Connecting the PC to the TV

If both the TV and the PC hardware support has at least a VGA/HDMI port, and a 3.5mm audio out jack on the PC (may be simply labeled as “headphones”), it is possible to watch videos on the TV without the need for an additional monitor for the PC. This usually means that most CRT TVs (old ones especially) don’t have it without using adapters that are bulky, messy, and output video quality is decreased from the original video.

The hardware configuration is more important than the operating system, which determines how good the video plays back. It’s best if no conversion is needed just to play the video, so a Pentium 4 PC or older is obviously out if you want a smooth playback of a video that is at least 720p. I have a Pentium 2 PC with 384MB of RAM on Windows XP (upgraded from 64MB on Windows 95), and it’s already struggling with any low-res video. In general, any PC in the 2nd-hand store that are from the 2006-era or more recent is capable of playing it smoothly and very likely to come with a LAN port (more below) or an audio port. (You might consider a new one or changing the built-in video card if you want hardware that plays 1080p smoothly)

Unless you watch videos online (eg. YouTube XL) or want to watch videos stored on an another PC, internet connection is optional. Well, you could also transfer files by a removable media, but that would be more of a hassle, especially if you are using anything that uses the USB ports and there are only 2 connectors at the back with none at the front. If you must connect it to a network, you would also need a router: wireless is good if you don’t want the hassle of wires, but might be slower than the wired counterparts and a chance of loss/interference of the signal.

As for the operating system, I would recommend sticking to what it comes with, though I would recommend a Linux distribution if you want to save costs and avoid certain annoyance, and stand out from what is common. And, if you choose to connect it online, you might also want to disable automatic updates by at least changing it to updating it manually.

Programs that I would recommend playing the video are XBMC and VLC player as these are cross-platform programs. On Windows, you could also install codecs to make existing players able to decode how certain video and/or audio formats are stored as and play them back that are not included in the OS out of the box. The problem with this is that it’s messy and non-geeks would expect a player or application, only to find none until they realized that it “enhanced” the existing (default) player.

Almost forgot: controls. Generally, you can use the standard controllers, wireless ones you can hold with only one hand would be good, but not so for mouse functions.

Inclusion, unless you have old PC hardware lying around that you don’t want to throw away, use a dedicated hardware player instead.

By the way, support for IE6 by Microsoft has ended as at 1 March 2010. I’m not condemning it, but the explorer and the operating system that came with it (Windows XP) has is almost a decade old! And businesses are still using it, despite both having preceded by 2 newer versions… Support for Windows XP SP3 ends in 8 April 2014, 12.5 years after it’s released… Other operating systems don’t usually last that long.

469th post: Recalling Memories

Have you wondered why you could not recall your dreams, but could when you just woke up? I’m not an expert, but these dreams are based on what you have already seen, so they are just playbacks and are therefore not “recorded”.

Since our memories are recorded in some unknown ways that might vary on top of having so many things already inside. If you have been doing/staring@ it for a long time or if it’s significant enough, you would remember it. However, if you think too much on trying not to remember it, you would remember it anyway.

This is not recalling on exactly how many tiny insects like ants we have stepped on at a particular area or the MD5 hash code of a particular file, but how effective/detailed we learn and recall things depends several things: familiarity, duration, age, health, location, distractions, and other things. In general, the most recent can be recalled easily, but one from a long time ago has to be significant enough for you to remember it. Sometimes, you do remember it, but you don’t think of it at all until something related triggers it. However, since this get shuffled around and compressed, we might not remember other details that you saw but did not pay attention to. Do you even remember what was the person sitting 7 seats to your left at the side opposite you in a crowded train was wearing, holding, talking to, or whether that person alighted after or before you? If you have never seen this person before and nothing significant happens, you won’t remember that person. Even more likely to not pay attention if this happened on a typical day.

This is the way we remember things: process everything that comes in, get rid of what seemed insignificant, and what is left behind is what you remember. If something new happens, the older memory might have some or all parts removed to make way for the new memory. If it happens too frequently, you don’t even pay attention until you are uprooted from what you are already used to.

Speaking of meeting someone, say you attended an entrance ceremony or the first day of something like college in the sea of unfamiliar people in a place unfamiliar to you back then. Then you meet someone after that would eventually become friends or at least your classmates. The thing is: can you recall seeing that friend prior to the commencement of the entrance ceremony? If that person didn’t stand out, you probably won’t remember. I didn’t say “during the ceremony”, since you might have looked around out of boredom long enough to remember some faces that eventually become your friends.

I know I had dreams of something before that ranges from [forgot] to [forgot], but some strange ones somehow woke me up and actually felt as though I was falling somehow, but didn’t even fall off the bed. But if my sleep, that had a dream, was interrupted, I can’t get myself to resume it even if I knew what the dream was. Another reason why I don’t like my sleep interrupted and need a duration longer than the interrupted duration to make up for it, as long that sleep wasn’t interrupted.

Wait, what am I writing? I think somebody showing me a photo of a shopping cart at the beach partially submerged by the sea water had some effects like me dreaming about the internet. Ugh… This post should have been published 9 days ago too.

463rd post: Seijin no Hi

Recently, I’ve tweeted that 11 January this year was my coming-of-age day (成人の日). It’s for people who turn 20 in the current acedemic year (April 2009 to March 2010), as 20 is the official age in Japan where one is recognized as an adult and as a full-fledged member of the society. The ceremony was held at the city town hall. My legs became numb from sitting in the same position for quite a long time. In fact, I found my head swinging around and leaning on the shoulder of the person next to me. （;￣O￣） Since my parents were too cautious about saving money, I didn’t wore the Kimono. Though I felt out of place, I wasn’t the only one. 21 seems to be the maximum age around the world where one is considered an adult though.

I was born on the 8th month of Heisei 1 (平成元年8月), which tranlates to August 1989 on the western calender. Confusingly, the beginning of that year was Showa 64 (昭和64年), as the country was under a different emperor regime and entered the Heisei era in January. On top of that, the months follow the western ones. In case you were wondering, 2010 is Heisei 22 (平成22年). Notice that 元年 is used instead of 1年 for the first year.

I don’t know what the future holds for me. Let’s just hope that it’s a good one. Of course, I should take the initiative to do things without waiting for them.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

462nd post: Winter 2010 anime first impressions

459th post: Unfinished tasks

It’s New Year’s eve. There’s simply too many things to do. The review of 2009 anime I mentioned about in the previous post (or was it a tweet?) is incomplete and it has not progressed between the time I started writing this post (31 Dec) and since I started on Sunday (27 Dec). I don’t have the “must complete this by the midnight of New Year’s day” urgency, but I don’t want it to be done as late as February either. I know it’s late, but I’m very busy with more important things (like work) at the moment. So busy that I can’t even go online (My tweets come from mobile phone, as tagged by “from txt” on them), which is why you have seen me drop a lot of anime or did not pick up.

I’ve seen the trailers for the Winter 2010 anime. Although not much, it’s enough to immediately spot anime that I would like. One of them is Durarara (top image), replacing Darker than Black: Comet of Gemini’s timeslot. (The scene where a guy stomps on a mobile phone in front of girls is WTH? There’s even a short display of a cardboard Holo from Spice and Wolf)

Speaking of trailers, all the anime produced by SHAFT (including Negima!? and Bakemonogatari) have this thing in common that, over time, I find annoying. Which means that I’m not likely to pick an anime from them in the future or has the OP/ED song done by a particular band. I’ve nothing against these two, just my personal preference.

Don’t be surprised if I post the Winter lineup as late as March! LOL. (^O^)／

458th post: Stuff too long to Tweet

There’s been a lot of things happening to me these days that’s hard for me to manage without sacrificing one for an another. Yes, what I mentioned back in April still applies now.

Anime Lists
I’m aware that some 12-episode Autumn 2009 like 乃木坂春香の秘密 ぴゅあれっつぁ♪ (Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret: Pleasure), 空中ブランコ (Sky Jump), and DARKER THAN BLACK -流星の双子 (Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor) has ended recently. Due to my lack of time mentioned earlier, I’ve completely committed anime whose storyline goes around nowhere or awfully slow. I would like to write a review of the 2009 anime (including 24-episode Autumn 2008 anime) quite soon. Hate to say this, but I’ve only watched a small fraction to know what the anime is about and even fewer that I didn’t drop mid-way. There are odd cases where I like an anime I dropped earlier (Spring 2006 broadcast of Haruhi) and dropped more than once and/or after the entire series/season has ended (Setokai no Ichizon, White Album, Hayate no Gotoku). Looking at the Winter 2010, only Baka to Test to Shōkanjū, Sora no Woto, and Nodame Cantabile: Finale seemed to have attracted my attention. It’s ironic that for Nodame, I’ve dropped the second season, but watched the live-action version that had the same storyline.

Free time
On top of the cold I’m having now (strangely,on my off days too since middle school), I never had a proper holiday since December 2005. Everything surrounding me is full of misery. Missing things by just a short moment and waiting a long time for the next, people being angry at me for something that doesn’t go to their narrow-minded ways or wasn’t even my fault to begin with and assume otherwise. To those who didn’t know, my reaction time is slow, and I can’t seem to apply what I know in actual use. One of them being my writing skills and communication skills are completely different: I can’t seem to use difficult words when talking to people, but I could in writing. Sadly, since I can’t think while under pressure, I also don’t perform well in exams, but quite good during practice. I’ve not checked if it’s true, but it feels that my intelligence level drops each time I fall ill or had my head banged against something hard enough to feel pain.

Others
There are so many things I want, and so many unwanted stuff I have lying around. The problem is that I’m undecided on throwing out stuff I don’t use now (apart from the obvious trash). The urgency of doing this is that I’m lacking space and I mysteriously feel better outside the house, but sick again upon entering back, when I have a cold. There are mysterious bugs on the programs that I use that isn’t suppose to happen, but it did. I’ve noticed that my early backup discs are having problems reading stuff, so I need to buy hard disks. The problem is how much do I need? A rough calculation says that if I were to use a 2.5TB drive, I would have about 10% of free space left. 2010 also means that, in the legal eyes, I would officially become an adult too, which is both a good and sad thing.

I would like to type more, but I don’t have time now, so I should end here. It appears that I took almost 2 hours just to type all of this.

453rd post: Things to do

Time seem to fly by rather quickly for me lately. 2006 seemed not too long ago, “Clannad: After” seemed recent, “K-On! ep1” seemed like yesterday. I still can recall what I did in primary school and what places looked like back then. I mean, looking back, time seem to pass by very quickly. I thought we are still in November 2008.

Well, the lack of significant events and doing things that pass time does make it seem fast. Last night, I had the intent to head to bed at 11pm, but did not actually do so until 3am, a full 4 hours later. I did take a nap of some hours earlier though.

I’m doing so many things, I’m loosing track of what I’m doing. I may revert back to the previous version for the anime watchlist (without episode titles) since finding the titles itself is time consuming. My room is noticeably messy, no appetite to eat…

Speaking of not doing much, I did do some vectoring, but they aren’t complete.

On the left (v0079) is something you might seen me put up before, but with more things added. The right (v0090) is something I’m in the middle of doing right now. In case you didn’t know, there are 443 images currently in the waiting list, not counting images that I had already removed. I just don’t feel like doing them, and switch my priority to writing my stories.

Speaking of stories, here’s an updated and slightly redone timeline of and earlier version post.

As the story progressed, I found it unnecessary to have a 3rd dimension that is similar to the 2nd dimension. I’m having trouble thinking of what to write for the 4th story, have already forgotten what happened in the 1st story. 2nd and 3rd story could still continue on easily since I already have planned events and both are closely linked to each other. You might have noticed a 3-year gap between the latest parts of those two.

Anyways, I would like to type more, but it’s now time for me to sleep. I don’t know why I need 9 hours of uninterupted sleep. Most people usually need only 6-7hours.

452nd post: Replybots…

Barely an hour ago, I replied to someone about Win7 RC being still usable until mid-2010 who commented on a screenshot I put up earlier when not too long later, there are some odd replies highlighted in red. Spambots obviously, they’re worse than followbots.

(I know TwitterFox is now called echofon, but that screenshot was taken in Firefox 3.0.15 for Ubuntu 9.04. I hardly use it (or Win7 RC) lately. I sometimes log into Ubuntu to do my vectors as it detects the scroll feature at the side of the trackpad that mysteriously stopped working when I applied SP1 on the primary OS (Vista).)

451st post: Oddly Tired

I don’t know what have I been doing lately that is making me sleepy and tired. I haven’t been doing anything mentally or physically stressful to the point that I can’t really think. Even if I could, I would be too sleepy by then and forgotten all about it by the time I woke up.

Haven’t been posting much lately too. For the anime reviews, Railgun 6 is posted right after Railgun 5. As at the time of typing, Railgun 8 should be airing in a few hours, but I haven’t even started Railgun 7.

I’ve lost track of what anime episode I had watched that I don’t know how far behind it is, on top of anime like Kobato having some long break between episode 4 & 5. (Above image is from Sasamaki Koto ep7) I know IE9 is being officially planned, Google releasing some official info about the Chrome OS, Microsoft bans hundreds of thousands of modded Xbox 360s, Danny Choo now up to something, YouTube planning to release 1080p videos, and it’s just too many things to keep up, but I didn’t mention anything about it in the technology blog.

You may be wondering why is this post numbered 451 instead of 448 since, if you counted, the last numbered post is 444. No, I didn’t skip numbers. The right screenshot is what I’m seeing now: I have unpublished stories that are not yet completed. It in fact follows the number you see at the top right (+1 when creating a new post). Come to think of it, I hardly post any non-story posts lately, partly because I tweet more frequently. You might also have notices S3P23 and S2P37 on 17 November, which are partially done as they are done from my phone, but with no references to earlier parts accessible at that time.

Speaking of accessibility, the current theme at my WordPress blog seems to have a mobile phone version, which is kind of useful. Main reason why I’m not moving there is that it doesn’t allow me to insert any code I want without it being stripped down to the point that it’s broken, edit the CSS of the theme without paying, confusing interface, and so on. I do sometimes use it to archive the stuff here and upload vector PDF version (instead of the PNG raster) of my traces.

I’m just tired and sleepy and haven’t had enough (comfortable & uninterrupted) rest.

444th post: Differences from the manga and anime

I recently bought the manga, I don’t mind the chronological order being mixed up, but switching characters is very glaringly obvious. Especially episode 6.

	Some unknown judgment girl has been switched with Komari during the searching scene. They are also searching at a bridge instead of a tree. I can understand a tree, but why a bridge?