Town of Salem Glitch

Town of Salem Glitch

I discovered a super cool glitch in town of salem, but instead of reporting it, why not enjoy it first? It took me days of playing on custom to confirm this glitch is true. If you have a correction to my results, please comment.



 It works when you have 3 scrolls in the same faction (town/mafia/neutral) equipped, and the last one is used, you will be blessed with this scroll working indefinitely without showing until either one of the following happens:

• you leave mid-game, the glitch doesn't work
• you enter a game where your role is not possible to exist, the glitch is cut and needs to be redone
• you are logged out for any reason

Awesome right? saves coins. I tried to do it with only 2 scrolls equipped: doesn't work. I think it works if you have 1 scroll equipped but you have 2 of it, but I did not try it out as much as using 3 scrolls, and the last one wins.

Comic TIme

Comic

First I apologize for the lack of posts, however if you follow me on Twitter you'll at least know that I am not off the grid.

You could say I got more responsibilities in life. And that has made me learn about so much stuff. About politics, economics, science, and why I really loved Engineering in the first place. This gave me a reason to write passionately about things unrelated to the theme of this blog. I tried to write about phones, about anything, but I just couldn't. Soon, I will change the theme of this blog to include all the topics I care about, because we are all complete personalities, and my ever-growing socialist self is taking over.

But before I do that, I decided to start a small comic about Happy Wars, and I will reference my favorite games and anime there, probably. It's just for fun. SO here are the first two entries.

 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=480975601


http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=482016422


I intend to animate and even voice act a little main story if I get as far as to start the main plot, which is ridiculous and not in any way serious.

Thanks so much for keeping the blog alive, and my minecraft texture pack is still being updated. This time it will be a massive update. NO screenshots though! XD

Android Wear is Flawed and Here's Why

Android Wear is Flawed

Here’s why

     RIP smart watches. The reality is that both iOS’ wear and Android wear operating systems have a core mistake that make us misuse technology, unless we find a real use for the monstrosity we pack in these accessories. We have to rethink the reason we buy smart watches – or ordinary watches - from the very beginning.

they look nice

     This all started when I was giving a speech to new people on what the watch I am using is, since many people are curious about “the mini-phone toy watch” as they call it for having the three buttons and Sony on it, also having no depth unlike real watches. Despite not many people fully understanding it, they have mixed reactions on how useful it will be. I find it very useful because at least I can call and not lose my phone, with my Bluetooth headsets, I can call and do almost everything remotely, and thanks to the updates of the SW2, I can prewrite custom messages in different languages too, and the new watch faces are a lot better in features and customizability.

my watch I've had since launch

    But when I looked at the next generation of watches, and the present one, sure some of them look fantastic, but there are two big mistakes with all the next generation. The first is the insane processing power, and the second is the insane price tag. Read on to know why.



   As I mentioned in the second paragraph, smart watches are not for everyone. Some people find it unnecessary, some people just don’t have arms big enough (it’s true) and some people would rather buy gold or Swiss watch rather than a computerized watch. In fact, even though I am dependent on my watch, I don’t pull it out all the time, and to be honest it sometimes attracts attention when it beeps and shines thanks to the application ( Notification for SW2 ) . And when I call from it/answer a call, people think this is my phone rather than a watch. And when I use it to time someone, or set the timer, people think it is an advanced watch. It does almost everything I need to do while outside except make internet calls. There is no notification I miss, etc.

 variations are unique

    But with the phone disconnected, my options are limited. It is a Bluetooth accessory after all, so I can mainly only open to read texts, use the calculator and all the time apps, etc. Sony limited the options of third party apps to work without the pair. This is because the watch is inferior in processing and memory than all its peers, but with all you see above, does one really need more processing to do this? And when you consider the battery, and the open-source OS that Sony made?



    Android Wear is an OS that requires 4GB memory to exist, and a lot of RAM to run. Does that sound familiar? This is the reason why the price tag will keep it too high to be a popular item, and too low for a luxury item. It is the price of a high-end phone back in the days of 2011-2012. History is repeating itself!

image copyrighted not mine

    One more reason why I do not like the standard Android Wear is that it is also Google, and thanks to Google’s experiments on Google play services, with the introduction of Wear and L developing is made easier on the part of the GUI. Obviously, that is a good thing, but the worst part about this is what I wrote in a previous article that if the Google version of Android is the most dominant then alternate OS and Android Stores will not help this Linux-based OS we all know and love when each takes a different path. Luckily, there are many alternatives, and there are phones that run Android without Google, but how many of us are willing to switch to that? 



    Personally, I am using a different store than the Play Store, and while I can never live without the Google backup services, At least a watch should have reasonable price, a variant OS, and all the features I need. Like the fitness and camera variants, not all watches are suitable for everyone’s needs. So I believe that an OS with minimal hardware requirements is a beneficial OS because it allows the watch to have more important features like battery life and water protection.



   I admit, The LG Watch R looks fantastic, but I am still proud of buying the SW2 and do not believe it is outdated yet. 

The biggest mistake you are doing right now

The biggest mistake you are doing right now

old unrelated photo, XD sorry but I like it

    We are all doing this crucial mistake that if you avoid can change your life forever. It took me more than 2 years to realize the solution to this, and now that I have been successful.

    I remember my first android phone was an LG P970, which for all you newbs, is a 512MB RAM and a 1GHz flat-cored processor, and the android version around that time was 2.3, and it certainly was seeing an exponential decrease in quality from the very beginning. Clearly, android at the stage it got popular was still not a good phone to entirely replace your Nokia phone and laptop social media lifestyle, was it? 

this was my first, after 1 month I dual-wielded this and an S2

   Well, yes and no. Back then, nobody really used a phone correctly, not even the companies packaged the proper equipment to care for your smartphone properly. But what is correctly? Simply put, we need a way to keep the phone in a good condition as good as it came, i.e. no lag, no “viruses” and more battery life. But it is as if Android is an alkaline metal that comes out of the oil as soon as you open it, and the air just rusts it away so quickly. Even having a SIM card in the phone was an issue!

here's a picture of a car battery because I desperately want you to laugh at my joke even though it isn't funny.

   To counter this, some people started using it as a Nokia phone: aka only stock apps, not even linking a google account to the play store. However these people overcharged their phones and eventually reached the 6-month syndrome only 1 month late. Personally, I’d never do that to any phone I get. YOLO all the way; why would you waste buying a smartphone if it would become a light brick? And even then, it was always prone to overcharge, and the transformers that came with the phone had the output current as low as 0.7A even at the Galaxy Note (Android 2.3.5 era) which made charging slow and discharging fast because the current was bad. Since the battery always gives the phone a different voltage depending on percentage, performance of applications and particularly widgets was affected on a permanent level, and third party replacements for everything stock android should do from home to lock screens to SMS and dialers (root of course for the full replacement). Custom ROMs, that were dangerous at that stage, began to surface and even I used one for cooler widgets and lock screens. 

only 2009 kids remember this. or wait..

   The life of the phone was short, then it turned into the laggy pop up-infested phone that takes forever to load WhatsApp and open the stock keyboard, and then you’d leave the WhatsApp session to once or twice a day, giving out a little sigh and mentally reminding oneself to google an android emulator to use WhatsApp from before using. Luckily, people caught on that Android phones need to have more durability and that is not by not being able to personalize them like iPhones, which feel like I am borrowing a friend’s phone and cannot use to their fullest.

danmaku death was running smoothly though, even during heat

    Phone Manufacturers and eventually Google realized this, and began to change their policies. The manufacturers started first by adding “slow charging” notifications, then increasing battery life, adding battery saving modes, more settings to disable background apps more effectively, adding “fast charging” ability to their hardware, increasing POWER OUTPUT FROM THEIR CHARGERS FINALLY (sorry for caps) which allowed their more useful lock screen widgets to take effect and not eat battery unlike the custom ROMs sometimes. For stock Android to surpass mods is a great achievement, it is just like Minecraft vs Tekkit (oh… we still didn’t reach the industrial age in Minecraft yet, have we?) Nevertheless, it is a terrific feeling to an extent.

I'd hire you creepers :3

    Google’s response to the growth of Android was actually a bad one, but I have already talked about that in a previous Choose Your Death article (if android dies, I die). With the increasing Google Play services that apps depend on, in the future, apps will have less permissions unless they utilize Google’s services, which give G more control over your device. I’ll leave that for you to check the article yourself, else I geek out here.

from the forums of Androidcentral

   So, what does this have to do with your present day phone? Should you be safe and not use it at all?

    Actually, split the expected 3-year life of your phone into a few stages: new, 6-month syndrome, a year and above. It is not actually 6 months or a year, depending on your usage.

   New is when no matter what damaging pop ups, hundreds of spam apps you install, and malicious widgets you load along with the live wallpapers you use, your phone will always be new. At least at the first 3 months and then you will get the 6-month syndrome. At this stage, it is always best to restrict background data of the game apps only, and just explore the Play Store to your heart’s content, do not overcharge it, and your phone may make it before the 6 month mark.

yay a new picture!

6-month syndrome is when your phone apparently feels worn out, but the process is actually reversible. If you had been misusing the charger, replace the battery. At this stage it would be advisable to only start replacing home screen and keyboard from now (not when it was new) because  it can tolerate it still. You should continue to explore the Play Store, but do not hoard items in your storage (I had over 300 apps at this stage, reduced them to 254). You can still use the apps to their fullest while running, but the fitness or GPS apps will be a hindrance unless absolutely necessary.

  After 1-1.5 years, you will slowly start to open less apps, so feel free to uninstall. Because at this stage, the stock keyboard takes time, the malicious software is a bit too much. A factory reset at this point will get it close to a 6-month syndrome so whether or not you should reset is still unknown to my experiments, though I’d stick around for longer. This stage is a bit mixed into different stages, such as the 2 year mark where Samsung devices must replace their batteries or some models can completely electrically disconnect batteries like Lenovos, and there is too much to write here, and if I write it all in one sentence Word gives me a blue line which is annoying. Just Google an old device before you buy it (if you are into buying old/mid-ranged devices) because the forums everywhere can be accurate.

  It is important to note that software updates are bad at late stages because they do not get understood properly unlike when the phone was new. You might say that phones do not get software support for so long, but remember that if you misuse the phone you can quicken its life cycle.

   Did you know all these before? It took me a long time to investigate, and I haven’t been writing for the blog for so long that my sentences are too tall. So if you are still sticking around, thank you so much. I bought a mid-end phone recently just to test my theory (namely the S duos 2) and I just bought a high-end phone which I will compare and review quite soon.

Reality of Minecraft Servers

Reality of Minecraft Servers

   So much has been going on, and I lost all the partial files of my texture pack, so I fell into playing Minecraft for a while, and so on. I noticed there are a lot of unsaid things about Minecraft, so I decided to say them here.

 protect it already!

   Minecraft cannot fit only in the sandbox or indie genre, it is also an MMO, a MOBA, survival horror, RPG, FPS. You name it and Minecraft is that genre. Bukkit was really the best mod experiment to be created and used by servers. But sometimes, servers limit the game so and it rarely looks like a game anymore just a gallery of images.

some people..

   I am looking at you overrated factions PVP servers. You need to walk for an hour in order to find unclaimed land, and nothing is fun in that. If you are lucky, you get one of two people at spawn. Type 1 are the dreaded noob callers who think they have the right to spawn kill you just because you are new to the server. Sure, there are safe zones but they don’t really prevent that much. It’s kind of like that episode in Log Horizon where the cat and the red girl were walking out of town and seeing the spawn killers unable to do anything until they cross the safe line. Not helpful.

  The second type are the charitable giving type. They stand at spawn and throw 5000 stacks of diamond and act really friendly to the new comers but they do not realize how giving an unfair advantage to the ones currently online could be trouble to the rest, because you are saving trolls and spawn killers the hours that would otherwise make them give up. Coming from an ex-troll, mark my words, trolls are impatient. If they don’t climb their way through the server’s economy by “kind” people or bullying kids on chat to have them forfeit their items, cheap killing, and verbal abuse, they’ll leave the server and forget about trolling in it. Don’t help people until they prove potential. I only mean this in video games, not real life!

Monetised MOBA everywhere.

    Other than faction servers are the MOBA games, which start out very creative. MOBA stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, popular servers include Uberminecraft, HiveMC famous for its Blockparty. They are extremely creative, but it sucks to see a game die out, like spleef :’( and replaced with other laggy games (splegg I’m looking at you ). Sure, the new plugin introduction to games is cool, some games have potential, but these servers are all increasingly competitive and player-heavy, where the plugin developer is the one who makes the rules to the game. Good to kill time sometime, but may be the next Call of Duty online phenomenon.

some people... x2

    That said though, I do not feel addicted to MOBA Minecraft. Most modern servers (not exclusive factions) mix a global economy, some MOBA/ minigames, and some MMO games, like prison, factions (again) or something special like My little pony, Breaking Bad (mafia craft) or Skyrimcraft (which didn’t satisfy me, by the way). These servers try to mix in a lot and manage so many minigames at once. One has got to be appreciative of these amazing feats of holding the server together, always having a mod online.

don't hate the game hate the player. what?

   But for once, I longed for a real Minecraft experience. You just spawn in a random place and there are no claimed lands. I am not saying no bukkit entirely but the real McMMO needs to let me edit terrain as I please. Kill as I please. Live dangerously as I please. Don’t protect me from PVP, but at the same time, allow me to protect a small amount of land, not huge chunks of factions. I’ve tried Skyblock, but that doesn’t seem right (and again, I was trolled) so I finally found survival, NOT survival games (Hunger games MOBA). And one where I got a good chance too. Lichcraft has real survival that works, even though the servers are full half the day, and in next month, I won’t be online until the time where it’s full. I am in no way advertising servers, but these are all just suggestions for you to find your perfect playstyle. If Skyrimcraft fixes the skyrim part, I’d play it. But for now, I changed my top server.

i am having deja vu here for some reason..

   If you know of any worthy servers that entertain you/take all of your free time? If so, mention them in the comments! I am looking for the perfect server, and might video the best server. Until then, Play More Zelda!

Anime Review: Aldnoah.Zero

Aldnoah.Zero Review

   “Another weird anime with punctuation marks in its name” is the first thing that came to mind. I liked .hack but still, it was different but lacked unique. If you are ready to watch an anime that you don’t really know what to expect, then Aldnoah.Zero is for you.

Story: 7/10
   I was surprised by how good this was. First the characters don’t seem very well developed nor do they relate to the viewer, and that is what makes them a lot more realistic in the fact that all characters have a deep emotional side story, and even if it didn’t get covered on the screen, it actually happened. The way characters act in the time of crisis should be unpredictable, but this random flow of emotions is really well portrayed here. 

  Also, despite the main protagonist being a guy, there is a surprisingly huge number of female cast in this anime, but not enough to completely erase all romantic aspects of the main lead. This is both good and bad, but again it failed to pull me in towards the protagonist’s inner struggles, if he had any.

Music: 4/10 
  Taste in music is a personal opinion, but I find the opening annoying, but including the ending theme in some cutscenes – er, I meant climax scenes? - makes it worthwhile.

Artstyle: 10/10
   Come on, this was made in 2014. Not much senseless censorship like Black Cat or Tokyo Ghoul, and the world was very inclusive. Some scenes had cliché camera angles which really give the retro feel of the old anime, while not looking boring at the same time. The animation was smooth, the boring robots had smooth motion cycles, etc.

Overall: 7/10
   There are many points that do not make sense (such as the infinite repair supplies, anyone?) but overall this is a good anime to watch if you want something that tries to be unique like Code Geass did, and didn’t fail nor succeed, like Code Geass did as well. That said, it is quite from everything else you’ve watched, and if you like tactics, Aldnoah stresses on points never explored in anime and difficult to find even in a video game.

  I wish they make an action-RPG with this, because seriously this anime if filled with things comparable to video games. Play More Zelda!

Message to 2014 kids

Message to 2014 kids

     If you write, blog, or just live, you will definitely face a writer’s block. However, currently the lack of content on my blog is not due to not finding an idea to write, but rather that my ideas are totally unrelated to the theme of the blog. Thus I focused more on recording my hobby and uploading it. But recording sometimes gets noisy and ruined, so I cannot really upload everything. So what now, just sitting ducks?

    I figured if this is the only way for me to overcome the writer’s block, I will simply write the persistent idea that wouldn’t disappear. This is a warning that this post is not about technology or video games or anime, so if you read on, don’t expect that, ok?

    Ever since I was a kid, I theorize things about life. One of my thoughts were about the future me. I wanted to see a cool, tall, overachieving hyperactive adult who is into technology (at that time, I only used Windows 95, 98 and MS DOS, and Dad didn’t let me use his Linux device until high school) and can drive very well almost any vehicle with ease. I wanted to be AWESOME when I grow up. So as any kid, I started pursuing my dream. I ate so much that I became chubby and worked out every day just so I’d get taller. And you know, now that I am getting driving lessons next semester, you can pretty much say I make myself proud. I. AM. AWESOME.

   Yet I look at teens not so far away from me not working out every day, anorexic, and without any motivation to try anything new. They have outstanding technology at their fingertips and they do not even try to explore its quirks. They do not try to make apps, mod apps, and few start a new youtube channel or blog and actively add content to it. Nobody wants to make ECHOcasting a thing, which I would if I had time, the only thing they do is talk about sexuality in forums and watch Disney movies.

   Message to all teens: watch where you waste your time! My dad gave me the best chance of exposure to technology, and you are sinking in it but not using it properly. Discover, push the walls themselves, think outside the box. Because the moment you graduate from high school, you will have a million responsibilities, you will need to make your own food, remember to pay your own bills, manage your own money, etc. If you are unmotivated now, how will you be when you are even more too busy to have hobbies? 

     Then again, even I don’t have my life planned out. Getting my driving license is the end goal to prove my awe-inspiring worth. What will I do after that, and after inventing the beef cake (smoked beef, milk, and eggs. Three of the best things ever)? Will I die before I turn 20? That’s what I always assumed. I will die a horrible bloody death soon after finishing school. So I always set out to try everything before it is the end. I wanted to experience every job there is, every minute has to be fun, but another part of me is always worried about trying to survive (because I am almost 20 and I finished high school).
   
     This is YOLO. YOLO is living your ideal standards, your ideal morals, all while having fun. Become a role model and inspire others but just being you. YOLO is not about parties, money, and all that. Let’s not link all our culture to music culture. You Only Live Once, but if you do it right, once is enough. That’s all I got to say to younger teens out there. Maybe next post I can write about technology, but in the meantime, I am uploading videos of me playing games, so you can check that out I guess. They’re all scheduled stuff.

How to sync Outlook Calendar to Google

How to sync Outlook Calendar to Google

This is an extremely frustrating idea that updates take humanity a few steps backwards by stopping the different services from talking to each other. Flash isn't supported for Android 4.0+ anymore, and now Google calendar refuses to sync with Google Calendar app on Android? What is this?

  Luckily for you, I am here to tell you how to fix that, and also mention a few useful quirks for Google Calendar App in case you have too many "calendars" loaded at the same time (you'll see why soon). I used a Samsung device for this, and it does not screenshot. Without further ado, let's dive in.

  So you probably used the app Outlook.com for your mail, right? In this tutorial, it is completely useless. It's sync calendar doesn't work. But you can keep it. I know I am.

 Well first step is to install the Google Calendar App. Don't open it.

exactly the Samsung one. from totalchoicehosting.com

  Next you need to go to the stock android app called "email" that looks like the stock SMS app too (depends on manufacturer) for comparison purposes, this app looks like this and is definitely pre-installed.

no sync for you, bad app

  Now if you still want to use Outlook.com for email, make sure you uncheck email sync from the next step.

  Open the stock email app, click the menu button, add exchange activesync account, go through the steps, make sure sync calendar is checked. After you are done with the process, go to settings, account settings, sync settings,  go to sync schedule and set it to five minutes.


  Close the email app, then open Google Calendar app, and it should be synced. If you have a problem you can again add the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync account but that's just repeating yourself.

    Now to the important thing: Calendars to display. On your Calendar app, click the menu button and then on calendars to display.

from makeuseof.com

   If you are using Outlook.com as well, you will find two of the same email: the one with many different calendars (such as "birthday calendar" and "USA holiday calendar") is your working calendar, and the other one is from Outlook.com. Make sure you uncheck that one, and then toggle the check of the working one. The calendar should be synced.

   Now that you are synced, go to the email app, and in the sync schedule settings and set it to push, because now you are good to go.

   If you have any issues, make sure that you toggle the email app settings before the Google Calendar's sync. There is a manual sync button at the email app. Try the email app first before you try the Google Calendar.

from thegeekdaily.com

    I hope this has solved the issue, and I find it really frustrating, as exporting and importing calendar to my Google account instead made me lose a lot of data, and I only needed to view it in the app rather than have it on my Google account.

Zelda Month: Let the Selfies Begin

Zelda Month: Let the Selfies Begin

  Since it is Zelda month, as inspired by PBG, it seems logical that I write an article about Zelda, considering that I didn't write any article since a very long time. For that I apologize, but I have another alternative. My youtube channel is becoming populated with more videos, so you might want to check it out for my fail at gameplay. If I ever start doing a Zelda Let's Play, I'll mention it here too.

  That aside, instead of leaving this post empty I got a fantastic idea to make a competition between Zelda fans on Twitter using the hashtag #windwakerselfie. Post the funniest selfie you got and the one with the most retweets wins! isn't that a cool idea? I might even post all the entries on my blog at the end of the month, and the winner gets.. well honor and glory, my friend, honor and glory.

   Also, I am planning to make a Majora's Mask gameplay series this month considering that the 3D remake is confirmed, but just when I  figure out how to capture the full screen of it... Also, the Wii is not with me right now so I cannot record the awesome Skyward Sword for now.

   But please check out my youtube channel! It's a gaming channel that took away most of my time that I used to post on this blog, but in no way am I planning to forget my blog! You are my real audience, my real viewers, and the youtube was just because of lack of time, that I need to game and post on the internet, so I thought, why not both? However, when I get a good time to write (I am actually hesitant to show you a really good idea that is unrelated to technology aka the theme of the blog) I will! Thank you all for supporting me this far.

Tokyo Goul No Spoiler Review

Tokyo Ghoul No-spoilers Review

   As this is literally the first anime I watch episode by episode instead of wait for the episodes to accumulate and watch when the last episode airs, you can tell that it is no ordinary anime. In this review, I will try to be as brief as possible, with no spoilers.

   If you have heard about Tokyo Ghoul, then you have obviously heard the impatient fans urging anyone to read the manga and forget the anime. There are other fans, including me, who would suggest that you don’t watch the anime until the uncensored version is released on the internet, because the version right now is the TV-approved version. However, the rising DDoS attacks should be enough reason for you to disregard this message and watch right now.

   A problem with trying to describe an anime like this without spoilers, is that it is slightly unique in the way the story is portrayed.

   Synopsis: With enemies of humanity against every corner, the battle between the hunter and the hunted intensifies as more factions crop up, all with the desire to gain control over humanity. But the hunters have yet to realize the biggest threat to their own survival.

   The story itself is not extremely different from some [insert cannibalistic humanoid here] ideology that you have read before, but actually, it is quite different in the way it is portrayed. Extremely. At the beginning you will not think it is your typical cannibal clan plot, and the “typical” plot points that are portrayed are actually putting you on other people’s point of view. You won’t sympathize with the enemy, you will be the enemy and feel the pain of being the hunter too.

    They really put a lot of 3D sound into it. I’d give that more than the animation because sometimes they censor almost everything on the screen. 10 /10 for sounds. The music tracks were ok, there was one track that was distinctive, the opening is quite cool, and the instruments used were fine. I’d give music an 8/10.

   The animation gets 4/10 comparatively and artstyle gets a good 7/10. Although the animation isn’t repetitive or failing in any way, it doesn’t compare to the innovative styles used in the production of Tokyo Ghoul itself. This is bound to change when the uncensored version comes out, really.

     The plot gets a good 9/10 for having factions that aren’t too cultist, but there really should have been the main focus of the story. I’d prefer the story on a bigger rather than on a personal level, even though it was portrayed perfectly from one faction’s perspective.

   That said, the overall score has to lose because of the sadly inappropriate and random “fanservice” that makes it appeal to a “male” demographic (seriously who even likes distractions from the plot anyway) that the world of anime in general would do without. Overall 7/10 for censorship and fanservice.

    If you are looking for something similar, there is Kiseijuu that is currently airing, and hey, it has dubstep at the core of the best scenes, but it has even more “fanservice” so watch at your own risk. Although it isn’t as dark as Tokyo Ghoul, but it sure is kissing up to it so bad that it’s worth the watch!

  Tokyo Ghoul made me start watching anime again after I gave up on anime entirely. I do not know about you, but that means something. I watched Shiki entirely because I couldn’t wait between each episode and another. If Tokyo Ghoul and Attack on Titan shape a new genre, then it’ll be the rules of that genre that are shaped in Tokyo Ghoul.

    My complaints on that imperfect genre is to stop talking to only one gender and stop the useless fanservice. Protagonists should be women, romance doesn’t need to exist, and censorship for violent scenes should stop existing too because “fanservice” brings the rating up to M+ anyway, so why censor blood?????? #logic

Attack on Titan Jean please

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Theory

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Theory

    With Sledgehammer’s first Call of Duty development for the next generation of consoles, there is a lot of speculation on what the fourth game mode is beside campaign, multiplayer, and exoskeleton modes. “Fourth game mode” refers to the intense survival with waves of immoral mobs that do not use CoD’s traditional weaponry, Just like Black Ops 2’s Zombie mode and Ghosts’ Extinction. Will there be one?

   Knowing Call of Duty gaming style, the fact that you picked this up to read it means you are that curious, so I’ll keep it short: The mobs of terror in this game will be humanoid beasts that follow the Japanese’s magic-girl robot culture. However since they’ll be humanoid (i.e. flesh limbs) the closest thing they’ll be to current scale is the Final Fantasy XIII’s Ghast:

some old fashioned RPG magic

   Now that you are reading further, here is the proof or evidence that backs the theory. In the Western culture, after zombies and aliens, there’s only vampires, and we all know that for Activision to add vampirism is to spell its doom. It is illogical to even collect this much vampires unless a single bite is fatal, in which they are exactly like zombies in their mechanics.

vampire in skyrim is humanoid

   Magic “robot” is new to the table, plus the baddies will be able to use melee and middle ranged attacks with an endless list of possibilities. So why “robot”? Because this is usually the back story for their origin. A big AI had the power to mutate all humans in a village to turn into magical beasts that follow the robot’s will. They will be armed with a short ranged laser from their stomach and will look ugly. They’ll be slow, having a livelier skin color than zombies, and having extreme lack of recognition skills or morality. They’ll charge right at you with the intent of turning you into roasted robot breakfast.

the father of android

gotta love the standard knightmare frames

  The reason behind these would be the screenshots. They are a little bit futuristic like Halo, but they already covered aliens in the previous game.

  What do you think? Would you believe this theory? I guess we'll find out when the game rolls in. Until Then!

Choose Your Death: The Future of Android

Choose Your Death: The Future of Android

This is the third entry in a series. Read the previous one here.

Is android dead?

   It may not look like it, but android is dying, and we can prevent it. But before we can come to that conclusion, we first need to dive into the history of Android.

   A simple Wikipedia search would tell you the open source software that originated from a camera software, but that is not the history we need to conclude evidence. It's the behind the scenes' little clues that rarely appear to the public. These clues were around us all along.

froyo wasn't good though

    Nowadays whenever you hear android, you hear Google. Google adopted android and created the Play Store. So there is pre-2.2 and post-2.2 for android store. Then the android fragmentation issue starting increasingly spreading, so Google countered that with Google Play services and a bunch of a few more API to help developers reach a wider audience, and save people with old phones from splurging money unlike the iPhone. Now, the Android site has the API for android L and the Wear even before the first android L software is out. 

Good interface, bad intentions

    Looks like Google likes working on an android software, right? Especially since it recently acquired Motorola and all of its future nexus devices and wearables will be on it, it seems like Google wants to continue forever, right?

Just put "phone" in-between the two words

    Wrong. Android was only a platform for Google to test its ground in. Then, after it becomes completely professional at it, it will launch Chrome OS for smartphones and eventually abandon Android, leaving someone else to care for it.

    Actually, the fact that Google wants to impose more Google apps to be built-in to the new android phone is just to have enough test subjects for more statistics and bug-fixing experience. Google is taking it slower than ever though, because it will go on for a longer while.

    These APIs for Google play services are also a test for its own OS, so instead of an android OS upgrade, you get to use Google's code instead. Take good note of this because this is the seed of Chrome OS.

    But so what? Android is open-source, and there are enough developers in the world ready to replace the play store with dozens when Google abandons it.



     Well, what about the hardware manufacturers? Things aren't looking too good for us there either. Samsung, the main competitor against Apple in the western market, is also making its very own operating system: Tizen OS. With Samsung's stunning success to android exclusive updates and having a big global market share, for it to leave the Android market is to leave a real big gap. Luckily, there is no point in worrying about that as there are many other manufacturers that have the potential to adopt devices. I am not talking about Sony, HTC, or all that, but rather any local vendor.

    Honestly though, I am not worried as much in the near future about main supporters of android abandoning it. There are Huawei phones that exist without the Play Store that run android, as well as various Nokia devices. However, the threat is there, and will continue to grow in the next few years, and it will be alarming.

very creative and innovative and artistic logo.

On the other hand, Google is not only gaining benefits from open source then planning to abandon it; the search giant is also trying to take this migration in steps, and ensure developers would want to switch over to Android One, which Google controls. I know it’s tempting as a developer or as a phone manufacturer to switch there, but it’s sad and destructive.

Above all else, remember to choose open source software, because you can. Nobody wants a world where we can’t be programmers or engineers because everything else has been patented or owned by someone else. Especially that software can be owned, patented, and privatized. It’s duplication isn’t always as successful either.

Mini Speaker: Mini Bees Hands-on Review

Mini Speaker: Mini Bees Hands-on Review

  Found a cute Chinese office toy of your favorite droid and decided to splurge money on it blindly without understanding the controls? Well, fear not, because I have included a video that figures out how to start it up and use it.


 Now, I didn't explain the Radio feature because I realized it afterwards. Just adding the audio jack alone will serve as the antennae.

   Turning it on will automatically turn it to radio mode where it will keep scanning the FM channels. After it's done, you can briefly rotate his head back and forth just like the MP3 version.

  The only different controls are the play and pause, that just re-initiate the scanning of the radio channels.

  The speakers do have clean sound, but every time you press on and off, everything resets, which isn't good. Also, the maximum volume is great but not fantastic. Every time the device is turned on, all settings reset to default, and radio mode is on.

  I hope that these are enough instructions for you to not feel ripped off and try again. This speaker isn't cheap: it really does as advertised.

Voxel Racing Game: Android vs. iOS

Voxel Racing Game: Android vs. iOS

It's time, android fans, to prove your worth and make your mother proud. Voxel Rush, a racing game, is testing your skills, pitted against iPhones, iPads, and iPods in our endless tilting game. Will you let your device down? Will you let us all down? You won't, so grab every smartphone in the house and make sure you beat my score. I am competing with three android devices, including this one that I am blogging with. I won't share the names of the other two. Competition starts on 1 pm EST so practice well before then.

As a motivational picture, I drew a little poster. Since this is my first drawing on the World Wide Web, I'll go with the initials B.C.Z. just as my youtube channel.

iOS users: make sure you download the game too. Don't go easy on us either, so that you get crushed fair and square.

Spectators: Watch the twitch stream. Make sure you tell everyone about it, and also, if you are android user, stop watching and get your head in the game!

Tokyo Ghoul No-spoilers Review

Tokyo Ghoul No-spoilers Review

As this is literally the first anime I watch episode by episode instead of wait for the episodes to accumulate and watch when the last episode airs, you can tell that it is no ordinary anime. In this review, I will try to be as brief as possible, with no spoilers.



If you have heard about Tokyo Ghoul, then you have obviously heard the impatient fans urging anyone to read the manga and forget the anime. There are other fans, including me, who would suggest that you don’t watch the anime until the uncensored version is released on the internet, because the version right now is the TV-approved version. However, the rising DDoS attacks should be enough reason for you to disregard this message and watch right now.



A problem with trying to describe an anime like this without spoilers, is that it is slightly unique in the way the story is portrayed.



Synopsis: With enemies of humanity against every corner, the battle between the hunter and the hunted intensifies as more factions crop up, all with the desire to gain control over humanity. But the hunters have yet to realize the biggest threat to their own survival.



The story itself is not extremely different from some [insert cannibalistic humanoid here] ideology that you have read before, but actually, it is quite different in the way it is portrayed. Extremely. At the beginning you will not think it is your typical cannibal clan plot, and the “typical” plot points that are portrayed are actually putting you on other people’s point of view. You won’t sympathize with the enemy, you will be the enemy and feel the pain of being the hunter too.



They really put a lot of 3D sound into it. I’d give that more than the animation because sometimes they censor almost everything on the screen. 10 /10 for sounds. The music tracks were ok, there was one track that was distinctive, the opening is quite cool, and the instruments used were fine. I’d give music an 8/10.



The animation gets 4/10 comparatively and artstyle gets a good 7/10. Although the animation isn’t repetitive or failing in any way, it doesn’t compare to the innovative styles used in the production of Tokyo Ghoul itself. This is bound to change when the uncensored version comes out, really.



The plot gets a good 9/10 for having factions that aren’t too complicated, being extremely unexpected, having a majority of psycho cast for the first time in modern anime in a satisfying amount. Trying not to say any more would be spoilers.



However overall it’s only 7/10 because of horribly unnecessary fanservice. I was going to drop it, although luckily they are few and predictable. Be warned, and also, don’t mind the beginning of the first episode. I’ll keep this short not to ruin the short season. Don't read any further if you do not want spoilers.

 Tell me your opinion about the last and totally different episode of Tokyo Ghoul. Wasn’t it really a calm climax?

Dear iPhone 6 haters

Dear iPhone 6 haters

  Oh you Android fans throwing tomatoes at iPhone for copying Android very late because it’s out of ideas. How dare you insult iPhone 6 like that?

  Actually, you should direct more hate on it, but this time the obtuse iPhone zombies might wrongly accuse us of being jealous on the iPhone 6. Of course, nobody has the right to insult the users themselves, so we just start pointing out how slow-paced the iPhone series is, right?

  Ron’s joke was good, but when Samsung and HTC gang up like that, we don’t look very good at making fun unless we are innovative. So let’s spread our innovativeness by sharing these kind of user-generated jokes along social media. Android fans should always remind the rest of the world why supporting open-source products is the only thing that is saving humanity from destruction (by titans!)

  Initially I also thought of comparing an iPhone 6 with the Motorola Nexus 6, because since Google bought Moto and the Nexus series is closer than ever to being Google’s perfect realization of the Android OS, but it has not yet been revealed completely.

   What about initial thoughts on the Apple Watch? It’s probably going to be a total rip-off, however with outside looks it’s almost on par with the Samsung Gear models, I’ll give it that. It does look glossier that Sony’s previous retro edgy looks on the sides. But with their surprisingly bulky buttons, it barely feel like what I expected the iWatch would turn out to be.

   What do you think about the misleading title? Be honest. The rest of the articles aren’t so misleading.

September Smartphone 2014

September Smartphone 2014

thanks to this blogger for transparent eyes

    
   Every beginning of an academic year, and most people do a back to school shopping spree, nerds do their own hunting. This year we’ve got a lot of smartphones that just load more numbers and more digits into their processors but what we really need to limit ourselves with here is functionality.

  Although I say that and here is a specifications comparison of the four flagship native KitKat phones, namely the LG G3, the Sony Z2, the Samsung S5, and the HTC M8.

  Before the comparison tables, I was actually reluctant to include the HTC, because their model numbers are simply confusing, and they always try to remake every model they have. They are going to make a Windows Phone model out of this too.

  What’s special is that all these phones were released in 2014, which made me drop the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 out of the list although it should be worth comparing.

   This year around I shall consider the budget phone of the year, which, surprisingly isn’t an android. Let’s introduce it first: The Nokia Lumia 525. As any living human being, I always advise that the RAM of a smartphone have to be => 1GB and no less. Nokia loves to trick you into not getting one of these, and their apparently well-sold Lumia 520 is very similar with the exception of RAM.

   Budget phones are not just about the initial price; it’s also about the lifespan. Generally dual core 1 GHz phones should have a good life span if the OS allows it. iPhones degenerate quickly, and so do Android phones if used extensively, or connected to shady networks. Nokia’s version of any software is usually the safest to go, however it’s best to have a full experience on any phone, so steer clear from the Nokia X and Nokia XL as they do not have proper Google Play stores, while the Windows phone does. Microsoft also has some cool cloud and other services, and if you are an Xbox fan it’s a bit of a plus.

click to enlarge

*=two different models exist with 16GB,2GB RAM and 32GB, 3GB RAM respectively


   Now that Sony decided that increasing phone resolution is not worth the battery life drop, I am really considering waiting for the PS4-game enabled Xperia device. Hooray for smuggling video games into study areas!

  As for the table, this time I’ve went on to do something new and almost completely try to omit the extremely similar features and repetitive ones. Since these flagship smartphones are directly competing with each other, the main focus will be on the differences rather than similarities.

  The CPU, GPU, Chipset, etc., are exactly the same for all. The native OS is as well as Bluetooth, so I only included some of them because they are more important. Mainly, all these Quad-core processors are of equal caliber, and there shouldn’t be a great difference in there, but the LG sure has stepped up its game by including two models, and one of them (the 32GB internal storage one) has a whopping 3GB RAM. 

   Most people consider this a “Shame on you, Samsung” because the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 had 3GB of RAM, and the S5 looks like a downgraded version released in the wrong order of time. But compared to every other manufacturer it doesn’t lose much ground.

  Apparently HTC M8 is planning to rob iPhone of its user base, with no need to change the SIM card or try to fit it into a small adapter in order to use an Android device right now. Speaking of the odd measures of HTC, they have a phone with a dual 4MP? What does that mean? It means it is essentially 4MP, but with better brightness and faster focus on images and videos. If you already have a digital camera, then trying something new is not bad, but it sure is a little bit of a risk to get a flagship phone with the inferior camera. However, for selfie enthusiasts, this phone is better than your iPhone for taking a front-camera selfie with back camera iPhone quality. Have you ever seen a phone with 5MP on the front? HTC really targets the iPhone users this time.

   A sad point to note is that Samsung is using the new charger, which is why I colored the USB field black to contrast. Version 3.0 of the micro-USB is actually something like a micro-USB version 2.0 with a smaller version stuck to it. The micro-USB v2.0 is just the normal one we use on most android and even old Nokia and Samsungs. Of course the Samsung Galaxy S5 is backward compatible, but that just means one more sophisticated cable in your house. You’d want to need it for faster transfer speeds on your laptop, as my 1TB hard drive really goes smoothly with that cable as well, so it’s not a lie, but personally, I believe it’s not worth it unless you live alone. Most people who live in a family probably store their old mobile phones for headsets and chargers, or even other family members are likely to buy from the same manufacturer. Generic Nokia phones had a standard, newer iPhones now have a standard, most Android devices have always maintained their unspoken rule about standards, so why now, Samsung? You were the early adapters of micro-USB v2.0, why are you selling it out now?

  Both Sony and Samsung were competing really hard with the camera specifically. The Xperia has the higher MegaPixels at 20.7 which is magnificent, and the resolution is probably better (more square-ish) than Samsung’s. It is amazing though, that you can record a video on a phone with a resolution higher than the screen itself. Playback is a waste on the cell phones now!

  Things I forgot were that the Galaxy S5 and the Xperia Z2 are both waterproof.

  LG is quite spectacular with the screen this time, completely winning in the pixel density war as well as the resolution. Having a lower brightness on one of the earlier adapters of the Corning Gorilla Glass series is a plus point. Most people assume that brighter is better just because it is a word that mathematically refers to a positive change in a variable, but actually a screen with lower brightness is a lot less stressful on the eye, and also heats up less. Of all my experience, a Samsung phone with an AMOLED display would heat from the front extremely, to the point where the “dust” on your hand would electrostatically become released from your fingertip. An LG device normally heats up whenever the 3G or the screen are on and white light is displayed, but only the upper part where the upper speaker and wifi are positioned. Glad that Samsung is using Gorilla Glass 3 this time around.

  I almost went through everything, and I did not really intend that, but for now I will delay all the other points regarding general phone issues to a later date. Which phone appeals to you most, and are you actually planning to buy a flagship this September? It is the beginning of the academic year, so I’d love quick responses in the comments below. Play More Zelda!

Is the gaming community oppressive?

Is the gaming community oppressive?

   The internet may be known for its trolls, heated debates about religion and politics, but gamers also use the internet, even if in a different way. Here’s what I think gamers, me included, do wrong in the world we are building. They may be wrong, so feel free to judge.

   With game developers and server owners limiting the control and creating non-existent rules on the internet, it is quite surprising how so many of gamers still think that they are the cool rule breakers and the dangerous ones on the web. Nowadays, a lot of gamers know a little bit of coding, or they can just have a cheat engine, and think hacking in-game can also make them the top elite of the gaming community, when in fact, admins can just ban them and these “hackers” won’t work their way back with the same username. 

  On the contrary, I’ve seen a lot of people kissing up to sys admins and in-game admins to the point of slavery just so they can get perks like own a land close to spawn or get to use military grade weapons, secure a place in a tournament or even (not saying names) work their way up in the hall of fame for no reason. That’s lame. Sure, admins should get some thank-yous for their long hours of coding (I’ve once had to take care of two servers for a week) and trying to juggle all the problems in real-time, but some admins just buy a server from a hosting service that does all that for you. Maybe at the beginning of time admins were nerds who wanted total power over something, but now they are social animals like us too and do not need to be worshipped.

   Then there are the people who like to play with a twist: mods everywhere and all these complicated registration rules on servers. I’d rather study calculus than know the history of your father’s father’s father, and how in 1888 there was a guy who changed your life forever that’s why I need to change my skin to enter this lobby. Really, thank you for making matchmaking possible, and for having a good playerbase, but make it easy and quick for me to go anywhere! Also, I do not like the “wait for admin” button that people use when they are angry at my attitude.

  Now onto developers, and their three new discriminations: region, internet speed, game rep. They hate and love people based on these three factors more than they should hate cheaters, or how we hate griefers.
   
Region restriction is the new racism, and not just for games: for any downloads. In a world where it’s easy to travel anywhere, and where anime such as Log horizon portray gamers as people who don’t like classification, how ironic is it that we cannot download certain software simply because of our IP. It’s really turning down a lot of potential customers to anything and extremely frustrating for travelers or people with friends in different countries that can’t all use the same service at once.

so much real time

  The game reputation is probably the only way developers recognize and eliminate griefers and bad sports. It started out entirely based on the community so it does require people who report are unbiased, and gladly, it works miraculously. However, it does kind of mean that if in GTA 5 you are a “bad” person and then went to the “jail” servers for two weeks, you are more likely to friend “bad” people (seriously who is “bad” and “good” in criminal game) from the bad people’s servers then when you can go back to ordinary lobbies you will end up going back to the bad sport lobbies a lot more frequently because even if you want to start a new life, you kind of can’t. It’s worse than fearing to put your real name online because now your game name that you cannot change since you paid a lot of money for all the virtual game library you own -cannot start over - are now stuck with these labels. Permanent ban from Minecraft servers are kind of the same thing. Your name is now something you must protect, which kind of reduces the fun of hearing people rage. 

 no can do

   Then the last type of “discrimination” which is a silent suffering, and that is internet speed and lag. You’ve probably suffered lag before, been kicked from a lobby once, but believe me some people have it way worse. Servers with anti-cheating code kick people with significant lag for suspected teleportation. If people are around, you may get reported and eventually banned forever.

from otakudaydreams.wordpress.com

  “I’m scared to make friends and promises on skyblock servers because I can’t use the internet.” My friend, who only plays skyblock, once told me I never understood what she meant until I joined a skyblock server with her. She takes the emeralds and then can’t buy with them because the villager’s trading HUD doesn’t open.

  Apparently, Microsoft hates people with bad internet speed. If you’ve played the console version of Happy Wars, you’ll see an entire team rush out to build towers and completely annihilate the enemy with epic meteor showers while one guy with the speed of a snail is going to build a ballista in the main tower. Even though this is under the excuse that other players don’t lag, but occasionally the game suddenly ends or does these PC version bugs like towers not responding thing. Most people would think that this is a claptrap argument, and that other players don’t have to deal with this, but losing league points because your DSL doesn’t connect is too much. Penalties are good motivators, but they should be smarter in their penalty system.

 who's happy now?

   Going to the title, is the gaming community oppressive? We only pretend there is no rules when there is too many? We pretend there is no kingship when we are participating in making people look more important than us? I don’t know, and this is kind of why I only join servers for minigames in Minecraft. With the exception of Watch dogs’ online feature (you’re all notoriety points thieves anyway), most online games do have worrying issues like griefers and cheaters, but does this really mean that all of our gameplay is affected and all of us suspected of being bad people just because of a high internet traffic on a few days? Tell me your opinion in the comments.