Come On Back

Omnislash in Disc 1 is easiest to earn right after the Temple of the Ancients. I would recommend using Cloud for the Battle Arena since he is overall the best character between stats, weapons, and limits. Make sure to equip the Nail Bat and Ribbon on him. Note that the Nail Bat does not possess any Materia slots.

Next equip Cloud with an Armor with the most Materia slots possible without losing Defense or Magic Defense. Cloud will now possess average-high Attacks, well rounded Defense/Magic Defense, and immunity to basically all status ailments (thanks to the Ribbon). Having his Level 3 Limits is highly advised as well since they are powerful. Next onto Materia configuring.

Recommended Materia
Nail Bat: No Materia slots
Armor: Restore, HP Plus, Enemy Skill (Beta, Big Guard, White Wind, Magic Hammer), Odin

Now travel to the Gold Saucer Wonder Square to stock up on Gold Saucer Points (GP). Play the Bike Mini Game 10-20 times earning 100-200 GP. Since each try at the Battle Arena is 10 GP. So in turn each game successfully completed of the Mini Bike is equivalent to one try at the Battle Arena. Food for thought.

That takes care of all the prep work. Now find the Battle Arena and start battling. Here are the most notable enemies that might cause you a pain in the back.

Appearance: Grim Reaper
Move: Joker (Instant Death)

Appearance: Jelly Blob
Move: Drain (MP)

Note: MP is crucial in the Battle Arena. It might even be more valuable than HP.

Appearance: Pirate Ship
Move: Exits you from the Battle. Annoying because you get 0 Battle Points (BP) for being thrown from the Battle in the Final Round. Defeat this enemy quickly.

Slot Battle Arena Point System In a Nut Shell
Final Round Handicaps determine how many points you will receive after defeating the last enemy. Basically the more difficult Handicaps give more BP. The No Handicap or Restore Bonuses give low BP. Try to get these Handicaps because they pay off the best.

Broken Weapons/Armor/Accessories/Materia (High BP)
Toad/Mini (Medium BP)

After earning Omnislash for between 60,000-70,000 Battle Arena Points the rest of the game will be simple. To put it simply by defeating Jenova at the end of Disc 1 with 16-hits from a devastating Nail Bat. To those of you attempting to unlock Omnislash Good Luck!

Play NES Games Online Free at http://www.originalnintendo.net

World Record Speed Run for Mario Bros. 1 at http://www.originalnintendo.net/mario-bros-1-online/2008/05/mario-bros-1-speed-run.html

AP - He shot a man twice and felt so good about it, police said, a rapper wrote a song describing the shooting and calling out the victim by name. A judge sentenced 25-year-old Rico Todriquez Wright Monday to spend the next 20 years in prison after his victim mentioned the hip hop confession to police.

We all know by now that the Nintendo Wii is being used all over the world with great success. But how does it work though?

Instead of the joystick and buttons that have been a staple of video game play since the days of Atari, the Nintendo Wii uses infrared technology to communicate with a wireless remote control, and it is the remote control of this console that separates it from the pack.

This console device uses a wireless, motion-sensitive controller that allows players to use their motions to control and play the game using a totally new controlling concept - no buttons, no cursors - the machine simply tracks the movements in space. This of course is unlike typical gaming systems. With this wand like feature, it simply requires the players to physically perform the action they want to see on-screen. The Dancing With The Stars game for example, uses the device's controllers to physically mimic elegant dance moves while at the same time allowing the player to add his or her own personal flair.

The architecture inside the Nintendo Wii uses technology very similar to your laptop and wireless router. It uses MEMS technology for motion detection and uses SD card technology to help players transfer saved games, photos and other data to a secondary storage unit. There is also in use a variety of peripheral capabilities and different ports for connection while the Nintendo Wii uses Wi-Fi to talk to a wireless access point for Internet access. Though this console uses a DVD drive, it will not work for playback of movies, just Nintendo games as this, of course is the intention.

So that is pretty much how the Nintendo Wii works in a nutshell and if you ain't got one yet, you don't know what you're missing.

John Milligan.

http://www.computer-games-store.co.uk

For your Nintendo Wii please visit the above site and don't forget to scroll down to the superb Amazon Store for even more choice of this, and lots of other consoles and gadgety goodies.

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So, if you're hungry for that bargain console, game or accessory, then go to the website, have a good browse and enjoy your shopping experience.

AP - Asian stock markets tumbled Thursday, with benchmarks in Japan and Hong Kong both losing more than 5 percent, after fears of a protracted recession sent Wall Street plunging to it lowest point in five years.

These days television technology seems to be focusing on the extremely large with the recent introductions of Plasma TV's over one hundred inches across. With prices falling on LCD and Plasma screen technology and LCD's getting bigger, consumers seem to be driven to get the largest TV they possibly can.

Though it's not getting as much attention, there's also a trend in the other direction. Small television screens are getting smaller. Or rather bigger home entertainment center functions are being stuffed into increasingly small devices. The Video iPod is the device that probably gets the most hype and this is largely due to the fact that it's made by Apple which has also established the online store, iTunes.

Apple has closely coincided the release of a new version of the Video iPod to the announcement that iTunes will have video in the form of movies and television shows available for download for a small fee. The new iPod has truly impressive capabilities. It's now available in with a 80 gigabyte hard drive, which can store up to 20,000 songs in 128- Kbps AAC Format, up to 25,000 digital photos and a huge 100 hours of video. It can play up to twenty hours of music on a fully charged battery or six and a half hours of video. At 2.5 inches it's screen is somewhat smaller than other models.

Dish Network is also a contender in this market with their PocketDish line. The largest model, the AV700E is the one closest to being comparable to the Video iPod. It has a forty gigabyte hard drive which can store up to one hundred and sixty hours of video, twenty thousand songs, and four hundred thousand photos (probably really small or low res photos). It will play video for up to four hours on a charged battery and audio for up to twelve hours. Besides total video capacity the AV700E has the Video iPod beat in terms of display size: it's screen is a whopping seven inches across.

Toshiba also offers a portable video device called the Toshiba gigabeat S Series Portable Media Center. It has a 60 gigabyte hard drive, a 2.4 inch screen. With a fully charged battery it can play up to 2.5 hours of video which can be downloaded from a Windows Media Center PC or a TiVo Series2 digital video recorder. It's unique features include Windows Mobile software and a built in FM radio tuner.

On the really small end of the spectrum is the Meizu Mini Player. The Meizu Mini Player packs a 2.4 inch display into a case that's only 1.9 inches by 0.4 inches by 3.1 inches. It's specs don't show exactly how much content it's four gigabyte hard drive is supposed to hold, but it would be reasonable to guess that you could watch two full length feature films on it. It does handle audio, video, and photos. Two exceptional features about the Meizu Mini Player, in addition to it's small size, is the fact that it can play audio or video for up to 20 hours on a single charge and that it's compatible with Linux computers along with Windows and Mac.

For anyone who likes to carry around A LOT of media on their portable device, there's the Archos 504 which has a huge 160 gigabyte hard drive. It has a 4.3 inch screen and can play standard audio and video formats.

With these portable AV units on the market, there's a lot of competition to create the latest device to pack the biggest punch in the smallest package.

J. Hall writes articles for consumers who want to find the best new technology currently available. She has written for many major publications about the latest television deals and promotions and how buyers can find the best discounts.

AP - The pilot of a private jet warned air traffic controllers that his plane was "going off the end" of a runway before it crashed, killing him and three others and injuring celebrity DJ AM and former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker.

My first awareness of Jeff Healey was when I heard "Angel Eyes" on the station that I began listening to when I moved to a new place. This was 2006, so I had no clue the song was from Jeff Healey Band's first album, See the Light, released in 1988.

My first awareness that he had died was a link on an Internet news site saying something like "Blind Canadian musician dies." Well, I hadn't known that Jeff was either blind or Canadian, so no one came to mind; I clicked and there it was: Jeff Healey of Jeff Healey Band had died at age 41 on the afternoon of March 2, 2008.

Under any circumstances, a death at age 41 is a sad event. I was curious to know what had happened, but more importantly, what kind of man the world had just lost. My quest for information took me online to an encyclopedia entry about his life, to news about his performances, to his available recordings, and finally to a series of YouTube videos.

While the official sources provided the basics, such as when and where he was born (March 25, 1966, Toronto, Ontario); why he was blind (retinoblastoma in his first year of life); and how he died (metastases from the original cancer, which became pretty much a lifelong struggle), the comments from his fans really brought Jeff to life.

Here's a YouTube sampling as of a week and a half after the news: Jeff Healey Band "Angel Eyes" live UKTV performance in 1989, Jeff Healey Band "Angel Eyes" music video, and Jeff Healey "See the Light" (live), combined, have over 713,000 views and more than 2500 comments. Since Jeff's talents encompassed several styles of music, from jazz to blues to soft rock to harder rock, it is reasonable to expect that his fans come from a similarly broad demographic. Yet from young kids to those older than Jeff, the comments are universally adoring.

Some praise his music: amazing...outstanding talent...one of the best.

Some his character: nice and genuine...a true gentleman...a great human being...a true Canadian hero.

And some capture the whole man: an inspiration to all of us...a beautiful song, a beautiful voice, a beautiful man.

Lots of "love ya, Jeff." Lots of "I wept when I heard." Lots of "such a loss."

Without benefit of having been a longtime fan, I wanted to know him better. I watched the video clips of his performances, sometimes with the sound turned off, and sometimes just listened with my eyes closed. And each experience drew me in deeper.

One repeated theme in the comments was "I didn't know he was blind." Well, the complete mastery he has over not only his instrument but also his physical space is something to behold. Sure, lots of blind people become accomplished musicians; many come to mind immediately. But the way Jeff moves around, holding the guitar every which way...I read that once someone in the audience threw him a glass of water and he caught it.

His being blind doesn't make that amazing. It just makes it more amazing.

And then there are the gentle love songs like "Angel Eyes." Jeff was a mere 22 years old when this song was recorded, but in songs like this you can really appreciate the beauty of his voice. Not all rock musicians can really sing, but Jeff can...I mean, could. And that angelic face--are there any girls in the audience who don't wish he were singing directly to them?

I get the sense that Jeff Healey was underappreciated during his time here. Certainly there are musicians less talented, less likable, less enjoyable to watch--yet more famous--than he. It troubles me to think I almost missed knowing Jeff ever existed. If the radio wasn't still playing this one song after almost 20 years, I never would have heard of him, and the fact that he had left us would barely have crossed my radar.

Yet in honor of his amazing talents and his extraordinariness as a human being, I hope he becomes better known in the future. I'd love to see a series of tributes to the amazing and much-loved Jeff Healey--a documentary, a movie, of course a book. We owe it to him...more to the point, I suppose, we owe it to ourselves.

Goodbye, Jeff Healey. Thanks for being with us.

Lisa J. Lehr is a freelance copywriter and ghostwriter.

Visit her blog at http://justrightcopy.com/wordpress and her website at http://www.justrightcopy.com

AP - Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden says he plans to fulfill his National Guard duties and won't accept an appointment to his father's U.S. Senate seat.