Harmony for the remote

Recently, I spent about S$450 on a universal remote by Logitech. It is the Harmony 885 Advanced Universal Remote. With it, I hoped that it will replace the 7 remotes that I already have cluttering my coffee table.The good thing about it is that I have successfully programmed the remote so that I now only need to use one remote to control all the devices that I have in my home theatre. The bad thing is that I had to spend about 2 days to get everything to work as I would like it. Well, it is not an entirely bad thing as once I finally got the concept of how the remote works and how to navigate the rather arcane web-based programming interface, everything was quite a breeze.The remote also comes with a cradle, which means that I can put it in the cradle to charge when the juice runs out. It runs on a rechargeable battery which means I don't have to worry about finding fresh batteries for it. With the LCD screen, it seems that if it was running on normal batteries, I will have to change them pretty often.My verdict for this device? I love it. It is one of my gadget purchase that makes things really easy to use. It is also something that my wife can use on a daily basis. The price is a bit on the high side, that's true, but this is a high end model with a colour screen.

Peanuts Meets Marvel

This is just simply brilliant. The folks at Statue Forum have reimagined Peanuts characters as heroes from Marvel comics. Click on the link to see more. It's just strange, but cute, to see some of the iconic Marvel comics scene with Charlie Brown and friends.

Playing DivX and Xvid content on Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 is great for games and for viewing WMV content from your PC. BUt if are dealing with popular codecs like DivX or Xvid, then you're out of luck. And that's why you need this guide that is on the TweakTown site. It is a tutorial on how you can play those formats on your console and takes you through the requirements and the steps needed.

Use Psiphon to bypass firewalls

If you're facing a problem where someone (be it some software blocker or oppressive government) is blocking your access to the Net. You may want to try out Psiphon. According to the website it is

human rights software project developed by the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies that allows citizens in uncensored countries to provide unfettered access to the Net through their home computers to friends and family members who live behind firewalls of states that censor.

It is available free and open source. Is this proof that trying to block access to the Net is actually futile?

Here's the Zelda sword

Fans are crazy, especially video game fans. If you're like me and love Zelda, you'd appreciate the length which this guy has gone to proof his Zelda fandom. Apparently, he has gotten a blacksmith to forge a real-life Zelda sword. Yes, it's the same sword that Link wields in the game. Click on the link to salivate on the goodness of a video game weapon made real.

The Best and Strangest Cover Songs of All Time

Cover songs. The best cover gives the original a new spin and a totally different flavour. The website called Torontoist has a list of what they thought are the best and strangest cover songs around. One of my fave cover (which I heard on the Coverville podcast-one of the regular podcast that I listen to regularly) is on the list, i.e. Nina Gordon's version of NWA's "Straight Outta Compton".

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IGN's Top 50 Lost Loose Ends

Lost is just about the most intriguing TV series running on air these days. If you need more info on the strange things in Lost, you'd do well to look for all the info on the Net. If you're just plain lazy, you can get everything in this article found on IGN. They've put together 50 loose ends on Lost that will make you wonder even more what the show is all about.

Free wi-fi in Singapore

We know that Singapore will get free wi-fi coverage starting next year. Of course, the coverage will not be islandwide, but selected areas. So how can we know where the coverage is? IDA has provided a list of the coverage areas which you can see the maps in PDF. They have also provided Google Earth files that you can use to check the coverage. After checking, I realise that my block will be outside the coverage. So maybe future homeowners can cite wi-fi coverage as a reason to increase the prices of their property?

Official Flickr Camera Guide

Flickr is not just for sharing of photos. It has released stats about the cameras used by Flickr users. You can use it to see which cameras are popular. You can even use it as a guide to see which cameras produce the best results! Useful to have when helping you make your next digital camera purchase.

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Visual guide to how BitTorrent works

Need to explain the workings of BitTorrent technology? Well, this Java-based representation is a cool way of explaining how BT works. You can add seeders and leechers to the mix to see how the bits are transfered around the network. Cool!

Configuring a File Server in 45 Minutes

Want to build your own file server? You can apparently do it in 45 minutes if you follow the instructions found on Jon Peck's website. On the website, which you can get to from the link below, you'll find out that it only cost US$80 and the server is configured with Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. In the comments, you can also find that there's another way to set up a Network Attached Storage (NAS) with something called FreeNAS. Seems like building a file server isn't that difficult these days...

Managing music tags with Corripio

Here's another excellent software for Mac users. Corripio is one that you can use to find artwork, lyrics and fix tags of your music in your iTunes library. It's a simple tool, but anything to help make sorting out your large collection of music is always welcomed. Especially if it's also free.

Automating DRM stripping with DRM Dumpster

Turning your Apple iTunes FairPlay protected tunes into non DRMed tracks is possible but a rather tedious process. DRM Dumpster therefore steps in to automate the entire tasks for you. Is it legal? Is it Fair Use? Don't know, but I know that the software is donation-ware.

40 Things That Only Happen in Movies

Movies are not real, but try telling that to some folks. Anyway, there are many things that can only happen in movies. This link will bring you to 40 ridiculous things that can only happen in a movie. My favourite? "You will survive any battle in any war UNLESS you show someone a picture of your sweetheart back home." Good for a laugh.

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Integrating uTorrent and Firefox

If you use uTorrent and Firefox, you'll appreciate this method of integrating the two apps. Using the uTorrent Web user interface, you can install an extension for Firefox which will then allow you to monitor your torrent status and even start torrenting by dragging links onto the sidebar. Neat.

Boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive

Since floppies have gone the way of the dodo, USB flash drives are now standard items for storing files. But when your PC gets into problems, can you boot from a USB flash drive? Now you can using a method detailed on the TechRepublic website. It involves a number of steps to get a bootable version of WinXP on the removable drive. Will be useful if you ever run into trouble starting your system.

A Safer And Faster DNS

DNS is important to the web. In fact, the folks at OpenDNS is claiming that by using their DNS server, your web surfing experience will improve because they can load your pages faster. I'm not too sure if that is actually true, but for the adventurous, do give it a go.

Automatically download and install your apps

Maybe you've just done a fresh install on your PC, you probably have to reinstall all the separate software that you have. In comes InstallPad. This is an application that allows you to make a list of your fave software, and then download and install the ones that you pick. It is certainly a timesaver. Check out the lists on the LifeHacker site which include a LifeHacker Pack, PC Rescue Pack and a Media Pack.

Net censorship? Nope, not us, says China

CNET is carry a story pointing out that at the UN Internet Summit in Athens, a Chinese government official said that the PRC does not censor the Internet. Is that a major case of denial or what?

Stripping away FairPlay with FairGame

The iTunes DRM scheme FairPlay is there to protect the tunes that you purchased from iTMS from being used on non iPod players. So it makes sense that trying to remove the DRM is possible, but not easy. FairGame is a free software that will, sort of, remove the DRM and give you the plain AAC files, with all the metadata, lyrics and artwork intact. It uses iMovie to accomplish its job. Warning: Stripping away DRM is probably illegal so try this at your own risk.

Halloween Costumes-Project Runway style

Project Runway is one cool reality show. One reason why the show is so god because the folks on it have to have real talent to be able to design those interesting clothes. For Halloween, NPR has done a story in which some folks from past seasons of Project Runway were told to design a Halloween costume. The results are certainly fun and cool. My fave is Diana Eng's Glow-Glow Girl costume which lights up and dimmed if the child moves away from the parent. Also fun is Katherine Gerdes's LEGO and iPod-inspired costume. Cool.

Coastal Defence of Hong Kong

I'm in Hong Kong today for business. Since I'm early, I visited the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence. A museum looking at the defense of the coastline and the naval military presence in Hong Kong. It looks at the defence of the China coastline in the Qing and Ming dynasty, the coming og the foreign naval powers in claiming the islands (including Hong Kong), the Japanese invasion during WWII, and even the handover of Hong Kong to China. Overall, it's pretty cool to be in a place that use to be a fort with gun batteries.Perhaps the most impressive exhibit I saw is this replica of a Torpedo Station. This was the Brennan Torpedo, and it is placed in a carvern-sort of place. In the place, you can hear the sound of the waves and you can just imagine what it will be like for the soldiers to be operating this powerful weapon when they are preparing to launch the torpedo. Apparently, the torpedo was never tested in battle.The other interesting exhibit is the special exhibit on archery in China. Who knows that there is only very few folks who can properly make an authentic Chinese bow right now?

For more pictures, head to the set of picts on Flickr.

LEGO Flamethrower

Just when you thought that the LEGO is a toy, you have folks using LEGO to build weapons. We've heard of a LEGO gun that shoots rubber bands but this gets the cake for the most dangerous (and hence cool) LEGO creation - a LEGO Flamethrower. There's also a video that shows how the thing works... ust wondering if constant usage will melt the bricks.

My new Timbuk2 Messenger bag

My Timbuk2 Messenger bag finally arrived! I ordered a custom medium-sized bag via MacShop from Funan. After some hiccup and a long wait, I have this bag in my hands. Love it... the construction is solid and it is spacious. I don't think it will be a bag that I can carry if I'm only bringing very little things out. But as a utility bag that is suppose to hold things, this will be perfect. I actually wanted to bring this bag for my Hong Kong trip, but given that I had to carry my office's notebook (and I don't have a sleeve for it), I decided to go with the Timbuk2 Blogger instead. If I was bringing my own PowerBook, I would have carried this.

Which means that I've yet to use this bag... but I'm eagerly looking for a chance to use it.

For the curious, the colour is mocha-baby blue-mocha, and I choose reflective tabs, and added a handle and a divider. The colour of the liner is light blue.

Upgrade firmware, remove features from Creative players

Sometimes, upgrading is not necessary a good thing. According to a posting in Engadget, the latest firmware upgrade for the Zen MicroPhoto and Zen Vision:M players will add

Audible support and other minor fixes to the former, video zooming and language support to the latter, but removes FM recording functionality from both players.

Is Creative falling prey to complaints from the RIAA types? I thought recording from the airwaves is certainly no problem! Comparing Audible support and FM recording, I think I prefer the FM recording feature.

Slayer slays in Singapore

I went to the Slayer gig in Singapore recently. The metal legends gave a straight no nonsense rocking show without much antics. It's just plain rocking metal all the way.

Moo Minicards have arrived

Moo recently had a promotion where they offered 10 free minicards for Flickr Pro users. Basically, you can choose any pictures from your Flickr pool and have them printed on these Minicards. You get 10 free, and they will ship it free to any place in the world. Since it is free, I of course had to take up the offer and picked my 10 fave pictures for these cards. After some wait, the cards have finally arrived.My first impression of these cards is - Wow, these cards are tiny! They are really mini and I thought that they will be bigger, more the size of namecards. Anyway, I really like these. They're printed on solid cardboard paper and the quality is excellent. Because they are so small, smaller than a stick of gum, they are also pretty cute.The purpose of these cards is such that you can print your contact on the reverse side of the card and give them out to people. I've printed my info on the back of the cards, but as I love the cards so much, I don't think I'll part with them. Maybe if I need to in the future, I'll print more, but for now, I'm going to keep these beautiful cards to myself.

Tiles @ SAM

Tiles @ SAM
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

Interesting floor tile patterns in the Singapore Art Museum.

Make Bloglines look like an OS X app

This is a hack for Bloglines users using the fab web-based RSS reader on a Mac. To make your Bloglines look like an app in OS X, just head to the website and find out how you can turn your Bloglines reading experience more Mac-like.
Link:

Free turn-based strategy fun: Battle for Wesnoth

Battle for Wesnoth is a fantasy theme turn-based strategy game that's free for everyone. It runs on both the Windows and Mac platform so you can have fun if you own either of the two systems. It's not as great as any of the commercial games available, but for its price, it is great fun and value.

Duh moment @ City Hall

While visiting the Singapore Biennale at City Hall, I came across this interesting sign that is at the doorway into the building. If you can't quite read the text in the photo, here it is:

He entered this building
He filled its interior with pheromones

I'm still wondering what this sign is about. It is part of the Biennale exhibit or is it something else?

Singapore Biennale in City Hall

I finally found some time to continue with my visit to the Singapore Biennale. The above pictures are taken from a visit to the exhibits found in City Hall. The interesting thing about this visit is that I got to see what the inside of a courtroom looks like. Not to mention the interesting ways that the art pieces and installation works in the context of the location. Certainly an interesting experience if any.

Free online media converter

So, you're looking to convert a file from one format to another. Here's a tool that'll be of use to you. It's a free online tool where you can turn your files from one format to another. It seems to support a whole lotta format, ranging from popular formats like MP3 and JPG to lesser know ones like OGG. It even support document formats like PPT. Some of the formats I've never even heard of, such as MIFF and PNM. Sounds too good to be true? Well, you can head to the link to try it out since you don't have to register or fork out a cent to use it.

13 Oblivion essential mods

If you're playing Oblivion on the PC, then you'd know that the game has plenty of mods available made by the Oblivion mod community. In fact, some of the mods are so awesome that they should not have been mods in the first place. They should have been part of the game, dammit! Anyway, the PixelRage website has put together 13 Oblivion mods that you should install, including mods that will make your environment looks better and one that makes your adventuring map looks nice and stylish.

Web-based Blog Word Processor

If you're lookg for a web-based tool to post items to your blog, check out this tool called WriteToMyBlog. This is a web-based word processor that you can use to compose postings and then you can post it to your blog. With it, you can control indents, font sizes, link pictures and more. It works with most major blogging software and it's free.

Useful Free Windows Programs Under 2MB

Freeware is good. Freewares that are under 2MB are even better. On the Revision3 forum, there's a list of super-duper useful apps that weights in under 2MB. Good things come in small sizes too!

Day Against DRM

Okay, so I've miss it by a day. But I guess it is still alright to point out that Oct 3rd is the International Day Against DRM. Boing Boing has a whole lotta links that you can visit to read all about the problems of DRM. Also of interest is the Defect by Design site. Head there to find out ten things that you can do to spread the truth about DRM. Now go, spread the word.

Add Google Gadgets to your webpage

If you're looking for some ways to spiff up your webpage, you can head down to Google and take a look at GOogle Gadgets. Now, you can add some of these gadgets to your page. Things that you can add include simple items like a Data & Time gadget to a more fun Bejeweled gadget. Just grab the code and add it to your page. Simple.

DIY: HTTP,FTP and E-Mail Server in an hour

Want to try setting up your own servers? Here's a useful guide to walk you through the setting up and running of a full featured webserver from just about any Internet connection. From issues such as getting a domain name to the software you'd need, it's a good place to start your journey of "web-serving".

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