Archive for the ‘The new stuff chronicles’ Category

The new stuff chronicles #13: thingies!

Movies, Old stuff, RC, The new stuff chronicles, Videogames, XBox | Posted by Zhooibaal
Dec 27 2009

What’s that? No posts for about a half year and then 2 posts on the same day? Must be something special then…

Anyway, time for another new stuff chronicle. This time there isn’t any real theme to it. Some of this, some of that. Let’s get started.

On December 19th, me and my friend Michiel went to Amsterdam to visit the one and only “PC Dumpdag”. In English that would be the PC Dump Day. At PC dump there are many things to be found for little money and some are computer related while others are not. Basicly it’s a computer discount market, but besides computer stuff there are cheap ass remote control helicopters, cheap ass remote control cars, electric razors, movies, games and other useless crap. For the first time we were actually looking for something we could take home with us as there was barely anything interesting to be found and we decided that we wouldn’t go home with empty hands, so here is what I finally got.

First, a miniature vice (or vise for American readers):

This little thingy may look more useless than it actually is. It can be mounted on a table or something using the suction cup at it’s bottom and it stands pretty firm that way. I’m going to use this thing to hold wires and such that I want to solder together so I can use 1 hand to hold 1 wire and the other to hold the soldering iron and since I don’t have a third hand this vice can actually hold the other wire.

Second, some crappy movies:

The first movie (on the left) is Scarecrow Slayer. This is really as bad as it sounds. It’s the only one I’ve watched so far and it’s really so bad that it’s funny. The camerawork is rubbish. The acting is some of the worst I’ve ever seen. The story makes no sense at all. It’s not scary. And it’s so cheap that the gore effects aren’t gory at all. But besides all that it was a good laugh and that’s all that matters. The best thing is that it even has a behind the scenes documentary on the disc and some of the girls are pretty nice looking.

The second movie was a great find. I haven’t seen it yet, but I know it’s awesome. I know that because it was mentioned at “de Nacht van de Wansmaak” (night of bad taste) a few years ago. It’s even mentioned on one of the two Nacht van de Wansmaak DVD’s that I mentioned in a distant past on this post and this post. That was so long ago that they aren’t even called New stuff chronicles yet.

The last movie has yet to surprise me, but the title and tagline are promising. “Super Badass: from farmer to bounty hunter” has to be awesome.

That’s it for the PC Dumpdag. Let’s move on.

The same day I also went to Rotterdam to pick up something I bought through an internet marketplace for second hand goods. It’s this:

Yes boys and girls, this is a really old Pong console. But unlike most Pong consoles, this one doesn’t have a big clumsy base station with 2 controllers, this one has it’s base in the controller with all the switches and it’s sound in the other controller. I don’t have much data on it besides these 2 pictures, but I believe it was made in the late 70’s or early 80’s. The brand is Eaca and that even has a page on Wikipedia right here. At first I thought it was from 1971, but that’s impossible according to the Wikipedia text as Eaca produced Pong style consoles from 1975 to 1983. So this one is from sometime between those years. It doesn’t have it’s original power supply unit anymore, but it works on the one I got with it. The knob on the base controller was kind of sticky, but prying a screwdriver under it fixed that problem and now it works like a charm. Playing Pong has never been so much fun. There’s nothing like playing an old game the old fashioned way.

A few weeks ago, even before Christmas, we have the Sinterklaas celebration. Sinterklaas is our version of Santa and the biggest differences are the following.

  • Sinterklaas lives in spain instead of on the North Pole.
  • Sinterklaas has existed in some distant past where Santa has not.
  • Sinterklaas travels by boat and not on a sleigh with flying Reindeer.
  • Sinterklaas has black people to help him out instead of non existant elves.

These black people aren’t negroids by the way. They are this black because of the soot in the chimneys of the houses where the presents are to be delivered. So there is no racism involved in this celebration.

Anyway, I got this:

This is an interesting game. I will never say that Halo is a good game in any way, but this game proves that something good can be made on Halo technology. Stubbs The Zombie is a very fun game running on the Halo Engine on the XBox. As with Halo, there is also a PC version of this game, but as to be expected, the XBox version is far superior.

This game is the other way around zombie game. You don’t get to shoot or slash zombies. Instead, you get to be the zombie and eat people’s brains. Sound fun? It is.

And lastly, I got an XBox console. No 360, just a plain old XBox. My brother’s girl didn’t want it anymore, so I bought it of her. Here’s a pic, nothing else to it.

…End of line.

The new stuff chronicles #12: more RC stuff!

RC, The new stuff chronicles | Posted by Zhooibaal
Jul 02 2009

Today there are 2 things that I’ll be writing about. The first is the Corally CCT that I already mentioned in my previous post. The other thing is a body that I ordered at a store to use on my FF-01.

The Corally CCT is a direct driven rear wheel drive car. It’s not a touring car, because of the direct drive and it’s not a Pro-10 pan-car either, because of it’s size. Some people like calling it a touring-pan-car. Anyway, here is a picture of it.

Then there is the body for the FF-01. People might think it doesn’t fit with the style of the chassis. The body is muscle car style and the FF-01 is a front wheel drive chassis. Everybody knows that muscle cars are rear wheel drive in real life, but I just got this body because it looks cool. It’s not very detailed, but it has a nice pre painted paint job and it’s cheap.

I also ran the FF-01 for the first time on the track yesterday. The stupid thing was that I forgot that I had a 27Mhz receiver on it and I only brought my 40Mhz transmitter. Eventually another member of the club was friendly enough to offer me to borrow one of his old transmitters and a receiver with it so I could still take it out for a spin on the track. All I can say is thanks to him and that the FF-01 is very fun to drive.

The new stuff chronicles #11: picture time!

Other, RC, The new stuff chronicles | Posted by Zhooibaal
Jun 23 2009

My birthday was yesterday and today is the time to blog about the gifts. I already told you people what stuff I got and also that I didn’t really celebrate yet and that is probably why there aren’t that many gifts. Every year everyone says that they have no idea what to give to me, but eventually they always find something cool.

So here we go. The first thing I got from my brother on behalf of my parents is this box:

Box Box

This is a parts box that I can use for my RC parts. I don’t have that many yet, but I’m sure that that will change in the future. I’ve taken out the little yellow containers on the inside of the box to make room for my charger, batteries, multimeter and the power supply for the charger.

I think this box is really cool and it will come in very handy for sure. I can just take this to the track, open it up and leave the charger itself sitting in there so I don’t even have to spread my batteries all over the pit table and I’ll have all my parts in one place instead of all over the place. Maybe I’ll even put in some tools in it as well. I just have to make sure I don’t short circuit the power supply with a screwdriver then.

The second thing I got was a Philips Living Colors Mini. Believe it or not, these things are really cool. The only con is has in comparison to it’s larger brother is that this one can’t be controlled with a remote. But just set it on cycle mode and it’ll change it’s color continuously or you can just set it to a certain color if you like that better. Here are a few pictures of it. It can project a total of 256 different colors.

The white design does give it a somewhat apple-ish look though…

That’s it for now, but soon I will post the new stuff chronicles #12 with a Corally CCT and some other RC stuff. Stay tuned!

The New Stuff Chronicles #10: more RC stuff!

RC, The new stuff chronicles | Posted by Zhooibaal
May 16 2009

Today I’m going to post quite a big blog entry and I’ll be covering multiple items that have recently come into my posession. There is also some more stuff to post about, but today I’ll only be focussing on some new RC stuff that has come in. To start I’ll show you all my new Tamiya TA-05ifs 4WD touring car that I have bought at the RC store. After that I’ll show you all my new transmitter that I got second hand from a guy who calls himself Snoopamilo on youtube and recently replaced this transmitter with a new 2.4Ghz transmitter for better response on long range for his FG Marder. Then I recently got a very nice Tamiya FF-01 FWD touring car from a very nice guy on a Tamiya enthousiasts forum. And lastly there is one of those immensly popular X-Twin park flyers. I got the X-Twin Thunder Jet with ducted fans instead of rear mounted props.

So, here is the Tamiya TA-05ifs. The chassis is a little dusty allread from a testdrive, but soon I’ll be cleaning it and taking it out on the track.

The TA-05ifs is basicly the same as the normal TA-05. Ifs stands for Inboard Front Suspension and as you can see on the first picture as also a little on the second picture is that the shocks are mounted more or less horizontally. I don’t think this does very much for the performance of the car, but it does mean that bodies with a very low nose as the one that came with it can be mounted on it, but they can’t be mounted on a normal TA-05 because the front of the chassis would be too high with the shocks in a upright position.

I’ll soon be taking it out on the track, maybe even tomorrow if the weather will allow it. Then I’ll be really able to say how it handles. Now I can only say that it’s reasonably fast, even with the mega cheap motor I have mounted in it.

The second thing I mentioned is my new transmitter. This is a Graupner XR-6. This is a 40Mhz FM transmitter. This is the version of this transmitter that still uses crystals. There is also a version (the XS-6) that uses a synthesizer instead of crystals. Crystals are a bit of a drag, but it’s more than adaquate for now.

The next thing on the list is a Tamiya FF-01. This is quite a strange chassis when compared to the more conventional 4WD and RWD models out there. This is not a 4WD or a RWD, but instead it’s a FWD chassis and unlike most other models, it has it’s center of gravity at it’s front instead of an equal weight distribution. Unfortunatly I don’t have all electronics I need to take this one out for a spin and I also don’t have wheels for it and I don’t have a body yet. The wheels on the pictures where temporarily taken from the TA-05ifs. And to be clear about the body: there is no way that the body from my TA-05ifs will fit on this FF-01. The body I have is a bit too wide. It’s a 200mm and for the FF-01 I’ll need a 190mm body or else it’ll look very stupid. The other problem is the front and on the pictures you can see why that would be a problem.

I’m thinking of making this one into a rally style car. With a rally style body and rally style wheels and tires.

The last RC thing for now is a Silverlit X-Twin Thunder Jet. My friend Michiel and I were actually looking for an X-Twin Pro Air Acrobat, but instead we got this one, because the Air Acrobat is available nowhere. And this one does have at least one benefit over the Air Acrobat. The Air Acrobat has a height rudder used to make loops. This is very nimble and will easely break. The Thunder Jet doesn’t have this. It’s just a 2 channel controlled craft like the other X-Twin planes and because of it’s ducted fans it will not break very easely under normal circumstances. The normal props of the other X-Twins can break much easier because they can actually hit stuff. You’d have to give quite an effor to make them hit something, but it is most definitly possible. So this one is probably a bit more durable than another X-Twin air craft and it looks undeniably cool.

I haven’t flown it yet, but I will very soon when there is a little less wind to worry about. These things are extremely ligth, so when there is a bit of a breeze it’ll probably be carried away by the wind and it’ll be very hard to control.

That’s all for now. I’m planning on shooting a few short vids of my TA-05ifs, FF-01 and of the Thunder Jet sometime soon and when I’ve done that I’ll upload them to youtube and post them here.

…End of line.

The New Stuff Chronicles #9: Tamiya Sand-Viper

RC, The new stuff chronicles | Posted by Zhooibaal
Jul 23 2008

Hey there and welcome to a new episode of the New Stuff Chronicles on www.pingwing.eu. This time I bring you a new radio control (RC) car. It’s a Tamiya XB Sand-Viper. In my previous post (of over a month ago, I should really start posting more often) I told you about my trcv2 and I didn’t have any pics of it yet, but now I have, but first I will present to you my Sand-Viper.

Sand-Viper

I took the first picture of the Sand-Viper right after I had taken it out of the box (yes, it’s the pre-built version), put in the battery and put on the antenna tube and put it onto my bed. The second picture is the Sand-Viper with the battery taken out and the body taken off to show how it looks on the inside, allthough there isn’t much to see. This picture was taken after I had taken it for a test drive of which I have no pics, but my friend Michiel (NecroDOME) did record a little movie with his cell phone which I hope he will give to me, so I can show that here.

I must say that this off-road buggy was a very good buy. It’s not rediculously expensive with it’s €169,99 considering that it’s fully assembled and comes bundled with a transmitter and it’s really fun to drive around. It is most certainly more suitable for driving around in public area’s than the trcv2, because it has far better suspension and grip. It’s just that it’s not as fast as the trcv2 which can get to about 35km/h where the Sand-Viper has a top speed of about 30km/h. While that is not a big difference, it is certainly a difference that you will notice when driving it.

The box that contained the box of the Sand-Viper also held another little cheapo thingy in the form of a foam catapult free flight airplane. Me and Michiel bought one each for laughs and it looks like this:

Plane

And last but not least, here’s a picture of the trcv2 that I have taken myself. You can’t really see the crack in the bumper, but you can see that it’s missing it’s side mirror. It’s actually missing it’s other side mirror as well and it’s pretty dirty.

trcv2

The New Stuff Chronicles #8

Other, PC, The new stuff chronicles | Posted by Zhooibaal
Jun 21 2008

This post might as well be called the new and old and damaged stuff chronicles instead of the new stuff chronicles. Anyway, there are two items I’d like to tell you about. The first one is a radio controlled car and the other one is a trackball. Let’s start off with the radio controlled car.

BMRacer

The model in the picture above is the one I have, it’s the BMW model. I don’t have any pics I’ve taken myself of this car, but this picture gives you a good impression of what it looks like. My car doesn’t look this smooth and clean anymore though. That’s why I stated that this episode of the new stuff chronicles might also be called the old and damaged stuff chronicles… I’s missing one of it’s side mirrors, the rear spoiler is badly damaged, one wheel looks a bit messed up and it has a huge crack in the front bumper near the left front fender. It got damaged like that when I was driving it around a bit recklessly, but it doesn’t matter, it was great fun to drive it like that and it’s all just visual damage. One other thing that got damaged another day was the left front suspension. This car is all plastic and when it ran into a concrete block the left front wheel was hanging loosly in it’s suspension. One of the plastic pins holding it in place had broken off and I replaced it with a metal screw and it’s all like new.

Anyway, for some info and specs take a look at the site by clicking here.

There are also two other models available. A Mercedes model and a Porsche model. I actually like the Porsche model better than the BMW model, but that one wasn’t available and I didn’t like the Mercedes model at all. I linked to the proper product pages through the images below.

PORacerMERacer

And then there was a trackball.

Trackball

It’s a Logitech Cordless Trackman Optical. I don’t know how they can call something cordless when it has a huge receiver with it which you connect to your computer with an equally huge cord, but it doesn’t matter, this thing is great. It takes a while to get used to it, but now I can play Command and Conquer with it just like I was playing it with a regular mouse. This trackball is very comfortable, responsive and it feels durable. I bought it to be able to switch pointing device every now and then to prevent me from getting RSI. If you’re looking for a great trackball, get this one.

The New Stuff Chronicles #7: N5: Revolution for DS

Nintendo, The new stuff chronicles | Posted by Zhooibaal
May 13 2008

It’s been a long time again… Just like the last time and the time before and before and before… How am I ever going to get loyal readers if I don’t post any more often? I guess that the only way to get loyal readers is by writing stuff that they might like which brings me to today’s topic: the N5 which is a Micro SD card reader for the Nintendo DS which is made by some Chinese company. It’s homepage can be found by clicking here.

The N5 enables you to use ROMS of DS games that you download somewhere. These games van be official games which would be illegal or homebrew. The device comes packaged with a USB Micro SD card reader and a software cd. On the software CD you’ll find Moonshell which is required to be on the Micro SD card if you want the DS to boot when the card is inserted. Besides the ability to play ROMS the N5 supports MP3 playback, movie playback in some formats, textfile reading and a calculator through moonshell.

I allready had a 1GB Micro SD card, but if you don’t have one yet, you’ll have to get one seperatly or find a store that sells a bundle. I primarily use the N5 to be able to play games that I can’t get around here. It’s really annoying when a game is released, but then the only way to get it is through import, because not a single store here sells them. I think that I’m also going to use it to check a game out before I’ll actually buy it. Buying games always comes with the risk that you don’t like them. Because there are hardly any demos and if there are any demos they’re pretty much impossible to get then downloading a ROM to try the game and then buy it if you like it is quite a good way to be sure you get your money’s worth.

But for some people the most important reason to get a flash card reader for the DS would be homebrew. There are some really interesting homebrew titles available for the DS like this Quake and Quake 2 port and this OpenTTD port. And this is one that I find very interesting, Warcraf Tower Defense, but I have yet to try it.

A lot of homebrew software for the DS (and also for the PSP) can be found on homebrewwelt, but unfortunatly for those who don’t speak German, this site is in German.

The New Stuff Chronicles #6: Meet Centurion

PC, The new stuff chronicles | Posted by Zhooibaal
Aug 24 2007

Here we go with the 6th episode of the New Stuff Chronicles. In the previous episode I informed you about Fluffy and now it’s time for another computer to be announced. Only big difference is that it’s a desktop instead of a laptop this time.

Meet Centurion:

Like Tiger I named this one after a part of it. Tiger was named after it’s mainboard which is a Tyan Tiger MPX, but Centurion is named after it’s case: a Cooler Master Centurion 534.

Here are the specs:

Type: desktop
Name: Centurion
Model: self built
Operating system: Microsoft Windows Vista Business
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6550
Motherboard: Asus P5K
Memory: 2.0 GB DDR2 800
Video: nVidia GeForce 8600GT
Sound: Integrated High Definition Audio
Harddisk: 1x WD Caviar 500GB (7200RPM)
PSU: Spire 500W ultra silent with blue light
Optical: 1x Lite-On DVD+/-RW-DL
LAN: 1x integrated gigabit ethernet (1000mbit)
External connections: 6x USB 2.0 on the back, 2x USB 2.0 on the front, 1x firewire (IEEE1345) on the back, 1x firewire on the front, 1x PS2, 1x eSata, 7.1 HD audio jacks, 1x gigabit LAN, 2x DVI
Extra: Broadcom 802.54g wireless network adaptor

Like my other PCs, Centurion will soon have it’s own page on this site alongside Slashdev, Tiger, Fluffy, Stoomketel and Oud Brik.

Centurion’s purpose is to replace Slashdev as my main gaming PC back at home, while Slashdev will be relocated to my appartment in Heerlen where it will replace Tiger which will get a new role as home server. “Then why not put Centurion at your appartment?” you might ask. Well, the answer is simple: gaming power is too inviting to play games. While Slashdev is still more than adaquate to my gaming needs, Centurion is quite a bit more powerfull. I just needed a machine that is a little better on desktop performance than Tiger is and I want to use Tiger as a server. I also want a good gaming PC back at home where I am during the weekends so I can play any game I want while I’m there.

That’s about all I have to tell about Centurion at this time.

The new stuff chronicles #5: Fluffy is ready for business

The new stuff chronicles, laptop | Posted by Zhooibaal
Jun 02 2007

It was yesterday that I walked into a store and there I saw it. It’s beauty was blinding and then it’s pricetag and specifications finally triggered something in my brain that gave a free run to the voices that noone else can hear. They were saying something like this: “Buy it! Buy it!”. But there was one little issue to overcome before I could actually follow this order. I didn’t have enough money on my bank account. So before I could actually buy something and with that silence the voices I had to go home and put some money from my savings account into my bank account which I use for normal every day purposes.

” Then what was so urgent to buy?”, you might ask. Well, it’s a laptop and a damn fine one I might add. It’s a HP Compaq Pressario V6000 series, a V6346EA to be exact. I don’t have a picture of it yet, but I will take a few sometime soon and I’ll create a page dedicated to it soon as well. For the moment I’ll list the most important specifications here. Oh yeah, before I forget to mention, it’s name is Fluffy. This name was inspired by my girlfriend Simone.

Most important specs:

  • CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T5300 (1.73Ghz(
  • 2GB RAM
  • 120GB harddisk
  • Windows Vista Home Premium
  • Lightscribe 8x dual layer DVD burner
  • Intergrated graphics chip with 128MB shared vram (this is not a gaming laptop)
  • Integrated WLAN (IEEE 802.11a/b/g) and 10/100mbit LAN
  • Very nice looking

The new stuff chronicles #4: Knepper Special!

Music, The new stuff chronicles | Posted by Zhooibaal
May 22 2007

A little quick one today. Some good news before I actually get to the point. I see a slight increase in site traffic on almost a daily basis! Yay me! Seems like people actually read and like my stuff, but they hardly ever post any comments :( and the comments that do arrive are usually spam, which is the reason why I have everything helt for moderation before it actually appears on the site. So if you post a comment, don’t be shocked that it doesn’t arrive immediatly.

Anyway, to the point now. This is the one and only “The new stuff chronicles #4: Knepper Special!”. What makes this into the Knepper Special is that today my Knepper merchandise arrived. For those who don’t know what Knepper is: it’s my very own band. And yes, I ordered merchandise for my own band, so what? Got any problems with that? No? Good.

So here is what I ordered and received:

  • Teddy

Knepper Beeah front Knepper Beeah back

  • T-Shirt

Faster Louder Knepper front Faster Louder Knepper back

  • Wallclock


Now it might be possible that you’re thinking “Holy cow! I want one of those!”. If that is the case then you can click here** to go the spreadshirt shop we opened and get some of the stuff we got there. After ordering it might take a while for it to be shipped and a even a bit longer for it to arrive as it is all printed on demand.
** Allthough it does say “Hello, you’re not logged in. Login now!” you don’t need to log in to place an order.

So that’s it for today, go get that stuff and be sure to take some pictures of it and send them to me. Maybe I’ll post the pics on here if you’d like that.