January 10th Blog Update

Revisions:

1-10-11: Initial release.

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So I just wanted to write off this quick post to let you guys know that the blog is indeed alive, and that I am still here.

Even though my Vietnam vacation trip is over, I am still feeling faint side effects of the jetlag of the +13 hour time zone difference, but I am just about getting over it now.

Finally Back in the USA

Revisions:
12-30-10: Initial release.

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Hey guys,

I just got back today from my 3 week long vacation. I have yet to view all the comments here at the blog, but from a rough estimate I have over 150+ comments to review all together with the blog, youtube, and e-mails combined.

I am sort of tired now, but will over the weekend divulge some details on new plans for 2011, as well as details of my vacation trip.

Let’s just say that I am glad to be back in the USA, and the saying that says “Home Sweet Home” couldn’t be farther from the truth. When you are away from home living in other people’s houses for 3 weeks, you start to realize what you don’t have and what you take for granted.

I had a lot of time to think about life and stuff in general, and let’s say that the vacation although enjoyable, was also an enlightening experience. More details will follow in a follow up post, but I am writing this now to let people know that all is well and I came back alive. 🙂

Underground Update (8-2-10)

Revisions:

8-2-10: Initial release.

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I will keep this short. For those that follow me online, you will know that these days I am leaving my skype client on all the time on my laptop as I go and travel about.  Anyway, I was out of town a lot in the month of July visiting San Diego (nice city) and then making a stop in Kansas City to visit some customers for a business intervention.

Therefore, my time here writing articles has somewhat dwindled, but I assure you my mind has not lost its activity level at all. If you have been watching the GD youtube account, I did a special behind the scenes video of my home setup.  Below you can watch all 25 minutes of it where I get to show off my gadgets and my “toys”.  Ever wonder how I get productive around the house?  Now you know.

In other news, I have been playing a lot of Starcraft 2 since its release last Tuesday. In fact, I just beat the campaign about an hour ago and the campaign is pretty epic.  For those that want to know, there is no LAN emulator or feature in this game. Will someone make a LAN emulator?  Only time will tell. However, there is an offline Skirmish hack that allows you to play skirmish without having to be connected to Bnet which is pretty sweet. As usual, go to the GameDexterity channel as I have a video on it.

Soon I will have to write up another STD article as today I just performed a task where I saved myself some money pro-actively. In a nutshell, I have a Belkin Tunecast II FM transmitter. The problem with it is that the signal strength with that device is pretty low, so low that when driving on the high way I really have to find a decent unused channel to listen to my MP3 player off the car stereo system without having to get into too much noise or static.

Well, over the weekend I really had it.  I went to Fry’s to buy one of those cassette tape deck adapters so you can put it into your car’s cassette tape player. The thing is it was $15 dollars and I couldn’t see myself buying it. So I went down the street to Walmart, and their cassette deck adapter was $9.99 and that was sold out!

So I went home that night and started researching about Belkin Tunecast II mods and I literally read about 20 different tutorial last night and today. Because all these tutorials had conflicting information, I decided to bite the bullet and do the mod myself.

Let’s just say the results was phenomenal!  In short, all I did was I took my device, took it apart, removed the wire that was connected to the “ANT” on the circuit board, attached a 2 ft speaker wire with solder to the same input, and now I got great radio reception in the house and in the car. To think I almost spent money to purchase a lousy cassette tape deck adapter?

Summer is almost over, so I hope you guys are having a good time. I know I am. As usual, if you are a blog author, please leave a note as to how your summer is going so far and what you are up to these days. Thanks.

July 6th – Underground Update

Revisions:

7-6-10: Initial release.

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So without me posting for awhile, you as the reader may have been wondering what I have been up to for last few weeks. All I can say is that I have been busy with random projects, and because of some work related items, it has eaten into some of my free time.

Nonetheless, here are some quick items to discuss so you know whats going on:

April 18th – Underground Update

Revisions:
4-18-10: Initial release.

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Hey guys, I will keep this short. This week I will be off on a business trip from Tuesday through Friday, so my activity on the blog and youtube will be extremely limited. It will depend on my wi-fi access at night.

In terms of what’s new, there is a lot! First thing is of course the video’s I’ve been making recently for game dexterity. If you are a PS2 or Xbox user, please check out the recent tutorials, as I’m sure they are very helpful.

In other news, I just got done modding a PS2 memory card (installing FMCB) for a user from Houston, Texas. At first both parties were skeptical of each other (can we trust each other), but the guy was smart and got a tracking number for his package. According to USPS, they tried my house at 1pm in the afternoon (I was at work), so they left a “notice”. However, I received no notice. I ended up going to the post office on Saturday and told them my story and I got the guy’s memory card.

In fact, I was relieved I finally got it, because I didn’t want to appear as a thief and get into a “he said, you said” situation. Anyway, I got the memory card exploited, and this will be the second memory card I have exploited to date for PS2 enthusiasts.

On my computer, I have started a whole new philosophy. I recently backed up all the stuff on my desktop PC, and formatted the whole 160GB hard drive. I went from 6 partitions, and went down to four. I have a partition dedicated to Windows 7, Windows XP, Swap drive, and now a drive for what I call for now “Land of Tips and Tricks”. If you watch my recent videos on GD, you can see this in my FTP video. It is a true label, as weird as it is. 🙂

Anyway, what I am doing right now from the get go is trying to live a life based off of portable applications as it makes sense. Right now I am using a handful of portable applications running off a USB stick that I use between my laptop and my PC.

Also, I have been reading and experimenting with USB sync programs. Isn’t it pretty sexy to put in your USB stick into the PC, and have it automatically sync with a folder on your PC? To me it is, and I found a great program called SyncBackSE.

Expect a future UCC session on it, as it is a badass program and very customizable. Other than that, there is this thing called The Underground Book that is to be released on June 1st. We are not pushing back the date, and there is much left to do about it.

I have to finalize the title (not that easy), and then I got to figure out what to do about the cover art. Chyea/Voltaire say they will contribute, but who knows. I got to have my contingency plans in place.

As usual, if you are a blog author, please leave an update so everyone knows what you are up to. Thanks!

Underground Update – April 3rd

Revisions:

4-3-10: Initial release.

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Hey guys, this is a quick update in case you think this blog just died. I would have loved to have written more articles in the past weeks, but who am I kidding.

This game called Starcraft 2 has really eaten my free time, and the fact that I am in the beta has allowed me to pwn my opponents, as well as get owned by some of the very best. It is this reason that I love Starcraft 2 and the competition it brings.

Nonetheless, I have done some UCC brainstorming, and the second session went fairly well. I see that UCC#3 will happen on April 10th, so we got to get geared for that.

In the meantime, I had done some more Youtube related items, in particular, I managed to solve the dilemma of how to make Diablo 1 LAN work online using Tunngle. Yes, I defeated the monster called IPX.

However, this required a workaround, which basically involves creating a virtual rs-232 com port and distribute it across TCP/IP. If you check the GameDexterity account, I did this for Diablo and now Warcraft 2 Battle.net edition. I can assure you that a true text tutorial will have to be written about this concept.

In other news, I have been working closely with Australian UCC reader and Tunngle user Armsdealer in trying how to get Skype conversations to be heard and streamed in Ustream program (or almost any program for that matter). The short answer is that we did it!

The best part about this new success is that there is absolutely no tutorial in the world at the time of this writing that explains what we just did. In fact, we had to literally create our own “trial and error” and own hardships, but we finally figured it out. Now we will have the limelight to create our own tutorial, and show the world who really is the best. It is times like these that give us credibility, because we love troubleshooting and making our own tutorials when we know existing tutorials on the Internet suck or don’t even exist. Expect this to come out in a future UCC session.

The Underground Book is still alive. I am waiting for the contributors to get their act together. The June 1st release date is still valid, and we will be on track for it. I expect more discussion about the book to come up within this week.

As usual, underground blog authors leave a quick comment here so we know what you are up to. If you know of an old school PC game that utilizes a “direct serial connection”, let me know and I may make a video about it!

March 12th – Underground Update

Revisions:

3-12-2010: Initial release.

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Hey guys,

Just wanted to give a quick update as to what has been happening behind the scenes for the past few days. There are a lot of articles running around in my head, and as usual, not enough time to sit here and blog about them, which is too bad but I can assure you great articles are on their way.

Events:

1) March Youtube Wallpaper contest will be up within the next few days.

2) Tomorrow is the 1st ever online session for the UCC event. I have no idea how many guys will be coming. It will be fun, even if it is a small crowd. You can check it out here.  I am presenting at 4pm GMT-6, sharp! 1 hour max!

3) Yesterday I bought a PS2 slim off of craigslist for $55 dollars. Why did I buy a slim since I already have a fat PS2?  Well, my brother owns his slim, and I hate borrowing his and with rumors of Sony one day killing off the PS2 line, I decided to go buy a used PS2 slim while I still can. If you follow the modding scene, you will be smart enough to get a slim PS2 below the SCPH-9XXXX series. I did, as I got a SCPH-70012.

Last night I did a quick video tutorial on blocking the sensors. 10 minutes this mod took me. It was breathtaking. Watch it below. Expect a full fledge tutorial (naturally) soon.

4) Underground forum is picking up. Please register and be active here.

5) Underground book is going along well. I have not picked a title yet. I will do a new post soon about the Underground Book Cover Art.

This is it for now. There are always new tutorials running around in my head, but for now I am getting geared up for the UCC session. It will be great!

Underground Update – March 1st, 2010

Revisions:

3-1-10: Initial Release.

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Last week I did a contest that detailed a “Winter Cleaning” here on the blog. In order to keep it interesting, I decided to make it a game so that each day I did a change, and it is up to the users to figure out what changes I had done Monday through Friday. The winner who can accurately depict all the changes will win to have their name up on the blog on the banner.

February 14th Update – Underground News

Revisions: 2-14-10:

Initial release.

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The last few days I have been traveling and right now I am writing this post from a hotel in downtown Atlanta before I get going for some dinner festivities. Nonetheless, I have been away from the blog since last Thursday, and I am grateful that hell has not broken loose here or at the Youtube account which is a godsend.

 

Despite this, in the future I will start working on some new processes in the future so that if any one of us is gone for a long length of time, the system will automatically take care of itself, especially in emergency situations.

I do have some interesting stories to tell on my visit here in Atlanta for my tradeshow duties, so I’ll be happy to tell some of them when I get back Tuesday. In the meantime, here is a quick update on The Underground:

1) It’s been roughly one week since the clone wars ended. How does it feel? It feels great. A perspective incident article on this is in the works.

2) I worked last night on chapter 4 and chapter 5 of the Underground book while watching the Winter Olympics. Maybe tonight I will take a look at writing the conclusion of the book. Yup, its just about done. I know Voltaire wants to write some pieces for the book, and at this point in the game, I am not sure yet the logistics and if I can make it fit.

Voltaire, I’ll email you a copy of the book so you can look it over. I am toiling over certain items in my head for clever book titles, and off course I need some badass cover art. Expect a contest about this very soon.

3) End of February month is almost here. I got some great life articles I want to write up, so should be good times. As usual, if you have a tutorial request, please use the tutorial request form on the right hand side.

As usual, if you are a blog author, please leave a quick update as to what you are doing these days, as we as a team have not really gotten to know each other in our hectic schedule to know what everyone is up to. Thanks!

January 31st – Underground Update

With February rolling around the corner (with respect to my time zone of course), I thought it be nice to share another update as to what is going on so far with the Underground.

As usual, I have no updates from the other Underground authors, so if you are reading this and you are part of the staff, please leave a comment with an update on your activities.

For me, its been busy. Youtube account GameDexterity has now 2 new guys added to the team, Awsome26 and Gizmo, both of which are guys I have met through Tunngle months back and are eager to help me grow the Tunngle population which is always a plus.

My partner Hellome7 is doing a series of Adobe After Effect tutorials, which is great because for 2010 if there is any one program I want to become better at that would be After Effects. You could say that I am sick and tired of relying on templates or other people to do the work for me. I would gladly do the design myself if I knew how to do it. 🙂

In other news, I will be in Atlanta between Feb. 11th and the 16th for this trade show I am part of representing my company.  If you are in the Atlanta area, maybe send me an e-mail and we can meet up for lunch?

The Underground book is currently on a stand still, only because I got stuck with some hardcore work and other personal events. There are two chapters remaining, and then its officially done, unless Voltaire wants to add in some more content.  Within sometime this week, I will review Chapter 4 and get that done.  Year 2010 the book will be published, it is just a matter of when.

This summer I will be taking a family trip out to Vietnam for vacation so I will be gone 3 weeks in July. With that said, my goal is to have the book done before then. We’ll see what happens.

As usual, February brings upon a new Youtube Wallpaper contest. Be on the lookout for that sometime this week. I am going to squeeze the deadlines and make it even shorter, so I can get the video out even faster. This time I will participate so now we will have at least 3 wallpapers instead of a meager 2 contestants last time around.

Plus, expect a new newsletter, more STD articles, console tutorials, and more articles that make you go “Yup, I definitely need to do that!” type of material.

I got two experiments going on right now that I want to reveal the results of in February, as well as some more unconventional thinking articles.  Sounds good, right?

If you got any comments, leave a reply and let me know what you think. Every day is a new day of opportunity.