Stumbled upon this in Youtube
It's Ruby Lin, singing a cover of a Eurobeat track Dum Dum Pistol. It became Boom Boom My Disco. I dunno, the singing definitely lacks energy compared to the real deal. The music seems to be very watered down, replaced by some cheap synth.
Here's a short sample of the real track. Notice that it's much much more energetic.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
iPod Touch 1.1.3
Updated my iPod Touch to 1.1.3. As expected, it seems to only add movie rental support. None of the new apps shown(maps, mail, etc) are included, not even the jiggly icons nor being able to modify the home screen. All of that requires $20. Damn you Apple.
Impulse buy, or not.
Yeah, I'm still talking about the stuff announced at Macworld. Steve Jobs was so good in presenting Apple's new products that it makes you to want them just based on impulse. However, good thing is the Time Capsule and Macbook Air are on pre-order status, allowing me to cool down and reevaluate.
1. Time Capsule
As I said, I already have an HP Windows Home Server. 1 person at a Mac forum pointed out that the Time Capsule has no redundancy. He/she is right. Sure, Jobs said it has a server-grade hard-drive, but it's still a hard-drive. I also don't see a way to replace/upgrade the hard-drive form the Airport Extreme enclosure. On the other hand, my HP WHS has 3 empty slot to add hard-drives, and it has redundancy if there is more than 1 hard-drive. Another poster pointed out this app called iTimeMachine, which allows Time Machine to use a network disk as a backup disk without having to use the Time Capsule.
2. Macbook Air
Yeah, it looks awesome. However, let's reevaluate the drawbacks that are not mentioned by Steve Jobs.
-Battery is not user replaceable. Yup, show me other laptops that has non-user-replaceable battery. None. This is a big issue if you want to keep the notebook for a while, or if there is a problem/recall on the battery. The Sony TZ has a removable battery that you can upgrade to achieve better battery life than the Macbook Air.
-No SD slot. I was expecting an SD slot. Jobs kept bashing the Sony TZ, but failed to mention that the TZ has a memory stick and SD slot. With Apple seems to focus on digital life, and the fact that most digicams/camcorders utilize SD card, this should be a no-brainer. The TZ has it, even the eeePC has it, but not a $3000 Macbook Air?
I wish the eeePC has more on-board storage. Wishing for cheaper SSD soon. Oh, and note for those that are interested in the Macbook Air. Currently based on the specs, it's still using Merom Core 2 Duo processors. Intel is scheduled to release the small-form-factor low voltage Penryn in May 2008, so I expect a refresh by mid-year/before the end of this year.
Restraint will save your wallet. :)
Things that I want but not announced:
Where is my quad-core iMac? >:( Today, I can configure a quad-core Dell XPS420 with 3GB of RAM sans monitor for less than $1000. Comparable iMacs only have dual-core and 1GB standard RAM. Well, I guess that's because quad-core Penryn won't be out till May 08.
Well, maybe WWDC 08, Penryn and quad-core iMacs, and Penryn Macbook Air.
1. Time Capsule
As I said, I already have an HP Windows Home Server. 1 person at a Mac forum pointed out that the Time Capsule has no redundancy. He/she is right. Sure, Jobs said it has a server-grade hard-drive, but it's still a hard-drive. I also don't see a way to replace/upgrade the hard-drive form the Airport Extreme enclosure. On the other hand, my HP WHS has 3 empty slot to add hard-drives, and it has redundancy if there is more than 1 hard-drive. Another poster pointed out this app called iTimeMachine, which allows Time Machine to use a network disk as a backup disk without having to use the Time Capsule.
2. Macbook Air
Yeah, it looks awesome. However, let's reevaluate the drawbacks that are not mentioned by Steve Jobs.
-Battery is not user replaceable. Yup, show me other laptops that has non-user-replaceable battery. None. This is a big issue if you want to keep the notebook for a while, or if there is a problem/recall on the battery. The Sony TZ has a removable battery that you can upgrade to achieve better battery life than the Macbook Air.
-No SD slot. I was expecting an SD slot. Jobs kept bashing the Sony TZ, but failed to mention that the TZ has a memory stick and SD slot. With Apple seems to focus on digital life, and the fact that most digicams/camcorders utilize SD card, this should be a no-brainer. The TZ has it, even the eeePC has it, but not a $3000 Macbook Air?
I wish the eeePC has more on-board storage. Wishing for cheaper SSD soon. Oh, and note for those that are interested in the Macbook Air. Currently based on the specs, it's still using Merom Core 2 Duo processors. Intel is scheduled to release the small-form-factor low voltage Penryn in May 2008, so I expect a refresh by mid-year/before the end of this year.
Restraint will save your wallet. :)
Things that I want but not announced:
Where is my quad-core iMac? >:( Today, I can configure a quad-core Dell XPS420 with 3GB of RAM sans monitor for less than $1000. Comparable iMacs only have dual-core and 1GB standard RAM. Well, I guess that's because quad-core Penryn won't be out till May 08.
Well, maybe WWDC 08, Penryn and quad-core iMacs, and Penryn Macbook Air.
Time Capsule + Macbook Air
Macworld 2008. Again, Apple just amazed me. There are 2 things I most probably get:
1. Time Capsule:
Looks like an Airport Extreme with a hard-drive in it. I guess this is Apple's respond to Windows Home Server. I love my HP WHS machine, but of course it doesn't interact with a Mac as well as PC. Although it hurts spending another $$, the $300 500GB version is tempting, considering you also get a wireless router. This would also solve my dilemma if I want to buy a new Mac and use Time Machine.
2. Macbook Air
Simply amazing. I thought the Sony Vaio TZ series are thin, yet the Macbook Air is even thinner! 3 punds, 0.16inch thick! Granted you loose the optical drive, but I have an old notebook, and for the past couple of years, the optical drive is never used sitting in a bag. 5 hours battery life. The Macbook Air will be an excellent traveling machine. The catch is, how much is it going to be with the 64GB SSD option? The Sony TZ is about $3000 with the SSD drive. Also, the 80GB hard-drive is the same hard-drive used in iPods, which is a slow 4200rpm.
The ugly:
Firmware update for the iPod Touch will cost you $20. WTF? That's just lame, really lame.
1. Time Capsule:
Looks like an Airport Extreme with a hard-drive in it. I guess this is Apple's respond to Windows Home Server. I love my HP WHS machine, but of course it doesn't interact with a Mac as well as PC. Although it hurts spending another $$, the $300 500GB version is tempting, considering you also get a wireless router. This would also solve my dilemma if I want to buy a new Mac and use Time Machine.
2. Macbook Air
Simply amazing. I thought the Sony Vaio TZ series are thin, yet the Macbook Air is even thinner! 3 punds, 0.16inch thick! Granted you loose the optical drive, but I have an old notebook, and for the past couple of years, the optical drive is never used sitting in a bag. 5 hours battery life. The Macbook Air will be an excellent traveling machine. The catch is, how much is it going to be with the 64GB SSD option? The Sony TZ is about $3000 with the SSD drive. Also, the 80GB hard-drive is the same hard-drive used in iPods, which is a slow 4200rpm.
The ugly:
Firmware update for the iPod Touch will cost you $20. WTF? That's just lame, really lame.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Amazon.com MP3 download store
Being an iPod user, iTunes Music Store is an obvious way to download songs legally. However, Amazon.com also offer legal music download service, at the same or lower price than iTunes. Even better, Amazon uses MP3, which is compatible with pretty much any digital audio player out there. Using MP3 also means there is no DRM. To sweeten the deal, looks like Amazon uses Lame MP3 VBR compression. Some tracks in iTMS are still in 128kbps DRMed AAC format, but Apple is providing more and more iTunes Plus tracks, which is non-DRM AAC 256kbps.
iTunes has quite a selection of Eurobeat and J-Pop, albeit not nearly up-to-date. Fortunately, Amazon seems to be adding those genres too. Both even have the latest L'Arc-en-Ciel's album, Kiss. (I recommend Daybreak's Bell, which is the OP song for Gundam 00). The selection of Amazon music store is not as great as iTunes, but if both have the songs you want, I highly recommend to download from Amazon, mainly because of the universal MP3 format.
When purchasing a download song/album from Amazon's website, you'll be offered to install a downloader software, which luckily is also available for Mac OS. The software will manage your downloads, and also add the tracks to iTunes automatically. Pretty nice and seamless.
1 minor downside is that Amazon uses crappy low bitrate samples for their songs' preview, while iTunes has better quality for their previews.
The days of DRMed music, and importing expensive CDs from Japan is coming to an end.
iTunes has quite a selection of Eurobeat and J-Pop, albeit not nearly up-to-date. Fortunately, Amazon seems to be adding those genres too. Both even have the latest L'Arc-en-Ciel's album, Kiss. (I recommend Daybreak's Bell, which is the OP song for Gundam 00). The selection of Amazon music store is not as great as iTunes, but if both have the songs you want, I highly recommend to download from Amazon, mainly because of the universal MP3 format.
When purchasing a download song/album from Amazon's website, you'll be offered to install a downloader software, which luckily is also available for Mac OS. The software will manage your downloads, and also add the tracks to iTunes automatically. Pretty nice and seamless.
1 minor downside is that Amazon uses crappy low bitrate samples for their songs' preview, while iTunes has better quality for their previews.
The days of DRMed music, and importing expensive CDs from Japan is coming to an end.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
2008 New Year Fireworks Space Needle
There was a glitch during the 2008 fireworks event in Seattle's space needle, resulting in awkward moments on TV. This is the same scenes edited for continuous enjoyment. Happy New Year 2008.
Monday, December 31, 2007
2008 Super Sentai and Kamen Rider!
Engine Sentai Go Onger (weird name), and Kamen Rider Kiva. Go Onger seems like Dekaranger (hopefully it's as good as well), but only 1 girl? =( Kamen Rider is as cool and awesome as ever, Kiva looks a lot like Agito Burning form. 2008 is going to be another fun tokusatsu year.
Weird dream
I had a weird dream. I was at an airport, dunno where. Suddenly I found a cheap deal for a tour package to Australia. Why Australia? Dunno. And for some reason, I asked someone to go with me, who happened to be one of my friends from grade school. It gets weirder. For some reason, we thought it's going to be very cold at our destination, and I almost forgot to bring my jacket with me. The airplane we rode on was an old propeller-cessna-like plane. We commented on how "dangerous" the plane might be, and yet we still rode on it. The plane seemed to shake during flight too. For some odd reason, suddenly my friend's mom was also on the plane together with us. Yeah, the weirdness didn't end there.
During the flight, the plane took a detour, and suddenly landed on a farm-like area. We were all confused. Apparently the tour was a setup by some pirates/hijackers. They took all our belongings, and wanted to sell us a roll of toilet paper for $30 as a chance of "survival" on the remote island/jungle (yeah, the farm turned into a jungle... LOL). I guess the cheap tour was too good to be true.
Wait, it didn't end there. Me, my friend, and his mom escaped to the city. Also apparently my friend's mom knew someone in the FBI (yeah...). She called them in hope for the FBI to rescue us. In the process, we also managed to go into a local hotel in the city and booked a room. The hotel seemed to have an old architecture with many Greek-style pillars and maze-like hallways. In the room, we were greeted by an FBI agent (wow, they were fast... LOL), and we were briefed quickly on how they've been trying to catch this ring of pirates/hijackers. For an unknown amount of time later, we followed a bunch of FBI agents raiding the pirates/hijackers' base, which conveniently was not in a farm/jungle anymore, but in the same city.
There you go. Weird huh. Even weirder is the amount of details, and the fact that I remembered them. Usually if I had a dream, I forgot what it was. However this one was so vivid. I wonder what could it be. A bad omen with a good turnout? Some kind of new-year prediction? A piece of advise in disguise, like not to take a cheap tour? Or maybe because I watched too much anime? Analyzing aside, I probably should copyright this story idea just in case Hollywood decided to make a movie from it. LOL. Oh well, Happy New Year!
During the flight, the plane took a detour, and suddenly landed on a farm-like area. We were all confused. Apparently the tour was a setup by some pirates/hijackers. They took all our belongings, and wanted to sell us a roll of toilet paper for $30 as a chance of "survival" on the remote island/jungle (yeah, the farm turned into a jungle... LOL). I guess the cheap tour was too good to be true.
Wait, it didn't end there. Me, my friend, and his mom escaped to the city. Also apparently my friend's mom knew someone in the FBI (yeah...). She called them in hope for the FBI to rescue us. In the process, we also managed to go into a local hotel in the city and booked a room. The hotel seemed to have an old architecture with many Greek-style pillars and maze-like hallways. In the room, we were greeted by an FBI agent (wow, they were fast... LOL), and we were briefed quickly on how they've been trying to catch this ring of pirates/hijackers. For an unknown amount of time later, we followed a bunch of FBI agents raiding the pirates/hijackers' base, which conveniently was not in a farm/jungle anymore, but in the same city.
There you go. Weird huh. Even weirder is the amount of details, and the fact that I remembered them. Usually if I had a dream, I forgot what it was. However this one was so vivid. I wonder what could it be. A bad omen with a good turnout? Some kind of new-year prediction? A piece of advise in disguise, like not to take a cheap tour? Or maybe because I watched too much anime? Analyzing aside, I probably should copyright this story idea just in case Hollywood decided to make a movie from it. LOL. Oh well, Happy New Year!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Cowon A3
The successor of the best portable media player Cowon A2, here comes Cowon A3.
The good:
-Supports .mp4 and .mkv, meaning more video podcasts and anime on the go.
-Supports H.264
-Sharp high res screen.
-Loading videos seem quicker than the A2.
-UI seems snappier than the sluggish A2.
-It even comes with a screen protector!
-Everything good about the A2 is applicable here (UMS compliant, can view text, pictures, can delete file within the device, etc), other than some ugly things mentioned below.
The bad:
-HD playback problems (see my youtube video overview). It would be amazing that a portable device like this can playback HD (720p) content perfectly. Knowing Cowon, firmware updates are expected, but maybe there are some hardware limitation involved.
-No subtitle support for Matroska (the .mkv I used in my youtube video has a hard-sub).
-No gapless playback of MP3 audio.
The ugly:
-Nipple/joystick control is annoying, and its reliability is questionable. (you'll see on the youtube video, I was moving back and forth between the folder tree for no reason, that's due to the stupid joystick)
-Proprietary USB jack. The mini USB jack is NOT a USB jack.
-No case included.
The PMP competitors:
-Archos. They are probably the closest competitor to Cowon in PMP. However, Archos decided to charge you extra for things like H.264 playback. WTF?
-Apple. The largest screen DAP Apple has is the Touch. It's flash based and thinner, but capabilities as a PMP is way below the A2/3. If only Apple would support divx/xvid.
-Sony. Huh? Sony? Is that food?
To give Sony's credit, they put divx support on the PS3. Hopefully that will translate to their portable devices, that is if Sony is still interested in that market.
-Creative. Their Zen Vision W was quite popular, but Creative seems to be focusing on cheap flash based DAPs. The Zen? 320x240 videos won't cut it anymore.
-Microsoft. The Zune? Meh. Large but low-res screen, plus limited codec support (not much different than Apple). However, Microsoft recently put divx support on the Xbox360. Question is will they do the same for the Zune.
As a DAP, the A3 fails. Let's face it, it is designed to be PMP. As a DAP, it is big, heavy, has crappy audio battery life, folder tree only browsing, no gaples, and that dreaded joystick. The only great thing about it as a DAP is the on-screen spectrum analyzer.
As a PMP, the Cowon A3 is still king of the crop. I mean try to find a portable player that support .mkv. Heck, even the old A2 is still better than most PMPs/PMP-wannabe DAPs out there. I rate the A3 9 out of 10. -1 for HD playback problems, even though it is advertised to be able to. Hopefully Cowon can improve/fix the performance of HD content playback with firmware updates.
The good:
-Supports .mp4 and .mkv, meaning more video podcasts and anime on the go.
-Supports H.264
-Sharp high res screen.
-Loading videos seem quicker than the A2.
-UI seems snappier than the sluggish A2.
-It even comes with a screen protector!
-Everything good about the A2 is applicable here (UMS compliant, can view text, pictures, can delete file within the device, etc), other than some ugly things mentioned below.
The bad:
-HD playback problems (see my youtube video overview). It would be amazing that a portable device like this can playback HD (720p) content perfectly. Knowing Cowon, firmware updates are expected, but maybe there are some hardware limitation involved.
-No subtitle support for Matroska (the .mkv I used in my youtube video has a hard-sub).
-No gapless playback of MP3 audio.
The ugly:
-Nipple/joystick control is annoying, and its reliability is questionable. (you'll see on the youtube video, I was moving back and forth between the folder tree for no reason, that's due to the stupid joystick)
-Proprietary USB jack. The mini USB jack is NOT a USB jack.
-No case included.
The PMP competitors:
-Archos. They are probably the closest competitor to Cowon in PMP. However, Archos decided to charge you extra for things like H.264 playback. WTF?
-Apple. The largest screen DAP Apple has is the Touch. It's flash based and thinner, but capabilities as a PMP is way below the A2/3. If only Apple would support divx/xvid.
-Sony. Huh? Sony? Is that food?
To give Sony's credit, they put divx support on the PS3. Hopefully that will translate to their portable devices, that is if Sony is still interested in that market.-Creative. Their Zen Vision W was quite popular, but Creative seems to be focusing on cheap flash based DAPs. The Zen? 320x240 videos won't cut it anymore.
-Microsoft. The Zune? Meh. Large but low-res screen, plus limited codec support (not much different than Apple). However, Microsoft recently put divx support on the Xbox360. Question is will they do the same for the Zune.
As a DAP, the A3 fails. Let's face it, it is designed to be PMP. As a DAP, it is big, heavy, has crappy audio battery life, folder tree only browsing, no gaples, and that dreaded joystick. The only great thing about it as a DAP is the on-screen spectrum analyzer.
As a PMP, the Cowon A3 is still king of the crop. I mean try to find a portable player that support .mkv. Heck, even the old A2 is still better than most PMPs/PMP-wannabe DAPs out there. I rate the A3 9 out of 10. -1 for HD playback problems, even though it is advertised to be able to. Hopefully Cowon can improve/fix the performance of HD content playback with firmware updates.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Media vs Video Game
It's Christmas, and it's time for the media to start another FUD against video games. I was watching my local news, and they are advertising an upcoming segment on how to pick video games for your kids. Well, with so many family friendly video games out there (Guitar Hero, Rockband, DDR, Singstar, Karaoke Revolution, Super Mario Galaxy, etc), they used a cutscene from Half Life 2 video game, an M-rated game. So, why would a segment about choosing a video game for your kids is showing an M-rated game? OK, pretty obvious that their intention is to spread FUD to unsuspecting parents.
Going into the segment, more video game cutscenes are played. Again, nothing from all those popular family friendly games mentioned above. Instead, all I saw were scenes from FPS games, namely more Half Life 2, Assassin Creed (also an M-rated game), etc.
Come the worst part. They went to a local video game store to interview some shoppers. They interviewed few parents, then, a 12-year-old black kid, playing a demo of Heavenly Sword. Then the reporter asked the kid why he liked that video game. The kid innocently said because he can kill stuff. Wow, jackpot for the FUD spreader. Look parents, video game is "bad" because it makes a black kid killing stuff! WTF? Of course, no other kids are shown. You have to wonder why they picked a black kid for the interview.
The next step is a short interview with a guy, presumably someone from the gaming industry. He was explaining the ESRB rating system and how it helps parents to pick a suitable game, and suddenly the interview was cut off with the reporter continuing the show off camera saying "Oh really," and rambled on about parents still not knowing what is inside the game box. WTF? Are parents illiterate or something? How hard can it be? M for Mature, T for Teen, etc. How simple can that be? But the reporter was trying to make as if reading a 1 letter rating to be very confusing and complicated.
Of course, during the whole segment, none of those popular family friendly games are even mentioned. And this is about a segment for choosing a video game for your kid? It's as if they're saying parents to pick those M-rated FPS games for their kids. WTF?
*sigh. Jack Thompson is probably cheering somewhere. Maybe we should just flood the US video game market with Japanese eroge.
Going into the segment, more video game cutscenes are played. Again, nothing from all those popular family friendly games mentioned above. Instead, all I saw were scenes from FPS games, namely more Half Life 2, Assassin Creed (also an M-rated game), etc.
Come the worst part. They went to a local video game store to interview some shoppers. They interviewed few parents, then, a 12-year-old black kid, playing a demo of Heavenly Sword. Then the reporter asked the kid why he liked that video game. The kid innocently said because he can kill stuff. Wow, jackpot for the FUD spreader. Look parents, video game is "bad" because it makes a black kid killing stuff! WTF? Of course, no other kids are shown. You have to wonder why they picked a black kid for the interview.
The next step is a short interview with a guy, presumably someone from the gaming industry. He was explaining the ESRB rating system and how it helps parents to pick a suitable game, and suddenly the interview was cut off with the reporter continuing the show off camera saying "Oh really," and rambled on about parents still not knowing what is inside the game box. WTF? Are parents illiterate or something? How hard can it be? M for Mature, T for Teen, etc. How simple can that be? But the reporter was trying to make as if reading a 1 letter rating to be very confusing and complicated.
Of course, during the whole segment, none of those popular family friendly games are even mentioned. And this is about a segment for choosing a video game for your kid? It's as if they're saying parents to pick those M-rated FPS games for their kids. WTF?
*sigh. Jack Thompson is probably cheering somewhere. Maybe we should just flood the US video game market with Japanese eroge.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
XBOX 360 Fall 07 update
Turn on your Xbox 360 today, and you'll be offered an update. Download it, and you'll be able to watch divx/xvid .avi files without transcoding right on the 360! SWEET! I can even stream xvid videos from my Windows Home Server right on the 360. Awesome! Next is the PS3 to get divx/xvid playback.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
MDA rap parody
You probably have watched the lame rap video of the upper management people from Singapore's MDA. It was even featured in a popular tech podcast, crankygeeks! Well, the downside(or upside) of putting such lame video in youtube, is that you will get parodies pretty quick for further enjoyment of the public. Here's one of the best one I've seen so far, clearly showing the actual function of the MDA.
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