QQ News: May 1st, 2014

A fire hose of geeky news headlines for the weeks leading to May 1st, 2014.

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Headlines

• 00:00 - Date and Introductions
• 01:30 - E.T. Cartridges Found in New Mexico Landfill After 30 Years (Escapist)
• 02:20 - Some People Think The Atari Landfill Dig Is Fake (Kotaku)
• 02:45 - The Long Good Friday Actor Bob Hoskins Dies at 71 (IGN)
• 03:35 - Mario Kart 8 Comes With One of Ten Free Wii U Games (Escapist)
• 04:35 - Another month, another $2 million for Star Citizen (Joystiq)
• 07:00 - Disney Infinity Marvel Superheroes Coming This Fall (Kotaku)
• 07:35 - Yuji Horii confirms development of next Dragon Quest (Joystiq)
• 09:15 - Marvel Dice Masters Sells Out Rapidly (Escapist)
• 09:45 - ESA study: 59% of Americans play games, 68% on consoles (Joystiq)
• 11:15 - Seth MacFarlane and Patrick Stewart Teaming for "Blunt Talk" (IGN)
• 11:40 - GameStop to close 120 stores, increase focus on mobile (Joystiq)
• 13:50 - Google to Replace Nexus Phones with Android Silver Brand (Escapist)
• 14:50 - WSJ: The FCC's New Net Neutrality Rules Will OK Pay-to-Play (Gizmodo)
• 15:25 - Anti-Net-Neutrality "Fast Lanes" Are Bullshit (Marco)
• 17:55 - Final Hobbit Film Renamed The Battle of Five Armies (Escapist)
• 19:30 - Microsoft reveals release date of the Xbox One in Japan (Kotaku)
• 20:40 - Xbox One Launches in China, First Console in 13 Years (Escapist)
• 21:15 - Life After GameSpy: Civ And Borderlands Go Steam (Rockpapershotgun)
• 22:30 - Star Wars Expanded Universe Is Dead (Escapist)
• 24:00 - Han Solo Has a 'Gigantic Role' in Star Wars: Episode VII (IGN)
• 24:30 - Holy Crap, Looks Like Suikoden II Is Finally Coming To PSN (Kotaku)
• 25:25 - David Spade Says Joe Dirt 2 May Happen on Crackle (IGN)
• 26:00 - CNet: Nike Fires FuelBand Engineering Team; Set to Exit Wearable (Cnet)
• 27:10 - Almost Human Cancelled by FOX (IGN)
• 28:45 - Fox Will Reboot Flash Gordon (Escapist)
• 28:40 - Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot on Steam (Kotaku)
• 30:00 - Blizzard Wants You To Leave The House, Meet Other Humans (Kotaku)
• 30:45 - Sony to sell all its Square Enix Shares (Joystiq)
• 32:15 - Wrap up and rapid fire news reel!

QQ Recommends [PC Game]: Dwarf Fortress

For a mind-bashing, procedural hallmark, Rogue'sh-like, ASCII art, adventure- Check out Dwarf Fortress. Trust me, you'll hate it... at first...

It's dangerous to go alone. Take this:

• Dwarf Fortress Wiki - Quickstart Guide
• The Complete and Utter Newby Tutorial For Dwarf Fortress: Part 1 - WTF
• Reddit - I want to play Dwarf Fortress, but...

Enjoy,
Jordan

QQ News: April 11th, 2014

A fire hose of geeky news headlines for the weeks leading to April 11th, 2014.

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Headlines

• 00:00 - Date and Introductions
• 00:30 - What the Heartbleed Bug Means for You (LifeHacker)
• 05:20 - Amazon FireTV Set-Top Box Goes On Sale for $99 (Escapist)
• 08:40 - Scientists Use StarCraft II To Prove How Scary Aging Is (Kotaku)
• 09:40 - Square Enix Has Finally Realized That People Like JRPGs (Kotaku)
• 11:40 - Scaling the Facebook Data Warehouse to 300 PB (Facebook)
• 13:00 - The Wil Wheaton Project Coming to Syfy (IGN)
• 15:10 - DayZ Of Our Lives: SOE Zombie-Based Survival (RockPaperShotgun)
• 16:15 - Amazon Buys Comixology, Biggest Digital Comics Store (Kotaku)
• 17:30 - Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich Steps Down (Escapist)
• 19:55 - Minecraft Pocket Edition Sells 21 Million Copies (Escapist)
• 20:20 - Minecraft reaches 12 million sold on Xbox 360 (Joystiq)
• 22:10 - Smash Bros. 3DS Out This Summer, Wii U This Winter (Kotaku)
• 22:30 - Zero Suit Samus, Sheik, Yoshi Return in Super Smash Bros (Escapist)
• 23:20 - Samus' New High Heels Are, Well... (Kotaku)
• 24:10 - Report: Drone Hacked, Crashes, Injures Athlete (Kotaku)
• 26:15 - Top Gun 2 to Tackle Drones (IGN)
• 26:55 - GameSpy Shutdown Will Affect A Lot Of Games (RockPaperShotgun)
• 29:15 - Wrap up and rapid fire news reel!

QQ Recommends [TV Series]: The Inexplicable Universe with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Do you love Science? Math? History? Neil deGrasse Tyson? (If not... for shame!).

I just wrapped up the first two episodes of The Inexplicable Universe with Neil deGrasse Tyson (via Netflix), and I can't compliment the series enough. Neil is a great communicator and this series gives him a platform to teach us about the origins of our very knowledge (at least so far!).

I can't wait to for my next lesson! :D

See you in class,
Jordan

Quest 24: What do other geek cultures think of American geek culture?

Special Guests: Sam Fold (The Brit) and Somer Esat (The Aussie)!

Quest 24 goes culturally wild with a Brit, an Aussie, and your Merican Duo as we deep dive into the geekyness of their cultures while comparing it to our very own!

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Minutes

• 00:00 - Mic Check and International Introductions
• 04:00 - Where is Somer from, and do they read manga there?
• 07:50 - Did Tom get his money's worth from his Next Generation HD Blu-rays?
• 10:45 - Why is Jordan only Paragon Level 75, or how long can one cold last?
• 13:40 - If Sam is so hardcore, then why hasn't he beaten NetHack yet?
• 17:00 - Is America setting geek culture trends for the rest of the world?
• 19:20 - When did it become cool to be a programmer?
• 22:35 - Is British geek culture on the rise again?
• 25:00 - Why might Australians be adverse to geek culture?
• 27:45 - Is the Big Bang Theory just making fun of geeks?
• 30:30 - What are our respective culture's definitions of "geek"?
• 39:00 - Is there anything so nerdy that it could only happen in the US?
• 43:00 - Are we in the middle of a board game Renaissance?
• 44:45 - Is Dungeons & Dragons still the pinnacle of geek culture?
• 50:40 - Is the prevalence of comic books specific to American geek culture?
• 56:50 - How do different nerd cultures perceive each other?
• 61:00 - What aspect of Australian geek culture influences Americans most?
• 64:00 - What aspect of British geek culture influences Americans most?
• 68:30 - Wrap up and hot seat!

Music

• Ultima VI: The False Prophet 'Gates of Creation'
  Why? It's a game about Lord British and remixed by an Aussie. It's PERFECT!

QQ Review [Film]: Captain America 2, The Winter Soldier

Is this the best Marvel movie yet? No, but it's really good.

With X-Men having been the only Marvel property that I enjoyed while growing up, I am just absolutely amazed how Marvel has managed to continuously make care more and more about their other properties with each and every film they release. To be honest, Captain America was always a cheesy concept to me; a star spangled man running around fighting evil with a shield. Yet somehow the 2011 film managed to turn that camp to its' advantage, with Chris Evans taking center stage as the relatable protagonist and the action being just self aware enough to go over the top without requiring me to take it too seriously, I was shocked to find myself enjoying that movie as much as I did.

(I am going to try a new format with this review, it will have only three sections: The Good, The Bad, and The Verdict.)

The Good

Captain America 2, The Winder Soldier, had a very difficult job: keep the movie fresh and fun without being able to fallback on any of original support cast, any of the World War 2 environment, or any of the 40s camp.

So how did it do? Amazingly well!

QQ News: March 30th, 2014

A fire hose of geeky news headlines for the weeks leading to March 30th, 2014.

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Headlines

• 00:00 - Date and Introductions
• 01:50 - Facebook Buys Oculus Rift For $2 Billion (Kotaku)
• 02:40 - Oculus Kickstarter Backers Are Demanding Refunds (Kotaku)
• 03:00 - Notch Canceled Oculus Rift Minecraft Because Of Facebook (Kotaku)
• 03:20 - Cliff Bleszinski Labels Notch a "Pouty Kid" - Updated (Escapist)
• 03:30 - Facebook May Rebrand Oculus Rift, Import Interface (Escapist)
• 03:40 - People Are Buying Stocks With The Name 'Oculus' (Kotaku)
• 04:10 - Valve's Michael Abrash Joins Oculus VR as Chief Scientist (Escapist)
• 05:20 - John Carmack Voices Support For Oculus Acquisition (Kotaku)
• 08:00 - What does the QQ Cast think about the Oculus buyout?
• 13:45 - Oculus Rift Selling "Just Fine" After Facebook Buyout (Escapist)
• 17:30 - X-COM Creator Julian Gollop Announces Chaos Reborn (IGN)
• 19:00 - Sony signs 1000 licensed indy developers (Joystiq)
• 20:00 - Arcade Classic Gauntlet Is Getting A Remake (Kotaku)
• 21:30 - Happy 15th Anniversary, EverQuest (Kotaku)
• 22:45 - Do Titanfall Bots Play Nice With Eachother? (Rockpapershotgun)
• 24:50 - 'Twitch Plays Pokemon' Has Defeated Lord Helix (Kotaku)
• 25:50 - Who owns Duke Nukem? (Rockpapershotgun)
• 27:10 - SimCity Offline Mode Launches Today (IGN)
• 27:50 - EA loses worst company in America contest (Kotaku)
• 29:50 - Google Brings Cross-Platform Multiplayer to Android and iOS (IGN)
• 31:45 - Disney Purcahses Maker Studios (Kotaku)
• 36:00 - Alien: Isolation Hatches October 7 (Kotaku)
• 37:00 - ET Atari Documentary (Joystiq)
• 38:30 - Suspended Animation a Reality, Human Trials Underway (Escapist)
• 39:00 - Wrap up and rapid fire news reel!