Transferring items from Patapon 1 to Patapon 2

Been playing with Patapon 2 for over a week now and it’s hard to build up my army again. Fortunately, I can use some of the stuff from my save file in Patapon 1.

If you have a save file from Patapon 1, you can load it on Patapon 2 at the beginning of the game. When you load your save file, all materials and Ka-chings will carry over. Late-game materials from the previous version allows you to create some Rarepons early on.

So what about the weapons and armors?

To get your weapons and armors from the save file, you must play the 1st hunting area (Hunting on Totchira Shore) during a stormy weather (rain and lightning). It seems that the weapons lost at sea are washed ashore during a storm.

Near the end of the area you will encounter some crab enemies guarding a treasure chest. When you destroy that chest you will get a random weapon from your save file.

NOTE: Uber items such as divine, ancient, giant, and Zigoton weapons won’t carry over. The best you can get are those boss equipments and other green-tiered ones. However, even if you only own a piece of that equipment before, there’s a possibility that you can acquire multiples of it.

A plant that “twits”

We all know that Twitter is a great way to quickly learn how people you know are doing or what they’re up to. But would it be great also for plant lovers if their plants can also “twit” whenever they need watering?

Pothos is a plant that twits with the help of a software called Botanicalls. It has a sensor attached to a PC which sends feeding information on its twitter page.

If you look at its Twitter page, Pothos has 3004 followers but is not following anyone. What an anti-social. Hehehe.

[CNET]

Device drivers for your PC

Have you experienced formatting your PC then somehow one of your devices doesn’t work anymore because it needs a specific driver that your OS doesn’t have. You don’t have or can’t find the device disc so your next step is to scrounge the internet for a driver.

You can go to the manufacturer’s site but what about those who discontinued their support or have already closed down? DriversSoftware.com aims to help people who’s having problem locating drivers for their devices. They have drivers for printers, sound cards to webcams and modems. I even found the driver for my very old Mustek scanner on their site.

I really haven’t tried getting drivers from the site because you have to install their driver detective first to get the drivers that you need. Maybe when I’m really desperate and can’t find the actual driver files I’ll give the site another look.

Should you upgrade to Internet Explorer 8

With the release of the latest version of Internet Explorer, most people expect that IE 8 users would jump up. But unlike the success of people upgrading from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3, IE users are downgrading from IE 8 to IE 7.

There are lots of people are complaining of compatibility issues with IE 8’s implementation of “standards”. Web designs are breaking up and some web applications and codes forces the browser to crash. Uggh, more headaches for web designers and developers.

So should you upgrade to IE 8? I would suggest holding off for now until they fixed their issues. Or simply continue using Firefox or Chrome or Safari. 

A cellphone holster you might not want to give to your kid

Looking for a nice inexpensive gift for your baby girl? Maybe something that she can use on her desk that would blend well in her room?

How about a cellphone holster? Well if you’re looking for one, you might have to think twice in giving her this Stuffed Care Bears phone holster.

For less than $14 from Strapya World, you can give your kid a cute phone holster and a traumatic experience all in one package. Hehehe.

What application can open that file extension?

Do you know what app uses these file extensions: MKV, 7z, OGG, MPP, THM? I always turn on Windows’ option to display file extensions of all my files so that I would be familiar with them. I want to know what application opens which file type.

Sometimes, when you uninstall an application that is associated with a certain file extension, it may forget to update the registry to re-associate the file to its default app. Computer File Extensions is a site that can repair your registry for those orphaned file extensions matching it to an application on your machine that can open it.

It is also a comprehensive resource place that can tell you info about all kinds of file extensions that you may encounter. This is pretty helpful if somebody sent you a file without telling you how to open it.

This giant Tetris game is a real time-waster

Here’s a gem of a find for you Tetris lovers with lots of spare time. Check out this giant Tetris game and see how long it takes for you to score a point.

Not much to say here other than don’t waste your whole lunch break trying to fill up one line. I’m gonna change my opening line. You don’t need spare time, you need a spare life. Hehehe.

IE 8 is not as secure as we thought

With the recent release of Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft claims that their new web browser can provide protection that no other browser can match.

However during this year’s CanSecWest Pwn2Own 2009 hacking competition, a security researcher named “Nils” was able to gain control of a machine using an exploit in IE 8. He received $5,000 for being able to take full control of a Sony Vaio P running on Windows 7 by just having a user click on a web link using Internet Explorer 8.

The public need not worry though since details about the exploits from the competition are surrendered to respective security companies. Besides, he was also able to do the same thing on Safari and Firefox for $10,000 more. Chrome is still standing by the way.

Oh he got to keep the Sony Vaio P too. :)

[ZDNet]

Avira or AVG?

I’ve been using AVG on my desktop for ages and I never encountered any problems virus infecting my PC. No slowdowns, trojans, corrupted files, etc. I don’t know if it’s because I’m just too careful with my machine or AVG did a really good job.

I’ve been seeing a lot of comments about AVG being sub-par on its virus detection so I’m on the lookout for a different anti-virus to install on my new laptop. Avira recently updated its version to 9 and they already included the anti-spyware and anti-adware support on their FREE version.

Anybody out there have experience with Avira? Or should I stick with my AVG? This is not a paid post by the way and comments are greatly appreciated.

Having problems with WaoIndia, closing down?

For those of you who don’t know, WaoIndia is a pay-to-click site that offers $0.10 per click with about 8-10 ads per day. Once you reach $199, they will pay you via Paypal and Alertpay.

Anyway, lately I’ve been having problems viewing the links for me to click. Sometimes, it won’t show or sometimes I’m getting SQL errors on the page. It was also down for almost a whole day yesterday saying that it’s for maintenance. When they got back, the problems still persist and the site is still slow. I’m attributing it to the volume of members they have on the site so I’m gonna try again during non-peak hours.

I hope they don’t close down soon or will still pay me once I reach $199 (already have $116). I’ve heard that they only pay to select people which is bad but fortunately, I didn’t shell out money on this one. Just a couple of minutes per day. I’ll let you know how it pans out but it might be too late for you to join if you wait for it. High paying click sites usually have trouble sustaining the payouts.

Got any experience with WaoIndia?

Hosting problems

I’m having problems with my other blog with regards to its hosting. You see I paid for 2 years in advance to get some major discount but it turned out not to be a good investment after all.

I’m having occasional problems with their SQL servers having to regularly repair my database. They don’t have 24-hour support as well so some times I can’t have my site fixed pronto if it’s a back-end issue. Major hassle for me is that my plan only covers 3GB bandwidth per month that I have to increase for extra cost monthly.

I should have researched more about web hosting and not scrimp on the bandwidth. I later found out through web hosting geeks that there are more hosting providers out there that offers a better deal than what I have right now. Like 24/7 support and unlimited bandwidth for the same price I’m paying my current host every time I ask for additional bandwidth.

Sigh, lesson learned. Next time check out hosting review sites if I’m going to suggest hosting providers to friends or when I’m about to change mine once my 2 year plan is up.

Lenovo teases us with its answer to Sony Vaio P

When the Sony Vaio P was launched, lots of people were attracted to it. Recently, Lenovo tries to one-up it after releasing a bunch of teaser photos of its Pocket Yoga which sports almost the same form factor of the Vaio P.

The Pocket Yoga sports a leather exterior and a reversible touch screen converting it into a pocket tablet.

There’s no announcement made on the specs or whether Lenovo would really ship this gorgeous Pocket Yoga. They just said that they’ve been experimenting with it since 2007.

Nice huh?

[Electronista]

Evergreen Chinese Horoscope MP3 players

If you’re planning to buy a cute yet cheap MP3 player for your kid, you might want to consider Evergreen’s Chinese Horoscope MP3 players.

These cute animal MP3 players that represent the Chinese Zodiac weighs only 15-gram and can handle 2GB worth of mp3’s. The controls are at the back and it looks inconspicuous as an MP3 player that your kid can wear this as a pendant. Play time is only about 5 hours though.

Each costs $30 and is only sold in Japan but fortunately, it’s also available via GeekStuff4U that can ship worldwide.

Repairing your own Macbook

You know how expensive Apple laptop repairs cost especially if a part needs to be replaced. It’s not that easy to locate parts for your Macbook or Powerbook but there’s an online site that can help you out.

Powerbookmedic.com is a site that sells service parts and upgrades for those who want to tinker with their own Apple laptop. From hard drives, memory, keyboard caps, to batteries and LCD displays, they got it all. They also offer repair guides for every Apple laptop model out there. And if you don’t want to do your own tinkering, they also accept repairs themselves.

Powerbookmedic started as an eBay store but as they got more and more customers, they decided to open up their own site.

An iPod Shuffle that talks

Yup, Apple just released its latest incarnation of the iPod Shuffle. The small iPod becomes much smaller as they removed the wheel for the controls. They upped the space from 2GB to 4GB though.

Apple gave this Shuffle a voice telling you what song is playing or what songs are in the playlist. By pressing a button, the music dips down and you will hear the title of your song. It even announces whenever your battery is running out.

So where are the controls? Ahh, this is something that I don’t like. They placed the controls on the right earphone cord making it slightly heavier than the left.

The controls are click-powered so if you want to pause/play, you have to perform a single click. Double-clicking will move to the next song while a triple click to the previous song. So if you want to go to the first song which is 5 positions away, you have to click 15 times. Hehehe.

I guess Apple wants to monopolize the earphones for the new Shuffle. Too bad I can’t use my V-moda Vibe earphones on this one.

Portion your food like an expert

So you got this kick-ass recipe from a party and you want to try it out at home but there’s only the two of you. How could you translate the portion so that you won’t be wasting too much food at the end of the meal?

Well you can try out the Portion Calculator from Love Food Hate Waste. This simple web app allows you to portion your food or ingredient for a desired number of people before you go to the grocery or cook your meal.

Just choose the type of food and the number of adults and/or kids who will be having the meal then you’re set. Perfect for those who doesn’t want to eat leftovers. :)

Create the Obama effect on your photo easily

Remember how cool those Obama logos during the presidential campaign look like? If you don’t then forget it. Hehehe.

Anyway if you like to apply those style on your picture but don’t have the Photoshop skills to do it, you can do it easily with Obamicon.Me. Just upload your photo or take one straight from your webcam and adjust the colors to your liking. You can also use a custom caption if “Hope” or “Progress” doesn’t appeal to you.

Wireless monitors are coming soon

Most of us know about those new LCD TV’s having the capability of interfacing with your computer and other wireless devices so why not LCD monitors right?

From CeBIT 2009, Asus revealed the world’s first wireless monitor. It’s still only a prototype so no word on pricing and shipping dates but it’s nice to see a working wireless monitor. It uses the ultra-wideband standard (UWB) to handle those large data coming from a PC for seamless viewing.

A wireless monitor would be awesome especially if you’re gonna rig it with your laptop. Imagine having a monitor in a meeting room that you can use without bringing any cables.

[Engadget]

Where should you host your site?

If you plan to pay for a web hosting company to host your personal or business website, it is important that you have plenty of options to compare. You just won’t be saving money but it would also save you the hassle of being stuck with a bad hosting company in the long run.

You might want to check out Web Hosting Choice which can help you make your decision. They have plenty of information on what to look for in a hosting company, terminologies and common packages. Mostly, the site can offer you recommendations on which host will be suitable for your needs.

Easily embed your Flickr as a gallery in your web site

Flickr has a built-in embed feature to web sites or blogs but they’re usually in the form of thumbnails that you put on your sidebar. If you want a gallery page on your site using your Flickr images, you might want to check out PictoBrowser.

PictoBrowser allows you to easily embed a gallery-style feature on your page that uses Flickr images. Just enter your Flickr username, choose the image sets you want to use and copy the HTML code to your site.

What you’ll get is a snazzy looking Flash-powered gallery for your site. If you’re not satisfied with the looks, head to PictoBrowser Builder to further customize it with colors matching your site, gallery size, placement, etc. Nice huh?

CSS to center a div horizontally and vertically

I’m always fond of sites that have absolutely centered content so when I design web sites, I use that style myself. Recently, I’ve been commissioned to design a site and I forgot how to do the centering thingy so I had to google it again.

For reference, I’m putting it here in my blog in case I need to use it again. Here’s the CSS code to center your content horizontally and vertically.

.centered_div {
width:[width]px;
height:[height]px;
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
margin-left: [width/2]px;
margin-top: [height/2]px;
}

Make sure to change the width and height to the desired number. Then you need to enclose your content into a div with the class centered_div.

<div class=”centered_div”>… </div>

That’s it!

Is this the new PSP?

There are many rumors (that could be true) going around the net regarding the state of the new PSP. The fresh design will forego the UMD’s which I think is a good call since who plays with UMD anymore?

PSP2 might also incorporate a slide design that can hide the controls if you’re just going to watch a video or play games like Loco Roco. That second joystick is a nice addition too.

I hope this is true because this design can just be what Sony needs to boost its lethargic PSP sales.

[GameDaily]

Join the fragfest with QuakeLive

If you’re a fan of Quake or other similar FPS games and have the itch to frag somebody, try out Quake Live.

Quake Live is an online version of the game Quake that you can play straight out of your browser. That’s right! It’s not something you have to install, just login to their site, and play your heart’s content with other players in a game of Quake.

When you sign in, you will first be directed to a holding area page that they use to regulate the flow of users coming in. No big deal it’s not a long wait. You will then have to download the Quake plugin for your browser and install it.

Afterwards, it’s time to download the basic game files. I suggest watching the demo tour while waiting for the download to finish. Then you create your character and play with a bot for 10 minutes to allow them to check your skills while downloading more game files in the background. Once all necessary files are downloaded (this may take quite a while, 40 minutes on a 384kbps), you can start joining matches available (even in the middle of it) or create one yourself.

There are different matches to choose from, FFA (Deathmatch, Duel) or Team Game (Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Clan Arena). There are also different maps each with a maximum number of players.

There are leaderboards as well as a system for buddies in case you want to be notified if they’re online and play with them. Oh yeah, stats are being recorded in your profile for more boasting capability.

The games doesn’t come with its flaws since it’s still in beta. When you join a match and after downloading necessary match data, you will randomly get errors and bring you back to the main screen. Sad to say it’s hard to make this work if you’re on a firewall or a proxy. Guess that discourages people from playing it while at work or school. Hehehe.

Upload your files in different file hosts simultaneously

I don’t know why some people needs to upload their videos, music, etc. in different hosts. Rapidshare usually works fine for me. For redundancy perhaps in case other hosts are blocked for other people?

Anyway, there are FREE online services out there that allows you to mirror your uploads to different hosts. Here’s a couple of them:

FileTwig is pretty straightforward. The site is simple and there’s no need to sign up or anything. Just browse for your file, click which file hosts you want it uploaded to then hit the Upload button. You will be directed to page with the different download links or you can choose to be notified by e-mail if you can’t wait for your upload to finish.

FileTwig supports Rapidshare, MegaUpload, Badongo, EasyShare, DepositFiles and Sendspace.

Gazup! is another similar service. In Gazup!, you can opt to sign up or not. The only difference when signing up is that you can manage your uploads for future reference. You can also choose to upload files remotely in case the files are stored in an FTP server.

Gazup! supports Rapidshare, MegaUpload, NetLoad.in, zShare, FileFactory, HideMyAss, Badongo, MediaFire and UploadBox.