With no immediate projects to keep me busy, I thought I’d wire up the playstation 2, which I bought almost half a year ago, and give the games a try.

Kratos vs the World

I’ve been hearing friends talking about God of War and God of War 2 being super awesome. So I tried GoW 1 first. I got stuck many times. And I have no patience at it. So I went looking for cheats. Having found none, I had to resort to the walkthrough. I did complete the game, under easy, and after a lot of frustration.

I play games under easy because I wanna get through it and see what its all about. I know, people say games are meant to be played under normal difficulty, at least. But when I bought the ps2, the deal includes getting over 100 titles. Thus, naturally, I have a desire to play them all… quickly.

Anyway, God of War is awesome. Gameplay wise and also storyline wise. I dislike all the irritating reattempts at puzzle-like, platform-style elements of the game. But that’s just me. People seem to like those parts too.

I wanted to know the rest of the story of Kratos, so I played GoW 2 right after I completed GoW 1. And guess what? I got impatient too. I started looking for cheats and walkthroughs again. Then I found this awesome cool idea on youtube.

Someone actually recorded the game as he played it. He then uploaded it to youtube as ‘walkthroughs’. It’s damn useful man! Not just to use it as walkthrough, but to just watch, fast forward, and skip to parts that you wanna see in the game, without having to go through the game itself. At first I used it as a guide, but later, I stopped playing entirely and skipped through the videos to check out the storyline.

Real gamers would be really disgusted by now if they’re reading this post.

So why oh why did I study in the game development and multimedia course?

One reason is because I THOUGHT I liked playing games. Apparently, I’m more of a story guy. Games need an awesome story for it to succeed. That’s one of the criterias for a successful game. For me, I just want to have a taste of the gameplay and move on to the story. I just wanna sample the gameplay and then get the whole idea of the story.

But one thing I do realise now, after the course, is that it’s super difficult to make games. I really appreciate every single thing I see in God of War. The smooth combat controls, the camera following, the level designs, the in game animations, the AI, and so many others.

And once I completed the game, there’s a making of video that was unlocked. I really respect those guys man… It takes 3 years to complete the game. And to see how it develops… brings back memories back when me and my group made Rift, my first ever game.

However, there is one genre which I like above others. Real Time Strategy. I don’t mean I like this genre only, sometimes I get sick of it too. When that happens, platform or fighting games would be refreshing. But otherwise, I think I’m more of a PC gamer, playing on my mouse and using hotkeys. Even so, I hated Warcraft 3, which so many people loved. But I do love titles like Company of Heroes (best!) and Age of Mythology, Rise of Nations, Starcraft (classic!), Command and Conquer (classic), Red Alert (classic!). C&C Generals too.

I also like SIM games or games with micro management. Well, to a certain extent.

Oh man, hands hurting from typing and holding the controller. I’m done.

Think back to the old days when you have restricted bandwidth, restricted online time, super slow speeds… Sure, the material on the net isn’t as cool and dynamic as they are now. But didn’t you spend a great deal of time READING, rather than watching pointless videos, looking at pointless pictures, skipping whatever text that comes with it? Hell, you would even download the TEXT because you won’t want to spend the time online. You know that if you do that, you will slowly deplete your monthly online time limit.

Look at what unlimited bandwidth and online time has done to us. I’ll tell you what its done to me. I took everything for granted. When ‘mighty’ Starhub got complacent and started doing maintenance (which means downtime for the users) in the middle of the day, I found myself to be completely useless without the net. I can’t look for resources, tutorials, inspiration, all that. I realise that there seem to be very little I can do, offline.

When I scour the net, I didn’t really READ the content. I know they’re good content, which is why I bookmarked them. It’s become a habit. I have this folder tab on my Firefox bookmark toolbar, which I call Articles. Anything useful, interesting or beneficial I found on the net, (mostly through my RSS feeds), I drag and drop the tab into that folder, thinking that I’ll read them later.

In the case of resources and tutorials, I thought I’ll store them first so I can come back, download and then try them out. But no… the list piles up. It kept getting bigger and bigger. I see an interesting article,I bookmark it, and then I forget it.

See the scrollbar. This is only the list I’ve compiled since I bought this laptop. I exported the list I had on my computer before I formatted. That list still remained unvisited.

I think I should stop reading in the new feeds and learn from whatever sites I’ve already bookmarked. If I can just put in one good practice per day… Imagine how great it’d be after say, 30 days. And I definitely have more than 30 tips/resources pages.

I bookmark pages, or websites that are related to webdesign, graphic design, video, filming, freelance, client management, page rankings. Anything that I plan to incorporate into Suadref Studios. Hmmm… Damn my procrastinating brain.

Behold! A maiden post from the Unix computer. Notice I used the word Unix more than the name of the OS, which is Ubuntu. This is because Buntu means ‘brain dead’ in malay. Which makes Ubuntu meaning You are brain dead. Just note that when I say Unix, I generally mean Ubuntu. Coz that’s the only Unix distro I’m pretty familiar with.

Ok let’s start the list. Those of you who are of higher prowess over this OS may laugh at my lay-man’s interpretation of this quite misunderstood OS. So laugh on, I don’t care. This is MY review. And I don’t just mean the Bogaman. There are some Unix crazies in my class as well.

Number One: No restarts.

Well, minimum, at least. Most installation goes through without the need of a restart. It’s quite refreshing. Seeing how windows ALWAYS ask you to restart, after messing with your registry and all that. I don’t fully comprehend the Unix way of installation. But I know that it’s mostly unzipping and involves a small set up. Then you’re good to go.

Two: Full Customisability

One person’s Unix will look very much different from another person’s, assuming they both know how to customise. Otherwise, it’ll be that slightly off orange themed desktop. I’m not talking about customising graphics only (although that’s the only thing I know how to do now), but I’m talking customising how every single thing works in your computer.

Three: GRAPHICS!

And a big number three this is. Graphics, yes… when you just installed this OS, it’ll be a simple orange themed desktop. But damn can you turn it into anything you can ever imagine! It may even look like something out of the movies. This is because it’ll fully utilise your graphics card. No matter how weak it is. Windows will use your graphics card only when you’re using graphic heavy software or games. Otherwise, the card sits there rather quietly.

Suadref Studios, Linuxified

Four: Quite stable.

Unix, the one I have installed and customised, seem to be performing exceptionally well. It hasn’t crashed a single time since I had it on, and I’ve played around on it quite mercilessly, to the best of my ruthlessness. Hmm. By that I mean running the OS with so many windows open spanning several desktops… I had so many windows open running so many shits that I lost track of them. It’s also partly because I’m not too familiar yet with the navigation and managing windows back then. But a few days on the OS quickly fixed that. Well, so far, so good.

Five: Desktop… no, DESKTOPS

You’re not restricted to one desktop, or workspace, to say it more accurately. And then you can switch around them with style.

Six: Free Applications

Many many free applications. They’re all rather useful, or at least interesting. I haven’t got much yet, but Buoh is a nice comic reader. Especially good old newspaper comics. However, I still prefer to go to the webcomic page to read webcomics. Buoh is still good to read favourites like Sherman’s Lagoon, Garfield or Wizard of Id.

And you can actually browse through what applications you want to download, like an e-shop, except its free.

Overall Review:

Ok, after saying all those cool stuff about Unix, here’s what I generally think about this OS. (at this point of time, anyways)

It’s a great OS for the average computer user. If you’re using the computer to surf net, use web apps, and use Mircrosoft Office, you can quickly get comfortable with Unix. Or if you’re just using the computer to watch movies, listen to music or any other multimedia, Unix has no problems doing all that stuff.

Which is why I’m putting this comp in the other room for everyone else to use. At the same time, they’ll all be impressed with all that graphic customisations made.

I use it also of course, when I’m just surfing or watching stuff.

But when it comes to work, or my line of work, I’m still more comfortable to work in Windows, even though it irritates me (especially VISTA) with its random crashes.

I know there’s Wine. It’s an application to help run Windows’ applications fully on Unix. But I’m just lazy to explore that alternative. I’ve reached a new comfort level with Unix now, and I’d like to stay here for a while before exploring some more.

So in conclusion, you should all give Unix a try, only if you know how to customise the shits outta Unix. It’ll be cool.

I was about to get started on my post-school to-do list, and one of the first things I was about to do was to install a unix OS onto a partition of my hard disk. I still want my windows XP. I only want to explore the possibilities of the Ubuntu OS.

I was up to the point where the disk partitioning manager was detecting my disks. It was taking some time so I went to the kitchen for a while. So here comes my super cute little 2 yr old nephew. He’s extremely tech savvy. He loves shiny techy stuff. Be it cameras, iphones, laptops, or all types of handphones.

He came into my room, happily sat at my computer, and punched away on the keyboard and clicked away on the mouse. God knows what he pressed but when I got back, the partitioning was cancelled. I had no idea what happened. I tried to continue the installation on the desired partition but it kept failing.

So I decide to procrastinate some more and put off installing Ubuntu. I tried to reboot into Windows now and whaddayaknow … boot sector corrupted. Something must’ve happened to my Windows partition!

Cute Little Tech Wiz

It could be a variety of reasons why my windows suddenly screwed up. But I like to think it was the work of my little genius of a nephew.

Oh well, now I’ve installed Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Hardy Heron (damn, I couldn’t even get the name right) on my computer fully. No more Windows on my desktop.

Unix boy, if you’re reading this, I’d appreciate a comprehensive guide on how to pimp my Unix. You should know what I use the computer for right? Whenever you’re free man… Meanwhile I’ll go gather what I can from your blog.

With all the big ruckus about the launch of almighty Google’s new browser, I think I’ll have a say in it too after trying it out for a few days.

I’ve decided that it’s got a few good stuff, but overall, I’m still using Firefox. However, I’m leaving Chrome on my desktop in case of quick net searches.

Why is Chrome nice?

1. Awesome load up speed. It’s almost like, to quote a friend, loading up a folder in your computer!
2. Precious real estate. I’m talking about the tabs being put way on top, practically on the title bar. There is NO title bar. Just tabs and a little google word beside the – [] X on top.
3. Incognito Mode. This shouldn’t be here. It should be found below, in the not-nice section.
4. The multiple mini-site Home page. I know, most browsers have this, but Chrome’s super load up speed and displaying this with no added time makes it a charm.
5. Easy Importing. I spent minimal effort in making Chrome feel at home with all my bookmarks, cookies and saved passwords imported over from Firefox. But I’m sure many other browsers have this feature too.
6. Holy Crap. I just added this: Chrome has: right click>>Inspect element. SWEET!!!! It literally breaks down the design of the site~!!!

Then why am I not a total Chrome convert? Mainly coz of lack of the following:

1. No Add Ons. Even though I don’t use a lot of Add Ons, I really treasure and maximise the usage of those addons I have. Stuff like WebDeveloper toolbar, Download Helper, DownthemAll, and IE Tab (heh) are priceless to me. Can’t live without ‘em.
2. No: Right Click>> View background Image. I have this habit. I see a pretty website, I’ll think of how they got this up on their webdesign. So I’ll go around the screen looking at how the lay out their CSS. It’s a lot harder to do when you can’t simply view background image. FORGET THAT! I amended this, see number 6 above.
3. Chrome’s streaming isn’t perfect. I was watching some Veronica Mars, and it got interrupted quite often. Firefox never had that problem. Unless my dumbshit Internet Provider cocks up again. Yes Starhub, I speaketh of you.
4. No customizability on the toolbars. I want this here, I want that there, but I can’t do anything. Minimalistic is good, but gimme some room to customise, will ya?
5. Bookmarking. It’s just.. unfamiliar, and not too detailed. In Firefox 3, you can type keyword tags and suddenly the page url comes up in the address bar. I’ve really taken a liking to that.
6. Incognito mode: Who are they kidding when they say that it’s useful for planning secret birthday parties for friends? Pfft.
7. No full screen. Sometimes I wanna see the whole view. Another weird habit. Don’t ask.
8. Others: They don’t really concern me, much. But from what I’ve read around, here are some more, briefly: Non-windows support, dragging tabs back into windows  (or into bookmarks), profile roaming, who knows what else.

Hmm, people think I’m super pro Chrome coz of my MSN nick. I just forgot to change it for some time. In summary, I think Chrome’s still a new browser which has much potential to uncover, especially with Google making it, I’m curious to see where future versions will take it.

Meanwhile, the Mozilla people aren’t just shaking their legs.

On a lighter note, do yourselves a favour and watch this amazing piece of film. It’s TERMINATOR vs ROBOCOP!!! A dream film!

The Bogaman from Down Under has written something which prompts me to reply with this post.

First off, I’m not too skilled in all the tech jargon, so you can expect a simpler discussion to why I still am, and will remain cooler than the Bogaman.

But seriously, it’s not about who’s cooler than who. Well, partly coz we all know who’s cooler. I’ve told him many times about my stand on Unix. I’ve used Unix in school several times. I’ve even had to run it on my computer at home for months and months. Although they haven’t been nice experiences (due to the shitty programming assignments),  I do realise that it’s an OS with huge potential, provided that YOU KNOW HOW TO USE IT.

Which brings me to talk about some people who are boasting about how good UNIX is, when they don’t even use Unix in their computers. They only said it’s cool and good because they saw other people use it to some level of coolness. I don’t wanna be among those people.

I never said that Unix sucks. One reason I don’t use it is because I dislike change, and I’m too comfortable with using Windows to explore others. I’m not the exploring type. And also, Unix doesn’t have the softwares I’m comfortable with. They have alternatives, yes, but not the actual softwares.

For example, Adobe stuff: like Premiere, After Effects, Dreamweaver. Also, I don’t know about the sound editing software I use. I’m lazy to search if they have Unix versions. I’m thinking they probably don’t.

Oh and all the stuff which I’ve just picked up great interest on, like 3d softwares such as Lightwave, 3dsMax and other standalone 3d apps. Then there’s the game engine which I have to use for my schoolwork. They don’t run on Unix unfortunately.

Looks are important to me. I must LIKE what I see on screen, especially the desktop. That’s why I bother getting all those themes to replace the ugly XP theme. My schoolmates will acknowledge my obsession with a nice looking desktop, since I always bring around the theme with me and install it on every lab comp I use before working.

Unix can be made to look stunning, no doubt. Even Mac users are so bloody proud of it. Yeah, it’s nice. But again, I’m just lazy to install it. Or I don’t see a pressing need to.

Honestly, other than the stuff I mentioned above, I rarely use the computer for anything else except for the internet. Webdesign falls under web. Oh, I forgot to add Photoshop up there. It’s one major software I always use. Gimp is nice, but I’m lazy to learn and familiarise myself with it and I’m sure there are lots of stuff it can’t do that PS can.

Anyway, surfing the web is OS independent isn’t it? It’s not a worry which OS you use to check your mail, watch YouTube vids and whatever stuff you do online.

So all in all, the advantages of Unix are quite substantial, but not really so great that I HAVE to change to Unix.

That said, here’s the thing:

My Desktop, which I’ve recently formatted and reinstalled XP, is having problems again. Some authentication crap. My cracks didn’t work. So in 3 days time, it’ll expire, I think. If it does, I guess I won’t go through the trouble of installing Windows again.

Unix installation is quite a breeze, I’ll give you that. Or maybe it’s the damn lab session where they made us install Unix so many times, it becomes a walk in the park.

Therefore, I’ll probably get that OS in my desktop, while my laptop will remain running Vista (again, I have the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude).

So there, Ram, I’ll be having Unix on the desktop soon. Happy? Then I’ll start bugging you for Unix stuff.

Alright! Exams are over! Damn Dr Piper for his difficult/confusing/ambiguous paper!

Anywho, it’s the Holidays! All glorious TWO weeks of it! Incredible! I’m so pumped up!

There’s just so much to do! Which one to do first! Everything I’ve been putting off… here’s the chance to finally get down to doing it ALL!

Gotta find work! Gotta do up the site! Gotta explore more into 3D! Gotta draw COMICS! Gotta edit VIDEOS! Gotta READ up on next sem’s stuff! Gotta PLAY games! Gotta WATCH movies! Gotta JAM! Gotta go LEPAK! And so much more! All in two weeks!

But first!

zzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

update [later at 1.41 am]

Just got back, and I just got fined for parking at the void deck. This is fucked up. Really, fucked up. I went to check the other bike that was parked under the void deck earlier than me. There was no fine there.

This is my second offense. It’ll cost 200 bucks. I’m gonna appeal. If it didnt’ get through, I’m pretty much screwed. Gonna have to return the console. Just spent 200 plus on repairs the other day, and now this.

Doesn’t get worse than this.

I’ve been wondering so long who the hell is the man behind that awesome powerful voice in movie trailers… And how can anyone get to his level…

Don LaFontaine. Awesome Voice.

I think this holiday has gone to waste. In terms of productivity that is. All I got out of this month or so is one freelance job redesigning the website of a small clothing company. I guess its a pretty ok rate, having one job per holiday. I didn’t even update my own website, which is really lacking updates.

But on the plus side, this holiday is one of the most fun packed ones I’ve had in years. There’s really a lot going on within the few weeks.

I can’t remember all of them but here are some:

1. Gigs

I went to several gigs all around town. Some are really crap, but I managed to catch Monofone in one of them. They rocked, and made the wait worthwhile. Before they came up, there were some really crappy bands, and one band which I thought I liked, but after watching their antics, I began to dislike them. Fishtank really disappointed me.

But the highlight of the gigs is definitely Monofone!

Sponge ain’t too bad either.

2. Barbeque

Another massive gathering is the barbeque. It’s just plain fun, nothing much to say though.

I missed the ‘revelations’ session but it’s ok, the ‘ghost story’ telling session was pretty cool.

3. Jamming sessions

Inclusive of guitar sessions under the block. But there were a few jamming sessions which are really cool. Whether it’s bass, or guitars, rocking with full blast, without the constraints of home consideration, is just awesome.

Speaking of which, I’ve invested in the zoom G2.1u guitar effects pedal. I’d thought it sucked, but after exploring it and playing around with its features, I realised its super cool. Up till now, I’m still messing around with it to find the ‘perfect’ sound that suits my style, whatever that is.

4. Cage

And many soccer sessions. It’s the second time I played cage, and this time it was way more competitive. But all the same fun. We had lesser on-the-pitch time, coz there were more people this time round.

As for the multiple soccer sessions, they’ve worn my knees out big time. The kneecaps actually feel swollen after every game. And I began walking like an old man for a few days after that. Then when it’s ok, the cycle repeats. I just hope it doesn’t give way.

5. Motorcycle lessons

Returned to UBI for the final installment of the license collection series. Whahaha. Class Two baby! And it’s been nothing but BAD LUCK for me this time round. I squandered three lessons worth of money away for different suay reasons which I will definitely not mention here. I’m having second thoughts about completing the course, but I’m already at the evaluation. ARgh.

6. The usual chilling

And of course, the late nights chilling with friends. Maybe I should cut down on these, since my mornings have been really shitty.

And now for things I SHOULD have done:

1. Website Improvements and Updates:

Suadref Studios had accumulated a few more additions to be uploaded to the portfolio. And the design of the website could use a fresh look. But… the power of procrastination has taken over me!

2. Videos!

So many videos! All transferred, yes, but all not edited! Seeing how it’s hard to gather the group for screenings, I MIGHT be putting it up online and you guys can download and watch it on your own. But thanks to the power of procrastination, it’s STILL on hold, just taking up space on my hard disk.

3. The room.

Been wanting to revamp my room too. Reorganise the stuff, but well, I never got around to doing it.  But I did manage to clear my CDs yesterday! Threw out redundant CDs and re-packed the rest.

4. Comics

What’s the use of doodling in class when you don’t make a proper comic at the end of the day?! When there’s so much free time, I just don’t seem to be doodling or drawing comics, but when it’s smack mid of lessons in school, the hand and mind can simply drift off to the wonderful world of comicland.

Been wanting to try comicpress too, but NEVER GOT AROUND TO DO IT!

ANd many more.

It’s 2008 now, Happy New Year to All.

Hope this year makes all the difference in my life.

I came home today after my last quiz assessment for this academic year. There won’t be any more assignments, quizzes and tedious programming… at least for the rest of this semester. Exams are coming up real soon, but the first thing I’m doing is to uninstall Ubuntu from my PC.

However, I feel a small hesitation to remove this cool OS from my system. I had removed Oracle right after the last assignment from the previous semester without any remorse. But this time round, I actually have second thoughts about removing this Unix OS.

The last question of the quiz just now (for which I came conveniently half an hour late) was to evaluate Ubuntu based on our experience using it. I feel a weird sense of attachment to this OS. It’s unique workspace approach… it’s MAC-like interface integrated with WINDOWS style layout… The fact that you can do loads of different things as if you’re on a different machine altogether, only to crash the system, but hey, no worries, it’s UNIX… it’s almost impossible to crash.

Sigh… good memories trying to work the shit out of kernel programs and processes. I’m still no good at it. Should I keep this OS? interactive_systems… All that’s left of this module is its exam…

The other module I’m taking is system_development, aka bullshit subject. Seriously, the subject teaches you to bullshit all the way. Me and my course mates actually laughed at the notes given to us. You couldn’t believe how full of shit the notes are. Useless common sense crap.

The last assignment, a group work with presentation, was most memorable. On the presentation day, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, came with a laptop, all geared up for the presentation. Two of my members were late, and we only brought a thumbdrive. We were the last group to present. While everyone actually programmed their stuff from scratch, we simply produced a website that accomplishes the same objectives. A good two days worth of development and reports. Oh man.. it’s like POLY all over again. I remembered that business module shit that me and Boga did like a few days before the deadline and scored better than the group who umm, kicked us out.

I still don’t know how well we fared for the project, but it looked really hopeful. What I know is that the class sure as hell don’t look happy seeing our short cut method and how interested the lecturer is. Maybe he’s interested in failing us eh? I don’t know.

I really have no idea how to study for this subject that’s full of bullshit. It’s like.. you have to stock up on all the bullshit you can get before you take the paper. Then spew as much crap as you can.

So now I’m still thinking of uninstalling UBUNTU.

Ah screw it! Good riddance UBUNTU! Get the hell out of my system!