Back and Running! To a new direction…

Posted by Emory on July 16, 2009

This is a LONGEST POST I’ve ever done so far…

New beginning, or should I say a new start of a new year half. It’s already been a painful experience, but today I’m going to blog out many Many MANY things in one go. Hopefully I will maintain my blog more this time. Due to many current events that happened to my life, I’ve grown a bit. Not to say much because the world is still a tough place to live. I’m not bragging much on it, but it is.

APRIL 09

Computer Issue:
The beginning of the worst months of my life. My HDD (Hard Disk Drive) died on me. Curse you Seagate!!! I’ve been so bad luck in HDD’s ever since the beginning of my life with computers. First Western Digital, next Maxtor, then now Seagate? I hate these companies that are BIG at making HDDs but fail to make the durability of the HDDs.

I know that Maxtor was bought over by Seagate. And now the worst became the worstest… (Pardon my English here) I did have an experience of my Maxtor HDD failed on me 2 times, even after service!!! The first time is my HDD completely stopped. But I was able to recover half of the data. Then I sent it to servicing, after a month later, the HDD came back with a little bug inside. Now that HDD is placed under my computer table, at my Kuching home, left there unattained for it to rust and maybe next spring cleaning, I’ll try to rescue it. See if it works again.

Western Digital failed on me once too… That was when I’m using that little bugger to store my works inside it. Having it lost gave me a freaking panic!!! Good thing my friend was there to help me rescue the data for the first time. Then the next few incidents with Maxtor was routine work.

Although your burial is not as USD1.4 Million expensive, I’d rather toss you into the can and keep the casket… Enough with the Hard Disk Drives!!!

Work:
Darn, it’s been tougher month this month too… I can’t believe that my boss actually raised the bar till I can’t work properly. Toughest challenge here is to make myself even better. Because I’m not an art student to say for first, I admit I still have problems drawing people figures so perfectly that they resemble the Vitruvian Man’s scale… I can’t just become like Akira Toriyama in one night!!!

My friends told me that I’ve improved so much already. I’m not sure. It seems that I wanted to be better, I just don’t know how. Haih…

MAY 09

Myself:
This month I learnt a lot emotionally. First off, a string of bad luck fell upon me, and I am sorry for those who I made upset. I’m sorry that I was selfish enough to disregard everyone’s feelings. I just can’t think right and it was my fault. I’m sorry things didn’t happen they way it should be. I’m sorry ya?

Mostly people will think what is going on here, I would like to remain it private for the best.

Computer Issue 2:
I’ve been using Ubuntu since my HDD failed on me. Seems like there is no signs of life for my HDD now. All sign points to dead. My reference data are all gone, songs, movies, videos, idea references, texts, information, photos, all… gone to the depths of oblivion if it wasn’t for that wretched Seagate. Now all I have is a 4GB Pendrive envo USB to get my system running again.

I’ve been using Ubuntu 9.04 Jackalope on my EEE. It runs smoothly since I’m not running any other software other than Firefox 3 (That keeps crashing), Pidgin Messenger (A very nice multi-IM client), and some video and music playback softwares. Most notably VLC after installing it.

I had to create a virtual USB that can boot the Ubuntu Live CD, then install it into the 4GB pendrive. And after installation, voila! A temporary usable OS in a stick. Yes, In a stick, pop it and lock on! The only thing I can complain on is the only 1GB of space left for me to use.

JUNE 09

Gaming Industry:

First off, Nintendo. It’s been a good run for Nintendo after their launch. With the success of the Wii and DS lines, they are indeed “printing” their own money out of these products. Introducing new ways of gameplay to consumers is the next best thing. But sadly their throne is about to be taken away by some of the new gameplay methods made by the “other people”. Only the new Nintendo Wii Motion Plus is introduced.

The Wii Motion Plus will add more sensitivity in tracking. Being even more responsive than the Wiimote. That is pretty a good step, I hear many people complain about the lack of accuracy when using the Wiimote. But anyways, there is a glove that holds the Wiimote and Motion Plus together, it enhances the grip of the Wiimote also but it made it fraking UGLY!!

There is another new addition to the controls. Introducing, Wii Vitality Sensor!!!

Yes, now you are going to be playing games with your pulse! Imagine a game that you uses your pulse to control many things!!! Or the game needs you to cool down in order to escape from horrifying in game death!!! Many people thought that Nintendo is starting to lose their magic and came out with something very rash! Well, investors may go WTF?! Nintendo lacked introduction to the application of that device in gameplay… The only gameplay I can see for it is like for the Wii Fit. Which Ironically is a hit, but an exercise device? I’d rather go out in the blazing sun!

And also, new games for Wii and DS. Only one game caught my eyes dearly. That game was THE BEST JRPG game I’ve ever played in a Gameboy. With awesome gameplay, puzzles, story and treasures!!! YESH!!! Treasuresssss… The game that I’m talking about only had 2 series, a prequel and a sequel. Now, back with another hit but in the DS this time,

I will have you Golden Sun DS, I so damn will…

Now Sony. It’s been a blast seeing Sony still can maintain it’s place after notable games started to become multiplatform. Games like Grand Theft Auto 4 and Final Fantasy 13 already ported to multi consoles. And developers really getting a pain in the arse trying to develop games for the PS3. Seems like there is a new hardware to ‘keep’ things alive. Introducing, the motion sensor by PS3.

Yes, it looks like a thing with a glowing golf ball stuck on top of it. Anyways, the tracking is 1 to 1 tracking, meaning it won’t be so irresponsive when swinging that thing all around the place. Sadly, that thing is not the final design. Seems like Sony likes to tease people with odd controllers, even the PS3 banana controller!!! good thing they stick to the old normal controller design.

As you can see… The movement is absolutely gorgeous! Perfectly made for REAL HARDCORE GAMING EXPERIENCE for the PS3. The input method is actually tracking the whole thing wirelessly and with Sony PS3’s EYEtoy, It looks good! I hope Sony really can pull new hardcore gameplay into life.

I almost forgotten about this little fella. Introducing a new line in the PSP family.

This is actually a redesign of the PSP line. They made this PSP UMDless… Meaning there won’t be the disk you need to pop into the player. How do you play the games then? Download them via the PlayStation Network. It will have internal memory of 16GB for those downloadable data. Movies, Music and also Games in one tiny little thing. Many people wanted another analogue stick. Maybe Sony’s waiting it for something else. (PSP2?)

But the winner of all this E3 is not Sony or Nintendo… You betcha…

Microsoft is going pretty far fetched this time and it win many people’s hearts! Firstly, I’d like to talk about Alan Wake.

Sorry for the poor video Quality… If can, watch this video in a new window by clicking on to the YouTube logo and remember to click HQ.

Alan Wake, a game that is made by Remedy (The team that brings you Max Payne series). The game took a LONG time for the developers to make it to people’s houses. It’s pretty lame that it took much development just to make the game look like that. I hope the storyline is good enough to beat GTA4. The game is a good concept. Same as many horror games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and also Fatal Frame, this is made by Westerns… I hope it brings the Stephen King out to creep people out. (No, it’s not based on any works by Stephen King…)

The other thing I want to talk about gaming is. I bet most people already knew about it…

Microsoft Project Natal

What is Natal? Project Natal is actually Microsoft’s version of motion tracking and this beats the hell out of Nintendo and also Sony. Why? It’s full body motion tracking, including voice recognition, 3D depth vision (because it has 2 cameras), and also facial recognition.

This is the most advanced technology being made for households. There are many uses to Natal, (I’ll cover that on my Microsoft post soon) Movies, Games, Music… It’s basically changing how a household would become in the next few years. Gaming consoles is not just for gaming anymore. With many people synching it with the internet. The future is starting to appear one by one. It’s really nice to live in this era where technology changed so fast. And Microsoft’s vision has made that happen with the risk of the first Xbox. It’s not just a concept unit. People really started to make things for Natal!

This is an actual game! Just not in stores yet. Talk about AI in the future. A personal avatar inside your living room, talking to you, reminding you. It’s basically a TV version of Tamagotchi. Good for lonely people who lives alone. (Otaku’s may rejoice after Japanese companies start to abuse this project for something… Else…)

With that, I end this post on gaming. The future is here.

(There is a special post for Michael Jackson soon after this post…)

JULY 09

Now with many research, I ended up with Sama-sama, together, with Samsung! A new brand in my lists of good products. I was aiming for Hitachi, but Samsung is there for my rescue and so as my wallet’s. I formatted the HDD with a USB Pendrive. Yes, A pendrive. I never formatted a PC with a pendrive before. Usually I’d just pop in the CD and let it run like the wind! It was tough learning things for the first time, but after a while IT’s ALL GOOOOOOOD!!!

Running XP again, with 160GB Samsung HDD. I’m so damn happy now.

Now let us swoosh back in time again…

DOWNLOADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!

Work:
I think it’s time I get a proper job and i think it’s best to change temporarily. It’s actually nothing much but I’ve decided that this is a good change. I can’t even keep my comic job because it is so unstable. Suddenly you meet the standard, the next it was raised till higher up! Talk about sudden changes. I’ve had it with people messing up my plans. This is not what I’ve expected and I’m getting tired of topping myself. I do want to have this job as my career, but it’s best to stabilize my own life first before I jump into the bandwagon again if I know what’s good for me.

I’m so looking forward to this new job. It seems challenging, facing people everyday and selling magazine subscriptions to them. It will be a good change and I’ll fight hard for this to earn back what I have lost for all those time up till now.

Anyone wants a magazine subscription? I can toss you a pretty nice deal! (More on that next month… ) I’m so FREAKING excited over this job. I hope I get to see the rest of Malaysia with this job. : )

Books:

Nuff said… I’m getting this book!

And that’s all I can update for now. Next up? Microsoft or Michael Jackson?