Crimson Crux

That’s a parody of an old boxing video game, the name of which I can’t remember. Image borrowed from a DoTa All-Stars Forumer’s signature, though I can’t find that special dude now. (Just spent a futile hour scouring the forums for the right guy.) Anyway, no copyright infringment intended — just having fun!

Well, another way to put it would be “How to Leech YouTube Videos“, but it sounds a bit criminal. Anyway, the Net abounds with tricks on how to download the Flash videos on YouTube. The common results in search engines involves browsing through Mozilla Firefox’s cache (about:cache), or installing a browser extension.

However, both methods require some manual effort before you can actually see the video file. (more…)

I know this isn’t about tech, but I just had to post this one. My favorite team in the PBA since childhood, the Purefoods Chunkee Giants, has just won the championship! [Whoops it up in front of the laptop.] This is the first title for the Giants (formerly the TJ Hotdogs) in four frikkin’ years. The long wait was worth it!

You can read more in my entry on Basketball Exchange Philippines.

Well, what can we expect? Of course it hurts to accept that fact, more so when you’re within the ICT industry. You might not feel it if you’re studying in a Wi-Fi hotspot-blessed university or frequently visit classy malls and cafes, but many tech-savvy Pinoys have experienced this national deficiency firsthand. Heck, even the best Internet services offered in the country come at exorbitant charges or suffer from frustrating quality and customer support.

An article from last week’s The Philippine Star reports that out of 115 countries, the Philippines ranks 70th in ICT networked readiness. This is based on the 2005-2006 report of the World Economic Forum. As expected, the US topped the list, and Singapore lorded it over its Southeast Asian neighbors (coming in at #2 overall).

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For the poor souls who’ve long waited for PayPal to land at this archipelago, I hate to douse your hopes but this is not the news you’ve been waiting for. Instead, this is in support of my friend and colleague J Angelo Racoma’s call for change in the existing circumstances that render the Philippines “PayPal-unfriendly”:

PayPal won’t deal with us. It’s probably because we have a history of having potential for money laundering activities. Or maybe it’s because of poor security in banking or credit card transactions.

The point is that we have to lobby for inclusion as a PayPal enabled country.

Why so, you might ask? Why the hell do we have to beg our arses off for PayPal? (more…)

Introducing, Corsarify*! You might crucify the name, but there ain’t any other that fits the bill. I bought the sleek-looking thang last Friday at SM North Edsa’s Cyberzone, from a shop that offers Build Your Own Notebook (BYON) units. In Cyberzone, the shop goes by the name Computers & Options (CNO), while you can find it as Think PC in Gilmore and Taft.

Forgive me if I’ll boast of the laptop’s specs here — right now I’m just thrilled by them. The unit’s powered by a 2.0 GHz Intel Pentium M processor and 1GB DDR RAM. (more…)

That might sound cruel as Oscar Larios is quite a nice guy, but that’s what really happened. There were some scares, but for the most part the Philippine (and world) boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao dominated the battle.

Manny wasn’t able to KO Larios, but he did send the Mexican twice to the canvas, in the 7th and 12th rounds. After being stunned by Larios’ furious flurry of punches in the 3rd, the Pacman managed to recover and pummel his foe with countless, hard-hitting blows that seemingly came from nowhere. Pedro Fernandez of Ring Talk has a good round-by-round narration of the fight.

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I love lists. Especially those listing the best something, the worst something, the greatest something. And if those somethings are related to gaming, then I have no option but to be thrilled to death.

Game Revolution has released one such list — The 50 Worst Video Game Names of All Time — and it’s definitely a good read. Evokes those gaming memories whilst triggering a round of chuckles every now and then. My favorite names in the (In)famous Fifty: Tech Romancer, Sticky Balls, Tongue of the Fatman, Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja, and Totally Rad.

I think the PC game Divine Divinity takes the cake, but Game Revolution’s Numero Uno is still a great choice. Check out who’s the topnotcher!