Well, since people would want to know the major feature, it’s the 5-WAY VIDEO CONFERENCING ABILITY for those running Skype 5.0 (Beta) or later! I’ll have that explained throughout the article, so…

Skype 5.0 Beta is available for public testing! There’s a load of known issues that Skype knows and are working to fix. However, it seems as though 5.0 doesn’t have a lot of big news to bring. Simply, it’s yet another UI re-do for conference calls and video calls. 

Well, I didn’t expect this new update of an article to be this short, but let’s get to the feature that people have been long awaiting for on Skype that ooVoo charges people for: 5-way Video Conferencing. On Skype 4.2 and its previous versions, a video call on Skype can only be done one-on-one and cannot be done with more than two people at once. Everyone else in a conference but two people would have to hang up or a one-on-one call would have to be active in order for the video to show up. However, in Skype 5.0 (Beta), the 5-way conferencing goes perfectly with the new interface change for video calls.

If you’re familiar with ooVoo, you’ll be familiar with multi-person video conferencing on Skype. The only exception is that Skype is not offering (and not planning on offering, so far,) video conferencing recording features with on-server storage. The video quality for a video conference has been superb for me on a conference with 2 other people. The audio quality wasn’t sacrificed. However, the usage of system resources took the largest hit. The chats will display slower. The system settings category style settings slider animation will be slower. Memory usage may be taking the largest impact. Not to mention, it’s an internet bandwidth eater. However, I think Skype knows that already and they’re on it. I am also disappointed as to this statement made by Skype on the beta download page:

This beta version comes with a free trial of group video calling.

So have fun while it’s here, boys and girls, because it seems as though Skype has plans of charging for group video conference calls like ooVoo does.

Well, I can’t necessarily say that this beta is a complete piece of trash. Unfortunately, I was disappointed that I couldn’t say much of Skype 5.0 Beta in this article, since it only had one real exciting new feature. However, I think I can be happy with knowing that Skype is paying attention and wrote down their homework in the list of known issues. Note that the above can change at any time, since developers are actively working on the beta of 5.0.

My whole discovery took place during a Skype conversation on Sunday morning (Sunday, April 4th, 2010) in Hong Kong using ISP PCCW Netvigator. My friend gave me a link to isohunt (and I admit, it was for anime.) I attempted to open the link, but what returned was an error message saying the page could not be loaded and the website was unable to be connected to. I tried going to just  isohunt.com and the same thing happened. A similar result was shown while attempting to access isohunt on my iPhone via Wi-Fi. My friend, who is from the Philippines, was able to successfully load the website. I was confused and I almost immediately pointed it to the ISP’s fault for the block. Knowing that it was something unusual, since I wasn’t in PRC (People’s Republic of China, a.k.a. “Communist China,”) I went ahead and posted a screengrab on Twitter. isohunt, via Twitter, said that Hong Kong wasn’t blocked, last time they checked. So something strange was going on.

@Tsuimonster last I checked, HK isn’t blocking any website, specifically not isohunt. Mainland China is of course another matter
12:47 AM Apr 8th via Tweetie in reply to Tsuimonster

I asked a friend, who is a 3 Customer using an iPhone 3G S (3 is a 3G carrier in Hong Kong,) to try accessing isohunt.com using his iPhone 3G S. He had the same result. I went around to many public Wi-Fi hotspots for PCCW, Y5Zone, and CMMC (China Mobile) and no matter what, it was the same outcome. Something smelled funny right then and there.

Now that I am back in the U.S., the very first website I had accessed was isohunt.com. I accessed isohunt.com (Lite) with success.

So what does this mean? Does this mean Hong Kong is agreeing that isohunt is violating copyright laws? Is this just something with the Commerce & Economic Bureau’s thing on anti-piracy? Has Hong Kong “incidentally” activated the big brother on one site? Or has Hong Kong been offended by the isohunt.hk change?

About Isohunt.com:
Isohunt.com is a torrent search website displaying results displaying a total of many torrents amounting to petabytes of download data. Isohunt.com has been aimed at for copyright infringements, though without intention, due to its appearance to “promote” and “spread” internet piracy.

I usually never talk about rail travel in general on any blog, but today, I felt like this is worth sharing.

Roaming around NYC but need to get to another part of the city fast? Need to get to the Far Rockaways? Or perhaps you need a quicker way to Flushing-Main St./Mets-Willets Point to the game or to LaGuardia Airport without the endless weekend constructions of the 7-Flushing Express/Local from 42nd street-Times Square? Or do you need a traffic-free way to JFK just to catch a flight? All of this plus travelling in the comfort… both physically and the peace of mind that your wallet is saving money somehow… sounds great, huh?

Recently, I’ve roamed around to Flushing, Queens (the third Chinatown in NYC) since I’ve had enough of Manhattan. Locals would know that on weekends, the 7-Express, the fastest and cheapest way to Flushing/Queens, have been closed on stations between 42nd. St.-Times Sq. to Queensboro Plaza, meaning that the only way to get to Queensboro Plaza… is to take the N, which heads on to the local route on the weekends, making it the slowest possible way to Queens. From that moment, I had enough and took the 1/2/3 lines one station downtown from 42nd.-Times Square to 34th. Street-Penn Station (the station under the Madison Square Garden serving Amtrak, NJ Transit, the Long Island Railroad (LIRR), and the New York City Transit Subway.) From there, I bought a weekend roundtrip CityTicket ticket, costing $3.50 each direction (totaling of a $7 trip,) and hopped on a Port Washington-bound (Hi Jeff!) LIRR train. In 2 stations and not even 10 minutes, I reached my destination: Flushing-Main St. Plus, I managed to save four bucks in doing so at the right time.

Since JFK has lots of passengers served daily, I’ll use LIRR + AirTrain JFK as an example of getting to a flight faster on the weekends to make getaways and business trips closer than ever. From either Flatbush Avenue, Penn Station, or any Zone 1 or 3 LIRR station (See map for zones and stations that apply to each zone,) heading to Jamaica station on weekends is a $3.50 trip + a $5 trip on AirTrain JFK to the terminal of choice.

Remember: You may need to take the New York City Subway to access these LIRR stations, but $2.25 is an “ok” price, considering that it’s a flat-fare throughout the NYCT Subway System.

ALSO Remember: Buy your tickets before you board, or you may have to pay up to double the full fare when the conductor checks the tickets.

So just reading this, someone may already be thinking… why not just go by road? By NYC Subway?
Well, let’s see…

Getting to another area served by the NYC Subway:

• Get to your destination faster just by paying a little more on the weekends.
• Ride comfortably.

Getting to JFK by LIRR & AirTrain via Jamaica Station:

• Cheaper than paying for gas on road.
• A tad cheaper than buses.
• Gets there in ½ the time of a bus (less than ½ the time with traffic)
• Avoid roadway traffic.
• A comfortable ride.
• Easy connection.
• Get to the airport earlier than expected – Make it to the flight on time!

When thinking about the above reasons, it seems more useful to travel to/from JFK via AirTrain + LIRR on the weekends because of its benefits. Whilst travel within New York City limits via LIRR that is served by the NYC Subway seems like a waste of $3.50, it gets travelers to their destination quickly, comfortably, and on-time.

Airport travelers who are willing to spend a couple of extra bucks may be able to take advantage of the above JFK-by-LIRR/AirTrain offer while NY locals can reach their destination on-time while saving a bit during the weekends with the CityTicket offer.

RMVB format, or RealMedia Variable Bitrate, is RealPlayer’s highest quality audio/video format, but may not be able to be played without RealPlayer or 3rd Party Software (like the Community-Combined Codec Pack (CCCP)… which still requires RealPlayer.) So thankfully, RealNetworks decided to develop RealPlayer SP Converter to convert to many formats for various devices… not just for a PC! Even if it’s not RMVB, there’s no reason why not to convert some other video file to another format. Hey, iPhone, iPod, PSP, Zune, Apple TV, Xbox 360… even PS3? Even I would never have thought that RealPlayer’s bundled software would be that good! Of course, you can add devices by choosing “add custom device”… HD sound good?

Don’t worry, RealNetworks didn’t forget about mobile devices! Believe it or not, the conversion makes the output as high quality as possible for each individual device. It seems RealNetworks took a little into research into these pre-set output settings for each phone. It’s amazing what RealNetworks has developed that could be so useful!

Of course, with these amazing features, there are some downsides to it all. First off, users would need a lot of patience… or a powerful computer. It can take a very long time to convert a certain video file or a particular format. Since RealPlayer SP Converter tries to convert videos in the highest quality possible, or as configured, patience is necessary. Second and last, users need to pay or have RealPlayer SP Plus with SuperPass™ subscription (free for 14 days) in order to convert to H.264 video, a high quality format.

Otherwise, why would it be a bad thing to give it a try?

Skype Pro, the version of Skype before 4.0 for paid customers, included a feature called Skype Call Transfer. With this feature, users were given the option to transfer an incoming call to another Skype user on the menu (after the original recipient of the call has answered.) It was useful for businesses with SkypeIn numbers (numbers provided by SkypeIn Subscribers/Subscription-based users) to transfer calls to a certain user in a certain department through Skype, providing the best in call quality.

Skype Extras was removed on version 4.1 due to Skype dropping the service. On the 4.2 beta, it has returned. However, the catalog is slowly returning because developers are slowly returning for developing for  Skype Extras. Popular extras like PamFax, PrettyMay Recorder and Sharer, Chinese Checkers, Backgammon, and more have returned on Skype Extras. It is only available on the beta, whereas the option is disabled/grayed out on the stable release.

Skype has always focused on call and video quality and ways they can improve it using the Skype software, making call quality improvement as hassle-free as possible. This time, there is a simpler interface that doesn’t require users to constantly go to the options panel and adjust settings in another window.  The caller interface enables users to see the status of the item selected and have the ability to adjust the settings on the next page. Sound levels from the mic and the speakers are also displayed next to their respective icons. Computer speed is also crucial to call quality and the respective icon and information is displayed. Connection speed is a big thing in call quality, so the call quality is tested as well. Webcam quality goes as well, but it (obviously) depends on internet speed. All the information is simple to understand and using the new call quality interface is much simpler than the previous versions (stable version.) As always, video conferencing among three or more people is still not available.

Skype Access (Beta) is a service where users can use Skype Credit to access the web at a public hotspot. Their supported method is pay-per-minute, as explained on the dialog box. Since it claims that over 100,000 hotspots worldwide support this service, there may be some in the United States that may have this service enabled at competitive rates. Hopefully, that means that rates for Wi-Fi Hotspots outside the U.S. are reasonable as well. Since I have yet to access a (non-free) Wi-Fi Hotspot that supports Skype Access Beta, I have no further details about this service.

From using the Skype Beta for the past week, there have been a few bugs found. Ironically, while typing this and talking on Skype, an existing conference call interrupted my 1-on-1 voice chat and instead of hearing the Skype ringtone, I hear the ringtone along with a ringing tone. Even after declining the call, the ringing tone will continue to play and the one I was talking to won’t hear me since Skype will mute the microphone. Another bug included crashing while accessing some Skype Extras. However, that’s rare. Overall, I’m surprised that it isn’t all that buggy.

Keep in mind that Skype Beta is constantly being updated by developers at work. The information above can change anytime and new details may be actively updated as new information comes along. As always for all beta software, use it at your own risk and (try to) try Skype Beta on an experimenting machine, not on your primary productivity machine/home environment unless you know what you’re doing. Be sure to send feedback within the software, since the developers take almost every idea into consideration.

On Valentines Day, AwardSpace.com will be offering 6 months of Unlimited Hosting for only $0.14. It actually sounds crazy, but it sounds like it would work too!  6 months… 14 cents… unlimited hosting… that’s a dream! Do you have a few cents in your PayPal account? Hah, that will be enough to pay for this deal! This deal begins at 5AM Eastern Time (New York City time) and I am not sure if their definition of “no matter which part of the world you are located at” means that as soon as it is 12AM on the 15th in Hawaii, the deal ends… that was never explained properly. Let’s hope there’s a countdown of when the offer ends on the site.

(Click on the image to enlarge)

So what’s the buzz? Apparently, Google has created a new service called “Google Buzz.” Simplest to say, it looks like a stripped-down version of Google Wave combined with Friendfeed that is for Gmail users. As I write this, it is being slowly released to all Gmail users. I first noticed this feature as I was searching on my experimental iPhone device. Then it appeared on my Gmail webmail interface.

As like Google Wave and Friendfeed, users can post status containing photos and content from other social networks (such as Twitter, Google Reader, Picasa, Google Reader, etc.) Plus, it’s smart enough to automatically dig up the interesting posts and put the posts you’re likely to skip to the lowest priority. In addition, the updates occur in realtime. As of course, privacy settings are there to make your posts either visible to everyone or private to closest friends. On an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad, you can also embed your location into the update.

There really isn’t much. It simply integrates with users’ Gmail inboxes as well.

I’ve recently taken huge interest in the Japanese Drama “電車男” (Densha Otoko; En.: The Train Man). I feel that 電車男 is worth sharing on my blog. You’ll love this drama, as now, the internet culture mixes with the real-world… without internet dating.

 About 電車男

電車男 centers on Tsuyoshi Yamada, a single 23-year old otaku (an otaku is a Japanese geek), and his quest for love. One evening, after an event in Akiba (Full: Akihabara), an old drunk causes trouble and harasses the women on the train that Yamada was on. When Yamada couldn’t tolerate the old drunk, he stands up to save Saori Aoyama, an elegant and wealthy woman. After the first encounter, the drama focuses on the life after the encounter alongside with the 2channelers that Yamada depends on to win her heart! This J-Drama is based on a true story.

Review

In the beginning, because of the very first scene, I thought that it was going to be a really depressing story. I thought that it must have sucked that an otaku like Yamada would be out-of-place in the world. At the same time, I consider someone like Yamada to be really lucky. It’s kinda sad to see what Yamada has to go through. It must have hurt to be him.

The storyline was really interesting. All the 2channelers had a neat (and funny) personality among each person! The setting and filming locations were excellent and matched the mood.

I have special thoughts about episode 11 in particular. After watching episodes 1-10 and having Aoyama see the truth in a heartwarming and tear-dropping way, it kinda makes you want to cry too (+ the little note at the end… that’s gotta be difficult for Aoyama to read and mistake for.) Plus, as all finales go, it was a very touching ending and it must be a once-in-a-long-shot time before anything  like that could ever happen again.

The music from the soundtrack, including the scores, the music choices, and the opening song, were excellent! It fits with the mood of the drama! (Some of them were so good, you can even feel the emotion as if you were Yamada!)

P.S.: As my opinion goes for all Japanese girls/women, most of which, like Aoyama, [Containing spoilers: Character names…] Aoyama’s friends, & Jinkama = hot (かわいい~!!! X3)

Score:

97/100

I was able to give it such a high rating because this combined my interests at the time: Romance/love stories, Japanese (girls/women), Denshas (Trains… please don’t ask me why), and the internet.

Important Note: It is now absolutely disrespectful/disallowed (for the most part) to post anything related to Densha Otoko on the single men portion of the original 2channel or the English 4channel. If something like this really happens to you, at least skip the train part and get straight to the “getting the girl” topic.

See Also:

• Original 2channel (Japanese) BBS posts of Densha Otoko
• … in English (Translated by a community)

The Community-Combined Codec Pack, abbreviated CCCP, combines the tools required to play many audio and video formats. The software has nothing of a nag and it doesn’t harm anyone’s machine. With its components, such as FFMPEG and .SRT-reading software for subtitles, many media files that don’t work for Windows Media Player already may work (yes, FLV’s too!) Installations of CCCP come pre-packed with the optional Media Player Classic HomeCinema, which is a stripped down neutral version of Windows Media Player (perfect for those who would rather use a small, stable audio/video player!) It’s hassle-free to install and no other software can top what CCCP can do.

There are many things CCCP is good for! Let’s see, you want to watch a video podcast, but you do not want to open up iTunes or Quicktime Player. That’s understandable. When CCCP is installed, a user can use Windows Media Player to open up the .M4V, .MP4, or .MOV file. Even if Windows Media Player states that it doesn’t work, chances are, it will work if the data within the file is valid. Let’s say you downloaded a video, but it is in an alien format, like a .MKV or .MTS (.MTS is standard for HD Camcorders.) Yes, CCCP can do that and Windows Media Player will run it! Some software, such as Windows DVD Maker, will utilize CCCP’s services for the input-to-output processes (so now, .MKVs can become video DVD’s if the software will read it!)

There are certain downfalls to installing CCCP that users should understand and will notice for the lifetime that the user has the pack. For example, games that rely on MP3, WAV, and movie files that CCCP covers may have a short delay (depending on the machine) because the CCCP processes for FFMPEG may need to start up. Notable games include Grand Theft Auto (when using custom tracks on PC) and Audition Online (due to OGG format extraction). The good thing, however, is that some software (like Quicktime and iTunes) won’t have this issue. It’s too bad that you can’t play all the files CCCP can do for Windows Media Player on Quicktime or iTunes, but otherwise, CCCP is a great utility for your media player needs!

Copyright Information:
Image Content: 電車男 (Densha Otoko) © 2005 株式会社フジテレビジョン (Fuji Television)
Image Content: 生徒会の一存 (Seitokai no Ichizon) © 2009 株式会社スタジオディーン (Studio Deen Co., Ltd.)

Oh hey, check this out! Application & Facebook games lovers will dislike this change. Applications are shown on the left panel… of the home page only. See these comments to the left? Those are users who use a lot of apps, based on my view of their profile posts from apps.  As like the previous change, this change is no different. Many can see this update to add more confusion to the usage of Facebook. Plus, many are beginning to complain that “Facebook hasn’t really been listening to their suggestions.” (Especially about the dislike button.)

For the past year or so, Facebook has been concentrating on privacy control for its users. Noticeable changes included the little lock button under posts. From that, users can control who can view a particular post or content.

Of course, all Facebook users will have to decide for themselves whether or not this update is its best… or another failure. Either way, let’s hope Facebook listens to every little suggestion given to them.