An inside look how serious enthusiasts and pros endure the most arduous of conditions just to take that perfect underwater shot. Poisonous marine life, sweeping currents, unpredictable water visibility, limited bottom time juxtaposed high risk to expensive photo gear & self are just some of the variables which make underwater photography one of the most difficult yet highly rewarding branches of photography.
Photos and Video by Jun Lao.
I joined my first underwater photo competition last week. There were a total of 82 participants from the Philippines and beyond and it was a literal breath-taking experience. I did a total of 5 dives over the weeek end, two spent in San Agapito Reef with some of the strongest currents experienced by man. It was so strong, we had to abort one dive because we got swept away into the blue.
It’s called the Mutewatch because it’s silent. No moving parts, everything digital. The Mutewatch reminds me of the Nike+ bands that got all-too popular because of the running craze back in 2008. I finally got my hands on one, thanks to the fine folks of Digits Trading and I’ve never been so excited to wear a watch. Because, well, I hate watches. This one is geeky, so it’s a different story.
If it’s one thing gamers will never compromise, it’s their Internet connection. The launch of Diablo III has prompted gamers around the country to scrutinize the quality of their Internet connectivity. As a fan myself, I really take these things seriously and no amount of marketing BS will convince me otherwise. The proof is in the pudding and it seems that not everyone is a chef.
This feedback is based on a number of qualitative feedback from friends and personal experience as well.
So far, it seems that Diablo 3 works fine with the following ISP’s
Wireless:
Smart (tethered) – I tether my MacBook with my iPhone 4s and get to play just fine. Some people prefer a fixed wireless broadband connection though.
Globe (tethered) – I get to play with Rico of Technogra.ph (he tethers using a Samsung Galaxy S II)
Wired
PLDT – Generally good. I hopped into a number of games of friends and we’re rolling seamlessly.
On another note, one ISP stands out to be the provider to avoid for Diablo III:
Sky Broadband – Woes to Sky Broadband. They really dropped the ball on this one. I used to swear by Sky publicly as the best wired connection money can buy in the country. Service has dropped to a really poor rating in the past 2 months.
Many many emails to Skybroadband support center regarding Blizzard downloader P2P issues and unplayable in game experience with Diablo 3 (may be DNS, but may be that they have restricted Port 1119, which Diablo 3 uses) – to no avail.
Sky simply does not respond to queries and when you call them they tell you to send an email through to support center. Its a vicious circle.
Playing it on my friends PLDT connection works perfectly.
After 2 years with Sky, seems like PLDT really is the way to go.
– Brendan
As my cousin said, ” Pre-term fee for Sky is PHP 2,000.00, Diablo 3 is priceless. If it doesn’t work at 3Mbps, I’m dropping them for (insert ISP here).” Sorry Sky Broadband. I swore by your services. I really did. But sad gamer can’t compromise.
You know what’s most interesting? My wireless tethering is faster than my ethernet connection. Why, Sky, why? Note that I write this not to smear Sky’s reputation but 2 months of your IT support not knowing what the problem is makes for really bad service. Fans have waited for Diablo III for about a decade and we absolutely need to be online to play this (there is no offline mode). So you definitely should understand why gamers feel really bad about this and need to switch. We waited 9 years for Diablo III. We absolutely can’t wait for you.
To the others: how’s your gaming experience? Add me up: LOLMOWER#1648
One commentary I always make about the smartphone industry is that there’s always a huge focus on making devices more and more responsive as time goes by. Every year, every smartphone is always “faster” or “lighter” or “thinner.” Screen technology is improving very fast from LCD to LED to AMOLED to Super AMOLED to Super AMOLED Plus. BUT — and that’s a big but: what about battery technology? Lithium ion and lithium polymer have been around since the 80’s and although there are improvements to how devices save battery life, there isn’t much on the forefront of next-generation battery technology. The near future is bright however, with graphene (wrote about that here as a thought piece on the iPad rumor) being looked at as the new wonder-element for semiconductors and battery technology.
EDIT: In the finishing stretch of the installer, the devs change the color of the progress bar and go into minute details of how much longer it’s going to take. Brilliant. The anticipation!!!
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At 8:01AM PDT servers around the world opened for the launch of Diablo III. But Blizzard really knows how to tease and the servers only unlock the installer, in time for the actual launch of the game which is sometime on the 15th of May PDT.
You know what’s better than trending on Twitter? Crashing a server. After the game unlocked, everyone got this error:
“ERROR: Unable to initialize streaming. Please check
your Internet connection. If this problem persists,
please contact Blizzard Techinical Support.
(CreateStreamingManifest::GetStreamingManifestContents)”
Looks like the seed hasn’t been uploaded yet. Or something. Or really there are just too many people.
This is the most in(tense) product launch ever. A launch I’ve been waiting for over a decade. Exciting!
