CrazyKart Closed Beta now available!!!

June 15, 2008

 

I got my CrazyKart closed beta installer in my email yesterday. I was only able to download it after 7PM though. The email mentioned that the closed beta will begin on 1PM tomorrow and will only be available from 12NN to 12MN daily only.

 

We’ll, that’s fine. My neighbor’s wifi router’s turned on around 1PM anyway.. heheheh.. So, I’d be able to test it.

 

CrazyKart’s sort of like MarioKart and a very popular game in China. Now, distributed by LevelUp Games for the Philippines, it’ll give some people that we’re addicted to Need For Speed something new and cute to play with.

 

Personally, I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to online games. I’ve never really had an affinity for them, to tell you the truth. Maybe because the only online game that I was exposed to during my school years were Starcraft and Counterstrike. Both which made my head spin. And the only game I was addicted to was Pokemon! And it was on GBA! Hahaha.. Well, add also Diablo I which I was able to finish by the way. I used to play 6hours straight on Diablo I.. Teehee!!! I was also able to get a head start on Diablo II but unfortunately, I had school. Being an engineering student took up most of my time. Nakakasira talaga ang pag-aaral sa paglalaro. Heheheh..

 

If you want to check out CrazyKart, you can go to http://crazykart.levelupgames.ph

 

Well, we’ll see if it’s any good.

call center bloopers

June 12, 2008

I’d wanted to post some bloopers here as well as some side or is it snide comments usually made by technical support. Some people may not find it funny but hey, it is on our end.   

J (returning to a held call): Hi, thank you for patiently waiting.. Heller?!  

P (making the customer understand that how-to’s aren’t supported): Sir, your issue is out of our scope of support. We are not able to assist you in using your email.  Customer: But I purchase the laptop from you guys!  P (a bit ticked off): If you purchase a car, does the car salesman teach you how to drive? (heheheh…)  

L (keyspelling something for a foreigner..): Is that M for Makati? 

G (already ticked off because customer wanted to have his own way): I’m sorry? What department are you calling again?!  

Me (a bit asleep, trying to walk customer through accessing Safe Mode): Do you see that small boy? (What small boy?! Halatang nananaginip na.. heheheh..) 

Agent (conversation sa yosi room): Grabe dude! Nakatulog ako kanina sa call.. Pag gising ko, issue resolved! (What the hell? Heheheh..) 

Again, these are just some of the funny things that we usually encounter when dealing with customers… I’ll be posting more of this soon!

 

Zune vs. Ipod Nano

June 10, 2008

  

My honey,  just recently got himself a Microsoft Zune player. Honey’s the kind of person who can’t work when he’s not hearing any sounds playing.

It was a tough choice between that and an iPod Nano. Of course, we actually had to take into consideration his budget for the thing.  

We were actually checking out two items: the Zune that was posted in TPC and the iPod Nano 3^rd Gen posted on eBay. Both are brand-new and in sealed packages. Both are 4GB in size. The iPod Nano’s available only in grey though. Unfortunately, the Microsoft Zune’s warranty is not in the Philippines, he’d actually have to spend $20-$30 for shipping to get an RMA for the unit. Unlike the iPod Nano’s, which you can actually go to any iStore and have them refer you to a place that does their warranty work for them. Now, comes the clincher, the price. The Zune was being sold for Php6,000 while the iPod Nano was being sold for Php5,500. A 500-peso difference.

And of course, like any other technical person, we check out the specs.  

 

	Microsoft Zune	iPod Nano
BATTERY	Music, up to 24 hours (wireless off); video, up to 4 hours Charge Time: 3 hours; 2 hours to 90 percent	Music playback time: Up to 24 hours when fully charged Video playback time: Up to 5 hours when fully charged
SCREEN	Size: 1.8-inch color display Type: Scratch-resistant glass Orientation: Vertical (music) and horizontal (pictures and videos) Resolution: 320 pixels x 240 pixels	2-inch (diagonal) liquid crystal display with blue-white LED backlight 320-by-240-pixel resolution at 204 pixels per inch
AUDIO SUPPORT	Windows Media® Audio Standard[3] (WMA) (.wma): Up to 320 Kbps; constant bit rate (CBR) and variable bit rate (VBR) up to 48-kHz sample rate. WMA Pro 2-channel up to 384 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz WMA Lossless Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov) - .m4a and .m4b files without FairPlay DRM up to 320 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz MP3 (.mp3) Up to 320 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz	Skip-free playback Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV User-configurable maximum volume limit
PICTURE SUPPORT	JPEG (.jpg)	Photo capacity is based on iPod-viewable photos transferred from iTunes.
VIDEO SUPPORT	Windows Media Video (WMV) (.wmv) Main and Simple Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 3.0 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD WMV files at device sync MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video. Simple Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second).  Zune software will transcode HD MPEG-4 files at device sync H.264 video. Baseline Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD H.264 files at device sync DVR-MS[5] Zune software will transcode at time of sync	H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
WIRELESS	Connectivity: 802.11b/g compatible Range: Up to 30 feet In range, see other Zune users, see their “now playing” status (when enabled on a given Zune), and send and receive songs and pictures	N/A
WIRELESS SYNC	Yes Connectivity: 802.11b/g compatible Authentication modes: Open, WEP, WPA, and WPA2 Encryption modes: WEP 64- and 128-bit, TKIP, and AES	N/A
FM RADIO	Built-in	N/A

 

 

He got himself a Microsoft Zune 4GB in black. He’s happy.

 

 

Increasing my PR

I’ve been thinking about earning money from my blogs again. Maybe because I have oodles of bills to pay. Plus, I want to get my hair rebonded.. Hehehe..

As of now, this webbie, is only of PR0. Yes. Zero. None. Nada. Zilch. It used to be a PR2 but since Google penalized all blogs doing blog advertising, that PR2 became a PR0. <groans>

And for me to earn moolah from my blog, I have to increase my PR. The question is how? How do I increase my PR since it’s actually very very hard to do. This blog is rarely visited. I think my tech blog’s being visited quite often even though I don’t actually have any time to update it.

In any case, while I was doing a little bit of research, here’s what I’ve found out. Page Rank is just a number from 0 to 8 that represents how important your webbie is on Google. Page Rank, I believe is calculated on how many sites are linking to yours as well as how many hits you come up when someone does a search on Google. 

I noticed that most of my posts actually only have the same exact tags. I think I may need to edit posts for the past couple of months just to change the tags.. 

And I’ve also found out that outbound linking leaks PR.. Ouch! Unfortunately, most advertisers require their links to have the “no follow” tag.

In any case, just read on this site for more info.

Will also be posting this on my techie blog.. Hehehe..

 

Dropped your Mobile Phone or iPod in Water? Rush to the Kitchen!

May 9, 2008

What is the next step that you would take if your expensive mobile phone or iPod gets wet in the rain or your drop it in a wash basin?

Such accidents are not very uncommon. Adam Curry once dropped his iPhone in the toilet. Venadium went for a swim while the iPod was still in his pocket. Leo Laporte did something similar to his cell phone. Virgo soaked his iPod when a bottle of Diet Coke fell over his trousers.

Since the warranty for most electronics does not cover water damage, what can you do to revive that wet gadget ? The answer is in your kitchen.

Power off the device (if it’s not off already) and try to completely cover the iPod or iPhone in a bowl of rice. Rice being a natural desiccant will help absorb the excess moisture. Let it try for at least 24 hours and DO NOT try to charge the device.

If your gadget has a removable battery, dry it separately to speed up the whole drying process.

This home-remedy is cheap and worth giving a try before you rush to the Apple store for a replacement.

Ernesto Londoño successfully managed to fix his wet BlackBerry phone after he left the device soaked overnight in a bowl of uncooked rice.

 

 

 

 

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I got this email from Miss Jackie of Metrobank Foundation on my Yahoo! Mail. Di ko inakala na pwede pala to.. After mong magamit ang rice, pwede mo na ring isaing.. hehehe..