Friday, October 13, 2006
Moved to MikeAbundo.com
After a year and a half on BlogSpot, I've moved to a WordPress blog on MikeAbundo.com. Please update your bookmarks accordingly, and feel the new Mike Abundo Effect.
The FeedBurner feed address stays the same. If you've subscribed to that, you don't need to do anything. If you've subscribed to this old blog's autodetected feed through your browser, please subscribe to the Feedburner feed instead. See you there! :)
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Writely and Google Spreadsheets Combine into Google Docs
Writely and Google Spreadsheets now have a unified interface: Google Docs.
Good to see Google shoring up its traditional weakness: integration. I'd like to see this implemented on Google Apps.
Crippling Vista to the browser sounds even dumber now.
(Via Sustines Laplana.)
US Senator Wants Full Playthroughs from ESRB
US Senator Sam Brownback wants the ESRB to manually unlock all content in a game before rating it.
Anyone who's played Final Fantasy X-2 knows how many gruelling playthroughs it could take to unlock all of that single-player game's content. Anyone who who's played any MMOG knows it is simply impossible to predict all possible user-created content that could appear in a massively multiplayer online game.
This bill is just stupid. It reflects an outdated mentality that equates nonlinear games with linear movies. Raters don't need to see all a game can offer; the only need to see the worst a game can offer. Even then, they simply cannot predict the worst players can offer.
Just give raters confidential instant access to the all the developer-created content in a game, and be done with it. If this bill passes, we'll only get games so simple that all their content can be unlocked on a deadline. Scary thought, isn't it?
Anyone who's played Final Fantasy X-2 knows how many gruelling playthroughs it could take to unlock all of that single-player game's content. Anyone who who's played any MMOG knows it is simply impossible to predict all possible user-created content that could appear in a massively multiplayer online game.
This bill is just stupid. It reflects an outdated mentality that equates nonlinear games with linear movies. Raters don't need to see all a game can offer; the only need to see the worst a game can offer. Even then, they simply cannot predict the worst players can offer.
Just give raters confidential instant access to the all the developer-created content in a game, and be done with it. If this bill passes, we'll only get games so simple that all their content can be unlocked on a deadline. Scary thought, isn't it?
Aussie Ad Board Approves Sexy Ads
The board (notes) that the woman… is fully clothed in attire that is fashionable amongst young women for summer.
I should spend my summers Down Under.
(Via Lolitron.)
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
YouTube Founders Speak on Acquisition by Google
And now, a word from YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen on their company's acquisition by Google.
Would you give $1.65 billion to these guys, for something they've been running for less than a year, with only 67 employees, out of a door between two restaurants? Better get used to the idea if you want to keep your jobs, Big Media Boys.
Yes, I'm talking to you, Philippine media execs. YouTube is huge in the Philippines.
Would you give $1.65 billion to these guys, for something they've been running for less than a year, with only 67 employees, out of a door between two restaurants? Better get used to the idea if you want to keep your jobs, Big Media Boys.
Yes, I'm talking to you, Philippine media execs. YouTube is huge in the Philippines.
Testing Soapbox
Just accepted an invitation to beta test Microsoft's YouTube clone, Soapbox. Based on a comparison of two videos from the same uploaded file, it actually sounds better than YouTube. The pretty but claustrophobic Flash interface lets you browse while uploading. The recommendation engine should be brought forward on the video page -- online video viewers operate on streams of consciousness.
Soapbox embeds should click through to video pages once those pages go public. The video pages themselves should provide referring link citations. Such citations create additional incentives for sites to use embeds. That's why YouTube is one of the top referrers to this blog.
Soapbox publishes easy-to-find search feeds, albeit without embeds (which YouTube includes). As soon as some cosplay content shows up there, I'm adding it to the Cosplay on the Web widget at PinoyCosplay.com.
Google Images: I'm "The Nightmare"!
Google, I have a question:
Why is Henry Fuseli's The Nightmare the second result in a Google image search for my name? I mean, the image of a horse with a woman in bed is metaphorically accurate, but still...
Google Buys YouTube
Google bought YouTube four hours ago, for an even higher price than expected: $1.65 billion.
No wonder Google's been doing YouTube favors in their SERPs. Listen to the podcast of the press conference for their execs' thoughts on the deal.
(Via Michael Arrington.)
No wonder Google's been doing YouTube favors in their SERPs. Listen to the podcast of the press conference for their execs' thoughts on the deal.
(Via Michael Arrington.)
Video: Which Backstreet Boy is Gay?
Steve Rubel's post on the fall of Tower Records got me all nostalgic for the days of mass culture. In my nostalgia, I stumbled upon a mashup video for Weird Al Yankovic's parody classic Which Backstreet Boy is Gay?
We've waited seven years for this.
We've waited seven years for this.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Animania 2006 Photos and Videos
Australian cosplayers strut their stuff at the recently concluded Animania 2006. Check out their photos on Flickr and videos on YouTube.
PinoyCosplay.com Features Cosplay on the Web
To further serve the global Filipino cosplay community, PinoyCosplay.com now features global cosplay photos and videos automatically updated from various sources across the Web. Just scroll to the bottom of any page on PinoyCosplay.com, select a source in the left pane, resize the panes to your taste, and get your daily dose of Cosplay on the Web.
Powered by Grazr. PiP rocks.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Girls of Tekken Maxim Photoshoot
I'm not a big Tekken fan, but this might make me take another look at the franchise.
(Via PSP Fanboy.)
Killing Office to Save Windows
Note to Microsoft: restricting copies of Vista to the browser will encourage the use of browser-based applications, speeding the demise of Office.
Get Ballmer another chair.
(Via John Andrew Delos Santos.)
Get Ballmer another chair.
(Via John Andrew Delos Santos.)
