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DC Universe Online: Will It Last?

Bwana — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 22:33:53 +0000

Some of you may not know, but I love comic books. I grew up reading Marvel in my early years and gradually moved towards DC Comics in my adult life. So I was definitely excited to see that DC was releasing a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) called DC Universe Online.

It first caught my attention by the brilliant cinematic trailer. I literally got goosebumps watching this because it was so well done. Many people who watched this, really wanted this to be made into a movie. It’s just that good.

The trailer is very important to understanding the story of the game. SPOILER ALERT! Lex Luthor has traveled back in time to save humanity from the clutches of Brainiac. He has released Braniac’s “exobyte” technology to give ordinary people super powers to fight against Brainiac. As a character in the game, you have been captured by Brainiac since the exobytes granted you powers and you manage to escape his harvester ship to join the heroes or the villains.

Now on to the gameplay elements. This game is not World of Warcraft. Let me repeat, this game is not World of Warcraft. With that said, DC Universe Online (DCUO) plays like an action game with real-time attacks, blocks, and special abilities. This sub-genre of MMORPGs has been deemed “Action MMO” by the industry, and has been very popular in the Korean market. Most notably, Vindictus, is the latest of the genre which has been popular in the west as well.

Controls

DCUO is available on both the PC and PS3 platforms. If you think about this situation, you can’t help but come to the conclusion that the control scheme is going to stink on one of these platforms. It’s a valid assumption, because games like Final Fantasy XIV completely dropped the ball in bringing a smooth control scheme to the PC platform. For more information on that, check out my first impressions of that disaster.

I’ve been playing on the PC platform and immediately noticed a unique control scheme for a PC MMO. The mouse has no cursor. The mouse is used for combinations and camera movement, while the keyboard is used for ability shortcuts and character movement. For example, if you wish to conduct a superhero combo, you would click the left mouse button once or twice and then, hold down the right mouse button. It took me 5-10 minutes to get used to this control scheme during the game’s tutorial phase. All in all, I was happy with it and got used to it rather quickly. If you’ve played action RPGs such as Torchlight/Diablo, you should be used to the large amount of mouse clicking to engage enemies.

Rating: 8/10

Social Features

DCUO has basic features such as leagues (essentially guilds), groups and general chat. I’ve found that these features lack considerably. For one, the group and guild chat stops working for unknown reasons and no one knows why. The interface for chat on PC is terrible and has horrible response time. I find it to be the most frustrating part of grouping up with people. The player search controls are quite confusing at first. For example, to add a player as a friend requires you find a hidden option in a drop down. Little things like this make it counter-intuitive and can drive you nuts if you let it.

This is easily my number 1 gripe with DCUO

Rating: 4/10

Questing/Leveling

DCUO employs a mentor system, where your character is introduced to superhero’ism by one of 6 heroes/villains: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, Lex Luthor, Circe. These mentors guide you through initial character development and direct you to various assignments in the cities. Depending on which mentor you choose, your character will begin in either Metropolis or Gotham. As you level up, you venture out into the alternate city which will include instances that the game calls “Alerts”.

The questing operates at a good pace for both novice MMO players and experienced ones. I found myself able to level quite easily and found no issue with this part of the game.

Rating: 9/10

PVP

If you’re interested in Player Vs. Player (PVP), DC Universe Online doesn’t disappoint. The “open-world” PVP can be a bit intimidating for those who wish to just level their character and interact with the storyline. What does “open-world” mean? It means that players can attack opposing forces anywhere in the world. It adds a suspenseful, yet dynamic element to a seemingly boring quest grind. Say you’re killing 20 of the Joker’s henchmen, and you’ve got one more left. All of a sudden, five villains fly in from out of the sky and ambush you. Even if you try to go back and kill that last henchman, those villains will there waiting on you. It’s quite fun.

There are also PVP dedicated areas, or instances, for you to enjoy. They range from 2v2 all the way up to 5v5 matches with various objectives. The Legends PVP mode allows you to even play as characters such as Batman, Robin, Harley Quinn, The Joker, and Nightwing. There’s also various rewards and gear you can earn with your wins in these instances. You’ll find some of the more attractive armor can be obtained through PVP. Overall, I believe it is a success and couldn’t find anything wrong with it.

Rating: 10/10

Lore

I was happy to see that the DCUO lore was consistent with fairly recent developments from the comic books. Before the game was even released, I knew they wouldn’t have a problem bringing DC content in the game.

There’s a wealth of lore that has been around since the birth of DC Comics in 1934, and a lot of that is present in the game. For example, we see the classic clashes between Batman and Joker, Superman and Lex Luthor, Wonder Woman and Giganta, Green Lantern and Sinestro.

One area of the lore that I have to speak against, is the performance of voice actors to play the parts. I was happy to see that DCUO nabbed most of the voice actors from the popular Justice League and Batman series of cartoons (including Mark Hamill as the Joker!), but some of the voice actors are just plain terrible. The immersion of the game suffers due to this incredibly bad voice acting. You can tell it was rushed and that voice actors were not at their best. It is quite disappointing.

Rating: 6/10

Endgame?

In the time that I have played DCUO, I was unable to participate in the majority of the endgame, so I will not comment nor rate it. I did however, reach level 30 and completed the final quest which opened up the raids. I was quite shocked by what I saw.

Batman thanked me and invited me back to the bat cave.

This is quite unheard of in DC lore and is reserved for no one. Even if Superman entered the bat cave, Batman would reach for his Kryptonite to get him out of there. I couldn’t believe they made him such a softy. I’ll try not to hold it against DCUO.

Conclusion

Overall, I think the game has a lot of potential in an already crowded 2011 MMO lineup. It’s a refreshing take on the level grind with a much more interactive controls scheme, decent lore, and virtually unlimited content to expand with. SoE has promised that a majority of this new content will not cost us money. Given that there are rumors of Green Lantern powers in the works, I’m pretty excited for the game. I recommend this MMO to you PC owners out there to try. Even if you don’t play beyond the first 30 days, you’ll get $50 worth of fun out of the game.

Now will it last? This is a hard question to answer with a high level of certainty, but I’ll do my best to guess. I think the game will be solid for at least another 6 months. I believe there’s enough in the game and to come for it to be one of my top MMO picks of 2011. Beyond those 6 months will be totally up to SoE which doesn’t have a very good track record with keeping MMORPGs up to date and interesting.

Final Ratings

Controls: 8/10
Social Features: 4/10
Questing/Leveling: 9/10
PVP: 10/10
Lore: 6/10

Overall: 7.4/10

No related posts.

Apple, iPhone 4, and Competition

Bwana — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 22:10:34 +0000

I recommend you watch the WWDC 2010 keynote before reading.

If you watch the video above, you’ll note that I was generally impressed with the announcements made by Apple. I’ll attempt to go into more detail on this post as to some of the other features and what I think about them.

History repeating itself?

Before I talk about the iPhone 4, I want to comment on a statement that Steve Jobs made regarding the pre-iPhone world. He said that before the iPhone and App store, things were completely different. If you think about it, he is absolutely right. I can barely remember what it was like to run apps on my phone, perform firmware upgrades, check email, and surf the web on my smartphones. iPhone was definitely a game changer in 2007-2008.

So will the iPhone 4 be a game changer as well? It’s really hard to predict these things, especially with how often Apple reinvents features that sucked on other phones in a way that we love them somehow. Distortion field? Magic? I don’t know, but it’s a force to be reckoned with. Take for example, the engineering of the iPhone 4 case. What other smartphone maker will take you into the manufacturing process and explain to you why they made the choices they did? I can’t think of many. Apple has put together an integrated antenna design that I have not seen before. Has it been done before? I don’t know, because other companies don’t bother to share these important information. Some may dismiss Apple’s focus on their stainless steel + space age glass design as “useless” or a “distraction from what’s not there” but I disagree with both of those points.

The Screen

My Mechanical Engineering background kicked in a bit when I saw the manufacturing process in action. It sounds pretty unique. Has anyone else done this? I don’t know because companies don’t openly share this information. Apple uses a special lamination technique to bond the screen to the glass, so no more dirt particles as stated by John Gruber:

It’s mentioned briefly in Apple’s promotional video about the design of the iPhone 4, but they’re using a new production process that effectively fuses the LCD and touchscreen — there is no longer any air between the two. One result of this is that the iPhone 4 should be impervious to this dust-under-the-glass issue.

Combined with Apple’s pixel-packing “Retina” technology, we have the makings of an absolutely amazing reading experience. Did you notice how many times Steve Jobs referred to the screen being akin to reading high quality print? Apple sees the trend that everyone else is talking about: the death of print. This is a preemptive strike to capture that rising market through the iPad and iPhone 4.

Two Microphones

For the first time on the iPhone, Apple has introduced a second microphone for “noise cancellation”. Before FaceTime was announced, this didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but now it does. I imagine this will be utilized during video calls and video recording. Currently on iPhone 3GS, the audio quality is not that great on recorded video. I imagine this will not be the case on iPhone 4. We will have to wait and see if this second microphone will help at all.

The A4 Chip and Battery

Apple was proud to announce they are using their own A4 processor in iPhone 4. Not only does this chip offer great performance, but it does so without the cost of heavy power consumption. I think it’s amazing that Apple is able to produce a 40% increase in talk time while providing more power, functionality, and a slimmer design. Again, a lot of critics will overlook this as “ho-hum” because it’s not some futuristic amazing bell or whistle, but I will disagree and will say this is an enormous feat and Apple should be commended.

The Gyroscope

This one surprised me as it did others. The gyroscope has opened up new doors for developers to create spatial awareness type games. Steve Jobs gave a great demonstration of this using a clone of the popular puzzle game, Jenga. As he turned around physically, the iPhone’s display updated its point of view. This is absolutely brilliant!! Think about some of the applications that could utilize the new CoreMotion APIs to create amazing experiences. Kudos to Apple for this one.

The Camera and HD Video

Steve Jobs did an outstanding job explaining protons to a bunch of journalists, and I believe they understood him completely. He went into detail about how megapixels aren’t everything (by the way, thank you Steve for re-iterating this important point). iPhone 4 uses a backside illuminated sensor to produce sharper photos. The 3GS brought a huge increase in quality in photos over the 3G and I wonder if iPhone 4 will do the same. Apple’s example pictures are there, but I’m a bit skeptical until I take my own photos with the thing.

I was extremely happy to hear that Apple has enabled HD video capture from iPhone 4. It will be 720p at 30 frames per second which is perfect for most of us. I doubt it will be professional grade HD video, but I think it will be on par with popular pocket HD cameras like the Creative Vado 3 (which I own), Kodak Zi6 and the Flip HD series. As I stated in the video, I think this opens a new market to Apple which was previously untapped. Pocket HD cameras are fabulous, but we don’t carry them everywhere. We carry our phones everywhere. This is a possible game changer in terms of iPhone reach.

While HD video is not new to smartphones, the ability to edit them on your phone is not common. iMovie for iPhone completely blew me away. This is a fabulous idea and will definitely encourage iPhone 4 owners to shoot more video and to edit it (with transitions, titles, effects, and music) right on the phone! While most of us travel with a laptop where we can edit video, we don’t always have them with us. We carry our phones everywhere. Yet another possible game changer.

Apple is creeping into other markets with iPhone 4.

The Name Change

iPhone OS is now known as iOS. First off, I hate the name, but that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. It actually does make sense to come up with a single name for the OS that powers three separate mobile devices: iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad. Apple was smart this time and licensed the name from Cisco. I welcome the change, but I hate the name.

iOS Tidbits

Apple reiterated a lot of points they covered in the iOS 4 launch event including multitasking, folders, and iAds. All of these are great additions to a polished platform that is getting better and better. I was happy to see iOS will be a free upgrade for all supported devices now.

And Now, Competition

Steve Jobs was on the defensive in this keynote more-so than ever before. He addressed many of the concerns raised by Google’s Android camp including: App approval process, market share, and App store health. For the first time (that I’ve heard of), Apple has publicly acknowledged their main reasons for rejecting apps in the App store: 1. Use of private APIs 2. They crash 3. They don’t do the functionality they describe. When we hear of all of the horror stories of why apps are rejected from developers, it’s usually one sided. We never hear Apple’s side of it and now I’m really skeptical about all of the developers who cried foul. Were your apps actually stable? Did you use private APIs but aren’t telling us? Did your app do other things you didn’t describe? Before this knowledge, we could only assume Apple was being evil and randomly rejecting applications. It’s something to think about.

Apple also did something that I was pleased to see. They didn’t make useless jokes and cracks about their competition. Google, on the other hand, felt it was needed to constantly bash Apple’s products, process, and philosophy. It’s this attitude that has me leaning towards the Apple side of this competition. I acknowledge Android’s incredible momentum and their feature set differentiates itself from iOS in many ways. I hate to see unprofessional, childish acts when your features could speak for themselves.

With this competition, Apple and Google have two very different approaches:

Google – Appeal to technical features, capabilities, and freedom

Apple – Appeal to emotional ties through technology

Which do you believe is more powerful? I’m going to say it’s Apple for me, but that’s not the case for everyone. Android has snatched up all the people who are frustrated with Apple’s “limitations”. They’re also capturing folks who want an alternative to the iPhone. Let’s face it, Android is the only real alternative to the iPhone in the marketplace in terms of point by point features. Nokia and RIM may dominate the worldwide marketshare, but neither of these two companies has a direct answer for the almighty “app store”.

If you watch the FaceTime video, you’ll see very clearly why Apple does what it does. You see families connecting and sharing intimate moments through technology. This can be done easily with iPhone 4 because there is zero setup, zero configuration, zero worry. You can’t say the same about Android. Android appeals to those who want to tinker, who want to configure, who want to customize, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s a difference in their approaches. We know video calling on smartphones has been around for a long time on Symbian, but you don’t hear about ordinary, non technical people using it. Why? Because it’s hard to set up, requires technical know-how, and the experience sucks overall. Apple comes in, and makes the experience as simple as a phone call. See what I mean? Android will likely have 50 applications that crop up that do the same thing as FaceTime and we’ve already seen the Qik app on the platform. Will it be as seamless as Apple’s? No. That’s the difference.

Some people don’t want it be seamless. They’d rather have total control of the experience than have it be easy as possible through Apple’s implementation. Apple wants to move the technology in the background and let you make a video call. Some call it “draconian”, I call it “a great experience”.

Apple controls the experience for a reason, and that reason is so you can experience emotion through your technology and not experience technology for emotion.

Conclusion

Overall, iPhone 4′s unveiling went great. Even with technical difficulties, Steve Jobs was able to show why he is king of keynotes. He took control of the situation and actually made it pleasant.

Apple continues to innovate despite the critics. Look at all the engineering that went into iPhone 4 before passing “ho-hum” judgement. Realize that Android is great where it is, and iOS is great where they are, and these two packages offer different perspectives on smartphones. The choice of platform is personal and depends on your preferences and desires.

Is Gizmodo Pimping A Stolen iPhone?

Bwana — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:07:54 +0000

Hey, I gotta ask.

Gizmodo broke the story today that they “obtained” a prototype iPhone which was “reported lost” from a bar. Well, they quoted the following in their story:

It has been reported lost

Apple-connected John Gruber—from Daring Fireball—says that Apple has indeed lost a prototype iPhone and they want it back:

So I called around, and I now believe this is an actual unit from Apple — a unit Apple is very interested in getting back.

Obviously someone found it, and here it is.

Well, the problem is, John Gruber never said it was lost, he said it was missing or possibly stolen:

Note that I did not use the word “lost”. It is my understanding that Apple considers this unit stolen, not lost. And as for the “someone(s)” who “found” it, I believe it is disingenuous for Gizmodo to play coy, as though they don’t know who the someones are.

Is Gizmodo pimping a stolen iPhone? What do you think?

Warning: Your Console May Soon Get Viruses

Bwana — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:12:31 +0000

Yeah, I’m serious.

Community member, Seshan, shared with us on the Bwana.org Forum a disturbing trend that’s occurring within the popular game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Apparently, on the Xbox 360, there is a troubling glitch:

The Modern Warfare 2 Mods in this video are taken on the Xbox360. You can see we are able to have unlimited ammo, call in super airdrops, and we also have unlimited ammo on the AC130. Before anyone asks, yes these do work in ranked games and at this point we will not be allowing users to know how its done. This due to the damage it will cause to the game. This is more of a wake up call to Infinity Ward letting them know both Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2 have been exploited.

The glitch itself is not harmful, but it’s ability is. It self replicates. If you are part of a match that enables this exploit, all future matches you host, will have the same exploit. That, my friends, is the very definition of a virus. Now this particular exploit doesn’t do any permanent damage as most have reported a full power-off will rid you of the “virus”.

This ability is troubling.

Infinity Ward uses matchmaking technology called IWNet. I recently found a similar issue with the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 which found a possible trojan via IWNet. This was later found to be a false positive, but again, this capability is troubling. No game server should offer the ability to drop trojans or allow self replicating glitches. This is bad. This means that your “safe” gaming console could be exploited like any other computer on the internets.

The reason why parents don’t hesitate to give their children consoles is because of this perceived protection against malware. The gaming console is looked at like a VCR or a toaster: It cannot be harmed remotely. Well, those days are gone. Thanks to Infinity Ward, we are seeing the beginnings of a possible new playground for malicious hackers.

Next up: Norton for Xbox 360!!

Create A Kiosk This Thanksgiving With Chrome OS

Bwana — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:15:10 +0000

Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday, ever.

Seriously.

Family gets together and fellowships together and gives thanks to God. It’s a beautiful thing. During these times, family tends to utilize technology as well. Often I bring my laptops and let my siblings, nieces, and nephews use them. I notice they primarily use the web browser to check their email, facebook, myspace or whatever. Yesterday, I saw an article about a USB bootable version of Chrome OS and immediately I thought: “Wow, this could be handy on Thanksgiving”.

Instead of worrying about where people are surfing, if there’s any malware or spyware being downloaded, you can let them use your computer with peace of mind with Chrome OS. The premise is simple:

Install Chrome OS on USB
Plug USB drive into laptop/computer and boot
Smile at your worry free, web browser only kiosk

It’s a self-contained image with one purpose: web surfing. If you fit this category, I recommend you download and install the Chrome OS USB image and give it a try. I understand Chrome OS has glitches here and there, but I think this is something worth trying. (translation: It may not work perfectly on your machine)

As a side note, I’m considering creating a dummy google account just for this purpose. Let me know your thoughts.

No related posts.

It’s A Firesale! Everything Must Go!

Bwana — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:28:51 +0000

Just kidding.

But seriously, I’m selling a bunch of stuff so I can raise enough funds to upgrade my main PC to a powerhouse that is able to do High definition (HD) videos, HD live streaming, and expand my other projects.

Here’s the list:

My current PC [pics] (Specs: AMD FX57, ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe Motherboard, Dual Nvidia 7800GTX (SLI), 75GB 10k RPM Raptor Hard Drives + 250GB 7200 HD, 2GB RAM, Neon lights, Liquid cooled) – This is Cyberpower PC custom built PC that I purchased in 2005 and it runs great today. It plays every game I throw at it, however, I currently need something more powerful for my high definition goals. Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, and Operating System not included. Asking for $500 USD Or Best Offer (OBO)
HP Mini 1035NR [specs] [pic] w/ 2GB RAM – This is my little baby I’m sad to see it go, but sacrifices must be made. I’ll have to make due with my iPhone. Asking $250 USD OBO
Canon Powershot TX1 720p Camera [specs] – This is the camera I use for my 200+ Youtube videos (most of which are in high definition). It’s a great little camera, and I’m sad to part with it, but I can utilize my Canon HV20 for most of the same tasks and I need to cash for a new PC. Asking $120 USD OBO
Canon Digital Rebel XT DSLR 8MP Camera BODY [specs] – What started as an (expensive) hobby has fallen to the wayside. Sacrifices must be made. Goodbye Photography Asking $300 USD OBO
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens [specs] – My super lens. This thing is AWESOME. It takes great wide angle shots both indoors and out. It’s a “red stripe” lens so it’s pretty hefty. My most expensive piece of photography equipment. Asking $400 OBO
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens [specs] – The bestest, cheapest lens you’ll find for a Canon DSLR. Great for beginning photographers. It takes great photos. Asking $30 OBO

All items are operational and I use them today. All sales are final and items will be sold as-is. No refunds. (Sorry, I’m so strict, but some people want to scam)

Timing is critical. I need to get these sold ASAP. I’m willing to utilize Paypal for all transactions, but if things don’t move fast, I’ll be forced to give eBay all my money to sell this stuff. Contact me via Twitter @reply (use #bwanasale hashtag please) or send me an email (bwana at bwana dot org) with your offer. I’ll do my best to update this page with new information as it becomes available.

Upon payment, I’ll ship the items to you via UPS ground. I’m willing to ship international if you are willing to help with shipping costs. Let’s get this stuff sold!!

Current offers spreadsheet [Will be updated live]

My New Camera

Killzone 2 Pwnz My Weekend

Bwana — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:02:29 +0000

This weekend, I put in a good amount of hours playing Killzone 2 on PS3. This was mostly due to the new DLC (which I don’t have yet) and Guerilla Game’s (GG) double experience points announcement. I’ve been having blast, but there is a glaring bug with their double xp weekend: it only works if you win the match. Killzone elitists are quick to respond “well, just win”, but I hope GG lets us know about their little snafu. As for Killzone 2 itself, I’ve unlocked all classes up to Saboteur and have pretty much gotten used to the unique controls (yes they are unique and don’t “stink” as a lot of haters claim) There’s a great deal more to the game than meets the eye, and if you’re on the fence about purchasing it, the multiplayer component alone is worth the purchase.

Before I went on this gaming tyrade, I asked my Twitter friends what they were playing, here are their responses:

Bwana: What video game are you currently playing? Me? I'm playing Killzone 2 for PS3.

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:00:27 +0000 2009

Bowlerguy92: MLB 09 The Show on the PS3 obviously, after another game or so I will be moving to NCAA Football 10 also on the #ps3

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:01:16 +0000 2009

wanyal: Red Faction: Guerilla on 360

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:01:27 +0000 2009

jcm28x: gears of war 2 on the xbox 360.

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:02:06 +0000 2009

FoamyFalcon: L4D on pc

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:02:30 +0000 2009

krisguy: Call of Duty: World at War for 360

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:02:41 +0000 2009

zackw29379: Battlefield: Bad Company for xbox 360

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:02:56 +0000 2009

Darkness383: street fighter 4

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:02:59 +0000 2009

_funkyboy: paper toss on the iPhone.

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:04:04 +0000 2009

danohart: I stick with Call Of Duty 4 until Modern Warfare 2 comes out. On the PC of course

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:05:37 +0000 2009

aaronmcdonald: im currently on Ghostbusters & now gone back to Uncharted too! Loving hanging out with pete,ray, winston & egon tho!

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:06:35 +0000 2009

petern: Killzone 2 and Super Stardust HD. PSN: kermit_swe

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:11:19 +0000 2009

premonition: fight night round 4 for me

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:18:34 +0000 2009

M4rck: Fight Night Round

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:18:38 +0000 2009

kev151: littlebigplanet

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:27:18 +0000 2009

RadioMacGuru: I decided to go for an oldie but a goodie: MGS3. I got frustrated with the series on 1st go round, I figure I'd give it another try

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:27:26 +0000 2009

Chillash: Fifa 09; ps3

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:33:23 +0000 2009

Jason_Diaz: SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:37:15 +0000 2009

markkemp: Am playing Resistance: Fall of Man (in preparation to play Resistance 2). Hanging out for CoD: Modern Warfare 2 though

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:39:33 +0000 2009

TekJunkie09: battlefield1943 thanx to you

about 5 days ago

Tue Jul 21 23:52:28 +0000 2009

Bxdaddy93: IM PLAYING BATTLEFIELD 1943 FOR XBOX 360 AT THE MOMENT. IM WAITING FOR THE LAUNCH OF NFL MADDEN 2010 NEXT MONTH.

about 5 days ago

Wed Jul 22 00:17:33 +0000 2009

dphyfer: I'm still on Gears of War for xbox 360. I hear Fight Night is sick!

about 5 days ago

Wed Jul 22 00:22:55 +0000 2009

lopez79: Call of duty W@W for ps3 & UFC

about 5 days ago

Wed Jul 22 00:55:31 +0000 2009

ChrisCAL96: GTA IV for PS3.

about 5 days ago

Wed Jul 22 02:16:06 +0000 2009

CoGMysterio: Gears of War 1 on the Xbox 360

about 4 days ago

Wed Jul 22 03:08:41 +0000 2009

Gregz0r: It's all about PS3 Fight Night Round 4 at the moment.

about 4 days ago

Wed Jul 22 05:58:25 +0000 2009

AppleIphoneMan: I'm currently playing UFC Undisputed 2009, Killzone, Call Of Duty 4 and 5. Waiting For Call Of Duty 6!! Add my PSN KylerRodgers

about 4 days ago

Wed Jul 22 17:04:18 +0000 2009

Taurus_500: i loooooooove killzone 2! i got the platinum trophy! :p right now im playin fight night round 4.

about 4 days ago

Wed Jul 22 19:43:42 +0000 2009

What about you? What are you currently playing and why? Have fun whatever it is!

From Ustream To Justin.TV Pro

Bwana — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:01:52 +0000

Having come from Ustream.TV, I found Justin.TV to be a different live streaming experience than what I was used to. Thanks to the help of seasoned users such as jrblaze, I was able to create a decent channel of my own. I used Justin.TV in the past, but I felt loyal to Ustream since they integrated IRC so well. Since Ustream has dumped IRC and I continue to have issues with them, I decided to go Justin.TV for a while and see how things pan out.

I’ve been impressed so far.

It isn’t the feature set (which is impressive) that intrigues me, but it’s the stability. On Ustream, I couldn’t go a week without issue. My stream would crash, lose connectivity, or fail in the middle of a crucial recording. I haven’t had one issue on Justin.TV yet. Not one. This is why when I heard about Justin.TV pro accounts, I decided to try it for a month. These guys have put together great technology that seems to work very well. I’ll gladly give them $10 based on the couple of weeks of stable usage I’ve gotten out of the deal.

I know the main features pro accounts gives you is less ads, gifts, and an attention grabbing “pro” tag in chat, (the attention is not always good) but my main motivation behind buying a pro account was to thank Justin.TV for easing the pain that Ustream.TV has caused me. I love Ustream, and the guys over there are great, but I consistently had issues that I don’t have at Justin.TV with the same exact hardware. I’m hoping Ustream works out their issues, because I’d love to return, but for now, I’m happily streaming at Justin.TV as a pro user. Come by and check me out. I’m going to give the Pro account a month to see how it all works out and I’ll decide on whether I want to keep it after then. For now, I’m a happy camper over at Justin.TV.

From An iPhone To A T-Mobile G1

Bwana — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:06:52 +0000

T-Mobile was gracious enough to supply me with a G1 review unit. I’ve been playing with it for about a week now and I’ve seen and learned quite a bit. A lot of people are curious about how it compares to the iPhone’s experience. It’s a hard question to answer directly, so I’m going to be producing a series of videos on Bwana.TV (my video blog) about the Android experience and some of the applications that are available. Unfortunately, I’m not able to purchase any applications since the review unit is tied to a separate account, but I’ll do what I can amongst the free applications.

So stay tuned to Bwana.TV for a bunch of T-Mobile G1 videos, and how it compares to the iPhone experience.

I Liked Twitter More When It Was Underground

Bwana — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:08:53 +0000

Credit: IconTextTo

Tongue in cheek

Twitter has really blown up this past month and has been talked about on just about every mainstream news front. I had a conversation with my brother the other day and he even said “I’ve been seeing people talk about it, but I’ve been wondering what it is”. This prompted me to post a message on Twitter and I got the following mixed responses:

Bwana: You don't realize how weird Twitter is until you try to explain it to your family. Now I”m questioning why I even use it

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:47:20 +0000 2009

nelsonmaud: cause im crazy lol

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:48:08 +0000 2009

DonMcAllister: I've so been there! Still using it though

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:48:54 +0000 2009

nocky100: Hmm do you have to defend why you go to the watercooler in the office and gossip with friends?

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:49:11 +0000 2009

davejohnston: That makes little sense to me. Just use it. No remorse.

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:49:50 +0000 2009

Chris_Huff: For some reason, Alice Cooper's Welcome To My Nightmare started playing in my head when you said that…lol

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:51:44 +0000 2009

ebonydad: If it the same family members who call for computer help, or help setting the time on their VCR, I wouldn't try to explain.

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:56:00 +0000 2009

joedawson: My family don't understand the appeal of Twitter either, with my brother drawing comparisons with MySpace!

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:57:10 +0000 2009

datalore_tv: I have been trying to explain it to my brothers for months!

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 12:59:47 +0000 2009

itsaholliday: i agree, trying to explain it to friends and family is one of the toughest things

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 13:09:19 +0000 2009

zengiraffe: My feelings exactly. I tried explaining Twitter to a friend and he looked at me like I need to be locked up for my own protection.

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 13:19:31 +0000 2009

KMPhotographer: You should do a video or blog post on how to explain Twitter to others. I'm sure there are plenty of people in the same boat.

about a day ago

Tue Mar 03 16:08:58 +0000 2009

I don’t know what it is, but when I explain Twitter to others, I get this weird feeling of “Why do *I* even like it?”. There’s so much about Twitter that can’t be explained (a la Matrix), but I feel Twitter is much more than what it seems on the surface. Sometimes it’s frustrating when people don’t get it, but I’m not too concerned about that. Either people like something or they don’t, you can’t change the way they think. (See: Myspace)

Still, it’s amazing to see the growth of Twitter, but the ride there was fun. In case you missed the tongue in cheek reference, I was kidding with the title, but I do believe Twitter is about to change now that it’s mainstream. Whether that change will be for the best or the worst, remains to be seen. You can follow me on Twitter, I’m @Bwana.

Three Features I Love In TweetDeck 0.21.5b

Bwana — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:48:29 +0000

TweetDeck launched a new minor revision today and given all the hype it had yesterday, I was little skeptical. After watching the detailed video on what the new features are, I was most impressed by the little changes than I was the major ones. Here is a video showing my 3 favorite new features:

Translate feature – I never thought I’d like this feature but the speed and convenience of it makes me want to use it more. One can easily (and I do stress easily) convert your tweets to another language OR translate an existing tweet to your language.
Shorten URL tweak – Often in TweetDeck, I’d forget to click the “Shorten” button after putting a URL in the “Shorten URL” box. TweetDeck added a little fix that will automatically shorten a URL in the box when you post the tweet. Little things
#Hashtag tweak – Finally, when you reply to someone who has a hashtag in their tweet, the same hashtag is automatically appended to your reply.

It all boils down to the little things. If only Adobe Air would solve their memory issues, TweetDeck would be a must have for everyone. I like the client so much that I restart it every other hour to compensate. At any rate, good job @TweetDeck on a finely tuned minor release!

Follow me on Twitter, I’m @Bwana.

Youtube Comments: Necessary, But Add No Value

Bwana — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:02:25 +0000

Youtube comments have a bad reputation. It is a well deserved rep, that cause many to ignore or even install custom software to avoid. It’s a playground for trolls, racists, and people who are mean spirited and want to get a rise out of content providers. In the midst of the cesspool of comments, there are usually some nice people who have genuine feedback to offer. I’m starting to pay more attention to Youtube, and the more I do, the more I find that people there don’t want to read:

Youtube is a video site and people treat it as such. There’s no reading in video! Just like millions of Americans loathe subtitled movies, millions of Youtube viewers will not read the comments.

Why is this an issue anyway?

Well, most of my videos are howtos, tutorials and Q&A, so I get a lot of followup questions on certain topics. Most times, the Youtube community is generous enough to answer, and so do I, but as time passes, the comments get buried.

Buried comments are generally ignored on Youtube.

That is the issue. Here’s a prime example:

I have a very popular video (#1 on Google Search) on how to create free iPhone ringtones simply by changing a file extension.
A common question that people ask is how do you “chop up” an existing song to make a ringtone. I’ve made a video on this topic and I’ve also answered the question numerous times in the Youtube comments.
As soon as the answer gets buried to page 2, the question is repeated.
It’s very annoying.

Do I fault Youtube users for ignoring the hundreds of comments that address their concern? I’d like to, but in reality, users have a short attention span, especially those who are attracted to 5 minute tutorial videos.

Why even bother with Youtube comments?

Youtube has a metric called “Most Discussed” which displays videos with the most comments. Some users like to watch videos that have a lot of comments. They don’t actually care what the comments are, but they measure a certain buzz factor by this metric. In my opinion, it’s an invalid metric to measure, but I’m by no means a Youtube authority.

So this is the double-edged sword with a barb wired handle: Hardly anyone pays attention to anything prior to the last 10 comments, yet the videos with the most comments, get more views. A big part of me would like to disable Youtube comments due to the fact that people don’t read them. Ironically, they will take time to send an email or Youtube message, rather than finding the answer in the comments. At the same time, I have to recognize that Youtube comments provide “juice” to your video and promote viewership. Notice how a lot of bigtime Youtube providers are encouraging their users to comment? This is why.

It’s ironic that I’m complaining about text comments on a video site, but if you produce videos like I do, you’ll find community interaction is pretty important. It’s sad that I have to constantly repeat the same answers over and over again due to this glaring issue, but at least users are watching. How about you? Does your Youtube community pay attention to comments past the first page?

Let me know in the comments

How To Install Windows 7 Beta From A USB Drive To An HP Mini 1000 [Without Vista]

Bwana — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:38:14 +0000

HP Mini 1000. Check. Windows 7 Beta ISO. Check. 4 GB USB thumb drive. Check. HP Mini 1000. Check. Google. Check. Windows Vista. Uhhh… no.

That was my issue. There are a lot of great tutorials on how to create a bootable USB drive from the Windows 7 Beta ISO which Microsoft recently released. This is primarily a good solution for those of us with netbooks without CD drives. Unfortunately, a majority of these tutorials utilize a program called “diskpart”, which is a command line utility for managing partitions and disks. Coming from a UNIX background, I figured it would be easy to accomplish, but I found out the hard way, that the “diskpart” that comes shipped with Windows XP is not able to perform the necessary tasks. Namely, you won’t be able to see the USB drives in the list of drives, and you can’t set the USB drive to be active. I’ve got a lot more long winded blah blah for you, but I’ll get right to the point. Here’s how you do it if you’re stuck with Windows XP like I am. These instructions are were conducted on and are for an HP Mini 1000, I cannot guarantee this will work everywhere else (but I don’t see why it shouldn’t):

Ensure you have a USB Drive with more than 3GB capacity
Download and Install Daemon Tools Lite (or your favorite Virtual CD emulator)
Download the Windows 7 Beta ISO
Download and Install the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
Download and Extract MBRWizard
Insert the USB Drive
Launch the HP USB Storage Format Tool. Select your USB drive for device. Select NTFS for File system. Check Quick Format. Click Start to format the USB drive.
Mount the Windows 7 Beta ISO with Daemon Tools (make note of drive letter it assigns)
Set the USB drive to be the active partition with MBRWizard: Open a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd) and navigate to the directory where you extracted MBRWizard. Execute the following command: mbrwiz /list.
You should see your USB Drive in the list. Make note of the disk numbers next to the drives. In the following example, the HP Mini hard drive is drive #0 and the USB Drive is drive #1.
Execute the following command to set the USB drive to active: mbrwiz /disk=1 /active=1 In my example, the /disk=1 corresponds on the drive number of the USB drive. Make sure yours matches. Answer “Y” to the confirmation
Execute another list to ensure the active status has been updated. The USB Drive is now ready to be set to be bootable.
In the same command prompt, execute the following command to set the USB drive to be bootable: e:\boot\bootsect /nt60 D: (E: is the drive letter of the Windows 7 Beta ISO and D: is the drive letter of your USB drive)
Copy the contents of the Windows 7 Beta to your USB Drive
Everything should be ready. Reboot your HP Mini 1000, and on the boot screen hit F9. Select your USB drive from the dropdown list.

If it doesn’t boot, check the following:

The USB Drive is formatted properly.
The USB Drive has all the contents of the Windows 7 Beta ISO (including hidden files)
The USB Drive partition is set to “active” (mbrwiz /list)

Like I said earlier, it’s a much easier process if you already have Windows Vista, but I found there were a few kinks with Windows XP. I’m sure someone out there has found an easier process than this one, so by all means, share with the rest of the class in the comments. The fruits of ye olde labour:

Why I’m Not Running Picasa On My Mac

Bwana — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:58:03 +0000

I’ll make this brief. I was excited when Google’s Picasa was announced for Mac since I was eager to try it with my photos. Upon installing it yesterday, I noticed something very disturbing:

On initial launch of Picasa, it forces you to scan your computer for images. It gives you two choices: 1. Scan your entire computer 2. Scan specific folders such as Documents, Pictures, and Desktop (which they choose, not you)

There is no opt-out. You either scan or you force quit the program. I don’t like this. In fact, I hate it. I don’t want Picasa to know or even care about ALL of the photos on my computer. I’d like to pick and choose which it can use. I don’t like being forced to scan my computer for anything. It bothers me for several reasons that I won’t go into here.

I’m uninstalling Picasa and I don’t think I’ll run it again. iPhoto it is.

No related posts.

My Top 10 iPhone Apps of 2008

Bwana — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 06:04:53 +0000

You know, I never thought I’d cling so much to a phone as much as I cling to the iPhone. When the iPhone was updated to version 2.0, I knew that it was going to make things worse. While many still believe the iPhone to be over hyped and not worth the time, money, and support, I firmly believe it has changed the smart phone market in a very short amount of time.

On the matter at hand. Here at the end of 2008, which iPhone applications were the most valuable players? Let’s count it down:

Brightkite (Free) – Brightkite for iPhone actually prompted me to sign up for a service that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. It allows you to check in to your friends network your various locations, provide status updates, and upload photos.

The combination of the iPhone interface, GPS, and camera make this app intuitive and fun to use. Thank goodness for Brightkite’s privacy options so I don’t have to let the world know where I am at any given moment. I am at http://brightkite.com/people/bwana
Qik (Jailbreak) – Qik is a big motivator for me to jailbreak (hack) my iPhone. Qik provides live streaming of video and audio from the iPhone much like Ustream.tv does for computers and webcams.

They have done a great job of utilizing the iPhone’s hardware to squeeze out a great streaming experience. It’s too bad that this application is not available on the iTunes App store, but several bloggers have received advanced copies of the app that doesn’t require a jailbreak and absolutely love it. I can’t wait until the masses can use it, but for now, I’m using it with a jailbroken iPhone. My Qik profile is at http://qik.com/bwana
Evernote (Free) – Evernote is a great way to stay organized and the iPhone version does not disappoint. From taking ordinary notes to voice reminders, I find this tool to be an absolute necessity to stay organized.

Given that it synchronizes with the cloud, I can create and edit artifacts on my iPhone and on the computer. This app is easily worth money, but the authors have made it free to the public.
Winterboard (Jailbreak) – One of my biggest gripes with the iPhone is the lack of customization options available out of the box. Since I’ve jailbroken my iPhone for Qik functionality, I am also able to customize backgrounds, icons, sounds, and applications using Winterboard.

This free application available in Cydia is a must have if you’ve jailbroken your iPhone. Often, I get asked, “How did you change that background?” or “How did you get that sound?”, and the answer always points to Winterboard.
Smiles ($2.99 Zen|Drop/$4.99 Combined) – I need to thank Chris Pirillo for introducing me to Smiles for the iPhone. Chris gave me the opportunity to review this game and I’ve been playing it almost every night since. Smiles is a matching/puzzle game that resembles Bejeweled on the surface but adds elements that differentiate it.

For one, you can use the iPhone’s accelerometer to change orientation in the game. This may sound like a visual preference, but it also serves as a strategy for certain game modes. I’ve reviewed Smiles on Bwana.TV, and I definitely believe it to be worth the $2.99/$4.99 price tag. Here’s my video review of Smiles for the iPhone:
Uno ($7.99) – I’ve played Uno since I could burp. Yes, it’s been that long. This game is just the epitome of fun. The rules are not difficult, the color based cards make it easy for the youngest kids to pick it up, and it’s hard to find someone who says they actually don’t like the game.

The iPhone version of Uno adds a multiplayer component to an already rich single player experience. Now you can play your friends over Wifi and the internet if they have an iPhone or iPod Touch. At $7.99, it may sound a bit expensive, but once you’ve played it, you’ll see right off that it’s a premium app for the iPhone. Here’s my video review of Uno for the iPhone
Facebook (Free) – Easily the most comprehensive, in-depth, social networking application for the iPhone today, Facebook takes it to a whole new level. As a light user of Facebook, I know that if I’m impressed with the features and functions of this app, that the regular users of Facebook will find it essential. It does it all.

If Facebook is your social network of choice, there’s no way you can do without viewing and uploading photos, updating your status, posting notes, approve/ignore requests, reading notifications, read and respond to messages, and even utilize Facebook chat. This app is a must have.
Pandora Radio (Free) – Do you listen to music? Then there’s no excuse why you shouldn’t have Pandora installed. Pandora uses technology from the Music Genome Project to create dynamic “radio stations” based on artists and songs that you like.

Want to hear similar music to a certain artist you like? Simply create a station based on that artist and Pandora plays a great selection of music that’s very similar to your artist and give you the ability the rate up or down songs. I love this app, and for a while I believed it to the best available for the iPhone. If you don’t have it installed, I don’t know what you’re waiting on.
Ocarina ($0.99) – To be blown away by this app is not only a pun, but an understatement. Ocarina turns your iPhone into a thousand+ year old instrument called the Ocarina. You may have heard of the Legend Of Zelda game, Ocarina of Time? Well yes, it’s pretty much that, but on your iPhone.

The folks over at Smule have done something I never thought was possible. They register the air you blow in the iPhone microphone and create music with fingerings on the touchscreen. There are many scales and pitches allowing you to create just about anything. Here is my latest video, where I play “Song of Storms” from the Legend of Zelda. This thing is truly incredible.

Smule is also holding a contest worth $1000, if you can create your own Ocarina video, so if you got the skills, enter today.
Google Reader (Web/Free) – If you read My Top 10 Websites of 2008, then you already know Google Reader is my MVP. Well things are the same on the iPhone. Although this is a web application, it doesn’t change my love for it. Google has refined Google Reader for iPhone so much that it seems like the most optimal way to read news on the web.

The interface is responsive, the controls are intuitive, and all the major functionality (star, note, share, email) for handling articles is right at your finger tips. Literally. Hands down, Google Reader for iPhone is the best iPhone app of 2008 for me, and I believe it’s a great choice.

So what are your favorite iPhone apps? Don’t be ashamed to express yourself in the comments.