Nightmare House 2: A Game of Pants-Shitting Misadventures

Don't worry, there aren't any spoilers in here.

At some point during the Steam Summer sale I bought the Valve complete pack out of instinct. I did not actually plan to buy the pack, I only thought that it would be a good idea to buy it right ahead while it was 75% off its original price. It was one of the best fifty dollars I've ever spent, however, my desktop messed itself up during that time period, but that's a different story.

I've been playing most of the Source games included in the pack, most notably Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and the Half-Life series. However, I've been lurking Reddit for a while and heard about this awesome Half-Life 2 single player modification called Nightmare House 2. It is a survival-horror game that strangely enough, starts off in a creepy old farmhouse. I went to the mod creator's workshop and was glad that it was completely free, and only required the Half-Life 2 Episode Two game content files, which I have thanks to the Valve Complete Pack. I wget'ed it from my laptop (seriously it's sooooo fast from there) then transferred and installed it to my desktop.

The Good stuff

First, there's the game's really excellent level design. The actual first chapter, called the "Prologue", was actually the first Nightmare House game, just included in the second installment as a supplement. Most of the game occurs inside the creepy old farmhouse, however, they made excellent use of the entire house, everything was nicely and creepily decorated, and there were absolutely no loading screens during the chapter. Seriously, one thing I hate about Half-Life 2 are the annoying loading screens because apparently because of the limits of the Source engine. Nightmare House managed to go around that.

As some people put it, "Nightmare House 2 is a combination of Half-Life 2 and F.E.A.R.". This is correct. Most of the enemies you are going to be facing in the game are zombies, the dark, and the instinct to involuntarily crap your pants. Also, the final boss showdown in this game is really, really similar to GLaDoS in Portal. You don't actually "fight" the boss directly in Nightmare House 2.

The Bad stuff

One thing I didn't like about Nightmare House 2 is that the farther you get through the game the more weapons you will get that will help you survive. A survival-horror game is defined as a game where you have a limited amount of things that will help you survive and the simple fact that you have only 5 bullets in your gun is the creepy part. In the Resident Evil games I'd really happy if I manage to find a box of shotgun shells, while in Nightmare House 2 finding a box of shotgun shells is as easy as just looking around. Or maybe because I played it in easy difficulty, I got a crapload of weapons and ammunition.

Overall, I think Nightmare House 2 is a great mod to play if you have bought Half-Life 2 Episode 2. It's just that if you're expecting the game to be very much like Silent Hill, Resident Evil or Amnesia, don't bother, because in this game you can kick anything's ass with the vast array of weaponry you will be receiving.

The 3 best and worst websites I have visited this 2011

With computers being one of my areas of expertise, it comes to no surprise that I'm an avid user of the Internet. I've been on the Internet since 2004 and from my experience, the standards in website UI design have changed dramatically over the years. There are some who took the aspects of design further, leading to beautiful websites that are also easy to navigate. However, there are also websites who disregard UI design, which impacted the overall usefulness of their websites.

Here are the 3 best websites I have visited this year, along with their bad counterparts.

1. Good: Newsmap.jp

URL: http://newsmap.jp

Don't let the URL fool you, the site is not in any way written in Japanese. Newsmap is a small website that grabs news from various news feeds around the web and displays them in a neat, color-coded grid boxes. These boxes are arranged according to importance and popularity using size. So essentially, the most breaking and controversial news are displayed in large text, while the not-really-that-popular ones are in smaller text. You can untick categories in order to hide them and give more space to other categories. Finally, news feeds can also be arranged according to country and region, although support for all countries and regions are still incomplete (unlike Google News).

Bad: Inquirer.net

URL: http://inquirer.net

Inquirer.net is the web site of the Philippine newspaper "Philippine Daily Inquirer". Like most other Philippine websites, it has lagged behind in terms of UI standards. For example, it uses an awful lot of tables for its layout, resulting in too many columns and rows displayed on the homepage. It makes navigation difficult, despite multiple navigation bars in the top and bottom of the site's home page. However, they are successful in their efforts to put the most breaking news on the front, where they are easy to spot. Additionally, they use a pleasant and well-balanced color scheme that is easy for the eyes. They need some work on the layout, though.

2. Good: Reddit

URL: http://reddit.com

Reddit is a place where people share links and rate them by giving upvotes and downvotes (similar to Youtube's like/dislike system), and give comments to content posted on the site. One good feature of the site is giving the users the ability to create sub-reddits, which are similar to subcategories. There are subreddits for different kinds of topics, like gaming, worldnews, etc.

Bad: Digg

URL: http://digg.com

Digg is a competitor to Reddit, since Digg also allows its users to share, rate and comment links. However, content on Digg has been recently monopolized by large media outlets, leading to most of its users leaving and finding more "open" link sharing sites (a large number of them migrated to Reddit). Digg had a good design before the "Diggpocalypse", however, after that everything became too blue and it was a lot harder to navigate than before.

3. Good: Imgur

URL: http://imgur.com

imgur is an image hosting site. The description probably ends there, but what I like about imgur is its very minimalistic approach to hosting its users' images. You just have to select your images, upload them either individually or as an album, and when it's done, you will be given links of all kinds. And those links are free from URLs to imgur, unlike other image hosting sites like Imageshack...

Bad: Imageshack

Imageshack is another image hosting site. It is reliable, however, the interface of the whole site is very, very messy, with advertisements everywhere and such. Also, the interface is not very intuitive, and new users can get lost trying to navigate its screens. Worst of all, Imageshack adds URLs to the links it gives to you for your images. For example, its pre-generated BBCode for forums has a link to Imageshack ("Uploaded with Imageshack.us"), and if you remove that part, the BBCode and the image will not work.

The importance of defragmenting your file system

Some time this month my desktop decided to die after three years of proud service. I ran all kinds of diagnostics and found out that it was due to my GPU constantly overheating (it was due to dust completely blocking off the airways of the heatsink). So I replaced the motherboard and the GPU and got a new copy of Windows (because apparently Windows recognizes a new motherboard as a completely new computer). I left the other partition and hard drive intact, hoping that my games are still runnable after a fresh new install.

I reinstalled Steam in the same directory on the other partition where it was before, and it recognized all my games there instantly. It even read my previous download queues. For a week I let Steam download most of the Steam games from the Valve Complete Pack, which I have bought for $50 during the Valve Summer Sale).

After acquiring an almost complete set of Valve's source games (HL2 w/EP1 and EP2, TF2, CS:S, DoD:S, etc.), Steam started to act weird and froze frequently. It freezes the first time I start it. I'm getting pissed with this because my PC is new in a sense, and that I haven't even done anything with Steam when it happened. So something was definitely wrong there.

I googled for some solutions and they recommended turning on background processes and services. So I did. I even got to turning off MSE for a while, but still to no avail. I even deleted the .blob files inside the Steam directory so that it could update itself again, but still, it completely freezes.

At some point I just let Steam freeze and unfreeze itself while running. Then a dialog box showed up telling me that my Steam game files are horribly fragmented. Then I realized that file fragmentation was the cause of Steam constantly stopping.

I ran Defraggler and I let it analyze the drive where Steam was located. The result was both surprising and sad: The total size of the fragmented files has reached 38.6GB. That's the largest amount of file fragmentation I've ever seen, since I constantly defragment my NTFS partitions. So I let it work its magic, hoping that my problem with Steam will be fixed after defragging.

The real insult here is I get these shitty problems when I've already bought legal copies of games. I've done Valve a great favor buying their games instead of pirating them (which was what I have been doing for eight years until now), and now I'm faced with this dilemma with Steam.

I will edit this post and write an update if Steam gets fixed by Defraggler or not.

(My) best and worst Android app of June 2011

So now I find myself writing a post about my best and worst Android applications, at least just for the past month of June 2011, anyway. I don't usually do these, because a post describing the best, worst and/or both of [something here] usually calls in the fanboys. And nobody wants that.

WARNING: Opinions follow.

The Android Market is known for being a complete mess with tens of thousands of incomplete and/or useless applications created by hundreds of incompetent developers. However, just like with every big pile of crap, there's always something valuable to be found underneath (or on the top of) the Android App Market. There are also numerous good apps in the Android Market and some of them actually prove that Android is better at certain things where iOS isn't. But I'm not here to spark a war against the iOS fans, I'm here to criticize two Android Apps.

The Best App: Lookout Mobile Security

The one thing that sucks about an app market that isn't regulated by a team of Nazis led by a guy in a black turtleneck sweater is that most people aren't responsible with freedom. Apple prunes the bad apps from the good, while Google doesn't care that much unless the application is a duplicate or malicious app. Therefore, there will come the inevitable time when you accidentally download a fake, duplicate copy of some paid app that turns out to be malware that steals everything valuable within your phone (and no, it's not the photos of yourself).

There are many applications on the Android Market that offer malware protection and "app scanning" (comparing your installed apps to a list of known malicious apps), but I think the best choice for this is Lookout Mobile Security. Lookout Security scans every new application that you download from the app market, compare it with their list of known malicious applications, and give you the signal on whether the app you downloaded is malicious or not. Not only that, Lookout Security scans all the apps installed prior to your installation of Lookout, and you can set it to regularly scan your apps every once in a while in case one of them are late bloomers.

You might notice that Lookout Security is a "suite". That means it's a bunch of services grouped together into one program. Not only does Lookout Security check your apps, it also offers a phone-tracking service. Using your phone's GPS and phone network, you can easily find your phone through Lookout's website. Some phone manufacturers provide their own phone-tracking software into some of their devices (I'm looking at you, HTC), but those services require the GPS to be on. If you happen to have lost your phone without its GPS turned on, Lookout can remotely turn on your phone's GPS so that it could track it. If that fails, Lookout will try to find your phone using Wi-Fi connections and nearby cell towers, which is inaccurate by a lot of meters, but reliable. Want to lock access or even wipe the valuable data off your phone (you shouldn't trouble yourself over your pictures)? Lookout can do that for you.

Lookout Mobile Security also offers backup and restore of your phone's data. While all free features are good enough for basic security, you might want to purchase premium, which you can buy for $29.99/year or $2.99 a month. Luckily, all users are able to try out the Premium for free for two weeks.

The Worst App: Vaulty

Vaulty is a small application whose primary purpose is to hide questionable content from your phone's main gallery. At least, that's how I used it. But sadly, it did not do its job well.

First of all, Vaulty works to hide photos and videos from your phone's gallery, where all of your multimedia content is displayed in full glory. It works like this: Pick a couple of photos and/or videos that you would like to hide, and Vaulty will put them in itself, all while removing those photos and/or videos from the gallery and moving them to Vaulty's app folder in your phone memory/SD card. To top all of that, access to the Vaulty...vault is restricted by a password of your choosing.

Seems good enough right? But why is it my worst app for June?

First, moving your files to Vaulty is a tedious process. You can either (1) Do it directly from Vaulty, but Vaulty does not have an option to choose multiple files, so if you got more than 20 files to hide it's gonna take a while. Or (2) You can "send" it to Vaulty by using the Share function in the gallery, which is faster, by the way.

However, once your files are hidden, it's really difficult to navigate through them inside the Vaulty vault. For example, if I hide a manga that's sorted and organized in its own folder in the gallery, and is arranged according to ascending file names, they will most likely be separated if I put them alongside another manga. They will be helplessly jumbled especially if every separate page has a filename like [pagenum].jpg. You put folders in Vaulty, Vaulty lets you see them spread out and cluttered. What shame.

Finally, Vaulty is not really that secure - Vaulty puts your "hidden" files in its folder, which is located in /sdcard/DCIM/vaulty. That means anyone can access your hidden files if they use a file browser like Astro.

A paid version of Vaulty is available, although the only feature it has over the free version is that Vaulty Premium is disguised as a Stocks App. That wouldn't be worth the money especially if you're hanging out with nosy stockbrokers.

What's a better solution for hiding your content from nosy people? Delete them and don't put them on your phone in the first place. However, if you really need to put these on your phone, but just want to hide them from the Gallery, the Gallery has an option to Show/Hide albums from view. This is great especially if you've arranged your questionable photos and videos into separate folders. They are still visible using a file browser though, but at least you're protected from nosy people who aren't that competent with Android phones.

Best Game App: Gun Bros

Gun Bros (pronounced as either Gun Brothers or Gun Brows) is a third-person survival shooter that pits the player against endless waves of monsters. You control one of either of the two Gun brothers, Percy and Francis Gun, the two superhuman members of F.R.A.G.G.E.D. (Freakishly Rugged Advanced Genetics Galatic Enforcement Division), and fight the T.O.O.L. (Tyrannical Oppressors Of Life).

Gun Bros is mainly survival. You are pitted against endless waves of opponents that get stronger and more numerous until your lose by either dying or quitting. As the player increases his level, new weapons and armor are unlocked, giving the player an edge over stronger opponents.

The best part about Gun Bros is its wittiness and humor regarding the age-old genre of shooter games. It has smooth, responsive controls, and every playthrough is bound to be challenging. And what's more, it's free.

Worst Game App: Attack of the Fanboys

Attack of the Fanboys is a survival third person shooter like Gun Bros, the only difference is that instead of being a superhuman fighting evil robots and aliens, you play a superhuman fighting evil fanboy zombies.

While the concept of the game is great, the game appears to be bleak, with its uninspiring level and enemy design. The controls were not very responsive. However, the game did succeed in introducing strategy to the survival shooter genre by adding a limit on ammo - something that Gun Bros did not bother doing.

Book Review: Season of the Harvest

Title: Season of the Harvest
Author: Michael R. Hicks
EPUB: Yes Kindle: Yes Paperback: Yes Hardcover: No

An exceptional read. Season of the Harvest is a techno science fiction thriller that takes us deep into the promising, yet dark world of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), that are commonly found in the plant food that we eat.

While the whole book itself is a work of fiction, it does lay an interesting question for the reader after going through the book. Are genetically modified food products beneficial for us in the long run? Is it possible that we are overlooking their possible unforseen consequences?

The book is very well written, with the plot steadily flowing, keeping the reader interested chapter after chapter. I actually find it hard to put down the book even if I've been reading for a long time. The action scenes in the book are well-detailed, and it gave me a good idea on what's happening, where something is happening, and who's involved in whatever's happening. The confrontations, gunfights, and even dialogues between characters are rendered beautifully, and they allowed me to vividly play the scenes in my mind.

The grammar in this book is top-notch, though I might be inaccurate because I did not have time to slowly go through the book over and over again in order to find errors in them. The author has edited the book well.

There was one part in the book that served as an annoying cliffhanger though - (WARNING: SPOILERS, highlight text to read) the part where they were missing that one bag of seeds. Perhaps the author intentionally put it in there in order for readers to draw up their own predictions to what's going to happen next.

Rating: 4/5 stars

My story of owning a Kindle 3

I am a man who enjoys great works of literature. Reading is one of my prized pastimes, and I regularly keep track of my reading progress like I keep track of my exercise activities. My favorite reading material are works of fiction, however, I also enjoy reading non-fiction works like articles, opinions, etc., so long as they are relevant to my interests. I am fond of my ability to stay engrossed and lost in reading for extended periods of time. The average human attention span has reached an all-time low for the past few decades that reading an entire novel from beginning to end sounds like running a hundred miles while on crutches. If you have reached this far, congratulations. Most people wouldn't even get past the first sentence. But I digress.

To fuel my need of literature, I carry books along with me. I typically read them during hours where the time is better spent doing something other than just staring blankly into the distance, like while on the bus. It is uncommon for me to find time to read books full-time, as my time is divided more unevenly than the Philippine social system.

Books suck for a couple of reasons though. First, they take up space. I already think that my HTC Desire HD consumes too much space due to its 4.3" screen, despite it being almost as thin as a copy of Newsweek. An average pocket paperback weighs just about the same as my phone, though they are much thicker and larger.

Friends once asked me, "Why don't you get yourself a tablet?" "Sure," I replied. "Which one?" "The iPad." they would reply, and I would later contemplate why my dear friends would recommend such shitty contraptions. Knowing myself, I would probably root for an Android tablet, like a Samsung Galaxy Tab, but I couldn't afford such.

To hell with tablets. They're overrated expensive toys for little boys and girls. Besides, no one really uses tablets to read books anyway (unless comic books and manga count). Most people use their tablet computers to just play Angry Birds. I have no intention to spend more than half a thousand dollars just to play some game involving flightless, suicidal birds and architecturally-talented green pigs. If I owned a tablet, I would only read books and manga on them. So why wouldn't I just get a device whose primary purpose is to view works of literature?

So I lurked around the Internet (probably in a three-piece pinstripe suit, black, shiny loafers and a monocle), and I discovered e-readers. What makes e-readers completely different from tablets is the screen. Tablet computers use touch LCD screens, while e-readers use e-ink screens. E-ink screens are different from LCD screens because they use "electronic paper" that manipulate ink (real ink) to display text in different shades of gray. E-ink screens are superior to LCDs when it comes to contrast and reading in direct sunlight. Text is really much clearer on e-ink screens when compared to LCDs. However, since e-ink screens do not have backlights, it is impossible to read in the dark without an external light source. Additionally, since e-ink screens manipulate ink, it takes a while for them to refresh, which makes them incapable of displaying animation.

I've researched many different e-readers when I stumbled upon the BeBook line of e-readers. They were inexpensive and seemingly reliable (with a touch interface to boot). I have also perused the Sony line of e-readers, which were touch-capable but a lot more expensive. However, I immediately understood that choosing a not-very-well-known brand of e-readers would merit a small library of books. It's much like choosing an iPhone over an Android or a Windows Mobile phone because they have more (albeit shittier) apps.

I went to Amazon and examined the Kindle 3. There were two versions of the Kindle - one has both Wifi and 3G connectivity, and the other only has the former. I did not need a 3G connection - Wifi will have to do. For $139, it was a pretty sweet deal. I only had to add forty dollars for shipping and customs. It was scheduled to arrive a week after I ordered, but it came four days later, which was a great bonus.

The Kindle 3 was indeed an amazing device to read electronic books on. The screen itself was very crisp, and handled itself in bright sunlight. The device was lightweight and somehow pocketable, if your pocket can carry pocket paperbacks. I bought a jacket for it, which was not really a jacket built for the Kindle 3 but for the Samsung Galaxy Tab. It fitted snugly since the Kindle was about as large as the Galaxy Tab.

It was happy moments for two weeks after that. I brought my Kindle everywhere, and nobody really gave shit about it because it looked like a small, leather notebook when I carried it by hand. I've finished reading George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four", Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita", and a couple of other classics with my Kindle.

All of those moments came to an end, however, in an unfortunate Sunday. I was sitting in a grassy meadow, with the Kindle in my pants pocket. When I fished it out to continue reading James Patterson's "Tick Tock", I was surprised to find the top of my screen "cracked", with a tear running diagonally from the top left corner to the middle right side of the screen. I thought it was just temporary so I began to repeatedly refresh the screen by using the "Alt-G" key combination. It was futile. The e-ink screen was cracked from the inside. The Kindle was broken.

My first instinct was to contact Amazon's Customer Service and kindly ask for a replacement device. I first contacted them through e-mail, but they replied that they could not process replacements through e-mail and I have to call their international phone line. Now, I've heard horror stories about customer service representatives on the phone, so I've decided to stall for at least three days before calling up Amazon. I read some comments of people on the Web about Amazon's customer service when it comes to Kindles. They say that the customer service was excellent, and they will agree to send me a replacement device with no questions asked, provided that I return the broken Kindle in return. I took their word for it and I gave it a try, and soon I was sent a replacement Kindle (which would arrive in about four to five days of course).

The Kindle has not yet arrived today, however, I am anxiously anticipating its arrival. Once it arrives, I'll send the broken Kindle back to Amazon. Hopefully I'll only have to do this once, though some people claim they are on their third or even fourth Kindle replacement.

Overall, the Kindle is a great inexpensive way to view electronic books. However, if you want something that can take a bit more wear and tear, I'd suggest something like the Sony Reader or the Bebook. Or just stick to reading real books.

Hate your life? Try writing self fanfics.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines fan fiction as "stories involving popular fictional characters that are written by fans and often posted on the Internet - also called fan fic". Most works of fan fiction are generally obscene, insane, unrealistic and written with grammar ripped from a fifth grader. But really, that's just the point of fan fiction. It's basically, "Who the fuck cares, this is my work, I can make anything happen." And in fan fictions, anything is ANYTHING. Some fan fictions actually make the story better. The rest are just literary Rule 34.

Although writing fan fictions has been a favorite pastime for both writers and non-writers, writers of the genre usually have a very, very small reader base (i.e. himself). So what's the point of writing something that only you are willing to read? The whole situation could be a little better if you wrote a fan fiction about you instead.

While writing a fan fiction for oneself would violate the definition given above (you are no longer writing about a  fictional character), it's a great way to escape the harsh view of reality. Say for example you made a mistake that fucked your life up good. You can write a fan fiction as a recount of that event, but instead of portraying yourself as a failure you can actually fix everything by rewriting it. It sort of like photoshopping a shitty photograph to make it better. Remove some key events, change how everything happened, maybe even throw Chuck Norris in as some sort of equalizer for that story of your life.

However, as amusing or awesome your self fan fiction will be, it would be best that you DO NOT publish it to be read by other people. Keep it somewhere confidential. Nobody really wants to read your fan fiction about fighting dragons part-time being the reason you are late at work everyday. And when they do, the consequences are almost always never the same.

Books are dying, kept alive by tablets, e-book readers

Books are, in my opinion, one of the best innovations known to man. While many earlier forms of storing information and literature have existed long before people wrote shit on paper then binded them together, books have remained living until today. And by living, I mean it's currently holding on for dear life.

Electronic book technology has allowed people to read works of literature on their shiny tablets, Kindles, iPhones, etc. My Desire HD carries a large collection of ebooks of which I spend an hour or two everyday to read. While I do have a large collection of ebooks, I also have an equally large collection of physical books. You know, those that are written on "paper" and binded together.

Reading on paper is way better than reading on some LCD screen. I've never enjoyed looking at electronic screens anyway. No matter how many innovations in display technology are being made every day, like high resolution LCDs, LED-backlit screens and the like, I just really don't get the hang of reading text on a bright screen. I've even had a hard time writing this post because it appears that my laptop's screen is fucking me with its brightness. And that's why when I read text, I try to invest a lot in anti-aliasing and high resolution displays. Also, something that's not too bright on my eyes.

This kind of ranting is strange to hear from someone who spends his time in front of screens of all sizes, be it dark UNIX terminals on my laptop or my phone. But seriously, nothing beats the sensation of reading a physical book in the presence soft light. There's even the aroma of aged paper that pulls you in to read further. Additionally, while reading physical books, there's the strange effect where you won't try to skim the story or skip parts the first time you read it. In reading text in screens, your TL;DR instincts start to kick in. With physical literature, the concept of TL;DR simply could not exist (unless you're reading a shitty book).

I know this ranting makes me sound like I'm sixty years old, but honestly I'm not even of legal age yet. But it really sucks that lots of people (old folks included) begin to favor ebooks over the original, physical ones we've been enjoying for more than a thousand and a half years. But then again, who reads ebooks? The longest piece of literature the majority of people read today is probably a Facebook status message. And statistically, 99.99999% of Facebook statuses don't even count as literature. "Random shit jumbled into decipherable words" would be a more appropriate term for it.

TL;DR: E-books suck.

HTC Desire HD Review

I have recently acquired a kickass HTC Desire HD, for reasons I won't divulge here, but let's just say that I've decided to dump iOS and give Android a try. Particularly because anything bearing the Apple logo (with the exception of my IBM Thinkpad X60s, I sarcastically stuck an Apple logo on its front) means it can be used by kids and will only be used by kids, or old people. Also, they can cost a whole semester's tuition or two. Since I do not fit in either demographic, and is not the kind who wastes money on shiny crap, I've decided to give Android a try with the HTC Desire HD.

The phone set me back Php26,700 (roughly US$ 603). It wasn't part of any postpaid plan, just bought it open line (meaning it's not stuck to any network), and set it for prepaid. When compared to the rest of the world, the system is pretty different in the Philippines, prepaid network services are available here in this country, which means you don't have to be prisoner to a network provider, and SIM cards are easily bought and used anonymously.

This review won't be that comprehensive. I won't go and discuss the insides of the phone, its technical specifications that much. I'll usually only review the essentials, and I've categorized them into categories courtesy of myself.

Performance

Speed is of the essence.

The HTC Desire HD is the fastest phone I've ever handled, thanks to its Qualcomm MSM 8255 1Ghz Scorpion processor. By the time I'm writing this review, 1Ghz smartphone processors are apparently the norm, and the world is currently bracing itself for the hour when dual core phones are distributed on the market. Also, the Desire HD's 768MB of memory allows me to multitask to my heart's content, although it poses some disadvantages (see below). Finally, Android 2.2 (Froyo) is faster and snappier here than its predecessor and the iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G. Comparing the iPhone 3G's performance to the Desire HD would be like comparing the performance of a bicycle with broken gears with a 1996 Dodge Viper GTS.

Concerning storage capacity, the Desire HD carries a disappointing amount of internal space - just about a gigabyte, but you can add in a microSD card with a size up to 32GB, which is probably more than adequate.

Score: 9/10

Market

While the Apple App Store itself is pretty huge and filled with millions of useless apps like flashlights, compatibility machines and Tap Tap Revenge, the Android Market is pretty much the same, albeit smaller, and does not include Tap Tap Revenge. Unlike the App Store though, the Android Market is a complete mess. While some apps on the iPhone are completely free on the Android (one example is Angry Birds), some weren't, a striking example is Remember the Milk, which is pretty disappoint since me and my friends use RTM to organize ourselves. I think the reason for this is that most developers who write for the iPhone first must have rewritten the app for the Android as an afterthought. Consequently, this led to generally bad ported apps.

Also, since Android phones have a lot of performance differences with each other, particularly with screen size, processor speed, memory and whatnot, some apps are optimized for slow phones, others for fast phones such as the Desire HD. Not like I'm complaining, because [1] My phone is fast, and [2] There were a lot of game apps in the App Store which ran horrendously slow on my iPhone 3G.

Score: 6.5/10

Syncing

Since Android phones don't usually come with magical and painfully slow software like iTunes, the Desire HD can be quite a bitch to sync, especially when your music collection is in question. Android phones, however, are associated with your Google account, which means your contacts, calendar, etc. are all synced with your Google account. Winamp is currently touting its ability to sync to Android phones, however, my Winamp doesn't really store any local media in its library, it only imported itself from iTunes. Fortunately, there are plenty of third-party syncing applications available on the Web, some are even able to integrate itself with iTunes (if slow media players are your forte), and there is a chance that your phone's manufacturer bundled your phone with their own syncing tools, that usually suck like shit (according to my experience with such software).

Score: 7/10

Battery Life

As with all smartphones (especially Androids), the Desire HD's battery life is a lot shorter than the lifespan of a domestic house fly, especially if the phone is running on 3G signals all the time. While the solution for this is simple (don't use 3G, goddamnit), the Desire HD, along with other phones not created by Apple give you the ability to change your phone's battery without taking it to some shiny, white shop to be replaced. However, the phone's powerful processor and continuous multitasking, together with its huge 4.3" screen can drain the battery quickly. Some apps even quietly but quickly drain your battery in the background because some of them go on recursive loops trying to refresh itself (even when there is no Internet connection), so there.

Score: 6/10

Media

One of the key selling points of the Desire HD is its oversized 4.3" SuperLCD screen, so no wonder HTC decided to add "HD" to this phone's name, right? I find it great to watch videos of all sorts on the Desire HD, even Youtube videos (provided that I don't get the read the comments). Also, its 480x800 (218 ppi) makes reading e-books and manga very comfortable. Sound quality is excellent too, with its built-in Dolby Mobile surround system and SRS effects, which can be greatly improved more if you have the proper sound output gear (such as good noise-cancelling headphones or a true 5.1 surround sound system).

Score: 9/10

Uniqueness

While the Desire HD follows the design guidelines of Android phones (huge screen, four navigation buttons below), it does stand out from the rest with its non-physical navigation keys and its "totally-not-ripped-off-from-the-iPhone" appearance. The backside of the phone is in matte, unlike most other phones who imitate the iPhone's glossy finish.

The Desire HD is also highly customizable on the inside. You can use live wallpapers (something my iPhone did not have), have several home screens, and other customizable features common to Android phones. While customizing your Android is a little on par with customizing an iPhone, Androids are easier to customize than iPhones since you don't have to jailbreak your phone to have a totally different look. Unless flashing a new ROM is your thing.

Score: 8/10

Misc

There's one thing Google overlooked in Android. There's NO fucking proxy configuration support for wireless networks. Sure, my Desire HD is fast, not too shiny, but it's unable to connect to proxy servers. This sucks, because I spend the majority of my time in DLSU, where our wireless network there is protected by a proxy server. The only option to have proxy configurations is by gaining root (super user) access to the phone, or installing a new ROM (particularly Cyanogenmod), both of which will instantly void my phone's 1 year warranty. I don't really need warranty that much, since I can pretty much fix problems myself, but I think I'll wait a good two weeks first and see if the phone has any defects before I decide to fiddle with it.

Waiting for Gingerbread (Android 2.3) to be supported by HTC would be useless since apparently, from what I've heard from some comments, Google continues to flip the bird at corporate users by ignoring the requests (no, demands is a better term) for proxy support.

Score: 0/10

Verdict

The Desire HD is overall a great phone for media enthusiasts and those who thinks performance-wise in the phone while also being conscious about his budget, since it costs less than an iPhone 3G (at least in my country). It's also a great way to stay away from those kids who got those iPhones that all look alike, without sacrificing your dignity.

Overall: 8/10

Learning a new language: A great way to tell how much you hate yourself

Recently, I've been studying 日本語 (Nihongo), because apparently I've decided that two languages weren't enough to make myself look presentable in polite society and that I don't already hate myself enough.

To anyone who've tried to study Nihongo like me, we both know that installing that language as one of your own is like trying to stab yourself with a plastic spoon. It's difficult and ineffective, but not pointless. For starters, you will have to memorize two new "alphabets" (or writing systems), Hiragana (ひらがな) and Katakana (カタカナ).

That shouldn't be too hard wouldn't it? After all, you only have to memorize 192 characters, and that includes their だくおん (dakuon) and はんだくおん (handakuon), as well as the よおん (yoon) combinations. While that seems like a feat that requires months to accomplish, I've managed to read (albeit at a slow pace) Hira and Kata without peeking into a reference sheet every ten seconds in three and a half weeks. Also, don't forget that you have to learn how to write that shit as well.

Memorizing the "alphabet" doesn't end with Hira and Kata. You will now have to go through memorizing Kanji. Kanji is basically Chinese characters borrowed from the...Chinese. The sad fact in getting your Kanji on is that you have to able to read, write, speak, and understand 1,945 of them. Now I didn't pull that number out of my ass, that's actually the number the Japanese Ministry of Education expects people living in Japan to know in order for them to be considered literate in the language.

Oh, and keep in note that Nihongo uses a completely different grammatical structure when compared to English. Saying "I am awesome" would turn into "I awesome am" when written in Japanese grammar. That's why no matter how great your translation program is, a clean automated Nihongo to English translation is almost always never achieved. Good translations are provided only by people who master both English and Japanese. Combine that with the fact that there are no Japanese syllables that constitute to the sound of "L" (hence "Engrish"), you might want to use a metallic spoon to impale on yourself than a plastic one, or you could use a lot of plastic spoons.

In addition to learning Japanese part time I'm also trying to get a grip of the Java programming language, as well as get acquainted with scripting languages like Python and Lua. While these languages are only used within a circle of geeks, the Java language is actually quite difficult, as it requires people to grasp an entirely new concept of programming which is called "Object Oriented Programming", also known as the sad attempt at making programming simple by attributing stuff in your code to real life entities.

At the rate I'm studying, I should be able to at least understand everything I need to understand so that I may pass the JPLT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test, the exam designed to test a foreigner's proficiency in Nihongo) in all levels, in about a year or sooner if I focus hard enough. Then the time will come when I successfully did everything I had to do then stare into the horizon, thinking, "What the fuck did I just do?", then spend some time thinking what language should I learn next. I heard Russian and Deutsche (German) is pretty cool, though, might want to put them in my list.