harrellocutions

1976 USA Dime, Old 2-way Radios, Correction Tape, Old ID, Old Software

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell Wong) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 13:21:00 +0000

1976 USA Dime ($0.10)

Where it was discovered: First floor office along with several 1990's Php 5.oo and Php 1.00 coins in an old envelope
Handling: Keep

At first it looked like a bunch of 5 peso coins from the early 90's but then upon reexamination, I found an old USA dime disguised as an old 1 peso coin. We're going to keep this like how we're going to keep the money we find and also the money we earn from selling junk to the junk shop.

Old 2-way Radios

Where it was discovered: Inside one of the office drawers along with other outdated electronic devices and wiring
Handling: Junk Shop

The base station antenna of the radios is somewhere in the hardware mess we like to call the garage. Our parents used these in the past when cellphones were yet to be invented. It's sad to see these outdated technology go to the junk shop as e-waste but we have to do what we have to do to make the house clutter-free. The CD is for comparison of size. Aren't you thankful that your mobile device can fit inside your pocket?

Correction Tapes

Where it was discovered: Inside one of the office drawers
Handling: Sell or Trash

These was the "in" school supply in the first part of the decade. You had to have one of these inside your pencil case/box. The introduction of liquid correction soon pushed their tape counterparts back into the category of "not so needed" school/office supplies. I personally don't use any liquid or tape correction anymore. I just scribble out the part I wanted to eliminate. These are up for grabs or they can be sent to the junk shop.

My Old School ID

Where it was discovered: Inserted between a bunch of calling cards found in the office
Handling: Keep

This is a no-brainer. Who wouldn't want to keep a cute child photo of me?

Old Software

Where it was discovered: In the office
Handling: Junk Shop

I discovered these brand new (back in the 90's) and UNOPENED software boxes. Apparently, my dad bought these in the mid to late 90's but never got to use them. These were bought back when internet downloaded software were still non-existent in the country. Notice the awkward cover designs reminiscent of the 90's. I basically opened the box and threw the carton and papers with the other recyclable junk items. For the CDs inside, I threw them along with the other e-wastes. CD is for comparison.

House Cleaning Adventures (Post Series)

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell Wong) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 11:11:00 +0000

THE STORY:
Our house has been in existence for 22 years now, almost equivalent to my age save for a few months/days. I was a new-born baby when the townhouse compound finished construction. Back when I was still younger than 10 years, our house was as clean and organized as any good looking house. More than a decade ago, junk and other things started accumulating and we realized several years back that our house was no longer a house and was more of a warehouse or junkshop.

All the things that have accumulated in our house were mostly our mom's doing as she always saved everything for "future use". All those things saved eventually never got used, gathered dust, and some even disintegrated to nothing because of all the junk that prevented access to its location.

There have been numerous attempts in the past by us, the children, to try and solve the house's junk problem but we eventually realized that if we try to rid the house of junk with our mom, we would only be wiping dust off things and rearranging them. Everything still got saved and nothing was thrown away. This resulted to the junk's continued accumulation, and eventually, we barely had enough room to walk around the house. We had to twist and turn our bodies and jump over things to be able to get from one part of the house to the other.
My sister realized that cleaning the house with our mom will get us nowhere and she decided to have us three siblings take up the responsibility of clearing our house from junk.

Now that I have finished my bachelor's degree in the middle of the normal academic year, I have half a year to dedicate to cleaning the house before I decide on which path to take with my future studies. My sister, who now works at a hospital and a clinic, has more time to spend on cleaning the house than when she was still studying medicine. Once my younger brother gets home this February, he will have all summer to help us since he will only be able to continue his studies when the next academic year comes in June. We are hoping to finish clearing all three floors of the house in a 5 to 6 months with a few hours of cleaning almost everyday.

ABOUT THE SERIES OF POSTS:
The next series of posts will reveal photos of the "before" and "after" of our house. The "before" will give you a sense of how messy our house was before we started cleaning and organizing things, and the "after" will be photos of our success in overcoming the almost living organism (because of its growth and complexity throughout the years) that our so-called house contained.

The series will also feature interesting and almost out-of-this-house discoveries during our cleaning from 90's era Philippine coins (and a 70's USA dime) to my old Grade 7 ID card. Along with photos of these discoveries, I will include a brief description and also a status on how the object will be handled. I will list the possible handling outcomes below.

I hope that this series of posts will be a lasting reminder of how we turned our wareHOUSE to an actual HOUSE before the scarily overwhelming amount of junk eventually toppled down and suffocated us in our sleep.

HANDLING OUTCOMES:
- Trash
- Keep
- Junk Shop
- Sell*
- Give Away**

*to sell means to sell at a rummage/garage sale or to sell it here to an interested buyer (if nothing happens, then we can throw it away or give it to the junk shop)
**to give away means to give to other people because they need it more (ie. donate to charity)

My Life According to Girls' Generation

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:37:00 +0000

This is one of those chain notes going on in Facebook.

Using only song titles from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. (Pass it on to 20 people including me. You can't use the band I used.) Do not repeat song titles. It's a lot harder than you think! (Re)post as "My Life According to (BAND NAME)."

Pick Your Artist:
소녀시대 (Girls' Generation)

Are you male or female?
남자친구 (Boyfriend)

Describe yourself:
Ooh La-La!

How do you feel?
Complete

Describe where you currently live:
별별별 (☆★☆)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
다시 만난 세계 (Into the New World)

Your favorite form of transportation:
Merry-Go-Round

Your best friends are:
화성인 바이러스 (Boys & Girls)

Your favorite color is:
소원 (Honey)

What's the weather like?
Gee

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called?
Show! Show! Show!

What is life to you?
웃자 (Be Happy)

Your current relationship:
영원히 너와 꿈꾸고 싶다 (Forever)

Breaking up:
Oh!

Looking for:
Baby Baby

Wouldn’t mind:
Kissing You

Your fear:
Echo

What is the best advice you have to give?
Run Devil Run

If you could change your name, you would change it to:
Tinkerbell

Thought for the Day:
카라멜 커피 (Talk to Me)

How I would like to die:
힘내 (Way to Go)

My motto:
소원을 말해봐 (지니) (Tell Me Your Wish - Genie)

Wong Network v4

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:25:00 +0000

2 new laptops and the NAS is running again.

The Wong Network v3

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:09:00 +0000

I actually waited for a month before doing this because the hardware placement and connections kept on changing. Computers 8, 9, and 10 were added recently and the wiring for the second floor is also new.

Game Review: Tom Clancy's EndWar

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Sat, 30 May 2009 05:46:00 +0000

Game: Tom Clancy's EndWar
Developer: Ubisoft Shanghai
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform/OS: Windows XP
Release Date: February 24, 2009
Total time to accomplish: ongoing
Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy's_EndWar
Rating: 3.5/5

It's been a while since I have played strategy games. The last strategy game that I seriously played was Medieval II Total War and it was also of the 3D battlefield genre. The story is set in the not so distant future and World War III is currently ongoing. Three major countries are pitted against each other in this war: The United States of America, The European Federation, and the now powerful Russia. The goal of the game is simple; dominate all battlefields to become the ultimate world power and crush the other two nations.

I have always been a fan of futuristic weapons and vehicles so I was obviously awed at what I saw with EndWar because they are mostly upgraded versions of what is available today.

smoke and track trails from the vehicles are ultimate eye candies

I had trouble with the dynamics of the game at first because I it was more of multitasking rather than just looking for the enemy and shooting them (like in the usual FPS that I play). I couldn't multitask well at first and I often get helmet fire with all the information that I have to interpret and respond to. I ended up having a few units killed because I couldn't respond quickly when they were getting killed off and their unit card was already flashing red. Well anyway, once you get used to having all these information fed into you, you can act quickly and know what's the next best move.

The game graphics were amazingly very detailed and very realistic and it added to the wartime feel of the game. You can actually zoom in on a single infantry and you can see its actions -- whether he's shooting, getting shot at or whatever. Smoke clouds and gunfire were mersmerizing to look at. Buildings actually get damanged and eventually collapse when you fire on them long enough.

you can almost see the expression on the soldier's face

nothing screams awesome more than night battles

There's also a voice command function that the game offers. A string of commands can be given to the game so that you don't have to click so much to make your units move, defend, capture, or attack enemy units or buildings. I didn't use this much as the computer or game had trouble hearing what I was saying. It could've been the microphones fault too but who knows. I did use it a couple of times during non-engagement periods in the games but it was too tiring to do so because I literally had to shout into the microphone for it to hear me properly. The game also has this training module for would be voice command players to get you acquainted on how to use the voice commands and for speech recognition of the game. I'm not sure if the game still picks up on speech recognition while you play so I can't say for sure if the game was stupid and didn't understand me half the time I tried the voice commands or it was still in the process of learning my speech.

The factions in the game have different units, each having its equivalent in the other faction. My personal favorites, no matter what faction I play as, would be transports plus infantry and the artillery. The artillery is very very useful in chipping away enemy defense and offense as they are long ranged and deals a deadly blow when their fire is clustered. I always have 2 artillery units target a single enemy unit to eliminate them faster. The downside of the artillery vehicles is that if the enemy gets close enough, they would become useless. So make sure to always have some tanks and helicopters within attack range of the artillery. Not too close tho since artillery vehicles are magnets for weapons of mass destruction moves.

my favorite type of unit

All in all, the game gives a great preview of what we can expect from future large-scale strategy games. Although EndWar feels too good to be true at first, the game does get pretty repetitive, annoying, and boring and the AI will get pretty predictable. It's a different story altogether if you play with a real person. I enjoyed it when I played it with my brother because humans are more exciting to battle against over programmed AIs. The game scores high on graphics, game play, and game environment while low in providing a continued excitement until the end of the game. 3.5 out of 5 points is a high score and this game is a must try.

Cloning a Hard Drive

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:08:00 +0000

Here's the story:

My Dad's Sony VAIO laptop is running out of hard disk space. Sucky 80GB of hard disk memory came with the laptop and all his files were filling it. He bought a newer 320GB hard disk and I installed Windows XP using the Windows XP SP2 CD we have. I had trouble installing at first because the installation kept having errors (failed to copy xxxx file, press enter to retry). I wiped the hard disk clean with a single pass zero utility of Ultimate Boot CD. I re-installed again and it worked.

The laptop has a genuine Windows XP key and I entered it into the enter-key-field when Windows ran for the first time... and it wouldn't go through! I sought the help of Mr. Google and found out that the genuine key would only work with Sony's version of Windows that came with the laptop. OH NO's!

I thought and thought and thought about the problem at hand and I told my Dad to bring the laptop to Sony and have them install their version of Windows. My Dad asked me if there was an installation CD that came with the laptop (I knew there was none) so I told him I'd take a look inside the box. My brother (I asked him to do it) took a look inside the box and found no installation CD. I thought and thought and thought about the problem at hand.

and then..
AHA! I'll just clone the entire disk! That way, I'll still have Sony's version of Windows then I'll just wipe the entire disk clean with the internal formatting system (Norton Ghost in Dell, idk with VAIO). This way, the laptop won't lose any software it needs to run -- like the fingerprint recognition and what-nots.

Anyway, I searched online for cloning tools and I chanced upon an article that lists down some software that does the job well. And guess what? My trusty handy-dandy GParted (July 08 version) was listed! So I went to do it and it only took something like an hour (I was doing something else so I didn't notice) to copy everything from the external device to the new HD. I booted the PC and it showed "Operating sytem not found". BOO! What did I do wrong now.

Then I remembered I haven't flagged the Windows partition as "boot". So I went into GParted again and flagged it.

and then.. *drum roll*
WINDOWS XP BOOTED! WOOT!
This is the time I did my happy dance (or poses)

It did a quick diskcheck to ensure that everything's intact and.. TA-DA! Everything's like the old hard disk! WHEE!

OK. This celebration may be very shallow for the people who have done this countless times before, but yes, this is my first time so give me credit for doing it right with minimal to no guidance at all.

*happy dance*

:D

Game Review: Mirror's Edge

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:33:00 +0000

Game: Mirror's Edge
Developer: EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE)
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform/OS: Windows XP
Release Date: January 13, 2009
Total time to accomplish: 10 hours (approx.)
Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror's_Edge
Rating: 5/5

OK. I just finished playing the game and I'm now blogging about it. It's a bit rare for me to do this but Mirror's Edge is REALLY REALLY REALLY GOOD.
PLUS! Faith, the character that you play as, is really pretty!

Basically, Mirror's Edge is a first person action-adventure game. It delineates from my usual fare of first person games. This time, I had to scale walls, jump rooftops, climb pipes, and run and run and run some more. Mirror's Edge takes gaming one step further and destroys the barrier that separates reality from fiction. Every climb you make, every jump you do, it's as if you, yourself, are doing it. I catch myself lurching forward in my chair trying to clear the near impossible jump between buildings 50 floors high.

hanging on for dear life

The graphics are awesome and the colors are just vibrant and strong. The background music is also awesome. The game play is awesome and the environment sound effects are totally awesome. The controls are easy, making the moves easy to combine and use effectively. Obviously, I am lacking in vocabulary because of the awesomeness of this game so I just resort to using awesome as the universal awesome-er.

The game lacks the usual HUD, allowing for a more realistic feel. The visibility of complete arms, legs, and torso when running, jumping, sliding, shimmying, etc. adds this sort of attachment to the character.

the view you will get from the rooftops

Guns, in this game, are dispensable. It's something that you pick up, use to kill enemies, and then throw away. Guns will only slow you down, especially the big ones. You have to use your mind to think through the environment and see the best way to isolate the enemy and disarm or knock him unconscious and then take his gun and go trigger happy while using your uber awesome moves to slide on the floor. The use of the environment is critical to success in Mirror's Edge.. and not just a race of who has the bigger gun. That, in my opinion, sets it apart from all the other action games.

I'm not going to spoil the fun and surprise for you, so go ahead and play Mirror's Edge and I assure you a 100% satisfaction with the game.
Although there are times that you just can't really figure out how to get over an obstacle and you have to repeat that section over and over again (which explains the long play time). But trial times aside... AWESOMMMEE!!

one wrong move and buh-bye for you

I hope they make a sequel (which I highly doubt). [correction: they are going to! YAY!]

CSA Valentine's Cake Sale

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:51:00 +0000

Where Is The Love?

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:49:00 +0000

Chinatown Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:08:00 +0000

Amazing race that will showcase Chinatown and the Chinese culture.
Contact me for more details.
Registration forms available at the CSA tambayan in front of AS 101 or HERE or HERE.

HURRY! Only the first 6 teams to register will be able assured slots in the race!

Other Details:
- ages 18 to 24
- open to all current students of UP, UST, ADMU, DLSU, and UA&P
- 4 individuals per team (2 pinoys, 2 tsinoys / 3 pinoys, 1 tsinoy / 1 pinoy, 3 tsinoys)
- teams may be composed of members from different participating universities
- 500php registration fee (refundable after race proper)
- DEADLINE: February 4, 2009

Happy Niu Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:14:00 +0000

Click the image for a larger view.

Just To Make You Drool

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:19:00 +0000

Windows Experience Index of our Vista.

:)

The Wong Network

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:13:00 +0000

For a few months now, I've been wanting to create a visual representation of the computer network that we have in our house. This weekend, I finally opened Photoshop and did it. I've cut down the mind-boggling details that's involved in the network like IP address assignments, router and wireless configurations, router IP addresses, etc. I can explain to you in detail if you want.. even if you suddenly wake me in the middle of the night to ask something about the network.

The first diagram will show how the network is connected to the internet and to each other. I also included the currently installed printers we have. The second diagram gives out the basic hardware information of the desktop and laptop computers. I didn't include the graphics hardware, motherboard, etc. as that would be too much information already. Let's just say I can easily install and play all the games that they will dish out this 2009.

FYI, I singlehandedly installed and configured everything (except for the LAN cable laying from the first floor to the third floor where I had hired hands do the work for me). All the router configurations, computer installation, hardware installation, computer building (most), EVERYTHING.. I did with my two hands (with some help from my brother here and there). I'm very proud of the hacking that I did to our Linksys router. Its been running on DD-WRT since half a year ago. More options, more control, more of everything.

Anyway, enough of my long talks about our (my) network.

I give you.. The Wong Network.

(click on the images for larger versions)

All logos presented in the images are copyright of their respective owners.

Colder Weather Expected

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:43:00 +0000

‘Brrrace’ for colder January—Pagasa
By Alcuin Papa
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:19:00 01/04/2009

MANILA, Philippines—The country will have to brace itself for more cold weather until next month, a development which is expected to result in lower electricity bills as households refrain from using aircons and electric fans.

On Saturday, temperatures dipped to 19.3 degrees centigrade at around 6:30 a.m. at the weather bureau’s facility on Agham Road in Quezon City. On Jan. 2, the temperature was recorded at 21.8 degrees.

In Baguio City, temperatures plunged to 9.6 degrees yesterday and 12.6 degrees on Jan. 2.

“We expect the temperature to continue to drop,” said

Prisco Nilo, director of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

Prisco said the country would experience cold weather because the northeast monsoon (also known as the Amihan) would continue blowing into the country.

The northeast monsoon sweeps down to the country from northern China through Taiwan into northern and central Luzon. It usually starts in October and peaks in February.

A low pressure area, meanwhile, was spotted 260 kilometers east of Surigao City.

Savings

It is expected to bring frequent rains over Eastern Visayas and Northern Mindanao, and persist over the weekend, according to Pagasa.

Because of the cold weather, Ester Dipasupil, Philippine Daily Inquirer news desk editor, who’s a resident of Mandaluyong, has stopped using her aircon since last week.

Even her electric fan has not been switched on.

But she said she had started using hot shower, which she reckons consumes less electricity.

“I expect my Meralco bill to go down this month because of the cold weather,” she said.

The temperature in Metro Manila was recorded at 18 degrees centigrade on Dec. 20, 2008, the coldest for last year.

The record in recent history in Metro Manila is 15.1 degrees in February 1987 and December 1988.

Baguio’s record stands at 6.3 degrees centigrade in Jan. 1961.

Pagasa records temperatures at 60 stations across the country, including those in Basco (Batanes), Laoag, Masbate, Tacloban, Cotabato, Surigao and Zamboanga City.

Welcome, 2009!

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:50:00 +0000

I would like to take this opportunity to greet everyone a very very very very

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What's in store for 2009? Only we can decide that.

YM attack part 2:

Support Wikipedia

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:49:00 +0000

How many times have you accessed Wikipedia's pages?
How much have you learned from Wikipedia?

Think about all those reports and projects where you used the FREE information on Wikipedia.

Ever thought of giving back?

Now, you can.

Wikipedia is in need of donations for its 2009 expenses. Let's keep Wikipedia free from advertisements. Let's keep Wikipedia free and accessible to everyone.

Support Wikipedia by clicking the button below.

Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.

— Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia

Game Review: Call of Duty - World at War

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:23:00 +0000

Game: Call of Duty - World at War
Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Platform/OS: Windows XP
Release Date: November 11, 2008
Total time to accomplish: 6 hours (approx.)
Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty_5
Rating: 4.5/5

Playing Call of Duty is a tradition for me. I've been with the franchise since the early 2000s. The last COD that I played was Modern Warfare which really impressed me in terms of weapon and environment modernity. The CODs I've touched before Modern Warfare revolved around the second World War. World at War kept with this time-setting tradition.

I was very excited when the introduction to the first mission began. The pre-mission briefings and introduction were very nicely made. It was a generally 3D animated presentation (the cool kind) and sometimes made use of actual footage and photos from WW2. I really liked this because I'm a big fan of WW2 documentaries and everything that revolved around that theme.

In the game, you get to alternately play as 2 Allied characters on the two fronts of the war. One as an American fighting the Asian front against the Japanese, the other as a Russian, fighting the European front against the Germans. Like Modern Warfare, there's a part in the game where you play as a different character and you get to fight from an aircraft.

World at War, like its predecessors, is a goal oriented game. Every mission is centered around a particular goal and that's it. I like these sorts of FPS since I don't waste time travelling and exploring the world map of the game.

The game offers the same graphics engine as that of Modern Warfare but it cannot be easily compared as World at War has a dominantly vegetative landscape as compared to the concrete landscape of Modern Warfare. The graphics of the game is very good, as can be proven by the screenshots of explosions and smoke. I particularly like the texturing of the environment. You can really see the rust and signs of degredation on things like lamp posts and such. Although the texturing is very detailed and is not foolishly repetitive, the environment is not very interactable. Only bottles and certain other objects can be broken or manipulated. Even so, the game utilizes the burning of grass as one of its assualt tactics -- one step above most FPS games, save for the more physical realism engines of others. I found a few bugs where barrels, cups, and bottles became stuck in the air at different heights for one reason or another, but this can easily be dismissed and I'm sure Activision has released patches for this.

What I like about the game is that there are no health power-ups or pick-ups. You "die" if you sustain enough continuous damage. Most of the time, when the character is nearing "death", you only need to find a quiet spot and rest for a while to have your health back up. There also isn't any meter to tell you how your health is doing so it's a matter of "feeling" how much continuous damage you're getting. This is a plus for me because you now only have to worry about your ammo stock.

I liked the realism in the number of shots an enemy needs to die. A shot in the head would mean instant death, a shot in the leg would make your enemy limp on that leg for a while, a shot on the arm would stop your enemy from shooting, etc. Normally three to four shots to the body would kill the enemy. Also, the game offers realism in the after-death of the enemies. Body parts actually come flying off if you hit them with a high-powered gun or if they get hit directly by explosions. Most FPS games do not take this into account and I was surprised that World at War did. This factor added to the feel of the war.

What I didn't like about the game is that the checkpoints are sometimes too far apart and you can't save at any other place aside from the checkpoint saves that are automatically made for you. I had to repeat several long sequences of attacks and advancement because I kept getting killed and there was no checkpoints in between point A and B to save my progress.

The game also offers, at some points, some sort of open ended gameplay. For example, when I was playing as the Russian guy, my superior gave me the choice to either shoot or grenade our cornered German enemies. Doing either or doing nothing at all will have no difference at the result of the game but will differ in the dialogue of the in-game characters. I hesitated for too long which resulted to my comrades gunning down the enemy themselves. Another example would be when I was playing as the American guy and I was tasked to choose my path of assuault (left or right). Again, the choice would not change the result of the game but would be a different experience in the dialogue exchange (and fighting sequence, for this matter).

My favorite part of the game was when I was playing as the Russian and I was tasked to snipe down enemies. There was a part where it reminded me of a WW2 film that involved a Russian sniper shooting down relaxed German enemies as bomber aircraft overhead (or explosion noises, I forgot which) drowned out the gunshots. I have a strong feeling the creators of the game based that mission around the film.

World at War is another great addition to the Call of Duty franchise. It ranks high with a score of 4.5 out of 5 as it offers a simple but realistic experience of the second World War. It's an action-intense game with no dull moment to spare that will surely delight your trigger-happy fingers at every corner. Relive both the European and Asian fronts of the war and I assure you that you won't stop playing until the game is over and the war is won.

Game Review: World of Goo

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:04:00 +0000

Game: World of Goo
Developer: 2D Boy
Publisher: Independent
Platform/OS: Windows XP
Release Date: October 17, 2008
Total time to accomplish: 5 hours (approx.)
Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Of_Goo
Rating: 5/5

This game is genius. Rather, the creators are. It's the first puzzle game I've seen to top the GameSpot list. Usually, the games that take that place are the first person shooters, strategy, and adventure ones. Its number one place urged me to download this game. Otherwise, I would've just brushed it off as another cutesy game. I would later on realize how wrong I was when the game loaded for the first time on my screen.

Size-wise, the game is small. The folder that I downloaded only weighed in at 316MB. Its installed folder only takes up 71MB of disk space. WoG is a relatively small game, needing only basic requirements to play. I didn't think it would run on my laptop whenI saw the screenshots since the graphics looked good. But it did run smoothly. Thank God for that.

World of Goo is a breath of fresh air from my usual line-up of first person shooters. It's different, fun, interesting, and even challenging. The point of the whole game is to have a required number of Goo balls exit through a pipe. You accomplish this by building structures using the Goo balls. Of course, it's just a matter of building a short stack of Goo balls at first, then it gets harder and you encounter more types of Goo balls that you can build your structures with. Also, it's not just a matter of reaching the pipe, you have to use your Goo balls wisely so that you can reach your saved Goo ball quota and not be short of Goo balls (and repeat the puzzle again).

The game involves physics in its puzzles (not the type physics that makes people bleed from the nose). You have to know when the bridge you're building will snap or if the tower you're stacking is stable enough. You have to take into account gravity, the weight of the very energetic Goo balls, and the direction and power of the wind in some stages.

The Goo balls that you successfully exit through the pipe at the end of each puzzle will be sent to a location known as the World of Goo Corporation. Here, you can play against other WoG players by building the highest structure. It's up to you how you want to build your skyscraper. I seriously considered asking my Dad (a structural engineer) about this, but then I decided that a large pyramid will do. A readout on the screen will tell you how high your structure is and how you're doing against the rest of the world. Other online players will be seen as floating clouds, depending on their structure height. The clouds will even display the user's name and country flag. Once, I was playing at around 2 AM when I saw this guy with the Philippine flag. I guess I wasn't the only one staying up to play the game.

World of Goo offers a very cartoony game-play. It's a refreshing break from my hard-core realism games. In place of the sounds of a blazing gun, Goo balls squeaked and squealed when handled. It's cute albeit a bit repetitive, but it doesn't get to your nerves.

Obsessive Completion Distinction (OCD) status can be achieved by beating a requirement for that particular puzzle. It's either you have to save a required number of Goo balls that can only be accomplished by using the least amount of Goo balls in your structure or you have to finish the puzzle within a specified amount of time. Don't take the OCD lightly, it can be very addicting to accomplish. I once had to repeat a puzzle a little over 20 times to get an OCD status.

World of Goo is a must-try for puzzle lovers who would like to exercise their logical brain (and their physics thinking capability) in a fun and cute way. Heck, everyone should try it. It hooked me enough to believe that anyone who touches this game will fall in love with it.

Merry Christmas 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:11:00 +0000

HEY, YO!

A very Merry Christmas to you!

May you have a wonderful and joy-filled Christmas with your family and friends. =)

I would just like to share what I saw on my computer screen when I got home from the Wong family Christmas gathering.

I only left the house for around 5 hours and this is what welcomed me home. YM attack to the fullest. I'm not complaining. It's just that it's rare to see so many messages at once. This is considering that I already closed some windows prior to the screenshot (because I haven't thought of doing so yet), plus the ones at the back that were completely covered by the windows in front, plus the early bird ones during the day, plus the ones that I'm still receiving now.

I'm going to do my own share of mass IM in a bit.
>:)

Once again,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

(ho ho ho ho!)

Expect 3 new game reviews before the new year. :)

Advertisement Technology Fail

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:02:00 +0000

I saw this while I was walking through Trinoma this afternoon.
Why was I there? I watched Bolt! :D

It's one of those spiffy looking advertisements because they're flat screen, digital, and whatnot.

But they run on windows.

FAIL!

They should have used another operating system.

I know this would not cut the failblog line-up of failures, so I decided to just post it here.
The Price Fail I submitted weeks ago never showed up on the blog. :(

Looking for a Part-time Job?

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:58:00 +0000

Get 10,000 - 15,000 Pesos monthly by teaching English at home!

RareJob is an online tutorial service which connects tutors, who live in the Philippines, with Japanese people in Japan, who would like to learn the English language.

After TV Tokyo, the national TV network in Japan made a feature of Rarejob, the number of RareJob students increased. Because of this, we definitely need more tutors to work with us.

Why Rarejob?
- Good salary.
- You can work at home, if you have PC and broadband connection (DSL is preferred).
- We use flexitime. You can decide on how many days and how many hours per day you will work. You can work at 8pm-12mn nightly or 8am-11am on weekends, so that you can effectively manage your time. (e.x. after your full time job, etc.)
- You can work on any day of the week as agreed by the RareJob personnel and you.
- You will have a lot of interaction experience with foreigners which will benefit you in your future job hunting.
- You can teach well even if you do not have any experience in tutoring.
- Materials with tutor instructions will be provided.
- Tutor training will be conducted.

Requirements:
- Male/female U.P. student/graduate/alumnae/alumni

- Has interest in tutoring
- Has PC at home
- Have or will have broadband connection at home
- Be on time when you have lesson

If you are interested, please register to the RareJob website
http://www.rarejob.com/professional/

and kindly send to personnel@rarejob.com a scanned copy of:
- your most recent form 5
- UP student/instructor ID
- TCG or TOR

You can check who among your acquaintances are RareJob tutors
http://www.rarejob.com/teacher.php
http://www.rarejob.com/teacher.php?page=2
http://www.rarejob.com/teacher.php?page=3
http://www.rarejob.com/teacher.php?page=4
http://www.rarejob.com/teacher.php?page=5
http://www.rarejob.com/teacher.php?page=6
http://www.rarejob.com/teacher.php?page=7

If you have any questions, please ask our personnel thru a text message, or a call to 09178659028. If you opt to call, make the call from 6pm-12mn. You can also send your applications, CVs, and resumes to personnel@rarejob.com.

Thank you.

RareJob
http://www.rarejob.com/professional

====================================================

If you guys have any questions or clarifications, please don't hesitate to contact Rarejob or yours truly.

Also, if you continue with this part-time job, please tell them that you heard it through me, Harrell Wong.

THANKS!

WWF

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:56:00 +0000

I found this over the internet.
My first encounter with the abbreviation "WWF" was back in Grade School because my classmates were crazy over wrestling and did stunts in the classroom. Around 6 years back, I encountered the WWF abbreviation again. This time, it came along with a panda. I was totally confused. Why would wrestling have pandas? I searched it online and found out that it meant World Wildlife Foundation.

This image brings back that particular point in time when I was confused.. in a very funny way.

Game Review: Crysis Warhead

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:12:00 +0000

Game: Crysis Warhead
Type: First-person shooter
Distributor: EA Games
Platform: PC
Total time to accomplish: 4 hours (approx.)
Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crysis_Warhead
Rating: 3.5/5

My hands-on with the first Crysis left me in awe with the graphics and physics of the game. Crysis Warhead did not leave me disappointed. The story of Warhead is that of Psycho’s, it has the same timeline as the first, but this time, it shows everything that happened on the other side of the island. The most noticeable feature of the game is the ability to dual wield like that of Halo 2 which I found very useful as you can now carry twice the amount of ammo, reload less and thus, minimize vulnerability – although you can always switch to cloak mode before reloading, but where’s the excitement in that?

Sniping

Like the first Crysis game, the entirety of the game takes place on an island somewhere in the South China Sea. As baseline, I used the normal difficulty level. I tried marking up all the graphics options to the highest possible setting, but got nowhere. The game showed invisible AI characters, which may be due to the failure of my system to render the graphics in time with the frames. I then tried what any sane man would do; make the game figure out for itself what graphic option to use. The game then set my graphic levels to “Mainstream”. Now I know that Intel Quad Core 2.4GHz, Radeon X800, 3G RAM, Windows XP SP3, and Direct X 9.0c cannot handle the highest game graphic setting of Crysis Warhead.

I didn’t notice if the feet were visible in the previous Crysis whenever you looked down, but I checked with Warhead and it shows you Psycho’s feet. Because of my attention to detail and favor to realism, I noticed that the shadow does not move in sync with that of your actions. Accidentally, I found out that if you picked up a remote controlled grenade (new weapon!), your shadow makes a very noticeable arms-on-both-sides-of-the-head-oh-no-what’re-you-doing action.

Feet!

Speaking of guns, the Crysis games provides very realistic weapons. Unlike that of Counter-Strike (even the source version), the Crysis weapons have the correct side of exit for the bullets: right side. There were also a few additional weapons like the EMP grenades and the grenade launcher. The basic weapons like the rocket launcher, the sniper rifles, assault rifles, and shotgun remained. My personal favorites are the incendiary round firing rifle and, of course, the sniper rifle. I’ve always wanted to be a sharp shooter. Counter-Strike honed my ability to shoot moving targets from afar, taking account of their speed, distance, and direction. Very cool.

Less noticeable with the game is that the effects have been tweaked up from the original. You’ll notice these changes if you look at the alien shields and grenade explosions closely.

Smoke grenade in action

A disappointment for me was that the Korean helicopters still aren’t accessible. I enjoyed flying the VTOL in the previous Crysis, while Warhead failed to excite me as much in terms of vehicle driving. I don’t even think there were any boats to hijack and drive around. The game also had less play time, although it’s understandable since it’s more of a "continuation" to the first Crysis. Since the relationship of the play time and enemy count is direct, there were also fewer pockets of resistance in Warhead.

A dual wield and a VTOL

The gameplay is enjoyable since it highlights key points in the game which will make you feel more connected to the previous Crysis, like the radio message of Prophet when he was abducted, or conversations with Nomad during certain points in the timeline. The game ended when the island was evacuated and did not anymore extend to the events that happened in the ship since it was a confined environment and doing everything all over again, even as a different character, would be really boring.

The AI was supposedly more realistic and smarter than the previous Crysis, but I failed to notice as I kept my guns blazing throughout the game.

Overall, the game still lived up to its expectations as a Crysis game (and more!), but failed in terms of vehicle assortment and the high computer hardware requirement, which is negligible since the game offers top notch graphics even on low settings. I highly recommend this game, along with the first Crysis, for those who want a good storyline, realistic weapons and physics, and for those who just want to make things realistically go boom.

Weapon customization

I tried doing the Halo double grenade throw, wherein the first grenade launches the second grenade into the air, thus turning it into a firework display. It didn’t work. Although it’s reasonable since Halo is more of “everything can happen”. I did launch remote controlled grenades into the air tho, and enjoyed their simultaneous explosion and made believe that they were fireworks. :D

UP ABM Rummage and Food Sale

noreply@blogger.com (Harrell) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:14:00 +0000

Come to our RUMMAGE & FOOD SALE at 81 Maginhawa St. UP Village QC on October 25, 2008 8am-4pm.This is a project of the UP Association of Biology Majors, Chamber 33. Kita Kits!

Maginhawa ay inyong puntahan! Aming paninda'y tikman at subukan! Baka amin pang matustusan ang inyong pangagailangan.

Tarp design by Jared Asuncion.