Shiny Donkey now has TWO XML feeds, courtesy of Matthew. The first is "feed.xml", which gives recent threads & the total # of comments. The second is "recentblogfeed.xml", which gives recent threads AND replies. I'll update the template soon with links to both.

[ Shiny Donkey: .NET, SQL, bad jokes & lots of Bull... ]

Insiders say that the new “comments included” feed is more popular than the original. That begs the question, do readers of this 'blog crave comments in their feed? What about jimmies on their ice cream?

Do you know of an apartment, in the city of Alexandria, with rent under $1200, that allows a dog who weighs 50 pounds?

Or anything even close to that?

Post the results here, and the interested party will check back for your help.

Thanks in advance.

I think I may have found the game that will force my hand, and make me decide if Xbox or PS2 is my next console purchase.

On a cold, distant planet, the war against extinction is on and your command skills will determine its outcome. For the first time ever on PlayStation®2 and Xbox^TM, control an Alien hive, direct a Predator clan, or lead an elite squad of Colonial Marines and fight for the survival of your race.

[ Alien vs. Predator: Extinction ]

Check out this preview trailer. So sexy. And if I had to choose today, it'd totally be Xbox.

Wizards by Ralph Bakshi answers the age-old question, what if, in a post apocalyptic world, wizards rose up to fight the eternal conflict between good and evil, with armies of fairies, troll, ogres, and other magical creatures. And what if, in this world, the evil side employed a “super weapon” from World War II.

Truly a masterpiece of animation, even though the Amazon reviewer doesn't think so. What he forgets is that before Ralph Bakshi there was 20 years of stagnation in American animation. And for only about $12, how can you beat owning such a historical film?

I now have a single feed (the old ones are redirected to it) that has the entire body of my entries. Enjoy, LiveJournal people and other syndicated readers!

[ Joe Grossberg  ]

And this is the first of many blog entries that I can't syndicate.

Since I have rolled my own Aggregator, it only does RSS and not ATOM. I wasn't aware that ATOM was so far ahead in acceptance that people were thinking of ditching RSS completly...

And, of course, it may be quite a while until I find a way to pull the ATOM code.

Though if anyone has a clue where to find an open source .NET ATOM consumption library, or one that does RSS and ATOM and I'll just replace the code I use, feel free to comment and let me know.

I've upgraded the site to dasBlog v1.6.4121.1 by merging changes in from the source. For the most part, I expect no one to notice the difference. And now that I've reviewed all that they've done, I'm not sure that I'll even notice the difference too much.

Of course I may have introduced some fun bugs with the upgrade, so I'm sure folks will notify me of any entomic issues.

...it seems fairly likely that the man in the picture is holding a Hiptop 2. The remaining question is: when do we get to hold 'em too? It would seem like if it's already appearing in promotional materials, it can't be too far off... or is that just wishful thinking?

[ ~stevenf: Hiptop 2 Soon? ]

It's what I've been waiting for. My Sidekick is starting to lose keyboard. All keys work, but some require quite a bit of pressure. If this was out in the next few months, it'd be perfect timing. And for a better look, check out the leaked FCC application photos.

Props to Doug2 for bringing this to my attention.

And in DC that means:

38th Annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall of the United States

June 23-27 and June 30-July 4, 2004
Open daily 11 am-5:30 pm
Evening events beginning at 5:30 pm
All events are free.

[ Folklife Festival ]

If you don't know what this is, then get thee to the National Mall and check it out. One of the best events of any year. And this year? Spicy Haitian food, and Maryland Crab cakes!

Originally scheduled for release in late 2003, this latest delay will likely push the release of Starcraft: Ghost into 2005, although Blizzard has yet to confirm an updated release date.

[ News: Starcraft: Ghost Delayed ]

I'm only saying that if this isn't the most kick-butt game that Blizzard has ever worked on, I will be rather disappointed. However if I have to wait for XBox2 or Nintendo Revolution to play this, perhaps it would make an uber-sexy launch title...

[ Classic NES ]

OK, these are cute and all, but are any of these games worth it? Did anyone really get into Bomber Man? The Donkey Kong is still the old NES version with no pie factory... Excite Bike, maybe. Ice Climbers? Must have been a bigger hit in Japan, I never played it. Plus the E-Reader version is only $8. Pac Man? Might was well get the Namco TV Game version for the same price. Super Mario Bros? Perhaps, I don't remember this being a freebie anywhere else. Xevious? Now that might be doable, but I'm sure I remember it being more fun than it actually is. Zelda? Got that one for free a couple times over, I'm sure. Though portable, all by itself.

I think what I'd like to see is a Metroid: Zero Mission style makeover of a few of these. Update the graphics, sound, add a few surprises, extend the game. Now that'd be sweet. 16 levels of “I'm sorry, the princess is in the next next castle...”

Up to four players can link their GBAs to the Nintendo GameCube to join a fun and frantic competition for Force Gems and special items while cooperating to move massive blocks, trigger switches, and slay mighty bosses.

Explore eight massive worlds in the Hyrulean Adventure mode, or fight your friends in Shadow Battle mode until only one Link remains!

A rich single-player mode allows you to assume control of all four Links and command their every move by seamlessly switching among battle formations.

A high-resolution, top-down play perspective features dazzling visual effects like vivid colored lighting, silky-smooth water ripples, swirling smoke and stylized weather effects.

[ Games : Legend of Zelda, The: Four Swords Adventures ]

First off this is really two games in one. There is an adventure mode and a battle mode. The battle mode is barely related to the adventure mode, but as a “party game” goes, it's OK.

The adventure mode can be played with 1-4 players. In one player mode you can use the standard controller or a GBA. If you don't have a GBA the screen shows some sort of light GBA emulator for you. Basically when you go into buildings or caves and stuff, the action moves to your GBA. This allows for people to head off in all sorts of directions.

The audio and video are very reminiscent of SNES Zelda, but with the ability to zoom in and out as needed, when the 4 links get too far apart (or if you want the full view). All video and animation is smooth, and I've yet to experience any slow down. The audio is all familiar, but sounds real nice. I'm only on Level 3 of 8, but it seems that this game won't be taking too long to complete. It does have a good bit of replay value, but mostly if you have a 7 year old in the house who likes to play games with you.

What else could the multi-player add to the fun? A bit of competition to see who gets the most stuff at each level. It makes a dynamic of team play with adversity, but no so much since the team aspect is very important. In addition it complicates some things by having to coordinate with your fellow players, but since each person (not link, but person playing) can have a different item, some stuff could get easier, or even possible at all (I've run across some stuff that seems almost impossible without having different links with different items).

All in all this is not a “must have” game, but for a Zelda freak like me, it's enough to tide me until Minish Cap comes out, which is the last thing I expect before 2005's “realistic” Zelda title.

Superhero Hype! follows heroes every step of the way as they make it to the big screen. Each project, based on a comic book, graphic novel or original idea, is covered from rights acquisition to development to production and distribution. At SHH!, we're calling all heroes!

[ Superhero Hype! - Calling All Heroes ]

The guys from Judgement Day/Electronic Playground were hyping this site. Looks pretty decent.