Yep, it’s finally here. Episode one. It’s late, I’m tired, and after three LONG days of encoding (well more swearing at a P.O.C. program as it crashes for the millionth time), the episode is finally done.
that last ep 1 didn’t count. neither did the one before that. hell this one probably won’t count a year from now but I DON’T CARE!!!

This episode we went to Animethon 16 and Fragaplooza 2009 which so happened to be on at the same time in two different cities (well kinda). We still found a way to go to both. Here we talk about our exploits in this grandiose adventure.

Click below to see the show notes… (unless you’re viewing the full article… then ignore this)

First off there are the websites for the two events, both of which are in need of volunteers.

Animethon.org
Fragapalooza.com

Ok Mentioning the things I seen in Fragapalooza 2009…. yeah sorry but I kinda forgot to write down everyone’s name so I have no Idea who any of these cool systems belonged too. If any of you see this then drop me an e-mail and I’ll give you proper credit.

There were a few things that I did remember to keep track of however and I will show that now.

Thermal Electric Cooling was at the Gigabyte booth, but the coolers is made by a company called CoolIT Systems in Calgary. And yes, I can and I will be building high end machines with these things if anyone is wondering (I as in CustomPC).

The BFG-Nvidia booth was where they had the 3D gaming setup, this is compatible with some games for the 360 and PS3 but more importantly this is compatible with almost any 3D game for the PC, although only a over hundred are officially supported. However there are a few limitations, inorder to use this technology you must have windows vista or later and have either a 3D compatible HDTV or a 120hz Flat Panel monitor. Also if you are using this on the PC, games require TWICE the gfx power. BFG says at least 1 GeForce GTX 275 is required for newer games.

The BFG-Nvidia booth also had some neat cases from Danger Den. Unfortunately I cannot affordably get the cases on display in Canada. I haven’t given up yet though!

Next there’s the Animethon BBQ information. This is on Facebook only so you require a Facebook account! Click here for that.

I think that’s about it for the show notes… If I missed something or want to ask anymore questions be sure to leave a comment here.

*EDIT*

the Animethon BBQ has been moved to Coronation Park, on Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 12:00pm – 5:00pm. This was the e-mail I recived…

Alexandra ﾘｲｻﾁ Chretien sent a message to the members of BBQ at Rundle park.

——————–
Subject: Due to unforseen curcumstances

ok so the venue has changed (sorry to do this so close to game time). the new site is coranation park same day same time and at this current second im still working on catering (Fat fraks is too busy) any suggestions or would it just be easier to have a cosplay in the park day need to know asap!!

<3 you all!!!

Lexa and the staff

P.s. coronation park is just behinde the Space and science center!!! will up date map cost if i dont find a caterer will be FREE!!!! but it will be a bring ur own picnic situation.

I, Jared and David has just finished a mammoth task of filming and participating in 4 of probably the most exhausting days of my life; We traveled far (for us anyways) and rocked hard!! I and my friends went to both Fragapalooza 2009 AND Animethon 16, and soon I will post an episode about it!!

The show will now officially have a one month schedule, and we went the extra mile for the first ep. So stay tuned everyone. The episode should be done in about a week and a half.

This game is either gonna be a brutal failure, or a awesome legend! Either way though, It’ll ROCK your socks off!!
I can’t wait till it comes out to see.
Available Rocktober 13, 2009 for PS3 and XBox 360.

It’s Nostalgia Goggles time!!

iPod Version
PSP Version

Dragonball Z has been shortened and re-released onto Japanese Television screens as a new Anime named Dragonball Kai. With this repackaging of an old classic, they indeed turned down the suck, and turned up the win! However Even though they cut out the fat (or constipation as some would call it), nothing really important happens till ep3, so that’s the one I posted here. This one is a Must Download, even if you hated the series before I recommend you give this new series a try.

“We’ve all seen the Mac vs PC ads mocking us, claiming that Macs never get viruses. If that were true, there wouldn’t be a botnet of infected Macs completely controlled by unknown hackers.

Botnet? Infected Macs? What?

Security researchers at Symantec recently discovered a group of thousands of Mac OS X computers infected with a Trojan horse application embedded in pirated copies of iWork 09.

The infected users had installed the software without scanning it for viruses, no doubt in part because of Apple’s commercials implying that Mac users don’t need to worry about security.

Once the hacker managed to get his malware installed on these zombie Mac computers, the entire group was fully under his control – and he began to use them to attack web sites, but they could be used for other, more nefarious purposes: like sending spam!

Wait, a Mac can get a virus?

That’s exactly right: no operating system is immune to viruses, worms, Trojans, or even spyware. To be fair, the vast majority of all malware targets Windows users, especially unpatched and horribly insecure Windows XP machines – but that doesn’t mean other platforms can’t or won’t get viruses, especially as Apple gains market share and attracts the notice of the hackers.

My problem with this whole story is that Mac users should be educated – you simply cannot download software from BitTorrent and start using it without doing a virus scan first, and Apple should stop mocking security in their commercials.

But this Hack Required User Intervention, it’s Not Apple’s Fault!

That’s quite true! This problem was caused by users downloading software illegally, entering their admin password, and installing it by choice. Hardly Apple’s fault.

But… this is part of a broader issue: Lying about security features will not keep the hackers away! Apple needs to take security more seriously, or else they will run into the same problem that Microsoft did with Windows XP: massive virus/worm infections across the board, and millions of zombie computers sending us spam.

Case in point: last month, a couple of hackers were able to crack a fully patched MacBook in a few seconds, requiring nothing more than clicking on a link using the built-in Safari web browser. If Mac users are conditioned into thinking that they don’t need to worry about security, these types of attacks could escalate in the future.

Perhaps it’s time to recommend security software to Mac users?”

[How To Geek]

A code failure has resulted from moving the site from one server to another and another and so on and so forth. This has resulted with me having to scrap the old site completely and starting fresh. This may take another day or two so hold tight.

I have also aquired the use of CustomPC.ca to go with a Buisness I now own by the same name. The site will be a technology blog that’ll also advertise sales for the computer store I own. Also as a result of this, ClintIsAGeek.com and CustomPC.ca will be linked to KillerOtakuRobots.com mostly as the main Advertisers, but also CustomPC will be providing equipment and storage for K.O.R. to assit with our filming efforts. In the end I’m really just helping myself by using equipment in my store, and actully planning time in my busy work scedual to work on K.O.R. and maybe actully get some episodes done. But at the least I’ll start posting more.

Well simply no, we did not choose the theme JUST because of Fallout 3. First off I’m not completely pleased with what they did with that game, and second I’m not silly enough to base a theme off of JUST that!

What the Fallout series reminds us of is that sweet and warm dream that we all have in our hearts, that fantasy where the world and everything in it has been NUKED a-fucking-sunder and that because of that all laws and society have been thrown out the window.

This creates a Post Apocalyptic type scenario that several stories both fantasy and fiction come from. Stories such as Rifts, Macross, Scrapped Princess, many Gundam and even Final Fantasy stories were based off of this concept. Even Hollywood has taken it’s fare share out of this idea with movies like Mad Max, the Matrix, 12 Monkeys, Dune, Planet of the Apes, hell I could go on forever here!

Even the bible has it’s apocalypse tale, and many religions Pray for such a thing to occur. Many people believe these END TIMES will be a sort of rebirth, a restructuring of our society into something more holy. The Christians believe Jesus will come again and take all the Christians away to heaven as the other are left behind to suffer; the Norse religion has a all out brawl between the gods; the Mayans predict a series of natural disasters (i.e. earthquakes, volcanoes, floods etc.); And the Buddhists believe that the world as we know it, will be destroyed by our lack of morals (the most likely I.M.O.).

The Hopi native tribe has a fairly decent record of being somewhat accurate with their predictions and they claim that their have been three world catastrophes so far, first by fire, next by ice, most recently by a great flood around 8498 BC, (in fact most religions have myths about this flood from the same time period).

“1st world: ended when all of the volcanoes of the world erupted and an all consuming fire engulfed and destroyed the first world.

2nd world: ended when the poles shifted and the Earth was covered in ice. Mountains fell into oceans and seas.

3rd world: ended when the waters flooded the world. Large continents sunk and broke apart into small islands. The Chosen were warned by the Spider Woman and built large boats out of reeds.”

“The end of the fourth world (called Tuwaqachi by the Hopi) is described by Frank Waters. Eventually a gourd full of ashes would be invented, which if dropped from the sky would boil the oceans and burn the land causing nothing to grow for many years (atomic bomb). This would be the sign for a certain Hopi to bring out his teachings in order to warn the world that the third and final event would happen soon. That it could bring an end to all life unless people correct themselves and their leaders in time.”

The prediction then describes World War 2 the lunar landing and power lines, a recent prediction was also made by Dan Katchongva (1865-1972).

“World War III will be started by those peoples who first revealed the light (the divine wisdom or intelligence) in the other old countries (India, China, Islamic Nations, Africa). The United States will be destroyed, land and people, by atomic bombs and radioactivity. Only the Hopis and their homeland will be preserved as an oasis to which refugees will flee. Bomb shelters are a fallacy. The war will be ‘a spiritual conflict with material matters. Material matters will be destroyed by spiritual beings who will remain to create one world and one nation under one power, that of the Creator.”

“That time is not far off. It will come when the Saquasohuh (Blue Star) Kachina dances in the plaza and removes his mask. He represents a blue star, far off and yet invisible, which will make its appearance soon. [Some Hopi spokespersons suggest that Hale-Bopp is the Blue Star.]”

The time is foretold by a song sung during the Wuwuchim ceremony. It was sung in 1914 just before World War I, and again in 1940 before World War II, describing the disunity, corruption, and hatred contaminating Hopi rituals, which were followed by the same evils spreading over the world. This same song was sung in 1961 during the Wuwuchim ceremony.

“The Emergence to the future Fifth World has begun. It is being made by the humble people of little nations, tribes, and racial minorities. ‘You can read this in the earth itself. Plant forms from previous worlds are beginning to spring up as seeds. This could start a new study of botany if people were wise enough to read them. The same kinds of seeds are being planted in the sky as stars. The same kinds of seeds are being planted in our hearts. All these are the same, depending how you look at them. That is what makes the Emergence to the next, Fifth World.”

So there you go and this concludes the introduction to the new theme of the month.

P.S. So yeah, ok I lied, It really WAS just because of Fallout 3. All this other stuff were things I learned in writing this article. I really am that silly.

Well anyways for us last month was Politics Month with the Canadian election and the last month of debates with the American election (THANK GOD Mc Cain didn’t win), but this month all of us here seem to be finding ourselves doing something different, playing Fallout 3. Therefore we have voted to make this months theme APOCALYPSE MONTH. We will make it a point to post a few topics based upon this theme, and maybe I’ll even change the sites layout or something…

Wholly crap! the PSP game I’ve always wished for is coming out in only a month!!! OMG OMG OMG OMG! (fanboy squeal). OK, ok I caught my breath…. it looks like there using the Gundam Battle Universe engine for this, which is a very good choice because this engine (and all of it’s predecessors) have gotten me through many a boring hour on the bus and at a relative’s house.

I am going to sum up the trailer here…
The game will have in game voices, it will include the Macross TV series, Macross Plus, Macross 7, and Macross Frontier. This game will also include a few extra mechas not shown in any of these series, This game will support WI-FI adhoc for up to 4 players as well as online support. Each mecha will be customizable, with the ability to upgrade stats and change the weapon load out. Much like Battle Universe it will include the ability to have a wingman help you out in most missions.

Also here’s one thing I will also note. Being Bandai, and also being that this game will be fucking amazing awesome! They will NEVER translate or export it over to North America. This is a habit of bandai for EVERY game that has used this engine. I don’t quite understand why they don’t export there GOOD games, they only tend to port the bad ones. No wonder the Japanese gaming industry isn’t doing quite as well, there focusing on bad tactical RPGS and Final Fanservice! Bandai have had alot of hits with action games, but almost NONE of them ever see the light of day over here. And it’s a damn shame.

Anyways, I have always estimated that there inefficiencies and lack of effective organization would mean there downfall and it seems to me that Mr Dell (further noted in this post as Mr. Douchebag) finally realized it himself. What Mr Douchebag is TRYING to do is cut his losses and move ALL his factories to cheaper companies and employ barley legal working standards.

All this just so that he can look up to his good ‘ol buddies H. Lee Scott (C.E.O. of Walmart), and George W. Bush and see who has the biggest set of balls. SO he’d stand there and brag to his aristocrat buddies and probably say something like this… “Heh heh heh! Look at dem Philippians try to make a computer! HA ha, it won’t matter I’ll just sell them to the dumb lower classes anyways! Hell I’d be surprised if the dumb bastards could even turn the suckers on! They won’t notice, hell they’ll probably buy more anyways!”. Then Mr. Douchebag, Bush and Scott would try and compare how much money they’ve fooled the lower classes out of with there horrible products and international dealings.

This is the type of guy who refused multiple times to allow a adequate power grid to be put in for the parking stalls in the Edmonton building because he wouldn’t believe that cars had to be plugged in to keep warm in the Canadian winters. (THIS IS TRUE!) He had to be shown this IN PERSON when he finally decided to go to Canada!

I’m gonna tell you whats going to happen. Mr. Douchebag is going to move ALL his Factories and what’s left of his North American call centres and move them all to shitty 3rd world countries. There they’re going to train who they think speaks the best English how to fix computers for maybe 3 weeks (This training is a joke might I add). And these will be your technicians and the people who build your computers. Most of this has already taken place.

Then in about a year or so he’s going to drop all desktops and go for only Laptops, small form factor computers and Servers. Mr. Douchebag will drop most of his cheaper products and decide to copy apple for some fucking dumbass reason and come out with their own small portable products (mp3 players, phones, PDA’s), and try to convey an image that Dell is “cool”. Who knows maybe they’ll even come up with there own O.S. like apple too. (probably based off of Debian). This won’t work and people will start to stop buying there products because of poor support and a shitty overall product. There stocks will plummet and and the only thing they had that could keep them afloat they just fired, laid off and cheated. Good quality employees and Good quality customers.

I say that in 5 years, 10 tops, Dell inc will be no more. Cheep labour, fine, shitty product, ok whatever, fire your best workers and piss off your customers with horrible support, no I’m sorry, in this industry your done for.

IBM and HP have been gobbling up Dells former employees and buying some of these buildings for them selves, even though I consider there products to be about just as bad, I believe that these companies will last MUCH MUCH longer.

My advice is this, ANYONE with Dell stocks, SELL THEM NOW!! There stock is probably going to go down soon.
ANYONE even THINKING of buying any of there product, kick yourself in the balls, there you’ve just gotten the same enjoyment you’re brand new Mr. Douchebag computer would of gotten you! Buy a REAL computer from some local store that actually KNOWS what there doing! It’ll cost you more but you’ll get more service and less headaches, and chances are that that computer will last you upwards to 8-9 years.

Here’s a article from the Wall Street Journal

Dell Plans to Sell Factories

In Effort to Cut Costs

By JUSTIN SCHECK
September 5, 2008; Page A1

Dell Inc. is trying to sell its computer factories around the world, a move to sharply overhaul a production model that was long a hallmark of the PC giant’s strategy but is no longer competitive.

In recent months, according to people familiar with the matter, Dell has approached contract computer manufacturers with offers to sell the plants. One person briefed on the plan said he expects the company to sell most — and possibly all — of its factories “within the next 18 months.” Other factories could close, this person said. Dell would enter into agreements with the contract manufacturers to produce its PCs.

The plan is the latest sign of changes in the global PC business, and the increasing pressure on Dell to improve its profitability. The Round Rock, Texas, company last week reported disappointing quarterly profit that helped send shares down more than 18%, and has been trying to reduce expenses since early last year. Dell, which led the industry in lean manufacturing approaches and build-to-order PC manufacturing, now finds itself lagging rivals in wringing the most savings by outsourcing operations to production partners.

Any factory sales are contingent on Dell finding buyers. The most likely candidates are big contract manufacturers — most of which are based in Asia — that may hope to get a bigger piece of Dell’s business. A company that purchases a Dell factory would likely be contracted to continue making computers there for Dell, said one person with knowledge of the talks.

Dell’s factories were originally tailored for a PC market that was driven by corporate customers ordering large volumes of desktop PCs. But over the past three years, growth has shifted to laptops sold to consumers at retail stores. Dell has lagged behind competitors in coming up with a streamlined system to build portable PCs.

A Dell spokesman asked to comment referred to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year that said Dell is “continuing to expand our use of original design manufacturing partnerships and manufacturing outsourcing relationships.”

Dell could face several obstacles to selling its plants. Contract manufacturers may be hesitant to buy factories in places with high labor costs, like the U.S., said one person with knowledge of the talks. And some facilities could be encumbered by agreements with local governments. Dell’s North Carolina plant, for example, received several million dollars of state and local tax incentives that are contingent on the factory meeting certain employment and local-investment goals by 2015.

Michael Dell, the company’s founder, drove an innovative strategy of selling computers directly to customers, only building them after they were ordered. After a customer places an order through the Web or over the phone, the company’s factories assemble the needed components, load PCs with software and ship them in a matter of hours.

Bloomberg/Landov

Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc., at a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, earlier this year.

The system eliminated idle inventory and maximized Dell’s cash flow. The company owns factories in Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Ireland, India, China, Brazil, Malaysia and Lodz, Poland, where it opened a plant early last year.

Dell’s plants are still regarded as efficient at churning out desktop PCs. But within the industry, company-owned factories aren’t considered the least expensive way to produce laptops, which have been the main driver of growth lately and are complex and labor-intensive to assemble. Rivals such as
onmouseover=”window.status=(‘ Quotes & Research for HPQ’);return true”
onmouseout=”window.status=(”);return true”>Hewlett-Packard Co. years ago shifted to contract manufacturers — companies that provide production services to others — to build their portable computers. H-P builds “less than half” of its PCs in facilities it owns, wrote Tony Prophet, H-P’s senior vice president for PC supply chain, in an e-mail.

Contract manufacturers can generally produce computers more cheaply because their entire operations are narrowly focused on finding efficiencies in manufacturing, as opposed to large firms like Dell, which must also balance marketing and other considerations.

For many Dell notebooks, a contract manufacturer already partially builds each system in a plant in Asia. The half-built computers are then shipped to one of Dell’s own plants where assembly is completed. Because each computer goes to two factories, Dell refers to the system as “two touch.”

Dell began efforts to cut manufacturing costs last year. It has farmed out an increasing number of products to contract manufacturers such as Taiwan’s Foxconn Group to eliminate two-touch production of some notebooks, and earlier this year closed down one of its own plants in Texas.

Selling factories could be a culmination of a plan Dell started last year to increase its reliance on contract manufacturers, something competitors did first. “A lot of companies are already on that model,” said Mike Cannon, Dell’s production chief, in an interview earlier this year. “We’re playing catch-up there.”

H-P, for example, transferred a leased PC plant in Australia to Foxconn in 2005. Apple Inc. has many of its PCs shipped directly from Asian manufacturers’ plants to customers.

Series of Steps

Reducing costs for manufacturing and other operations is one of a series of steps Dell hopes will restore momentum after a slide that saw the company lose its position as the world’s biggest PC maker by sales to H-P. Mr. Dell returned as chief executive in January 2007, and said he would revive the company through a combination of investments and strategy changes — including the introduction of sales through retail stores — and move to cost cuts.

Since then, Dell has unveiled a series of more stylish products and laid off about 8,500 workers. The company sold 53% more consumer PCs in its fiscal quarter ended Aug. 1 than it did a year earlier, sending its world-wide consumer market share to 9.1%, up from 7.5% at the same time last year, the company said.

But Dell reported a 17% drop in quarterly income compared with last year. Profit margins fell, the consumer business lost money, and the company said costs remained too high to compensate for the growing investment in new markets, which included aggressive cuts to PC prices to help drive sales, especially in Europe.

Part of Dell’s problem is the long-term shift by consumers to buy laptops, which many consumers prefer to buy in retail stores. The company has addressed that issue, offering machines through channels such as Best Buy.

But its factories are geared toward building PCs for direct-order customers. The two-touch system was one result; Dell couldn’t figure out how to efficiently link its custom-order system to the contractors’ factories, said people familiar with the matter. In the past, the extra shipping and assembly costs associated with the two-touch system weren’t significant problems for Dell, since the company maintained relatively high profit margins by avoiding marketing and other costs associated with selling through retail channels.

Manufacturing Costs

As Dell moved into retail stores last year — and as PC prices continued to drop and transport prices went up — manufacturing costs have become a bigger issue. In its last quarter, Dell saw a 2% annual decline in desktop sales and a 26% jump in notebook revenue.

Due in part to the production system, Dell’s operating margin last quarter was 5%, said Lou Miscioscia, an analyst at Cowen & Co., while H-P’s margin in PCs was nearly 5.7%.

Dell, whose latest balance sheet values all its property, plant and equipment at $2.6 billion, isn’t likely to reap a financial windfall from selling factories, said Mr. Miscioscia. Instead, the benefits of shedding factories would come over the long term, through reduced spending.

Improving Dell’s manufacturing processes is the responsibility of Mr. Cannon, the production chief who was hired by Mr. Dell after his return early last year. Mr. Cannon was formerly CEO of contract manufacturer Solectron, which is now owned by Flextronics Inc.

Mr. Cannon initially delayed a plan early last year that would have streamlined the manufacturing system, said several current and former executives. In the interview this year, Mr. Cannon declined to comment on that plan, but said he has been working since his arrival at Dell to outsource more of its manufacturing. Asked if the company might sell or close some plants, Mr. Cannon said, “Everything’s on the table.” The Dell spokesman said Thursday Mr. Cannon was unavailable for comment.

Write to Justin Scheck at justin.scheck@wsj.com