If you spend a good deal of your most precious commodity (time) living vicariously through gaming, you’ll have some new adventures to look forward to in 2011. With new features and game engines, most of the highly anticipated games are bringing advancements to their gaming platforms. From stereoscopic 3D games to those using the new PlayMove and Kinect technologies, here are 8 games to love in 2011:

1. Crysis 2

As a first-person shooter game, players can jump into this stereoscopic 3D sequel. The game will be the first to utilize the CryEngine 3 (that’s a game engine). Set in 2023 in New York, the game offers a new environment that replaces the typical jungle setting of the first Crysis. It does, however, keep the aliens.

2. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Join Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan as they travel around the world looking for the Iram of the Pillars, a lost city. The game supports stereoscopic 3D, is multi-player, and has improved features from the previous Uncharted games.

3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Since details are still scarce for the next installment of Elder Scrolls, most of the hype for this game is coming from fans of the series and their expectations. The trailer for the video does start off with a fire-breathing dragon. One added benefit is that the new game will utilize a new engine.

4. Bioshock Infinite

The days of Rapture are yet to come. Bioshock Infinite heralds in an era that predates Rapture. Set in Columbia, a city in the sky, you will fight to determine who will control the world.

5. KillZone 3

Set for release February 22, Killzone 3 is a first-person shooter, and it’s 3D. It also is the first Killzone game to utilize PlayStation Move. While the plot still hinges on war, Guerrilla Games has scaled back on unnecessary swearing and the former overtly dark storyline, both of which generated major complaints.

6. Child of Eden

Sure, many people find shooter games amusing. But, if you want a break from blowing stuff up, keep your eye out for Child of Eden. Featuring visually stunning imagery, the game pulls you into the AI system, where you must purge the mainframe of a virus. As a potential added bonus, this game is Kinect-enabled.

7. Dead Space 2

Players who enjoy grisly games will want to keep an eye out for this horror story. The third-person shooter features a multi-player mode. Players can witness the gory transformation of the Necromorph infection as it attacks the residents of a Sprawl, a space station.

8. Little Big Planet 2

If you enjoy user-generated platforms, Little Big Planet 2 is set to deliver just what you like. The sequel will include over three million levels developed by players in the first version. Each level will be editable, and the new version advances the original Sackboy plot.

These games are the cream of the crop for development and design, so no matter what type of game you prefer to play, whether user-generated, first-person shooter, or fantasy-based, you’re sure to find plenty to keep you busy with this 8 games to love in 2011.

There are tons of programs out there that do the same thing your paid or ad covered ones do for free. Or if you are a windows hater rebel who refuses to follow the crowd these are perfect for you. I challenge anyone who feels a free version can never be as good as a paid version of a program to give these alternatives a shot.

Pidgin

Most IM clients are already free but popular ones like aim are covered in annoying advertisements and always open up the aim homepage when they open. Pidgin has no ads, is much lighter on system resources and also handles a large number of clients so there is no need to have 5 different ones installed on your pc

AbiWord

A much more light weigh word processor with more features and less system use, it sounds too good to be true. Running Microsoft word takes around 30mb of RAM where AbiWord uses less than 6mb. One of the best features is as the window you are using it in is made smaller so you can multitask the text is made smaller so you never have to scroll left and right to see the whole document.

Gimp

Switching from Photoshop to gimp is very easy, most all of the same tools are there but just sorta tucked away in a new location. A few hours learning curve is worth the few hundred dollars you will save and there are some neat extra features that photoshop doesn’t have as well.

ThunderBird

There are probably a thousand reasons why you should not use Microsoft Outlook. Besides all the design flaws, low productivity, and exorbitant price it is a not so secret passage for viruses onto your PC. When worms and viruses are being created and embedded into image and attachments they are created to exploit wholes in Outlook to get into your machine. Thunderbird is much more secure and a smaller user base so less viruses are created for it.

Open Office

A free, open source complete office suite with all of the same features as Microsoft’s but with the better system performance that comes from open source engineering. Microsoft Office is pricey to start with but when you consider the costs of upgrading to the newest version every few years it’s outrageous. All Open Office updates are free and completely compatible with Microsoft Office.

FireFox

Firefox has grown so much in the last few years that it is practically main stream but it is still worth noting.  If you are still using internet explorer hurry up and pull your head out of the ground and download it. Everything will explain itself in the five minutes to follow.

AVG Free

Tired of those annoying pop-up telling you that your Norton Antivirus subscription has ran out and it is time to pay to download the newest version. Well uninstall it and try out AVG Free. It has some of the largest virus definition files available and is actually more accurate at identifying viruses than Norton.

7zip

If you don’t like the way windows handles its own zip files or are tired of hitting the button that ask to find a program that can open this file on the internet try this file extractor that handles many different file types.

Foxit Firefox PDF Plug-in

Adobe reader takes forever and a day to load and uses a ton of resources. When you are trying to view a pdf on the web you have to wait for it to start. Foxit is a pdf plugin for firefox that allows you to quickly view pdf’s within the browser.

Ubuntu

When you are finally tired of all the over priced programs and ready to be done with it for good it is time for Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a Linux based Operating System. 98% of the software made for it is free and open source so you would actually have to hunt for a paid version of most programs

1. New age video streaming by Justin.tv

We’re already in the next generation of the internet age. If you’ve read Ben Elton’s futuristic novel Blind Faith then you’ll know what I’m talking about. In the novel Ben Elton portrays a world where privacy is an evil and everyone is streaming their lives on the internet.

This is how Justin.Tv works as well. This website came to life when an American, Justin Kan living in San Francisco, came up with the idea of streaming every minute of his life by setting up a web camera on his cap. This innovative idea by Justin soon became a huge success with people around the globe. Today, there are thousands of members who view videos, broadcast themselves and communicate with other members of Justin.tv.

The members on Justin.tv can do a lot more than just broadcast themselves. A number of shows can be planned by using channels on the website. These channels stream videos of the show and also provide a chat window which allows members to communicate with each other.

A lot of times the streaming videos may just be random queer stuff which makes no sense. Also, because of its setup Justin.tv is open to pranksters who spread rumors or play silly pranks on the community.

Logon to Justin.Tv to find out more and even experience this unique site for yourselves.

1. A new One stop community website – Friendfeed.com

After the success of social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter, Friendfeed.com is today’s hot topic. It is an all in one website. What does that mean?

Once you create an account on Friendfeed.com you can share your feeds with your friends on various networking websites and you can also view their feeds on this website.

You may think that this website is worthless, but let me remind you that, that is exactly what most people said about Twitter when it was launched. Friendfeed.com is designed and made by Ex-Google members who came up with this innovative idea of a one stop social networking site.

When you register yourself on Friendfeed.com make sure that you check the option that makes your feeds private, unless you want your feed to be read and seen by everyone on the network. Also, while creating your account you can opt to subscribe to a list of popular channels on the website.

Once you’ve created your account all you need to do is connect your Friendfeed.com account to your Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon and other social networking website accounts.

It seems to as if Google is circling Microsoft like a Shark would it’s prey. They are finding every weak point that Microsoft has and are breaking them down one small piece at a time. Microsoft fails at many things including Internet Explorer, Windows Mobile, and Vista. Microsoft is considered by the average uninformed computer user to be a good thing but even most ignorant people know there are somethings that just don’t seem right. Google is capitalizing on these weak points the general pubic has by creating competitors for them are free and superior.

Even if someone is not already a Firefox user chances are they have ran into a problem or two with Internet Explorer at some point in time. It is slow to start and often doesn’t load what the user wants right especially if they are still using IE6. Google blows Internet Explorer out of the water with lightweight and speedy Chrome Browser. The first limb from Microsoft is torn.

Google then zones in on its next target, the sluggish, ineffective windows mobile. Each new version is much bigger than the last and even the ever improving technology can’t keep up with the over wight baby vista. The licence ads a hefty Microsoft tax to you the final price of you already expensive smart phone. Google beats windows mobile to the ground with its free and open source mobile operating system that is perfect for any phone because the software is meant to be tailored to the needs of any device.

Netbooks are becoming increasingly popular because they are super cheap and super portable but Microsoft has had to take a step back in order to adapt to them because Vista just won’t run on the underpowered machines. Once again a $250 computer has to be sold for  $300 after Microsoft has gotten its fair share for its ancient Operating System that they no longer support. Linux has taken a shot at filling in this deficiency but their lack of support for most hardware has made it difficult. Google is working on a lightweight operating system called chrome OS for underpowered machines and netbooks. It will be based off the foundation Linux laid but if they can get the kinda driver support windows has they will be a big contender.  Rumor is a offline Google Documents may also be in the works further sweetening the deal and emptying Microsoft’s wallet.

With Google taking over all of the small things that  Microsoft just doesn’t do right I start to wonder just when will they finally go for the kill? Will Chrome OS eventually develop into a full fledged Operating System to Battle Windows? There are already a few netbooks that are choosing Android instead of Windows so there systems so there is definitely a willingness in the market for a Google OS. It will come eventually, its just a matter of time.

If you are trying to keep you debt under control, you may have received a ton of advice. Likely, reducing your dependence on credit cards is high on the to-do list. Credit cards, as anyone has used one knows, can ramp up your debt almost before you know it. They make it easy to feel like you have more money than you actually do. Besides, when the bill comes, it can be easy to pay just the minimum amount due, and interest rates can quickly get away from you. The cards might be hard to part with, though, when they’re so convenient.

Equally convenient but less sticky when it comes to managing your money are Prepaid Credit Cards. Because they are prepaid, you can’t spend more than you have, and there are no surprises at the end of the billing cycle. Like credit cards, however, they can be easier than running to the ATM. They are also convenient for online shopping, recurring bills, and for travel. They look and work just like credit cards. You can even use them in conjunction with cash or other forms of payment. Some allow you to send a text message to a number printed on the card, and receive a message back with the balance. This makes it easy to keep track of how much you have left to spend.

The best way to gain financial control, to put it simply, is not to spend money that you don’t have. This will mean looking carefully at the amount of money you have coming in, and adjusting your expenses accordingly. Naturally, unexpected expenses will come up at times. For these situations, it is a good idea to have some savings set aside. That way, you can draw on the savings, i.e. money you already have, rather than using credit cards, which will cost more in the long run.

There are a lot of things we do in life just to keep up our health. We eat reasonably healthfully (or at least we pretend we do), we exercise on a reasonably regular basis and we sleep every so often (if only to sleep off the buzz from last night’s debauchery session). But our personal health is not the only thing we have to worry about, in our modern world. While it is definitely a great idea to keep your body functioning as well as you possibly can, keep in mind that not everything you do in life is going to be “IRL” (in real life, if you aren’t up on chat speak).

If your computer is screwed up, your life is screwed up. You need your computer for things like keeping track of your bank statements, making sure your bills get paid properly and keeping up with all of the latest events in this world. So naturally, you want to keep your computer at least as healthy as you would want your own body to be — and in some of our cases, a little healthier. So other than using a surge protector and defragging every so often, you need to do just a few other things, to make sure your computer stays healthy and runs well.

For one thing, you need to make sure that your firewall is up to snuff. The one that’s included with windows is occasionally of sub-optimal quality, to put it nicely. And you should always keep your Antivirus software in tip top shape. After all, your Antivirus program can be the difference between having a quick, sprightly computer where your information is safe,and having a computer that drags around, while hackers rip off every password you type in with key stroke loggers and such.

As you and your date talk, laugh, and discuss lighter topics, it’s inevitable that he or she will, at some point, ask you a “tough” question. These inevitable questions can take many forms and they are too numerous to list here. Often, you’ll just have to do the best you can with the question and then, after the date, plan to answer it better the next time you’re asked it. The principle to remember is this: be honest – tactfully honest. Each question is an opportunity to reveal something about yourself that will make you more attractive. Let’s take a look at one of the more common ones.

“So, what kind of work do you do?”

You’ll want to have an answer ready in advance for this one. The essence of answering this question effectively is to describe what you do in one or two sentences. A great way to look at it is: answer the question in a way so that an eight-year-old would understand you, and then say, “Cool!” Saying that you’re a “project manager” or a “systems engineer” doesn’t really tell the other person much. Try something along the lines of, “You know how online sports betting is really popular now? I write the software that makes it work.” If you’re unemployed, in school, or working what you consider to be a menial job, you can still answer this question effectively. “I’m working as a waiter while I’m getting my MBA,” or “I’m interviewing for a public relations position.” If you really are unemployed, of course, it’s best to get some job – any job, not only to increase your self-respect and income, but to help you answer this question! Present yourself in the best possible light, just as you dress and style your hair to make you look your best.

If you’re looking for a unique way to advertise your business, think stickers. Custom bumper stickers can be a unique way to advertise your business and can be placed in several different areas around your neighborhood. When considering using bumping stickers to advertise your business, you’ll need to find a custom sticker printing company to make them for you.

When selecting a company to print your stickers, look at what different ones can offer you, from cost to style to the amount that can be printed at once. Compare the prices and quality of several companies before placing your order.

Once you’ve selected a printing company, you’ll want to come up with an eye-catching design. If your company has a logo or custom printing style, use them on the stickers. Of course, you want to make sure you don’t go overboard. Only place a few graphics on the sticker, such as your company name, logo, and phone number. Remember, these stickers are going to be seen by drivers and passengers of cars, and they’ll only glance at them for a moment while driving. You’ll want to come up with something that will grab their attention and make them think of you when they are in need of your goods or services.

To that end, you will want to make sure that when you choose the design for your sticker, you’re using good color choices and bold, easy-to-read print. You can find out more about designing custom stickers on the Internet. Some websites will take you through the process of designing and ordering stickers so you’ll know what to expect. Just like with anything else you do for your business, you’ll want to make sure you do your research and come up with the best plan for you.

HP once again has come up with this sleek looking lap top of Mini 1151NR very much similar to HP mini 1000 model, but with the addition of, Version offering 3G enabled system in the Mini 1151NR, a package which is quite similar to buyers of mobile phones. The combination of Net book with 3G is making the most use of two latest technologies. Though it is prized at a higher range, one should not ignore the fact that mobile broadband data is always very expensive, no matter how ever you cut it short. And also having internet access anywhere at anytime is certainly very tempting.

T

he sleek looking key board is done up very neatly with its keys flat, large and wide making the whole experience very appealing. A good break from the usual tiny and uncomfortable keys on keyboard of other laptops operated by most of them, with the HP Mini 1151 NR they can take a sigh of relief. The touch pad not very comfortably designed, it is wide enough but short mouse buttons are placed to farther most of left and right side instead of placing it below the touch pad. The switch for power is not very impressive as the slider is small in the front which is usually hard to hit. The wide screen of 10.1 inches displays has 1,024×576 native resolutions, a bit lower than 1,024×600 which is standard for screens of this size. Which usually good for internet surfing but vertical and long pages or word documents will need to do a lot of scrolling to read one page. Though the screen looks glossy and sharp especially with the glass overlay fixed from one edge to another, a lot of glare is picked in the bargain.

This version of HP Mini 1151NR has few connections and ports as compared to any other Netbooks of this type, but this has also be taken care by providing Two ports for USB which should suffice most of the users, The HP Mini 1151 NR has been powered by Intel’s single core 1.6 GHz Atom which provides sufficient computing power to carry any basic work for which these Netbooks are mainly used like working on various documents, multimedia playback and internet surfing. The battery life is not very impressive, it has a battery with three cells and the battery life of the Mini line is not very long. Turning the 3G modem off the Mini 1151 NR could run only for 2 hours 30 minutes on a video file nearly 15 minutes lesser than its original the HP mini 1000. You make require a six cell battery for using it for long hours. Though one is offered by HP if purchase the Mini 1151 directly but not as a part of the Version offer. The warranty period is valid for one year as per the industry standards for any service. The HP customer supports provides service 24 hours and is quite helpful if any problem arises.

Though many might feel it is prized at a higher side, do not worry it is certainly worth it.

T-mobile has come up with a great competition to the I-phones by introducing their most recent mobile phone, T-mobile 3G which is in fact great news to the T-mobile users. The mobile is created in a way that it impresses the user in all ways. It comes with great quality and even better ease in use. This version was introduced in the market on the month of July 2009 which is also called as ‘ANDROID PHONE’. It has a great customizable features and smaller when compared to the other models. The important features include the additional features of icons, wallpapers and its synchronization can be done with the Outlook Microsoft. Another special feature of this handset is the program ‘Sherpa’ which will facilitate the owner to get information on his favorites and the recommendations available. It is a touch screen mobile phone which has an instant access to the services provided by Google.

The T-mobile is also equipped with many unique features including the customization tools and a full html browser which enables widget creation. The main google features available are Gmail client, google search and Google maps. The main attraction of the phone is the fast third generation network which enables the users to avail the wifi feature. The phone is so unique that with a single click of the custom-made widget, the features like music player or weather check can be employed. The user is offered with simple navigation feature through which he can arrange the applications the way he wants to. The internet features include user friendly features like the notifications of email alerts in the home screen. The important additional features offered include the fully integrated features which allow the users the synchronization of calendar, get directions and the one click features in the home page which allows the user to use google search.

This mobile also has an outstanding feature to send emails to all contacts with just one touch. The users need not go for the computers to share images with the friends and family as T-mobile my touch 3G has great one touch features to take photos and to share them with the friends and family.  You can do this by just touching the You Tube or Picasa widget. The one touch facility also allows you to personalize the home screen with the favorite images. The T-Mobile my touch 3G offers a lot of awesome entertainment features for its users too. By the introduction of this model, the T-mobile users will have something to cheer about as it will be a whole new experience of touch world. This mobile will even allow you to search your favorite spots with just one touch. The presales of T-Mobile my touch 3G is already on the track and it is sold to a lot of customers around the globe. So don’t be late in getting yourself the latest I-phone killer from T-mobile. It is certain that the T-Mobile my touch 3G will conquer the mobile phone market.