Arise, Tech N Tools

While typing that last post, I was at the same time discussing about that idea about a new shared weblog with friends on Skype. Just after making the decision to start a collaborated weblog about technology and hardware related acticles on the Skype chat session, I got ahead and started the new weblog. I’m pleased to announce Tech N Tools.

Tech N Tools is going to bring games, hardware and technology related articles from the perspectives of normal gamers who are struggling to keep up with the ever evolving and advancing technological world.

One of my main motives to start Tech N Tools is to move unrelated news from タママの嫉妬と怨念log to Tech N Tools. I would like to focus on personal thoughts, illustration and anime here. タママの嫉妬と怨念log might be boring to many visitors because of the unfocused plot here. I hope Tech N Tools will be able to get an audience base and it might impact the visitor hits I get at タママの嫉妬と怨念log by linking them together.

With more people working at Tech N Tools, Tech N Tools will grow much faster with its diverse content.

Tech & Tools weblog

Mew bought a 6600GT today at Low Yat Plaza by Hong Kong board maker Galaxy. The 6600GT card is slightly overclocked by default and was equip with an over sized Zalman BGA sized heat sink and fan. Mew acted calm the whole day claiming that he wasn’t really excited about this new video card. I his heart we all knew he was smiling like a fool.

Great day for him, he should be benchmarking and trying out the games that he longed to play not at home. Regarding benchmarking, I’m thinking about starting a collaborated weblog about technology and hardwares. I’m trying to get some friends who are proficient within these fields to join me. With a separate IT weblog, I can keep technological articles out from this current weblog. I’m going to focus more on anime, illustration and mostly Tamama stuffs here.

Blogcritics.org's benefit exchange program

Earlier this week, I emailed Blogcritics.org to suggest my weblog to be listed on their directory after reading "RSSTop55 - Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites" RSSTop55 list more than a hundred host to suggest and list your weblog on.

I admit I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I emailed Eric Olsen to suggest my weblog to be listed on Blogcritics.org. I was just scanning along the lines of potential host for suitable sites to be listed on and clicked before reading thoroughly. Later I got a reply from Eric Olsen granting me a Blogcritics.org account. I read through Eric Olsen email and got to understand Blogcritics.org's brilliant benefit exchange system.

You see, as a member to Blogcritics.org, you'll need to contribute fresh articles on either news or reviews. And when your article get posted, your name linked to your weblog is published along with it on Blogcritics.org's main page. Your name linking to your weblog is also listed on Blogcritics.org's sidebar as recent active authors. Your presence on Blogcritics.org's main page slowly fade as newer articles by other blogcritics pushes older articles away from the main page. So as long as you contribute to Blogcritics.org with quality work, you'll be getting free exposure to your personal weblog or homepage.

Most blogcritics contributing to Blogcritics.org are actually talented bloggers from all backgrounds with a different view from around the world. I've browse through Blogcritics.org and I'm sure you'll be getting outstanding topics and articles to read and share view with.

Here is my first contribution to Blogcritics.org which is actually from an edited post here. I don't think I'm a very good writer but I'll try my best to come up with good articles for Blogcritics.org in the future.

Thank you to Eric Olsen for letting me take part in Blogcritics.org.

タママの嫉妬と怨念log

タママの嫉妬と怨念log

Testing the "BlogThis!" feature on the Blogger Navbar.

Afterwards: Seems not very usefull to me since it's only available to Blogger.com members only. I wonder how many Blogger.com member use this feature.....

暴走時代

Wow, looking back at my last post, I was really 暴走 back there. Must be the lack of sleep and tobacco back then. Data from my StatCounter shows that I have yet gotten any external visits from strangers. 90% of all visits are by my friends. The rest are just passer-by from blogspot's "Nextblog" button who just took 10 seconds before moving on to the next weblog.

It's not really much about hits. I just feel like taking in a void. Not even an echo could be heard.

Anyway, there's gonna be a Battlefield 2 LAN party near the cafés listed below next month.
I think its hosted by www.gamers.com.my with TBun as their partner.
Check for updates on the topic: Battlefield 2 LAN Party @ TBUN

13/08/2005TBUN (Sungai Long)No 20 Jalan SL 1/2,Bandar Sungai Long,43300 Kajang,Selangor
8 pm - 10 pm32 PCs (1 - 2 sessions, depending on attendees)Free food

27/08/2005TBUN (Nilai)Block A-G05, G06 ( Areca ),Kedai Desa Palma Aparment,Bandar Baru Nilai 71800 Nilai,Negeri Sembilan
8 pm - 10 pm32 PCs (1 - 2 sessions, depending on attendees)Free food

10/09/2005TBUN (Wangsa Maju)No 8 Jalan 4A/27A,Section 2,Wangsa Maju,53300 Kuala Lumpur
8 pm - 10 pm50 PCs (1 - 2 sessions, depending on attendees)Free food
タママ二等兵の嫉妬と怨念log at http://tamama.blogspot.com/

Rants, finally!!!! 怒号!!!!!!!

Even though It was one week ago that I started my weblog, right now I don't remember why I started it. I can't recall because I haven't been getting much sleep after starting this weblog. After starting this weblog, I wanted my words to be heard and after seeing some tips by Biz Stone at Blogger.com help page on "Promoting your Blog"

I got serious into researching about getting hits. I read about getting a audience.I turn on the pinging weblogs.com feature. I got a web counter and that web counter is grabbing my attention every time I open up my page.Armed with less then 500 words in my vocabulary and horrible grammar, I started writing about things that sounded like yesterday's news but didn't mattered. In fact what I wrote didn't even mattered to myself.Must be all the influences from the medias and professional bloggers making me think blogging is about generating a buzz. You know, how IT columns making celebrity out of bloggers.

I got some of my good friend to join blogging and they did. Start a blog and ending it with one post. Even I myself can't find the time to read my daily news on the papers. Reading favourite web pages, signing in into forums, watching Animes. My friends, some working, some studying really don't have time in their daily life's to even read the morning paper and I expect them the read blogs? Or even start a blog?

What's a weblog? Now I feel I've been heading the wrong direction. Without guidance I try I follow the trend without knowing what I was doing.

Hey... now I recalled a bit from last week. I wanted to illustrate characters from Keroro Gunsou. I wanted to start something like Japanese amateur artists illustration BBS where the artist post a new work for people to comment on.
But I'm not even good at drawing. It's just a 5 minute obsession that eventually fades with time and comes backs again when I have that feel to draw again.

Until now my rants are finally living up the main title of my weblog. I guess I just wanted attention..........

タママ emblem

I've drawn this little emblem based on タママ二等兵 's emblem sometime ago to use it on a Armored Core 3 AC. I think I'm going to put it up right there and see how it blends with the backgound.

Sweet iBook G4

Apple Computer announced the new line of iBook G4 s on Tuesday this week. The iBook G4 remains on of the most affordable laptop one could get today with a the same low floor price of USD999.

Two models are displayed on Apple's iBook G4 webpage both spotting new standard built-in fetures namely Bluetooth 2.0, and two new technologies from Apple. The scrolling TrackPad and the Sudden Motion Sensor. I'm not sure how Trackpad really works but from the sounds of it, it should function something like our standard PC mouse with a scroll wheel and a button to activate panning built on an intelligent layout. Sudden Motion Sensor detects violent motions from accidental drops when the disk is still spinning to save your hard disk from data lost.

I'm most fascinated with Apple giving us 512MB DDR333 and ATI Mobility Radeon 9550 with 32MB of dedicated DDR RAM as a standard.
The new 12" iBook is really great buy for anyone buying his first laptop. Compare with other wintel laptops out there around USD1000. You'd probably just get a Centrino system with comparable performance but with an integrated graphics chip that hogs on your main system RAM. Feature wise you won't find any other wintel laptops offering bluetooth 2.0, hard disk drive protection, stylish slot loading DVD combo drive and that beautiful pearl white design from Apple you just can't find anywhere else.

iBook G4s are known to squeeze at least 5 hours from normal usage and up to 3 hours of DVD playback on full charge. That's a lot more than wintel laptops. For one reason is that the G4 CPU consumes very little energy compared with an Inter M CPU, more than 10 watts lesser.
On the software side, and when it come to productivity applications, the Mac OSX has plenty to satisfy your needs. There's also a full library of most of the more popular games you can find for the PC so you'll fully utilise the dedicated GPU. Check the games out here.

For what you get on the PC laptop why not get yourself that rewarding sleek and sexy iBook that you'll be pleased with. Well I'm not owning one yet but many of my friends were very please hand glad they make the switch.We'll see if it reaches Malaysian shores in time for Next Weekend's Pikom PC Fair at KLCC.

More information can be found at Apple's iBook page.

Snipers don't run and jump.

Finally finished installing Windows XP with the drivers and patches. After Windows XP service pack 2 started for the 1st time, I watch "Enemy At the Gates" , on my housemate's PC. During the 2 hour course for the movie I let Windows XP with Service Pack 2 automatically download and install patches and updates. It's ironic that Windows update finally restarted the PC for the last time near the end of the movie.

I've actually seen "Enemy At The Gates" for the 3rd time. It is a great WW2 movie and back when I was in a Counter-Strike clan with Mew and some other guys, we watch many war and special forces movies to learn tactics and adopt skills. I don't know how we think back then.
It's base on a true story about A sharp shooting soldier played by Jude Law, from Russia defending the town of Stalingrad which Nazi troops where trying to break through in order to conquer Russia. See The Battle For Stalingrad .

The movie was focused 2 snipers trying to take the other out. Snipers are actually soldiers that conceal themselves by camouflage and reducing their visibility to other by lying prone on the ground. Their missions usually begins a few hours to up to a day before their target actually appears. Focus and patients is a key to their success.
The series of Battlefield, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six and Joint Operation are good games to do sniping because the feature large outdoor maps and grass and bushes to hide within.
Counter-Strike is where you'll find acrobatic snipers doing multiple flips before firing out a shot.

Copyright 2001 Paramount Pictures

Win 2k to Win XP

This PC I'm using has been Windows 2000 for almost 5 years. I only formatted it once in between. Microsoft will be releasing Windows code named Longhorn, now officially Windows Vista presumably 3rd or 4th quarter next year. Here's a video from the announcement.
With the 1st beta test version of Windows Vista scheduled for the 3rd of August 2005, I haven't even upgraded to Windows XP yet.





Windows Vista is a Trademark of Microsoft Corporation

It isn't really necessary for me to switch now because Win 2k is still very stable with less diver or software incompatibility than Win XP. But the lack off support from the industry esspecially from it's creator Microsoft, have driven me to use Win XP. The lastest windows media player won't run on Win 2k, the windows media encoder only supports XP. And now even EA refuses to support Battlefield 2 on Win 2k. There is a small number of people who've reported to getting Battlefield 2 running on Win 2K but it's still unofficially unsupported.

I guess I'll be formating my PC later today jumping onto the XP boat.

Custom weapons to reduce muzzle flash and gas.

Back a few post ago I mention about rifle muzzle flashes that gives out a player's position when the weapon is fired. While I was unable to find videos of real life weapon fires to observe, I read a bit on the web on reducing muzzle flashes.
Weapons in games like Counter-Strike and especially Call of Duty which is base on world war 2 rifles aren't built tactical stealth in mind so are not equipped with muzzle flash, sound or gas discharge reduction. Some guns in Counter-Strike such as the Colt M4A1 Carbine has the option to install a sound suppressor to reduce audible sound and eliminate muzzle flash.
On Battlefield 2, the unsuppressed weapon flashes when you are firing it but from a distance - about 400 meters - the muzzle flash isn't visible. I'm not sure if this is true in reality. Here's guide to the weapons of Battlefield 2 at Planet Battlefield and custom muzzle accessories at Nor-Cal Precision and www.defensereview.com

Mondays at home

Mondays don't bother me much as I used to work 6 days a week with random 1 off day per week. Currently I'm still unemployed and haven't really started looking for one since I quit my last job early June. I guess I'm being picky about the job I want. Looking for jobs today in Kuala Lumpur today is difficult if you choose a lot.
Employers here adopt the "there are many people dying for this job, you need me more than I need you" attitude. They put interviewees
on long "I'll call you back when we need you" list and employ instead people who are referred by people within the organization who sometimes is under-qualified. These usually happened within small to medium businesses with poor HR staffs who thinks they have rights to abuse the interviewees. But those comments where mostly from what I hear from my friends who participated in some of the interviews.

Here's a funny Monday at the office cartoon I found on Chris Pirillo's Power Generator Blues.

I couldn't find information about the author of the cartoon to credit him however. If you are the author, please contact me regarding distribution permission.

StatCounter

After having some trouble with the sitemeter.com webcounter, I've switch to StatCounter for my site tracking. Sitemeter wasn't giving me accurate hit results even when I enabled a cookie for it to ignore my own browser from generating a hit.
Every time I publish or republish my posts, sitemeter recognizes it as a hit. Sitemeter also displays inaccurate time of visitors entering my weblog.

With StatCounter , not only the above problems are non-existence, StatCounter gives loads of useful features to give you detailed information about your visitors.
You get graphs to analyze unique visitor log, returning visitor log, visit length, Country/State/City/ISP info.........and many more so you can get a scope on the type of visitors you get. One of the best feature is the keyword analysis which lets you view the keywords a visitor used to find your page. You can even see from which URL or search engine they came from.

StatCounter has many powerful features and they are free for non-commercial use. They give you all these ad-free. You even have an option to hide the hit counter. Why not give them a try?

Feel free to visit me weblog at http://tamama.blogspot.com/

"Mew is up" and some comparision between friendster's blog and blogger.com

Glad that I got some comments on my post, thanks to friends who took their time to browse my weblog. Last night, Mew decided to join us blogging even though he might suggest that I forced him into this. A link to his friendster blog is just on the right sidebar. Be sure to check him out. He's a great guy that you should know.

There's another added link to Haku's new weblog at blogger.com . I guess he preferred the clean look of blogger.com's design. I myself don't like friendster's limited customizability for the free version and comments posting are limited to friendster members only.
I had no option but to register a friendster account just to post comments on my friend's blogs.
On the bright side, friendster offer an easier blog set-up and many built-in feature such as photo albums and trackbacks.

Blogger.com has all the standard features any beginner would need. For other extra features, (like the photo album on friendster's blog) you'll can add those features from third-parties to blogger.com but you'll need to know a bit of html and css coding to get you running. Additionally you'll end up creating a few other accounts for the third-party feature usage.

I've been on blogger.com for a few days and I'm liking it currently. :)

Weblogging unattractive

After I've started my weblog, I try to convince the friends I mentioned to start their own weblogs. It seem they find it inconvenient and unnecessary in their spare time to express their views online. They insist that they really don't have anything much to say and nobody would want to read what they wrote.
I guess most people sees it as a burden before trying it out.
I agree that I don't have anything interesting in my daily life or knowledge to share with people but I'll keep this up until I find out what I can offer to other peoples.
I by the way am still awaiting my first comment so I can feel an a sense of accomplishment.
For now I've gotten Haku and Rez on the bandwagon. Hope I can get more friends to join in so we become a small community.

Coding Tweaks

Got some help from Rez to change some of the codes on this page. Added a few links, and features. Got a webcounter from sitemeter.com . Nice free service with a page statistics and referral info.
But there is a lack of webcounter design that they have. Just around 5 designs for their free service. I'm not sure how many designs they give for their paid service.
One of the side effects of having a webcounter is becoming obsessive with the traffic hits even though when I don't get any.
I never really thought about getting attention to my weblog but this webcounter makes my pay attention to it.

Call of duty

Gee... never got to play Neverwinter Nights tonight. Instead me, Vezzino, Rez and Mew went to a local cafe for 3 hours for the Call of Duty:United Offensive.
After too much Battlefield 2, I wasn't used to the much restrictive movement of Call of Duty.
I perform very poorly in the first 3 maps and I grew 嫉妬 with Mew's accuracy with the WW2 infantry rifle. One of the most enjoyable aspect of Call of Duty is the effectiveness of the standard bolt action rifle. It's accurate and deadly when used skillfully.
Mew argues that he prefer Call of Duty because the guns display flashes when fired so he can tell from where he's being attacked. He disliked battlefield because some of the weapons doesn't flashes when fired making him defenseless when ambushed.
I wonder how many real guns flashes when fired because I think we might have an impression that gun flashes brilliantly from action movies that like to exaggerate the effects. I'll have to find some real gun fire videos to see how gun really flashes.

Writting something new?

Poeple say you can write anything on your weblog. Without pictures or other media to attach with, I feel plain text very boring to create. I just don't experience much interesting tales to tell I guess. I'm thinking about saving up for a nice digital camera next year so I can have better "show and tell" postings.

It's been a slow and hot day today. Played a few rounds of Battlefield 2 online with teammates dying to get kills instead of defending stratigic bases. It's fustrating when your whole team is running around taking new bases leaving existing bases unguarded behind. It's even worst when everyone just want to drive thier own vehical to drive with.

I guess I will just play Neverwinter Nights for the night.

タママ portrait

Yeah, before I sleep I couldn't help to draw an illustration for my profile portrait.
え ～ ～ I think it's out of touch from the original that I sampled.
*sigh* I hope I can improve.

Nice Dinner

Last night my friends, Mew, Rez, Haku, Vezzino, Kah Seng and his cousin treated me dinner at a chinese+thai seafood restaurant. The seafood there was fresh compare to other seafoods you can find in town. We had beer!! XD And I was happy.

Most of my friends I mention above don't have personal webpages or weblogs yet but I'll make sure they will soon :P

I still can't figure out the CSS codes on changing the looks on my weblog. I'll update links and colours to this page when I know how.

My first drawing of タママ

I draw pretty poorly but after seeing so many fine japanese 同人 artworks, I want to try my best to brush up my illustrating skills.
This is my fisrt illustration of タママ二等兵 from the Japanese TV animation series ケロロ軍曹。

1st try

My dear berserk log,

Nice to meet you, I hope we can get along.
This is my first entry for you. Hope you like it.
Let see I can fill you up with my soul in the coming days.
See you soon.