Posts filed under 'Entertainment'
Wish To See You In Taiwan
Sorry, but I just had to write something about this. F4 (of Meteor Garden fame) has come out with a new commercial promoting tourism in Taiwan. I was laughing my ass off at Jerry Yan’s seemingly inability to speak English. Either that, or he just didn’t know the script and the director just yelled, “Ah, forget it. That’s a wrap.”
Here’s the mumble mumble Taiwan video:
Add comment August 12, 2008
Playing Warcraft III and DOTA in Linux
Are you one of those people who would almost like to switch over to Ubuntu but just couldn’t because you don’t quite like great open source games such as Glest, Sauerbraten and Tremulous? In today’s post, here’s one more reason for you to do so: Now you can play Warcraft III, Frozen Throne, and also Defense of the Ancients, or more commonly known as DOTA! Ok, so that’s 3 reasons…but since DOTA is just a custom map for Frozen Throne maybe 2 and a half…anyway…let’s get started.
13 comments June 24, 2008
To The (Open) Movies
It’s now been over 2 weeks since Project Peach’s Big Buck Bunny opened in theaters last May 30, or at least in home theaters. So if you haven’t seen it yet, now would be a good time to head on over to the Big Buck Bunny website and download a copy. If you’re still downloading pirated movies, here’s a breath of fresh air: this short movie is given to you completely free of charge.
Big Buck Bunny is the story of a large, but kind rabbit who is bullied by three naughty rodents. Finally, Big Buck Bunny decides to fight back, and…well you’ll have to see it for yourself. The visuals are breath-taking, from the tall grass blowing in the wind, to the stream reflecting off sunlight, to the cute and cuddly creatures.
Continue reading at the new GeekMadness
If the concept of open movies is new, or strange, to you, you may find it interesting to know that Big Buck Bunny is already the second open movie in the world, following from the success of the first open movie, Elephants Dream.
Two years ago, the Project Orange released the world’s first open movie, and it was titled Elephants Dream. Elephants Dream and Big Buck Bunny are called open movies because they are made entirely with open source tools, where of course Blender is the star player. Not only that, all the production files, all the 3D assets, everything used in the movie is also available for download, and it’s also included on the DVD.
Computer graphics, or CG, has been used with film since all the way back in the 70’s even before films like Tron came out. Back then, the technology was still at its infancy. As the technology progressed, CG found its way more and more into film, combining live action and animation in films like Batman, Star Trek, The Abyss, etc. and moving on into feature-length movies like Toy Story and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. What most of them have in common is the use of expensive software, such as Maya, for creating the CG (except Pixar; they use in-house technology built on top of Linux).
A lot of you probably don’t know that there is a software out there called Blender proving itself and its abilities to be on par with the big industry giants like 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, Maya, and SoftImage. But unlike its counterparts with 5-digit price tags (in US dollars), Blender is completely free! That’s right. Free to use, free to abuse, free to modify, free as in freedom and free as in beer.
Now there are a lot of people I know who are averse to Linux and the concept of free and open-source software, believing them to be of inferior quality because they’re not backed by large companies with lots of capital. I think that Blender is one of the model FLOSS software that proves this to be simply not the case.
If you haven’t seen the Open Movies yet, now would be a good time to do so. Head on over to the Elephant’s Dream page or the Big Buck Bunny page. You can also see how Plumiferos, another movie in the works, is coming about, as well as a whole lot of movies over at the Blender Movie Gallery. Oh, and of course, tell your friends or give them a copy. Don’t worry, it’s free (and open); Edu Manzano or the MPAA won’t be knockin’ on your door anytime soon.
Add comment June 16, 2008
AOC LCD Monitor With PIP TV
I just got a new toy to add to my room! I have been looking out to buy a flat-panel LCD monitor for my desktop. My aging CRT monitor’s plug was already falling apart and the monitor was displaying pink. While I could breath a little bit more life into it by repairing it, I figured it was time to move up.
I’ve been looking around for a flat-panel monitor for 6 months, but since I had a long-term assignment in Japan, it would be gathering dust and cobwebs if I had bought one last year. And thank goodness I didn’t! My initial choice was a 19-inch widescreen Samsung. But when I was already about to get one, the store guy recommended that I get this AOC instead, since the price difference was minimal.
Aside from the 19-inch widescreen goodness, the AOC also had a built-in TV tuner and your standard-fare RCA and S-Video inputs, as well as DVI input for a full HDTV experience (if your hardware has it). Of course, it comes with a remote control.
After trying it out at the store, I was pretty much convinced. After all, I didn’t have a TV in my room (my old TV was brought down to the living room). So now, not only do I have a space-saving flat-panel monitor for my PC, I can also play with my Wii from the comfort of my room! Plus the fact that I could pay for it slowly for 6 months through my credit card.
Another cool thing is the picture-in-picture (PIP) function; it allows me to use it as a monitor AND watch TV at the same time (click picture to enlarge)! Sweet.
Update: Today, less than 2 weeks later, my girlfriend got herself one of her own.:)
1 comment May 2, 2008
The Kitchen and Your DS
I recently had to go to Japan, and as as consequence forego the luxuries of having my meals cooked for me, which meant that I had to eat out for all my meals, which isn’t exactly cheap here, or learn to cook. And I had no experience with the latter. Ok, maybe I know how to boil an egg and fry some bacon. For those of you with the same opportunity that I have, Shaberu DS Oryouri Nabi (しゃべる DS お料理ナビ) comes to our rescue. Armed with a knife, a pot, and my DS in one hand (Ok, maybe not. You’ll find out why), I set out to try if I can really learn how to cook with this software.
“Shaberu” has a total of 200 dishes, ranging from snacks to complete meals, Western or Oriental, and can even be filtered of ingredients you have to avoid, say, due to allergy or your doctor’s advice. And among the different dishes, Shaberu offers you different ways to search for a recipe. Of course, you have the basic option to browse the entire list, but you can also specify what ingredients you have, by set menus, keyword search, or by filters. 
Personally, I found the filter feature useful; I filtered for dishes that were easy to prepare and can be done in 10 minutes, but you can filter it for other criteria like calories as well. I decided I wanted seafood and picking one from the results, chose Clams Steamed In Wine.
There are 3 basic steps to do when cooking:
Prepare the ingredients and tools
In this step, you can choose how many people you’re cooking for, which automatically adjusts the shown amount of ingredients you will need. And you can also check off items you already have, like in a checklist, and Shaberu saves this data so when you turn on your Shaberu the next time you’re in the groceries, you’ll know exactly what to buy. Shaberu also tells you what tools are needed.
Go over the cooking process
Of course, before any cooking actually begins, you have to make sure you’re ready by reviewing each step of the cooking process, from preparation to finishing touches. You can of course skip this part if you wish.
Guided cooking
Here’s where the real fun begins, and where Shaberu, as well as the capabilities of the DS, shines. First of all, Shaberu means to chat in Japanese. Naturally, you can’t be holding your DS in one hand will you’re holding your pan and vigorously stirring with your spatula! Shaberu talks you through the dish so you don’t need to hold it. Just place it somewhere in the kitchen, preferably on a location where you won’t accidentally cook your DS, and listen to the instructions while you cook.
Although you can set the speed of the synthesized voice, for inexperienced cooks like me, I need a way to sort of pause it without having to touch my DS (specially not my touch screen) with my potentially dirty-from-handling-raw-food hands. Here’s where Shaberu’s show-stealer function comes in. Like I said, Shaberu means to chat, and chatting is a two-way thing. Using the DS’s mic, you talk to your DS to tell it to go to the next step, go back a step, repeat the step, and even to ask it for more details (Err, so how exactly do I clean these clams?). Of course, you can still navigate it with the touch screen if you so wish.
After cooking the dish, Shaberu confirms if you were abe to successfully make it and celebrates with you with confetti while showing you how your dish should turn out. It also takes note of the dish that you cooked in its calendar, so you have a record of the dishes you’ve made so far.
Ok, now onto the Cons. As you might have probably guessed, Shaberu is a Japanese title. Naturally, it speaks Japanese and you can’t change languages. And even though Shaberu uses simple language, unless you’re well-versed in Japanese kitchen and food terms, or you have another DS running Rakubiki Jiten, you’re gonna have a bit of difficulty following the steps.
Overall, Shaberu makes full use of the multimedia capabilities of the DS to deliver a really effective cooking guide for both beginners and intermediate cooks alike. For expert cooks, I suggest going for the sequel of Shaberu, where you’ll be instructed by no less than 7 hotel chefs.
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5 comments November 4, 2007
Little Speaker Cube
I found this cute little Speaker Cube from Eiden, an electronics store in Japan, for Y2,980. It’s small and fits right in my palm (ok maybe a bit bigger). You turn it on via the top power button. It’s powered by USB, but you can also put in 4AA batteries. It can connect to any device with an audio jack, say your laptop or your Nintendo DS. 
However, I have to loosen the plug on my DS for it sound properly as in the picture. But I think this is more of a problem with the plug than anything else. Works perfectly on my laptop though. Also, the 2W stereo speakers don’t give enough oomph. It’s perfect when you just need decent, portable speakers. If you don’t have a laptop or PC nearby, you can also buy a wallplug to USB converter, perfect for plugging in your DS USB charger, and of course the speaker cube. With Wallplug USB, Nintendo DS, and Os Speaker @cube, you can take your music anywhere for picnics, hanging out, or other such social gathering.
[Edit] I later found out that it plugs fine on my Nintendo DS. The problem, actually, was that I didn’t plug it all the way in at the back of the speaker cube, nevertheless it still sounded fine on my laptop where I first tested it so I didn’t notice. Stupid!
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10 comments July 26, 2007
What NOT To Do When You Buy New Stuff
おひさしぶり！ It’s been almost a month since my last post, my day job kept me from writing and…well, pretty much doing anything aside from work was impossible. Anyway, I’m here now, and I’m gonna start light with just some ramblings.
What do you usually do when you buy a piece of hardware? You go straight home to see if what you spent on with your hard-earned money was worth it, or if it’s working at all in the first place. What you don’t do, is take that piece of hardware, say a memory module for your laptop, put it in your bag (yes, in your bag. No, I didn’t say install it in your laptop, fool, put it in your bag. Yeah, that one, over there!), fly off to a far off country, and stay there for a couple of weeks, which is exactly what I did. All would be happy and fine if it worked perfectly, but it didn’t. Right now, I’m wondering what to do: do I send it back to my country for warranty replacement? Is it even worth it? Well, at the cost of 4,000 yen, I’d be much better off buying a new one.
Well, that’s it for now. Keep tuned in, I’m gonna be trying some webcam solutions on Linux, so I might write about that some time, or maybe about some neat photography tools I found.
For now, check out this cool video of human synced pixels. Thanks to Allen for this one.:)
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4 comments July 8, 2007
Everywhere DS
Sony may have taken the crown from Nintendo with their PlayStation consoles, when Megaman and the Final Fantasy series jumped platforms. But Nintendo, seeing that outflanking is better than outgunning, is once again trying to prove that they’re king with the Wii and DS in terms of unique gameplay. Nunchucks, touchscreens, and and a wide variety of applications seem to have done just that.
But Nintendo did more than just that with the DS. This time, pervasiveness is another thing they brought to the table.
People are bringing their DS along with them everywhere–on the bus, FX, taxis, trains, the bathroom, the office, you name it! A quick look in the “Where do you play your GBA/DS/Micro” thread in www.pinoy-n.com will tell you other places people have taken their DS to. And I’m sure you would too.
This is all thanks to the wide variety of games and applications available for the DS. While you can definitely play your favorite games anywhere (you should definitely try shouting “Objection” with Phoenix Wright, blowing DS with Mario Kart’s Balloon Battle Mode, or training your Nintendogs inside the train, although ambient noise can give the DS some difficulty with voice recognition), the DS deserves recognition for everything else not gaming as well.
Like when you’re out at Starbucks, sipping your favorite cup of coffee, reading that new book you’ve got. But wait, it’s a Japanese book, and you’re not Japanese. No need to buy those expensive Casio dictionaries, just run Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten and you’re set. Expecting another boring commute? Don’t bother bringing out your mp4-capable phone with its teensie-weensie screen, just load up your memory card with your favorite movie and sit back. Jogging in the park? Plug in your earphones, rev up the mp3 player, and play music with Moonshell. There’s even an iPod-looking mp3 player called Licks Media Player, complete of course with the ClickWheel dial. If you’re going out for a picnic, maybe you can stop near a WiFi hotspot and browse the ‘net for travel info with the Opera for DS. Oh, and best check live weather forecasts with DSLiveWeather as well.
On a recent 9-hour bus trip from Baguio, I couldn’t have been more thankful that I had my well-stocked and well-charged DS with me, though I just alternated between playing Ouendan, Animal Crossing, listening to music, and feeding my dogs. On another occasion, I have played balloon battle in the waiting area of Let’s Face It facial center while waiting for my SO. I tell you, the look of people’s faces as I’m blowing at my DS is priceless.
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2 comments April 13, 2007
Nintendo DS Lite
A year after the DS Lite was released in Japan, I finally got my hands on my own DS Lite by end of last month. So here’s my two cents worth after having played with it for some time. While you can get the PSP for about P10k or so, you can get the DS Lite for just over P7k. 
Couple that with an M3DS and a 1gig microSD, it’s roughly the price of buying a PSP unit, except you get to download all the games you want and put it in your microSD, while with the PSP you can play…er, well, at that price, you don’t have any games just yet.
In terms of fun, it offers it in truckloads. If you want to be all serious about gaming and play RPGs and PS-style games, by all means go for the PSP. But if that’s not enough for you (it certainly not enough for me), and you want to have some real fun, go for the DS. The unique features of the DS include a microphone, 2 screens, one of which is a touch screen, and Wi-Fi capability. The built-in lithium-ion batteries can give you enough juice for 5-15 hours of play, depending on your brightness setting.
The first things I’ve played with my DS were Ossu! Tatakae! Ouendan!, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Cooking Mama, and MarioKart DS, putting all the features of the DS to the test. In all of the games mentioned, only MarioKart DS didn’t focus too much on using the stylus, which was understandable. How much tapping would you need in a racing game anyway. However, it’s coolness can easily be seen in Balloon Battle–you have to inflate your balloons by, get this, actually blowing into your DS! Cooking Mama, too, involves blowing, and other stylus fun such as mixing, peeling potatoes, slicing carrots and tofu, and rolling stuff in breading. And of course, who can’t resist looking like a fool inside the MRT as you shout “Objection!” at your DS while playing Phoenix Wright! Still not convinced? How does teaching your dog how to roll over by giving verbal orders sound? That’s exactly what you’ll be doing in Nintendogs.
A week later, after having convinced two of my office buddies to get DS Lites, we were having MarioKart parties every morning through Wi-Fi, nearly bursting our lungs out while playing in Balloon Battle mode. Playing with friends across the globe is also possible with some games through the Nintendo WiFi Connection, by use of Friend Codes that are unique to your cartridge and DS pair, which is cool because I can play with my brother in China. Of course you can also play with strangers if you haven’t got any friend codes yet. And the DS is no weakling either when playing serious games for the hardcore gamer. The framerate for the first-person shooter Metroid Prime rarely lagged, even with multiple opponents on screen in multiplayer, and the graphics of Need For Speed are just fabulous. 
The DS also caters to non-games, including learning tools like Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten, a really good Japanese dictionary. Also with the M3DS, you can play music and videos with Moonshell, or play music using the IPod homebrow application. Most of the main IPod feature is there, of course including the touch-sensitive IPod interface.
All in all, the DS Lite is a powerful computer disguised as one of the best piece of entertainment hardware you’d get your hands on, and for a low price. Let’s just say I used a little over half the savings I was gonna use to buy a MP4-enabled Ultra 9.9 Samsung to buy this baby. A warning though, once you get your DS Lite, expect to be bringing it everywhere, always keeping it charged, and fending off would-be borrowers.
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Add comment March 13, 2007
