Hung Truong: The Blog!

New Super Mario Bros. Website Up!

So the New Super Mario Bros. Website is up! They haven’t got that much content, but they do have some wallpapers and a video. The video shows some of the new powerups in the game. Looks like there’ll be a super giant mushroom that makes Mario kick all kinds of ass, and a mushroom that shrinks Mario so he can jump off walls and walk on water. Pretty sweet!

I seriously think they need to bring back some of the old powerups. Doesn’t anyone else miss the tanooki Mario? Or frogman Mario? Or Hammer brother Mario!? Or the giant boot!? Seriously, those were the coolest powerups ever! [/end Nintendo fanboy rant].

The New Super Mario Bros. for Nintendo DS comes out on May 15th. I’d suggest pre-ordering it, because, seriously, it’s gonna sell out!

Dual Monitors increase productivity by 20-30%, Cost by 100%

So I read this article by the New York Times about how having a dual monitor setup can supposedly increase your output by 20-30%. I’m actually convinced that it could be true. Most of the windows on my desktop take about 100-80% of the real estate on my screen. Whenever I switch applications, I have to go find which one I want in the tray on the bottom (with the number of apps I use at once, alt-tab is a bad idea). Sometimes I have to go through 10 or more windows to find what I’m looking for!

With two monitors, I could have a web browser one (for example), and a work one. Because, yes, web browser != work. Or I should say, web browser = !work. While it would be nice to have a dual monitor setup, it would also cost twice as much. And I bet movies wouldn’t look too good with the gap in the middle. Maybe I’ll just splurge on a giant widescreen monitor from Dell…

Google Calendar Released Tonight!

Google Calendar has just been released, and I tried it out a bit. It’s pretty easy to input appointments, and it works a lot like Microsoft Outlook’s calendar. I still haven’t found an import option, which would have been nice. You can export the calendar in the iCal format, but when I tried reimporting to Outlook, it didn’t work…

The main difference is that with Google Calendar, you’re able to share your calendar with others. You can also see events that are either public, or events that are located in your friends’ calendars. Pretty cool concept, though I haven’t tried that part out (it was just released tonight, remember!?).

Although the interface is nice and easy to use, I don’t know if I’d go for this instead of the current calendar system I’m using. Basically, I use the Outlook calendar as my main, and sync my watch, pda, and phone to it. Google Calendar seems okay, but I’d like to have my calendar even when I’m not online. Until I can sync to it, I probably won’t end up using Google Calendar as my main schedule organizer.

The Love-Hate T-Shirt!

Via Boingboing, this shirt appears to have the word “hate” written on it, but when you see the mirror image, it looks like “love” instead! This shirt probably isn’t for sale anywhere, but I have a feeling that the design will soon be ganked and put on threadless.com/other places.

Personally, I think it would be cooler if “love” was the default word on the shirt. Who goes walking around wearing a “hate” shirt anyway? It should be easy. Just flip the image!

New Threadless Shirts. And Songs About Them!?

This week at Threadless.com, there’s only one shirt that I would (maybe possibly could) buy. So why am I writing anything? Because there’s songs along with the shirts! Yeah, that’s right! Every new shirt (but one) has a short song composed about that shirt on the shirt’s page. Pretty weird and cool at the same time.

I like “Why Did The Chicken Cross Abbey Road…?” and that’s about it. It’s a cute shirt, but I won’t buy it for $15. Perhaps if the song was more catchy… Maybe next week they’ll have better shirts (and songs)…