GremSpot

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Designer's iPod cases

When you're a hot mainstream product adored by many, you get to have those designer labels providing for your needs... specifically casing needs. MP3.com has a listing of designer iPod cases, made by designer labels such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc. Buy them if you are absolutely fasinated by designer labels. Otherwise, there are better-value cases out there to protect your white-and-silver musicial investment.

Rockstar screwed the gaming industry

Yet another opinion on the "Hot Coffee" issue. There sure are many of those these days. This one on Cheap Ass Gamer takes the view that Rockstar sold out their gaming industry colleagues by being irresponsible, and causing such a huge fallout of trust in the industry-led ESRB rating system. I have to say that this fellow's view is not entirely without merit.

Concept Apple products

Wonder what future Apple products may look like? Well, a Japanese site called Applele.com has come up with interesting designs of products that would seem to embody the Apple design aesthetics. Do note that these are not real Apple products but concepts done by fans. Well, it would be good to dream that some of these actually exist, right? The picture above is an iPod Photo with camera attachment, while the one below is a flash-based iPod with retractable headphone cords. Simply sweet.

Flyable Star Wars starships

These fans of remote control (RC) model plans have created models of spaceships from the Star Wars movies that you can actually fly! The flyable starships include Han's Millenium Falcon, the Jedi Starfighter and also the Naboo Starfighter. Nice!

You can find out more in these two links...
Link 1
Link 2

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Game modder speaks up on modding

A game modder has written a piece on the recent GTA "Hot Coffee" controversy. It's a must-read and I hope that those folks in the "high places" who are against games just take time to understand the gaming technology before they start to label every mod-able game as "Adults Only".

The primary difference between the retail version of the game and that of the modded version is that the above content has simply been rearranged and intensified by the consumers. By using the logic that this content was illegally "hidden", one could just as easily claim that any R rated movie has covertly crossed the limits of decency because the end-user could very well pause their DVD player on a scene containing nudity, thus exceeding the length of such scenes by which the MPAA decides whether a film is to be classified as R or NC-17. The same could be said of even a PG-13 rated movie which contains brief nudity.

Link

BBC encourages 'remix'-ing of TV listings

The BBC may be one of the oldest broadcasting organisation around, they are also one of the most innovative and forward-looking. Here, they are allowing developers and designers to come up with interesting ways of using their TV and radio schedule. They are even holding a competition for folks to come up with prototypes to demonstrate new ways of using BBC's TV schedule. Cool!

OS X menubar items to fill your menu

Here's a list of some of the best menubar items that you can place on your menu for Mac OS X. Almost everything is here, from web services to clocks to iTunes controllers and more. The only limitation is probably your screen size.

read more | digg story

Violence and video games... a media lie?

The Game Revolution website has posted an article on the media frenzy surrounding violence and video games. According to this piece, there is no epidemic of youth violence as portrayed in the media. It's all a media lie. Read it and decide for yourself.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Yahoo! Widgets now available

Yahoo! has bought the company that created the original widgets, Konfabulator. Now, Yahoo! is offering it as a free download for Mac and Windows. For those using Mac OS X Tiger, you already have widgets in the form of dashboard so this is not much of use. But for Windows users, this may open up a whole new world for you.
Link

First GTA, now Sims 2

The overall target has to be the gaming industry. Miami attorney Jack Thompson is now extending the fight from the "Hot Coffee" mod in GTA to EA's Sims 2, claming that it's a pedophile's paradise by showing genitalia. When will this madness end?

read more | digg story

Sunday, July 24, 2005

The unofficial, quick guide to Digg 2.0

I'm starting to use Digg. Digg is a tech news website, similar to Slashdot. But while Slashdot's articles are validated by editors, Digg's articles are by users. Digg also has community elements and it's easy to blog "Digg-ed" items.

read more | digg story

Friday, July 22, 2005

New Potter gets pirated

The new 6th installment of Harry Potter gets scanned by fans and an electronic copy is found in the "wild" Net within hours of its official release. That's really not surprising and if you know where to look, you'd probably have a copy of the scanned e-book right now.

Wired News has written a piece on how this happened and why it has happened. There're also quotes by those involved in the operation.

"I'd love to see the expression on Rowling's face when she finds out that this book got ripped within, what, 11 hours of the release?" one of those involved in the operation told cohorts in the main public IRC chat room, #pottermania.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Crazy infinite Flickr photos

Ah... the things people do. This Flickr photo group has photos of folks taking pictures of themselves looking at a photo of others looking at a photo of others on the computer, and so on and so on. See it and you'll get the idea.
Link

Coldplay X&Y Album Art Generator

Seen the pixel-like blocks on the cover of the new Coldplay album "X&Y"? Think it's cool? Well, it is kinda retro in some way and futuristic at the same time. Well, some brilliant guy has written up a Javascript thingy that will generate similar art work for you based on the characters that you type in. In fact, the picture you see above is generated by typing in my name. Cool!
Link

Explaining Creative Commons

Tech columnist John Dvorak recently wrote that he does not see the value of Creative Commons. In fact, he calls it "one of the dumbest initiatives ever put forth by the tech community". Maybe he just wants to be different. Or maybe he just doesn't get it.

Fear not. The Benlog blog has a easy-to-understand piece in response to Dvorak's article and explains in simple terms what Creative Commons offer. Call it "Creative Commons for Dummies".
Link

Xiaxue got hacked...

The famous... or infamous (depending on your view) local blog by Xiaxue has been hacked. Go ahead, get the whole scoop on her blog. The scary and sad thing is that all her 3 years of online presence has been axed. Shudder... that is why you must obey the tech generation's most important law--BACKUP!!!

The moon is made of cheese...

Google is doing something fun in honour of the first manned Moon landing which happened on 20th July 1969. They've done a Google Maps version of the Moon surface. They've also marked out the various Apollo landing sites. Of course, like the Google for Planet Earth, you can zoom in and out of the map if you want to get a closer look. The fun part is that when you zoom right to the max, you get to see what the moon is actually made of... yes, that's cheese. It's paradise for mice.

GTA San Andreas given AO rating

The "Hot Coffee" GTA: SA affair has exploded. The ESRB is giving the game an AO rating, meaning that it's for Adults Only. Which also means that the game will not be sold in major retailers. Read these links for more details and comments:

Hot Coffee Boils Over
Gamespot.com has the scoop and details on what happens in the "Hot Coffee" saga and what is going to happen now that it has been slapped with an AO rating.
Sexy Extras Earn Game Adult Label
Details of the case by Wired News.
My Take On "Hot Coffee"
This is a blog entry on the affair from the developers' point of view. The basic idea is that sometimes, things are left in the game because developers don't want to break the game and introduce bugs. It's a pretty interesting read and gives a different take on the case.

Bottom line? If you can grab a copy of GTA:SA now, you'd better go get it. Future copies will have the offending code removed. In other words, these are collector's items.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Rock & Surf mash-ups

Mash-ups are fun. The mix of two songs usually is a blend of unexpected and amazing. This album is no different. The album titled "Sounds for the Sun-set:2005" by mashers RIAA (Really Interesting Audio Adventures) totally rocks with sun-kissed fun. You can download the full album at the website. Go ahead... rock and surf!
Link