Free Music Download List

Who doesn't love free things? Instead of financing the major music labels in their quest of suing music listeners and adding to their coffers, why not look for songs that are free on the Internet? The author of gHacks has compiled a list of the best free music download sites on the internet. The list contains about 40 sites that offer legal music downloads to their visitors. Say together... free music is good...

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PXN8.COM - Edit photos online

Sometimes you need to edit some pictures but you don't have a photo editor installed on your computer. Well, you can now make use of PXN8.com. This is an online photo editing application. Basically, you can select a picture, and then do things like cropping, resizing, rotating, and even apply some effects, like blur, lomo, sepia, etc. It is even integrated with Flickr and you can upload your edited pictures to your Flickr account! Amazing.

Christmas mash-up album

If you're sick of listening to the standard Christmas music every year, why not try something different this holiday season? Top notch masher dj BC has compiled an album of great Xmas mashups called "Santastic: Holiday Boots 4 Your Stockings". Go grab this album, complete with CD sleeves that you can print out, and spread some smashing Christmas cheer.

Free iPod video content

Looking for something to watch on your brand new 5G iPod? Other than getting them from iTunes Music Store and other less official sites, you can head down to FLiXPO, a site that offers video clips ranging from film trailers, funny ads, indie videos and even games machinima. And yes, they're all free... as in free beer.

Scrabble using L33T Tiles

This must be the perfect gift for geeks who love word games. L33T Tiles are replacement tile sets to be used with Scrabble and other word games. If you use these tiles, you're of course expected to use the net slang known as leetspeak. The website even offers a dictionary for those who would like to confirm that the words used actually exist online. So stop using regex and pwn someone with words for l33t folks, woot!

My new 5G iPod

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Yes, I've decided to upgrade to the latest and greatest iPod available now. The package arrived one day after the order was placed and when it arrived, all was sweet. Can't wait to enjoy the new iPod goodness.

World of Warcraft erotica

World of Warcraft is a virtual world. As in the real world, there will be folks there who think about sex and erotica. It's therefore no surprise that a group of erotica-minded folks will be using WoW for their fantasies. These folks have created a forum called Darknest to indulge in their fantasy. They have even created a bunch of nude skins for the characters in WoW. Never thought that I'll actually see a topless orc.

Dungeon crawling, LEGO-style

When I saw this site called BrickQuest, I told myself this has to be the coolest thing one does with LEGO. But then again I thought, using LEGO for other things are as rad too.

Anyway, BrickQuest uses LEGO to build a dungeon that can be used for fantasy boardgaming. The site also has rules on how you can play the game and plans for you to build your own LEGO dungeon. Dungeon crawling in a LEGO universe is so cool and cute too.

Ten Bloglines Hacks

I love using Bloglines. In fact, it is my RSS reader of choice. The Micro Persuasion site has a piece on ten ways you can get more out of Bloglines. Love those hacks, I really do.

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones viral marketing video

This is an extremely funny video for the new POP:TTT game. I don't know if this is a fan-made thingy or it's actually an official video for a viral marketing campaign. Whatever it is, it's really funny. It shows flesh and blood humans, that's folks like you and me, attempting the stunts that the Prince can do in the game. The results are side-splitting. Since I'm currently playing the Warrior Within, this sure is funny to me.

My 4G iPod

Not the latest but still good. This is after all a test post to the blog.

GremSpot on the move

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I am starting to use SplashBlog to post some photos. Quite easy to use and is faster than using email to post to Flickr. Look out for more picts coming your way.

PocketMod: The Electronic PDA killer

Well, your trusty Palm or Pocket PC device is your best friend, until it starts to act up. In comes the PocketMod. This is probably the electonic PDA killer because it's just... you guess it... paper. The Pocket Mod is called a disposable organizer. Using a flash-based app, you can choose what kind of paper you need, e.g. sheet with guided lines or week view page, then print it out on a piece of paper. You can then fold it into a handy book-like format that you can carry around with you. It's the ultimate note card and PDA, rolled into one. The developer has even come up with a PDF to PocketMod converter. Truly useful for those times when you can't depend on your PDA.

Top popular podcasts

Want to know what are some of the popular podcasts around? Popcasts is a site that aggregates the various podcast charts around the Net. At a glance, you'll be able to see what other folks are listening to on iTunes, Podnova, Odeo, Podcast Alley, and many more. Nice to see what folks on different places are listening to.

Logos of the world

If you're looking for logos of various brands, here're two web sites that you can find many of the brands and you can download their logos for your use.

• Brands of the World
  
• Logotypes

P2P's effect on music sales

Does file-sharing affect music sales? I guess the answer depends on who you're asking. This article on The Long Tail looks at a fascinating paper that has been released on the economics of P2P file-sharing.

...it does indeed depress music sales overall. But the effect is not felt evenly. The hits at the top of the charts lose sales, but the niche artists further down the popularity curve actually benefit from file-trading.

Well, it seems that if you're a listener of mainstream, label-driven and marketed music, then file-sharing hurts. But then, who needs to support these manufactured musicians anyway? I say, support the niche, indie musicians.

There's another interesting summary of this research here.

Apple imitator?

We know that long, long time ago, there were Apple clones such as Orange and Pineapple. Of course, these clones don't exist anymore because Apple has been pretty tight on the infringement of their trademarks and copyright. Today, I say this in the Straits Times.
It's an ad by a cellphone retailer, and the company is called Apple Telecom. We know that Apple is also the name of the company that The Beatles started, and it's also the name of a newspaper in Hong Kong, so why not a cellphone retailer in Singapore? But look at the logo. Doesn't it resemble the actual Apple logo?
The difference is that the leaf on the top of the fruit is on the left instead of the right, and the fruit itself has not been eaten. Uncanny, isn't it? With Apple going hard on the companies using the iPod name, I wonder if the Cupertino-based company will come down hard on Apple Telecom?
What's funny is that 5 pages later, there's an ad by ishop, an Apple authorised reseller.

Transformers costumes

This has got to be the coolest costumes ever made. This fellow has created a series of Transformer costumes that can actually transform! If you're going for a costume party, wearing these will certain make you the Prime (pun intended) attraction of the party. Now, you just have to be prepared to be US$3700 poorer, or simply hope that the creator of these costumes release his design on the net as open source.
Link

CD case Origami

Sometimes, you just don't have a CD case or covers. This happens especially if you're burning backup CDs. This site has an interesting mini-project where you can fold a piece of paper into a CD case.

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Xbox360, smashed

The folks at Smash My [insert gadget name here] has done a brilliant follow-up to their iPod smashing antic. This time, the target is the much sought-after Xbox360. With the rumoured shortage of this console, doing such a thing may be sacriligious to some. Still for those bent on destruction of bright shiny new electronics, it's some fun. And with the various reports that the Xbox360 is actually unstable and crashing, smashing one may not seem so far-fetched. Although we would not encourage you to do it if you're short on cash or if the machine you have is the last one on the planet.

If you've spare CPU cycles, help fight AIDS

Previously, if you'd some spare CPU cycles that you can spare, you can join one of the couple of grid computing projects around such as SETI@home. But if you think searching for aliens is not such a worthy project, now you can contribute to a more noble cause and contribute in the project to find a cure for the deadly AIDS virus. All you have to do is download and install a piece of software and it will utilise your free CPU cycles to aid in this distributed computing project. For those not too keen to help out on the AIDS cause, there's also a Folding@home project which aims to collect data on how to find cures for protein-folding based diseases like caner and Alzheimer's.

Watch iPod videos on the TV cheaply

The folks at Apple are really sneaky. If you try to play the videos on your 5G iPod using a standard A/V-to-RCA cable plugging it to your TV, you'll probably be out of luck and think that you'll have to shell out some cash to buy the official Apple-approved cables. Well, you don't have to because the sneaky folks at Apple has simply switch the outputs in the cables. To beat that, you just have to switch the way you plug the standard cables into your TV and set your iPod to the right settings. This tip on Macdevcenter.com gives you the details. So save some pennies and get a normal cable, no need to always fork out hard-earned cash and bow down to the Apple merchandising machine. Just because Apple makes something doesn't mean you have to buy it.

So here's what you have to do:

* Plug the red RCA plug into your TV's yellow RCA jack.
* Plug the yellow RCA plug into your TV's white RCA jack.
* Plug the white RCA plug into your TV's red RCA jack.

Creative Commons music for everyday

This is something called CC:365. The idea here is to deliver a Creative Commons song using RSS feeds every day of the year. So for those sick of listening to major labels crap and want to experience some good quality, free music, subscribe to this. The songs featured will be from a wide variety of artists you've probably never heard and genres you may not even be familiar with. I say, what a great way to explore new music.

The ultimate LOST theory

Okay. Those who are watching LOST will certainly be wondering what the series is leading to, let alone the meaning of the series. This forum post on 4815162342.com has a grand theory on what is happening on LOST. It's comprehensive and complete with screenshots from the series to explain everything. Magnetism plays a large part in this theory and it makes a great deal of sense. But then according to some happenings in Season 2 (I'll be silent on this for those who have not watched the second season), the theory is just blown out of the water. Hmm... maybe even the producers of the show don't know what is gonna happen... that's my theory at least.

Great desktop art from Pixelgirl

Looking for cool desktop wallpapers? Pixelgirl has enough to get you drolling, and hoping that you've a couple of virtual desktops to place all these wallpapers on.

The Ultimate Guide to Google Services

We love Google... really we do. Google is so much more than just a search engine. It is also a mail service, a blogging service provider, and so much more. If you want to know what other Google offerings are available, you need to go to Tipmonkies to see the ultimate guide to Google Services. Google taking over the world? Maybe pretty soon.

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Useful IP search tool

This is a pretty useful and nifty tool for looking up DNS. The DNSStuff site contains a number of tools to look up info on DNS and IPs. One of the more useful one in the list is the "City from IP" tool where you can enter an IP, and find out which city that IP is from. Can't really know the accuracy of the result but at least when I entered my IP, it works.

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The LOST Numbers Reference Guide

4 8 15 16 23 42... LOST fans will be going crazy wondering what these numbers mean. A fan of this intriging series has started a reference guide on these numbers and looking at the ways these numbers work themselves into the episodes of LOST. If you're conspiracy-mad, like most fans are, you'll enjoy this site. Now, where was the last time I saw 4 8 15 16 23 42 appear?

NES-ified hit tunes

Ever wondered what some pop tunes will sound like if played from a Nintendo's NES audio system? Wonder no more. Head to the link below to download some cover tunes of 16 pop songs. Some of my fave songs are covered so it's going to be syn-tastic.

The Mario recital

Previously I blogged about a blindfolded pianist who played the Super Mario theme. This is even better. These guys in the video are playing a recital of the Super Mario theme on a marimba, together with some stage performances such as capturing of the 1UP mushroom, and even Princess Peach made an appearance. This is absolutely great and is a must-see for Mario fans and fans of Nintendo. These guys should go on tour.

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LEGO minifigs built a computer

This guy called Andy L sure has a sense of humour. He has posted an account of how his LEGO minifigs helped built the computer that he is using. Not a bad job for a bunch of LEGO figures!

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Evening of the Reanimated Corpses-a Wiki movie

Wikipedia has become more than just a source for information. Someone has posted a movie script there hoping to turn it into a collaborative project. Interesting concept indeed, but for now, the folks at Wikipedia has locked access to the script to prevent other people from vandelising it. We'll just have to wait and see how far this project can progress.

Update: Seems like a Wiki site dedicated to scripts have been set up and it's available at www.wikiscripts.org. A couple of scripts are there so if you're for some collaborative writing action. Check that out.

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Ten ways to really make use of Wikipedia

Wikipedia is the best example of how Wikis can really be useful. This website gives you ten ways you can really make Wikipedia works for you. Totally useful for those wanting to make full use of the socially-created online encyclopedia.

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The top 20 geek novels

The Technology Blog on Guardian has a list of the top 20 geek novels as voted by their readers. The list is really a good place to start if you're looking to read some great tech or sci-fi tomes. Of the 20, I've actually read 15 of them. Those that I've read are in bold. That makes me a true blue geek right?

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams 85% (102)
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell 79% (92)
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley 69% (77)
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick 64% (67)
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson 59% (66)
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert 53% (54)
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov 52% (54)
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov 47% (47)
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett 46% (46)
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland 43% (44)
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson 37% (37)
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons 38% (37)
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson 36% (36)
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks 34% (35)
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein 33% (33)
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick 34% (32)
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman 31% (29)
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson 27% (27)
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson 23% (21)
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham 21% (19)

VNC using Flash

There's now a VNC client available in Flash. This means that you don't have to install a VNC client to connect to a remote machine with VNC installed. All you need is a Flash player. Can't wait to try this out!

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"Lost" numbers widget

If you're a fan of the TV series "Lost", you'll enjoy this Konfabulator Widget. It replicates the computer found in the underground chamber in "Lost" where every 108 minutes, one has to key in the number sequence for the timer to reset. What happens when you don't hit the "Execute" button when the timer runs out? Well, you try out and tell me.

What font is that?

This one is a useful website for those font fanatics, or just about anyone who wants to know what font is used in a document, design banner, etc. All you have to do is upload an image of the text, and it'll recognise the font that's being used. Really useful for designers or if you want to do a spoof of something using the same fonts.

What does an average face looks like?

This is an interesting website of a project called "The Face of Tomorrow" that takes pictures of folks in various cities, and then combining their faces to form a composite picture. The end result is a supposedly "average" face in that city. It's really interesting and it seems that the "average" person looks pretty good, actually.

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RIAS does what RIAA does

The crackdown by RIAS on illegal music download has began. There is actually evidence of letters sent to home internet users regarding the alleged infringment of copyright. You can read the details on the linked website.

What's inside Microsoft's Xbox 360

The good folks at Anandtech have done it again. These hardcore hardware folks have opened up the Xbox360 to give those who are curious a peek inside the innards of Microsoft's latest gaming machine. For those who are too afraid to open up the box, since it'll void the warranty anyway, you can head down there to check out the insides of the Xbox360.

Barenaked Ladies on a stick

On a USB stick, that is... The Canadian band Barenaked Ladies is experimenting with a new way of delivering their music. They are going to sell their music on a 128MB USB flash memory drive. Interesting way to sell your stuff, but I wonder if the tunes on the stick have any sort of DRM...

...a USB flash memory drive containing songs, videos, and exclusive content from the Barenaked Ladies, and will go on sale November 22, 2005! Essential for any BNL fan’s collection, the 128mg USB flash memory drive (about the size of your pinky finger) is a fast and easy way to share music, videos, pictures and other data. It is PC/Mac compatible, re-usable and incredibly low priced at $29.98 (close to the same cost of the device on its own with no special content). It will be available on Amazon.com and Werkshop.com (Nettwerk’s online merchandise store), and will also be sold at all BNL shows this winter.

Open source free beer... I mean Mac software

We all love getting free stuff. Here's a list of Mac software that're free for you to grab. Yes, free as in the air you breathe is free and "everybody loves free beer". Support open source!!!

Xbox 360 Hardware Porn

The Xbox360 is out in the market. For those of us not in the US, we still have to wait some time before we can see the machine, let alone get our hands on it. So for those who can't wait to get the skinny on the new gaming machine, 1up.com has a feature that looks at the machine in its bare glory. Hardware porn like this beats real porn anytime.

Use Pandora to discover new music

If you're a music lover, you'll probably be looking out for bands or songs that are similar to those that you like. Pandora is a great tool for that. you can create your own radio station by typing in the band or song that you like, and a playlist will be created that has songs that are similar to what you've entered. It's simply a great way to explore new music and bands. One does have to have an Internet connection and has to listen to the songs via a web browser though.

Bluetooth on iPod

Want to receive the audio signals from your iPod using a Bluetooth headphones? This guy has hacked a Bluetooth headset to do that, and he explained how he did it in a Comic book bubbles form. Interesting.

Star Wars meets Transformers!

If you're both a Star Wars and Transformers fan, now you can have a toy that combines the best of both universe. It's the power of the Force meets the power of the Allspark and Hasbro are releasing Star Wars vehicles that are actually robots in disguise. There's a TIE Fighter that turns into Darth Vader, Jedi Starfighter that turns into Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Wheel Bike that turns into General Grevious, and (probably the coolest) an X-Wing that turns into Luke Skywalker. They're all so cool!

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iPodder Lemon now called Juice

The lawyers at Apple has done it again. iPodder was my first podcasting client and it's free. iPodderX is more powerful but nothing beats the simplicity of iPodder. Now, the legal cats at Apple are going after this GPL-based client. So, the folks of iPodder are now changing the name to Juice. It's sad to see these big companies going after the smaller ones, even ones with little profit motive. I guess iPodderX will be next in Apple's gunsight, and I wonder what the iPodderX folks will change the name of their software to.

29 no-nos for gamers over age 30

Joystiq has a list of things that if you're a gamer of over 30 years old, which include yours truly, shouldn't do. A fun read like one of the item which reads... "Pirate games - shouldn’t you have an income by now?"
Link

Backward Compatibility on the new Xbox360

If you're concern about the backward compatibility issue on the new Xbox360, you should go read this comprehensive Q & A on the Xbox website regarding this. Todd Holmdahl of the Xbox Product Group answered in much detail how the backward compatibility thing will work on the new system. Seems like those who're still not tired of Halo can still have their fun on the Xbox360, with conditions, of course.
Link

Watching all six Star Wars movies simultaneously

Star Wars fans are obsessive, none more than this fellow. He watched all six movies at once! If you want to experience just a fraction of what he has done, head to his site.

So all six Star Wars movies are out on DVD now, and I said to myself: I have nothing better to do, and there are so many parallels between these movies as it is, it'd be fun to see how many interesting things line up with each other if I watch all six movies simultaneously.

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Sony-BMG's infectious CDs

Recently, it has been discovered that Sony-BMG has been using a copy-protection technology on their music CDs where if you insert the disc in your PC, a software will be installed automatically using rootkit technique used by virus writers, and it will create problems with your system. The EFF site has put up a list of CDs that contains this software and also provided tips on how you can recognise CDs with this software.

Makes me wonder why music companies are doing such silly things to cause mistrust among their users. No wonder I don't feel like buying new CDs these days... but thankfully, Macs are immune to this problem. Good thing I'm ripping my CDs on a Mac.

Playing RISK using Google Maps

Google Maps has many uses. One of those is using it to play games. The link below will bring you to someone who has used Google Maps to play the game RISK. It's a fun way to use Google Maps. I bet Google didn't expect someone to use the map this way when they open up the API of Google Maps for folks to use.

First iPod-specific torrent tracker

Here's what the iPod video users who are also BitTorrent users are looking for. The site called Podtropolis is suppose to offer plenty of content for the iPod via BT trackers. The legality of this site is however, dubious. Still, when there's a demand, a website will spring up to serve the demand.

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The Ultimate Torrent Finder?

If you're looking for a way to search various Torrent sites at once, you should head over to this link. Massive.

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Game design in WarioWare

WarioWare on the GameBoy Advance is one of the most interesting games I've played. It is actually a perculiar game where you go through many many mini games. It's so interesting and out-of-the-ordinary that Game Studies, an online journal of computer game research, is looking at how WarioWare can teach us about games. Interesting read.

WarioWare, finally, is fascinating because of its message to game scholars: we can reflect upon games by making them. Experimental games are a powerful tool for thinking about and communicating ideas about games.

How to backup blogs

Backup... that's the keyword for everyone using computers. So if you're running a blog, and you don't want your entries to get lost due to some unfortunate incidents, you'll want to backup. But what if your blog is not hosted locally? Well, Lifehacker has the info you need. Go read it to find out what applications you can use to backup your blog, on Mac using WebGrabber and on Windows using HTTrack.
Link

Dreamcast & Xbox360 compared

Gaming site 1up.com has a piece comparing the eerie similarity between the dead and buried Dreamcast console from Sega and the upcoming Xbox360. Will Microsoft's second console be the end, just like Dreamcast? Only time will tell, but for now, you can read... and speculate.

The sound of silence

This one is totally bonkers. I love listening to podcasts because they offer something that regular FM radio can't, i.e. interesting and relevant content. But what about listening to nothing? Some folks have come up with a podcast that's really about nothing. It's called "Silent podcast" and it's, well, completely silent. They even have a link in the iTunes Music Store. Maybe silence is really golden.
Link

How the Death Star Works

The Howstuffworks website has come up with another gem. Following their explanation of how the lightsaber works, this time, they're looking at the ultimate weapon of destruction, the Death Star. It's an educational read, especially if you're a Star Wars geek with a sense of humour and may think of living on the Death Star one day.

Tours on the Death Star last at least 180 days and usually much longer. Personnel are often in deep space without leave for months at a time, and since the location of the Death Star is always classified, contact with family or friends is strictly prohibited. This can make life on the Death Star very difficult. To ease the burden of this duty the station is outfitted with many civilian amenities. The general sector of each zone in the Death Star has a park, shopping centers and recreation areas that include restaurants, a cinema and fitness centers.

The Cult of iPod

The iPod culture has certainly become a big big thing. Playlist Magazine has a really insightful look at what the iPod has done to our culture and transformed us into an iPod nation. Well, other branded MP3 player manufacturers won't be too upbeat about that.

Just as no one predicted the iPod would be such a smash hit, no one foresaw its effect on listening habits, the music business and the culture at large.
...
Thanks to the iPod, everybody’s a DJ—or an MP3J. MP3Js are amateur DJs who spin tunes off their iPods and gather at clubs for “iPod nights,” or iParties. These iParties started at New York’s Apt. nightclub, which connected a pair of fully-loaded iPods to the club’s sound system. Customers took a deli-counter ticket and when their number came up, they had seven minutes to showcase their musical taste. Now there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of clubs and pubs around the world that let people bring their iPod and take a turn being the DJ.

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Time to take games seriously

Steven Johnson, the guy who wrote Everything Bad is Good for You, has written an interesting piece in Guardian Unlimited on why games needs to be taken seriously. We know the economic benefits of having a thriving games industry, but little has been said on the social benefits and relevance of games. It's time to start taking games seriously.

...if games tend to lack storytelling prowess, it doesn't necessarily follow that they lack social relevance. All the complex simulation games on the market - from The Sims, to Civilization, to SimCity, to Black & White - are, in effect, animated theories of how a given society works, whether it is ancient Rome or a modern metropolis. You learn the theory by playing. One of the defining attributes of Grand Theft Auto that has been chronically ignored by critics is how explicitly the game plays as a satire of American inner-city culture - or, more precisely, suburban America's nightmare of inner-city culture. But that satire emerges as much out of the environment of the game - the hilarious radio pseudo-soundtrack, the snippets of dialogue you overhear in the world - as it does from the story that unfolds as you play.

All of this - the economic strength of the gaming industry, the complexity of the games themselves, and their growing relevance as a platform for social commentary - adds up to one inevitable conclusion: ignoring games means ignoring one of the most interesting and innovative cultural forms of our time - not unlike writing off Hollywood in the era of Citizen Kane and Gilda.

How Much Is My Blog Worth?

My blog is worth $2,258.16.
How much is your blog worth?

Ever wondered if your blog is worth anything? This interesting applet created on the Business Opportunities Weblog uses Technorati API to calculate your blog's worth. It is suppose to have use the same link to dollar ration as the recent AOL-Weblogs Inc deal. All you have to do is to enter your blog's URL in the field, and then see how much your blog is worth.

Well, my blog is worth US$2,258.16 when I tried it. Don't think I can quit my day job yet.

Creating Instant Cool Banners

Need to create a banner to put on your webpage but don't know nuts about design? Well, this is a nifty little image generator that creates some pretty cool looking banners. You can tweak the various options to get what you want. Fun stuff.

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Proof that Kurt Cobain was murdered

Everyone knows that Kurt Cobain committed suicide. But did he really? This website by private investigator Tom Grant says that Cobain did not kill himself, but was murdered. The site is rather comprehensive looking at the facts surrounding the case. It's quite convincing that the Nirvana's frontman's death is due to murder. Well, who really knows? It's an intriguing read anyway.

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Nintendogs to Nintengirls...

First there's Nintendogs where you rear a virtual pup. The natural progression after dogs will be... girls? At least that's what some folks think. The featured link is a series of pictures of an imaginary game that will surely drive boys wild. It's called Nintengirls: College girls & Friends. If it is a real product, you'll be able to interact with the girls, and with the DS touchscreen, touching the screen will have a whole new meaning, eh?
Link

Flock explained

What is Flock? It is a new type of web browser. Based on the Mozilla code, Flock is developed to include features that are used by those into the blogging aspects of the Net. Flock includes integration with social bookmarking, Flickr, and of course, blogging. It seems interesting but since it's still in its early development stages, some of you may want to hold out for a while before trying it. This article gives an overview of what Flock is and why you should use it.

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iPod Nano & Soundbuzz promo by SingNet don't mix

In the Straits Times today, there's a broadband promotion by SingNet that is offering up a free iPod Nano with their broadband plans. In one of the package, they're also offering 8 MP3 songs download from Soundbuzz.

Does anyone notice something that's not quite right here? They are offering free music downloads for a digital music player that can't play those tunes! Need more clarification? Well, what it means simply is that if you've downloaded those free tunes from Soundbuzz thinking that you can listen to them in your free Nano, well, YOU CAN'T. Why? Because Soundbuzz offers music in WMA format with DRM as it has stated clearly on their website:

Before transferring music to a portable digital audio player, insure (sic) that it support the WMA format and DRM (Digital Rights Management) secured music standards. Players must have security settings at the 1000 level.

Of course, Apple's iPods can't play these files. So what's the point of offering up these free downloads? Won't it confuse any Joe consumer?

Of course, there's a way around this, if you're tech-savvy enough. You can burn the tunes you download to a CD as audio, then rip that CD to iTunes and transfer to your Nano. But strictly speaking, won't that be "illegal" as ripping in this sense is not right in Singapore?

Once again, this whole issue of music download DRM vs consumer fair use is making things rather complicated for us. What are we to do? The follies of DRM... sigh.

Update: I posted this originally on 8 Oct. On today's paper, SingTel has amended their ad and it doesn't say "8 MP3 Song Downloads from Soundbuzz" anymore. It now says "8 Songs Downloads from MusicVibes SingNet powered by Soundbuzz".

Mossberg against DRM

Wall Street Journal's tech columnist is speaking out against DRM. In his recent article, he wrote about the evils of DRM and how it actually imposes limits and inconvenience consumers, so much so that many are turned off by the way DRM is implemented. It's something that Cory Doctorow has written about many times and it's refreshing to see this idea in print in a mainstream medium.

In my view, both sides have a point, but the real issue isn't DRM itself -- it's the manner in which DRM is used by copyright holders. Companies have a right to protect their property, and DRM is one means to do so. But treating all consumers as potential criminals by using DRM to overly limit their activities is just plain wrong.

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Which sci-fi character are you?

This is a questionnaire that aims to find out which sci-fi or fantasy character you are. Go through the series of questions and answer them and you'll know who you are. For me, I seem to be a Gandalf, that's quite cool...

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Wi-fi as basic amenity?

The BBC has posted a story on the growing number of US cities planning to offer wi-fi connection that covers the entire city and that the wi-fi service will be offered at a low cost for citizens. The idea of wi-fi as an amenity like water and electricity is certainly an intriguing one. Will Singapore, a city that is suppose to be one of the most technologically advanced in the world, follow this idea and cover the entire island with cheap wi-fi? As someone who is connected to the Net for most of my waking hour, I certainly hope that this dream will come true.

Look like OS X on a PC

For those folks with Mac-envy, or those who just want to beautify and modify their Windows look, the FlyakiteOSX is a free software that will turn your Windows interface into a OS X-lookalike. Everything here is like OS X from the menus to the docks. The website is also worth checking out as the website itself looks like OS X... a case of taking the love of the Mac OS to the extreme?
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iPod Video Converter

The freeware community doesn't disappoint. Within weeks of the release of the iPod video, there's now a tool which you can convert video so that you can use it on your 5G iPod. The software called Videora Converter supports the h.264 standard and this app is essential for 5G iPod owners who wants to see their own stuff on video. Only thing is that it is only available for Windows and hopefully there's a Mac version somewhere too.

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Add more Hard Disk to your Xbox

This may just be the ultimate mod for your Xbox. Although the new Xbox360 may be just on the horizon, the original black Xbox still is probably more moddable, at least for now. This kit, which allows you to add up to four hard disks, may be just what you need if you're into the homebrew software/games scene. Also, for those who're not too comfortable with the soldering iron, this kit does not require soldering. Sounds good to me, but I don't think this will be available as a commercial product any time soon.
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Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat

Here's a pretty amazing and funny video some folks put together where Raiden of the Mortal Kombat universe battles Ken from Street Fighter. Pretty well done actually. See it to believe...

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Using Gmail as online storage

Gmail's 1GB and still growing disk space is good for more than just email. You can use those free storage space to keep your files. But first, you need to grab these apps to enable that function.

• For Windows users, try the GMail Drive shell extension.
  
• For Mac users, try the gDisk.

Now, who says Gmail is just for mail?

Putting Movies on Your iPod

With the new iPod, folks will be wondering how they can watch the DVDs that they purchase on their device. Here are two methods to put the movies, on your Apple-branded player.Pretty useful...

• Rip DVD Movies To Your iPod
• Put Vids On Your iPod

The new video iPod

Yeah, the new iPod is out. It means that my 4G 60GB iPod Photo is now obsolete. The new iPod is certainly sweet, and it plays video. Well, the video playing feature is nice, but I don't see many occasions where I can actually put it to good use. You can listen to tunes while walking around, but watching video and walking is rather dangerous for your health.

Well, the one big reason that this 5G iPod is attractive to me is simply the slimmer form factor. If there's a reason I will buy it, it's probably that. But then, I think it may be better for me to hold out since the video feature is still not so attractive for me. Maybe if an 80GB version is out, then I'll consider ugrading. For now, I'll stick to my current version.

Anyway, if you can't wait and want to get your sweet paws on the new iPod, Apple has posted links on how you can get your own vids on the machine. Look closer at the Digg posts and you'll find more tips in getting other videos on the iPod.

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GremSpot's 5-mins of fame in TODAY

Hmm... I didn't expect my post commenting on Digital Life's review of the EA's fighting game Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects would generate so much comments. What surprised and amused me even more, was that the post was referenced in an opinion piece on the free daily TODAY. The article is written by blogger Mr Miyagi and you can read the full text in the link below. I've only quoted the parts that refered to my post.

"Gremlin" (gremspot.blogspot.com) had his doubts about one newspaper's glowing review of a particular computer game, as most other publications had given it only a "fair rating".

"Maybe because the game was provided for review, there's sense to want to please the company.

"Otherwise, it's that the reviewer does not have enough experience with bad games to give an honest review," he speculated.

The great thing about this is that on Tomorrow.sg's comments section, Christopher Huang, the writer who reviewed that game, had a fair go at justifying his review.

"All I have to say is that reviews are subjective in nature and one man's meat may be another man's poison," he wrote — though his comment was sandwiched between 17 others slamming the accuracy of game reviews.

Well, I've seen my name in print a number of times when I was working as a writer, now, it's my blog's five minutes of fame. Amusing...

Entertainment Software Association to sue California

Seems like the ESA in US is taking the fight on games legistation to courts. Recently, the State of California has passed a bill that has outlawed the sale of violent video games to minors. However, the ESA is not taking this lying down. There's an interesting piece on Ars Technica examining this and it is an interesting read.

The Entertainment Software Association is planning to sue the State of California over the passage of AB1179, a bill that has outlawed the sale of violent video games to minors. President Douglas Lowenstein said that he "intends to file a lawsuit to strike this law down," and added that he is "confident that we will prevail."

Is this a case of the ESA throwing respect for laws meant to protect children to the wind?

Simulate spread of zombies!

After seeing zombie movies like Land of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, and various versions of XXX of the Dead, ever wondered how long it takes for a group of zombies to infect a city? In comes the Zombie Infection Simulator. The link leads to an interesting simulation of how fast a group of zombie invades and infects a city. There are also links to versions where you can fight back, drop nukes. Interesting!

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If Microsoft Never Existed...

Wonder what the world will be like if Microsoft never existed? ExtremeTech has a commentary speculating what we will do with our computers if the Redmond giant, well, didn't become a giant. It's a world where Apple would have dominated, but not exactly in the good way that we think. It's interesting read... more like sci-fi than anything else though.

How To Find Podsafe Music

If you're looking a doing a music-based podcast, you'd know that unless you've paid royalties, you'd get into trouble playing music by artistes from major music labels. But don't despair, there're still plenty of music out there. The most obvious source of what is know as "Podsafe" music is of course the Podsafe Music Network.

Of course, the PMN is not the only source. The iPodArmy site has highlighted other sources for "podsafe" music. Go check those out if you're looking for real indie music.

The iPod smasher

Although the iPod may be the most popular digital music player out there, there are still plenty of iPod-haters on the loose. But I don't think anyone has taken their iPod non-love to this extreme. On the website Smashmyipod.com, they are getting donations to buy an iPod, then smash the brand new purchase, filming it in the process. Till date, they have actually raised half the amount needed to purchase the iPod.

To further this concept, these folks are also starting collections to smash a Xbox, a PS3, and the Nintendo Revolution. People do the strangest thing.

The invite-only Darknet

When you make filesharing criminal, you turn all filesharers into criminals. You can of course do it underground and be in some exclusive private groups that share files where membership is invite only. The New York Times has an interesting article about this phenonmenon where such networks are known as "Darknets". Goes to show that you can't kill P2P, only drive it underground.

These are "darknets": exclusive peer-to-peer networks in which membership is based on circles of trust, whose activities are veiled from the general public. And though people who are adept at configuring servers and comfortable with File Transfer Protocol have used such systems for years, a spate of new online services aimed at everyday users is sure to draw new attention to under-the-radar file sharing.

Inaccurate review in Digital Life?

If you've read this week's Digital Life, you'd have read a review of the latest Marvel superheroes-based game by EA called Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. The reviewer, in Digital Life, gave the game a stellar review and even gave the piece a headline titled "Super Fun". Here're some of the words he used in his piece. (Emphasis my own.)

In story mode, EA has come up with a winning single-player concept that takes you beyond the classic game progression, allowing you to choose from a series of superheroes as they progress through separate yet intertwined phases of the underlying plot.
...
The action is fast and engaging, no doubt enhanced by the game's realism and challenging artificial intelligence.
...
Marvel Nemesis is definitely a strong contender for Game Of The Year.

There's really nothing wrong with this review... until you start to read other reviews on the Internet. It seems like every other major gaming press are only giving the game a fair rating. If you look at the summary of ratings in Gamerankings.com for the Xbox version, you'd notice these ratings by the major gaming press.

• Gamespot.com - 6.4 out of 10
  
• Gamespy.com - 3.5 out of 5
  
• IGN - 5.1 out of 10
  
• Electronic Gaming Monthly - 5.33 out of 10
  

Overall, the average rating is 64.5% for the Xbox version, 58.1% for the PS2 version, and 59.9% for the GameCube version. Well, doesn't sound like a game that's suppose to be a "strong contender for Game Of The Year".

There's more. On gaming blog, Joystiq.com, there's a piece that actually mentions that a EA developer is criticising the game. Imagine, saying something bad about a game that's from the company you're working in. The full review by the EA developer is on Game Girl Advance. Now, the game sure doesn't sound like a "game of the year" anymore.

So what went wrong with the Digital Life review? I can only speculate. Maybe because the game was provided by EA for review, there's a sense to want to please the company, hence the good review. Otherwise, it's that the reviewer does not have enough experience with bad games to give an honest review... a case of lack of gaming journalism culture/experience? Having been a gaming editor with a major gaming site, I do know that it's not easy to find gamers who can write, and also get some sort of recognition as a games journalist.

Ultimately, I'm feeling sorry for folks or parents who depend on reviews for making their purchase. They may have wasted their hard-earned S$69.90 on a game that's only mediocre.

Star Wars Mix... out of this world!

I managed to get my Force-inspired paws on a BBC Essential Dance Mix session done by DJ Tom Middleton. The mix has a Star Wars theme and is essentially out of this world! This mix contains snippets from the Star Wars movies, soundtrack from the film, and also dance tunes from folks like the Chemical Brothers (Galvanise [Half-Arsed Beat edit]), Daft Punk (Technologic), and even Bebel Gilberto (Simplesementes [Tom Middleton Cosmos Club Vox]). It's an out of this world smashing Sith and Jedi-embedded experience.
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SuprNova.org is now NewNova.org

The BitTorrents keep on coming. SuprNova.org used to be a popular BT site but it died, probably due to copyright issues. Now, it seems like the guy from SuprNova.org gave his old code to a new owner, and NewNova.org is born. Looks exactly like SuprNova a torrent site, obviously.

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HBO Attacking BitTorrent

Seems like HBO is going on the offensive against BitTorrent. Interesting read on how HBO is blocking the downloads of the Rome TV series, and how folks using BitTorrent are fighting back.

HBO is actively poisoning the BitTorrent downloads of the new show Rome. In addition to an older tactic of offering bogus downloads that never complete, HBO is now obstructing the downloads offered by other people.

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DJ Food mixes mashup music

Love remixes? Go here to download a recording called "Raiding the 20th Century". What it this, you ask? Well, it is a remix by DJ Food which attempts to catalogue the history of cut up music, from avant garde tape manipulation to turntable mixes to bastard pop mash ups. Great music for your listening pleasure. You can also grab them using BitTorrent on DJ Food's page.

Dylan Thomas: The Caedmon Collection

MP3s are not just about music. There are plenty of great spoken words MP3s floating around on the net. On Salon, you can download a great recording by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas called "Dylan Thomas: The Caedmon Collection".

On February 22, 1952, Dylan Thomas made his first recording for Caedmon Records, "A Child's Christmas in Wales and Five Poems." It was the first of many albums Thomas was to record for Caedmon and the recording not only launched Caedmon as a company, but initiated the spoken-word industry as well.

Go download this gem of a collection.

6 Ways to use your iPods in a car

You can carry a few thousand songs in your iPod, but you don't know how to play them when you're driving. This piece in PC Mag is here to help and gives you a run-down, from worst to best, ways to link your iPod and other digital music player to your car's radio.

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BBC offering P2P download with Internet Media Player

BBC gets it. They are offering a BBC Internet Media Player which allows UK viewers to download TV shows via P2P. It's all legal but for now, it is only works on Windows using IE and Windows Media Player. Also, it is only for UK citizens. Guess the rest of the world will have to wait a while before their broadcasters catch up to such a radically cool idea.

Upcoming Erotic MMO Targets Female Audience

Massive Multiplayer Online games are moving into the realm of more mature materials. In fact, a company called Republik is working on a MMO about sex called Spend The Night. In the game, adults can meet other adults and act out their fantasies through graphically rich avatars. Presumably, they can also spend virtual nights together. The game is also suppose to attract more female players but I'm skeptical if the theme will actually attract more males pretending to be females instead.

"This is a fantasy multiplayer dating game," says Coshland. "It's not like the dating games that we've seen coming out of Japan where you try to win the favor of someone of the opposite sex. We're providing more of a game where two people can go on a date and interact in a 3D space."
...
"There is little to nothing with erotic content, that has been developed specifically targeted to women either in the game industry or in the adult industry," he says. "For whatever reason, women tend to be written off as people who have no interest in sexual content. We don't believe that to be true."

Apple iPod not tops in Asia

Although Apple's iPod is the hottest digital music device globally, it is not dominating in Asia as the Samsung Yepp emerged as the most popular MP3 player brand amongst users in seven Asian countries. The findings is from a research done by research firm Synovate. In Singapore, Creative is holding on the the market with a majority share of 40% amongst Singaporeans. Seems like Sim Wong Hoo's marketing and anti-Apple trashtalking works in Singapore, but not in other markets.

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Kevin Smith Video Diary Begins - Making of Clerks 2

Ever since I saw Kevin Smith's Clerks, I've been a fan. Now, he's starting work on the sequel which is called... get ready... The Passion of the Clerks. You can't expect anything less from the guy who did the controversial but hilariously funny and honest Dogma. The website of Clerks 2 is now online and he's posting his "making of" video diaries online. Snooches!

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Herbie in Bishan?

When I woke up this morning and looked out the window to the carpark below, I saw something interesting. Well, the famous Herbie is in the HDB carpark! I thought my eyes were deceiving me but they were not. It's actually a Volkswagen painted with the Herbie strips. Seems like the folks promoting the Herbie movie must really be taking their promotion to the streets. Later in the day, I caught another Volkswagen Beetle with similar strips and decals. It must be the invasion of Herbie and its siblings... but I can bet that Lindsay Lohan (or a Lindsay lookalike) was not driving the Herbie-lookalike below my flat.

Free Harvey Danger music download

I love music that you can grab from the Internet, and I mean the legitimate ones. And I especially love those musicians who recognise the value of offering their music up for sharing. In short, the record labels just don't get it, when it comes to P2P, BitTorrent, and other such stuff. Anyway, here's an album that you can download for free. You can get it as a direct download or as a BitTorrent download. Why is this band offering their release as a download? You can read their reason here. Support the indies!
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Use WinXP apps without using Windows!

There is a rather ambitious project going on called the ReactOS Project. It is about building an implementation of a Microsoft WinXP compatible operating system from the ground up. What it means to you in plain terms is that with ReactOS, you will not need WinXP to run software written for the Wintel platform. You probably may not need to spend your hard-earned cash on WinXP and use this instead. Sounds cool and since it'll be free, it sounds really attractive. The only problem is that we may have to wait a long time for this and it may become a target for the Redmond lawyers.

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Gmail Skin!...change the look of Gmail

If you want to do some tinkering and change the look of Gmail, there's this little little how-to on how to change Gmail to have a .Mac look. Maybe Gmail should look ahead and introduce skinnable interface for Gmail, that would be rad.

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Tips to search on Google effectively

I guess most of us have used Google for most of the searches that we perform on the Internet. So, it's not a bad thing that we review some tips that will help us do our searches. This article has some tips that will perhaps help you find the things that you want in the wide wild world of cyberspace.
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