Happy Birthday, Sonic The Hedgehog!

Another bit of nostalgia, Sonic The Hedgehog is 20 years old today. Those of us who remember the Sega Genesis are familiar with the video game. For those looking to bring some of it back, you can find working Sega Geneses (plural) on EBay for pretty cheap.

Does anyone know how old Street Fighter 2 is? Mortal Kombat?

Image from nerdreactor.com

Sonic turns the big 2-0 today.

Shazam helps you name that song you heard on the radio or TV.

We've probably all been there before. You're listening to a song on the radio and you've most likely caught it half way through. At the end of the song, the DJ goes into another one and the name of the song is never mentioned. What do you do? Drive around for another hour or two and wait for the song to come back on with an explaination from the DJ? Why don't you Shazam it?

Shazam is a free app(other versions go for $5.99 in the Apple App store) that you can get on iphone, android and blackberry that can tell what the song is and then tell you where to buy the song.

It doesn't work on people trying to sing the song from the few lyrics they know accapella. 3 folks in the office tried with me. If the app could laugh at us, it probably would.

I can't wait to try it out on various commercials.

*Image from Techcrunch.com

Shazam Raises A Huge Round To The Tune of $32 Million

The 80's action cartoon challenge.

He-Man and The Masters Of The Universe, Transformers, Voltron, M.A.S.K., The Centurions, COPS, G.I. Joe, Thunder Cats, Captain Power and The Soldiers of The Future (Not to be confused with Captain Planet). These were shows I enjoyed in my pajamas and a bowl of frosted flakes. This week, Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch blog has been asking which characters did you like the most on the various shows. I have a feeling that this will end with a "Who is the greatest 80's cartoon character" question, but with so many cartoons being team oriented, it's only fair to pick the best team.

So here it is. Which 80's cartoon team can rule over all the rest and why?

My vote is G.I. Joe. Mainly because of man power. The 'Joe had the largest squad with varying abilities of all the members and even though the stories centered around the main characters, there were always extra soldiers around. G.I. Joe could overrun He-Man and his team. They have just as many machines as Transformers. If one lion goes down, Voltron can't form. M.A.S.K. would be the only other one who would pose a threat. There are only 3 centurions. If G.I. Joe took out Panthro and Cheetara, Lion-O wouldn't be much good. Captain Power could be a dark horse in that cartoon battle, though. Agree? Disagree?

Image from EW.com/Everett Collection

Who is the coolest 'He-Man' character?

".anything" As a website? It could happen...

Ever wondered how ".com", ".net" and others came about? Well a group called ICANN (Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers) are behind it and they've decided to up the ante a bit.

ICANN has opened up the Internet to having ".yourbrandhere". Of course, large companies like Coca-Cola will go after .Coke. The simplicity is awesome. And so could the comedy. .firstname.lastname, .Whatever, Acme.Anvil, .kanpai... the list goes on.

It stops being funny when we get to the money. Applications for domain names will cost $185,000 and it's not first come first served. For example. If Coke and Pepsi both wanted .Cola (And I bed they do), then there would be a bidding war.


Expensive undertaking? Yes. However, the ease of use and the expansion of choices will make it easier for some folks to get the name that they want instead of having to come up with sentences for website names. So! Who is ready to pitch in and buy a custom domain? .Woohoo!

*image from MSNBC.com

Global Internet body to unleash domain names

Rebecca Black's 'Friday' pulled from Youtube

"It's Friday. Friday. Gotta get down on Friday.." If you haven't heard it, you are one of the lucky ones. Rebecca Black captured the morbid amusement of the internet with "Friday." A song butchered with autotune, terrible lyrics and an over 30 Usher Raymond look-alike rapping that seemed to be speeding in an effort to get to a party full of 14 year olds. As bad as it is, it had over 155 million Youtube views. But this Friday, it's gone.

Before anyone claims that the worst is over, it's only due to a dispute over Black's image. Ark Music Factory and Black's handlers are in a fight over her image and the money that goes with it. She was starting to fade from memory a little bit and this fiasco is just the thing needed to get her back in the spotlight.

So this begs the question, What music videos have you seen that are so bad, you wish they would be removed?

*image from TMZ.com

Rebecca Black YANKS 'Friday' Off YouTube

Apple could be opening up a can of iWorms.

Go to any large venue for a concert and you will see a sea of lights. The band is playing a song that has some emotion to it and people breakout their lighters to hold in the air. That's how it used to be. Today, that light has been replaced with cell phone screens lighting up the concert. With camera technology today, people can record their own experience at live shows. Apple has a plan to stop that.

Imagine a system that will send an infrared signal and disable the camera in your iPhone at a concert. Throngs of teenagers with over 1,000 pictures of themselves and their friends on Facebook would be heartbroken. There would be no proof of the time that the lead singer called you up on stage. On the bright side, there would be no proof of you falling off the stage.

I see this idea from both sides. As someone who has filmed live shows, I would make money off of the sale of the DVD. However, the amount of people willing to buy it drops when folks can see all the clips posted on Youtube. If I was in the crowd, of course I'm going to take at least a picture of myself at a concert!

Other thoughts on this technology are:

What if celebrities used this when they are out to eat for a jog? Imagine seeing George Clooney walking toward you, you pull out your cell phone to take a picture and it says "Camera disabled" until he is more than 50ft away from you.

How many cameras does this work on? My DSLR camera has an infrared sensor too.

What if law enforcement used this? What if no one's cameras worked as they lined the streets for the president's inauguration. How about Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding in the UK? What if London had that in place so there would be no way to get that moment on your cell phone.

What if ladies could use this device if they feel like a camera is watching them in the bathroom? It would instantly disable any cameras a person my be using.

Our military used night vision goggles. Night vision uses infrared. Think about if one of these devices made it's way into terrorist hands.

What if you try to get video of your baby's first steps and cannot due to a neighbor using this device because he believes aliens and the government are watching him? (Really extreme thought, but you never know.)

With the right dampeners, this could be projected in theaters and thus eliminating a large chunk of movie bootlegging.

Last, but not least... Your remote control uses infrared. Who remembers having to change channels on the TV by walking over to it? Want to mess with a friend/enemy/random person? Park this device by their house.

Even though, this technology has been around for a while in some shape or form, I know Apple will turn out something small, portable and powerful.

*Image from Foxnews.com

New Apple Technology Stops iPhones From Filming Live Events

Conquer Services wants you!... to take a survey.

I've run the gamut when it comes to arts and entertainment. I had a short lived stint as an artist until my drawing made a girl hyperventilate because she thought I made her look ugly. Art is subjective!

When it came to music, I've played guitar, bass, sang, wrote songs, been a recording engineer and a producer. Moved on to photography and now to video. In every area, there has been someone that has required pay for their services. The price and accessibility of various recording studios is what inspired me to learn how to do various things in an effort to cut costs. Two things I've learned is someone will always be better than you and you can do it all, but it'll wear you out.

So why not let someone do a little extra work for you once in a while? You've spent so long making sure that the song is perfect. Let a qualified sound engineer record it on a quality system. Why not let a photographer come in and snap some high resolution pictures that surpass the limits of the lead singer's girlfriend and her iPhone? Why not rock out on a professional video superior to your little brother's Flipcam?

This is what Conquer Services is planning. Imagine going to one spot to find the professionals you need instead of getting a lead from a friend of a friend or crossing your fingers for an email from Craigslist. The thing is, we can't do it without ya!

Conquer Entertainment would like for you to fill out this survey and let us know what kind of services you are looking for and already using so we can figure out how to make it better.

Conquer Services Survey

Google says "Happy Birthday" to Les Paul

Les Paul made the most iconic guitars ever played. Ask a guitar player to rattle off types of guitars and he will most likely say that name.

In honor of Les Paul (1915-2009), Google turned their logo into a functioning guitar on the search engine page. Play with it here. It's probably only going to stay up through the end of today and then it'll be gone, but it's fun to mess with and for those who find they played something cool, there is a recording button.

*Image from techland
Search and Strum: Play a Tune on Google's Les Paul Doodle

Let Tim McGraw be a reminder for artists.

"We heard you play and you were great. We'd love to sign you to our label." Those are words I would've loved to heart writing songs and rocking out as a teenager. Part of me would still love to hear it, but I'd have to decline. I bet Tim McGraw wishes he knew then what he knows now.

According to the Tennessean, McGraw was signed to a 20 year/X amount of albums contract with specific lengths of time between releases. So lets say you've plowed through 5 albums. You are working on number 6 and it's ready to go. Then you find out the record company has released a "Greatest Hits" album with your name on it and you have to wait another year to release your 6Th record.

On top of that, the label now considers your 6Th album "older material" and wants you to write new songs. Congratulations, you would be an indentured servant. I'm not sure how to help Tim McGraw out of this one. Do we hurry up and buy the greatest hits album in the hopes that the record label will release his new CD early and he can be that much closer to breaking free or do we not buy any of his music in protest?

Doesn't Conquer Entertainment sound so much better? Make your own career. Start here.

*image from Tennessean.com

Curb Records sues Tim McGraw over latest album

Warmer weather and "Panda Haters" inspire trip to the zoo.

In CNN's News Stream blog, Kristie Lu Stout talks about pandas doing nothing and holding no value in the animal kingdom.

It got me thinking of catching a glimpse of a panda at the zoo. When was the last time you went to the zoo? I think my last time was when I was 8 or so. I think it's time to go back and see a panda. And someone tell them to make sure the frozen lemonade is ready.

Isn't about time to go see some wildlife? Log in to Market America and grab some tickets.

Confessions of a 'panda hater'