Brandon Dimmel

Have you recently watched your son or daughter rock their way through "Anarchy in the U.K.", all the while wishing they'd just spend their time playing a real instrument? Well, here's the ultimate head-shaker for those who simply don't understand ... Guitar Hero: A Rochester teen has been entered into the Guinness Book of World Records exclusively for his pseudo-guitar skills. At just sixteen, young Chris Chike, of Rochester, Minnesota, is now officially the most prolific Guitar Hero player in the world. It's hard to argue with that, given his recent entry into Guinness' book on account of his ... (view more)

Hoping to answer a number of concerns about its popular Office software, Microsoft has released a slew of fixes meant to patch up some fairly significant holes. A total of twelve flaws, four "critical", have been addressed by the new update. These ... are meant to fix gaps that could potentially give an attacker the ability to execute code without authorization. Given the software's immense popularity, that certainly makes for a lot of systems. (Source: macworld.com ) One of the most "critical" fixes is meant to save future headaches for Outlook email users. Again, remote execution ... (view more)

Who's watching Facebook? More than just your World of Warcraft pals and drinking mates, it seems. A Toronto university student recently found out the hard way that the way you network in the virtual world can have very real consequences in the ... physical. Chris Avenir, 18, is facing severe punishment -- perhaps even expulsion -- for creating a Facebook group designed to help students at Ryerson University exchange answers for how to fool an online testing system. Called "Dungeons/Mastering Chemistry Solutions", the group racked up about 147 members, most from the school's first year chemistry ... (view more)

Only a matter of weeks after its coronation in front of the tech-happy, HD faithful, Sony is now taking some serious heat for not packing enough space into its Blu-ray discs. Launching the complaint is Hideo Kojima, famed designer behind upcoming ... PlayStation 3 heavyweight title Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. In an interview with Famitsu, mogul Kojima lambasted Sony for being a bit shy on the storage for its Blu-ray disc format. In that interview, Kojima was adamant that the game, which should be a titan, was simply not going to fit on Sony's HD hardware. "There's not enough space ... (view more)

It is indeed a sad week for many fantasy fans. Those most hardcore followers of the Dungeons ... (view more)

Think the iPhone is the wave of the future? Their good friends at Nokia might have something to say about that. The company recently revealed 'Morph', a concept that hopes to demonstrate the flexibility -- quite literally -- of future cell phones. ... Unveiled at The Museum of Modern Art display in New York, Morph is the result of a shared project between Nokia and Britain's University of Cambridge. The pairing promises to release a number of radical concepts in the next while, but their opening salvo has certainly caught the attention of the techie nation. (Source: businessweek.com ) The concept ... (view more)

Just in case you were waiting for one more sign the next-gen movie format war was officially over, Microsoft has now announced that it will be severing ties with HD-DVD and will no longer sell its add-on high definition player for the Xbox 360. The ... drive, which plugs into the Xbox 360's USB port, originally retailed for $199, but was dropped to $149 and then $129 as demand for the peripheral waned. That's the result of Blu-ray's increasing dominance in the market, especially with HD-DVD's loss of notable studios, Best Buy's decision to favour Sony's competing format, and finally Toshiba's ... (view more)

Just because they're the biggest software company in the world and, at the very least a heavy-hitter in the webosphere, Microsoft doesn't always have all the answers. The Redmond-based firm is struggling to determine exactly why millions of Hotmail ... users were recently barred from accessing their accounts. Although the problem has since been fixed, for several hours earlier this week about 80 million Hotmail users were unable to log in to their email or instant messaging accounts. The issue affected Hotmail fans around the world early yesterday afternoon, UK time. According to Microsoft, a few ... (view more)

Hackers have been at it again, and this time they made their millions with a French Canadian accent. Quebec authorities recently broke up a ring of seventeen hackers responsible for $45 million in damages. According to police, the hacking ring ... operated primarily from Quebec small towns Notre-Dame-du-Portage, Jonquieres, and a few others. With their headquarters in rather remote and certainly unexpected locales, the group of reportedly very young (17 to 26) computer experts took control of thousands of systems from Poland to Brazil. (Source: canada.com ) In total, police suspect this group is ... (view more)

Although one big blue electronics retailer couldn't quite knock Toshiba's HD-DVD off, another one may just do the trick. Less than a year after Blockbuster failed to swing the high-def movie war by exclusively carrying Blu-ray flicks, Best Buy has ... decided it will more prominently display Sony's hardware and openly recommend it over rival HD-DVD. Best Buy president Brian Dunn made the announcement earlier this week. Jumping on the Sony bandwagon, the big box brass was quoted as saying, "Because we believe that Blu-ray is fast emerging as that single format, we have decided to focus on Blu-ray ... (view more)