Toshiba W47T

A knows I've been looking at new cellphone. So this is her vote: Toshiba W47T. The phone has 100mb of ram, with Micro SD slot. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera, with 3x optical zoom and nighttime mode. Yes, you can take pictures at night. It also has a QVGA (320x240) 2.6 inch display. (Compared to my current 2inch QVGA display on Blade). It has Picsel viewer, which allow you to read tons of file format including PDF, MS Office. Those of you that have had a Sony Clie know exactly the software I'm talking about.

Too bad it only works in Japan.

South Korea And China Mandate Standard Cellphone Charger

Both South Korea and China have just passed a law requiring all cellphone vendors to use standard charger cable and data cable. The standard is even specified. You must use USB cable and charge over it as well as use it for data. This means all new Samsung/LG/Sanyo phones will incorporate this into their design in South Korea. Apparently in South Korea, this move is motivated by environmental concern. These days, people are changing phones as fast as Japan. This in turn created a huge amount of cable trash.

Giant step for local mankind.

Slingbox To Cellphone Streaming

Sling has just made a sling client for UIQ/S60. This means if you have a slingbox, and a Symbian cellphone such as the Sony W950 or the Nokia N80/N73, you can watch your slingbox from your cellphone anywhere. Yes, even the remote works. B, I'm looking at you. :) This is your next cellphone and you know it.

Image from Engadget.

Best Selling PS3 Games In Japan With 8000 Copies Sold

Sony just put out a press release on the newest PS3 game released in Japan, MotoStorm. It's the best selling PS3 game. It sold 8000 copies.

Indie Game Development For Xbox 360 Arrives

Microsoft released XNA Game Studio Express and the XNA Framework. The tool will allow you to develop games for Windows and Xbox 360. The tool itself is free. To publish your xbox 360 game on the Xbox Live Marketplace, you'll need a XNA Creators Club subscription. It's $50 for 4 month, or $99 for a year.

Enix Picks Winner Console

Enix has announced the next console choice for DragonQuest 9. Apparently, I'm not the only person who felt that the winner of the Japan console war is non other than DS. Yes, DragonQuest 9 will be going to DS. This is a big deal in Japan. The largest RPG franchise in Japan isn't Final Fantasy. It's so popular that when it was released on a weekday years ago, it had an impact on student attendance. It's so popular that a remake of a old DragonQuest game outsells most of the new games, even new Final Fantasy.

Blue Dragon Has Landed UPDATED

It's here, it's finally here. To think, it's been about two years now.

UPDATE:
Famitsu reported that over 180 people were lined up in front of the Yodobashi Camera store in Akihabara, Japan, waiting to purchase Mistwalker's Xbox 360 RPG Blue Dragon. 40 TV stations and newspaper reporters were present before the game went on sale at 9AM. Microsoft has shipped 200,000 copies of the game.

Wii Japan Launch Result

Nintendo shipped 400,000 Wii this past Friday in Japan. They sold 371,936 of them.

Game sale is the interesting part. Wii Sports isn't bundled in Japan, and a good thing for Nintendo. It sold 176,880 copies. 2nd place finish is Wii Play with sales of 171,888 copies. It's a collection of mini games. Zelda finished at 3rd place with 145,068 copies. That's right, Zelda isn't first or even second place. I believe the reason is because of the type of buyers that were in the line getting Wii.

Y went around Tokyo to see what the lines were like. She said in most of the big places, like Bic Camera. The line was at least 50% women. And no, they aren't being dragged there by their boyfriends. Most of them were getting Wii for themselves. It was a very sharp contrast compared to the PS3 launch line. Most of them have never own a console before. Some of them have DS. Several of them on TV interview express that this is the first time they brought a console. Someone like that would be far more likely to pick up Wii sport. Zelda means nothing to them.

I only hope the Press doesn't trash Nintendo for not selling out Wii. This in my opinion is an example of a good console launch. Plenty to sell, everyone that wants one got one. Like the PSP US launch. But the press was quite harsh on PSP launch in US for "not sold out".

Don't Open Word Files Even From Trusted Sources

That's MS' solution to the current zero day attack on Word. It's a bad one. This impacts Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Word Viewer 2003, Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac and Microsoft Word 2004 v. X for Mac. Yes, EVEN the viewer as well as the two versions of Word for OSX.

There are no pre-patch workarounds available. Microsoft suggests that users "not open or save Word files," even from trusted sources. "As a best practice, users should always exercise extreme caution when opening unsolicited attachments from both known and unknown sources," the company said.

You know, I think it's time I get a Word replacement program for OSX. E suggested Nisus Writer Exress.

Thanksgiving Misadventure

For Thanksgiving, the tradition is we have J and A over for dinner. This year with them over in Chicago, it was uh, not really feasible.

So this year we invited T and W over for dinner. We cook a bunch of food, well, okay, not the most traditional food in the world, but hey. Everything is ready at 5:50 PM, just in time for their arrival at 6PM.

Time passes. It's now 6:15. P says "Do you think they got lost?" I said "Well, I'll wait till 6:30 to call T on the cell".

So at 6:30, I call.
"T, you got lost?"
"What do you mean?"
"I did say 6PM right?"
"Yea, tomorrow, right?"
"uh, no. Today"
"What? Really? I thought you said tomorrow"
"No, I said Thursday Thanksgiving."
"You said the 24th, today is the 23rd."
"Oh really, let me see. Oops, I did say Thursday, Thanksgiving the 24th"
"Is it too late now? We can be there in about 30 minutes."
"No problem."

7:15 they arrive. The rest of the evening went smoothly. J even made a guest appearance via phone later that evening. We just sit around and chatted till about 1AM. Of course, no visit is complete without some game pushing. I mean, the sec T said "Is that a Xbox 360?" was all the encouragement I needed. To my surprise, he really got into Gears of War. I started the game in the tutorial area, and pass him the controller. It was 30 minutes before he look away from the TV.
Next day, we were out and about by about 6AM. Looking for deals and generally just making fun of the huge amount of people in line. Turns out T was at Best Buy around 7:30 looking for us. By then we had already left. Didn't really buy anything.

Gran Turismo HD Canceled

First Gran Turismo HD was suppose to be a launch title for PS3.

Then it was revealed that the game will come with no car, no tracks, everything is electronic download. You pay per track and per car.

Then it was revealed that it will be late, won't make it to the launch of PS3.

Then Sony abandon the download idea, making it a full game for $60. But it's been delayed to Dec 2007.

Then Sony cancels the game. They are going to make what they have, which I bet it's the exact same thing as the E3/TGS demo available as a free download. And the team will now be focusing on GT 5 instead.

All this for a game that was a port of PS2 GT4 running in 1080p mode with the exact same graphics assets.

I'm still waiting for Gran Turismo Portable for my PSP.

Wii elbow?

As I predicted, the Wii remote is proving to be too much exercise for gamers in US. Here comes the "Wii Elbow".

Voodoo Forcast For Games

The following came from gamasutra

The latest issue of Jason Kraft and Chris Kwak's 'Video Game Journal' for the Susquehanna Financial Group examines the software attach rate for the Xbox 360, and explores why such an “alarmingly high” rate may not bode well for Microsoft's next-generation console.

Specifically, the report cites the recently announced Xbox 360 attach rate of around five games per console sold as confirmed by Microsoft in October, a number that was up from the roughly four games per console attach rate announced by the company at the console's launch in 2005.

While traditionally a growth in attach rate is considered to be a positive, the report suggests that such an increase could mean that even though Xbox 360 software continues to enjoy brisk sales, the hardware itself has not seen similar increases in consumer demand. In fact, it concludes: “We believe the unusually high attach rate on the 360 is a sign of an increasingly unhealthy console growth rate, and should be worrisome to publishers and investors.”

The analysts further explain their hypothesis by offering that a significant portion of the Xbox 360 consoles currently in circulation were purchased by hard-core gamers, who, by definition, purchase a lot of games.

Because of this, even if the hardware installed base were to remain relatively unchanged over the next 18 months, the software attach rate would continue to climb. Thus, while the numbers would seem to indicate a healthy consumer trend for the Xbox 360, the report concludes that “its growth will be capped fairly quickly without an ever-expanding hardware installed base.”

The report further adds that the Xbox 360's high software attach rate is “a damning commentary on the limited hardware installed base, most of whom are hard-core gamers.” The analysts add that what is actually needed by Microsoft for its latest console, as well as by third party software publishers, is “quicker adoption of hardware and a rapidly growing installed base on which to sell progressively more game units,” rather than just more games sold per existing Xbox 360 owner.

In conclusion, the authors state, “If the Xbox 360 sports an attach rate of ten by holiday 2007, it will probably be because it has failed to gather critical momentum. What does it benefit publishers and investors if ten games are being purchased by a total audience of 10 million 360 owners? It doesn’t take effort to see that a console with an attach rate of 8 and an installed base of 50 million is superior to a console with an attach rate of 12 with an installed base of 20 mln."

So basically, the more games you sell, the bigger the failure your console is?

PS3 Media Backlash

Looks like media backlash is in full force.

Times: Sony's Playstation 3 is Not Worth the Hype

CNN: PlayStation 3 can't hide its flaws

PS3 Grill

Someone took a Japanese PS3 and turned it into a grill.

Wii Remote Cracks TV

The following is someone's first hand account of how it happened, complete with pictures.

We brought the Wii home and played it pretty much nonstop for the past 24 hours. At 12:10am, during a slower couch-sitting game of Wii Sports: Bowling, my Nintendo Wii got angry with me.

My buddy Troy reels back to roll his ball as he's done about 300 times tonight suddenly feels the controller slip from his hand. (THANK GOD for the wrist strap right?)

Nope. Wrist strap snaps. The Wiimote flies across the room impaling my 60" rear projection TV square in the upper left corner.

Be warned: Sweaty hands + faulty Wiimote wrist strap = broken ass TV.

Xbox 360 for $100

Amazon put up a page for customers to vote on one of the 4 deals. They will offer the winning deal on 11/24 2PM. So far, Xbox 360 for $100 is leading with 88% of the vote. I wonder why. :)

Buy PS3 Because It Will Be Relevant?

"If you become a member of the PlayStation family, that investment is going to be relevant for 10 years," Hirai said at Dow Jones & Co.'s Consumer Technology Ventures conference Wednesday in San Jose, Calif. "If you look at it from a 10-year perspective, it's a great investment."

Apparently Sony feels PS3 will last 10 years. I find that not so likely. PS2 only lasted 6 years. (2000-2006). PS1 was also 6 years. (1994 to 2000)

Firefox 2.0 Beats IE 7 On Phishing Prevention

I know we are all very shocked here. In a test designed to see which of the two new browsers catches more phishing attempts. Firefox wins.

The result is Firefox blocked 243 phishing sites that IE7 overlooked, while IE7 blocked 117 sites that Firefox did not.

There is another point in Firefox's favor. IE is more used than Firefox. Still at 88% the last time I checked. So most of the attempts will be tested with IE but not Firefox.

Long story short, use firefox, don't use IE.

Java Opensourced Under GPLv2

It's finally happened. Java has been opensourced under GPLv2. Now various Linux distributions can include the JDK. And maybe we can bury mono now. I hope to see more Gnome apps in Java.

MacBook Go Core 2 Duo

MacBook has been updated with the new Core 2 Duo. With this update, now all of Apple's offering from Mac Pro to MacBook are all 64bit x86. Oh decisions decisions, 17 inch MacBook Pro or 13 inch MacBook?

PS3 Japan Launch Down To 80,000

Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun mentioned that Sony will only deliver 80,000 units of PlayStation 3 for the Japanese launch on November 11, 2006.

EA Online Ad Supported

So I decided to play some FIFA 07 for PSP online today. I go into multiplayer, it ask if I want to create a new account or using an existing one. I pick create a new account. I tried various usual usernames, they are all taken. I was surprised by this. But when I try recover password using one of my usuals, it says the user doesn't exist.

I was very puzzled, so I decided to check out EA's website and figure maybe I'll create the account on the website first. Turns out, EA has a deal with AOL. If you have AIM acccount, all those names are "reserved". But you can use a AOL sign up to "claim" the username, and in the process I imagine tie your EA account to your AOL AIM. I thought about it, and then I was like, this is the EA that just came up with that stupid BF 2142 spyware thingy. So I decide to create a new account on the website. Then login on PSP using the account I just created.

So far so good.

Then the next part comes out. Would you like to pay by credit card or use ESPN soccernet sponsored payment method? I was like "huh?". So get this, I either have to pay $2 a month, or agree to give ESPN complete access to my profile and have the rights to contact me, etc etc. It's at this point, I'm very happy I created a new account instead of having it tied to any of my existing accounts elsewhere and was very careful what info I filled in. So morale of the story is, give EA nothing. Don't let them tie their EA account to anything you have that has valueable info. I'm so glad I didn't tie my Xbox Live profile to EA account. FYI, if you refuse either of the payment option, at this point the game kicks you back to the main screen. You can't even download roaster update, or see any online news update. You are just toss out of the multiplayer area completely.

Sony Needs To Recheck Their Factsheet

Sony started the marketing dash for PS3 launch this week. They released a Next-Gen fact sheet on PS3 vs the compeition. There are some funny things that they made up. It claims if you buy the Xbox 360 Core for $299, you are required to buy the 20gig harddrive, the upcoming HD-DVD drive, wireless controller, and get the Gold Xbox Live subscription. Well, gee, considering that the HD-DVD drive isn't out yet, does that mean none of the 6 mil 360 out there are working? We are all just staring at a blank TV everytime we play games on 360?

I bet Microsoft is going to take legal action against Sony. I doubt MS will take this lying down, they aren't Sega.

Meanwhile, I just have this feeling that Sony won't be able to ship as many PS3 as they claimed.

Blue Dragon Bundle Preorder Sold Out In 10 Minutes

Blue Dragon Xbox 360 Bundle preorder showed up on Amazon Japan this weekend. It comes with Xbox 360 Core, Blue Dragon the game, one of the Blue Dragon figures from TGS, and the face plate. Amazon Japan sold their allocation of 10,000 units in 10 minutes.

The image is from gamewatch.

MP3 Players Preload With Virus And Trojan

Okay, QA department is falling asleep here. McDonald in Japan gave away 10,000 mp3 players. They came with a Trojan.

Then we find out some of the newer video iPod came with a virus.

EA Spyware, It's In The Games!

Battlefield 2142 was released today. Anyone who bought a copy, has a nasty surprise inside. You don't know about it till you buy the game and open it. And by installing the game, you agree to let them install spyware on your computer.

I think I'll be skipping this game. EA has stated they will be using this in other EA PC games as well. So from now on, all new EA games will be treated as spyware till proven otherwise.

Google Release Doc Tool

Google has launched the web based word processor they purchased. Check it out here
You are also given an option to move your old documents on Writely over as well.

There are some nice intergration features. Now you can write your post in the Doc Tool, spellcheck it and publish straight to your blog on blogger.

Much like Google Spreadsheets, there is quite a bit of collaboration features in the Doc Tool.

Django Setup Problem

For those of you that I convinced to look at Python and Django.

The standard instruction have you do

python ez_setup.py

But if you have Python 2.5, you'll get an error because the ez_setup.py that came with Django is too older.

Do the following instead.

python ez_setup.py -U setuptools

Then when you do

python setup.py install

Everything will work perfectly.

Visit King Tut

When I found out Tutankhamun exhibition was coming to the United States, I was determined to go see it. As luck would have it, it landed in Chicago. It's great because I can visit both King Tut, J and A. Killing two birds with one stone.

It was simply wonderful to see the exhibition. No photos were allowed, so I don't have any pictures to share on the exhibition itself. However. I do have a picture of Sue the T-Rex, the most complete fossil of a Tyrannosaurus rex. She's on display in the Field Museum in Chicago.

Of course, no visit in Chicago would be complete without the Chicago hotdog.

We also went to a Croatian restaurant where A used her language skill to take advantage of me. A used the skill to pay the bills while I was helpless to protest. The German chicken was quite good though.

We went to China Town the next day for a little bit of shopping and wondering around. Where I used my language skill against A, right back at you! There is a parade going on for the Chinese Indepdence Day. I also saw the new Sony K800 cellphone and the new Samsung D900, sadly they didn't have the Sony K790, otherwise I'd probably have bought it on the spot.

PS3 Overheat At TGS UPDATED

At TGS, several PS3 overheated. It's now making its round in news, which caused Sony shares down 2.75 percent on Tuesday in Japan.

UPDATED:

Sony claims "Despite the report from Macquarie Securities implying that they had heard of reports of PS3s needing to be rebooted at TGS, SCEI are not aware of any instances of this occurring at TGS, nor have we received any reports from third parties to such effect"

The image is from Kotaku

IBM Recalls 500,000 Sony Batteries

Looks like IBM is next. They are recalling 500,000 Sony batteries.

TGS 2006 Thoughts

Sony didn't really have a very good show. The only good news as far as I'm concerned is that they are adding HDMI port to the base version of PS3 as well. And they dropped the price of the base version by $80 in Japan. It's Japan only though. Because accroding to Sony, both Europe and US gamers were very accepting of the pricing point, it was only Japanese gamers that complaint about the price. So they are responding to it by dropping the price for the base model.

As far as I'm concerned, I really hope HDMI and both Blu-Ray/HD-DVD fail. They are trying to solve a problem that doesn't yet exist. It benefit the studio more than the consumers. So they can control how you watch the content you bought with your own money. But that's another discussion.

Microsoft will be releasing two Xbox 360 bundles in Japan this holiday season. For $250, you either get Xbox 360 core, PGR3 and 99 nights. Or you get a limited edition Blue Dragon themed Xbox 360 core, and Blue Dragon the game. Both Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey will also be released this holiday season in Japan. They are trying in Japan, but honestly, if this doesn't do it. It's over for Xbox 360 in Japan.

One of the thoughts I had after TGS is. What if the next-gen war happens in Japan, but no one came to the party? We already know Xbox 360 is doing very poorly in Japan. People are still feeling rather negative toward PS3 as well. My feeling toward Wii is mixed. I think the type of causal gamers they are going after, either already have a DS, or are dying to get one. It's way easier to convert causal gamers by handing them a DS and a game. Wii requires you to actaully set it up on the TV. I've always felt that the biggest compeition for Wii isn't PS3 or 360, but DS. DS is selling like hot cakes. They've sold 10 million units in 19 month, making it the fastest selling console in Japanese history. Yes, even faster than SNES or Gameboy. Japanese market is shrinking, but in the middle of all that, DS is constantly selling out and games are selling well too. I think the fact that DS games are way cheaper and have longer replayability has a lot to do with it. So, what if the next-gen war happens, but most Japanese gamers basically go "That's nice, I'll keep my DS and buy the 3,800 yen games, instead of the PS3/360/Wii and those 8,800 yen games that only last 5-10 hours."?

Long Line At Microsoft TGS Booth

At Tokyo Game Show, if you want to play the Blue Dragon, you have to stand in a 160 minute line. If you want to play Lost Odyssey, join the 90 minute line.

PS3 Japan Launch Titles List

At Tokyo Game show, Sony has announced the following titles will be avaible on 11/11/06, the day of the PS3 launch in Japan.

Genji: Days of the Blade
Mah-Jong Fight Club Online
Mobile Suit Gundam: Target In Sight
Resistance: Fall of Man
Ridge Racer 7
Sega Golf Club featuring Miyazato Family

I knew Gran Turismo HD wouldn't make it.

Dell Laptop Explodes At Yahoo

Kaboom, someone's personal Dell machine blew up. Yahoo only uses HP and Apple.

New Nano

So I broke down and got one of the 2G Nano. I really wanted to get the pink one, but it's only 4gig. That's just not enough for me. In the end, I got the black one beacuse it's 8gig. It's charging now as we speak. I also picked up the radio remote to use with it. FM radio with iPod, yay! Iz, you can stop taunting me now.

Toshiba & Panasonic Next Recalling Sony Batteries UPDATED

Toshiba is next in recalling Sony made batteries. They are recalling 340,000 of them. A little birdy told me Panasonic is next.

UPDATE: Apprently Panasonic has already announced it.

Buy PS3 Because It Will Cure Cancer?

Sony is working with Folding@Home team to produce a Folding client for PS3. Good to know my $600 PS3 + accessaries will be good for something.

Most iPod Owners Prefer CD

Less than 5% of iPod owners buy DRM tracks from iTune store. I'm one of those people. I've always had mp3 players even before iPod. To this day, I always buy CD and rip the tracks myself. Because I care about quality, and I hate DRM.

I still have about 20 of those free iTune tracks thing that Apple/Pepsi was giving away two years ago on the Pepsi bottle cap, never used any of them.

New iPods Are Here

Apple announced the new iPod and iPod Nano today. Batttery life has been increased. Apple is now selling games for iPod. I know P will go crazy over Bejewled and Zuma. The games will work on all existing 5th generation iPod. The space increase was only on the high end one though. It's still $250 for 30gig, but the $350 one is now 80gig instead of 60.

What I do care about is the 2G iPod Nano, you can get it Green, Silver, Blue and Pink now. Yay!

PS3 Europe Launch Delayed (UPDATED)

It's offical. PS3 Europe launch has been pushed back to March 07. According to K, there will be 400k units of PS3 for US on launch day. 800K units for Japan on launch day. So it's 1.2 mil units on launch. K still thinks they'll have 2.4 mil PS3 available by end of this year. So that means they'll make and ship another 1.2 mil PS3, probably again split in the same ratio of 2:1 in favor of Japan. 60 days to make, ship and sell 1.2 mil PS3 over the Holiday season, this should be interesting.

UPDATE: Actaully, only 500k units will be avilable on launch day. 400K for US, 100K for Japan. So now this means they have to make, ship and sell 1.9 mil PS3 in 60 days or less.

Word Exploit in The Wild

Latest Word flaw which already has attack code in the wild, allows remote execution of any code. No patch yet, so I guess you open word docs and hope for the best? Or use OpenOffice. :)

No Laptop For Me On The Plane

Korean Air has banned both Dell and Apple laptop on the plane. You can still take it, but you'd have to remove and check in the batteries. US Airlines are considering doing the same. Well, I currently have one Dell Laptop, two PowerBooks. Travelling with any of them will suck for me if this becomes more common.

I Have An Exploding Battery

I couldn't believe it. So I finally got around to check my 12 inch powerbook. My battery is one of the ones that's on the list. I even tripple checked the numbers. So hopfully new battery will arrive soon!

Apple Next Recalling Batteries

It's Apple's turn. They are recalling 1.8 million Sony made batteries. Wonder who will be next. Sony is one of the largest laptop battery provider if not the largest. The Dell one will cost them around 400 million, I'm guessing the Apple one will be around 200 million. Bad for PS3 launch fund.

Where SN26P Sits

There have been a few requests of where Yukie sits. So here it is

Court Rules Warrantless Eavesdropping Unconstitutional

Giant step for local mankind. Federal court has ruled the White House/NSA program which eavesdrop without warrant is unconstitutional. Imagine that. You need a warrant to violate someoe's priacy. Who would've thought?

Remember what Ben Franklin said. "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Dell Battery Recall

A lot of my friends have Dell laptops, because well, I recommend them lots. So please check here to see if you have one of those exploding batteries.

My New Computing Nakama

My new computing companion, Yukie is born. Her new purpose in life is helping me with Fedora Core and Gnome development. She'll be doing her best to contribute to opensource community.

Hikaru Utada Reign Supreme On Tetris DS

As part of the Nintendo promotion, G setup a event where a random drawing of 30 people were choosen to be able to play Tetris DS against Hikaru Utdata in vs mode. Most people thought she would be a push over, after all, she's just a singer promoting Nintendo DS. The secret is, she's actaully a very good tetris player. She beat the crap out of one of the Famitsu edtiors over and over during 30 minute period.

The final record from the event is 26-4.

Dell Adding AMD64 Laptops

I knew this would happen as soon as Dell announced they would have AMD64 servers by October. After all, HP is selling tons of AMD64 laptops, why give up the profit? It'd be a different story if Dell is Intel only. But now they've embraced AMD64 for servers, why stop there? Looks like AMD64 dual core laptops could arrive as soon as October as well.

E3 Downsizing

E3, the conference for video games, is going to be downsized. I can't say I'm surpised. It used to be you have to depend on game shows like E3, and various magazines both domestic and overseas to track the trend. But that was so 90s.

Today I can't even begin to count how many game designer have blogs and podcasts. Any scoop that is supposely being announced at shows, are leaked out weeks before the show. Blogs and online game sites have pretty much killed off magazines. Heck, these days I don't even read that many printed magazines anymore. By the time the news reach me via that medium, it's 8 weeks later.

New Toy From Bargain Hunting

So I went to Microcenter, and saw that they put the SN26P on sale for $400. I couldn't resist and bought it. I then went through the closet and found a bunch of stuff to put in it. 2 gig of RAM, 2x 320gig SATA2 Seagate HD, AMD X2 4200 CPU, Samsung 16X DVD DL burner, and a Nvidia 7800GT.

Now all I need is a name for this new toy.

The Almost Retirment Of My Dell Laptop

So last time, when I was about to start working on a project. I open up my Dell 15 inch laptop(Arcueid). I move my finger around, the mouse pointer doesn't move at all. No matter what I do, the heatpad just won't respond. So I tried the thumblina, and the mouse pointer started moving around. Except I hate thumblina. But I was like "Ok fine, I'll work around this for now." But neither the buttons assocciated with the thumblina or the heatpad would respond at all. So I can move the mouse pointer around, but I can't click anywhere. Plug in a USB mouse, that works fine. So I quickly copy all the data out.

Today I pulled out my 17 inch Powerbook(Izumi), getting ready to copy all the data over. It's fairly easy for me. Since I use Firefox and Thunderbird. I have MS Office for both Windows and OSX. I open the Dell laptop, and guess what, the heatpad started working perfectly again. So putting away the 17 inch powerbook for now.

AMD Buys ATI

AMD buys ATI for 5.2 billion. I think this move can lead to very interesting sitution. It may even reshape PC as we know it. Do you remember the Math co-processors in the 80s? You buy 386, and then you buy 387 for the Math co-processor. Intel even had two different 486. the DX vs SX.

The graphics card has gone completely out of control. With new $600 videocard coming every 6 month, and both ATI and Nvidia's next videocard most likely requiring over 300watt at peak usage. It's time to think outside of the box. If you can say move the first two stages of the pipeline into one of AMD's core. You effectively would have a Graphics co-processor. It can preprocess the vertexes and maybe even do hidden surface removal before sending the data over to GPU via PCI-express bus.

Sounds unlikely? Well, people thought AMD was crazy when they put the memory controller onto AMD64 too. Look how good of a move that turned out to be. Meanwhile, AMD has done their day after Core 2 Duo price cut, basically everything is 50% off. Chip that cost $400 on Sunday, now cost $200. I saw AMD64 X2 4200 for $199 on New Egg. Hope Intel ship their Core 2 Duo soon. That cpu is selling out so fast New Egg has increased the price back up by $20.

ACLU Lawsuit Vs AT&T Dismissed

The ACLU lawsuit against AT&T over NSA's gathering of phone records has been dismissed by Federal Court.
The EFF lawsuit is still going forward. But It's a dark day.

Apple Market Share Back to 4.8% *UPDATE*

Apple's market share has gained 1% compare to last year, so they are back to 4.8%. Maybe they'll be back to 5% range next year.

If you follow the link, the article's title is misleading. But then again, it's MacWorld with their postive spin and all that.

Update: Apple's Laptop marketshare has climbed to 12%.

PowerPoint The Weakest Link?

So I guess PowerPoint is the window to your PC. This is like every manager's worst nightmare. What will they do without PowerPig?

Loot From Origin

This year at Origin, the dealer room's presence saw a bit of reduction. Noteable absences are Wizards of Coast, Upper Deck Entertainment, NCsoft, Eden, and Guardians of Order. AEG's booth is also a mere shadow of what it was, after the mass layout from last October. It was very sad to hear most of the people I know got the axe last Oct.

Somehow, this didn't prevent me from buying lots of stuff anyway.

• Privateer Press: Witchfire Trilogy Collected Edition, Five Fingers: Port of Deceit
• Hero Games: Asian Bestiary, Vol. 1, Asian Bestiary, Vol. 2, Masterminds And Madmen
• Archaia Studios Press: Artesia, Artesia Afield, Artesia Afire, Artesia: Adventures in the Known World
• Green Ronin: Mastermind's Manual, Freedom City Second Edition, Lockdown, the M&M GM Screen, True20 Adventure Roleplaying, True Sorcery, True20 Bestiary, D20 Future Player's Companion, Cosmo The Blue Monkey
• FanPro: Runner Havens
• White Wolf: Exalted Second Edition, Exalted Second Edition Storyteller Companion
• Indie RPGs: Polaris, Mountain Witch

Polaris is interesting in that, it's the first diceless RPG I've ever bought. G made me do it, if it sucks, I blame him. The game does look interesting so far, it reminds me of many nights of endless debates I used to have with M. The game heavily draw on rhetorics.

I'm also quite curious about Mountain Witch. Can't wait to unleash this on my group.

This is also the year that I started looking at indie RPGs. In the past, I've always played mainstream stuff. But this year, I got three indie games: Artesia, Polaris, and Mountain Witch. In fact, Artesia won Origin's Best RPG of 2006.

Domestic Call Record Started Before 9-11

According to this, NSA was going after domestic call records even before 9-11. This poses two problems.

1. Doh, it didn't work.
2. So NSA/Whitehouse is breaking the law even before 9-11. 9-11 is just a good defense for this program.

AT&T Says No To Privacy

The title of the article sums up best. AT&T rewrites rules: Your data isn't yours. Apprently, privacy is a myth. They don't even bother pretending to care enough to pay lip service.

Ruby On Rails Hype Gone Wild

So according to Business 2.0 David Heinemeier Hansson is on the 50 people do matter list. While Linus Torvalds, and Ken Kutaragi are on the 50 people who don't.

I'll take Linux and 100 million PS2 anyday. Looks like Business 2.0 has some bugs, maybe I should wait for Business 2.1.

Oracle Found Grails

Oracle decides to back Grails as their dynamic language framework. Grails is written in Groovy. It uses Hibernate as the ORM, and Spring as the MVC.

Google Broke Java Binary Search

Google has found a bug in Java Binary Search API. This bug can manifest itself for arrays whose length (in elements) is 2³⁰ or greater (roughly a billion elements).

Leave it to Google to have 1 billion elements to insert and search.

New GPU Prototypes Sucks Power

Both ATI and NVidia's new GPU prototype are like insane when it comes to power usage. Both when running at full load, draws over 300 Watt.

It won't be long now for Desktops to start having two power supplies. One for the GPU, and one for everything else. Just think about this, if you run NVidia in SLI mode, or ATI in x-fire mode. You'd be draining 600 watts as you frag your next target.

Square Enix Upset With FF12 Sales

Square Enix has sold 2,126,000 copies of FF12 to date. It dropped off the top 10 chart at the end of April. So the number of new copies sold at this point will be very low. Why are they upset with a 2.1 mil sales title? Well, FF10 sold 2.4 mil copies and that was back when there were less than 10 mil PS2 install base in Japan. Plus FF12 cost more to make than FF10. So basically, you spent more making a game, have at least 4-5 times larger target audience. And it sold less copies.

Norton Antivirus Hacked

There is a very nasty unpatched exploit in Norton Antivirus. So for those Norton users out there, might I suggest Zone Alarm Security Suite I switched to it a few month ago, and have been very happy with it.

Famitsu E3 Survey Released

Famitsu revealed the reader's most wanted next generation game titles at E3.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii, Nintendo)
2. Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, Square Enix)
3. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3, Konami)
4. Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen & The Tower of Mirrors (Wii, Square Enix)
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii, Nintendo)
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, Nintendo)
7. Final Fantasy III (NDS, Square Enix)
8. Monster Hunter 3 (PS3, Capcom)
9. Biohazard (Wii, Capcom)
10. Halo 3 (Xbox 360, Microsoft)

Which console are you most interested at E3?

• Wii - 68.8%
• PlayStation 3 - 21.0%
• Xbox 360 - 7.2%
• Nintendo DS - 3.0%

What do you think about the price of PlayStation 3?

• The price is high - 88.4%
• The price is appropriate - 10.9%
• The console is low-priced - 0.7%

PostgreSQL 8.1.4 Released, Update ASAP

PostgreSQL 8.1.4 has been released to help combat a SQL injection security issue. So if you use pgsql, update ASAP.

No Need For PS3 Games

"We have built up a certain brand equity over time since the launch of PlayStation in 1995 and PS2 in 2000 that the first five million are going to buy it, whatever it is, even it didn't have games."

-Sony Computer Entertainment Europe CEO David Reeves

PS3 UK Price £425

Sony's 60GB PlayStation 3 will be priced at £425 ($803) when it ships on 17 November in UK, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's UK operation has revealed. He went on to call the machine "cheap" and a "bargain". If this gets any "cheaper", I think most people will like, not buy it.

Google Release AJAX Framework *UPDATED*

Google released their JavaScript framework they created. This was originally designed for interfacing with their Java backend.

Update: Just found out a bit of trivia, this project internally is named "Red Pill".

Post E3 Thoughts

E3 2006 has come and gone. It turned out pretty much exactly opposite of what I thought it would. I thought E3 would be Sony's to lose. Going into it, I figure Xbox 360 will have no coverage. The console has been out for more than five month, everyone knows what games are out for it, and what games are coming. It's not as if Microsoft is trying to be secretive about it.

I figure Wii will have strong interest from Nintendo fanboys, but that's pretty much it. Sony will roll out PS3, and out comes the PS3 hyper train, steaming rolling everyone over.

Boy was I wrong.

I think it's fair to say among the "non-stake holders", half of us thought Nintendo won the E3, the other half thought Microsoft won the E3. Everyone agrees Sony lost E3, and everyone agrees that in terms of graphics, Xbox 360 won.

The battle is far from over of course, Sony remains very powerful, and can't be counted out. I still think in the final analysis, it's still PS3 vs Xbox 360 for the number 1 position in US and Europe. I don't know if Wii will be able to give PS3 a run for its money. Gamecube did very well in the E3 wars as well. But look where it ended up. The biggest problem Nintendo faces, is really same old same old. At the end of the day, the only company that really does a good job making games and by extension, making money on Nintendo console, is none other than Nintendo. Xbox 360's chance in Japan is very slim. The outcome of the PS3 vs 360 battle however, will determine if Japan or US controls videogame creation for the next 10 years. Will it stay in Japan's court, or will US take over? I don't really know. But I think that's the single most exciting thing I got out of E3 this year. For the first time, we really have no idea what lies ahead. It wasn't like the last time, where PS2 is out, game over.

Kudos to Microsoft for making every E3 trailer and demo available on Xbox Live Marketplace. It's a very effective way to bypass magazine, media, bloggers and go straight to the paying user base.

I'll end with some memorable quotations on the E3 events.

silence.... (after Sony's PS3 price announcement)

"PS3 is probably too Cheap" -K

"Uh, are they insane? Base on what we all know, for what they want on a PS3 deluxe, you can get a 360 and Wii. That's fucking insane!" -D

"M, you have a tendency to back losers." -H & K

"Since when did Americans become such bad asses in videogames?" -J

sounds of people rushing Nokia's booth(they were next to Konami's booth) because Konami's booth was full already from people waiting to see MGS4 trailer.

People gasping when Snake puts a gun in his mouth and pull the trigger during the trailer.

"You have a zero percent chance of success, the barrier to entry in terms of cost, quality required, access to a market… forget it." -W at Indie Game Seminar

"This is the PS3 price. Expensive, cheap - we don't want you to think of it in terms of game machines. For instance, is it not nonsense to compare the charge for dinner at the company cafeteria with dinner at a fine restaurant? It's a question of what you can do with that game machine. If you can have an amazing experience, we believe price is not a problem." -K

MacBook Finally Released

MacBook is finally released. This is one of the worst kept Apple upcoming product. The spec won't shock anyone. I'm bummed out it's only available in Black and White. All the other colors did badly in Apple's own survey, so I'm not surprised. But still, darn it I want a pink one!

Also, Apple has offically embraced Intel's crappy built-in videocard for their low end products. Both MacBook and MacMini have it across the board. Bye bye gaming.

Google and Haskell

Turns out Google is using Haskell for Map Reduce implementation. I bet it's tied to their Hierarchical model.

Reverse AJAX

Yes yes, we all know AJAX is the rage, right J? :) However, this is something I've been advocating for a while. Current AJAX is all about using JavaScript as the client side, to fetch data via XML or to directly call the server code, be it Java or Python, Ruby, or even php. I've wanting an two way solution for sometime. Namly, to be able to call the Javascript code from the server side. Well, here it is.

360 Must Get

Just found out about this. Already contacting Microsoft. Must get this. No, I'm not a big fan of soccer, but I'm a big fan of cool limited edition. FIFA, hmm... uh, I'm sure C will beat the crap out of me again, if she even bother getting it. She considers "Winning Eleven" to be the bestsoccer game ever made. All of them, including the upcoming 10. She's still playing Winning Eleven 9 on Xbox Live nonstop.

Back to Functional Language We Go

I've been trying to solve a problem for some time in Game Development. Namely, I'm trying to find a better way to do rapid prototyping of code that is heavily multithreaded. Multiple core system is the wave of the future. On PC, both Intel and AMD have embraced dual core as the new check list feature for high end CPUs. On the console side, Xbox 360 is a triple core system. Playstation 3 while strictly speaking is not a multiple core system, but a cell system. To effectively tap the PS3 power, heavy threading is the key as well.

Tried Java, honestly, it's not a good choice for rapid prototyping. Not to mention the exception chain causes issues for me.

Tried Ruby, no native thread, no go. Though I've heard GC has issues

Just when I was thinking about trying Python. T suggested another choice Haskell. Yes, it's a functional language. It's been years since I used any functional language. Should be something fun to tinker with.

Journey To The Unknown

Ok, I'm about to go do something I'm really bad at. Namely, putting things together that have no computer parts. It's a spinning wheel. J! If you are out there, prepare for SOS!

Update: I actually did it. I must have rolled a 20 on Skill Check. And this task must be "Unskilled OK". Thus a new wheel is born.

Fed Rules Against Google

So it has begun. Fed Judge ruled against Google. So now Google hands over data.

Meanwhile, Congress summoned Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and Cisco to "explain themselves" on "how they can sleep at night" after helping China violate people's rights.
Apprently, do as I say, not as I do.

Bad Week for Mcafee and Symantec

First last week when Mcafee Antivirus start deleting Excel and Oracle Table files covered by CNET here

Now Norton Firewall blocks AOL.

As the result, when my Norton Antivirus remind me that I have a few days left to renew. I switched to Zone Labs Internet Security Suite. So far I like it. It's fast, efficient and stay out of your way.

Another Flash Security Problem

Another security update for Macromedia Flash player. This is getting to be more trouble than it's worth. This finally push me over the edge and installed Flashblock for Firefox.

Also, it looks like Flash inplace update no longer works correctly on OSX. I installed the new one on top of the old one. Under FireFox:About Plugins, I now see both the old version and new version. I had to download the manual uninstaller from Macromedia, run that and install the new version.

J Leaving

J's SO received a new job offer. Thus, J is moving. While it's a good opportunity for his SO, and hopfully for J as well. At the same time, I'm sadden by the event. As the old Chinese saying goes. "There are no food feast that doesn't end." I know this day would come. But I'll miss him.

x86 MacMini and iPod Hi-Fi Arrived

The x86 MacMini is here. Using the 1.66 ghz CoreDuo that MacBook Pro end up didn't use. You know what this means. The specs you are seeing for the two MacMinis will be the new MacBook (iBook). Everything is good, except the silly embeded video card. The $100 price incrase is annoying, but no biggie. On the other hand, I really like the iPod Hi-Fi. Considering that it has both audio in and optical in. I'll have plenty of uses for it.

New Mac Virus

A new Mac virus has hit the street. Yes yes, some people dispute that it's a trojan, not a virus. But it does replicate. The good rule of thumb of "Don't run stuff you have no clue where it came from" goes for OSX every bit as Windows. Symantec has posted an analysis.

The Price of Success in US

Apprently, the price of success is your customer takes you to court. How does iPod cause potential hearing loss anymore than say your TV? Or any other headphone or cellphone headset?

DS v1.1 Arrives

The new Nintendo DS Lite has finally been announced. Good Job, G. More pictures here

Bye Bye Aibo!

Aibo is no more. Arf Arf

Fed Wants Data, Google Says No

So this is what the country has come to. Doesn't the White House have anything better to do?

New x86 Macs

MacBook has landed. Along with the new iMac, they are the first x86 Macs. Featuring the Intel Yonah CPU, they are around 4 to 5 times faster than G5. I'm glad they kept the appearance for both. Since I like the design of both the iMac and PowerBooks. Intel is actaully letting Apple putting mobile CPU on desktops, something they won't even let Dell do.

HSDPA Live In US Before Japan

I can't believe it. East is west, up is down now. For the first time, we actually have something before Japan does. Cingular just launched HSDPA today. They are the first and the only large scacle deployment. HSDPA is based on WCMDA/UMTS system. It's also the technology that Samsung used to break the 1bps barrier. Date is available now, next month two HSDPA cellphones will be offered. Samsung ZX10(surprise surprise), and LG CU320. Of course, ZX20 is about to come out in Asia.

Cellphone Break One Megabit Barrier

Samsung has announced their new phone reached 3.6 megabit over air on cellphone band using HSDPA. They are using Qualcomm chip, as they've always done.