Widgets can be dangerous?

If you may have noticed, I've started posting links to Mac-related stuff. This is because I'm considering buying an iBook or Powerbook. Yep, I'm planning on getting a Mac. I'm not "switching" totally of course, since my main desktop will still be a Windoze machine.

On to this post then. The Dashboard widgets on Mas's Tiger OS is a cool piece of work and can be really useful as it allows you to quickly access useful apps. However, the way it is implemented may be a cause for worry. Read the link to find out more... seems like the autoinstall system may cause things that are undesirable to be added into your Mac. Now, who says Macs are not vunerable?

Photoshop a Tiger user

Fark.com has asked their readers to apply Photoshop effects on a
picture that shows a happy Mac user who bought the new Mac Tiger OS X.
Of course, it seems like most of those who are participating are not
Mac users, and probably are Mac bashers. Lets hope that none of these
are created using a Mac.

How Lightsabers Work

Lightsabers are cool! If you've seen Star Wars, you'd want a lightsaber. This article on Howstuffworks.com will tell you how this weapon used by Jedi knights and masters work. The section on how to use the lightsaber at home states that

Although a lightsaber is typically used as a defensive weapon by Jedi knights, the availability of lightsabers on consumer sites such as eBay is growing. It is a sad fact of life, but if a Jedi knight falls on hard times, his lightsaber is one source of quick cash. He can always build another one.

The site also highlighted other uses for the lightsaber, such as "reheating coffee" and "lighting a cigarette". How about using it as a toothpick? Probably not so advisable.

How to live longer

MSNBC has an article from Forbes on 10 ways for you to extend your life. Some of them seems quite fun to do, like "Have more sex". Others are quite sensible, like "Stop smoking". These are supposedly based on research and I've reproduced them here if you decide to try them out.

1. Don't oversleep
2. Be optimistic
3. Have more sex
4. Get a pet
5. Get a VAP
6. Be rich
7. Stop smoking
8. Chill out
9. Eat your antioxidants
10. Marry well

Singapore blog locator

Want to know where the bloggers are in Singapore? Here's a map where you can add your blog to this Singapore map. At the time of publishing, it seems like the concentration of bloggers are from Bukit Timah and Serangoon area. There's also one in the sea. That fellow sure has a wet sense of humour.

Comic blog by single Asian male

This blog titled SquareBrain.Net is unusual as it is one of those that not only uses words, but also a comic strip to make a point. Actually, comic blogs are definitely easier to read than a normal blog, but not everyone has the talent to do one. This one is pretty nice.

Anime-inspired makeup

Anime is hot. In the US, even cosmetic makers are getting into this style. Check out the crazy stuff that are suppose to make you look kawaii, like the chicks on Sailor Moon.

Japanese brands like Shu Uemura, plus such trendy Americans as Stila and Goldie, are jumping aboard the sweet-seeking trend to produce Sailor Moon-ish products and accoutrements—from cleansers in adorable packaging to cosmetics with cartoon-inspired pigments to ice-cream-flavor lip gloss.

Mindef goes blogging

Everyone is getting into the blogging game. Who would have imagined that the Ministry of Defence will set up a blog on their MIW site. This site serves all military personnals in Singapore and also all those serving their National Service either as full-time or reservist. Is this just an attempt for the military service to get in with the times, to get hip? Or is it just propagenda? You decide. Anyway, it seems like these days, NS boys sure have time on their hands to blog. I remember the good ole days when time outside training is just too precious to waste.

Build your own DVR

It's not something new that DVR will change the way you watch television. However, if you are not willing to plonk down cash buy one, or if the TiVo service is not available, what are you gonna do to join the ranks who can watch TV at their own time? Well, it's really easy. Just build your own DVR! The do-it-yourself magazine has posted a guide on their site to help you build your own digital video recorder. Join the revolution, record your TV... digitally.

Blog on army days

Miss your army days? Hate your NS moments? This blog titled "Days Were The Those" has folks posting their days during National Service and for regulars, their days serving in uniform. In the words of the blog this is on "Stories of National Service in Singapore. Contributors welcome. Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Civil Defence also can." Fun read, especially for those who has been through life in green.

Selling on ebay with babes

Gizmondo is reporting that folks are now selling items on ebay with photos of sexy Asian babes. Kudos to the guy who first thought of the idea and it's a wonder why no one of of it in the first place, considering that magazines like Stuff have been using this strategy for some time.

"I believe you"-a novella

This guy called Low Kay Hwa has written a short novel and it is on the Net for your reading pleasure. I've not read it yet but it's suppose to be a"romantic and bittersweet story about two Singapore Junior College students trying to find their meanings in life." Can't vouch for the quality of it though. Still, without the Internet, this guy would have to look for a publisher, but now, you can self-publish and get an audience. Hey, if you've some time, do support Singapore writing and give it a read. You can even post your views in the forums created for it.

Vader has a blog

Everyone has a blog these days. Hulk has one, and so does the Dark Lord Darth Vader. On the blog titled The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster, Vader himself, or someone controlled by Vader pens his daily musings and what he does daily running the Empire. Real funny stuff.

It can be challenging to maintain your dignity as a dark tyrannical overlord when the circuitry in your left leg constantly misfires, threatening to send you off on a mad pirouette without notice. It requires a serious effort of will to maintain my poise, the tendrils of my connection to the Force reaching deep into space to feel out my distant quarry and at the same time wrapped around the mechanisms of my own body to keep them working.

Star Wars Revelations

Star Wars fans are a fanatical bunch. So mad about it that they have
went all out to make fan films with the galaxy far, far, away as the
backdrop. Even Lucas the man himself has endorsed these films. Here is
one totally professional looking production that runs at more than 45
mins. Titled Star Wars Revelations, it is set between Episode 3 and 4
where Jedis are hunted fugitives. If you're a Star Wars fan
interested in anything even remotely related to Star Wars, you should
check this out. If you're not a fan, look at it too, to see how good
the production is.

Civ for free

Civilization by Microprose is a classic game. In the spirit of open source freeware, these folks have developed a free version of the game called Freeciv using the same addictive turn-based gameplay and it is multiplayer for those who wants to play against something more challenging than the computer AI.

The video game pianist

This guy is talented! He can play themes from video games on the piano and became an internet celebrity when the video of his performance, blindfolded no less, was circulated on the net with him playing the Super Mario World Intro theme. The website has media files of his performances and also links to the VG Sheet Music Club, for those who want to print out the scores and play the music on the piano.

Cartoon Hindu gods

Pixar animator Sanjay Patel has done up a children's book of Hindu gods. Cute. But will Hindus be offended? Hopefully not! You can purchase it on the website.

Games + Comics = Gamics

Ever seen video games and comics combine into a happy medium? This web site stores a collection of comics that is done by taking screenshots from games, and weaving in a story using comics bubbles on the shots. It's really cool and amazing that folks are combining different media forms in creative ways. For Half-Life fans, there's also a comic called "Apostasy" using screenies from HL2 and it can be found on BrashFink's WebWerx.

Cardboard cows

These cardboard (?) cartoon cows are appearing all over grass patches in Singapore. So far, Ilve seen then at Fort Canning, Orchard MRT, and the park across the Istana. They are actually quite cute and is a refreshing change to see fake cows grazing in the fields. Oh, they are suppose to be some promo stunt for a new ad agency. Nice way to get attention, only thing is not many people know what they are for. Alien cows?

Revenge of the Bricks!

We've seen fan-made LEGO films. But this one is offical and will be
shown on the Cartoon Network! "Revenge of the Bricks" is a computer
animated mini-movie featuring LEGO Star Wars mini-figs. In it, you'll
see "good and evil clash, imagination explodes, and creativity saves
the day when the heroic Jedi Knights battle the villainous Sith for
control of the galaxy". I can't wait to see it.

Google + Yahoo! = ???

Yagoohoogle!!! Someone has combined the two search engines together. Using this website, you can query for stuff on the two search engines and get two different results. For those who can't get enough of results, go to Yagoohoogle. Only problem is that the name is a bit hard to remember.

Blogging in Hokkien

Oh my... if you can read this blog, you must be really proficient in the Hokkien dialect... Here's a sampler of what is on the Wa Si Hokkien Lang blog about Internet Relay Chat...

IRC angmoh ji si Internet Relay Chat. Hokkien wueh kio ai-ah-Si. Wa mm zai ai ah Si lai chor simik.

SIN CITY Film-Comics comparisons

The adaptation of Frank Millar's Sin City is now a movie. I've not seen it yet but from the net, the resemblence to the comic book is striking. The shots look amazing and I'll certainly be in-line to watch this when it reaches our shores.

Life after Star Wars

There's life after "Revenge of the Sith", it seems.

Lucasfilm.com recently posted job hirings for new animated Star Wars TV shows and possibly the live action series. Lucasfilm's Jim Ward confirmed that a live action Star Wars television series is on the way, and likely to come out in 2006.

Should we get excited over this? Maybe. Let's see how Ep III thurns out before we all go crazy.

Use iPod shuffle without iTunes

This should interest those who want to just drag and drop their MP3 files into the iPod Shuffle without having to go through the hassle of managing things in iTunes. The iPod shuffle Database Builder allows you to do that and dump your music anywhere on the Shuffle.

The Database Builder comes in two flavors: A plain C Win32 console application, and a platform-independent Python script. The Win32 version is for Windows users (obviously), and requires no additional installed software to work. The other version requires some recent version of Python (tested with 2.3.5 and 2.4) and should work on any platform Python supports. This includes Linux, Windows, MacOS X (tested) and a large amount of other Unix-like systems.

25 great Sesame Street memories

Still on Sesame Street. The Progressive Boink website has a list of the writer's fave Sesame Street memories. Looking through the list, I sure remember some of them, especially the one Grover goes "near" and "far". Of course, not in that list but would be my personal favourite will be Ernie singing "Rubber Duckie" in the tubby.

Cookie Monster going healthy

Eating healthy. You may think that it may not apply to the monsters on Sesame Street but it does. CNN is reporting that the PBS kid's series is advocating eating healthy food. That's not really a bad thing but it's certainly different from the Sesame Street of my youth. Even the CNN journo reporting this thinks so.

My beloved blue, furry monster -- who sang "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me" -- is now advocating eating healthy. There's even a new song -- "A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food," where Cookie Monster learns there are "anytime" foods and "sometimes" foods.

"Sacrilege!" I cried. "That's akin to Oscar the Grouch being nice and clean." (Co-workers gave me strange looks. But I didn't care.)

Clothing for the Treo

My quest for something to protect my Treo 650 has led me to these two options here-the Boxwave Silicone Skin and the egrips. The best option is to have a case that both protects and won't add too much bulk to the phone. The Silicone Skin (pict left) protects quite well but adds a little bulk. Plus it picks up lint from my pants after a while. I was quite satisfied with this case until I began to dislike the feel of the case with lint. After some looking around, I found the egrips. It's not so much a case than something that allows you to have good grip of your device. After using it for a while, I am happy to say that I like it. Although it doesn't fully protect the Treo, it gives me good grip on the phone with its grippy qualities. Since this will help prevent slipping and sliding, it gives me the assurance that as long as I am careful, I won't drop it. Since it is a stick on, I hope it will last. Am I still looking for other options? Maybe the magnesium Innopocket hard case can be a contender. For now, I'm a happy guppy with egrips.

Seems to be working

After changing the Blogger email, posting to the blog using email on my Treo seems to be working.

Still trying to post via email

Posting via email is still a problem. Does it work properly?

Hitting 1000 page views!!!

Wow, I've hit 1000 page views. Thanks to myself, and probably one or two little kittens who occassionally view my blog. Well, this blog is not one of those uber-popular first-class blog. So I never expect it to have millions of page views such that the server goes belly up. On to the next milestone then... 2000 page views!

Test post to blog

This is another test post to Blogger. Posting via email seems a little flaky.

Football movie made in Singapore

Who says Singapore movie is just Raintree or Jack Neo or Royston? These guys have put together a 15 mins short film about

the journey of 3 soccer-crazy boys. Having taking up the challenge of a friendly soccer match, the boys realize that it is not easy to find a good, free public soccer field in Singapore?..if there's any at all. Through their journey they encounter obnoxious care-takers, locked-up fences, deterring weather and a persistent policeman. Will they be able to find their dream soccer pitch?

Titled Tak Giu, which means kicking football, this is way way better than anything you see on MediaCorp these days. It is even better than the Gurmit Singh-starred One Leg Kicking.

Live-action Transformers in the works

How about that? CNN has news that we may be seeing live-action robots in disguise on the silver screens in 2006! Bad Boys director Michael Bay is slated to be in talks to direct this movie. Wow, it'll be fun to see real humans acting next to computer generated Optimus Prime.

Creative commons in the UK

This is an interesting and insightful piece on UK's, or rather BBC's, attempt to introduce the idea of Creative Common licenses. Anyone interested in the future of media should take a look at this.

The U.K. has a great tradition in providing quality public service to the citizen... I find absolutely fascinating the way the public sector has been engaged with the CC project" says Prodromos Tsiavos, the legal lead at Oxford. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the most influential public service content provider in the world, has been behind the project from the start and is using the Creative Commons ideology as a lynchpin for its core digital project, the Creative Archive.
...
By contrast, the commercial creative industries have raised the kind of misinformed objections to Creative Commons that will be tiresomely familiar to those engaged in the IP debate in the States.

Here's to hoping that this initiative works out and be the model for many other countries to follow.

Posting straight to Blogger from email

Although I've posted pictures to Blogger with the pictures stored on
Flickr, that is a service provided by Flickr. So, this will be my
first post via email using the tools that Blogger provides. Here's to
more ways of posting!

Disneyland LEGO

This is a reconstruction of Disneyland using LEGO bricks. It is posted
on Brickshelf, a site for folks to share their LEGO collection. This
construction is simply jawdropping!

ACS on Wikipedia

Wikipedia is the online encyclopedia where everyone can contributes. And guess what? You can actually find an entry to ACS on it. Not entirely surprising if you really think about it. Considering the number of students that has past through its gates, and old boys include famous criminals to famous statesman. Anyway, it is quite comprehensive and no mention of the school is complete without mention of the "snob" image that was perpetuated by others.

The school's students have also been accused of being arrogant and snobbish, and ACS itself has often been charged as being a school only for children of the rich and elite. In the 1970s, there was a minor flap in the local press about ACS students flaunting their wealth to other, less privileged students and the world at large, and the term "snob" began being applied to them. As a result, the school initiated strict policies on how much money a student was allowed to bring to school, and even what kinds of watches or shoes would be permitted to be worn.

What can I say? It's part of the school's history.

More board game recommendations

Just found this article that recommends some of the best games of 2004. Can't really say if they are really good since it's hard to find these games in Singapore, let alone find people who have heard of them. I have the original Carcassonne and Carcassonne: The City looks similar. Anyway, good luck finding them. Best to import them or get it when you are overseas.

Giant ewoks invade Star Wars Galaxies

Ewoks. Love or hate them, they fought on the side of the good guys in
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. On April Fool's day, the developers of
Star Wars Galaxies unleashed extremely aggressive and unusually large
Ewoks and set them on cantina patrons and innocent bystanders. Ewoks
are cute? Not when they're this size and when they are attacking you!

iTreoPod? It's April's Fool

Yesterday was April's fool and there must be tons of fake, funny news
reports circulating the web. I read one that Steve Jobs is going to
join IKEA (think it is on The Register) and almost feel for it until I
remembered the date. One of the best that I saw has to be the one on
CNET. They have the iTreoPod, a slap-together device that combines the
best smartphone and the popular MP3 player. But who really needs that?
My Treo acts as a perfectly fine MP3 player too.

LEGO Grand Theft Auto

LEGO is a toy that's safe for kids. But what if it's Grand Theft Auto
using LEGO? Brick Flick presents Grand Theft Auto: LEGO City and has
the minigifs running around in LEGO City doing GTA stuff. Check out the video clips. It's sweet.

Hilarious Teochew ringtone

Just found out that Singapore blogger Mr. Brown has started podcasting. A few days back, he did one which features a number of funny ringtones. The funniest one is this Teochew ringtone which asks you to pick up your phone. The featured link has extracted the ringtone so you can download it if your phone supports MP3.

EPIC 2014-possible future of the mediascape?

This is a 8 mins flash presentation of the future of media. The scenario presented sees Google and Amazon merging and the mainstream media going offline in response to EPIC, otherwise known as the "Evolving Personalized Information Construct". EPIC will customise news and media for you and is way more advance than anything we have today. Although the presented future may not come to pass, it has more than a hint of truth in it, considering the way trends are heading today. If you're even remoteing interested in how you will consume media in the future, this is an awesome piece that you must watch. For those working in the media, it is absolutely essential.

Is the palmOne Life Drive real?

Various Palm fan sites are reporting the rumoured Life Drive. It's suppose to have 32 MB of RAM, 4 GB(!!!) of storage in a miniature hard drive, support USB 2.0, have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 1.1. It'll also be powered by Palm OS Garnet on a 416 MHz XScale processor. The downside? It's larger and thicker than the Tungsten T5. So is this real? Hard to tell, but it seems like there are more clues pointing to the fact that his may be real. This include almost real photos on Palmaddict (found in the link below) and also that palmOne had obtained a trademark for "LIFEDRIVE" on August 27, 2004. Let's wait and see how this rumor pans out. If true, it's gonna be quite exciting.

Palm Bluetooth Internet Setup

Want to set up your stuff such that your Palm can talk to your PC using bluetooth? The instructions are here. Maybe it's time now for me to get a Class 1 Bluetooth USB adapter.

Hacking Multi-Player into Grand Theft Auto

This is certainly a helluva-hack. The article in the link should speaks for itself. And it's using open source! It'll so amazing to do car-jacking with other players!

Multi Theft Auto adds networked multi-player to the Windows versions of Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. This ingenious "giant hack" illustrates just how far a commercial game can be extended beyond a typical "mod," even if one does not have access to the original source code. The developers sum up what it took to create their unofficial mod: open source software (RakNet and Crazy Eddie's GUI System), along with lots of time, persistence and junk food.

View from a revolving restaurant

The first time one has a meal in a revolving restaurant is always an interesting experience. So, I had lunch at this place called Prima Tower and it gives a view of Keppel harbour and also Sentosa island. Too bad the weather was wet and the view wasn't as great as it would be. Still, if your eyes are sharp, you'll see that the rear view of the Merlion needs a scrub.

Board game sites

Board games are fun, but they're just not as popular as video/computer games. Still, there're still loads of folks engaging in this fun activity, and there are countless great board games out there. Here are some great board game resources to check out:
Bruno Faidutti
A site in French and English. Good, short intro to games that are out there.
Board Game Geek
Probably the best resource of board games online. Almost encyclopedic collection of games, rules, reviews, etc.
Two Player Games
Recommendation for couples. Games that are great for just two players.

Cool LED clock

I've been looking for a nice wall clock for my living room and have
not found the ideal one. This cool LED clock comes close, but I'll
have to buy it online (from ThinkGeek) and from the specs, it may not
be big enough... then again, it might not need to be big.

Ebooks on your PSP

Yeah, your PSP can play games, watch movies, listen to music. But what about using it to read ebooks? This activity may not be top on the list of the new generation but you gotta learn how to to read! Anyway, the Game Fries blog has found a way to load up ebooks on to your PSP. Is it the best way to read books though? I doubt so. Even though I can load text onto my GBA SP, it's not such a great ebook reader. I'll stick to my Treo.

20GB Creative Zen-iPod killer?

Although I admire the design of the iPod and Apple's ingenius marketing effort for the device, I am never a huge fan. I think it looks cool, but it's quite lacking in some features. On the other hand, I think Creative's Zen Micro is quite nice and has extra features, but they don't have one which has the capacity that matches the regular iPod's. Now, the wait is over. Sim and his gang has released the 20GB Creative Zen and the design is based on the Zen Micro. Not to mention that it has the extra features too, like voice recording and FM radio. Pretty neat. Only drawback seems to be the mentioned 11 hours battery life. Will probably get one of these when it hits the stores if not for the fact that I'm happy with listening to music on my Treo 650.

Pixar office tour

Even wonder what the Pixar office is like? These are the folks who gave us Finding Nemo and of course, the incredible The Incredibles. Ain't It Cool News has an entry where the writer toured the Pixar office, and it has tons of The Incredibles-related items there. Nice working environment, huh?

LEGO charger cradle for Nintendo DS

This guy has fixed up a charger cradle using LEGO bricks. He has even
included a Battle Droid minifig on it. It also has space to put the
stylus and game cards. Once again, I've to say... is there anything
that you can't make out of LEGO?

Flight Attendant raps in Shanghainese

There's this rap tune titled "Passengers aren't Gods" done by a Chinese flight attendant. Whether the singer is actually a flight attendant is up for debate. The rap is in Shanghainese and the link contains the lyrics to the tune. Anyway, it sounds quite interesting and uses Eminem as the bassline. Check it out.

Super Shuffle's a publicity stunt

I mentioned the Super Shuffle a while back. Seems like it's just a publicity stunt for the company LuxPro to get attention so that brands can contract them to produce other MP3 players. Smart move. The only sad thing is that we won't be getting a better Shuffle anytime soon. Check the link to Engadget for more details.

Programs on your USB thumb drive

Your USB thumb drive can actually act as a swiss knife of sorts. Tech writer Jeremy Wagstaff has provided a list of proggies you can consider putting on your thumb drive. Items in the list include Trillian Anywhere for instant messaging and Portable FireFox for browsing. With these, you can simply plug your thumb drive in any PC and start do your work. No fuss.

Writers on Board for Ender's Game

IGN's FilmForce is reporting that Orson Scott Card has endorsed the selection of the screenplay writers for the movie adaptation of Ender's Game.

Fresco Pictures has announced that David Benioff and his writing colleague Dan Weiss will be penning a script for the science fiction movie. The screenplay will be based on both the novels Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by renowned sci-fi-fantasy author Orson Scott Card. Benioff's last project was the adaptation of Troy for the big screen.
...
Orson Scott Card endorsed the selection of Benioff to develop the screenplay, citing Troy as an example of the writer's talents. "Mr. Benioff proved with Troy that he could adapt a long work to fit the brevity of film, while preserving what is most powerful and effective in the original.

This is great news. Finally, we'll get to see the movie of this amazing sci-fi story on the silver screen. Can't wait. Hope it'll as good as LOTR.

Flickr aquired by Yahoo!

Well, it's confirmed. Yahoo! has bought Flickr. This entry on the Flickr Blog gives details and more info on what this means to existing Flickr user, which I am one. Hope that nothing changes too drastically that I need to reconfigure my settings for posting of pictures to my blog.

Maps for your video games

Getting lost in the sprawling landscape of the virtual world in your video games? Fear not. This website is for all you gaming tourists out there. Say you're taking Link on a trip in the Legend of Zelda or taking your warrior on a quest in Morrowind, you can head to this site to look at maps of the world you are exploring. Pretty handy for those who are not so good at getting their bearings in a virtual world.

Blokus-the board game

Board games are fun. If more people play board games, life on earth would be so much more fun, and peaceful. Just kidding. Anyway, I love playing board games, it's just that sometimes it's hard to get a large number of folks together to have a game so I tend to favour games for 2 persons. There's this game called Blokus that I saw on the Internet. It is a mixture of Go and Tertris. There's a 2-4 players version and also a 2 players version. It looks fun and maybe it'll be on my to-find list when I travel next time.

Relaxing @ Angsana, Bintan

This is my first time in Bintan and I'm staying at Angsana Resort. This is the view from my room. Did everything one would do here, like swimming, wading in the beach, dinner at the beach front, and even went for a spa treatment. All nice!

Digital Map Projection for D&D session

D&D computer games aside, never though that tabletop roleplaying games will become so high tech. These folks use a laptop and a projector to beam the map onto their gaming table so that the projected map can be seen on the table. When such expensive equipment needed for this set up, it's truly a techie meets old school gamers heaven.

Doom 3 Case Mod

You've not seen an impressive case mod till you've seen this case mod based on Doom 3. The maker of this case based his design on the look and feel of the setting you see in Doom 3. It's detailed and looks downright cool, just like it's part of the set of Doom 3. Head over to this site to see this amazing creation and if you're ambitious enough, you can follow the step-by-step guide to make your own.

Holy LEGO Batman!

LEGO has offical sets for Marval's Spiderman. For fans of other
superheroes, they'll have to custom-make their own. Anyway, fans of the
cape crusader has done that and is actually making a film using
computer-generated LEGO blocks. They also have an impressive-looking
trailer on their website.

A better Shuffle?

Has Apple finally realised that the Shuffle is pretty plain and has now added a FM tuner to add functionality to it? Of course not! But some manufacturer in Taiwan has certainly realise that and has added a FM tuner and a voice recorded into their MP3 player which looks exactly like an iPod Shuffle. They've even called it a 'Super Shuffle'. There's also a 1GB version! Only problem is that it still does not have a screen. MP3newswire has a story that shows the actual Shuffle and the enhanced version side-by-side. Only problem is that we can expect Apple to shut this down. So those interested may just want to try get their hands on it before Steve Jobs goes after these guys.

Star Wars Episode 3: A Lost Hope

Sick of how disappointing Episodes I and II are? You're not the only one. This group of fans took their disappointment in the Star Wars prequel to the extreme to produce a spoof of the Ep III trailer, calling it... A Lost Hope. Let's just hope that the actual Sith-titled movie will not be disappointing.

Isreal's Army frowns on D&D

You may be a powerful knight when playing Dungeons & Dragons, but if you're going into the Isreali Army and want to rise in the ranks, you'd better keep your dragonslaying fantasy to yourself.

Does the Israel Defense Forces believe incoming recruits and soldiers who play Dungeons and Dragons are unfit for elite units? Ynet has learned that 18-year-olds who tell recruiters they play the popular fantasy game are automatically given low security clearance.
...
Why does IDF believe game is dangerous? "These people have a tendency to be influenced by external factors which could cloud their judgment, a military official says. "They may be detached from reality or have a weak personality - elements which lower a person's security clearance, allowing them to serve in the army, but not in sensitive positions."

Only 15% of gamers are Net addicts

Slashdot has reported that a doctorate student from the Universoty of Iowa has done a research on MMORPG addiction. The results showed that only 15% of gamers meet the criteria for Net addiction. For more details, go to the links. So who says gamers are addicted? It's such a downright unfair stereotype.

Mozilla on a cellphone

If you're a Mozilla supporter, you'll be glad to hear that some folks are working on getting it to work on Windows Mobile powered cells. Called MiniMo, this is an open source project that is trying to get the Mozilla browser on cellphones, and from the photos there, it seems to be coming along. Now, how about doing it for the PalmOS?

Details on the next Xbox

The folks at Microsoft have posted some screenshots of what the software on the next-gen Xbox will look like. It doesn't reveal a whole lot but it's enough to get those who're into the Xbox excited. The site also has the audio files of the keynote delivered MS Corporate VP J Allard.

Blair liar

Outside the Houses are banners protesting against the War in Iraq. What the banner says on this one is pretty self-explanatory.

Churchill in oak

After the walk, went to see the House of Lords in session. Can't take any picts in the House but at the exit. There is an artwork dedicated to Winston Churchill made of oak and it also has pages of a speech he gave embedded in the wood.

House in golden light

This was taken at the end of the walk and has the tower of the House bath in golden lights.

Westminster by gaslight

I'm in London right now for the Financial Times conference for New Media and Broadcasting. Since I'm here, I took the chance to go on a few of the famous London Walks at night, since I can't do any shopping after 7pm anyway. Last night, went on the Haunted London walk which brought me to a number of locations in the old city area with sightings of the supernatural. Tonight, went on a walk of Westminster. This pict was taken along the bank of the Thames across the Houses of Parliment. The Victorian gaslights are not there anymore but in the cold winter rain, the sight is still beautiful.

Superheroes comics can be funny

When things are taken out of context, it can become really funny. Just take these comic panels for example. This site contains a collection of single panels taken from comic books. Taken out of context, they can be hilarious. Of course, you need to use a bit of your imagination to catch the joke.

More Beatles mash ups

Here're more mash-ups of The Beatles tunes. This mash-up album is called Revolved and include tracks like "Close to No One" (mix of The Beatles' "For No One" and The Cure's "Close To Me") and "Eleanor Ciccone" (mix of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" and Madonna's "Ray of Light"). Who would have guessed that mash-ups are so much fun? Especially if they contain Beatles tunes!

The Walkman meets Sony Ericsson phone

After plain old Ericsson became Sony Ericsson, the mobile phone maker's design and features have been quite impressive. Until I got my Treo 650, I've been using the old SE T68 phone and have always dreamt that my next phone will be one of the SE models available. Anyway, SE is furthering improving their phones and has even brought the Walkman brand to the new model which shows their effort in bring music to mobile devices. Having missed the MP3 boat to Apple's iPod, this is perhaps one strategy to win back the music space Sony has always been associated with since their Walkman and Discman days. This phone is quite a beauty and the only negetive is probably its use of the Memory Stick. Well, if not for my Treo, this one would have been on my shopping list.

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.