No Steam OS for Old Hardware

Right now, Steam OS requires a UEFI motherboard and dedicated hard drive with minimum of 500 gb. A long long way to go to setting it up on my planned multi-boot entertainment rig with old hardware.

OpenPinoy Better than CDR-King for PC Items

I've been going back repeatedly to CDR-King to check if they have SATA cables in stock. No luck. I go to OpenPinoy and they have them in stock for 50 pesos each. I also see that they have power supply Y cable splitters in stock while CDR-King currently doesn't.

CDR-King is convenient. They have many branches within easy reach. They have an extremely wide variety of items. The problem is they have problems keeping items in stock.

For PC items and even other gadget accessories, if OpenPinoy carries them, I'd rather get it from them. I'm more confident that they'll have the item I want, in stock. The only issue with OpenPinoy is that they only have one branch and it's not easily accessible to me by public transportation, so I have to schedule my trips there. They do have ample parking space though.

10/26/13 Got In Quick to the Office

I arrived at the office somewhat early today. It surprised me that it only took me 15 minutes from the train station. Am I getting faster? If I had gotten off the next station and taken the bus, I would've been in the office 20 minutes later at the minimum.

It's good exercise but walking along EDSA is dangerous, for me and my lungs. A wayward bus could easily run me over or squish me. Close proximity to the exhaust of smoke belching vehicles is also not good for my health. I have to remember to wear a mask. I also have to make sure to avoid the dog poop on the sidewalk of the side streets. Good thing I always look where I'm stepping when I'm out walking.

Red Dead Redemption GOTY $15 for Consoles on Amazon

Red Dead Redemption Game of the Year Edition for XBOX 360 and PS3 is on sale right now for $15 at Amazon. It includes the standalone expansion, Undead Nightmare. Red Dead Redemption got fantastic reviews but I'm not really a cowboy western fan. Undead Nightmare looks fun though. I wonder if it's worth buying for that alone.

Quickest Daily Route

Right now, getting off at an earlier train station and walking to work saves me 10-15 minutes of my commute time, sometimes even 20 minutes, depending on the traffic. At my usual stop, it takes a few minutes longer to get out of the station then it takes me 10 minutes to get to the bus station where I wait anywhere from 5 - 15 minutes for a bus to the office. The bus ride takes between 10 - 20 minutes. Walking to the office beats taking the bus.

Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan Claims So Many Innocents

Hardest part for me to read and hear about the disaster is the number of children that were swept away. All innocent and defenseless.

The problem is, when you're told to evacuate, where do you evacuate to? Is the place you are to be sheltered, safe enough? Do people even have enough resources to travel far enough? Besides, we couldn't exactly predict where exactly the typhoon would strike. People might just relocate into the path of destruction.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Steam Key on Sale for $5

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is on sale for $5 at stacksocial.com, redeemable on Steam. What's the big deal about this sale? Activision has never ever ever put their recent best selling games on sale for less than $10. When I say recent, I mean this century.

StackSocial is a Mac website but Steam keys will redeem for both the PC and Mac downloads. Sale ends in 4 days. I know the game is old but I think it has the best single player gameplay and story of all the modern Call of Duty games, and it has the lowest system requirements as well.

https://stacksocial.com/sales/call-of-duty-4-modern-warfare

4th Gen LED Bulbs are Now Worth Getting

I just bought an Omni 4th gen 5-watt LED Bulb for around $5 at SM North. it's as bright as a 7 or 8 watt bulb but costs more than twice as much. I bought in on sale though. A regular CFL bulb costs around $3. The LED bulb fits very well in our lighting fixtures. Going forward, I'll be thinking seriously of getting LED bulbs to replace our dead CFL bulbs.

Burned Out for the Week of 10/20

I'm feeling burned out for the week. I've been going full throttle for the past few days until yesterday morning but since last afternoon, I've been only able to muster half the energy and speed; and my mind's wandering and it's so hard to focus. It's so hard to actually think. I probably just need to get some rest.

Groundhog Day Only $2.99 on iTunes

Groundhog Day is only $2.99 this week on iTunes. I love this movie. I love Bill Murray. Sadly, this is one of his few starring roles in a comedy. Sadly, this is his best movie that is a comedy in which he starred in. I wish he could have starred in more comedies. He was much funnier than Jim Carrey.

Larry Bird the Unassuming Idol

The reason why I probably won't see Larry Bird in person any time soon. For a famous guy, probably the most famous guy in this group of NBA veterans and active players visiting the country, he sure avoids fame and attention. If media people are unable to get face time with him, what more an ordinary fan? The only alternative would be to stalk him and I would hate to violate anyone's privacy, much more his.

http://www.philstar.com/sports/2013/10/09/1243142/larry-bird-cage-icon-our-midst

Larry Bird in Manila

Larry Bird is here in Manila for the pre-season game between the Pacers and the Rockets. I don't care about Lebron or Kobe. Larry almost never makes any promotional endorsement appearances. This may be my only chance to see him in person. I must find a way to get a picture of/with him and/or get his autograph, even if it kills me.

Makati Traffic Tomorrow Due to Pork Rally

I saw a notice at the bus stop this evening. It basically said to expect for tomorrow, long lines and wait times for buses going in and out of BGC. When I got home, my wife said that there was going to be a rally against pork barrel along Ayala tomorrow and that roads will be closed starting 10 am until 8 pm. I have to wake up early and leave early because we anticipate the MRT to be jam packed and I don't want to be caught in traffic when they start closing roads. I hope I can leave as early as possible.

Bought Black Widow Hardbound Graphic Novel

I just bought my first hardbound graphic novel for about $7. I saw Black Widow: Web of Intrigue at Book Sale for a good price so I bought it without hesitation. Black Widow is my favorite comic character. I think I saw this last year at Fully Booked for double the price. At Amazon, the lowest price is currently going for about what I paid for.

Proteus Not Worth It For Me

I was thinking of buying Proteus from IndieGameStand for $1 but when I saw its system requirements, I decided it wasn't for me. For a game that looks like Minecraft and lacks actual gameplay, it shouldn't need 3 GB system memory and 512 MB graphics card memory. It's essentially a low-res tech demo that won't run on most of my family's PCs which are old and low-end. The X-Isle tech demo for the first Cryengine which powers the Far Cry and Crysis series, offered nice looking visuals of natural scenery over a decade ago on hardware we now consider low-end. So it shouldn't have been hard for the developers of Proteus to do the same thing in this current generation.

Science Fiction Starships Scale Comparison Chart

This one isn't new but it's been updated with even more ships. A scale comparison chart of starships from popular science fiction series. Most people should find this interesting since they should be a fan of at least one of these series. Awesome. Just awesome. I have to make a poster of this.

http://kotaku.com/every-sci-fi-starship-ever-in-one-mindblowing-comparis-1391608737

Our iPhone 3G is No Longer Junk

Until recently, taking away the ability of old iOS devices to update to a newer iOS version practically rendered them obsolete and useless after a year or two. By then, most apps have required a higher iOS version than what the device still has, so that the old devices will be limited to downloading a minimal and dwindling number of apps.

Timed with the release of iOS 7, Apple now makes it possible for old iOS devices to download apps even if they require a higher iOS revision. If old devices don't meet the iOS version requirements of an app, the option is shown to download earlier versions of apps that still support the version of iOS installed on the old device.

Because of Apple's move, iOS devices can remain in service longer, squeezing out more value, and retaining a higher selling price than before. This means we can still use our old hand-me-down iPhone 3G for a while longer. Apple just gave us more for our money.

http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/972880

Family Sharing Marks Steam's 10th Year

The past week marked the 10th year of existence of Valve's Steam service. The past week also saw Valve announce a Family Sharing scheme for users to share their Steam game library with family and friends. This is a good way to maximize the huge collection of games that many users have built up as a result of Steam's outrageous sales. It's through these sales that Steam has become a force after 10 years of operation. It has helped revive PC gaming and helped reduce software piracy 

http://savedcontent.blogspot.com/2013/09/steam-10th-year-family-sharing.html

My Hall of Fame Tribute to Oscar Schmidt

I pay tribute to my idol, the great Brazilian basketball player, Oscar Schmidt, on his induction this past week into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. I wanted to shoot like him more so than any other player I idolized, including Larry Bird, Andrew Toney, Pistol Pete Maravich, Chris Mullin, and even Michael Jordan. He was just so beautiful to watch and he deserves his place in the Hall of Fame.

http://savedcontent.blogspot.com/2013/09/oscar-schmidt-enters-naismith.html

Humble Bundle 9 with FTL and Fez

Humble Bundle 9 is now live. BTA games are FTL and Fez. I'm glad I didn't get FTL yet even during its sale. I bought this HB as soon as I saw it, just 6 hours after it went live so I think I got it for a low price. It's worth it for FTL and Fez. I don't remember if I already have Brutal Legend.

It looks like I'm buying most of my games now off of game bundle sites instead of directly through online game stores and because they're so cheap and there's so many of them, I don't spend time any more to double check if I already bought a game or not.

Atheros Bluetooth Incompatible with Nokia Suite

I finally tried to use the Nokia Suite on my Gateway netbook running XP, to sync my old Nokia phones via Bluetooth so I can start disposing of the phones. The Nokia Suite didn't recognize my embedded bluetooth adapter, an Atheros AR3011. I tried reinstalling three different versions of the Nokia Suite and three different brands of Bluetooth stacks but nothing worked. I couldn't find any solution on the web.

Using the freeware Bluetooth Stack Switcher to troubleshoot, I realized that only four major bluetooth stacks are commonly recognized by most software, namely, Microsoft, Widcomm, BlueSoleil, and Toshiba. The Atheros Bluetooth stack of my netbook couldn't be detected. I concluded that the Atheros Bluetooth stack wasn't compatible with the Nokia Suite.

I had to find a way to get one of the major Bluetooth stacks working and detected by other software. I accomplished this with the freeware Bluetooth Driver Installer which installs the Microsoft Bluetooth stack by editing an inf file and inserting the hardware ID of your Bluetooth adapter. I'll try to do this with other Bluetooth stacks but at least for now I can sync my Nokia phone with the Nokia Suite.

The Oracle Speaks: Warren Buffett In His Own Words, Kindle eBook for Free

The Oracle Speaks: Warren Buffett In His Own Words, a book of quotes by the esteemed billionaire investor, Warren Buffett, is free for a limited time for the Amazon Kindle. I've just been reading a few quotes from a few pages and they're already eye opening to me. Even if some say these are just quotes that were taken by Googling them, for people who don't have a deep familiarity with Warren Buffett, the knowledge that these collection of quotes impart, is truly invaluable. I can't stop reading this. I'll probably finish reading by the end of the day, which is rare for me. I haven't finished a book in more than a decade.

Stop Obsessing Over Your Weight

A personal trainer debunks before and after physical improvement pics. She goes on to say that when she had great abs, she felt rotten inside and was unhappy. After that she decided to eat whatever she wanted in moderation and exercise in moderation which made her happier. Looks aren't everything. Women should stop obsessing over their weight. Exercise and eat what you want but all in moderation. Be happy with how you are but be healthy as well.

http://melvfitness.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/transformation-or-few-simple-tweeks.html

Bought Puffin Browser for IOS

I just bought Puffin Browser for iOS. It's currently on sale for $1.99 until the end of August. Puffin is one of the two top mobile browsers that can "play" flash content on iOS. The other one is Photon. Puffin is cheaper than Photon because it's a universal app. You have to buy the iPhone and iPad versions of Photon separately.

I bought Puffin primarily to watch Hulu videos on the go and for free without paying for a VPN. I wanted Hulu instead of Netflix because Netflix no longer has a large selection of anime because it lost most of the rights. Funimation awarded the rights to Hulu. In addition, you can watch Hulu for free. Netflix requires a paid monthly subscription.

I couldn't watch Hulu on my iPad because it's not available in my region, free viewing through the browser is not allowed on mobile devices, and most importantly, flash is not available on iOS. Puffin takes care of all of this. Puffin can "play" flash content by streaming it from its servers. Since its servers are in the U.S., it bypasses region restrictions. Lastly, since content is transmitted from its servers, there are no mobile device restrictions.

Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders Free on iTunes

Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders, a World War II flight-sim arcade shooter for iOS is free for a limited time on the iTunes App Store. It's a highly rated and popular game. The developer of this game has other games in the Sky Gamblers flight-sim series that are also highly rated and popular. I bought one of their previous iOS games on sale, Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy, which was published by Namco-Bandai.

Humble Origin Bundle

Humble Origin Bundle is now live. You get 6 commercial games from Electronic Arts for a minimum of $1. If you pay more than the average, right now less than $5, you also get Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3. This is a huge bargain! You could not get The Sims 3 or Battlefield 3 for less than $7. None of these games have sold for less than $5 each. It seems the Steam and Origin keys also activate here in Southeast Asia as reported on the hardwarezone.com.sg forums. All of the proceeds will be donated to mostly American charities.

So far this month, I've used up most of my budget on bundles, and we're only halfway through the month. I've purchase 3 Humble Bundles, 2 Groupees bundles, 1 Indie Gala bundle, and the rest from GamersGate. This will be my 4th Humble Bundle for this month alone. I've paid less than $1 on the average for each game this month and that's for more than 30 games.

Priest Movie has a Great Cast

I just watched Priest, the vampire action movie. It surprisingly has a great cast. It stars Paul Bettany as the main vampire hunter who rebels against the church with Maggie Q as his second. Karl Urban is the main villain and Christopher Plummer is the head of the church. Lily Collins is the relative of the vampire hunter who he tries to rescue after being abducted by vampires. Stephen Moyer and Madchen Amick have brief roles.

It was a short film, around 80 minutes but it seems it had a budget of $60 million. World wide box office receipts exceeded the budget but not by much. It has very low ratings on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes. It was worth watching for the scares, the concept, and the action scenes, as well as for the chance to see all these fine actors together. Not a great film but I enjoyed it.

Great Effort but RP Lacks Height

We gave it all we had but Iran just started using its height to impose its will on us. Like Chinese-Taipei the night before, our shots weren't as accurate against Iran as it was in the game with the previous historically significant opponent that drained both teams emotionally and physically.

Our team did well in this tournament but I wonder what would've happened if Marcus Douthit had been healthy. Iran and China were the primary reasons why we got him. Other teams we could handle without a naturalized player.

I'm proud of the team and I believe they lived up to expectations and then some. However, I was disappointed that they couldn't prevent the smallest Iranian, point guard Khamrany, from getting offensive rebounds and making clutch baskets. He was definitely a match for our point guards. Jason Castro was named to the mythical 5 but I believe all our point guards were equally great.

Another disappointment for me was the unsportsmanlike foul of Gary David that basically broke our backs. He just bumped the guy without going for the ball. The act was both dumb and poor sportsmanship. I also didn't like how the crowd booed the Iranians who were named to the mythical 5 when they were awarded their medals. Sore losers. Not a good image for us.

Emily Ratajkowski So Hot in Blurred Lines

I finally saw the Blurred Lines music video of Robin Thicke, the controversial version. The song is catchy but it's the girls who get most of the attention, particularly Emily Ratajkowski, who can be seen online in a pictorial in Treats magazine.

Robin Thicke's wife, Paula Patton, who was so hot in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, encouraged him to release the more controversial version of his music video. On the other hand, Robin encouraged Paula on her topless love scene with Denzel Washington in the movie 2 Guns.

Heart is the Story in 2013 FIBA Asia Tournament

We defended our home court, now we go for the gold. I started watching the RP - Korea match but couldn't bear to watch the rest when Gilas was down 21 - 28. I went to check Facebook and I was surprised to find out we won. I caught the whole game on replay on BTV.

It seems you can throw away all the stats, matchups, coaching, strategies, and NBA experience. Heart is what matters. Chinese-Taipei had probably the biggest heart in the tournament, coming from behind to win against RP and China, and holding its own against Iran. We probably have the second biggest heart in the tournament, holding on against a cohesive and efficient Korea, without Marcus Douthit and with Marc Pingris playing through pain.

Our guards led the way, constantly probing the defense, penetrating, and succeeding. We were aggressive. We had the Koreans worried about our penetration, leaving our big men open for put backs or assists. And we were clutch. The whole team hustled on defense. I'm very proud of Gilas.

3D Printers are Worth It

You can quickly recover the cost of a 3D printer by printing common household items. Staples sells 3D printers for $1299. I'm seriously thinking about getting one. I wonder if any are sold here locally. Maybe I'll try to have one shipped here through a balikbayan box.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1682798/print-these-20-things-you-dont-really-need-and-your-3-d-printer-pays-for-itself

http://www.staples.com/office/supplies/StaplesProductDisplay?storeId=10001&partNumber=SS2044291&catalogIdentifier=2&langId=-1&ddkey=http:StaplesZipCodeAdd

I Really Want That Tomb Raider Collector's Edition

Amazon has the Tomb Raider Collector's Edition for XBOX 360 going for $79.99. What differentiates this collector's edition from other collector's editions is that it contains a Play Arts Kai Lara Croft action figure that has a $53 price tag on Amazon. So the game itself only costs less than $30 which is still cheaper than a brand new standard edition. This is a very nice package for Tomb Raider fans who are both toy and video game fans, which I am.

I've been a Lara Croft fan since Tomb Raider first came out for MS-DOS on the PC in 1996. I've always loved playing video games, and although my last toy purchase was 5 years ago, I haven't given up on it as a hobby. The problem for me is that $80 is a lot of money. It's basically 2 months of my gaming budget. $80 just for one game and one action figure. I have to pass on this even if I want this so badly. This is a perfect display of my discipline in sticking to my budget.

Filling Pork Chop Meal at Mesa Steak Sizzlers, Trinoma

We were hungry while at Trinoma so we decided to eat at the food court. I went for Mesa Steak Sizzlers while my wife went for Pepper Lunch. I ordered my usual, two orders of Sizzling Porkchop with Java Rice for 70 pesos each. I figured I'd be more satisfied than if I ate a Quarter Pounder or a KFC Double Decker. It's better to order two plates rather than order the Double Porkchop at 115 pesos and pay for an extra order of java rice, because, although two plates cost a tiny bit more, with two plates you get more gravy and extra soup compared with just one. I was full and I felt I spent well.

Lack or USB Extension Cables at CDR-King

I bought two cheapo USB extension cables for 30 pesos each to extend the charging cables of my tablets. After a month they would intermittently stop charging but since they had only a week's warranty, I couldn't replace them. I had to buy a new one.

It seems CDR-King is out of stock of extension cables because their Trinoma branch, one of their largest branches, is out of stock of these cables. I had to buy a retractable USB cable even if it wasn't what i was looking for. The last time I bought USB extension cables, at their Ayala MRT branch, they only had these 30 peso cheapo cables to offer. Is there something wrong with their chain of supply?

How Fast to Get Drunk

Some people brag about how long it takes them before they get drunk. I think this is a waste of money. If you can get drunk on one bottle of beer, I think that's efficient. I am now envious of people who get drunk on just one bottle of beer. I thought I could get drunk if I consumed 2 cans of beer in 30 minutes but I had to consume 2 more cans of beer in an additional one and a half hours before I got tipsy enough to satisfy myself. Maybe I should add red wine or gin so I can get drunk faster and cheaper. Red wine seems to be a healthier alternative.

20,000 Down the Drain

It boggles the mind how quick it was to lose 20,000. On top of a couple of thousand in the recent past and another couple thousand in the near future, I really feel like crying. It either makes you want to stop spending ever again or it makes you want to spend even more, because in comparison, your efforts to save money is just a drop in the bucket, so your efforts seem to be a complete and utter waste of your time, hard work, and sacrifice. Why even try? This just makes me want to cry. Maybe God has a plan for this. I hope so. I hope and pray,

GamersGate Allows Duplicate Purchases

I'm frustrated with GamersGate. It doesn't notify you if you already own a game and it doesn't stop you from making a duplicate purchase. Steam and GOG show you in a game's page on each store if you already own the game. This prevents you from making a duplicate purchase.

I bought a game pack of four adventure games on sale at GamerGate which included Black Mirror 2. I was hurriedly deciding which game to buy, thinking either the sale was ending soon or there was a pricing error that could end at any moment, so I got confused and mistakenly bought Black Mirror 2 again at GamersGate without thinking twice.  It only cost me $0.59 but I'm frustrated that I still wasted money.

Bought First Mobile Reiner Knizia Game

Reiner Knizia's Tigris & Euphrates is on sale on Google Play for $0.99. There are only a few ports of Reiner Knizia's board and card games on Android whereas iOS has a lot more. That's one of the reasons why I had to buy this game. The other reason is that it runs even on my low-end Android devices.

Of course, you can't go wrong with a game designed by the renowned Dr. Knizia. He created the popular and critically acclaimed board games, Settlers of Catan and Carcassone, and these, as well as most of his other games, have perennially won gaming awards and accolades.

Board and card games are an excellent way to achieve family time, a way to ditch your gadgets and have some face-to-face interaction with your whole family or your friends. In this regard, Dr. Reiner Knizia is a credit to the human race for introducing numerous means to encourage closer relationships between family or friends.

Drew Barrymore was a Rom-Com Queen

I was watching Fever Pitch with Drew Barrymore when I realized that previous queens of romance-comedy films had a starring role in at least one romance-comedy that I really loved. Meg Ryan had When Harry Met Sally while Julia Roberts had My Best Friend's Wedding. They also had other films of that genre that I liked, such as Pretty Woman and I.Q. while they starred in a few more romance-comedies that were very popular. They also starred with the same leading man in at least two movies, Tom Hanks for Meg Ryan and Richard Gere for Julia Roberts.

Drew Barrymore tops them both with three romance-comedies that I loved, The Wedding Singer, Fever Pitch, and 50 First Dates. She's had a few other not-so-bad rom-com films and she starred with Adam Sandler twice. That's when I realized she was the rom-com queen right after Julia Roberts' and Meg Ryan's reign. I just don't think this was widely known or accepted at that time.

Bought My First XBOX Indie Games Ever

July 31 was the last day that anyone could earn rewards points on XBOX Live. I had four accounts that could still earn 100 MSP (Microsoft Points) each for buying XBOX Live content for the first time. I decided that I would buy my first Indie games, one game priced at 80 MSP (worth $1) for each account so I could get 100 MSP back.

I bought Final Rift, Murder Miners, and Brimstone. My Australian account couldn't buy any Indie game because it seems that the Australian marketplace doesn't have Indie games. I had to buy 80 MSP/$1 DLC of some game. Bastion had the only $1 DLC that added actual game content that extended play time so I bought it for my Australian account.

A few minutes before the day would be over, I noticed that one of my accounts that I thought didn't have enough MSP, had enough, so I tried to buy Red Invasion: TD Blitzkrieg before the day was over. Unfortunately, I may have been too late but I'll know in a week if I see an extra 100 MSP in each account.

Starting Fresh with August 2013 Gaming Budget

It's the end of the month. Although I've overspent my monthly gaming budget, I was able to survive the Steam Summer Sale; however, I did fall prey to two enticing XBOX sales which made up most of my purchases for the month.

With the start of next month, I will have a fresh budget to spend on some very, very nice game bundles. First up is the Positech Humble Weekly Bundle, 4 games for around $3 and ends tomorrow. The Groupees Adventure RPG bundle has 8 games that I want for $4. The Indie Gala Summertide has 13 games for less than $7. Lastly, the Humble Deep Silver Bundle has 5 very good full commercial games for about $5. Plus, GamersGate's summer sale is on its final week. I hope there are no more sales or bundles as good as these for the rest of the month so my wallet can take a break.

Finally Found Szechuan Restaurants

The BGC bus I ride, passed by a different route and I saw a couple of restaurants near the corner of 28th and 5th Streets at BGC. I noticed one restaurant was called Modern Sichuan Restaurant and I suddenly realized that there was finally a Szechuan restaurant that was accessible to me (meaning not in Makati or Manila).

I found a review of the restaurant on the web but when I looked on ClickTheCity, I couldn't find it; however, I found another Szechuan restaurant closer to my location, Komrad - Mao's Hunan & Sichuan Kitchen in Il Terazzo Mall at Tomas Morato. Wow, I finally found not just one, but two Szechuan restaurants that are accessible.

Szechuan food is my second most sought after food after Thai food. Mao, the young hero chef of the manga and anime Cooking Master Boy is a native of Sichuan province. Cooking Master Boy is my favorite anime of all time but it's only a happy coincidence that there's a connection between my favorite anime and one of my favorite foods.

http://www.philstar.com/food-and-leisure/2013/06/20/955840/spice-right-modern-sichuan

Astrid Task List App Gone in August

When you compare the number of task list management or to-do list management apps on iOS and Android, you'll find Android wins hands down despite the iOS market having many more apps overall. I had a hard time finding a task list app for iOS that I liked and in the end, I settled for an app that came out first on Android, an app called Astrid. Unfortunately for me, Yahoo! bought Astrid last May and announced early this July that they were discontinuing Astrid's service in August. I don't know what will happen to Astrid's apps on the App Store and Google Play so I'll be installing them on all my devices just in case.

Passionate Basketball Fan has Asperger's Syndrome

I saw an article on TrueHoop, which together with HoopsHype are my main sources of NBA news. The article talks about a basketball fan who has attended the Las Vegas NBA Summer League every year since 2004 and he happens to have Asperger's Syndrome. Here is a quote from the article:

"Salap has Asperger's syndrome, which, according to the Mayo Clinic website, is a "developmental disorder that affects a person's ability to socialize and communicate effectively with others," and where the person has "an all-absorbing interest in specific topics."

Does this remind you of anyone? Check out the article:

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/61814/the-voice-of-summer-league

Ikaruga Is Free on the Argentinian XBOX Marketplace

It was reported on the Reddit Game Deals thread that Ikaruga, a shoot em up or shmup game, is free for now on the Argentinian XBOX Marketplace. You need to create and use a free Argentinian account. I already have one which I created to redeem the Borderlands 2 season pass that was free for a short time last year.

Ikaruga has a Metacritic critic score of 87 and a user score of 8.0. It is currently a part of the limited-time XBLA Space Shooter bundle priced at $20. The bundle features two other 80+ Metacritic score shmup games as well as an additional above average shmup game. Radiant Silvergun has Metacritic critic/user scores of 86/8.3. Sine Mora has scores of 83/7.2 while Fusion Genesis has scores of 69/9.0.

Dulce de Leche Bites are Affordable at Cinnabon

We passed by a Cinnabon store and I wasn't in the mood to spend a lot even if Minibons are incredibly delicious. My daughter and I love them so much even though they're somewhat costly. I spied some small treats we hadn't seen before and I wondered how much they were. We were told they were 5 pieces for 85 pesos and I thought that's cheap and also my daughter and I could share them. They were called Dulce de Leche bites and we bought one pack to try out. We really loved them and we can also afford to buy them more often compared to the Minibons and regular Cinnabons. I know what we're going to buy now every time we pass by a Cinnabon store.

KFC Zinger Price Matches McSpicy

I haven't eaten KFC's Zinger in a long time. For its price, it wasn't the best value for a premium fast food sandwich. The KFC Double Down and the later KFC Double Decker were even better values among KFC's menu items. Enter McDonald's McSpicy. Priced at 80 pesos, it was way below the Zinger's price of 112 pesos. KFC had no choice but to respond and consequently they dropped the price to 80 pesos as well. Why couldn't they do this before? How much of a profit did they really need to make with the Zinger? Not very good with your consumers, KFC.

Mr. Choi Kitchen at Robinson's Magnolia

We recently ate at Mr. Choi Kitchen at the 2nd floor of Robinson's Magnolia. The kids liked the Crispy Fried Chicken and Mr. Choi Dimsum Combination. Even the white meat of the chicken was juicy. I like baked rice meals with tomato sauce so I ordered the Baked Porkchop in Tomato Sauce with Rice. I liked it and it was a lot for only 235 pesos. We'll go eat here again after we've eaten at the other restaurants at Robinson's Magnolia.

Got Past the Steam 2013 Summer Sale Intact

The Steam summer sale for 2013 is now over and I have only System Shock 2 to show for it at $2.49. Resistance was worthwhile. However, I wasn't able to resist other deals on other stores during the Steam sale. I got Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare for $2.09 at GOG and Din's Curse for $2.49 at GamersGate. I also bought Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 on the XBOX Marketplace for $7.50. I'm over budget for the month so I hope I don't see any more irresistible deals 'till next month.

Weekly $2.99 Movie Sale on iTunes Asia

Apple's iTunes Store for Asia seems to have a $2.99 sale for one movie each week. Right now it's Apollo 13. A few weeks ago, I bought My Best Friends Wedding for $2.99. Before i got married, we bought a VCD of that movie for triple that price. We also own it on DVD. So, I guess I'll be regularly keeping an eye out for these weekly deals in case we find a movie we like.

The Sims 3 on Sale at Origin's SEA Store

The Sims 3 is currently 9.90 SGD on EA's Origin Southeast Asia store. It's around 340 Pesos or $7.82. It's very tempting, given the fact that the lowest price this was on Steam was $7.50 for the U.S. and $10 for our region. Since I'm already over budget for the month, the only way I would bite on this deal is if the price was at $7. If I wasn't over budget, I'd take this deal right now.

$2.99 per Month for Avast's SecureLine VPN

I'm seriously considering subscribing to Avast's SecureLine VPN offering for iOS. It only costs $2.99 a month. This should allow me to watch movies through Crackle, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, but only through our iOS devices. No problem anyhow because I can use my iPad mini as a hotspot.

I trust Avast since I use its free anti-virus software on nearly all of our computers. I've actually been looking for a way to give money to Avast because I'm so grateful for them providing their excellent and essential anti-virus for free for all the years that I've used it to protect our home computers. Paying for their VPN service is how I can repay them for their beneficial service to me and my family.

An iPad for the Baby

Let's say you had a baby who goes from using an iPad to watch animated songs, nursery rhymes, and fairy tales, to actually using an iPad by himself to play games, and because of this, that baby is competing with the rest of the family for the use of the iPad. Aside from that, because of the way the baby handles the iPad, there's a stronger chance now that the device could be damaged.

Because the rest of the family uses that newer generation iPad, they don't want to put a bulky child proof protective cover on that iPad. What to do? Buy a cheaper, older generation iPad that you can have the baby and another son use, put a child proof protective cover, and if the baby damages the iPad, you won't lose as much. A 16 gb WiFi gen 1 iPad goes for around 6000 pesos at TipidPC.com.

Watched Turbo with the Kids

We were supposed to watch Pacific Rim today but there were no 3 empty seats that were next to each other in the movie house. There were 2 empty seats together and another seat in the row behind but the kids didn't want to sit separately from me, so we watched Turbo in 3D instead.

I thought I'd be bored but it was surprisingly entertaining. The premise of a racing snail that's able to challenge IndyCar racing cars is just so unbelievable, but the character of Tito, owner of the snail, is so endearing, he was able to make me care about what happens to the business he shares with his brother, which therefore made me look forward to the outcome of the race.

Although the outcome was somewhat predictable, the final moments of the race made me laugh because of the absurd, frantic, crazed response of the snail's main opponent. It wasn't a great movie that I'd want to see again, but I did enjoy it, and, more importantly, the kids did too.

The Need for a MAC Address Inventory

I need to inventory the WiFi MAC addresses of all our devices. This not only includes our tablets, phones, and laptops, but also our routers. I just realized then that maintaining these devices is tedious work. It's like I'm the sysad of a small network but now I even have to perform these tasks at home, taking up my free time. I have to take the inventory because it was taking hours for my wife to download her daily work files using our home broadband connections. 

When we use instead mobile broadband connections, what would take hours would now finish in a couple of minutes to half an hour. What my wife noticed was that the slow download speeds would occur starting at 7 PM in the evening. This could be due to any of a number of factors, including overall congestion of the network, but just to make sure, I decided to block any unknown MAC address from connecting to our routers. It could be better to allow only known MAC addresses to connect but I have to weigh both options later.

Sims 2 Digital Download for PC Not Available Anymore

It's disappointing to come to the conclusion that EA is no longer selling The Sims 2 on any online store. Even EA's own Origin store no longer carries the Sims 2 and its expansions. Neither is Amazon, Steam, GOG, or GamersGate. I'm just lucky and glad that I was able to buy The Sims 2 Double Deluxe on sale at GamersGate last year.

I hope EA eventually releases The Sims 2 and its expansions on GOG like it did with some of EA's older titles. Otherwise I have no other choice but to pirate them, same as what I did with the original Sims game. I hope EA releases the original Sims on GOG too. I'd definitely buy that.

7-11 Two Regular Hotdogs for Only 22 Pesos

7-11 has a current promo where you get two regular hotdogs for the price of one. It's cheap, for only 22 pesos. I forgot to avail of this a few days ago when I went down from my office to buy food. I ended up buying my regular single barbecue with one and a half rice for 45 pesos. If I had availed of this promo that time, I could have eaten 4 hotdogs for 44 pesos. I did buy hotdogs yesterday but since I wasn't that hungry, I only bought two for 22. I tried to add chili con carne for 10 pesos for both dogs but the 7-11 branch was all out of stock. Maybe I'll try to get two more hotdogs later this afternoon and add some chili. I hope they'll have them in stock.

JK Rowling Finally Found Good Reviews for Her Adult Novel

JK Rowling was finally outed as the author of The Cuckoo's Calling. It was written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Her first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, released previously under her own name, received lukewarm reviews, in spite of the massive hype brought on by her fame. Writing under the guise of a first time author, she finally got the critical praise she had been looking for as a writer for adults, although the book did not sell well. The book was also rejected by several publishers, her second book to be rejected after The Sorcerer's Stone.

It looks to me that critics may have unconscious biases against popular authors while publishers and readers are easily swayed by the author's name recognition (see Stephen King for another example). Negative reviews started popping up on the book's Amazon page soon after people learned she was the author, although the book immediately topped Amazon's bestseller charts afterwards. The success of products are decided like this everyday. Keep this in mind if you're thinking of writing a book, making an indie movie, developing a game, inventing some contraption, etc.

Finally Writing More

I've been wanting to write more often on my blog for so long. Problem was, I tended to write lengthy discourses that ramble on and on, so it took too long to write, resulting in only a few articles per year. It took Facebook to show me the ideal length of a post. It was the purchase of my iPad Mini and its unlimited LTE connection that freed me since I could write anytime, anywhere, quickly, and therefore more frequently. It's a confluence of events, a perfect storm, which now allows me to spam people more.

19-Year Old Creates Massive Skyrim Mod

A 19-year old kid was behind the creation of a large mod for Skyrim on the PC. It contains a huge 25 hours of content and the mod is said to be of high quality. It took him a year to finish it. He seems to be aiming for a job with Bethesda. Wow, what a way to show what he's capable of. Epic job application.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/07/16/behind-falskaar-a-massive-new-skyrim-mod-and-the-19-year-old-who-spent-a-year-building-it/

Prince of Persia free on iOS

Prince of Persia Retro is free today on iOS. It works even on old iPhones. The graphics seem similar to the DOS version or the MacOS version. Classic gaming from my youth. I bow down to you Jordan Mechner.

My iPad Mini is Helping Me Write

I love the fact that iOS has sufficient featured apps for Blogger, Google+, and Facebook. I can't seem to download Blogger for Android. It looks to be region restricted. I'm glad I bought my iPad Mini with unlimited LTE from Smart so I can write more often. The iPad Mini is so comfortable to use because of its small size and light weight. Smart also has much better reception than Sun in my workplace. Sun wins out at home though and it's not close.

My Social Network Cross-Posting Conclusion

I researched and tried a few methods to attempt automation of cross-posting to Blogger, Google+, and Facebook. The process was not that much quicker or easier than manually copying, pasting, and posting to each of the sites. I've decided to post initially to my blog, then copy, paste, and post to Google+ and Facebook. Blogger and Google+ makes this easier to do than with Facebook.