Lusting over the iRiver Clix

I've been eyeing this awesome looking MP3 player. Look at the screenshot I got from Cnet--it looks so sleek and modern, plus it's affordable.

The Clix is a 2GB plays-for-sure MP3 player with an FM tuner, voice recorder, photo and video (MP4) viewer. basically great media player but with a fabulous design.

The gadget can be bought at about $187, but I bet the price will go down when it arrives here in the Philippines.

Why not just buy an iPod? the iPod is an expensive, over-rated piece of proprietary crap. I'm not affected by the DMCA or any stringent copyright laws, but I still don't want an iPod because it has become as common as radio transistors here in Metro Manila. Just look at the Clix's design and it screams of individuality.

What's more, 2GB is all I need for my podcast addiction. I don't really listen to music nor do I want my whole library of CD ripped MP3 in this one device or in any device for that matter.

My newest acquired comics and manga

I've had the pleasure lately of acquiring the full volume to Akira and Watchmen. I've read about 2 volumes of Akira (big thanks to Geekman for the copy) so far and I find it an interesting read, though not as revolutionary as everyone says it was. Maybe I'm not far enough into the story yet, but I'll definitely finish reading that.

As for Watchmen, I've heard a lot of comic geeks like me go on and on about this graphic novel. I bet I'll like it, hell, I like almost everything comics and manga. I don't have any idea about the story of Watchmen, I only heard geekgasms about it by fellow comic readers. I expect to be surprised and be left stunned with a gaping mouth, since this is one of the best work of Alan Moore. Alan Moore incidentally is one author that I've only heard good things about but has never really read any of his work. If I had unlimited resources, I would like to go buy all of his works just to familiarize myself with his genius.

Anyway, this summer will be busy for me because this is the time when we'll seriously move our business to fruition. I've been slowly developing a business plan to get people to invest, but every time I think of involving people the more I feel that doing this on our own will be a much better experience.

Nydia and I are excited to get this thing into motion that she's even considering taking the summer's off from law school just to help me. I'm excited as well, though I'm more nervous than anything else since I'll be putting a lot of my savings on the line in this venture. I guess that's another reason why this project is taking so long--I'm just making sure I'm not throwing money away.

Bloghouse and pressroom in CES

I listened to TWIT yesterday where John C. Dvorak made an observation about the media in CES. There was the bloghouse for bloggers and the pressroom for traditional media. Dvorak made a comment that the energy in the bloghouse was more dynamic than that of the pressroom, and that the bloghouse was open 24/7 while the pressroom was open only until 6pm.

Maybe the cultural difference between bloggers and traditional media is so tangible like it was ushering a new era of new journalism. I'm not saying that traditional media will die but maybe in the years to come blogging will become a source for mainstream news as much as a newspaper or magazine.

One example is the huge traffic spike on Engadget during the Macworld show. The gadget site generated more than 10 million page views during that time, and most of them are unique hits and not just people hitting refresh hundreds of times.

Although a lot of analysts predict that this year may be the end of the line for blogging, these huge sites are proving them wrong everyday. Maybe the blogging phenomenon is just plateauing and may not really be on a downward trend.

Manga Viewer is dead

My post last October 20, 2005 about a Manga Viewer is a popular page that a lot of people are googling. I guess a lot of them who found this link are pissed but please don't blame me, it's not my fault that Manga Viewer is now dead. Yup, it's dead. Anyway, it's not the best site out there for manga so just click my manga links above to find alternative scanlation sites you can use.

You can also visit Stop Tazmo for all of your manga needs.

Download lots of manga scanlation

I don't remember if I ever featured Manga Download before, I'm too lazy to check my site since my connection is really dog slow. Anyway this site is awesome, just check out their selection of great manga scanlation. The site also looks like they have a lively community around it all wrapped up in a nice website.

Here's a list of manga scanlations they have available:

.hack//G.U.
090 Eko to Issho
100 Ways of an Exorcist
20th Century Boys
337 Byooshi
Abara
Acony
Addicted to Curry
Agharta updated
Ai Ren
Air Master
AirGear
Akane-chan Overdrive
Amakusa 1637
Angel Densetsu
Anti-Gravity Boy
Ao No Fuuin
Aoi Spice
Appare Jipangu
Arcana
Ares updated
Bad Company
Banya
Battle Royale 2
Believers
Bestia
Biomega updated
Black Lagoon
Blizzard Axel
Blood The last vampire
Blue Dragon
Blue Seed
Bokko
Boku no Futasu no Tsubasa
Bokurano
Bowling King
Boys 'N Girl
Bremen
Brothers
Chaosic Rune
Chikyuu Kanri-nin
Chizumi and Fujiomi
Chokotto Sister
Cross Game
D no Fuuin
Daa! Daa! Daa!
Dear Mine
Death Note
Demonic Detective Neuro Nougami
Detroit Metal City
Devilman
Digimon Adventures V-Tamer 01
Digimon D-Cyber
DNA²
Doraemon
EDENs BOwY
Elfen Lied
Evangel
Fate-Stay Night
Fire Candy
Freesia
Furi Kuri: FLCL
Fushigi Yuugi
Gakuen Alice
Gakuen Heaven
Gantz
Gekkoh
Girls Saurus
Girls Saurus DX updated
Godhand Teru
Golden Boy new
Good Morning Call
Goth
Gunbusters 2
H2
Haibane Renmei
Hajime no Ippo updated
Harukanaru Toki no Naka de
Heaven's Prison
Hells Angels
Hellsing: The Dawn updated
himiko-den
History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi
Hiyoko Brand
Homunculus
Hot blooded woman
Hot Milk
Houshin Engi
Inu Neko Jump
IO
Jinki
Jisatsu Circle (Suicide Club)
Journey To The End Of The Earth
K no Souretsu
Kaede Typhoon
Kami to Sengoku Seitokai
Kamichu
Katsu!
Kilico
Kimagure Orange Road
King of Thorns
Koi Kaze updated
Koi Koi 7
Koroshiya Ichi
Koudelka
Kurohime
Kurozuka
Leviathan
Lilim Kiss
Living Game
Maburaho
Magikano
Mahoraba
Mai-Otome updated
Majin Devil
Maken X
Maria
Melancholic Princess
Melty Blood
Merry and the Sheep
MPD Psycho
Mx0 updated
My Name Is Zushio
New Petshop of Horrors
Niji Iro Togarashi
No side
Open Sesame
Parallel
penguin brothers
Photon
Psychometrer Eiji
Ragnarok
Ringo
Rosario Vampire updated
Rough
Route 20
Ryuuroden
Saiunkoku Monogatari
Sakuratetsu Taiwahen
Salad Days
Santa
Seishun Shiteru Kai
Show Me the Money
Shugo Kyara
Sidooh
Skyhigh
Skyhigh: Karma
Sora Sora
Speed Grapher
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
Team Medical Dragon
Tende Freeze
The Devil Ororon
The King Of Fighters Kyo
Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar
To-LOVE-Ru updated
Togari
Tokimeki Tonight
Tokyo Crazy Paradise
Touch
Ultimate!! Hentai Kamen
Vandread
VB Rose
Violinist of Hameln
White Dragon
Yawara
Yougen no Chi
Yuuto
Zero One
ZeroIn
Zetman
Zombie Hunter
Zombie Loan

Quite a large collection, huh? You need to register to download all the media listed here. Actually, if you donate you can get a lot more with their premium content.

2 Best independent tech blogs to read

The great thing about the web is content made by people just like you and I. Blogs has always been very entertaining to read and there's a lot of it floating around, specially tech blogs. But if you are sick of reading high-profile blogs in Cnet or other popular blogs, there are still plenty in the interweb to choose from.

• Digital Inspiration - this blog is hosted on blogger but don't be turned off by that. This blog has a lot of useful tech stuff that is easy to read in a modern layout.
  
• //engtech - lots of meta discussion about blogging, some humorous posts, a lot of links to follow, and very entertaining how-to's.

These 2 Great blogs that I hope this one could be, has elements of both being useful and entertaining. The web has really freed up ordinary people to have their own space. If you have any other indy site you may know, don't hesitate to put it in the comments.

My favorite rom sites

A lot a people has been searching for roms in this site and if they don't find what they're looking for, they storm out in less than 20 seconds. So I'm going to list the most useful rom sites that I use.

EmuRussia - A large rom site where you can download almost any rom from any old system you need. There's no pop-ups or any intrusive ads on the site which is another plus.

Shadyroms - This is where you can get most of your GBA roms. I advise that you use Firefox to browse this site. You need a username and password to download, but it's easy enough to get just by following the instructions on the site.

This is basically where I get the majority of my roms. So just head over there and see for yourself.

Internet cards gone to the dogs

I've tried a lot of internet cards to surf the internet. During earlier incarnations of these cards they were fairly reliable. Now however, cards like ISP Bonanza, Go!, Blast, and a bunch of others are dog slow and are prone to cut-offs.

I usually have about 5-6kbps download speed in the past but now I get 1 or 2kbps. That really, really sucks. You only get 20 hours for 100 php, you can't download 13mb of data for 2 hours because the meter is running. Even with this dismal performance I have no other alternative. There's just no reliable dial-up internet nor are there any broadband options in our area.

Honestly, the dog-slow internet service of my prepaid card makes me post less and less on this site. Although I love to rant here, posting is just a pain in the butt. All I get when logging in to Blogger are errors (site unavailable) because my connection is not downloading correctly. If not for Performancing, I'd be down to zero post this month.

Are there still any reliable prepaid internet cards out there? Looks like the big internet card providers has dropped the ball.

My 2007 tech prediction

I hope it's not yet too late for my own tech prediction for 2007. So without further ado here's my list:

• AllofMP3 and The Pirate Bay will join forces this year, however the MPAA and RIAA will convince governments of different countries to smite down the conglomerate.
• Leo Laporte will create his next dozen podcasts on TWIT.
• Digg will be bought by someone willing to buy it. If no one is willing, then nobody will gonna buy it.
• Jason Calacanis will be guesting on Diggnation, and it will be awesome.
• More comics will be offered in a digital format. On another prediction, sales of contact lenses and glasses will be on a record high for comic geeks.
• Yahoo will be bought by someone willing to buy it. Oh wait, I said that about Digg.
• HDTV, HD DVD, and Bluray will still be useless for someone who can't afford it.
• The Playstation 3 will blow the Wii and Xbox 360 out of the water. And this is not some Sony viral marketing ploy.
• Windows Vista will not suck, just a little insecure.

And that's my small prediction for this year. Join me again for some more fun in the sun.

Snes and Genesis roms

Hey, if you really want to find old Snes and Genesis roms then just go to Fantasy anime go to their links page and a ton of emulation links are there for your retrogaming pleasure.

I have people searching for roms in this site. I don't have any roms in this site nor will I ever host any. I don't have the resources to host anything.

Anyway, a simple google search can get you the download you need, but if you're lazy just head over to the link above. They really have great rom links where you really can download right away.

I'm no html coder

It sucks when you're not that good with html. Coding this site alone by faking it is complicated enough but when people ask you to make them a site, you'd think you're some kind of expert. Anyway, I'm no expert, I'm not even a good designer. Don't ask me to make you a website.

This is nothing but rants and raves. Darn, Performancing has me blogging 3 in a row. That rarely happens anymore. I guess a 2007 resolution is regular blogging again.

Speaking of resolutions, the holidays didn't feel so right. Like Christmas--it didn't feel so Christmasy to me at all. People are stingy and grumpy like it was f-ing holy week. When did people become jerks during Christmas. Filipinos are slowly changing from happy-smiley people to dickwads. Dicks!

Megatokyo addiction

I've been a huge supporter of webcomics though I must admit that I only read a few of them. One that really stands out for me is Fred Gallagher's Megatokyo.

I'm sure a lot of you don't need any introduction to Megatokyo. It's the most popular webcomic in the web. I love Megatokyo because it's an obvious escapist comic. High fantasy in a megapolis with full of quirky but fun characters you can identify with. Plus, the art work of this comic is superb. Piro is really a talented artist, though the story is nothing to sneer at. The story is just fun and sometimes heartwarming, but mostly comedic.

I can't get enough of this webcomic. The only problem I have with this setup is my dial-up connection. God I hate my dial-up connection. Reading a webcomic is click...wait...wait...wait...read...click...repeat and rinse.

I wish that in the future broadband can cover my area. We do have wi-fi coverage here, but it's crappy and not worth 1,500 php a month.

Trying out Performancing

I'm so excited that Performancing is now compatible with the new Blogger. I've been watching this Firefox extension for some time and I'm happy to try it out with this new blog post. If this appears on the blog then it's a success.

The best thing about this app is that it uses Firefox. No need to open any other application. And since it opens in the browser, it's easier to blog about things you see while surfing.

Let me just click post now.