Another distraction due to youtube logging issue

LOL. I was like, WTF? Apparently it's started from a swedish Eurodance hit, and becomes internet phenomena especially in Japan. Wikipedia link 1 and link 2. Now pretty much they make any anime characters doing the dance. Just search for ｳｯｰｳｯｰｳﾏｳﾏ in youtube. So far my fav is the video above, featuring the whole cast of Gundam 00.

Sakura-con 2008 impression

*sigh Youtube is still logging me out. Oh well, I'll start my impression of Sakura-con 2008.

This is my first time attending a convention like this. Overall, it was awesome! It's amazing how many people came. What's even more amazing is the dedication of the otakus in the US, and the amazing cosplay costumes.

1st day: I pre-registered, so going to pick up my badge on the first day was pretty quick and the line wasn't bad at all. Opening ceremony was okay, but it was running late, thus delaying other panels/events too. Ali Project Panel was so so. The questions were not great, but it's fun seeing the drag queens. They're hilarious. Next to Penny Arcade Q&A session. I love their comics, but never see them in person. It's great to finally see them. The questions were so so, but it's great to hear their favorite things (mostly video games). Alas, I was expecting more info on their upcoming game, other than “It's done.” Lastly Scandal autograph session. No raffle tickets, contrary to the poster posted outside. Line was long, and it went over the specified time, but I got my autographs and picture. =)

2nd day: Missed the Scandal panel. =( Went to a workshop about making a website. Disappointed. Knowing that many anime fans are students where money is not in abundance, I was hoping the workshop will show tools that are freeware and/or open-source. First thing I saw when I walked in was Dreamweaver on the screen. Sure enough, the next recommendation is Photoshop, another expensive program, overkill for simply resizing pictures. Adobe's programs are the industry's standard, but Dreamweaver is like $400. When asked about alternative programs, the answer was notepad. Well, at least he mentioned a hosting/blogging service called theotaku.com. Nothing is mentioned about Apple's iWeb, free website builder softwares, free picture editors (picasa, paint.net, GIMP), various free hosting services by yahoo and google, blogger.com, etc. I dunno, it seems that the workshop opportunity was wasted. Next was ketchup mania/Ali Project concert. Very long line, and it was running very late. The concert itself was great! Next was the cosplay contest. As shown in my video, the line was even longer! The skits were okay. Some were funny, but others were only so so. There were quite a few audio glitches. I liked the Hanakimi skit with Bambino reference, though I had a feeling not many people were familiar with those doramas. Had to leave early due to snow. Oh, dubbed shin-chan sux.

3rd day: I came on the 3rd day only to attend the second Slants/Scandal concert. The line was much shorter. The room was not even half-filled. The concert was great, and the floor was really shaking!

Rants:
-This is an anime convention. Although I don't mind the crossover with comics (Penny Arcade) and games (Microsoft research was there having their own room!), I don't see the point of vendors selling Chinese movies. Nothing against Chinese movies, but I don't see the correlation between that and anime, other than Hong Kong making a lot of anime bootleg DVDs.
-The staff need to at least learn to pronounce Japanese properly, especially if they're the announcer (“How do you say Clannad?” Oh please).
-Another reminder to myself that US dubbing sux. (shin-chan, xxxholic).

Things to do for next year:
-Buy a digicam with at least 10x optical zoom and support for SDHC for taking pictures in concerts, and taking videos. My Canon SD700IS with 4x optical zoom without SDHC support (max SD card I could use is 2GB) just didn't cut it.
-Pay more attention to the schedule. I didn't realize there was a para para panel until a couple minutes ago! =(
-Maybe do a cosplay too! =D

Funny stuff: The guy selling yaoi doujins was hilarious! He's shouting “Boys on boys action” and “It's orgasmic!” Good thing Jack Thompson wasn't here. LOL

Pika pika yukai

Well, while youtube kept logging me out whenever I want to upload a video, I stumbled upon this. Very cool!

Sakuracon 2008

Crayon Shinchan

Just watched the dubbed version of Crayon Shinchan at Sakuracon 2008. It belongs to the worst dubs together with digimon. Why? The word "Funimation" should give you a hint.
1. They localized it. How idiotic. Yeah, let's pretend that Shin-chan is living in the US. This is what I really hate about US dubs. I mean what's wrong for the anime to be placed in Japan, like it is originally? I mean what's wrong with Japan? Why do they have to Americanized every dialog?
2. They bastardized the dialogs. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Crayon Shin-chan is a kids show in Japan. The US dub version has Shin-chan talking about Viagra, meth, drugs, etc. I mean WTF? Another point that US dub is simply moronic. Yeah, I know that the original jokes might not translate well into dub. So JUST SUB IT! The Japanese Shin-chan is so funny because it's a kids show. The dub completely ruins it by completely bastardized the dialogs into crap.
3. The censored it. Yup, even though they pretend Shin-chan to be an "adult" show by putting crap in the dialogs, they still censor it. WTF? I guess in the US, no humans have genitalia. Either that or Funimation thinks all Americans are pedophiles. Oh well, even the US government thinks every US citizens as pedophiles, so I guess it's second nature for a company based in Texas.
4. Of course, after all that, don't expect the original song to be intact. Nope.

And they wonder why people are doing fansub. Let's see if we are even going to get the crossover between Shin-chan and Kamen Rider Den-O.

iTunes: Eurobeat Heaven

Simply awesome. iTunes is becoming a Eurobeat heaven. I mentioned earlier that Eurobeat labels like Hi-NRG Attack, and Delta. Now Vibration. The problem with iTunes that it is hard to discover Eurobeat unless you're actually searching for it. Do a search for "para para classic," and you'll find the Vibration albums. Crappy covers (looks like it's drawn by a kid), but awesome tracks.

C'mon A-Beat-C and SCP! It's inevitable!

iTunes + Eurobeat?

Who would ever guess, iTunes, a music service from the US, is becoming a Eurobeat heaven. More and more Eurobeat tracks that are previously only available in Japan are released on iTunes. 1st, there was Hi-NRG Attack. 2nd, Delta joined in. Now, NRJ Mania. Do a search for Eurobeat Masters for Delta albums, and Eurobeat Super Collection for NRJ mania. The Eurobeat Super Collection contains extended version of tracks found in Europanic! series, a compilation series released only in Japan back in 2000-2001. 99c DRM free tracks are much cheaper than $30-$40 per CD imported from Japan. I can't wait for A-Beat-C and SCP to join iTunes.

Stereophile: MP3 vs AAC vs FLAC vs CD

Original article.

Just another "audiophile" ranting about compressed music for not being CD quality. So how did he show it? By using graphs. I'm sorry, but last time I checked, I (and most normal human beings) listen to music using my ears, not my eyes. My guess is the author just find out about frequency response graphs. There are proven methods to compare sound quality using double-blinded test (most commonly called ABX test). Did we see any sort of listening/ABX test in the article? Of course not. Because that will show that many people cannot differentiate the sound quality between CD and a compressed version (MP3, AAC, etc), not the author's agenda.

Several quotes:
"sonically compromised, lossy-compressed music on it."
Well, I don't see any listening tests to proof that lossy-compressed music are "sonically compromised."

"all compressed file formats, both lossless and lossy, effectively have zero data redundancy, they are much more vulnerable than uncompressed files to bit errors in transmission."
WTF is he talking about? Bit errors transmission? What the hell? Might some audiophile technobabble. Again, despite of the frequent usage of graphs, I don't see him proving this "bit errors in transmission," whatever that means.

The only good thing about this article is the recommendation of lossless compression, which are useful in backing up your music. Oh well, if there are no people like this author (audiophiles), then manufactures like Bose or Monster Cable would be out of business. Think about the people loosing those jobs... Oh, and don't forget those $5000 cables.

Moral of the story, instead of buying these kind of magazines, go to HydrogenAudio and learn about listening tests, ABX, and the facts about audio compression.

Spaghetti with enoki & chicken

Spaghetti with enoki & chicken, originally uploaded by pika2000.

Spaghetti with enoki & chicken

iPhone SDK, epocrates for my Touch?

The iPhone SDK was announced. Personally, all I want Apple to do is to sell the iPhone unlocked, but alas, unlocking is specifically not allowed on the SDK. F U Apple, F U AT&T.

However, watching the streaming event, 1 thing caught my attention. Epocrates! Apple actually had the people from epocrates to demo an offline version of the app on the iPhone! Epocrates is an excellent free drug reference app for healthcare professionals. It started on the Palm OS (which is the only reason I'm still using a Palm). Currently it's available for other platforms too, including Windows Mobile and Blackberry. However, those platform requires a purchase of an expensive smartphone, and in the US, the business model of cellphone providers is backward in the stone ages (expensive plans, long contracts, locked phones, etc). Even worse, the PDA market is pretty much gone. Even Palm has not updated their models nor decreased their prices for years. My current Palm Tungsten is dying, but I don't want to buy another Palm just so I can use epocrates.

Now I have the iPod Touch. Currently the only way for iPhone/Touch users to "use" eporates is to access the web version, which requires wifi connectivity on the Touch. Having an offline version of epocrates for my Touch would be awesome.

The only yet another annoying crap that Apple did is to yet charge more $$ for Touch users to upgrade to the upcoming firmware. Steve Jobs' quote: "We account for the touch differently than we do for the iPhone so there will be a nominal charge for the touch." So WTF? Are they now going to charge money for every freaking firmware upgrade of the iPod Touch? Don't give me "it's a software pack, not firmware upgrade pack" crap. Shown on the first "Software pack," users that don't purchase that and only updated the Touch's firmware will not only get any of the apps, but none of the home screen and icon changing feature. Now they are yet again going to milk $$$ from current Touch users. Let's see how much is that nominal fee is.

Duel Love

Duel Love
Stumbled upon this from kotaku. It's a Nintendo DS game. It's obviously a shoujo/yaoi game. From the CM, looks like you're a girl with a bunch of skinny pretty boys that are apparently in a fighting tournament of some sort. There are 4 bishounen boys, and of course 1 shota. So as a girl, what do you do? You cheer them when they're down during a fight (Note that the DS has a mic), you treat them after fights (treat injuries, massage, wipe sweats), and see the guys enjoying your treatment and then follow the love-sim gameplay. Sounds weird? Watch the CM. LOL. The guys talk and moan too!

This is a game that only the Japanese can come up with. Oh, note that the characters are done by the same person that did Hanakimi. So yeah, finally a touch game for girls or yaoi/shota fans.

This is why I like Japan. They're not afraid in releasing games like this. In the US, instead of creativity, we have recycled FPS games combined with a paranoid-Jack-Thompson community of idiot parents and lawmakers.

Here's a bunch of screenshots from the CM.

君が主で執事が俺で

君が主で執事が俺で (They Are My Noble Masters), another hilarious anime that I'm watching. A story that revolves around Ren Uesugi becoming a butler for the Kuonji family and their mischiefs. What is really hilarious in this anime is the amount of parodies of other anime, tokusatsu, and manga series. It's really funny and entertaining, especially for anime fans. There are references to G Fighter Gundam (both the seiyuu for Ren and Colonel are Domon and Master Asia respectively), Nodame Cantabile (Ren's seiyuu is also the seiyuu of Chiaki in Nodame Cantabile anime), Kamen Rider 555, Kamen Rider Black, Kamen Rider Den-O, Death Note, etc. Currently on fansub. Plus the unending ecchi-ness everywhere. Definitely a fun anime!

Using UMS DAP with iTunes in Mac

For those that are using Macs, the most logical choice would be to use iPods as your digital audio player (DAP). Well, what if you don't want to use iPods? You can always use any DAPs that are USB Mass Storage compliant (meaning can be connected to any modern OS without needing additional driver/software), and doesn't require a special software to transfer music (eg. pure drag-n-drop). Example of this kind of DAPs* are most cheapo flash players, Creative flash players, Sony NWZ series, PSP, rockbox enabled DAP, etc. Using these DAPs are easy, since they will show up on Finder just like an external drive/memory card. Drag-n-drop your music, and you're done. Easy right? But what if your library is managed by iTunes, and you already have a perfectly auto-cycling smart playlist? Transferring these tracks manually won't update their tags (last played, and playcount). What to do?

Apple scripts to the rescue. I found this website that hosts many kinds of Apple scripts for specific situations. There's one that will add a specified number to the playcount tag on selected tracks (called Add or subtract Play Count), and there's one that will update the last played tag of selected tracks to a specified date (New Last Played Date). Perfect! :)

So how do use these scripts? If you follow the readme included with every scripts, there will be a script menu shown in iTunes. First step is to create a smart playlist that you'll use. Then disable Live Updating (important, especially if the criteria for the smart playlist depend on the playcount and last played tags). If you don't, since we're going to apply the scripts in 2 steps, the set of tracks will already be different the moment you use 1 of the 2 scripts. Next is to run those 2 scripts (in my case, I set to add +1 to the playcount, and set the last played to today's date). You're free to drag-n-drop the tracks to your DAP. The next time you want to transfer fresh tracks, simply enable live updating and iTunes will refresh the smart playlist with new tracks according to the criteria.

Of course, the beauty of iPods are their automatic syncing. There another Apple script based utility called iTunemywalkman. It basically syncs a/multiple iTunes playlist(s) to a UMS device. I tried it, and it delete my ratings on the tracks. Weird, so user beware. For now, manually copying the tracks have to suffice for me. I'm sure somebody can/already created Apple scripts to automate the whole process.

So there you go. You can use your choice of DAPs, and still use iTunes' powerful smart playlist feature.

*Note that iPods are not these kind of DAPs (unless you use rockbox) because even though it is a UMS device, it requires iTunes (or 3rd party software) to transfer music.
**Note: Of course, non-iPod DAPs will not be able to play iTunes DRMed tracks. Simple put a criteria not to include tracks with Protected kind in the smart playlist. iTunes+ tracks (non-DRMed AAC) will play fine on any AAC supporting DAPs.