It looks like I've reached 1,000 contribution points for Ben 10. Now that's an achievement. With almost 800 submissions, the majority of them is Ben 10, and it has been the primary source of me being here at TV.com.

Thanks,

Aru

P.S. Not only that, I forgot I leveled up a few days ago. :D Like I said, I enjoy being here every day.

Yay! Father's day! Looks like today's a busy day for me. :D

~Aru

I am planning to put Ben 10 episodes up for download, in case some people want to see it now, instead of waiting for an encore broadcast. Note that you will need a client that is able to communicate and read .torrent files. An example would be from the Official BitTorrent website. The Galactic Enforcers should be up probably by this weekend, then the rest of the Ben 10 episodes by next week.

That's all for now.

Thanks,

Aru

UPDATE:

HELP US NOW!

NOTE: THESE EPISODES ARE DISTRIBUTED IN A MANNER TO PROMOTE THE SHOW NON-COMMERCIALLY. PEOPLE WHO DOWNLOAD THE EPISODES AGREE TO THE HEATBLAST.JKAIZER.NET GUIDELINES, AS WELL AS THE CARTOON NETWORK TERMS OF USE. ANY USER VIOLATING THOSE TERMS MAY BE PROSECUTED TO THE HIGHEST EXTENT OF THE LAW.

Very exciting summer for me now. I've been very busy lately, and I'm glad that it is going well so far. I have friends to talk to, online buddies to chat with, and work to do here at TV.com, my site, or any other person's site. Hopefully this happiness continues.

~Aru

P.S. Have you seen my site lately? After four months online, it has gained popularity and the number of members.

Summer vacation started pretty slow for me this year. Somehow, it wasn't as exciting as last year. I do enjoy time off from school so much, but that enjoyment sometimes last for a matter of time.

My family does go out often, but it still gets pretty lonely when I'm here at home. I use the computer and/or my Xbox 360 to wear it off.

How's your summer going along? Boring? Interesting? Probably something that you looked forward to all year? :) I hope the vacation so far is lived to its fullest.

Thursday, June 8th, at 12:20 PST is the mark of the end of my first year in high school, as well as the end of my finals. After 180 days of instruction, I finally make it. Thanks to all my teachers this year. I hope to see them next year (which I will eventually).

My finals were pretty tough, but I had no problem after taking some time studying. I also want to thank those guys for wishing me luck. It works. :)

But now's the time to enjoy summer vacation now, right? :)

~Aru

Aside from 06-06-06, Microsoft has released the first major update to its next generation console, the Xbox 360. Since I own one of these, I guess it won't hurt to post this just to remind you guys who have one at either Gamespot, TV.com, or at least the C-NET domain and the general public. The list of improvements is quite a handful, and I'm impressed by the new features.

NEW FEATURES

• “Download manager” - Marketplace items now download in the background, queue up to six pieces of content
• DVD bookmark support will remember the film’s timing and location when resuming viewing
• Fast-forward and rewind now offered at 2x -16x for any videos saved to hard drive
• “Boot to Dashboard” setting will bypass the loading of any disc in the drive and open directly to Dashboard during power-on
• Begin slideshows from any photo
• Music player saves “shuffle” setting
• Much player save “repeat” setting
• Music player now displays which file is currently playing in the playlist
• Music volume level persists between game / reboots
• 8 new locales added (Chile, Brazil, India, South Africa, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia)
• Separate settings now offered for Game and User volume controls
• Themes can now be set from the “System” blade on the Dashboard
• User-selected music continues play when switching from Dashboard to game or game to Dashboard
• “All Arcade Games” added as a selection in the Xbox Live Arcade area
• Personal gamer pictures allowed as Gamertiles – displayed only to those on your Friends List
• Added support to disable sound effects when navigating Dashboard
• Instantaneous “Change Theme” option added upon downloading new Dashboard themes
• Preserve folder structure of source when viewing photos
• A / B labels now provided to identify memory units in Dashboard
• Online status set to “Away” when screensaver becomes active

SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS

DVD Player

• Improved audio/video sync after extended pauses
• Improved visual quality
• DVD player outputs at native resolution over VGA connection
• Improved playback smoothness
• Improved fast-forward and rewind smoothness
• DVD play continues to attempt to read a disc after “disc read” error
• DVD play à Pause à Play jitter / out of synch issues improved
• DVD play à Slow Play à Play jitter / out of synch issues improved
• Repaired issues with missing menu selection icon from DVD disc menu for certain films
• Improved Xbox 360 Guide efficiency during certain films
• Repaired playback stutter during certain films

Music Player

• Player now populates music data (Title, Artist, etc.) when no track information is available
• User music is now pauses, instead of stopping, when games override user-selected background music
• Selecting an artist’s album no longer displays albums for all artists
• Improved performance when retrieving playlists from a Windows Media connection
• List music tracks in track-order when viewing albums by specific artist
• Unified music controls for music player in Dashboard and pop-up Guide
• Improved playback for Mono AAC-encoded files
• Improved connection timing between console and CD database over Internet
• Player no longer allows hard-drive selection when no hard-drive is connected
• Removed handling of MTP/USB devices when playing music from them more robust
• Improved error codes / messaging associated with unplayable content

Localization Improvements

• Fixed partially truncated strings in Portuguese, Spanish and Italian
• Korean clock / date format corrected after initial set-up
• Fixed system hang when changing the language of the console immediately after signing out
• Korean virtual keyboard “down” navigation now works for lower-right button
• Korean virtual keyboard caps disabled for input mode
• Fixed overlapping characters for pre-paid Gold membership card (Japanese localization)
• Removed extra spaces in several translated words (French localization)
• PC name displayed properly when containing Japanese characters
• Support single apostrophe character for Japanese virtual keyboard

Memory Area Improvements

• Streamlined selection – no profile selection required
• Improved overall performance, allowing quicker access to content
• Improved content views including name, file type, size, profile owner and location
• Faster identification of file types and fewer steps for actions such as copy, move, delete, etc.
• Capacity (or percentage-full) of storage device now consistent between select-a-device and storage scenes
• Device selection now shown on each screen to improve usability

Miscellaneous System Improvements

• Time elapsed now displayed when playing music files
• Enhanced categorization of media library
• Accelerated scrolling of large music lists
• New “shuffle” icon
• Repeat / Shuffle icon now operates as toggle button
• Default button for manual IP address is now “A” instead of “Done”
• Hidden and system folders are no longer displayed from MTP / mass storage devices
• Difficulty levels for gamer profiles ordered correctly
• Added additional line and word-wrap to “Publisher” in video area
• Shuffle / Random no longer skips last image in list when viewing photos
• Improved handling of Friend Requests between Gamertags that have changed names
• No longer asked “Exist to Dash?” when switching between areas in the Dashboard
• New error messages for when Windows Live ID requires password change
• Unlocked Achievements now displayed first in Game Summary page
• Selecting an Achievement now shows the specific Achievement details
• Full date now displayed for “Member Since” and “Next Bill Date” tabs on Membership scene
• Updated messaging for deleting arcade games purchased by different profiles
• No longer launch music CD in disc-tray when moving from Live sign-up to Dashboard or Network Troubleshooter
• Improved voice quality when connected through wired gamepad
• Show “Last Played Game” selection in Xbox Live Arcade first before enumerating all games (when Arcade game was last game played)
• Improved performance of picture enumeration from iPods formatted for Mac
• Adopt latest updates to Cero-based ratings for Family Settings
• Show videos downloaded from Marketplace in the Video area of the Media blade
• Improved usability around “Play Now” when downloading demos, trailers and videos
• Added support for South Africa-specific Family Settings
• Updated support for Japanese game ratings
• Video area changed to include game trailers and entertainment videos
• Improved robustness of Gamerscore when doing account recoveries
• Improved messaging around handling corrupt or non-fully recovered profiles
• Improved download performance for popular content being downloaded through Marketplace
• Total USB keyboard support
• Testing Live connection while streaming music from PC works correctly
• Next item / Focus sound not played when scrolling past the bottom of the video list
• Handle profiles on memory units inserted into system while enumerating profiles from other storage locations
• Warning / Alert icons now show as part of deleting items in Memory area
• Repeat rate for remote control matches game controller repeat rate
• “A” button disabled when in a list with no items available
• Wireless battery level added to mini-pop-up guide over backward-compatible games
• Pop-up guide / Dashboard now supports USB keyboard
• Console no longer enters “charge” mode when shutdown and the battery has been removed from wireless controller
• System no longer waits indefinitely when attempting to contact Windows Media Connect service on XP PC
• Improved Marketplace storage device selector
• Correctly set focus on selected item when back button pressed on “select a game” scene
• Notify users when multiple wireless SSIDS with identical names are within reach
• Provide Gold membership information when trying to join a session or accepting game invites with Silver accounts
• New text to highlight the ability to clear the passcode for Live account signing
• Photo slideshow no longer resumes when pressing “previous” or “next” from paused state
• Improved handling of corrupt profiles when deleting them
• No longer turn off wireless gamepads after system update reboot
• More robust handling of initial setup experience for memory unit users
• Improved handling of backward-compatible update experience, reboot back into Xbox v1 environment instead of Dashboard
• Improved handling for "block communications" from other players
• Improved keypress sounds when using USB keyboard
• Improved usability and performance of content enumeration for storage devices
• Show visual location for where Xbox Live Arcade games reside
• Improved user messaging when overwriting content while copying
• Improved consistency of messaging between "sign out" and "switch profile"
• Updated troubleshooter text for connection to Windows PC's joined to domain
• Better support for Xbox 360 game disc recognition
• Improved initial setup text messaging
• Improved overall error message terminology
• Game updates downloaded to memory unit no longer show "please reinsert" notification when memory unit removed
• More robust support for handling game deletes from memory unit and simultaneously removing memory unit
• Improved system performance between console and affiliated Windows Media Connect PC

The update is downloaded via Xbox Live with people with a Silver or Gold account.

Well, tomorrow is the prep for our final exams at school. I'm gonna be so busy this week! Hopefully I survive until the end of school this Friday. Wish me luck you guys!

~Aru

PS. New episode of Ben 10 this week! :D

Updated June 01st, 2006

NEW GAME AT CARTOONNETWORK.COM: CLICK HERE

THEME SONG AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD HERE (my site), HERE (Cartoon Network), AND HERE (Moxy).

SEASON 2 NEWS:

MONDAY, MAY 29TH  was the start of the Ben 10 new episodes week, only on Cartoon Network. The official lineup is as follows (subject to change at anytime without prior notice):

May 29th, 2006 - "Truth" at 7:00 PM E/P *AIRED

May 30th, 2006 - "Big Tick" *AIRED

May 31st, 2006 - "Framed" *AIRED

June 01st, 2006 - "Gwen 10" *AIRED

**BEN 10 PREMIERE WEEK IS NOW OVER. CATCH THEM AGAIN ON MIGUZI NEXT WEEK STARTING AT 5:30 PM.

The premieres will continue with a new episode on the following Wednesday:

June 07th, 2006 - "Grudge Match"

Each episode will air at 7:00 PM, Eastern and Pacific, at their scheduled dates. If you miss a new episode, they will be giving repeats along the way.

With less than 2 weeks of school left, I have finals coming up. Man, hopefully I'll pass them once they start after Memorial Day. Biology and English are my strong areas, but Math? Uh... I need some serious help with that. :o