PRESENTING …. THE BUGGED LIFE ISLAND PARADISE! HOP ON IN (Log in with yout Google ID), THE WATER’S GREAT!
I’ve been toying around with Google Lively - an ultra underrated virtual world simulator similar to Second Life but different in many aspects. What it is: the Google engineers have made a proof of concept part social network, part Second Life, part game and it runs pretty well on just your browser. No need to download an external application to run this, and heck is really easy to use!
Let’s start creating our Philippine blogosphere rooms!
As of now it only works on Windows Vista and Windows XP. My character ID is a little piggy named “jayvsterrific.”
Maila recently published a story on a house bill being passed for video game violence - and how it finally crept into Philippine congress.
House Bill 4095, initiated by ARC party-list Representative Narciso Santiago, proposes imprisonment of not more than one year or a fine not exceeding P100,000, or both, for violators.
In filing the bill, Santiago cited recent studies that revealed minors who play violent video games “are more likely to exhibit violent, asocial or aggressive behavior toward others, including other minors.”
A violent video game, he said, also depicts “human-on-human violence” in which the player “kills, seriously injures, or otherwise causes serious physical harm to a human or character with substantially human characteristics.”
My personal stand on the proposed bill? This is an outdated stigma. Do you want to know the surprising truth? The most recent study that has been conducted for video game violence is documented in Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do. Let me quote:
The surveys also found correlations (statistically significant relationships) between violent game play and some common childhood problems. Boys who played any Mature-rated game a lot had twice the risk of certain aggressive behaviors (e.g., getting into fights, beating up someone, damaging property for fun) or school problems (e.g., getting in trouble with a teacher, getting poor grades), at least once during the past year, compared to boys who played games with lower age ratings. Among girls, the risk of problems was three to four times higher for those who played violent games vs. those who played other games.
Interestingly, boys who didn’t play any video games during a typical week also had a higher risk for problems; however, there were not enough boys in this group to find statistically significant differences. Kutner and Olson stress that a one-time survey can’t show cause-and-effect (it could be that already-aggressive teens prefer violent games, for example) and that most children who play violent games do not have problems.
They also document many creative, social and emotional benefits from video game play, even games with violent content, which were used by many children to relieve stress and get out anger.
Ultimately, the authors express concern that “focusing on such easy but minor targets as violent video games causes parents, social activists and public-policy makers to ignore the much more powerful and significant causes of youth violence that have already been well established, including a range of social, behavioral, economic, biological and mental-health factors” (page 190).
Watch the video interview (Adam Sessler also did an interview with the authors at X-Play but I can’t find that particular episode on the web stream - it’s available though for download at iTunes):
I’m not a political or legislation blogger - but I AM a gamer and I’ve always found gaming - even “violent games” to be a huge source of relief when all other forms of stress relievers have failed. Studies like the aforementioned always fail to see the other end of the valley - on the number of gamers who play violent games and HAVE NOT resorted to violence to resolve an issue.
Okay let’s put this in check. The proposed bill only says that this shouldn’t be available to minors. All I’m saying is that although there are some connections to video games and violence, these are very loose ones. The correlation isn’t 1 is to 1. The book is a very good read and I highly recommend it to you if you can get your hands on a copy.
The ultra-light phenomenon has just tipped once again. With ASUS releasing the eee and eee 900, other manufacturers have gone light (see ACER’s Aspire One product feature) and now the market has definitely tipped. HP has just released the Mini Note PC to the Philippine market last night and I was lucky to have taken home a demo unit from the event. I think this was because I won the wackiest pose on the HP wall — I balanced the Mini Note on my head.
Here’s a short size comparison between the HP Mini Note PC, my 13 inch MacBook and a standard sized Samsung F400 (Bang and Olufsen) mobile phone:
HP desktops and laptops have always had that reputation of being good but *cough* expensive. Their direct competitor would be Toshiba in terms of pricing and “status.” But I was floored to see something that night that made me realize how companies are now trying to -reinvent themselves to the new market. The HP Mini Note PC is the cheapest full functioning ultra light PC I have ever encountered. I can’t believe how much style and features were packed into this thing, with an array of choices for the operating system and a ridiculously low price, it isn’t funny.
Let’s check out the full package, specs and pricing: Read more »
“Love looks through a telescope; Envii, through a microscope.” - Josh Billings
Hey folks, I’m back and posting between the sniffles. My seasonal flu is spot on with the weather change. Because of this I haven’t really had the time to fiddle with something that came through the mail - the Verzio Envii, which is Verzio’s first Windows Mobile 6 handheld. First saw this little thing at the Verzio store in Bonifacio High Street and lookie here - there’s finally one in the mail. Read more »
Samsung recently unveiled its new line of HD-compatible point and shoot cameras as well as the new GX-20 DSLR. I wasn’t able to attend the launch but Fritz as well as some other photo enthusiasts were able to glance at the GX-10’s successor. Samsung isn’t a very big player in the local DSLR scene. It’s no contests that when we walk along the streets of the metro, we will see preference for Canon and Nikon DSLR’s. There are also cult followings of Olympus E series and the Sony Alpha that is now compatible with the older Konica-Minolta lenses. But Samsung?
The GX-20 doesn’t have a huge lens selection to choose from yet. What’s so good about the GX-20? Well it’s sorta like the Sony Alpha cum live view and IS functionality. Overall I’d say a good camera although I must stress the lack of lens choices. This is bound to change of course as time passes. If you’re starting anew with your hobby, why not give Samsung a chance and build your lens collection from there?
More details on the camera plus photos at the local launch.
I never really understood the desire behind buying a tablet PC. The niche for these types of laptops is very small - thanks to the whopping price tag. The words “tablet PC” and “cheap” definitely don’t go together. It is usually marketed to doctors and CEO’s for more “effective note taking” but between P160,000 and a P20.00 spiral notebook from National Bookstore, it seems pretty obvious how many vacation trips I can save up for with buying a regular notebook. I was lent an R400 unit for an article (see next month’s issue of MANUAL Magazine for the review) and I can see why it’s attractive to a certain demographic. Read more »
A short 3 minute video I created on how to make use of Mail to resize huge photos. This isn’t really a trick - a lot of Apple Mail users know about the resize option but don’t necessarily use it for resizing photos back to the desktop.
Dispelling rumors that they are leaving the mobile phone industry, Motorola shows off their new lineup of mobile phones for 2008. I was with Mari Litonjua of Motorola last week for a press lunch as he showed off an excellent lineup of phones for the different market segments:
It was expected to happen. So it is no surprise that the iPhone and iPod touch have gotten memory upgrades. The iPhone is now up to 16GB in anticipation for the SDK boom and the iPod touch is up to 32GB for the same reason as well as to keep more media.
What’s more interesting is how Apple didn’t announce the new upgrade to hardware during MacWorld 2008. In the past year and a half, Steve’s keynotes have been rather segmented - not delivering everything in one big bang. Though this is just a minor announcement, I don’t see reason why he could have announced this during MacWorld ‘08. The closest I could think of would be that it might derail focus on the new Apple iTunes rentals. But that also doesn’t make sense as well since the new announcements do affect the iPods and the iPhone as media storage hubs alongside Apple TV.
To iPod touch owners - do you feel cheated out of this deal, or does the USD $499.00 price tag turn you off?
Oh well. Steve does it because … he can.
FYI Digital Walker will start to have stocks of the 32GB iPod touch starting next week.
