Gaming Consoles
HowTo: Streaming music/photos/videos to Wii
Aug 31st
Wii doesn’t have in-built media client or DMA capabilities, but there is a workaround… 
If you don’t have Xbox360/PS3 or a dedicated DMA device, you can try out streaming from your PC to your TV via Wii using a program called Wiisic [Doesn't mean you cannot do this with Xbox360/PS3 in place]
Note that, you need to have Wii Internet Channel installed in your Wii. If you are trying to use your US-bought Wii outside US, with out a US credit card,try to use this trick.
How to setup Wiisic:
- Download latest version of WiiSic [Direct link to 0.815 / Home page
- Make sure you have a compatible JRE. All JRE1.5+ versions downloaded from Sun website are ok. Microsoft's JVM may not execute this JAR. At least, it didn't work for me under Vista.
- Double click on Wiisic.jar. You should see the launch dialog shown below [for v0.815]. If it gives an error, make sure you are using the proper Sun JRE (not Microsoft’s).
- Now you need to configure the settings. Choose the folder containing your media files first. Make sure you choose your network card from the drop down list in (3). Also. change the port to something like 8081. If you have a 16:9 supporting TV, choose the 16:9 proper player in (2). Following screen shown the settings I used in my computer.
- Now switch on your Wii. Open the Wii Internet channel. Type the IP that is shown under (4) in Opera’s address bar. Wiisic should load now and start playing the stuff you chose under (1) above.
This has to proved to be the most effective inside-LAN-streaming-solution for me, till now. Let me know if you come across any other solutions.
HowTo: Buy Wii points online from India
Aug 5th
Though Nintendo hasn’t officially launched Wii yet in India, the number of Wiis in India *is* increasing. 3 of my friends, who returned from US last week, bought Wii I don’t know how they got hold of one, as it is in extremely high demand over there now!
One of the initial problems you’d face trying to setup the Wii in India is the power converter. You *cannot* plugin Wii directly in to one of our power sockets, it will just burn! Unless you want to do the burn-in (!?) test with your Wii, I suggest you go out and buy a 220-110v power adapter (stepdown). It is available in many wattages, for Wii a 50W or 100W should suffice.
The only other thing you’d find a bit problematic is buying Wii points. Mine is a US Wii, so whenever I try buying Wii points online, it asks for a credit card along with the US address / Zip code blah blah…this one can be real irritating! Don’t lose heart though. There is a simple/effective method (Based on this post). The trick is to find a region which accepts Indian credit cards with out asking too many questions The region found by the original poster is Brazil.
How to buy Wii points from India (Thanks to StringFellow):
- Change your Wii country to Brazil. You will find this option in Wii Settings section. Wii will now ask you to confirm the user agreement for the new region. Do press ACCEPT here, else you will get an error later when accessing the Woo shop.
- Go to Wii Shop. If you already have “My Nintendo” account at Nintendo.com linked to your Wii shop account, Wii will warn you that the link will be broken. Don’t worry about this message. You can set this up again later.
- Once in, click on the “Add Wii points”. Enter your CC number, name, expiry date and CVV. In the next screen enter any random Brazilian postal code. I used Brazilian Discovery Channel postal code. You can find more of these postal codes in Google.
That’s all, it should work! I bought USD30 worth of Wii points and it worked flawlessly. Once you have the points, you can reset your Wii country to USA (if yours is a US Wii like mine) and reconnect the Wii Shop login with your Nintendo.com login.
What to do with the Wii points?
You can buy Wii Channels, Virtual Console games or WiiWare games online from the Wii shop, using the Wii points. I strongly suggest you buy Wii Internet (Opera) channel. It costs only 500points (USD5.0) and it is worth it. Quickly checking the Orkut, sitting in the couch is bliss, I tell you
Who is the real worker & some personal tales!
May 28th
Its been a while since I posted. What have I been doing? Apart from the occasional tennis sessions in Wii, I am kinda stuck in the work (if you thought it sounded like "stuck in the rut", you have a warped mind! 
). Its already 12 in the night here, me feeling very sleepy. But wanted to finish up this toon below. I guess it is a reflection of my current mind state.
I read Matthew Reilly’s "Seven Ancient Wonders" last weekend. Book is on my favorite topic – Egypt!! Unfortunately this one reads like a kid’s book. The ease with which the main character of the book solves/crosses all those complex pyramidal snares/traps is ridiculous, to say the least. Anyway, I learnt something about the early water traps and Reilly’s description of Hanging gardens of Babylon was highly imaginative; I’d rate this book 2/5 – you can read it probably once, over flight or when waiting for your wife to finish her shopping I have started on his "Ice Station" next, lets see how it reads.
Last weekend, I also spent lots of time watching the entire 16 season of Survivors : Fans vs Favorites. I have never seen Survivors before, though I knew what the concept was. But, at no point of time I expected it to be so well made and so captivating! I thoroughly enjoyed the isolated environment, the idea of tribes/tribal council and the human dynamics that played out for survival. Wow…an amazing reality show. I personally liked Ozzie a lot in the show, very unfortunate Parvati fooled him in to quitting. I cannot wait for the next season to start!!
In the Wii front, today I got my Carnival games collection. My first impression: I don’t like many of the games included, hopefully multi-player will prove otherwise. Enough of my whining now…time for bed!
Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo!
Feb 1st
Today Microsoft has made a proposal to buy Yahoo!. All the outstanding stocks sum up to a whooping amount of $4.4bn ($31/share). This is an amazing offer and if the deal goes through, Microsoft will get a good holding to take Google heads on. The news just popped up, I am sure before I hit the bed tonight (IST), the web will be abuzz with this. Couple of things I noted in the initial reports:
IndiaInfoline states:
Microsoft has developed a plan and process that will include the employees of both companies to focus on the integration of the combined business. Microsoft intends to offer significant retention packages to Yahoo! engineers, key leaders and employees across all disciplines.
Hmm…so the headcount reduction Yahoo announced some days back holds good or is it going to increase? Will Microsoft clean out Yahoo’s house…sac all the no ROI projects? Specifically, what is the impact going to be on Yahoo India where most of the work is of sustenance nature (Quote: one of my friends working there)??
Another thing to note is the amount Microsoft is offering – $31/share. Already the prices of Yahoo stocks have gone up by $9.82, after seeing the MS proposal. This brings the price to $29.1. Has Microsoft offered a low price / stock?? I am not sure (my knowledge of how money works is very limited). BTW, you can see the actual letter sent by Microsoft to Yahoo board of directors here.
Interesting things that may happen, if the deal goes through:
- Microsoft will become “Microsoft!“, trying to keep the “Yahoo!” tradition alive
- Finally, you will be able to send messages to Xbox Live from Yahoo!
- Yahoo mail and Hotmail will be merged. More potential users for Hotmail.
The potential beneficiaries will be the Yahoo shareholders – a massive payday for them today
Xbox 360 damages discs – Be very careful!
Apr 17th
If you own a Xbox 360 you surely would have come across the famous “Disc not readable” problem. Whenever it happens, you are forced to take out the disc, clean it, sometimes reboot Xbox 360 to get the disc to play again. I was so scared the first time my Gears of War refused to play, even after repeated cleaning/trying…cleaning/trying ritual. I thought I had lost my Rs.2500 spent on that game. Fortunately, a quick Google search assured me I was not alone and it was not a major problem. But, I stumbled upon another serious problem that can happen if you are not careful – Xbox 360 can damage your discs permanently. This was scary! There are some sound advice on what to do and what not to do with a disc inside Xbox360. Though the problem has been root caused, people are still seeing random scratches. I can only attribute this to Xbox360 loving your discs so much it can’t stop itself from caressing them a bit too harsh
Finally Microsoft has owned up to this and has rolled out a replacement program (Note that MS has its own list of Terms and Conditions). Luckily GoW is covered there
Check out this video that shows Xbox360 scratching a disc.
Xbox 360 to support Windows Live Messenger
Apr 9th
Spring update to Xbox 360 is going to be rolled out starting May 7th. Some notable features are:
- H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
- Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
- Show folder hierarchy for video and other content played from all devices.
- The screensaver is disabled when playing photos from any source
I am happy they chose to include the folder hierarchy display and disabling screensaver. Those I am sure people would agree, were sorely missed. Now, I can easily play a movie from my movie collection (named xyz part1.avi, xyz part2.avi…) with out searching for individual files. A single “Play” click on the folder containing all these individual files should do the trick!
Another interesting feature (and the topic of this post) is the “Chat with MSN contacts”. Wow! Now, I can chat with my relatives, who don’t own a Xbox, sitting in the living room, with my parents besides me! This is a killer feature, I’d say. I am not sure if this Xbox update supports video chatting with MSN, but if only they do, man…nothing like it! The above picture is the new accessory Microsoft is planning to release this summer. Kinda bulky looking for a controller, but would make chatting painless. We should be able to use the normal USB keyboard too.
I can now finally leave my wife chatting with my in-laws, to go work on that Wordpress Chess plugin with out any disturbance
Why people hate PS3?
Mar 15th
I stumbled upon this funny video in Youtube, on where Sony went wrong with PS3. Listening to Phil Harrison had me in splits 
My first gaming console!
Feb 24th
I bought my first gaming console, Xbox 360, two months back. Though I am not a big gamer, I always loved to design levels and develop simple games (no Unreal or Doom4 from me!). I bought the Xbox360 from Kempfort (now called Kempkids) in Airport road. I got the premium pack. There was a huge price difference between the core system and the premium system, but I preferred the premium as it comes with lots of accessories, which when put together with the core system’s price exceeded the price I paid for the premium. Not bad, eh? The Xbox 360 market price in US is around $400, which is roughly 18,000/- INR. Why then I was asked to pay another 7 – 8K for a premium system, is still a mystery to me.
The premium system doesn’t ship with any game. I was aware of this, even then I didn’t buy any games. First thing – it is pretty costly again – 2500/- per title is kind of expensive for a game. Next thing is, that day I wanted only to check out the interface and if possible connect my PC to the Xbox 360. So, I was not that keen on buying a game that day itself.
