On Wednesday (16th Mar 2006) I went down to Singapore to attend the Xbox 360 launch over there, following an interesting trip from JB to Singapore I finally reached the launch party at night at the Red Dot Design Musuem.

So there I was enjoying the atmosphear, looking at the demo kiosks and well trying to get hold of some of them lime green cotton candy they were giving out and as I was trying to take a picture of the host of the event she announced that she was looking for volunteers for a gaming competition so once again the experience of attending years of MS events kicked in, which is... if ever the host asks for a volunteer or asks if anyone wants anything, just say yes cause no harm can come out of it. So I walk on stage almost immediately after she asked for volunteers and pretty soon 3 more ppl joined me.

Then as we were getting ready for a little DOA4 action, the host mentioned that another team was needed, she then mentioned the prize which was up for grabs.

ONE XBOX 360 FOR EACH MEMBER OF THE TEAM!

Now everyone wanted to join, and one thing lead to another and...

Our team won! For the first time in my life my gaming experience paid off!!! Whoopeee... now I wait with held breath for my 360 to be delivered... :P

I got a new pair of glasses.

The sensation of putting on a new pair of glasses is like seeing the Xbox 360 in action after playing the Playstation 2 for months. Everything is just so sharp and clear, the images jump out right at you.

and you get dizzy staring through the new lenses.

So.. MS has came up with a set of device specs for Ultra Mobile PCs. But of course they themselves aren't making the devices, like the Tablet PC, MS is just providing the software and leaving the hardware specs and stuff to the experts in hardware developement. So what is a UMPC? It's the thing that's formerly known as Origami.

A lot of people out there must be thinking, this is old technology, Here's MS copying other people's ideas again, A small PC, how original!

But MS isn't presenting it as a new idea, the UMPC is a hardware standard like the Tablet PC. So that when a OEM wants to make a device based on those form factors they can choose to use the OS and other software which MS has that makes using those devices easier for the user.

So what did MS do for the UMPC that no one has done before? Let's take a look shall we..

Ooo... look a program launcher that's designed to be operated via a touch screen. Nice... but this is nothing special, just another launcher.

A Windows Media Player 10 skin that's better suited for touchscreen operation.. nope.. nothing too special here.

And then there's this... The errr.. touchscreen thumbboard. Seeing this screenshot and design shows that MS isn't just making up another product why? Because usually whenever someone makes a keyboardless, touch screen tablet style device that runs Windows XP they don't think about implementing any sort of new input functionality, instead all they do is to just make the builtin software keyboard pop up on screen..

And yes.. this thing works but.. you need to take out the stylus then hunt and peck with it.  Where as MS actually looked at the design of the devie and came up with a solution that allows you to enter text conviniently without having to hunt for the stylus everytime. Turns out that it wasn't MS that created the DialKey, but rather another company check it out here I'm a bit bummed that MS didn't come up with the idea, but props to them for bundling it with the system!

Why the word circular design? here take a close look at a UMPC.

Now think again why the circular design was used, of course I do believe not everyone would be able to use it depending on the size of your hands. That's why I'd love to find out what other options you can set on the interface.

In any case.. this is a sweet piece of gear... I'll need to take a close look at it when it decides to arrive here.

Ever since the announcement that Street Fighter ][ was coming to the Xbox Live Arcade I have been ready. Yes all those memories of getting beating to a pulp within 15 secs by Ryu and Kens are coming back to me now... but hey it's still good clean healthy fun!

But I knew that a joypad is not the right controller to do a Dragon Punch, neither is an analog stick. No... the only thing that you should perform all these quarter circle turns, and the notorious 'Z' Dragon Punch motion is a proper.. DIGITAL joystick! But they don't come cheap and I knew I wasn't that good to warrant spending that much money on a stick specifically for that one game.

Then an opportunity arised, Lik Sang was informing customers to use up their reward points cause they were retiring the system and that all customers should spend all their points as soon as possible, as I browsed through what they had to offer I was surprised that I could redeem... The Hori DOA4 Arcade Stick! either someone screwed up on the points allocation for the stick, or I really spent a lot of money in Lik Sang (curse them and their Japanese DS game supply!) to actually get ENOUGH points for the thing I didn't care. Within 10 seconds of seeing I could redeem the stick it was in my shopping cart and the delivery order placed!

I still had to pay for the UPS shipping charges but it's just a fraction of the stick's actual costs, then on the day that the UPS tracking page said it arrived in Sepang I still didn't get the delivery by the afternoon I called up UPS and they told me Oh.. it's being held for customs inspection. NOOOOOOO!!!!! I thought this is it... they're gonna tax me!!! Or worse.. what if.. what if because there's a picture of a girl on the stick, and the fact that it's a JOYstick they might just clasify it as a PORNSTICK and confiscate it???

Luckily it was all in my head, the stick was delivered the 2nd day (a Saturday in fact.. that's service!) intact with no taxes.. and now I have it.. and I'm ready...

Fear my PORNSTICK!!

For my wife's viewing I bought her the VCD for the show "Sympathy For Lady Vengence" I bought the local, original, authorised version of the movie.

I regret my decision since... they censored a few bits, including an all important KILL SHOT!!! God damn it!! And they wonder why people buy pirated stuff??