Flickr aquired by Yahoo!

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

Maps for your video games

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

Blokus-the board game

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

Relaxing @ Angsana, Bintan

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

Digital Map Projection for D&D session

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

Doom 3 Case Mod

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

Holy LEGO Batman!

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

A better Shuffle?

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

Star Wars Episode 3: A Lost Hope

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

Isreal's Army frowns on D&D

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

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

Only 15% of gamers are Net addicts

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

Mozilla on a cellphone

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

Details on the next Xbox

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

Blair liar

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

Churchill in oak

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

House in golden light

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

Westminster by gaslight

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

Superheroes comics can be funny

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

More Beatles mash ups

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

The Walkman meets Sony Ericsson phone

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