What? A review? Already? Yep. That’s pretty indicative of the game’s length isn’t it?

Need for Speed Shift

A product of EA’s brightlight studio, Shift feels and progresses pretty much like an arcade version of the game. Like all NFS games on the PSP, Need for Speed Shift is visually stunning on the platform. Things are pretty simple and straightforward so you’ll be able to jump into races pretty quick but unfortunately that also means your options are pretty limited but I guess that’s to be expected. Shift is not meant to be a race simulator but simply a fun racing game. So is it fun? Well I’ll leave that decision to you.

Gameplay

Instead of purchasing upgrades for your cars, you unlock them with loyalty points. While the system was a blessing at the start of the game, overtime things became too bland pretty quick. So yeah, the simplicity of the game bites you really quick. You see, loyalty points are awarded to you by using the same car over and over. You have no control over what parts you get for free nor options on what parts you get to install. And how do you get more cars under your belt? By beating rivals of course. Then the whole process repeats itself of you maxing out the upgrades then beating your rivals and changing cars. Shift became too monotonous far too quickly.

As for the race tracks, it’s pretty much a hit or miss. Some stages are golden like the ones in Shizuoka while others are a disaster like Paris (a drift competition in a track with a narrow lanes with 90 degree turns? SERIOUSLY?). One thing you’ll note as you progress though is that how often you get to play each course. The number of courses for NFS Shift is pretty limited so yeah, it gets old really quick.

Need for Speed Shift has a pretty decent selection of events (Sprint, Checkpoint, Eliminator, Lap Race, etc) but like the tracks, not all of them seem to be well thought of. The drift challenge (my personal fave) is pretty much on the good side of things and the worst? The checkpoint race (yes race, the AI are trying to beat the clock with you).

Controls

The game controls for NFS Shift is pretty much straightforward and does it’s job pretty well. Using powerslide/drift is a great way to speed through corners. There’s no slow-motion mode here like Most Wanted and Carbon so races are pretty fast-paced. A bit of warning though, maintaining control of your car especially through technical courses can be a nightmare. You WILL fishtail no matter what car you choose but the key here is understanding how each car works for you. Sticking to one car for all the events will pretty much ensure your loss so make sure you juggle between cars.

Nitpickings

Game’s too short. If you take a few hours (around 16 hours) of your time you can pretty much clear the whole game. That’s alright if you wanted to play the game on your way home since races are short and fast but this is a PSP game, we need longetivity and replayability.

Audio is also a big disappointment. There wasn’t anything catchy in the BGM and while the game’s controls and gameplay are pretty responsive, the sound effects and audio cues are either missing or lacking. It’s not a big issue to some but hey, this is a nitpick.

Verdict

My reaction about an hour through the game is pretty much a big “Mehhhh.” It’s too unpolished to be a great game. Sure it’s a simple game but is it fun? I’d have to say no. Guess it’s back to waiting for Gran Turismo.

• Sony reduces PSN Game activation limit
• K-On! Houkago Live PSP Game
• What’s your favorite PSP game?
• Need For Speed is not yet Dead, EA unveils 3 more games
• Rumor: Need for Speed going to the Deadpool

Then I saw this:

The trailer itself shows how badly Hollywood screwed up this one.  Kinda reminds me of the Street Fighter movie shown way back.  No not the Van Damme one but the one’s who had Asian actors in it, chinese I believe.  Dragonball Evolution seems another failed at famed artwork to movie attempt.  I’ll still watch it just for the fun of it but I’ll get tbe movie as a rental, not in theaters.

What about you guys? What’s your take on the movie?

• Limited Edition Monster Hunter 3G bundles
• Now THIS is a Tekken Movie
• Blizzard Product Roadmap Leaked!
• Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works Movie in the works
• Resident Evil Degeneration [Movie]

The Resident Evil has spawned 3 movies, each branching out further and further from the game mythos with each successive film (Thanks Hollywood).  Resident Evil Degeneration, the upcoming CGI movie, is set within the same universe as the games, specifically after Resident Evil 2 and Racoon City (mind you not the events in the movie, get Milla Jovovich out of your head for now).  The story is well, just watch the first 8 minutes of the movie.

The movie pays much needed homage to the the series’ story, more so than the Hollywood-ized ones we’ve been seeing. Compared to RE 5 though, the CGI of Degeneration kinda looks like something from the PS2 doesn’t it?  In all, I’m hoping it’ll be a movie worth the Resident Evil name.

Resident Evil: Degeneration will be out on DVD and Blu Ray (Japanese) on December 17 while the english movie will reach theaters in December 30, probably 2 weeks into the New Year for us Filipinos due to the MFF (Manila Film Festival).

• Now THIS is a Tekken Movie
• HowTo: Convert a movie in DPG format for your Nintendo DS
• Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works Movie in the works
• Wanted: Movie Review
• Iron Man: Movie Review

Sure, making a blog post should be easy when you’re writing about something that you enjoy, it’s a tip that you’ll find in most people’s How to start a blog guides, but they left out how to manage when you’re already handling multiple blogs of different niches.

For starters, let’s enumerate how things will be different

Purpose

Atma Xplorer is supposed to be a gaming slash computing slash life blog but as it turns out, I’m focusing more and more on the gaming part of the description.

Pinoy Tech Guy is supposed to be about the latest gadgets, notebooks, hardware, technology and all around tech news but it’s a task that I’m sure no man can handle alone so I ended up focusing on netbooks and several other interesting tidbits of information

Visitors and frequent readers

Atma Xplorer ends up netting people looking for PSP Games Downloads, Dota Maps and PSP game guides and the latest PSP news.  Currently , most of it’s visitors are searching for things under said categories.

Pinoy Tech Guy usually nets up people looking for specific information about the netbook models that they’re looking for or even some tips and tricks for their PCs.

Level of professionalism required

Like most gaming sites, Atma Xplorer relies on a tone of a casual gamer.  Speaking like a hardcore gamer or a total noob MIGHT work but in general, a casual gamer seems to fit the job description when in comes to blogging.

Since Pinoy Tech Guy is a techology blog, it requires that I should be at least competent in the technology that I’m talking about.

Post frequency

Both of my blog doesn’t get the NEEDED post frequency (I still have a life so I can’t focus on them that well) but it terms of needed attention, Pinoy Tech Guy needs it the most because there’s a lot of technology related blogs.

What’s hot

Atma Xplorer raves about the latest in gaming, more specifically on the PSP platform.  This narrows the niche quite a bit and allows me to focus on stuff that really matters.

Pinoy Tech Guy raves about the latest in technology as a whole so it’s quite broad AND I’m having trouble most of time deciding what to post and what not to post.

With Atma Xplorer gaining some leverage and attention with how I’m hadling it at the moment, I need to turn my attention on to Pinoy Tech Guy.   To solve that problem, Enter Gadget Advisor.

Yes it’s fairly new but I find their method of keeping things fresh and informative to my liking.  Gadget Advisor focuses on the products and news that are the most significant, useful, and interesting to you so you don’t have to browse through the maze of irrelevant news that you’d rather not see.

Whether it’s as general as top extensions for Firefox, the best online backup service, or even as specific as news about Logitech universal remotes, Gadget Advisor seems to be serving it’s readers well.  As a case for improvement, I’ll try to apply their methods on to mine.

Any thoughts about maintaining multiple blogs?  Post a comment

• Just a minor site update – shifting paradigms
• A blog revamp, banner advertising, and a forum on the loose
• News you just missed: Link Love #1
• Techy stuff to Life, Games, and Computing
• Get paid to blog: Smorty Blog Advertising Network

God mode? Check.

All Items? Check.

Infinite Items? Check.

One hit kills?  Check.  Check.  Check.

Why cheat?  I’m going to answer that in a future post (probably this week AFTER finishing my deadlines).  For now, it’s a review of Games Radar’s cheat gallery.  They carry an extensive library of game cheats for existing and even phased out consoles which include but are not limitted to:

• PC
• PSX
• PS2
• PS3
• DC
• GC
• PSP
• DS
• Wii
• XBOX
• XBOX 360
• Even the gnarly NGAGE (seriously, who bought an NGage?  The PSP makes a more ideal gaming phone)

Xbox Cheats which range from, GTA 4 Cheats, Gears of War 2 Cheats and so much more.  Content is submitted and kept fresh by a large gaming community.  Navigation is a breeze so unless you’re inept at reading or clicking your mouse, you don’t have to worry about not getting want you want.

PS: I’m an avid reader of Games Radar (I’m subscribed via RSS, Newsletter, etc).  If you are a gamer and have the time, try a few of their articles under the featured section.  I high recommend reading a few of their lists.  Here’s a teaser to get you started, The Top 7 toughest Openings.

• Limited Edition Star Wars Xbox 360 Kinect bundle
• Blizzard Product Roadmap Leaked!
• List of StarCraft II Cheats
• Microsoft killed PC/Xbox 360 cross platform project
• Friends for Sale Tips, Cheats, Hacks, Coins

Based on Mark Millar’s six-issue graphic novel of the same title, the Movie adaptation is an amazing mixture of style and dark humor. Style because you can’t have Angelina Jolie nor Morgan Freeman in a film and not feel their distinctive, respective personality from their characters and dark humor because, well it’s dark – dark as it brutal, gory, and sometimes without bounds.

Characters:

James McAvoy -  Wesley Gibson: The main character of the story, started out as a wuss and ended up as “the man.”  In many perspectives, Wesley is comparison to Neo of the Matrix although more mature, more intelligent and certainly more amusing than the One.  James’ performance as Wesley was simply amazing.  Even his wry and sarcastic narration was a perfect fit for the film

Morgan Freeman – Sloan: Your typical bad guy mastermind (oops spoiler), Sloan stays in the background until the end of the film (literally).  The role is a bit weak for his performance but he delivered quite well.  He managed to give a few quotable lines that are certain to be remembered.

Angelina Jolie – Fox: It’s always impressive when a film that has Angelina Jolie as a co-star allow her to stick to just that.  Yes, Angelina has only a few major points on Wesley’s overall development and yet she manages to do so in style without stealing the lime light.  She maintained that likable character even if her character’s attitude throughout most of the film was the bad-ass chick who has little interest in a wuss.

Plot:

Wanted has a simple premise.  Taking control of your life.  At the beginning, we see Wesley Gibson’s life which was stuck at filing reports inside a cubicle.  Half an hour later, we see him on  train about to kill his first target out of his own volition.  Although it’s a bad way of telling the audience to do what you want to do, Wanted is one of the few films that manages to start with a simple line and live with it.

As a whole, the main story of the film is actually simple.  Wesley gets recruited by the Federation of Assassins to kill Cross who turned out to be his father.  After realizing that he’s been used, he turns around and exacts revenge and does the REAL Federation’s bidding, kill Sloan.

Storytelling:

Like a typical superhero (or in this case Neo), Wes started out as a nobody, a wuss being pushed around.  His boss was always picked on him, his girlfriend cheated on him with his bestfriend and his father (later revealed as the man he was trying to kill and killed) got killed.  Right before the credits rolled, he was taking control of his life and even left us with a simple yet interesting line:

This is me controlling my life, what the **** have you done lately?

After watching, I took time to check out the comic book and found that the film ignored 90% of the graphic novel. While that might make die-hard fans jump, the film actually works.  Deviating from what should’ve been the obvious storyline gave first timers for the story and fans alike a fresh and intriguing story that had everyone guess (including me) about the real plot.

The film actively focuses on Wesley, Sloan and Fox which again worked to give a better perspective of what was actually happening.  Instead of dumping all those other character’s background in front of the viewer, they all fell into the background the moment they entered the screen and exited.  They had interesting names but quite frankly I can’t remember anyone’s name other than The Repairman.

Miscellany:

Wanted is violent in every sense of the word but it doesn’t allow the gore nor effects to take away all the glory.  Director Timur Bekmambetov allows the scenes to speak for itself.  Cinematography is graceful and the CGI’s (Wesley’s bullets blocking Cross’ bullets) were well placed. Physics defying stunts like the curving bullets (you try to shoot a target behind a pig or Angelina and hit the target but not what’s in between) don’t steal the attention and act as how film accessories should act.  Like accessories that add more interest to the film and it’s backdrop.

Wanted’s premise of taking charge of your life and making your own choices was something that the film stuck to till the credits.  if you can, look out for and buy a DVD when it comes out.  Several of the deleted/edited scenes ruined the action so much it appeared like a noob with a pair of shears did the job.

Overall, Wanted is a great movie.  Certainly more appealing to people who want more substance intheir movies rather than just humor *nudges at Hancock’s insanely weak plot*

Rating: 10/10

• Now THIS is a Tekken Movie
• Game Review: Need for Speed Shift
• Resident Evil Degeneration [Movie]
• Iron Man: Movie Review
• Software Review: Week 4

Erm.. I haven’t done a movie review in a LONG while so please bare with me as I touch only the essential stuff and don’t go in depth with the background of the story. I’m not even THAT familiar with Iron Man’s back story. On with the review

I was swooned over to the filmed versions of Marvel Comics classics ever since Spiderman entered the stage and set the standards (it’s up to you whether that’s a good thing or bad, it’s hollywood after all) for the 2D superheroes into the silver screen. Sure we’ve all seen Batman (who hasn’t there’s so many “beginnings” that I’m wondering if there’ll be multiple “endings” too) but he’s a DC character and not nearly as enjoyable as the Marvel guys (sorry if I’m biased on that DC fans but it’s true the Batman is a stiff). Iron Man, while not as morally appealing, is a dream come true to most geeks who just love tinkering.

Characters:

Like most Marvel-related films, Iron Man is a straight forward superhero film. You know who’s the good guy and the bad (well, that is if you watch a lot of movies) within the first group pan of the camera.

For clarity’s sake, here’s the roster of important characters and actors.

Robert Downey Jr. – Tony Stark / Iron Man: The man behind the technology of Stark Industries. Tony follows in the footsteps of his father who help develop the Atomic Bomb in the Manhattan project.

Terrence Howard – Lt. Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes: A pilot who befriends Stark when Iron Man saves his life after a plane crash left him stranded behind enemy lines, and is the liaison between Stark Industries and the military in the department of acquisitions. It’s been confirmed that he’ll be playing War Machine in the sequel. His scene with the first Iron Man armor and his dialogue “Next Time Baby” proves as much.

Gwyneth Paltrow – Virginia “Pepper” Potts: Tony Stark’s Assistant and love interest. I can honestly say, I mistakenly identified her as Kirsten Dunst. It’s probably the hair as the latter is a red head too on Spiderman.

Jeff Bridges – Obadiah Stane: Second-in-command at Stark Industries, who wants control of the company and the main villain of the story.

Plot:

Iron Man tells the story of how one man turned from Merchant of Death to the technological lifesaver. Centered around the main characters, the plot is pretty straightforward. No hidden agendas except for a couple of hints that a sequel is to be expected.

Storytelling:

Iron Man can be divided into two parts, the before arc and the after arc. The before arc pictures Tony Stark as this billionaire playboy who fancies what he wants, who he wants, when he wants. The typical a$-hole in comic standards up to the point that he got kidnapped by a terrorist group called the Ten Rings (reference to Mandarin, a Marvel Villain) to duplicate his latest work for them, the Jericho missile. The after arc shows a completely turned around Tony Stark who tries to undermine the merchanting of death by his own company to save the people and himself (metaphorically speaking).

As a whole, while I respect Gwyneth Paltrow and admire her for her effort for her role as Pepper, I can’t help but wonder if she’s been miscasted into the one or the director, Jon Favreau, intended the aura of awkwardness around Robert and her.

Miscellany:

The movie is fun. I caught myself laughing at a few intended puns and gags and I appreciate the fact that you don’t need to be a Marvel fan to understand them. It’s really annoying when you see something funny in the film and you’re the only one who gets it.

There’s quite a few gems scattered around the movie for those attentive enough. To name a few: the latest model for Audi A8, Stan Lee being mistaken as Hugh Hefner, Tony Stark’s first test flight and his interaction with his robotic helpers.

Iron Man is a bit wordy and there are two or three scenes that you wouldn’t really get the conversation because you have two or three characters talking loudly at the same time. Mostly it’s due to Tony’s dislike of getting reprimanded.

For anyone expecting LOTs of action, you’re in for a disappointment. There are only 2 battles in the movie, one in Afghanistan and one with the final boss, Obadaih. While they serve enough of Iron Man’s glistening armor in action, it’ll definitely lacking if you consider the length of the movie. Whether that’s intentional or not, it’s another reason to wait patiently for the sequel.

Despite its linear story, it’s a refreshing change to see a superhero movie where the hero a geeky teenager who’s an outcast of his generation. Tony Stark is a mature figure, one with deep and colorful background that makes his character all the more interesting. It’s too bad that the movie (according to my friends who have followed the comics series) didn’t delve deeper into Tony’s personality. But while that upset some of the hardcore fans, it’s still quite baited with all sorts of geeky references hinting at things to come. IMHO, Iron Man will be a good series (or franchise as the industry calls it) to look forward to.

It’s not the movie of the year, but it’s definitely something you shouldn’t miss.

Rating 9.5/10

For further reading you might want to look at 5 Technologies related to Iron Man.

• Now THIS is a Tekken Movie
• Civilization V skip Intro Movie
• Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works Movie in the works
• Resident Evil Degeneration [Movie]
• Wanted: Movie Review

To those not familiar with the name, Blackhorns is a brand of protective gears for many mobile devices which includes the PSP and DS. While there are many other brands (and types) of protection for the PSP, I’ve always admired the BlackHorms brand for one simple reason. Sleekness.

The Blackhorns Leatherette Case has a pure leather exterior and a non-scratching cloth interior to protect the PSP from scratches (a bit too late though, my unit has some marks already). The large wrist strap may need some getting used to but since it’s adjustable, it’s a guaranteed fit. It has a hard plastic mold to hold the unit in place but allows you free access to the ports and slots such the the memory stick, the UMD and even the remote slot below unlike some premium cases (like the PlayGear rip-off for the Slim).

The BlackHorns Leatherette Case has some quirks though namely the fit of the unit in the protective mold and the direction in which the flap opens. While the unit fits the plastic mold it’s not a snug as most premium cases so you need to put something to leverage the unit and provide an exact fit. As for the flap, I’m quite used to it opening at the top of the unit so having it flip down instead of up was a bit quirky but that’s just me.

Overall though I’m quite satisfied with my new PSP case.

Now I’m not sure how much the case goes online but in some PSP specialty shops this costs 500 Php or more (10+ USD). I got it (after a bit of haggling) for 300 Php. This is the reason I love buying around Quiapo. ^^

Interested in some free PSP games? If you can’t find the title you want, just post a comment and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

• Blizzard Product Roadmap Leaked!
• The Official Sony PSP Cradle

The first name that comes into mind when mentioning cd/dvd authoring is Nero because OEM versions of their software is included in almost any Optical Drive with writing capabilities (CD-RW, DVD+/-RW, etc).

While it may seem good enough for some, users who spend much of their time working with their authoring software will notice that any if not all of the programs in the Nero OEM suite is limited in terms of features which will sometimes force you to buy a license for a full version and a resource hog which will bog down your system as soon as you start burning anything.

Then there’s also the case of navigation. If a casual user wanted to burn something with Nero, he needs to through Nero Smartstart THEN launch Nero Burning Rom (the alternative is to go to the start menu and launch Nero Burning Rom directly). While the launcher is appreciated when you have the whole suite (with a license of course) installed, it isn’t very practical if you only have the authoring software on your PC.

There are many alternatives to Nero however; a plethora of “good” softwares and some that just stand out. One of those is CDBurnerXP.

What is CDBurnerXP?
It is a free application (Closed Source though) to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn from and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. There are no Pro or trial versions. CDBurnerXP is free for individuals as well as businesses.

Key Features:

• Copy on the fly: Source to media via same or alternative drive
• Burn all kinds of discs: CD, DVD+/-R, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, etc
• Author audio-CDs: with or without gaps. There’s support for MP3, WAV, OGG, WMA, and FLAC files. Allows for adding tracks from audio CDs without ripping them first (cda-files).
• Create bootable discs
• Burn from and create ISO files
• Data verification after burning process
• Dropbox: Drag and Drop functionality so you don’t have to go through the file explorer to add files.
• Multi-language interface
• bin/nrg to ISO converter
• Supports overburning from the FAQ “just add as much data to CD layout as possible and .. ignore warning messages if any”)
• Simple cover printing
• Windows Supports: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

The only problem I’ve encountered with CDBurnerXP so far (aside from typing and retyping such a long name) is that there is a limit of 4GB on file size so if you have a big rar file you have to separate it into less than that to be able to burn them.

I noticed Version 4 had a lot of overhauls on the visual side of the program and feels a lot different from v3 which looked a bit spammy. Navigation is now a cinch.

You can download the latest version of CDBurnerXP (4.0.015.277) via their official site or Filehippo.

Screenshots will be added later after I get home from work. XD

• MS Dev Software:Free for students
• Guide to Programming Series: Week 4
• Guide to Programming Series: Week 1
• Software Review: Week 3
• Software Review: Week 2

I’ve had my gmail accounts (I have 4) for quite awhile now and it’s feeling quite cluttered so I decided to take a look if the grass is greener on the other side, namely yahoo and live hotmail to see what they have to offer.

Interface

All 3 webmail programs offer AJAX built interfaces, and an option to switch to classic HTML to increase loading speed .

Live Hotmail looks quite similar to Outlook. You can drag and drop messages into your folders, use a variety of pull-down menus to perform basic tasks without launching a new page, and quickly access other Outlook-like features like your calendar and task list. If WL Hotmail wasn’t contained in a browser, you’d probably mistake it for a desktop application..

Yahoo! Mail Beta, like WL Hotmail, is designed to look similar to a desktop email client with support for drag and drop capabilities and keyboard shortcuts and integration to other yahoo services like Yahoo! Calendar and Messenger. What I found interesting with Yahoo was that you can view RSS feeds within your yahoo mail account. Google offers this service on Google Reader while Microsoft still has to put one up.

Gmail offers the most minimalist of interface where most of the main features are available via text links. Gmail is also integrated with Google services and it’s simple interface does not support drag and drop capabilities. This SHOULD make Gmail load faster but for some reason, my gmail accounts need a fully minute to load after logging whereas to WL Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail Beta, it takes only 5-10 seconds. I’m not sure if its a connection problem or something to do with the number mails I have on my gmail accounts.

Unlike other webmail programs, Gmail has emails grouped into the same thread (the initial email, replies and replies to those replies) into a single item. WL Hotmail and Yahoo employ the old way of filing each mail into a single item which can get cluttered unless you do some organization..

Storage

Windows Live Hotmail currently has with 5GB of storage.

Gmail is now up to 2.849 (and counting!) GBs.

Yahoo Mail now offers unlimited storage, a privilege that was once only available to Yahoo Mail Plus owners.

Integrated Calendar

Gmail, WL Hotmail and Yahoo each comes with their own integrated calendar services but because they’re quite separate from the mail client, they don’t boast AJAX interfaces.

Organization

Yahoo Mail Beta and WL Hotmail uses the old fashioned way of using folders to sort out or mail. Gmail takes uses a Web 2.0 approach, which allows you to use tags or ‘labels’ to your messages. Although it might seem a bit cluttered at first, Gmail’s approach makes it easy to provide sorting in multiple categories (say on e mail is labeled family, outing and christmas and another goes family, money-related, thanksgiving) which gives a much higher level of organization.

Search

So I far, I haven’t encountered any problems with the search feature of any of the 3 webmail clients although Google’s additional of an external search is quite thoughtful.

Personalization Options

All three webmail’s offer a rich text editor with integrated spell checkers so no contest there. Yahoo and WL Hotmail have the advantage of a few added features like a variety of color themes for your account, emoticons and new fonts.

Chat Integration

Yahoo and Microsoft have added the feature of importing your contacts from their messenger to their webmail and vice versa. Gmail which allows you to chat with your contacts who are online with their gmail accounts but I’ve used the service just once or twice since I’m opting for VOIP to chat.

For those who missed it, Yahoo and Live Messenger users can now talk with each other without switching clients.

Contact Management

I’m getting a bit tired of Gmail’s simple contacts feature because if you have tons of entries there and viewed it under “All Contacts” then you’d find a reason to switch. Yahoo Mail and WL Hotmail Address Books uses simple, easy to use interfaces.

Security

By default, Gmail uses an unencrypted connection by you can easily change that by changing the URL from http://mail.google.com/mail/ to https://mail.google.com/mail/. Hotmail uses security measures by default via SenderID, SMTP Authentication, phishing heuristic detection, Bonded Sender, mailing list detection and forwarding detection. Yahoo offers the same security via DoaminKeys.

I found WL Hotmail’s security to be quite successful when reading phishing messages.

All 3 services offer file scanning for attachment, Google uses it’s own algorithm, Yahoo uses Norton and WL Hotmail uses Symantec. I haven’t seen how effective each of them are against infected files so I’ll leave that up for you to rate.

Spam filters are also present with all 3 services.

Integrated RSS

Yahoo is the only webmail that offered an integrated RSS reader. It works like a desktop client providing a split screen interface with items on the top and a full view of it at the bottom. I would’ve wished for more functionality like in netvibes but I guess it’s a start.

POP3 Account Access

Live Hotmail enables you to setup up to 5 email accounts that you can send email through and Gmail has had the same feature for a while. Yahoo’s support for POP is limited to some countries but fully available for the Mail Plus upgrade.

Ads

Gmail uses Adsense so you get a slew of text and image advertising which are contextual, while Live Hotmail opts for banners on the home page (the first page you see after logging in). As for yahoo, I didn’t seem to see any hint of ads aside from other yahoo services in the Beta version.

Mobile Support

Both WL Hotmail and Gmail have support for mobile browsers. I found WL Hotmail’s interface a bit more user-friendly. If you wish to try your webmail on a mobile browser but don’t on a capable phone, use an emulator like dotMobi. Yahoo offers it’s mobile services thru SMS which I think is the more lucrative option because you get charged per email you wish to view.

Premium Packaging

WL Hotmail has Windows Live Hotmail Plus priced at $19.99year. Including all the features of Hotmail, subscribers of Hotmail Plus also have 10 GB of storage space, 20 MB attachment limit, no inactivity limit, no advertisements and full POP3 access.

Yahoo offers Mail Plus with Unlimited Mail Storage, 10 E-mail quota, upto five custom e-mail addresses and a domain name for an additional fee and STMP access.

While Gmail does not offer additional features, it offers additional for your webmail and Picasa account from 6 GB up to 250 GB.

__

At this point, I’ve made the switch to Live Hotmail because it offers a few things that I want even if there isn’t support for RSS. My gmail account will remain active for purposes of maintaining my backup files uploaded with Gdisk, a 3rd party software that allows you to turn your Gmail account into a portable drive. I haven’t considered a premium account but when it comes to that, I’d probably go with Yahoo’s offers because of the free domain name on your subscription.

• PlayStation Network to resume operations this week
• Web services I can’t live without
• Look out: Spam from Gmail is coming
• Gmail 2.0
• Mulitple Logins for Yahoo Messenger

If you’re interested on my views on the issue, you can read up my comments on Pinoyblogero. Now that that’s done, on with the review:

–

As your windows installation grows older, you may notice that it starts to bog down and feel sluggish. Even if all you do is basic computing activities like surfing the web, creating and editing documents, chat etc, in a few months, maybe weeks even, you’ll start to feel that programs start with a crawl or start to have issues. Most people would resort to a reformat or a fresh install but for those who have lots of files, backing things up, doing a fresh install, then transferring things back can be quite a hassle.

The main reason for overall system sluggishness is spyware, tons of it. It’s that simple. (I will post a follow up review for this topic in the future so stay tuned) If you’re barely online then the next culprit is lack of routine maintenance. Windows desktops aren’t as clean in terms of operation like the Linux OS (which can run for a long time, months,years, without needing a restart) and lots of program debris start piling up over time. Unused programs, old cache and temp files, and extraneous Registry entries will begin to chew on your system’s performance as soon as you boot it up.

Piriform provides the solution to that problem without yourself needing to buy another PC. CCleaner (“Crap Cleaner”) is a useful program for tidying up your PC.

Features:

• Automatic clean up of Windows components :
  • Recycle Bin
  • Clipboard
  • Windows Temporary files
  • Recent Documents (on the Start Menu)
  • Run history (on the Start Menu)
  • Windows XP Search Assistant history
  • Windows XP old Prefetch data
  • Windows memory dumps after crashes
  • Chkdsk file fragments
  • Internet Explorer
    - Temporary File Cache
    - URL History
    - Cookies
    - Hidden Index.dat files
    - Last download file location
  • Firefox
    - Temporary File Cache
    - URL History
    - Cookies
    - Download manager

• Registry cleaning for:
  • File Extensions
  • ActiveX Controls
  • ClassIDs
  • ProgIDs
  • Uninstallers
  • Shared DLLs
  • Fonts
  • Help File references
  • Application Paths
  • Icons
  • Invalid Shortcuts and more…
• Advanced Cleaning:
  • Menu Order cache
  • Tray Notifications Cache
  • Window Size and Location Cache
  • User Assist history
  • IIS Log Files
  • Custom Folders

My Review:

I’ve been using CCleaner for quite awhile now as part of an effort to squeeze out every bit of performance I can on this rig. I spend quite a lot of time browsing the net, reading stuff, testing newfound applications etc and it doesn’t take long for memory to become a scarce commodity. This was specially true when testing a large program that needed debugging while my resources (browser windows, pdf files, .chm help files) were still open.

CCleaner allows you to rid your computer of temp files and MRUs (most recently used entries) for a quite a number of applications and utilities. To name faew there’s Windows Media Player, Windows Movie Maker, Quicktime, Winzip, Acrobat, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Firefox etc. So if you’ve been using that PC for browsing for quite awhile and haven’t deleted it’s cache, you’d probably surprised at how big it already is.

As you can imagine, if you needed to delete any trace of what you were doing on a PC, then CCleaner will do that for you.

What’s more, you can use it to clean out your registry to remove erroneous or orphaned entries which occurs a lot if you install and uninstall programs over time. CCleaner does provide a back-up feature so if you manage to delete something important, you can still revert to a saved state.

On the tools section you’ll see an Uninstall tab and a Startup tab. CCleaner can act as the Add/Remove Programs List from your control panel without the long load time (takes about 20 secs for mine to load). What’s nice about their feature is that you can manually remove entries of programs that have already deleted and/or uninstalled. This happens when an uninstallation fails right before the registry entry is removed. Just click the delete entry button and it’ll be gone for good. You can also choose to just rename an entry if you want. The found on the Startup tab is a mirror of that in msconfig which eliminates the need to access it via the run command.

When cleaning up, you sometimes want specific cookies not to be deleted from your browser to save you logged in status or for whatever reason. You can exclude specific, existing cookies so CCleaner will gloss over them when you decide to clean up. Same goes for deleteable files like Temp files and MRUs. Just specify a file or a folder and it will be saved from deletion.

In all, CCleaner is a safe and free (yes for all it’s worth its free) tool that gives users the ability to perform some quick system maintenance without compromising their system’s integrity. IT’s one of the few applications out there are too good to be true and free.

You can download the latest version of CCleaner (2.01.507) via their official site or Filehippo.

• MS Dev Software:Free for students
• Guide to Programming Series: Week 3
• Software Review: Week 4
• Software Review: Week 3
• Software Review: Week 1

As with Bleach’s Memories of Nobody, I decided to watch the movie with a bit of trepidation. Anime movies bat about 1:15 on a good to bad ratio and I really didn’t want Shana to have a bad movie being a long time fan and all.

Characters:

Characters from the first arc of the series were present including several cameos from Wilhelmina. Shana, Sakai Yuuji, who are the main characters of the story, Hayato Ike, Yukari Hirai (the original Hikari) and Kazumi Yoshida who seems to be butted out to the side character list.

Margery Daw, the “Chanter of Elegies” and Marchosias “Claws and Fangs of Violation” also made their appearances with lessened roles as well.

Friagne / Kariuto and his Rinne Marianne were the villains for the movie, resuming their roles from the series.

Plot:

The movie follows the very same plot with the series’s first arc with very little modifications.

Friagne’s plan was to use all the torches in the city to cast the unrestricted spell called City Devouring to gather enough power for Marianne so that she could survive autonomously without providing a constant supply of life force. That of course gave the movie’s driving force. Shana and Margery needed to stop Friagne’s plans of annihilating the whole city else the word’s balance be destroyed.

Storytelling:

I found a bit of improvement on Shakugan no Shana’s storytelling compared to both the manga and the series. Because it focused more and Shana and Yuuji, it gave time for more character development and provides a bit more realism and gives the right projections of what emotions the scenes project (e.g. Yuuji’s last scene with the real Yukari before she disappeared).

The pace of the storytelling goes down a notch however, I found myself turning away in boredom a couple of times due to the lengthy dialogues the movie had. And having watched the series twice, it was a bit of a turn off seeing the very same dialog all over again.

Other Stuff:

It was a real letdown for me to find out that the movie would not be a continuation or even a side story of the events in the series. Yes, it fares much better than Bleach or Naruto’s movie but being a Shana follower all these time, I wanted something new. Guess I have to wait for the new series which is supposed to have started by now.

Shana was less bitchy in the movie which, a fact that I’m not certain whether to be glad or sad. Her “Urusai! Urusai! Urusai! Urusai!” mantra seems a bit catchy now that I think about it. Her love for melon bread didn’t seem to diminish though.

Most fans will notice that Shana has more bare time in the movie. There wasn’t anything shown that would put the movie into R or R-18 rating but I’m still weighing it out whether it was a good thing or not. Good for fan service yes but I’m not so sure about the whole image of the series. Besides there was very little to show XD.

For the music department, they seem to have replaced the usual battle theme with something less upbeat which left some action scenes feeling a bit stale. It’s probably just me because I sort of liked many background tracks from Shana’s OSTs.

One of the major revisions to the story was Alastor’s awakening. He states that “…A Lord of the Crimson Realm will not choose a container which is fit…” or something similar to that which meant that Shana’s being was already ready to contain his enormous power which in turn was contradictory to the light novel and the series. Her interactions and finally love with Yuuji was the reason she “grew” enough to be able to contain Alastor. With the movie’s adaptation, I felt that Yuuji’s role in the arc sort of diminished. After all, without his benefit to Shana, he’s nothing more than a container for the Hougu inside him. Poor guy.

Friagne’s screen time and leverage to the overall story became a lot bigger with his role in the movie. I must say, with Trigger Happy and Dance Party, he seemed a lot more sinister than before. Also, he used Trigger Happy to awaken Alastor whereas in the series, Shana was the one who awakened him inorder to stop the final villain.

Note that the image I included for this post isn’t the DVD cover. I can’t seem to find one as of the moment. If any of you do find one, please email it to me right away so I can replace it.

Overall the movie wasn’t all THAT bad. It was a bit disappointing that there wasn’t really anything new to the story but at the same time refreshing to see some of the characters in a new light. Newbies to the series won’t feel left out with the movie and I highly recommend watching it before any episode of the anime series.

For now though, I’ll start downloading the RAW of episode 1 of Shakugan no Shana’s Season 2.

Rating 8/10

• Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works Movie in the works
• Wanted: Movie Review
• Iron Man: Movie Review
• Myself Yourself – Series Review
• Shakugan no Shana Season 2 – A quick look

For some reason I am yet to find, the movie title has been changed to Rouge Assassin in Asia, which as I found out later in the film, is a rather literal description of the story, while it retains it’s original name elsewhere in the world. Anyway, the choice was between Resident Evil: Extinction and War. I opted for War so as not to traumatize my girlfriend with another bout of my horror-fanboyism.

Characters:
The horror-movie-like flashbacks really did wonders with the character development which added a bit more emphasis on the story and the how it affected each character rather than the fight scenes and the bloodbath (which I’m quite sure people who intend to watch the film are likely to expect).

Jet Li is the main protagonist who seeks revenge over the death of his family by assuming the identity of Rogue (see? Rogue the Assassin in Rogue Assassin? Can’t get more descriptive or literal than that). He plays both (or was it three sides?) of the warring Yakuza and Mafia factions in a masterful display of wit and guile. More on that later.

Jason Statham plays Rogue’s old friend who had an unintentional hand at the death of his family. His character, Jack Crawford seeks atonement by putting the Yakuza boss, Shiro, played by Ryo Ishibayashi, to justice. Like all his previous roles, namely in The transporter, and Cranked, John’s character is a cool (not coolheaded), morally-inclined, straightforward and piss-me-off-and-ill-blow-your-head-off-character who is driven by guilt and a sort of warped sense of justice. For about half the movie, I thought Jason was the saner of the two protagonists, until the whole story was revealed that is.

The movie casts a slew of Japanese and Chinese actors and actress to provide some authenticity to the story. After all, who in the world would believe a Yakuza or Mafia story when all the actors are all non-asians.

Most notable in their performances are Kenneth Choi, Ryo Ibayashi, Devon Aoki and John Lone.

Kenneth’s role of Shiro’s is probably one of the best English-Yakuza scenes I’ve seen. The last time I saw him was as a pedia in House M.D. and the transition from doctor to full-fledged gangster was really astounding.

Although Devon Aoki was one of the few better Japanese actresses in Hollywood, why does her Japanese sound so…. fake? She didn’t seem to have the proper diction worthy of all other Japanese actors present in the film like Ryo Ishibashi. I did a quick research and found out that she was half Japanese, quart German and quart English which might explain her better proficiency with English and not Japanese diction.

Plot:
A feud between the Yakuza and the Mafia provides a terrific backdrop for War’s REAL story. Although the main point of the story is Rogue’s revenge, how he got where he was and how he exacted revenge was well worth the movie. After reading and watching all the versions of Death Note (manga, anime and Live Action Movies), I developed an appetite for some intelligent piece that would get my brain cells working. War sates that hunger and then some.

Storytelling:
Nothing out of the ordinary for an action film although I did notice that some of the scenes needed further explanation or at least a second look. I would point to the scene where Rogue calls Jack to a warehouse controlled by the Triad. When Jack forced open the warehouse with the warrant, they found Rogue and the exchange would prove a bit baffling for anyone not familiar with a movie of this genre.

The movie takes a bit of a hit with the final exchange between Jack and Rogue. It felt almost as if the story was ended prematurely after Rogue finally accepts his identity and shoots Jack. Some form of a better explained or visualized closure would’ve been more appreciable.

As a side note, the ending was anti-climatic.

Other Stuff:
As with all Jason Statham films, War’s action scenes are as brutal as it can get. Although the version that I saw was full of cuts (and amateurly done at that) I was still able to tell about 90% of what was unscrupulously edited off the final film. Note to self: Rant about MTRCB in the next heavily edited movie post. That said however, action fans of both Jet Li and Jason Statham would be a tad disappointed as the movie’s fight scenes mostly involved guns instead of the usual martial arts that we’d grown to love in their respective films.

Honor, loyalty, betrayal, revenge and trust, War was able to incorporate these human traits and emotions and created an atmosphere that fitted so-well every aspect of the story. Honestly, if I were Rogue, I’ d do the same thing.

The lack of a final battle between the two protagonists was a big let down for me. Yes, the scenes were more realistic than people flying all over the place but it seemed a bit lacking. I’ve been waiting for a collaboration between them for quite a while and all I get was a 3-minute fist fight and talk. I guess you can’t have it all.

Nonetheless, the movie is a great watch for those interested in substance rather than just random fight scenes.

Rating 8/10

You can view more info on the movie’s official site. The whole site is a single flash movie though so prepare for a long wait.

• Now THIS is a Tekken Movie
• Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works Movie in the works
• Resident Evil Degeneration [Movie]
• Wanted: Movie Review
• Iron Man: Movie Review

Blogging can be somewhat boring using your blog’s default editor. Drawing from my experience on WordPress, Blogger, Multiply and Live journal, using the WYSIWYG interface can also be quite frustrating especially if you need to insert HTML codes not supported by the editor. Which is why I began looking for alternatives. I stumbled onto Blogdesk first, then Windows Live Writer then just awhile ago (basically the reason why I decided to post now).

Here’s a run down of the 3 Blogging softwares:

Blogdesk:

BlogDesk is totaly free of charge and optimized for the blog systems WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, Serendipity and ExpressionEngine as well as the bloghosters Blogg.de and Twoday.net.

Features:

• Boasts a simple interface that even for inexperienced users can use.
• A WYSIWYG Editor that you can switch to HTML view if you need to edit tags.
• A tools for inserting images. The files are uploaded by BlogDesk, no extra work is needed.
• Automatic thumbnail handling.
• An option for saving your work online.
• Support for categories for blogs like wordpress and drupal.
• Spell-checker for 14 languages.
• Features like Notebook (basically a feature where you can dump lines of text like in OneNote), Frequently-Used-Phrases and the Technorati-Tags-Generator relieve you from time wasting and recurring tasks.
• Support for multiple and cross- blogging.
• Posts can be saved offline.
• Ping services for posts.

My Review:

I used Blogdesk for about two weeks before switching to LIve Writer. Frugal, is probably the best description that I can give because it supports only the essential features that a WordPress blog needs to work like tags (although not embedded ones as implemented in 2.3), Categories, a spell check function and basic image manipulation.

Adding your blog is a simple, 5-step process. Here are screens of the import system.

The interface kinda feels like Open office writer because of the color theme. All the tools within the old WordPress WYSIWYG Editor are present on the toolbar so you won’t feel at all alienated with it’s interface. You can add Technorati tags, or drag Frequently used Phrases via the Extras Menu.

The best feature for me is the notebook because I can easily dump new ideas, what my next blogpost will include, some interesting urls, etc without opening a new program. Items you place in the notebook are automatically saved after you click close.

If you want to learn more about Blogdesk then head over to their site and download a copy.

Airpress:

Airpress is a new entry for blogging tools. It’s made was created via Adobe AIR and needs it’s runtime environment to run.

Features:

• A unique interface which is powered by Adobe AIR.
• Currently supports WordPress and dotclear engines
• A basic text editor that has several basic functions like text alignment, font size and weight and a feature to import posts from text files.
• Tools for inserting images, sound, videos and even records direct from your webcam. The files are uploaded by Airpress, no extra work is needed.
• Support for categories for blogs like wordpress and drupal.
• Support for multiple blogs although you can only access one at a time.

My Review:

I got introduced to Airpress from reading the RSS feeds from YugaTech and decided to add it to the review. My first impression was a bit dismal after reading that Airpress was made via Adobe AIR (which uses Flex, Flash, HTML and AJAX). I wasn’t far off my initial expectations. Although the interface is unique and attractive it’s performance will take a bit of a hit especially on low-speced PCs. Although it’s still in BETA, I expected a bit more efficiency from it.

Importing your blog is easy. Support for multi-blogging is still far off though.

The interface is as minimalist as you can get which is good because it got most of the clutter out of the way. What I didn’t like was that there was no way to resize the window. You can move it around yes, but I like seeing more of my work when I’m typing.

Aside from the lack of features there’s still a lot of bugs that indicated that Airpress is far from prime time. I would have recommended it as a lightweight alternative to the WYSIWYG editor but then I got a taste of the said bugs. When I tried to edit one of my post using Airpress there were some discrepancy about what the post actually contained and what it displays. Just look at the text below and you’ll see what I mean.

Airpress still has a long way to go before it even matches the default editor but it’s on it’s way there. My advice is to wait until more features are added and several of the issues that plagued beta users like me have been resolved. You can download Airpress but you need Adobe AIR installed first before you can run the installer.

Windows Live Writer:

As a start, I’ve been impressed with the development going on with Live services as a whole. Live spaces is somewhat basic but it’s just right for newbie bloggers and the Skydrive, Windows online data storage service is one of the few things I really look forward to with MS. Live writer is probably the only MS branded software that I’m willing to do a review on because of it’s utter usefulness.

Features:

• The Windows Live Interface which is probably going to be inherited by every other MS software like Live Messenger etc.
• An advanced WYSIWYG Editor that has all the necessary tools you need for blogging. You can switch to HTML view or even the web preview to see how your post will look on your blog without actually posting it.
• A tools for inserting images, videos, maps, tables. The files are uploaded by Live Writer, no extra work is needed.
• Automatic thumbnail handling.
• An option for saving your work online.
• Support for categories for blogs like wordpress and drupal.
• Spell-checker (not sure on what language it supports other than English).
• Support for multiple and cross- blogging.
• Posts can be saved offline.
• Ping services for posts.
• Support for external Plugins.

My Review:

At Beta 2, Live Writer introduces several new features that weren’t present in Beta 1 ( I won’t enumerate what because I got different lists from several “official” sources) and address some issues that users had experienced. I found out about Live Writer after stumbling into it while editing my Live Spaces account. There was a bit of fuss during installation because it required Automatic Updates to be enabled but after that everything was a breeze. Using it seem a bit heavy on resources even with the autosave feature enabled and I hope that it will be addressed in Beta 3 (which is out by the way, I’ll upgrade AFTER posting this because it’s being edited with the Live Writer).

Like Blogdesk, Live Writer allows you to import and manage multiple blogs by simply registering them to the software.

The interface provides easy access to all the tools and features. For those observant enough though you’ll find that the multiple placement of links to tools can be redundant. For example, you can insert images via the toolbar, the main menu and the sidebar. I know it’s meant to provide easy access to them but 3 instances is too much. As stated in the features list, you can switch views from the WYSIWYG to HTML or the web preview mode. Categories, post slug, excerpts and other stuff can be added or edited via the Property toolbar which can be accessed by pressing F2.

What makes Live writer so useful is it’s support for plugins. They provide additional functionalities to the Writer itself like a delicious bookmark manager or interactivity with other Microsoft services like a Blogthis button on Internet Explorer.

If you want to learn more about Windows LIve Writer then head over to Live Writer Spaces. You can use this link to download Windows Live Writer. Plugins are available for free from the Windows Live Gallery.

• Wanted: Movie Review
• MS Dev Software:Free for students
• Guide to Programming Series: Week 4
• Software Review: Week 4
• Software Review: Week 3

Several scenes of the movie were shown as background for series? episodes 106-109 opening and ending credits. Judging from the new character?s looks, it seemed interesting enough to catch my attention. The title Momories of Nobody was catchy too. Senna looked quite a bit like Momo Hinamori and for awhile I thought they were one and the same.

The movie takes place sometime after the Bountou arc of the series (episodes 64-109) and before the Arrancar arc. Rukia tags along Ichigo?s patrols in the real world, though it?s not clear why?sorry for being analytical but I really found it weird that Soul Society allowed her to roam in Kamakura without a valid reason, if you watched the series prior to the Bountou arc, you?ll get it. After a bit of goofing around, Ichigo, Rukia and Kon encounter weird looking souls which we later learn are referred to as ?blanks? and Senna with her Zanpakutou, Mirokumaru. She wipes out the blanks while Kon had an encounter with one of the movie?s villains and the story goes on as a ?Protect the new character? movie.

Characters:
If you haven?t watched any episode of the series here?s a quick link to a character list.
The new characters introduced in the movie are Senna and the Dark Ones. Senna is the movie?s main character despite the Bleach title. Read further to understand why. The Dark Ones, lead by Ganryuu, is a clan that was exiled from Soul Society due to it?s complex politics. They were forced to live in the space between the real world and Soul Society and guide the lost souls.

Plot:
It?s pretty straight forward. Villains are plotting to destroy the world (both in this case) and the heroes are off to stop them. Soon after knowledge of the new dimension made up of blanks was brought into view, it was already obvious that Senna was the Memory Rosary the both the Soul Society guys and the Dark Ones are clamoring about. If it you didn?t see it coming, after all the incoherent flashbacks that Senna was getting, you need to watch more quality movies.

Storytelling:
Again pretty straight-forward. I was actually disappointed that there is little about the movie that would prevent me from thinking that it was spoon feeding it?s audience. Story development is stale and although it?s well paced, there isn?t anything to provide excitement or a sense of appreciation instead of the battles and intervals respectively?which means you spend more time wondering when the next battle will occur rather than contemplate on what?s going on in the story. Half the time you already know what?s going to happen. As far as character development goes, Senna?s character was well explored. I really appreciated the peaceful intervals where more of her personality came up the surface through her actions instead of her words. In more ways than one, her character is a whole lot deeper than many others in the series.

Other Stuff:
Like all anime movies, animation and graphics are top notch. Movements are fluid and efficient, not like the sorely depreciated episodes in the filler arc. The sound department wasn?t overly generous however. Although there are a few new tracks, a couple that I can recall, the recurring themes that had been present from episode 1 of the anime is grating on my nerves. The songs and inserts are actually good pieces but you get really sick of them after 100+ episodes.
The movie?s most appreciable scene, and utterly it?s saving grace, was the last exchange between Senna and Ichigo. It was quite to if you realize that Ichigo lied about her family?s name being on the grave stone because he saw it fit to give her the same favor she had given the child ghost they had encountered during one of the interludes. ?I want his last memory to be a happy one.? And that I think makes the story, not the movie overall worth the watch.

Rating 5/10

• Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works Movie in the works
• Resident Evil Degeneration [Movie]
• Wanted: Movie Review
• Iron Man: Movie Review
• Myself Yourself – Series Review