Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Last day of May

I could not add in any blog entries recently because I was too busy finishing up my Combustion and Advance Vibration Assignment. Very painstaking and mind boggling to do the combustion one. Luckily the ang moh in our group know what the heck is needed and we managed to get it done to the last minute :P Bout the Advance Vibration one, managed to get it done too. It was a feasibility study that as a topic: Active Vibration Control for Image Stabilized Binoculars. Very High-tech stuff I must add. Theses binoculars come in at 500-4000 USD and they weight about 1kg +. Something only the pros will want to spend on. But the fact that it has such high magnification and easy to use makes it worthwhile; if you can afford it. Imagine, you can see an small object 1000m away CLEARLY with the press of a button. Not much calculation to be done for this, except estimating the cost of one, which is very expensive since it has so many high tech gear.

One week for now I got to do the Welding assignment adn Space vehicle online quiz. I had online quizzes. Computer and servers tend to let you down, like my friend who did it and the server timed out on him. Have to reset his answers to do again. From the looks of it, it might be the lecturer's first time doing online quizzes. Oh well.....

Enjoying my Xbox with all 3 games. I now have Unreal Championship 2, Halo 2 (duh) and Mechassault (duh). Finish all of them quite fast though. Halo 2 took me about 10 hours or 2 nights to finish. Mechassault took slightly longer. UC2 took longer since there are so many unlockables inside and I cheated (a bit :P) to unlock some of them. When it comes to UC2, the computer IS FREAKING TOO DARN FAST POWERFUL CHEATING!!. Did I say the computer cheats? .. no I didn't, I pretty much suck in playing FPS, especially high speed ones like UC2. I played Halo 2 online on Xlink Kai and got TRASHED badly. Like what my DOTA friend always say: I am a liability to my team :(. I still can't get on Live because :

1) Stupid 2 month free trial site is down, from what looks like an eternity
2) My Xbox can't see LIve, which means my ISP can't support LIVE, or my settings is screwed up.

Best of all is, the online gaming service which is free is working better than the one people have to pay premium (with unmodded Xbox and original games) to play! Looks like my Xbox won't be a virgin Xbox for long if I cannot connect to Singapore Live when I get home. Even if I DO connect, the SG Live will not allow my PAL games to work. Funny that it is harder to play with legal stuff thanwith illegal stuff no?

Ok, enough ramblings about Xbox. Just realized this entire blog has XBOX in every single entry.. except the first one which was a test message.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Got Xbox oledi!!

Remember I told myself last week that I might get an Xbox the same time next week? Well, I proved myself that I simply cannot wait for stuff when bought my Xbox on Friday, MAy 13th 2005. Kinda iconic date too. The MTV Xbox 360 show in aussie is shown on this day. IT was Friday the 13th. And may 13th is one period in history no one wants to tell me.

Bought the Xbox for Au 199 from Cash Converters at Gouger street near Chinatown. I figured it was ok for that price since a 1 year old Xbox cost about the same on Ebay (more on that later) and come with the usual bells and whistles. So for Au 199, I got an Xbox made in September last year with a controller and cables. They were even willing to test my Xbox for me to see if it works, so that is another high point there. Most importantly, it has a PHILIPS DVD DRIVE, not the sucky Thompson drive everyone has been complaining about. I choose the one made in 2004 coz I have heard of drives not being able to read new games like Forza Motorsport and the like. It has some scrathes here and here and came without the box and manual, but the hardware works prefect and it still unmodded. I don't mind getting the box really, since I am going to put the Xbox in my bag (surprised it can fit) and bring it home without telling the whole world I bought an Xbox. Then the box will most probably be placed somewhere else anyway. The lack of manual is ok also.Being a computer user the Xbox should be idiot friendly. However, the BIGGEST surprise in the Xbox was that it contained 23 CDs worth of songs in its hard disk. The previous owner must have loaded it up and used the Xbox as a media player. It contains songs like Avril Laving... how she is named?... , eminem (his song SUCKS, yet MTV loves him), michael jackson, limp bizkit, south park and many more. In all those songs I would prefer Linkin Park. Atleast they don't swear AT ALL.

I bought 2 games to go with my Xbox, Mechassault (being a mech nut, it is very obvious) and Halo 2 (insert reason here) Limited Edition. The LE version of Halo is comes in a silver case and give a bonus DVD. Halo 2 was fun to play, yet I have not unlock its full potential yet since I am deciding on how to connect my Xbox to the internet. Spend Au 97 on Halo 2 LE and Au 40 for mechassault. Arrggghh.... so expensive!!

Currently I am playing ,my Xbox outside in the common area. Everytime have to carry the big Xbox outside with the cables and all that to play (right now it is placed at the common area temporary, malas to bring it back and bring it over there again and quite safe up here). To play online, I might now need a 20-25 meter long telephone or ethernet cable which I need to tarik from my room to the common area!!! At this rate I better get a TV for myself since the hassle of wiring and connecting is too great. Yeah, need to spend another Au99 for a TV!!

Rented Project Gotham racing to try it out. Can play it for a week, which it good for short games like Halo 2 but I was surprised at the games offerred; KOTOR? Morrowwind? NFSU2? Burnout2? GTA3?.. all this games are meant to be played for a long long time wan. Where are games like Republic Commando or Lego Star Wars which is short and fun and perfect for a rental?.. oh well..

Wow, talk so much about Xbox. Anyway, finally I gotten my Xbox and hopefully I can concentrate on studying. ..oh ya, I LOST that auction I mentioned in the earlier post. The way ppl bid on Ebay is cut-throat. People dun bid 1 hour before it ends, or 15 minutes before it ends, but 5 minutes before it ends. This, and the fact that the price went up threw the roof , made me to decide to buy one from Cash Converters. Gald I lost that auction and bought one the old fashion way. Also wanted to buy a Daishi LEAD figure, but since I set the maximum bid so low and was not really interested in it (note: was busy thinking about Xbox and preminilary report, otherwise... IT IS A DAISHI WHY DIDN"T I BID HIGHER!!!@#$!@#@$%!) , someone outbid me.. again.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Pre-report = so much work

Just got back from uni. Left uni at 10:15 then took the security bus home. Not many people at this tyime of the year which stay up late. I think later part of the year only when final report is due then only got more ppl stay up late. The uni really ought to have a room to sleep lol at the rate we are working until so late at night. For once sleeping in the office sounds like a good idea.

Going to meet the person who thought of the idea for our project tomolo. Dunno what we are going to say to him. Most likely just tell him everything we have done to date and try to answer all the questions he throw at us. No marks are given for this, but our supervisor made it like he is our client and must be prepared to chair a meeting for him. Oh well...

Bout the Xbox thing, i signed up with Ebay and Paypal yesterday. Pretty easy to sign up. Use my uni e-mail instead of my gmail account for Ebay. Good also lah, since my Gmail once in a while get some stuff which i dun want ppl to see. Found some good deals over ebay too. Eyeing one xbox on sale here in adelaide itself. Not sure how much the price will go up, but I would bid for it if the price is reasonable. Hope no one will outbid me. Everyone seems to be waiting till the last minute then bid for stuff... i will do the same to keep the initial cost low. Putting a high bid will only make ppl raise the price for no reason.

that's all for now. If everything goes well I might be getting the xbox tomolo by winning that bid. Hopefully can get xbox by next week tuesday (monday is a holiday).

Saturday, May 07, 2005

050505

Meant to type this out on 050505 (5th may 2005), but due to time constrains I am now typing it on 070505. Last thursday was a so so day. Felt free since I did and handed in my assignment a day early. Also the meeting with my project supervisor is short and brief. Since I was the one assigned to do the meeting minutes, I used my MP3 player with recording capabilites to record the meeting. The recording is in a wav. format and only about 7 megs for 30+ minutes.

But when I reached home I found out that my MP3 player has some memory problems!! I wanted to listen to my MP3 on it but it displayed no files found! Earlier I plug it into the university computer to put the recording in the shared folder just in case, somehow the computer in uni format/rewrite something on it to make my files invisible. I can't see or use it, but it still occupies the space in the plater. I immediately thought why it was so darn free.

So I did a quick format of the player and now I can play my mp3s on it. I lost the recording on my player, but luckily there is a copy in the uni's computer. Then came my next problem : the left head phone is not working!!! Oh great, after i format it the player is now kaput. so i tried it on my computer to see what's wrong and turns out that the head phone itself is faulty, not the player. Great, 2 things went wrong in one go on a single device.

On 050505 i heard that the price of petrol and diesel in m'sia went up by 10 sens and 20 sens respectively. Not surprise to see the rise, kinda expected it since the gov is subsidising fuel for ages and it is only a matter of time before the bubble blows. Hope that cause car sales to drop and the public transport improve. Why car sales drop? Cheaper to get my dream car :)

Then i got another surprise : Wizkids sent me a Falcon's Prey LE figure! It is the DF tundra wolf, M.D Thompkins. Must have won the draw in march or feabruary when i acutally did play. yeah, another one to the mech bay!

Did nothing much on friday:)

Today went to uni to do some work, then left after a few hours coz nothing much can be done yet and it is on a weekend! Then i proceded to look around and see how much an xbox cost. I know that the launch of the new Xbox is only in a week, but I cannot wait to get that machine in my hands!!!!! So i went up and down Rundle mall looking and comparing prices of the games and the systems. Some, like myers, a department store, sell at the maximum price possible for its games. Some, like a shop which specializes in electronic media and devices, sell it 20 to 40 bucks cheaper! Then i also noticed a shop selling computer games 5 bucks cheaper like if you walk down let's say 200 metres from EB games, which ppl flock to it like it's the place to buy. Found out that the price of a new xbox is pretty much standard all around, with the exception of the value pack. The value pack cost slightly more and has a few things inside like special vouchers and stuff, but it was amazing to see a huge price difference when you buy it in a departmental store and a specialized store.

So,
did I bought one?

No , unfortunately :( I decided to buy the used Xboxs that are sold in EB, but they currently have no used xbox for sale! Mind you that a used one is fully tested, gurranted for a whole year and cost 100 bucks less. The sales guy also mentioned it was quite rare to get a used one but one should most likely pop up soon as Xbox 2 will come. Buying a new one now is like suicide as uncle bill might reduce the price of a new xbox once he announce xbox 2 (the most logical assumption, what better way to drive the old stock out?) . I would have purchase an xbox costing 149 ON THE SPOT if there is any. But alas there are none. I actually went to cash-converters in chinatown to see the price but it was around 199 , near an estimated reduce price of 200-220 if m'soft cut the xbox price. So for now, the xbox have to wait another week :(

Anyway, got to know of the various available out there. There is one xbox bundle with discount coupons for games totalling 100. Cost ok too, aud 276, so if the coupons are cashed in the price of the xbox itself is around 170 something for a NEW xbox. I asked the store guy bout the coupons and he gave me quite an honest answer. Turns out those coupons are out-dated and m'soft will print new ones to replace them. Problem is, those coupons aren't printed yet and it is only redeemable for some games only. So yeah, things in the bargain bin basically. Other stuff that come with that xbox is the original Halo which I played it on my computer and finished it and useless stuff like cd holders and the above mentioned coupons. I rather get a whole new one for AU 249 and buy my own games. The good thing about that shop is that there are selling limited edition mechassault and halo 2 plus some other games at a better rate than EB. So might go there to buy games when i get my xbox.

Will I wait until my birthday to get an xbox? At this rate, most likely I will be playing with one same time next week. ( You can look forward to that, with sleepless nights and literally dreamed about it in my sleep)

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

One ass. done!!!

Finally completed one assigment !! ass for short. It was the advance vibration assignment which is due tomolo on the 5th, but stayed at uni doing it until 11 pm and thus finishing it so that I am now free!! free to sleep after not getting enough sleep yersterday!

After I came back from uni on the last bus at 11.15pm, I on my computer and surf the net for a while. Then my friend came online and wanted to play MW4 Mercs online. He managed to borrow an ori copy from someone, which means he can have every single mech/weapon/map that came with the Mektek pack. First time he is trying out the new toys too. Played until 2am in the morning before we quit as it was late and i got class at 9am this morning!!! .. as usual not enough sleep ..

The connection was ok. I was the host throughout the time. Had some very stupid occasion where my friend spawned right next to my assault class annihilator several times in a row. Pretty one sided since he was a mad cat with long range weapons and I was an assault mech with super-dooper short range weapons. Slaughtered him several times in a row. After that in the next map we actually walked some distance from each other b4 firing. Dunno how the spawn system works....

Like I mentioned earlier, got class at 9am.. then have to stay back at uni till 6pm to do final year porject. The project is taking a toll on me and my teammates. So MANY THINGS TO DO!!!!... but everything looks under control though.... hopefully..

Then during lunch I when over to EB games to see if there is anything new. For some unknown reason EB seems to have sales for Xbox and PS2 games. The new consoles are coming perhaps? Or maybe there is no backwards compatibility for the new Xbox or PS3? The sad thing is that the Xbox price for new one is still the same .. haih....... and another sad thing is that computer games also no change in price :(

There was Forza Motorsport on display though. It is an Xbox game and also called the GT4 killer coz ... well it is on the Xbox and GT4 is on the PS2. IMHO Forza has an earlier learning curve and easier to control the car. The controls for the game, which is the Xbox controller is just right. Right analog stick for view, right trigger for acceleration, left trigger for acceleration, and left analog stick for steering. The Xbox controller is wayyyy more ergo and easier to handle than the PS2 controller, that's why it is so easy to get in. Now after I had tried on the Xbox controller, I really really really want to get an Xbox. It's so much better than the overwiegh PS2 controller where the analog sticks is like it was added as an afterthought. So hard on my hands!

*** looks at possibility of getting an Xbox 2**** yeah, would be great if it came out in June or July where I can get my hands on one without killing myself by waiting for an Xbox2.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

The pressure mounting

May is finally here. Which means I got a lot of things to be done like assignments, projects etc. My Final year project preliminary report is due on the 20th of May. Advance Vibration Assignment 2 is 5th, Design project 31st. Welding project is on the 8 of June if I am not mistaken. Combustion is 28 I think. So 5 more hard work to be done and I can concentrate on my final exams! Yeah :(

Been playing a online for quite some time now. Spent much more time with my computer online than previously. One of the benefits of having broadband is you can be online 24/7. In fact, my computer has been online for the last 8 hours. Nothing much too see online besides Lowyat.net, Gamespot and for games the HL2 mods.

Tomolo going to be a busy day. Got to do the vibration. Manufacture a few prototypes for final year project. Then got lectures and a presentation about report writing. Going to a long day ahead.