Microsoft Corporation

Nerds FTW! UH Nets a Pair of Finalists in Microsoft's Video Game Design Contest

The video game industry is massive. Video game sales outpaced music sales years ago and they continue to grow. And Houston has been home to many a video game programmer over the years. Perhaps it is because of the success at the University of Houston. For the fourth straight year, UH is the only sch ... More >>

R.I.P. Hotmail: Five Classic E-Mail Addresses to Honor a Fallen Comrade

As of last week, Microsoft migrated all Hotmail accounts to their new Outlook.com platform ending a run that has lasted nearly 16 years. It was a classic. Yes, it was abandoned by most years ago. Sure, when the box wasn't filled with spam, it was filled with semi-lurid requests from porn sites and p ... More >>

Help For Hacks: A Comprehensive List Of Athletes Getting Paid More Than The Astros Entire Payroll

Comedy is a combination of hard work, creativity, timing, and -- depending on which comedians you talk to -- an ample amount of drugs may or may not be involved as well. I don't claim to be a professional comedian. Not even close. But I do think I have a decent ear for humor, an ability to discern ... More >>

The Ten Most Corrupt Tax Loopholes

If Mitt Romney won't tell you which need to be closed, we will.

Alternatives to Five of the Pricier Software Titles

The Business Software Alliance announced last week that it had come to an agreement with local business Affordable Power, LP, to settle legal claims that the company pirated software titles. According to the release: As part of the settlement, Affordable Power agreed to pay $150,000 to settle legal ... More >>

Top 5 Ways EDM Is Now Mainstream

1997 provides us with an interesting cautionary tale about the pursuit of the next big thing and how it doesn't always play out the way we expect. From MTV's Year In Rock: Music fans were restless, record sales were stagant... Then, a new music emerged... one that captivated listeners, created new ... More >>

EMT Hires Hit Man

Comment of the Day: Internet Explorer Fans Bite Back

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involving wit ... More >>

Five Reasons You Should Quit Using Internet Explorer

For more than ten years, I've been assisting companies in building and maintaining their Web sites and Web applications. There are lots of things that can be frustrating about this process, most of which have to do with a lack of knowledge on the part of my clients, which is not entirely their fault ... More >>

Supermodels Make Hot Supermodels: Top 10 Supermodel Children

Last week pictures of Cindy Crawford's daughter surfaced across the intertubes. The little stunner is already following in her mother's footsteps and modeling, at the ripe age of ten! That may seem a bit young to be hitting the catwalk, but you have to admit she has a look (no discernible moles as f ... More >>

12 Music Business Predictions for 2012

Photo by Robert Bejil​Where were we? Oh yeah, crystal ball and prophesies. You ready for this? OK. What follows is a list of events we expect to befall the music industry in 2012. Yes, these are etched in stone and should be regarded as gospel. Full prophetic titillation ahead.

Egypt Central: The Anthem of Hate Day

It's a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we're trying hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. ​It's a good thing Egypt Central caught us in a violent rage because we're pretty sure that's how their music is supposed to be heard. Your ... More >>

Jay-Z & Kanye's Throne Tour Stop Delayed To December 5

Toyota Center's Web site is now listing the Houston date of rap titans Jay-Z and Kanye West's joint tour to promote their forthcoming album Watch the Throne as Monday, December 5, rather than the previously announced Wednesday, October 26. Promoter Live Nation confirmed the change, but has not se ... More >>

The Five Biggest Google Fails and Wins

​Google launched with much fanfare recently and, quickly, the reviews poured in. We even wrote about the things we thought Google would need to do to beat Facebook and we have since had a chance to look around inside the social networking platform. It does appear to be easier to use than Fac ... More >>

Top Five Most Overpaid Musicians In The World

​Last month Forbes released their list of the 25 highest-earning musicians of 2010, and the list contains several talents Rocks Off is happy to see keeping the lights on. No. 1 on the list, U2, is still a favorite of ours after all these years, and it's always good to see Tom Petty, Jay-Z, and ... More >>

Saturday: Kelly Clarkson At The Galleria

Allison Wagoner​Kelly Clarkson The Galleria June 25, 2011 Aftermath knew that Pride weekend in Houston was going to get a little weird for us, but we didn't think our Saturday afternoon pregame ritual would be standing amongst 100 tweens singing along to "Since U Been Gone," fighting off a ba ... More >>

Kelly Clarkson Christening Galleria Microsoft Store Next Month

Behind These Hazel Eyes: A big Microsoft check.​Rebecca Black turned out to be a hoax, but the Galleria might still be getting a visit from a pop star soon. According to Chronicle technology columnist and blogger Dwight Silverman's blog this afternoon, the former American Idol winner will per ... More >>

Retired Space Shuttles: Will Houston Get Shut Out?

A space shuttle on display​Discovery has landed safely, ending its last mission of a long and fruitful career. It's expected to spend its retirement at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum branch in Virginia. Two other space shuttles are retiring this year -- the Endeavour and Atlantis -- and 2 ... More >>

Steve Jobs Absence: Huge, But How Would It Rank Against Other Big-Time CEOs?

Steve Jobs takes a leave from Apple​Steve Jobs has once again rocked the tech world, albeit this time with his announcement that he is taking another medical leave of absence. It's huge because, to most people, Jobs is Apple, and Apple is the most hip, flexible, intuitive provider of gizmos t ... More >>

FAIL: The Entire City Of Seattle, Bachman Of BTO, The Scissor Sisters

​Seattle Knows How Great Music Is Made Three years after it was originally dreamed up, the Seattle Music Commission convened for the first time on Monday, featuring representatives from such musical mainstays as Starbucks, Amazon and Microsoft. There are also several record label reps on the ... More >>

Rid Of Me And Other Great Albums With Truly Hideous Covers

​MGMT's new album, Congratulations, comes out in April! We're excited. MGMT's 2008 debut album, Oracular Spectacular, was fantastic, and we can't wait to hear what they've got in store for the follow-up. We're positive it will be awesome, as those weird-ass kids are only going to get weirder as th ... More >>

What the Oughts Brought: Top 10 Innovations and Trends

Photo by Marco VeringaMolecular gastronomy, one of ten major innovations and trends of the last decade.​What funny food trends have marked the last decade? And what innovations do we hope carry us into the middle ages of the millennium? Here are a few things that have kept our tongues wagging. ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Finally Understanding, For Better Or Worse, Criminal Minds

​I think I finally get Criminal Minds.At first I assumed the people who watched it with any regularity were just sick freaks. Because while at first glance it isn't a lot different from the other seven hundred crime procedurals on TV any given week, what sets the show apart from the likes of Cold ... More >>

Artful Thursday: The Art Guys present Home on the Range

Michael Galbreth and Jack Massing screen their history

Cyberchondriacs

Generation DIY turns to self-diagnosing to save money.

When Publicists Attack: Solarcaded

Dana Boyce I had already drawn a bullseye on the side of my forehead and was just getting the gun out of the drawer. I'm normally not suicidal or, for that matter, the type to brood and get depressed. But as has been mentioned in these pages before, every so often a publicist just makes me wa ... More >>

Digitalia: Microsoft Songsmith Corrects Artists' Glaring Oversights

Billy Idol, "White Wedding"... sort ofMicrosoft Songsmith, a music-making computer program, has already racked up plenty of Internet accolades based on its eerily terrible commercial, wherein normal, everyday people dealing with normal, everyday problems - such as being tasked to write an ad campa ... More >>

Things To Look For At The Obama Inaugural

You know where you could be right this moment, which is about 7:30 in the morning Houston time?You could be waiting in FREEZING Washington, DC, getting on line to go through security checks so you could wait for hours and hours to watch Barack Obama's inauguration from a half-mile away.On the one ha ... More >>

Metallica's Death Magnetic

Fade to Plastic via Guitar Hero III

Turning The Screw: Crew54, DJ AM & Travis Barker, G- Unit, Pharrell, Eminem, Nate Dogg, Kanye, Wu-Tang vs. UFC and More

Text Adventure: Lost Odyssey

Words get in the way of an otherwise stellar game

Mass Effect

Mass Effect is riveting — and a bit aggravating, too

Fucking Transmissions, Begin Transmission

CD Review

Halo 3

A promising glimpse of the next Halo.

Idol Chatter

Loony Zunes

Universal Music helps Microsoft set a crappy precedent

Next Big Things

The five biggest attention-getters at E3

Back to the Future

The Xbox Live Arcade is a high-tech twist on the old-fashioned coin-op

Ryan Adams

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Generation Next

Microsoft's Xbox 360 fires the first shot in the next-gen console war

They've Got Game

Barbarians, brain-eaters and beagles round out the best of 2005

Near Perfect

Perfect Dark Zero isn't a bull's-eye, but it hits the target

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Do the Math

The music industry says online piracy's killing the biz. A UTD prof says it ain't.

Getting Lonely at the Top

A recycled city official comes home to roost

Sayonara, Sidewalk

Changing the Music Industry Bit by Bit

More options mean more choices mean more meetings

Computer Terror

Duane Franklet programs a cyberthriller into Houston

The Insider

Press Picks