db's blogspot

My latest addiction - twitter

2009-03-21T22:08:00.007-04:00

Back in.... I'd say.. 2003/2004, blogging started to take off. There was much hype around blogging since almost everyone started doing it. It allowed even the small guys to express their thoughts and feelings in a professional manner.

Someone like me, who was very much in love with technology, and only wanted to code for the rest of their life, could finally apply things learnt from all those English classes in elementary in high school. I realized how important it was have the ability to write. You could write tutorials to teach, you could write journals to discuss things in your daily life, you could write rants about things you'd like improved....... the list goes on. A blog represented a person's ability to communicate effectively (and still does).

For me, whenever I write a blog post, I feel the need to cover everything about a certain topic in as much detail as possible. This meant I had to find the time to sit down in front of a desktop/laptop machine, write, add pictures, videos and links, when needed. I have many unpublished blog posts saved in blogspot on interesting topics, but I felt that they weren't cooked well enough for me to publish. It felt like a chore - a chore that I very much enjoyed, but didn't get the opportunity to execute on, as much as I would have liked to. I was not always on a desktop/laptop machine, and I rarely had the time to blog when I was still busy studying in university.

But now, there's a new "blogging" service. It's called twitter. twitter (spelt with a small 't') is for "micro-blogging", and it's a really neat idea - you can still speak your mind, but it's encouraged to do so in small doses, more often. With the every increasing presence of mobile devices and platforms, we'll be spending a lot more time on these mobile devices, and a lot less time on desktops/laptops. You now have the ability to speak your mind with a lot more convenience.

Unlike facebook, twitter is social networking that doesn't require an account for the audience. I was never a big fan of facebook because I've witnessed many social networking website before facebook rise to extreme heights, only to crumble because they got too complex - AsianAvenue, hi5, Friendster. They were quickly and easily taken over by something much more simple. If I had to guess, I'd say that facebook will face this eventual demise as well, being replaced by something simpler.

twitter is simple, fast, and clean. It needs to grow in the right direction, and have strong integration with other services and clients apps, which is already the case - there's already a plethora of twitter apps, many of which don't even run on desktops/laptops, many of which support twitpic, and URL shortening . facebook even wanted to buy twitter because they recognized that users like to tweet more than they like logging into facebook and updating their status.

Many news channels even recognize twitter as a compelling form of new media. They've created twitter accounts, and people follow them for news updates. These news orgs even take comments about particular news topics and broadcast them on TV.

Am I "addicted"? Depends on your definition of addicted. I just really like clean, fast and simple new technology - technology that shows great potential. I can still execute my daily tasks without loss in performance, of course, while still speaking my mind at twitter.com/deepblade

If you thought that this blog post was way too long for you to read (it exceeds twitter's 140 character limit by a lot, which discourages the audience from reading at all), here's a video that attempts to explain (and poke fun at) what all the hype behind twitter is all about. From the same guys who brought you the Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates video:

CES '09 Palm Keynote

2009-01-11T02:07:00.006-05:00

Now that the world is sinking into a recession, I assumed that CES wouldn't have been as exciting, so I didn't pay attention to any CES related post. Of course, I would never miss a Macworld keynote even with Steve Jobs missing, but since Bill Gates is left CES (and MS) last year, I'll have to admit that my interest in CES died a little.

I was browsing Gizmodo late one night and saw that Palm Keynote in high res. is available for download. How convenient. Why not watch it? While everyone thinks that Palm is dying a sure death, I might as well see what they're up to and see if I can come to the same conclusion since I have never owned a Palm device and know almost nothing about the company.

My first impression is that they're really trying to copy the Macworld wow factor with all the polish in the presentation. They then introduce the Pre, and bring up a lot of references to Apple and responses to Apple's previous negative comments. Long into the presentation, it seems that the Pre is a really compelling competitor to the iPhone. I 'want' to say that the Pre seems like a *very official* counterfeit version of the iPhone because they ensured that the Pre had to do many things that the iPhone can, but I have to give them credit for their "human centric designed philosphy" and new UI navigation techniques.

I also have to give them a lot of credit for the slick, smooth UI. I'm a HUGE fan of my iPod Touch's UI eye-candy-ish navigation. Unlike the BlackBerries where everything is pretty much Java (which is slower), their new "Web OS" platform seems to be able to satisfy the eye-candy hungry geeks like me.

Hm... the Pre will be released in the first half of 2009. It'll be exclusive to Sprint, so again, only available in the US (as like the iPhone originally). Sprint is relatively far behind in market share compared to Verizon and AT&T I believe, so I think that may be somewhat of a mistake on Palm's part in terms of choosing a carrier partner, but I supposed they had no choice since AT&T already had the iPhone and the Bold, and Verizon already had the Storm for a touchscreen smartphone. Another interesting thing to note is that Palm possibly chose Sprint because CDMA (and thus EVDO) coverage is massive as compared to.. say AT&T whose network is probably burning down from all those jailbroken iPhones tethering to latops on unlimited data plans.

The mobile industry is really starting to heat up. I'm quite impressed and excited. Maybe palm isn't as dead as everyone thought. It was definitely an interesting watch, especially since I must be mindful of the fact I just started a new-grad position at RIM.

What If The TTC Just Disappeared?

2008-04-26T04:48:00.004-04:00

Well, it did.
It's quite ironic that TTC would post a video like this:

http://www.worthamillion.ca/index.asp?pid=22

They explain how the world would basically end:
-We would need 8 new lanes to the DVP
-We need 3 CN-Tower-like parking garages
-Jobs would be lost
-Congestion would skyrocket
-More transit means more pollution
-Air, soil and water would be fouled
-More people dying from smog-related illness
-More traffic means more car crashes

So even though the TTC encourages us to take public transit, they want the world to end by leaving people out in the cold on a Friday night by striking.

What could be better than living longer, breathing easier, saving money, saving the planet?
I don't know - if the TTC actually ran?

worthamillion.ca ? How about worthless.ca

My Steve Jobs Shrine

2007-12-10T23:35:00.002-05:00

Back in May 2007, I finally made to switch to a Mac. I had decided a few months earlier that I must absolutely make the Macbook my laptop of choice. I had an iPod Nano at the time already so I knew of all the hype Apple's GUIs were getting. They had also made the switch to Intel processors so even if I didn't like Mac OSX, I could install windows on it - no big deal.

Little did I know, I had officially joined a cult. I mean this in a good way. The saying is true: Once you go Mac, you'll never go back! I thought that it would take some time for me to "learn" how to do everything I wanted to do on a Mac. Things that I was accustomed to doing in windows would no longer apply, so I should start investing the time to understand OSX. The truth is that everything that's different in OSX compared to windows is different in a good way. Here is a short list:

1) Installing programs:
Windows: run .exe, select continue to nag screen, choose install settings, choose path to install to, watch it slowly unpack files, watch it apply registry settings, force you to restart.

Mac OSX: mount .dmg, drag application icon to applications folder, watch it copy in less than 5 seconds, done.

2) Uninstalling programs:
Windows: start, control panel, add remove programs, look for program, select it, click remove. It will then ask you if you want to remove or repair it, you select remove, it will tell you that some .dll files are shared between applications and that removing it would adversely affect the behavior of other programs, are you sure you want to remove it? Obviously you want to say no, so why did it bother asking in the first place?? (continue multiple .dll questions), finally, force you to restart. Registry keys for that application may still reside in memory, gumming up your machine, so after a while, you must download a 3rd party registry cleaner.

Mac OSX: Open Finder (equivalent to Windows Explorer), click Applications (the same place you go to launch programs), instead of double clicking it to run it, just drag it to the trash. Done. No registry to worry about.

3) Unmounting USB drives:
Windows: Double click the tiny little icon that might be hidden in the bottom right corner of the taskbar, select the drive to unmount, click remove/unmount, it will then ask you which 'drive' you wish to remove/unmount, finally, unmount. A message menu will pop-up, telling you that it's unmounted. You must click okay on the pop-up, and then close on the "remove devices" window. Remove USB drive.

Mac OSX: Open Finder. Point mouse to eject button, located beside USB drive icon. Click eject. Remove USB drive.

As you can see, there isn't much "learning" required to use a Mac. If you want to do something in OSX, you just do it. Things are a lot more intuitive and elegant on a Mac. If you're a perfectionist or a neat-freak, make the switch today, you won't regret. Instead, you'll be asking yourself why you never made the switch earlier and realize that you spent much of your computing days frustrated using windows. Even Bill Gates says Macs are cool. Yes, I know that these are from many decades ago, but it's still interesting to see Bill gates praising the Mac and Steve Jobs bashing Microsoft.

The History of My ISPs: Part 2

2007-07-15T11:26:00.001-04:00

After confirming that Bell doesn't have policies that would kick you off if you "downloaded too much while using unlimited Internet", I signed up, for a 1 year contract. There was a promotion at the time were the first 3 months were only $25. When I was still with Rogers, the download speed was 1.5 mbps. It was fast, but not super fast. Once the equipment for Sympatico came in the mail, I did a speed test and realized it was 3mbps!! Wait there's more!! When I still had Rogers, I would share the Internet to my brother's computer using Windows Internet Connection Sharing since I had 2 NICs, which means for my brother to have Internet, my computer would have to be turned on (well, it 'is' on all the time) but if I had to restart my computer, my brother would lose connection - what a hassle. With Sympatico, I had a hub, and you could make multiple PPPoE logins! That means my brother wouldn't have to depend on my computer anymore, something that would not have been possible with the cable modem. Could I have asked for more? I was really happy. The ping times were low and reaching the max speed was quick. The only issues I had with DSL at the beginning were that installing filters for a first time user like me was a bit of a hassle and once you do install filters on all lines, you could still hear a quiet buzz and/or ring of the DSL modem while you're talking on the phone. Luckily, I found out that you could just simply add more filters on the line to completely filter out the noise. On a side note, I read that a DSL modem (of which you're not supposed to filter) could still operate with a filter on it's line, but the connection speed would be dumbed down. Whenever I'd have a tech question, I'd simply call 310-SURF and wouldn't have to wait in a queue. Someone (knowledgeable) would just answer and not have the long, formal and unnecessary greeting and goodbyes, just straight to the point. I stuck with Sympatico for a long time, I never really had issues with the service for years. Then came the time for me to leave home for a 16 month internship.. I changed the service to Sympatico lite for 12 months since I know that my brother wouldn't need to speed or exceed the 2GB cap. Now it's time for me to come back home, and Sympatico is not the same Sympatico that I knew many years ago when I signed up.. All the tech support is outsourced. This is partly to blame on the fact that Rogers has stolen much of Bell's customers and is dominating the ISP, wireless (cell phone) and television spaces, and is now making it's move onto the home phone space. On top of the outsourcing, Bell has made many deals with Microsoft - sympatico.msn.ca , the Xbox 360 Christmas bundle, and the thing that really pissed me off was the push on selling MSN Premium to a tech-savvy person like me. I called tech support just so I could have the password for my online Sympatico account (where I could see billing and usage stats) reset. I'm sure it doesn't take long to reset the password, but the tech support rep (who was in India) was asking me about the snow in Canada, while the "system was loading", and then went on to sell me MSN Premium.

Sir, we have something called MSN Premium, it contains a virus scanner, anti-spyware software, junkmail filter software, and pop up blocker! Would you like to sign up for this service for a low monthly price of $6.95?

No thanks. I think I can manage without those things.

Sir, I highly suggest you sign up for this service, it is really good! All that software for just a low montly included on top of your Sympatico bill.

Um.. no, I really don't need it.

..Sir.. I think you should sign up for this deal. It is very useful! I use it myself and I know it is really good to have this. Antivirus, antispyware, junkmail filter and a popup ad blocker!

NO, I absolutely DO NOT need it...!!!!!!

..ok..

That got me a little worked up. When they finally reset my password, it was all the mumbo jumbo - "Thank you for using Sympatico". The next few times I called back to possibly renew and upgrade my service back to Sympatico High Speed, there were disagreements as to what my contract end dates were and the possible pricing. Different reps gave me different attitudes and different deals and different dates. I asked for a supervisor or manager and was put on hold indefinitely..... great service! (/sarcasm). Since Sympatico wasn't giving me good service and not giving me a good price on 5mbps internet, I decided that I'd just sign up to Teksavvy. I heard really great things about them on DSLreports/BroadbandReports. On top of that, there was the Nortel discount that I could apply since I still work for Nortel. 5mbps broadband Internet for less than $30 after taxes? How could I say no? So far the service is great. Calling them for anything is simply calling them, and talking to someone. The rep handles tech support 'and' sales/billing questions. When you call them, they pick up, you tell them their problem and they fix it. Unlike Rogers and Bell where you'd call a number, go through and automated phone service, get in queue, get told how how long you'll have to wait, have them read you a script like "did u try unplugging it and plugging it back in?", etc etc, and then having them tell you that they'll open a ticket for you. Hopefully I'll stick with Teksavvy and I won't have to switch again in the future, but I think it's only a matter of time before WiMAX becomes affordable and attractive enough for everyone to switch/upgrade, but that'll be after I get a WiMAX enabled laptop.

The History of My ISPs: Part 1

2007-07-15T11:22:00.000-04:00

This is the 2nd time I had to leave a broadband Internet Service Provider. At first I had Shaw/Rogers cable, back in the mid 90s. They were nice enough to do all the installation: Drill holes at the side of my house and string the coaxial cable from my basement, out the side of my house, and then in to the side of my house into my room. This got me cable TV into my room which was an awesome bonus. This was way back when broadband cable internet was first introduced and there was no such thing as a speed or bandwidth cap, because the adoption rate was still slow and they figured that no user could possibly hog all the bandwidth just by browsing. Most people still lived with dial-up instead of paying $20 more for broadband. There were no (manually imposed) limits, other than the limits of the technology. I remember watching a download of Netscape, about 40mb. I went as high as 1000 kBytes/sec, which, at that time, could have been the limit of the entire neighborhood "server". I started logging into BBSes less often.. I was really happy with the service, up until I started getting really horrible ping times, which affected my ARC games. There was not enough bandwidth to go around for everyone in the neigborhood, even with an imposed 1.5mbps speed cap for all users. Everytime I'd call Rogers, a TSR would just be reading a script to me. "Did you plug in the power?" "Is the cable connected?" "Is the modem connected to your PC?" "Can you power cycle the modem?" "Still not working? I'll have to open a ticket for you..".. I noticed that I'd get different answers and different viewpoints from reps every time I called, and that's when I noticed the big flaw that all big corporations face - with more people in the company, the percentage of tech-savvy representatives drops. Those who absolutely knew the technology inside out and knew the truth of what exactly the problem is.. If I was lucky when I called, I'd get to talk to these guys, who diagnosed everything, on my side and on their side, and knew that something had to be done - Rogers had to upgrade their hardware to eliminate the strain. If I was unlucky, I'd get one who say the problem was that the game servers I'm playing on were giving me the bad ping times and that Rogers does not provide support for games so they wouldn't be able to help me with my problem at all. After several weeks of my bickering, they upgraded their hardware and had reps check the connection in my house. Finally, they did something right. My internet was fast again and the ping times were less than 100 - good enough to play ARC properly!! It wasn't over though - a few months passed, and got an e-mail telling me that I was flagged as one who is "downloading too much" and that I'd better stop download or they'll cut my service. Absurd! I'm paying for unlimited internet usage. What kind of a corporation sells an unlimited internet services, yet limits their users to how much they can use? I called them and asked. They explain that unlimited is defined as "unlimited to the point where you don't disrupt the browsing experience of others". That's bull, and Roger's problem, not mine. Apparently I was not the only one and there was some media coverage over the issue. Ted Rogers marked us as "some kind of terrorist, thief or at the very least a 'system abuser' and 'bandwidth hog' who is threatening the peaceful internet usage of all Canadians." I did limit my downloading a bit, but not enough for them to be happy. They cut my service and I was really pissed. I decided that Rogers was not the type of corporation that deserves my money, so I switched to Bell Sympatico.

The History of My ISPs: Part 0

2007-07-15T11:11:00.000-04:00

Before there was the Internet, there were BBSes. Those were really fun and exciting times. Everything was text based - the navigation, the text messaging and even the login and logout screens were coloured ASCII pictures of dragons, skulls, flames, etc. You could still download files of course, text documents, pictures, midi songs, and downloading an mp3 song was as big and massive tasks as it is downloading a high def rip of a movie today. Once you start downloading, you couldn't do anything else, except wait and watch the lights on your (external) modem flash. You would pray that the download would stay at the max possible speed all the way through (14 400 bps) so that the download would in fact finish in 15 minutes and no longer. When the Internet finally started becoming more mainstream, my official first dial-up ISP was outer-net. It's really good to see that they're still in business. I still recognize their logo as well. Most of the time, you would still get more optimal speeds from BBSes than from the Internet - navigating and loading times were a lot more favourable on BBSes since everything was text based. After outer-net, I moved onto FREE AOL accounts. There was a hack that allowed those 30 day AOL accounts to last forever... Hm..... ya, those were really exciting times. Then came cable broadband Internet..

Drive!!!

2007-04-24T16:37:00.000-04:00

I finally got this G1 thing everyone's been telling me about.. .. ...... What can I do with it again? Oh right.. drive.... Hm.. I'm been biking so long, I don't mind not being able to drive. Everyone has told me that doing the G1 test is real easy and it's all common sense. I actually got 2 wrong on the "Signs" section, but got perfect on the "Road Rules" section (trust me, they were tricky.. or I really am an idiot when it comes to signs).. Horray, now I can spend a few hundred dollars on lessons, a few hundred dollars on insurance and a few deca-thousands on a car.... < / sarcasm >

Although I'm not as hardcore as those with slick bike tires and 2 pound bikes (they always fly past me, especially uphill), I was perfectly fine riding my bike everywhere. Everyone tells me that driving and having a car is so convenient, but once you lose it, you feel extremely uncomfortable, especially when you have to wait for a bus, and share space on the bus with other people. I really don't feel that way.... (yet?) This is just the way things are when you don't have a car, and I've really gotten used to this lifestyle which lacks luxury. I just need my mountain bike with rough tires, especially in the winter. I suppose, with a licence, I won't be needing my bike as much as I did before.

Hm.. what else did I do this weekend? Oh I.... figured out why my 2nd XBOX (TSOP modded) wasn't loading Evo-X, and finally got everything to install properly. New version of XBMC?? Damn, this means I have to install it on my 1st XBOX... Okay let's do it..! So I did, *BUT*.. I made the mistake of installing it as a dashboard rather than an Application. This totally screwed up the soft-mod and.... I had lost control, the 007 save and ftp access to re-soft mod it properly. I was getting a bit worried. I just bricked my own XBOX. This will mean I'll have to pay someone to rebuild the hard drive for me since I don't have an EEPROM backup. I can't afford to spend another $20.. Maybe I can just try it myself? I knew I should have just mod chipped it.. I wouldn't be in this situation if I did.. This is worse than my landlord's XBOX, of which his son bricked cause he can't read yet.. Oh the dangers of soft-modding..... Oh, but the benefits!!!!! Softmodding is FREEE. It doesn't cost anything (you only need to buy/borrow the tools to do it once, and you can soft-mod an infinite number of XBOXES), and you don't even need to open the XBOX. Anyways, I knew of a tutorial that shows you how to revive an XBOX hard drive (without an EEPROM backup), when everything has gone wrong. It's like the absolute last resort to restoring an XBOX hard drive. There are many out there, but this one is the shortest/sweetest/simplest. I can use this to restore both my own XBOX and my landlord's. I think I'll learn a lot from it 'if' I succeed.

Basically, The XBOX hard drive is locked when the system's not on, and unlocked when you turn the system on. Soooo, to restore the hard drive, you have to turn on the XBOX to unlock the HD and then hotswap it to your PC while both the PC and XBOX are still booting up at the same time. That way, it will be like turning on your PC, and have an unlocked regular PC hard drive plugged in. Once your PC boots up and recognizes there there is in fact a hard drive plugged in and it can read and write to it (if it's unlocked), you overwrite all the files on it at the moment with fresh Microsoft dashboard files. It'll be like taking out of it's box for the first time. I made a big mess out of my roomate's toolbox, looking for torx screw drivers, I had to break the warranty seal on 2 XBOXES (the warranty is long expired anyways), I opened up my own PC and mangled it it's insides so that the IDE cables would reach (not to mention the risk of frying my own PC), but in the end, it worked!!!!. I had to try literally 50 times before succeeding though. I was soooo close to giving up, so close. Nothing was working and I just felt like giving up. Most of the time, my timing was just off. You have to swap the cable at the exact right now, you have to make sure you turn on your PC and XBOX at the right times too. It's a scary process, but in the end, I saved 2 XBOXES from being used as paper weights or door stoppers.

It's funny how I know how to rebuild an XBOX hard drive but don't know how to drive yet..

100mbps Internet?

2007-02-06T15:44:00.000-05:00

source: http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=37835

According to CBC news, we Canadians will soon have access to 100 mbps internet... And I thought 5 mbps back at home in Toronto was fast.. Well that's only because I'm being deprived in Ottawa right now. First, we had Rogers cable..... which was advertised at up to 6mbps, but I never bothered testing the connection to see what we could REALLY get because Rogers blocks bit torrent traffic and on top of that, the ping times were so horrible, calling home and my gf with Skype was so difficult. Then we decided to switch to DSL. YES!!! Great speeds, low ping times.. but then.. we the connection kept going out and I couldn't figure out why.. did I miss a filter in the house? It turns out that we were too far from the DSLAM so Primus had to throttle us down to 1 mbps downstream in order to have a stable connection that won't keep disconnecting when I download or upload too fast...... great... Oh well, I'll just have to be more patient. I've already set my router to prioritize things like Skype, youtube, Xbox Live and web browsing to the high priority so it's only my bulk downloads that suffer.

Well, whenever faster internet is available, I'll be willing to pay as long as it's not ridiculously priced and there are no caps. What's the point of getting faster internet if they encourage you to hit a brick wall?

WRT54G + dd-wrt

2007-01-16T21:56:00.000-05:00

(note: This is not mine. It's from frappr maps)

I've been looking to upgrade my router back in Toronto. The one I had would constantly drop wifi and still work as a wired router (D-Link 514) and also thinking about getting a router for the place I live right now since my landlord is super paranoid about buying wireless routers. He's gone through 4 of them - all of which he had to return to Future Shop.. (I'm partly to blame since I consume so much bandwidth through P2P traffic, which causes many routers on the market to just reset) So I started to do some research. This may be old news.. (really old news) but...... since I'm currently doing an internship in the telecom industry (hope to do so once I graduate) which is focusing on wireless technology now, I think it's important to spread the word.

So Linksys has this wireless router. The model number is WRT54G. A few years ago, in 2003, it was discovered that the firmware of the WRT54G was actually based on Linux. Because of this, Linksys was obligated to follow through with the GNU General Public License. They were sued by Columbia Law School Professor Eben Moglen, who's apparently someone who really hates proprietary software and believes that information should absolutely free and that free information leads to a better society. Linksys didn't put up a fight and released their source to the public. This let hackers and hackers alike modify the source and release their own firmwares. There's so many of them: dd-wrt, OpenWRT, batbox, HyperWRT Thibor, just to name a few of them.

And now? Guess what, society 'is' better.. Well, at least the population of tech-savvy geeks who absolutely need a really reliable router for all their net needs. It "turns a $60 router into a $600 router" simply because of the open platform. With a 3rd party firmware, it became infinitely more reliable than any other consumer router on the market at the time. Everyone who knows linux knows that you will rarely ever have to reset it. You can do things like QoS (Quality of Service) to prioritize packets for things like online gaming, VOIP, web surfing, streaming video, while having all your bandwidth consumed by P2P traffic =D. Some may argue that today's routers are just as reliable as the WRT54G running on 3rd party firmware, but there aren't many of them.. Most of them don't even support QoS yet and they can't do neat things like let you build a Wireless Distribution System, running your own wifi hotspot, or how about just having a fancy GUI? There's much much more... it's runs Linux!! There's even hard(ware) mods that have installed SD cards into the router. The more space Linux has, the merrier!

So what have I done with my WRT54G? First off, web browsing get premium priority... while my torrents can wait... and throttle down a bit when there's http traffic.. but throttle up again when there's no web browsing traffic! VOIP! Skype to Skype and Skypeout calls get premium priority as well, no more studdering from all the P2P traffic my PC's doing... so no need to manually throttle down my torrents when I'm making a call. In fact, no throttling down at all since Skype doesn't need much bandwidth, just some good timing. Hm.. what else.. WDS, yes, I've got 2~ WRT54Gs! Since I've got an Xbox360 downstairs and I don't want to spend $130 + tax on the wireless adapter, I can just simply build a WDS with the 2 routers - have the 1st router as the main router, it connects to the DSL modem and PCs, while the 2nd router can act as a wireless repeater to boost signal strength throughout the house and allows me to connect to Xbox Live via an ethernet cable. If you don't get it, the point of this is to have a wireless router act like a regular wireless router except it doesn't have to connect to the DSL modem via an ethernet cable. All that's hooked up to the 2nd router now is just the power adapter and an ethernet cable that connects to the Xbox 360. You can even roam without having to lose your live connection as you roam from one router to the other..! As a bonus, dd-wrt supports DNS service. I've got the address deepblade.getmyip.com so now I don't have to worry about my dynamic ip address ever again.

Neat stuff. 802.11n is just around the corner, but do we 'really' need such high speeds? Eventually, yes, but at the moment? I dont' think so.. Broadband speeds for the masses in Canada haven't even gone over 10mps when we've got 802.11g routers which are 54mbps.

Hopefully my WRT54Gs won't be obsolete until many many years from now.

Wii360 vs Playstation 3

2006-09-08T12:55:00.000-04:00

In December 2004, I talked how the DS would be competing with the PSP. At that time, both systems had just launched (well, DS launched both in the US and Japan while PSP launched in Japan only) and no one knew how things would turn out for Nintendo. Actually, most people praised Sony for introducing Playstation Portable.... it's kick-ass graphics, a widescreened device that can play movies, music and games!!!!!! And let's see what Nintendo has to offer.... it's.... an ugly, chunky.. system that has 2 screens, a microphone.... and a stylus to work with the touchscreen.. It didn't make a lot of sense to me, it didn't make sense to a lot of people. (At that time, I really did think the DS was ugly, just bad physical design, but I didn't doubt it's abilities and I didn't think that Nintendo was going in the wrong direction.... i did NOT..) At that time, Nintendo kept talking about how games were too complex, and how graphics don't matter. Of course no one would understand, those who actually cared to listen were all hardcore gamers or semi-harcore gamers who don't know how games could possibly be played 'differently'.

Everyone thought that it was really the end for Nintendo. History is repeating itself, history as in N64 vs Playstation 1: Playstation 1 could push more powerful graphics than the N64, it's CD-based media could hold more data for things like in-game videos, it worked as a multimedia device since it could play music CDs. The same applied to PSP compared to the DS.

Things seemed very good for Sony. You could even tell by the launches for each system. There were massive lineups for the PSP in Winter 2004 in Japan and Spring 2005 in the US. It was hard for you to find a PSP since they were all sold out everywhere. Most people got PSPs by pre-ordering. What about the DS? There wasn't much hype at launch.. it sold well since it's one selling point really pushed sales: backwards compatability with GBA games. Launch games weren't the greatest and even with those games, people couldn't fully understand what the fuss is about with the DS. It sold well but you could still walk up to a store without lining up and just buy a DS.

Every gamer you asked said that PSP was going to kick-ass and the DS was just a toy made by Nintendo, whose products are kiddy and 'gimmicky'. Playstation fanboys all bought PSPs and avoided DSs, like Nintendo just to 'kiddy' for them (and some still foolishly do that today).

However, shortly after launch, around mid 2005, it became clear: Nintendo DS was doing well, and the Sony PSP was not. Nintendo had previously stated that, they will rise to heaven if DS works out or they will sink to hell if it doesn't. So true is that statement, because Nintendo was selling LOTS of DSs, and the games were actually fun. So where and how did things go wrong with Sony? Of course, it's not just the fact that Nintendo's doing too good, the PSP has many many turnoffs.. too many: super LONG loading times before you can actually get into gameplay, short battery life, a portable system that's not durable (quite the oxymoron), an analog stick that just doesn't work good, expensive UMD movies that aren't selling, and most importantly - disapointing games. I must say that things look really grim for PSP.. how can you compete with the DS? Especially now that DSlites alone (not counting DS phat) is out and it's outselling PSPs 10:1 in Japan?

Today is Friday, September 8, 2006. Yesterday, Sony announced that they'll have to postpone the launch of the PS3 in Europe until March 2007. I remember back in 2005, there was a lot of talk about the PS3, how it's coming very soon and it's going to be a million times better than the PS2, just because it's PLAYSTATION 3!!!!! but it might not come out til 2007... A lot of people were confused.. how can they wait so long, 2 years..... when we're already talking about it being released really soon? Nah, there's no way it'll take that long to come out. Well now, Sony has made it so, which just shows how much power they have to truly disappoint. Sony initially said that PS3 would launch in Spring 2006. Anyone who truly knows Sony and the video game industry would know that that's impossible and that Sony's saying Spring 2006 just to make gamers wait a 'few' months and to keep them from buying an XBOX360 which launched in late 2005.

In E3 2006, when Sony made the pricing details for PS3 public, gamers were NOT happy... $499 USD and $549 CAD for the BASIC pack?? Many noted that with $499 USD, you could buy a $299 USD XBOX 360 Core Pack + a $199 USD Wii (Assuming that the Wii will sell for less than $199 at launch.. historically, Nintendo has never priced their launch consoles at more than $199). A few weeks ago, Sony announced the slogan for Playstation 3: "This is living".... now THAT is something I don't understand.. are you trying to say that I'm not living if I don't buy a PS3?

In my opinion, Sony, being the arrogant tech (not gaming) company that they are, are going to face a financial disaster within the coming months by taking this huge risk. They've already invested billions in R&D into blu-ray and the Cell processor. Not many people are going to be able to afford a PS3 and most people will not buy into the High Definition movies hype. They haven't even launched PS3 yet and the ONLY news that comes from Sony is bad press [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12*].

*People (especially, ESPECIALLY Europeans at the moment) are super pissed at Sony, so pissed, that they created a website to show how they really feel about the European postponement: http://www.thisiswaiting.com/). Compared to Nintendo? They've been getting only GOOD press lately: [1 2 3]

So what's going to happen when the Wii launches? Will history repeat itself? History as in Nintendo DS vs Sony PSP..... Wii'll see... yes Wii shall.

"And now you say, you want a Revolution. Well, we've got one!" ~Satoru Iwata, E3 2005

It's finally MAY!

2006-05-13T23:02:00.000-04:00

Yes, the month when so many things happen. Exams, E3, Ottawa, Nortel, internship, marks. I feel like I'm coming up with tags. Anyways, I can't believe I didn't make a blog post for an entire.. 5 months! Holy cow. I know that I didn't make a post for a long time, but I didn't know it was almost half a year. Hopefully that won't happen again. I do want to this blog to be a big part of who I am.

Electronic Entertainment Expo
Pre-E3 accouncements: Nintendo Wii .. Mmm.. OK, even as a Nintendo fanboy, I can definately say that I like Nintendo REVOLUTION a lot better, especially with those official logos Nintendo presented during E3 2005. I liked it, but I suppose a codename is just a codename and Nintendo does have to give it a real name for marketting and branding purposes. The more I think about it, the name Wii has really sunk in. Nintendo Wii. Although I WAS intrigued when the name REVOLUTIoN was first announced in E3 2005 with the little o representing Gamecube minidvd games..

Nintendo:
Like IGN's Matt Casamassina said, Sony and Microsoft are going to be coming to E3 with guns loaded and Nintendo better be prepared. As with every E3, everyone comes with big announcements and games to show. Watching people play the Wii was pretty neat, especially when there are 5 hour lineups for playing 5 minutes of Wii. Sure, Sony was the one with the biggest announcements by announcing price and launch date, Microsoft is the one showing off a lot of games, but Nintendo is the one that came to E3 with DIFFERENT and QUALITY games. Microsoft boasted a spectacular launch lineup for Xbox 360 but the games shown at E3 for the Wii tops it, by far, not that they'll all be ready for launch day, but from the looks of it, they'll be released during the launch "window" period. The games that I absolutely must play on the Wii are: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Smash Brothers: Brawl.

Sony:
.......OMG... common Sony, first you copy the rumble pack and analog stick from N64, now you're gonna take motion sensing. You guys obviously can't innovate. Sure, there are those who say that Sony DIDN'T copy Nintendo since Sony has been working on motion sensing technologies in controllers for more than 2 years, but it doesn't change the fact that you included motion sensing this generation just because Nintendo did. Your campaign for better graphics, more multimedia capabilities and faster processor is going to break your bank. $600 USD for a gaming machine.....? That's like.... an entire paycheque or 2 for the average hardcore gamer who wouldn't have high paying jobs for you to take money from. What else, "rumble was last generation, movement is this generation." ~ Phil Harrison. WTF? Are you guys retarded? PS3s aren't going to include rumble feature and you're trying to convince us that we don't actually need it? We all know you're not including rumble in controllers because you lost a lawsuit that almost got PS2s pulled from shelves. I can't stress this enough, but PS3 is going to spell disaster for Sony, and for the video games industry.

Microsoft:
Games games games, with just better graphics with a very robust online gaming platform: Xbox live, but you're forgetting that some people are still not willing to pay to play online, especially if/when Nintendo's going to build an online platform and let people play on it for Frii. It's good that PC games can be easily ported to Xbox 360 and that dev environment and dev tools for developping games are advanced and easy to use, but..... you're still losing money. =/ The entire Xbox division has NEVER made money for Microsoft, so eventually, you're gonna have to think of a way to start making money or start scaling back on your push into the gaming market. Sure, you've gained a 1 year head start ahead of Sony and Microsoft, but you can only take so much market share from Sony especially when there are distractions like Nintendo Wii and the entire 'motion sensing in games' idea..

Nortel Internship in Ottawa
OK, the internship. In the comp-sci program I'm in at UofT, there's something called PEY (Professional Experience Year) where you spend one year after 2nd or 3rd year (preferably 3rd) of your studies to start applying your developed skills, your passion and the things you learned in school so you aren't lost once you graduate and come out to look for a job. There were multiple rounds, the 1st round is where a large number of people get placed and when tensions are high because you're competing against EVERYONE (even engineers, for the placements that I truly wished I got back then [ATI]) for a placement. I had 2 ATI interviews in 1st round and I was so nervous. I screwed up the 1st one since I didn't have my r?sum? with me, assuming that they would have it. The interviewer tells me that he forgot to print it or something and there's no WiFi so he can't go online to view it.. Great.. Well, at least most of the questions were technical. I answered the large majority of them correctly but with not-so-great presentation. Then the 2nd ATI interview.. I made the mistake of letting him know that I'm really into graphic acceleration but I don't actually own an ATI card but rather an nVidia card.... oops, that must have pissed them off. Well, then came the day when the placements would be posted online, kind of like those high school "DID YOU MAKE THE TEAM?!?!!1" environments, where a frantic kid runs up to the bulliten board to look for his name, but doesn't see it and then proceeds to sink into depression. Ya, that's what happened.

There was a little break, about two weeks, before the continuous round job postings were listed. I was so withdrawn. I needed to know why I only had 2 interview in 1st round yet I applied to so many. I spent, literally, HOURS every night taking a look at my r?sum? and making changes, some big, some small. Over those weeks, I separately saved my new r?sum?s, giving them revision numbers. At the rate I was saving revisions, I would have had more revisions than there are Final Fantasies. Now that I look back, there are definately HUGE leaps in improvement.

I got a call on my cell one day in late-ish March while I was at home studying. I thought it was the most bizzare thing, I know it's not my gf cause we just talked earlier and she knows that she needs to give me time to study. I picked up the phone and it was someone named Ken McCarthy from Nortel. [ =D !!!!! ] Wow I can't believe they called.. Ok stay calm, what does he want..? A phone interview! I'm always good at that.. I always do better in phone interviews than in-person interviews

Now that I look back at the positions I've been interviews for:
====================================
Verifications Engineer@ATI
Technical Writer@IBM
QA Specialist@Net Integration Technologies
Intern Developer@Clariy Systems
QA Specialist@InSystems
====================================
I can't be happier than I am now to be offered the placement of being a Software Tools Developer@Nortel. Surely, being a software tools developer for 16 months beats doing 16 months of testing slave work at ATI or the smaller firms such as NIT and InSystems (Verifications Engineer and QA Specialist are just fancy names for TESTER). Hmm.. IBM.. well, surely it's a highly well known tech company with a lot of history and reputation behind it, but technical writing.. at first I was a bit interested. I can do technical writing. With practice, I can do quality documentation. I love writing, not essays though, but documentation is good. I even brought 2 piece of references with me: 1 2 and he even tells me that I'm his top choice unless his last interviewee turns out to be a superstar. The next day, I find out that indeed, his last person to interview turns out to be a superstar.. I guess my 2 pieces of references didn't impress him much.. I was a little down about that, but now that I look back, being a technical writing definately doesn't directly relate to what I'm looking for. Surely, being place with Nortel is the best case scenario. I'm not even going to comment about Clarity Systems.. I got an interview the day I submitted my interview, got interviewed the next day, and then received a rejection e-mail the next day. It went so fast I don't even remember much of it.

Exams and marks
==========================================
CSC263 - Data Structures and Analysis
CSC336 - Numerical Methods
CSC343 - Introduction to Databases
CSC318 - Design of Interactive Computational Media
==========================================
Well, all my marks are finally in. I can surely say that marks don't matter as much to me anymore. Definately not as much as they did since high school days when getting high marks was easy. Let's see.. ouu...! I passed CSC336 and CSC263!!! Horray. I thought I might have failed 336, considering how insane that exam was.. Now I know why the autofail borderline is at 30%.. I.. seroiusly think that that course needs to be re-structured. The assignments do not reflect what's expected in the midterm and exam and there is too much material presented, much of it is .. well, boring and is never applied. The beginning unit of the course was interesting. It's much like CSC258 material except it's less technical and more mathy. What really threw everyone off is the fact that.. Tom Fairgrieve would take 20 minutes talking about super complex concepts related to errors and how math relates to it and such, where no one understands anything he's saying but are just blindly writing whatever he writes on the board and are scared to death because they don't understand the material and then he'll move onto spending 20 minutes explaining every single little detail to the algorithm of matrix multiplication.......... very strange... and scary.. Hmm.. CSC263.. I expected more out of this, but it turns out it's my lowest mark this term. Oh well, I learned a lot. I especially learned that surrendering your marks using the "I don't know" rule helps, and it's just not worth the time and effort to blindly elaborate on what your partially know. This has to be my most enjoyed course this semester. Sam Toueg is, well, from Princeton, that's pretty much all that needs to be said... but I'll elaborate: Toueg is a prof who can teach CSC263. He is so enthusiastic when he's up and lecturing, it draws you in. Long before taking the course, I was told that CSC263 was one of the hardest courses in comp sci, however, there is a prof who is very amazing at teaching it. Unfortunately, he would only teach it in the 2nd semester in the 2005/2006 school year. I was a bit behind in our courses and no one would want to wait that long for a course that should have been taken in 2nd year. I knew that taking a hard course on my own not knowing anyone would be hard, but I also knew deep inside that it was the right thing to do. I would wait for Sam Toueg and do 263 on my own. I've already decided that I'll be taking 5th year anyways, so there is no rush. On top of that, the fact that Michelle Craig is teaching in the 1st semester really makes me sick.. I'm a bit shocked.. only 2 people have rated Sam Toueg on ratemyprofessors.com.. How can this be? He is one of the best in the comp sci department. Shame on you all who have taken 263 with Sam and haven't rated him. So that's CSC263.. I passed.. I really enjoyed that course.. CSC343.. At first, the lectures were really easy to understand...... too easy.. so easy to understand that I would fall asleep because Ramona Truta would speak so softly and then blame it on the acoustics of the room .. -_- .. The assignments SEEMED hard, but they really weren't. The lectures were quite (I don't want to say it, but) useless.. yes.. I didn't understand most of the things she said.. Most of the time, I would just refer to the lecture notes for reference. Learning SQL was cool though and SQC (embedded SQL in C) too.. pretty neat stuff.. but I doubt I would be applying that stuff anytime soon. CSC318.. at first I thought it was the course where you learn OpenGL, graphics and such.. but I guess not, it turns out to be a course with a lot of courseload, but in general, quite easy, but just a LOT of material to cover, a LOT of work that needs to be put into it, but still a breeze course compared to what I still need to go through in CS.

Internet Naming
OK, so SCUMBAGS took my nickname DeepBlade for eBay and Skype many years ago, but I'll have the last laugh! I got to register
deepblade@gmail.com
http://deepblade.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deepblade
http://del.icio.us/deepblade

"I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle"

2005-12-29T14:32:00.000-05:00

It's here! It finally arrived!! Terminator 2: Extreme Edition DVD. I got it for $7.50 USD + $4.00 USD shipping = $11.50 USD = $13.67 CND from ebay, brand new, still wrapped, delivered to my mail box. It was -3 degrees celcius with a light drizzle when I opened my mail box to see a package with the words DVD on it. When I got home, I ripped open the bubble wrap. The limited edition metal DVD case was ice cold.. just the way I like it >=D

When I started taking the DVD case out of the metal case, I immediately understood what they were aiming to do.. I hope you do too.. although it's sometimes hard to notice just from pictures. 1 2 3 4

Let me tell you why I love this movie. I watched James Cameron's 1991 Terminator 2: Judgement Day when i was 7 years old.. (even though I probably wasn't supposed to..). My grandparents brought a bootlegged VHS copy of Terminator 2 to Canada with them when they came over from Hong Kong. I must have played that VHS tape and watched the whole movie from beginning to end.. over 10 times since I had little to do as a child. I even remember looking through a calendar, looking for the day when Judgement Day will come.

A few weeks ago, after reading IGN's Top 25 Action Movies of All-Time and noticing that T2 came in to be #4, I decided it's time I own a legit copy of it. I should, at the very least, catch up with technology, to own the DVD so I can add to my collection of DVDs, to pay my respects to (in my opinion), the greatest movie of all time. So I did some research. There's something called the Ultimate Edition DVD and then there's also the Extreme Edition DVD. The Ultimate Edition DVD came out first, and it has a lot of extras. A little while later, they came out with the Extreme Edition DVD.. which is digitally mastered from a brand-new 1080p high-definition digital telecine transfer, which simply means.. it has even greater video quality than the Ultimate Edition DVD, with new extras. None of the Extras overlap, so the Extreme Edition DVD doesn't really replace the Ultimate Edition DVD.

Although I didn't understand 'everything' when I watched it as a child, the story made enough sense for me to understand what was going on. The action was what really got me pumped. What's 'not' to understand when a liquid-metal shape shifting robot from the future is targetting you for termination..? Everything was blowing up so fast, and the special effects were (and still are) impressive. There are so many action scenes, all of which are just spectacular, and it's not all about the graphics/action. For example, John Conor made The Terminator swear not to kill anyone even though The Terminator didn't understand why since the only thing on his mind was to protect John and he'd do anything to accomplish that, even if it means killing people. In the scene where police cars surround the building they're in, The Terminator takes his minigun and grenade launcher and shoots at the police and the cars they're hiding behind, for a good few minutes.. When he's done, his scanner shows: Human Casualties: 0.0

I can't say I have a favourite action scene, they're all my favourite. This movie is DEEP. As I got older, I understood more of the concepts and the story.

Here's a quote by Sarah Conor (John Conor's mother) to show you what I mean:

"Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The terminator would never stop -- it would never leave him, and it would never hurt him, never shout at him or get drunk and hit him, or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always be there, and it would die to protect him."

Even by today's standards, there's some real great acting in this movie. This is the movie that everyone refers to when they talk about Arnold Schwarzenegger as an actor. There are countless memorable quotes by him from this movie. The fact that he plays a 'less-say, more-killing' robot makes this shine even more. Linda Hamilton (Sarah Conor) acts like a psychopath like she should be and Edward Furlong (John Conor) plays a perfectly wild and adventurous child who teaches the Terminator a few lessons about life. The more I watch it, the more I admired everything about it. Beware, the ending.. can be quite emotional. All good movies have great endings to them, and T2 is no exception. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take aim at T-1000's head while he's still frozen in liquid nitrogen. Astalavista, baby.

CSC300: Computers and Society

2005-12-14T00:22:00.000-05:00

Hm.. ok, so this term (1st term of 3rd year CS), I'm taking a course called CSC300: Computers and Society. It's taught by Professor Emeritus Calvin Gotlieb. He's really old, but he's been called the "father of computing" in Canada. He knows and has seen a lot related to society and computers.

The course focuses on how computers have changed society in the past, how it is affecting society today and what computers may offer to society in the future. The tutorials are extremely social, like a mini forum, with about 10 or less people and you get to talk about anything computer related. 10% of your grade goes towards 'Internet Postings' which is just creating a thread in a forum and replying to those who reply to your topic. Here's mine, hope you like it: The Paperless Office. 15% of your grade goes towards a debate. Our topic was "Be It Resolved That: The Digital Divide is Temporary". Let's not talk about that since I lost.. =( [Even I was convinced I was wrong.. that's how bad I lost] The main assignment is a 3000+ word essay worth 30%. I'm not good at writing essays, but I tried my best and I generally had a lot to say. My topic was: Internet Vulnerability: A disaster waiting to happen. This essay was really rushed so.. don't be too harsh criticizing it... Hope you like it: Internet Vulnerability: A disaster waiting to happen.

I talk a lot about piracy in my essay.. which reminds me, I just saw this video on anti-piracy. You can view the video 'here'. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan are on a mission to stop piracy. If it was a movie, they could have taken on the bad guys themselves. But this is the real world, they need your help! When you buy pirated movies and music, you support CRIMINALS! Now these criminals are counterfeiting other things like electronics and medicines. Take Action. Demand the real thing. Help them stop piracy. Let's TERMINATE it!

CNAnime 2005

2005-08-28T22:07:00.000-04:00

So I missed CNAnime 2004 last year because I couldn't afford missing 3 days of work. I wanted to skip CNAnime this year too, for the same reason, but all work and no play is very unhealthy. I needed a mini-vacation from the drudgery of work. Especially when your girlfriend wants to go with you.. It wasn't a "maybe" or "kinda", it was a definite "YESH! Let's go to CNAnime!!"

From that point on, it was decided: CNAnime, here we come!
It wasn't just an anime convention, more precisely, it's called The Canadian National Expo, which includes the comic book, science fiction, horror and gaming expos. The more, the merrier =)

CELEBRITIES
It's not an expo without all the famous people. The most famous person there would have been Elijah Wood. However, it costs $80 just for a ticket to see him and to get his autograph. Sold out tickets only tells you that A LOT of people love Elijah Wood. Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) was there too. I took a picture of my gf standing beside her hunk. (Then I tore up that life sized cardboard cutout of Kevin Sorbo after it tried to flirt with her). Ok, so it's not the real Hercules, that would have cost $25 >=(. My idols at the convention would be the Red vs Blue crew. Here they are, holding a little Q/A conference before showing episode 58. You sure as hell can't miss the giant walking Pikachu, so we took a picture with him too. PIKACHU! I CHOOSE YOU!

COSPLAY
As with all anime/gaming/comic book/sci fi/horror conventions, a lot of people dress up as characters. I would never dress up as anyone, although people have noted that I look like Keitaro Urashima from Love Hina such that I don't even have to dress up. Here's my friend Kevin, dressed up as a Jedi Knight, may the force be with you.. As in, good luck, cause I think this other Jedi is about to kick your ass. Sub Zero and Kitana from Mortal Kombat were at the convention too, picking some fights. Scorpion, however, trying to pick up some girls. There was even someone who dressed up as a Listerine bottle!! He looks ready to kick badbreath's ass. My favorite would be the Metal Gear Solid Guard. He was carrying a stick with two signs on his back, one with the an ! (exclaimation mark) alerting everyone that he sees Solid Snake, and the other with a "ZZZzzzz..." sign, signifying that he really needs his sleep, even in the middle of an anime convention.

MONEY SPENT WELL
The dealer's room at CNAnime is the whole second floor. Anime North can never compete with the Metro Toronto Convention Centre's massive space. Let's see, first off, I bought a few plush toys to add to my collection of sleeping pals (ok that sounded very girlish and kiddish, but they're really cool, like Kakashi Hatake). I also bought a Naruto wallscroll, it's so colourful!! And for the dark side of me, I bought a bunch of figruines (they were really heavy). A complete set of spawn figurines (the Spawn variants and the villans), Glitch Bob and Megabyte (from Reboot), and Revolver Ocelot. To support Red vs Blue, I bought all 3 seasons DVDs, they signed them for free too =).

SATURDAY NIGHT
Saturday is the day two of the biggest attractions are shown: the music video contest and the masquerade. My two favourite music videos would be: Mood Rings / Mood Rings V2 (Award for Best Comedy) and A Hunter's Requiem (WARNING: very dark and graphic, you may get nightmares from watching it). If you want to watch them but too lazy to sign up for an account, just ask me to send them to you, (you lazy bastard). Every year, the Masquerade never fails to entertain. It was 3 hours long yet I only took a few pictures. Here's one of the Rayment twins from The Matrix: Reloaded. There were 3 Joker and Harlequin couples. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the first couple, but here's the second, and the third couple, who did a little dance together before he proposed to her on stage. Teminator and T1000 from Terminator 2 were battling on stage.. you can already guess who won (just watch the movie if you haven't already). Solid Snake is pictured here, planting a porn magazine to distract guards as he walks around them in his little box, but his instincts take over and he goes back for the magazines.

THE END
At the end of the last day, everything was taken down, everyone packed their bags and said goodbye. Within an hour after the end of the expo, the dealer's room became nothing but a big empty room with forklifts carrying stuff away. Everything disappeared like a ghostly image, kind of like this picture of Keitaro and Su as they're leaving the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. CNAnime was so cool, we had lots of fun and spent lots of money. Never again will I spend so much in the span of 3 days... Until next year =)

With a great summer job, comes great toys

2005-05-07T09:47:00.000-04:00

Time sure flies by fast... It feels like only yesterday when I was playing cops and robbers as a ten-year-old. Now, 2nd year has finished and I'm at the half-way mark (well, not exactly, but almost). Half way done university, that sure feels good. I hope I'll survive 3rd and 4th year.. and possibly grad school?

Along with the completion of a year of university, comes a summer of hard work and money earning. This summer, I've decided that I'll be doing another season of Wonderland. Wonderland provides long shifts, and with long shifts come big money. Working at Wonderland has reminded me that money is really hard to find... [but easy at times ;) ] Because I'm a rehire this year, I won't be getting as many short shifts as I did last year. I don't think I'll ever work as much as many hours as I did for 2 weeks ever again: 110 hours (59:27 + 50:10 [You can do the math]). Anyone dare to challenge my record? I've already started treating myself to some very nice things: GBA DEEP SILVER EDITION (/limited edition Kingdom Hearts) 1 2 3 4, HP iPAQ RX3115 1 2 3 4 and Logitech X-230 sound system (pictures won't help you appreciate how amazing these speakers are.....). However, I think that the most expensive toy that I've played with (and ever will) would be Cliffhanger. It has an extra water button, a joystick and it occasionally causes the sky to rain toonies for some reason. Need I say more?

I must admit that one very big reason why I came back to Wonderland was because of the crew. It's a shame to see it split in half (literally) along with promotions and transfers. We held such great pride last year as a crew and as ride ops at Wonderland, but things happen that don't always go the way you'd want it to and people decide to go their own ways. So I suppose all that matters is that you're happy where you are. Take Care ex-Dragons...

2 seconds left eBay snipes

2005-04-02T20:24:00.000-05:00

If you haven't heard of ebay yet, you've probably been living in a cave for the past 10 years.. For those that don't know ebay, it's basically a place where you can buy retail things, at non-retail prices~! WOW! Just like how we originally said 'normal people' don't use computers, and today, it's not uncommon to have 2 computers in a household: If you don't already have an ebay account, whether it be you simply haven't tried it yet, or your lack of trust of giving out your credit card number online: like my friend, who originally said he doesn't trust ebay... and now, he has bought $287.73 worth of merchandise in a matter of 2 weeks, your views on buying from ebay will change pretty soon.

Anyways, each item is a timed auction, and you can already guess what that means.. people bid at the very last SECONDs, screwing the current winning bidder, and winning by $1 or any similar small incremental figure. There is actually software that can 'snipe' for you if you are not near a computer when an auction ends: Auction Sniper, Bidnapper, SnipeSwipe, AuctionInsights, BidSlayer, Auction Sentry (Yes, very creative names).

Of course, you can easily protect yourself by bidding high. That way, if someone tries to snipe you, your armour will deflect their snipes, and they'll look like idiots. I was bidding on this 'rare' game on behalf of my cousin: Spikeout for XBOX, only 3500 copies made. On a side note: it seems that the demand for this game is actually very high.. It's somehow already sold out at Electronic Boutique stores 13 days before it's even released. I've already seen 2 auctions for it, in which the current high bids were $150 USD and $130 USD. I don't see how a Final Fight type game in 3D can be worth $150 USD, even if it is limited, but a quote from my cousin will give you a peak at what's in the minds of hardcore gamers who are willing to shell out money for this game:

I've waited for this game since Dreamcast... I've waited for 5 years...and the first reason I bought XBOX was because of this game... and now SEGA is making it a limited release...

Anyways, back on topic, some idiot tries to snipe me, with 2 seconds remaining and he gets served in the face. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? BIATCH.

It's quite amusing when you get sniped though. Last week, I was bidding on a complete set of Tintin hardcover books (very rare) on behalf of a friend. The auction ends at 18:27:56, we snipe at 18:27:41 (15 seconds remaining), then this guy named alexteri flies out of nowhere and snipes at 18:27:54 (2 seconds remaining), and so we lost by $1. The winner bidder was the one who showed no sign of presence for the 7 days of auction. PWNED I say.

Peace to thebroken crew, you are 1337!

2005-03-03T21:10:00.000-05:00

"the broken", in short, is a "computer show" where a bunch of friends get together and show us the way of the h4x0r.

the broken crew consists of:
the two hosts: Kevin "d_tip" Rose and Dan "double_d" Huard
cameraman: Keith "switcherman" Harrison
hacker tip giver: Ramzi

They demonstrate everything from game console modding to play backups, social engineering to get free pizza for life, Windows password cracking, wireless WEP cracking and of course, we can't forget Ramzi's hacker tips: how to download warez, protecting your laptop's sensative data, and how to create a door buster for only $20. They also interview the greatest hacker of all time, Kevin Mitnick!

The first and only 3 episodes are finally up again. What are you waiting for? Go download them-> the broken dot organization

Gamecube LED mod

2005-02-15T23:37:00.000-05:00

I've been wanting to do the LED mod for the longest time and now that it's finally reading week, my chance has come. I'm going to go ahead and finally change that cool orange-coloured LED to a COOLER green-coloured LED.. Thanks to all the tutorials and pictures on how to do it, I know exactly what to do and what I need to do it. So I suppose this will be yet another tutorial, with a few added comments.

GREEN IN THE LIGHTREQUIRES:
1) To open the Gamecube, you'll need the 4.5mm gamebit and a screwdriver which you can put the bit on. I got my gamebit from eBay for $5 and a 77 piece screwdriver set from Canadian Tire for $13. OR you can try making one using a spare bic pen and a lighter.
2) A 3mm, 3~4V LED of your choice. I bought 20 x GREEN LEDs of 3000 MCD from eBay as well, for $0.01. They seem just as bright, if not, SLIGHTLY brighter than the original orange LED that comes with the Gamecube. You may buy even brighter LEDs if you wish, just make sure you don't blind yourself..
3) A soldering iron. You can easily find one at Radio Shack or Canadian Tire, or simply just borrow a friend's, which is what I did.
4) A small pair of pliers. You'll need it to extract and insert the LED. Or, if you're confident, you can try using your fingers, at least to extract the orange LED.
5) Most importantly, some confidence. If you don't feel comfortable messing with your Gamecube, don't. I can't be held responsible if your Gamecube stops working after you mod it, or if you accidentally burn or shock yourself, or if your Gamecube dies or decides to run away to escape your devious plans...

You should be able to do this mod without a desoldering tool and without solder. I did. One more thing to note before you start is the warranty from Nintendo on the Gamecube. I believe it's 60 days after you purchase it. So if you do any kind of modding on your Gamecube during this 60 day period, Nintendo's not going to hate you.. No, they'll just void your warranty!! If you're passed the 60 days, then the warranty is over, so no need to worry about it.

Step 1) Turn over the Gamecube so it's upside down. Take your gamebit screwdriver and unscrew the four screws out from the bottom of the Gamecube. Once the four screws are out, carefully flip the Gamecube right side up again and lift up the top casing. Unlike what's pictured below, you should ALWAYS have a clean uncluttered workspace.

Step 2) You should see the orange LED now. For a better view, you can unclip the panel so it folds down. Note the diode direction (the triangle shaped symbol which, in this situation, is saying: electricity flows from right (positive) to left (negative)). Take your replacement LED and and bend the legs 90 degrees so you get the same shape as the oranged LED. MAKE SURE that the negative lead (shorter leg/flat side on LED) is it's left leg.

Step 3) The trick is 'not' to use a small tip (since we're working with a 3mm LED on such a small circuit board), which is what I originally thought, but a standard sized soldering iron tip is big enough to melt the two solder points at once, which is what we want. Plug in your soldering iron and let it warm up. Unclip the controller panel so you have acess to the solder points. With one hand, grab the orange LED with your pliers (or fingers). With your other hand, take your soldering iron and place it in between the two solder points so it melts them both simultaneously. After a few seconds, u should be able to feel the looseness of the LED so just pull and slide it out. Remove the soldering iron and make sure that two solder points didn't join. If they did, you're going to have to melt the solder again and separate them. If you don't separate the points and you turn on your Gamecube, you'll short circuit the board and probably fry it....

Step 4) Now that the original orange LED is out, you can insert your replacement LED. Most pliers have a wire cutter on them. Use it to shorten the bended LED leads to match the length of the orange LED leads, now that you've extracted it. Make note of which lead is positive and negative again since you'll be cutting the leads to be equal length now. You don't want to integrate a diode into a circuit the wrong way. Again, with one hand, hold the replacement LED with a pair of pliers and push the leads against the solder points from under the board. With your other hand, melt the solder points simultaneously using the soldering iron. Your push of the LED legs should penetrate the melted solder. Don't push too hard or you'll go too far. Ensure that the LED is in the proper position and that it is inserted as straight as possible. Once again, check that the solder points didn't join.

Step 5) Clip the front panel up again and check that the LED is not crooked. The flat side of the LED should be on the left side when you look straight at it. Put the cover back on and YOU'RE DONE!

Plug in your Gamecube and prepared to be awed. Turn it on and you'll be staring at it for a few minutes. At least I did. Here are some before and after shots.

Of course, I gave so much detail because this tutorial is aimed towards those who have little or no experience with circuitry and soldering. When you become more experienced, all this becomes second nature, and you can sum this tutorial up into 3 words: "replace the LED". I am no where near that level of experience. The last time I soldered something was more than 2 years ago, in high school... Yes, our 'team' built an OOPIC robot, which eventually ran into the wall too hard one time and killed itself.... RIP.

In the future, when I have time, maybe I'll do the controller port LED mod, where light beams out of the controller ports. Currently, the XBOX is the most moddable console in terms of 'looks' modding and 'mod chip' modding. Hopefully I can make enough money in the summer for an XBOX, but I still love my Gamecube.
GREEN IN THE DARK

my thoughts on MMORPGs

2005-02-03T01:02:00.000-05:00

MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing games) have been around for a really long time. Ever since advent of powerful servers that are able to stay up and running for weeks, if not months, and the arrival of affordable broadband internet to homes all across the world, MMORPG activity has skyrocketed. They suck gamers into virtual worlds where you can kill monsters, level up, take on side-quests and interact with everyone else logged into the virtual world.

The experience is quite satisfying I must say. I used to play an MMORPG called Ragnarok, which is defined as "a time prophosied when the world shall be ripped apart and the gods shall die". Of course, the game had NOTHING to do with the end of the world. In fact, mostly all MMORPGs don't have a concrete story to them. They are meant to to be played.. well, forever, if that were possible, bringing you, the gamer, a unique experience, each time you played it.

Big name MMORPGs like EverQuest, Lineage, Final Fantasy XI, etc. require massive servers that keep the virtual world running and that that isn't cheap... most MMORPG developers require you to pay a monthly fee to play on the server. After the open (and thus, free) beta for Ragnarok ended, it started costing money to play). Being the poor jobless boy that I am, I minimized my expenses by playing on cracked servers. Alternatives like the Xeno and Trinity servers for Ragnarok hosted by people who had a really fast computer and were able to spare some of their bandwidth. Being the free servers that they were, the instability of the administation was always an issue, unlike if you paid for the real thing. What that simply meant was that: I spent hours and hours of my life on now non-existent characterS that eventually felt the wrath of the "rm -rf" command. OK whatever, it's the experience that matters.

I just thought I'd share some of my thoughts on MMORPGs after seeing WoW available for download from a BT site along with it's ability for alternative servers and after watching a funny video (open link in windows media player), made by the editors and writers, people who work at GameSpot.com. As like all others who (are playing / have played) World of Warcraft, they basically say: "we no longer have control of our lives because of WoW..." Good think I'm not hooked... anymore.

Macworld and CES 2005

2005-01-14T02:50:00.000-05:00

The past 2 weeks have been very exciting for those who idolize electronics and wish to live very digital lifestyles (like me). Conventions like these are always filled with promises of a better tomorrow and I am honored to live in such a digital age. The Consumer Electronics Show gave a chance for the world's greatest software and hardware companies, like Sony, Microsoft, AMD, Intel, Infinium Labs, Sandisk, Logitech, LG, Motorolla, nVidia, and ATI, just to name a few, to give their insights on what's to come in 2005 and beyond, but most importantly, to show off their latest toys.

On the gaming side:
Although Next-Box (XBOX 2) was not mentioned, like initially anticipated, Bill Gates was happy to mention how sucessful Halo 2 is, how North American sales of XBOX have finally caught up with Sony's Playstation 2, and was able to talk about XBOX's role in integrating Media Centre into the living room. You can watch the video here. (Open the link in Windows Media Player)

Bill Gates with Conan O'Brien
Infinium Labs demoed the Phantom console, and their online gaming service which allows you to purchase and download all your games online. One advantage to this is that they will have 500 titles available at launch, but I think they will have a hard time convincing the public that downloading games will be more convenient that the standard- going to a store, and buying a game. You can watch the video here. (Open the link in Windows Media Player)

Infinium Labs' Phantom
During Sony's press conference, we were expecting them to shine light on details of the North American launch of PSP like date and price. Their general answers? "some time soon" and "not much". The press and general public are quite disapointed by this. Their presentation of the PSP was nothing new either. Other than inviting hip-hop star Xzibit to show off a few multimedia capabilities of the PSP such as picture viewing, music playing and movie watching, Sony didn't 'wow' the crowd like they did during E3 2004 where they introduced the PSP. You can watch the video here. (Open the link in Windows Media Player)

Sony's Kaz Hirai with Xzibit
In short, the gaming scene was not that big of a hit for CES. We'll just have to wait for E3 2005 in May, where all 3 competing gaming giants are expected to awe the world with their next-gen console: Nintedo with Revolution, Sony with PS3 and Microsoft with NextBox/Xenon/XBOX 2, whatever you want to call it. However, the rest of CES was full of awesomeness. If only I had the dough.

High executive screw-ups at CES 2005 were:
1) When Kaz Hirai (President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment) was forcing a memory stick into the PSP the wrong way. When he realized, his reply was "I just work here".
2) When Bill Gates (Chairman of Microsoft Corporation) couldn't get a remote control to work and Conan O Brien said "I don't know who's running things here.. Who's in charge of Microsof- oh.."

Many people say "Microsoft is going to take over the world" as if it's something bad. In my opinion, I think Microsoft is a company that is taking a lot of initiative to get things done. They are 'taking over the world' simply because no one else is. When they force their technologies on others, forcing others to comply with their standards, it's better than having no standards at all. Microsoft's partnerships with other industry players in the home entertainment industry will only bring a better tomorrow in the living room. Microsoft is the only company powerful enough to integrate everything to work together and that begins with PlaysForSure. The world would definately not be better off if everyone had linux on their desktops. People simply would not use computers if that was so. In forcing Windows upon consumers, they've made the choice for us when we didn't know how to choose. In introducing the Media Center PC, Microsoft is giving us more of a reason to be in the living room, as like they did giving us the reason to be on a PC. One day we'll look back and see how out-dated the current setup and layout of DVDs are. No words can describe how great a company Microsoft is. Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer once dance around like and money said "I love this company". I always wondered why someone would ever do that but now I know.

As for MacWord 2005:
Apple = eye candy. If you've ever seen an iPod mini or iBook or used Mac OSX, you'll be immidiately drawn into it's sheer beauty. Now they are introducing the iPod shuffle, a flash based portable music/data device. If you love Apple stuff and currently don't own a portable USB flash drive, there is no reason you would not get one. $99 (USD) for 512mb is a steal. There is no doubt that Apple will gain a large amount of flash-based music players market share. They are also coming out with the Mac mini, a Mac the size of text book. It is very sleek and ultra portable. On the side of software, Apple is introducing the iWork Suite, a set of really cool programs that are worth their money. iWork again defines what great innovative software Apple develops for their machines. It will come with Mac OSX Tiger, along with some really cool tools such as Spotlight. However, I still think Microsoft, with all it's might and power, will bring much more in Longhorn, the next major Windows release coming in 2006 earliest. You should watch the complete keynote, even if you're not a fan of Macs.

The Mac mini

Microsoft Bloopers at CES 2005

2005-01-09T14:02:00.000-05:00

It was not all fun and games at the Consumer Electronics Show 2005, which ran from January 6-9 in Las Vegas. If you haven't heard/read/seen already, Bill Gates must be one super pissed off guy right about now because of the technical problems they encountered during Microsoft's keynote address. Not only was Bill Gates riddled 1 2 by Conan O'Brien when they tried to start a start a slideshow and the remote failed to work, but the infamous BSOD (blue screen of death) actually poped up when a Microsoft representative tried to show off Forza Motorsport, their answer to Sony's Gran Turismo series. You'd think Microsoft learned their lesson in Comdex 1998, where they demoed Windows 98, but no. A Microsoft employee, Sean Alexander, who works on the Media Center Team, has written up on his blog exactly what went wrong: Apparently the Media Center demos are run from one machine located on the other side of the stage from Bill and what they did was run a USB IR receiver all the way across the stage to where Bill was sitting. Then, during the show, one of two things happened: either a) the stage was flooded by IR 'light' from the autofocus systems on the everyone's cameras in the audience, or b) the cable failed to send the signal all the way across the stage since it was too long.

I would have no idea what to do if I was Bill and I couldn't start a slideshow, or if I was demo-ing Forza Motorsport and my machine decided to crash. I think they handled the situations very well.

You can read the complete transcript or watch the full keynote speech straight from Microsoft's site or you can watch the short versions here or here--> Slideshow and Forza Motorsport (make sure you allow the pop-up).

Sony PSP vs Nintendo DS

2004-12-12T20:30:00.000-05:00

It's been a hot topic lately. Today is 12/12/04... the day Sony PSP is launched in Japan with only 200 000 in stock. Nintendo DS launched on 21/11/04 and have already secured 1 million units sold. click. Many people are having the hardest time deciding which to buy.. since they're both a Sony and Nintendo loyalist.

The DS is very innovative: a touch screen with stylus and 2 screens. It is backwards compatable with GBA games and a satisfactory battery life.. With better than N64-like graphics, it looks like developers will have loads of fun making cool games. There's already a SSB-like game coming out in Japan.. (Shonen) Jump Superstars 1 2 3 4, and there's also a game called Nintendogs currently in development. The DS holds a lot of potential. There's even a petition which many people have signed, begging Blizzard Entertainment to port StarCraft to NDS.

The PSP is a sleek multimedia device with 16:9 ratio screen. It is able to display pictures, play (atrac/mp3) music and (mp4) video through a memory stick duo, but everyone seems to be aware of it's less-than-ideal battery life..click. Also, it's been know that all who have challenged Nintendo at the handheld market have failed: Top Ten Handhelds that Never Made It

Company executives noted that this isn't the first time a competitor has challenged Nintendo in the mobile market, but pointed out that nine of nine have failed to succeed.

"As a tenth serious competitor makes a run at Game Boy, we're raising the bar before they even get started," said Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president, pointing to the company's upcoming dual-screen unit. "This redefines portable entertainment."

On a side note, one reason why PS2 is doing better than GameCube right now is because the fact that people were also buying a DVD player when they bought a PS2, compared to the GameCube which acted strictly as a gaming console. The same might apply here: buying a portable picture displayer, music and video player when you buy a PSP will drive sales, while the Nintendo DS will focus on interactive gaming. Nintendo has previously stated that

If the DS succeeds, we will rise to heaven, but if it fails we will sink to hell. The next two years will decide Nintendo's fate.

It will be good to see Nintendo gain some of its lossed share in the gaming industry. This can only happen with the greatest SNES ports and interatives games coming to NDS. If not, it will be a shame to see Nintendo leave and industry in which they've made their presence known for decades. It's a tough decision.... maybe I'll just buy both.

here are some pictures: pics
and another good blog on the issue.

Dec. 13, 2004 update: One day after it's launch and gamers reported problems with the PSP... They include (the common) dead pixels, broken analog nubs, and UMDs flying out of the drive when you twist the PSP in a certain way... Although it is a defect, why would anyone want to twist a brand new PSP like that?!

Dec. 21, 2004 update: Nintendo has announced that NDS sales have reached 2 million units. Amazing... source

'Tis the season to be @$$ raped

2004-12-10T23:30:00.000-05:00

I did it... After sleeping at 5am for the past few nights, working and studying, I have managed to finish 3 assignments and do 2 exams over 4 days: CSC207 Exercise 5, CSC258 Assignment 3, STA247 Assignment 3, CSC207 exam and AST101 exam. All this hard work better pay off one day.... If not, I'll forever regret not going to Waterloo for it's co-op program. On second thought... CS@Waterloo is under the Faculty of Mathematics... I definately would not survive.

There's a saying: The best bridge between hope and despair is often a good night's sleep. I better catch up on some sleep for more ass rapage on Tuesday and Wednesday where I'll have to face 2 more exams.. CSC258 and STA247... two courses where I think I'm clueless....

and this is how the Wonderland chapter ends... for now

2004-10-11T09:03:00.000-04:00

"Dragon Fire and Paramount Canada's Wonderland is now closed for the season. We hope you enjoyed your stay, and we wish you a safe and enjoyable drive home.. see you next season.."

When I first applied for the job as a ride operator at Wonderland, I was simply looking for something to do during my summer days instead of wasting them like in previous summers. It seemed to me that a job at Wonderland was the best job you can ever have. Sure, it was really stressful at times because of idiotic guests or parents who forced their children on our rides or pressure from managers to improve on the stupidest things. But there were fun times too, like when we'd all make guests on Spinovator scream as loud as they can when doing SOP (Spinovator OP), shown in this example of Chan (*Note: You need Divx installed...download DivX). Near the end of the season, most of the crap that comes from guests and managers becomes unimportant because you're with all your friends and we ran so freely. The last weekend of work brought a lot of closure to a long season of hard work and just simply being together. We all hugged goodbye and all the girls cried.. Now I realize that it's not the best job you can ever have because you have free admissions to the park, but because you meet so many people and make so many friends.

I'd say my summer definately was not wasted. I don't think I will ever have as much fun working anywhere as I did working here. Thanks Dragon Fire... for the best summer I ever had.

Victoria Day Fireworks at Wonderland 2004

2004-05-25T10:24:00.000-04:00

Nothing short of spectacular is how I'd describe it. With a POP (probablilty of precipitation) at 100% for Sunday evening (May 23,2004), the pouring rain make it look like everyone was gonna leave cause they'd know that fireworks would be cancelled. Lighting and pouring rain shut down all the rides at the last moments before 10:30PM, the time they'd have fireworks. Miraculously, the rain just stopped, so they decided to go ahead with it. Throughout the aprx. 20 min. show of non-stop fireworks: no rain. What an amazing show: the main show of fireworks over Vortex, and a little background fireworks show at the top of the Paramount moutain, located in the middle of the park, behind us. The atmosphere was so relaxing.... It wasn't a hot night, but a cool breezy one. THIS is the reason I'd want to be and work at Wonderland whole summer long: more work? or more play? Both seems so good. Once the show was over, immidiately, the rain started MASSIVELY pouring. Funny how the weather works..... Then, Monday May 24, Victoria Day. Residents that live very close to Wonderland, firing fireworks non-stop for the almost a whole hour I waited for the YRT bus, (since they must be rich to be able to afford a house close to Wonderland). It's like the whole horizon lit up, that's how many residents were firing fireworks. I sat on the grass and just watched. Then, once I got to Steels and McCowan, Miliken park was firing loads of fireworks too. On my walk back home to Denison and McCowan, all I heard was lotsa popping, crackling, sizzling and whistling. I look forward to this many fireworks when Canada day comes. Happy Victoria Day everyone.

First ever post

2004-05-10T20:21:00.000-04:00

Well, I've always wanted a blog, and here it is. My HTML skills were never up to par so AsianAvenue never really worked for me, and I didn't like the fact that Friendster loaded up so slow, so I'll stick to a simple blog. Now to figure out how everything works....