Saturday, February 27, 2010

Song of the day: Don't Bring Me Down (Electric Light Orchestra)



This song has a great beat, and it's one of those classics that you have to listen to at least twice in a row. Recorded in Munich back in the late '70s, this song hasn't lost it's charm over the years.

By the way, for those of you that think Jeff Lynne was saying "Bruce!" originally, Wikipedia has this to say: "A common mondegreen in the song is the perception that, following the title line, Jeff Lynne shouts "Bruce!" However, according to liner notes, he is actually saying a made-up word "Grroosss". This is similar to a German word for "greeting", Gruß, possibly referring to the Austrian and Bavarian greeting Grüß Gott that the group would have heard while recording the album in Munich. However, after the song's release, so many people had misinterpreted the word as "Bruce" that Jeff Lynne actually began to sing the word as "Bruce" for fun at live shows."

Friday, February 26, 2010

Babel Fish Blunders #3

Last week's Mystery Text was from the 1980 movie "The Blues Brothers", directed by John Landis and starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. If you haven't seen it yet, go shoot yourself. And then watch it in the hospital.

-Also, I'd like to note that the Babel Fish translator is a very useful and well-programmed tool. These translations could very well be made by any program of the sort; it's only natural that there would be confusion when translating from one language to several others. That being said, it's simply my tool of choice-

-English Text #5-
Fredo: Mike! You don't come to Las Vegas and talk to a man like Moe Greene like that!
Michael: Fredo, you're my older brother, and I love you. But don't ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever.


-Babel Fish'd-

Fredo: Microphone! don' t it comes to Las Vegas, it speaks to the person like Moe Greene which is that way!
Michael: Fredo and you' Do dearly in regard to the sibling where I am older and me. But don' Anyone takes part t for the second time vis-a-vis the family.


Source: The Godfather

-English Text #6-
What do tigers dream of, when they take a little tiger snooze? Do they dream of mauling zebras? Or Halle Berry in her Catwoman suit? Don't you worry your pretty striped head we're gonna get you back to Tyson and your cozy tiger bed, and then we're gonna find our best friend Doug and then we're gonna give him a best friend hug. Doug, Doug, oh Doug, Dougy Dougy Doug, and if he's been murdered by crystal meth tweakers, then we're sh*t out of luck.

-Babel Fish'd-

Does [tora] when taking the drowse of [tora] where something is small, look at dream? Do they look at the dream of the zebra which is hurt? Or fruit of [hare] of her suit of Catwoman? Don' The head we' which has t your considerably stripe; You worry; Returning to the bed of [tora] whose Tyson and your atmosphere are good next, being able thing and we' which re-go; Next our close friend Doug and we' Finding re-go; Holding him and closing the thing close friend who re-goes. Doug, Doug, oh Doug, Dougy Dougy Doug, and he' If; tweakers, and we' of s crystal meth; Being murdered by; Every it re-is [wa] from luck.

Source: The Hangover

-Mystery Text #3-
Language This hand of my ones shines power of the just you are surprised! It' The grip whose s is hot very informs the fact that it is defeated to me! Take this! My love, my anger, and my sorrow entirely! The sword of the finger which shines!

Hint: The greatest giant robot anime EVER.

Conan O'Brien: now on Twitter

It seems the ex-Tonight Show host has some free time on his hands; Conando recently joined the mini-blogging phenomenon known as Twitter. What has the funniest living man on the planet (RIP Keith Moon btw) been up to?

Post #1:
Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial. Somebody help me.

Post #2: This morning I watched Remington Steele while eating Sugar Smacks out of a salad bowl. I was naked.

Even though he just started Tweeting, he already has 376,767 followers! Clearly I'm not alone when I say "we miss you Conan". I wonder what the Masturbating Bear is up to...

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Geohot releases PS3 hack

Apparently, a hack of some sort was just released by George Hotz (also known as Geohot), who is notorious for "jailbreaking" iPods. In a post on his blog, Geohot said the following:

"In the interest of openness, I've decided to release the exploit. Hopefully, this will ignite the PS3 scene, and you will organize and figure out how to use this to do practical things, like the iPhone when jailbreaks were first released. I have a life to get back to and can't keep working on this all day and night."

He called it the "coveted PS3 exploit", and explained that it gives full memory space access, and ring 0 access from the OtherOS. It also has been confirmed to work on version 3.10.



What does this mean for the P.S.Triple? Hopefully some decent homebrew is on the horizon. I can definitely see some emulators and homebrew games, but I hope that the PS3 homebrew scene (that is inevitably looming on the horizon) uses the PS3 to it's full creative potential, as we've already seen with the PSP. Only time will tell.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Got a feeling 2010 is gonna be a good year.

So February has been great for me so far; I had a decent tax return, I have a steady job with fair pay, and I've found more rares in Phantasy Star Online: Episode 1 & 2 Plus in this month than I have in the seven prior years I spent playing it (see: Maximum lvl).

Oh yeah, I've also broken 200 hits between my four blogs, and the month still isn't over. I'm determined to make $100 from AdSense/AdSense alternatives (such as Infolinks) by the end of the year, so this is certainly decent progress so far (in my opinion).

It can be hard getting traffic initially, but I've found some websites that will get your blog indexed by Google quicker and hopefully improve your search engine result positions.

-Blog Directories-
BlogCatalog
MyBlogLog
Technorati
Blogged

Blog directories are good for networking your blog with thousands of other blogs. You'll want to make an account with the name of your blog, because you want your brand name in as many places as possible.

-Other-
Change Detection

Change Detection is a useful site that monitors whatever web pages you set, and then notifies you by email whenever it...erm...detects a change. So, say you tell it to follow your blog. Every time you make a post, CD sends you an email letting you know about it, and what the details are. This in turn gets you noticed by search engines.

I'm finding more methods all the time, and I'll post them here after trying them out for myself. Stay tuned, folks.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Song of the day: Fat Bottomed Girls (Queen)



Listen to this song once, and you won't be able to get it out of your head for weeks. It's got a simple, yet extremely catchy guitar riff that just gets under your skin and stays there. Brian May is truly one of the greats, and this song wouldn't be the same without vocals from the late, great Freddie Mercury.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Babel Fish Blunders #2

Let me start off by revealing the source of last weeks Mystery Text: "Billy Jean" by Michael Jackson. Congrats to the potential readers that would've gotten this, had anyone actually read it. Also, I'd like to note that the Babel Fish translator is a very useful and well-programmed tool. These translations could very well be made by any program of the sort; it's only natural that there would be confusion when translating from one language to several others. That being said, it's simply my tool of choice. Moving on, it's time for some more screwed up translations!

English Text #3:
The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: you do NOT talk about Fight Club. Third rule of Fight Club: someone yells stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over. Fourth rule: only two guys to a fight. Fifth rule: one fight at a time, fellas. Sixth rule: no shirts, no shoes. Seventh rule: fights will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first night at Fight Club, you have to fight.

Babel Fish'd:
First rule of fight club is as follows: Fight club you have not expressed. 2nd rule of fight club is as follows: Fight club you have not expressed. 3rd rule of fight club: Someone softly goes, hits stop, it finished fighting, you shout. 4th rule: Just 2 people to fight. 5th rule: At one time one fight, farmer. 6th rule: The shirt it is not, there are no shoes. 7th rule: If fight becomes, it continues. And 8th and final rule: This fights and if in club your first night, must fight.

Source: Fight Club, obviously.

English Text #4: I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any g*dd*mn stupid useless conversations with anybody.

Babel Fish'd: As for me what kind of I' You thought whether; There was d, I' d shakes those deaf-mute people who are my 1. The method I wouldn' In t there must be original g*dd*mn foolish needless conversation with someone.

Source: J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye".

Mystery Text #2: It' s Chicago, we' To 106 miles; As for ve complete tank of gas, cigarattes and it' Pack half was obtained 1; Darkness and we' of s; The sunglasses which have been attached to the re-body.

Hint: From a movie with one of the greatest soundtracks of all time.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

By the way

English text #1 was from Dirty Harry, and English text #2 was from Cowboy Bebop (episode 5: Ballad of Fallen Angels).

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Babel Fish Blunders #1

I plan to do a segment like this every week, where I take quotes, lyrics and literature at random and use the Babel Fish translator to translate them into Japanese, and then back into English. The results will look something like this:

English text: Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality.
English to Japanese: これは実質生命あるか。 これはちょうど想像であるか。 地すべりでつかまえられる、現実からの脱出無し。
Japanese back to English: As for this is there a substantial life? Is this exactly the imagination? It is caught in the landslide, there is no escaping from actuality.

There are funnier quotes I could choose, but you get the idea. Also, look for the mystery quote of the week. Winner gets...erm, recognition for finding the quote, in addition to the embarrassment of being exposed as a reader of my blog. Well, here we go.

English text #1: I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

English to Japanese:
私はどんなyou'か知っている; 再考えること。 " 彼は6つの打撃か5つだけを始動させたか。" それで、実を言うと、すべてのこの興奮で私はちょっとトラックを自分自身失った。しかしこれがマグナムびん.44本、世界の最も強力な拳銃、あなたの頭部を吹くのであって、you'きれいにしなさい; veはあなた自身に1つの質問をすることを得た: 私は幸運に感じるか。 それで、ya、パンクはか。

Japanese back to English: As for me what kind of you' You have known whether; Reconsideration obtain. " Did he six shocks make just five start? " When with that, it is the truth, I by my lost the just a little track/truck with all this excitation. But this the magnum bottle .44 book, the most powerful handgun of the world, blows your head, you' Make clean; ve obtained the fact that it asks 1 in you yourself: Am I moved by fortunately? With that, as for ya and flat tire?

English text #2: I'm just watching a bad dream I never wake up from.

English to Japanese: I' 私が決してから目覚めない悪い夢を見るちょうどm。

Japanese back to English: I' Exactly m where you look at the bad dream where I do not awake the empty under any condition.

Mystery text #1: As for [birijin] She' which is not my sweetheart; As for s exactly girl I you insist am 1 years old, but she who is not child my son thing me is 1 years old, but it means that the child is not my son

Hint #1: The Mystery text is from a popular song, whose composer is no longer among the living.

Friday, February 12, 2010

EasyCap test (Fire Pro Wrestling Returns)

Going over this blog, I realized that I forgot to post a test of my EasyCap. Well, here is my first experience recording with it. I'll probably be trying AVI next time (I chose WMV this time), though the bad quality may also have something to do with the fact that I uploaded it to a Youtube-esque site, and also that I recorded a (phenomenal, nonetheless) game with 2D sprites.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Song of the day: Young Man Blues (The Who)

This song sounds like the greatest jam session ever (coincidentally, from the greatest band ever). Only heard live (to my knowledge, it didn't appear on any of their albums, but it was on disc 2 of the compilation "30 Years of Maximum R & B"), this track is a fantastic example of why The Who kicks ass.

Roger Daltrey was at the peak of his singing career, Pete Townshend was rocking out like no other, Kieth Moon was blowing out ear drums with his (still, to this day) unmatched drumming prowess, and John Entwistle was wearing a freakin' skull suit. Need I say more? Oh yeah, it's also some of the finest bass playing that has ever graced my ears.

The song is about five and a half minutes long, but by the time it's over, it'll seem like it just started. It's not outright catchy, but this track has a certain feel to it that you just can't deny. It's completely badass, and you can watch the YouTube video here.