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BioLabs: Outbreak! - Today's Time Waster

Romeo Wahed — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:00:00 EST

Time wasting is fun, especially when things need to get done. For that purpose BioLabs: Outbreak! is perfect, because it offers the player a fairly repetitive task that is interesting enough that you can keep doing it instead of what you should actually be doing. That, coupled with a very forgiving learning curve, allows you to really take your time with it and get the most out of your time wasting investment.

The concept is simple: there is an outbreak of some sort (inside a purple rectangle of all places) and you must administer an antidote to contain and kill off all the elements of the outbreak. But there is a catch, of course. The quantity of antidote is limited and the outbreak continues to grow in size as you progress through the levels. You contain the outbreak by growing bubbles of antidote and surrounding the individual cells with those bubbles. If during the antidote-bubble-growing-process the antidote makes contact with the outbreak, the bubble breaks and wastes precious antidote. So, it is important to exercise caution when growing bubbles, especially in the later stages.

And that's about as deep BioLabs: Outbreak! gets, which is probably good since you really don't want to spend too much time with any one time waster. In the end, BioLabs: Outbreak! will have wasted a good bit of your day and will let you enjoy the hectic catch-up session that follows your time wasting exploits.

BioLabs: Outbreak! - Today's Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RateBeer - Which brew is for you?

Romeo Wahed — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fun, Internet

Ever wish you could harness the power of the collective intelligence to help you find that perfect stout or pale ale? RateBeer may well be the link to help you find that ultimate brew. Touting itself the most accurate and most-visited source of beer information, Rate Beer has an impressive index of beers which are all, well, rated.

Beers can be viewed by latest ratings, category (such as style and country of origin), a top 50 list, annual top beer lists, and any beer or brand you want to search for to see how it fares against the rest of the world of beers. There is subscriber style "premium content" on the site, which mostly revolves around additional rankings like "Beer God's Top 50 Beers" and rankings by state. But all the core features of the site are available for free - which is perusing the main rankings and contributing your own ratings of beers you have enjoyed.

The site also has an event calendar that is fairly stocked with beer-related events, a guide to beer in different areas utilizing Google Maps by highlighting the best places to down a brew around town, and forums for those that like talking about beer almost as much as they like imbibing it. The only downside that we perceive is that the layout and interface are somewhat unintuitive, especially for those of us who are sensitive to usability. But, it's no deal breaker, and is far outweighed by the volume of information and ratings available on the site. Happy brew hunting.

[via LifeHacker]

RateBeer - Which brew is for you? originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 31 May 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MotherLoad - Today's Time Waster

Romeo Wahed — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

Today's time waster is MotherLoad - the time waster that lets you excavate your time away. You are an operator of a digging vehicle on Mars, being one of the brave few that dares dig in this hostile environment. The game's objective is simple: dig your way to riches and upgrade your digging vessel as you sell the collected ore on your way to the hidden treasures deep within Mars.

The game has fantastically intuitive controls, which - although being merely the arrow keys - can really be sensed when the digger moves exactly as expected. This not only allows you to get into the time wasting action quickly, but comes in handy as your digging vessel is rather fragile and needs to be cared for if you want to survive multiple trips below the surface.

In order to make any progress in the game, getting upgrades is crucial. Your vessel's fuel range as well as the cargo space that holds the excavated ore is very limited, besides the fact that the beginning drill is awfully inefficient. But, as you make progress and hit certain depths, say 1,000 feet, you will get bonuses from your employers which should help with getting these upgrades more quickly. Once you have some good gear on your excavator, you'll be able to start hitting deeper depths where the ore becomes progressively more valuable.

But be warned, after having pulled in your first few loads and made some basic upgrades, MotherLoad becomes incredibly addicting. Remember to waste time responsibly.

MotherLoad - Today's Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 30 May 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blobular - Today's Time Waster

Romeo Wahed — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

On some days, the urge to waste time is just a little stronger than others. If it happens to be one of those days for you today, you are in luck, because Blobular will not only help you waste your time, but also make you slightly nauseous.

The game starts innocently enough: Blobular, a blob out and about in the world, needs to get back home to Blobsville. To start you off on your journey, you pick how Blobular looks (his/her/its eyes and body color) and then enter a world of collectible items and foes. Each level has a given number of items you need to collect in order to pass it while running against the clock and avoiding enemies.

But here's the catch: you move your blob by spinning the world around and letting gravity pull the blob around. Although this is slightly disorienting (and slightly nauseating), once you get adjusted this time waster has some potential. As you collect more items (say mushrooms), your blob begins to grow and won't fit through smaller gaps anymore. You can then split your blob apart into smaller blobs that can fit through these gaps, and merge again whenever you please.

Continue until you have finished the game, are done wasting time, or can't continue due to nausea from all the spinning. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Blobular - Today's Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 29 May 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Googleholic for May 20, 2008

Romeo Wahed — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:00:00 EST

Filed under: Google, Googleholic

Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix of everything Google! In this edition:

Google gets a new office in Taipei
Third party advertising tags on Google
Google China mourns to commemorate earthquake victims
FeedFlare now available for Blogger comments

Continue reading Googleholic for May 20, 2008

Googleholic for May 20, 2008 originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 20 May 2008 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Googleholic for May 13, 2008

Romeo Wahed — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:30:00 EST

Filed under: Google, Googleholic

Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix of everything Google!

In this edition:

Search for real estate on Google Maps
Faces getting blurred in Street View
Gmail gets slight loading speed boost
Wikipedia comes to Google Maps

Continue reading Googleholic for May 13, 2008

Googleholic for May 13, 2008 originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 13 May 2008 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Googleholic for May 7, 2008

Romeo Wahed — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Google, Googleholic

Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix of everything Google!

In this edition:

Google Maps gets a minor makeover
Increased photo storage on Orkut
Multi-size embedding and select for Google Presentations
Google supports Unicode 5.1

Continue reading Googleholic for May 7, 2008

Googleholic for May 7, 2008 originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 07 May 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Beard - Today's Time Waster

Romeo Wahed — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

The Beard is a unique time waster in that it is actually possible to be beaten in a relatively short amount of time yet still be totally enjoyable. So instead of spending your entire day wasting time, just get the instant gratification of sweet victory and move on.

The premise is this: you are a knight fighting a giant floating head with a beard in a side-scrolling environment. Think of it as a boss you would encounter in Mega Man and other comparable titles. The "Beard" has a number of moves that you have to dodge as you try to get close and take a swing at him with your plunger or magic bolts. As you get hits you also get experience, which cause you to level and get better weapons with more reach.

The learning curve is fairly easy, and the game's animation and sound effects make for quick and gratifying gameplay. But, you do only get three lives, so expect a fair number of retries before you lay the Beard to rest. And yes, fighting a giant floating beard is actually more fun than you might imagine.

The Beard - Today's Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 06 May 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Comboll - Today's Time Waster

Romeo Wahed — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

There are days that call for time wasters of a nature that have virtually no learning curve, are simple, and mindless the way Snake is. Comboll is all of those things, but also adds to that the element of very intuitive, nice bouncy physics that are good the way gummy bears are.

The goal of the game (if you can call it that) is to keep your sphere alive in a world of red and blue bars that horizontally scroll across the screen and accumulate as many points as possible. If you continue to bounce on bars of one color, you can build a combo, allowing you to earn a large number of points very quickly. In the event that you do fail to make a jump, your score is reset and you get to do it some more with almost no delay.

You can influence the jump and movement of your ball with the directional keys, allowing you to aim for bars of your chosen color. You can also "double jump" in mid air, letting you stretch some jumps to get where you want. The game comes in two modes, normal and extreme, but after playing the game for a bit we have come to the conclusion that the extreme mode is definitely better, since the bars disappear after you jump on them and hostile flying triangles will make it more difficult to make the jumps you want to.

All things said, if Comboll were an arcade game in the 70's, people would have spent all their quarters trying to play it.

Comboll - Today's Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 05 May 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Happy Belated Birthday - Spam turns 30

Romeo Wahed — Mon, 05 May 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fun, Security

30 fateful years have passed since what is believed to be the first piece of spam has defiled the inboxes of unwitting victims. Since then things have gotten much worse, with Internet scams at an all time high and spam comprising up to 90% of all email.

Gary Thuerk, the only soul that can lay claim to the title "Father of Spam," is the man who started it all, even if he's not to blame for the monstrosity that all of this has evolved into. The enlightening moment in his mind was this: "It's too much work to send everyone an e-mail," ... "So we'll send one e-mail to everyone." And thus the beast was born.

His email inviting people to come see a product presentation of the DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY, which was written in all caps (setting the standard for years to come), was met with a very negative reaction foreshadowing how we still feel today about unsolicited emails. Interestingly enough, the email generated about $12 million in sales for Thuerk, which is probably why spam is still filling the inboxes of young and old alike: it works.

[via Geeks are Sexy]

Happy Belated Birthday - Spam turns 30 originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 05 May 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AIMP2 - An alternative media player

Romeo Wahed — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Audio, Windows, Freeware

Audio players come in all shapes and sizes, from resource hogging beasts such as iTunes and Windows Media Player, to relatively more lightweight competitors such as Winamp, MediaMonkey. And if you happen to have an iPod or some other sort of portable media player, chances are you are sort of locked in to whatever application works best with your portable device. But let's say you don't care about support for a portable player and just want a capable, lightweight player that has frills but not too many.

Meet AIMP2. AIMP2 weighs in at a mere 2.88MB, has a slightly smaller memory footprint than Winamp and can do just about everything you want except sync with a portable device. It supports anything from AAC to WMA, allows you to record radio streams, has a fully fledged library to organize your music, allows you to manipulate playlists while listening to another, and even supports a number of Winamp plug-ins. And for those who like to wake up and fall asleep to music, AIMP2 also includes a timed start and an auto shutdown timer.

Although lacking some of the features that the bigger media players may have, AIMP2 has an impressive feature set for its size. Additional skins and plug-ins are relatively scarce, but the basic skin works so well other skins are almost unnecessary beyond mere aesthetics. It has also been localized for a number of languages (the default being Russian), which makes this a very international user friendly application.

Overall, AIMP2 just feels right, and is a good alternative for anyone that is looking for something that works the way it should.

AIMP2 - An alternative media player originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 04 May 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TwitterSnooze! - Give your chatty Twitter friends a timeout

Romeo Wahed — Sun, 04 May 2008 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Social Software, web 2.0

Sometimes even the best in our Twitterati can break the unspoken twittettiquette and pollute what was once a beautiful arrangement of tweets with excessive twitterage. Or maybe they are just at a conference about turning door knobs with your teeth and you wish you could just tune them out while they rage on about the best way to mend a chipped tooth on the fly from a failed attempt. Or something like that.

Well TwitterSnooze! let's you get back in touch with the Twitter you love by giving the people that are harshing your mellow a timeout and putting the zen back into your Twitter. Simply enter your username and password, the person you want to snooze, and how long you want them out of your hair for (between 1 and 30 days). The only real side effect is that they will get an e-mail update that they have been unfollowed, but you can have the fact that they are merely being "snoozed" announced in your Twitter stream to avoid any confusion.

[via LifeHacker, Geeks Are Sexy]

TwitterSnooze! - Give your chatty Twitter friends a timeout originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 04 May 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yahoo bid is no more, Microsoft withdraws

Romeo Wahed — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:45:00 EST

Filed under: Microsoft, Yahoo!

Earlier today we covered how the Microsoft and Yahoo thing might actually go through, or go bust altogether. Long story short: Microsoft withdrew its offer.

Three months after everyone went bananas because Microsoft put out the bid to buy Yahoo, Ballmer finally says it's "in the best interest of Microsoft" to withdraw its bid. And probably in the best interest of, and great relief to, Yahoo product users who thought Microsoft would ravage all that was good about the services and turn Flickr into some sort of Microsoft Photo Share Premium Family Live while Yahoo Mail would spend eternity as Hot Live Yahoo Mail. Microsoft shareholders who didn't think the bid was a good idea in the first place are probably pretty happy too. And Google. And probably a lot of other people.

So what does the future look like for Microsoft? Keep going of course, says Ballmer: "While Yahoo would have accelerated our strategy, I am confident that we can continue to move forward toward our goals." And Yahoo will probably have to deal with lawsuits from disgruntled shareholders that thought this was a really good idea.

And, if the details of this drama intrigue you, read the whole "not to be" letter from Ballmer to Yang.

[via paidContent]

Yahoo bid is no more, Microsoft withdraws originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 03 May 2008 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Googleholic for April 29, 2008

Romeo Wahed — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Google, Googleholic

Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix of everything Google!

In this edition:

Street View for Google map directions
Google's PageRank for images: VisualRank
Stock Screener for Google Finance
Speaker Notes and YouTube videos for Google Presentations

Continue reading Googleholic for April 29, 2008

Googleholic for April 29, 2008 originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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R.O.B.O.T. - Today's Time Waster

Romeo Wahed — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

If you have a penchant for survival/defense type games, R.O.B.O.T. (Relatively Obedient Being Of Thought) will be right up your alley for your time wasting needs. It is basically a cross-over of both a defense game and a survival game (which intrinsically overlap as it is) in which you utilize both manual movement and firing with turret placement to advance through levels.

The premise appears to be that you are a Robot defending a heap of rubble and dirt, or getting attacked on top of it, however you like to think of it. As you kill enemies and progress through waves, you are able to buy upgrades for you plasma gun (your primary means of disposal), your treads, a placeable (and enhanceable) turret, as well as your shields, armor, and an EMP shockwave for use against heavily shielded enemies. Of course, the waves continue to get harder, with more enemies coming in all shapes and sizes and attack styles, which keeps things interesting.

Once you progress a fair bit into the game, it is fairly difficult even on easy, but if you feel that does not apply to you can go all the way up to Insane difficulty. But, regardless of the difficulty your play it at, it's all very forgiving since you can always continue from the last wave you managed to clear.

R.O.B.O.T. - Today's Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Googleholic for April 22, 2008

Romeo Wahed — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Google, Googleholic

Welcome to Googleholic -- your bi-weekly fix of everything Google! In this edition:

Google named world's most powerful brand
iGoogle gets developer sandbox
Google celebrates Earth Day
WHOIS OneBox graces Google search once again

Continue reading Googleholic for April 22, 2008

Googleholic for April 22, 2008 originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ramps - Today's Time Waster

Romeo Wahed — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

Today's time waster is Ramps, which basically revolves around setting up ramps so that they guide a ball into a little bin in a sea of lava. You can adjust the ramp position as well as angle, utilizing ball velocity and bounce to jump gaps between the ramps. A warning if you are looking for a challenge: the game starts out ridiculously easy, and doesn't get difficult until vacuum holes and robotic sharks are introduced, which still isn't a problem since it appears that a score reduction is the only penalty incurred for losing a ball.

But when the day calls for some easy puzzle solving to pass the time, Ramps fills that niche perfectly. There's a definite sense of progression with a lenient learning curve, which ought to fit right with those that don't have the energy to play a game that requires more energy than the work they are putting off. The game's only real downside is that the "physics" and ball dynamics can be irritating, and levels are a bit repetitive. If that is not a deal breaker for you, give it a try, but it's no Incredible Machine.

Ramps - Today's Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BayWords: Pirate Bay's blogging service

Romeo Wahed — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Blogging, Web services

It looks like torrents isn't the only business the Pirate Bay is concerning itself with. First there was image hosting and now there's blogging. BayWords is the site's foray into the world of blogging services, aiming to provide a service that does not want to restrict "uncomfortable thoughts and ideas" and let people say and link to what they want (as long as it complies with Swedish law).

Apparently one of the Pirate Bay captains, Brokep, had a friend who's blog was shut down by linking to copyrighted material. This inspired him to offer this alternative, which runs on a customized version of a multi user install of Wordpress. The site plans to continue adding features, updates, and themes, and encourages users to "blog your heart out."

If you've been looking for a place to take your blog, BayWords might offer a nice home, as long as you don't mind having "myname.baywords.com" as your address. Or maybe you just want to be able to tell people that your blog is hosted by Swedish pirates. Or something like that. Unfortunately, it does look like ads will be implemented eventually to cover expenses, but information on bandwidth or other stats are not available at this point.

[via TorrentFreak]

BayWords: Pirate Bay's blogging service originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter can get you out of jail - sort of

Romeo Wahed — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Social Software, web 2.0

If you have a decent social network but still haven't jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon yet, here's another reason to get on: when you find yourself arrested in a foreign country that may not offer you contact with the outside world, send a tweet out before you get taken down. Like James Karl Buck, who tweeted himself out of jail in Egypt.

After getting arrested for taking photos of a demonstration, Buck tweeted the word "ARRESTED." His friends, obviously knowing what that meant, talked to the right people, because the next day Buck walked out with an attorney paid for by U.C. Berkeley while having the U.S. embassy on the phone with him.

This story of a Twitter emergency use highlights two things: 1) using Twitter on a cellphone can be a great way to let a lot of people know fast that something is wrong, and 2) it's probably only as effective as the social network in your Twitter-sphere. Which is really just a guess, but an emergency tweet is unlikely to carry the same amount of weight with people that you don't know.

Although probably no one should rely on Twitter as an emergency service, it's nice to know that it's there in case we need to let everyone know we're in trouble. Thanks Twitter.

[via Techmeme]

Twitter can get you out of jail - sort of originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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