My response was; bullshit! Ares never charge anyone. It’s a free software and open source.

Then I hit the net and found out exactly what he’s complaining about. The regular Ares are no longer updated. Since then the connection server has been taken down or simply obselete. The only choice for many others are to download one of those Ares clones. Yes Ares’ clones. Since the project was opensource, people has taken the advantage to update the program’s connection and charge people for the updated code.

So I tried this method. Install one of those ares clone, in my case Ares Vista;

1. Let it connect
2. Test download 1 or 2 songs
3. Close it
4. Open Windows Explorer
5. Open Tools, Folder & Options..
6. View..
7. Tick Show Hidden Files & Folder
8. OK
9. Go to C:
10. Document & Settings
11. Select current user (your account name)
12. Local Settings
13. Application Data
14. Ares Vista (or something similar)
15. Copy the “Data” folder
16. Paste it somewhere in your disk
17. Download & install original Ares
18. Install as usual & let it run (make sure you “unblock” it whan prompted by windows firewall)
19. Close down Ares, make sure it really closed down by righclicking the ares icon in the taskbar, near the clock & choose exit.
20. Copy the “data” folder that we saved previously
21. Repeat step 9-13
22. Open Ares folder and paste “data” in there replacing the original “data” folder.
23. Relaunch Ares & search the most popular & common artist, preferably in our own country.
24. Magically, it will list the song
25. Try download some of the popular song.
26. After that, you will be able to use Ares & connected automatically everytime.

The method described above are meant for XP only. Vista’s user might wanna look at: C:\Users\user account name\AppData\Local\Ares

Alternatively, you can download my “data” folder here: Mirrror 1, Mirror 2, Mirror 3

http://www.zshare.net/download/691314039f824b05/

And it didn’t disapoint me. Windows 7 is running right now as I’m writing this, here in my machine with aero theme turned on as default. My rig, a low end dual core Intel 2.0 and 1.5 gig ram minus 256 of ram deals with this new version of windows like a horse on steroid.. Well I might’ve exaggerate a lil bit but Win7 is my new toy at the moment.

As of beta, it has a few hiccups here and there, at first.. and I did crash it with video directshow with nvidia xp drivers. It also failed to respond to end an unresponsive task (Utorrent 1.9 beta, well.. beta meets beta) but what the heck? It’s faster than Vista and almost as fast as xp.

It did surprisingly run most of my software including the aging but fabulos Abilon rss reader. Most of the time, the compatibility mode save the situation. I was under the impression that Vista are bloated cause it’s trying to save compatibility with older programs. Some of the my common programs that runs well are;

1. Maxthon 1.6.3 ( my fav Maxthon version)

2. Illustrator 9 (Aero revert to basic theme but I can live with that)

3.  XaraX 4 (I can’t live without this powerfull vector app)

4. The Font Thing 0.80 (Very old app, back to 1999 – still kicking)

Then I tried the famous comicpress. Again it was a failure.. this time invoking the internal server error 500 everytime I activate any of the theme. I had to delete the theme using ftp to gain  admin access. After 2 times served with failure, I decide to postpone the idea until I fully understand what’s going on.

sigh…

Why? Simply because Celtx is free and open source. I don’t really know in what license the software is distributed but the important thing is it’s free!

I also realize that Celtx have the option to create storyboards and mixing much more materials in it. They called it Mater Catalogue. You can put your drawings, notes and suchs. Everything else is the same I guess. I didn’t have the time to compare Final Draft & Celtx.

I was curious how writers in Malaysia write their scripts. I searched the net and haven’t found any convincing / proper scripts in Malay Language. Do they simply not exist online or writers don’t like their script & ideas stolen.

I heard however that many people in the industry simply write their script in MS Word. Hmm how about that? Perhaps it’s easier to share and people are more familiar with it. How about the format then? Do they use any macros or something. Well I really wonder. I’ve asked for scripts sample many times before and Jambeso promise me to get Estet’s script in as soft copy. I’m still waiting actually.

Back to the topic, I was wondering if I should put them here online, bits by bits, posting them as they’re updated. Perhaps it’s a good way for me to push my scriptwriting skill. A comment or two could help too.

Hmm….

Tun has been asking me about writing scripts since I showed her my script once, for quick editing. When she actually phone me last night I tought that I migh consider publishing my script on the internet.

I found 3 service that allow me to write and publish the script to public for free. They’re;

1. Zhura.com

2. Scripped.com

3. Celtx.com

I tried scripped.com and didn’t really impressed. I chose Celtx since they have an actual offline scriptwriting Open Source Software which is quite impressive. I wrote my script using Final Draft before and the software ain’t exactly free.

After importing the script to Celtx I found the format to be messy and needed some editing. Impessed by the upload to community features and quickly register as a member.

I upload the script finally here: http://pc.celtx.com/project/NPfLCRaI7GR5

Please feel free to add comments / critics. However, you need to be a member to post reply / comment.

Missing Pieces – Witherspoon – 5cm per second AMV

I’ve been meaning to post this earlier when the video editing finished but couldn’t find the right time to do so.

This is my 2nd official AMV and also a bit special. The song is not in Malay language but it is a Malaysian song, produce by bunch of music freak friend of mine.

They’re Witherspoon and they’ve just release their first EP with the title Scapes & Sounds.

I’m lucky enough to be able to listen their raw material during studio practices, pre mixing and early release since 2006, that’s a year and a half ago. 2 kali raya aku dengar lagu yg sama tapi mixing sound beza beza bai..

So, unofficially I took one of the song (Missing Pieces – which I like the most) and start searching for a perfect anime to create an AMV. After listening and thinking about their atmospheric sound I decided to use Makoto Shinkai’s 5cm per second anime.

The anime itself is brilliantly drawn & animated with beautiful scene almost everywhere in the movie. After a few prelim cut and arrange I choose the 2nd part of the movie as the base of the AMV.

It took me about 5 hour to edit and match the sequence with the song. It’s kinda rushing but I need to show the AMV to my friend who’ll be going back to KL in the evening. He looked very pleased with the result and I couldn’t thought of any better actually. Well perhaps I should choose 1st part or the last part instead? Sigh..

Well then, Enjoy the song (a great song BTW) and don’t forget to visit my friends’ website on myspace – http://www.myspace.com/woundedwitherspoon

There are more sample song on their channel. Hopefully you’ll like the EP and there’s info how to get them on the site.

Good luck Witherspoon and thank you Ijat for the free sample!

(Witherspoon EP Cover – CD=RM15 a piece)

3 Days ago, a boy, son of friend actually – aged 15, who always hang out with me handed me a copy of his latest amv. Or rather, FFVII video compilation.

His amv mostly sucks.. I mean, he’s 15, lacks skills in video composition, rely solely on my sense of advice and using Initial D soundtrack most of the time. How about that?

However, from the first frame, i’m hooked. The song used in the background is Tsubasa Chronicle’s “Ship of Fools” by Yuki Kajiura.. absolutely on of my fav piece!

And again, when I heard the of sword swirling sound in the background, mixing almost perfectly with the mood, I thought, can this get any better..?

Most of the video scene mostly precompiled and obviously downloaded from the internet. There aren’t much original ediited scene but the wise arrangemenet plus a lil creative side made the video worth and surprisingly pleasing. This boys got talent.. of simply just his luck?

Watching this amv made me realize that he’s learning. He’s been watching me doing stuffs and gradualy learning.

Way to go Faez!!

However, in the other camp, there are some new development. Irugaoniisama from puteranime just release a new AMV, using Haruhi Suzumiya stock footage. Everything including the song. Remember the ENOZ song from episode 12?

Hmm.. Reminds me a lot of Linda Linda Linda!!! The scene & especially the guitar that Haruhi used to perform the song. Isn’t that the same as Kei’s guitar?

After a few tries, I figure out it has something to do with ass font attachment. And I figure that might create potential problem with user with same rig as his – although I did successfully played the file on several computer running Win2k & WinXP.

So I attach here the same .ass script without font attachment. The font is in zip file and has to be install manually.

Download .ass karaoke + font

Download FLCL-Terharu AMV here

Old .ass karaoke (might be problematic)