Last week when Billy Mitchell took back the Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. world records, mullets parted and American flag ties blew in the wind once again. As soon as I found out about this epic event, I immediately emailed Dennis and we quickly exchanged OMG FTW emails like two teenage girls. Now if you don't know who Billy Mitchell is and you haven't seen The King of Kong do yourself a favor and hop on the Googles and the YouTubes and just type in "Donkey Kong World Record."

It doesn't take long to see that Billy Mitchell is the man! He looks like a cross between Chuck Norris, David Copperfield, and Billy Mays. Not only does he have the look of a champion but he also has the skills! He is so good at classic arcade games it is ridiculous. I mean he was the first person in the world to score a perfect game at Pacman! That's 255 levels and 3,333,360 points, Sheesh!

Don't get me wrong, I can throw down on some Donkey Kong and Ms Pacman, but I will never be as good as Billy Mitchell. Look at me. I'm too old, I don't have enough playing time under my belt and my hair isn't nearly as stellar. But luckily, I have bred a challenger that is as equally hungry for competition and kid cuisines. Attached is a very early clip I would say about, one to two days into our training ritual (Eat, Sleep, Ms. Pacman, Homework). Be afraid Billy, be very afraid.

About a year and a half ago, Google released its first public version of its browser Chrome. Since then I've switched from Safari to Firefox and installed countless add-ons to make my life as a web developer easier. Lately though, I've begun to question my browser of choice, Firefox.

I know what you're thinking: "Brandon, I thought you loved Firefox!" Well, I did. That is until one day Firefox started crashing and becoming sluggish. Sure, I had 11 tabs open, was listening to Pandora and using Web Developer Toolkit. But come on, man! I need a browser that performs!

Enter Google Chrome, my latest internet love affair. The interface is second to none and very intuitive. Chrome lets me use all my favorite add-ons, like Web Developer Toolkit and Firebug, without having to relive the nightmare of a slow browser. Now I know what you're thinking again: "Brandon, stop being such a hater! Firefox is a great browser!" And you're right, Firefox is wonderful. If you're into slow.

So enough of my opinions, lets see the facts. To see just how Chrome measures up with your favorite browser, take a look at these browser speed tests. And if that arrangement of lines and numbers doesn't impress you, here is a video proving once and for all that Chrome is faster than a potato, sound, and lightning.

Enjoy and get Chrome.

In my quest to find the best kid friendly computing solution for my daughter, I came across Zoodles, an adobe air application that aggregates age appropriate content and bundles it in an easy to use interface. And unlike other kid computing solutions, Zoodles runs on your existing home computer and requires no additional hardware.

Zoodles browser known as the "toy box" consists of large kid friendly icons and easy to navigate menus. This is great for beginner computer users and makes their experience much more enjoyable. I mean, have you ever tried to teach a 5 year old how to use Firefox? If not, let me tell you, it's an experience. With handy features like ad blocking and content filtering, Zoodles offers a controlled environment for your child to learn how to use a computer and surf the net.

For an additional monthly fee, you can also look at reports to see what your child has played, block sites, games, or shows, and even promote certain skill sets that you want your child to work on. Subjects include language and literacy, life skills, math, science, and social science.

For months now we, the CurrentMarketing digital geeks, have been anxiously awaiting the release of Adobe's Flash CS5. I can still remember huddling around my iMac with the Bouv, watching Lee Brimelow (the Adobe Platform Evangelist) work his magic with Adobe's Flash-to-iPhone compiler. It was touted as one of the biggest and most anticipated features of the CS5 release, and (at least to us) seemed too good to be true.

We were overjoyed at the thought of creating iPhone applications without having to break a sweat learning Objective C! "What are you gonna try and build?" we'd ask each other, like kids with a new set of Legos. All day we'd gab about how tools like Open Plug's Elips Studio and Adobe's Flash CS5 might expand our reach into the mobile market.

Then Steve Jobs put the smack down. In the latest iPhone SDK user agreement, it states very clearly that developing in any non-Apple-approved language is a violation of terms. Long story short: if you're not using Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, you're wasting your time.

So today we're back where we started, staring dejectedly at three fat Objective C manuals on our bookshelf. It's said that when one door closes, another one opens. Maybe this is just the motivation we need to start sticking our noses into those books so we can crank out something spectacular! Me, I'd just be happy to run some "hello world" scripts!

Truth be told, even after everything I still can't wait to get my hands on CS5. It includes all sorts of great improvements including a new ActionScript editor, On-stage video scrubbing and XML based FLA source files. So Flash Professional CS5 will definitely improve my workflow. I'm not sure I'll be forgiving Steve Jobs anytime soon though.

Learn more about Flash Professional CS5 here.
Read Lee Brimelow's response to Apple's bad news here.