Brandon Dimmel

So, Billy wants a new guitar this Christmas? By gosh, those things are expensive. He'll probably just give up, like he did with the drum set, piano, and karate. Why not just get him that Guitar Hero game? That's been the opinion of many parents and ... gamers in the last year, with video game sales -- led by a new music genre -- completely rocking other entertainment sources. According to a report from the NPD Group, total video game sales (including both hardware and games) have rocketed to $10.5 billion through October 2007, about $3.5 billion more than last year at the same point. (Source: ... (view more)

Sometimes messy mix-ups are easy to diagnose. It usually involves a few too many drinks or a few too many words. For one guy on the wrong end of a text message, maybe it just had something to do with a few too many lonely nights. According to ... reports from New Zealand, a woman recently sent a text message to a man promising a 'good time.' Reuters says that the seventeen year old woman (or perhaps 'girl') sent the message promising a thirty-one year old male friend (or perhaps 'dirty old man') a good 'ol time if he was to visit her residence, ditching his clothes beforehand to save time. With ... (view more)

Up until this Christmas, the likelihood of Dad getting an HD-DVD or Blu-ray player was on par with his hopes of sliding a brand new Ferrari around Germany's Nuburgring. That's because extravagant cost has kept high definition movie players outside ... the average family home. That is, until this Christmas. For the first time in the history of the technology, Blu-ray and HD-DVD players are actually affordable gifts. When Sony introduced its first Blu-ray player, the BD-P1000, most homeowners -- even the hardcore techies -- scoffed at the $1,000 price tag. Although Toshiba's HD-DVD players were ... (view more)

The technological upgrades made to several U.S. airlines will not end with cellular paperless boarding passes. For the small fee of 10 dollars, passengers can now purchase in-flight Internet connections. JetBlue Airways was the first carrier to jump ... on board with the project, already offering their customers free email and instant messaging services. Virgin America also has major plans to link wireless technology directly into their back-seat entertainment systems. This would allow passengers not traveling with laptops or smartphones to still be able to transmit messages from the plane. ... (view more)

Known for consistently referring to Second World War veterans as "the Greatest Generation," Tom Brokaw recently took a time out to slam Generations X, Y, and Z. In a radio tirade last week, he lashed out at kids today and "what they see in video ... games." Brokaw's rant was in response to last Wednesday's slaying of six Von Maur employees by 19 year old Robert Hawkins. Hawkins entered the store clad in a hooded sweatshirt, carefully concealing an assault rifle before unleashing death upon those around him. Brokaw saw the incident as indicative of a larger problem facing American teens. (Source: ... (view more)

Think things are going just 'pretty good' for Apple? That may not be the half of it, considering recent reports that one of the company's major hardware products is exploding in popularity. In fact, the hot 'n heavy item might just surprise you. We ... all know that the iPod and iPhone are ripping apart the competition this holiday season. That's hardly unexpected considering the slick MP3 player's entrenched position in the digital music market and the long, long lineups last summer for just a glimpse of Apple's new communicator. However, the company's Macinstosh line of computers has ... (view more)

It seems not even the tough, intimidating reputation of the U.S. military is enough to scare away hackers. According to recent reports, two major American military science labs have been infiltrated by what may have been a rival government. The ... break-in was announced this past weekend by the ORNL, or Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Also hacked was the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Nex Mexico. A spokesperson for Oak Ridge described the hack as a "sophisticated cyber attack," one that led to the unauthorized use of a database containing private details for visitors between 1990 ... (view more)

So, who is it that we can't get enough of while surfing the worldwide web? Whose life, what toys, and which topics pique our interests the most? It's no surprise that Americans are obsessed with celebrity and celebrities. That's why it may not be ... particularly shocking to hear that 2007's most searched term was none other than 'Britney Spears', the blonde Louisianan who went from dorm room poster queen to bearing the brunt of international snickers over the course of one really poor life decision. Let's face it, Spears has become that highway accident we can't bear to miss. Funny thing is, in ... (view more)

You can make the case that bullying never really ends. You just move from elementary to high school and onto that job where a boss demands this of you while blaming you for that. Bitter as that outlook may be, not even technology seems to be ... stopping bullies from carrying out their abusive behavior. In a recent report, Reuters took a close look at technology, a sphere it deems to be the new frontier in bullying. According to U.S. researchers, nasty tykes are now leaving angry text messages, hateful emails, and conducting cyber gossip about all of their peers. What's the big deal? Most of us ... (view more)

Though it has struggled to gain the attention of many computer users set in their XP ways, Windows Vista is considered to be relatively safer from malware than its predecessor. Unfortunately, according to one prominent security company, that's about ... to change. In a recent report by well-known software developer McAfee Inc., Vista is labeled as a targeted system for calendar 2008. That will certainly change the current state of affairs, where hackers have bypassed the new Vista in continuing to attack old XP users. "Most of the current malware has ignored Vista," admitted McAfee researcher ... (view more)