make... no sense at all.
"How to kiss" -64.7 million results on how to kiss?! what the hell... Before peyton I hadn't ever kissed anyone, but that still doesn't mean I needed to google how to kiss. That is kind of sad... but still my first thought here was "Arrgn" "How to get pregnant"- the leading cause of pregnancy is sex. I was pretty sure everyone knew how to get pregnant... "How to vote" - Well... you go into a public building on voting day and check a box. I can't even vote and I know that.
Well this one had some of the handy things that I was looking for, and some very common questions. However there are also those fun stupid ones:
"How to put on weight"- I thought that was self-explanitory: eat a lot of food, don't move around a lot, and who in this day and age wants to put on weight (except me). "How to put on fake eyelashes"- those look stupid anyway, and there are directions on the back of the boxes... "How to put on a condom"- ... I didn't think it was that complicated > Unroll, roll on, and go. Apparently not (I was curious and clicked on it, and got an interesting youtube video). You need to do a whole lot of things. (1) Check the expiry date (2) push down the middle of the condom wrapper (with the condom inside), if there is an air bubble that means its all good (3) rip the edge but not too much, because you might rip the condom [its a bad idea to use your teeth] (4) roll the unwrapped condom up and down, to figure which way it properly unrolls. (5) place the condom on the erect penis, pinching down the tip (6) roll the condom down said penis, still pinching the tip.
In the end I just learned something new, didn't actually find out any ipod related
See that sounds sexual, and fun, very different from the real game.
I just finished playing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. This game looked pretty nifty from the commercials, it seemed to have the same physics engine as crysis but... with the force...
Anyway, ill get to a review (if you want the basics, skip to the white at the bottom):
This is one of the rare games that you can beat it on the harder difficulty and get the achievements for beating it on the difficulties below that. This means I figured "why not, Ill play through on hard, and get a good 75 (beating it on easy) + 100 (beating it on normal) + 100 (beating it on hard) and + 20 (getting the good or evil ending)". For this game hard isnt the hardest difficulty, after you beat the game once there is a sith master (really hard) difficulty available.
To start off you go through a prologue as Darth Vader. What this means is: you walk real fucking slow. Oh and getting to fight wookies, which hardly seems fair that a guy wielding a plasma-blade should be able to cut wookies into itsy-bitsy-bits: nope, they just kinda... fall over... real easy. Anyway because your given fully powerful Darth Vader its a cakewalk and a half, even on the hard difficulty. It ends with a moving battle against some random-ass rogue jedi, then Darth Vader picking up some kid and killing some stormtroopers.
The first part of the actual game you play as that little random kid (now named: Starkiller. who the fuck names a main character STARKILLER and thinks that is a good idea?) from the DV prologue, all grown up. First you have to go through some stupid tutorial on how to use force throw. Then you get chucked into the some star station as Starkiller - who is wonderfully crappy in the force ability section, only having force push, and force lift. Here you have to fight both Rebles and for some reason you need to fight the Imperials too. Anyway you go through the level, but apparently the Jedi were careless and dropped 15 holocrons around for you to pick up and nicely give you experience boosts (oh yes, it has an experience/level system... although you level up but don't have an actual level). Levelling up grants you one point to put into each force upgrades, meele skills, and buffs. At the end of this level you have to battle some Jedi that apparently thought he was going to be fighting Darth Vader and got lame-ass Starkiller. The fact that on the hardest difficulty you can kill this jedi by shoving him all over and jumping about as Starkiller, clearly shows that this Jedi couldn't have stood any chance against Vader. During this fight you get detached from the space station and you and him fight in the falling observatory as it plummets toward the surface, and apparently you somehow can survive it crashing into the planet.
The next level is some crazy ass scrap yard place where you fight a bounty hunting species and crazy 'force powered' robots. By now I've only died like... 20 times... but this is where it all goes... well... badly. About half way through the level there comes a huge junk-giant. This thing has the ability to kill me (on hard) in 3 hits. The best way to damage this thing is by throwing energy coils at it with force throw, however apparently the lock on for force throw decides to send it flying towards well... more of the energy coils - destroying more of them. This took me a frustratingly long amount of time and a lot of deaths because well... its stupid hard to fight something that takes about 2 minutes of continuous-uninterrupted lightsaber attacking that can kill you in 3 hits. Oh not to mention every time you die you have to restart back at a check point that means you have to re-watch the ingame cutscene again (every time). After you beat that you end up having to fight 3 more (at separate times) later in the level. Then you go onto a boss which is... well... just easy once you figure him out. He's this little shrimpy bastard that jumps all over. By now you have unlocked force lightning so all you need to do is force lightning him, and then force throw him off the edge a bunch of times (because you die once from going off the edge, he takes 300 times).
Anyway by now im getting pretty friggen sick of the game, and have realized that all the normal badguys can all be easily killed by force throwing them around.
The third level was some jungle piece of crap, where you fight some really stupid limier monkey type things that are able to kill you pretty fast if you don't throw them away first. Also if they have a 3 hit combo which if you don't block the first one, you get hit with all 3 parts of it, and that is about 2/3 of the health bar. Anyway this level was balls, considering you have to fight 4 Rancors in the course of it, 2 of them at once. Now, if you know star wars you would know that the Rancor is that big ass creature in Jaba's palace, however you still wouldn't notice these rancors:. Once again George Lucas rapes our childhood. After you fight all of them you have to fight some stupid orange chick. Now you have force pulse, which is like force push, but you use it when blocking and it goes "BWOOSH" out all around from you. This is a stupid battle again, because there are little bubbles on the ground that do about 1/6 damage to you if you hit them. However once again she's a piece of cake, force repulse sends her flying then from there you can force lift her and slam her into the ground bubbles to do some OK damage to her.
Blah, Blah, Blah, some stupid shit happens and then we skip ahead some levels. Somehow you end up captured in a hospital room, and you have to break out. When you do a force field goes up and some gas pours into a room - which kills you rather quickly. To get out you have to spend a good amount of deaths just to find the power supply for the shield so you can deactivate the shield. Now you have to escape the space station filled with Imperials. Sounds easy right? You know... just force throw everyone around, easy. Ha! No! Lucas Arts decides to invent a couple new types of troopers, just for this game. First are troopers with shields, which generally can fully block any force power you throw at them. Second are purge troopers; these are 8 foot tall giant steel stormtroopers, with arm shields (which can block pretty much anything while raised) and a heatseeking missile that kills you in 3 hits - and which has the ability to kill you quite quickly, considering it will knock you down if it hits you, and then by the time your bastard gets back up the purge trooper has fired another one.
Then some random shit that I don't remember happens, because by now I'm starting to hate this game, and the only reason I still played it was for the achievements.
I'll just skip on toward near the end of the game. At one point you have to stand around and pull down a Imperial Star Destroyer. Now that sounds like a blast... but its probably the single most infuriating thing about this game. I'm just going to start by saying: Yoda took a bit to pull a xwing out of some mud, so how random-ass Starkiller can pull down a huge spaceship confuses me. So anyway for this part a whole bunch of tie fighters fly at you and you have to jump around and force lightning them. After all of them are defeated you are told by the floating voice that you need to rip the star destroyer out of the sky. When you try to force grip it, you get little joystick pictures that you have to follow to put the stardestroyer in the right position to pull down. These joystick commands are really stupid because they suck. The joystick pictures will eventually show flat, so you would think "alright, its in the right position". If only that were true, because know you have to guess a whole lot to get it perfect (everyone knows force powers are finicky), then you can start pulling it down. You have to do this quickly because the tie fighters come back and you have to stop pulling and fight them. It takes about 4-5 times of destroying the tie fighters, re-righting the star destroyer, and pulling it, to actually crash this. That is you know... if the game works properly. Sometimes the tie fighters come back extremely quickly, sometimes the directions don't work AT ALL, and sometimes it just wants to be stupid and not let you do it. This took me about... 50 minutes to do, thats how fun this was...
Then some more shit happens and you end up inside the deathstar. This game is supposed to take place between the third and forth movie so I'm not sure why they have a fully operational Death Star. The very beginning of the level you start off in a hanger with 2-4 purge troopers, an AT-ST, 3 snipers, 4 Gatling guns, and a whole lot of storm troopers. This hanger has been called "The Hanger of Death" because there really is no way to do fight your way out on a difficulty higher then Normal. You have to just run away. Anyway so then you run through the deathstar, and have to go down one of the firing tubes... while it periodically fires. Now not only is this part stupid, and involves a lot of running and hiding, it also doesn't make sense that the Death Star is firing at all. Later in the level, aftar a whole bunch of stupidly stacked against you fights you have to fight Darh Vader. He doesn't take all that long to beat but this has a stupid ass throw move he does any time you jump. This move cannot be dodged, and cant be broken out of, no matter how fast you press the action button. After you beat him you get some stupid ass cutscene, and then the choice to go and fight the Emperor or Darth Vader again. This leads to either the good ending, or the bad one. Seeing as my game glitched here, I was forced to fight the Emperor. To sum this up quickly: I died about 30 times before i gave up and reloaded my game. Which meant I had to do the first Darth Vader fight again, and the game didn't glitch this time, so I was able to fight vader. Yippie. So I killed him and beat the game, and scored some pretty sweet achievement points.
This is one of those games that really needs to be patched to fix all its friggen bugs. That or it needs to be incinerated in a fiery pit. Infact this was probably one of the only games that I have felt like burning half way through, and I might have if I had owned the game (seeing as I had just borrowed it). The game actually only consists of like... 4 levels, you just end up going back to them.. yay. The game's gap in difficulties is ridiculous, but that still doesn't change the fact that almost all the bad guys can be dispatched by force throwing them around. In summarization: if this game didn't have some fun achievements I probably would have stopped playing it.
I generally end up email many companies and such with questions/concerns. Usually the big companies get back to me, because the questions pertain to buying their products; even the ebay sellers will get back to me with the answers to my questions. I have so far emailed Kotaku on many occasions, emailed Dinosaur comics twice, and some other miscellaneous web sites a couple of times; never have I had a reply.
The other day I was thinking of something to get my friend for christmas and thought "I'll get 'em a really cool something". Then I thought "a really cool present would be to get a mousepad with xkcd's map of the internet on it". When I looked at their site, they didn't have one. My next thought was "I'll just check the internet to... you know... make one". Aparently if you want to make a mousepad, you need to order 500 of them. I asked around, and aparently some stores will make mousepads. So I could make the xkcd mousepad, however I emailed xkcd to ask if they had any plan of making one, or if they could... I donno... make one for me. Seeing as generally emailing websites failes, I didn't have much hope.
They emailed back... /swoon.
so much for that present idea... now I need a new one...
So I just came home from donating blood at the school, it was a blast as always: cookies and orange drink for a little bit of blood. Ian Thompson passed out (I think) by the way).
I popped open my browser, which now opens to Kotaku by default, and found something that was totally worth getting a little bit more behind on homework.
When I read something with the title "How to meet a girl in World of Warcraft" I immediately think "Matt Davis". Felicia Day answers that question (she writes and stars in the web-show "The Guild"). Instead of linking it, because who likes to follow those, I did the good 'ol [ctrl]+[c] method.
So what advice would you give to guy trying to meet a girl in World Of Warcraft? Well, most of the female avatars in World of Warcraft are actually guys. So if you're a guy looking to meet girls, you need to make sure to put the person you're interested in through that vetting process. And if you're a girl, be prepared to fight guys off with a stick because there's a lot more of them than there are female gamers. You should join a large guild and pair with other people to go on missions. Try and meet people who are on your same level.
Would it matter to you if the guy's a noob? Yeah, I hate to say that, but if you're a noob you probably won't get a second glance. Just like in real life when a guy drives a Ferrari, it might not be an automatic thumbs up, but it does catch the eye. So if you have the Ferrari of broadswords, yeah.
That's a big plus. I mean, it's not necessarily a big plus, but it definitely gets you a second look. Whereas if you're in some torn cross-stitch pants, you're probably not even going to be a blip on the radar.
Sure, you wouldn't want to be seen with a guy like that. Probably not.
Would you recommend a gift? Like an enchanted broadsword? You could definitely send a gift or two through game mail, but I wouldn't just keep sending them. Helping someone out on a quest or helping them level up would definitely be appropriate and a good way to get their attention.
So what do you look for in the avatar of a potential guy? Your set pieces need to match because I like a guy with detail. You don't want to look haphazard. I understand when you're leveling you need to take what you can get, but there are always ways to refine the way you look. So tailor your look so it is not horrible-looking together with your set pieces and your equipment. And I would say if you're wearing a pink princess shield, that's probably not a turn on.
So you like more macho characters? I would say no because in the avatar world guys tend to look like Cro-Magnon men, and that's not a turn on, at all. A guy needs to look not too flamboyant and not too Cro-Magnon. It's a fine line.
What about lolz speak and emoticons? Would you consider that a turn off? If you're using it all the time like, "I can Haz Cheezburger?" that's definitely a bad thing. But I think there are certain things like LOL, ROFL and the smiley face that's just the colon and parenthesis at the end of a sentence that pretty much accepted as normal. But elaborate emoticons where you add a nose and a tongue, I associate that with teenagers in AOL chat rooms. Also, you have to be able to spell. That's a big thing.
So has anything ever happened to you in real life like on "The Guild?" No, I haven't had any people show up on my doorstep. I have had people get my IM which I ignored and blocked, because my IM is pretty sacred. And I had a couple of people who would send me free things through the mail, the game mail. Like, you know, cooking me some spider cakes, or kababs.
Kababs? In the mail? In the game mail. Not in the real mail. I've had some strange e-mails, but other than that I think people are pretty respectful; I'm in a pretty safe guild though.
Have you ever dated a guy you met on WOW? No, I did have an online boyfriend when I was 16 or something, but that was through a bulletin board versus a game. I do know people who have met online and have even married online. They have a tuxedo and bridesmaid dress in the WOW you know.
How important would you say non-WOW interests are? You probably don't want to just talk about WOW all the time, but you did meet there and you have that in common, so you shouldn't feel like there's something wrong with talking about it.
Is there anything you'd like to add? I think you should definitely take it offline. I dated a guy once who had a great speaking voice but there was just nothing there when we were together. That happens, people have "keyboard chemistry" as I call it in the show and they get together in real life and it's not what they were expecting.
So, well doing more work for one of my assignments I had to look for a song for my english work. So a quick google on "nerdy songs" and got some pretty funny videos:
I raid all night, I raid all day, to heal the tanks I have to heal HEAL ME! And there's still never a spell for me, I'm always O-O-M ITS YOUR FAULT! Maybe I should... re-roll, to a Mage or a Pala-den I wouldn't have to heal at all, I could tank or kill.
Mana, Mana, Mana, must be nice in a DPS roll Mana, Mana, Mana always plenty with a weld-geared 70 OoooooooooO-M... All the noobs I could pwn If I had a little mana Its a DPS world
A healer like me is hard to find, but I always seem to be kicked BUFF ME! And if we happen to wi-ipe, I bet its blamed onnnnn me! YOU DIDN'T HEAL! So I must leave, and join L-F-G for Karazan or Gruul's Lair and maybe respec to shadow, so then I could pwn all the noobs
Mana, Mana, Mana, must be nice in a DPS roll Mana, Mana, Mana always plenty with a weld-geared 70 OoooooooooO-M... All the noobs I could pwn If I had a little mana Its a DPS world
Mana, Mana, Mana, must be nice in a DPS roll Mana, Mana, Mana always plenty with a weld-geared 70 OoooooooooO-M... All the noobs I could pwn If I had a little mana Its a DPS world
Samus Aran: Hero, Bounty Hunter, Hottie. She has been a member of the Nintendo gaming world for 21 years, and has crossed every one of their systems; each time evolving in style, look, power, and sex appeal. Most people can remember how far back samus goes, but most do not remember what she looked like.
1987 - Metroid (NES) Samus' debut was of course, here, on the NES in 1987. The majority of people reading this probably arn't old enough to have played this when it first came out, but some of us have played it since. At this time, this was a revolution in gaming. It shared the standard style, but had something entirely new - a female main character. At the time (and kind of now still...) this was unorthodox, but Nintando didn't go right out and say "hey this character is a female". They waited until the very end of the game to reveal that this badass alien-hunting bounty hunter you just played as is... a woman! Even though... technically in the beginning it was hard to tell if it was indeed a woman everyone was looking at. In this game Samus is essentially just some orange squiggly blob, in fact it could even be though that Samus herself was an alien, because well... who could guess that was a power suit? When she takes off her armor however, you can clearly see some breasts, some hips, and a lot of pink... what a fashionable woman that Samus is.
Although the thing about this game is: really to find out that Samus was a female, you had to beat the game quickly. This lead to most people being told about Samus' gender by some friends.
1991 - Metroid II: The Return of Samus (GameBoy) Ah yes, four years later comes the return of Samus. With this game came some better graphics, a more defined power suit, and of course: a sexier Samus. Although this game is in black and white, it was significantly more popular then the original Metroid, and many people have fond memories of playing this game. Samus is much better defined in this game. You can clearly see that its a suit of armor, and if you beat the game quickly, you get quite the scandalous (I'm talking about then, now girls pretty much go to school like that) image of samus. Here she has swapped what looks like a bathing suit (from the first game) for a very revealing strapped-tank-top and panties (and no shoes). I guess you have to be pretty much naked to operate in a power suit...
1994 - Super Metroid (SNES) Samus hops from the handheld back to the console once again, and from black-and-white back to colour. Samus' power suit once again gets much more bitching, and now (if I remember correctly) gains the ability to curl up into a ball. It is getting significantly more detailed and the colour scheme has changed a little bit. More importantly, once again if you clear the game quickly, you get another little snippet of suit-less Samus. Now apparently with the armor upgrades she can wear slightly more clothing, have boots on, and let her hair grow longer. She is now wearing a black jumpsuit, instead of pink. It could be just me, but I'm under the belief that Samus looked better in the second game.
2002 - Metroid Fusion (GameBoy Advanced) Alright, Samus is once again back on the handheld, and this time in colour. With a dramatic 8 year gap between the last game, this game had a lot to make up for. For some reason, it looks as though Samus' armor took a step backwards. Ignoring the colour of it (in this game, if I'm not mistaken Samus gets infected with metroid or something) the armor is less detailed and more blocky. Samus herself however has matured into an extremely flat tummied woman. Aparently she decided that wearing panties under a suit of armor was a bad idea, so decided for booty shorts. Never fear though, she cut the length of the top garmet so it comes just under her breasts. Also she is through her "goth" phase from number 3, and decided to wear blue instead.
2002 - Metroid Prime (Gamecube) Once again Samus hops back onto a system. It appears that to make up for the 8 year gap, they decided to release 2 games in 2002. Anyway, this game was the first time that Samus had ever been fully 3d, and also that a Metroid game was a first person shooter. Seeing as this is the first time you see Samus' full body, you now see what her helmet looks like. In the first couple of games, it looks like it a very round and bulbous shape, but now it is an actual helmet, and a damn cool one. However, becuase not many people had a gamecube, this game wasn't too widely played. To my knowledge Samus never actually takes off all of her armor, just the helmet. She now keeps her long flowing hair in a pony tail, and looks... kinda pretty? Thats about all that can be said...
2004 - Metroid: Zero Mission (Gameboy Advanced) I have concluded that Samus has a system > handheld > system deal going on. Either way samus again becomes a side-scrolling shooter, and is better for it (in my opinion). Samus in this game now has the standard helmet, instead of the bulbous front... thing. Her armor is just pretty much a more refined version of the gamecube's. Samus without armor is an entirely different story. She seems to have decided that clothes = good, and has put on a body suit - known as the Zero Suit (I wonder why.... it couldnt have anything to do with the name of the game...).Her hair is still in a pony tail, but is let a little loose around the sides and such, and looks much more attractive for it. Even though it is kind of hard to tell, somewhere along the lines she got a boob-job, since her chest got bigger.
2004 Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GameCube) See? told you she goes from system to handheld and back. From here on however all the games will be first person shooters. Not much to say here, the armor is pretty much the same, it has become more vibrant and the shoulder pads have changed, but thats pretty much it. Samus' hair seems to haev gotten shorter, and she seems to have gotten less attractive; also: her zero-suit isn't as clingy.
2006 - Metroid Prime Hunters (Nintendo DS) This game was the first of the Metroid games to be multiplayer; where you can play as other bounty hunters and fight. Not quite sure as to the actual story-line of the game, except that the multiplayer was pretty fun, and the controller scheme sucked. Her armor seems to have gotten a duller colour to it, and it the shoulder pads have gotten less spikey. Once again Samus' suit has gotten more glossy, and her hair seems to be shorter in the front, and less combed in the back.
2007 - Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) It saddens be that the Metroid games stayed to Nintendo. This is because the Wii was pretty much a failed attempt, and not many people played this game. It was the best of the prime series. During the transition into next-gen Samus seems to have lost some weight, seeing as her power armor is more 'fitting'. It also lost the spiky shoulder pads for a ridged set. The armor looks much more hightech, but like all things that are hightech it looks more breakable; it doesn't have the same bulk. Samus' power suit seems to have gone back to the lighter blue colour, and the more skin-tight version. She also seems to have lost some midsection weight, but her bum seems to have gotten bigger. Her hair also has gotten to a brighter shade of yellow. As well, when outside of the armor she has a power-whip-pistol.
2008 By now Samus has become quite sexy, and is infact probably the sexiest video game character. She has become more then just a video game character, she has become a nerd sex-icon (kinda). If you ask any nerd if they would sleep with Samus given the change, the majority will say "HELL YES" (including me). See what I mean by sex icon? and those pictures were only found on deviantART. A quick google revealed that there is Samushentai, and a couple of Samus-related sex-comics. A quick forum post on an anime site (apparently most anime-kids look at hentai, so this is a good place to find out information) shows that surprisingly there isn't as much Samus-related porn as you would think, someone who has been around for 21 years and is smoking sexy should have quite the amount. Apparentlyanime and video games that younger kids are into get the porn-spotlight (Final Fantasy VII +, Naruto, Bleach, etc). [that picture is deliberately blurred out by me]
Everyone reading this (and the huge amount of people not reading this) are using an Internet browser, that much is obvious. Some might be using Firefox, some might be using Internet Explorer, some might be using Opera, the list goes on but which is actually the best?
Based on my research of 7 browsers I will go into the on-the-surface details of each, then decide which I prefer, or what I like about each. I will link to each site, so if your using a browser and you see a better one here, go ahead and feel free to download it, and remember its OK to have more then one, I have 7 running after all.
However I will only be blogging about the 5 main browsers.
1. Internet Explorer:
As soon as everyone gets their windows PC it comes with Internet Explorer, which makes it one of the more popularly used browsers. It also means if you want a new browser you have to use Internet Explorer to get it. As well it is technically (to my knowledge) impossible to uninstall Internet Explorer from your Windows PC, as it is ingrained into the actual OS.
First lets start with the basic look of it:
Its generally a pretty basic UI (User Interface). Its default search engine is Windows Live Search (more windows products). Even though Internet Explorer is generally used by the more computer illiterate people (adults 40+) the address bar is close to the top where it is harder to notice, beside it are the generally small backwards and forwards buttons, and the harder to notice refresh and stop buttons. Also the home button isn't in the general location. They also feel the need to place to take the usualfile-help toolbar and move them (which caused the shift of everything upwards) and put them in a harder to locate and use drop-down menu, nowhere close to their general location (that everything Windows uses).
Recently Internet Explorer caught on that tabbed browsing is a lot more useful then having to open multiple windows, so they added that feature in. It is located in the general and easy to click on area just above the browsing area. However as you open more and more tabs they only extend to a certain distance, and then they get smaller, and smaller, and smaller until all you have are the tab icons for each one, and then they run off the page. When you go to close your window (when you have multiple tabs open) you are prompted with:. To actually save all your tabs for your next time, you have to click on "show options" then on "save tabs for next time". Most people don't realize this, because drop-down menus such as these generally contain information on what your closing. Also if one of your tabs screws up, all of Internet Explorer will have to shut down; when you reopen it, you have lost every one of your tabs.
Also to my knowledge it is impossible to customize Internet Explorer. You cannot change the look of it, or add widgets/add-ons.
The speed at which Internet Explorer loads from the desktop to google (one of the fastest loading web pages) is about 1-2 seconds on highspeed. To load webpages it is generally quite slow, unless they are the more frequented pages.
Internet Explorer's main issue however is its inability to protect you. With IE almost every site you go to will install a tracking cookie (and its hard to turn this feature off). When going onto sites where you will generally get some nice spyware there is no warning what-so-ever. Internet Explorer also has a very low-guard pop-up blocker, meaning more and more spyware will make its way onto your computer. The amount of pop-ups and lack of warning, and overall lack of security measures what-so-ever mean that you are at a higher risk for viruses.
Since the next one to be reviewed is Mozilla Firefox, here is a security comparison chart. Internet Explorer verdict: Epic Fail.
First of all, Firefox has one of the coolest names, and a very cool logo. It isn't large and obnoxious, it has symbolism (firefox + the world = Firefox is used world-wide), and the colours work with any background.
Alright now, the FireFox UI: If you ignore the bookmark toolbar tabs, and the stumble tab, it has a very simple UI. The forward and back buttons are slightly larger (so easier to find and click on quickly), and right next to it are the refresh, stop, and home buttons. The task bar is easy to locate, and the default search engine is Google. It has the typical toolbar (file - help) in the standard place.
Firefox has a tabbed browsing system as well. However, when you open multiple tabs, they only shorten to an extent, and then they go off the page, allowing you to scroll along your tabs with a clickable arrow, or a dropdown-menu. You can also get an add-on that allows you to ctrl+tab your tabs, or have thumbnails of each appear. Also when you go to shut down your Firefox window, and you have tabs open you are met with this window: so you can save your tabs, and have them nicely pop-up for the next time. However, if one of your tabs crash, it brings down all of Firefox. The good thing is: they automatically save, so when you re-open firefox it asks you if you want to reload your tabs from last time. The one issue with it's saving program is if you have multiple windows, with multiple tabs, open and you go to shut down FireFox, your only option is to close them all or cancel. The way to get around this though, is if you just leave all of them open until you shut down your computer, it will get the same window during shutdown, and then you can save all of them.
The FireFox team is generally working around the clock monitoring websites and making sure your Firefox stays clean. Firefox has one of the best browser-based pop-up blockers, usually I rarely get any, unless I'm watching streamed TV shows, and then its only 1 in 5 times generally. It also means that spyware is rare to get from browsing on Firefox.
When your downloading something on FireFox, you get a little download window. This will tell you how many things you have downloading, how far along they are, everything you have previously downloaded, the ETA on your current downloads, and if you double-click on any of the items it will open them.
Firefox also happens to have an incredibly fast load time. For just browsing articles, web pages (without movies) etc, they generally open instantly. Flash games take 1-8 seconds to load (depending) and the more tabs you open, doesn't effect the general speed that greatly.
Even though Firefox doesn't come with any extra add-ons (aside from the bookmark toolbar) it is possible to download many, many add-ons from their website. Here you can fully customize your firefox. Everything from add-ons to appearance. On mine I just have stumble [which takes me to a random website that matches my interests (that I imputed on download)], and extended titles [which allows me to display longer mouse-over titles].
Safari was for a long time, apple's Mac browser. Recently (in the past year or two) apple made it so you can get it on a windows PC as well.
Safari on a Mac is a very nice program, but this isn't about the Mac one. The PC version of Safari looks like this:
The first most noticeable thing about Safari is: the fact that its default home page is the apple website. It's almost like their noticing the fact that your using a Windows PC, and going "hey, buy a mac" or the ever-so typical "buy our stuff". Next you will also notice (if you have used a Mac for any time) that the entire look of it is the same as a Mac's (except where the close, minimize, and maximize buttons are). Once again, my Desktop is already enough of a Mac wanna-be.
The taskbar area is pretty standard, although everything is smaller. This makes for a feeling that you see more of a webpage in a window. While this is technically true, it isn't much more, and the task bar is tiny. It also very much feels like the lack of space that is normally taken up by a toolbar, makes the page annoyingly large.
According to the apple site, Safari is supposed to be the fastest browser. This might be true for a Mac, but on a PC its a very different story. It took 3 seconds to start up and load google (after I switched it's homepage), and even Wikipedia loads quite slowly (2.3 seconds). It actually seems to load about as fast as Internet Explorer on school computers.
Safari doesn't allow a whole lot of personal configuration (legit 'from-the-company" style anyway). The most you can do (that I can see) is make a bookmark toolbar.
Once again, it does have tabbed browsing. However (not noticeable in the picture) the actual tab bar is quite small, and each tab gets smaller with the higher amount of tabs you open. Even though it doesn't get quite as scrunched up as Internet Explorer, it does get small enough to be annoying. HIf you try to close a window with multiple tabs, you are met with:. There is no option at all to save any of your tabs for further use. This could possibly be because on a Mac, you don't really ever need to shut anything down.
Safari Verdict: Slow, tiny, annoying. Nice try apple, but I'll stick to just pasting your stickers on the side of my tower. 4. Google Chrome:
Everyone loves Google, it is the most widely used search engine, so: is there a reason to love Google Chrome as much?
First of all, I'd like to point out: This has one of the neatest logos (next to firefox), and a name that sounds futuristic. Also, the first outright negative point about google chrome: Mac users can't have it at the moment...
Alright, so first up is the UI:
The most noticeable difference between Google chrome and the other 3 browsers so far is that the tab area is at the top. This is also one of its more negative features; even though it keeps them out of the way, so you don't accidentally click on them, they seem too far out of the way at the top. As with Internet explorer Google Chrome removed the taskbar in exchange for a drop-down menu (to the far right beside the task bar) in exchange for two icons. If you know the short-cuts then this isn't a big deal. The thing about this that Google does much better then Internet Explorer is that it doesn't have all those annoying and useless options in the menu, just the ones that are usually used.
Google's task bar is different from normal ones because instead of a search toolbar and an address toolbar they combined both. If you just type what you want to Google search into the address bar, it takes you straight to the google search page. This allows them to cut down on space, and also makes for a pretty neat feature. What I haven't checked out is if you can switch the default seach engine.
As earlier mentioned it also implies tabbed browsing. I'll start with the good here: each time you open a new tab in other browsers it just generally tells you about the tabbed browsing. Google shows you a page with thumbnails of your most visited pages, and links to your most recent bookmarks. Now for the bad side of their tab system: as you open more tabbs, they just keep getting scrunched up until they are nothing more then little lines, they don't go off the page the way the other browsers do:. When you go to close all your tabs, there is no prompt, it just immediately exits, and there is no way to reload them once you boot up - short of manually reopening them all. A very nice feature to do with tabs: each tab technically operates as its own window, so if one of them crashes,just that one crashes and has to close.
I don't thing Google Chrome is old enough to have many customizations, but I do know that you can add some extra add-ons to it, even though it comes with some pretty interesting features. Google Chrome allows you to make shortcuts to web pages on your desktop. These shortcuts are unlike bookmark links that you can put on your desktop. these load a brand-new window right from your desktop and its instant. They also use the icon that the webpage uses: . Chrome also has a special type of window called the incognito window, and you can select it from the options drop-down menu. What this window does is allows you to search the internet in it, but anything you search doesn't come up in any of your histories. While I am not sure what use this has, I am told that it would be quite handy if you search porn on the family computer.
Google chrome seems to be one of the fastest loading browsers. I experience very little downtime from page-to page while using it. It seems to have a very good pop-up blocker, and spywear provention system. I haven't used it enough to confirm this fully, but I know for certain it is much safer then Internet Explorer. It's most interesting feature to do with safety is if you go to a site that could potentially be unsafe for your computer, it warns you. You get a big red security window that says the following site could be harmful (or something like that, I don't know any sites to be able to test this out).
Google Chrome verdict: Dislike the overall feel, but damn good browser. like: the new tab page, seperate window-tabs, unsafe site security window, the speed, addressbar searches, incognito window, website shortcuts. dislike: The tab location, no tab saving, scrunched tabs, general smallness of task-bar.
I'm going to start off by saying: the name and icon suck. Most of my criticism ends there.
The UI:I am kind of suspicious that Google Chrome took a bit of a page from Opera (seeing as Opera is older) since both's tab bar is above the address bar. Another similarity, and another problem, is that once again the tabs scrunch up, and just get smaller and smaller. When you go to close an Opera window (with multiple tabs open) it gives you no warning at all, it just closes. However as soon as you re-open it, all your tabs are automatically right there.
Anyway the general look of Opera is very sleek. Using dark colours and a gloss look to form a very appealing look. It has the typical forward, back, home, and stop buttons, and also some extras (but because they're features, those will be later). The typical task bar is still there but it now seems more removed becuase of the difference between where it is, and the colour of it's bar.
Opera seems to be one of the faster browsers, in fact most tests agree that it is faster then Firefox. It loads most pages instantly (it's surprising how fast they load for the first couple times). Opera is also (from all indications) as secure as Firefox. The staff is always working to keep it running as clean as possible. When you go to a potentially fraudulent or virus-prone website a portion of the address bar goes red.
Opera has many very handy features, so the most efficient way to talk about them all would be to put them in a list:
Fast Forward - that little symbol next the the forward button. What this allows you to do is jump forward to the next section of a web page. lets say your browsing through penny-arcade's archive; to go to the next comic you would have to scroll to the very bottom and click next. With Opera you can just hit [space] (which is the fast forward's hotkey) to get to the next comic.
Rewind - the little symbol next to the back button.This allows you to jump back to a website's home page. Say your browsing IGN, and you look up a game, then the achievements for that game, then the achievement walkthrough. Normally to get back to the original IGN page you would have to hit back a whole bunch, or retype the web address. With Opera you just have to hit rewind.
Speed Dial - this feature allows you to open a new tab called "speed-dial". Thisallows you to put all of your bookmarks into this convienient area. Then just hit the corrisponding number key to open that one.
Trash - any websites you close go into this handy little 'internet trash bin'. All you have to do to retrieve one of them is open the trash bin. It empties when you empty it, so it stores from session-to-session.
Mouse shortcuts - these are small things you can do by holding down a mouse button, and doing a movement, or clicking another button. If you hold down the right mouse button, and move the mouse from right to left, it does the same thing as clicking "back". The same applies to if you hold down the right mouse button, and click the left.
Built-in Email Client - yup, its got its own email client, openable in the browser.It is selectable from the widget (screwdrive-hammer) drop-down menu.
Magic Wand - the simple way to fill out forms about you. You just need to imput your information once into this, and then you will have an option on any other form you fill out in opera to use the magic wand tool.
Opera Browser verdict: Pure Awesome
Closing
Even though I am a big fan of Mozilla Firefox, after this I might start using the Opera Browser. It is definitely the fastest out of them, and its sexier.
However the most preferential browser would be a hybrid between Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome. Combining all the features of Opera, with the add-ons and community of firefox, with the at-home feel of Chome. It could be called SingingFutureFox.... or... GreyFox.
Take a Look at the Sky
If you ignore the bookmark toolbar tabs, and the stumble tab, it has a 
