February 11, 2010 

Buzzing on Google

I wasn’t very excited by Google Buzz when it was announced especially when Facebook has already taken over the social networking market. There aren’t many people I know who don’t use Facebook. However, I’m liking the information stream much more than Facebook. It feels and looks cleaner, and Google has beaten Facebook in regard of aggregating content.

Buzz is a a much better aggregator than trying to individually manage each independent feed (especially in Google Reader). One could use Yahoo! Pipes or some other feed aggregating service to pull all this information together. People are generally lazy though, which is largely the reason why I never bothered to do such a task.

Google isn’t really in the social computing market so far (ignoring Orkut), and the services they provide don’t necessarily translate to such a platform (though they can). That is one advantage I would promote Google over Facebook. You basically start out with nothing, and build up what information you optionally want to show.

Facebook is the exact opposite of this; they provide “everything” (by this, I mean commonly used applications) and try to monopolize your information. Facebook’s options to include outside sites in their feeds is very hidden and tucked away, whereas Google makes this much easier and open and gives users more freedom.

Google Buzz also wins in the “privacy” area simply because the content you include is optional. You don’t have to include your Flickr photostream, your Twitter account, and so forth. Facebook has failed in their privacy controls by making them overly complex and granular for users. The backlash they received contributes to it, but I don’t blame Facebook entirely for their privacy problems.

The one thing I would like to see is bouncing replies or comments back to the original source. It don’t believe it is an easy problem to solve. Not everyone using Google has an account at the various sites people choose to include for aggregation. Also, there are many features that some social networking sites have because they are a specialized site. Flickr is a community built around photo sharing, YouTube for videos, Twitter for communication, and the list goes on. Facebook tries to solve this problem by locking you in to their platform.

I think it’s an interesting application, but I suspect it’ll be another tiresome “one of those things I have to check.” I have no problems logging into Facebook, Twitter, or Google Reader to catch up on what is going on within my own social network. Google just makes it easier to read all of it without having to jump all over the Internet playground.

January 27, 2010 

My Thoughts on the iPad

I think Apple has made a very wise choice by devleoping the iPad and announcing it today. I agree with Steve Jobs that the netbook is dead. Actually, I never thought it was alive from the start. Netbooks also seemed like crippled devices, and I couldn’t understand or justify paying a lump sum of money for hardware that was only to be used for browsing the Internet. I would rather much prefer an iPhone or an Android phone, or even a regular laptop, over a netbook.

Apple really seems to be pushing the all-in-one be-all end-all solution for general consumers’ computing needs with the iPad. I seriously think that just the introduction of the iPad is going to revolutionize future devices even more so. Being closed isn’t so bad in Apple’s case. They have been continuously creating revolutions for years and years. The iPad actually reminds me of the various futuristic devices seen in movies. They are devices that very small and compartmentalized but yet seem to do so much.

I like that it’s a larger iTouch. The iTouch, while a nifty device, never felt more than a novelty to me considering that it’s nothing but a stripped-down iPhone and beefed-up iPod on a teeny-tiny screen. Apple has certainly created a very nice platform with their store of applications, and it is certainly nice to not have to worry about managing the nitty-gritty underpinnings of the operating system (me, being a crazy computer user).

I would love to lug around a slim-profile computer around especially to my living room where I can do a quick web browsing during live TV without having to switch inputs to my living room PC (whose only purpose if for gaming anyway) or walking the 20 feet back to my other computer (despite how small my apartment is, it’s very annoying to do and I spend enough time in my room as it is).

However, my lifestyle also does not necessarily beg the need for an iPad much like I don’t need a smartphone either. There is rarely a time that I am not near a computer throughout the day. Being a full-time programmer requires me to use a computer. I hardly travel anywhere besides commuting to work everyday by car. It would be a stupid idea and a death wish to use a computer while driving. I am doing some kind of physical activity nearly everyday or taking care of household tasks that computers can’t do. The free time I do have isn’t much, and usually by that time I am ready to fall asleep.

I realize why I can’t get excited about the iPad. Apple’s technologies don’t provide me with any advantage over what I can already do now on my own systems. I still believe that watching movies and listening to music and shrunken devices is a very cheapening experience. Apple still isn’t at the point where they can compete with the video game industry despite that developers have created casual, mobile games. That is the one area that I think where they can at least decently compete with Nintendo.

I think Apple has hit a very good price point for it. The cost of Apple’s technologies has always been a huge turnoff for me because I don’t feel they offer a justifiable value for what they offer at their price. $500 as a base price plus the data pricing plans ($30 for unlimited data) is incredibly attractive. Bu I honestly thought Apple was going to develop a better non-app-based system at least running Mac OS X and having a decent solid state drive. I don’t discredit them though; I really like think they are onto something in the world of computers.

January 9, 2010 

My Favorite Game of All Time

My sister gave me The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for Christmas, and I have been fastidiously trying to complete it since the holiday. The whole concept of the game — conducting a train and restoring train tracks connected to ancient spirits — is rather odd, but Nintendo has made the adventure entertaining. The game is enjoyable, but its experience is rather detaching.

My personal favorite incarnation of the Zelda series, and also my choice for best video game of all time, is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The game is over a decade old now and was released on hardware that is considerably dated by today’s standards. No Zelda game comes close to its standard save for its sequel, Majora’s Mask, which is a close contender.

The game’s plot and pacing is one of mystery and excitement that really makes the player personally vested in the adventure. The introduction to the game is dark and mysterious that suddenly forces the player to immediately take the role of Link, the Hero of Time. Little background is revealed about Link and the game, but it sets up a responsibility that is almost overwhelming that is slowly discovered as the game progresses. Once the player progresses enough, the plot becomes more comfortable and familiar while retaining the sense of new adventure throughout the game.

The other strong point of the game is the time-travelling concept, one of the most common science fiction plot devices, that really shapes the entire adventure. The player initially controls Link as a child, and then is suddenly forced into adulthood (through a seven-year slumber of time travel magic) to save Hyrule. The evil that has spread over seven years changes locations and their inhabitants, and the player has to time-travel back and forth to restore the balance to the world.

Each step that the player takes and every completed task brings about a sense of accomplishment. The game creates an emotional evoking environment, a “big picture” painting of the universe, that becomes the player’s personal world. Actions that the player does in the past affects situations in the future, and it’s done in a very compartmentalized manner. The game’s presentation treads lightly on the cinematic front and holds back from overdoing it so that it doesn’t detract from a full interactive gaming experience.

Few games come close to the emotional experience of Ocarina of Time but often remove the player from full immersion by providing much more backstory that creates something akin to an interactive movie instead. What I think makes it the greatest game above all is that it is the archetype of good versus evil without the complex grey area of morality that other games have. The game becomes an emotional investment right from the start drawing you in until the ending scene that leaves you with a breath of relief and wonderment of everything that you had done before.

December 5, 2009 

The Story of Jackie Chan

This was a dream a friend of mine once had in high school. He posted it on a message forum for our improv troupe. I saved it for a really long time, and was doing some cleanup on my hard drive when I found it.

So I had this hilarious dream and I HAD to post it here.

Matt Chan and I were in an English class taught by Mr. Barry, and that cruel bully, Ray Chandler, was also in the class, terrorizing all of us and being a general menace. But there was nothing either of us could do, as he was big and scary.

So Mr. Barry was showing everyone in class some of the things he did when he was little, and one of them was a card he made for one of his teachers. The card said, “Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, Mr. McChan!” Now, I was trying to figure out exactly what the hell an Irish Chinese guy would look like, and that’s when it hit me:

Irish + Chinese = SUPERHUMAN!!

Matt and I merely needed to combine powers to combat 3v1l!! So, in an anime-like seizure inducing high-five that transformed us into a 1337, cool, super guy.

But who was this guy, you may ask?

Jack + Chan= JACKIE CHAN!!

Thus, as Jackie Chan, we challenged the 3v1l ray chandler to a duel, and he surrendered in fear.

My subconscious is as crazy as I am.

December 1, 2009 

The Annual Thanksgiving Cousins Picture

Cousins

Many thanks to give
for the people in our lives
and times together

November 9, 2009 

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

With each passing day, I’ve been noticing more and more that people seem to lack a sense of foresight. You can blame technology for this which has afforded us with such convenience and affordability that instant gratification has spoiled us so badly that we expect everything to be so easily provided. I won’t say that this is the only cause, but it is a factor. I’m thinking that it’s even more basic than that. I believe it’s about survival which is manifesting in people’s desire to maintain control of their world even if it interferes and disrupts the lives of others.

There are things that people can’t control no matter how hard they try, and often people will complain because they can’t get what they want. Most complaints I hear are knee-jerk reactions, short-sighted, and lacking perspective. The only perspective is that of the complainer’s and it is usually a self-serving interest. These will too easily commit all sorts of logical fallacies for the sake of “argument” under the illusion that whoever can talk louder or faster can claim the title of being “right” and win what is basically a shouting match. The world is bigger than any one individual’s life.

I’m reminded of an experiment one of my professors told our class about randomness. People had a choice between choosing Object A or Object B and would receive either a reward or punishment (a mild shock) depending on which object they chose. The reward/punishment system was random every round when the subject made a choice about which object to pick. Our professor also told us that the same experiment had been given to monkeys. Animal rights aside, what the researchers discovered was that the monkeys learned that choosing the same object over and over yielded more reward in the long term. The human subjects didn’t produce results as good as the monkeys. You could question various aspects of the test, but it doesn’t change what it highlights.

Resistance is very destructive and people seem to go this route more often than trying to find resolution in harmony. I knew someone in high school had a shirt that read, “Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.” The mob mentality, when composed of narrow-minded views and poor application, reflects badly on everyone. Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy (things usually never are) solution to fix this, and doing so would need a large amount of time before any change occurs. Trying to upheave and replace an entire social culture all at once would be chaotic.

It’s an emergent behavior that makes me want to avoid people because everyone seems to be looking out for themselves instead of each other. I don’t want to partake in that, and it suppose it’s a reason why my choices and behavior don’t seem “logical” to others even though all I am doing is, in a sense, trying to survive. It’s all anyone is trying to do.

September 23, 2009 

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum is one of the most impressive games I have played in a very long time. Right when I played through the demo, I could tell this was a game that was definitely needs to be played. After garnering such acclaim from every video game review source, it is not surprising that this game deserves so much praise.

One of the best things about this game is that it is a very original story written by Paul Dini, a veteran Batman writer whose work includes Batman: The Animated Series (a very good and mature cartoon series from the 1990′s). Voice actors from the animated series also reprise their respective roles in this game. Kevin Conroy, whose has been the longstanding voice of any animated Batman incarnation, instantly makes the iconic hero’s presence that much greater the moment you hear it. It stands out right from the start. Opposite Kevin Conroy is Mark Hamill as The Joker who also manages to really show you what kind of mania and destruction he is going to cause right as the game takes off. The moment these two characters go at it, you already know that you’re in for a ride. Arleen Sorkin lends her voice as Harley Quinn once again, and the interplay between her, Batman, and Joker really sets up the entire adventure.

Most free roaming games I’ve played haven’t been too thrilling (except for the Grand Theft Auto series and Mafia) mainly because they don’t really take advantage of this huge environment they have available to them. The entire game takes place on Arkham Island (which houses various buildings of Arkham Asylum) keeping Batman confined until the game is over. This makes the game’s entire storyline more coherent because it creates a sense that the madness on the island has to be stopped. Had the game taken place in Gotham City, the game would probably let the played walk around to do whatever until he was ready to take on a new mission; it’s a feeling of the typical crime-fighting night for Batman with a detached “epic storyline” to it. On Arkham Island, there are no random civilians to save or crimes to be stopped as you roam around. Arkham Asylum gives you purpose and meaning for every action you take. Every subplot is just part of the larger story at hand. Nothing ever feels out of place in the game from the trove of classic Batman foes to the hidden trophies scattered around the island with clues from The Riddler.

The real gem of the game is that it puts the player in full control of Batman. There is no walking around and fighting you way through each “level” (a term relative to 2-D side-scrollers but 3-D games tend to do as well) to get to an end boss and move on. You can sneak up on foes and silently take them out, utilize a variety of bat gadgets, glide through the air, and perform all sorts of combative moves. The game is more focused on what Batman needs to perform rather than being designed as a bunch of discrete events cobbled together by a crippled, half-baked gameplay that you see in other typical games. This is especially true of movie tie-ins which do a bad job of rehashing one work into an entirely different medium. The line, “It’s not who I am underneath, but it’s what I do that defines me,” (Batman Begins) is an appropriate quote for this game. Thankfully, Batman’s suit is also not invincible against gunfire. A quick barrage of bullets will take you out which emphasizes the stealthy role Batman needs to take when the inmates are running the asylum. As a classic “good guys win, bad guys lose” deal, the game is made to set you up for victory, but you have to put in the effort for it, and the experience never feels cheapened because of it.

Arkham Asylum is a complete Batman experience. Everything little detail of the game blends and flows together so well that it is hard to find almost any flaw. It does Batman a huge sense of justice because it perfectly captures the epitome of his character. It is one of those rare, well developed video games that can take a concept, transform it, and deliver a package of art.

September 16, 2009 

Smart Smart, Dumb Dumb

I’ve been thinking lately about what makes smart people smart and dumb people dumb. These are just varying degrees of intelligence which can be broken down into a process of pattern recognition, memory retainment, and application. How well someone goes through this process reflects how smart or dumb other people will perceive them to be. This is process is known as learning.

The patterns I’ve seen of people learning typically fall into one of two categories: motivated people and lazy people. The motivated people were the “smart” people in school. They were the ones who received high grades, honors, participated in various events, activities, and whatnot. The other category were the slackers and cheaters. These people drag other people down with them.

The difference between the two is that one group of people recognized that hard work yield bigger rewards and benefits than lackadaisicalness while the other group recognized that doing the bare minimum, scraping just barely by, is enough to survive. I guess we develop these patterns early on as children when our infantile brains are trying to make sense of the world and continue developing these patterns as we grow up. People eventually fall into certain same behavioral patterns that characterized by what they remember and how they apply those memories.

Learning doesn’t have to stop after being in an education for some 20 odd years. Lack of stimulation will make you dumb and lazy, but ultimately the motivation for learning is to survive. All we really need is water and food. A domicile, in the basic sense, is not necessary but provides stability for sociality. In a developed, economic society, the lack of skill sets (in a simply put way) leads to joblessness which means no income which means no sustenance.

Some people seem to recognize patterns earlier or faster than others, and these are the people who get ahead in life for better or for worse. Others don’t learn as quickly. It’s hard to tell whether it’s something biological or whether it’s the  presentation of information. Getting those slower ones to learn requires a different methodology, and that’s just another pattern.

Everywhere I go, I keep seeing patterns: traffic patterns, the way people drive, how people talk, how people code, what people write, instant gratification, long-term rewards, movies, media, trends of all sorts, and the list goes on and on. What to do with all these patterns? I guess the appropriate response (but not necessarily required) is to apply what I’ve observed.

August 25, 2009 

I’m a Windows 7

Months ago, I rambled about Mac versus PC and what my personal preferences were. After running Ubuntu Linux for about a year as a media center PC, I have gotten fed up with it enough that I wanted to move to a different system. My main gripe was that it seemed any software I wanted to run for a media center PC was always getting stiffed because of my particular configuration (AMD64 Linux) or some strange hardware oddities (like how my motherboard will absolutely fail with certain RAM modules).

For some time, I was deciding what kind of configuration to set up in my home. I was pondering switching my media center to a Mac Mini and moving the Ubuntu Linux box as my main computer. The problem was that I would still have my old Dell computer leftover. I had also thought about getting an Xbox360, but the idea of basically adding another PC into my living room didn’t sit that well with me because then I would still have an extra computer leftover. I thought about getting a new laptop, but I’m hardly mobile. It would have been pointless, and all I would do is use it to ssh access into my Linux computer from my couch or dining room table which is a whole 6 feet away from the computer.

I had been wanting to get a Mac laptop for some time, but the hefty price tag for hardware that can’t be upgraded is very unattractive. After using OS X at work for a long time, I decided it was not what I really wanted. The operating system does some very nice things automatically under the hood that you don’t have to worry about, and configuration of the system is very easy. However, what I don’t like is largely the Mac Finder. Its presentation of file system browsing doesn’t really fit me. The other thing about Macs is that I get this uneasy feeling that Apple is always hiding something from me. As nice as Macs are, I feel it’s a little too simplified for the kind of user that I am.

I decided to skip Windows Vista because of all the bad press it was getting, and it was mainly driver support that did it in early on before the problems were fixed. The new Aero theme was not attractive to me either. It basically looked like Microsoft slapped on an ugly skin to the very old and very classic look-and-feel of earlier versions of Windows. My only real experience with Windows Vista was within a virtualized environment (Parallels running on a Mac). Windows Vista seemed okay (now that it’s been out for a few years), but it looked like it still needed lots of polish and trim.

I bit the bullet and downloaded the Windows 7 Release Candidate a few days before downloads closed on Microsoft’s website. Early reports of the beta and release candidate seemed to say that this was a very good operating system, but I was skeptical. After backing up data over several days (via wireless SFTP, ew) I installed the release candidate and was very impressed by the new operating system. Overall, the presentation is nice, a lot simpler than previous versions of Windows. Configuration and settings are organized neatly while advanced settings aren’t too hard to find beyond that (and I almost didn’t need to even touch those settings).

The new taskbar is a very nice change. Despite the parallels to the Mac OS X dock, its implementation is much better because of it previews and highlights the windows rather than stack window titles in a huge list. The included Windows Media Center is also one very nice piece of software that works very well with the system. XBMC was nice, but there were things about it that felt too convoluted (not that configuring it was hard at all). Windows Media Center’s presentation almost makes everything a no-brainer. What also sold me is that Microsoft has better market share for software. I didn’t want to dink around with Linux anymore (or even try on Mac OS X), and I was already very used to lots of (free) software readily available for Windows.

I’ve liked the release candidate so much that I immediately want to upgrade my Windows XP system. Windows XP is admittedly getting old but vastly improved on its predecessors. Windows 7 does that same thing to Windows XP in a new era. I’ve read that this the operating system Windows Vista should have been originally, and it certainly seems so. It looks like a Windows Vista that was done with the right, smart decisions from the beginning. I think Microsoft has something very good on their hands with this operating system.

July 16, 2009 

Inherting Photography

Nikon

I recently purchased a Nikon D60 upgrading 4.5 years of using my Canon PowerShot S70. My previous camera had was compact, but had some “advanced” features (aperture priority, shutter priority, etc.) that wasn’t found on other cameras. I hardly ever got really understand what all those things meant, so I kept using the thing in Auto mode.

Photography has always interested me ever since when I was a kid. I picked it up from my dad because he would always bring it everywhere we went or anything we did together as a family. I didn’t understand any of the concepts of photography back then, but the mysticality of the device that magically captured moments of life (and light) on a tiny roll of film intrigued me.

This fascination with cameras and photography is almost genetic in my family. My oldest uncle on my dad’s side is a real, legitimate photographer. I remember I sometimes would have to stand for what seemed like an eternity holding a reflector so he could take a picture of my sister. When I wasn’t holding the reflector, I would often have to sit for a long time.

I had been wanting to purchase a new camera for a long time, but I was hesitant what to get. After I purchased my PowerShot S70, the whole market went in the way of small, compact digital cameras. They were great for the consumer market since they were easy (and fun) to use because of their simplicity. I had considered getting one of these because it would’ve just suited my needs of taking pictures of random things as life goes by. I was also considering higher-end consumer cameras that were like my PowerShot S70, and I was deciding for a long time which one to get. These types of cameras were better than the compact ones I didn’t want yet they still felt limited in addition to their bulkiness.

After much discussion, a friend of mine helped me narrow down what I wanted and that is how I ended up with the Nikon D60. It has been out for about a year now so the price was good. Anything else would have been a little more than I would have been willing to spend. I’m starting to really pick up a lot of new things about it though I will still need lots of practice and experimentation. I have discovered that lenses can last very long (if you take good care of them), and that camera bodies (rhe digital ones in this time period) depreciate quickly and “upgrades” will always be available. This purchase may have set me back a lot finanically, but it’s so nice to have photos with such clarity and sharpness (even on Auto mode) and no limitation of the distance (or not as much as my previous camera) between the lens and subject.

I feel like this camera is a worthwhile purchase. It will give me incentive to go out and use it and discover new things in the process. I doubt I will ever trod anywhere near professional level (not that I could afford to be professional either). Being a (somewhat uneducated, uninformed, naïve consumer) hobbyist is good enough for me.

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