Read/Write to NTFS drives in OS X

Using Windows formatted NTFS drives is a problem for Mac OS X users. There is read support for NTFS volumes on the Mac but when you want to write to the volumes, you will encounter problems. Thankfully, there's something called MacFUSE that you can use. Seems like using it can be a little complex, but could be useful if you absolutely need to read and write to that Windows partition on your Intel-powered Mac.

Watching Free TV Online

You don't need a TV to watch TV anymore. Listed on the Mashable site are 33 ways you can get your TV fix, ranging from the popular YouTube to the amazing Joost to lesser known stuff like ChannelKing. Not all the options are excellent but at least they're available.

Life in Nintendo Office

Always wonder what it's like to work for Nintendo? This video gives you an idea.

100 Free Games for Download

A quick resource if you're looking for free, legal games download. Click on the link and you can get a list of 100 titles that you can play on your PC. Titles include shooters and MMOs.

News on the game Rock Band

Guitar Hero rocks! So it's with great excitement when I read the new information about the game Rock Band which extends Guitar Hero to a full band. If you love Guitar Hero, and is wondering how the hell a game will handle four players with each playing one instrument, read this post on the NeoGAF forum with info taken from Game Informer. Some of the interesting gameplay elements include:

- Guitars and Bass now have 10 frets. 5 for the regular sections of the game and 5 for the newly designated solo sections.

- Drums are apparently insane. You use actual sticks and hit one of four colored pads in front of you, in addition to a kick pedal attached to the drumming unit. Drummers will also have the ability to do fills etc. in their own little free-form section, do well and you'll trigger the drummers version of star power.

- If all bandmates can reach the end of a song, you'll be greeted with one huge free-form jam session.

Razer Boomslang making a comeback

Until my recent switch to the Razer Copperhead mouse, my weapon of choice has been the Razer Boomslang. This is one of the first mouse made specifically for gamers. I absolutely love this mouse for its precision, weight, and overall feel of it. I'm not a pro gamer but playing FPS with this makes me feels like one. Over the years, I have found that it has actually become a collector's item. Anyway, I've one gripe with this mouse - the ball. This mouse is the product of a time when optical mice were still not as common, hence, I need to clean the "ball" of the mouse every so often.

After I bought the Copperhead, I retired the Boomslang, but I'm glad to say that it gave me plenty of joy over my years of use. It was therefore with great excitement that I found out that Razer is gonna release a collector's edition of the Boomslang. The revamped Boomslang will be optical can glow like the recent Razer mice. Too bad it's going to be only limited to 10,000 units. Don't know if I'll be getting one, or even if I can get my hands on it, but I'm certainly glad to hear that Razer does look back to its roots.

PS1 as audiophile dream?

Seems like the PlayStation 1 can be used as an excellent CD player, at least according to some audiophiles. On the Destructoid site, there is a piece on how some audiophiles treat the PS1 as the "darling of the audio underground". I'm quite skeptical about this as audio quality actually depends on plenty of factors, including the speakers or A/V receivers that you're using. Still, there could be some truth in this when you consider that in eletronics, they don't make things like they used to. So, it may not be entirely be a surprise that the older PS1 does have a better audio output with its RCA jacks. Any audiophiles with an old PS1 in the closet to try this out?

The Secret Lives of Otaku

This set by Flickr user "hypersapiens" called "The Secret Lives of Otaku" made me smile. It's a series of photos of otakus doing what they do best. Plenty of cosplay fun here and my fave is the one with two Miis who escaped from their Mii Plaza to join in the real life fun.

Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007

On the Project Censored site, there's an article on the 25 stories that made the news, but was not extensively covered. Do read some of the stories as some of them are rather shocking. Are there real reasons why these stories are not picked up and have been practically ignored by the media? Number 18 on the list is a story whereby a physics prof challenges the notion that the collapse of the WTC towers on 9-11 is due to the planes. Read it to find out more.

Guitar Hero II for the 360

The time to rock is here! After so much waiting, Guitar Hero 2 for the Xbox 360 is finally available here. It's interesting that the local distributor New Era brought in the game from Australia. The box says that it is the PAL version but it seems like the disc can be played on the local NTSC version of the console. There's even the OFLC (Ozzie's version of the ESRB) rating on the box. Anyway, this region coding thingy is really confusing and everyone should do what the PS3 is doing, which is have region-free titles for all.

Back to GH2. This is what I dreamt of playing for so long. Since I didn't get the PS2 version, I'm so stoke that there's one for the 360. I spent last night playing Nirvana's Heart-Shaped Box, and even my wife got into the game. She even did better than me in the scores! This shows the accessibility factor of the game and is highly, highly recommended. I only wish that I can get another controller on the cheap so that I can play co-op, as the game allows different parts in the co-op play, i.e. one playing lead and the other either rhythm or bass.

Another thing on the wish list is the number and price of the downloadable tracks. I hope there will be more tracks from GH1 that is made available. I really would like to rock out to the riffs of Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water and Cream's Crossroads. These are available on the 1st Guitar Hero but are not available as downloadable tracks. Also, the pricing for the current downloadable tracks is on the steep side. 500 MS Points for 3 tracks works out to be about $3.70 per track. Considering that you can get 47 tunes just by getting the original game, it seems rather expensive. We can only wait to see if Harmonix will revise the price or offer some bulk discount in the future.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna strap on the X-plorer guitar and rock on!

Uncyclopedia: The nonsense encyclopedia wiki

If Wikipedia is the success story of the value of social networking, in particular the Wiki, providing us with a wealth of knowledge, the Uncyclopeia is the flip side. It's a wiki encyclopedia, but instead of facts, it's all inaccurate. So what's the use if it's inaccurate? Well, it's extremely funny, and 100% nonsense. Check out the entry on the iPod.

A deviCe called the iPod Photo iS now on the market, but buyers should note that iT iS not actually an iPod, but just a photo of one.

The Greatest Long Tracking Shots in Films

The Daily Film Dose blog has an excellent piece on long tracking shots in films. If you understand the language of film-making, you'd notice long takes in scenes without any edits. Most of the time, you'd be left amazed at the amount of co-ordination needed to execute such a long, continuous take. The blog looks at various such scenes in cinema and also include clips of these shots. The most impressive in the whole list has to be "The Russian Ark", in which the whole damn movie is done in one single take. When I saw the movie, my jaws just dropped from the start to finish.

Google Reader on the Wii

I don't really use Google Reader to read my RSS feeds. But now that Google has released a version of their reader on the Wii, it may be worthwhile trying it out.

Free Culture on a free disc

I like this. It is an ISO that you can download and burn which shows off the best stuff available in Free Culture. If information wants to be free, then media and content needs to be free too, and this disc is a grand example of the effort to keep info and culture free. Included in this disc are free books, free movies, free audio and free software. You can't beat free.

Video games for adult couples

This is when video games are made for adult usage. By adult, we mean really adult, the kind used to enhance fun under the sheets. Well, in this case, you might be standing while using this, but it's certainly not for kids. Anyway, check out the video showing a new form of controls in a game, known as the "Intimate Videogame Controllers".

CG Night Elf - Not a photo?

The sexy night elf from Warcraft... Is this a photo or a computer-generated work of genius? Check out the link to see how this life-like piece of work is done. Quite amazing.

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Google it.

12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know

So you blog? Then you need to know these. They may be US laws, but it is always good to know more about these legal things... well, things about Tax Laws may not be too relevant, but issues on deep-linking and copyright is still good to know. Knowledge is good so no harm being aware of these, right?

A real mouse!

Talk about a mouse. Check out the link for a real mouse, hacked into a computer mouse.

Piano Solo based on Pi

Pi is the magical number that goes on and on. Otherwise know as 3.14159..., it is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and is a "transcendental real number". On the linked page, someone has done the ultimately geeky thing and used the numbers of Pi to play a piano solo. Each number is represented by a note and the whole piece is played up to 1000 decimal places. This is what I call mathematical musicality. Cool!