Moving to Wordpress.com

Due to the recent suspension of my Youtube account, I can't trust Google anymore. From now on, my blog will be with Wordpress.com. I like Blogger, but I don't want Google to delete my blog overnight without any warnings.
Just go to pika2000.com and it will forward to my blog at Wordpress. Or http://pika2000.wordpress.com/
I might double post here and there, but my main postings will be on Wordpress.

My Youtube account has been suspended

Yup, for an unknown reason, my Youtube account has been suspended. Why? I don't know. I could access it just fine yesterday, but today, it's suspended. Any email/explanations from Google? Nope. WTF?

Youtube is becoming a big FAIL ever since Google acquire it.
Google, do no evil? Bah, you're THE devil. Ironically my blog here is with blogger, which is also owned by Google. *sigh I guess I should start thinking of alternatives.

iPod Touch 3.0 firmware

I decided to cough up yet another $10 to update the firmware of my iPod Touch to 3.0. This trend of Apple charging money for firmware updates for the iPod Touch is truly annoying. I mean come on, they are going to sell Snow Leopard, an OS upgrade, for only $29, yet $10 for a firmware update for an iPod? I have yet to see other companies charging money for firmware updates. Even Sony gives free firmware updates for the PSP and PS3.

Anyway, aside form the rant, here are a quick impression of the 3.0 firmware installed on a 2G Touch.
-The download size of the firmware is a hefty 257.8MB.
-Installing and upgrading the firmware on my 2G Touch went without any issues. It seems pretty quick too, quicker than I expected.
-Couple new options in iTunes for the Touch. First is the option to encrypt the backup (iTunes will ask for a password). 2nd is the option to sync notes (not sure if this had existed before or not).

Now on the 2G iPod Touch itself:
-A lot of the features have been previewed twice by Apple, on the sneak peek in March, and on WWDC 09.
-Calculator seems to load faster
-There's an option to turn on Bluetooth in the Settings. Yup, Bluetooth on the 2G Touch is unlocked with the 3.0 firmware. Have not played with it though.
-Shake to shuffle. It is a gimmick on the 4G nano, and imo still a gimmick.
-In Settings, there's an option to manage your iTunes account.
-Autofill for Safari. Could be a security/privacy concern for some. I leave it off.
-Spotlight search: Quite amazing. You can set on what it will search in Settings. You can set to invoke Spotlight with double click of the Home button.
-Speaking of search, almost all of the built-in app like Music, Video, Contacts, Mail, etc have Search on the top if you scroll up through the top of the list.
-Voice Memos. Voice recording, obviously the 2G Touch would need an external mic as it doesn't have a built-in one. I use the Apple in-ear bud with mic, and it works fine. You can also trim the recording afterwards. Other than that, pretty basic. I expect more 3rd parties will make good external mics for the Touch/iPhone.
-Maps have some GUI changes. Nothing significant, but seems a bit prettier with some new dots and icons.
-Now you can log-in to your Youtube/google account in the Youtube app. The app will list your fav videos, and you can rate & put comments on videos.
-Stocks got quite a bit of facelift. It will show a larger graph on landscape. It also list some news related to the particular stock.
-Copy-n-Paste. Well, it works, across apps too (tried copy-n-pasting from Safari to Notes). The Shake to undo is pretty neat. A lot of people are making fun of Apple's cut-n-paste, yet I don't really see a lot of devices implement copy-n-paste across apps nor undo.
-When you invoke the iPod controls on the stand-by screen, it will show the track title, album, and artist.
-Chinese character input. Now you can use your finger to write down a Chinese character. Not that great though as a finger is not as thin as a stylus. The iPod will try to guess what you're writing, and it seems to work okay. I don't think it will be efficient though compared to stylus-based input.
-Now you can pay audio podcasts at double the speed or half the speed. Useful for lectures I guess.
-Still no shuffle-by-album feature. >:( Lame, just lame, considering this feature have existed on the regular iPods and nanos forever, and the fact that Apple is touting the iPhone/Touch as "the best iPod."
-Movies are now available on the iTunes store. Dunno how useful this will be though as it would take forever downloading movies on the device, even via wifi. Then there's the capacity issue.
-TONS of language options and keyboards. This is quite amazing actually. I have not seen an electronic device being localized extensively into so many languages in 1 firmware.

In the end, is it worth $10 for 2G Touch users? I'm afraid I have to say yes, as the 3.0 firmware will unlock Bluetooth on the 2G Touch. 1G Touch, however, don't have Bluetooth nor mic support for voice recording, so the value of the 3.0 firmware is not that great. Thing is, sooner or later I can see that most apps in the app store would require the 3.0 firmware.

I still think for Apple charging money for firmware updates is lame. You don't see this behavior with any other companies. The lack of shuffle-by-album feature is also super lame, considering this is a standard feature on regular iPods. Some of the features like cut-n-paste are way overdue. The 3.0 firmware is the natural progression of the iPhone/Touch platform. While companies like Sony are still confused on what they're selling, Apple is definitely turning into the definitive portable media player maker. With the iPhone 3GS getting better camera and video recording, we'll see if those feature will trickle down to the iPod Touch.

I will post more impression on the Bluetooth feature later.

God Hand Teru, 1st Episode Impression

First episode of God Hand Teru has been subbed by TimeLesSub (Fansub FTW!). Apparently, this dorama is based form a manga of the same name. Teru is a young new doctor/surgeon in a top hospital. His dad is a brilliant surgeon, that people call him of having the God Hand. The first episode started just like any dorama. I thought this is going to be a J-dorama version of ER. Well, the realism is completely shattered on Teru's first surgery. Here, take a look: (make sure you watch in HQ)

First of all, there are a lot of pauses of silence and self thoughts during the surgery. In real life, the patient would've been dead from the get go. You don't see doctors pausing and having deep thoughts during surgery in ER. But okay, this is a dorama after all.
And then, bam, Teru's superpower is shown. I swear I saw him saying "Henshin!" Now, that is just too much. I mean come on. In the J-dorama Voice, Daiki, the main character, has an anime-like deductive power, but the CG effect is very minimal and within the context of the situation. God Hand Teru's surgery scene is just way too overblown, contrasting the rest of the dorama. Reminded me of the Nintendo DS game Trauma Center. Oh well, hopefully they don't recycle that lengthy fanservice "Henshin" scene too often.

仮面ライダーダークカブト☆ゲッダン☆

Well, I decided to join in the Get Down meme, using a stop motion of Kamen Rider Dark Kabuto action figure. Enjoy:


This is my first attempt in making stop motion animation, and yeah, stop motion is quite tedious. Basically I took a couple pictures of the figure in different poses. At first, I tried iMovie09. Well, the meme requires the stop motion to be pretty fast. iMovie09 doesn't allow picture slideshow to be faster than 1 second per picture. The fast forward effect is not available for slideshows either. Tried iPhoto, no luck. Finally, I decided to dust up the old iMovie HD (iMovie06). Luckily I still keep a copy when Apple offered them for free. iMovie HD allows very short duration for pictures. Perfect. I created the stop motion video using iMovie HD, and did the final editing with everything else in iMovie09.

More Get Down ("ゲッダン") Internet Meme

LOL. This phenomena is more infectious that I thought. There are pretty much any anime characters you could think of doing this in Youtube. Everybody is doing it, and it's worldwide.
Let's start with George W Bush.

Even Kim Jong Il is getting down. LOL.

Get Down ("ゲッダン") Internet Meme

I can't believe I missed this. This is yet another internet video meme infecting youtube. It's started from somebody posting a glitch in the game GoldenEye for the Nintendo 64, where the characters and objects are spinning.
This is the original glitch video:

Well, somebody added a J-Pop song, Promise by Kohmi Hirose, and the result is hilarious!


Of course, knowing Japan, come the animation versions:

Oh, and don't forget the double Lockon Stratos version. I can't stop laughing.


And, typical Japanese, they have to make the real live action versions.


OMG, this is just hilarious. Oh yeah, the guy on the top left corner is naked... LOL.

Kamen Rider G

Well, you think Kamen Rider Decade is the new Rider? Guess again. Kamen Rider G is here, starring Goro from SMAP.
Part 1:

Part 2:

Behold, the power of wine. LOL. SMAP have done a bit of Kamen Rider parodies before, but this is the first one that is actually done seriously, even featuring all the other Kamen Riders, including Decade himself! LOL. That vintage wine must be really good.
Of course, this parody is actually more faithful to the Kamen Rider franchise than the crappy laughable cut-n-paste job of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight.

Clorets CM

Still finding videos of Tamaki Hiroshi, now some CMs for Clorets. LOL

Samsung SC-MX20 Flash Camcorder

I've always wanted to get a camcorder, but I hate tapes and mini-DVDs. Hard-drive based camcorders are great, but I'm worried that the nature of camcorder usage is not good for moving parts like hard-drives. Besides, the cheaper models all use MPEG2 compression, which is NOT PC friendly, especially with Macs. AVCHD camcorders are very expensive. Enter the Samsung SC-MX20. It's just newly released, and I got it on sale for $225. It uses SD/SDHC cards as its recording media, thus the size of the unit is very compact and lightweight. Unlike other MPEG2 camcorders, this Samsung uses H.264 compression, resulting in more recording time compared to MPEG2, and it is iMovie friendly.



Quick impression list:
-Very compact
-The spec says 3 hours of recording time per charge. Not too shabby
-34x optical zoom
-Built-in lens cover, but operation is manual, not automatic
-Tripod hole
-Affordable price
-Uses the standard SD/SDHC cards
-Uses H.264 instead of MPEG2
-Can record in widescreen mode (720x480)
-Interval recording feature! (see below for video)
-Uses standard USB mini jack
-Widescreen mode recording is interlaced. iMovie and Quicktime have problems with it. Luckily there is a freeware for Mac called JES Deinterlacer. Still, this requires an extra step and encoding during video editing. Annoying and time wasting.
-Video quality is not the greatest, but since the final destination is youtube, I don't think it's a big deal. AVCHD video takes a LOT of space, and if the end result is youtube/DVD, IMO why not just use a standard def camcorder.
-Minimal accessories included (AC adapter, A/V cable, USB cable, pouch). Based on the manual, there will be models that include built-in memory (8GB and 16GB), and docking station.

The interval recording feature is awesome, and fun! You can basically set the MX20 to record an image every second or longer. The movie itself is still 30 frames per second, resulting in a video with a fast forward effect. This is used to be something only a pro can do, and/or very difficult. Now, it's automatic. Here's a video I took:


In short, I think I'm going to like this camcorder, especially for the money.

iMovie 08: Further Impression

I've been using iMovie 08 quite a bit lately in making music video and video clips.

Stuff that I like:
-Audio fade-out bug fixed. In iMovie HD, whenever I want to do an audio fade-out (during transition, in the end of the video, etc), for whatever reason, iMovie HD frequently chokes and the audio stutter. At first I thought this is only on the project/preview, but the stutter is permanent, included in the final video. Highly annoying. I have yet to have this issue in iMovie 08, and iMovie 08 handles audio fade-outs almost automatically most of the time.
-I love the youtube uploading automation a lot. Makes things much easier and more straightforward.
-Adding and editing the duration of transitions feels easier and more straightforward. Again, iMovie HD sometimes chokes on transitions for whatever reason.

Annoyance:
-iMovie 08 doesn't recognize non-native videos (xvid) after importing, even if you cut them using QTpro and have .mov container and/or installed the codec support for Quicktime (ie. perian). I had to export the xvid clips to H.264. A way to promote QTpro? QTpro IS useful in cutting down xvid videos and exporting the clips to H.264, so you don't have to wait iMovie 08 transcoding the whole large xvid video.

Stuff that I missed from iMovie HD:
-Effects! There are TONS more effects and transitions in iMovie HD, even advance effects like faster/slower video speed. iMovie 08 has no advance effects, and only basic transitions.
-Editing texts feels easier and more straightforward in iMovie HD. It's confusing to edit the text in iMovie 08 outside the preset ones.
-Timeline view. One time I want to start working on a video clip in iMovie 08 starting from the end of the backgroud music and working towards the beginning. No can do. iMovie 08 snap the video clips in ascending order from the beginning of the backgroud music, and I can't find a way to snap them to the end of the music. The timeline view of iMovie HD gives more flexibility in creating a project.

In short, I wish Apple improved and fixed the bugs of iMovie HD instead of making iMovie 08. Sure, iMovie 08 makes editing videos more user friendly, but once you get the hang of it, you start feeling limited and wanting more (transitions, effects, timeline view, etc). I guess that's Apple's way to sell Final Cut express/pro.

Michael Phelps' Sportsmanship

Obviously this is a joke, but still, LOL.

iMovie08 youtube uploading issue (workaround)

For the past couple days, I've been baffled with iMovie08. Every time I wanted to upload my video to youtube, it spit out an error message "YouTube reported an unknown error." Yeah, not really helpful there. After combing Apple's discussion forum, apparently iMove08 choked on non-standard character passwords. I remembered that I just changed my Google password into some random gibberish for security reason. I changed my Google password to contain only letters and numbers, and voila, iMovie08 youtube uploading works again. That's just lame. I mean what is the problem of submitting a bunch of standard keyboard characters? So much for trying to be more secure. Apple, fix this!

iMovie 08 first impression

A lot of people criticized iMovie 08 when it was first introduced. While you could say that iMovie 06 was a simplified version of Final Cut, iMovie 08 is more like iPhoto instead of Final Cut. Unlike iMovie 06 where you deal with projects individually, iMovie 08 scan your library for all movies and treat them like a library, like iPhoto.

I already can see several editing capabilities being limited in iMovie 08 compared to iMovie 06. However, 1 thing that iMovie 08 performed admirably, is Youtube uploading. On iMovie 06, I can create a great short movie, but then I have to encode it twice, once to export the movie from iMovie 06, second during uploading to Youtube. Encoding videos takes time, plus iMovie 06 doesn't have a quick preset for youtube. iMovie 08 makes this into 1 simple step, by simply clicking "Share," then "Youtube." iMovie 08 will automatically encode and upload the video in 1 go. I haven't done any video editing on iMovie 08 yet, but the quick upload to Youtube is greatly welcomed.

Apple is focusing more on quickly processing your movie and sharing it instead of a video editing app with iMovie 08. Obviously Apple wants you to buy Final Cut Express/pro if you need a real video editing app. Luckily, iMovie 06 is available for download now, free for iLife 08 users.

My Sakura-con 2008 Youtube videos