The DOT linked back to my ‘It’s More Fun’ Tutorial!
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at January 31st, 2012
Got home to a big surprise! The Department of Tourism has linked my “It’s More Fun” meme tutorial onto their front page under Fun Stuff! I’m really happy that the blog has been recognized in this way.
The site also links back to other amazing works from fellow netizens as well as official “It’s More Fun” wallpapers, social network avatars, and animated logos. Great work!
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Last week I got a glimpse of the new DOT tourism video while at an IMMAP function. Sec. Mon Jimenez was the guest of honor and showed us the 90% completed ‘It’s More Fun’ PH tourism video. All I have to say is that it’s really amazing and something we can be very proud of. The video managed to portray an accurate as well as positive image of our country’s diversity in people and natural resources. It’s so good, people were too engaged to even snap it with their cameras.
It’s definitely more fun in the Philippines! Thanks for the heads up, Corey!=)
Rizal vs Juan Luna Animated Short by The KARSUNSILYO Show
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at October 22nd, 2011
Fun animated short film depicting Juan Luna and Jose Rizal in VS mode. Props to people that recognize the context of the character abilities (i.e. Rizal’s Sisa Rage and Juan Luna’s Painting Shoryuken).
This video needs more views! Please spread the word. Here’s their Facebook Page. If you check the credits Imee Marcos was involved in the production of the video.
A Life Underwater
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 7th, 2011
A rogue with an eye for salvage – and the ladies – Ray: A Life Underwater is an affectionate portrait of one man’s deep sea diving career, told through his extraordinary collection of marine artefacts.
Like a modern-day pirate, 75-year-old Ray Ives has been scouring the seabed for treasure his whole life.
The former commercial diver has plundered the deep for over fifty years, bringing to the surface anything that glittered — even gold.
In a shipping container near the water, Ray tends his museum of cannon, bottles, bells, swords, portholes and diving gear.
He even still takes to the water in a 1900s diving suit.
Produced and Directed by Amanda Bluglass www.amandabluglass.co.uk
Editor and Director of Photography: Danny Cooke www.dannycooke.co.uk
Dive photography: Neil Hope www.divingimages.co.uk
Soundtrack: Tony Higgins www.tonyhiggins.org
The journey underwater reflects the awe of parallel worlds. When man looks to the stars, he sees a longing for his knowledge to fill the vacuum of space. If a man closes his eyes underwater, it is in all likelihood that this is the same feeling. Of weightlessness. Of conquering new frontiers. Of being where the human body was not built to be.
Counterstrike: Global Offensive Video Preview
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at August 26th, 2011
Firebomb on the way!
The new Counterstrike is nearing its beta release this October. Scouring the Internet you will find more speculation that fact with regards to the changes to one of the world’s most popular LAN games. Counterstrike: Global Offensive or CS:GO isn’t a Counterstrike 2. In fact if you watch the video, it’s pretty similar to the game we’ve come to love in LAN parties with a number of changes that introduce new play styles.
For instance, the new Molotov Cocktail does damage over time (DOT) to anyone stepping on the flames. This is very strategic for blocking off choke points and key targets for a short period of time. The other addition would be small revamps to popular maps such as in de_dust where the underpass has been widened with a stairwell that leads up opposite the tunnel.
I’m excited! Especially since today, I don’t need to spend countless hours playing from an Internet cafe (while cutting class). The game will be available for download via Steam and will also be on the XBOX 360 and the Playstation 3.
A Tribute to Fabio
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at July 31st, 2011It really seemed like the contest was rigged for Old Spice Guy to pull a fast one over Fabio. Be that as it may, I congratulate Fabio for his amazing sportsmanship in the ‘Mano a Mano en El Bano’ contest. This post is a tribute to Fabio and in fact I was able to pull out an old video which I recorded together with Kate Alvarez back in 2007. The old video host was junked and I do realize that 3 years is a long time for digital and now we have everything on YouTube and Vimeo (funny too since I did mention Megavideo’s claim to fame to be “better than YouTube” — where are they now? HA!). So I have re-uploaded the video for all to see.
In this video Kate and I dissect the Italian male model as a template to romance novel covers. Enjoy me from 2007!
RIM BlackBerry Playbook Video Review (25 minutes)
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at July 19th, 2011UPDATE:
Official BlackBerry Playbook PH pricing:
16GB at P23,990
32GB at P28,990
64GB at P33,990
The Playbook will be available August 6 2011 via retail and telcos.
I host a weekly tech show called ‘The Geeks’ every Wednesday from 2-4PM, live over the Internet. We archive copies for future viewing. If you’re interested, catch us at this url: http://www.flippish.com/vjlive at that time.
In this segment I show my co-host Sheena Dian the BlackBerry Playbook. We spend a half hour talking about this outlier tablet. If you want to see more photos and commentary, I featured the Playbook back in its infancy at Mobile World Congress ’11 with Andi Manzano.
Pros
Best form factor among the 7 inch tablets
Comes with neoprene case
Amazing multitask functions
Imaginative touch sensitive frame
Cons
Very limited number of apps
Noticeable UI lag (which we have to bring up given the new standards of dual core Android tablets)
We have to wait for Android Marketplace support
Very hard to do PIM and email if you don’t own a BlackBerry
No 3G version (rely on a BlackBerry phone to tether unless you connect via mobile WiFi hotspot)
Although not available here yet, the rumored price is at PHP 30,xxx.xx
Verdict
The BlackBerry Playbook has always seemed like a work in progress to me. If you track the progress of this tablet for the past 12 months you will see how RIM has brought it to life by supporting Android apps. That’s the whole irony — the Playbook (will) support Android apps but PIM only works well if you own a BlackBerry smartphone.
I honestly cannot give a real verdict. We will have to wait for the time when the Playbook truly supports Android apps. If you already own a BlackBerry smartphone, the Playbook makes sense … but so does an iPad or Android tablet. There’s the rub.
One comment to note from my high school barkada who now lives in Canada:
Since RIM is a Canadian company, the Playbook has been all over the place here in Vancouver. And yet, it is not doing so well. At all.
I’ve gotten some serious hands on time with the thing and spoken with a few Blackberry reps, Blackberry App developers, as well as some local tech bloggers, and it looks like Blackberry keeps making promises it can’t keep. They told us that the Android support and the native email client would come in June. Well, June came and went and it’s not here.
App development for the thing is apparently pretty difficult, definitely not as easy as developing for the iPad and Android OS, so Apps have been very slow to the marketplace.
For the apps that are there, most of them work fine, but there are random performance issues that keep cropping up with the Playbook… apps will hang for no reason, crash for no reason, and even sometimes refuse to load. Even Blackberry’s own browser is one of the most unreliable when it comes to performance.
It’s sad because the hardware sure looks pretty and it does promise great things. But for now, promise is all it has, it seems. There are rumblings around the country that RIM is dying fast, and the Playbook is one of the big reasons for that.
Jewelmer: A Short Primer on the South Sea Golden Pearl
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at March 29th, 2011On the geeky side: I’m using the new Samson Go Mic to record the voice over for this short amateur documentary. It’s an amazing device for PHP 2,300.00. It’s small, lighr and super affordable and can very well replace your professional USB studio mic if you aren’t too meticulous.
Transcript and photos follow.
Hands on with the Canon Powershot S95 Underwater
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at March 5th, 2011The stable of cameras at Casa Fernandez include a Nikon D40 with over 10 legacy lenses, a Canon 350D used exclusively for underwater shoots and a Panasonic Lumix LX3. So as you can see it’s really impractical for this geek to go out buying more cameras. When I saw Canon’s S90 release several months ago I snickered — not because this was a bad camera — in fact it was pretty good. But this was Canon playing catch up with Panasonic’s purely “viral” DMC-LX3. Many months later, Canon releases the Powershot S95 and I must say I’m floored with the results.
I took two cameras to Mobile World Congress but ended up using the S95 for everything because it was light and it fit into my pocket. It produced stunning images on Aperture priority (the default I use for attending conventions since I don’t have time to really care about settings) and like most cameras does really well in natural light. With the flash turned on, it seemed a bit sub-par compared to my Lumix flash, but hands down, this camera is a natural winner. If you want a compact camera that takes good photos and video, look no further. Just ask Winston.
All the photos taken at the Mobile World Congress were shot using the S95. All videos too.
If you’re choosing between a Canon G12 and the S95, you need only to consider two things: if you already own an external Canon flash and would like to use it with your point and shoot too, then you should settle for a G12. If not, get the S95.
So many blogs have reviewed the Canon S95 but it is rare to find a review of how the camera fares underwater. So here it is. The video above consists of snippets from depths between 15-40 feet (the more vivid videos) and 60-80 ft (the more “blue-ish” ones) because the deeper you go, color vanishes. Red is the first to vanish. I shot this using an Ikelite S95 casing which I borrowed from my instructor. Compared to my JVC Ikelite setup, I have nothing but envy for the S95 rig because it takes so much better video and excellent battery.
The only problem with the underwater setup is the casing: Ikelite has a design flaw with the knob used to rotate the dial to change settings. That’s why I don’t have photos: I couldn’t move the dial to enter photo mode!
I have to reiterate that this is one good camera. You won’t go wrong with this purchase. But please research price as you will find these to be much cheaper in Hidalgo than in your commercial establishments.
Eraserheads Reunion Opens with Alapaap
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at August 30th, 2008
Eraserheads Reunion Concert Opening from jayvee Fernandez on Vimeo.
Before the second set began, Ely Buendia was rushed to the hospital. I had left the venue with Phoebe minutes before this happened because we were both suffering from a relapse of a cough and colds epidemic that’s been going on for days. Hence, the early post. Today, Saturday, was particularly humid. Hope he’s OK.
This was what was supposed to happen during the second set, according to Jen’s blog:
When Magasin was to be played, the screen behind them would have montages of various news and magazine clippings of them. It would flash alternately with shots of the band and audience until the song reached the coda where Ely sings “…ay centerfold ka naaaa…woo hoo-hoo, haaa-haaa” part of the song. Then there would be fire works and a fountain of sparks, going on til the last note of the song. Then the hydraulic stage would be lowered and the band would make a “fake ending”. [read more here]
We were standing at the Patrons area and waited for the 10 minute countdown to begin. The video I have is of the last few seconds of the countdown and the first song, Alapaap (with fireworks!).
Despite the bad volume leveling with the instruments and vocals, the feedback, the out of tune singing (you could really tell that during their latter 2 songs, Huwag Mo Nang Itanong and Fruitcake – Ely was having a hard time as he was somewhat already out of tune and out of sync at guitar), the crowd had no qualms. These are the Eraserheads. They were never known for stellar showmanship or awesome guitar riffs. But they will always be known as probably the best Pinoy band in this generation because they brought together a mixed social strata of Filipinos who were able to survive high school because of their music. That same generation is here tonight, ten years older, a bit wiser, a bit less frivolous, but wanting to celebrate a piece of pubescent nostalgia.
The Eraserheads reunion was at its best, nostalgic. It wasn’t trying to be something more than this, and this is what made them remarkable.
P.S. The guy screaming in the video is Markku 
How does uMobile work? Here’s a video I made :)
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at May 22nd, 2008Hi folks, looks like umobile is catching the interest of the general public, and why shouldn’t it? I have an account with them (but no SIM yet) and for those who are curious to know what’s in their dashboard, here’s a virtual tour I made last night. Some points of interest:
a. the unlimited ability to change your mobile phone number for P50.00 anytime (stalker fodder?)
b. invite-only scheme to apply
c. the ads
Anyway, pardon the coughing in the video. It’s that season for the colds.
