If you're still here, watching this blog, then it's about time I returned the favor. As of today, The Show and Teknolohiya will be no more - in their current states, at least. My new tech (and personal) blog will now be maintained at http://spacecowb0y.livejournal.com/. A lot has happened in the past few months, but now that things have settled in my personal and professional life, it's about time I went back to the thing I had a heck of a lot of fun doing.

With that, I bid you all farewell, and I hope to see you all on the other side. Teknolohiya will be retained online for posterity and reference (at least as long as the LiveJournal servers are up), but this is officially its final post. Thank you all for sticking with me through its good and bad times, and I hope it's still fun the second time around.


-- The Show, 12:09 PM, 24 June 2006

P.S. bluecatbashful, I'm sorry I wasted your money on a Paid Account. I'll make it up to you somehow!

Wow, I hope someone still reads this blog, because I need your help! As some of you may know, I'm moving to Cebu to seek my fortune, which means, unfortunately, that I've had to resign from my position as technology writer for a local magazine. The thing is, I'm leaving a rather significant void in terms of contribution and presence, and my boss demands that I fill it with an equally capable replacement before I leave for good.

So here's the deal. If you're someone who loves to write and is capable of fine prose, whose love and knowledge of technology covers its breadth and depth (and not just flavor-of-the-month gadgets), and want to be waist-deep in the local tech industry, then maybe this job is for you. The bottom line is, if tech writing is your passion and calling, I'm offering (and somewhat begging) you the chance to be a part of the best, most talented, and 100% Filipino magazine in the country. If you're interested, simply leave a comment with your details or e-mail me at teknolohiya [at] gmail [dot] com. Also prepare a resumé and portfolio so you and my boss have something to discuss over lunch.

To those this humble message still finds its way to, thank you for this last request. I'll make it all up to you soon once I get settled down in my new home.

Having heard the latest Inside the Net podcast where Leo and Amber have an incredible interview with Merlin Mann of 43folders.com, it got me to thinking a whole lot about Teknolohiya - what it is now, what I had originally set out to do, and where it's going. It's no secret that I'm severely lacking in posts, am barely able to keep up with my daily tech fix, and slowly slipping from my position at the forefront of technological development. There's a million and one excuses I can give to why this has happened, but something said in the podcast really hit me. It's gotten to be a grind, and it's seriously not fun anymore - so much so that I'm actually afraid of checking the news wires these days for fear that I'd find something post-worthy, yet not be able to for one reason or another. And I hate it, I really do. It used to be that I'd wake up, go through my feeds and be content knowing that I'm on top of my game, still the tech guy among my friends, still knowing my stuff better than anybody else. Now, just seeing my bookmarked sites in Firefox makes me cringe, because I know I can't look at them, can't afford to see something new or interesting because I don't have time to post about it. So I lose the post. Lose a valuable and interesting piece of information that on any other day I would have just devoured, and that would be it. Teknolohiya has become a huge responsibility, and I hate that it's now more of a burden than anything.

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So thus ends the first lifetime of Teknolohiya. I guess now is a good time as any to thank everyone who has supported this blog through seven months and 360 posts, and to reassure all of you that this is hardly an end, but merely a step in a diffrent (and hopefully better) direction. Rest assured that I'll be back healthier, smarter (I'm going to do a ton of reading and learning after I move), and altogether more prepared to tackle tech once I've figured things out. Until then, salamat, at hanggang sa muli.

7-Zip v7.32
ATI CATALYST v6.2
CleanCache v3.2
FFDShow v2006-02-03 SSE

• Only for CPUs which support SSE instructions - check with CPU-Z, a great litle program that tells you all the information related to your CPU and other components

FreshDownload v7.46
iTunes v6.0.3
Starter v5.6.2.0
TCP Optimizer v2.0.3

Phew! Doing updates like this makes me love tiny programs that get it right the first time.

Man, the Swedes have all the luck. Swedish semiconductor manufacturer Nanoradio AB has revealed the NRX700, a liliputian lowpower wi-fi chipset measuring only 20mm2. According to them, it's currently the smallest one of its kind in the market, not that consumers actually go out and shop for the smallest wi-fi chipsets at their local PC shop. The good news is that assuming it's widely accepted into the industry, then the magic of wireless Internet will find its way to the smallest next-generation gadgets and devices. Now all we need is consumer-level 100Mbps broadband like what's available in Sweden. Sigh. Due in Q3 2006, hopefully in devices by early 2007.


Smallest WiFi solution yet! [MobileMag]

I hate spiders. I mean I can stand their sight and am fascinated by their moving around in a natural environment (far away from me or behind glass), but get one of those buggers on me and I guarantee I'll be screaming like a little girl. There's something not right about a tiny bug with long, hairy legs that can kill just by poking you. It just isn't right. This creature feature right here is known as the Assassin Spider, and it gets its namesake not by terrorizing humans - but its own kin.

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These tiny arachnids in the Archaeidae family are only about 2 mm (less than 1/8 inch) long, but their bizarre fangs and spider-hunting practices have earned them a reputation as the world’s most grotesque spiders. They hunt by stabbing their prey with venom-filled fangs that are attached to the ends of extremely elongated jaws. These specialized jaws are about ten times longer than the jaws of most other spiders their size. To support these long jaws and prevent them from dragging along the ground, Assassin spiders have also evolved elongated necks. The combination allows them to strike their prey without having to approach too closely.

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Just look at it. Imagine putting your head down on your pillow at night, getting all nice and cozy, turning over on your side to sleep, then bam! One of these crawling on your bed, freakishly elongated neck and everything. I would need a new pair of pants right then and there.


Tiny Assassins [California Academy of Sciences]
Spider Assassin Numbers Grow [Discovery Channel]

Nintendo is on an absolute roll with the DS. I'm surprised they haven't made full leaps and bounds towards a complete mobile and personal device, i.e. add phone and PDA capabilities. This is a big step in the direction, nonetheless, as it puts two of the world's favorite pasttimes in an already awesome gadget - TV and web browsing. As you can see, the former is powered by an external TV tuner card that plugs into the DS, and the latter is made possible by Opera, who we know as the creators of one of the finest web browsers available. So: portability, awesome games, wi-fi, now a browser and a TV tuner - now that there's a mighty fine gadget which is constantly being improved upon that gives me great happy feeling for the upcoming Revolution.


Internet browser and digital TV tuner for the Nintendo DS [Akihabara News]

I was all set to catch up on the last few days' worth of tech, but a surprise met me during the uploading of the last post. ImageShack, Teknolohiya's image host, is currently undergoing database maintenance, and as such, everything I've ever uploaded is currently out of order (they're normally displayed in the order of uploading, last in, first out). This means that if I try uploading an image, it gets lost in my sea of nearly 330 uploaded images thus far. I was actually lucky with the iFISH image because I took a guess with it being on the last page, but I don't want to risk derailing my train of thought by having to dig for uploads rather than just uploading, cuting, pasting, and writing the post. As such, normal blogging will resume tomorrow morning, or as soon as ImageShack gets back in business. Thanks for your patience and continued patronage, and I hope you're all looking forward to the coming week in tech.

With Sony's Aibo heading for the great doghouse in the sky, companies like Sega are capitalizing on the void (if there ever was one) it left in the smart toys market. The product of all their hard work is this iFISH, their followup to the strangely popular iDOG. As to be expected from a product with such an original name, the iFISH looks like the spawn of a Mighty Mouse and a plastic CD holder. While it doesn't work in water, which comes at a great shock, it can entertain you with a bunch of other functions. Here's the lowdown:

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So we won't get stuck on what the iFISH does or doesn't do, know that it's a toy robot that responds to touch or sounds to make pre-programmed moves. It can "live" by itself or if you connect your MP3 player, it will act as a speaker and "dance" to the rhythm of the song that is playing.

The "attitude" of the iFISH is its most interesting feature. The iDOG is just a small dog that moves its head and makes noises every 30 seconds (I really had an overdose of iDOG), but the iFISH has been developped in such a way by Segatoys that it really reacts as a fish when you pick it up or when it's touched... it moves very fast in all directions, so it's really worth picking it up when it's switched on. Look at the video and you'll understand what we're talking about...

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So like they said, check out the link to see the iFISH in "action," and see if it's worth having to spend on rather than something else, like, say, real fish.


Glub glub [Akihabara News]

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The golden-mantled tree kangaroo is just one of dozens of species discovered in late 2005 by a team of Indonesian, Australian, and U.S. scientists on the island of New Guinea.

The animal is the rarest arboreal, jungle-dwelling kangaroo in the world, the researchers say. This was the first time the mammal was found in Indonesia, making it only the second site in the world where the species is known to exist.

The kangaroo was discovered on an expedition in the Foja Mountains of Indonesia.

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You know what really pisses me off, though? Look at that kangaroo's feet. It's tied up, meaning that for one reason or another, it was forcibly subdued. Don't scientists know enough to leave things well alone in these cases? The fact that they've survived this long without our intervention means that our coming into the picture is disrupting the balance that's keeping things the way they are. Sigh. Stupid humans.


Photo Gallery: "Lost World" of New Species Found in Indonesia [National Geographic]