Creative may be famous for their Sound Blaster products and especially that I knew some of the modern products like the external USB Sound Card and other stuffs that allow you to control the volume and other audio effects. Unfortunately, when it comes to today's products from Creative, it looked like I missed out everything they showed at Singapore Expo. The speakers have their own music player/recorder feature in which you can use the micro-SD card to record and play sounds stored on it. Without the card, the music player/recorder features are kind of pointless. There's also the NFC and Bluetooth support for most of Sound Blaster Roar speakers. I might have technical knowledge about Bluetooh technology like it's a Personal Area Network and it does have a short range of connectivity compared to LAN or even WAN. However, as there were too many Bluetooth interferences there, there might be delays no matter how good and professional the devices are. There were already so much of products that come with wireless/wired control-like devices. The microphone record device I saw was the SoundBlaster R3. It had the volume and reverb control as well as the microphone jack and multiple headphone jacks but the output device was obviously the computer or perhaps, the mobile device. Plus, there is also support for some other features for Sound Blaster Roar series devices. The iRoar has its own wireless microphone device and whenever you speak, the sound also comes out of the iRoar speaker which can be useful for karaoke. However, it may seem that gaming or some other multimedia technology is a true purpose for me if I want to buy those speakers.
Other speakers include the Sound Blaster AXX which may have the same functions as Sound Blaster Roar series but I think I might have seen it on some Japanese YouTuber's video showing him singing out the YouTube theme song with the speaker active, and the X and E series Sound Blaster amplifiers which may look like some docks to me where you can hook up multiple headphone jacks.
Lastly, there are gaming headsets from Creative which still have the same specialty as the other Sound Blaster products as well as other accessories where you can adjust the sound quality in a special technical way.
It was a major shame that I missed out on so much modern Creative products as they are seriously professional and superior. The next roadshow Creative will be involved will be next year's CES and I guess that they will be showing the same stuffs there.
There are multiple gaming booths this time and especially that Acer took the roadshow by surprise by entering the gaming PC market as well. The Aftershock gaming desktop computer which was HyperGate looked completely cased with no optical disk drives and front ports whatsoever from what I saw but on the inside, there were cooling systems cranked that made the computers bulky to carry. Also, you do get the external DVD drive as a compensation should you choose to buy that computer or Aftershock Tremor. The way you turn on the Aftershock Hypergate is due to the fact the that the power button is located at the top which may be unusual in terms of design and it appears that there are way so many ports at the back which can be useful for hooking up multiple monitors for hardcore gaming at the cost of so much electrical power from having multiple graphics cards. Also, there are ports at the top of the case of Hypergate as well where the power button is. Needless to say, Aftershock PC is another local company like Creative Labs is. How did they get involved in the gaming PC market anyway?
There's the Acer gaming tablet whose design is very gaming computer-like. It looks hardcore to say the least for the design but trying to find games that suit this device well is a challenging thing. However, it appears that Acer Predator tablet is not the only gaming tablet out there. There are other gaming tablets if you look up on the net but obviously, on the internal case design part, it seems that the Acer Predator tablet is the only tablet that has special design. I'm NOT talking about the external case where you can attach to your phone or tablet or something, I'm talking about the internal skin of the device. Even if you come up with a gaming tablet case to match that Acer Predator tablet, the quality won't be that best like that unless the case has its own speakers where you can hook it up to the headphone jack. Unfortunately, the Acer Predator tablet is likely to be shown on the second day of SITEX event. Also, according to reviews, the technical specs of the tablet don't seem to be as great as the tablet design itself when compared to other epic Android devices for gaming.
Lastly, I was persuaded to buy the earpiece from Klipsch as if that manufacturer can be 100% trusted due to the fact that their products are seriously superior in sound quality. I tried it and adjusted the computer's volume to 64% and I still can hear the typing sound of the keyboard despite having the output sound.
Friday, November 27, 2015
Raspberry Pi 2 and Zero
Raspberry Pi is the credit-card sized embedded computer system that is useful mostly for developers and engineers where they can program stuffs and run on Raspberry Pi devices but there are other purposes if you're not a developer like turning one device into a media center, server and other stuff you want the Raspberry Pi to act as. The CPU and GPU are obviously different but useful for embedded devices and the OS is whatever Linux based distribution you can run on. There's also the default OS along with default packages for Raspberry Pi devices as well as the hardware addons like the touch screen monitor, casing for the device, breadboard for whatever engineering stuff you want, etc.
Raspberry Pi 2 has support for Sailfish OS, Snappy Ubuntu Core, Windows 10 IOT and the list goes on. The Raspberry Pi devices may be the definition of IOT but speaking of IOT, there may be chances that they may be more vulnerable to cyber-penetration that you may need to find some services or apps to secure the devices.
Unfortunately for Raspberry Pi Zero, although it may be faster than the original Raspberry Pi, as the title suggests, it has some of the features missing from both the original Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi 2 such as the lack of Ethernet port and standard USB ports, and some parts of the system specs are inferior if you compare Raspberry Pi Zero to Raspberry Pi 2.
Raspberry Pi 2 has support for Sailfish OS, Snappy Ubuntu Core, Windows 10 IOT and the list goes on. The Raspberry Pi devices may be the definition of IOT but speaking of IOT, there may be chances that they may be more vulnerable to cyber-penetration that you may need to find some services or apps to secure the devices.
Unfortunately for Raspberry Pi Zero, although it may be faster than the original Raspberry Pi, as the title suggests, it has some of the features missing from both the original Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi 2 such as the lack of Ethernet port and standard USB ports, and some parts of the system specs are inferior if you compare Raspberry Pi Zero to Raspberry Pi 2.
Unofficial Remote Play for PC that streams Playstation 4 games
Undoubtedly, Xbox One and Playstation 4 have several processor cores that make them so powerful for hardcore console gaming but there are already official workarounds in making console streaming smooth ever since the Playstation 3 era where you can use Playstation Portable or Vita to remotely stream Playstation 3 console through Remote Play and it's the same for streaming Playstation 4 on the Playstation Vita as well using the same method. There was also Remote Play feature for PC that allowed you to stream Playstation 3 games but that was for some Sony-branded computers. Unofficially, there was a similar program for non-Sony-branded computers that allowed you to do the same thing but it may probably defeat the purpose of competition as it may look like an unofficial third-party solution. Those I mentioned above were official methods and it's the same for Xbox App for Windows 10 which is the official streaming method by Microsoft where you can stream Xbox One system on a computer running Windows 10. I guess that your computer must be seriously powerful enough to stream Xbox One system as a Remote Play feature.
Then, there is an unofficial Remote Play feature for PC that allows you to stream Playstation 4 games. However, there are already doubts that Sony will sue the person who's making this feature and besides, it's looking third-party-ish if you ask. There was an Android version which is free but the PC version will be paid which is kind of bullshit. Xperia devices have the official Remote Play feature but mixing console technology with smartphone and tablet technology isn't going to help and Playstation for Android was already a flop that Sony went back to focus on console part which is already a big hit again thanks to Playstation 4 being done right although the Playstation Vita is made a legacy in the West but popular in the East and it is kind of like Sony's version of Saturn or PC-Engine.
Funny thing is, my first discovery about this feature came from Lazy Game Reviews' tweet about it. Perhaps, DOS gaming and classic computers were the reasons I discovered and subscribed to Lazy Game Reviews' YouTube channel but I don't know if I may get interested in playing DOS games one day in the future. There might be some DOS games I played before in my childhood but now, things have changed and somehow, some of the DOS games couldn't even work correctly back then.
Then, there is an unofficial Remote Play feature for PC that allows you to stream Playstation 4 games. However, there are already doubts that Sony will sue the person who's making this feature and besides, it's looking third-party-ish if you ask. There was an Android version which is free but the PC version will be paid which is kind of bullshit. Xperia devices have the official Remote Play feature but mixing console technology with smartphone and tablet technology isn't going to help and Playstation for Android was already a flop that Sony went back to focus on console part which is already a big hit again thanks to Playstation 4 being done right although the Playstation Vita is made a legacy in the West but popular in the East and it is kind of like Sony's version of Saturn or PC-Engine.
Funny thing is, my first discovery about this feature came from Lazy Game Reviews' tweet about it. Perhaps, DOS gaming and classic computers were the reasons I discovered and subscribed to Lazy Game Reviews' YouTube channel but I don't know if I may get interested in playing DOS games one day in the future. There might be some DOS games I played before in my childhood but now, things have changed and somehow, some of the DOS games couldn't even work correctly back then.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Comcast's man-in-the-middle attack as a method of accusing users of copyright infringement
Well, if you live in the US and your family happens to be using Comcast as the US ISP, you already know that you've been having a hard time trying to get things much smoother and more fair but one day, if you're going to relocate to your new home and you know how seriously evil that ISP is, you may have a smart option to choose other ISP instead. If you thought that Verizon's illegal data collection with various smartphone apps and services wasn't bad enough, what about the fact that Comcast has done the man-in-the-middle attack on users with insecure connection that accuses them of copyright infringement? This is obviously the same kind of security breach as the cyber-criminals had done in the past which they demanded the users that users' private information be released or something.
Man-in-the-middle attack is that while you're sending email to the other person for example, the attacker can sneak in and try to modify it before the email is reached to the other person. When that happens, it can pose a cyber-relationship problem between you and that person and it will take time for you to explain the truth that someone has tempered with your email you're sending. The attack can be mitigated with HTTPS connection and nowadays, the search engine websites are already in HTTPS mode so you don't have to worry about that but it's not the same for the other websites and you're going to need HTTPS Everywhere from EFF that forces every website to be in HTTPS mode for secure surfing.
It's such an easy-level cyber-security attack that can be easily prevented but of course, when it comes to on-going cyber-security attacks that will take a long time to get a strong but reliable security solution against them, it's nothing easy. On top of that, the cyber-security problems have evolved to the next level and so does the technology.
And lastly, this is probably the STUPIDEST cyber-security attack at the CORPORATE level the users of that ISP have ever ENCOUNTERED IN THEIR LIVES! Data collection by various companies for advertisement was already bullshit enough but this makes those users think on what the hell goes through that ISP's knuckleheads. Also, people around the globe already know on how extremely bad Comcast is in general as if that ISP can do whatever evil things that ISP wants. What this attack does is to deliver the warning pop-up message on insecure websites you visit via the six-strike system as if they will throttle down your connection speed or perhaps terminate your access but no, like I've mentioned, it's more like a security breach, that kind of security attack is something a cyber-criminal can do to us at the standard level that we can easily prevent it.
By the way, about this year's Consumerist's Worst Company in America tournament, there will be surprises when they see the final results one day perhaps sometime at the end of this year or maybe sometime next year. This is something the US people can be interested to take a look at and especially that various Wikipedia articles about those companies have mentioned the WCIA campaigns/tournaments but for those who don't live in the US like me, I guess that we know a little amount or nothing about other worst companies in America.
Man-in-the-middle attack is that while you're sending email to the other person for example, the attacker can sneak in and try to modify it before the email is reached to the other person. When that happens, it can pose a cyber-relationship problem between you and that person and it will take time for you to explain the truth that someone has tempered with your email you're sending. The attack can be mitigated with HTTPS connection and nowadays, the search engine websites are already in HTTPS mode so you don't have to worry about that but it's not the same for the other websites and you're going to need HTTPS Everywhere from EFF that forces every website to be in HTTPS mode for secure surfing.
It's such an easy-level cyber-security attack that can be easily prevented but of course, when it comes to on-going cyber-security attacks that will take a long time to get a strong but reliable security solution against them, it's nothing easy. On top of that, the cyber-security problems have evolved to the next level and so does the technology.
And lastly, this is probably the STUPIDEST cyber-security attack at the CORPORATE level the users of that ISP have ever ENCOUNTERED IN THEIR LIVES! Data collection by various companies for advertisement was already bullshit enough but this makes those users think on what the hell goes through that ISP's knuckleheads. Also, people around the globe already know on how extremely bad Comcast is in general as if that ISP can do whatever evil things that ISP wants. What this attack does is to deliver the warning pop-up message on insecure websites you visit via the six-strike system as if they will throttle down your connection speed or perhaps terminate your access but no, like I've mentioned, it's more like a security breach, that kind of security attack is something a cyber-criminal can do to us at the standard level that we can easily prevent it.
By the way, about this year's Consumerist's Worst Company in America tournament, there will be surprises when they see the final results one day perhaps sometime at the end of this year or maybe sometime next year. This is something the US people can be interested to take a look at and especially that various Wikipedia articles about those companies have mentioned the WCIA campaigns/tournaments but for those who don't live in the US like me, I guess that we know a little amount or nothing about other worst companies in America.
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Beatmania IIDX 23 Copula first play
Now that we know that Beatmania IIDX 23 Copula recently came out last week, I figured out that it was a proper time to get going to the arcades again. Songs that were in parts of One More Extra Stage and Course modes in IIDX Pendual are normally playable. New to the gameplay includes the Hell Charge Notes, more assistance options although going for Easy Clear, Auto-Scratch or both may seem to be the standard options to be used in case the song is getting much harder to clear normally, and the ability to choose Normal, Mirror, EX or EX-Mirror in the Class mode.
Again, the rhythm game machines were arranged and now, there are two Beatmania IIDX machines instead of one this time again. I don't know about the machine on the left but man, please don't tell me that the IIDX machine on the left is the one with the LCD monitor again. It was a pain in the past like I thought that the machine wouldn't respond well in network connectivity stuff but it turned out that the machine was having some problem with the hard disk drive or something that replacement would be needed or something.
Also, the policy is getting more strict than ever that anyone who damages the machine in the arcades will have to take responsibility and the arcade center staffs have the rights to shut it off when that happens. Anyone who refuses to cooperate with them will be reported to the cops and worst of all, there will be no refunds for any machine that is damaged. Maybe there should be security cameras in the arcade if that's the case but since the rhythm games nowadays are suited for players aged 16 and above as I guess, you won't find any childish and mischievous troubles that easily.
Again, the rhythm game machines were arranged and now, there are two Beatmania IIDX machines instead of one this time again. I don't know about the machine on the left but man, please don't tell me that the IIDX machine on the left is the one with the LCD monitor again. It was a pain in the past like I thought that the machine wouldn't respond well in network connectivity stuff but it turned out that the machine was having some problem with the hard disk drive or something that replacement would be needed or something.
Also, the policy is getting more strict than ever that anyone who damages the machine in the arcades will have to take responsibility and the arcade center staffs have the rights to shut it off when that happens. Anyone who refuses to cooperate with them will be reported to the cops and worst of all, there will be no refunds for any machine that is damaged. Maybe there should be security cameras in the arcade if that's the case but since the rhythm games nowadays are suited for players aged 16 and above as I guess, you won't find any childish and mischievous troubles that easily.
Yahoo Mail locks users out over Ad-Block but it was a test
Great, nobody knows what the hell Yahoo is testing for new product experience but nowadays, things have already changed and I'm already checking emails on my AOL, Outlook and Sina accounts. Jeez, I wish I could have migrated every mail subscription from my AOL account to my Outlook or Sina account as a safer bet and especially that I'm receiving new mails from newer subscriptions. In fact, who the hell uses Yahoo mail in the present time?
Last time, Google Chrome users with Ad-Blocker extensions were forced to watch the full-ads on YouTube despite having those extensions due to a bug and that things would be fixed in the later versions of Google Chrome that might be based on later versions of Chromium but here, what Yahoo did was more of an experimental test and nobody knows what are they planning this time.
Last time, Google Chrome users with Ad-Blocker extensions were forced to watch the full-ads on YouTube despite having those extensions due to a bug and that things would be fixed in the later versions of Google Chrome that might be based on later versions of Chromium but here, what Yahoo did was more of an experimental test and nobody knows what are they planning this time.
Friday, November 20, 2015
Playstation 2 backwards compatibility for Playstation 4
Perhaps, this is where Sony is doing it right again while still preparing the bullshit Playstation Now service which is seriously as costly as watching rented movies and TV shows from Netflix or perhaps using Windows Azure for awesome cloud virtualization. Microsoft already had the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility for Xbox One starting with the New Xbox One Experience powered by Windows 10 and there may be some rumors indicating that the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility is done using software emulation via virtual machine. This might be due to the fact that cloud streaming like Playstation Now does was going to be problematic for Microsoft that the legacy way of backwards compatibility was being used again. Maybe, the Xbox One uses the Hyper-V to make use of Xbox 360 VM for Xbox 360 games but where, in the game OS part? It may even pose more theories about how hypervisor works for Xbox One itself as the host OS in which it is divided into two parts, Windows OS and game OS. It's kind of like the Hyper-V OS is based on Hyper-V Server 8 that emulates the game OS and the modified Windows OS for that console.
For the Playstation 2 backwards compatibility for Playstation 4, the emulation program may seem to be the same as the one for Playstation 3 or maybe a different one which is Playstation 3 emulator running Playstation 2 emulator on the PS4. On the Playstation Vita, if you're playing Playstation 1 games, chances are, it makes use of the Playstation Portable emulator which runs Playstation 1 emulator for that inside the console. Some of the games may have less slowdowns, the others may have slowdowns in some stages due to inaccurate backwards compatibilty. This news of Playstation 2 emulation on Playstation 4 is due to the arrival of the Star Wars bundled Playstation 4 system in which there will be some Star Wars game that were originally on the Playstation 2 coming in for the Playstation 4 via emulation. Indeed, the emulation of previous Playstation consoles for Playstation 4 is on the way.
For the Playstation 2 backwards compatibility for Playstation 4, the emulation program may seem to be the same as the one for Playstation 3 or maybe a different one which is Playstation 3 emulator running Playstation 2 emulator on the PS4. On the Playstation Vita, if you're playing Playstation 1 games, chances are, it makes use of the Playstation Portable emulator which runs Playstation 1 emulator for that inside the console. Some of the games may have less slowdowns, the others may have slowdowns in some stages due to inaccurate backwards compatibilty. This news of Playstation 2 emulation on Playstation 4 is due to the arrival of the Star Wars bundled Playstation 4 system in which there will be some Star Wars game that were originally on the Playstation 2 coming in for the Playstation 4 via emulation. Indeed, the emulation of previous Playstation consoles for Playstation 4 is on the way.
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Windows 10 Enterprise with November Update
From the previous Know It, Prove It event from MVA, I was brought to Getting Started with Windows 10 for IT Professionals course in which I had additional technical knowledge from. However, certain courses still make use of the non-final stage versions of the Windows OSes. Features such as Windows Update for Business, Windows Store for Business, Mobile Device Management, Azure Active Directory Join, Credential and Device Guard and Windows Hello were what I knew things about from the course. But don't expect questions from you about how much I know of these enterprise exclusive features as some of the features are quite new.
Windows Store for Business has the enterprise exclusive apps you can buy for your business and there's also the Company Portal which is based on Windows Store except it takes place on-premise which is inside the organization run by the company data center where employees can gain access to. Windows Update for Business allows the IT Professionals to control which updates can be deployed to the production environment and which ones can't based on the patch testing in the test lab environment to see which if there are any bulky updates. Not to mention that there are also newer builds of Windows 10 which may pose challenge to IT Professionals themselves. Newer builds may feature improvements as well as newer stuffs available in Windows 10 but it was an absolute shame that Microsoft released Windows 10 in an incomplete state that they keep on milking it with later builds that are still available for Windows Insiders.
Next is the security problem at the hardware level. There may be rare chances that the malware attacks may take place the moment the computer is turned on like it may take place at the kernel level of the system even before the OS is booted and there are already questions about whether to use the pre-boot passwords or not. It turned out, you don't need to prepare pre-boot passwords as there are already other ways to secure a Windows 10 machine at a hardware level. Another security problem takes place at a corporate level like data leakage. It has been on-going but most of the data leakages are accidental. It may be due to minor technical or human errors but minor or not, things can be worse when that happens. What I saw from that MVA course had the interesting concept where corporate apps and personal apps are kept separate on the same device. Of course, VMWare already came up with the same technology for the Android devices that are suited for BYOD and it is where MDM comes in handy. Unfortunately, that MDM-like feature for Windows 10 is under testing and will be available soon to Windows Insiders and I don't know if that course will be updated with the final version of Windows 10 along with the final versions of the features all mentioned in the course.
About Windows Hello, it uses the camera with IR illumination similar to Kinect or Intel Realsense. The important criteria to get yourself identified is that your body must be live and that it is done through facial or iris recognition. Even if there's a change in your body, chances are, you still can get identified and especially for how dark the environment is. For Microsoft Passport, it makes use of network, software and websites to make use of PIN or bio-metric to authenticate users without the need for the password.
Lastly, you can use Group Policy, MDM, Windows ICD or Unattended for turning off the telemetric features in Windows 10 but this may be a challenge when it comes to deploying the OS with those things off for the corporate environment. I think that my choice will be Group Policy level that will be part of Windows 10 test deployment. You can add the GPOs in System Center Configuration Manager or Deployment Toolkit which I use for Lite-Touch deployment. Unfortunately, some of the features may have to be turned off manually even with Group Policy or any other methods.
Windows Store for Business has the enterprise exclusive apps you can buy for your business and there's also the Company Portal which is based on Windows Store except it takes place on-premise which is inside the organization run by the company data center where employees can gain access to. Windows Update for Business allows the IT Professionals to control which updates can be deployed to the production environment and which ones can't based on the patch testing in the test lab environment to see which if there are any bulky updates. Not to mention that there are also newer builds of Windows 10 which may pose challenge to IT Professionals themselves. Newer builds may feature improvements as well as newer stuffs available in Windows 10 but it was an absolute shame that Microsoft released Windows 10 in an incomplete state that they keep on milking it with later builds that are still available for Windows Insiders.
Next is the security problem at the hardware level. There may be rare chances that the malware attacks may take place the moment the computer is turned on like it may take place at the kernel level of the system even before the OS is booted and there are already questions about whether to use the pre-boot passwords or not. It turned out, you don't need to prepare pre-boot passwords as there are already other ways to secure a Windows 10 machine at a hardware level. Another security problem takes place at a corporate level like data leakage. It has been on-going but most of the data leakages are accidental. It may be due to minor technical or human errors but minor or not, things can be worse when that happens. What I saw from that MVA course had the interesting concept where corporate apps and personal apps are kept separate on the same device. Of course, VMWare already came up with the same technology for the Android devices that are suited for BYOD and it is where MDM comes in handy. Unfortunately, that MDM-like feature for Windows 10 is under testing and will be available soon to Windows Insiders and I don't know if that course will be updated with the final version of Windows 10 along with the final versions of the features all mentioned in the course.
About Windows Hello, it uses the camera with IR illumination similar to Kinect or Intel Realsense. The important criteria to get yourself identified is that your body must be live and that it is done through facial or iris recognition. Even if there's a change in your body, chances are, you still can get identified and especially for how dark the environment is. For Microsoft Passport, it makes use of network, software and websites to make use of PIN or bio-metric to authenticate users without the need for the password.
Lastly, you can use Group Policy, MDM, Windows ICD or Unattended for turning off the telemetric features in Windows 10 but this may be a challenge when it comes to deploying the OS with those things off for the corporate environment. I think that my choice will be Group Policy level that will be part of Windows 10 test deployment. You can add the GPOs in System Center Configuration Manager or Deployment Toolkit which I use for Lite-Touch deployment. Unfortunately, some of the features may have to be turned off manually even with Group Policy or any other methods.
Firefox OS 2.5 Developer Preview
Another Android launcher? In fact, this is more underrated than Firefox OS itself for the lack of support of the common local apps and I don't know if it will have support for HTML5 apps that you can try out similar to devices with HTML5 support today. Like Sailfish OS and Ubuntu Touch, Firefox OS can be installed on various Android devices but I guess that Sailfish OS is the better choice as it may have support for Android apps that it is more or less a secure alternative to Android OS. Another risky thing is the bricking of devices that you may need to take a caution of.
Sure, Firefox OS 2.5 may have the latest features to catch up with the current versions of Firefox web browser but I may suggest the Ubuntu Touch and Sailfish OS versions of Firefox if possible.
Sure, Firefox OS 2.5 may have the latest features to catch up with the current versions of Firefox web browser but I may suggest the Ubuntu Touch and Sailfish OS versions of Firefox if possible.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax obtained!
This one should be manageable in one-credit, right? Even then, we should think again there may be a stronger boss fighter that replaces Akira as the last opponent. I don't know how do you face her instead of Akira but I guess that you have to be really damn good in surviving everything as well as to fulfill special conditions needed for that.
Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax is a licensed fighting game developed by Ecole and French Bread, the developers behind Melty Blood and Under Night In-Birth featuring characters from various Dengeki Bunko franchises. Don't expect this to be as great as Under Night In-Birth or Melty Blood though as some of the Dengeki Bunko franchises are found to be mediocre to me. Another strange thing is the game design. Why is the game taking place in various places from various Sega games? That is attracting unwanted audience and a bad idea when that happens. Not to mention that some of the fighters have some serious disadvantage from the way they attack but then, most of the fighters are really epic and badass although it's not the same for some spoilt fighters in terms of behavior. If you have known those Dengeki Bunko franchises, your opinions may affect your opportunity of playing as various licensed playable characters.
Version 2.0 also known as Ignition edition will have the Ignition attack in addition to Climax Arts as well as the fact that you can change characters after each round. There will be additional characters and stages but that's how the game is updated to newer versions. It was already out in the arcades in July this year and there will be a console version coming for Playstation 3, 4 and Vita by the year-end. The original one was also out in the arcades last year with All.NET Plus support where you can use your Aime card to record your progress similar to Nesica X Live arcade games.
Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax is a licensed fighting game developed by Ecole and French Bread, the developers behind Melty Blood and Under Night In-Birth featuring characters from various Dengeki Bunko franchises. Don't expect this to be as great as Under Night In-Birth or Melty Blood though as some of the Dengeki Bunko franchises are found to be mediocre to me. Another strange thing is the game design. Why is the game taking place in various places from various Sega games? That is attracting unwanted audience and a bad idea when that happens. Not to mention that some of the fighters have some serious disadvantage from the way they attack but then, most of the fighters are really epic and badass although it's not the same for some spoilt fighters in terms of behavior. If you have known those Dengeki Bunko franchises, your opinions may affect your opportunity of playing as various licensed playable characters.
Version 2.0 also known as Ignition edition will have the Ignition attack in addition to Climax Arts as well as the fact that you can change characters after each round. There will be additional characters and stages but that's how the game is updated to newer versions. It was already out in the arcades in July this year and there will be a console version coming for Playstation 3, 4 and Vita by the year-end. The original one was also out in the arcades last year with All.NET Plus support where you can use your Aime card to record your progress similar to Nesica X Live arcade games.
King of Fighters 97 OL
What the hell happened? It was looking like SNK Playmore went mobile starting last year or earlier after a serious struggle with Pachinko slot machine games in which not many of the gamers are interested in and I'm severely against gambling stuffs as they ruin your life that easily. Rhythm of Fighters was kind of strange although Metal Slug Defense was like popular to the developers that they kept it going until today with additional units, crossover characters and even crossover stages that lasted a while. Yes, that game surely looked like Battle Cats which was released three years earlier than it so the word, defense, is a misleading word to the gameplay when comparing it to Battle Cats. Unfortunately, the developers of Battle Cats didn't even mention the complete origins of Metal Slug units and instead, they mentioned by in-game text that those units came from Metal Slug Defense. There may be units exclusive to Metal Slug Defense of course but too much crossover can pretty much ruin the image of Metal Slug series. Then, there was Beast Busters featuring KOF which I already finished most of the areas like I eventually stopped playing it. Even worse is that this year, SNK Playmore is acquired by the Chinese company, Ledo Millenium, in which Ledo Interactive developed KOF 97 OL for IOS and Android.
At first, we thought that this was an HD remake but it's not. It's a beat-em-up spinoff game of King of Fighters 97 and fans of the franchise were really annoyed about this as if the franchise or perhaps SNK Playmore itself is on life support. Everything is redone in HD and the gameplay controls are way too simple for the genre. You just mash the specific buttons that represent the respective moves like normal move which does the comboing in normal way plus the special move, the special moves that once used, you have to wait until they're available again, the desperation move and so on. If you have played tons of beat-em-up games or fighting games, you will notice that some of the stuffs are missing in the gameplay. You can't jump, air-dash, ground-dash or even throw something. There may be ground-dash attacks but they originate from the original KOF games so that doesn't count as a normal ground-dash attack in terms of the beat-em-up genre. Unlike Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds, you can't even guard yourself against enemy attacks. Yes, even Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds is the spinoff of the fighting game using the same genre as KOF 97 OL. A KOF beat-em-up spinoff game will be a decent idea since you're fighting tons of baddies like a fighter alongside other KOF characters in your team with other teams awaiting you as your rival teams. Perhaps, a real 3-vs-3 may make sense in this one where all team members are fighting the rival ones at the same time unlike the KOF series where it's still a 1-on-1 match with the other team members watching it and one fighter down may mean other team member taking over.
There's also a warning message telling you that the enemies in that stage you've chosen are too strong that you may need to strengthen yourself if you want to get in but you do have the options on whether you have to strengthen first or enter the stage anyway. There are tons of items that can be used as well as the outfit parts that can be strengthened. Plus, strengthening yourself may cost in-game currency and unlocking other fighters may require collecting cards representing them. There are also assist fighters that will help you out for extra overall strength. Like Beast Busters featuring KOF, each stage is short and features a boss at the end where you have to tackle him/her within the time limit.
Lastly, the FMV intro and loading screens are way out of place as if the fans are like, "What the hell is this?", "What's up with the look of the characters? How could SNK Playmore ruin their image like that?", "Why is this going all 3D CGI like in KOF Maximum Impact?". In fact, there might be cosplayers involved in the promotion of this game. The cosplay itself is fine but having to promote this game with it poses the fans a couple of challenging questions.
The worse thing is that King of Fighters XIV is going all 3D graphics via Maximum Impact series and there is some assumption that it is using Unreal Engine 4 with realistic effects or some sort but from what I saw in the trailers, the overall graphics looked like they were done in Unreal Engine 3.x or something. I mean the flame effects are not quite realistic enough and the smoke effect is half-assed as well. And what's up with the look and outfits of the characters? WHY DID SNK PLAYMORE ASSIGN THIS TO SOME EXTERNAL COMPANY LIKE THAT? Going next-gen is supposedly a requirement but going 3D like in Street Fighter IV or Maximum Impact series is a major disapproval to the fans. Hell, even the FMV intro of KOF 97 OL is like graphically better but keep in mind that KOF XIV is still under development and I don't know if KOF 97 OL will be superseded or not by the time it comes out next year for Playstation 4.
In summary of unacceptable flaws of KOF 97 OL,
At first, we thought that this was an HD remake but it's not. It's a beat-em-up spinoff game of King of Fighters 97 and fans of the franchise were really annoyed about this as if the franchise or perhaps SNK Playmore itself is on life support. Everything is redone in HD and the gameplay controls are way too simple for the genre. You just mash the specific buttons that represent the respective moves like normal move which does the comboing in normal way plus the special move, the special moves that once used, you have to wait until they're available again, the desperation move and so on. If you have played tons of beat-em-up games or fighting games, you will notice that some of the stuffs are missing in the gameplay. You can't jump, air-dash, ground-dash or even throw something. There may be ground-dash attacks but they originate from the original KOF games so that doesn't count as a normal ground-dash attack in terms of the beat-em-up genre. Unlike Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds, you can't even guard yourself against enemy attacks. Yes, even Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds is the spinoff of the fighting game using the same genre as KOF 97 OL. A KOF beat-em-up spinoff game will be a decent idea since you're fighting tons of baddies like a fighter alongside other KOF characters in your team with other teams awaiting you as your rival teams. Perhaps, a real 3-vs-3 may make sense in this one where all team members are fighting the rival ones at the same time unlike the KOF series where it's still a 1-on-1 match with the other team members watching it and one fighter down may mean other team member taking over.
There's also a warning message telling you that the enemies in that stage you've chosen are too strong that you may need to strengthen yourself if you want to get in but you do have the options on whether you have to strengthen first or enter the stage anyway. There are tons of items that can be used as well as the outfit parts that can be strengthened. Plus, strengthening yourself may cost in-game currency and unlocking other fighters may require collecting cards representing them. There are also assist fighters that will help you out for extra overall strength. Like Beast Busters featuring KOF, each stage is short and features a boss at the end where you have to tackle him/her within the time limit.
Lastly, the FMV intro and loading screens are way out of place as if the fans are like, "What the hell is this?", "What's up with the look of the characters? How could SNK Playmore ruin their image like that?", "Why is this going all 3D CGI like in KOF Maximum Impact?". In fact, there might be cosplayers involved in the promotion of this game. The cosplay itself is fine but having to promote this game with it poses the fans a couple of challenging questions.
The worse thing is that King of Fighters XIV is going all 3D graphics via Maximum Impact series and there is some assumption that it is using Unreal Engine 4 with realistic effects or some sort but from what I saw in the trailers, the overall graphics looked like they were done in Unreal Engine 3.x or something. I mean the flame effects are not quite realistic enough and the smoke effect is half-assed as well. And what's up with the look and outfits of the characters? WHY DID SNK PLAYMORE ASSIGN THIS TO SOME EXTERNAL COMPANY LIKE THAT? Going next-gen is supposedly a requirement but going 3D like in Street Fighter IV or Maximum Impact series is a major disapproval to the fans. Hell, even the FMV intro of KOF 97 OL is like graphically better but keep in mind that KOF XIV is still under development and I don't know if KOF 97 OL will be superseded or not by the time it comes out next year for Playstation 4.
In summary of unacceptable flaws of KOF 97 OL,
- Lack of standard abilities as required for a beat-em-up spinoff such as the lack of jumping, dashing and even throwing.
- The way the sound effects are executed is flawed.
- What's up with the loading screens and FMV intro?
- For the music, the way it loops is that it cuts off certain parts of each song or something. (Example: Psycho Solder's theme song has chrous and post-chorus cut completely)
- The stage uses the same background for every phase or something
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Tor Messenger Beta
A messenger with Tor? Seriously, no matter how much of these apps/services they have come up with that make use of Tor technology, there isn't any point for privacy advocates to live with that since it is over-protective. What Tor Messenger does is that it makes use of Off The Record messaging and allows you to connect to services like Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, Facebook chat, etc.
There are better security related technologies that don't go against the functionality, reliability and performance that you could have used better while going on in your daily computing activity. Just don't use those technologies for bad things and you should be fine.
There are better security related technologies that don't go against the functionality, reliability and performance that you could have used better while going on in your daily computing activity. Just don't use those technologies for bad things and you should be fine.
Internal Tracking Protection for Firefox
If you have been seeking privacy like I'm have been seeking, that's the good thing as if you already have the addons related to security for the Firefox browser but if you don't have any and yet you're using Firefox, this is something you're going to take note of in the future. Firefox version 42 will have its own tracking protection that does the same way as Ghostery and Privacy Badger do. However, that protection feature is for Private Browsing mode and not the normal mode so you'll need those security addons for whichever web browser you're using.
Unfortunately, having too much of security protection applied to the browser may sacrifice the functionality, reliability and performance of the browser and networking on your device. Some of the websites are misbehaving on you like idiotic sites with those security addons on or perhaps on the third-party web browsers as if the same sites work better on the first-party ones.
It's like the tech giants have HALF the amount of RESPECT and SUPPORT for privacy related technologies like they want to sacrifice the other half for advertisements for earning money and therefore, the reputation over privacy respecting is half-assed. But making the privacy reputation too positive is not easy and may break the functionality, reliability and performance of the device like it already happened with IOS 8 and Android 5.0 that the law enforcement agencies already had the suspicions about improved security that would allow the criminals to use those technologies unnoticed. Also, another downside is the price of the devices containing that same amount of security and it may be hard to buy one of them from the retail store as well as the fact that they won't come with default services you already know of. It may be a waste like you don't know what those alternative technologies in software are all about but what about the ones on the hardware side.
Unfortunately, some of the addons can render the browser unusable like it already happened to Android version of the browser on my Android device and I may need to find a way to start over. Maybe reinstalling it should be able to help in case of the above trouble I have so that you should can find which culprit was behind that and that you should be careful for the desktop version as well.
Unfortunately, having too much of security protection applied to the browser may sacrifice the functionality, reliability and performance of the browser and networking on your device. Some of the websites are misbehaving on you like idiotic sites with those security addons on or perhaps on the third-party web browsers as if the same sites work better on the first-party ones.
It's like the tech giants have HALF the amount of RESPECT and SUPPORT for privacy related technologies like they want to sacrifice the other half for advertisements for earning money and therefore, the reputation over privacy respecting is half-assed. But making the privacy reputation too positive is not easy and may break the functionality, reliability and performance of the device like it already happened with IOS 8 and Android 5.0 that the law enforcement agencies already had the suspicions about improved security that would allow the criminals to use those technologies unnoticed. Also, another downside is the price of the devices containing that same amount of security and it may be hard to buy one of them from the retail store as well as the fact that they won't come with default services you already know of. It may be a waste like you don't know what those alternative technologies in software are all about but what about the ones on the hardware side.
Unfortunately, some of the addons can render the browser unusable like it already happened to Android version of the browser on my Android device and I may need to find a way to start over. Maybe reinstalling it should be able to help in case of the above trouble I have so that you should can find which culprit was behind that and that you should be careful for the desktop version as well.
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