HTPC setup - XBMC vs Plex

When it comes in the scene of HTPC, two software often sprung to our mind: XBMC and Plex.

Before you read on further, let me clarify one thing first. I had been using XBMC (in Windows) for several years now and had just fully started to understand and use Plex (in Mac) several days ago. The following review is based on such experience.

Simply put, comparing XBMC to Plex is like comparing Windows to Mac. I found Plex to be much more user friendly. Yes, you heard it right. I personally think that XBMC is more catered to power user who wants the maximum customization possible whereby Plex is more for user that just wants to get things done as fast as possible and in the neat way if possible.

More after the break.

[Guide] How to play paid songs on Guitar Hero for iPhone/iPod Touch

If you had played Guitar Hero for iPhone/iPod Touch before, then you would have noticed that it only came pre-installed with 6 tracks. The rest of the tracks are purchasable via the in-game store which will sucks your wallet dry.

So now here's the guide to download and play those paid songs. Of course you would need to jailbreak your iDevice as we will need to transfer those song pack files via SSH.

Link to download all the song packs HERE.

Once you had downloaded the song packs on the site above, follow this guide to SSH into your iDevice. All that is remaining is to copy those song pack files that you had downloaded into /private/var/mobile/Applications/[GuitarHero] folder.

Note: One thing that you would have noticed is that you will see many folders with weird names like dd3344sdfsdf... Just go inside the folder one by one until you see there is a file named GuitarHero.app and you would have known that you are in the right folder. To make things easier, just delete the Guitar Hero app from your iDevice then resync it back via iTunes. After that go to the Application folder again and sort those folders by 'Date'. The most recent one (topmost) would be the Guitar Hero app.

uCertify - Both studying and test preparation under one hood

Today I'll make a full review on a software that integrates both study and test preparation in a way that I am impressed with - uCertify. Although there are other softwares available out there, there are several distinctive features offered by uCertify that set it apart from others. This review is solely my own personal opinions and after several hours of usage.

Simple and clean User Interface
When I opened up uCertify for the first time, I am really impressed with the total integration between the study material and the test. Each of them are nicely presented and arranged in sections. There are no unnecessary buttons or stack of menus that I need to click to launch a task. In fact, I began to familiarize myself with the software in the matter of seconds even without reading the documentation prior to that!

Wide variety of professional certificates tests
Ranged from A to Z (well perhaps not Z but you know what I meant.). If there is a professional certificate, uCertify has it. So far I had tested out with Microsoft, Cisco, and Oracle tests and they had provided me with a better understanding and confidence when I shall take the exam in the future.

Research on rating music

Think rating your music library manually is tiring? Want to discover your music style? Guess what, there's a research for it.

http://www.giantpygmy.net/sections/pause/archive/dada_autorating_dar_v162.html

[Guide] How to enable co-op in Dead Island (PC)

From what I have read in the forum so far, many players are having trouble trying to enable co-op mode for Dead Island. This guide is created just for that purpose.

What you need to do?

Prerequisite:
1) Installed all 3 updates (RELOADED).
2) Installed SmartSteam 1.41-fix.
3) Installed Tunngle.
4) Added DeadIslandGame.exe in Steam via 'Add a non Steam game' option.

2) Open steam_appid.txt under your Dead Island game directory. If the content is a number 91310, change it to 57940 (which is the game id for Dead Island). Afterward right click on the files > properties > tick on the 'read only' mode. This is to prevent Steam from changing the content back to the original one.



NOTE: This will solve the problem in which the Game Lobby is being greyed out in the main menu.

3) Launch Tunngle and type Dead Island in the search box. Select any room to join. Click the 'Forward' button then double click on any server to join.



4) Launch the game. In 'Online Option', make sure that LAN mode is selected instead of Internet.

5) Play your game and open up the main menu (Esc), the Game Lobby option should be active now.

Video Guides:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe0Vminw4X4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5RFNrC0oWs

DSP_LLE for Dolphin Wii Emulator

Below is the files necessary to enable LLE (Low Level Emulation) DSP for Dolphin Wii emulator. One reason to use it instad of HLE is that you can now listen to the BGM in games such as Super Mario Galaxy 2! Be careful though if your CPU is not powerful enough there will causes major slowdown in the game. You might even heard audio cracking but it's fine.

Extract and place them under your Dolphin Path\User\GC.

http://www.filesonic.com/file/1903722551

Essential plugins for foobar2k user

Being an all-time foobar2k (foobar2000) fans, I had decided to list out some of the useful plugins for any newbie who had finally ditched . Many people often turned away from foobar just because it is 'ugly' when launching it for the first time. What they DIDN'T know is that it is simply the most advanced media player ever built. Period. Almost every audiophiles on the planet uses it. I didn't bluff you, go to the forum which hosted foobar2k (www.hydrogenaudio.org) and see for yourself. 

Among the features of foobar2k are:
  • Tight integration with last.fm via plugin. Audio scrobbing supported via foo_audioscrobber plugin.
  • Control your foobar instance via the internet, anywhere in the world.
  • Endless customization at user part. Your imagination is the limit here. 
  • Various user-made skins can be found on the Internet, e.g. DeviantArt.
  • freedb tagger support. E.g. Tag your VGM music from vgmdb.net.
  • and many more which are up to you to discover...

Anyway, here goes the list.

Hackintosh Build.. Success

Since last night I had been toying around with my PC to install hackintosh. After 5 hours of work I had successfully installed it. Every component is working as it should be. However, I just couldn't launch FCP X and Motion 5. Launching them always result in ".. cannot be opened because of a problem.." blah blah blah.

Update: Finally got both FCPX and Motion 5 to work after performing Software Update. I think ProRes Kit is the needed things here. Now all runs well :-D

I had posted a thread here on tonymac here in hope that someone will shed a light to me.

This guide by Jeff works as charm. Just follow it if you have similar build as his. The only thing different between my build and his is my graphic card and I'm using TP Link wireless USB dongle. Took me quite a while to find the proper kext for the dongle. Glad that the effort of searching prove to be worthwhile.

Screenshots:

It should be 1600 MHz, well I guess losing 80Mhz wouldn't hurt the performance.

Hehe, Mac Pro, or Hack Pro?


Graphic card detected alright. Too bad I still can't output audio via HDMI interface.

Ralink (TP-WN321G) Airport Interface

---

The following links should guide you on how to install the Ralink kext on your hackintosh.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=163067
http://www.projectosx.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=390&mode=threaded&pid=4230
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=170442

---

Additional Info
How to Remove Kext File

[Project] Karaoke Lyric Animation Video (Day 3)

For the past 3 days I had starting to learn about creating karaoke style lyrics for movies just out of curiosity. The effort had not gone wasted as I had successfully created 3 clips which I had uploaded on YT. The learning curve had been well thanks to the Internet :-)

Clip #1 - Scandal - Namida no Regret
*First attempt. Forgot to break down the english translation. AR is a bit offset.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_zRSeD3tbE

Clip #2 - Shiroku Hirata - Never More (Persona 4 ED)


Clip #3 - Kawamura Yumi - Kimi no Kioku (Persona 3 ED)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmHmj1rJ6Q4

Preparing video files for YouTube in HD quality

My previous post is about recording video game. This post will be mentioning about ways to prepare those raw video files for publishing on the Internet, e.g. YouTube.

The following methods is solely based on my own preference and might differ from others.

Tools used:
Mediacoder - to convert the raw video into a editing-friendly format. (e.g. Final Cut Pro (FCP) doesn't accept the native .AVI format).
Editing software - Final Cut Studio Pro X (Requires Mac OS 10.6.7 or above), Sony Vegas Studio Platinum v10 (Windows).

First things first:

Optimal way to capture game video (FRAPS vs Bandicam)

It is no doubt that FRAPS is the reigning software that sprung into most people's mind in their first venture into the world of capturing precious gaming moment. However, after using it for some time, one might start to wonder the limitations of the software, among those are:

1) File size limiation of 3.9GB per video recording because FRAPS is still using the older standard of AVI, which is openDML v1.

2) Game lagging during recording via Full Size (1920x1080).

Unfortunately, there is still no way to overcome the aforementioned limiations. This is when another software, Badicam came into mind.

With my experience of using Bandicam thus far, there is no impact on the FPS whatsoever when capturing the video in full-size. I am not implying that FRAPS causes a huge dip in FPS, but I would like to record the entire session of the game in single file instead of multiple split files, even if the problem can be solved by merging those files. The reason is because it uses compression technique to keep the file small. Below is the setting which I set for recording session:



"It is always better to record in the highest possible quality for later post-processing purpose."

Bluetooth PS3 DS3 with motioninJoy (Pairing success)

The Bluetooth Dongle USB v2.0+EDR which I ordered online yesterday had reached my doorstep today. It is a lucky purchase as the device is compatible with the current version of MotionInJoy. I can finally get rid of the USB cable when I use my beloved PS3 DualShock3 controller. It is simply the best controller ever made, period. No more hassle for tripping over wire :)


Completed Persona 4

Completed Persona 4 after roughly 68 hours of game play.

To tell the truth, I'm not so satisfied with the ending compared with P3 though. There is a turning point whereby I am given the choice to push the killer into the TV or spare it. Regardless of whichever choice I do, there is no further gameplay unlike P3 whereby you get extra one month (January) to prepare and defeat Nyx (if you choose not to kill Ryoko). Besides, Social Links doesn't seemed to have much meaning that contributed towards the ending unlike P3.

Well back to the ending, there are two different ending depending on my choices at the scene whether to spare or push the killer into the TV world.

First route: Sparing him
If I chose to spare him, you will be glad to hear when the doctor told you that Nanako didn't died after all. The next Spring you will see on the news that the guy will be held on trial. But he denied the first two mystery murders. Nanako couldn't see you off as she is still recuperating at the hospital.

Second route: Push him into the TV world
In this case, you will found that Nanako died when you and your friends are back to her ward. The next Spring you will see on the news reporting that he committed suicide and police still couldn't find the case of his death.

In both route, you will notice that Teddie had left the world. Regardless, the mystery still shrouds on why he left as well as the existence of the Midnight Channel.

Case closed... Eh?

Guides referred:
Quests
Skills
Max Social Links Guide

Comparisons between Persona 3 (FES) and Persona 4

Looking back at what I had accomplished thus far. I had finished playing Persona 3: FES one week ago and has since started playing P4. After playing P4 for roughly a week now (now on mid September), it had sprung to my mind to mention the changes for this awesome RPG in comparison with P3 or P3:FES, just for the sake of memory refreshment and ways to kill time aside from indulging myself in P4.

Story / Plot
- Moon cycle (Full Moon) in P3 is replaced by weather (Fog) in P4. For each Full Moon in P3, you will fight each Shadow correspond to the twelve major arcana. Not much curiosity involved as you are only expected to fight each shadow by every Full Moon. In P4, when the fog is the heaviest, that is when someone will be killed. Here you are presented with much curiosity as you are trying to figure out who is going to be killed next.

Dungeon Exploration:
- Your party HP and SP are no longer restored to maximum. In P3, every time you return to 1F in Tartarus, all your HP and SP will be restored to their maximum points. I used to exploit this mechanic by returning to 1F after activating the beacon before fighting the floor boss. However, in P4, the only way to restore SP is by using the Fox service (which healed your SP for a price) or SP recovery item.

- Instead of one single dungeon, Tartarus to explore in P3, there are now multiple dungeons to explore in P4, each of which caters to the character traits. The most memorable ones are the retro game dungeon which looks like 3D Dot Games Heroes.

- There are no more floor beacon to activate in the dungeons in P4. This makes sense as the number of floors is small, but seemingly increasing with each new dungeons. The highest floors I reached thus far is not more than 15F. In other words, the only way to return to the entrance now is by using skill ( ), item ( ) or the Glittering butterfly savepoint at the highest floor of each dungeon (before fighting the dungeon boss).

- Before fighting the dungeon final / true boss, there are now an intermediary boss that you will need to fight.

- In P3, you visit Tartarus in every Evening; In P4, you can only gather your party for dungeon exploration during After School.

- While exploring Tartarus with your party, your teammates as well as yourself might get tired after battling a certain number of Shadows. When this happens, the character is more prone to critical attack (hence knock down status), getting more damage from Shadow, lower hitting rate, etc. If prolonged, the character might be getting sick after returning to the reality. You wouldn't want this to happen as it takes much more days for the sickened character to become healthly again. In P4, however, this mechanic had removed altogether. Your character will not have tired/sickness status and you can explore the dungeon for all the time you want.

Mass Effect 2 Post-Completion Thought

Alas, finally completed Mass Effect 2 (PC) on Hardcore mode after 31 hours of playing. It had been a while, heck, perhaps years since I played a decent FPS+RPG kind of game. My first playthrough was with a Paragon build male John Shepard.

While reading through the game forum for my second playthough, I found out something interesting that determines the mortality rate of my teammates on the Suicide Mission. Heck I never thought that there is a way to keep all members alive! I lost 3 members, Legion, Thane, and Jacob during the mission. I'd like Jack to trade places with Thane though for certain reasons (You'd know her well if you played the game). Losing Jacob didn't really concern me much. In fact, he is the first member I would like to get rid of before the mission even get started. Perhaps he is just too normal and being the only black guy in the game XD (just joking, I'm not a racist).

http://media1.gameinformer.com/images/features/flowcharts/206-flowchart-poster-low.jpg

I guess BioWare really knows how to design a game with player decision in mind. After completing my first playthrough I now understand why ME2 is highly acclaimed among PC gamers. Great voice acting, facial expression, and the plot really make me forget how time flies. Glad I had played it.

Now that I had looked at it, I will continue my second playthrough, this time with an ultimate bad-ass female Jane Shepard. I wonder what kind of bad-ass responses will she give.

Off to save the universe.

P/S: Intimacy scene with Tali is the most rewarding part. /gg Too bad I can't see her real face. Hope this will get revealed in ME3.

Using PS3 controller in Dead Rising 2

Steps to follow in order to use PS3 DualShock3 controller in Dead Rising 2 (PC). By default the game can only detect the original XBox controller. Using such method will fake the DS3 into a XBox controller.

http://techiestalk.com/how-to-repair-xbox-360-wireless-controller-not-work-when-playing-dead-rising-2.html

Random Links

Just found an interesting blog that share various software.
http://gnrsu.com/

Activate Windows 7 in the most easiest way with WIN7-A
http://gnrsu.com/win7-activation-win7-a.html

SweetHome 3D - Free Interior Architecture Design (Online)
http://gnrsu.com/sweet-home-3d-sh3d.html

[Guide] Pairing SonyPlaystation 3 Dualshock 3 controller with Macbook Pro (Mac OS X)

My previous article is on how to pair a DualShock 3 controller with MBP running Windows. Now this article is trying to achieving the same purpose, but on Mac OS X.

Great news if you are running Snow Leopard because SL is now natively support Sony PS3 controller. Which means that if you had enabled the Bluetooth on your Mac OS X and press the PS logo on your PS3 controller, the OS will be able to detect it correctly. Previous OS build requires user to install a custom small-file sized driver in order for it to be detected.

Now after you had paired it with your OS, another problem exist. How to map the key? Unlike windows which has a Game Controller panel which enable user to calibrate and confirm the controller had been detected and mapped correctly, there is no way to do it on Mac OS.

There are several third party software available but I would highly recommend GameCompanion, which is available on Mac App Store here.

In short, GameCompanion enable you to map your PS3 controller button to a certain keystroke. Now you can use the controller and test it on your favorite emulator.

[Guide] Pairing SonyPlaystation 3 Dualshock 3 controller with Macbook Pro (Windows)

Abstract
This guide is about how to pair a SonyPlaystation 3 Dualshock 3 controller on Apple Macbook Pro / iMac which has an integrated bluetooth module and running Windows (either bootcamp or VMWare Fusion / Parallels)

I had been searching all over the Internet for guide on pairing up my beloved Sony Playstation 3 DualShock3 controller with Windows 7 x64 running on VMWare Fusion on my Macbook Pro 13' 2011. The obvious answer to do so is of course by using motioninjoy. However, using it is only possible on USB cable, bluetooth, uh-huh. Since it doesn't support MBP integrated bluetooth chipset, which means that I couldn't use the DS3 via bluetooth.

So I thought, is there any other ways to pairing my DS3 with Windows 7 via bluetooth? Well I had finally managed to find a way to do so without using motioninjoy but it might requires additional steps.

Prerequisite
Before you proceed to the rest of the guide, make sure you had enabled the bluetooth on your bootcamp or virtualized Windows. To verify, go to Device Manager and see whether there is a bluetooth item header there. Alternatively, you should see a bluetooth icon in the taskbar. FYI, my test setup was on a 2011 Macbook Pro 13' i5 and VMWare Fusion.


Guide to install Wine on Mac OS X

[Troubleshooting] Folder in pendrive changed into shortcut

Have you encountered a situation in which all the folders in your pendrive suddenly changed into shortcuts? Upon double clicking them it links you to another folder path instead? At this point you might be thinking, oh no, all my university assignments is stored inside!!! And I didn't have any backup!!

If so, do not panic yet as following the steps below will solve it. The reason is because some kind of script or virus has changes the folder attribute into hidden.

1. Go to Command Prompt (Win + Run -> Type cmd)

2. Type the following command to remove the hidden attribute
cd H:\ attrib -H -S "foldername" /D /S

* Assume that H:\ is your removable disk drive.
* To list which hidden folders are inside your drive. Type: dir /A:h
* Replace foldername with the folder name listed.
* Repeat this command until all the folders are cleared of hidden attribute.

The Perfect CHM to PDF Converter... FOUND!

Update on April 9, 2012: Uploaded link to Peeje.

Since yesterday I had been searching for the CHM to PDF converter because I wanted to read on my iPad. I managed to find iChm and Chmate, which are the apps for iPad, but the former doesn't support highlight feature and the later requires iOS4.0. As a sidenote I'm still using iOS 3.2.2. To add, I have been an avid user of GoodReader which I used to read all my ebooks except comics, which I prefer to use Bookman. I still prefer to highlight stuff using GoodReader, hence the purpose of this post, which is to introduce the best CHM to PDF converter out there. I had tried out various software such as belows:
... but none of them are able to convert the CHM to PDF without flaw. Many pages are missing. The searching ends when I found Softany CHM to PDF Converter v2.02. Softwares aside from Softany is only able to convert some parts of the CHM while missing a total of 202. For example, when converting Oracle 10g: A Beginners Guide.chm, other converter is only able to convert the final PDF into 202 pages while Softany is able to convert it perfectly without any missing parts with a total pages of 405! That's a 50% pages missing! So I would definitely recommend Softany CHM to PDF Converter to convert your CHM into PDF.

Link to Softany CHM to PDF Converter
Megashares

Peeje

Reopen your running applications or files after restart/shutdown

Have you been in a situation whereby you are so reluctant to update any drivers or programs because you just have a lot of active program running and installing those might restart your PC, afterwhich you will need to re-open those programs again?

Fret not as the following marvellous freeware (yes you heard me alright, it's F-R-E-E! CacheMyWork will solve your worries. Not sure on how it works but it just works. All you need to do is tick on a list of active programs that are running that you would like to restore/reopen after restart. It does not just open the programs, but the last opened files as well, such as the powerpoint slide that you had been working on or the numerous tabs that you keep running on your browser.

Previously I had been putting my PC to sleep whenever I wanted to go to sleep because I don't want to keep track on the programs that I am currently running and need to reopen them upon booting my PC up. With CacheMyWork, I can now put my PC to shutdown with ease of mind.

Links : http://cachemywork.codeplex.com/

Beginners Guide to C Programming

Here's an interesting guide to share with those of you who wanted to learn on C Language Programming but don't have any prior programming language.

Mac OSX Software Threads

Mac Software Reviews

Parallel Desktop vs. VMWare Fusion
VMWare Fusion vs. Parallel Desktop : Which is Faster?

Verdict: I would choose VMWare Fusion over Parallel for it's stability and performance over the years even though Parallel Desktop is the first virtualization software for Mac OSX. I had tried VMWare Fusion and the overall installation and ease of use is great.

Mac Software Links:
Mac Software Ultimate Thread - WarezBB

iWork '09 - WarezBB [Alternative]
SplashID - WarezBB
VMWare Fusion - WarezBB

XBMC Advanced Configuration (Ext Player, DSPlayer..)

XBMC Advanced Configuration

Note: For my own reference only:

Compiling XBMC with DSPlayer
A. Preparing the downloads
1. Download the source files here.
2. Download Visual C++ 2010 Express.
3. Download Direct X SDK June Edition.
4. Extract the tibet20-xbmc-xxxxx download from step 1.
5. Go to projects\BuildDependencies.
6. Run DownloadBuildDeps.bat and DownloadMingwBuildEnv.bat.
7. Wait for it to complete download.

B. Compile the solution using VS2010 Express
1. Go to project\VS2010Express
2. Open XBMC for Windows.sln. If nothing happen when double click right click on it and select VS2010.
3. On the menu bar, select Release (Direct X).
4. Click the Play icon or right click on the Solution Explorer and select Build Solution (F7).

C. Final Build - Building .EXE
1. Go to project\Win32BuildSetup
2. Open BuildSetup.bat. Select 2 when asked.
3. After finished, an .exe file will be created under the same directory. Can also launch by going to project\Win32BuildSetup\BUILD_WIN32\Xbmc\XBMC.exe.

Troubleshooting
* If got libmicrohttpd-5.dll error, copy \Program Files\XBMC\system\webserver from existing working one.

* If there is error when running BuildSetup.bat in Section C, download Nullsoft scriptable install system here.

Can also get the final build for XBMC with DSPlayer here.

---

Wiki
HOW TO compile XBMC from source code
HOW TO use an External Player for media playback (use MPC-HC to play video instead of internal XBMC codec)
HOW TO use DSPlayer (associating media files with filters, declaring filters, etc.)
HOW TO use Advancedsettings.xml (created under username\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\userdata\)
Setting up bitstreaming for XBMC using DSPlayer
---
TV Shows Naming
Custom Directory Structure for TV Shows Naming

Forum Threads
Internal Directshow Based Player (DSPlayer)
Internal Directshow Based Player (User Support Thread) (includes tips and tricks)

Resource
Momogram Graph Studio (used to get GUID for the filters)

iPad Apps that Enrich My Daily Life

So you just found out that Apple will reveal their successor for the iPad on March 2nd. For those that had already gotten their iPad recently, you might felt dismayed and regret for purchasing one yourself? Fret not as the iPad 2 won't be as revolutionary as the original iPad. As rumored, the following are among the bumps up features that might be introduced:

- Upgraded from 256MB to 512MB of RAM
- Dual Core Processor (Apple A5?)
- Front and rear camera
- Lighter and takes a shape form similar to iPhone 4

In fact, I myself just purchased an iPad several weeks ago and it had served its purpose well for my reading and entertainment purposes. Ever since the day of purchase, I had been reading more as I feel more natural reading on the device compared to reading on the screen. Regarding the upgrade, I feel that there is simply no need for the upgrade as the current hardware is more than capable for daily chores.

Below list down the apps that I used the most daily to enrich my daily life:

1. Reading PDF, Office docs
Good Reader
A very versatile app that is able to read almost any documents that you 'throw' at it. This is a great app to read PDF or any documents with fast rendering speed. Personally I like the annotation features in which you can highlight, adding notes, adding markups, drawing shapes and so on. When adding annotation, you can either save it in the original PDF file or save it in another copy. Opening large PDF files with huge picture contents (>100MB) is also very fast.

Worth mentioning: PDFReader Pro, FastPDF+, QuickOffice, Office2 HD

2. Reading comics
iComic
One thing that make it outstanding than other competitors is the ability to view double pages in landscape mode. Although it does not have the eye-candy bookshelves as featured in ComicZeal4, this feature simply outweights it. You can even customize the tap operation when you click on any position while reading. The password feature is another good feature to prevent anyone from reading your protected comics.

Worth mentioning: ComicZeal4

3. RSS Reader
Reeder - RSS reader for my Google Reader RSS feeds.

Worth mentioning: River of News, Go Reader

4. Video Streaming
Air Video - Well you might probably heard of it already as I think it is the best video streaming apps. I had been using it ever since last year.

5. Remote Desktop
TeamViewer HD - Official app from Team Viewer.

6. Organizing Contacts
ContactsP - I used this to organize my contacts into groups. Then I can easily send out messages to a particular group at the same time. Useful when sending emails to a group of colleagues in a college assignment or a department.

7. Audio Streaming
PlugPlayer - I use this since I'm using foobar2k as my media player.

8. Income/Expense Tracker
iExpenseIt - Too bad there is no iPad version for this. It features the ability to export your report in PDF file and create highly detailed graphs based on your criteria (monthly, weekly, yearly, range of date, etc..). It is definitely worth the price tag.

As for game, you can always go to TouchArcade for the latest discussion and news.

Blog Update: Added Live Traffic Feed

Hi guys, just a quick update. I had just added a Live Traffic Feed just at the bottom of the Chat Box to keep track on who is visiting this blog :)

Anyway if you have any question or articles that you would like me to share, feel free to drop your comment in the chat box or sent it to dsync89@yahoo.com.

Synthesizing artist vocal using VOCALOID

Recently I had found a great software for synthesizing artist vocal by entering your own lyrics - Vocaloid

If you are wondering what this software does, kindly check out the video below:
Canon Rocks

Vocaloid Wiki

There are various artist that you can synthesized the voice with (mostly Japanese).

The software can be downloaded in the following site:
Link

If you wish for video tutorial, check out the video below:
A 6 parts video tutorial

There's even a series of albums that is released using Vocaloid:
Link

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition, you can even creating your own anime dancing model by using a software called Miku Miku Dance. For lip synchronization, you may use the .vsq file that you may create by using the Vocaloid software.

Link for Miku Miku Dance
Tutorial for Miku Miku Dance

Unleash your creative imagination now ~

My Astro - 天天好天 (2011) [FLAC]

Just uploaded a FLAC lossless album for 2011 CNY album by My Astro - Tian Tian Hao Tian. Enjoy the lossless quality~

-------------------------------------------------------
Album Title: My Astro - Tian Tian Hao Tian (天天好天)

Released Year: 2011

Log File included.
No Cover Art (Will upload soon when got scanner)

Disc #: 1
Total Tracks: 10

Track List:

01. 福气
02. 万鼓迎春到
03. 炮竹一声大地春+欢迎新年到
04. 又是一个好新年(福建)
05. 天天好天
06. 恭喜发财
07. 新年童趣
08. 欢乐年年+恭喜你(广东)
09. 大拜年+拜天公+庆元宵
10. 大家恭喜

Links:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=77FMT5EA
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DA4RSM8O
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XDMW7940

Enjoy! Lyrics will be uploaded upon request.

-------------------------------------------------------

Purchasing a SSD?

When it comes to bottleneck, most often the major cause of it is your hard drive. Many people are still relunctant or doesn't see the point of upgrading their mechanical hard disc to Solid State Drive (SSD). One of the concern is the performance degration over time. There's been a concept in most of our mind that SSD doesn't last long in the long run. However, SSD had improved over time and you would have an outdated SSD or might even purchased a new one when the existing one started to perform poorly.

The second on the list if of course, the price per GB. SSD might still be considered expensive. But why would you need a bigger size? With larger capacity, you will probably just hoard every files in it without doing any housekeeping. With this being said, lesser capacity makes you make use of it and deleting those files that you might not probably need. And if you do store a lot of archive, movies, pictures, musics, etc, you wouldn't store it in your SSD would you? You might as well store those in a slower, mechanical hard disc as you didn't frequently access those files and those certainly doesn't required fast seeking time. A cheap 1TB external hard disc would do the job. What you should store in your SSD is the OS and applications. The changes are significant.

Quoted from an article here:
In spite of the foregoing, dedicating an ordinary solid state drive to your Mac
system and applications is generally fine, so long as you’re not using it for a
scratch volume or other data intensive work. That’s because once written, system
and applications are mostly read, not written, and reading does not degrade
performance. This special report shows what you can expect, and you can choose
for yourself, eyes wide open.

In short, SSD had improved much due to :
- TRIM support by OS

And with SSD, you don't need to:
- Defrag your hard disk as the reading speed across all sectors are equally same

Below are a few links regarding SSD that is worth reading before you make a purchase. And when you did purchase one, you would be glad you do and probably wondering why didn't you do it at the first place:

Lifehacker
How to take full advantage of your SSD
Why the limitations of SSDs are actually good
Enabling TRIM in Windows 7

More Reading
Mac Performance Guide: SPECIAL REPORT: Real World SSD Performance

Cool RSS Site

Here's a pretty cool site that collect popular RSS from various sites and list it in a user friendly format. Use it if you wanted to know what's hot and popular in the shortest time possible.

Monitoring SMS/Phone Call Logs

If you ever wanted to monitor any SMS or phone calls that your children or anyone that you wishes to monitor, why not give MobileNanny a try?

You can check out their demo site here by using the login: DemoUser and password: DemoUser.

Simply One of the Best Online RSS Reader - Good Noows

If you are searching high and low for a good RSS reader, yet is still unable to find it. Why not give Good Noows (sounds like Good News) a try? It featured multiple layout (around 9) so it sure to be one that suit your visual craving. I myself especially fond with the default 'Wall' layout view. :-)

P/S: You will need to link to either Twitter, Facebook or other supported social sites in order to use it.

Cool page flip effect for .pdf file

Here's a web tool that can convert any PDF files with flip book effect. How it works is you upload your PDF file (not more than 10MB), then the site will process it and you will then download a zip file. Unzip the files and double click on index.html to view your PDF in flash effect.

Image Backup Solution: Acronis TrueImage vs Norton Ghost

Acronis TrueImage vs. Norton Ghost vs. Symantec Ghost

Based on the reviews and comments here, most people had commented that Symantec Ghost is by far the most reliable image backup solution than other counterparts, however, it is not to be compete with home user software such as the two mentioned as it is corporate edition.

Resource:


Softwares Recommendation for Mac OS X

Browser:

Productivity Tools:

Skitch - http://skitch.com/features (Screen capture, comment, and publishing)


NetNewsWire - http://netnewswireapp.com/ (RSS Reader)

[Fix] Super Mario Galaxy 2 Blank Screen After Getting Grand Star

When playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 using Dolphin emulator, the following settings will need to be unchecked to prevent the blank screen problem after getting the Grand Star. This applies for any Grand Star level.

- Plugins->DSP: Dolphin DSP-HLE Plugin
- [unchecked] Enable HLE Audio
- [unchecked] Enable DTK Music
- [unchecked] Enable Audio Trottle
- Audio backend:
- No Audio Output

- Disable Save State!