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Omar L. Gallaga writes about technology culture for the Austin American-Statesman. He's worked for more than nine years at the Austin American-Statesman and edited Technopolis, the newspaper's personal tech section, and ¡ahora sí!, Austin's Spanish-language newspaper. He's been a writer and performer with Austin's award-winning Latino Comedy Project and is a contributing writer for Television Without Pity, MSNBC.com's books section and The Almost Late Show with Bobby Bones. He writes a comic strip, "Space Monkeys!" with his brother, Pablo, and lives in New Braunfels with his wife and three technologically savvy cats.

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Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2007 > November > 20 > Entry

Sir Links-a-Lot: Austin tech edition

By Omar Gallaga | Tuesday, November 20, 2007, 12:39 PM

There is much to catch up on between you and I. I’ve been slammed with stacks of video games, polishing off today’s gadget gift guide and sorting through submissions for our new “Masters of their Domains” feature. It’s been one of those weeks that reminds me why I love Austin so much: so many people creating such remarkable, unique things, whether it’s online or in some tech lab. There are other great tech towns, but Austin always surprises me with its inventiveness and creativity.

Onward: Here’s a few updates on some things happening in your town:

On Networks, which we wrote about a few months ago and which recently received $12 million in venture funding, has been busy. The online video company is partnering with the South by Southwest Film Festival to create the “Greenlight Awards,” which will honor an original episodic digital series. Submissions will be accepted through Feb. 15, 2008 and the winner will receive $10,000 and a distribution deal with On Networks. The company plans to announce more details about the awards in December.

They also launched a new show recently called Mainstream Green. You can check out an episode here:

Netroots Nation, a big political bloggers convention, is coming to Austin next year. We’ll obviously be keeping an eye on this.

Blastro Networks, which specializes in online music videos, was named as one of seven “Best of the Web” sites for music as chosen by readers of BusinessWeek. It was a write-in candidate with multiple votes submitted, according to BusinessWeek.

It’s been long enough for reviews of “Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa” to start trickling in. According to Metacritic, the game is hovering at about 78 percent average in reviews, but that number may be skewed a bit by a particularly harsh review from Game Revolution. All the other reviews listed range from 80 to 90 percent, which bodes well for the new MMO.

I know a lot of you are curious about “Rock Band,” which we’ve been playing since Thursday and how it compares to “Guitar Hero III.” I’m working on a write-up of that which I hope to post later today. The short version is that “Rock Band,” as a collaborative experience, is definitely worth the $170 pricetag. The drumset alone is well-built and impressive, and the game is extremely fun to play. If you have a willing group of friends, it’s definitely the party videogame of the holidays. I’ll be writing more about this later: stay tuned.

In the meantime, enjoy these two photos of yesterday’s “Guitar Hero III” tournament at Hot Topic in Barton Creek Square mall. These guys are playing on a level that makes my brain hurt.