Virtual Miku Hatsune on Live Stage

If you've seen the movie S1M0NE, this'll definitely make an impression. It's a live Miku Hatsune onstage ^^.




She hails from the first series of Vocaloid2 characters released by Yamaha, it's basically a software for voice synthesizing. As of Miku's release, she can only support Japanese language, Megurine Luka however is bilingual.

Miku Hatsune is probably one of the most famous characters currently out there. She has appeared on several other products, which some of the most famous are of course toys such as the Figma, Nendoroid and PVC figures. In 2008 Super GT, one of the cars adopted her color schemes and featured her on the paint as well.

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Look Who's Following Me Now

Real Chuck Norris or not, this is LOL. Read more...

Simple Reasons That Make Me Happy

- a clean, well-lighted dining place with good company


- filling, yummy, and affordable food


- and, winning just by tweeting


*photo courtesy of Chuvaness' post

Pepper Lunch + Twitter = Simple Pleasures

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Chocolate Love

LG has been kicking up the marketing hype for their new phone models dubbed Chocolate series. I'm not particularly interested in the phone, but the promoters LG got ♥.


LG Chocolate BL40 Advertisement


Apparently, LG is going all out and got no less than SNSD to market their new baby with their new song Chocolate Love. The name was derived from the sleek black design this series is known for and the BL40 is probably the best one in the line so far. That's a 4.0 inch screen and it's equipped with 5 megapixel camera utilizing Schneider-Kreuznach lens!



Not convinced? Here's another one of their ads.


Other Chocolate phones usually have slide functions to reveal their keypads. Newer models also have a glowing touch sensitive touchpad used for navigation, similar to iPod. Might be a bit tad too sensitive based on some phone reviews. Aside from black, they also come in strawberry, cherry, mint and white flavors colors.


Here's the full MV for SNSD's Chocolate Love. Enjoy ^^.

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Series of Calamities Hit SouthEast Asia and South Pacific

It's not really my habit to check the television or the internet for news when I get home late. But ironically, I can find time to check my Facebook and Twitter homepages. Imagine my surprise when I read these four specific tweets just now.

It was just last weekend when we were hit by one of the most destructive storms in years (death toll is around 300+). Now, we learn that a massive tsunami (caused by a powerful earthquake) slammed Samoa. As if that's not enough, Indonesia was rocked by a high-magnitude earthquake as well.

We know it is and will never be easy to go through disasters like these. Directly affected people will only know of two emotions: trauma and grief. But for us indirectly affected people, we can only sympathize, offer our prayers, and try our darn best to help out in our own ways. I know there are those that can be considered apathetic and opportunists during these troubling times, but I would want to believe they are but a small number.

One thing can really be said though, this is a cause for alarm. There's got to be something we could do, if not to prevent these calamities from happening, at least be prepared when they occur. Hopefully, we'll all get lessons even if we (always) learn them the hard way.

Let's all do our part and not wait for it may be too late. Save our environment, save the earth... Register and vote for a better Philippines... The rest, I'm sure you know the drill.

*Thank you to tricia gosingtian, maxene magalona, chico garcia, and debz. I wouldn't have bothered going to the news sites had I not read your updates.

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Jacque Bermejo Causes A Stir

We all know that the last thing we need is an insensitive remark about the recent calamity that tropical storm Ondoy brought to the Philippines.

"buti n lng am hir in dubai! maybe so many sinners bak der! so yeah deserving wat hapend!"

*click to enlarge

Jacque Bermejo is a Filipina, working for a media company in Dubai. What made her infamous was her Facebook status that caught the attention and spite of most Filipinos who saw it. In a matter of minutes (or was it just seconds?), people have already spread the word in Facebook, Twitter and Multiply. A Facebook group had been created with this name: Jacque Bermejo be gone,we "sinners" don't want you here!!!. Her multiply account has been bombarded by an endless stream of hate comments. One would have a hard time trying to read them because the comments come in every second. Don't look now, but a wikepedia entry has already been created as well. Yes, that's how much rage she was able to acquire over a short period of time.

Now, we wonder what made her put that up for everyone to see. Was that supposed to be a joke or did she mean each and every single word of it? Whatever her reason maybe, the damage has been done. It wasn't the right thing to do, plain and simple.

We can't do much if people would want to retort back and put her in her rightful place. Most would say she deserves what she's getting. Then again, a person like this shouldn't be given the time of the day anymore. What we can do is to save our energy for something more important. There's so much to be done, why not take action instead?

On that note, here's a helpful site on how and where to donate and/or volunteer.

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Filipino Politicians and the Internet

Manny Villar is now on Twitter and apparently, he is now my follower.

The moment I read this email notification, I had to laugh at first. Imagine a politician following an ordinary person like me? Almost immediately, I realized what this is about.

It is a campaign strategy for this presidentiable (and for other presidentiables who are/maybe on twitter (or other social networking sites as well). Here's why I can say that: the moment that a person has been notified that someone has followed him/her, followed person becomes aware of the existence of this follower. In this case, I wouldn't know that Mr. Manny V. here has a twitter account hadn't I received the mentioned notification. Let's say I do not have a clue as to who Manny Villar is and I get something like this in my email, my curiosity would still lead me to check who this follower of mine is. This, regardless if this is the real Manny Villar tweeting or just one of his campaign people who tweets.

While I may commend Mr. Akala Mo for using the internet to reach out to voters (probably adopting the same strategy U.S. President Barack Obama used to build his popularity and seal his victory), I do not like the idea that they are already doing all sorts of campaigning (think: tv campaign ads that they pass off as infomercials *roll eyes*) this early.

Oh well, I guess there's no stopping these politicians now. *shakes head*

[Disclaimer:
With this post, I'm probably doing Mr. M.V. here a favor: helping him out with his publicity. Given that, let me make it clear that I am not for Manny Villar. It's still too early for me to have a definite presidentiable in mind for our 2010 Philippine general election.]

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Facebook Lite: strips down!

The world's favorite social networking site Facebook has risen to the top in no time despite being a late comer in the industry and has completely triumphed over their rivals. What's the secret to their success?

If you ask me, I'd say:

• Status Update Feed.
  
• Chat.
  
• Poke.
  
• Pet Society.
  
• Mafia Wars.
  
• Farm Town.
  
• Restaurant City.
  
• My Calendar.
  
• Give your enemies rashes.
  

Okay I made the last one up, but still, the list goes on... Most of these are applications we have associated with Facebook and are a major contributor to their status quo. However, the recent buzz talks of Facebook getting ready to do away with all these and attempts to give you more with less. Introducing Facebook Lite, which is exactly the same as Facebook minus the applications, the quizzes, the requests for mundane activities you're not really interested in. Here's a sample screenshot. I chose someone's profile that's easy on the eyes ;) and have picked the ever popular queen of Philippine cosplays herself, Alodia Gosiengfiao.

They have kept the most used features which are the friend search and the status update feed. Twitter and Plurk users will definitely feel at home with this setup, since this brings Facebook close to being a micro blogging tool, also allowing you to insert url links, photos and videos. The comments are still enabled for each post. I'd say it's like Twitter, only more organized as it is easier to keep track of the responses. It's also like Plurk, only without the karma system (something that that you can either love or hate as people are encouraged to post a lot of spam uninformative messages :p). It appears that Facebook is doing this for either or both of the following reasons:

1. They have accepted that micro blogging is the future and are positioning themselves early.
   
2. To cater to users on a low bandwidth line to minimize packet data transfers.
   

Personally, I don't have any complaints with this direction. They might not be original in all their features but you have to recognize the effort they are putting in to improve their services and probably remain the best out there.

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Facebook Adopts Twitter's @Mentions

Kulit mentioned about Facebook allowing it's users to post status updates using the @mention tag similar to that of Twitter.

I looked into it and found out that Facebook has indeed rolled out their new feature. This "tagging" feature lets you to just type the @ symbol followed by your friend's (or an application's, a page's, or even an event's) name making the "mentioned" be tagged in your status update (take note that only a maximum of 6 tags per status are allowed).

Here's how it is done:

What happens when you type the @ symbol


Drop Down Menu is revealed


You've been tagged!

I guess Facebook users but non-Twitter users would wonder what's the deal with this new stuff.

Let me then explain it this way. If before, you wanted to greet a friend on her birthday, you had to go to that person's profile and post on her Wall a birthday shoutout. Now, with this @mention, you can just post on your own profile that birthday greet (i.e. ji greets @Kulit a happy birthday) and your friend will be notified that you have tagged him/her. It will also show on your friend's feed by the way. Technically speaking, with all your thoughts and 'actions' being kept to your profile as a stream of status updates, it looks all the more like Twitter's concept.

Although imitation maybe a form of flattery, I'm not sure if Twitter users will be happy Facebook implementing this. I honestly think Facebook should have focused on fixing their bugs first instead of introducing something new. Or maybe Facebook just wants to give Twitter a run for their money?

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Applications in Yahoo Mail

It hasn't been long since Yahoo! revamped the layout of their mail to give it a new look which is a deviation from the classic blocky design, you can of course switch between whichever you're more comfortable with. But lately, Yahoo! has taken another step to further enrich their user experience by providing applications inside Yahoo!Mail so you don't need to leave your mailbox to do other tasks.

I was somewhat surprised when I checked my email account to see that there were new additons to my mailbox.

Just below my folders frame is a new frame containing icons for applications.


You can also open the Applications Gallery to bring up the tab for selecting the applications you wish to add to your disposal ;)


MyPhotos (by xoopit)
is an application developed by Xoopit, a company that deals with mail applications, indexing and content discovery. My Photos allows you to browse all the picture in your inbox and makes it easy for you to share them through email.

picnik
in a nutshell is an online photo editing tool which allows you to make easy adjustments such as cropping, touch-up, or for adding effects. Like My Photos, Picnik digs deep into the contents of your mails and gives you the option to adjust any pictures you fancy and send it to your email recipients. I'm expecting the former to be faster but none is proven yet, if not, then you know you won't need it ^^.

flickr
links your flickr account to your ymail allowing you to browse your photostream, sets, groups and attach them to your emails. Although trivial, it should be noted that unlike the other apps, this one just opens a floating window inside your mailbox instead of opening a new tab for you to navigate.

PayPal
allows you to easily send/request payments using your PayPal account (which is usually linked to your email address). It might be unfair for me to pass judgment since I haven't tried using it yet, but I think at most it can only automate filling in your email address for you or provide a lookup of your addressbook. Not really one of those apps that has much bearing if you don't add it to your application list.

ZumoDrive
claims that their service is actually cold storage which can be used for sharing large files such as videos for people you grant permission to access. For the link with the ymail, I would imagine that it just gives you the option to "invite" those people you wish to authorize in accessing your file.

As these are some very useful tools, they do require you to authorize them to automatically sign you in or grant them permission to access the data in your mailbox. You need to be aware of the risks of allowing third party applications in accessing the contents of your mailbox so better make sure you understand everything before you click that "Accept" button.

You can find more information here in Yahoo!Mail's official blog site. If you don't have this features yet, don't worry and be patient, they rolled this out in US first and will eventually find it's way to your mailbox.
So, which app did you find most useful?

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To Twit or To Plurk?

Micro blogging is still blogging but in shorter updates. So short that an entry usually consists of 140-160 characters only. The updates can be in the form of a text, an image, or even a portion of a video.

And with the advent of micro blogging services like Twitter and Plurk, the question now is: which one do I use?

My Twitter account existed even before Plurk was introduced (that explains the widget appearing on this blog). I'm considering whether to create a Plurk account or not since it appears to me that most of my officemates and friends in Facebook are using Plurk instead.


I'll try to look around if it's worth the while to join the Plurk community and decide from there which one to maintain.

Or maybe I can just ask Rai to try out Plurk? Hmm...

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