Rant 644 / DotA 2

DotA 2 announced. IceFrog's a multimillionaire yet?


I wonder if there are any DotA players who never got the joke of her name.












Metro 2034 announced, and in 3D! That's rather ambitious for a game that didn't even sell 500k copies. Still, they've already said it's cheap to make their games in Kiev, Ukraine.












Do you know which kind of soldiers are the most decorated?

The dead kind.












Another article on saving money. Are people really retarded enough to keep spending beyond their budgets despite such an economic climate that we have now?

Anyway another tip is to always keep 6 months worth of your salary as your emergency fund. Keep it most of it liquid/cash, like in your savings account or fixed deposit or whatever as long as you can dip into it immediately when you need it.

When calculating taxes, it pays to do some research on the various tax benefits. Like in Singapore if you contribute to your parents' CPF, that amount of money becomes tax-free. So if you're providing your parents with allowance and they don't actually need the cash now, this is better than handing them cash. Of course, if they can make more off it by investing the cash than the combination of CPF interest and taxes you have to pay, feel free to do as you wish.

For married couples, sometimes it is better to file your taxes separately. This is because if you file it together, your tax bracket is calculated as if you two are a single person, ie your combined income sets your tax bracket. The inconvenience can save you several percent of your salaries.

Know the difference between a trust fund and a revocable nomination. A trust fund is great for stashing cash away or keeping a sum of money safe for your kids, but you can't revoke it. A revocable trust gives you this power in exchange for part of the safety of the money. I'm not going to regurgitate my textbook here but if you want to, you can consult your bank or your insurance agent provided the insurance company also does investments and stuff. There are also professional trustees one can hire to manage a trust fund properly.

You can donate money to keep your tax bracket lower if your income just barely touches the next bracket. Donations are exempted from taxes.

There is a relatively new way of paying your income taxes available which allows you to pay in up to 12 monthly instalments via GIRO. This means if you're investing the money and want to earn a bit more from it, this can make some difference.













Front Mission: Evolved is a waste of money for the PC. I imagine it's a really nice game on consoles, but the controls on the keyboard and mouse is pretty bad.

For example, when you're moving and you want to fire your shoulder-mounted missiles, it's pretty hard. Movement is controlled by WASD and missiles are controlled by Q and E. Holding Q and E charges up the missiles so that you fire more per shot.

Can't remap the keys.

However, I can play Front Mission 5 on PSX2!

Front Mission 5 was the last FM game to be released on the PS2 and is a turn-based tactical RPG. The PSX2 is a PS2 emulator that requires the BIOS from your PS2. However PS2 BIOS files can be downloaded from other websites if you're too lazy to extract it from your dusty console.

According to my quick research, you need a good computer to play the game on the emulator properly. Even now I'm getting slightly glitchy graphics, and my GPU temperature jumps to 57 degrees. The music seems to lag a little at some parts too, like my computer is barely able to run the game properly. When the beat goes slightly out of sync, it can get quite obvious.











The booth that I imagined some time ago was infeasible, so I thought maybe it can be in the form of a mosquito-net-like contraption. Instead of a solid frame it can be one large plastic sheet that surrounds the computer.

To retain cold air, the bottom would have a rectangular rubber frame to add weight and to make sure nothing seeps through.

The plastic sheet would have some sort of roller at the top so that it can be retracted like a pull-down projection screen. To allow it to be lifted smoothly it can be built with a skeleton similar to a venetian blind.

Then there is the problem of getting in and out quickly.













SGD is allowed to appreciate more now. Good that they're reacting, but wonder what effect this is going to have in the long-term on us Singaporeans. We're probably going to become even richer the moment we cross the border to JB. "Wa! This seafood meal cost each of us 200RM only ah? So cheap!"

Also, this news is reported in quite a different tone on Reuters.

Other countries are also actively controlling their currencies. Will this be enough?

What's going to happen next?












GOMtv is testing their bandwidth with a new invitational that was not announced till recently (if not only today). It's running from yesterday till the 16th, after which on the 18th there will be a brand new tournament aka SC2 Open Season 2. No idea what this current invitational tournament will be awarding its winners since there is no English commentary.

Season 2 begins on the 18th!!

Who's going to be in?













I've got 20 views today from Singapore IPs. I'm surprised. Is the blog police spying on this blog?