More board game recommendations

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

Giant ewoks invade Star Wars Galaxies

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

iTreoPod? It's April's Fool

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

LEGO Grand Theft Auto

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

Hilarious Teochew ringtone

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

EPIC 2014-possible future of the mediascape?

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

Is the palmOne Life Drive real?

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

Palm Bluetooth Internet Setup

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

Hacking Multi-Player into Grand Theft Auto

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

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

View from a revolving restaurant

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

Board game sites

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

Cool LED clock

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

Ebooks on your PSP

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

20GB Creative Zen-iPod killer?

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

Pixar office tour

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

LEGO charger cradle for Nintendo DS

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

Flight Attendant raps in Shanghainese

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

Super Shuffle's a publicity stunt

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

Programs on your USB thumb drive

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

Writers on Board for Ender's Game

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

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

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