Moblogging from a Treo

I finally got my Treo. After spending time setting up stuff, it's ready to go. Still flaky sometimes but for the most part, it's fine. This will be my first post from a Treo. More good things to come, unless this bust my handphone bill.

Spoilers-Scenes from Star Wars Ep 3

Don't ask me how they got it, but this site contains tons of photos, screens from the upcoming SW movie. They sure look good and may be signs that Ep 3 may be better than the previous two. I sure am crossing my fingers that it will be so. For those who don't mind spoilers, head on to the site and join in the excitement!

Mobile PC Top 100 gadgets

Mobile PC has come up with a list of the top 100 gadgets of all time. They have a specific definition of gadgets though, it has to be able to operate on it's own and also have to be electronic or moving parts. Some items that made the list include the Pez Dispenser, the Rubik's Cube, the Tickle Me Elmo (how did this make the list?), and even the Nintendo Game Boy. As for the item at the No. 1 spot, you just have to go find out for yourself.

Multimedia Player

Sarotech has come up with a 2.5" hard disk enclosure that also has 5.1 home theatre DTS audio output, composite video output, a FM transmitter, and support for various media format. This means that you can place it together with your home theatre equipment, or you can bring it in your car to listen to MP3 using FM, and of course, you can watch any files of most video formats that you have. It is retailing for S$249 without a harddisk. Although the features sound exciting, the 2.5" disk storage is still not the uber storage that I'm looking for. Still, it should serve others with less appetite for storage quite well.

Katamari Damacy madness

The PS2 game Katamari Damacy has certainly achieved a cult status of sorts. The simple gameplay and its quirky presentation has inspired fans to not just play the game, but do things beyond what a normal gamer would do. This fan has used Play-Doh to recreate scenes from the game. Who's going to do a stop motion video of the game next, I wonder?

Game reviews with Maoist slant

A game review is just that-a review that tells you if a game is worth playing, right? No always. Like critical film reviews, some game reviews are taking on a critical analysis perspective. This is one perspective that you would never think of reading about in game reviews. The Maoist International Movement has a page that looks at games from a socialist perspective. Reviews include Sim City 3000, Tropico, Fallout, and even KOTOR!

GSM phones with keyboard

Since I'm gonna get my Treo 650 pretty soon, in fact, probably in the next 8 hours, it's interesting to know what other phones out there have a keyboard. Thankfully, the good folks at Treonauts has a round-up of all (almost all, I think) the phones with a keyboard. It's actually a pictorial of such phones taken at the recent 3GSM conference. Some of the devices featured include the Motorola MPX, the Nokia communicators, and even BenQ's P50. Non of these are like the Treo though.

50 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Works for Socialists

Sci-fi writer China Miéville has come up with a list of 50 titles that'll appeal to those with a socialist bent. Not all of them are strictly political in nature, but I guess it's more of the themes that matters. Some titles on the list are on my to-read list, just have to find the time to read them. They include, Lucius Shepard's Life During Wartime, Kim Stanley Robinson's The Mars Trilogy and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

Pepsi giving away cool blue DS

How about that? A blue DS! Since the GBA SP comes in plenty of funky
colours, it's no suprise that the DS will have something similar too.
Now, if only there's a way to get our hands on it.

Ska for the Skeptical

This is inspired by Bollywood for the Skeptical I mentioned about some time back. It's a really cool intro to ska music and is a good intro to those who're only aware of No Doubt. There's a greater ska world out there, dude!

Podcasting, music and the law

I've been hooked on to this thing called "podcasting" recently. It's really just MP3 talk/radio-type shows done by folks and there's this software where you can download the audio MP3 files using a RSS feed. These podcasts are interesting because you can just look for topics that interest you. Some podcasters are also playing interesting music in their podcast and I've been introduced to a number of great music that way. But now, the law wants to mess with the music. It seems like the ASCAP (the Singapore counterpart will be COMPASS) wants to license the music on podcasts. It really sucks. Really, I beginning to want to reject the labels and go for music with a creative commons license. Boing Boing has more reader response on this.

My LEGO pictures

Since I'm getting my Treo 650, I'm going to start to incorporate a moblog
into this blog. I've signed up with Flickr for it to talk to Blogger and it
seems to work pretty OK. This is going to be a test and hope I can get it
up and running.

We don't like MPAA

We don't like MPAA and RIAA's conduct when it comes to going after P2P networks. So here's a website set up to express the community's outrage at their behaviour. Will the movie and music biz shut this down too?

This website has been erected out of consumer outcry over the passing of sites that facilitate the free availability of perpetually copyrighted motion pictures. The unauthorized downloading of motion pictures denies thousands of dishonest, lazy executives of their crack smoking livelihood, and is the only way to bring an artistically bankrupt monopoly under control. Downloading movies without authorization violates laws distorted beyond their original intent, is not tangible theft, and is impossible to stop. You can't catch everyone. The only way to win is to stop waging war on your own customers and accept the fact that we are in control, not you. You brought this on yourselves.

Swiss knife for the gals

A Swiss Army knife is certainly a useful item to have for boys. Me? My trusty knife has been with me for more than 20 years and it's still serving me well. But what about the girls? Here's one that they may find useful. This one contains needle & thread, mirror, perfume bottle, in addition to the standard items such as bottle opener and of course, the knife. Still, don't think anyone can bring this up the airplane if the owner is a globe-trekking gal.

Debian GNU/Linux on the Mac Mini

Other than the form factor, the Mac Mini didn't really impress me much. It's essentially a stripped-down computer running on the Mac OS. However, if this baby can run the Linux OS, then that would be something... In fact, the resourceful Linux community has already provided a howto on installing the Debian Linux distro on the Mac Mini. Mac running Linux? Now that's something that can get a geek excited.

Stealing vs downloading

Maybe it's cheaper to steal a CD off the shelves. This website has done a comparison between the penalties for shoplifting as oppose to downloading copyrighted materials. Taking the real world example of Winona Ryder's shoplifting case, it sets her back US$10,005 (including lawyers cost and etc.). On the other hand, a RIAA infringment is on average US$14,875. Also, the maximum punishment for stealing is US$10,000 plus 1 year jail, while copyright infringment is $3,400,000 and a year's jail term. The comparison may not be entirely accurate, but something is seriously wrong here.

Homebrew Tetris for DS!

It's a matter of sooner or later. Now, someone has actually managed to code a homebrew game for the Nintendo DS. It's of course the classic Tetris. Is this a sign that flash carts and more creative homebrew games are on the way for the DS? Hope so.

Cellphones-a musical for geeks

If you're a geek who love musicals, then this one is for you. There is now a musical called "Cellphones", and it covers everything from MP3s to soccer moms. Seems like the audience will also get phone calls on their cells during the performance! It's best for the description on the site to speak for itself though.

The night before the booth opens, twenty strangers gather and wait in line. While they wait, they rock out about timely topics such as Britney Spears, botox, SUVs, MP3s, rap music, fast foods, low fat diets, saving Michael Jackson, gay marriage, the Internet, porn, soccer moms, Enron, Bush, Starbucks, Martha Stewart, weapons of mass destruction, and of course, cellphones.

Ipod LEGO minifig

The ipod ads featuring the silhouette user with the white earbuds have certainly caught the imaginations of many. Now, these folks have modified a LEGO minifig to look like the ad. I certainly love the LEGO, not too sure about the ipod though.

Copyright does not benefit artists

The RIAA and other related bodies have always claimed that the need to prevent P2P sharing is because the take away the benefits of copyright from artists. This study which looks at British and Geman musicians actually blows away that claim. Once again, another salvo into the heart of the greedy industry.

The evidence here is contradictory. The often–made claim that copyright supports the creative basis of a society is empirically doubtful. There is a suspicion that copyright underpins vastly unequal rewards.

Creator and investor interests are not the same. Copyright suits investors (music publishers, labels) who are incentivised to market and distribute the works they exclusively control. Copyright also suits creators with a track record of hits who can extract favourable terms from investors.

Copyright does little for new and niche creators who often sign away their bargaining chips cheaply. In the absence of alternative compensation schemes, digitisation so far appears to have brought few financial benefits from disintermediated distribution.

LEGO Star Wars video game webby launch

One of my most anticipated game is not those frantic FPS or fighting games. It's actually the cutesy Star Wars game with LEGO characters. Or rather, Star Wars characters in the LEGO style. The website is now online and I can't wait till April to get my hands on this one.

Xbox-Millenium Falcon

What to do if you're a Star Wars fan (specifically a Han Solo/Millenium Falcon) and a Xbox gamer? You blend the best of both worlds and put your Xbox into a Millenium Falcon! This guy has placed the Microsoft console into the 1979 vintage series of the M-Falcon toy. Want to get your mitts on it? It's up for sale at UK's ebay site with starting bid of 800 pounds.