This blog has been moved to http://www.albertus.org/.

Lately, I’ve been playing games on my PlayStation 3 (PS3).  It has been one year since I last played a game on the console, using it mainly as a blu-ray player.

I’m not an expert gamer and I do it just to pass the time.  However, I like playing games that have very good graphics, the ones which give you a cinematic experience.  Metal Gear Solid 4 is pretty good.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is also a winner.  Resistance: Fall of Man, being one of the first titles available on the PS3, is showing its age but the gameplay is still okay.  (I miss Gears of War, an Xbox and PC game which is definitely better than Resistance:FOM).

Note that I’m not playing the latest and greatest games.  I’m a bit hesitant to spend $50-$60 on a new game since I’m not yet an expert gamer.  I usually buy old and/or used games.  Amazon.com is one good source of them.

Apple had a surprise announcement of the new Mac mini.  It’s now in an all-aluminum case.  The form factor is a bit shorter but wider than the previous Mac minis.  They also upgraded the graphics and processors, making them faster (though I would still get the 2.5 GHz model and upgrade it to 2.66 GHz).

I am thinking of this as an alternative to an expensive 27″ iMac.  I would forego with the processing power of the iMac but I would save a lot enough to buy an iPad .

I’ll wait and see.

It’s been a few days since the iPad was released to the public, generating a lot of buzz in the press and on the Internet.  There’s even one YouTube video of some guys smashing an iPad, presumably the cheapest model.

I visited our neighborhood Apple Store in the Galleria Mall and tried it out.  I was curious about the landscape-mode virtual keyboard and tried to type something.  I could get used to it after awhile but I was making mistakes.  I imagined myself using an iPad in some café writing an entry to this blog.

There’s a lot of things in my mind now as far as wanting gadgets is concerned.  I want this iPad and I want an iMac.  As for the iMac, I’m waiting for Apple refresh their current line of models to include the new Intel processors.  The iPad is a luxury for me, but I might like using it in my living room while watching TV.

I have recently been using Aardvark, a service recently acquired by Google, to ask questions about things of interests such as computer and martial arts stuff.  The service works by forwarding your questions to experts selected using some AI algorithm.  The company that runs Aardvark does employ PhDs in artificial intelligence to build and enhance the service.

Aardvark is promoted as a social search engine.  You can post and receive messages via a number of ways including instant messaging or mobile phones.  There’s also a way of linking your Aardvark account to your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

So far, I’ve been receiving pretty good information about the things I asked.  I encourage you all to try the service.  Google seems to have plans to integrate this to their products as part of their initiative to enhance their prowess in social networking stuff.  Right now, Aardvark is part of Google Labs and is still active.

I am currently listening to the original motion picture score of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Episode 5).  This is the digitally remastered special edition 2-CD set.  Compared to the 1-disc Polydor CD release back in the late 80′s, the sound quality of this set is superb.  Well, another soundtrack now goes to my iPod(s).

I must say, the music is dramatic and visual.  You can actually “see” the movie as you listen to the soundtrack.  I need to listen to it a few more times so I can say more.

I was looking for a decent portable CD player to replace my old Sony Discman D-F411.  Coupled with a pair of decent headphones like the Sennheiser PX 200, the sound quality was pretty good.

I use the portable CD player to sample CDs and to compare CD sound quality to digitally compressed audio (MP3s, AACs).  I still love the sound of the CD, but I hope they improve the quality of compressed audio while reducing file size (there must be a limit to that, given that you throw away information to get to a certain file size).  Lossless formats would be ideal if it were not for disk space and bandwidth limitations (imagine iTunes selling lossless music files many times larger than AAC files).

Some of the major manufacturers of portable CD players have only a few left.  Panasonic doesn’t even have one featured on their web site.    Philips just has one model of portable CD player, but, if it were like my Philips portable CD player, it doesn’t support gap-less playback of contiguous gap-less tracks (something you would encounter often with classical music CDs, for example).

I am saddened by the demise of the portable CD player.  Sure, I do have two iPods, but portable CD players are something I’d like to bring around the house if I want to listen to a CD.  I hope that either the CD format remains or that a new type of media capable of storing uncompressed music emerges.  Perhaps, we’ll have one of those cube-like thingies that you see in sci-fi films…….

Finally, it’s official: a tablet computer from Apple named the iPad.  The iPad starts shipping sometime March of this year.

It’s a nice device that somehow fits between an iPod touch/iPhone and a notebook as far as functionality is concerned.  One thing missing is a web cam so you could use software like Skype or iChat for videoconferencing (Note: Though Skype is available for the iPod touch/iPhone, the iChat isn’t as far as I know).

An iPad version of iWork will be available soon enough.  This will be a useful set of applications (spreadsheet, word processor and presentation) to those who need to make or read documents.  Most applications already on iTunes App Store will work without need for modification although software developers will have to slightly modify their products to take full advantage of the iPad’s large screen size.

Pricing is okay: it starts at $ 499 for a 16GB WiFi-only model.  This is, for an Apple device, okay but may still be steep for non-Apple users.

Apple is going to unveil a new product today that will supposedly change the way we do things one more time.  A new device is rumored to be the new product, possibly a tablet that functions as a souped-up iPod touch but with more features.  Pricing will be an issue: the price must meet the sweet spot for most users who want to buy the device.

What should this tablet do?  Aside from running most iPhone and iPod touch applications, it should also function as a reader like Amazon’s Kindle.  Games might be more fun on a bigger screen.

Basic applications such as email, web browser, word processor and even spreadsheet might turn out to be more usable on a tablet.  Perhaps this tablet can be connected to other devices including a keyboard and a mouse (although the latter might not be needed since the tablet is touch sensitive already).

Whatever.  I hope it does a lot of useful and fun things for it to be worth buying.  I hope inputting text does become easier, given the size of the thing.  Anyway, in a few hours, the mystery will be revealed.

Have fun!

It’s been awhile since I posted something on this blog.  I’ve been busy with other things, including the launch of a site called Linux Unbound.

The new year started with the purchase of a few books such as “Classic Shell Scripting”, “Flex and Bison”, “Sed and Awk”, and “The Illustrated Network”.  I am trying to go through “Classic Shell Scripting” as fast as I can.  The book is an interesting read and is useful for the UNIX/Linux/xBSD administrator.

I still have to study Mathematica though. 

Well, that’s all for now.