I just got myself USD500!

     So everybody, what's up? I haven't been blogging for quite sometime mainly because my parents are finally home (so happy!) and I'm feeling pretty down that the holidays are coming to an abrupt halt.

   About 2 weeks ago I entered a contest. It's the Gameloft Video Response Contest. The grand prize is a USD500 apple store gift certificate and all of Gameloft's games for 2010. I decided to give it a shot. I fired up Photoshop and Sony Vegas 8 and began working on a video. Time was tight. I had only 3 days before I had to go fetch my parents after their return from the pilgrimage. After hours of work it was finally done. And skip a couple of days later, Gameloft announced that I was the winner. I was breathless.

Ben The Bodyguard

     Ben The Bodyguard is an upcoming iOS app that will be "protecting your passwords, photos, contacts
and other sensitive stuff on your iPhone or iPod touch". How the actual app looks like or how it works is beyond me. It'll be released next January. But I'm not here to talk about the app, no I'm talking about the promotional website.


     The website, is an animated (though you'll have to scroll down) site that looks like a graphic novel. Keep on scrolling and a Frenchman named Ben walks down a dark alley telling you awesome stuff to promote the app. The website is made only using HTML5 and other web standards. No Flash animation here. The website has done quite well in raising interest that I'm pretty interested in the app. Though why I need and app like that is unknown.


    So go check out the website and start scrolling!


[Ben The Bodyguard]

Infinity Blade's Next Update

    Infinity Blade, ChAIR's epic $6 iOS game will be getting it's first update sometime next week. The game is definitely one of my most favourite iOS games so far so it's great to hear the news.

Ten Million Facebook Friendships Are Absolutely Stunning

     Paul, an intern for Facebook's data infrastructure engineering team, recently took a sample of ten million pairs of friends from Facebook's data warehouse and combined that data with each user's current city and summed the number of friends between each pair of cities. After that, he merged the data with the longitude and latitude of each city. The result of his little "experiment" turned out to be an incredibly stunning map of the world. You can see Malaysia too.

Metrodome Roof Collapsation!

      Here's a video of the  giant inflatable roof of Minneapolis’ Metrodome stadium collapsing under the weight of heavy snowfall. Pretty cool. Imagine if there was a game happening at the time?

eqbalzack 2010 Giveaway Contest

     I'm entering a giveaway! It advertises itself as an easy giveaway. Easy? I'm set. I hope I win.

     Here are the rules:

Prizes: Upin & Ipin Calender 2011

Number of prizes: 5

Contest Start Date: December 10, 2010 (Friday)

Contest End Date: December 17, 2010 (Friday): 11.59 pm

     Looks easy enough. As for my short, simple and creative entry:

Smokers Suck!

     You! Yes you! I'm talking to you! Are you a smoker? If you are you're most likely a jerk. I'm serious. In my entire life, 99% of smokers are insensitive to their surroundings and the people around them. What's wrong with smokers? I'll tell you what's wrong with them.

Tagged 0.o

     Hmm? Dah kena tag? Ok! Nampaknya, fellow blogger Justin dah tag saya dalam postnya. Nak jawab? No problem! Tapi kalau nak jawab, kena jawab stail lain sikit. Boleh kan?

The Alphabet According To Google Autocomplete

     Ever wondered what it would be like if Google Autocomplete taught you your ABCs? This would happen!:

Salam Maal Hijrah...

 

Assalamualaikum,

Salam Maal Hijrah. May we all be blessed by Allah.

A Look At The PlayStation Phone!

     There has been quite some news about the PlayStation phone that Sony's going to release soon. Some facts have been dugged up about the PlayStation phone and now here's the phone itself in video.

Problem With Followers Widget/Friend Connect?

Hey. I'm currently experiencing a problem with my followers widget and the friend connect widget. It was working up until 2 days ago. I'm aware that many others have the exact same problem. But I'm wondering if you can't see my Blog's followers widget/friend connect.

EDIT: Looks like the GengBlogger widget too is messed up. The NetworkedBlogs widget might just be the problem. But I'm not sure.

Feedback is appreciated.

 EDIT: Finally! I fixed the problem! It seems that the blog was using an old version of the lightbox script and it conflicted with the followers gadget. Updated the script and it's working again.

Screamer Survival Strategy

     Hi everybody, this is my Screamer Survival Strategy. A strategy guide to help you survive just one of the many Internet fears which are screamers.

Cliche Storylines : The School Journalist

     Time for another cliche storyline! This time the cliche is mainly from kids shows because everyone knows that kids shows (especially ones with a moral at the end) are always filled with cliches. The cliche today is:

The School Journalist

     This cliche usually lasts in a single episode of a TV show. This time the main character becomes a villain (well, sort of).

Wallpapers From Simple Desktops For Simple Desktops

     Trouble finding good and free wallpapers? Simple Desktops is a website that offers wallpapers that are both beautiful and distraction-free.The wallpapers do a good job of not being a cluttered mess but still look pleasing to the eye.

Telltale Debuts Back To The Future Game Trailer

    

    Telltale Games has unveiled the Back To The Future game trailer! Back To The Future: The Game, which is obviously based on the Back To The Future Franchise is being developed by Telltale Games, creators of the Sam&Max, Strong Bad and other great games. I'm pretty excited about this game myself.

Wikileaks Servers Find New Home

 

     The price of the truth. Lately, Wikileaks have been dipped into alot of trouble including pressure from the US government, leader Julian Assange chased by the Interpol and kicked off their servers by Amazon. Thankfully, the organization has found a new sanctuary, as reported by Gizmodo France.

Creators of Super Meat Boy Answers PETA

    As a result of creating a whole lot of fake user names on the PETA forums and continuously pushing PETA to do something about Super Meat Boy, Super Meat Boy co-creator Edmund Mcmillen has successfuly garnered some free publicity from PETA. The free publicity is in the form of Super Tofu Boy, a (quite horrible made) flash game that tries to mimic Super Meat Boy's gameplay.

In Soviet Russia, world cup hosts YOU!

   

Appvent Calender 2010 has begun!

   

      For those of you with an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, get ready for free apps all month long because Appvent Calender 2010 has started! Some of you may have not heard of Appvent Calender though. Appvent Calender is a a combined effort of a lot of iOS app developers that's gonna run for a month and is offering apps for free in the entire limited period. The free apps will be divided into two categories: Games & Apps so that means 2 apps per day!

    Don't miss this opportunity. All apps will be free for a limited period only. If you're short on cash, or have no cash to spend on apps, I'd suggest bookmarking the site and check it everyday. It's free, so why not?

Link: http://appventcalendar.com/

The Citizen Connection (Chapter 4)

The Citizen Connection

Chapter 4 : Decoy Attack


    "Freeze!"

      Ben stood still. He wasn't risking being shot at. His body was turned at angle in such a way that he couldn't see the person that shouted at him. Sweat began to form on Ben's forehead.


    "Wait-, Kevin ?"


    Ben immediately recognized that name. It was his other name. He is a man of many names and he is also known as Kevin Travenstein. Kevin turned his head. It was his old friend Armedius. 


    "Armedius! What's going on? What's with the attack?" Kevin asked.
    "The rebels are launching a decoy attack!" answered Armedius.
    "Decoy attack? You mean this was all just a distraction?"
    "Yes, the main attack is at the Quartan Administration Office.,"


    Kevin knew what the Quartan Administration Office was. The Quartan Administration Office, or shortened as QuAd Office, is one of the Business District's main administration center. Lots of laws were made there. It also serves as a secret weapon building facility. That ensured that the QuAd Office was well equipped with big guns. Many attacks were launched before this, but all failed. Many lives lost.


    "So, what's the plan this time? H-how are the rebels going to take over the QuAd?" asked Kevin, slightly confused.
    "Simple. I'd tell you but we have to escape now!"

    Armedius tossed a Submachine gun to Kevin. It was an MK 59. Light but with a fast firing rate. Easy to smuggle around. Kevin smiled and reloaded the weapon.

   The two men quickly in search of an escape. It didn't help that the entire facility was a maze. Gunshots could be heard close by. Screams of men alike. Blood spillage everywhere. The rebels were putting up quite a fight.


    Finally, they reached an exit. Good thing it wasn't blocked. They took off quickly. Parked close by was an APC. They hopped in. 


    "What now?" asked Kevin.
    "What? We head to the QuAd Office," answered Armedius.
    "I'll man the guns," said Armedius.


    Armedius. You'll never change. Always looking for the best weapon smiled Kevin. It was time for them to take off. Armedius utilised the Heavy Blaster Cannons. He shot at any visible Citizen Guardians. The CGs were calling in reinfocements. The plan is working. In a moment, another attack will be launched. This time, the QuAd. 


    Helicopters were rushing in the scene. More CGs were being propelled into the battlefield. Some helicopters were equipped with mines. The helis proceeded to drop the load. Explosions occured everywhere. The rebels have to keep on fighting or else the plan will fail.

   Kevin drove the APC avoiding any mines. Some brave CGs even propelled onto the APC itself. Armedius made quick haste to them.
  
   "Kevin, be careful!" shoueted Armedius.
   "Relax, how many times have I done this?" assured Kevin.
   "Hmm, many," laughed Armedius.


    They were headed to their target. Nothing can stop them. Soon, the corrupt government can be brought down.


To Be Continued
      

    

I hate 3D cartoons. Like seriously.

   I'm sure most of you have grown up with cartoons. Heck, some of you might still be watching cartoons (like me xD). What I'm referring here are the animated ones, whether it be on TV or in films. These products of the human imagination consume most of your spare time. Some call them abominations that will devour the human soul causing maximum damage to a child/adult. Call them what you want.

New chiptune song (DarkEast Cavern)

    I made a new chiptune song :D . DarkEast Cavern is kinda like a horror style chiptune. I need more practise (I know it isn't that great). Enjoy.





Free MP3 download available here. All constructive criticism welcome

Candlelight Dinner

    I had a candlelight dinner last night. Yeah, it's true. But, what I meant by candlelight dinner is having dinner in a house that's experiencing blackout with no electricity whatsoever not a romantic dinner. Hah. At around 7 PM last night, our house all of a sudden became dark.

Demo chiptune (Demo-tron 01000001)

   Demo-tron 01000001 is another chiptune song by me. It isn't much as it's just a demo chiptune song. Experimenting and constantly developing my style. Haven't found one yet. All constructive criticism welcome.




Free MP3 is available to download here.

The blog has been promoted?!?!

     This blog has been promoted in another blog! Today I joined Gengblogger, a malaysian blog community. It seems like a rich & vibrant community and I'm hoping to increase traffic just for fun, I've got no AdSense or NuffNang :( .

Chiptuning (SkyNorth Bay)

    Hey everybody. Lately, I've been experimenting with FamiTracker (available for free  here). This porgram can create chiptune music that was native to the NES and Famicom. I'm a fan of chiptune and old school games (even though I wasn't even born then). What made old school games awesome was the old graphics, gameplay, extreme difficulty and the chiptune music. Back then, gamers had to replay levels over and over again in frustration because of the game's difficulty. But now, if you can't pass a level, just look up a cheat on the Internet. God. Gamers are lazy nowadays. Man up and beat it yourself!

     Okay, back to the main story. The end result of my experimentation is this. SkyNorth Bay. My own personal chiptune. It's okay by beginner standards and I'm hoping to increase my skill top produce music as awesome as the Megaman franchise or Castlevania. *death sound in Castlevania*



    Also, this song is available to download for free. Link is here. Comments on the song would be helpful. Enjoy.

Government Trying To End Illegal Downloading?!

   Go ahead and read this:

SMS Language = Noobs

    Lately I've been busy. Yes. Very busy. So busy that breathing has become a difficult task to complete. I've coded a program in Javascript to remind me to inhale and exhale.

     I'm kidding. Sort of. Actually, I have been a bit busy but the reason why I haven't updated in a while is because I'm lazy. So what? You guys aren't paying me money anyway. I'm just joking. Don't take that seriously xD. So, lately I've been occupying myself with learning HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP. Yeah, I figured that being a web designer would be a pretty cool to thing. I've even got myself some free hosting. I'm finished with HTML and CSS and now I'm gonna learn Javascript

Original Artwork: "Aurora Borealis"

 

     If you're wondering what's up with all the artwork I'm posting, this is my own little project. I'm tasking myself with drawing/colouring a piece of art everyday for 30 days this school holiday. I've got free time, so why not?

Original Artwork : "Nuke"

Original Artwork: "Big Mac"

Original Artwork: "Thinking Of Home"

Thinking Of Home

Ants On A Wire

     Many of us do indeed hectic lives. Whether it's adults or kids, or even babies (yes, babies live hectic lives too. Don't you know that they need to keep a schedule so they can cry and sleep on time? lol jk). But haven't you at least tried to stop for a moment a marvel at the world we live in? I did. At school (couple of weeks a go). During an exam. AND IT WAS AWESOME!

    Exams can be quite stressing especially when it decides your fate to be in which class the following year. Even so, some of the questions in the test messes with your thinking! Typical situation is: You read a question. Seems easy enough. You answer C. But when you read that question again. You realise that your answer might be wrong. You pick B. You reread the question. You change to A. There you go. You are now officially confused.

    Okay, back to the point. I was busy answering questions in the exam and was busy remembering the facts that the teacher had taught us. Lots of hard questions. It was during a particular question that I finally popped. Damn questions with their "looks easy" approach but with their "WTF, this is the answer?!" answer. I decided to have a look at the outside world. I was situated beside a window so I had  a good view, kinda, the view was blocked by another school building.

    It was then I noticed something crawling on a wire (maybe the P.A system wire, idk). There were alot of those "things".

     After taking a hard look, I realised what exactly they were. Ants. Fire ants craling on a wire! (heh, FireWire)

    Their movement was certainly psychedelic. It hypnotizes you. It's hard to explain. I need an animation. Here look:

    I could watch that all day. The ants stop when they collide with each other for a couple of seconds. I wondered what they could be doing. Travelling from their nest to a food source? The wire looked like a highway for ants, minus the horrific accidents. The ants have courtesy to stop when they bump into another friend. Better than most humans.

    So, watching the ants in their daily commute made my day. I continued to watch the ants during every other exam paper after that. If I ran into a hard question, I relaxed by watching the ants.

    Thank you ants.



 On an unrelated topic, the ants animation I uploaded here was supposed to be a flash animation at first. Yeah. With the loading screen and play button. But I can't seem to find a good .SWF host anywhere that has direct linking. I got sick of a goose chase and published the flash file as a .GIF. Doesn't look as cool but hey, atlest you can watch psychedelic ant action all day long! And I also updated the blog's logo. Spent almost an hour using Photoshop.

New territory.........wut?

     Hey all, been a while since I updated my blog. Time to update on the latest events. But first........

End-Year Exams Are Over!

BUT WAIT!

What?

PMR is next year.

   Ok, that was a downer. But no worries. Studying is the answer. I hope so.

   In other news. For the school holidays, I'm staying with my grandparents. Why? Well, my mom & dad will be performing the pilgrimage this year. So until the 20th of December, I'm gonna be living with my grandparents. So far so good. Got together some stuff and relocated into a new room. I even brought my PC (Sweeeet!) and installed broadband (Double Sweeeet!). Heh, internet here is quite fast. Bought the 1Mbps package and I'm experiencing 1.8 Mbps speeds (Triple Sweeeet!).

   BUT, I'm more of a city type of person. So being here is awesome. Hopefully, I will still be alive until the day my parents come home. As the oldest, I have to take care of my siblings. Insyaallah, it's gonna be fine.

   Still having problems procrastinating. I went to Unversal Studios Singapore (Take that budak kem! (Insider joke))  on the 30th and I still haven't uploaded the pics. Damn. Ok, nothing else to say. Hopefully, I will update again. Stay frosty.

Quick update. Pls?

Hey, Hasif here. Just a quick update. The world is still in chaos, the economy is failing many investors, Chilean miners rescued,
Paul is dead, McDonald's introduces the Black Pepper Spicy Chicken McDeluxe, more Memes pop up, new 1.5m views YouTube videos appear and I'm still taking my end-year exams.




Here's a doodle for you:


Damn. No image uploading option on Blogger Mobile.

EDIT: Downloaded an app for Blogger Mobile

LOL. Sorry. It's the best I could come up with in under 1 minute.

Exams...

The End-Year Exams are coming and I only have one thing to say.

Chaos

That is all. Study smart everybody!

If Malaysia hosted the FIFA World Cup

     I admit that I'm not much of a football fan. Well, I like football but I'm not a fanatic. I don't even know all the current players in my favourite team (Chelsea which by far will win this year). I don't follow current football events, so don't talk to to me about some player that is moving to some other team because of something that someone has which will affect somebody's career. Typical scenario is this:

  
      I didn't care if Chelsea lost. It didn't matter to me if Drogba moved. I did not stay late watching football matches. But when the 2010 FIFA World Cup came things changed. I was truly excited. For the first time in my life, football mattered. I selected Germany as my favourite team from the start. I read news about the world cup. I researched about the Jabulani. I was a fan. When Germany lost to Spain, I was furious. I condemned the Spaniards and hoped that they would lose in the final. But they won. Damn you Iniesta.

     Okay, I'm going overboard here. The main topic today is.... If Malaysia hosted the FIFA World Cup. With Malaysia's current situation I doubt that that would happen. But let's say it did. What would happen?


 1. Malaysia would celebrate even before the world cup starts

2. Not many Malaysians will support Malaysia

3. Riots would occur daily

4. The World Cup ball name would be in Bahasa Melayu. (And players will complain about it's unresponsiveness again)

5. Malaysia's players would be tiny compared to other countries' players

6. Malaysia will be crushed by it's opponents

7. Both players and tourists will complain about Malaysia

Hasif is having a giveaway!

     I'm sure you've read my review of SnapIt Screen Capture. So, for the first time ever I'm having a giveaway for SnapIt! What's a giveaway? A giveaway is when somebody gives something something away for free. That's right free.

     For this giveaway, the giveaway is..... SnapIt Screen Capture! You should know by know that this piece of software will help you "snapshot" without the hassle of cropping. You'll be using it for everything! So what are you waiting for? Instead of the 14 day trial, you'll own it forever!

  Supports hotkeys, auto-saving, clipboard

  Automatically copies screenshots to the clipboard

  Tracks capture history, auto-saves captured images

  Saves files in BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG and TIFF formats

  Auto-names captured images

  Crops out sections of vector graphic files such as Fireworks, Adobe Illustrator or Corel without having to flatten the files or open in a new editor

  Irreplaceable tool for Designers, Office Workers, Business People, Analysts and more

  Perfect for Technical Writers who have to describe interfaces, menus, buttons, etc.

   All you have to do is:

• Write a small little review of SnapIt! in your blog, forum, twitter etc. (as long as the public can reach it)

• Contact Julia at  julia.taylor@digeus.com with a link to your review and you'll soon be sent a Registration Code & Name for SnapIt! absolutely free.

     In this giveaway, everyone will be getting this wonderful software just by following those two steps above. So, what are you waiting for? Get those writing mechanisms started!

Hasif Reviews..... SnapIt Screen Capture

   
Screen Capture Software

     So, I decided to add another segment to this blog, that is if I can continue it. This segment is meant for reviews for anything I can get my filthy hands on whether electronics, software, toys, or other junk. So for this review, it's gonna be SnapIt Screen Capture.



     So what is SnapIt for? Well, remember that time when you needed a photo. So you go find the image, save it, wait for it to download, open it up in your photo editing software. Then you realise something. It's horrible. You need to crop it. So you attempt to crop it and you fail. You undo and crop it again. After a couple of painstaking minutes you're finished. See that? Wasted time from your life! What SnapIt does is it takes a snapshot with just a click.

    When you fire it up, all you have to do is click and drag across where you want to "snapshot". A box will be formed. Anything in the box will be saved automatically! It's that easy. No more tedious cropping. Perfect for Facebookers & bloggers.

    Installation was pretty easy. Just double click and install.

The camera icon is SnapIt.

    You will be greeted by an icon in your taskbar. Right click it and you can change settings at your will.

A wide variety of options.

    Here, you can change the hotkey to trigger SnapIt. Set you path to save your images and even the image format. So let's take some test runs.

My desktop. Please excuse it's clutterness. Haven't got time to clean it up.
 Even my hard drives are almost full!

   Now, I'm showcasing SnapIt's easy feature to just click and drag over where you want to "snapshot".

        Works everywhere! I copied this image in less than 5 seconds.

    In a nutshell, I extremely recommend SnapIt Screen Capture. Its system requiremnts aren't that steep and it's a small file to download. It offers a 14 day trial before you buy. So if you can get it, go and get it. The link is at the top of this review okay?

Why it sometimes sucks to be a kid in an adult world

     Sometimes, it really sucks to be a kid in an adult world. But don't get me wrong, it's awesome to be a kid but it's just that sometimes on certain days, you just wish you weren't. These problems arises mainly because adults around you treat you unequally and look down on you. So here is why it sometimes sucks to be a kid in an adult world in my personal view:

1. Cashiers seem to just ignore you whenever you try to order something

2. Cashiers ask you too many questions when you try to buy something expensive

3.Security guards will always think of you as a shoplifter if you are not accompanied with an adult

4.Your opinion never matters, even if it's correct

5.Total strangers scold you if you're a kid but won't if you're an adult

     There!These are just five of the many gripes I have with being a kid in an adult world. So, if you're an adult, please treat kids with the same amount of respect as you would with an adult. The world would be oh so much better.