Lifesperience

Lifesperience is now Raycommend, which can be found here:    Ray Commend   While the Wii was initially a very popular console for Nintendo, for most people, it has gone unused for years gathering dust.  More powerful consoles and devices have taken its place and even Nintendo themselves have practically abandoned it with many of their own channels going offline over the last year.  Chances are that by this point, your Wii is long out of its warranty period.  If you're willing to take about an hour of your time, you can turn your old Wii into a great emulation station and decent media center for the kids. The things that you will need to get the most out of your old Wii console are: An SD card (up to 32gb) An internet connection The first thing that you will need to do is softmod your console which will allow it to run unsigned software outside of Nintendo's ecosystem.  Yes!  One of the great things about the Wii (for our purposes) is that you don't need t

"Wanna see my magic stick?" In my last article , I mentioned that the Wii U should tap into some old IP's and update them with sequels that take advantage of its unique abilities.  This article is an extension of that idea, and mostly a wish list of what I would like to see on the Wii U.  Most of these games are rare or not as well known as current titles, but they do usually have dedicated followings with purchasing power.  If all of these showed up as exclusives on the Wii U, this would be a must have system for a lot more gamers in my opinion.  Feel free to comment on any games that you believe would be a boon if added, and don't forget to follow me on G+  and the Lifesperience blog .   Burning Rangers Sega's Burning Rangers was one of those great games that was unfortunately released during the Saturn's last days.  This futuristic fire fighting game would be a perfect fit for the Wii U's dual screens if done correctly.  With Wiimote s

Cookies. Yum! As a man who has recently lost over 50 pounds and has kept them off , I admit that I still like my occasional snacks.  One major reason that many diets fail is that people attempt to give up the things that they like to eat and replace them with things that they don't enjoy.  That technique is destined to fail.   You have to eat things that taste good to you, but that are still beneficial to your body.  It's no secret that if you tend to stick to whole foods with fewer ingredients, you will end up eating less calories and enjoy more nutrition.  Needless to say, who doesn't love cookies?  Now, what if those cookies were actually healthy? This one is so simple that if I can make it, then anyone can. Here are the ingredients: One ripe Banana One cup of instant Oatmeal (I like Trader Joe's Oatmeal complete ) 1 tablespoon of ground Cinnamon Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. You simply mash the banana in your favorite mixing bowl, and add in t

With Nintendo announcing that this is their third year of losses , many are calling for them to get out of the hardware business and to start porting their games over to other platforms.  I happen to feel differently about that.  Considering that I've seen Nintendo make some amazing comebacks in the past with the DS, 3DS, and Wii, my belief is that with some tweaks, the Wii U could be successful or at least profitable.  Read on for my ideas. The Wii U Gamepad Let's start with this standard piece of equipment.  This would be the perfect time for Nintendo to release a Wii U system with an updated gamepad.  One that would be thinner, lighter, have better battery life and more range.  I would love a capacitive screen as well, but it's too late since it would really fragment the market and would also interfere with my next idea. The 3DS/2DS Nintendo has hinted that it's possible , and it needs to be a reality asap.  Make the 3DS/2DS compatible as Wii U controller

Competition is a great thing, even if it's a case of  the David (Bing) vs Goliath (Google) of search engines.  It is a great day for amateur bloggers as Google search now has the option to filter images by usage rights as per  Matt Cutts  on Twitter.  This new filter now easily lets you choose which images you can freely use for either commercial or non-commercial purposes instead of having to spend time digging through the advanced search option.   Apparently, Bing has had this feature (I have not used it enough to have noticed that option) for a while. To access this feature,  simply perform a Google image search , then click on "search tools," then "Usage Rights," and finally one of the five options from the drop down menu. As usual, nothing is perfect, and per the Google help page , there is a disclaimer: Before reusing content that you've found, you should verify that its license is legitimate and check the exact terms of reuse stated i

Once a phone that was mostly meant for developers to get familiar with Android, the Nexus  line has become focused on the every day consumer.  For the last few weeks, the Nexus 5 has been my daily driver and  now that I have a clear picture of how the phone performs, these are my thoughts split into categories such as display, audio, camera, etc.  Certain items such as the spec sheet and additional camera snapshots are linked throughout the article. This phone was tested on Sprints LTE network in NYC. Display The Nexus 5 comes with a five inch 1080p IPS LCD display.  For those counting pixels, that is a remarkable 445 PPI (pixels per inch) which means that text is razor sharp when reading web pages, texts, weather reports, or anything else that happens on your screen.  The LCD panel displays colors accurately with a high contrast rate which makes it easy to read outdoors on a bright day.  The viewing angles aren't the widest but still very usable for multiple people to vi

As per this thread on XDA and Sammobile  , the S4 is another step closer to seeing an update to Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat.  Visible changes are white status icons (instead of the Gingerbread green that has been the default for quite a while), and a new camera shortcut on the lock screen. I have my doubts about this chart that has been floating around the internet. According to Sammobile, there are also some performance increases in benchmarks and an improved landscape keyboard.   Based on their screenshots, the Touchwiz ui still looks very similar to what has been available previously versus the new Touchwiz from the upcoming Samsung Note Pro series. If you are the type that loves to flash test firmwares, then click on the links at the start of this article to download the firmware for testing.  Keep in mind that the leaked firmware is for the European model and is not intended for daily use.

Lifesperience is now Raycommend, which can be found here:    Ray Commend   Facebook is a platform that tends to elicit many different reactions from people when asked.  Whether you love it or hate it, every day millions of people from all over the world and all walks of life log on to the site or one of its various apps to catch up with family and friends.  As the years go by, one tends to build up a lot of content and in the case of many, some embarrassing content can be buried deep within your timeline. The fact that Facebook's settings can be confusing, even though they have tried to simplify them does not help. We're now in a day and age where many employers look at Facebook accounts long before they consider hiring you, so how does one clean up without spending hours manually clicking on on timeline icons?  Enter the Absterge script. According to the Absterge page: "Absterge works such that a user logs in to the Facebook Timeline, and navigates to the

Phoenix Wright on the 3DS on the left and Nexus 5 on the right In the last decade, the power that has become available to mobile devices has grown at an amazing pace.  Games that were once only available on high end arcade systems or the latest consoles are now playable on devices that fit in your pocket.  Loading up games like Need for Speed, Horn, Shadowgun, Final Fantasy, or even Grand Theft Auto show that mobile gaming has come a long way in a short time. Enter the Nintendo DS, a dual screened mobile system that was released in November 2004 that rendered 3D games and featured a resistive touch screen as well as an impressive game library.  Surely, such a recent system should be difficult to emulate on mobile phones, right?  With Drastic, the NDS emulator on android, the answer is "NO." Drastic is a full speed Nintendo DS emulator that is currently priced at $5.99 on the Google Play store.   There is also a free demo that allows gaming sessions for 30 minutes and