Can my PC play this game?

The Redmond giant is really trying to do everything they can to get people to play games, and of course fuel the demand for their OS, game software, and ultimately the current and future editions of the Xbox. Diehard gamers will know the trouble that one has to to go through sometimes just to get a game working. Microsoft has now release a software called Windows XP Game Advisor to help novice PC gamers find out if they game they hear everyone raving about can be played on their box. Seems like a useful tool, and it's one step in making games more accessible and less intimidating to the masses.

If Tolke1n was a hacker...

What if Tolke1n was a hacker and he wrote his epic in hackerish? Well, it would r0x0rz, wouldn't it? Presenting... F3ll0wsh1p of teh R1ng...

**the black riders attack
Merry: "OMG!!!"
Sam: "O.M.G!!!11"
Pippin: "***"
Frodo has left the server
**head nazgul stabs Frodo's ghost
Frodo has connected to the server
Frodo: "***... hax!"
**Aragorn lraps into the fray with a flaming brand
Aragorn: "PH34r!!!!!!"
Merry: "LOLOL flamed! "

If you're confused, try using the Urban Dictionary to help you decipher it.

Game Boy for girls

I've finally bought a Game Boy Advance SP! No, I didn't get the Pearl Pink version, I bought the Pearl Blue one instead. Anyway, I've found that Nintendo Spain has a clever ad campaign to try to sell the handheld to girls-a group not normally the target for games. But with a huge library of games and with a number of them being the cutesy type, it's no wonder the Spanish marketing folks came up with this campaign to bundle the Pearl Pink GBA with titles such as Lizzie McGuire, Hamtaro Ham-Ham Heartbreak, Disney Princess, and Barbie "Horse Adventures". The campaign even comes with girls drawn in the now popular "chic"-style.

However, this bundling doesn't quite help to dispel the stereotyping of girl gamers. Must girls play the Barbie games? Thankfully, there are also other excellent games such as the various Mario games that can be enjoyed by both boys and girls.

Since there's the common association of blue for boys and pink for girls, who can blame the marketing folks for coming up with this idea of getting girls to buy the pink GBA? Marketing and stereotyping, they go hand in hand...

Cory Doctorow to Microsoft: Say no to DRM!

This is a must-read for everyone interested in the future of digital media and distribution of content. Most people may not be aware but the way copyright laws are heading and all the various Digital Rights Management systems that are placed on the devices and digital content that we consume may do more harm than good. Sci-fi writer and EFF activist Cory Doctorow has given an excellent and insightful speech to Microsoft's Research Group on why DRM is not the way to go.

Here's the social reason that DRM fails: keeping an honest user honest is like keeping a tall user tall. DRM vendors tell us that their technology is meant to be proof against average users, not organized criminal gangs like the Ukranian pirates who stamp out millions of high-quality counterfeits. It's not meant to be proof against sophisticated college kids. It's not meant to be proof against anyone who knows how to edit her registry, or hold down the shift key at the right moment, or use a search engine. At the end of the day, the user DRM is meant to defend against is the most unsophisticated and least capable among us.

The text is available in the public domain and has a Creative Commons license. In addition to the html version, there's also a Wiki version (with plenty of annotations) for those who wants to find out more.

Spidey turns Indian

Can it get any more bizarre than this? Having a Manga Star Wars comics is one thing, but having the web-slinger in Indian? Hmmm... amazing but true. Our friendly neighbourhood Spidey is gonna get an Indian makeover. This time, it's not Peter Parker who gets bitten by the bug, it's an Indian kid named Pavitr Prabhakar.

Marvel Enterprises, Inc. & Gotham Entertainment Group –Indian publishing licensee of Marvel Comics and the leading publisher of international comic magazines in South Asia – announces the launch of Spider-Man India.
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Spider-Man India interweaves the local customs, culture and mystery of modern India... As Spider-Man, Pavitr leaps around rickshaws and scooters in Indian streets, while swinging from monuments such as the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal.
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Mumbai’s (Bombay’s) first web-swinging Super Hero will be joined by a reinterpretation of the classic Spider-Man villain, the Green Goblin -- reinvented as a Rakshasa, an Indian mythological demon.

Clocks with attitude

Since I've moved into my new place, I've been looking for a wall clock that's nice and affordable. So far, I've not found one that fits the bill. Nevertheless, I still keep looking. Anyway, Wristfashion has done a roundup of some interesting clocks. They not exactly what I'm looking for but they still cool in their own way.

TV vote for torrentocracy

For those who know, Bit Torrent is an excellent way of distributing files and it takes peer-to-peer filesharing to a new level. Now, would it be revolutionary if Bit Torrent, RSS, and your Television come together? Torrentocracy is a project that connects your TV to the computer and to the Internet. It allows you not only to download content, but also become part of a media distribution network. It will only support links to legal torrents. So if you have the free time and the tech know-how to set up MythTV on a Linux box, it's time to free yourself from the tyranny of the broadcasting schedule.

Flip-phones galore @ CommunicAsia 2004

This year's CommunicAsia event was held from 15-18 June at the Singapore Expo. From the new phones that were on display, it's evident that flip phones are the in thing right now. Even Nokia, who was not present at the event, launched a couple of flip models. With users demanding bigger screens and built-in cameras becoming popular, it makes sense to design phones such that they allow larger screens to be used. For a die-hard candy-bar type phone user like me, I guess I'd have to change, or just get the new Sony Ericsson K700, the new object of my desire.

Overall, the event does not seem as exciting as the last one. Maybe it's because of the slow recovery from the aftereffects of SARS which led to the cancellation of last year's show. Or it could just be that companies are now more concern about the bottomline and gone are the extravagant days of glamour and eyecatching freebies.

Check out my own photo gallery of the event.

New Sony PSX coming soon

Sony is updating its PSX personal video recorder/Playstation 2 combo device and the new ones will have 160GB and 250GB of storage. It also has a better graphical user interface and the ability to add DVD-style menus to content copied from the unit's hard drive to a DVD-R, DVD-RW or DVD+RW disc. On top of that, there's an analog satellite TV tuner. Of course, you can play all the PS2 games you want on it. Makes you lust after it right? Problem is that is may not be made available here.

Ireland Leery of 3G Phones

Is this an over-reaction or is it fear of new technology? 3G phones are still in its infant stage and already the Irish government is over-regulating it. Hope other governments do not follow the same path but take a more pragmatic view of developing technology.

The Irish government will establish a National Register for 3G mobile phones in a bid to protect minors. Critics say the plan is a lot of work for little effect, and that it erodes civil liberties.
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Irish mobile-phone companies, which are actively increasing protections for minors already, are unsure what the measure will achieve or how it will be implemented.
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Critics say the scheme is an infringement of civil liberties for little real benefit. Privacy International's Davies is convinced the measure is merely a dangerous stepping stone. "Governments always start with child protection as their MO and then move very swiftly to the other 27 categories of public interest, which includes abuse of marketing, through hate speech to whatever else. They always pick the softest target first."

Affordable media storage server

Since I have a 200GB external hard drive attached to my PC, it has become something like a media server for me, storing my movie and music files, and also actually as a backup drive. To access it on my home network, I'll have to share the drive and my PC will have to be on all day. That's why I've been searching for a way to attach the drive to my router and allow all PCs on my network access to the drive. With this announcement of the Network Storage Link from Maxtor and Linksys, my wait is over. Now, when will it be available here?

...the companies announced a partnership featuring a US$99 Linksys device that lets an external hard drive connect to a wireless router, allowing PCs to tap into the storage and share files without any physical link to the drive.
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The Linksys Network Storage Link connects to an external hard drive through one of two USB ports and includes a file management system, the companies said. It is designed to work with a wired or wireless network, and to work with other external drives apart from Maxtor products.

The FCC Song

Eric Idle is the 6th member of Monty Python. Here, he's written a song about the FCC. It may never ever be played on any radio station, but it's funny anyway. You can of course download the MP3 and play it all day on your PC.

Here’s a little song I wrote the other day while I was out duck hunting with a judge… It’s a new song, it’s dedicated to the FCC and if they broadcast it, it will cost a quarter of a million dollars.

Virtual smut city online

It's bound to happen. The porn industry has always been early adopters of technology and with gaming and 3D worlds now becoming popular, it's no wonder smut pedlars have come up with a Sims-like virtual world for porn-viewing audiences.

...the Red Light World, a 3-D adult-oriented virtual environment that offers the sex-starved a chance to visit the Dutch city's infamous quarter and take in its XXX movie theaters, Viagra outlets, sex toy stores and adult DVD shops. Players get to meet sexy singles and more, all without springing for a plane ticket or worrying about getting mugged.
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As an interactive online experience, Red Light World is actually made up of a large number of online porn sites cobbled together in a way that evokes the feeling of window shopping in Amsterdam's sin-centric neighborhood. Thus, when you walk your avatar into one of the XXX movie theaters and choose a screen to watch a film, the service launches a website with hard- or softcore movies.

LEGO World War II models

Mechanized Brick is a site that offers customised LEGO Model, particularly those of World War II vehicles, for sale. Models include the German PzKpfw. VI Heavy Tank pictured above. The models are really cool and detailed but it's pretty pricey. You can always just order the building instructions at a cheaper price but you'll still have to look for the bricks on your own.

The engrish is very powderful!

This site features pictures with funny english. Since many gamers consider their Play Station a shrine, calling it Pray Station may not be all that wrong.

The Xbox-PC hybrid?

Can it be true? Is a Xbox-PC gaming machine coming? We've known all along that it's just a fine line between PC and Xbox games but would a hybrid machine reach the store shelves so soon?

The B/R/S Group, a California-based market research company that lists Microsoft and the Xbox division specifically as clients, has been gathering consumer feedback on a device it refers to as Xbox Next PC – "a videogame console system with a hard drive and a built-in fully functional PC."
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One slide describes the unit, which would require a PC monitor or high definition television, as being backward compatible with current and next-generation Xbox titles. It would also play PC games and include a fully functional version of Windows, CD burner, DVD player (with remote control), built-in access to Xbox Live and a hard drive. Control-wise, the system would come with both a keyboard and mouse and a standard Xbox controller. The price point this particular study tested was US$599.
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As for when we'll see next generation Xboxes on store shelves - officially, Microsoft isn't commenting, but it has been giving publishers guidance to plan for a 2005 launch.

From the CNN story, it seems like the days of having to deal with errant PC games installsations will be a thing of the past, and perhaps so will all the upgrading, the tweaking of frame rates, and all other fun activities that comes with playing games on a desktop. Then again, most hardcore gamers may just want to keep console- and PC-gaming separate. After all, many would prefer seeing Thief 3 in its full glory on a PC than settle for a slightly inferior version on the Xbox.

As for the next-gen Xbox to be launched in 2005... we'll just have to wait and see.

Captured: Half-Life 2 code thieves

Details are still murky about this, but it seems that they've caught the culprits who stole the Half-Life 2 code, possibly delaying the release of the game.

In a brief, cryptic statement Thursday, [Value Software's CEO Gabe Newell] announced that "arrests have been made in several countries" related to the Half-Life theft. He didn't spell out who was nabbed, or who did the arresting. But he indicated that the game's fans were the ones responsible for breaking the case.

Maybe we'll find out if we can REALLY get to play Half-Life 2 this year.

It's a PC... trying to be a Mac

Are you a PC-user who's actually a closet Mac-user wannabe? Engadget teaches you how to transform your Windows box into a Mac lookalike.

If you just want the nifty looking dock that a Mac has, download this freeware called Aqua Dock from Openwares.org.

Bye bye to liberty in cyberspace

This is really sad. ISPs are censoring stuff even without checking whether things are in public domain.

As part of a recent research project, I posted a section of Mill's On Liberty on the internet (which is clearly in the public domain), then issued unfounded copyright complaints against it (1). One internet service provider (ISP) removed the chapter almost immediately. This illustrates the problem with self-censorship procedures, which rely on hidden judgements being made by unaccountable bodies.

Taking a dump... in a game

The loo. The john. The washroom. The gents (or ladies). Whatever you call it, it's the place everyone has to go. But what if you're a game character? While game developers have figured out that, like real life, the toilet is just as important in the virtual world, it seems like the heroes and heroines like the sassy spy Cate Archer of No One Lives Forever fame or Black Mesa's survivor Gordon Freeman from Half-Life are too busy saving the world than to relieve themselves. Regardless, the loos in games are still painstakingly rendered, albeit in varying details. This Russian site contains a gallery of virtual toilets one encounters in a game.

Blogging on-the-go

Need to post your musings but don't have a PC near you? If you have a Palm handheld and an Internet connection, there's a way to post to your blog when you're mobile. The fellow at Dented Reality has created a page where you can log on to Blogger via your Palm's web browser. It's a stripped down way to post, but it allows you to blog on-the-go.

Welcome to the mobile revolution!

Introducing Gremlin @ Home

After some time thinking and tweaking, I've finally readied my own web page hosted on my own web server. It's not entirely complete and I'm trying to keep it really simple.

Still plenty of blank pages and more work to go, including linking things properly to this blog, which I've also "relaunched".

Check out the page here. I've also included it in the link on the right bar.