What is a little bit like Mortal Kombat but involves mentos and kissing instead of fighting? If you said Mentos Kissfight, you guessed correctly! Mentos seems to be really pushing the kissability after eating their candies lately. Given their Kiss Cam web game, and the latest TV commercial for Mentos gum. The Kissfight game involves running around and trying to kiss your opponent (is that the best term here?) faster than they can kiss you. Picking up falling Mentos gives you super kiss powers. Give it a try, and see if you can become a Kissfight champion!

Remember the last Nintendo Cartridge Nintendo? This one takes it a step further, adding a controller and a screen to the package. Now you don’t even need to have a TV to play your cartridge-sized Nintendo. This one doesn’t look like you can play more than one game though. Oh well, it’s still pretty cool.

I jut got another email from Netflix, and it looks like they decided not to remove profiles.

You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.
We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.
-Your friends at Netflix

Maybe the petitions, complaints and bad press they were getting prompted the change of heart. I also wonder if maybe the 1-2% they quote a the only subscribers using that feature was maybe a little low. Whatever it was, thank you for listening to your customers Netflix.

Turiba University Sets a new world record with 1911 simultaneous Diet Coke and Mentos fountains. This breaks the previous record set by 1360 Belgium students last April.

I just got an e-mail from Netfix, they will be removing profiles feature. I thought it was spam at first, since why would Netflix do this? I followed the link, and found out this it wasn’t a joke, they are in fact removing profiles effective September 1st. This feature lets you set up multiple movie queues under different names. So I have a profile and my wife has a profile and we both get one DVD out of our two-DVD plan.

We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.
Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.
While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.
If you have any questions, please go to http://www.netflix.com/Help?p_faqid=3962 or call us anytime at 1 (888) 638-3549. We apologize for any inconvenience.

To me, removing a feature is not an “improvement,” and may prompt me to find another DVD rental service come September 1st. If you use profiles, please let Netflix know that this is a bad idea.

UPDATE: Apparently, there are a lot of (rightly) upset Netflix users out there.

• Netflix Community Blog: Profiles feature going away
• Hacking Netflix: Netflix Eliminating Account Profiles
• Digg: Netflix Eliminating Profiles
• Protest Netflix’s Cancellation of Profiles Petition
• SaveNetflixProfiles.com

Appalachian State University has recently published the results of their study on the physics behind the Mentos + Diet Coke = Crazy Fizz phenomenom. This is some serious science that I can get behind! If you ask me, more research dollars need to go towards the study of Mentos. According to the study, here is the reason the Diet Coke fizzes up when Mentos are added.

So why does the reaction occur? In an opened container of soda, carbon dioxide gas bubbles out over the course of minutes or hours until the concentration of carbon dioxide left in the soda is proportional to the carbon dioxide in the surrounding air. This de-fizzing reaction is slow because the surface tension of the liquid is very high, which keeps the gas bubbles trapped.

But when a Mentos is dropped in the beverage, it breaks the surface tension and as it falls the candy’s surfactant coating further reduces the surface tension of the liquid. The candy’s rough surface also provides growth sites for the gas, making it easier for carbonation to escape as a foam geyser.

The geyser also occurs when sand, salt or lifesavers were added to the Diet Coke, but the mass lost and volume traveled is much less spectacular.

If you wan to see the full ariticle in its full complex physics detaiils, you can access it from The American Journal of Physics Online.

What to be a part of a world record for something that you should probably do anyway? Spreadfirefox is trying to set a world record for most downloads in a 24 hour period when the new version of Firefox 3.0 is released on June 17th. If you’d like to participate, visit the Download Day 2008 website and pledge a download. They’re looking to get 3 million downloads during that day to set the record.

I’ve been using the beta release of Firefox 3 for quite a while, and am happy with the improvements (here is a screencast with some of the new features). I guess what I’m saying is that it’s worth the download, so you might as well help out with the world record attempt when you do it.

The rumors were correct. Apple announced the 3G iPhone yesterday at their Worldwide Developers Conference.  I have to say I’m very tempted. My year-old Treo 755p is looking a little long in the tooth. After several people I know have picked up iPhones over the past year, I’ve gotten to like the device more and more. The major thing that turned me off the iPhone when it was released was the lack of external applications. That will be changing very shortly. Apple announced a software developers kit for the iPhone back in March, and will open the floodgates for custom apps with the release of the iPhone 3G (and previous iPhones) in July. I’m really curious to see what apps start showing up for this thing. With my major complait out of the way, Apple improved new device even more with the addition of 3G data speeds (that was almost another deal killer), GPS, and a cheaper price. That said, there are still a few seemingly easy things missing from the iPhone.

• MMS
  Where the heck is picture texting? You would have a hard time finding a cheap freebie phone that didn’t have this feature
• Video Capture
  This isn’t a huge deal, but again seems to be a pretty common feature on all the cheapo phones out there these days. I’d be willing to bet there are a bunch of apps released that include this feature. (audio recording would be nice too!)
• Lack of Cut and Paste
  This has been a major complaint since the initial release.
• Lack of Bluetooth Data Tethering
  I do this from time to time with my Treo, and it is nice to get an Internet connection on my laptop when there is no wifi in sight (riding in the car).

None of these are really deal killers for me. I will take a long hard look at the iPhone when my current Sprint contract expires in the next year. Also, if you didn’t catch the Steve Jobs Keynote video here is a great remix from Mahalo Daily chopping the 107 minute video down to 60 seconds.

Earlier this week Netflix announced a new piece of hardware, the Netflix Player by Roku. This tiny little box allows you to plug in your TV along with an internet connection (wired or wireless) to get access to all of the Watch Now movies on Netflix. Taking a look at the specs of this piece of equipment, it really doesn’t look too bad (outside of the fact that it is yet another set top box cluttering up your entertainment center). The big thing that could help this venture is more streaming content from Netflix, which seems a little lacking at the moment. Right now they claim over 10,000 movies and TV shows are available. Unfortunately most of them seem to be older content. This new player does overcome the barrier of watching movies on your TV vs. your computer screen, which they still only offer on Windows using Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. All in all, it’s looks like a nice little device.

Given everything above, I don’t think we’ll be buying one of these. My wish came true that I mentioned at the enf of the Entertainment PC Software post. A plugin for Meedio was created to deal with Netflix. As I’ve mentioned before, we have an Entertainment PC that controls all of our media (music/video/tv/etc.). Meedio is the application we use for the main interface on that computer. An incredible plugin author (UFGrayMatter) created one that can handle all aspects of Netflix. The plugin is called MeeFlix, and works really well. We’re able to manage our Netflix Queue, and also view any of the Watch Now streaming movies right within the (remote control friendly) Meedio interface on our TV. So now our Entertainment PC does the same thing as this new Netflix Roku box and doesn’t cost $100.

Video of MeeFlix in action

Another component of the Entertainment PC has been upgraded to HD. Now that a winner has been chosen in the next-generation HD disc war, I figured it was time to make a purchase (even though it didn’t really matter with the choice I made). I bought the LG Super Multi Blue Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD-ROM drive. It will play Blu-ray, HD-DVD, and standard DVD discs as well as burn DVD’s.

The setup was pretty straight-forward. It installed like a standard DVD drive, though it was a little bit longer than most. I guess they needed to make room for those extra lasers. Once the drive was functioning, it was just a matter of getting the software to work correctly. This turned out to be more of a headache than I thought. If you don’t know anything about the new HD disc formats, they are loaded down with DRM. If you’re even thinking about playing them, you have to have a a video card AND monitor that can handle HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection). According to the documentation on both my video card, (ATI Radeon HD 2400) and TV (Magnavox 37MF337B), they are HDCP compliant. Um… the new drive though differently.

The other key to this whole setup was software used to play HD content. I had been using Cyberlink PowerDVD as my DVD player in the entertainment computer, so a simple update to the newest version of that software was supposedly all I needed. Again, I was wrong. So, everything was hooked up, the software was upgraded, it’s time to fire up my Blu-ray copy of Planet Earth (thanks Netflix!), and see what happens. Once the disc is inserted, PowerDVD comes up and shows the FBI warning in beautiful HD quality, then gives me an HDCP error and says it cannot play… lovely! There is really no reason why this shouldn’t work. The (HDCP compliant) hardware and software a totally capable of playing a Blu-ray disc. Once again DRM ruins the day. I started digging around the web for fixes, and didn’t really come up with anything. What I did run across was a lovely little application called SlySoft AnyDVD that totally removed the evil DRM bit when playing HD content. I downloaded their demo and gave it a try. Sure enough, the disc played just fine. I didn’t want to have to hack this for it to work. After a little more digging, I found another update/patch for PowerDVD, that wasn’t mentioned anywhere other than a small area of their site and figured, what have I got to lose. After installing that, and disabling AnyDVD, it finally worked. It shouldn’t be this hard!

I guess the morale of the story is DRM SUCKS! It really just puts up barriers for people who want to use the technology legitimately. I’m not trying to rip HD content, I’m not trying to play illegal content from the Internet. All I wanted to do is play a Blu-ray disc on a computer and player that should be able to play it. I was finally able to get to that point (after quite a headache). And at least it’s good to know that AnyDVD is there if you need it.

There seems to be a lot of Mentos news today! I just ran across a site called Mentos KissCam (I’m guessing from Europe) where you can (if you have a webcam) kiss a guy or gal after popping a Mentos Pure Fresh (a flavor not available in the US). Turn on your web cam and give it a try. (Maybe NSFW?)

“The freshest experience of your life”

“The film that is on everyone’s lips”

This is easily the most beautiful Mentos and Diet Coke explosion I’ve ever seen (thanks for the heads up Kevin!)

I just received a new shipment of Mentos from Japan. Mentos Ambassador Roth comes through again with a new flavor to add to the collection. The flavor is “Ume,” which they tell me means “Japanese Plum.” The Mentos themselves are a very light orange color (unfortunately not the purple/green mix color on the package). They do taste like plum. They have a subtle plum flavor which is good. I think that a strong flavor might be a bit overpowering. They have a bit of a tangy aftertaste.

Breaking Mentos News: A world record was broken recently by 1360 Belgium students all creating a Diet Coke and Mentos fountain at the same time. The previous record was set in Cape Girardeau, with 973 fountains last October.

Video from BBC News

I just upgraded to a Blu-ray player (another post is coming) so I went in and switched my Netflix account to send me BD movies instead of DVD movies. In doing so, I’ve been digging around my account more and am really not impressed by the recommendations they provide.  I’ve had an account for about two years now and the movies that Netflix thinks I’ll love… really aren’t. First I thought it was because I haven’t rated enough movies for it to get an idea of my tastes, but with a little under 900 ratings, that can’t be true any more… can it? I don’t think there has ever been an instance where Netflix recommended a movie to me and I added it to my queue. If it has happened, I could probably count the times on a single hand. I know that they’re working on the recommendation system with their Netflix Prize contest, (side note: Wired had a great article on this contest a couple months back) but don’t know if any improvements gained from this contest have made it to the site yet or not. So here’s my question: does anyone else have this issue with their Netflix queue? Does Netflix recommend nothing but gems for your viewing pleasure? If so, how many movies have you rated in your account? Let me know… maybe Netflix just doesn’t like me.