Summer Finals...

Philosophy finals tomorrow. 

頑張ります

rOar

Still dead...

Its confirmed: my comp is still infected. 

Been trying to find the trojan virus for the past few weeks, and still couldnt find it. I had to reinstall the XP OS and start from scratch. 

F-U-N. 

Music Monday

Round-Island Scooter Around Taiwan Update #3

Now that the mode of transportation has been decided, now we must get into the details about riding a scooter. 

3 issues here:
- Scooter license
- Scooter rental
- Scooter choice

A quick search on the internet on obtaining Taiwanese scooter license yields this. It shows that for a scooter 50cc or less only require a written test, while 51cc to 250cc requires a written and road test. Now, both written and road test must be taken at a local testing office. I know one near my house in 百福, the same place where I got my driver's license. I've seen the road test, and its not hard. Mainly there is a test for the ability to ride in a straight line within confined space, and a test for basic road signs. 

Documents needed are residence permit, 3 passport sized pictures, and the fee for testings. 

Next on the agenda is scooter rental. At this point in time, I have no suggestions on which scooter shops are best. Nonetheless, a bit of research leads me to here. Things to be of concerns are A) Reliability of the store, B) Quality of scooter, and C) Insurance coverage and other issues. I dont think I can make any more progress in this issue right now until I get back to the country in a few months time. Will update. 

Finally, scooter choice. Generally, what I found was that the average stocked 50cc scooter have a top speed of about 60kmh to 80kmh, where as a 150cc have a top speed of about 100kmh. Of course, I wont be riding in top speed this entire journey, but its something to be of a concern. If we were to assume we choose a 50cc scooter, traveling at an average speed of say, 15kmh (assuming average speed between city and rural locations), then a journey of 1200km will take about 80hours, or roughly 3.3 days non-stop. That said, if the traveling time is broken down equally throughout the 2 week trip (14 days), then the daily riding time is about 5.7hours, a relatively acceptable time frame.

Now, heres where the scooter beats a car: if along any point of this trip we were to decide to take short cuts, and use other forms of transportation other than scooter, both the Ju-Guang Hao and Fu-Hsing Hao trains have the ability to allow riders to carry their scooters along with them on the train. This is a definite aid if we were to change plans on the fly. 

With all that said and done, all thats left is to take the scooter test and choose which scooter we'll be riding in. 

More updates to come soon. Meanwhile, I've found two Taiwanese movies based on the idea of round island journey. Both movies are done by bicycles: 

rOar

Playstation 3 Home

Aite, so yesterday I've decided to check out what the Playstation 3's Home of the Japanese server looks like. After a brief registeration of a Japanese account, I've successfully managed to take a look at this once hidden gem. 

Compared to the American's version of Home, there are many obvious differences:
- The Home Plaza was alot wider and more spacious than the American's.
- All spaces, excluding the personal space and the mall, were different.
- There are ALOT more things to buy in the stores, for costumes etc.

On top of that, I manage to catch a glimps of a live Hatsune Miku's performance off the pier from the plaza. Heres some highlights:

Thats right. You're eyes are not fooling you. There is a CROWD gathering to see the live performance (of a new song). 

Besides the appearance of Hatsune Miku, there is also a life-size Gundam RX-78-2 released today, in sync reveal of the REAL 1/1 ratio Gundam statue in Odaiba, Japan. The first pic is the real Gundam statue, and below it are the ones from Home: 

Now, what can possibly be more Japanese than a giant robot in the middle of Home Plaza? Why, a fully decked out festival of course! Included in the Japanese server, PS3 Home included a space that is themed with the Japanese festival. Heres a few shots:

Besides some good music and fireworks sound effects, there are mini games, such as goldfish catch, and mini shooting range that makes this place really feel like a traditional Japanese festival. Oh yea, they didnt forget to put in some pretty ladies there too: 

The American version of Home is NOTHING compared to the Japanese version. Just saying... just saying... :)

rOar

Digital Warfare

Sup y'all. Dagron's finally back. I was locked out (literally) of my computer earlier this week due to a HORRIBLE virus which resulted in my computer to be infected beyond belief. Heres what happened: I woke up Tuesday morning and turned on the laptop only to notice Windows had detected a virus intrusion. I did what I always do; immediatly started scanning with various anti-virus programs that I got at hand. Within 10 mins from the start of the scan, the virus had successfully infiltrated into the main OS programming, and started to tamper with system files. Before the anti-virus scans could even finish, all running programs are forced shut down, resulting in this image on my desktop: 

What followed were various pop-up screens of what appeared to be subscriptions to anti-virus programs that claim they can get rid of the many spyware and adwares/virus known to date. Included was windows upon windows full with fill-out forms that asks for credit card number and other personal information, which obviously if given, will be worse than the virus itself. So I reacted instinctively; unplugged the internet cable, and quickly plugged my external harddrive and began copying whatevers left in my harddrive. Another 5 mins passed, and I successfully manage to save 80% of whats on my infected partition drive (which I parted into 2).

After that, it's been a hard road trying to remove the virus manually. Finally, after a day of unsuccessful curing, I had to declare the death of my beloved laptop. What followed was the painful sound of my disk drive spinning away reinstalling my XP OS. 

Sad day. Worst virus infection I've encountered. 

Since then, I've been trying to see if any of my personal information has been leaked by potential hackers. So far, so good. Fingers crossed. 

rOar

Music Monday

Apparently the dance in this song is creating a hype in Taiwan. 

A Blast From The Past

Air Travel: chinese Style

Read this first. 

In short, china may take the lead in the first ever standing passenger plane.

Just. Pure. Genius. 

rOar

EPIC FAIL

Watch at your own discretion:

inFamous Review

What's good everyone. Sorry about not being able to post - I've been out of the loop travelling. However, that's a story for another time. It's about time I got to the inFamous review which I've been promising for awhile.

Unlike most websites I won't be covering all the features of the game (since you can just jump to those websites). Instead I'll give you a heads up as to whether the game is good or not. And the verdict is....It's OK.

Having superpowers is nice - but since they are all electricity related it can only go so far. Zapping people from afar can be done in a number of ways, and its extremely amusing until you bump into stronger opponents that need more than the typical lighting blast to kill them.

For those wondering if it's like GTA....I guess it could be said that it IS somewhat like it...however to compare them would probably be a bad idea since they aren't that close at all (besides the map system and running around). If anything, treat it like an ADVENTURE game. THe story is top notch and keeps you relatively spellbound throughout - and best of all you get to choose the ending depending on your actions.

Gameplay isn't anything special - your character grows progressively stronger the further you get into the game. Additional powers are nice but not outside the box, so when you do get them it'll be like "oh, I could really use that" as opposed to "ZOMG POWERS".

Graphics are insanely good - and if you do play this game you should just sit back and enjoy the scenery. The design of Empire City is done extremely well, and it works hand in hand with the story.

Additionally, there are a lot of sidequests that explain more of the story and make you significantly more powerful...so it's a good idea to pursue them.

So is it worth the buy? Yes...and no. With the good/evil story, you will definetely play through the game twice (just to see the different endings). Side quests can take awhile but eventually get extremely tedious (like GTA, quests usually involve killing someone or chasing someone).

My opinion is...pick it up for the trophies (or points if you're on the xBox) and trade it in for prototype. You'll get a bang for your buck that way. Cheers!

Toast