Found this on a Japanese blog
LOL. That is Dave Rodgers(!), in the 80s. LOL. Yeah, this is the beginnings of what will become Eurobeat. Look at the hair style, and the guy playing the guitar... LOL. Alas, the video is not complete.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Go-Onger Ep38 + Kamen Rider Kiva Ep40 Funnies
All the guys in Go-Onger cross dressing. LOL. Hiroto blinded me with his pink dress.
Kamen Rider Kiva Ep40 brough IXA back to Nago, and he's cool again, at least for a moment. I hate Kengo, and I'm glad Nago got IXA back. However, this episode ended with a cliffhanger. Will IXA survive Saga's finishing attack? I hope so, I hope they don't kill Nago.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Kamen Rider Cosplay
Okay, I'm a Kamen Rider fan, but these guys are more than just fans. I found these pics on a forum, some guys cosplaying Kamen Rider IXA, Kuuga, and Hibiki. Their costumes are quite awesome! Anyway, whoever you guys are, those are really cool, especially Rising IXA. LOL
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Family Guy
I'm not really a fan of American cartoons in general. They're usually unoriginal, poorly drawn & animated, have lifeless characters and no story, and the supposedly comedies are hardly funny. Most people are familiar with Family Guy. It piqued my interest when the Blue Harvest DVD was advertised during Apple's Macworld 08 keynote. It's a cartoon about the Griffin family, taking cues form the Simpson. There's Peter the father, Lois the wife, Meg the daugther, Chris the son, Stewie the baby, and Brian the dog.
Peter is the standard idiot, kinda like Homer Simpson. Chris is also dumb, probably more than Peter. Lois and Meg are normal. The episodes and scenes that focus on anybody other than Stewie and Brian are rarely funny and the typical brainless American cartoon. What makes Family Guy interesting is Stewie and Brian. Brian is the family's dog that can talk, walk on 2 feet, and is very cultured (he always reads newspaper, drinks martini, etc). Stewie is the family's baby, but able to speak sophisticated English, with an accent, and has an evil plan to rule the world. What makes him hilarious is his vile mouth. Although most of the shows are boring/not funny, Stewie and Brian always give me a chuckle or two.
Watch Stewie clips in Animation | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
Peter is the standard idiot, kinda like Homer Simpson. Chris is also dumb, probably more than Peter. Lois and Meg are normal. The episodes and scenes that focus on anybody other than Stewie and Brian are rarely funny and the typical brainless American cartoon. What makes Family Guy interesting is Stewie and Brian. Brian is the family's dog that can talk, walk on 2 feet, and is very cultured (he always reads newspaper, drinks martini, etc). Stewie is the family's baby, but able to speak sophisticated English, with an accent, and has an evil plan to rule the world. What makes him hilarious is his vile mouth. Although most of the shows are boring/not funny, Stewie and Brian always give me a chuckle or two.
Watch Stewie clips in Animation | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
Kamen Rider Kiva Ep39
Oh yes, things are getting more interesting. Wataru (Kiva), after being revealed to be a half Fangire, wanted humans & Fangire to live together. He confessed to the Aozora organization that he's Kiva, now Shima ordered everybody to kill Kiva. Taiga (King), apparently Wataru's half brother, wanted Wataru to rule over humans together with him as Fangire. Mio (Queen), Wataru's love, now wants Wataru to kill Taiga so she can be together with Wataru. Wow, what a complicated turn of events. Kengo is still an annoying emo brat, and I can't wait for IXA to return to Nago. The previous King/Dark Kiva is kicking ass in 1986. After Bishop turned Kiva into a bad guy, the episode ended with a cliffhanger (damn it, just like Gundam 00). Still, Kiva looks more of a bad ass this way.. :D
I really wish they kill off Kengo's character. He is really an annoyance, acting all emo yet contributes nothing to the story, and his henshin move is pretty lame (pushes the IXA Knuckle on his boots).
Overall, Kiva seems to take cues from Faiz (555). Wataru is Fangire, while Takumi is Orphenoch. Both has to fight their own friends (Taiga in Kiva, Kiba in Faiz). Heck, Mio is in both series (she's Mari in Faiz). Can't wait for the next episode.
I really wish they kill off Kengo's character. He is really an annoyance, acting all emo yet contributes nothing to the story, and his henshin move is pretty lame (pushes the IXA Knuckle on his boots).
Overall, Kiva seems to take cues from Faiz (555). Wataru is Fangire, while Takumi is Orphenoch. Both has to fight their own friends (Taiga in Kiva, Kiba in Faiz). Heck, Mio is in both series (she's Mari in Faiz). Can't wait for the next episode.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Time Machine problem
After installing the recent update to Safari on my iMac, suddenly Time Machine gave me errors that my Time Machine drive is read only. WTF? I checked the permission, it said I can read & write, but on the Get Info pane of the Time Machine drive still said it's read only. I restarted my iMac, no difference. I fired up disk utility, did a verify disk and canceled it (because it's taking too long), and suddenly Time Machine is okay. I restarted my iMac again, and Time Machine gave the error again. Finally, I ejected the drive, unplugged its cable, and reconnected it, and everything is fine so far. Weird.
This is an issue with MacOS in general. Most of the time, the OS is great without issues, but then there are times when weird things like this happened without a definitive solution/answer. I googled the issue and various people pretty much tried all things that I did above as trial & error in solving the problem.
This is an issue with MacOS in general. Most of the time, the OS is great without issues, but then there are times when weird things like this happened without a definitive solution/answer. I googled the issue and various people pretty much tried all things that I did above as trial & error in solving the problem.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
EVDO, Back to my Mac, Tweaking Remote Desktop Connection
I just subscribed to a EVDO data service, so I can use a laptop and have internet access wirelessly. The USB dongle works out of the box on my Macbook with some configuration help I found here. On Windows, it's the typical installing driver and setting up a dial-up connection. Now that everything works, the fun begins.
I want to access my iMac from my Macbook over EVDO. Luckily, I have .Mac (MobileMe), thus there's back to my Mac. Despite plenty of horror stories about Back to My Mac, it just works for me. No need to deal with port forwarding and stuff. The only thing I find is that I have to enable Back to My Mac on both Macs, not just the one I'm trying to get access too, despite Apple's description on System Preferences. It works, albeit sluggish since Screen Sharing transmitted all OS X's eye candy, including all the dock animation, wallpaper, etc. Unfortunately there's no setting to reduce the quality setting.
Now, how about Windows? I want to see if I can access my XP Media Center PC from an XP Home machine over EVDO. Microsoft offers Remote Desktop Connection, which is free (vs the paid service of MobileMe). However, with XP, you can only setup remote desktop connection to an XP Pro or Media Center (On Vista, only Vista business and Ultimate, another reason why I recommend people NOT to get Home Basic/Premium). You can, however, use any OS that is compatible with the Remote Desktop Connection software as the client. I've been using RDC to control my Windows PCs from my Mac. Combing google, I found a way called Remote Desktop Web Connection. The idea is you use RDC within IE, useful for doing remote desktop on any web-enabled PCs with IE. However, it involved installing IIS web server on the remote machine, which has security concerns. I tried it, and I can never get it to work. Silly me, I forgot about the Remote Desktop Connection client software that already comes with XP Home. I thought it only works only on local network, but it actually works over the internet too! If you're behind a router, you have to forward port 3389 (the default port, you can change it) to the remote PC. It works if you only need access to 1 remote PC. I haven't figured out what to do if you want to access more than 1 PC.
So, everything seems to be fine and dandy, until I found this article. This article is a great read to secure your remote desktop connection (forcing encryption, limiting users, etc). The only catch is when I removed Administrators from the Local Policies-User Rights Assignment, I couldn't log-in via RDC anymore. I have to add the username directly on that policy list, despite having the username already on the Remote Desktop setting screen. Remember, enabling remote desktop means you're allowing outside connection to your PC, thus increasing the risk of attacks.
So there you go. Setting up RDC on Windows is not as simple as Back to My Mac, but it's free, so can't argue with that. Another point for Microsoft RDC is that it can adjust the quality setting of the display by disabling themes, wallpaper, and other screen effects for more responsiveness. RDC over EVDO is very smooth, only a bit laggy, in contrast of the sluggishness of Apple's screen sharing. Back to My Mac is dead easy to setup though, and I believe it is more secure, as long as nobody knows your MobileMe login and password.
I want to access my iMac from my Macbook over EVDO. Luckily, I have .Mac (MobileMe), thus there's back to my Mac. Despite plenty of horror stories about Back to My Mac, it just works for me. No need to deal with port forwarding and stuff. The only thing I find is that I have to enable Back to My Mac on both Macs, not just the one I'm trying to get access too, despite Apple's description on System Preferences. It works, albeit sluggish since Screen Sharing transmitted all OS X's eye candy, including all the dock animation, wallpaper, etc. Unfortunately there's no setting to reduce the quality setting.
Now, how about Windows? I want to see if I can access my XP Media Center PC from an XP Home machine over EVDO. Microsoft offers Remote Desktop Connection, which is free (vs the paid service of MobileMe). However, with XP, you can only setup remote desktop connection to an XP Pro or Media Center (On Vista, only Vista business and Ultimate, another reason why I recommend people NOT to get Home Basic/Premium). You can, however, use any OS that is compatible with the Remote Desktop Connection software as the client. I've been using RDC to control my Windows PCs from my Mac. Combing google, I found a way called Remote Desktop Web Connection. The idea is you use RDC within IE, useful for doing remote desktop on any web-enabled PCs with IE. However, it involved installing IIS web server on the remote machine, which has security concerns. I tried it, and I can never get it to work. Silly me, I forgot about the Remote Desktop Connection client software that already comes with XP Home. I thought it only works only on local network, but it actually works over the internet too! If you're behind a router, you have to forward port 3389 (the default port, you can change it) to the remote PC. It works if you only need access to 1 remote PC. I haven't figured out what to do if you want to access more than 1 PC.
So, everything seems to be fine and dandy, until I found this article. This article is a great read to secure your remote desktop connection (forcing encryption, limiting users, etc). The only catch is when I removed Administrators from the Local Policies-User Rights Assignment, I couldn't log-in via RDC anymore. I have to add the username directly on that policy list, despite having the username already on the Remote Desktop setting screen. Remember, enabling remote desktop means you're allowing outside connection to your PC, thus increasing the risk of attacks.
So there you go. Setting up RDC on Windows is not as simple as Back to My Mac, but it's free, so can't argue with that. Another point for Microsoft RDC is that it can adjust the quality setting of the display by disabling themes, wallpaper, and other screen effects for more responsiveness. RDC over EVDO is very smooth, only a bit laggy, in contrast of the sluggishness of Apple's screen sharing. Back to My Mac is dead easy to setup though, and I believe it is more secure, as long as nobody knows your MobileMe login and password.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Kamen Rider Kiva: My impression so far
When I first saw the promo video of Kamen Rider Kiva, I thought this is going to be one cool rider, especially after watching the OP. The show itself started kinda meh. The main rider's character, Wataru, is not cool at all. The actor is so scrawny that the fighting scenes are hardly believable. The henshin belt looks too toy-ish. The story, however, is quite interesting, flipping back & forth between 1986 and 2008. The 1986 side is the most interesting, featuring Otoya, whose character is much more interesting and funny compared to Wataru. The 2008 side became more interesting when Nago showed up as IXA, whose character has some personality issues related to buttons and hatred towards Kiva. Things are picking up on both sides, with the introduction Maya in 1986, and Mio in 2008, both as Queen. 1986 still holds the candle for slapstick comedy and hilarity thanks to Otoya. The downturn IMO started with the introduction of Emperor form. The problem is that the Emperor form is way way overused (probably mainly to sell the toys), the other forms of Kiva seemed to be forgotten. On the recent episodes, the focus has moved to 2008, with Taiga as the new king, and also Kamen Rider Saga. At this point, there is less and less scenes from the 1986 side. The story becomes pretty much like a dorama, a love triangle between Mio, Wataru, and Taiga, and how each of them are reluctant to tell the truth of who loves who. Boring! Even worse, Kiva got a new weapon, the "masturbating" sword. The sword has a slider, supposedly to control the power of the sword that can overwhelm and control Wataru. In order to use the power of the sword, Kiva has to move the slider up and down for almost every attack, thus I refer it as the "masturbating" sword. Not impressed. Not only that, Nago lost IXA, given to Kengo, an emo character that is really annoying. The worst part is that Nago, used to be a cool and tough character, now becomes the comic relief. *sigh. I hope the story will become more interesting with the revealing of the King in 1986 as Dark Kiva.
Animated GIF taken from TV-Nihon. Like I said, the "masturbating" sword.
Animated GIF taken from TV-Nihon. Like I said, the "masturbating" sword.
Go-Onger Ep35 & 36
G12 formation:
Okay, this is just getting ridiculous. In Boukenger, 10 vehicles combined into Ultimate Daibouken. Now, Go-Onger beats that. 12(!) vehicles combining! It looks like a mismash of the toys glued together. Even the villains couldn't believe it! LOL.
Go-Onger new ending (Ep36):
The new ending, featuring Miu and Hiroto dancing. LOL
Okay, this is just getting ridiculous. In Boukenger, 10 vehicles combined into Ultimate Daibouken. Now, Go-Onger beats that. 12(!) vehicles combining! It looks like a mismash of the toys glued together. Even the villains couldn't believe it! LOL.
Go-Onger new ending (Ep36):
The new ending, featuring Miu and Hiroto dancing. LOL
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Hanakimi SP
Where can you watch Kamen Rider Kabuto (Mizushima Hiro), Kamen Rider Sasword (Yamamoto Yusuke), Kamen Rider IXA (Kato Keisuke), and Bouken Red (Takahashi Mitsuomi) on a same show? It's Hanakimi (Hanazakari no Kimitachi e). I knew those actors as cool characters on their respective tokusatsu shows, so watching them become goofy characters in hanakimi is hilarious.
Here's the cool Mizushima Hiro as Tendou Souji (Kamen Rider Kabuto):
And in Hanakimi as Nanba senpai, getting a kiss from a guy: LOL
And here's Kato Keisuke as the cool Nago Keisuke (Kamen Rider IXA):
And in Hanakimi, dressed as a ballerina... LOL
Here's the cool Mizushima Hiro as Tendou Souji (Kamen Rider Kabuto):
And in Hanakimi as Nanba senpai, getting a kiss from a guy: LOL
And here's Kato Keisuke as the cool Nago Keisuke (Kamen Rider IXA):
And in Hanakimi, dressed as a ballerina... LOL
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Tamaki Hiroshi, October 08
Oh my, what happened to you Chiaki-senpai? Look so scrawny... And what's up with the mustache? LOL The look reminded me of Go Morita of V6.
(picture is available for download as a wallpaper from his official website)
Monday, October 20, 2008
Ueno Juri & Tamaki Hiroshi (Nodame Cantabile dorama)
Videos found on Youtube:
Nodame Cantabille Dorama bloopers:
Ueno Juri & Tamaki Hiroshi in Bistro SMAP (english subbed)
Tamaki is just hilarious. Watch his expression everytime he tried the food. LOL
In a quiz show:
LOL.
Both advertising NEC PC with Windows Vista:
LOL. Microsoft should've done the same thing here. Instead, they hired Jerry Seinfeld to do some confusing ads.
Didn't realize Tamaki Hiroshi is a singer too.
Nodame Cantabille Dorama bloopers:
Ueno Juri & Tamaki Hiroshi in Bistro SMAP (english subbed)
Tamaki is just hilarious. Watch his expression everytime he tried the food. LOL
In a quiz show:
LOL.
Both advertising NEC PC with Windows Vista:
LOL. Microsoft should've done the same thing here. Instead, they hired Jerry Seinfeld to do some confusing ads.
Didn't realize Tamaki Hiroshi is a singer too.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
My Top 10 Mac freeware apps
When I switched to Mac, 1 thing I was worried was the availability of freeware apps since I use many freeware apps in Windows. A lot of Mac apps are shareware, but the availability of freeware apps is not as bad as I thought. Here's my Top 10 Mac freeware apps:
1. Firefox
Sure, Apple wants you to use Safari, but there is simply no substitute for the flexibility of Firefox and its extensions. Having used Firefox in Windows ever since it was called Firebird, the first thing I installed on my Mac was Firefox. Firefox 3 is an excellent browser. It might not be advertised to be as speedy as Safari, but it is secure, follows web standard, and extremely expandable with add-ons. Check my Top 5 Firefox add-ons.
2. XLD
Most users are fine using iTunes as their main CD-ripper and lossy encoder. However, iTunes was not good enough for me, considering I've been using EAC and Lame MP3 in Windows for years. XLD started as an encoder, and it supports .cue + wav image file, which is the way I backup my audio CDs. I used to use Max as the CD ripper on Mac, but now XLD will also function as a CD-ripper, able to rip a CD into a .cue + wav image file, and a secure ripper too! XLD uses the latest Lame MP3 encoder. Besides MP3, XLD also able to encode to AAC, Apple lossless, OGG, and FLAC. An excellent and must have tool!
3. MacMP3gain
The obvious Mac version of MP3gain, a utility useful in normalizing MP3 files. the Mac version has simpler GUI.
4. Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection
I'm using my iMac as my primary computer, but I also have a few Windows PCs. Wouldn't it be great if I can control those Windows PCs without leaving my Mac? That's what Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) is for. Simply enable remote desktop on the Windows machine, and you can log-in to the machine from MacOS. Note that remote desktop is only available in Windows XP Media Center & Professional, and Vista Business & Ultimate, not on XP Home nor Vista Home Premium & Basic. Another reason why I recommend people to get either Vista Business or Ultimate only. IMO, MS RDC is better than Leopard's screen sharing function. In RDC, I can have sounds played from the Windows PC to be played on my Mac, set a custom screen resolution, and the Windows PC is locked while RDC is connected. Another note is that if you want to control a Windows PC without keyboard and mouse, make sure it is connected via ethernet. If the Win PC is connected via wifi, you have to log-in on the actual Windows PC first (to load whatever drivers necessary for the wifi card) before RDC can connect to it.
5. SuperDuper
SuperDuper is a backup utility. It can create a bootable image of your Mac's hard-drive. Extremely useful for backing up. The free version is limited to creating a full image every single time, while the paid version will allow you to do a smart update (only backing up things that are changed), making the back up process faster. No biggie. I use the free SuperDuper to create a full image of my hard-drive once every couple months, while Time Machine does the daily backup.
6. Seashore
iPhoto is great to manage photos, and Apple's own Preview app in Leopard is powerful enough to crop/resize pictures. But what if you just want to add some text on a picture without using heavy duty programs like GIMP/Photoshop? Windows have MS Paint, a basic image editing program. Seashore is a similar program for the Mac. It's free!
7. Perian
Want to play Divx, xvid, AVI, and Matroska videos on the Mac? Look no further. Simply install Perian, and you can play those media in Quicktime. Simple and straight forward, unlike the official Divx codecs. Works in Frontrow too, but I find playing Matroska files via Frontrow is a bit dodgy and unstable.
8. XBMC
XBMC (XBox Media Center) started as a media player for a modded original Xbox. Now it's a multi-platform Media Center app, available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and even Apple TV. If you don't like Frontrow, or want a more customizable media center program with better codec support, get XBMC. It is not as user friendly and the setup screens are a bit geeky, but its extensive codec support is worth it if you want to use your Mac as an HTPC.
9. Truecrypt
Heralded as the best and free encryption program. It's also available for Windows and Linux.
10. Handbrake
Need to encode videos for your iPod? Handbrake is perfect for the job. It has presets fro PSP, PS3, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, etc. It uses x264, a free H.264 encoder, which I find to be pretty fast. It can create chapters that is compatible with iTunes and iPods, useful for long movies, concert videos, etc. The only downside is that I have yet to find a reliable DVD ripper for the Mac. Handbrake itself can rip DVDs, but I find to not work on most commercial DVDs I have. IMO DVDfab Decrypter to be the ebst DVD ripper, but it's Windows only.
1. Firefox
Sure, Apple wants you to use Safari, but there is simply no substitute for the flexibility of Firefox and its extensions. Having used Firefox in Windows ever since it was called Firebird, the first thing I installed on my Mac was Firefox. Firefox 3 is an excellent browser. It might not be advertised to be as speedy as Safari, but it is secure, follows web standard, and extremely expandable with add-ons. Check my Top 5 Firefox add-ons.
2. XLD
Most users are fine using iTunes as their main CD-ripper and lossy encoder. However, iTunes was not good enough for me, considering I've been using EAC and Lame MP3 in Windows for years. XLD started as an encoder, and it supports .cue + wav image file, which is the way I backup my audio CDs. I used to use Max as the CD ripper on Mac, but now XLD will also function as a CD-ripper, able to rip a CD into a .cue + wav image file, and a secure ripper too! XLD uses the latest Lame MP3 encoder. Besides MP3, XLD also able to encode to AAC, Apple lossless, OGG, and FLAC. An excellent and must have tool!
3. MacMP3gain
The obvious Mac version of MP3gain, a utility useful in normalizing MP3 files. the Mac version has simpler GUI.
4. Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection
I'm using my iMac as my primary computer, but I also have a few Windows PCs. Wouldn't it be great if I can control those Windows PCs without leaving my Mac? That's what Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) is for. Simply enable remote desktop on the Windows machine, and you can log-in to the machine from MacOS. Note that remote desktop is only available in Windows XP Media Center & Professional, and Vista Business & Ultimate, not on XP Home nor Vista Home Premium & Basic. Another reason why I recommend people to get either Vista Business or Ultimate only. IMO, MS RDC is better than Leopard's screen sharing function. In RDC, I can have sounds played from the Windows PC to be played on my Mac, set a custom screen resolution, and the Windows PC is locked while RDC is connected. Another note is that if you want to control a Windows PC without keyboard and mouse, make sure it is connected via ethernet. If the Win PC is connected via wifi, you have to log-in on the actual Windows PC first (to load whatever drivers necessary for the wifi card) before RDC can connect to it.
5. SuperDuper
SuperDuper is a backup utility. It can create a bootable image of your Mac's hard-drive. Extremely useful for backing up. The free version is limited to creating a full image every single time, while the paid version will allow you to do a smart update (only backing up things that are changed), making the back up process faster. No biggie. I use the free SuperDuper to create a full image of my hard-drive once every couple months, while Time Machine does the daily backup.
6. Seashore
iPhoto is great to manage photos, and Apple's own Preview app in Leopard is powerful enough to crop/resize pictures. But what if you just want to add some text on a picture without using heavy duty programs like GIMP/Photoshop? Windows have MS Paint, a basic image editing program. Seashore is a similar program for the Mac. It's free!
7. Perian
Want to play Divx, xvid, AVI, and Matroska videos on the Mac? Look no further. Simply install Perian, and you can play those media in Quicktime. Simple and straight forward, unlike the official Divx codecs. Works in Frontrow too, but I find playing Matroska files via Frontrow is a bit dodgy and unstable.
8. XBMC
XBMC (XBox Media Center) started as a media player for a modded original Xbox. Now it's a multi-platform Media Center app, available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and even Apple TV. If you don't like Frontrow, or want a more customizable media center program with better codec support, get XBMC. It is not as user friendly and the setup screens are a bit geeky, but its extensive codec support is worth it if you want to use your Mac as an HTPC.
9. Truecrypt
Heralded as the best and free encryption program. It's also available for Windows and Linux.
10. Handbrake
Need to encode videos for your iPod? Handbrake is perfect for the job. It has presets fro PSP, PS3, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, etc. It uses x264, a free H.264 encoder, which I find to be pretty fast. It can create chapters that is compatible with iTunes and iPods, useful for long movies, concert videos, etc. The only downside is that I have yet to find a reliable DVD ripper for the Mac. Handbrake itself can rip DVDs, but I find to not work on most commercial DVDs I have. IMO DVDfab Decrypter to be the ebst DVD ripper, but it's Windows only.
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