50 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Works for Socialists

Sci-fi writer China Miéville has come up with a list of 50 titles that'll appeal to those with a socialist bent. Not all of them are strictly political in nature, but I guess it's more of the themes that matters. Some titles on the list are on my to-read list, just have to find the time to read them. They include, Lucius Shepard's Life During Wartime, Kim Stanley Robinson's The Mars Trilogy and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

Pepsi giving away cool blue DS

How about that? A blue DS! Since the GBA SP comes in plenty of funky
colours, it's no suprise that the DS will have something similar too.
Now, if only there's a way to get our hands on it.

Ska for the Skeptical

This is inspired by Bollywood for the Skeptical I mentioned about some time back. It's a really cool intro to ska music and is a good intro to those who're only aware of No Doubt. There's a greater ska world out there, dude!

Podcasting, music and the law

I've been hooked on to this thing called "podcasting" recently. It's really just MP3 talk/radio-type shows done by folks and there's this software where you can download the audio MP3 files using a RSS feed. These podcasts are interesting because you can just look for topics that interest you. Some podcasters are also playing interesting music in their podcast and I've been introduced to a number of great music that way. But now, the law wants to mess with the music. It seems like the ASCAP (the Singapore counterpart will be COMPASS) wants to license the music on podcasts. It really sucks. Really, I beginning to want to reject the labels and go for music with a creative commons license. Boing Boing has more reader response on this.

My LEGO pictures

Since I'm getting my Treo 650, I'm going to start to incorporate a moblog
into this blog. I've signed up with Flickr for it to talk to Blogger and it
seems to work pretty OK. This is going to be a test and hope I can get it
up and running.

We don't like MPAA

We don't like MPAA and RIAA's conduct when it comes to going after P2P networks. So here's a website set up to express the community's outrage at their behaviour. Will the movie and music biz shut this down too?

This website has been erected out of consumer outcry over the passing of sites that facilitate the free availability of perpetually copyrighted motion pictures. The unauthorized downloading of motion pictures denies thousands of dishonest, lazy executives of their crack smoking livelihood, and is the only way to bring an artistically bankrupt monopoly under control. Downloading movies without authorization violates laws distorted beyond their original intent, is not tangible theft, and is impossible to stop. You can't catch everyone. The only way to win is to stop waging war on your own customers and accept the fact that we are in control, not you. You brought this on yourselves.

Swiss knife for the gals

A Swiss Army knife is certainly a useful item to have for boys. Me? My trusty knife has been with me for more than 20 years and it's still serving me well. But what about the girls? Here's one that they may find useful. This one contains needle & thread, mirror, perfume bottle, in addition to the standard items such as bottle opener and of course, the knife. Still, don't think anyone can bring this up the airplane if the owner is a globe-trekking gal.

Debian GNU/Linux on the Mac Mini

Other than the form factor, the Mac Mini didn't really impress me much. It's essentially a stripped-down computer running on the Mac OS. However, if this baby can run the Linux OS, then that would be something... In fact, the resourceful Linux community has already provided a howto on installing the Debian Linux distro on the Mac Mini. Mac running Linux? Now that's something that can get a geek excited.

Stealing vs downloading

Maybe it's cheaper to steal a CD off the shelves. This website has done a comparison between the penalties for shoplifting as oppose to downloading copyrighted materials. Taking the real world example of Winona Ryder's shoplifting case, it sets her back US$10,005 (including lawyers cost and etc.). On the other hand, a RIAA infringment is on average US$14,875. Also, the maximum punishment for stealing is US$10,000 plus 1 year jail, while copyright infringment is $3,400,000 and a year's jail term. The comparison may not be entirely accurate, but something is seriously wrong here.

Homebrew Tetris for DS!

It's a matter of sooner or later. Now, someone has actually managed to code a homebrew game for the Nintendo DS. It's of course the classic Tetris. Is this a sign that flash carts and more creative homebrew games are on the way for the DS? Hope so.

Cellphones-a musical for geeks

If you're a geek who love musicals, then this one is for you. There is now a musical called "Cellphones", and it covers everything from MP3s to soccer moms. Seems like the audience will also get phone calls on their cells during the performance! It's best for the description on the site to speak for itself though.

The night before the booth opens, twenty strangers gather and wait in line. While they wait, they rock out about timely topics such as Britney Spears, botox, SUVs, MP3s, rap music, fast foods, low fat diets, saving Michael Jackson, gay marriage, the Internet, porn, soccer moms, Enron, Bush, Starbucks, Martha Stewart, weapons of mass destruction, and of course, cellphones.

Ipod LEGO minifig

The ipod ads featuring the silhouette user with the white earbuds have certainly caught the imaginations of many. Now, these folks have modified a LEGO minifig to look like the ad. I certainly love the LEGO, not too sure about the ipod though.

Copyright does not benefit artists

The RIAA and other related bodies have always claimed that the need to prevent P2P sharing is because the take away the benefits of copyright from artists. This study which looks at British and Geman musicians actually blows away that claim. Once again, another salvo into the heart of the greedy industry.

The evidence here is contradictory. The often–made claim that copyright supports the creative basis of a society is empirically doubtful. There is a suspicion that copyright underpins vastly unequal rewards.

Creator and investor interests are not the same. Copyright suits investors (music publishers, labels) who are incentivised to market and distribute the works they exclusively control. Copyright also suits creators with a track record of hits who can extract favourable terms from investors.

Copyright does little for new and niche creators who often sign away their bargaining chips cheaply. In the absence of alternative compensation schemes, digitisation so far appears to have brought few financial benefits from disintermediated distribution.

LEGO Star Wars video game webby launch

One of my most anticipated game is not those frantic FPS or fighting games. It's actually the cutesy Star Wars game with LEGO characters. Or rather, Star Wars characters in the LEGO style. The website is now online and I can't wait till April to get my hands on this one.

Xbox-Millenium Falcon

What to do if you're a Star Wars fan (specifically a Han Solo/Millenium Falcon) and a Xbox gamer? You blend the best of both worlds and put your Xbox into a Millenium Falcon! This guy has placed the Microsoft console into the 1979 vintage series of the M-Falcon toy. Want to get your mitts on it? It's up for sale at UK's ebay site with starting bid of 800 pounds.

Chinese Military Train Soldiers To Be Gaming Geeks

It's hard to believe but it's true. A blog run by someone called Tian is reporting that during a CCTV (Chinese Central) TV broadcast, folks in the Chinese army are shown to be playing Counter Strike!

Instructor Wang Qiang quoted saying: "Our priority is not about battling Muslim terrorists, but to kick some teenager punks' asses. We are tired of getting our asses handed to us by some zit-faced kid living in Des Moines, Iowa."

Are the Chinese military that serious?

The P2P Manifesto

Despite what the RIAA or MPAA are doing, I think it's inevitable that P2P is here to stay. Here's a major addition to the movement for P2P-a manifesto for P2P. In a nutshell it's this...

P2P is unstoppable
P2P is positive for Companies
P2P is positive for the market
P2P is good for users

Mario music sheet

Hip hip hooray! Now, I can play the Mario themes on my piano!

LEGO PC cases

I've mentioned it again and again, it's amazing what you can do with LEGO bricks. This folks has surprised me with what they did-a working PC with the case made of LEGO bricks. Everything is there, CD-ROM drive, HDD, cooling fans, and all the works. There's even a Shuttle-like case! Awesome!

World's smallest P2P app

Now, this is the smallest P2P app, ever. Edward Felten, CS Professor at Princeton and outspoken supporter of the digital rights, has written a P2P app called TinyP2P using only 15 lines of Python code. The purpose? To proof that P2P software is so easy to write that attempts to ban it is futile. The record and movie industry had better start to stop P2P and making use of it to provide legit content for folks to share, rather than brand file-sharing as a crime.