Conference and Interactive Audience Response Systems

So, I was reading a few back issues of the Business Times, and I was just thinking about the fact that many SMEs(Small Medium Enterprises) require lots of conferences round the world and audience response.
This is because some SMEs source from a lot of different areas and require communication and interaction to actually be able to get their job done.
This even applies to the United States Presidential elections, where the audience have to be polled after the… well, polls.

Makes you wonder at the amount of impatience in the halls, no?

I was looking up more on conference methods, like what SMEs use and stuff and found a few interesting software.

Well first, there’s Skype. It’s pretty much the poster boy for all conferencing and internet telephony services and fan-favourite among most otakus who actually talk to each other.

And then there’s this nifty service provider called The Extreme Group, which provides an Audience Response System. It’s tagged as a company which designs an engaging audience response strategy that will produce results with real value.
They count Microsoft and Apple Computer as part of their huge client base.
They’ve also provided their services for one of the Presidential Debates, which shows you that everyone needs Interactive Audience Response where people tell you what they want, and how they want it. Something Odex should learn from LOL.

I can just imagine that lol, otakus in a theatre at Sinema old school where an episode of Shakugan no Shan
a has just aired, pressing in their feedback through interactive keypads provided by The Extreme Group, that tells Odex whether they suck or not.

Even Creative has weighed in, with their new inPerson conferencing system.

That’s all I could find though, and I think the Extreme Group system is probably the best and well connected, if you count their clientèle and ‘realness’.

Crunchyroll - No longer safe?

After the Odex fiasco, most people have stopped downloading and instead turned to video websites like Youtube, Veoh and Crunchyroll for their anime fix.

Crunchyroll has been in recent news, for its $4M received in private corporate funding as well as talk of a possible tie-up with Gonzo Inc.

People have also been lamenting that since news of Gonzo affiliation, Crunchyroll has been removing licensed media like Bleach - Rather hypocritical in the first place - and Maria-sama ga Miteru.(Yes, it’s been licensed by Right Stuf and available for pre-ordering)

I don’t mind that.

Now, what I’m more worried about is this News announcement on the CR website.

but it requires a little work on your side by installing a new Bittorrent client (its pretty easy and i know many of you already use it). cuz its p2p, it should be faster for you guys to stream and it will cut back on the bandwidth cost a lot!

Am I the only one thinking that it could be a program that tracks down what the users watches? And it being a p2p client, people could technically be counted as downloading the anime episodes and be prosecuted under those charges by any anime companies that decides to go after Crunchyroll?

The bacteria of Moyashimon are invading!

My brain, that is.

Aspergillus Oryzae

This is about the anime, Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture.

SOY : Start of Year 2008 Cosplay Event

First anime event of the year kicked off well.

The Ngee Ann students really did a great job with publicising and dealing with the venue(it was changed at the last minute). In fact, I think this event did much better than the official Joint Admission Exercise(JAE) since as I was walking in most people were looking for directions to SOY rather than JAE lol.

The format of the show(Single and Group) went as such; one singer, then solo cosplaying with Q and A session after posing for cameras.

Questions weren’t very unique though. One in particular was “What would you do if you came across a Neko on the street while going home?”. Even though contestants chose bits of papers randomly, that question kept coming up.

Answers like “MANGEKYOU SHARINGAN” amused the crowd terribly though.

Cosplayers come first, then my ramblings.

Odex-ed Anime in Malaysia

If you think Odex doesn’t have its feelers in Malaysia, think again.

TECHNOGRAM SDN. BHD only releases Odex’s VCDs and DVDs.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but since Technogram is registered as a Malaysian company, it could do what Odex has done in Singapore, except with Malaysian downloaders.

Additionally, Malaysia has also announced that it will enforce a law legislated more than ten years ago, which will have downloaders(if caught) paying fines of at least RM$250,000.

Some examples of the products here.

It’s the exact same boxset, but at a  much lower price, less than half the retail price in local stores.
(USD$7.10 = RM$23.55 = SGD$10.20)

Odex splits all its anime into 2 boxsets when they are longer running with around 26 episodes, with Box 1 containing Episodes 1-12 and Box 2 containing Episodes 13-26.

Each boxset is SGD$29.90, and two of them would make (almost) SGD$60 compared to the Malaysia price of $SGD 20.40.

So it’s definitely much cheaper over the Causeway when you want Odex products, but why would you want them?
Animedia Entertainment, Lambaian Film, Vscape Entertainment and Video Star(all Malaysian companies) all license tons of anime, niche or mainstream.

They might not do a better job(butt ugly yellow font with black outline for animedia), but it’s way cheaper to buy their releases.

Plus, they even release stuff like Lucky Star(Full), Doujin Work(Full), Simoune(Full) and Yuri to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito(Full) in complete box sets and don’t split them up to milk more money off consumers.

Hell if I’m ever going to support Odex again. >

But, BOOYEAH for being able to marathon Lucky Star!

It’s definitely a merry christmas!

Sadly, I won’t be dressing up as Santa Claus, but I’ll be in a country which snows at year end.

Mai Hime fanfiction

Rant on the fanfictions I see popping up on FF.net for Mai Hime and some other stuff. Definitely not necessary reading.

Christmas Promotion : My-HiME DVD Bargain Bundle(1-7)

The Mai Hime DVD series is bundled together, all 7 discs, at the extremely low price of USD$69.99 and it’s very much worth the money.

 

Before coming to the Fuka Academy, all Mai Tokiha wanted was to live an ordinary high school life, but that’s the last thing she’s going to get. It turns out that Mai is a HiME, one of twelve girls with super-natural powers that are gathered at this school to fight the Orphans, demons that dwell around the school. A secret organization has other plans for the HiME than just demon-busting and Mai and the other HiME will have to risk something precious to protect the ones they love.

 

I would definitely grab it since it’s more than half off and considering that each of the separate discs cost USD$21.99 and there are seven of them. That makes it around $83 saved. Even if you factor in shipping costs, you’d still be saving at least USD$50.

But here’s the clincher, it’s on Rightstuf and as far as I know, RightStuf does not accept Paypal. And my funds are low.
Plus, I have been expressly forbidden to buy anything online. Oh, the horror.

So, give me a Christmas present? Just kidding.

Disclaimer : Bandai or Rightstuf did not pay me anything write this. I wish they had though..the DVD set would have been enough.

Available for public consumption

That’s anime for you, but when does one draw the line between casual mainstream observers and the so-called elite anime otakus?

It’s been a long since I actually added a real post on anime to this blog, so I guess why not start by jumping into the pit of bloggers discussing what makes someone a mainstreamer or 1337.

By the way, I don’t mean any offense to anyone reading this, it’s just my personal opinion. Also, this divide cuts people into two majorities and leaves many who probaby don’t do any of what I mention below.

That’s a fallacy which I don’t plan on remedying any time soon, since this post is just what I feel about when having to deal with classified into being mainstream, or non-mainstream with regards to watching preferences.

Quick update

Sent computer for repairs, can’t get online for a few weeks.

Help me hold the rojak for a while, Sol, I’ll pick it up later when I can arrange a date on msn. >.<