Blog Title: gameshogun.ws BlogNetwork

(Update) When is the release of Wrath of the Lich King

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is in the horizon. Many are crazy about it with all the good (and some bad) changes that will come with it. As all WoW’ers are aware, there will be a pre-expansion patch - v3.0.x, that will go to the PTR, then to the LIVE servers a month before the release of the second expansion. In this post, I reposted my analysis and guess of the big dates, first posted in the WoW Forums and in other WoW Communities, but first, some of the features that may come with the pre-expansion patch:

• Mounts and Mini-Pets “skill” feature - no longer will your mounts and mini-pets take up bag space as these will become part of your Skills Tab (when you press ‘P’)
• Free Talent Reset
• New Talents - we’ll be able to use the new talents and everything that comes with it, like:
• Hunter Exotic Pets - Chimaera; Core hound; Devilsaur; Rhino; Silithid; Worm
• New Arenas and BGs - but these will not be usable until you reach 80 and 71 respectively (which you will need Wrath )
• We’ll get to see a new Class Icon when we create new characters (Death Knight)
• Maps will be updated - the World Map will show Northrend and Eastern Plaguelands will show the DK starting sub-zone
• World Event that will trigger a day or a week before the Release Day of Wrath - where it is rumoured that Orgrimmar and Darnassus/Stormwind will be raided by the Scourge and burned down to ashes
• Built-In Guild Calendar
• Inscription - new Profession; Can only be leveled up to 375 until Wrath release
• and many more!!

So let’s get down to business, based on my analysis and best guess, the big dates are…

Pre-Expansion Patch

• Let’s face it, any good business will at some time make a move to counter its possible main threat - Warhammer for World of Warcraft
• Any WoW player who will play Warhammer will more likely not play WoW for a couple of weeks, so
• the Pre-Expansion Patch is best seen to be released in the PTR between September 23 to October 14 (all Tuesdays);
• then Patch Day on October 21 to November 11

Possible date: between November 24 (Monday) to December 5 (Friday)

• Holiday season will start for many on 2008-Dec-16.
• The Christmas in-game event will also kick in sometime that week (I didn’t check the WoW calendar)
• Holiday season means more and more people will be on vacation, and thus, more and more players are going to log-in. This is the worst time to release WotLK, unless they will force all their employees to report on duty
• November 24 to December 5 is the best window for WotLK. Not too early for the Holiday Season and the hype is also going wildly, and not too late, considering the Pre-Expansion Patch was released just a month ago, OR a few weeks ago if the patch is released on the second possible date (letter D above)
• Late November to Early December, people should have recovered from their spending from other games and what not.
• Since they have recovered, this really makes this time-period best for WotLK, JUST BEFORE they start to spend for gifts and vacations for the Holiday season - Get them to buy before they spend their new money flow!!

Main objective here: Get as many WoW players to play WotLK as possible:
* those who played WAR - trying or sticked to it;
* those who simply stopped for whatever reason;
* those who are still active - get them to spend more;
* those new breed of players introduced through other new online games (like WAR and AoC); and
* those who never tried the game just because <put reason here> but with WotLK they’ll be tempted.

Personally? September is Warhammer Month. October will be Pre-Expansion Patch month. Then November will be WotLK release month. December will be when we all lose our lives LAWLZ!!

Update 7:11pm ACT: The World of Warcraft TBC logo in the Official Website is already half icy signaling the coming of Wrath. This was first noticed by Munty from the WoW Forums.

Then I remembered how Blizzard Entertainment makes choosing dates fun and how they leave clues (which obviously already started). I came up with the following:

If PTR will be on Sept 16 Tuesday; then
BlizzCon will happen on October 10-11 (Friday and Saturday)
We have October 14 after BlizzCon falling exactly one month after PTR and after BlizzCon.

Making October 14 the possible date for Patching 3.0.2 to the Live servers. It could also be a week later on October 21, which either way still falls closely to my predicted dates.

Now if we follow the format of Patch 2.0.1 and TBC release, then one month after October 14 is WotLK release. I can say that November 11 to December 2 is the window.

What do you think?

Originally posted a week or two ago in WoW Forums and other WoW Fan Communities. Today Soon, Patch 3.0.2 can be downloaded via the WoW Background Downloader, only signals that Patch Day is near, they are already letting their customers to download the HUGE patch.

Except where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Dekaron SEA Now On Open Beta

http://mobiusgames.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/dekaron-sea-philippines-singapore-malaysia-is-now-on-open-beta-testing/

Dekaron SEA, the newest heavy-hitter in the local online gaming scene, has been on Open Beta for a few days now. mobiusgames, the premier pioneer in the gaming industry for the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia recently announced that Dekaron SEA, “the most anticipated MMORPG of the Year” is now more massive than ever as it enters the Open Beta Testing (OBT) stage.

mobiusgames has several events and promos to keep players “gaming at the edge of [their] seats". With twice the EXP and Drop rates in effect until the OBT ends in September 23, gamers are taking the opportunity to explore and experience what has been hailed all over the world as “the most violent gaming experience online".

Dekaron is known for its visually stunning graphics and intense gameplay. Set in the savagely beautiful world of Trieste, Dekaron tells of the struggle to destroy the evil Karon (or DeKaron for short).

The OBT is FREE for everyone to join. You must have a mobiusgames account to “test your courage, join the carnage".

For more information, please visit the website @ http://dekaron.mobiusgames.net

The Google Browser - Chrome

We all have known about the possible “Google Browser” since the Google Empire revealed itself. First they showed us the (soon-to-be complete) Google Office, today, we have Google Chrome, the Empire’s own browser (and who knows, one day we’ll see a Google OS).

Check it out in our review: Google Joins the Browser War.

Better Photo Tools for You

We take a look at Google’s latest upgrade to Picasa - Picasa 3.0 Beta and the new Picasa Web Albums. The new features alone will make you to switch to Picasa completely, using it for your offline photo needs like retouching, watermarking, photo viewing, and many more. Together with the new Picasa Web Albums features, you now have one Photo Suite for all your needs and sharing needs.

Check out our feature article: The New Picasa Web Albums and Picasa 3.0 Beta.

The New Picasa Web Albums and Picasa 3.0 Beta

Google is in an Anniversary spirit as they release new projects and upgrades one after another. This time it is Google Picasa 3.0 Beta and Google Picasa Web Albums.

I’ve been a long-time user of both products (other than being a Google fan) and I can say that these products are now better and up-to-date. First is Picasa Web Albums new features:

Name Tags

“Gives you the power to quickly label and organize your photos based on who’s in each picture.” It uses face recognition technology to detect who’s who in your photos so you can tag easily.

Creative Commons licensing

Finally, I think I’ve emailed them 10x already for CC licensing in Picasa Web Albums (and I’m sure millions more are bugging them for this feature). However, I still can not find a way to search photos in Picasa Web Albums based on its “license", similar to what Yahoo!’s Flickr offers.

Just a fair warning, if you do not own the uploaded material, do not forget to change its license to Copyright/All Rights Reserved if in case, your setting is CC by default.

Email Upload

For those whose online lives revolves around their Email, or maybe you want to upload photos you’ve taken with your Mobile Phone, this is good news for you. After you setup your Picasa Web Albums account for Email Upload, you can just send photos to YOUR-GALLERY-URL.YOUR-SECRET-WORD@picasaweb.com. Photos will then be places in your ‘Drop Box’ folder unless you specify an existing album’s name as the subject of your email.

Explore Page

The Explore Page shows the latest uploaded pictures in the Picasa Web world, featured photos, popular tags, and even a mini game wherein you have to guess where the photo was taken!

This is a great way to discover new photos and friends, however, I suggest that they add more features and make this the default page of Picasa Web Albums - and add a Creative Commons section.

Picasa 3.0 Beta

Currently, Picasa 3.0 Beta is only available in the US but I got a copy The new features are:

• Sync to Web - automatically updates online albums when you add or edit photos on your computer
• Picasa movie maker
• Totally-revamped photo collages
• Powerful retouching tool
• Watermarks/Text tool
• Picasa photo Viewer
• Instant Screen Capture
• Print captions
• Drop Box to upload quickly to Picasa Web Albums
• Control Picasa Web Albums settings from Picasa 3
• Move around folders right from Picasa 3

Picasa 3.0 and Picasa Web Albums are more closer this time than Picasa 2 and the old Picasa Web Albums. The Synch to Web itself was what I want to suggest to Google (but never really did) to make it easier to synchronize my local copy and online copy. Picasa Web Albums is my desktop’s (online) extension. Another new feature that I really like and wished - (Picasa) Photo Viewer, see the screenshot below:

Here’s another new feature related to the screenshot above - Picasa Screen Capture and Picasa Watermarks/Text tool. After you are done with retouching, editing, watermarking, just upload it or move it to a folder in auto-sync with your Picasa Web Albums and voila, you are done!

There are more into Picasa 3 and the new Picasa Web Albums than what I have presented. I myself is once again a new student of Picasa, so just keep watch on the official blog as they will start their Picasa 3 series.

Download Picasa 3.0 Beta NOW!! (via Picasa 3 Google Groups)

Except where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.

(Update #3) Google Joins the Browser War

Google launch their FLOSS (Free/Libre Open-Source Software) Browser called Google Chrome based on the following FLOSS projects:

• Layout Engine: WebKit - the same layout engine found in Safari 3.1.0 (which is old - more below)
• Rich Internet Application (RIA): Google Gears
• JavaScript Engine: Google V8
• Graphics Library: Skia Graphic Library (SGL) [source: Aha]
• Project Behind Chrome: Chromium

We can assume that websites will appear similar as it is in Safari 3.1.0, however this isn’t the case after testing it out myself (more on that later).

Downloading Google Chrome Windows Beta

On the positive side, kudos to Google for including a Filipino UI-language for Chrome, a second kudos for using the legally correct language name “Filipino” and not “Tagalog". But they should have asked a Filipino to do the translations (more on this).

Installation

So let’s begin to dig deeper in to Google Chrome, things you may not read anywhere.

First load of Google Chrome v0.2 Windows Beta

Import from Firefox as default?!

I do not know if it’s just me but upon installation of Google Chrome, it asked me to import from Mozilla Firefox but never with other browsers especially Internet Explorer. Is this intentional? If it is, then it shows that they are targetting Firefox users and not Internet Explorer. Just weird ^_^

Oh noes… Chrome using an old version of WebKit? or not..

Theoretically, if Google Chrome is using WebKit as its layout engine, then it should display websites using CSS3 the way these are displayed in Safari 3.1.2. However, one will wonder why it isn’t, as shown in the screenshot below:

CSS3 via Chrome 0.2

Compare it with Safari 3.1.2:

CSS3 via Safari 3.1.2

Here’s a list of CSS properties that are not working perfectly or not-at-all:

• @font-face - not working
• border-radius - not working perfectly
• box-shadow - not working perfectly
• text-shadow - not working

Could it be that the WebKit version Chrome was built upon is an old version of the layout engine? Then it is only right that we expect Google to use the latest WebKit for Chrome’s next release. Or maybe they just disabled support for those properties?

Update (6:13pm ACT): Was able to confirm that Google Chrome v0.2 is using an old version of WebKit, which is the same as Safari 3.1.0. Safari 3.1.2 on the other hand is using the latest version of the said FLOSS layout engine. It could be the reason why CSS3 properties doesn’t look the same between Google Chrome 0.2 and Safari 3.1.2, but I haven’t dig that deeper.

Google got it right… ‘Filipino’ not ‘Tagalog’

If you go to Options -> Minor Tweaks -> “Change font and language settings” -> Languages, you can change the default UI-language of Chrome to your own language. In the Google Chrome language drop-down, it is listed there ‘Filipino’ and not ‘Tagalog’.

This is a good thing because ‘Filipino’ is the legal and official language of the Philippines not ‘Tagalog’. A Filipino may argue that the said language is ‘Tagalog’ mostly but this wasn’t the plan of the Government and until now, it is still being ignored (it was supposed to integrate words and phrases from other major Philippine dialects not just Tagalog dialect). But let’s not go to that topic.

Here’s what you get

Google Chrome in Filipino

Let Filipinos translate Google Chrome for you..

That is my suggestion, let Filipinos do the translation for you. Here are examples:

• “Please close all Chrome windows and restart Chrome for this change to take effect.”
  
  • Google: “Mangyaring isara ang lahat ng Chrome windows at i-restart ang Chrome upang makaapekto para sa pagbabago.”
  • My translation: “Mangyaring isara ang lahat ng Chrome windows at i-restart ang Chrome upang umepekto ang mga bagong setting.”
• “Downloads”
  
  • Google: “Mga download”
  • My translation: “Downloads” (there is no need to change this really)
• “Clear browsing data…”
  
  • Google: “Limasin ang pag-browse data…
  • My translation: “Linisin ang browsing data…” or “Linisin ang data ng pag-browse…”
• “Options”
  
  • Google: “Mga pagpipilian”
  • My translation: “Options” (no need to change this also)

And many more… Let’s be fair, we can assume that the Filipino translation was made by a machine because if you have noticed, the translation is word-by-word instead of meaning-by-meaning. There are also translations that doesn’t really need to be translated like ‘Options’, ‘Downloads’, ‘Help’ (translated as ‘Tulong’), and ‘Exit’ (translated as ‘Lumabas’) to mention a few.

(* I am not saying I am better with doing the translation, I am not, but I can say that Filipinos can do it better than a machine )

To Google Chrome team, hire Filipinos to help in making Chrome’s Filipino translation better. It must be a translation based on a casual day-to-day Filipino conversation.

Thank you very much for the Filipino support and for using the legal and official Philippine language name. Kudos!!

Recently closed tabs…

I like the way Chrome presents the “recently closed tabs” - it is under the “Recent bookmarks” when opening a new empty tab, as shown:

This is a built-in feature of Chrome, something other browsers lack or is available only via addons/extensions.

Detailed History

Google Chrome offers for you to track down websites you visited in a long list, divided by days, and each website labeled with the time you visited it.

No Unicode-URL support

It is sad that Chrome’s first public release does not offer Unicode-URL support like http://例子.测试 it shows as http://xn–fsqu00a.xn–0zwm56d/; http://مثال.آزمایشی/ shows as http://xn–mgbh0fb.xn–hgbk6aj7f53bba/.

Maybe not important for English speakers but if they want to dominate early, they should have implemented Unicode-URL support already. Google knows that there is a huge market out there in the non-native English speaking world.

No GNU/Linux and Mac support… yet

Finally, there is no Linux and Mac support yet. If you visit Google Chrome’s website using Linux or Mac, you will get an email sign-up field so they can contact you upon availability of Chrome for your platform.

But once Chrome is available for Linux and Mac, will it compete head-on with Konqueror (layout engine: KHTML - where WebKit was based from) and Safari, respectively? Probably, Google Chrome could very well be the browser that will conquer all three platforms - GNU/Linux, Apple Mac, and Microsoft Windows. We haven’t even considered the Mobile market yet, Google can and will definitely integrate Chrome with Android.

STOP!

Sorry, there is no STOP Button in Google Chrome at the moment….
Update (4:38 ACT): The STOP Button shows up instead of the GO Button when the page is loading. It is in the right-most part of the Address Bar.

Remember, this is only version 0.2 of Google Chrome. It is in its (public) Beta phase and we should expect bugs, missing ‘common’ or ‘fundamental’ features, and may fall beyond your expectations and standard. Give it enough time to mature and keep posting your suggestions in different blogs, forums, websites, mailing lists, groups, and send it as well to Google.

Download Google Chrome here.

Except where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.

(Update) Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, and World of Warcraft Philippines

While surfing around, I came across game-specific blogs dedicated to its existing or upcoming players. These blogs are maintained by two of the popular Gamer-Bloggers in the Philippines. But first the games - Age of Conan Philippines, Warhammer Online Philippines, and World of Warcraft Philippines.

No, these are not official websites, these are fansites - blogs to be exact. It is investing in popular IPs by creating websites which will later have advertisements, forums, and hopefully a vibrant and supportive community. It is about tapping that potential Community who are not being catered by anyone, for example World of Warcraft players who are in the Philippines or the Filipinos.

The World of Warcraft Philippines blog is being handled by Carlo Ople with theme designed by Kiven Codamon.

Next is Warhammer Online Philippines, managed by Kiven Codamon, quoting from their about page:

Pinoy Warhammer is the first and leading Warhammer Online MMORPG source for Filipinos.

We are fans of the Warhammer games and of the franchise itself and We are doing this because of our love for the game. Other notable MMORPGs we spent our lives on are: World of Warcraft, City of Heroes/Villains, EverQuest 2, Ultima Online, Lineage 2, Ragnarok Online, Perfect World, RF Online, Age of Conan, Dungeon Runners, Hellgate: London, Mythos and a ton of console and handheld games.

Finally, Age of Conan Philippines also by Kiven. This is how I discovered all the other blogs mentioned (and not mentioned) above. Instead of seeing the “official” AoC-PH website, I instead arrived in a fanblog. The design is the basic theme of Wordpress, either the project was dropped due to the announcement of an Official Age of Conan distribution and support locally or the theme is still being designed by Kiven. An update on AoC from Kiven:

For the age of conan blog, mejo tinatamad na kasi most people i know playing AoC right now is waiting for Warhammer Online. =)

All three fansites are hosted on Skaizer, a Dreamhost reseller a host offering Wordpress service for local Filipinos. I noticed one thing from their list of clients, majority are working for Level-Up or are Level-Up blogs as well as Inquirer their clients are Level Up! Inc., Freestyle Online Philippines, Codamon, Waukster, GMtristan, Game! Magazine, Hinge Inquirer Publications, PC Magazine Philippines, Abuggedlife, Mar Roxas, and many more popular companies, products, portals, and bloggers - I’m sure you are familiar with most or all of those mentioned.

I can only assume that Skaizer is a hosting service by Level-Up, Inquirer, joint-venture, or someone who have connections to both companies and its employees. Now of course, it is possible that those listed were hand-picked, so it could be anything. Not related according to Kiven.

Here are the whois information of all sites:

And the links:
Skaizer
Age of Conan Philippines (a fansite)
Warhammer Online Philippines (a fansite)
World of Warcraft Philippines (a fansite)

Congratulations and best of luck to all fanblogs. Im glad to see people seeing value in creating portals, fansites, Communities around games and each IPs. Something the now defunct PhilGaming.Community did (which even had an upcoming wiki for each games). I hope the rest of the Filipino Gamers see the value as well and start creating fansites and portals for those things that they love.

Except where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Browser War II has started... Safari fired the first shot!!

Do you know that Browser War II already started? Safari fired first by leading the implementation of new properties to make designing a website much more easier than before. Guess who’s being left behind? IE of course, but rumours are abound on how IE8 is shaping up to overtake Firefox and Opera.

In this article, we will take a look at what CSS Level 3 can provide us in designing websites and which browsers are leading and being left behind.

Read it here…

What you are missing with your browser

Do you know that you are missing a lot with your current browser? Take a loot at this screenshot taken from this game review:

The screenshot above was produced by a browser, it wasn’t done by any image editing tool like GIMP. It is natural. Can’t believe that it is possible?

Well, you should, and you are going to miss more and more such new features as we move closer to CSS Level 3 (aka CSS3). Currently, the browser with the most implementation of CSS3 is Apple’s Browser - Safari 3.x line. That’s correct, the screenshot above was from Safari 3.

I am not telling you to make the switch, as long as you are not using Internet Explorer, you’ll be fine. Firefox 3’s next upgrade v3.1 is already testing the features out. Opera is said to be experimenting with it already for Opera 10. IE8? No news and I’m not counting an early implementation from that browser (until they’re forced to because they’re losing users to their competitors - so make that switch! You don’t know how hard it is for us web designers to make the site appear fine in IE!!).

Btw, I do not know of any WYSIWYG that offers CSS3 support yet, CSS3 is still in development and only a few of its modules are near finalization. So for now, we’ll get down to the codes itself.

Gimme a Curve!

Many web designers have been dreaming of this feature, some used JavaScript to achieve the curved border corners, while some did it the old-fashioned way - lots of images.

With CSS3, a new property was/or will be introduced: “border-radius“. In my example above, I have it as

Code:

but that doesn’t work yet since it isn’t finalized, you have to add/use:

Code:

-moz for Gecko based browsers like Firefox; and -webkit for Webkit based browsers like Safari

Be sure to include the base form border-radius in case Opera and IE implements it, especially that the two mentioned browsers do not have their own CSS prefix (Opera used to be -o, then -opera; while for IE, I remember reading about -ie or -ie8, but I can not find that article anymore).

Known to work with: Firefox 3.x; Safari 3.x

CSS3 (via Firefox 3.0.1)

Gimme a Shadow!

“box-shadow” and just like the previous property, you have to use -moz-box-shadow and -webkit-box-shadow. My setup in my example:

Code:

However, for Mozilla, it will only work for Firefox 3.1 where it is currently being tested.

Known to work with: Firefox 3.1+; Safari 3.x

CSS3 (via Firefox 3.1a2)

Gimme text-shadow too!!

You got it already! The CSS3 Property is “text-shadow“! My setup:

Code:

For this property, you do not need the -moz and -webkit prefixes, it will work as it is in it’s correct format. This one works with Opera 9.51 as well.

Known to work with: Firefox 3.1+; Opera 9.51+; Safari 3.x

CSS3 (via Opera 9.51)

I also have another secret. If you are using Safari 3.x and Firefox 3.1.x, you may have noticed how your browser can display my Headline font which you know that you do not have. The secret is the ‘@font-face‘ CSS property which was actually introduced in CSS Level 2 (aka CSS2). The @font-face property was reported to be working on Opera 9.5x but I can’t get it to work (so probably it was in Opera 10).

Other browsers than IE only recently supported this ‘at’ property, Apple started the revival with the release of Safari 3. @font-face was proposed by the MSIE team and was accepted by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). However, for IE, they only support the EOT format and not TTF (TrueType Format) or OTF (OpenType Font), but details of this is for another discussion.

My code is simple:

Code:

The ‘local’ parameter is used in case the font is installed in the visitor’s machine, if not, it will fetch the font from the ‘URL’ as defined by the author. The ‘format’ is used to make it easy for the user’s browser to determine the type of the font. As simple as that. @font-face is an advance property, there are more uses to it than I presented above (and I am actually enjoying it in my test server). I will present some test cases of it sometime Or you can Google it..

A fair warning to you, be careful when “embedding” fonts into your webpages (it is not literally ‘embedding’ but that is the term used since). There are licenses to be followed and respected. To check, just right click then choose properties of the font file you want to upload. Under the Emdedding tab, it should say “Installable….” That is the only time you can upload a font and link it as shown in my example.

There are some exeptions to this depending on the Font License offered. Some do not have “Installable…” in the Font Properties Embedding tab, but somewhere on the Font’s official website is a clause that states you can use it for “@font-face” or “Web-fonts” or “Web Embedding". Be also mindful of the other clauses like giving credits back, as what I did for the font I am using for this blog (see above code).

That’s it for now - CSS3, things to come and things you can already use.

Have fun and enjoy!!

References:
CSS3 from W3C - World Wide Web Consortium
CSS3 Previews from CSS3.info - Keep up-to-date with anything CSS3
exljbris Font Foundry - creator of the font Fertigo Pro

Live Sample (test in order = Firefox 3.0.1 -> Opera 9.51 -> Firefox 3.1a2 -> Safari 3.1.2):
Secret Maryo Chronicles - from Libre Game World

Except where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.

OpenDisc, burnfree, and Ubuntu Internet Cafe

This is not really a review, but I think in a way it is. I posted about back in 2008-Aug-17 about three services I found that will be very useful for the everyone especially for the Filipinos - OpenDisc, a compilation of FLOSS applications; burnfree, a service where you can get your free GNU/Linux distros; and Ubuntu Internet Cafe, an iCafe package that will give you a chance to enter the lucrative iCafe business using Ubuntu.

Read about it here.

Asean Final Medal Tally for the Beijing 2008 Olympics

The Beijing 2008 Olympics has ended two days ago. Over at Asia’s Perfect 10 blog we followed the Medal Tally for the Asean Countries as well as the two countries seeking full membership - Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste.

Check out the final tally and the results of the first ever Olympics Special Event at Asean Citizens.

(Update) Beijing 2008 Olympics Asean Medal Tally

Update 2008-08-27 Wed: Corrected the medal count and added the Malaysia to the list, which was correctly tallied in the original Asean Tally page. Thanks to Global Voices Online, I re-checked the count (the tally was done manually ).

The Beijing 2008 Olympics closed at 12:21am of 2008-08-25 Monday, the Closing Ceremony started at 08:08pm of 2008-08-24 Sunday, ACT (Asean Common Time). [Note: ACT and China Local Time are both UTC+0800, no DST.] The next Summer Olympics will be on 2012, London, England (for the 3rd time!)

But before we get excited about London 2012 Olympics, here are the Asean Beijing 2008 Olympics Final Medal Tally, the updates that transpired, and the results of the Wushu Special Event during the Olympics.

(Trivia: The International Olympics Committee never allowed any other competitions in the host city during the Olympics - 1 Week Before up to 1 Week After. The Wushu Competition was allowed due to the fact that it is embedded in the Chinese culture. This is a first in Olympics history, and Wushu is on a bid to be part of the 2012 Olympics.)

Congratulations to All Asean Athletes! The same goes to the Special Olympics Event (the first in Olympic history) - Wushu.

Wushu Medal Tally

• Asean Total - 1 Gold; 4 Silver; 9 Bronze = 14 Medals
• Indonesia - 1 Bronze = 1 Medal
• Malaysia - 2 Silver; 3 Bronze = 5 Medals
• Philippines - 1 Gold; 1 Silver; 2 Bronze = 4 Medals
• VietNam - 1 Silver; 3 Bronze = 4 Medals

Under the Taolu discipline:

• Men’s Nanquan & Nangun combined
  
  • Willy Wang (PHI) won Gold
  • Pui Fook Chien (MAS) won Bronze
• Men’s Jianshu & Qiangshu combined
  
  • Lim Yew Fai (MAS) won Silver
  • Nguyen Huy Thanh (VIE) won Bronze
• Women’s Daoshu & Gunshu combined
  
  • Chai Fong Wei (MAS) won Bronze
• Women’s Nanquan & Nandao combined
  
  • Diana Bong Siong Lin (MAS) won Bronze
• Women’s Jianshu & Qiangshu combined
  
  • Nguyen Mai Phuong (VIE) won Bronze
• Women’s Taijiquan & Taijijian combined
  
  • Chai Fong Ying (MAS) won Silver

Under the Sanshou discipline:

• Men’s 56kg
  
  • Benjie Rivera (PHI) won Bronze
• Women’s 52kg
  
  • Mary Jane Estimar (PHI) won Silver
  • Nguyen Thuy Ngan (VIE) won Bronze
• Women’s 60kg
  
  • Luong Thi Hoa (VIE) won Silver
  • Mariane Mariano (PHI) won Bronze

Nation				Total
ASEAN (Grand Total)	3	6	3	12
Indonesia [INA]	1	1	3	5
Malaysia [MAS]	0	1	0	1
Singapore [SIN]	0	1	0	1
Thailand [THA]	2	2	0	4
VietNam [VIE]	0	1	0	1

Updates Summary from Asean 2008 Olympics Medal Tally

Except where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Secret Maryo Chronicles

Our first Game Focus is Secret Maryo Chronicles, a FLOSS Game developed in C++ and using OpenGL as its graphics engine. If you are familiar with Super Mario Bros. (which you are), then you will be hooked playing Secret Maryo Chronicles.

Read about it only at Libre Game World.

Secret Maryo Chronicles

Status:
Category:

Singleplayer:
Multiplayer:
Platform:

Commercial
Side-Scroller

Yes
n/a

Game Site:
Dev/GSP:

License:
Bus. Type:
Retail Price:

secretmaryo.org
SMC Team

FLOSS
n/a
free-of-charge

Rating/Review

I was looking for a FLOSS version, clone, or adaptation of Nintendo®’s Super Mario Bros.™, the first console game I played with my first and only console platform - the Nintendo Family Computer (released 1984 in the Philippines, after the massive product recall of the first version). I found Tux-related versions, however, as cute as Penguins are and a Linux user myself, I still want something closer to the original ‘SMB’. I found Secret Maryo Chronicles.

The Game

Secret Maryo Chronicles or SMC was inspired by SMB, instead of creating a FLOSS remake they created a completely new one using C++ as the underlying language and OpenGL as its graphics engine. They used sprites from SMB in the past versions but they are replacing these with new ones as they become available (you can help). The game is familiar and yet more challenging. Just like SMB, it is a 2D side-scroller game, you run, you jump, you bump or break boxes and woods, collect coins, name it. What makes SMC different are the new features.

New Items and Features

There is now a Blue Mushroom that will transform Maryo into an Ice Maryo and shoot up Iceballs. Mobs immune to Fireballs will be frozen (and killed) with Iceballs. There is also the Ghost Mushroom that turns Maryo into a Ghost - hidden to all Enemies, which will also enable Maryo to see hidden Ghost Blocks which takes you to hidden areas and other valuable items. There is also the Moon which gives 3 Lives (very hard to acquire one tho).

Create your own World and Levels

For the Level Designers or those who wants to learn to be one, just press F8 to open the SMC Level/World Editor. Serious Level Designers can submit their levels to SMC and if approved, will eventually be added to the game or as a downloadable from the website. The power of the Community maximized in SMC. There are many Community created levels in SMC, some are fun and easy while others are very challenging.

Stars: 9 out of 10

For adding original ideas, letting the Community take part in its development (no, not just in the code itself but in the Levels), and the BGMs, I give SMC 9 out of 10 Stars. However, I think SMC need more ‘SMC’ BGMs instead of ‘SMB’ remixes, other than that, it is a must installed game to every PC in the world.

Conclusion

These are but a few of what Secret Maryo Chronicles has to offer, and being a FLOSS Game, we can only expect more exciting features, levels, and FUN as development continues. This is one of the many FLOSS Games that are being actively developed, so there is no worry about the project dying out in a few months or years (and I doubt a game like SMC will just disappear and forgotten).

Except where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.

CHEAP iCafe Investment and Get your FREE Linux CD

Found three cool sites, no awesome sites, that sure will be helpful for all the Filipinos, especially the Free/Libre Open-Source Software (FLOSS) Community. A Linux iCafe offering, Free CD and DVD Burning, and OpenDisc.

More after the jump…

First, OpenDisc (http://theopendisc.com):

OpenDisc is a high quality collection of [Free/Libre] Open-Source Software ([FL]OSS) for the Microsoft Windows operating system.

The two main goals of the project are:

• To provide a free (both free-of-charge and freedom) alternative to costly software, with equal or often better quality equivalents to proprietary, shareware, or freeware software for Microsoft Windows.
• To educate users of Linux as an operating system for home, business, and educational use.

The majority of programs featured on OpenDisc are also available on Linux.

Some of the FLOSS application included that I personal tried and/or using are:

• Blender - advanced 3D graphics modeling program (used by many animation companies, some or most of which you’ve probably watched in DVD and the Cinema)
• The GIMP - the image manipulation program used to design GNU/Linux Logo - the Tux
• Inkscape - easy to use vector graphics editor that uses the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format (If you are not aware, SVG is the standard format for vector images today.)
• Scribus - a professional desktop publishing application, with a combination of “press-ready” output and new approaches to page layout
• FileZilla - definitely way better than JetCar/FlashGet (JetCar or FlashGet is NOT a FLOSS application, there are known issues raised that are not being addressed by its Mainland Chinese developers)
• Mozilla Firefox - best browser on the planet (what else?)
• Pidgin - free (as in free-of-charge and freedom) alternative to Trillian, as simple as that
• RSSOwl - XML Feed Reader that can read the XML Feed Standard Atom and the non-standard RSS
• Mozilla Thunderbird - Mozilla’s Email client
• Audacity - sound editing program
• Stellarium - a planetarium for your computer (where Microsoft got the idea to create their own version after Stellarium got very popular)
• VLC media player - play any audio and video, no need to download Codecs
• GnuCash - financial-accounting software
• OpenOffice.org - uses the ISO Standard OpenDocument Format (ODF)
• 7-Zip - your free (free-of-charge and freedom) File Zip utility (no more cracking or annoying pop-ups reminding you to pay coz you are violating using an illegal copy already, common with WinRAR and WinZIP)
• and many more not included in my/this list…

Second, BurnFree (http://burnfree.com.ph):

We’d like to make meaning among Filipinos and make a contribution to Filipinos regardless of class (upper, middle, lower). How? We believe that the average Filipino has either a digital camera and/or a camera phone. Either he/she doesn’t have access to a PC or a Mac - which prohibits him/her from importing, saving, and organizing digital pictures - or he/she simply doesn’t have the time to import, save, and organize digital pictures. We make picture slideshows for free (limited number of pictures) or a fee (greater number of pictures), then we save them to a CD/DVD. We also do straight copy (jpeg) for free or a fee. Also for free, we burn other forms of data that are nto subject to copyright laws.

What other forms of data? Mostly FLOSS applications, distributions (aka ‘distros’), and the likes. Example, you can ask them to burn you a copy for free of the latest version of GNU/Linux Ubuntu flavor or maybe Kubuntu (if you like a Windows-like interface), or other distros they currently have. Saves you from downloading a 600mb to 700mb ISO file which you have to burn into a CD first before you can install it.

Finally, Ubuntu iCafe (http://ubuntu.icafebusiness.com):

Now, you don’t need to worry about licenses!

The Ubuntu Internet Cafe is now in the Philippines! Let us accept the fact that there are still many Internet Cafes in the Philippines who are using pirated Windows. Ok, it’s not bad to have a business. But your business must be 100% legal.

And puts your business in high risk for Anti-Piracy Raids, which will, if you do not know how to negotiate, cost you all your machines to be confiscated. Or buy the expensive MS Windows OS, which today you can only buy the much more expensive Windows Vista (Windows XP is not available anymore).

Their currently available Ubuntu iCafe packages are the P63K and P61K with the following specs:

• 5 PCs
  
  • AMD Athlon 64-bit 2.2 GHz Processor
  • 1gb Kingston RAM
  • New 256mb Chip G-Force Video for faster game play
  • 80gb (SATA type for gaming) HDD
• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Headset (only for P63K)
• Webcam (only for P63K)
• Free: 17″ Monitor (second hand with warranty)
• Optional: 256mb G-Force Sparkle Video Card @ P1,000.00/PC

The expected ROI (Return of Investment) according to them is 5 to 6 months. Not bad in my opinion, and if you are worrying about if local online games, international online games, and games popularly played here in the Philippines will work under Ubuntu, worry not as gameshogun.ws is currently reviewing and studying different games and how to install them successfully in Ubuntu. Of course, Ubuntu iCafe also did their research and study and will provide free training courses for managing your new Ubuntu iCafe business.

Dare to be different? Dare to be a PIONEER? Get your own Ubuntu iCafe NOW!!

Watch out for our review and installation guides of games for GNU/Linux Ubuntu at Libre Game World blog.

Source: Ubuntu Philippines

Except where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Dekaron SEA Now On Closed Beta

http://dekaron.mobiusgames.net

According to mobiusgames, Dekaron SEA is now on Closed Beta for the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia. The internationally bestselling mmorpg went live on Closed Beta last Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 1600H (Philippine Time). Playing the game, as well as registration for the Closed Beta, is absolutely free.

Though beset with connectivity problems for the first couple of hours, the game has been running smoothly since Day 1. CBT period will last until August 26, 2008.

mobiusgames has several events, and promos for CBT players to enjoy in order for them to experience the game fully during the short period of time that is the duration of the CBT. Rewards will be awarded during the Open Beta period.

Check out the press release from their blog: http://mobiusgames.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/dekaron-on-cbt-today/

(UPDATE) Surface of the Federal Republic of the Philippines Resolution

The Federal Republic of the Philippines - is it really in the horizon? It appears so now that the Senate issued the “Senate Joint Resolution No. 10” which proposes 1 Federal Administrative Region and 11 Federal States.

A total of 16 Senators approved SJR#10 which is a call “to convene the congress into a Constituent Assembly for the purpose of revising the Constitution to establish a Federal System of Government".

Pimentel said the federalization of the republic is meant to accomplish two main goals: 1. Cause the speedy development of the entire country by unleashing the forces of competitiveness among the component federal states, and 2. Dissipate the causes of rebellion in the country, particularly in Mindanao.

More after the jump…

The SJR#10 was authored by Senator Aquilino Q. Pimentel and signed by:

• Senate President Manny Villar
• Senator Edgardo J. Angara
• Senator Rodolfo G. Biazon
• Senator “Companera” Pia S. Cayetano
• Senator Juan Ponce Enrile
• Senator Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero
• Senator Jinggoy P. Ejercito-Estrada
• Senator Gregorio B. Honasan II
• Senator Panfilo M. Lacson
• Senator Francis N. Pangilinan
• Senator Ramon A. Revilla Jr.
• Senator Juan Miguel F. Zubiri
• Senator Manuel “Lito” M. Lapid
• Senator Loren B. Legarda
• Senator Benigno S. Aquino III

“The federal proposal will hopefully provide a just and lasting redress of the grievances of the powerless and the neglected sectors of society, like the Moro peoples of Mindanao,” the opposition senator said in a keynote address at the seminar on federalism hereunder the auspices of the UP Center for Local and Regional Governance/National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP CLRG/NCPAG) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Manila Southwoods, Golf Country Club, Carmona, Cavite.

This table shows us the States of the Federal Republic of the Philippines.

“The move to federalize the country is not simply a ‘political’ undertaking. It is also an economic effort. By creating 11 federal states and by converting Metro Manila as a federal administrative region, we immediately establish 12 centers of power, finance and development throughout the country,” Pimentel said.

In contrast, he said that under the existing unitary system that has characterized the government for centur