Computer Annoyances

So I finished watching Lucky Star (anime review to come later) today and one of the last few episodes featured Konata transferring files in Windows XP:

lucky star - konata transferring a file in windows xp

It’s a common problem we see everyday on windows. When we transfer a bulk load of files, the estimated transfer time jumps around like crazy. As Konata notes, “It happens every time… The way it goes up and down makes it useless.” As RayAlome comments, “They might as well just make it a random number generator.”

Apparently it gets worse in Windows Vista, but according to Derek, they’ve fixed the problem already. The patch is currently available: KB938979: An update is available that improves the performance and reliability of Windows Vista and one of issues it resolves is: When you copy or move a large file, the “estimated time remaining” takes a long time to be calculated and displayed. It’s currently not being pushed down as a critical update, but will be pushed down when SP1 becomes available. If you want it earlier, go download it now.

It turns out the patch actually did more than fix the transfer time estimation. It made transfers go faster! Take a look at this benchmark: KB938979 to Fix File Transfer Woes. No, really. Speed tests show that after the patch was applied, transfer time decreased almost 120%!

Another computer annoyance that happened to me today was iTunes froze when it was playing a song and it began to stutter. Usually this is a sign that my system has hung, but I was relieved to find out that my mouse was still able to move and I was able to launch task manager to kill iTunes. Stupid iTunes…

うたわれるもの (Utawarerumono)

うたわれるもの (Utawarerumono) translates to “The One Being Sung”. I was first introduced to this series by Artemyst and I got addicted to it really fast. I finished all 26 episodes this weekend. Well, I started earlier in the week, but watched about 15 or so over these past 2 days.

The OP (opening) at first didn’t really attract me, however, after hearing the song a few times, the opening line really hooked me in and I began to always watch the OP. The opening line says 子供の頃の夢は (Kodomo no koro no yume ha) was just really catchy. I also like the translation of “The dreams I had when I was a child.” You can watch the OP at Stage6 (high resolution) or YouTube (low resolution). The subtitles provided actually were incorrect by using ご (go) instead of こ (ko): 子供のろの夢は (Kodomo no goro no yume ha). The song is actually called 夢想歌 (Musouka) by Suara.

Right off the bat, the series reminded me of 十二国記 (Junni Kokki), another favorite series of mine. There were quite a few resemblances. First they introduce a world completely new and has different species and governed by different rules. Then they introduced the different countries and these countries have rebellions and go to war with each other. It’s also set back in the medieval ages with swords and arrows. And then there’s always the fun part of coming up with a plan when you’re at a disadvantaged and when it involves communicating with other groups, but communication isn’t quite possible. Different kings have different attitudes on how to treat its people. Villages get razes and fires are set to burn down capitals.

The character development was also done very well. Character introductions were done in a slow pace and only appeared when they became part of the overall group. The ending was also very well done and I’m definitely adding this to my list of favorite animes.

MY RATING: 9/10

** MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD **

The part where Hakuoro and his men go and help Karura’s people reminded me once again of 十二国記 (Junni Kokki), where the empress herself joined the rebels in fighting her own men. When the rebels realized who had helped them later, moments like that always make me excited.

My favorite character from the whole series would be Aruruu. She’s so cute and adorable. She has a pet tiger and can do some pretty crazy things. As a kid, she can say anything she want, even the truth when others don’t want to admit it. I almost cried when she died. Thankfully, she was resurrected an episode later. I bet the artist/producers must’ve gotten a lot of death threats. I love it when she goes やった (yatta), basically “no” when she defies Hakuoro’s orders. Hakuoro sort of became a father figure for her and she treats him like her dad.

I recall the moment when she accepted Hakuoro. The moment was rather sweet.

The ending was indeed bittersweet and not wanting to ruin much, Aruruu cries and wants Hakuoro to stay, claiming he had promised her that he’ll be with her forever. Hakuoro says that her sisters and brothers would be here with her, but she replies: お父さんはいない!(Otousan ha inai!) which translates to “Dad won’t be here.”

** END OF SPOILERS **

First there was 一人上手 (hitori jouzu), now there’s 床上手 (toko jouzu), which literally translates to bed skilled. I guess like what Xyon says about fortune cookies, if you have 上手 (jouzu) in a phrase, you have to add “in bed” after it. So 一人上手 (hitori jouzu) would be alone skilled in bed and 特上手 (toku jouzu) would be extra skilled in bed. It turns out that I misheard it as 特上手 (toku jouzu), which literally translates to extra skilled. Thanks to Tera for correcting me.

You can watch the clip here (high resolution and low resolution respectively):
utawarerumono - toko jouzuutawarerumono - toko jouzu

Ichi, Ni, San…

So while I was watching My-Hime (舞-HiME), the students were counting as they were practicing their tennis swings. So I counted along with them: ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, (by this time, the chanting has faded away) shichi, ocho *screeching halt*. Ocho?!?! Is that 8 in Japanese? Wait… What the heck. How did Spanish suddenly get involved? I couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. I racked my mind a bit to figure out what 8 was in Japanese and I figured it out moments later to be hachi.

It’s funny how I’ve mixed up numbers like that. Then again, ocho technically can be a Japanese word: おちょ. So maybe that was why it sounded right for a moment.

Detective Conan – New Opening Song

Add another thing to make music I like: speak really fast, pause, and repeat. I generally don’t like rap, where singers appear to be just speaking, but if you speak with some sort of melody, I actually quite like that in fact.

Beginning with episode 457 of Detective Conan, they have a new OP: Opening: kumo ni notte 雲に乗って.

The song’s actually called 雲に乗って (Kumo ni Notte) by 三枝夕夏 IN db (U-ka saegusa IN db). The title of the song translates to Riding a Cloud. The name of the song brought up images of 孫悟空 (Sun Wu Kong / Son Goku) from 西遊記 (Journey to the West) as he rides his cloud with his stick. You can also watch the music video: 雲に乗って – 三枝夕夏 IN db. When the singer begins to sing really fast, her voice somewhat reminds me of Ran’s voice, maybe that’s why I liked it so much. After watching the music video, I found the singer to be extremely cute!

I’d like to introduce you to a new site: Stage6

While searching for videos related to the song/band, I ended up on this site. I’ve been here before, but it wasn’t until this time, I’ve actually made a quick search keyword for it: s6. This site is rather awesome. It’s basically like YouTube, and you might’ve heard about Universal suing DivX/Stage6 and then a counter-sue. However unlike YouTube which uses the crappy flash based video codec (flv), DivX uses their own DivX codec for streaming and the quality is awesome and the file size is small. The videos appear to stream just as fast as YouTube, but with much higher quality. Maybe as users find out about this site, the bandwidth will decrease.

However, to watch videos on Stage6, you do have to download and install a plug-in. It was rather fast and works in both IE7 and Firefox. It probably works in other browsers too, but I haven’t played with any other yet. Also, another feature of Stage6 is the fact they allow you to download the video onto your computer, which is pretty awesome. You can do it with YouTube also, but you have to do it in a very round-about way.

However I was able to find high quality versions of the PV:

Did I mention how cute the singer in this band is yet? Enjoy!

Code Geass and It’s Horrible Cliffhanger Ending

Before my cursing, I’d like to say that out of all the music they used in the opening and ending, the only one that I liked was Ending 2: Code Geass Season 1 ED 2. The song’s called Mosaic Kakera (モザイクカケラ) by SunSet Swish. SunSet Swish was also the group that did one of the ending songs I liked for Bleach. If you like the song, you can download the music video or the mp3. Somehow the way the lead singer sings a few syllables really fast, pause, and repeat really creates a nice melody that I enjoy.

@#$%!
@#$%!
@#$%!

Did I say @#$%! yet?

@#$%!
@#$%!
@#$%!

I’m still so pissed right now, imagine how pissed I was last night at 5am when I finished watching episode 25. I was so pissed, I couldn’t stop myself from cussing out in a chatroom. I wasn’t even able to fall asleep for over an hour because I was so angry. When I woke up this morning, I still had a big empty feeling inside me. How the heck could they end season 1 like that.

I started watching this series either on Sunday or Monday of this week. Last night, I only had 3 episodes to go, so I decided to finish watching all 25 episodes in 3 or 4 days. Big mistake. The ending left me in a state where I was not functional at all. I was so disappointed with how they ended season 1.

Usually, when a season ends, it gives viewers at least some type of closure, but leaves a cliffhanger so you’d watch the next season. However, there was NO CLOSURE AT ALL!!!

Just thinking about it makes me want to yell @#$%! @#$%! @#$%!

Don’t get me wrong. The series was awesome. The story was very fast paced, and none of those Naruto/Bleach style battles which take 6 episodes to complete. Each battle pretty much lasted the episode and sometimes you have more than 1 battle.

** MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD **

Besides Death Note, Code Geass also reminded me of Gundam Seed Destiny. Not just because it had robots, but the protagonist and antagonist were very similar. I forget the names of the characters in GSD, but like Lelouch and Suzaku, they were also very close friends with different ideas of how they should change the world. Both wanted to make it better, but they were on different sides of the war. One would try to convince the other to join their side, just like how Lelouch tries to convince Suzaku. Along the way, you get your robot upgrades and of course different sides have different technology.

Anyway, what Lelouch did to Princess Euphemia was really sad, and I wished he could’ve taken it back and accepted her offer like he decided to. But now it’s too late. I almost cried. *sniff*

Episodes 24 and 25 were released as “specials” as they came out months later after 23. I thought since season 1 ended, it would be a good time to watch it as I’ve heard people were dying just waiting for the last 2 episodes.

However, apparently I didn’t hear the last part where 25 almost killed them, now that we have to wait for season 2 to see what happens.

Episodes 24 and 25 were set up to be the big battle which would end it all. Either the Knights of the Black Order will win, or the Empire of Britannia will successfully destroy the terrorists. However, they decided just to tease us. Not only did they not complete the battle, but they’ve introduced new major aspects to the series.

A new “witch” gets introduced. Her name is V.V. and she’s come in contact with Suzaku. It’s not clear if Suzaku has obtained a Geass as well.

V.V. kidnaps Nunally, and Nunally (sister of Lelouch) being Lelouch’s raison d’être, he had to go rescue her leaving the battle midway. He gave full control to Toudou, but having the brains of the entire operation leave midway is bad both for morale and strategy. I first heard the word raison d’être in Ergo Proxy, also another anime series I finish recently. The definition is: The claimed reason for the existence of something or someone; the purpose of something or someone. I wouldn’t recommend Ergo Proxy for most people, unless you like mixing philosophy with anime. It just got utterly confusing and too philosophical to the point it wasn’t really enjoyable anymore. The animation and graphics were awesome though.

Last seen, it looks like the Empire of Britannia was going to be able to hold back the invasion until reinforcement came. Everyone in the Order of Black Knights were very confused why Zero (Lelouch) would run away in the midst of battle. Ougi (who is dying) had told Kallen to follow Zero, as Zero is not the one to abandon them in the midst of a battle. Something serious must’ve came up and told Kallen to go protect Zero.

And now back to the students. It’s obvious Shirley knows something is up and she is pretty sure Lelouch is Zero, but every time she’s about to confront him, something happens. She’s utterly confused what Lelouch did to her to make her forget him completely.

Then there’s the young girl (head of one of the major Japanese families) that says she’ll be wife of Zero and be his angel. Zero denies her request stating he’s already made a pact with the devil. Speaking of which, we still have no idea what the contract he made with C.C. is. We also never find out C.C.’s real name, but that doesn’t really bother me as much.

The last we see of C.C. is she charges into Orange-kun’s (Jeremiah) robot and dives into the sea with him. It looks like in order to take him down, she’s going to sacrifice herself. But she states, I wouldn’t want to commit lovers suicide with you (Jeremiah). Given that C.C. can’t seem to die, that would make sense. However, I’m still confused as to why she gave up on Mao and why he wasn’t able to fulfill the contract, which leads back to the question of what the heck the contract is. The contract was mentioned in the 1st episode, but never gets revealed even in the final episode of the season 1. Will Lelouch ever be unable to fulfill that contract?

C.C. also keeps saying she’s an accomplice, but not a comrade, but she keeps doing things that seems to risk her life in order to save Lelouch’s life.

The season ends with Suzaku and Lelouch pointing a gun at each other. At this point, Lelouch has taken off his mask and revealed that he is Zero. Kallen is shocked beyond belief and is left shaking on the floor. At this point, Lelouch begs Suzaku to join forces with him temporarily to rescue Nunally. However, Suzaku denies his request and says he’ll kill Lelouch and go rescue Nunally on his own. The last thing you see, well hear, is a gun fired and a flash of Nunally’s image.

So they end season 1 without letting us know who dies, an incomplete battle, basically no closure. Nothing at all.

Code Geass vs Death Note

So after recommendations from a couple friends, I began watching Code Geass. I noticed quite a few similarities between the main character in Death Note (Light) and the main character in Code Geass (Lelouche, also known as Lulu).

Code Geass is turning out to be quite an interesting anime and so far I’ve watched 6 episodes in one day. Season 1 titled “Lelouch of the Rebellion” is merely 25 episodes, but there appears to be several .5 episodes stuck in between.

Both stories begin with the main characters obtaining a power beyond this world which allows them to control people. Light obtains the ability to control people by writing the names of the victims and how they die inside this particular notebook. Lelouche can control others by making orders looking directly into the person’s eye.

The downside of Light’s power is the fact by controlling the person, Light has to ultimately send them to their death. The downside of Lelouche’s power is that he appears to only be able to use it once per person.

Both want to change the world and rid this world of scum and corruption. Both see that the end justifies the mean.

Along the power comes a mysterious person or creature. Light has a Shinigami and Lelouche as C.C. I don’t know much about C.C. yet, but she appears to be an experiment or alien of some sort. Both entered a binding contract with their mysterious person/creature.

After obtaining their powers, both tested to see what the limits of their powers are. Light tested it with prisoners, while Lelouche tested it on students in the academy.

There are a few differences.

The Shinigami basically told Light that he wasn’t going to really help him much and was just enjoying the show. C.C. told Lelouche that they are now accomplices.

I was going to say Suzaku was like L, but that’s not clear at this point yet. Suzaku might very well get an order to hunt down Zero (Lelouche’s alias).

** PREDICTIONS/SPOILERS **

I have a feeling since Lelouche’s sister Nannally is blind, she would’ve recognized his voice as Zero from the TV. But that doesn’t appear to be the case yet, or maybe she’s hiding the fact. I also have a feeling that Lelouche will lose his sister for his cause, just like how Light had lost his father.

Hoi Hoi-san

There’s a couple things I’ve been meaning to blog: my new file server, my visit to the dentist, Mandalayx’s visit, etc., but it doesn’t look like tonight’s the night.

Instead it’ll be something short and I’m going to introduce you to Hoi Hoi-san, the insect exterminator robot.

Hoi Hoi-san is mostly a comic series, but an OVA was released back in 2004 and Hoi Hoi-san is just too cute! So I’ve decided to share it with you:

Ichigeki Sacchu!! Hoi Hoi-san - OVA (Large) Ichigeki Sacchu!! Hoi Hoi-san - OVA (Large)

Clicking on either image will redirect you to the video page. The title of the OVA is: 一撃殺虫!!ホイホイさん (Ichigeki Sacchu!! Hoi Hoi-san – One-Hit Insect Kill!! Hoi Hoi-san). They are high resolution and low resolution respectively.

Did I mention how cute and cool and awesome Hoi Hoi-san is yet? In modern day Japan, pesticides have stopped working on bugs. So what they’ve created are these bug terminators. They wake up at night when you’re asleep and kills all the bugs. Hoi Hoi-san is apparently the favorite model among the people. Cute, but deadly. Hoi Hoi-san can even distinguish between good bugs and bad bugs and only kill the bad ones. With it’s automatic returning to home base for charging and it’s squeaky shoes, I’ve basically completely melt by the end of the 10 minute video due to the cuteness.

Then there’s Combat-san. I haven’t read the whole manga yet, but from what I can tell, Combat-san was designed for one goal only, to destroy Hoi Hoi-san. I believe they’re created by a rival company and want to take market share from Hoi Hoi-san. However, Hoi Hoi-san is either very lucky or Combat-san just wasn’t designed that well, and although Hoi Hoi-san never directly attacks Combat-san on purpose, she always seems to come out on top.

Do watch the video as it’s very cute! I so want my own Hoi Hoi-san!

Fireplace Ghost

While watching episode 425 of Detective Conan (great episode by the way), it reminded me of my fireplace ghost. Episode 425 is actually a 1.5hr special titled Black Impact! The Instant that the Black Organization Reaches. Finally, more screen time for Gin and Vodka and Vermouth. No, those aren’t just alcohol and no I’m not drunk. Those are actually names of members of the “Black Organization”. They all seem to be named after alcohol. They introduced Kir, Korn, and Chianti in this episode, which are all names related to alcohol.

Oh no! I just spoiled myself. Stupid Wikipedia. I was looking up the spelling of the names, and they revealed to me the true identity of Kir, which I’m already suspicious of. Sigh.. Oh well. It all makes sense now! Hiring of the famous detective the day before the assassination, the seemingly unknowing stepping of the gum with the spy cam.

Anyway, back to my story. In the beginning of the episode, Kir hires Mori Kogoro to solve a doorbell prankster. However, whenever she tries to confront the prankster, he’s nowhere to be found. However, it was reveal later it was a little kid trying to remind her to wake up, but that’s not really related to my story.

On the bottom of my fireplace is this little compartment with a bunch of tubes and stuff (no, the internet doesn’t go there). I believe that’s where I’m suppose to turn the pilot on/off, but I haven’t really touched it. For the past year or so, I noticed that the compartment would sometimes be opened. It’s not like the door to the compartment is loose. I’ve never seen it open by itself, but I’ll notice that it’s open usually when I am doing exercise.

I’ve always attributed to the wind, since I’m assuming this fireplace connects to some open area and wind just happens to have pushed into the chimney and blow open the compartment door.

However, I realized a couple weeks back that the culprit was actually something else. It was apparently not a ghost, just like what Kir and Ran initially thought the doorbell prankster was. Apparently it’s my Roomba, my automatic vacuum cleaner. Given that it only runs when I’m at work, that’s why I’ve never seen it happened. I haven’t confirmed it is my Roomba, but I’m pretty sure that’s what it is. The constant pounding on the door should be able to cause it to flop open. It doesn’t happen often, maybe once a month. That’s why I never figured it out till recently.

Death Note (Anime)

I just finished watching the Death Note anime series. Although the series finished airing a month or 2 back, I wasn’t in a rush to finish watching it since I’ve already read the entire manga 2 years back. The reason I actually started reading this manga was I heard it was done by the same artist as Hikaru no Go, one of my favorite animes/mangas so far. I think it probably ranks 2nd after Rurouni Kenshin. I was walking through a bookstore the other day and noticed that Death Note mangas have already been licensed and is sold in bookstores.

Anyway, there weren’t that many differences when comparing the anime to the manga that I noticed, though I didn’t think the story was able to be told in 37 episodes. I was expecting at least 50+ like Monster, though I guess that’s a good thing considering long anime series tend to drag on with fillers and recaps.

I still haven’t watched the Death Note movie and after watching the anime series, I’m not sure I want to anymore. Like most suspense and puzzle animes, once you’ve watched it once and learnt the trick, there really isn’t that much fun in rewatching it, even if it’s in a different form. I definitely felt bored through many parts of the anime series. However, if you’ve never read the manga, I would HIGHLY recommend this series or the manga. The storyline was excellent and the logical thinking animes have always been fun for me.

The only difference I’ve really noticed (or maybe remember) is the ending. Spoilers (Show)

Detective Conan – Childhood Ending

While watching Detective Conan around episode 400 (yes, I’ve reached episode 400+ on Detective Conan), there was this really cute ending I wanted to share:

640×480 version:
detective conan - childhood ending

320×240 version:
detective conan - childhood ending

The sequences were really cute, so cute that I’ve watched this ending whenever the episode ended with it (I usually skip the endings and openings). You have little Shinichi teaching little Ran how to ride a bicycle, followed by a dog chasing little Shinichi. Then you have a sequence where little Shinichi displays his mad soccer skills and when little Ran wants to play with the soccer ball, she only dribbles it like a basketball. Little Shinichi says to use her feet, but she keeps on dribbling it. Little Shinichi laughs at her and little Ran kicks the soccer ball into his head. Even little Hattori and little Kazuha makes a cameo.

So cute…

They should seriously make an anime about little Shinichi and little Ran, and how Shinichi became an awesome detective and how Ran became an #1 karate champion.