Blog :: Kobo’s Site (c) Abraham Morales, 2008

Jul20th2008

How to make your own USB NES controller!

This is like my new summer project, or at least the thing I’ll do when I’m bored (which is actually not the often lol)

The instructions are right here: http://edshowtos.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-make-your-own-nes-usb-controller.html If you lack the techno-know-how, well I’d suggest not doing it for the fun, but for learning porpuses! Be warned though, you might screw up more than a couple NES controllers and USB flash drives hahaha~

Jul16th2008

E3 Makes me Happy!

Ok, so still no Zone of the Enders 3 for PS3, but no matter, good news keeps popping out from the event, first of all, yes, if you heard this already I don’t care, but wow, it’s a bombshell for guys at Sony and a winrar situation for Microsoft and apparently Squeenix too…Xbox 360 will be getting a Final Fantasy, that’s right Final Fantasy XIII in America for the Xbox 360!! Watch the new trailer:

Amongst other news revealing a new Halo game in the works, besides the long awaited Halo Wars, a tad overlooked would be the remake of a wonderful classic, Kirby Super Star! This time of course for the Nintendo DS.

Kirby Super Star Ultra (a remake of the ultraless SNES game) is scheduled for a September 22 release.

Super Star Ultra will feature all of the original game’s modes, plus “new adventures,” including three, touch-controlled minigames (Kirby Card Swipe, Kirby on the Draw and Snack Tracks) that support up to 4 players via DS Download Play. With multiple cartridges, two players can play the adventure mode, with one assuming the roles of “Helpers,” clones of Kirby’s foes created with a new ability. Kirby Super Star Ultra Screenshot-o!

And to finish this post up, I’ll leave you with the new Xbox Dashboard Preview which would be available this fall:

Jul13th2008

Phantasy Star Portable Demo!

Yes! You must play this massive 300MB Japanese demo of Phantasy Star Portable. What are you waiting for?! Remember: the O button confirms in this demo. There will be quite a bit of Japanese text, so some knowledge of the language will help greatly. The demo contains character creation, CG cutscenes and is fully voiced. We can only hope that Sega announces an English language version of this game soon!

1. Download the demo zip file.
2. Extract the contents of the zip file.
3. Connect your PSP to your computer using a USB cable.
4. Go to the PSP/GAME folder.
5. Copy ULJM91014 folder into the GAME directory. Make sure there are no sub-directories in this folder.

Jul9th2008

Holy crap! Final Fantasy Dissidia!

Just recently watched the new trailer! It’s fantastic I can’t wait to play this on my PSP, lol just watch it! I don’t want to spoil anything from it…

Jul7th2008

Bungie Day!

So as a thanks from Bungie, you know, those crazy people that brought you one of the best FPS series of all time for the Xbox Consoles, yeah, you know which game I’m talking about!

Hola Maestro Jefe!

Umm, anyways, ’tis the Seventh day of the Seventh month! And those great people decided to give us fans and Xbox live Marketplace wh0r35 a little gift! So all be happy and relaxed, let the masses rejoice! We got a new map! Well, a remake actually from Halo Combat Evolved’s Chill Out, we get Cold Storage, so go on people, download it! It’s free! Well, you have to have the Heroic Map, which is now free, and you have to buy the Legendary Map Pack…which is 600 Microsoft Points…hey, at least they lowered it from 800!

Jun30th2008

Sweet Vacations!


[Download Song: Caramelldansen (Speedy Cake Remix).mp3 (Right Click + Save Link As...)]

Sorry for the hiatus, I’ve kept myself busy since I went to A-kon in Dallas, I’ll post photos as soon as Chots gives me back my memory stick, I need to give you the update on what happened at EPAC’08 too.

I’m risking it by the way, I’m getting a spot at the Artist’s Alley in A-kon next year, and I plan to publish a compilation of art and stories, title still pending, but I’ve been so happy lately since I’m getting back to my writing right after quiting all of my jobs lol, I need to update my portfolio too with the new images I did for EPAC. I’m in class right now…supposedly, so I’ll post back soon, bye!

May20th2008

Lanzamiento Visual Studio 2008 - Bol Bol!

Comunidad .NET - Bol Bol - Visual Studio 2008!

La Comunidad .NET de Cd. Juárez está haciendo el lanzamiento de Visual Studio 2008. Pero en esta ocasión, quisieron hacerlo MUY diferente a como habían sido sus eventos anteriores, y en lugar de realizarlo en el ITESM, donde regularmente lo hacen, ahora consiguieron el apoyo del boliche Bol Bol. La idea es que ahora sea en un ambiente más relajado. Por otro lado, también tienen el objetivo de que los asistentes se vayan con la idea de que aprendieron algo nuevo, no solo de que fueron a un evento de mercadotecnia. Por esto, aunque inicialmente habían pensado en incluir SQL Server 2008 en las pláticas, al final decidieron no hacerlo, y solo se enfocarán en Visual Studio 2008, pero tratando de profundizar en las nuevas características que a nuestros ojos lo hacen valioso.

* Lo nuevo en C# y en VB9.
* Usando LINQ con bases de datos relacionales.
* Construyendo Aplicaciones Web con VS 2008. Presentación de las nuevas herramientas.
* Programación Web con Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).
* Introducción a Silverlight.

Regresando a la parte relajada del evento, Bol Bol se ha portado excelente, no solamente apoya con sus instalaciones, sino que además regalará líneas de boliche para los asistentes. Así que ya saben! Acudan al evento y no solo aprenderán sobre Visual Studio 2008, sino que además podrán jugar boliche gratis.

Eso no es todo, además, amigos de Dataxport también están apoyando, y gracias a ellos podremos tener refrescos y bocadillos para los asistentes. Así como algunas playeras para rifar gracias a Mister G.

Finalmente, para que les interese aun mas, de parte de Microsoft habrá varios paquetes de software (Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 y Windows Vista) con licencias Full para rifar entre los asistentes.

Por supuesto, como todos los eventos de la Comunidad .NET de Juarez, es totalmente gratis.

Donde: Bol Bol.
Cuando: Martes 27 de Mayo 2008.
Hora: 3:00 PM (2:30 Registro).
Cuanto: NADA! Totalmente Gratis!

Spread the word!

May19th2008

Sword of the Stranger

Sword of Stranger Logo

I saw this awesome Japanese animated movie yesterday night, Sword of the Stranger, by the great animators at BONES studios, and directed by Masahiro Ando, the same people who brought you Wolf’s Rain, Eureka Seven and Soul Eater. The movie came out last year in Japan, and the DVD was just recently released on April 11, 2008.

Kotaro and Tobimaru Kotaro and Nanashi

The film follows a young boy named Kotaro and his dog Tobimaru who randomly meet up with a samurai called Nanashi, which means in Japanese, no name. Just as they meet, some Chinese men under orders of Emperor Ming attack them in order to capture Kotaro for an unknown reason. Nanashi quickly disposes them, but Tobimaru got seriously injured, so Kotaro orders Nanashi to make amends and help him save his dog, and bribes him with an expensive jade stone.

Samurai That's an arrow through his throat!

The movie has everything I love in a film, good story, a lot of characters you can identify with, awesome fight scenes, plot twists you weren’t expecting, a great musical score and…blood! Good ol’ Japanese films!

More blood! The blonde guy kicks serious ass!

It was a heavy 2GB download since it’s the DVD version, but it was way worth it, seriously it was, I can’t wait to see it again with my friends, too bad the DVD is probably never getting near our shores.

May11th2008

Pool should be Closed…due to COLD!

Pool's Closed

Well, at least it should have been closed, it was HORRIBLY cold. Let me give you a little background if you are not from around here, it’s almost the middle of May and the winds apparently don’t cease, which is rare, because they usually end in February or March, however, it’s getting warmer and warmer and I love it! So, in due to the fact that it was a wonderful Sunday morning (except for the dusty-allergy-inducing-breezes from time to time) we decided of course to go to D’Martlub Club, where we can get in the outdoor pool for $30.00 pesos, that’s a little under $2.00 USD, habeeb it

As soon as we arrived, me and Ricardo noticed that the others, Shava, Mel and Chots, where staring at the water concerned, well except for Shava who was actually IN the water. Now, for those who don’t know me…I have REAL SERIOUS issues with everything that’s cold, except maybe drinks of course. Anyways, I asked the reason why they weren’t in the pool, and I learned that the water was freezing, now Ricardo, without flinching, went insane, I swear, and he jumped right into the water with yells and screams unheard of, now Shava, who was already swimming apparently appeared to enjoy it, but his expression told me otherwise. So after careful consideration, and much doubt, (and heckling)…well…to put it shortly…I went in! The water was unbelievably COLD! It felt hard on my body, my bones frozen, and…and…fine…I guess you got the idea… =3

We immediately got out, the swift, esporadic breeze giving us shivers with every step we took. We made a few calls and went to Deportivo San Angel and payed for the indoor pool heh~

D’Martlub’s pool really needs 400 babies in order to warm it up IYKWIM. We later laughed at our ordeal at San Angel’s Jacuzzi.

Hunger struck! So we went to the almost cheapest most delicious place to eat in Juarez (Where I live)…EL PUENTE! I ate pretty much Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner for under $6.00 bucks, I love my country.

Then we ended up the day (Just Chots and I remained from the initial party) enjoying like the capitalist swines we are…a Starbucks…

A day in my life. Now, back to programming those end semester projects! D:

May7th2008

Raptor Attacks!

God! What a horrible day it was, getting attacked by a Raptor at 9:00 AM IS NOT COOL. No, it isn’t, I don’t care what your definition of cool is, seriously…

Raptor Jesus

Yeah, if it were Raptor Jesus, that would’ve been cool, or an Orbital Frame…but no, I’m referring to something more evil! More sinister! Vile and Satanic! Not a dinosaur either, other adjectives include: “malefic, wicked, depraved, vicious and so on…”, but the one that describes it the best is…dumb. Yes, DUMB:

Raptor Thumbnail

[Click it for a bigger size of this stupidity]

It’s RAPTOR! An acronym actually, stands for Rapid Algorithmic Prototyping Tool for Ordered Reasoning, clever. BUT! What a horrible thing to use! I know it’s supposed to be used by beginner programmers, so why the hell do experienced, heck, I dare say it, (Por echarme crema a mis tacos) professional programmers, use it? Quoting my teacher:

So you can remember the basic principles of programming and using arrays without those advanced tools you’ve grown so used to.

OK, fine, she has a point, but those wonderful SQL Databases and Queries are what make programming EZ. But I digress, the purpose of this rant is, that I could’ve finished a stupid exercise in 3 minutes in C# instead of using this compiler piece of crud without DDL compatibility, that’s right, I had to use Arrays to save data. Raptor Jesus, do you know how long it took me!? 3 damn hours, THREE.

This thing goes beyond the scopes of practical programming for beginners, it screws data types and you have to write ALL the code, so, something as beautiful as this:

for(int i=0;i<=5;i++)
{
//do something.
}

Will look horribly like this:

Horrible For

[Oh, did I mention you can't use 0 to initialize variables, nor point to arrays with it, I mean, seriously, WTF, those poor Mayans invented the damn number for a reason! And yeah, notice the condition for the Loop. You see it? Compare it with the For's condition if you don't see it, then laugh maniacly]

Anyways, this is a horrible way for n00bs to begin programming, what makes me sad is that this is not an old application! That last version got out on May 18th, 2007. The worst part is, this is what they use to teach programming methods at UACJ. Kill me. You want my suggestion, try coding in C# or C++, even if you are n00b, there are a lot of awesome guides and tutorials, visit MSDN if you are into C# (The future in Windows Programming and ASP.NET), you learn the basics while working with the hard stuff.

So yeah, what a dumb program to use, but it was perfect for a dumb rant heh~ Anyways…

Post Tits or GTFO