THIS BLOG WAS HACKED!

For the people who commented on some blog entries (including a rage over Wiki), THOSE POSTS are not mine! Oh man, I don´t know yet how a hacker managed to steal my PWD. ( So this site would undergo another re-construction.

Red Alert 3 Beta System Requirements

Command & Conquer 3: Red Alert 3 beta

• OS – Windows XP / Vista (32-Bit)
• Processor – XP: 2.0 GHz (Intel Pentium 4; AMD Athlon 2000+; Multiple Cores) / Vista: 2.2 GHz (Intel Pentium 4/AMD Athlon 2200+/Multiple Cores)
• Memory – XP/Vista: 1 GB
• Hard Drive – Media: 6.0 GB / EA Link: 12.0 GB
• DVD Drive – 8 SPEED
• Video Card – NVIDIA GeForce 6800, ATI Radeon X1800 or higher end DirectX 9.0c compatible gfx card
• Sound Card – DirectX 9.0c compatible (Creative Sound Blaster Audigy cards require a Intel P4 2.6 GHz or similar under Vista, Yamaha Xwave-512 not supported)
• Online Multiplayer – 512 Kbps or faster; 2-8 Players
• Input – Keyboard, Mouse
• Optional – VoIP Headset

Looks like this can run smoothly on my future MBP (On a VM). I will bump the RAM to 4GB.  

iPhone 3G

I bet all of you already know that Apple announced that they signed exclusive iPhone deals with more countries around the World. Here in my motherland, Globe Telecom announced on their website that they are the exclusive network for the iPhone 3G. 8GB Models come in Black and has a USD 199 tag. Hmm.. That looks like that the iPhone will cost less than PHP 10,000 here. 16 GB Models come in White or Black and a USD 299 tag (about PHP 16,000).  Can I convince the folks here to buy me an 8GB one? My school performance MUST be good before they buy anything. Actually I want a replacement for my good old Nokia N70. An iPhone is a good buy for me. Although I wrote about pitting it against a Windows Mobile-based phones. A good plus of the iPhone 3G is it’s support for push email. That means email junkies can never let their iPhone off their hands. Actually the real reason for us to buy it is it’s support for 3G HSDPA networks. Meaning mobile DSL speeds!

13″ Black MacBook

I am also considering a 13 inch Black MacBook. Here are the specs:

-Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo 2 x (2.4 Ghz / 3 MB L2 Cache) sequence

-2 GB RAM (2 x 1GB)

-Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator(TM) X3100 with 144 Mb of DDR2 VRAM

-8x SuperDrive (DVD dual layer)

-1 FireWire 400

-2 USB 2.0

-Built-in iSight cam

-Mini DVI

-Combined optical digital input audio line in and out

-Stereo speakers

-Gigabit Ethernet

-Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11 a/b/g/n)

-Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

-250 GB HDD partitioned into two (170 GB for the Mac OS X, 80 GB for Win XP Pro)

-Alcohol 120% (XP Pro)

MacBook Pro 15″

I wrote about my laptop PC broken. I decided that I won’t fix that software problem. I’m just waiting for the time that we can buy that MacBook Pro 15″

MBP Specs

-Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo 2 x (2.5 Ghz / 6 MB L2 Cache) sequence

-2 GB RAM (2 x 1GB)

-NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3

-8x SuperDrive (DVD dual layer)

-1 FireWire 400

-1 FireWire 800

-2 USB 2.0

-ExpressCard/34 slot

-Built-in iSight cam

-DVI (DVI to VGA adapter included)

-Combined optical digital input audio line in and out

-Stereo speakers

-Microphone

-Gigabit Ethernet

-Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11 a/b/g/n)

-Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

-250 GB HDD partitioned into two (170 GB for the Mac OS X, 80 GB for Win XP Pro)

-Alcohol 120% (XP Pro)

iPod Classic woes

A few weeks before, I published an article about my new iPod Classic. Although it was mainly positive, I recenly had woes with it. I will provide you my full text on my Apple Support forums topic.

I’ve been using my iPod Classic for weeks and did encounter problems until recently, I connected my iPod to my Computer to sync a Photo. iTunes displayed ‘The iPod |********| cannot be synced. An unknown error occurred (-50)’. I think I need to restore it BUT I enabled disk use and use it to back up some of my important data (I sometimes need some of my data when I’m travelling). Although I still have the original copies, the photos I took during my vacation was stored there (I used the computer from the internet cafe to transfer it to the iPod’s disk use feature). Restoring it would remove ALL of the data stored in my iPod. Also, after disconnecting it, it would be stuck to the ‘OK to disconnect’ message. This was for a few seconds before but now it hangs on that message. I really hate my devices hanging. Tried reseting (holding the Menu button and the middle button for 6 seconds ) it but it would hang on the Apple logo on screen. It will show me the Main Menu after reseting it twice. It hangs on the videos menu also! These events led me to the conclusion that I need to reset it. I tried the suggestions on the Apple Support and the sites that were returned after I Googled my iPod problem. Please help me. I’m really out of my luck.

EDIT (6/3/08): Power Mac Center folks said that the iPod’s Hard Drive is broken, currently they are trying to fix it OR if my iPod is PERMANENTLY broken, they will replace it for free because it is still under warranty, anyway thank you for all the helpful emails that I receieved.

Avoiding Adobe Flash Player

I read about two bookmarklets that helps you avoid the Flash baggage when streaming YouTube Videos. Safari 3.1 (Windows and Mac), Opera (all versions) eat up A LOT OF CPU USAGE when streaming YouTube Videos. You don’t believe me? Try streaming a YouTube video or visiting a Flash-enabled page and try playing an offline Full-3D game or launch Adobe Photoshop and you will notice the slowdown. You will notice that your game / Photoshop would have A LOT OF lagging — meaning slower process. You don’t experience this problem if you are using Internet Exploder. I don’t know if that problem exists on Firefox, because I don’t use it. Period. I will share both of them here at my article.

 

QuickTimeYouTube

Drag that link to your bookmarks bar. That would make the QuickTime Player plug-in as your YouTube player — this would make your YouTube streaming a little faster. AND it makes the video better (read: better quality).

 

YouTube as mp4

 

Drag this at you bookmarks bar. This one does not switch your YouTube Player to another plugin but it provides you a link for you to download it a .mp4  Period. Right Click on the link and select Save Target As. and select a location.

 

That’s it! Those are the two bookmarklets that I read about! I’ve been enjoying the ‘better’ side of YouTube!! hehehe… Instead of accessing it through my browser’s cache, I’m now downloading it as mp4 that makes it sweat-free. No Converting. No Flash Baggage!!

Dream Tech

What’s your dream tech? I want to have a Nokia N82 smartphone, this 15.4″ WXGA laptop, 17″ MacBook Pro, a USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Portable Hard Drive, iPod Touch 32 GB, iPod Classic 160 GB, and a Rimowa suitcase. Just watched Hitman where, Agent 47 , the protagonist, owns a Rimowa suitcase that perfectly holds his Blazer sniper rifle, C4 explosives, and a twin caliber 45 gun. Hehehe. I wonder if I own a Rimowa suitcase that holds my tech gadgets. Wow, that one would make my life. So how about you, what’s your dream tech? I would like to hear from you.

Internet Connections Problem? Try this solution.

My friend, if you yourself experience that G** D***** internet speed fluctuation, try changing your DNS settings. Please do note what is your original DNS settings in case this does not work. Also, if you have a bit of a problem following my instructions you may visit the OpenDNS site. OpenDNS is a company that provides free DNS service. Set your Primary DNS to 208.67.222.222 ; secondary DNS to 208.67.220.220. The problem that you encounter is actually the slow DNS that your ISP provides. Anyway if you have a problem understanding that steps check out the OpenDNS site.

Microsoft’s Office Open XML(OOXML) gets ISO Approval

I read at the Information Technology of a newspaper that OOXML got an ISO Standard. What the F***!!

The ‘open’ format was developed ONLY by Microsoft themselves, huh? According to the article that
Microsoft submitted the source-code to ECMA (European Computer Manufacturer’s Association) under the Open Specification Promise (OSP).Hmmm… Sounds like Microsoft is planning to ’open’ up their formats. 
Open Source advocates are somewhat divided over the ISO Standard accreditation.

Some say that it is just a way Microsoft uses to expand it’s ’control’ over the market. Microsoft said
they are just offering a ’choice’ for people to use. I agree with Microsoft’s argument. :)

Imagine having ODF ONLY as the format that you could save your files. And your application (let’s
just say MS Word with a plugin installed to save in .odt) has a problem reading and/or writing on the format. That would be a GREAT problem for others, right? Other Open Source
advocates welcomed Microsoft’s decision. For me Microsoft must ALSO support ODF. This would help boost the format alongside with OOXML. For other Open Source advocates who disagree with Microsoft, I must say you must first try before you complain. In that way you could know if Microsoft is really sincere or planning something to kill the competition.