Mafia Wars iPhone/iPod Touch Player ID

To all iPhone/iPod Touch users playing Mafia Wars that wishes to have a Mafia member count of up to more than a thousand, I’ve found a list of Player ID’s compiled into a single spreadsheet – thousands and thousands of Player ID’s.

You can view the spreadsheet HERE.

Before doing all else, make sure to add me first – 0403 6637 58 .

DIY Grid Snoot Flashgun Add-on

If you are a DSLR owner, chances are you own a flashgun. And you probably own a couple of flashgun add-ons such as diffusers and such. But sometimes one’s budget simply won’t stretch further – what do you do? You squeeze your creative juices, of course. Now I am by no means a poor kid, but I have an artsy side to me that really likes how one can turn frequently disregarded everyday objects into something fully functional.  I shall share with you readers a couple of easy-to-make DIY grid snoots that I have found on other cool photography blogs. All credits are due to the respective owners of each blog.

Please note that every flashgun do not have the same dimensions, so measurements of the items needed to make grid snoots that fit your flash gun shall be done yourself. More often than not, the measurements may have already been someone on the Internet. So Google it.

1) Method A (as shown on SGStrobist)

You need: Black construction paper, black corrugated board, black cloth tape.

The website doesn’t offer any instructions, but how hard could it be, right? They did post the end result, though.

End Result

You can view more pictures on the SGStrobist blog here.

2) Method B (as shown on Lighting Mods)

This method is much more complicated than the method SGStrobist showed, but the end results seems great!

You need: Black duct tape, cereal box, a LOT of black straws.

Measuring

You measure your flashgun’s dimensions and apply it into a cereal box (cut-out). Then, you cut the measured part off the rest of the cereal box and bend it on the lines to give it a rough shape of a grid snoot’s main body. Do not glue/staple it together yet.

Folding

Next, you start cutting the tip of the black straws into 2cm macaronis. Use strong glue like UHU to paste it into the inside of the box.

Pasting Black Macaronis

Keep on filling the bottom row with more and more black plastic macaronis.. it should like this:

Bottom Row

Once you’re done with the first row, you know what to do next.. start a new one! Keep on stacking. After some time it’ll look like this:

Completed Rows

Once you feel that you’re done, wrap the box around the straws – if there’s any empty space, fill it up with more straws so that everything fits evenly, like so:

Complete Wrap-up

The only thing left to do now is to wrap the entire grid snoot with black duct tape to give it a professional look. Once you’re done, the final result would be like this:

Final Rendition

Front View

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Once you’re done assembling your own DIY grid snoot following either (or both) methods listed, you can just slip it on your flashgun and test it right away. Happy flashing!

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – Review

My last post was pretty old, and this new post is here to say one thing – I’ve gotten the game and I’ve completed it. Last Saturday on the day before my birthday, I picked up my copy of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves at none other than Gamer’s Hideout at e@Curve (formerly known as Cineleisure Damansara). On an unrelated side note, I noticed boxes of DJ Hero being carried into the store – more poison for me!

Uncharted 2: The Review

The gameplay is overall as smooth as a baby’s bottom. It’s more or less straightforward, linear – you keep moving and you don’t stop. Except when you’re stumped with cryptic puzzles. Or trying to find a way to the next area. I’ll bet even MENSA members will admit that sweat was shed while playing this game. According to one of the the BTS (Behind-The-Scenes) video, they used the Havok engine to enhance gameplay and make players do more stuff they can’t do in the first game.

The weapon selections are more or less the same like in the previous game, AK-47, M4, SAS-12, Moss-12, 92FS-9mm, Dragon Sniper, Mk-NDI grenades, and so on. Occasionally you’ll have the chance to use RPG-7′s to take down helicopters and tanks, M32-Hammers to launch similar projectiles, mounted guns, mounted grenade launchers, GAU-19′s. Boom! You can also, at certain locations, use Crossbows. There’s more than just these!

[SPOILER ALERT IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH]

The game starts off with an excerpt from the middle of the game, the Cliffhanger part. It is exactly the same as the one shown in the official trailer I posted in the previous post. Then it moves to a Turkish palace museum in Istanbul. Then it moves to the jungles of Borneo. And then the war-torn streets of (i’m assuming) Kathmandu, Nepal, although it never said which city it was specifically. Next you’ll have an adventure on a train, and the train car you’re on hangs precariously off a cliff – like in the first chapter and the official trailer shows. A small Tibetan village, a hidden mountain temple, a bumpy (and highly explosive) truck-hopping ride along a cliffside fireroad leading to your next area, a mountain-top monastery which hides the secret path to Shambala, which is a beautifully green place. ‘Nuff said.

The characters are the protagonist Nathan Drake (duh), while the other characters appear by your side on-and-off throughout the game. Elena Fisher, ‘last year’s model’, as she puts it, you’ll bump into her in Nepal, along with her short-living cameraman Jeff. The main antagonist is Zoran Lazarevic, a Serbian war criminal who is after the main treasure of the game, the Cintamani stone. Chloe Frazer is the game’s ‘new girl’. Also Harry Flynn, who at the first part of the game appears to be a good friend, backstabs you and works for Lazarevic. Victor ‘Sully’ Sullivan appears again in this game, helping you out in Borneo as well as making another appearance at the calm ending of the game, going after Chloe Frazer (possibly to ‘pick’ her up? LOL).

Before I spoil anything else for you, I’ll just say this at the end of every good review I give: Play the damn game.

My Ratings: 97/100.