August 2008 Archives

I have been thinking lately that no matter how bad things got with Dell (my previous company), they still try to give you the best compensation they can (haggling included, of course). More so than most companies I know, waaaay more than the company I'm currently in, that, I'm certain!

Or maybe it was the very good times I had with friends back then. I was browsing through some old photos in my hard drive and reminisced the memorable enchanted kingdom trip I spent with Vikash, Paul, Anwaar, Jun, Reg, and Thea. Man! I truly enjoyed that day so much.

I am enjoying my family life with my sisters here in Pampanga, however, a big part of me wants to reapply back to Dell and just leave this behind. This is not because I want to earn more money (although that is a very nice concession!) but because of all the companies I have heard of here in Pampanga, I haven't seen one that will compare to my previous experiences with my Previous companies. And that's saying something! Maybe I was just spoiled by my previous company too much. Maybe I'm just too picky. Or maybe it's simply the truth; truth that I can not fool myself out of.

I miss my friends: Malby, Kei, Lee, Gracey, Lovely, Cathz, Charo... And others. Simply put, I'm torn between two worlds that I need to make me whole. Yet, I can not just live in both worlds at the same time. I wish I could have the best of both worlds.

I'm torn... I don't know what to do anymore.

Here's another mini-tutorial for PSP users out there. This time, this is for the Manga/Comic reader/app called: PSPComic! Now, some of you might think, "I can just read my manga from the photos section so what's so special about this app?"

I used to read manga via the photos section of the PSP and personally, I find it a bit too... disorganized for my taste. See, if you merely drag and drop a folder containing your favorite manga to ms0:PHOTOS folder and that folder has at the very least 20 jpeg files in it, then chances are, the pictures are going to be jumbled and it'll just end up confusing the heck out of you. I know it frustrated the heck outta me. It's like reading a story spoiler by accident due to the lack of organization and you end up reading what happened to the characters long before you had to.

PSPComic is, in no way a total manga organizer but it IS a bit more efficient than just dumping your files in the photos menu. =) plus, you can then monitor a different folder from anywhere in your memory card for your manga/comic books so it doesn't clutter your PHOTOs folder making it more difficult/tedious to look for that favorite wallpaper you want for your PSP.

DISCLAIMER:
This entry is merely a guide/tutorial on how to add features to your PSP. It is not, in any way, foolproof. I am not responsible to any possible damage your PSP may incur. With that said, on to the tutorial. ;-)

PSP Model: PSP -M1000
PSP Version: 4.01 M33-2
Game folder Homebrew (seen in recovery mode): Currently: 1.50 Kernel

PSPComic is a comic book reader for PSP that allows users to view comics in either CBR or CBZ format. -by Archaemic

Here's the link: PSPComic v1.0

Mega Pack -includes all of the above as well as the utilities No Bull Moose and FANG for those that don't have a Slim PSP.


Steps:

1. Before we go any further, please make sure that you have firmware (FW) 1.50 or any other version above 3.XX or better yet, read the "readme.txt" file included in the .RAR archive.

2. (Skip if you have a different FW version and/or PSP model. This is for PSP-1000 models only) If you have already upgraded to 4.01, just download and install 1.50 kernel just like i did.

3. Download the pack from the link above, or from any other trusted sites that you know.

4. After the download, extract the files

5. Choose from the 5 folders there:

        1.50
        3.xx
        comics
        No Bull Moose
        src

6. Double-click on the folder appropriate for the FW version of your PSP, in my case, i clicked on 1.50 folder. once inside, you will see 2 folders labeled pspcomic and pspcomic% respectively. Drag both folders to the same folder in your PSP. With mine, the path is:

    ms0: (root)
            PSP:
                    GAME150:    <--i dragged the said  folders here

    since i have the 1.50 kernel activated on my PSP with FW version 4.01 m33-2.

7. Next thing we need to do is to convert your manga into .cbr format. Here are the steps:

        7.1. Make sure all your manga are in JPEG format and that you have WinRAR installed.
        7.2. Open a folder with, say, a chapter of your manga and select all its contents.
        7.3. Go to File >Add to archive... and then Create a file name for your manga chapter AND ADD ".cbr" (without the quotation marks of course) at the end of the title and click "OK" then wait for the compression to finish.
        7.4. Drag all of the converted CBR files to the comics folder in your PSP or to any other folder you may have created specifically for your manga.

8. Disconnect your memory card from the computer and start up your PSP.

9. Go to your GAMES menu and load PSPComic v1.00 from there and locate the folder/manga you want to read.

10. Familiarize yourself with the framework and you're good to go. Congratulations.

NOTE: just a word of caution, do not compress more than 80 JPEG files at a time so that PSPComic does not get too confused on which file to load first. :)


I have made this guide as user-friendly and jargon-free as I can make it. Hope this little guide helps. Let me know if further clarification is needed.
 

I jave just spent the better part of an hour battling against our toilet's flusher. It's stopped working a few days ago and I was too lazy to fix it right away. Instead, I just cut the water flow off from going to the toilet further. Had to use the pail to clean up and stuff. :P I finally took the effort to check it earlier and found what's wrong with it. The entire valve tank kit is busted so the water's just dripping uselessly. So I hurried over to the D.I.Y. store and bought the kit to replace the whole thing. Just so you know, the whole kit costs around PhP1,500 now. -___-;; oh well. When I got back from my errand, I went over to the toilet to fix it. I'm no plumber so I spent a small amount of time figuring out which goes where and what. It's pretty straight forward but I wasn't to confident with my plumbing skills. Hehe! Finally found the courage to try and fix it. I took out the old flushing disk, the flush lever and the vertical cylinder that holds the "water-stopper" and replaced it with the new one. Everything seems to be going fine until I tested my work. Sad to say, it didn't work. NOT because of something I did wrong or something I installed there by mistake, but because the hose that was supposed to supply water up to the cistern decided it is time for it to retire as well! Damn. It frustrated the heck out of me so I decided to blog about it after I cleaned up, so here I am. For now, I shall take my leave of the flushing mechanism and I'll battle with it another day.


Mood: flushed. *ahem*
Currently listening to: Changin' by Stephanie

Yup, you read that right. I said READ eBooks in PSP. I mean, if you can listen to them in PSP (audio books), why not read them, yeah? hehe I heard about this homebrew feature back when I first had my PSP. I didn't think about it too much back then coz I was happy to be able to finally play God of War and Crisis Core and Star Ocean to care about eBooks in my PSP. Plus, I have my own eBook reader so I'm pretty much covered in that field.

One day, I finally found the time and energy to look for the plugin that will turn my PSP into a Multi-Media GEEK MACHINE.

DISCLAIMER:
This entry is merely a guide/tutorial on how to add features to your PSP. It is not, in any way, foolproof. I am not responsible to any possible damage your PSP may incur. With that said, on to the tutorial. ;-)

PSP Model: PSP -M1000
PSP Version: 4.01 M33-2
Game folder Homebrew (seen in recovery mode): Currently: 1.50 Kernel

BookR is a document reader for PSP with native PDF rendering. I have tested PDF files and .txt files and they worked perfectly for me. BookR is currently compatible with PSPs with Firmware versions 3.71 and below and/or 1.5 kernel (for PSP-1000) installed.

Download it HERE.
If the link's already expired, leave a comment and I'll reupload it.

WARNING:
I had this plugin tested on a PSP-M1000 (Phat version) and am about to test it on a Slim PSP. will post an update once I get around to testing with it.

Here's a step by step process on how to successfully install this plugin:

1. Download the plugin called BookR version 0.7.1.

         CAUTION: if your PDF file is full of pictures (i.e. FHM in PDF format), then BookR might not be able to read it.

2. Connect your PSP to your computer via the USB or the memory card via a card reader.

3. Open the BookR.rar file you just downloaded and put the __SCE__bookr and the __SCE__bookr% folder in the GAME folder of your PSP.

    ms0: (root)
            PSP:
                    GAME:    <--drag the said  folders here

4. Put the PDF and other .txt files you want to read anywhere in your PSP (I suggest you make a new folder and label it eBook for example to organize your memory card better.).

5. Disconnect your PSP/card reader from the pc and turn on your PSP.

6. Go to your Games menu, load BookR.

7. Press O to load a file then locate the folder you made and open any .txt file to see if it is working properly and familiarize yourself to the menu and settings.

8. To change the settings (i.e. font and background color via your txt file), just press the start button and choose .

and... voila! You can now read while on the go without having to lug around a lot of your books. =)

A word of caution, though, I suggest you select a file with no more than 20MB size otherwise BookR might not read it properly, if, at all.


Happy Reading! ^__~