Author Archives: [maven]

P.N.03 — Redux

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After a bit more than two years, I’ve finally got the Papillion Suit. 😀 About three months ago, I accidentally stumbled upon the “Official Brady Games Strategy Guide” for P.N.03 and decided to order it as it was fairly cheap. So all this time I’ve been steadily doing the Trial Missions on Normal (where the strategy guide of course doesn’t help at all as the missions are randomly generated, but now that I spent the money on the guide, I better finish the game properly).
The last few trial missions (i.e. 9-3 to 9-5 and 10-3 to 10-5) are actually quite hard to get a professional ranking on as no-one knows exactly how the ranks are handed out for the trials (it’s not just “No Damage Cleared Rooms” as I’ve obtained “Professional” on 10-4 with only 02 of them).
Anyway, I beat Alraune (the final boss) using only a single continue (compared to ~30 when I first finished the game on normal back all those years).
Although P.N. 03 has found a spiritual successor in the “Mercenaries” mode of Resident Evil 4 (including remixes of the soundtrack), it is not quite the same and I would definitely like to see a proper sequel with the same combo-system and the same feminine graphical style.

Paradise Kiss Anime

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The now is a Paradise Kiss anime (from Ai Yazawa’s manga) and judging from the first episode, it looks good. It sometimes mixes real backgrounds, characters have facial expressions, and it’s got voice actors I haven’t already heard a hundred times. Which altogether make it feel fresh, so that alone is a reason to watch it (other than the good humour — they’ve managed to translate the manga well without losing its a bit more adult focus). The animation is not always great, but rather focused; i.e. the parts that actually matter are animeted very well.
Recommended.
Oh, and George is still my hero… 😉

Pandora (and other music)

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I’ve accidentally stumbled onto Pandora, a twisted combination of a subscription-paid custom-playlist radio station and music discovery service. You enter an artist or song name and it starts playing “similar” music; you can have several of these stations to which you can add more and more interests. The first 10 hours are free, and after that it’s either $12/quarter or $36/year, which IMO is rather fair. You can pause and skip tracks (skipping is limited to a certain number of songs per hour). On the technical side, it just needs flash player 7 and streams in 128kpbs.
Onto a few recommendations. For a few songs I’ve bothered adding iTunes Music Store links simply for convenience:

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (again!)

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I’ve been reading the more recent chapters of the Yokohama Shopping Log manga by Ashinano Hitoshi this evening. It made me cry (again!). Thus, I have to implore you — whoever you may be — to read it and be moved. Because it’s just that good. It isn’t for everyone, but you ought to have at least tried.
There is an excellent Wikipedia article that can give you an idea of the series. If you’re still interested in reading, start your journey here and then move here for the more recent chapters.

Crash (2004)

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Crash is a great, “serious” film, but not without humour, exhibiting many tightly interwoven stories revolving around racial stereotypes and miscommunication. It feels a bit reminiscient of Magnolia in its way of story-telling, but in a good way.
Touching and very recommended.

Apple’s “Mighty Mouse”

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There is a lot of confusion about Apple’s new Mighty Mouse (which IMO is a crap name). As I’ve got mine today, I thought I’d dispel some of it:

  • It still has a physical micro-switch that is activated when applying force to the top of the mouse.
  • The capacitive sensors only detect which finger is applied, the actual click is initiated by the micro-switch. When both sensors register contact, a primary click is initiated (i.e. for a secondary click, you have to lift your primary finger off the surface).
  • The scroll ball works surprisingly well in spite of its small size; diagonal movement is a bit harder but I think that’s not due to the input mechanism but the way human fingers work. It needs a tiny amount of pressure on the ball to register the scrolling movement; it is possible to physically turn the ball without applying any downward force which results in no reaction. The scroll ball click (which I mapped to “Button 3” to keep Safari’s “Open in New Tab”) also uses the micro-switch for initiating the action but (somehow) is not confused by fingers lying on either contact surface.
  • The squeeze buttons (which function as a single button) are meant to be operated by thumb and pinky and take quite a bit of force to activate (to guard against accidental activation I suppose).
  • The “speaker” (a piezo clicker) is used for feedback when rolling the scroll ball and when activating the squeeze button. This is surprisingly effective.
  • The USB cable is still ridiculously short. This is fine if you have a hub in your keyboard or display, but anything else is a stretch.
  • Update: It seems to use the Agilent ADNS-2051, which is capable of 400 and 800 dpi. A good reference for which mouse uses which chip is here, but it does not include the new Apple mouse yet.

I am still a button short as my previous mouse was a Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer for Bluetooth 2 which had two thumb buttons which I used for Exposé Show Desktop and All Windows. The old mouse had the problem of disconnecting after a certain idle period (to save power) which lead to problems with the “Sleep” mode of the Mac Mini — it immediately reawakens when it realises that the BT mouse has severed the connection. Then you have to send it to Sleep again. Also, the middle mouse button on the new version of the Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse is difficult to press: The scroll-wheel is continous (i.e. no distinct “notches”) which means you’re more likely to initiate a scroll than pushing the button (which requires a lot more force than before).
Ah yes, I was talking about the new mouse: It looks nice, it’ll have to cleaned more often than the grey / blue / black Microsoft mouse, the lift-left-finger-to-right-click is easier to get used to than I thought, the scroll ball is nifty, and the resolution is higher than the abysmal 400 dpi of the IntelliMouse for Bluetooth, although I don’t know what nominal resolution of the “Mighty Mouse” is.
Looks like a keeper… 😉