sangsara.net

Year: 2007

  • Facebook vs Spotlight

    I just noticed today that Facebook uses a drill-down widget (on the right-hand side) very similar to the one in Mac OSX Tiger’s Spotlight. This is the 2nd time in 2 days that I’ve seen this mechanism and accompanying look used on a website. I wonder if it started elsewhere and was copied by Apple, or if everyone is just copying Apple?

  • Tomb Raider Anniversary figurine on the cheap


    Play-asia.com is selling this really nice 7″ Tomb Raider Anniversary display figure of Lara Croft for just USD$14.90 (SGD$21.78). The neck and shoulders are supposed to be movable, and the guns can be removed and placed in her thigh holsters. Comes with a stand that makes her look frozen in mid-air. I’m pretty tempted right about now.

  • sangsara.net + amazon.com


    Every so often, I’m asked my opinion on what the best choice for a digital camera under $500 is, or what games out are worth buying. I’m also asked how to fix PC problems, but thankfully my answer for the last 3 years has been, “Sorry chump, I don’t keep up with Windows anymore.”

    Presumably, friends and acquaintances continue to brave my really poor personal conduct, short temper, and boastful behavior (as you are experiencing for yourself now) when asking these questions because I usually have the answers. But before you start to feel awe and jealousy towards these gifts of mine, know that they are not born of some innate taste compass or gatherer’s instinct. I actually spend a lot of time doing pointless research to satisfy my need to shop. Often, an obsession with a certain product does not end in me buying it, but that may have no bearing on its quality or finer points of operation. Many of these thoroughly researched gems are perfectly fit for recommendation to others, which is where my usefulness as a human being is thought to begin and end.
    To make the most of this situation, today I announce the opening of my Amazon.com affiliate store. For the time-being, it shall be called the “sangsara.net + amazon.com store”. You should see a small selection of its offerings in an ad banner above, with a link to visit the full store page close by.
    In this store, you will find gadgets, books, DVDs, games, and assorted products that I consider fit to be purchased by any person drawn to the intersection of price, style, and performance. In most cases, these are things I already own and enjoy. In all other cases, they are things I would gladly buy for myself. Thrice. In some ways it’s a wish-list more for your benefit than mine.*
    One criteria I’ve observed in the exquisite handpicking of these items is that they must be fantastic bargains. You know how it is. Amazon is packed with many obscure deals better than any local store near you could offer, but you lack a personal shopper to show the way. That’s me now. Any time your wallet feels a little heavy and you need a little retail therapy, drop by the store and see what I’ve found.
    *Disclosure: I receive a small affiliate incentive of approximately four percent in store credit on most transactions through this store page.

  • Haikulog.com gets some love

    In the middle of what is currently a pretty busy workweek, I suddenly felt the need for a side project that wasn’t about videogames, the best links on the whole internet for perverted technophiles, and growing the most stylish chinstrap in the world. And then I realized that I already had one.

    Haikulog, my poor forgotten child, has actually been getting a fair number of hits (so much so that I don’t quite believe it and will be installing a new counter soon) despite not having been updated since January. My god, it’s so easy to lose a year when you’re at the office twelve or more hours a day on a regular basis. At least that’s over for now.
    So today I posted again, and hopefully will find the time to keep it going this time. If anyone knows a good CMS I could use for posting photos with captions (I’m using the now-defunct PixelPost) that has nifty stuff like a mobile posting interface, please let me know!

  • Mac OS X Leopard skin for M3/R4DS


    Here’s another Apple theme I slapped together for the M3 DS Simply/Real and R4DS slot-1 flashcard devices (they allow you to run custom code and play media files on your Nintendo DS).

    I used the Finder icon for the file browser/launcher, Quicktime for the Moonshell media player, and the new Time Machine icon for loading up Game Boy Advance games from slot-2. Pretty appropriate, I thought. I also managed to replicate the glass dock, complete with a rudimentary reflection effect.

    Download version 1.01 (improved Dock graphics)

  • Expensr says I’m fat

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    Average on food [expensr], originally uploaded by sangsara.

    I eat almost as much as your average man and woman combined! Rawr!!

    Actually I think this is happening because the average is in US currency (although I’ve specified I use SGD in my profile), and because I consider alcohol to be part of food expenditure.

  • RGB Gamer: Public beta launch

    It’s been kinda quiet here because I’ve been hard at work not being at work (don’t let them tell you it’s easy), and also because I’ve been making an effort to not talk about games here on my blog. All game talk and game reviewing has moved to rgbgamer.com, which I’ve set up specifically to cover only the most interesting game-related news items each day (generally the universe creates two), and talk about what I’m liking now and then. I hope you’ll go over and take a look, maybe even subscribe to the feed.

    And with all the daily link cruft being swept under the rug at blast!, my tumblelog, I’m not entirely sure what to do with this original blog.

    I guess I’ll have to make a return to horrid personal matters, details on how I eat… badly, stories about my home life and how my dog hates me but that’s ok because I hate her too because her breath really stinks, and other miscellaneous things that a future employer might come by and see, and then decide not to hire me on the intensity of my airheadedness that I do try so hard to hide from you, my loyal readers.

    *If anybody wants to contribute material to RGB Gamer, the door’s this way.

  • Leopard breaks works with Connect360

    EDIT: I’m on Leopard now and Connect360 works. Just had to rescan and add a new ‘Computer’ on the Xbox side.

    —
    According to a blogger named Jeff Henshaw, upgrading to Leopard breaks Nullriver’s Connect360 software. Connect360 lets Mac users stream video/music/photos to an Xbox 360, sort of like what Windows Media Center Edition does.

    This article at Ars Technica includes Connect360 in a list of software reported to work. So, does anyone know for certain?

    Hopefully Nullriver confirms or patches this soon, because there’ll be no Leopard for me until then.

    Macrumors has a wiki list of all the apps reported to have problems with Leopard. Entries of interest include: Azureus (with MBPs), Sogudi, Peerguardian, and of course there must be one app from Roxio on there… Popcorn.