iPod and Yoda

I was going through some of the iPod photos on Flickr and found this cool looking iPod ad spoof that is both funny and cool. Yes, it's a lightsaber-wielding Yoda with an iPod. Listen to iPod, you must...

School of Rock in Junction 8

The School of Rock band competition finals for youths below 19 years old organised by Straits Times was held at Bishan Junction 8. The competition is really a wonderful thing as it allows youths with a passion for music to have a chance to showcase their talents. For the bands that reached the finals, their style range from metal to funk to powerpop. It's really great to see young people with so much musical talent rocking out on stage.



It's quite hard to get to the stage so from the photo, you can see that I'm actually pretty far from the stage. Thankfully, they have plasma TV sets so you can actually catch the action from the TV which gives you a pretty close-up view.



The winning band is called 3Dash1. They're a blend of power punk/pop. A 3-piece outfit that reminds me of another local band called Plain Sunset. Their infectious pop-punk ditty inspired the crowd to sing-along, especially the chorus. In fact, I'm so impressed by this band that I participated in the SMS vote and gave them my thumbs up. Their sound is tight and their drummer is pretty solid too. Overall, I'm looking forward to the album that they'll release, since their winning comes with a contract with music label Music & Movement.



I tried to take a picture of the band, but it wasn't really successful. If you look carefully in the photo above, the band is on the stage dressed in green tees. Rock on guys!

Update: After searching a bit on the Net, I found out that 3Dash1 has actually listed themselves on PureVolume, a site where bands can list themselves and show of their tunes. You can even download some of their earlier songs there. They also has their own website on Blogspot.

The "Quit Slashdot.org Today!" movement

There's a movement going on. It's called the Quit Slashdot Movement. For all the Slashdot addicts out there, this is what you need to be rid of your addiction. Well, it's actually a humourous look at the popular Slashdot.org site. Fun for geeks.

read more | digg story

Podcasting in Singapore-The Apple remixed version

Apple doesn't quite care if Singaporean podcasts are on their site, or in the iTMS. Even Apple Singapore. This site has someone doing a remix of the Apple page and it includes mention of Singapore podcasters. Apple should make this remix official, at least for the Singapore site.

How & why you should hurt MediaCorp

This guy must really be angry at the monopolistic broadcasting situation in Singapore. He has come up with what looks like a manifesto on how and why you should make MediaCorp hurt. It contains some ideas on getting alternative media content if you're simply bored with what's available on radio and TV... think podcast and BitTorrent.

Microsoft "Genuine Advantage" cracked

That was really fast... MS's attempt to foil pirated use of WinXP by validating authentic CD keys when assessing Windows Update service has been cracked, only one day after the Redmond company has implemented it. It's just a matter of entering one line of Javascript in IE's location bar. Try harder next time, Micro$oft.

iTunes wishlist

PowerPage has a list of things they would like to have in future upgraded versions of iTunes. After reading it, many of it makes perfect sense and I would love to have those features in iTunes. One feature in the list that I would absolutely love is bookmarks, which is available in PocketTunes on my Treo. Really wish iTunes and the iPod will have that feature for all files, not just on Audible (cos I don't use it) and Podcasts.

Downloading 'myths' challenged

Take that, you lousy RIAA scums! Who says downloading of music makes you lose customers? Digital music research firm The Leading Question found that 'illegal' music sharers spent four and a half times more on paid-for music downloads than average fans. Stop this whole war on illegal music downloads and provide more services that allows us to legally download music, and give us the freedom to use them in different ways!

read more | digg story

Football as bad as gaming

This commentary by Steven Johnson who wrote 'Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter' appears on USA Today. It sort of highlight how ridiculous the storm brewing (no pun intended) over the "Hot Coffee" affair has become. It is written as an open letter to senator Hillary Clinton.

I'm writing to commend you for calling for a $90-million study on the effects of video games on children, and in particular the courageous stand you have taken in recent weeks against the notorious "Grand Theft Auto" series.

I'd like to draw your attention to another game whose nonstop violence and hostility has captured the attention of millions of kids — a game that instills aggressive thoughts in the minds of its players, some of whom have gone on to commit real-world acts of violence and sexual assault after playing.

I'm talking, of course, about high school football.

Make your own google logo page

Love the Google logo? Why not make your own Google page? This site called Logogle will create a Google search page with whatever text you specify in the style of the Google logo. Since everyone is doing it, I've also joined in the fun and created my own GremSpot Google page.

iPods could make you hallucinate

If you think games addiction will lead to health problems, then you should also be wary of the iPod. According to this article, listening to an iPod could leave you with psychological problems, particularly cases of musical hallucination, where a song "plays" constantly in the head. Now, I've got to go shut off that U2 song playing in my head, er... I mean iPod.

read more | digg story

Five Key Gaming Concepts

Tom's Hardware has an article on five key gaming innovations that has captured our imaginations. They include Voice Recognition, Physical Involvement, Real Life Elements, Games On Your Phone, and Putting Yourself Into the Game. Interesting. Hopefully there will be more innovative concepts in the future... such as Living in the Game, for example?

read more | digg story

Designer's iPod cases

When you're a hot mainstream product adored by many, you get to have those designer labels providing for your needs... specifically casing needs. MP3.com has a listing of designer iPod cases, made by designer labels such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc. Buy them if you are absolutely fasinated by designer labels. Otherwise, there are better-value cases out there to protect your white-and-silver musicial investment.

Rockstar screwed the gaming industry

Yet another opinion on the "Hot Coffee" issue. There sure are many of those these days. This one on Cheap Ass Gamer takes the view that Rockstar sold out their gaming industry colleagues by being irresponsible, and causing such a huge fallout of trust in the industry-led ESRB rating system. I have to say that this fellow's view is not entirely without merit.

Concept Apple products

Wonder what future Apple products may look like? Well, a Japanese site called Applele.com has come up with interesting designs of products that would seem to embody the Apple design aesthetics. Do note that these are not real Apple products but concepts done by fans. Well, it would be good to dream that some of these actually exist, right? The picture above is an iPod Photo with camera attachment, while the one below is a flash-based iPod with retractable headphone cords. Simply sweet.

Flyable Star Wars starships

These fans of remote control (RC) model plans have created models of spaceships from the Star Wars movies that you can actually fly! The flyable starships include Han's Millenium Falcon, the Jedi Starfighter and also the Naboo Starfighter. Nice!

You can find out more in these two links...
Link 1
Link 2

Game modder speaks up on modding

A game modder has written a piece on the recent GTA "Hot Coffee" controversy. It's a must-read and I hope that those folks in the "high places" who are against games just take time to understand the gaming technology before they start to label every mod-able game as "Adults Only".

The primary difference between the retail version of the game and that of the modded version is that the above content has simply been rearranged and intensified by the consumers. By using the logic that this content was illegally "hidden", one could just as easily claim that any R rated movie has covertly crossed the limits of decency because the end-user could very well pause their DVD player on a scene containing nudity, thus exceeding the length of such scenes by which the MPAA decides whether a film is to be classified as R or NC-17. The same could be said of even a PG-13 rated movie which contains brief nudity.

Link

BBC encourages 'remix'-ing of TV listings

The BBC may be one of the oldest broadcasting organisation around, they are also one of the most innovative and forward-looking. Here, they are allowing developers and designers to come up with interesting ways of using their TV and radio schedule. They are even holding a competition for folks to come up with prototypes to demonstrate new ways of using BBC's TV schedule. Cool!

OS X menubar items to fill your menu

Here's a list of some of the best menubar items that you can place on your menu for Mac OS X. Almost everything is here, from web services to clocks to iTunes controllers and more. The only limitation is probably your screen size.

read more | digg story

Violence and video games... a media lie?

The Game Revolution website has posted an article on the media frenzy surrounding violence and video games. According to this piece, there is no epidemic of youth violence as portrayed in the media. It's all a media lie. Read it and decide for yourself.

Yahoo! Widgets now available

Yahoo! has bought the company that created the original widgets, Konfabulator. Now, Yahoo! is offering it as a free download for Mac and Windows. For those using Mac OS X Tiger, you already have widgets in the form of dashboard so this is not much of use. But for Windows users, this may open up a whole new world for you.
Link

First GTA, now Sims 2

The overall target has to be the gaming industry. Miami attorney Jack Thompson is now extending the fight from the "Hot Coffee" mod in GTA to EA's Sims 2, claming that it's a pedophile's paradise by showing genitalia. When will this madness end?

read more | digg story

The unofficial, quick guide to Digg 2.0

I'm starting to use Digg. Digg is a tech news website, similar to Slashdot. But while Slashdot's articles are validated by editors, Digg's articles are by users. Digg also has community elements and it's easy to blog "Digg-ed" items.

read more | digg story

New Potter gets pirated

The new 6th installment of Harry Potter gets scanned by fans and an electronic copy is found in the "wild" Net within hours of its official release. That's really not surprising and if you know where to look, you'd probably have a copy of the scanned e-book right now.

Wired News has written a piece on how this happened and why it has happened. There're also quotes by those involved in the operation.

"I'd love to see the expression on Rowling's face when she finds out that this book got ripped within, what, 11 hours of the release?" one of those involved in the operation told cohorts in the main public IRC chat room, #pottermania.

Crazy infinite Flickr photos

Ah... the things people do. This Flickr photo group has photos of folks taking pictures of themselves looking at a photo of others looking at a photo of others on the computer, and so on and so on. See it and you'll get the idea.
Link

Coldplay X&Y Album Art Generator

Seen the pixel-like blocks on the cover of the new Coldplay album "X&Y"? Think it's cool? Well, it is kinda retro in some way and futuristic at the same time. Well, some brilliant guy has written up a Javascript thingy that will generate similar art work for you based on the characters that you type in. In fact, the picture you see above is generated by typing in my name. Cool!
Link

Explaining Creative Commons

Tech columnist John Dvorak recently wrote that he does not see the value of Creative Commons. In fact, he calls it "one of the dumbest initiatives ever put forth by the tech community". Maybe he just wants to be different. Or maybe he just doesn't get it.

Fear not. The Benlog blog has a easy-to-understand piece in response to Dvorak's article and explains in simple terms what Creative Commons offer. Call it "Creative Commons for Dummies".
Link

Xiaxue got hacked...

The famous... or infamous (depending on your view) local blog by Xiaxue has been hacked. Go ahead, get the whole scoop on her blog. The scary and sad thing is that all her 3 years of online presence has been axed. Shudder... that is why you must obey the tech generation's most important law--BACKUP!!!

The moon is made of cheese...

Google is doing something fun in honour of the first manned Moon landing which happened on 20th July 1969. They've done a Google Maps version of the Moon surface. They've also marked out the various Apollo landing sites. Of course, like the Google for Planet Earth, you can zoom in and out of the map if you want to get a closer look. The fun part is that when you zoom right to the max, you get to see what the moon is actually made of... yes, that's cheese. It's paradise for mice.

GTA San Andreas given AO rating

The "Hot Coffee" GTA: SA affair has exploded. The ESRB is giving the game an AO rating, meaning that it's for Adults Only. Which also means that the game will not be sold in major retailers. Read these links for more details and comments:

• Hot Coffee Boils Over
  Gamespot.com has the scoop and details on what happens in the "Hot Coffee" saga and what is going to happen now that it has been slapped with an AO rating.
  
• Sexy Extras Earn Game Adult Label
  Details of the case by Wired News.
  
• My Take On "Hot Coffee"
  This is a blog entry on the affair from the developers' point of view. The basic idea is that sometimes, things are left in the game because developers don't want to break the game and introduce bugs. It's a pretty interesting read and gives a different take on the case.
  

Bottom line? If you can grab a copy of GTA:SA now, you'd better go get it. Future copies will have the offending code removed. In other words, these are collector's items.

Rock & Surf mash-ups

Mash-ups are fun. The mix of two songs usually is a blend of unexpected and amazing. This album is no different. The album titled "Sounds for the Sun-set:2005" by mashers RIAA (Really Interesting Audio Adventures) totally rocks with sun-kissed fun. You can download the full album at the website. Go ahead... rock and surf!
Link

More on ESRB ratings

ESRB is finding themselves in the hotseat and here're some more articles examining what ESRB is doing in terms of rating of video games.

• Video game rating board in hot seat
  This CNN piece looks at ESRB and what critics think of the rating system.
  
• How game and movie ratings work
  This one is from the Kotaku.com site. It not only looks at the game rating system, but also MPAA's movie ratings.
  

Get your blog seen in space

Want your blog to be beamed in space? You can do it via this Bloginspace.com site by MindComet. And it's free! You simply add your blog's URL and the RSS feed on the site. I'm actually taking advantage of it and hope my musings get seen by friendly extra-terrestial beings. It's really a silly thing but hey, I'm just doing it for fun and it's great to know that your blog will be in space. Unless I find out that it's really a scam.

Oh, on the content, just have to remember not to post anything that may provoke an alien invasion.

How ESRB rate their games

With the recent "Hot Coffee" controversy in GTA: San Andreas, the US ESRB game rating system has come under some scrutiny. Slate has an article on how the ESRB rating process works. Interesting read if you're wondering how the rating labels get on the box of your fave games.

When submitting a game for the board's scrutiny, the developer fills out a questionnaire that describes potentially offensive material, especially sequences involving drugs, sex, or violence. The company must also supply the rating board with the scripts for any scenes with dialogue and material like song lyrics. The package sent to the ESRB will also include a videotape showing the game's basic plot and each questionable scene. Such videos can be several hours long.

Best freeware list

Some of the best things in life are free. The same can be said for software. Some of the best and most useful software are actually freeware, and they are way better than any commercial or shareware apps out there. Here's a list of some of the best freeware that you can try. I'm actually using some of the items on the list, including the popular Firefox browser, the AVG anti-virus software and Free Downloader.
Link

20 Things You Didn't Know Your PC Could Do

PCWorld.com has come up with an interesting list of 20 things that your PC can do. It's pretty interesting as it includes some things we already do, for example charging your cellphone with USB, and also some far out stuff, such as using your PC to heat a small room.
Link

Forest invading the subway

It seems like the Singapore subway, also know as the MRT, is being invaded by vegetation. Just take a look at the leaves curling round the hand-holds in the train. Well, it's actually just a promotional stunt by the airline SilkAir. It's an attempt to create an off-the-beaten-track look signifying that the airline flies to exotic locations. Company promos/ads sure are doing unusual things to grab our attention.

Honest talk on NKF boss

This posting on the "Talk Rock" blog is probably the most direct and honest view I've seen on the recent NKF fiasco. It's also the most crude posting so beware if you can't take this stuff. Here's an excerpt.

I do not hate charity organisation, I think people must help other poor and sick people. But fuck lah, you mean when on the tv the people who earn $1000 a month donate and the number on the NKF tv show jump $100,000 to $200,000 to $300,000..... when reach $600,000 of donation, is only cover this CEO salary?

No wonder Zoe Tay have to do so many cheebye stunt!!!

Now that the NKF boss has revealed his 25K salary as the boss of a non-profit, folks have sounded out on the whole affair, including an online petition asking for his resignation. The petition now has more than 15,000 signatures.

Using Flickr on the Xbox Media Center

This is going to be really cool... accessing your Flickr photos on the XBMC. This will add another way for you to view your photos on your TV using your Xbox. This XBMC thingy is really shaping up to be the most useful device I have on my TV console. I'm going to try this out.

101 reasons to use Mozilla

I've been using Mozilla FireFox browser for some time now, and I'm liking it. Although I've not been using IE for some time, prefering the Slimbrowser enhancement instead, I've started using Firefox more often now. The only time that I'm not using Firefox is when I use Safari on my Powerbook. Reason? I still like the look of Safari on the Mac platform.

Anyway, the Neil's Place blog has a list of 101 things that Mozilla can do but IE can't. If you need more reasons on why FIrefox is so popular, go ahead and read the piece.

What's your gangsta name?

Hey, according to the Gangsta Name Generator, I'm the gangsta dude called Heavy Nutz da Couch Bouncer. This website generates a gangsta moniker for you if you can't think of a hip and dangerous one, or if you just want to see what your alter ego could be called. Just something fun on a Monday.

Grandma plays video games

There's this blog called "Old Grandma Hardcore" which is suppose to be the chronicle of a senior playing video games. I don't know if this is really true... hard to believe that it is, but you never know. Anyway, the description of the blog is as follows

This blog is chronicle of my experiences with Grandma, the video-game playing queen of her age-bracket and weight class. She will beat any PS2, XBox, GameCube, etc., console game put in front of her, just like she always has. Her favorite game of all time was Final Fantasy VII, her current task is reaching 100% in tour mode of Outlaw Golf 2.

Good luck to Grandma on Outlaw Golf!

Photos of London 7/7 bombing on Flickr

The bomb blast in London shocked many, especially right after London's triumph in the Olympics IOC bid to host the games in 2012. Proving that the Internet community can bring updated pictures to you fast that's different from the mainstream media, there is a pool of photos on Flickr showing pictures from the scene.

Grokster decision good for file sharing

Here's an alternate opinion on the Grokster decision. This USA Today piece argues that the Supreme Court decision is actually good for file sharing. Perhaps so... go read to see if you agree.

What is that in your Windows XP services?

If you've dug deep into your Windows XP system, you'd know that there are things called "Services" which are software processes running in the background and taking up RAM usage. Some of them are essential, others are dumped there when you install software. If you've busy installing software, you'll soon find out you don't know what the services are for anymore. This website provides a handy guide to the services running and recommends which of these may be disabled. Word of caution here... do so at your own risk.

Here comes the Grempod

I've finally succumbed to the lure of the iPod. I bought a 2nd hand 60GB iPod Photo for a pretty good price, almost what I would have paid for a brand new 30GB iPod. And from the picture above, you can see that it's enclosed in a Sonic Blue iSkin evo2, and what a good fit it is.

Why did I eventually buy the iPod? Well, one thing is that it's such a pretty device. But more importantly, it is the ease that the iPod works with iTunes. Plus, now that iTunes supports podcasts, it makes more sense for me to get one and use it to listen to my fave podcasts. It just plain makes sense. Of course, it's called the GremPod.

Now, I'm in the process of transferring my CD collection to the iPod. I probably can't put in all, but it seems like a lot will fit into the device. It's actually pretty amazing when I pull out all my old CDs, how much good music are kept on CDs and probably won't get heard much. With them stored digitally in an iPod, hopefully I can enjoy them more often.

10 films for children

The Guardian UK website has come up with a list of films that are great for kids. There are some great films on this list, including the excellent Spirited Away Billy Elliot, E.T., and Where is My Friend's House. Pretty good choices. I've actually not seen a few of the others mentioned, like The Princess Bride and the French Kirikou et la Sorcière. So maybe it's time I start searching for them to give them a viewing.

RSS creator slams Apple's podcast approach

With iTunes 4.9, Apple has made receiving and subscribing to podcast really simple. My experience with it has so far been positive but there are some problems with some feeds. Although it's simple to use, you don't seem to have a lot of control over it. Still, I'm using it over iPodder Lemon, which I was formerly using. Simply because syncing to my new iPod is really simple.

Of course, Apple's approach to podcast seems to be a way to add content to their music store and get people hook onto buying iPods. There have been some comments on the way that the Cupertino company is implementing the RSS standards use in the feeds. Check out the piece on Tom's Hardware.

With the release of iTunes 4.9, Apple included the first edition of a long-anticipated XML document type definition (DTD) for RSS 2.0, that will enable access to podcasts. Apple aims to build podcast support directly into both the software and iPod, but leaders in the RSS community, including the standard's own creator, are taking Apple to task for developing an ill-advised DTD without seeking input and guidance from the community.

How to Burn Xbox Games

On 8bitjoystick.com, you can find a guide on how to burn Xbox games and other protected CD. It's suppose to work for all games, including PS, PS2, and even GameCube games. In fact, using the technique on the page, you can burn just about anything. It's really quite cool, in a funny sort of way...

Doom is coming... really!

The Doom movie is really coming... and the logo is revealed on the Comingsoon.net website. There are also four shots of the movies, in one of them you can see the fabled BFG! Doom fans will know what that powerful weapon stands for. You can also see the production press release here.

Water taps as decor

Water taps as decor
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

I saw this when I was out shopping today. In one of the shops, some clever designer has decided to make use of the humble water tap as decor and serves as a place to hang their wares of handbags. Clever use of hardware products.

Vader in a skin tight fetish suit

The Koreans must be crazy. There's this Darth Vader-in-a-fetish suit on this Korean Yahoo! website. I don't know what it's all about but there's something strangely fasinating... and maybe even sexy about it.