Featured today on our Cowpie of the Day, the Microsoft Wireless Networking Adapter for the XBOX 360.

Back when I was just a small calf, playing Jumpman on my Pentium 90-Mhz computer, I used to have to connect to my favorite bulletin boards via an ultra fast 2400 baud modem and a phone line. The bulletin boards would sometimes have active chat boards, where you could post a message, and your cyber-friends (40-something dudes living in basements all over the metroplex areas of the US) could post messages for each other, download the latest text games, and even share bitmap images of cuties, all at blazingly slow upload speeds. US Robotics, Westel, and Modem Blaster were the champions of the hour – delivering crushing speeds of 9600, 14.4k, 28.8k and eventually 56k transmission, if your parents would stop picking up the handset for more than a few moments.

Now, forwarded 15 years into the future, you can play your Xbox 360 online, in high-def, without dialing a single number! No modem commands, no programming strings to type in… its incredible!! Advancements in technology have made it possible for 5-year-olds around the world to crush you at HALO 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without mercy. If thats not enough, Microsoft has made a doo-hickey to plug in the back of your game console and let it connect to WiFi networks within range. This means you can wrap up that wire from your bedroom to the living room so Aunt Bessie doesnt have to worry about tripping over the cable anymore. While I guess that there are some things that are cooler than that – it really is amazing that modern advances have produced wireless data in the past decade and a half, and that it can be used for something as crucial as video games.

I come from a long line of gamers.  Ever since I was a small calf, tall enough to slide a quarter into the local Dig-Dug game I was fascinated with gaming and how to beat the high scores that were tattered across the screen. Although my arcade gaming age began with the usual hits like Pac-Man, Asteroids, Centipedes, and Super Mario series, it wasnt until the early 90s when I came into my own, challenging the crowd of local tweens at Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter 2, and Tekken.

If I had a quarter for every round of those games that I played, Id prolly have a nice farm paid for, somewhere in California, where the happy cows come from.   I remember lining up challengers and knocking them off one by one, having too much fun for a convenience store arcade machine.   Now that Im all grown up, I had only my memories of the fun challenges of yesteryear.   Until I bought my Nintendo Wii.

Ive owned gaming consoles before.  Ive owned gaming computers before, but without a doubt, the Nintendo Wii is the most fun you can legally have while playing video games at your home.   The sheer fun that is generated while putting the smackdown on a golf ball, your first serve,  bowling for a spare, or that left hook that smashes your opponent into the ground its truly the awakening of your inner child.

That feeling, combined with your closest friends and family lining up to get their fair share of the beatings, and youve got a redefined game night that the whole herd can enjoy.   While it can be a little complicated to connect in the beginning, practically every cable only fits in one hole, which means that your average kindergartner can connect it up to the television.

If youre lucky enough to have the Wii Play game disc, theres even a cow racing game.

A Zune by any other name.. is an iPod?

If you happen to live anywhere near civilization, you can probably spit and hit an iPod or iPhone user.   This isnt really a surprise, as Apple apparently invented the MP3 player.   Todays Cowpie of the day is meant to open your eyes to the fantastic world of the Microsoft (GASP!) Zune.

Microsoft is a small software company based in the Washington state, while not particularly well-known, they do strive to produce a large variety of products, on what appears to be a limiting budget.    Amazingly enough, while scraping together a small bit of profit on their software, gaming, and hardware divisions, they managed to develop their own MP3 player, called the Microsoft Zune.  The Zune comes in a variety of colors and sizes, which is nifty.  The Cowpie of the day item on March 16 is a Red 30GB Zune.   Thats not enough space, you say!  I have more than 30GB of music, you shout.  Reality being what it is,  To put this in perspective, 30GB of music is enough to hold 10,000 songs.   Thats around 500 hours of music, which is just under 3 weeks of listening time, if you didnt repeat a single song, and you listened 24 hours a day.