A real mouse!

Talk about a mouse. Check out the link for a real mouse, hacked into a computer mouse.

Piano Solo based on Pi

Pi is the magical number that goes on and on. Otherwise know as 3.14159..., it is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and is a "transcendental real number". On the linked page, someone has done the ultimately geeky thing and used the numbers of Pi to play a piano solo. Each number is represented by a note and the whole piece is played up to 1000 decimal places. This is what I call mathematical musicality. Cool!

Create your Mii without the Wii

Want to have one of those Miis that you see on the Wii but can't get your hands on Nintendo's console? Fear not, you can create your own Mii using the Mii Editor. The interface is just like that found on the Wii, and you can also export your creation to be used as your "mugshot". Cool!

Singapore not on World's Cleanest Cities list

We Singaporeans love to pride our city as a "clean and green" place. Streets are spick and span... and all that. Well, apparently it is not so if you refer to Forbes.com's list of the top 25 World's Cleanest Cities. The ranking is based on

the Mercer Human Resources Consulting that cull from 300 cities, identifying overall quality of living as well as special reports on regions. It is interesting to note that size does not appear to be a factor either in terms of size of population or physical size of the city. The most common trait in common to each is a focus on high tech, education and headquartering of national and international companies along with an extensive public transit system.

Cities in the list include Calgary (#1) and Honolulu (#2). Maybe Singapore's not on the list because it is not really a city but a sovereign state?

Pippin sighted

Pippin sighted
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

Saw this rare sight when I was in Hong Kong. It's a Pippin! It's the first time in my life that I laid my eyes on an actual set of the Apple gaming/multimedia player platform. I found this at a shop selling old tech/mac stuff. Check out this Wikipedia entry if you want to know more about the Pippin. Interestingly, it is also voted as one of the "25 Worst Tech Product" by PC World.

Jack Black is the Computer Man

Jack Black is so funny in this comedic short about a "Computer Man". Hilarious. Part 2 is also available.

Darfur atrocities on Google Earth

Google aims to "Do no evil". To help them achieve their goal, they have teamed up with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to map the carnage in the Darfur region on Google Earth.

Using the high-resolution imagery of Google Earth, users will be able to zoom into the Darfur region for a better understanding of the scope of the destruction.

More than 1,600 damaged and destroyed villages will be visible, as will the remnants of more than 100,000 homes, schools, mosques and other structures destroyed by the Janjaweed militia and Sudanese forces.

Follow the link to CNN's story on this and then go check it out on Google Earth. Be aware of the dangers of genocide, and thank God that we're not in that situation.

Speeding up P2P

If you think that Bittorrent's method of grabbing files from multiple sources is ingenious, the folks at Wired reported that researchers have released code for a file transfer system that can speed up downloads by up to 500%!

The gist: By identifying relevant chunks of files similar - - not just identical - - to a desired file, SET increases the number of potential sources for downloads, which in turn will generally translates into faster P2P downloads.

For more info, read the linked article. This certainly is not gonna help stop the tide of P2P file sharing.

Update: More details on how this SET filesharing system works can be found on Ars Technica.

20 Questions With N'Gai Croal

This is a podcast by the folks from Gamasutra. In this, Tom Kim talks to Newsweek video game/tech writer N'Gai Croal. This is one of the best and most insightful podcast that I've heard on the topic of gaming. Here, Croal talks critically about the game industry and also some more serious issues like the portrayal of minorities in games. Interesting stuff. Essentially listening if you want to keep a pulse on the analytical side of video games.

Chicks dig the DS

I'm a dude, not a chick, but I love the DS too. As mentioned on the CNet opinion piece by David Carnoy, females do love the DS. Can't blame them right? It's a fun handheld!

Zelda Reorchestrated

Zelda's music is so stirring that every time I hear it. It reminds me of the heroics in the game. This is a site that has re-orchestrated music from the various Zelda games and it'll be great if you want to listen to the epic music of Zelda in other ways.