Playstation Network from Around the World

On a slow weekend, I learned from UK Playstation magazine of a trick to download PS3 demos and related content from non-American Playstation Stores. It was interesting as I kept reading various blog posts of PSTriple fanboys lamenting about their inability to download content from Europe, Asia and even Japan.

Here’s how to create accounts to access the Japanese, Hong Kong and UK PSN store:

1. Cut a Hole in the Box (Just joking)

First you will need to create an all-new user in your Playstation 3 in the users bar. One that is done you can go sign-up to a new Playstation Network account by choosing your country or region as Hong Kong, Japan or United Kingdom. Make sure you select “Master Account” and then enter in all the relevant information (you don’t need a valid email address) and follow the rest of the instructions.

You don’t need to enter in any billing information if you are just out to download region-exclusive demos or video content, so you can skip that section entirely. After the billing information is skipped or entered, you will be asked to confirm all your false information before your account is created. Once that is over you can chose your avatar and skip the survey section to immediately sign in using your region-specific account.

If you don’t know Japanese, you’re strongly recommended to creating an account for the Asia-Pacific region such as Hong Kong and the PAL markets such as the United Kingdom. This way, you will have a chance to memorise the right buttons and input fields before you try entering information for the Japanese account, which only displays in Japanese. Do not concern yourself with real information such as zip codes, home addresses or trying to type a Japanese or Asian name because the Account Registration process supports alphanumeric characters.

There should not be any compatibility issues with PAL downloads unless you are only connected to a TV using SD cables instead of a component or HDMI cable.

Some region-exclusives from the UK Playstation Store are a demo of Super Rub-a-Dub, a making-of featurette for F1 Championship Edition, while the Hong Kong store has a demo of Hot Shots Golf, free add-on packs for Ridge Racer 7, a trailer for Gundam Musou while the Japanese store has PS3 compatible PS1 downloadable games, and exclusive GT HD videos for Nissan and Ferrari. It’s really sad that one has to even make multiple accounts for specific regions just to download certain freebies from each store because Sony wasn’t smart enough to allow for global downloads. Granted the Japanese store does have content that is exclusive to their local culture, but much of the same content was sent to the Asian stores with no localisation and are doing quite well in those regions.

Some great downloads from this week’s Playstation stores, we Super Rub-a-Dub, which is extremely sensitive to the SIXAXIS controller; Ninja Gaiden Sigma, which gives us a remake of the demo stage from Xbox; Virtua Tennis 3, which only plays for 1 round; a Gundam Musou commercial in Japanese and GT HD videos showcasing Nissan and Ferrari.

With that note, tomorrow is One Day Blog Silence day in honour of those who were horribly murdered in Virginia Tech in America.

Silence can say more than a thousand words.

This day shall unite us all about this unbelievable painful & shocking event and show some respect and love to those who lost their loved ones.

On April 30th 2007, the Blogosphere will hold a One-Day Blog Silence in honor of the victims at Virginia Tech. More then 30 died at the US college massacre.

But it´s not only about them. Many bloggers have responded and asked about all the other victims of our world. All the people who die every day. What about them?

This day can be a symbol of support to all the victims of our world!

All you have to do is spread the word about it and post the graphic on your blog on 30th April 2007. No words and no comments. Just respect, reflect and empathy.

Taiwan Province: Fuck the Olympics

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6598711.stm

 China and Taiwan in Olympics row

China’s government has said it is surprised at Taiwan’s rejection of its place on the route of the Olympic torch relay ahead of the 2008 Beijing games. Officials in Taiwan, seen by China as part of its territory, do not want the torch to enter or leave via China.

The torch is to go from Taiwan to Hong Kong on its way to Beijing.

In a separate row, five Americans held at Mount Everest while protesting against the Tibetan leg of the relay are to be expelled from China.

The executive vice-president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), Jiang Xiaoyu said he was “surprised by [Taiwan's] attitude and comments”.

“BOCOG believes the current attitude of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee and its authorities… breached the principle of separating sport from politics as enshrined in the Olympic charter,” Mr Jiang said.

Taiwan objection

Taiwan and China have been ruled by separate governments since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

The authorities in Beijing regard it as a breakaway province that should be reunited with the rest of China – by force if necessary. The island is referred to as Chinese Taipei for the Olympics.

On Thursday, the head of Taiwan’s Olympic Committee said the route as announced by Beijing “constitutes an attempt to downgrade our sovereignty”.

“It is something that the government and people cannot accept,” said Tsai Chen-wei.

While many in Taiwan are said to be keen for the torch to come, some fear that if the route directly links the island with China it would appear to endorse Beijing’s view that Taiwan is part of its territory.

Tibet protest

The Olympic flame will be carried through 20 cities in five continents on its 137,000km (85,000-mile) journey.

Following Olympic tradition, the torch will be lit on 25 March in Greece at the site of the ancient Olympics.

It will then be transferred to Beijing from where it will travel across Central Asia to Europe, South America and Africa before reaching Asia again.

On its final leg, it will be carried through China by a series of athletes, celebrities and specially-chosen members of the public to Beijing in time for the opening ceremony of the games on 8 August.

A highlight of the journey is expected to be the torch’s planned ascent in May of the world’s highest mountain, Everest, which straddles the border between Tibet and Nepal. But its path through Tibet has already triggered protests from critics of Beijing’s rule. China invaded Tibet in 1950 and its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, lives in exile in India.

The five US activists, detained at the Everest base camp on the Tibetan side of the mountain on Wednesday, had unfurled a banner calling for Tibet’s independence.

China’s foreign ministry said the five were detained for “carrying out illegal activities aimed at splitting China”.

There have been stereotypes that the Taiwanese always enjoy turning everything into a political issue from local naming to an international Olympic torch relay. I find it distressing that officials from Taiwan Province would even have the nerve to reject a benevolent Olympic torch relay despite receiving the torch from the sovereign state of Vietnam and then handing it off to a separate Olympic entity in Hong Kong. It is not like the Chinese hosts were trying to squeeze their wayward province by planning a national relay around them, but rather chose to have Taiwan Province be at the receiving end of another country before passing it to a SAR.

This is one of the few instances where an IOC entity has ever made the choice to reject an opportunity to carry the Olympic torch in an international relay that promotes sportsmanship and goodwill. Not even North Korea, Kazakhstan, or Tanzania rejected the planned relay for the 2008 Olympics and many countries would be more than happy to have a chance at carrying the torch. Only a wayward area called Taiwan Province would be dumb enough to reject such an opportunity out of arrogance and out of spite just to politicize a rather petty issue. The only thing that is keeping Taiwan Province relevant is their value as an economic entity, which is gradually undermined by their ruling party and growing competition in the world.

This once again proves why Taiwan Province is seen as a joke by many in this world. Now people are starting to learn how Taiwan Province is becoming less respectable than Anhui Province. I would not be surprised if the Taiwan Province Olympic team receives more jeers than the Japanese team. Then again, Taiwan’s ongoing stupidity is a boon for Sino-Japanese relations because it is diverting much of the negative attention towards Japan into Taiwan Province instead, which will relatively improve perceptions of Japan and her people.

The End of the Playstation Era

http://www.forbes.com/2007/04/26/kutaragi-sony-playstation-face-marketes-cx_er_0426autofacescan01_print.htmlGame Over for Father Of The PlayStation
Evelyn M. Rusli, 04.26.07, 4:34 PM ET

Ken Kutaragi, the father of the PlayStation, stepped down as head of Sony Computer Entertainment on Thursday, falling victim to the disappointing sales of the PlayStation 3 and rising tensions between the executive and Sony Corp.’s top brass.

In an upbeat statement, the company announced that Kutaragi would stay on as an honorary chairman and senior technology adviser, while Kazuo Hirai, the current president of the key unit, would take his place as CEO and chairman.

“I am happy to graduate from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.” said Kutaragi. “It has been an exciting experience to change the world of computer entertainment by marrying cutting-edge technologies with creative minds from all over the world. I’m looking forward to building on this vision in my next endeavors.”

Sony Corp.’s CEO, Howard Stringer, called Kutaragi a “rare combination of a powerful visionary and entrepreneur in one figure.”

But behind the bright harmony of the press release, there was reportedly a protracted tug-of-war between the high-profile executives.

Many believe that Kutaragi is another casualty in Stringer’s campaign to transform Sony into a leaner, more profitable and software-centric company.

The clash between Kutaragi and Stringer, which is said to have simmered since Stringer became CEO in June 2005, was typical of the collision between the old style of business at Sony and the new ethos Stringer is trying to foster.

In one corner stood Kutaragi, a 32-year Sony veteran who epitomized the independent and innovative spirit that was key to the company’s rise. As the father of three generations of the PlayStation console and the handheld version, he also represented the company’s longtime hardware and engineering focus.

In the other corner was Stringer, the new CEO eager to reduce each business line’s independence and bring about integration. Since his arrival, Stringer has “made it clear that software — and inter-unit cooperation — is a priority for his historically siloed and hardware-centric company,” Prudential Equity Group said in a March research note.

The ideological chasm that separated Kutaragi and Stringer may have been immaterial, if it wasn’t for Sony’s major financial setbacks, which likely pressured Stringer to act.

The PS3, with its high overhead costs, production shortage problems and low penetration rate, has stumbled against the attractively priced Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360, falling to No. 3 in sales. While Sony sold 1.8 million consoles through the end of 2006, Nintendo sold almost double that: 3.2 million units.

The dissapointing console is expected to drag on Sony’s earnings for the remainder of the year: “it will be difficult for the Games division to achieve break-even status in fiscal 2007, as our analysis indicates that Sony is currently losing close to $300 per PlayStation 3 unit sold,” John McPeake, a Prudential Equity Group analyst, said in a research note last month.

In a harbinger of things to come, Stringer removed Kutaragi from the post of president of Sony Computer Entertainment last November, effectively cutting him off from day-to-day operations. (See: “Sony Shuffles Gaming Team”)

Kutaragi, known for his outspoken and independent management style, (See: “Exec Slams Sony Mangement for Failure to Exploit Content”) may have been perceived as a hurdle in reining in the embattled games division.

The lack of communication between the computer entertainment arm and the rest of Sony made Kutaragi a volatile element. According to an interview with Stringer in the Wall Street Journal, Kutaragi surprised his boss by exceeding production budgets. In one particularly illustrative moment, Kutaragi startled management with an impromptu 20% price cut for the Japanese 20GB PlayStation 3 model. “It wasn’t financially one of my best moments,” Stringer told the paper. “The budget implications were self evident. I agreed because I wanted the launch to be successful.”

Wrangles aside, Prudential analyst John McPeake said Kutaragi’s departure and Hirai’s ascension is a logical and positive step for the beleaguered company. “This management change is expected,” he said in an interview on Thursday. “Kutaragi was almost 60 years old and Kazuo Hirai has a good relationship with the game industry and game publishers.”

At the end of trading Thursday, Sony shares were down 1.9%, or $1.02, to $54.20.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Playstation Generation is coming to an end as Nintendo uses a modified Gamecube and a touchpad-based handheld to regain their place in the videogame industry. It’s quite ironic since it was Nintendo’s stupidity that provoked Sony into entering the videogame business with an overhauled CD-ROM based console. Now it looks like Ken Kutaragi is being banished from the division he helped build and replaced with Kazuo “Ridge Racer!!!!!!!!” Hirai, which seems to reaffirm that the Peter Principle is in play.

This is living indeed as Sir Howard Stringer may have brought massive damage to Sony with a real-time management change in the face of giant enemy Wiis. It also gives both Microsoft and Nintendo many chances to attack Sony’s weakpoint to cause massive damage to gain even more market share in the console war. As of this writing, Microsoft appears to have dominated much of the market share with their 360 in North America, while sharing some of the market with Nintendo in Europe. However, Nintendo is able to secure their home market in Japan and crushing the once invincible Sony with just a modified Gamecube.

“IT’S RIDGE RACER!~ RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRR!”

“Fl0w is the killer-app for the PS3!!!”

“Yo yo yo! It’s da PSTriple!”

It’s quotes like these that give you an idea of the Playstation 3’s sad state.

Despite these problems, I agree with Stringer that Sony needs to do more to flex their corporate synergies and to develop their software division in the face of direct competition from Microsoft. Sony’s lack of software know-how clearly shows in their lack of content in their cross-media bar interface that is on the PS3 and other high-end Sony products, the lack of content in their Playstation Network, and their Playstation Home, which looks like an enhanced Second Life just for PS3 users.

On another note, it seems that any electronic product with the Sony brand has been crapping out as of late. My Japanese penpal informed me that his first generation PS2 had problems due to a “disc-read error” and he heard rumours that Sony products were built with limited lifespans, which would force consumers to buy the next version about 3-5 years after using the original version. It’s funny because that’s how my Sony Discman (1993) died around 1998, my dad’s Sony Home Theatre 5.1 Sound Encoder (2000) died last weekend (2007) and my first PS2 (2002) died in 2005.

From what I have seen so far in Sony’s management and from my Playstation 3, it’s safe to say that I will opt out of the Playstation 4 and get Nintendo’s modified Wii instead for the next system.

Everybody do the mess around

That was an interesting week so far I may say.  After talking to Hide, he has informed me he is going to New Mexico for study abroad, while Hirozo will take a year off to figure things out after this semester.  Both were around when Wen Jinbao made his tour around Ritsumeikan earlier this month with Hide telling me that students were treating him like a celebrity while Hirozo and his friends were annoyed they couldn’t get any work done at the library that day.

Wachovia Securities blows goats. Not only is their customer service horrendous, but their mutual fund selections are limited to say the least.  It looks like I will have to make another trip to the bank tomorrow morning just to sort all this crap out.  Earlier, I received a copy of “The Queen” on blu-ray and it was a very good movie experience on high-definition.

Facebook is shitty as usual with security holes, poor customer service, and incompetent programming.  I really wonder if the company actually has any positive cash flow at all despite all the hype.  On a sad note, I learned that one of my colleagues has decided to quit Arbinet due to the lack of opportunities and from better job offers.   Semi-monthly salaries suck especially when I learned I am below the average salary of what a Marketing Coordinator should earn in New Brunswick.  One or two more years of work experience and then its time to jump into a new line of responsibilities that won’t give me ample downtime to go facebooking, track my investments and learn about personal finance/investing.

Do Not Buy Wachovia Securities sponsored funds

Note to self and all who are taking steps to become investors: do not purchase funds that are sponsored by brokerage firms because they will wind up creating significant costs that outweigh any long-term or near-term benefits that are claimed.  Do not believe the lies or hype.

The Roewe W2 (450) at the Auto Show Shanghai

About 3 years ago, the last volume manufacturer, MG ROVER, went into administration due to declining revenue, depleted cash reserves and rampant mismanagement from the “Phoenix Five”. From the ashes of MG Rover, rose two Chinese companies who have acquired their assets and intellectual property: SAIC and Nanjing Auto. The former company was one of the initial manufacturers that were interested in partnering with MG Rover before learning of their financial troubles, but failed to acquire the company when it was in administration while the latter was an obscure auto manufacturer that somehow won the bidding to acquire all of MG Rover’s assets.

Both companies were able to acquire the intellectual property for the Rover 75, which was the key property that SAIC wanted, while MG also got the IP for the MG TF in the process as well.

Using the Rover 75 platform, SAIC was able to update the car and introduce it to the Chinese market as the Roewe 750, which included a longer wheelbase and a facelifted front and rear end. Unfortunately, SAIC was not able to get the rights to the Rover brand since Ford used its option to buy it from BMW to prevent any confusion from their Land Rover brand. As a result, SAIC management made a snap decision to call their brand Roewe (pronounced Row-Wii) and a hastily drawn logo in response to Ford’s purchase. Personally, I would have preferred SAIC simply reused their old “Shanghai” brand for the new car or started pronouncing their new brand, Roewe, as “rowe” like Lowe instead of “Row-Wii”.

In any case, SAIC was able to work around this setback by first rehiring all the MG Rover engineers that had been working new Rover models, outsourcing some of their engineering work to Ricardo, and building brand recognition for their updated Roewe 750.

Here is the Hollywood-style ROVER 75 (Chinese call it ROEWE 750) commercial in Chinese TV. The sales has started nation-wide on January 31 year of 2007 and commercial is playing on national CCTV and other important media.

The national sales order for the first two week rocket to 3211 even when the nation-wide sales network is not built up completely. Now the order volume is stable at the number of 300 for one day.

So far the Roewe 750 has gotten good feedback from the local market and this has encouraged SAIC to produce more models for their new Roewe brand. One of these models is speculated to the the Roewe 450, a replacement for the Rover 45, and a continuation of the canceled MG Rover RDX60 model. The result of this project was a new car that would be based on the old Rover 75 platform with an updated design, that premiered as the Roewe W2 concept at the Shanghai Auto Show.

http://www.austin-rover.co.uk/

Although there’s little linking this car stylistically with the outgoing Rovers and MGs, the similarity to the ill-fated RDX60 is quite startling, indicating that the project was continued by Ricardo2010, almost seamlessly from the closure of MG Rover – indicating the earnestness of the company’s statement back in 2005, that the RDX60 was most definitely theirs…

As with the RDX60, the Roewe 450 is based upon the architecture of the Rover 75 – and because of that, it’s heading for production at an unprecedented rate. Unlike the original MG Rover, car, Roewe’s 450 will only be offered in saloon form, and will feature a pretty new interior that echoes the changing face of the original project, and how the MG and Rover marques were going to be modernised.

The 450 or W2 was spotted in various auto magazines undergoing extreme weather and performance testing in parts of the world with some speculating what it would actually look like. Fortunately, SAIC made a wise decision in rehiring most of the MG Rover design team and engineering in making this Chinese market car with British flavour.

SAIC’s new design was actually one of the more impressive concepts at the Shanghai Auto Show next to the Chery Shooting Sport concept. The Roewe 450 appears to be aimed squarely at buyers that would be interested in a Ford Focus, Volkswagen Jetta, or even a Toyota Corolla. Although it is very likely that the front and rear ends will be simplified when the 450 is pushed to production, the W2 concept does give us a good idea of what to expect from SAIC’s Roewe brand in the coming years.

On the other hand, the best that Nanjing Auto could produce so far are Chinese assembled MG Rover models with new names. The MG ZT is now the MG7, MG ZS is the MG5, while the MG TF remains the same. Very little has been done to update the models other than new names and money spent building a new assembly plant with tooling brought over from the old Longbridge plant. In addition, Nanjing Auto decided that it was somehow a great idea to throw away all the MG history by rebranding MG as “Modern Gentleman” and doing little to show it is a new player other than emphasising the brand’s British roots. It also does not help that years of hype over newly designed models and restored jobs did not materialise as of 2007, despite what the MG-NAC fanboys say on forums.

The Chinese market looks to be an interesting venture with competitors such as China Brilliance, Chery, and SAIC. So far China Brilliance has used their joint-venture with BMW to produce the “Zhonghua” brand cars that are currently losing money in the home market and damaging the reputation of Chinese cars in Europe. Chery is becoming a rising star with their bestselling QQ model, which is a copy of the Daewoo Matiz, and with potential for growth thanks to partnerships with Fiat and Chrysler. Last, SAIC has been a major player from joint-ventures with GM and Volkswagen and it has the resources to grow their own brands such as “Shanghai” and “Roewe”. Only time will tell which Chinese company will come out on top in their home market.

Playing with Willmon’s Wii

This Satuday, Willmon, Jehangir and I were able to get together after months of inactivity.  Willmon was able to get some extra Wii controllers and WiiPlay for this occasion and for long-term benefits should he host social gatherings.  The initial rounds of golf, boxing, baseball, tennis, and bowling on the WiiSports was quite fun with boxing obviously taking the most energy.  Bowling seemed to the best game for Jehnagir since he pointed out that the simulation mirrored his performance in an actually bowling ally while my favourite was still boxing and golf.  However, I had the most trouble playing baseball in Wiisports since I could not get the timing or hits right for the pitches.  We also made our own Miis on the console.

The next game we tried was WiiPlay which was an extension of WiiSports but with different challenges.  The problem was Jehangir, Will and I had to beat all the stages in the game before we can play the one minigame we wanted, which was tanks.  The first game was a challenge despite being a shooter since the Wiimote was increadibly sensitive, while the second game was similar to concentration and the last game was table tennis.  The funny part about Table Tennis was that Willmon actually lost the round to Jehangir despite being the President of the RUTTC and being Rutgers’ best table tennis player.  Now I know how Tiger Woods felt when he was unable to achieve a solid performance on golf for the WiiSports.  The challenge after that involved laser hockey, where Jehangir’s controller kept crapping out on him followed by a game where you match up with bubbles.  Then the next game was billiards that I didn’t realise was supposed to be played in order and followed by a racing game to attack scarecrows.  I think fishing was another fun minigame that I played Jehangir somewhere in that order.

The final game was tank and it required the nunchuck to play.  Although it seems easy,  the aiming was a struggle and it took sometime before we even got to a position of coming close to beating it.  Overall, I think WiiSports and WiiPlay are good games for the casual gamer and I would get a Wii if it was around for the retail price.  The next ideal game for Willmon’s collection is Warioware and possibly MySims…

After spending hours with the Wii we went to Applebees for dinner where we had fun discussing Asian cinema, James Bond, and investing before we called it a night.  Good times indeed.

“It’s good company again”

After nearly losing touch for nearly 5 years, James Charney and I met up on a Friday night for some dinner with some of his female friends.  Most of the girls there were nice and good company while we talked about random things.  I learned that Charney is now a Chinese language teacher in his high school and became an objective pro-China person.  The only things that reminded me of the old days was his right-wing stance since he was critical of Wesleyan of being liberal and still under the impression I am on the right as well.  I confided in him some girl trouble I had in the last year of college and the need to change.  It was funny since he could not recognise me with the new hairstyle, the new glasses, and the weight gain to an extent.

We all ate at Old Man Rafferty’s and hung around until around 1130, by then I went with the girls to Tammy’s birthday party at Glo.  I really didn’t look forward to going to Glo since I threw up there the last time under very unpleasant circumstances, but I was able to run into some old Allen floormates from freshman year.  At the party, I bumped into Jenn, who is still short, and Celeste, who now works in the NJ Medical Institute and still with her original boyfriend.  It was good seeing them and knowing I am on good terms with them despite spending a brief period of time at Allen.  Kinesh was also at the party though he didn’t recognise me until I greeted him.   Unfortunately, most of the people there were not exactly my crowd and I had to leave before the last train showed up.

Overall, it was good seeing Charney in good spirits after all these years and running into good acquaintances from the past.

Its business as usual…

These past four days have been interesting in America, as White America continues to remain in shock over the killings and coming to terms with the Model Minority stereotype.  For those who are unfamiliar with race relations in America, the “Model Minority” stereotype is a stereotype applied to all ethnic Asians in America who are typically stereotyped as being hard-working, bearing ethnic idiosyncrasies, excellent in the areas of math/science, extremely passive, and willing to adapt to the White power structure more willingly than other ethnic minorities in America.

With that being said, Asians in America have been traditionally stigmatised as being “ethnic”, weak, sexless, a jack-of-all-trades in academics, and most of all subservient.  It is safe to say those perceptions of Asians came crashing down on many Americans when Cho Seung-Hui finally made his move to release all his pent up rage, insanity on a Monday morning.  It didn’t really sink in until NBC and other news outlets in the world decided to air key excepts of his “manifesto” which depicted him as an awkward Asian-American who had a great deal of anger and committed to killing those who wronged him (whoever they may be).

Soon, people started seeing these images started to realise that this man could be the kid that hangs out with their children, the guy they work with, the guy who helps them out or just a random acquaintance that happens to be an Asian male.  Now people will consider Asian males to not only be good in math or science, but also capable of extreme psychotic acts of violence.    So far, a few Asians have related on various forums that their co-workers have started to look at them weird and reluctant to socialise with them while others no longer feel safe when traveling around predominantly White neighbourhoods.

Then there are idiotic acts such as this:

http://www.xanga.com/kenoak

i’m at michigan state at a frat house. just got word that 16 cars outside the international house on campus got vandalized… windshields smashed in. 14 of those cars were owned by koreans. this is almost certainly related to the virginia tech shooting. i’m really upset about this….. really upset. the kids are playing beer pong………

I would advise readers and Americans to refrain from revenge attacks against Asians because they are not like Cho Seung-Hui.  Remember that people are people and Cho’s act was no different from what happened in Columbine other than his ethnicity.  Despite what I just said, I am sure I will be profiled like many of my Asian peers in America save for Hawaii or California (where there is a sizable Asian population).

With that out of the way, it’s back to bashing the crap out of Sony and the Playstation 3.  From what have been circulating in videogame industry rags and enthusiast blogs, it appears that Sony’s European division will be “heavily restructured” meaning it will be downsized and it comes as no surprise that some top managers in Sony Computer Europe decided to call it quits.  The sales for the PS3 in Europe have already started to freefall after record sales in the initial weeks to the point where retailers in the United Kingdom are selling the systems as a loss just to liquidate their inventory.

On the upside, Sony finally released firmware 1.70, which made improvements in backward compatibility with PSone and PS2 games, allowed for emulation of downloaded PSone games, and allowed for rumble in old Playstation peripherals.  However, the downloadable PSone games will not be available in May and its also good to point out that Sony had about 7 firmware updates in the past year compared to Microsoft’s 2 revisions for the 360.  These improvised updates just come to show that Sony’s Playstation division and OS programmers are indeed run by the legally retarded just like Virginia Tech’s security.

Then the hardware sales in Japan also tell a story:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/media-create/simple-2000-the-japanese-hardware-sales-chart-250404.php

Nintendo must have been gutted of DS Lite supply, as this week saw a noticeable drop off in sales from last week’s hardware chart. Is the honeymoon over? Has the nation of Japan turned against its handheld leader? Doubtful. But even Wii sales were down considerably, so maybe that Blue Ocean is experiencing a red shift.

Despite an approximate drop of 50,000 in weekly sales, the DS Lite still sits proudly atop this week’s Media Create sales figures.

• Nintendo DS Lite – 79,897
• Wii – 51,365
• PSP – 39,077
• PlayStation 2 – 17,787
• PLAYSTATION 3 – 16,889
• Xbox 360 – 3,889
• Game Boy Advance SP – 609
• Game Boy micro – 588

Did you notice that PS2 sales exceeded PS3 sales? That may be due to Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ and Musou Orochi selling so well. Still, ouch.

So the Playstation 3 is still being crushed by a modified Gamecube and being cannibalised by their own Playstation 2.  It’s interesting to see how the top two sellers in Japan last week were the Nintendo DS and Wii followed by a portable PS2 and the PS2 itself while the PS3 is barely close to the PS2′ sales.  One would think that Gundam Musou would have boosted the PS3’s sales, but it really did little in the long-run.

It has reached the point where some random people can cultivate an Internet following just by creating a running gag pretending to be an uneducated PS3 fanboy:

So despite all of the obscenity-laced rant about Wii games and Devil May Cry no longer being a PS3-exclusive, the video points out that the “PSTriple” doesn’t have any good games worth talking about and parodies the fanboys who go on bashing popular games on the Wii or 360.  This was supposed to be a one-time joke by the Chad Warden fellow, but many of the PSTriple fanboys were actually dumb enough to use this video in defending their $600-plus investment in what can now be considered more of a “cheap” blu-ray player (assuming Sony can win that format war).

Speaking of stupidity, Taiwan Province decided to make a prank call pretending to be attacked by a killer in a university just to test police response time about three days after Monday’s shootings:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6571361.stm

Two MPs who faked a hostage-taking at Taiwan’s top university after the US school shootings have been condemned by the island’s governing party.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) made a public apology after two MPs reported that students had been taken hostage at National Taiwan University.

Armed police rushed to the campus, only to be told that the call was a hoax aimed at testing their response time.

The pair may face disciplinary action, but have defended their action.

Police who rushed to scene found Lee Chen-nan and another legislator, Lin Kuo-ching, on campus with a number of reporters.

The hoax drew sharp criticism from the DPP, which issued an apology, and from Taiwan’s cabinet, which said authorities would investigate whether the MPs broke any laws.

Why is Taiwan Province turning into a goddamn living joke to the point where Zhejiang Province looks more respectable?   Three days after the shooting and during examination week the two legislators from the “Democratic Progressive Party”, the party that wants total war with China, decide to make a crank call just to test police response time.  Both legislators justified their actions because it was supported by students who wanted to avoid the exams, without realising that they could encourage copycat pranks in the long-run.

The world turns and things will be back to business for the most part

The Virginia Tech Massacre explained by Cho Seung-Hui and a Hong Kong tabloid

There was more news today on Cho Seung-Hui despite the fact that over 150 people were killed in attacks in Baghdad and the Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold bans on  late-term “partial birth” abortion. No, it seems that sensationalising the actions of a mentally-ill Korean, which appears to be what Cho wanted when he went on his killing spree, is what the American networks decide to devote their air time to.

Recently, NBC received a package from Cho containing a long profanity-laced essay and a cryptic video with the following message:

You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today… but you decided to spill my blood.

You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option.

The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.

You just love to crucify me. You loved inducing cancer in my head, terrors in my heart and ripping my soul all this time.

I didn’t have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled.

But now I will no longer run. It’s not for me, for my children, for my brothers and sisters, the (bleeped). I did it for them.

The international response from South Korea has been interesting since the government felt the need to apologise for the actions of Cho because he was a ROK national. On another level, it appears that the South Korean President apologised to the Americans for fear of a negative backlash against Koreans and from some cultural obligation to be responsible for the success and problems of notable Koreans. According to news reports, Korean international students in Virginia Tech and other universities have decided to stick together in groups whenever the travel for fear of racially motivated reprisals. This doesn’t seem surprising since news networks such as Fox News and CNN have felt the need to emphasise the killer’s “Koreaness” and even framed this tragedy as an Asian Immigrant versus America issue.

With that being said, here is how the Hong Kong tabloid “Apple Daily” described the massacre using visual dramatisations:

This gruesome dramatisation shows Cho getting into an argument with the girl before killing her and the RA who intervened. The next panels show Cho locking the lecture hall, killing a professor, and having the remaining students line up against the wall before he killed them execution style. The last panel shows what police saw when they found his corpse. It is wrong for the tabloid to allow the artist to take liberties in portraying Cho’s use of dual wielding his guns during his rampage; yet this doesn’t seem to be a stretch since the package Cho sent to NBC had videos of him dual wielding with the two guns he used on Monday.

This is one of the worst killings in US history so far and shows that not even universities are safe from this type of crime. Something should have been done the moment he got in trouble with university authorities in 2005 or when he was sent for mental help.

Living away from parents makes it harder for them to track his moods and feelings. Every student in the university is treated as an independent adult, this is partly the reason parents are usually not in the loop when he was given medication or therapy. His Korean parents appeared to be surprised and humiliated by the actions of their son, which makes them reluctant to speak for fear of criticism and further humiliation.

Its always easy to dismiss a social outcast like Cho as a loser or a loner instead of trying to take measures to keep him from slipping into the deep end. His roommates seemed to have taken some measures but didn’t really care since he was just the guy who randomly assigned to live with them or just an acquaintance. His downward spiral was witnessed by his roommates, who he did not kill. They did the bare minimum, but other than that, they left him to his own devices.

The University is also at fault for taking their sweet time in stopping him in light of school violence in these past years. Instead of making a public announcement to get everyone out of danger, they simply sent a discreet mass mail that made it seem like an isolated incident in the early hours when everyone is either sleeping or in class. This could of been stopped either when Cho started to act up or when he made the first kills, but they failed miserably in both cases. The ultimate tragedy is that all this could have been prevented if authorities aggressively treated Cho Seung-Hui for his problems before they manifested into what we all witnessed on Monday.