First it was Dawn Of War 2, and now it is Empire Total War. War is out in the open, but the battle it seems is against piracy.
ETW is the second game I have reviewed this month that also needs a Steam log-in, and therefore Internet access, to activate and play the game, even if you are just up against the computer AI.
This is a big problem for users who do not have regular broadband access as it can take several hours just to update the first round of patches, and that’s on my 100 Mbps line. After you activate the game for the first time via Steam, you can choose to run the game in “offline” mode which then lets you run the game without Net access but you will still need to have the game updated to the latest patch for this to run. In other words, you cannot quite play a Steam-enabled game without Net access.
The good thing about Steam is that it handles all your game patches automatically so your game is always updated to the latest patches. Steam is also a form of anti-piracy tool since you always have to log-in before you start the game. The really cool thing about Steam however is that you all the games you have purchased, whether as a direct download or from retail shops, can be downloaded into any other PC although you can only play on one at a time.
Machinima. Virtual worlds. Next generation human computer interfaces.
Bruce Branit’s nine minute World Builder short film is poignant, brilliant and beautiful. A work of art that fires on all cylinders — concept, storytelling, music.
If you’re a sci-fi fan or computer geek, it’s definitely worth a look. Super cool.
The story of how World Builder became a viral internet video is also pretty interesting. According to this excellent story on NewTeeVee by Wagner James Au, Bruce sent out his video last year to various film festival circuits, but it drew little attention.
Dejected, he put it up on the internet as a portfolio, and a high quality video was put on both Vimeo and YouTube about a month ago. Within days it became a viral hit and spread via word-of-mouth and blogs (like this one here!). It is still drawing traction, as the Viral Video Charts can attest.
Are we in the worst recession since the 1930s? Doesn’t seem like it when you see the long lines of people waiting to sign up for a StarHub line or those snapping up LCD TVs like there was no tomorrow at the IT Show.
When I turned up at around noon, the Suntec area was was already a nightmare to drive around. Was going to give up after being stuck in my car, when I finally managed to enter Marina Square from the back (near Ritz Carlton), and guess what, there were dozens of empty carpark lots. Amazing how the security folks just happily block off all the carparks in the area and list them as “full”.
Anyway, I walked around and found some bargains – not downright dirt cheap, but somewhat tempting, especially if you are in the market for some of these gadgets. …
At every computer show I always check out memory card prices just to see how much they have fallen. Here’s what I spotted at the Kingston booth at Hall 6.
For a comparison, look at some of the memory card prices from last November’s Sitex.
Prices of memory cards, especially the 8GB and 16GB varieties, have fallen. The 8GB micro SD has dropped from around $32 to $25 and the 16GB micro SD from $112 to $84.
It’s that time of the year again when the biggest consumer computer show — IT Show ’09 — hits Singapore.
Running from March 12th to 15th (today to this Sunday), the IT Show takes up floors one to six of the Suntec convention centre. The show opens daily at 12pm and ends at 9pm during this four-day period.
IT Show is really huge this year. All three Singapore telcos have big booths. M1 and SingTel are on floor 2, and StarHub is on floor 3. Floor 4 is the main hall with all the big consumer brands like HP, Canon and Samsung, whilst floor 6 hosts all the small chapalang IT gadgets vendors, from computer games to memory cards to GPS gadgets.
It might be a down economy, but it sure didn’t seem like it as the place was thronged with people this morning when I went. In certain places — especially on the fourth floor near the popular booths — you will get stuck in a human traffic jam trying to squeeze past the milling crowd. This weekend will be a nightmare to find parking if you’re visiting the show, so public transport is advised.
Firstly, a big thank you to the folks who took time out of their busy lives to come down for our first meet-the-techgoondus event last night. We hope you had fun, learnt something, and made some useful contacts.
Originally I had a crowd of about 20 to 25 in mind when I first planned this session, but it seems that word-of-mouth was so good that we roughly doubled that amount.
Besides the seven start-ups who did present their stuff in an informal unconference-styled event, we had a smattering of interested attendees from PR agencies, vendor brands, fellow bloggers (a shoutout to Daniel and Chinmay from Tech65), traditional media, analysts, Web2.0 community activists, and interested kay-poh friends.
It’s official. There are more broadband connections in Singapore than there are households.
In January 2009, the household broadband penetration rate here reached 102.1 per cent, according to the latest figures from the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA). The government regulator usually releases these figures two months after they are collected.
I’ve been a broadband advocate ever since I first got my hands on a trial cable modem back in the late-1990s, so I’m glad more people are getting on the bandwagon.
However, I’d say this watershed, now that we’ve reached it, should mark the start of even more efforts to bring broadband to those who don’t have it.
This is a simultaneous dual-band router, which means it runs both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands at the same time. This gives you both the compatibility of good, old 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and “freedom from unfriendly neighbours” with the less congested 5GHz airwaves.
So far, Wireless N routers have mostly not come with “simultaneous” dual-band operations, except for Linksys’ WRT610N, launched here some months back.
To be sure, I was tempted by Linksys’ “UFO router” at the last Sitex show in November. But being a D-Link DGL-4300 gaming router user for years now, my target was always the DIR-855 - even if I had to buy it from the United States, where it was launched last year. …
“Social media is like teen sex.
Everybody wants to do it.
Nobody knows how.
When it’s finally done there is surprise it’s not better”
– Avinash Kaushik, analytics evangelist, Google
An amusing anecdote that social media consultant Yongfook brought up during last week’s Blogout ’09, but nonetheless very true.
Run on 6th and 7th March (Friday and Saturday) last week, Blogout ’09 was an event organized by Singapore’s TDM (The Digital Movement) to help attendees “make sense of the social media space in Singapore”.
They brought together a bunch of digital media consultants like Yongfook, Joel Postman and Tania from Ogilvy to present to the largely government audience (at least on the 6th when I was there) on social media. Topics touched on include how to measure ROI, how to do outreach in this space and where social media is going in the future.
It was well-run and well-coordinated, so kudos to the TDM folks (e.g. Claudia) for organizing a great event from a bottom-up grassroots effort.
Just adding my two cents to various topics that caught my interest throughout Friday 6th when I was there: …
A student from the Queen’s University Belfast in the UK has come up with a radio that “tunes in” to Twitter feeds and broadcasts them in audio in real time. A microcontroller and custom software (presumably text-to-speech) was used in what could possibly be one of the most creative hacks of the good old radio!
Goondu review: Audio Technica ATH-ANC9 QuietPoint
SME Toolbox: Basic IT gear for a new business
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