Conceptualizing Random Image Gallery

As an introduction to the concept of upcoming random images gallery, I decided to post up a few related photos in both nature and games.
Ehm, seriously don’t go out to anywhere during this sem break. So, these are few photos around my house.

[Please vote the poll on the right sidebar]

Outdoor Nature shooting>>

Green algae and mosses…

It costs me quite some time to get this little bug.

The budding of dragon fruit. Seems like the ants are enjoying themselves.

P.S: I know I’m suck in photographic skills. Feel free to flame or give any comments

Game Image Concepts:
Special scenes or screenshots in game will be uploaded to the future gallery.

Featuring single frame shot of Aizen casting illusion on Ichigo [PSP].

Game Review – C&C:RA3 Uprising [PC]

One of the most famous series of Command & Conquer by Electronic Arts, Red Alert 3 was well upgraded to Uprising version during 12th March 2009.
I think I won’t give any review about the initial RA3 because they are almost the same. And here, I am going to mention about the latest weapons upgraded by each country.
Red Alert enthusiast who not yet tried the Uprising, do you ever wonder what changes occur inside that caused me to spend so much time trying it out?
Well, the campaign certainly has better stories BUT no network game is allowed. This is really SUCK as I spent More time playing LAN game with friend in hostel. All the upgraded weapons and technologies are all wasted as they are only meant for your own pleasure (so called SyokSendiri).
We are now going into the weaponry technologies updated obtained by each nation.
The EMPIRE of Rising Sun certainly shows their Uprising plan towards soviet eh? The Allies also rebell towards the soviet. Seriously, the empire and allies got so much improvements in weapons but not the soviet. What’s really good in soviet is thier Dreadnought. Nevertheless, soviet overpowered the others in the initial release of RA3. I was full time Soviet user but now changed to Allies =)
Ok, gallery time~~~

Main Interface. Look!! It lack of the network thing.

The campaigns. I like Yuriko campaign the most. Another 2 are yet to be unlocked. Seriously lack of time these days.

Allies showing off their Future Tech, FutureTank X-1 shooting plasma spheres with supreme damage. Owh, I performed weapon test near the sea to kill fishes.

The Empire launching off their Giga-Fortress by changing form thus leaving the water surface. View more if you wish to look at their real form ^^

Soviet sending their Grinder ..which even grind over houses instead of merely vehicles.

WinXP – Even Faster with eBoostr

We heard about Vista Ready Boost which has superfetch technology that uses external flash drive to cache system file for faster computer activities.
Now, eBoostr™ provides Windows XP users like me with ReadyBoost and Superfetch tech. making the whole system runs faster than ever. The latest version works with Vista but don’t really know how good is it.
*Extremely useful for laptop users with smaller RAM as hardware upgrade is troublesome.
*Works even faster with bigger RAM.
*Using Flash Memory Devices which acts as so called RAM, eBoostr boosts cache your PC items by prefetching all the frequently used application especially those heavy ones like Adobe series.
*The more you interact with your PC, the faster the programs load as eBoostr acts smartly with your favourite programs.

Sneak peek into the simple and user-friendly interface:

Personal experience notes:
-Was asking myself what’s the diff. as compared to virtual memory in HD?
Virtual memory is your comp continuously transfer memory in RAM into HD temporary by swapping data in & out between HD and RAM from time to time. Therefore, you can open as many applications as you like even you have low RAM but you will experience sudden drop in PC performance. This is how page file really works.
Superfetch or precaching loads essential data from your working programs especially those tiny ones into flashdrives as FD has lower random read time than HD for small files.
Read more about ReadyBoost and Virtual memory.
-This thing sucks during the 1st trial around 4 months ago but works perfectly this time.
-My PC boot time reduced at least 40seconds and application loading time certainly becomes faster.
-Laughing at myself for expecting my computer to show additional 1GB RAM =.= It’s not really a RAM but a medium for efficient load of cache files into RAM as RAM wiped most of them after you restart your comp.

Friend’s experience:
*Wen Ching mentioned that eboostr slow down gradually and formatting the flash drive to re-cache is necessary. I still haven’t experience that.
*Caching in HD certainly has lower speed as compared to flash drive.

More information >> Official eBoostr™ website

Game Review – Pokémon Platinum [NDS]

[Warning: This post may contain spoilers of the game plots]

Let’s have a quick view into the world of Pkmn Pt. which is part of the Pkmn game series for more than 10 years. A good friend of Nintendo for decade aa. Yea~ this is the latest one released in 22 march 2009. It’s a very good game for Pkmn fans especially those who not yet touch Diamond & Pearl like me Well, I actually tried a few hours in Diamond & Pearl but finally decided to give up because I didn’t have the mood last year I guess.
For now… I’m really guessing there’s something special for GameFreak to release Platinum although it’s almost the same as D&P. Seriously, there’s not much changes except for the whole new distortion world and few more features which I don’t really care. Of course, they did improve several aspects. At least for now, Dialga and Palkia is available to catch throughout the game hehe and…the Giratina!! It’s really worth a play!

Graphics:
I’m giving 9/10 for the graphics for the fine visual display. Although the colour is not as highly contrast as those in FireRed in GBA, but the whole game is designed with a HUGE variety of colours which makes things look totally diff from each other. Furthermore, the buildings and other structures are well presented in 2.5D too. While you are cycling or walking around, you may notice the buildings are actually changing its view accordingly.

A quick glimpse at Pastoria Town:

Surfing and Snowing~

Sunnyshore City – Road and bridge made up of Solar Panels (Creative ideas). And…the well known Lighthouse~ Heading to the 8th Gym!!!

Gameplay:
10/10(Yeah..because I like this type of 2D gameplay and levelling the pokemon through turn based battle system) If you are a Pkmn fan who played the previous version before, you may expect almost the same gameplay througout the game. Of course, there are some minor things which you will really realize and get your hands on comfortably while playing around. All HM from the past are available but I think you need a TM for flash.
Go! Giratina Anct power… @@” berrrriiieeesss

Most Giratina PP are 5/5 T.T Throwing masterball for fun hehe

Storyline:
9/10. What you actually expect in Pkmn? As usual, there is some kind of organization which oppose the world or disturbing the balance of nature throughout Pkmn world. While in Pkmn Pt, there’s an orgaz. known as Team Galactic who plan to create a whole new world. The stories are also well organized and also helped a lot in guiding you through the game. From my point of view, finishing the main game is nothing but the side quests and process to obtain some rare pokemons requires some brain cells =P

Sound:
10/10. If you would like to compare to those in GBA, this is certainly much better with stereo mix. Some BGM in certain areas makes your heart pound faster subconciously and you actually start to pay more attention into the gaming world more than your real world ^^

PICOM PC Fair 2009 – Malacca

Nothing much about the starting of this semester break but I definitely went to pc fair in Mahkota Parade. Missed the one in KL last week which is at least 4X bigger soley because of my final exam T.T
While walking around,
-I was trying out the interface of few newer laptops and have a look at their specs. An ASUS one for RM3K is already very optimum for gaming.
-Took some fliers and I like the Bitdefender ones. Yea~ I’m one of BD users but it sucks in some ways(buggy)
-Hunting for cheap stuffs… WD Mybook is really cute but expensive >,<
-Saw that comp shop worker in Nilai. Was really shocked that he worked here.
-Scanning for latest tech. (Don’t really find any)
Finally, bought a cheap mouse for spare, cooler pad for my brother and a Maxtor “brain” to help me. Still deciding whether to give reviews about the brain in future.

The only pics which I am bothered to get was the game booth. My brother was like =.=lll when standing beside me.

Spotted this game booth after 5 minutes wandering around with my brother. Notice boxes of Wii and PS2 behind?

Look! Those DS lite are so cute. The promoter don’t even have any idea about DSi which is a real shame.(yea, DSi is still not common in M’sia) At least he let me have a touch to cook some stuffs in the curry game. Just touched the stylus for seconds as I don’t like them to look at me as if I will spoil the DS. And the lady promoter is even worse by replying me “yeah this is DSL lo”. Owh man, L and I is a total diff version…

Pokemon Platinum Prima Official Guide

Finally decided to update my blog after around 10 days. Been busying with the final exam by burning my neurons till my bioclock is turning upside down and all my usual activities are not well organized. Came back to Malacca few days ago and also busying with stuffs around me (too many to talk about).

Let’s skip that part and talk about the Pkmn official guide book. Received it a week ago and it’s just so awesome. Really suits my need while playing Pokémon Platinum. The illustrations are unique and I really like the way the arrange the content. Just keep it as a collection and flip through it when I am free as I don’t really depend on it while playing Pkmn. Well, maybe I may read up more when aiming to complete those mysterious side quest.

Lets peep into this interesting book through some of my screenshots #_O:

Click it for a larger view through google image =)

Xplora – into the Server Room

[Note: Xplora is my own term to describe my own exploration towards diff part of our world]

As the internet speed is back to satisfying status, I am planning to sneak into server room to have a clear view on it. Luck is on my side today as the EBB technician came and it happened that I was walking pass the server room. What else I can do other than taking out my camera and request for a few snapshots. Thanks to the technician who is kind enough to explain parts by parts of the server room to me.

This is…the main door shielding & sealing the S.room from intruders like me. Folks in INTI should’ve seen this thousands of times. They like to place s.room near the toilet. Why eh? Up there, a ventilating fan working with thermostat but it’s almost useless now as the room upgraded with aircond.

Hidden behind the main Seal, a whole load of wires(not optic fiber @@) and switches living in different floors of the apartment(white metal rack)
Yea sorry for LQ photo. Didn’t expect it to turn out like this and I only have 1.

Fossil in a Book…

Yea, I know it’s pretty lame to post about this. As you know, I actually turn into zombie while reading chemistry, a condition worse than death I think. There are so much voices and noises in my mind when reading through chem and PoP… I found something!!!

Basic concept of my post:

“Fossil, remains or traces of prehistoric plants and animals, buried and preserved in sedimentary rock, or trapped in organic matter. Fossils representing most living groups have been discovered, as well as many fossils representing groups that are now extinct. ” from microsoft encarta premium 2009

So, that means there’s some kind of insects which rest in peace inside something and remain there for ages right?
Well, my brain is good for nothing except for thinking nonsense and I accidently flipped a page thus killing a small insect in my book. Subconciously, I didn’t even notice but suddenly I thought of what will happen in next 10 years or so? What if this book is kept in muzium after a million years?
The insect will trap there forever and become “fossil” in a book. My brain is flying to the future and start dreaming~~~. Will not waste your time to mention about what I dreamt.
Eeerrr, did you ever encounter such insect or something else in your book? Perhaps, some ancient hair or nostrils products?? You may just treat them as nothing usually…

Notice the word alcohol. It’s driving me crazy @@” I hate IUPAC naming etc etc.

*To tell the truth, I would really like to collect fossils. Been digging around my house by referring to some books from library hoping to find one when I was a kid =.=

Living with SnaiL speed -_-”

[Words of the day: THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO STUDY IN INTI especially for internet addicts]
Woke up around 1230pm with a smile to myself as usual and prepare for another happy day. Now then I was interacting with my computer and the 1st thing which came across my mind is web browsing. Well, starting with mozilla loading more than 10 tabs, I realized there’s something wrong with the loading time. It can’t be so slow as mozilla cache all the pictures and only need to reload the texts.
Finally, found out that internet ping is around @#$%^&*(ms and download speed is shown below.

And…look at download time taken for a simple 5mb MP3.

What now, went to Extreme Broadband, our lovely ISP to complain TWICE. Yeah, it’s still slow and the technician came just to check the speed through speedtest.net and guarantee everything back to normal by night. Saw my friend Ryan complaint in the forum and I made my 1st attempt to do that too. Got the reply from EBB asking me to show them the result of speed test. Really a dumb reply and now I label EBB as Extreme Bebal Biul which means Extreme Dumb & Slow in english. Any BM pro out there pls correct me if I’m wrong.

Now midnight before playing L4D, I checked the speed and happy that ping is 14ms. BUT, they reverted my premium speed into normal speed of 128kbps. That’s really a pain in A$$ for the whole day. Will continue to attack their main office tomorrow. I will show them the resit to save my RM33 !!! And yeah, I am paying that amount of $ every month to only get 512. In fact, we actually did pay for 128speed in resource fee of RM300 and it’s not free at all.

Nintendo DSi…I want!!!

[Nintendo DSi sold 103,000 to 92,000 units in 2 days!!]
Okok, Nintendo DSi is finally in my wishlist now. Can I be one of Nintendo customer?? All this while, I can’t be bothered to hope for a DS but this latest release is worth to exist clearer in my mind. Started to pay more attentino and learn more about DSi these few days (I am still preparing for final exam currently T.T) Err, of course it will cost me an arm and a leg to buy it. It costs RM892.85 from play-asia.com which is comparable to PSP(higher price in fact). Aim for DS if you are looking for continuous interesting game release and feel comfortable within the 2D world. I will get it someday later…maybe a long long time from today.

I only saw the black and blue version available. Still waiting for the white.

I personally like this 100X more than any digital dictionary available around. Looks much cooler and totally beat’em out in games.