I used to buy DVD movies every week before I got addicted to downloading media from torrent. I got my entire collection of American TV shows/series like 24, Chuck, Criminal Minds, Fringe, Heroes, Knight Rider 2008, Leverage, Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Mentalist and Without A Trace from torrent.

The process is time consuming as first I have to download the chosen video files from torrent which are usually in avi/divX, convert it to .vob or mpg/DVD format, burn it in a blank disc and run the movie in a DVD player.

Well, this new gadget makes it more convenient. Let's welcome Myka and you can now enjoy all your favorite shows better in all their high-def glory in your HDTV.

Myka also brings simplicity as you only need to connect the device to the internet and plug it to your TV.

Myka can connect through a direct LAN connection or WiFi and it comes with an internal hard drive with a choice of an 80GB, 160GB or a 500GB model. It comes with a remote control and has a Dolby Digital stereo audio output mode.

The first batch of units will be arriving in 6 weeks and prices start at $299.

I have been a Chikka user since it first came out. The service really does prove to be useful on occasions when I ran out of load credits. It's just too bad that Chikka is blocked in our office network.

Now there's no more need to download and install any application with M2M, the newest free SMS messaging service. The service is brought to us by MegaMobile, the wireless services subsidiary of publicly-listed IPVG Corp.

"M2M is possibly the easiest way to send free SMS to friends and loved ones from anywhere in the world.", said MegaMobile President Jose Manuel Fernando.

The service allows you to send text messages from your email to any mobile subscriber of Globe and Smart networks. Messaging to Sun Cellular subscribers will soon be made available.

To send an SMS, simply type-in @m2m.ph (ie., 09205289440@m2m.ph) in the email recipient box ("To:"), write the message and send; just like any regular email. The message is then forwarded as an SMS to the recipient's mobile phone. Recipients can respond by simply replying as they would to any SMS. Their messages are then forwarded to the originating email address.

With M2M, mobile subscribers can also now send SMS messages to any email address. Mobile users simply text in M2M (ie., M2M cdomale@yahoo.com Hi. How are you?) and send to 2948 for Smart, Globe, and Sun networks.

M2M messaging from emails is free while messages from mobile phones are charged P2.50 per SMS.

Just how important is the internet to people? The results of a poll say that its bad news for men. Intel found out that 46 percent of women would rather go without sex for two weeks than go without the internet.

It's not much of a surprise because another poll says that 35 percent of the men would give up their spouse rather than their BlackBerry. Maybe some of these women are married to these men. So this preference for technology works for both men and women.

Still, apparently just 30 percent of men would swap sex for the internet for a two-week period. The goal of the Intel survey was to show how much the Internet means to people. Harris Interactive conducted the survey for Intel, putting the questions to 2,119 adults last month.

So if you find your sex life declining, cutting off your internet connection might be a good idea, right? Not so fast. Volunteers for these online surveys probably already have unhealthy addictions to the internet and might make imperfect proxies for all internet users.

People get the weirdest invention ideas from the movies today. Just like the film "Wanted", the Pentagon is now funding $22 million into researching ammo that could change course mid-flight to hit their targets. DARPA, the Defense Department's R&D office, is giving out $9.5 million to Teledyne Scientific & Imaging and $12.3 million to Lockheed Martin to create .50-caliber sniper rifles with guided bullets.

Lockheed Martin is working on what is called as the Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordinance (Exacto), a project that would enable ammo to travel accurately regardless of the surrounding environment.

The rifle may include “fin-stabilized projectiles, spin-stabilized projectiles, internal and/or external aero-actuation control methods, projectile guidance technologies, tamper proofing, small stable power supplies, and advanced sighting, optical resolution and clarity technologies.”

I wonder what could be next? Real-life robot Transformers?

I still find $22 million too much money to spend on bullets. I better be off spending that amount on cloning Angelina Jolie.

In the past 3 weeks, I have been busy with my teams in the office coming up with our group's entry to a music video contest. The competition is part our company's numerous activities for the season which will culminate in our Christmas party on December 12.

The contest produced a total of 14 music videos created by 14 different teams. We created the one on top. A handful of the short productions turned out to be well made considering that the people who acted, shot, edited and directed the films were all amateurs.

I posted 13 of the 14 videos on YouTube. There were song copyright issues (Closer and Dangerous) on 2 of the videos so the audio was muted. You will find all of the videos here.

When I uploaded it to YouTube, I was pleased to find out that the site already stretched the aspect ratio of the videos from the "traditional" 4:3 to "widescreen" 16:9. Many of the consumer electronics now have jumped to the widescreen aspect ratio in the last few years, including all HDTVs, most camcorders, many laptops, and some digital still cameras.

You'll immediately notice the difference when you visit the site now: The playing window is considerably larger than it was before and this is definitely a welcome development. I however look forward to the time when we will already be able to watch videos in YouTube in High Definition.