blog.mchiu.com

PSP 2.0 Firmware

So Ken recently posted an entry on his blog about his comments on the Sony PSP's 2.0 firmware. Being that he is out in Japan, he didn't have to wait as long as those of us in the US, who only got to download it from last week.

The main thing noticeable about the 2.0 upgrade is the addition of a web browser, which now makes me feel kind of wasteful for buying the Wipeout: Pure game in order to hack it's web browser out of the game. In any case, having one readily available is nice too. I guess there are other cool features such as the ability to transfer files in ad-hoc mode, supporting both WEP and WPA wireless encryption schemes, and more file formats that are supported natively.

In terms of Ken's comments on the half-assness of the Sony PSP, I agree and disagree with what he has to say. Firstly, the Sony PSP was designed to be primarily a game machine with multimedia features. The screen is fairly large for a portable device, which I agree is overkill for an MP3 player, but it's decent for a portable gaming device, as well as playing video. In other words, I think the MP3 player is just thrown in because it can be, but I don't think Sony expects that function to be used as often as video playback or gaming. Next, I agree that it does suck to have to use the more expensive and proprietary Memory Stick Duo Pro format, which means that it is not even compatible with the previous Memory Sticks, but in terms of size limitations, I kinda sorta disagree here. Yes, you can use CF hard drives that can go beyond 1GB, but the trade-off would be that the PSP becomes a larger device. Using SD would give you 2GB max, but I'm sure that the Memory Sticks will soon be able to catch up if they haven't already. (If I remember correctly, it is mainly the packaging of the Memory Stick that makes it different from the SD cards) As far as bringing down the quality to fit into a small screen, I think Ken is missing the point. The PSP becomes a portable media device in this case, so reducing the resolution is not necessary, but with so many extra pixels, the images will look a bit distorted as they were meant to be played back on larger screens, consume a lot of battery power for the processing of the unnecessary pixels, and take up way more space. From just my subjective testing, I consider 700MB DivX file for roughly 1.5 hours of conten, with a reso of roughly 700x400, to be acceptable for viewing on a 19" monitor. With the PSP, I get about the same quality for a file of about 300MB with a reso of roughly 370x200. On the other hand, in terms of the actual encoding, it is definitely much faster to convert a file that is already a DivX, compared to actually ripping a DVD and then encoding it into PSP size.

For the PSP browser, it is really good for what it is, but I find it much easier to input by a keyboard, so if I use it, it will mainly be used to look up casual information that I need right away. I use my Zodiac in the same way, except that it has the advantage of connecting through bluetooth into my phone's modem.

Overall, I guess the improvements in this new update were not too bad, but I just wish that Sony wouldn't be so uptight about the homebrew community that has come up with a lot of really good hacks, but they keep getting thwarted with every new firmware release... *sigh*

Rude Awakening

So this morning, on my way to work, while enjoying my drive listening to Howard Stern interviewing the candidates of the Intern Beauty Pageant, my phone started to ring. Since I was driving, didn't have a chance to look at who's calling, and just blindly answered the phone. Some woman's voice is on the other end asking, "Hello? What is my password?" There's a slight pause as I'm all confused. "Huh? Your password? Wha-? Who is this?"

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks... I was almost expecting to hear some gas on the other end. My farting co-worker is back from her maternity leave today. Man... this sux... I haven't even arrived to the office, so this definitely was a rude awakening...

Getting scammed... NOT!

Usually, when I get a call with the "Unknown Number" message or a number that I don't recognize, I usually don't pick up, and just wait for the message. My thinking is that if it is important, someone will leave me a message, otherwise, it's a telemarketer.

Over the past several days, the phone number "666-8006" popped up on my screen, and I usually declined the call. By accident, I picked it up, and it was a telemarketer, but the connection was so bad, I could barely make out what he was saying other than that there is some money waiting for me, or something, but I told him to call me back a little later because maybe he was in a bad reception area, or maybe I was. No calls until the next day. They tried calling about 3-4 times, but that was about it. Now, it's Saturday, and they're calling about once every other hour, and I was sitting at the Fairmont Hotel having some drinks with my friend, as we were getting ready to head off to the San Jose Jazz Festival. My friend and I were a bit lit, so the next tim the call came in, I decided to pick it up and play with them a little... :D

Since it was a bit noisy in the area, I heartily yell out, "HELLO????? HELLO????" The woman on the other end, also yells out "HELLO!!!!" and then asks me how I am doing. I guess that's just standard greeting, but I felt compelled to answer, so I said something to the effect of being a bit lit, but I was having a very good time at the SJ Jazz Festival. She didn't seem to share my joy, and just went into a business-like voice and told me that she was from an organization called "First National Government Grant Benefits", and that I had been selected to receive a $12,500 grant. I was confused... ME? You've selected me of all people??? WTF??? So I asked her what is First National Grant and Government, who benefits from it, but she seemed a bit annoyed that I didn't get the name down right away and said the name of the organization again. OK, so what's that? In a very arrogant tone, she tells me that it's who I pay my taxes to. At this point, I know a scam is a brewin'... I don't pay my taxes to this group, I pay them to the IRS and the Franchise Tax Board, but you have to understand that I was a bit under the influence of alcohol, so I wanted to play this out, so my response was, OK... hmm... interesting... and you said you're giving me $500? She corrected me by saying that it was for $12,500, and I responded with "Oh... $1,500... that's it?" She was starting to sound exasperated by this point, and once again said "No, $12,500, can't you hear me?" to which of course, being drunk off my ass, I had to go into my Verizon Wireless thing of "Can you hear me now???" and she said that she could, and I responded with a "good, good..." I don't think she got my reference though because she just kept going on with her script.

So what the scripted response boiled down to was that I was to receive a $12,500 government grant with no strings attached, and it was because I, or my dad, or someone else in my family had been paying our taxes on time and the government wants to reward us by giving us some of our money back. "Cool!" was about the only thing I could say at that moment, and I thought it was funny that she responded with a "Yes, that is cool, huh?" So she continues with her script, and I am holding the phone away from my ear, and looking at my friend, and we're both just joking around while she's reading her script. When I put it back to my ear, there was something about getting something in the mail, but I would have to pay $29.95 for the shipping and handling, but a $100 check would be enclosed. Huh? I have to pay a shipping fee??? Why can't you just give me a grant for $12,470 instead? She said that it costs money to file everything and get it out to me, blah blah blah, and the government just asks that I pay this small fee to help out with the costs. SCAM ALERT! SCAM ALERT! SCAM ALERT! I have to pay money to get money? That doesn't make sense. This is obviously a very stupid woman to even suggest that the government needs help with the s&h of the package because when I receive my refund checks, I never have to pay for anything. That's part of the reason why we pay taxes... but I just kept that info to myself, because I wanted to see how far this would go...

So she tells me that she is going to pass me on to her supervisor who is going to get my bank info from me, but I ask her why she needs my bank info? She tells me that's how they send me the money for my grant, but I ask for them to cut me a check instead since I have to pay $29.95 anyway, and figured that it wouldn't be that big of a deal. She told me that it doesn't work that way, but if I have any complaints or concerns, I could contact them, and gave me their mailing address and phone number. The address was for somewhere in Miami, and I was thinking, "Miami?" and then I asked her "So you're in Miami?" she said yes, and I proceeded to ask her if it was really warm out there, and she said it was, and I said it was a nice, pleasant day in San Jose today too. She didn't really seem to care though, and continued with her script in a slightly more arrogant way.

She proceeded to verify my mailing address, and....

That's when I started to snap. "How do you know this address?" I demanded. She told me that this is the address that was passed to her from the addresses that I use to pay my taxes. BULLSHIT!!! I haven't moved into this house yet, and you shouldn't even know about this address. "I can't know this address?" she retorted in her arrogant telemarketer way. "NO WAY! I have never paid my taxes through this address, you're not from the government! You're a scam! FUCK YOU!" *click* (or in my case, since I was on a flip phone, *clap*)

From that point on, these assholes started calling me about once every hour... not sure if it's because they didn't take me out of the queue yet, or if it's because they were just trying to annoy me, but I had to turn my phone off when we went into a movie a few hours later, and after that, they haven't called back...

Anyway... going back home later that night, I looked up their name on the Internet, and found people reporting it as a scam. The situations were different from person to person, but apparently, this scam has been running since the end of June, so probably hasn't gotten enough attention yet to be shut down. Apparently, it's just a rip-off of the Nigerian scam, and who knows, maybe it's a Nigerian run operation in Miami. Although I didn't give out any bank information, on Monday, I am calling up all banks to make sure that no requests have been made to transfer money that were not authorized by me personally.

Surfing... Try #2

So last year, I took a surfing class in Capitola, but it wasn't a great experience for me. First off, sand was blown into my eyes, scratching them, that whenever I went into the ocean, they were easily irritated that I couldn't see very well, and since my hands were covered in salt-water, I couldn't really rub my eyes either. Secondly, my right shoulder got pulled out of it's socket at one point, causing me to sit out for an hour. Despite the difficulties though, I have been determined to learn how to surf, and later that morning, not wanting to waste my money by sitting on a beach, I went back out, and was finally able to get back up and had one good run.

So this past weekend, I took another class down in Santa Cruz. No sand in my eyes, and I have been working out my arms and shoulders all year that despite all the paddling I had to do, I was not sore at all, nor did my shoulder get pulled out of it's socket.

It was a lot of fun, and I was able to ride just about every wave into shore, boosting my confidence level enough that the instructor didn't need to instruct me when to paddle and when to stand up towards the end of class, although I did get up a little too early on some of the waves, trying to slow down to see if they would catch up to me, but that just caused me to lose balance and fall into the water... he he he

So we were out at Cowell's Beach, which is pretty much right around the corner from Main Street Beach/Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, and our instructor was telling us that it is considered to be one of the best places in the world to learn how to surf. I guess he wasn't kidding. As we got to the beach, I looked over the cliff that was above the ocean, and saw about 60-70 people all in the water waiting for the next wave. Unfortunately, there weren't a whole lot of good waves, so a lot of the time out there was spent waiting for the next wave. Oh well... Not sure when will be the next time I make it out there, but I'm all ready to go!!! Woo hoo!!!

Too bad the lesson was at 7 am, so by the time the class was over at 9 am, the fog still hadn't burned off, and because I had to head right back up to San Jose to do some other things, I didn't get a chance to hang out in the Santa Cruz sun... oh well... maybe some other time...

I guess after the summer, people are going to try to get me to take up snowboarding again, but I think I will stick to skiing. I'm too frustrated with boarding to give it another try for a long time.

Omiai Onsen?

In Japan, it seems that matchmaking is still a big business, and this article from the Mainichi News seems to prove that not only is it still a big business, but now there are new and inventive ways for it... Like women going to the hotsprings and peeking over the fence to check out the guys... (since I guess guys do that all the time to begin with... he he he)

The death of the Zodiac

As many of you know, I am a bit of a fanatic of my beloved PDA, the Tapwave Zodiac. It is one of the best PDAs that I have ever used since it has the gaming controls on it, runs well, has a very nice screen, and it feels very solid. Of course, when I bought it, I knew that the Sony PSP would receive a lot more fanfare, and eventually eclipse Tapwave out of the gaming arena, but as a PDA/game device, I thought it was a very nice piece of hardware. Although not a surprise, it was a bit sad to receive this bit of e-mail:

We are sorry to inform you that the Zodiac business was discontinued and service and support are no longer available as of July 25th 2005.

Sincerely,
The Tapwave Team

So I guess I will continue to use the Tapwave as long as I can, but I figure that in about another year, as PDAs and smartphones get more advanced, my Zod will just end up on the shelf collecting dust, but prominently displayed in my collection of portable gaming devices...