Newspapers are dead - Dvorak

As a blogger and someone who used to write for the print media, it saddens me to read analysis like this. Sad to say, I think Dvorak is correct on this one.

Many of the pundits say the biggest hurdle the newspapers have is the transition from print to online. In fact, most already have made the transition, and most cannot make the online model work well enough to make up for the downslide in print. They never will.

The reason is simple: In an online world, there are too many bloated newspapers.

As a third world country, I give newspapers in the Philippines 20 more years before most of them fold. Just look at the show of force of PDI in the net. Their homepage is one of the most updated and most extensive newspaper sites.

But Dvorak has a solution (kinda) on how a newspaper can survive online:

The only papers or news organizations that can expect to survive will be those with lots of original content available only at their individual sites. The operations that rely more on universally available news feeds will be at the mercy of a fickle public -- one that doesn't care where they read a particular story, especially if it is the exact same story with the exact same headline.

What do you think? Will print media die or will it somehow survive the online onslaught?

K-Meleon is Firefox lite for Windows

There's this article by Nate Lanxon where he proposed a Firefox lite for low-end PC's:

There's no doubt Firefox is the best Web browser in the world. I advise everyone to use it. However, I think that the memory-hogging issue isn't really too serious for slightly-above-average PCs these days --they can handle the memory for the most part. Those who can't suffer for it.

As a user of a low-end PC, I can't agree more on his views about the memory issues of Firefox. But I think that if Firefox lite is not being considered by Mozilla, there's K-Meleon as an alternative to Firefox.

K-Meleon is a Windows only browser based on the Gecko rendering engine that Firefox runs on. But since it's a native Windows browser, it's much more optimized, hence the smaller memory footprint.

I've been a user of K-Meleon for about a year now and I find it stable with only minor problems with some websites. I believe that you can use some Firefox extensions as add-ons for K-Meleon, but I haven't figured it out yet. It would kick-ass to have Scribefire in K-Meleon.

The best thing about K-Meleon is the active community and it's open source license. This means you can expect incremental improvements and bug fixes with each latest releases.

MOO clone for mobile phones

Rise of Antares is a 4x space strategy game in the vein of Master of Orion. The object of the game is to colonize the whole galaxy and exterminate your rivals.

The difference between Antares and MOO is the diplomacy. While MOO had a basic diplomatic AI, Antares's focus is on combat and technology. Hey, it's a mobile game, are you seriously hoping to negotiate with aliens using your phone?

Another difference from MOO is the armada combat. In MOO, you have tactical control of your ships during warfare, but in Antares, the combat is somehow predetermined by the number of ships you have and the weapons technology they carry.

Just look at the delicious screenshots of the gameplay. It's really MOO lite in your mobile phone.

You can try to find a download of Rise of Antares here.

Ancient Empires - a cool Advance Wars clone

Ancient Empires is a game for MIDP 1.0, J2ME phones (like a K750i). The gameplay and artwork are somewhat reminiscent of Advance Wars for the GBA, but this time it's a fantasy setting.

You are King Galamar and you command an army out to destroy an evil that possessed your brother. But the thing is, you need to defeat your brother in order to free him.

As I mentioned, the gameplay is Advance Wars, but Ancient Empires also borrowed some ideas from The battle for Wesnoth. An example of this is the ability of Galamar to recruit personnel when he is stationed in the stronghold. This feature added a bit more strategy to the game than just plain terrain advantages.

I can't believe how well-made this game is. Considering that it's for a mobile phone it has captured the best element of a GBA game. Buy this game, now! You can check out the game here.

Free Sony Ericsson games

Want to get the hottest games for your Sony Ericsson (SE)? I've listed here all the java games download site for your Sony Ericsson. Some of them are written in Russian, but you can handle a foreign language site.

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4

The links are for J2ME SE K700, K750, W800 and other Sony Ericsson phones. You can also find Nokia Series 60 games from the links above.

Shmups hate me

Shmups or shoot 'em ups for the uninitiated is one of the oldest video game genres there is. Examples of Shmups are Space Invaders, Gradius, R-type, Galaga, etc..

This type of game tests not only your hand-eye coordination but also your reflexes. It's like driving a car (but in this case a spaceship or a plane) while avoiding obstacles and projectiles along the way.

I suck at Shmups. I've never been really good with Shmups, but I did finish Gradius 3 (Snes) and R-type 1 & 2 (Gameboy Color). But this game I'm playing just now, Alpha Wing, for mobile phones--I just can't get past the second level. Considering that autofire is on and the controls do not really suck that much than a GBC, I can't get past the second level.

I'll try to play it again after work. Man, work just gets in the way of everything fun.

I suck at video games

I recently had a talk with Cusineroge about video games and I determined that I suck at video games.  I always wondered why I was never any good with any genre of video game--and that's it, that's the conclusion--I'm not really very good at them.

The only genre that I find not so difficult to beat is the traditional console RPG. Just console RPG's, not CRPG's--I also suck at CRPG's.  I'm not very good with strategy games either, nor am I very good at twitchy action games.  I just remembered the adventure genre.  I can say that I'm a decent adventure player (like those classic Lucas arts games) but I still stand by what I said that I'm not very good at them.

I think I only play video games because I enjoy it not necessarily that I'm good at it.  How about you, why do you play video games?

Doom RPG - fun and humorous

I never thought that I can enjoy mobile games.  The screen is small and the control is crap.  But Doom RPG is a great example of how innovation can make even cellphones into a viable games platform.

The game starts you as a space marine in a base in space where a mysterious demon infestation is currently overcoming the place.  The gameplay is classic Doom, 1st-person perspective, but the combat is turn based like a good console RPG.  It doesn't sound as complicated, once you get the game running, you'll immediately get the concept.  And of course, you have to level up like any good RPG.  The more you level up, you get more hit points plus good accuracy with your weapons.

If you have a mobile phone with MIDP 1.0 and j2me support, you better get this game.  It's really fun and humorous with the classic feel of the old Doom.

RSS makes me surf less

Google reader has me surfing the web less and less--for news that is.  Why surf the web for news if you can consolidate everything in one page?  RSS has really revolutionized the way I read stuff on the web.

I currently have a ton of blogs and websites on Google reader, with one or two sites being added each day.  I don't know if all this information is good or bad, but I'm becoming a news junky of sorts.  My day's not complete when I don't have my Google reader open.  And not only do I subscribe to blogs, I also made it a point to subscribe to Twitter feeds of Tech people, just to stay on the loop--for what purpose?  I have no idea.

Do you have any RSS stories?

Bioshock fever

Look at the system requirements for Bioshock. My goodness, who has a rig like this? You must have a ton of money to get a system like this. This PC is about top 5 on my wishlist.

Recommended System Requirements:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo processor
System RAM: 2GB
Video card: DX9: Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT or better) DX10: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 or better.
Sound Card: Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ series (Optimized for use with Creative Labs EAX ADVANCED HD 4.0 or EAX ADVANCED HD 5.0 compatible sound cards)
Important Note: Game requires Internet connection for activation.