List of iPod torrents

Legal or not? I don't know, but someone has put up a list of where you can get torrents of iPod formated media. It's just a list but it's a starting point...
Link

Jedi-inspired fan film in Singapore

Some guy in Singapore has created a indie sci-fi short film titled "Peaceful Knights of BuZen - Return from Corruption". The fellow who did this is Seamus Phan, and according to the press release that is on the net, he is a "net consultant, keynote speaker, and published author". Hmmm... how come I've never heard of him?

Anyway, this short is shot in front of a blue screen and is to be part of a longer 10-part series.

...a story that will eventually be an education in charity, compassion and chivalry, and about the impact of non-violence and how that can bring about greater impact than violent aggression itself. In this opening story in the form of a short film, 2 monks in a distant planet wanted to warn of an imminent danger in a galactic temple, but were turned away. The younger monk turned to evil, but was ultimately brought back to the good side by the master. In between, the story told of how the master found the apprentice as a rogue trader, and subsequently trained him in the ways of defense and meditation.

Although there's no explicit mention that this is a Star Wars fan film, there is some similarity to the Jedi philosophy in the short. Go watch it, if only for curiosity sake.
Link

Free Music from 50FootWave

Those of you into the alt-rock scene in the 90s will remember Kirstin Hersh and The Throwing Muses. Hersh has a new band called 50FootWave and they are offering their new EP free online under the Creative Commons Music Sharing license. Both MP3 and FLAC format is available on the site and you can also print out CD sleeves if you plan to burn them. Cool band, cool music. And it's free.
Link

Simplifying Your Life

There seems to be this trend of folks trying to get rid of clutter and to simplify their lives. So if you share the same philosophy and want to make your life simple, you can head down to this web site where you can read this e-book called "Live Simple: Radical Tactics to Reduce the Complexity, Costs, and Clutter of your Life". A PDF version is available for a small price and if you want to keep it simple, you can read the hypertext version for free.
Link

Reuters' Top 40 Pictures of 2005

A picture is worth a thousand words. Some of the most powerful images are taken by photo-journos around the world documenting some of the most important events happening today. Reuters has put together the 40 of their most important and interesting pictures of 2005. See history captured in these wonderful pictures.

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Star Wars: The Best of 2005

2005 is the year that the Star Wars movie saga comes to a close. We finally found out what and how the young Anakin turned into the most feared lord of the Empire. This year has to be considered a really important year for Star Wars and the official web site has come up with a list of the 10 best things to happen Star Wars this year. Some of the items which made the list include the release of Star Wars LEGO video game and the fever over Clone Troopers. Great read for Star Wars fans.
Link

Ultima V is back!

If the mere mention of Ultima brings back fond memories of the days where you spend your time fighting your way through a fantasy world where imagination prevails with none of the fancy 3D graphics you have today, you'll be glad that you can now revisit the world of Ultima. This time, it is with all the fancy 3D graphics, no less. A group of fans have remade the classic Ultima V using the Dungeon Siege engine. Called Ultima V: Lazarus, this rebirth of a classic shows how powerful a dedicated community of fans can be.
Link

Open Source Software for Mac

Open Source Mac is a web site that collects a number of the best OS X open source software that is available. Some of these are really gems and I would be at a lost to do some of my computing work without them.

How Narnia works

With the movie adaptation of C S Lewis' Narnia Chronicles hitting the big screen, there's a renewed interest in the wonderful world that Lewis has created. The crew at Howstuffworks.com has also got into the act and provided background information on the world of Narnia. If you think you're a Narnia expert or you're just getting into the world, here's a good place to start to find out things you don't know about Narnia.
Link

Roger Ebert's 10 Best Movies of 2005

It's time for top ten end of the year lists for everything. If you're a film buff, you'd be taking note of what film critic Roger Ebert is choosing as his 10 best films of the year. It's also a good starting point to pick out what are the films you need to catch before the year ends.

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Music Lessons on the Net

Want to learn music? Do it on the Net! This is a flash-enabled site that teaches you how to read music, and it even has a ear trainer to help to learn that perfect pitch. Perfect for those who want to be a self-taught musician.

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P2P on record high

Slyck News is reporting on the popularity of the P2P networks. You'd think that RIAA's actions will have an impact, but it seems that those strong arm tactics are not really working.

The RIAA may be winning over the courts and legislators, yet these victories are proving hollow. Their courtroom and legislative successes are yielding little in the way of tangible benefits as the P2P population continues to grow. If there's one message associated with the continued growth of file-sharing, it's that people continue to want unencumbered (DRM–free) access to music. Many have argued that Napster and Rhapsody, and to a lesser extent, iTunes, simply do not provide that.

It’s interesting to note the file-sharing population is continuing to march forward despite the rapid decline of the FastTrack network. As corrupted files and lawsuits continue to plague this network, the P2P population has grown aware of these concerns and taken refuge in a multitude of other communities. Smaller private networks, eDonkey2000, Gnutella, BitTorrent and Ares Galaxy have all benefited from FastTrack’s decline.

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Photoshoping a photo

We know that with digital photography, it is easy to retouch pictures. Here's a flash movie showing you the various ways that a photo can be altered. It shows a model and then how "virtual" surgery is done to make her have bigger breasts, smaller hips and even fuller lips. Bottom line? Don't believe every picture you see in magazines.

History of video games lawsuits

Not happy? Sue. Send in the lawyers, damn it! 1UP.com has a piece that looks at the history of lawsuits filed in video games history. If you legal eagles have an interest in the game battle fought in the courtroom rather than in the virtual world, read the article before you get sued.

Alternative search engines beyond Google

The wonderful Lifehacker site has a list of top 10 alternative search engines that you can make use of to find the things you want on the web. Some of the search tools on the list include Isohunt for torrent files, FoodieView for recipies, and Ditto for image search. Search and ye shall find...

2005's top Web 2.0 Apps

Web 2.0 seems to be the buzzword these days. So it's no surprise that the folks at ArticleDashboard.com has a list of the top innovative Web 2.0 apps this year. Some items on the list are items that I'm already using like Digg. Most of the others are still new and sounds like items that I should try. Web 2.0 sounds exciting.

Update: There's another top Web 2.0 apps list available on Dion Hinchcliffe's Web 2.0 Blog. Plenty of web-based apps that you can try out, including to-do lists, online file storage, etc.

Google into searching for music

On the Google Blog, the folks at Google have announced that they are introducing Google Music. The service will allow you to key in the name of a band, album, or song and you'll get info relating to the music you're searching for. You can already do that using the normal Google searches but this helps you to narrow down the search significantly. Great for music fans.

Drum session

Caught it at Orchard Road, a bunch of drummers drumming in the festive season. And a curious uncle looking on.

Treo 650 Boots Linux!

This is another feather in the cap of the Linux OS. A hacker has managed to get the Penguin to boot on everyone's fave smartphone-the Treo 650! Pictures are included so it is really cool.

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Factual errors in Wikipedia abd Britannica: Almost a tie.

The scientific magazine "Nature" has compared 42 articles in both the encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Experts in their field were given the task to check for factual errors. To the surprise of nature, both encyclopedias were containing similar amounts of errors, at least for science related articles. Interesting... maybe traditional print is just on par with the collaborative effort of Wikis?

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War video made in ASCII

ASCII art is pretty neat. ASCII video is even better. This is a music video-like piece of flash animation made with ASCII and it's all about war. With the rocking Rammstein track, it's pretty cool.

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iPod fan bumps iPod mini to 8GB

The now-defunct iPod mini tops out at 6GB. However, this guy has changed that and upgraded his iPod mini to 8GB. Well, if you're into DIY and are not worried about the warranty of you device, follow the links to perform your own iPod surgery and give your mini more storage space.

Save American Edit

Update: Okay, Dean Grey Tuesday is here and if you want to grab your copy of the excellent mashup of American Edit. Head to the link below to get it. Help save mash-up and creativity in music.

American Edit is an excellent mash-up album that has been given the cease and desist order by Warner Records. However, Dean Grey, the creator and his fans are not taking it lying down and are going to do a Dean Grey Tuesday thingy on 13 Dec 2005 in protest of the record label's action. Read more about it on the linked website and support real creativity in music.

We hope to mobilize the online Mash-Up community by organizing a simple one-day organized event. Participants would be asked to post the American Edit album online for 24 hours only starting on Tuesday, December 13, at 12:00AM. Doing so is not intended to be a mass organization of music piracy but, rather, one single display of the consumptive power of the mash-up and home remix community in the hopes of encouraging the labels, publishers and artists who are curious about the mash-up community to consider giving the high quality productions of "illegitimate" music a legitimate consideration as a promotional avenue for all music.

Writely - Word Processor on the Web

The web allows you to do plenty of things. I've mentioned that you can edit photos and images using a web-based image editing tool called PXB8.COM. Now you can even do editing of documents on a web-based platform. Writely is a web-based word processor that you can use to do your text editing. You do have to sign up before you can start working on your novel online. With text and images covered, will we soon get a web-based Excel?

List of free online games

Games? Free? Sounds good to me. On the Goodexperience.com site is a list of games that you don't have to pay for that you can play online. Having fun without spending a dime is always good.

Free adverts

This is such an ingenius way to get eyeballs for your ad. I wonder how much those guys are paid for holding up the fake newspaper for.

More music CDs that will compromise your PCs

It seems that the DRM-related problem of Sony-BMG has exploded. Now, it seems that not just disc with the XCP protection system but those with the MediaMax protection are also affected. This seems to be a bigger problem as there are more CDs with MediaMax, including really popular artistes like Sarah McLachlan and Avril Lavigne. The link below contains a list compiled by EFF on affected CDs. You can also read more about this problem on a FAQ on EFF. Damn... the music labels are screwing with us and our PCs.

DJ Riko's Christmas mix album

How about that? Here's another disc of Christmas music from the mash-up community. This time, it's DJ Riki doing a platter of his fave Xmas tunes that are quite rare and surprising. Check it out if you're looking for alternative to standard Christmas tunes. Also don't forget to check out the other mash-up disc we've mentioned called Santastic by dj BC.

Copyright Free Movie Torrents

BitTorrent is used not just for dubious video, there're plenty of legal videos available on the Net too. A great example is this Public Domain Torrents site which offers a great range of classic and B-movies where the copyright of the movies have expired. iPod versions of these movies are also available on the site.

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When Grand Theft meets Lego

What if there's a version of Grand Theft Auto made using LEGO bricks? Then it'll probably look like the video in the link below. Pretty awesome stop motion done there. With Star Wars LEGO made into a game, we can always dream of Grand Theft Auto LEGO, can't we?

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Lyrics are not legal too

Seems like after going after the copying of music, the record companies are going after the copying of lyrics. If you're a music lover, you'd know that listening to your fave tunes and reading the lyrics sheet is a totally heavenly activity. With the added support of lyrics display on iTunes, listening to music and reading the lyrics is easier than ever. Plus, some smart developers have released a number of freeware that lets you easily search and pull down lyrics. Well, the record companies are going after them too. The popular pearLyrics has got a cease and desist letter from Warner/Chappell Music Limited to stop development of this software. Sadness...

Windows In Your Pocket

Okay, we know that you can put Firefox and a few other useful apps on a thumbdrive. You can also probably squeeze in a Linux system in one of these portable babies. But what about the most common OS on this planet? Tom's Hardward shows you how you can cram a bootable Windows XP on a flashdrive. Amazing but true.

Porn? Not really...

Galumpia has a bunch of pictures that are cropped to resemble close up of porn pictures. But when you expand the pictures, that're not really porn. It's pretty amusing... and goes to show what cropping a bunch of pictures can distort your perception.

Putfile bans Singapore after hanging

The recent issue about Singapore hanging the Australian for drug smuggling has generated some attention, and some tech sites have gotten into the act. In fact, the file upload site, Putfile.com, has disallowed it's services to those in Singapore because of that. Is that really necessary, and does it even matter?

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Wookieepedia - A Star Wars Wiki

With Wikis harnessing the power of the community to create useful information, it's no wonder a Wiki for Star Wars has appeared. Called the Wookieepedia, it contains everything you need to know about the cannonic movies and its extended universe. If you know something, you can even contribute and share your information. It's a Star Wars resource even Chewie will be proud of.

Roll dice with LEGO

Too lazy to roll those dice when you're playing games? Some smart guys from GameByEmail have put together a machine called Dice-O-Matic made from the ever useful plastic LEGO bricks. According to the site, this puppy can crank out 20,000 dice rolls a day. That's plenty enough dice rolls for anyone, I bet.

Converting video to iPod

Converting video to be played on your 5G iPod is not that difficult if you're using a software like Videora iPod Converter for Windows machine. However, understanding how this freeware works and trying to find out what settings work best can be a pain, since the documentation is so sparse. Thankfully, the folks at Twelve Black Code Monkey has done a comparison of the different settings and placed it in an Excel file. Useful when you're deciding how you want to encode your video for viewing on an iPod. Nice.

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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