Bobbyjkl

SOCIAL NETWORKING

2010-06-07T00:00:00.001+01:00

Social networking has always been one of the internet's most popular forms of entertainment, and it's seeming to be more popular now than ever. Interested in a detailed analysis of the social networking phenomena? Read on.

Myspace.com, founded in 2003, took social networking off with a bang. Offering its users a way to mail each other, to share images, music, and links around the web, along with hosting blogs and a sort of centralized "user page," many services around the web were introduced into this free website. We can follow the timeline down to Facebook, which offered less freedom, but a raised "coolness" factor -- only students at select universities could join, it cut down on the "crap" with its exclusivity, and added a built-in instant messaging client. As the users started leaving Myspace, more services started taking rise along with Facebook -- Twitter is among the most popular, with several less popular services such as Orkut or Bebo gaining dedicated fanbases.

As social networking software advances, it seems like as time progresses, less and less functionality becomes available, where, on the other hand, exposure of your ideas grows. Where as the personal webpage gave users a lot of freedom, but a high level of obscurity, the service Twitter gives users a large number of "followers," but the user is limited to only what they can say in 140 characters or less.

A recent service called Formspring.me offers users a mix between Twitter's short me-focused communication and instant-messaging styled communication in that users can anonymously ask other users questions. These questions and answers make up the user's homepage -- it still focuses upon the user, but it sees the introduction of others relatively well, and can provide that voyeurism that so many web users seem to enjoy. Some people may abuse the format to have anonymous conversations, but you'll find abused and misused systems everywhere. It's much easier to type responses than it is to come up with original posts, and it's a bit easier to follow than conversations on Twitter.

So, to summarize:

Personal Website -- High freedom, high obscurity
MySpace -- Medium-high freedom, medium-high obscurity
Facebook -- Low freedom, medium obscurity
Twitter -- No freedom, medium-low obscurity
Formspring.me -- An alright distraction

MEGAMAN II

2010-06-04T00:00:00.002+01:00

Megaman II. It's a great game, but I've never gotten the chance to play it until recently. This game came out for the NES some time ago, and is considered by many to be the best platforming game of all time. Its popularity lead to more sequels and spin-offs being created than there have been Superbowls. That's about 600 games, if I know anything about sports (which I'm HELLA pro at, by the way).

The basic premise of this game is that you're this retarded little kid that thinks that he's a robot. There are 7 easy bosses; Air Man, who really blows; Bubble Man, who, just... well, "Bubble;" Heat Man, who looks really stoned all the time and has a really shitty level with all of these little blocks above some lava; Metal Man, who's actually pretty cool; Flash Man, who freezes time a lot, but seems to suck even with the advantage -- he couldn't even hit me once; Crash Man, who's Flash Man's bro; another boss, pretty cool with some bombs; and then there's Wood Man. Wood. Scary, right? He's gonna run up to you and smack his Wood on you. Fearsome, indeed. And finally, there's Quick Man. Everything about this guy is a total bitch. His level comes at you really quickly, and to get through, you need to freeze time. Oh, yeah, and he's basically invincible. Then there's a couple more bosses later on, but they're no big deal.

This game is really easy, in terms of level design and enemies. I could go through regular mode without screen saves in only about 2 hours. If you're just a bit patient, the enemies are weak enough to not cause you any more than 5 or 6 game overs, at the very most. The only real difficulty that one could encounter is that it's pretty easy to run out of ammo by the time that you reach the boss room, which leads to that repetitive item grinding that makes this game reek of RPG. The difficult mode, or "Japanese normal mode," is a bit tougher, but if you've gone through regular mode once or twice, it should bring nothing new to the table. The mechanics themselves are pretty simple; jump and shoot. There's this gimmick where if you kill a boss, you gain its superpowers a-la Kirby. Certain boss skills are good against other bosses, but a good button mashing with the default weapon works fine until the real final bosses.

Moving on to the music, now. This music is superb. Let's put in a few examples, and maybe a remix or two? Play these first two, surf around on some other sites for a bit ... come back, and watch these remixes. Or you won't be a man anymore.

and those remixes...

Anyway, if you've got an hour or four, give this game a play.

NES Emulator... and a rom for you.

Computer

2010-06-03T00:00:00.000+01:00

So, my laptop has been having issues. I have purchased a new hard drive, and it should arrive shortly. My computer has a 1.6ghz processor, 4gb of RAM, NVIDIA graphics card (I forget what type), and the hard disc will have 250gb of free space on it.

OS: Windows 7

Browser: Google Chrome

Music: Chiptune

Games: NES, SNES, N64

What should I add to the list, or what should I modify that's already on the list?

Portable Apps

2009-06-29T17:00:00.001+01:00

Today I'll be showing you something neat I recently discovered-- portable apps!

The apps that I found had an average size of only 2 megabytes, which makes them perfect for flash drives. They also don't need to be installed -- so, they're portable! You can take some of your favorite apps anywhere, or even discover some new ones. I just loaded some on my flash drive, and here they are:

These programs take up approximately three quarters of my 256 meg drive, but, hey, I'm not using it to store documents, so it doesn't matter.

My programs:

7-Zip

Description: This program is the perfect compressing tool. It's tiny, but really powerful!
Site: http://www.7-zip.org/
Portable: http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/7-zip_portable
Size: 2.34 Megabytes

FastStone Capture

Description: Easy capture of your screen with nearly no editing required. Quicker than prnt sc, opening Paint, ctrl+v, resize, save... You need to use version 5.3.. 6.3 can video record, but it costs money and does everything else the same way.
Site: http://www.faststone.org/
Portable: http://www.oldapps.com/fast_stone_capture.php?old_fscapture=17#Download
Size: 1.06 Megabytes

Keepass

Description: Keeps all of your passwords and usernames in a secure database.
Site: http://keepass.info/
Portable: http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/keepass_portable
Size: 1.88 Megabytes

Miranda IM

Description: Do you know that site, Meebo? The one with all of your IM programs in one online place? Miranda IM is the same thing, but a program.
Site: http://www.miranda-im.org/
Portable: http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/miranda_portable
Size: 4.97 Megabytes

VLC Media Player

Description: Reads all media types. Video, audio, whatever format and codecs! Doesn't have a library function, e.g. WMP, winAMP, and iTunes, but it's portable anyways, so you won't need that.
Site: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Portable: http://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/vlc_portable
Size: 62.9 Megabytes. If you think that's big, wait for the last one...

uTorrent

Description: uTorrent is great for sharing files with your peers. Only share files that won't get you in legal trouble, kids! When it asks to install, check the no box or something. Simply copy settings.dat (located in %AppData%\uTorrent ) to the same folder as uTorrent.exe, and you're done.
Site: http://www.utorrent.com/

Size: 281 Kilobytes! Smallest!

PhotoShop CS4 Portable

Description: Photoshop CS4 Portable is Photoshop Cs4...made portable. Big shocker. It's illegal to download unless you own a license or something. I assume you do. So don't sue me if you get sued. I didn't download this, either.When done using the program, delete the folder called Photoshop (just temporary files). When you open the .exe, it recreates the folder.
Site: http://www.adobe.com
Portable: http://www.google.com/search?q=adobe+photoshop+cs4+portable
Size: 77.2 Megabytes, making it the largest program on the list!

I hope you enjoy your free, tiny programs! I'll look for an internet browser that's awesome later today and add it to my list.

If you could please, please comment on this, it would help improve the blog, and make me feel better inside.

Super Mario 64

2009-06-24T17:00:00.001+01:00

Something I've really grown close to this summer is Super Mario 64 DS. The camera angles can be a bit annoying at times, but the thrill you get from collecting stars makes it all worth it.

You start the game as Yoshi, who discovers that his three friends, Mario, Luigi, and Wario, have been kidnapped by Bowser, along with Princess Peach Toadstool. You enter the castle and explore fifteen courses. The game begins with only 1 course unlocked, but it is quite easy to get more.

As soon as you finish a substage, which each course has eight of, you earn a star. These stars work like keys-- earn enough, and more courses open up for you. Once you reach certain milestones, you can fight Bowser. Defeating Bowser will unlock a new, large portion of the castle to explore.

Overall, the game tends to be on the easy side, but the last four or so courses were pretty difficult. It feels like a pointless scavenger hunt, or a game of hide-and-go seek, but the intense feelings of joy from collecting stars, and even just exploring makes it all worth it!

Rating: 9/10

Pros:Fun!

Cons: A bit too easy, annoying camera angles.

First Post

2009-06-22T17:00:00.000+01:00

First Post.