Hung Truong: The Blog!

Live Green, Go Yellow!?

So I found this free t-shirt deal at GM.com. You're supposed to go here and click on “get stuff.” What do I see when I go there? The slogan: “Live Green, Go Yellow.” And there's a hot chick + Asian guy wearing the t-shirt!

Now, maybe I'm reading too much into this, but perhaps GM is trying to promote relations between hot chicks and Asian men. Notice the giant graphic saying “Go get 'em” pointing to Asian guy?

If that's the case, I'm all for it! Way to go, GM! You're the savior of Asian men the world over! I'll take one shirt! I'm still not buying your cars, though.

EDIT: I think they ran out of shirts. You could always try eBay.

Best Buy Wall Numbers: Decoded!

Over at Best Buy, there's usually some random numbers that are displayed on the wall without any kind of explanation. Someone actually went to the trouble of interrogating the workers at Best Buy until they exposed the secrets of the numbers!

The answers are over at Cabel's Blog LOL:

Seeking meaning, I started occasionally asking “so, uh, what are those numbers, anyway?” when I checked out. Usually, I got the shrug-and-sigh double-punch. But sometimes, I got an interesting answer. And, eventually, it came together, helped tremendously by a conveniently annotated store — as well as some serious Googling.

I always thought they were something like the McDonalds signs that said “Over 1000 billion served” that just counted the number of customers. Apparently they're more evil than that. And by evil, I mean crazy replacement plan evil!

How Japanese See America

Over at Yukihime, there's a scanned map from an old Sega Saturn RPG that was set in the United States. From Yukihime:

This map is basically what would happen if you got a bunch of Japanese guys in a room, got them drunk, and then asked them to draw what they could remember about America on a bar napkin. Hell, that's probably how this game was originally designed. Anyhow, I feel the map speaks for itself.

This is really distressing. I'm assuming this is some kind of parody thing, but Chicago is some kind of mega fortress, Alaska has an ice palace, Montana seems to be some kind of Neko City, and Saint Paul has a giant one of those bird things that drink water! Most of America also seems to be covered in impassable mountain terrain. At least they had a location from New Mexico: Carlsbad Caverns!

Also scary is the existence of Mexico, but not Canada…

As bad as this is, I have a feeling Americans could probably not do any better.

Shojo Manga! Girl Power!

So today in Japanese class, instead of having class as usual, we went over to this traveling art exhibit about shoujo manga. Shoujo manga is written for girls, so no guys in the class really admitted to reading any of it, per se. Actually, I don't read shoujo manga either; I watch the anime…

Anyway, the exhibit goes through three time periods of shojou manga from the 1960s all the way to the present. The art seemed pretty cool, and I was surprised at times how “modern” the stuff from the 70's looked. I was hoping there'd be more Yuri and less Yaoi, but what can ya do!? We also got to talk to Masami Toku (the director of the project) briefly about the history of shoujo manga.The exhibit runs until around the middle of the month (I think), so if you're at UNM, check it out at Maisley Gallery.

I also snuck out with a copy of Shoujo Beat Manga Sampler! “Snuck out” not as in stealing (it's free after all) but as in getting away with it as a guy. Man, can't they label these manga something else, like “masculine” and “not quite as masculine?” Honestly though, I don't care if people know I read shoujo manga, I mean, I'm writing about it on my blog right?

Here's a link to the exhibit's homepage in case you're interested.

Novint Falcon: Haptic Device Test Drive!

Today in my Computer Game Development class, someone from Novint (a local company specializing in haptic devices) showed a demo of the Novint Falcon. What's a haptic device? It's sort of like a game controller that can provide feedback in all directions. There were some texture demos, and a few games like launch the duck, where you grab a duck in a slingshot, pull it back, and let go.

The cool thing is you can feel opposing force when you pull the duck back. It doesn't feel quite perfect yet, but I believe it's still in development. It was still really fun moving this device around (the one we used didn't have a pen, it was more like a door knob), and feeling it respond.

I have a feeling that this device will end up being a novelty, unless it sees huge support from every developer in the world. Sure, it can be used for other stuff like medical simulations, but in the field of video games, I'm not too sure it'll take off. Here's the official company line:

The Novint Falcon, which is designed to retail for under $100, is the only consumer device to provide three-dimensional, high fidelity force feedback. Unlike any consumer force feedback product on the market, the Novint Falcon enables users to move right and left, forward and backwards, like they do with other devices, plus up and down. Users can now experience a full range of realistic touch sensations including shape, texture, weight and dynamics. The Novint Falcon connects to a PC through a USB port and its footprint is approximately 9”x 9”, comparable to a mousepad and most joysticks or peripherals.