3rd party Zune HD apps and how YOU can get them

I got my Zune HD back in December and I was reading that Microsoft had no plans of releasing a developer kit for the Zune. I guess they finally realized that in order to compete with Apple's increasingly large library of apps, they'd have to give the public the same option as apple. Right now the process is a little screwy but I'm going to compile everything you need to get started right here.

First off you're going to need Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions with SP1 and XNA Game Studio 3.1

Once you have those two things you're getting closer to completing your training grasshopper, but first you must learn to utilize your new tools.

Yes, I know you thought you could skip ahead without reading the rest of this post but the funny thing is, you probably got an error that says something to the effect of untrustworthy files? Thought so.

You need the extensions for XNA game studio before the .ccgame files will actually work.

It get's to be quite tricky if you run into files that aren't wrapped in coded pink bows like the .ccgame files, in which case what you've got to do is deploy the app like a developer would! Sounds fun right?

If your file isn't a .ccgame file it most likely will end up being a zip/rar file. If that is the case, unrar the file and boot the .sln in Visual Studio. After that all you've gotta do is right click the title in the menu on the right side of the screen and click 'deploy'

Some of the apps you can find out there are still on the glitchy side so be very careful on what you modify.

Looking for apps to go with the instructions? Zune Clan and zhdapps.com have tons of great stuff for your 3rd party developed, pleasure.

Blogging 101

In the world of blogging many questions are asked but most go left unanswered. This video doesn't really cover a lot of information but provides a few tips and tricks for those of you just getting started or who are having technical difficulties.

Office 2010

All I can really say is

If these people tell this story to their children as they sleep maybe someday they'll see a hero is just a man who knows he's free…

When you hear the words Rock Opera, lots of things probably come to mind. The most prevalent may be It’s Always Sunny’s Day Man.

But there’s a legitimately awesome reason for this post. Do you remember megaman?

Yeah that guy. Well a band from Nashville, TN decided to write a rock opera around the life and times of this classic hero. The Protomen have been working on this project for quite a while now and I’ve got to say, the two albums they’ve completed are REALLY good musically and story wise. Chronologically Act II comes before Act I but I like the way they tell the story of Protoman and Megaman in Act I before telling the story of Dr. Light and Dr. Wily. I highly suggest reading the lyrics while listening to the album because they have other elements to the story that the music doesn't give you by itself. You can find them here http://lyrics.wikia.com/The_Protomen

The Protomen

Act I:

1. I: Hope Rides Alone
2. IIa: Funeral For a Son
3. IIb: Unrest in the House of Light
4. III: The Will of One
5. IV: Vengeance
6. V: The Stand (Man or Machine)
7. VI: Sons of Fate
8. EPILOGUE: Due Vendetta

Act II:

1. Intermission
2. The Good Doctor
3. Father of Death
4. The Hounds
5. The State Vs. Thomas Light
6. Give Us The Rope
7. How The World Fell Under Darkness
8. Breaking Out
9. Keep Quiet
10. Light Up The Night
11. The Fall
12. Here Comes The Arm

You can find more about them and their music on their webpage theprotomen.com

Cataclysm Alpha leaked

Thats right folks, the much anticipated expansion to World of Warcraft, Cataclysm had its alpha released and subsequently leaked. What started out as a testing phase ended up in a giant whole in Blizzard's dam. Multiple new zones are available for view along with the revamped old world content. There are no NPC's in the alpha so there's no playable content but man o man are some of the visuals really cool. Provided in the link below is a zip file for the first 10 people who download it, containing some pretty sweet screenshots provided to me by a source to remain unnamed.

Brill in it's all new glory looks to be a great improvement over the craptastic town it used to be.

http://rapidshare.com/files/386158115/cata.zip.html enjoy and seed if you want to get the spoiler alert out.

SkyDrive = Virtual Drive?!??!!

Yep, that’s right, you can mount your SkyDrive to work as a virtual drive on your pc. So instead of going to live.com and logging in you can just place files right in the drive the same way you would a thumb drive.

1. Get your windows live account set up at live.com

2. Download and install SDExplorer

SDexplorer is NOT a Microsoft product, it is a third party program but it serves its pupose really well.

3. Start > Computer > SDExplorer

After you click the SDExplorer icon it’ll ask you to use your Windows Live login information.

4. Enjoy your newly mounted 25g online storage space! Just drag and drop the files you want to place on your SkyDrive into your SDExplorer window and it automatically upload it. You can access your sky drive from anywhere you’re connected to the internet on http://skydrive.live.com/

Voila! Easy mode made even easier.

SkyDriving into a brick wall of happiness

Welcome to another grand installment of G33K 5P34K!

This time I’m going to tell you about this really amazing service offered by Microsoft but first let’s start off with a catchy intro.

How many times have you been late to class only to realize it’s presentation day and you don’t have your thumb drive? That’s ok though you remembered to upload your presentation to Google Docs right? Nope… didn’t think so but that’s ok I’ve found the tool that makes this conundrum a thing of the past.

Microsoft has a lot of innovative things to help you solve this problem but most of us have never heard of this because Microsoft’s Achilles heel has always been marketing. Anywho, let’s get to the good stuff shall we?

Windows live has invaded just about every facet of the PC users life from Xbox 360 to Zune all the way through office and other related Microsoft products, but the coolest thing they’ve done is SkyDrive. SkyDrive is a whole 25gb of online storage you get for FREE with your Windows live account.

If that weren’t absolutely awesome in and of itself Microsoft offers something called Office Live. Office Live is an add-in for office that lets you upload and share documents on your own private workspace. Much like Google Docs, Office Live gives you the ability to post a project and send out links to collaborators letting them edit the project in the same workspace in real time. If you’re a blogger you’ll love this next bit.

Microsoft also offers a service just for us blog fiends called Windows Live Writer. This little gadget lets you post directly to your blog straight from your desktop, provided you have an Internet connection. Writer works with multiple blogging platforms like Blogspot and Wordpress making it just about volatile for angry, drunken ranting.

I think that people don’t give Microsoft enough credit… For all the things they don’t do very well they sure are good at making awesome stuff like this. For other awesome features not included in my ramblings check out Live.com and Officelive.com, you won’t be disappointed – promise!

Noobz don’t know bout muh Quakelive!

So I don’t know if you remember Quake… but its one of my personal favorite games of all time. So many fond childhood memories of blowing apart pixels before Halo and Call of Duty were even thought of. Anywho, Quakelive is basically quake… in your browser. All you have to do is sign up and download the plugin (for firefox anyway). Personally I’m terribad so I don’t play too many player matches but I sure do enjoy playing skill matched bots. Did I mention it’s free? No? Well… IT’S 100% FREE! Now you have no choice but to go check it out. Unless of course you’re not into the gaming scene, in which case go back to being trendy… I’m sure something new is being copied by everyone but you.