--- Monday, February 28, 2005

Gran Turismo 4: Day #3

Permalink: 2/28/2005 05:57:00 PM

Alright. Day 3 of Gran Turismo 4.

-- as seen on digg: http://www.digg.com/gaming/Gran_Turismo_4:_Day_3 --

A cool feature of GT4 is that you can do competitions more than once and win more cars. You get the same car over and over, but who cares! When I saw that that 423HP Toyota RSC Rally Raid Car that I won was worth like 265,000 credits... I was like SCHIWNG! I won another one by re-doing that competition (easy) and make a ton of money.

Next, I put my Audi S4 in the garage and proceeded to trick out an '05 BMW M5... costing almost all of the money I had... almost 300,000 credits from the car sale and a bit of savings. However, that was totally worth it because I was able to win the BMW M-Model-specific competition... which I believe earned me a solid 200,000+ credits as well and a BMW M3 CTR with 380HP. Niiice.

Here's a shot of my M5:

With the money I got from the M-Model races I purchased a Nissan Skyline (the most expensive one was like 63,000 credits... so I picked that out) and put on all of the best parts... again using almost all of my money. With this recently tricked out car, I took it and entered it into the first Japanese event. For this, I used the new B-Spec mode where you tell the computer how you want it to drive the car... and did some other things while it was going. It's actually pretty cool if you don't feel like playing anymore. :-)

Here's a shot of the Skyline I tricked out:

The prize for the first Japanese event was a car you can use to win the second one:

I again used B-Spec to score some points there... and won this car. I added some turbo/engine parts (I believe) to the car, which cost about 90,000 credits, and almost doubled the HP!

At this point in the game I'm kind of stuck going back and beating all of the beginner mode races before I can move onto extreme. Luckily, B-Spec and better cars are saving a lot of time... haha.

Also attached is a video of me kicking some serious ass with my silver S4. Check it out: (It should be in the video sliding-filmstrip at the top shortly)
http://www.smashsworld.com/smashthegt4/

If you haven't bought this game... what are you waiting for!?!? :D Below is a link to Amazon haha.

Link

--- Sunday, February 27, 2005

"Intelligent MIDI Sequencing with Hamster Control"

Permalink: 2/27/2005 01:02:00 AM

One word: WOW. I expected this to sound like crap... but haha it was pretty good! And I thought that elephant paintings were crazy! -- Be sure to check out the sample mp3 and the demonstration video on the linked site for more. :D

Link

Mac Mini... with a built-in iPod Dock?

Permalink: 2/27/2005 12:29:00 AM

Hmmmm... it seems cool, yet kind of stupid at the same time. It makes sense since they're trying to convert iPod users to the Mac format with the Mac Mini, but does this feature seem very Apple-like to you? I'm not sure what to think about this one... check it out.

Link

--- Saturday, February 26, 2005

Gran Turismo 4: My In-Depth Review of What's New on the PS2

Permalink: 2/26/2005 10:49:00 PM

Today I snagged a copy of Gran Turismo 4, and it's pretty damn good. I was always a fan of GT3, but they've really pushed the PS2 to the max this time.

--as seen on digg: http://www.digg.com/gaming/Gran_Turismo_4:_My_In-Depth_Review_of_What_s_New_on_the_PS2 --

What's Missing: Online Play... you have to use XLink Kai to tunnel through your Mac or PC. (hey, at least there's a solution!)
What Kicks: HDTV 1080i 16:9 output while racing (this is FABULOUS if your TV supports it, and there's also Progressive Scan output in 480p) it looks almost perfect... seriously, and USB Storage Device/Epson Printer support... for taking photos of your car. (this is my new favorite feature)

As I mentioned, you can take photos of your cars in the game and either save them to a USB storage device (such as a thumbdrive) for viewing or sharing on the computer, or you can print them out with a supported Epson printer. (the PictureMate is a great choice!)

Of course, MY thumbdrive doesn't work with *anything* so that was refused by my PS2, but since I had a USB Zip Drive, I figured I'd give that a try. To my surprise, IT WORKED! The first time I tried it, it had to spin up the disc and the game still rejected it, but the second time and every other time after that it worked just fine!

I felt like kind of an idiot hooking up my Zip Drive to my PS2...

...but at least the results were positive.

Lucky for me, GT4 lets you import your GT3 saved game... up to 100,000 credits (like dollars, but GT style) and both the elementary B and A licenses. This saved a LOT of time and gave their die-hard fans a head start... which I really appreciated.

The first thing I hit up was the Options screen. Transmission style to Manual (who uses Automatic on GT anyway?), video output to 1080i HDTV, 16:9 screen size, and last, *saves the game*. This thing's memory file is like 1.5MB which sucked 'cause I didn't have enough diskspace... I had to dump my old Grand Theft Auto 3 game file (which was almost a full meg), but that was alright. I was set to go.

Since I was able to import 100,000 credits... I now had 110,000 credits (100,000 + the 10,000 they give you to start). This was 7,000 credits away from an Audi RS6... and I was pissed off because I had no car to get those extra few thousands!! I ended up grabbing a silver S4 and was able to buy some badass parts for it. I grabbed all upgrade parts *except* the stage-3 engine upgrade kit because it was 80,000 credits (more than the car cost!) and I didn't have enough. Since buying a stage-1 or stage-2 is a waste of money when upgrading (the old parts cannot be combined), this was the best choice.

After doing a couple of races, I immediately noticed that the new game was a lot more difficult... even though a lot of the tracks were brought back from the old game! (they re-did most of them with new routes, as there were some that were closed before, and improved detail... it's not like they were lazy or something heh) It's very realistic, and I had a lot of fun playing for a bit.

After playing around in the Professional racing section for a bit and earning a few credits, I moved onto the "Special Conditon" racing section... and completed all of the races in there that did not require special tires or an iB or iA license. This gave me 20 or 30 thousand credits, and a few sick cars other than my audi:

Of course, the two that caught my eye were the Toyota rally car and the Cadillac with 760HP. I quickly learned that the Cadillac is actually a total piece of crap, though. It takes forever to shift (we're talking like a full second and a half or so) and it just drives terribly. The only time's sick is when you're driving on a straight-away... then it's pretty damn fast! However, I'd say stay away from this model, or sell it. I have yet to try the Toyota.

For the rest of the time, I played around with the Photo mode... taking pictures of the S4 I originally bought. Photo mode is in the top-left corner of the map and generally when you take pictures its hit-or-miss whether they'll actually look real or not. Of the 30 photos I took, 13 of them were really good, and the others were either close to decent or terrible. Overall I was impressed with the quality presented by the Photo mode, and its USB capabilities.

Attached are a few of my favorite pictures I took, and a few more are linked below. Enjoy!

Others Photos:
(I made up my own names for the locations.. warehouse, forest, etc., in case you own the game and can't understand what I'm talking about)
#12 (warehouse, Rating: 5/5)
#11 (warehouse, Rating: 3/5)
#10 (warehouse, Rating: 5/5)
#8 (warehouse, Rating: 4/5)
#7 (warehouse, Rating: 4/5)
#5 (museum, Rating: 5/5)
#3 (museum, Rating: 5/5)
#2 (museum, Rating: 4/5)
#1 (forest, Rating: 3/5)

Overall, this game was sick and I've linked to it on Amazon below. (you need to buy it. lol) I might post some videos a little later on, so check back!

Link

--- Thursday, February 24, 2005

Flickr... from my phone to my blog.

Permalink: 2/24/2005 10:58:00 PM

Giving 'Flickr' a shot. :)

--- Sunday, February 20, 2005

Permalink: 2/20/2005 03:03:00 PM

I'm not quite sure why a store like OfficeMax would be trying to appeal to a younger audience, but whatever.

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--- Saturday, February 19, 2005

Those crazy French...

Permalink: 2/19/2005 07:47:00 PM

From now on, this video will be referred to as "The Elevator Video".

Link

site updates... now at version 6.8b

Permalink: 2/19/2005 04:49:00 PM

6.8a was pissing me off, so I made the site more like 6.7b. woo-hoo. now it has a video scroller so no more stupid "stuck" posts at the top. (cleaned things up a little bit) also, there's a "smashalog" digital clock at the bottom of each page. it switches around depending if its night or day where the server is. pretty sweet. :P :D

--- Friday, February 18, 2005

learning l3375p34k with microsoft. :)

Permalink: 2/18/2005 02:44:00 AM

This is so stupid. :D

Link

FreePSPs.com now open!

Permalink: 2/18/2005 01:18:00 AM

Woo-Hoo! It's like preordering... but without paying! I can't wait to get my Playstation Portable... those things are TIGHT!

Link

--- Thursday, February 17, 2005

Pivot your Apple Displays

Permalink: 2/17/2005 02:19:00 PM

This is cool. If you turn your Apple Display on its side and rotate the screen's output (if your video card supports it) you'll have a typical width screen... with a not-so-typical height! Crazy. (picture credit goes to Boinx Software's blog)

Link

I'm selling Yotoshi (Bitoogle), LanIM, and Lan2P on eBay for $1.

Permalink: 2/17/2005 12:34:00 PM

These projects I've put countless hours into and, to be honest, I'm ready to move on to other things that are still just on paper. I'm selling everything for $1... everything above is an investment in me and my business. Yotoshi (aka. Bitoogle) is really the key item in the sale, but I decided to throw everything up in one big lot. That site has some killer PageRank and on paper its worth a boatload. The other two things are pieces of software I wrote in my free time, but never really 100% finished. Check the auction out, and bid if you've got more than a buck to spare!

Link

--- Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Permalink: 2/16/2005 05:03:00 PM

Just got back.

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--- Monday, February 14, 2005

Powerbook HD?

Permalink: 2/14/2005 01:16:00 AM

Looks like Apple was planning a High Definition Powerbook! (1920x1200) Current 17-inch models have a 1440x900 pixel screen, but it seems that there was a HD model in the works for release with the recent updates. However, it must have gotten pushed back... possibly for release with the upcoming Powerbook G5s! (Picture Credit: macosXrumors reader "Jonathan")

Link

--- Friday, February 11, 2005

smashTheTONES is back up!

Permalink: 2/11/2005 02:35:00 AM

Sporting a new design, new format, and new version number (2.0), smashTheTONES is back online. After being mobbed with TSS traffic, the new site incorporates a queuing system where tones are delivered on a "first come, first serve" basis. (which is better because then everybody's definitely served, am I right? :) )

I've been working on this non-stop for like two days... but hey! It's a cool service so it's totally worth it! :)

Link

--- Tuesday, February 08, 2005

smashTheTONES on TSS

Permalink: 2/08/2005 11:45:00 PM

smashTheTONES was on The Screen Savers (TSS) tonight. (thanks sarah! you did a great job) I posted a video.

Link

"Organic HTML"

Permalink: 2/08/2005 09:31:00 PM

This site is pretty damn cool! It "grows" virtual plants based on the HTML "seeds" (aka. 'tags' :D ) on websites. Check out the growth for smashTheTONES, and check out Organic HTML. (of course)

Link

Permalink: 2/08/2005 01:24:00 PM

Airblogging... it's like a moblog without commitment.... The company has been around for a while (since the earlier days of blogging) yet never seemed to be a hit. Right now i'm pleased with it, though, and recommend it to everyone. (i'm posting from my phone right now... ;) )
http://www.airblogging.com/

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--- Sunday, February 06, 2005

my new favorite web video

Permalink: 2/06/2005 01:20:00 AM

I love this video. This kid just walks over and climbs out the window of his math class... LOL! his teacher... what an idiot!!!! :D

Link

--- Saturday, February 05, 2005

smashTheTONES... my free MP3 to Ringtone service.

Permalink: 2/05/2005 11:20:00 PM

I've been working on this since Thursday night. It takes an MP3 off your computer, compresses and trims it down for your phone, then sends you a text message so that you can download the file. Pretty sweet, huh? Best of all, it's free! "Why would you pay FIVE BUCKS for a ringtone???"

digg:
http://www.digg.com/music/smashTheTONES..._my_free_MP3_to_Ringtone_service...

Link

iPod Shuffle RAID? Yup.

Permalink: 2/05/2005 11:10:00 PM

I thought this was just an idea... until I saw it done! This guy hooked up four 1GB iPod Minis to form a "pocket raid"... if you know what I mean.... :D