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MediaMonkey: The media player for audiophiles

2012-01-02T22:12:00.001+08:00

This article may interest you if you archive large music collection in lossless format and you own a portable music player with limited storage capacity

I was once in the exact situation as above. I keep all my music in FLAC format and used to play these FLAC as is on my mobile phone and MP3 player. Eventually my music collection grew larger than the microSDHC memory card that I can afford. I have 2 choices, each with difficulty of its own.
Option 1: Transcode a separate library of lossy music
- requires manual intervention to recreate another set of identical folder structure and then transcode each album manually (transcoder won't know where to put the files)
- unable to systematically/automatically determine which file requires (re)transcoding and synchronizing
- manual intervention to provision album art to each newly transcoded album

Option 2: Transcode on-the-fly to my mobile device
- most MTP-capable media player has limited format encoding capability
- some media player does not preserve ID3 tag correctly
- most media player will automatically regenerate folder structure based on ID3 tags
- album art may not show correctly due to above reason

I have personally tried every popular media/music player I can think of
Foobar2000
+All-time favourite music player on my desktop
+Supports most, if not all, type of encoding and decoding format
-Unable to automatically generate folder structure, not even based on ID3 tag. Too much manual work
-No MTP support at all

Songbird
+Free, open source, multi-platform
+MTP support
-Despite able to list my portable media device's capability, it's unable to encode anything other than WMAv2, which sucks

Winamp
+MTP support
+Wide choice of encoding format
-Recreates folders based on ID3 tag. Causes a mess for albums with various artists
-No parallel encoding, unable to utilize multi-core processors - Very slow for large encoding

The only music player that works perfect to my needs: MediaMonkey
+MTP support
+Wide choice of encoding format
+On the fly transcoding and device sync
+Parallel encoding
+Fully customizable encoding behaviour. Easily customize MediaMonkey to reproduce exact folder structure with album art
+SQLite album management for huge album collections. Advertised capacity over 100000 songs
+High quality music player for audiophiles. WASAPI capable out of the box
+CD ripping built in

The only BIG cons:
-RM173.89/EUR 42.36 for MediaMonkey Gold Lifetime license. Budget not for the typical home user. Free version loses out these features: http://www.mediamonkey.com/information/gold/

No need for any other music players. I'd call myself a MediaMonkey fan now!

Getting Windows 8 to Run on Netbooks

2011-09-17T20:50:00.000+08:00

Hello fellow tech junkies! Time to flex your finger muscles and start installing Windows 8 Developer Preview on your lab rat computer.

Among all the computers I have, it's the HP Mini 210 netbook that I don't mind screwing up and so I installed Windows 8 developer preview using a USB drive with the assistance of Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool. I have tried the 32 bit version as well as the 64 bit version with developer tools. Both booted up using about 500MB of RAM but the 32 bit version definitely has an edge of lower memory consumption. For my 1GB RAM netbook, of course I settled down with the 32 bit version.

Boot up is impressive on Windows 8 Developer Preview. I reckon the feeble Atom netbook only required about 10 seconds to boot. Windows 8 does provide a truly changing user experience. Once booted, the user is presented with an unfamiliar Metro UI instead. Similar to Windows Phone 7, apps are now represented with tiles and these tiles can provide live update as you use the computer.

I did stumble upon the issue where Metro UI apps wouldn't launch at all on my netbook. With some testing, it's concluded that Metro UI will not work on any resolution lower than 768px of height. On most netbooks, the resolution is only 1024x600. Alternatives are:
1. Remote desktop into this netbook using a computer with higher resolution
2. Hook up to an external monitor with higher resolution
3. Downscale!

Downscale simply means to select a higher resolution that your display cannot actually display. The display will look stretched or even fuzzy but among the 3 alternatives listed above, downscaling is probably the most promising yet independent method. No one wants to hook to a LCD all day long :P

To downscale, a quick registry hack is needed. Run "regedit". Find(Ctrl+F) Display1_DownScalingSupported. Change value to 1.

Reboot and right click on desktop to change resolution. Pick a good resolution that has at least 768px of height. Tada! Metro UI now works perfectly on your netbook! Until Microsoft changes their mind to cater Metro UI for 90% of the netbooks, enjoy your downscaled display.

Meego on HP Mini 210

2011-06-12T17:20:00.003+08:00

The HP Mini 210 I had from Streamyx Coolunipack has got Windows 7 Started installed on it but I'm looking for something simpler, social, faster.

Meego is a linux-based operating system, jointly developed by Intel and Nokia. Apparently Windows 7 did not have comprehensive support for Atom processor, which I was hoping Meego would extend some battery life. Hence I gave Meego 1.2 a try. :D

To test drive Meego on the netbook is fairly simple. Required materials are just the ~900MB image file which you can choose here. Then follow the simple instructions to copy the image to a USB drive. I shall not repeat the obvious steps since everything is well documented to the point of creating Live USB drive.

Good to note that the USB drive will require fdisk or Windows Disk Management to remove (then add) the partition, when you finished using the drive for installation or Live USB purpose. Formatting from Windows Explorer itself is futile.

I didn't really need Windows 7 on my netbook, so I entirely removed Windows partition to make way for Meego. For those who needs Windows 7 on dual boot, the idea is to shrink the system partition, install Meego and follow some instructions (which you can Google) to include Windows 7 into the bootloader. Meego's installer has capability to modify partitions, such as deleting Windows partition but I stumbled on some bugs when using Custom Partition Layout option. Instead of telling how I can even remove Windows partition from Meego installer, it would be better to prepare an unallocated space beforehand.

For custom partition layout users, you would need:
250MB of /boot logical (primary) partition
An optional swap partition, which Meego recommended 1.7GB for my netbook
A / partition, as large as possible

After getting the partition layout, the entire installation should be trouble-free.

Tada!

What works on my HP Mini 210:
+Graphics
+Webcam
+Bluetooth
+Sound
+Touchpad (without 2 finger scrolling)
+Brightness control
+External display
+USB
+Card reader
+Ethernet

What doesn't:
-Broadcom Wi-Fi

If you happen to own a netbook with Intel wireless, the Wi-Fi would work fine. No worries, Broadcom does have Linux drivers; we just need to install them using Terminal.
1. sudo yum install rpmdevtools
2. sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
3. sudo yum install kernel-netbook-devel
4. wget http://slaine.org/moblin/releases/2.1/ia32/source/wl-kmod-5.60.48.36-1.moblin.src.rpm
5. rpmbuild --rebuild --target=i586 wl-kmod-5.60.48.36-1.moblin.src.rpm
6. sudo rpm -ivh ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/i586/wl-kmod-5.60.48.36-1.meego.i586.rpm
And your Broadcom Wi-Fi is back!

What's great on Meego:
+Fast boot up
+Fast sleep resume
+Youthful interface with social integration
+Lightweight - works perfect on a 1GB memory machine
+supports RPM repositories

What isn't perfect:
-Imperfect social interface. No search for "People" - who the heck still scrolls in long contact lists?. Poor integration with Empathy messenger.
-To get Twitter working in Status integration, small hack is required: http://forum.meego.com/showthread.php?t=3369
-Intermittent connection. Signing into MSN occasionally fail. Social function is moody (unable to connect to Twitter or Facebook occasionally)
-Slow multitasking (Alt+Tab) because of its animations
-Navigating around the menus are inferior compared to Windows 7. Not an issue if you like Windows XP or if you don't use Windows 7 search feature. Lack of shortcuts and gesture which Windows 7 offers
-Installing applications are not user-friendly for the non-Linux users. Needs similar software download center like Ubuntu, or even better, Google Market-like software library
-No official Java plugin support
-No noticeable battery life improvement

The verdict:
Good to try if you want to experience the 'social' operating system which you read your friend's social updates the moment you flip the netbook open. Not for the faint-hearted, not suitable for primary computer use. Adventurous users can download Meego SDK and start developing on their Meego device :D
Meego is fine for my casual netbook usage and I think I'll be keeping it ^^

Android - Hotmail Push Mail

2011-02-13T12:30:00.001+08:00

By default / automatic configuration, the built-in Android Email application uses polling option for Hotmail / Windows Live Mail. In the past, I have been using Samsung's Premium Social Hub which acts as a proxy for push mail capability; while many others use alternative email application like K-9 mail.

It was till yesterday when I notice Hotmail / Live Mail have exchange-like server since last year. The steps to configure Hotmail for push mail is manual, but not difficult. The steps are illustrated using Samsung Galaxy S, an Android device but the concept should work fine on iPhone, Nokia or other smartphone devices.

Start Android email application like usual and key in the Hotmail credentials. Instead of clicking Next for automatic configuration, select Manual Set-Up. Among the three options, select Exchange account.

In Exchange Server Settings, use m.hotmail.com as exchange server address and allow SSL. Username and password are just simply your Hotmail login credentials. Once you're done with that, Voila! You're given the option for Automatic (Push)! Continue to click Next to finish your configuration.

The push notification is very responsive. From my rough observation, it takes only 1-2 seconds to notify me on my device after the mail arrives. Kudos Microsoft Live team and Google Android!

chchyong89's Wolfson WM8501 DAC Review

2011-02-02T12:34:00.004+08:00

Introduction

The ~~creator~~ seller of PCM2704 DAC, chchyong89 is well known for designing the best bang for the bucks audio amplifiers and DAC. He has recently returned with a bag of goodies, Wolfson WM8501 DAC. This new DAC packs quality components for better audio quality, yet maintaining an astonishing price tag@RM168.

First impression

This Wolfson WM8501 DAC is definitely a looker. The board glossy black and squarish, measuring only about 6.5cm on its sides, occupied with pretty looking components and gold plated RCA+coaxial sockets. With its size, the DAC is possibly portable enough to bring around, effectively an upgrade for a laptop/netbook's inferior onboard sound.

USB is the only available input for the DAC. Since it connects to the computer by USB, no external power source is required. The USB cable supplied is very worthwhile to be praised; shielded, fairly thick and well built. The output is switchable between analog and digital. Digital streams would channel through the coaxial socket if digital output is selected. I suppose this DAC could act as a USB to coaxial converter to feed digital stream to other DAC without USB capability. 3.5mm jack or RCA output is available for user's convenience when analog settings is used.

The DAC outputs line-out level of 1.7V RMS, regardless of 3.5mm or RCA. Software attenuation on Windows taskbar would not affect the volume in anyway. Observing the fact that the DAC is designed to output line-out level, I believe chchyong89 intended to pair this DAC to an amplifier (usually equipped with volume control) before feeding to headphone. Attempting to drive a demanding headphone directly from this DAC could have masked the true potential of the DAC, as it has no amplifying stage built on board.

As a word of advice, if you attempt to connect headphones directly to the DAC, turn off all Windows system sounds, messenger's notifications and turn down the volume of your media player. Admittedly, I was once dumb enough to let my messenger shriek for my attention while I was listening to the DAC directly.

Tests and Methodology

Inherently from the DAC's small size, I had the idea to test the DAC on my HP Mini 210 netbook.

The DAC is plug-and-play. The preinstalled Windows 7 Starter x86 had no issue at all installing the generic drivers. Tested on my desktop, the DAC works perfectly fine on a 64-bit machine as well. ASIO is supported by the use of ASIO4ALL v2. I noticed huge volume gain when ASIO is used on this DAC. (please shine some light on this)

Disclaimer: The following audio impression is subjective to personal preferences and does not represent the actual experience across different individuals.

To avoid colouration to the sound, no amplifiers were used. I have used my faithful Sennheiser HD555 for the test.

Bass

I was expecting a quick roll off over the low frequencies, considering that the DAC had no amplifying stage. Then I realised, my assumption was utterly unjustified. The low is on the right amount, clean and fast. I think it would only be fair to make strong emphasis on the fast low frequencies. This great characteristic makes the music sound extremely clean (layman: there is only a sound when there should be sound, otherwise, it's silence. no prolonged booms). Some pop songs with complex passages which usually sound messy, turn out to sound right again thus I don't feel fatigue everytime I listen to these pop songs.

With my mediocre ears and headphones, I could clearly catch frequencies as low as 40-50Hz. I am not certain if the absense of headphone/speaker amplifier is limiting its potential but it is nevertheless satisfactory.

Mid (timbre)

Impacts are somewhat strong but not overwhelming; stronger than my X-Fi Titanium at approximately equal level. I could feel some sort of micro-vibrations from my HD555 for certain instruments. Very noticeable on pianos, I can feel the hammer hitting on the strings.

Mid (vocals)

One of the strong aspect of the DAC. Highly detailed vocals. However, unlike typical system where detailed vocals is inherent with prominently strong mids, this DAC isn't. The vocals remain laid-back but just simply detailed.

High

The high is smooth but not prominent. Upon close observation, I could hear the details of cymbals etc. Otherwise, I almost haven't noticed much about the highs. Could be one of the reason this DAC sounds clean to the listener's perception. Acceptable for music but could be a little too smooth for certain movies.

Soundstage

The soundstage is average; not wide, neither too confined.
Remark: Very subjective to individual and system set up.

Miscellaneous
The DAC is sold as is, naked without an enclosure. Casing up the DAC is highly recommended especially for portable use. Quite disappointing, the PCB has no mounting holes unlike the earlier PCM2704 DAC design.

During quiet listening, I noticed occasional pops on both my HP Mini 210 netbook and desktop. I have as well encountered the DAC stalling completely when a light switch in my kitchen being flicked. Presumably, the DAC have strict requirements from USB power source to perform its best. Further tests necessary to find the root cause of this problem. chchyong89 has been contacted regarding this issue. The DAC is suggested to be tested with battery powered laptop, which I shall try during the CNY holidays.

+Good sound quality
+Inexpensive
+Coaxial output
+Satisfying PCB build quality
+Line-out level output
-No volume attenuation by Windows volume
-Enclosure not included
-Occasional pops (to be investigated)

From consumer's point of view, there are probably no other commercial DAC to compete at its RM168 price tag. The DAC packs interesting features, scoring high SNR specifications, and if its shortcomings(pops) were resolved, I almost felt my desktop's X-Fi Titanium is somewhat redundant. If I had the authority to do so, I would love to give chchyong89's Wolfson WM8501 DAC a seal of "highly recommended".

Project uberCMOY - Headphone Amplifier

2011-02-01T20:45:00.005+08:00

Some years ago, I wanted to learn building headphone amplifiers. Troubled by academic schedules and thanks to my procrastination, the project was delayed till my degree's graduation.

Similar to most beginners, this amplifier is based on CMOY's design, with minor upgrades.

Work Log
Inception (idea planting) on early December 2010. Woke up from dreams and decided to build a CMOY.

16/12/2010
Requested free samples of OPA1642, OPA2107, OPA2111, OPA2132, OPA2277.
TLE2426 rail splitter is also available for free from Texas Instruments. An upgrade of CMOY's original design of resistor voltage divider.

26/12/2010
Every requested part arrived my doorstep.

Not all boxes were shown(there were more). Texas Instruments uses many box for just several op-amps.

In-the-box:

Further unboxing:

*Many days in between*
Several versions of breadboard prototype being built. Randomly suffers from hum and hiss. Presumably leads are too long on breadboard. Unity gain versions appears to be more susceptible to noises on breadboard. Ditch breadboard; I'm going to build on stripboard.

29/12/2011
Went to littleghost's personal lab. Built the entire amp in an afternoon.

Internal peek:

Materials: Stripboard, 1000uF Rubycon capacitors, 0.1uF ceramic capacitors, 1uF metal film capacitors, 1% precision metal film resistors, Singatron panel mounted 3.5mm sockets, toggle switch, LED, Jujubes box

Choice of op-amp: Burr-Brown OPA2132

Viable choices:
OPA1642 - Looks great on datasheet. Low noise, low supply voltage, suggested for blu-ray players as well! Sadly, no PDIP form factor.
OPA2107 - Sounds best among the op-amps I have but requires minimum supply voltage of 9V. Somewhat too demanding for this portable design.
OPA2132 - Sounds okay. 5V supply voltage, great for portable use. Low DC offset. No audible hiss. Chosen for this amplifier.
OPA2111, OPA2277 - Similar to OPA2132 from specifications. Not tested yet.

Schematic:

30/12/2011
Custom build 3.5mm interconnect for amp. Cute blue wires. :P

Results: Gain of 2. Sounds nice. Improved sound quality, especially the mids. (Lets not talk audiophile jargon for now)
Shortcomings: No volume control, no external DC input, no battery charger.
Next amp: Sijosae Class-AB amplifier

-END of log-

White iPhone 4 spotted

2010-12-23T21:13:00.000+08:00

-intended to be left blank; nothing to say-
:D

Malaysia Mobile Numbers Comes in 8!

2010-12-15T15:55:00.002+08:00

Some months ago, I read from SKMM announcement of expanding mobile numbers to 8 digits to accommodate larger user base.

As of today (15th December 2010), DiGi has placed an announcement for the new 3+8 number scheme as well as 011 prefix. Source

FAQ extract from the link:

Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is 3 + 8 about?
3 + 8 is a new mobile numbering range that will be available from all mobile service providers in Malaysia.
2. How does the 3 + 8 numbering range differ from the existing mobile numbering range?
The new 3 + 8 number range will carry new 3-digit prefix followed by an 8-digit mobile number. The existing 3 + 7 mobile numbering range uses a 3-digit prefix with a 7-digit mobile number.
3. What 3-digit prefix will the new 3 + 8 number range use?
The new 3 + 8 number range will use 011 as its new 3-digit prefix.
4. What will happen to the existing 3 + 7 mobile numbering range?
There will be no changes to the 3 + 7 mobile numbering range. It will co-exist with the new 3 + 8 numbering range.
5. Will the new 011 prefix be available from 15 December 2010 as stated on the SKMM announcement?
The date stated on the SKMM announcement (15 December 2010) is a target date by which all systems needed to launch the 3 + 8 number range for all mobile service providers should be ready.
6. Can 011 prefix enjoy all the services which currently existing prefixes (eg 016 or 014) numbers are enjoying?
Yes, 011 prefix will inherit the same services as per existing prefixes.
7. If there are no 011 prefixes available on 15 December 2010, when will DiGi launch its 3 + 8 number range (011 prefix with an 8-digit mobile number)?
DiGi will announce the launch of its new 3 + 8 number range once on www.digi.com.my or www.happy.com.my once the 011 prefix is available for customers.

Aptoide v2.01, Installous for Android Update

2010-12-01T20:06:00.002+08:00

This morning I have received an email from Aptoide. Apparently they have updated the app to be competently user-friendly to resolve the issues that I have mentioned in Aptoide, Installous for Android post. While I am going to test out its functionality, I'll just paste an extract of their corresponding email:

We are proud and excited to share with you the following news:

The launch of Bazaar site (http://bazaar.aptoide.org):

- the first worldwide site that allows you to create your own market.
- under the motto "Own your market!" you can now have your own Aptoide
repository with your applications.
- upload and manage your applications and share them with the world or just
your friends.
- easily browse the available Android Apps and choose which to install from
your Android device.

The launch of Aptoide V2.01 enables these extra features:

- Add repositories via QR-code.
- Support for private repositories with login credentials (through the
standard httpaccess file).
- Faster reloading of the list of applications from the repository
- Many other features and bug fixes.
- Your feedback is essential. Test it and let us know what you think.
- Together as a community we can merge the best features provided by the
decentralised Open Source spirit to the quality assurance provided by
centralised App stores.

Update 1: A quick test shows that it is faster than Apktor in terms of UI. The complains that I had with the scrolling is fixed too. Fast repository refresh is implemented. I think this update gives a good reason to uninstall Apktor for now. :D

Update 2: I often get a prompt to force close Apktor during repository refresh.

University of Bradford Graduation 2010

2010-11-11T22:04:00.002+08:00

Yes! It is the day! The 11th of November. The day started gloomy, drizzled since 7am till evening. The weather has pretty much spoiled chances for outdoor photos but I think I do like the rainy weather.

Accompanied with my parents and grandparents, I woke up in the wee 5am and started travelling half past six to reach INTI International University at 8am. Troubled by the rain, there is actually problem to get breakfast but oh well, we had McD instead. :D

The entire convocation was done smooth without much issues but it was definitely exhausting by afternoon. The suit+gown+hood is very heavy to drag on my shoulder, causing neck pain. Lol.. Well, "graduation ain't complete without a suit and a tie" says Wyie. Luckily I took the advise. Putting on the hood was much easier and neater with the suit.

Very much thanks to my family and friends, I finally can fly my mortarboard!

Also thanks to some lecturers, they have been very helpful throughout the course.

Also not to forget a very good friend, Charles, who took day off from work and came to shoot nice photos for me.

Look, I was having great time playing with his Canon EOS 5D Mark II with wireless strobing set.

If you're my friend in Facebook, feel free to check out one of the album here. My dear friends, thanks for the support and have a great day!!!

Hyper 212+, saviour for the poor overclocker

2010-11-10T18:45:00.001+08:00

Several weeks ago I was utterly bored and I just whacked in settings to run my i7 920 @ 3.6GHz HT on. While I'm feeling some improvement over folding@home rendering speed, the poor CPU is struggling with temperature up to 95C, which is barely 5C away from junction's maximum temperature as per specification.

Very kind of Lacus from Lowyat.Net, I have obtained a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ heat sink. For it being an inexpensive cooler (~RM100 retail), it is known to be the best bang for the buck cooler. I was expecting good performance but the results is stunning!

With identical clocks and voltages, the temperature has dropped from 95C to 72C on the hottest core. That is a whooping 23C reduction, which also gives me much headroom for more overclocking, potentially over 4GHz.

Now I know my holiday will continue to be fun! xD

App Inventor for Android

2010-11-07T20:40:00.002+08:00

If you have followed my Android Development Tutorial for Dummies but could not deploy a working app for your Android phone, fret no more! Instead of writing Java, App Inventor allows you to visually build an app.

Quite similarly to Eclipse, building the GUI is easy with just drag and drop.

This screenshot above is Blocks Editor. These little blocks are the logic behind your apps that does the magical processing to impress your users (hopefully). While these block may look a little discouraging, but they actually just fit like puzzles. If you can match the notches, it's a good indication that you're using a suitable block. Totally no fuzz about Java syntax and you may not even need a keyboard to work with App Inventor. :D

To try things out myself, I built my first Android App to convert between bit~gigabit and byte~gigabyte. The entire process was breezy, I took my own sweet hours to poke around with its interface and completed a fully working app in 1 day time. While it does make app building very easy, because of the simplified nature of App Inventor, repetitive calculation requires lots of manual work to drag and drop the blocks. I wished it has copy-and-paste feature in Blocks Editor. Hence a seasoned Java programmer will probably complete a similar app in minutes time.

You can try my BbConverter app by downloading through Rapidshare. Android 2.1 or above is required.

Since App Inventor is very simple to use, there are some sort of limitation to the app that you make. For instance, I realise that I could not set the properties of text box to input only numbers, which I believe can be done easily on full fledged Java app. At the moment, App Inventor does not support user's SDK. While it is capable of satisfying most casual Android users, complicated apps may not be possible currently. The compiled application is larger than usual native Java coded app. Even a simple app that I did is more than 3MB when installed. Google has acknowledged this issue and will attempt to optimize the app size in future.

App Inventor is still in Beta status. I am regularly seeing new features being included such as TinyDB and Twitter. Very soon, App Inventor will also allow Bluetooth communication in its app. To use App Inventor Beta, Google account users may request for access using this link. The process may take weeks to a month. Happy app-inventing!

Kingston Power User Gathering

2010-11-01T23:50:00.003+08:00

Last Saturday, Kingston organised a gathering at Delicious Cafe to promote their product line up especially hyperX RAM, SSDNow and USB flash drive.

Accompanied by Sanko and dblooi (Sanko not in picture below), we also have got a great bunch of computer overclockers mainly from Lowyat.Net and Cari forum.

The event was targeted from overclocking community. Hence Sanko and dblooi demonstrated their extreme overclocking using Kingston's hyperX RAM and 128GB SSDNow, paired with MSI Big Bang and Intel i5 655k processor.

The processor was super-chilled using LN2 (Liquid Nitrogen) to sub 100 degrees to obtain 5GHz clock speed.

The food was great, people were nice. Best of all Kingston gave out 5 units of the Kingston 16GB DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 USB flash drive, and I got a piece of it too.Wouldn't it be nice if Kingston were to organize these gathering frequently? :D

DCMUGEN Epik Screen Protector Review

2010-10-28T19:05:00.002+08:00

Last week I was looking for a screen protector for my Samsung Galaxy S although the glass is supposedly scratch resistant. I found several sellers over the local Lowyat.Net forum and the price varies from RM4 to RM40 per piece. The most expensive RM40/piece screen protector is oleophobic, claimed to be oil resistant and sold in a package of two. Of course, a sane mind would say no to spend RM80 for screen protector purchase at least for an unemployed graduate like me. The cheapest RM4 screen protector appears to be decent but I just thought of getting something slightly reputable like DCMUGEN for RM7 a piece (clear type) with RM3 for courier. The delivery was quick, barely took more than 1 working day.

The packaging was nice, with shiny overlay which says epik Mobile Professional Screen Guard. Pretty convincing I would say. Comes with some specification like:
Hardness - 4H
Transmission - 97% (99% test value)

Not long later I happily opened up the contents and prepared to apply the screen protector. That's when the nightmare comes! My basic requirements for a screen protector is to fit the device and to resist scratches.

Look! The plastic film didn't even fit the phone.

The screen protector did not fit because of the apex are at its wrong place. It's a flaw by design. I wonder if DCMUGEN had got real Galaxy S to try their product. According to several testimonial from my friends, the poor fitting had occurred for other models such as Nokia 5800XM too. Solution? I had to trim the corners with scissors. Utterly disappointed. I didn't have good skill with scissors to start with in the first place. My trims turn out to be not-very-pretty but it does work.

To add more disappointment, I noticed fine scratches on some part of the screen protector right after applying the screen protector. Hey! I thought it should have whatever 4H hardness? If DCMUGEN has better quality control, they should have found the scratch and rejected the product. Sadly my camera couldn't capture the scratch though.

Another fact to note: The screen protector appears to be packaged in an environment polluted with great amount of dust. I could notice dust spewing out from the packaging as I open it. The provided cloth generously gives the screen flocks of dust. If you were thinking to use the cloth to clean dust from your screen, better not.

Rather disappointed with the product, but I continued using it on my phone. Comparing it to the Gorilla glass of Galaxy S, removing fingerprints is twice harder with screen protector. Maybe that's when oleophobic screen protector would help. DCMUGEN screen protector is kinda thick and touch screen sensitivity is reduced at edge of the screen.

Apktor, Installous for Android II

2010-10-27T20:45:00.004+08:00

This blog post is a continuation of Aptoide, Installous for Android.

From the previous post, I was slightly dissatisfied with Aptoide's poor user friendly interface. Hence I have been trying another two application repository app. Tada!

The picture says a thousand words. I tried both Apktor and Appack. The reason Appack does not appear to be installed in the above screenshot, it didn't perform well when I tested it.

Appack was described to be an app manager, task killer and also Aptoide alternative to access app repositories. The interface is pretty neat, with lots of Upgrade option that does nothing at the moment. Sounds good? Not from my test. For some reason, a number of my apps swiftly quit itself after I started Appack. I believe the task manager within Appack has interfered with the apps in Galaxy S. To put salt onto wound, the app repository didn't even work for me! When I added repositories, I just get Connection Error in every search I make.

Conclusion: Did not work for me at all. Mileage may vary.

Then I finally found Apktor which I like it more than Aptoide (Appack is ridiculous to be mentioned). Lets recall on what I mentioned about the original Aptoide:

"The app is usable but no where to be user-friendly. Let me give you a scenario; You were browsing a long list of apps, you used your miserable finger to drag all the way to the 'M' section and you were curious about MSN Talk app. You clicked on it, read its description on Market and found it isn't your interest. You got back to Aptdroid and you scream WT_. Your list is back to the beginning, starting with numbers and 'A'."

Listing is being remembered by the Apktor; this is the greatest improvement I notice over the original Aptoide. Moreover it has quick scroll function to allow the user to skip to other alphabets.

While Apktor claims that repository refresh would be faster, I was not able to see great improvement over Aptoide. Again, mileage may vary. I could be having slow connection to the repository server. I am seeing this Updating screen for minutes even for refreshes, similar to Aptoide.

If you have used Aptoide, you may have experienced sluggish operation when you're scrolling through huge list of apps. On the other hand, Apktor is pretty swift with minimal lag.

Conclusion: Apktor does offer significant improvement from Aptoide. Apktor remembers listing, has lesser lag, and should potentially reduce repository refresh time. Highly recommended.

If you are an Android enthusiast and you wish to create apps, you may be interested to read Android Development Tutorial for Dummies.

Aptoide has an update that changes the perspective: http://mengsuan.blogspot.com/2010/12/aptoide-v201-installous-for-android.html

Windsurfer, DIY Wi-Fi Antenna that works

2010-10-25T21:07:00.001+08:00

My house isn't huge, but signals reaching my room are badly attenuated by walls. So coincidently I was browsing Youtube yesterday and I saw a video to make inexpensive DIY directional antenna called Windsurfer.

Antenna's template can be downloaded from www.freeantennas.com

Instead of using papers, I sourced for plastic fans lying around in my house doing nothing. Plastics are much harder to cut and also very rigid to bend but the hard work was well paid off. The result:

The hard plastic forms a near-perfect parabolic curve. Probably indestructible =P

On the back of the parabolic dish, I glued 2 layer of aluminium foil. This metal foil will converge signals into the original antenna of the access point.

Did it work? Yes. The downloadable template on website is a 9dB gain directional antenna. I enlarged the template to somewhere near the size of an A4 paper hence the gain is more than 9dB. I used my Samsung Galaxy S to measure the strength of the Wi-Fi signal before and after.

I had forgotten to capture a screenshot before using the directional antenna but the signal strength was -82dBm. This screenshot below is after using the directional antenna, adjusted to focus right in to my room. Voila~ The signal strength is now -72dBm. That's a whole lot of 10dBm gain! (Hint: The red curve labeled Texas Instruments AR7WRD is my access point while the rest are neighbour's).

Being a directional antenna, at those location where the antenna isn't pointing to, the signal dropped by about -2dBm or more. Well, that does the job. The neighbours shouldn't be getting my wireless signal anyway.

Material and cost:
2 piece of plastic from fan - Free/junk, collected during PC fair =p
Used A4 paper, some printer ink and glue - Negligible cost. The paper doesn't have to be nice. In my case, I removed the template printing after cutting
Aluminium foil - Obtained from kitchen. The entire roll is just several bucks. I probably used only 1/100 of the entire roll

Lol! Cost almost nothing but I have much consistent connection in my room right now. Couldn't be better. :)

Android Development Tutorial for Dummies

2010-10-18T22:39:00.003+08:00

When I just started Android programming, I was hunting for a tutorial which allows me to prepare a development computer. The official Android Developers website does contain the steps necessary to prepare the computer but the information in it could be vague who aren't familiar with Java programming, like me.

This step-by-step tutorial is intended to prepare a development computer, ready for your first Android app build. You will need a Windows XP/Vista/7 32-bit or 64-bit computer to follow the tutorial.

Download necessary program and SDK
To create an app, you will need an integrated development environment which you will be able to write the source code. You can use any software which you're familiar to develop your Java application, this tutorial will be using Eclipse. Android recommends the use of Eclipse 3.5 Galileo 32 bit as the latest Eclipse 3.6 may have issues with Android SDK. However, for 64 bit operating system users, Eclipse 3.6 Helios 64 bit is required. I have yet to bump into any issue by using Eclipse 3.6 so far. Even 32 bit OS user can opt to use the latest Eclipse 3.6 Helios 32 bit.

Then download Android SDK for Windows and Java Development Kit (JDK).

Installing Eclipse and integrate Android SDK & JDK
Eclipse and Android SDK actually does not requires installation. You will only need to extract the files into a directory of your preference.

JDK will however require installation. Upon downloading JDK, run the installation file and follow on-screen instructions.

When you're happy with the directories, fire up Eclipse. Use any convenient directory when asked for workspace folder and click OK. In just moments, you will see a cute welcome screen with globe, stars and bubbles (ignore those). Click Help -> Install New Software.

Click Add button. Enter Name and Location (https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/) as shown in picture above. Click OK.

Check Developer tools and press Next. Accept the terms of license agreement and follow any other on-screen instructions. Eclipse will start installing software when you click Finish. Restart Eclipse after installation.

We will now integrate Android SDK into Eclipse. After Eclipse restarted, click Window -> Preferences. Click on Android tree. Browse for the directory where you have placed Android SDK earlier in this tutorial.

Click OK.

Now you should be back to your Eclipse main screen. Click Window -> Android SDK and AVD Manager. Select Available Packages. Click the small arrow (left) Android repository link so that the repository files would be refreshed.

The bare minimum is to check at least SDK Platform. The version would depend on which Android version you intend to write for. To know more about each component, read Android Developers Component.

Click Install Selected. Eclipse will check for requirements and download the components. This process can take a long time. You may have a coffee break and come back later.

[insert your coffee break experience]

You're almost done! You will be writing your first app very soon but shouldn't we prepare an emulator to test your apps? Click Window -> Android SDK and AVD Manager. Make sure Virtual Devices is selected. Click New button.

I personally use a Samsung Galaxy S hence I created an emulator which is somewhat similar to my target device. The Built-in Skin defines the resolution of your emulated device. WVGA800 is used in most high-end devices such as HTC Desire, Nexus One and Samsung Galaxy S. When you're satisfied with the settings, click Create AVD. You can test out the Android Emulator by clicking Start on AVD Manager.

You're done with the tutorial! You can now read Java tutorials and Android Developers documentation to start your first Android application. Click File -> New -> Other -> Android -> Android Project to start your invention.

I hope this tutorial has given you proper guidance to prepare your computer for Android development. No charges for this tutorial but you can give me your app for free. Have fun! :D

Part 2: App Inventor for Android, extremely simplified app-building for dummies

Indestructible Samsung AMOLED screen

2010-10-18T16:54:00.000+08:00

Have you tried hitting your mobile phone's screen with a hammer? Samsung AMOLED is claimed to be flexible and very resistant to impacts, even from a hammer. Watch this video!

Well some said this video is superimposed (fake) but no, I'm not going to try on my Samsung Galaxy S.

Aptoide, Installous for Android

2010-10-15T00:15:00.007+08:00

Have you been looking for an equivalent application of Installous for your Android device? Look what I found! Aptoide client allows you to add software repository servers, which you will then be able to download the application listed by each repository.

The more repository you have connected to Aptoide, the longer the list of application that you have to choose from. Not that I'm condoning app piracy, but some repository do show paid application. Of course that doesn't give you good reason not to support the developer of your favourite app. Nevertheless, it is a very handy application for Android users who does not live in countries where Google Checkout supports.

The default repository in Aptoide may show less than 10 apps. To view more apps, the user will have to add their favourite repository. These repository are what I used and I think I have at least 1000-2000 apps listed since then.
http://android-es.com/repo/apk
http://market.nerman.ws
http://repo.blackdroid.net
http://server.uncabron.es/repo
http://repo2.altMarket.mobi

While several thousands of apps sounds like a long list, the fact is that Android market has a very much larger amount of apps in it. There is a great chance that you may not find your desired app through Aptroide, so don't rely on it religiously.

This is the screen which shows Aptdroid is pulling a long list of apps from repositories. Quite pitifully, Aptdroid is not a mature application yet. I waited way more than 10 minutes to get Aptdroid out of this update screen each time I wanted to refresh the list of apps.

The app is usable but no where to be user-friendly. Let me give you a scenario; You were browsing a long list of apps, you used your miserable finger to drag all the way to the 'M' section and you were curious about MSN Talk app. You clicked on it, read its description on Market and found it isn't your interest. You got back to Aptdroid and you scream WT_. Your list is back to the beginning, starting with numbers and 'A'.

Little imperfections but hey, it's a free Market substitute and you can't be complaining much! Just give it a try. Meanwhile, I will test other alternatives and make a review. Click here to jump to Aptoide's homepage

Check out Part II of this review: Apktor, Installous for Android II

Aptoide has an update that changes the perspective: http://mengsuan.blogspot.com/2010/12/aptoide-v201-installous-for-android.html

Samsung Galaxy S GT-i9000 Review

2010-09-29T19:12:00.021+08:00

Very unfortunately my HTC Touch Diamond decided to turn off itself and never wake up since the day it met with my project supervisor. Fortunate enough, I manage to get myself a Samsung Galaxy S.

So I decided to write a review for the Galaxy S that I've been with for several weeks. While human wouldn't want to admit defeat with any choices of their own, I attempt to write this review unbiased, appropriately justifying its strengths and weaknesses.

Build quality and design
The phone have traits of iPhone's minimalistic design; chrome sides and a single home button. I never missed the chance of being questioned by friends if it is an iPhone.

The material is mainly plastics which makes it the lightest phone (118g) in its class but fortunately the phone feels solid when handling it. In no way that the phone would creak or tear apart in human hands. Samsung has attempted to elevate typical perception that plastic material are cheap by embedding polka-like dots onto the back cover, creating visual depth.

Display
Galaxy S's 4-inch Super AMOLED display is the best selling point of the device. Dark blacks, high contrast ratio, vibrant colours and great outdoor visibility. When compared with iPhone 4's retina display, iPhone 4 no longer appears to be impressive except that iPhone 4 has an edge in resolution. At normal viewing distance, you would not be able to see any pixels in both the device but the pixels of iPhone 4 is never visible at any distance that you're viewing the phone.

3D games and application is not a problem for the PowerVR SGX 540 equipped beast. Lets not get into the numbers; this GPU is far more powerful than those equipped on HTC devices such as HTC Desire and Nexus One. Thanks to the fast GPU, Galaxy S is capable of DivX, AVI, MKV movie playback, probably without additional conversion from your computer. Remember the days browsing the internet on a PDA? Zooming in to contents take several seconds to render. It's a whole new world on Galaxy S. The contents just pop right away and with the large 4" display, browsing the internet is never easier.

Screen sensitivity is good on Galaxy S. The capacitive screen supports unlimited amount of touch/fingers but is designed to report 5 fingers to the software. Competing devices such as HTC Desire only have 2 finger support and the multi-touch accuracy is very poor. (search for multi-touch comparison in Youtube)

Interface and user experience
TouchWiz, the home interface or known as launcher, looks very simple compared to HTC Sense which many users prefer to use. TouchWiz does not come with the large flipping clock and animated weather that HTC devices have but comes with Samsung Widgets. Widgets are capable of retrieving social feeds, news and weather from the internet. TouchWiz appears to be a fusion between Android default interface and iPhone's menu. For those who doesn't like TouchWiz, no problem. After all, Android is well known to be customizable. Users can download 3rd party launchers such as ADWLauncher and LauncherPro at any time to meet their needs.

For some weird reason, the engineers in Samsung decided to use RFS (Robust File System) on Galaxy S. RFS resembles FAT32 file system but with journalling. The choice of using RFS causes laggy response when applications need large IO transfer. Opening application may take several seconds to complete and this characteristic is more pronounced when the device have lots of application installed. While it appear to be a serious issue, it never bothered me as I came from slower smartphones like Dopod 838 Pro and HTC Touch Diamond. Being compared to my previous PDA, Galaxy S is as smooth as butter. Moreover, I have ext2 file system being mounted as "lag fix" since the second day I bought my phone. A bunch of smart developers have found remedies to reduce the lag that RFS brings. Not very long from now, I believe there will be permanent replacement for RFS partition in the phone. It's Android, it's on Linux kernel, it has so much room for modification.

Samsung engineers made many nifty feature on the phone. For example, swiping a contact left and right makes a text or phone call to them. Swiping the notification bar changes screen brightness right away. Galaxy S also comes with pre-installed Swype keyboard in conjunction with Samsung keyboard (this looks like iPhone's) and Google IME pinyin keyboard for Chinese input. Typing on the device is never better on any other touch-screen device I have owned.

Audio
Like most of the phones in recent market, 3.5mm headphone jack is nothing more than a norm. This means the user can pair any headphone, earphone or even loudspeaker to the phone, effectively making Galaxy S a great multimedia device with its powerful GPU and large internal memory (16GB extensible with microSD).

Lets start speaking some audiophile language. For the review, I used Soundmagic PL-50 balanced armature IEM to judge its sound characteristic. Soundmagic PL-50 is known to be a very neutral sounding earphone, which is output is highly dependent on the audio source. The first impression I had, it sounded like the iPod Nano I used to have. Vocals are very good, treble is no where to be shy, bass are very clean but not punchy. The frequency response sounded very flat in the entire spectrum. Bass roll off significantly after 60Hz, hence deep bass isn't prominent. Sound-stage is very wide, widest than anything I heard before. Stereo crosstalk attenuation is even better than iPhone 4, making it a real good device for those who love wide sound-stage. The default music player has an option for virtual 5.1 surround sound. This feature further widens the sound-stage but I didn't like the excessive treble when the feature is turned on. For the sake of writing this review, I unwrapped the bundled earphone and brought it to quick test. Surprise! The bundled in-ear earphone sounds decent. Although Galaxy S does not have strong bass with the Soundmagic PL-50, the bundled earphone does have strong bass. This makes me believe that the audio capability of the phone is waiting to be unleashed from the earphone/headphone the user pairs to it.

Quick run up between Galaxy S, iPod Nano, Zune 30, Creative X-Fi Titanium PCI-E sound card. Because the audio quality is so good, I even compared it to a computer sound card.
Sound-stage: Galaxy S > iPod Nano > X-Fi Titanium > Zune 30
Vocal: X-Fi Titanium > Galaxy S > Zune 30 > iPod Nano
Bass quality: Galaxy S > X-Fi Titanium > Zune 30 > iPod Nano
Joy in music (closely related to bass punch): X-Fi Titanium > Zune 30 > Galaxy S > iPod Nano

GPS
With a crisp clear 4" screen, GPS navigation should be darn good. Note the 'should'. Sadly, GPS reception on Galaxy S is garbage. I would almost tell my friends that the device doesn't have GPS. Getting location fix is difficult. I drove from my home in Puchong to Kuala Lumpur, about 10-20KM distance. I started Papago X5 navigation software from home and all the time I was driving to town, it failed to locate the vehicle's location. After half an hour, I reached town and finally Papago show my location on the street but the signal intermittently breaks up. During the time it manage to show my location, the accuracy is very poor. At any random time, my car will be appearing driving through houses and over the rivers.

Samsung has acknowledged the problem with GPS but has not released official fix to the international Galaxy S variant. Only Samsung Captivate has got a temporary fix, which isn't perfect anyway. Although the files can be copied into Galaxy S but I would prefer to wait for Samsung's official fix.

Battery life
Battery life is awesome! I have animated wallpaper, Facebook and Twitter retrieving updates and feeds every 30 minutes, Hotmail sync every 1 hour, WhatsApp push messaging always available. By end of the day, I usually have 70% to 85% of remaining power. By any chance I have lots of SMS and phone call, the lowest I ever had is 60% after a day.

Wi-Fi
Connects very well to unsecured connections as well as WEP, WPA, WPA2 AES, WPA2 TKIP+AES encrypted networks. Signal strength is no where comparable to a computer but is more consistent than my HTC Touch Diamond. No disconnection anywhere in my not-very-big house =P

Conclusion
Hardware: Near perfection. No other devices can substitute the undisputed Galaxy S at this point of writing.

Software: Neat but requires lots of improvement on RFS file system and GPS. Home-developers are fixing RFS but Samsung needs to attend to GPS issue.

Who should buy: Technology enthusiasts who loves customizing, exploring and modifying. People who appreciates the large vibrant screen and great multimedia capability.

Get on track for Blog

2010-09-24T21:01:00.003+08:00

Last update on my blog was many months ago. The final semester of my degree has been unconvincingly hectic. Assignments, final year project and exam, each taking turn to occupy my time. Fortunately those days are already gone BUT I find the change too drastic. Somewhat demoralizing when a busy person feels unmotivated because there's no longer short term objectives to perform. Oh well, my blog can occupy my time again.

Lets sum up the events in the recent months:
1. Extremely busy
2. Unpleasant experience with final year project supervisor
3. The day which I am very unhappy with the supervisor, my HTC Touch Diamond mysteriously shut down
4. HTC Touch Diamond announced dead. Bought Samsung Galaxy S to replace it :D *yay!*
5. Bought a Logitech Momo Racing wheel for my holiday! Racing everyday is a routine :)

With hopes, I will post about the cool gadgets I've just bought :P

WARNING: Facebook Zero NOT Free

2010-06-08T19:27:00.004+08:00

On my previous blog post promoting DiGi's Facebook Zero service which allows user to access slip-streamed Facebook on their DiGi mobile phone for free. Many users had enjoyable experience but not for me.

My prepaid account have been charged 10 cents each time I make a connection to http://0.facebook.com. Upon just fair usage in a day, I have been charged up to 60 cents easily. Honestly, I don't really care about this small amount of charges but I couldn't resist to get DiGi to rectify on this matter.

On the weekend, I took some time to speak to DiGi consultant over D'Chat. They were slightly insistent that Facebook Zero is free unless I've opened friend's photos and other external link, which I became more insistent that I have not. DiGi customer service responded to me today which can be concluded in this way:
1. RM0.60 that was charged on 1st June 2010 would be credited back to my account in 3 working days (I really don't care about this RM0.60)
2. I asked "what is the reason for this error?" Answer: We (DiGi) are not sure but our tests show that Facebook Zero is free to access
3. I asked "will this still occur in the future?" Answer: Maybe

Having no conclusions to the reason of getting charged, I accessed Facebook Zero later in the evening and I got charged RM0.10 again. Again, lets see how DiGi's billing team will be able to track the issue.

Update:
DiGi returned my call and insisted that Facebook Zero is free as long as no images or external link is displayed. My small amount of credit is not expected to be refunded. After that I insisted that their system is erroneous, DiGi advised to visit DiGi Center to allow them to validate.

DiGi can surf Facebook for free!

2010-06-01T17:57:00.002+08:00

Facebook launched Facebook Zero, a slimmed down web which has text-only, available for free to mobile phone carriers. Consequently, if you visit http://zero.facebook.com on your DiGi mobile phone, there will be no charges for the data connection. However, photos will not be appearing until you click on the external link, which incur data charges.

With Facebook being text-only, it felt similar to Twitter. Nevertheless, it does allow many of us to stay connected within Facebook when you're on the go. Especially important for those whose life is within Facebook =p Lets hope that other mobile operator such as Maxis would be offering free connection to Facebook Zero too.

Dubai Fountain

2010-04-28T22:00:00.003+08:00

Remember the hype from the tourist that we get when Petronas Twin Towers was built? Our Petronas Twin Towers is getting a little plain after a decade of existence. Almost every tourist have seen it, Malaysians are bored with it. Shouldn't it be time we have something like this within KL, best within KLCC?

The Dubai Fountain costed USD218mil to build. Sounds to be a lot of money for us to make a similar fountain but it wouldn't be to expensive to match with our Petronas Twin Tower which costed USD1600mil. Moreover our KLCC pool area isn't that big in the first place, we could have something of smaller scale.

iPad hands on

2010-04-25T20:58:00.004+08:00

I've been able to get hold of ianho's iPad from yesterday's LYN gathering.

No technical review as I cannot be wrecking up other's iPad but as you all can see from my expression, iPad is just gorgeous! =D Before I met the iPad personally, I thought iPad was an overhyped product. "It's just a magnified iPod Touch" I thought. Not until...

The weight is just nice. Not too heavy for me to hold single-handedly for some time. No heat up on any part of the iPad, no sweaty palms. The screen is the greatest part of the iPad. Resolution is fantastic for a small device. Photos viewed on it appears sharper than my netbook, laptop and even desktop HD screen. Colours are amazingly vivid too. The large screen size works so well for games as well as internet browsing. As all other Apple products, the interface is simply smooth, no sign of delay between gestures.

I would just love to get one (if I have the cash). Friends, go get one!

PIKOM PC Fair 2010 (I) Saturday

2010-04-17T18:40:00.002+08:00

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PIKOM PC Fair 2010 (I)

2010-04-17T00:31:00.002+08:00

PC Fair 2010 is here! Time to deliver some photos! The photos are accessible in HD format by clicking on them.

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HP Mini 210: Streamyx Cool Uni Pack

2010-03-23T09:52:00.003+08:00

Remember the Streamyx Cool Uni Pack blog post I made on 13th January this year? Upon failing to apply for the broadband package at a nearby TM point, I went to Serdang TMpoint.

Contrary to Puchong TMpoint, I only needed
1. University official stamp and signature
2. Student ID
3. Identity card
4. Telephone owner's IC
5. Streamyx owner's termination form and letter
and so I made the application on 27th January 2010 after several visits to submit all the documentation

The complication comes when the Streamyx was not mine and I have to produce more documentation and letters to terminate existing broadband. Termination of the broadband will result in quarantine period, of which I will not be able to apply any broadband on the same phone number for 30 days. I was promised that the TMpoint will be sending an email to TM to request for quarantine exemption.

Sadly, I was not able to escape from 30 day quarantine and so I waited till early March for the technician to install the broadband modem (single port wireless Innacomm W3100).

The application was a painfully slow process which I have to regularly visit TMpoint. The scenarios are such as:
1. obtaining application form
2. returning to TMpoint with university stamp and signature
3. application rejected as streamyx owner ain't myself
4. submitting termination form
5. submitting owner's termination authorization letter
6. returning to TMpoint as there isn't any news for 2 weeks (was then told that I have to be quarantined)
7. returning to TMpoint after 30+ days because TMpoint isn't automatically subscribing me after quarantine period
I've definitely been to TMpoint >10 times for other issues too.

While being relieved when the technician came to install the broadband, complications occurred again for the HP netbook. Most subscribers will receive an order confirmation email from HP within 2 days after installation. Mine was an exception, not a single response from HP after 2 weeks.

Calls were made to TM helpline, they informed me that the responsibility of the netbook lies on HP and they are not able to assist me (or even check the status). So I dug HP Malaysia's number and I called. HP blamed TM for not approving the order and HP cannot assist me in any way unless TM makes the confirmation. What and what not, I made countless calls (one whole day for calling, mind you) to both TM and HP in an attempt to collaborate both of them to deliver my netbook. The hard work did not return good fruits, but I was fortunate to be heard by someone in Lowyat.Net forum and he made things work. Thanks to him, who prefers to be anonymous.

After almost 2 months of struggle, I finally got the netbook on my doorsteps at 8am today.

Nice and sleek, isn't it? It felt like Christmas.

Yay! :D

Helicopter restored FOC

2010-03-03T18:37:00.004+08:00

I have sent my RC helicopter for repair on Saturday and have been waiting for the shop to phone me for collection. I was expecting a phone call from them on Tuesday but there isn't any. I couldn't wait any longer and I drove to KL for collection.

Great news, the helicopter is restored, ready for collection. The restored parts are rotor, motor and shaft. The greater news is, the entire repair is done free of charge. The boss says it's a gift for me. :D

On the side note, the front page of several major newspaper had a shocking news about RC hobby. A man was killed by a RC plane in a Puchong flying site, just a mile away from my house. The RC plane was expected to be speeding at max throttle of about 200km/h and struck the man's head, causing massive bleeding. A shocking and unfortunate news. The moral of the story: RC plane/helicopter is not a toy. Precaution necessary.

DiGi iPhone is coming to town!

2010-03-01T21:12:00.004+08:00

DiGi will also be bringing iPhone 3Gs for Malaysia's consumption. This shocking news would definitely knock on Maxis's expensive iPhone plans. If you're about to get an iPhone from Maxis, you might want to hold on first. =P

1. When will the iPhone be available?
The iPhone from DiGi will be launched within the first half of 2010.

2. What are the packages offered?
These will be revealed after the launch date has been announced.

3. Where will the launch date be announced?
It will be announced in selected major newspapers and broadcast media.

4. Who's eligible to get the iPhone from DiGi?
Full details, including the packages and offers will be announced after the launch.

5. I am an existing DiGi customer, can I purchase an iPhone with my current rate plan?
We'll let you know after the launch.

6. Will there be any special packages for corporate customers (DiGi Business)?
DiGi will provide attractive offers for all qualifying corporate customers after the official launch date is announced.

7. I already have an iPhone, when can I switch to DiGi?
If you already have an iPhone, you can switch to any of DiGi's existing Postpaid / Prepaid rate plans. More details here.

8. I have purchased my iPhone from another operator, can I obtain support for warranty /servicing/replacements, if I switch to DiGi?
Your iPhone warranty is tied to the operator that you purchased the device from. DiGi will not provide support for warranty / servicing / replacements for devices purchased from other operators/countries.

9. Can I pre-order the iPhone today?
Pre-orders / advanced booking will be announced soon. Please check www.digi.com.my/iphone for the latest announcements.

Helicopter totalled: Vroom vroom biak!!!

2010-02-27T20:03:00.003+08:00

This is my 6th day after buying my RC helicopter. In the previous 5 days, I learned a lot and I've got to manoeuvre my helicopter properly without inflicting serious crash any more. Very unfortunately when I tried to fly it today, it started spinning as if the gyro couldn't compensate any unwanted drifts and the helicopter won't fly any higher than a feet.

I guess something (motor or gyro or battery) is just dead in my 5 days of serious training. I've just sent the helicopter for repair and the helicopter's repair status is expected to be known on Tuesday.

I love flying RC helicopter but it seems that the cost to maintain one is fairly high. Assuming the helicopter is totalled, RM155/5=RM31 per day to train myself to fly. It's more expensive to maintain than my DSLR. Lol...

Windows Mobile BSOD

2010-02-27T01:54:00.003+08:00

We were all familiar with Windows's infamous BSOD, the blue screen of death. Windows Mobile PDA has BSOD too, but it is BLACK screen of death. I have been cooking ROMs for HTC Touch Diamond recently and I've stumbled upon WM BSOD twice, on my own stable release ROM. Reason is still unknown. I guess I'm not good enough to cook my own ROM.

"The device is unable to boot because either you have turned off the device incorrectly or tried to install an application from untrusted source, Press SEND to reset your device or press any other button to cancel, This operation will delete all your personal data and restore the device to its factory default settings"

My first traffic summon

2010-02-25T22:46:00.002+08:00

Historical day it is. Upon obtaining my driver license for almost 4 years, I've got my very first traffic summon.

Warning: Do not park at motorcyclist parking even if you're at jungle aka Nilai.

Just a lunch at McD and the summon was promptly placed onto my car. :(

Bought a helicopter! Vroom vroom

2010-02-21T19:29:00.002+08:00

I had Meng Suan Road. Can I have helicopters and private jet? Not so soon; I'll just get myself something smaller which I can easily park it on my table. =P

Getting a remote-controlled car was my dream when I was in primary school. Perhaps it was a dream shared by many kids of that age. I never had the chance to buy myself a RC car, but I happen to stumble across a RC product booth in Sungei Wang today. So I bought one RC helicopter home for RM155 to satisfy my dream of owning a RC car.

Syma S032

The helicopter flies very well upon a good pilot. At least that was the case when the staff demonstrated to me. It wasn't really the case when I brought it home. I had to say that controlling a RC helicopter is the hardest among all RC vehicle I've ever experienced. I crashed into wall, chair, table, myself and a lot more. I thought I wouldn't crash into anything if I take it to an open land. I drove out, eagerly flew the helicopter, it flew very high, a strong wind came, my helicopter goes far away from me and got chunked into the ground. Lol.. By the time I became very proficient in flying this RC helicopter, I guess I would have broke something of it. Let's just see if I can master the RC helicopter one day. :D

I have my own road: Meng Suan Road

2010-01-26T22:10:00.004+08:00

Fact: Did you know that there is a road named after Meng Suan in Singapore?

Information that I found of Meng Suan Road:
Meng Suan Road is one of the few remaining residential enclaves that still retains its old world charm and tranquility. It is indeed rare to find an area in Singapore where you can live amongst a verdant landscape with towering 50-year-old Angsana trees & post-war black & white houses.

I knew about Meng Suan Road several years ago when I was googling for myself (who didn't, right?) =P

A friend of mine, HeheHunter, went to Singapore and while he was travelling to Singapore Zoo on MRT 138, he managed to grab several shots of Meng Suan Road. Thanks for the great pics, I never knew how 'my' road looked like.

Creative PCI-E X-Fi Titanium

2010-01-23T18:01:00.003+08:00

I have always got random itch for everything. Just several days ago when I was wondering what can I get to pimp up my i7 desktop, I got myself a Creative PCI-E X-Fi Titanium sound card.

Reason of purchase: There was lots of hype of sound card being much better than onboard sound chip. I just have to try it myself. =p

Physical impression once I got the card: The X-Fi label on the card looks nice but the capacitors look inexpensive

Sonic impression:
1. Much less noise than onboard Realtek ALC889. My ALC889 tends to pick up EM interference from the system fans. X-Fi Titanium practically produces no noise even if the speaker volume is maximally amplified.
2. Very loud! I got thrown back when I first tried playing a song. I just have to turn down the speaker volume more than before.

Further sonic analysis:
1. Not much of sound signature difference compared to onboard sound until I turn on X-Fi crystalizer.
2. Better bass quality.
3. Improved positional audio in games (COD:MW2 and L4D). Noticeable increase of fidelity in games.

Happy with it?: Yes

=)

Streamyx Cool Uni Pack

2010-01-13T16:32:00.000+08:00

Free netbook (hint: HP mini 210)! Free Streamyx Zone account! Unlimited streamyx broadband! Free wi-fi modem! Free music subscription for 1 year! All for RM50 a month!
Addition: 50% discount on first month's bill, free netbook delivery to your doorsteps

This sounded like the greatest deal ever, for any ISP to offer. The requirements appear to be simple. The applicant must be a local university or university college student. The qualified list of university and colleges is long; INTI University College beautifully falls into the list of eligible education institution. It feels orgasmic. Seriously, who wouldn't want streamyx for RM50 a month plus free netbook?

With the greatest hope and joy, I bounced into a TM Point in Puchong. I grabbed the application form. Yay! I'm one step closer to meet my new free netbook! The first young lady had really convinced me that registering for this broadband subscription is effortless.
Me: Hi, I want to subscribe the Cool Uni pack. You know, the new package that gives free netbook?
Her: Take this application form, fill it up and then proceed to the counters
Me: Oh, that's all? Can I upgrade to this package from my existing streamyx account?
Her: Not sure. Can you ask the other receptionist?

*lalala, I walked to the other receptionist*
Me: Hi, *shows her the brochure*, I want to register for this package but I already have streamyx account. Can I upgrade and what are the documents I need to provide?
Her: Wait *walks into the office*
-after 3 minute-
Her: This package is only applicable to new applicants. If you want to change to this package, you will have to terminate your current account, wait for 1 month, then reapply.
*nooo! 1 month without internet is suicidal*
Me: Ooo...
Her: Why you want to change? This is the same package as what you're using currently
Me: No, I want the free netbook
Her: This is not the flyer. The flyer for Cool Uni package is not ready
*what? I was wasting my time since the first receptionist gave me wrong brochure*
Me: Errk... Then how about the Cool Uni package?
*she walks into the office again*
Her: Also for new applicants only. You need to provide: student ID, certification from uni that you're still a student, admission letter from uni and certification that family income is less than RM3000
Me: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........ Kthnxbye!

Conclusion:
1 month without streamyx: OK. I can find alternatives
Student ID: OK
Admission Letter: OK
Certification from uni: OK
Income certification: where? how? what? RM3000?

Where the heck is the financial requirement being stated in Streamyx Cool Uni Pack Official Website?

Bubbles of sweet dreams burst.

I Drift using Proton Wira

2010-01-11T21:32:00.005+08:00

Drifting is just a way to describe losing control in a cooler way. I have driven for 3 years and I have never driven into anything unexpected, until today.

Weather: Rainy
Road: 2-lane rural road that I use daily to return home from college
Car: Proton Wira 1.5A
Turbo: No =p
Speed: ~60-70km/h
Typical speed for the path: 80-90km/h
Occurrence: Never

Illustration of the skid:

Before the skid occured: Calmly driving, taking the slight left turn smoothly
1 second after moving the steering: Car unexpectedly drifting to the right
Countermeasure: Turn the wheel more to the left
Consequences: Skidding starts. Tyres screeching. Approaching to the left shoulder of road
Re-countermeasure: Turn hard to the right
Consequences: Car spin! Wheel locked. Steering feels non-responding
Countermeasure: Sit and watch the road spin
Risks: Chances of hitting lamp poles and road dividers
Final output: Skidded for about 20m, front bumpers touched down on road dividers. Minor scratch. Car in opposite direction of traffic

Emotion during the skid: Nothing, felt like Need For Speed game
Emotion after the sid: Started to think of family, the people I love, friends, computer, internet =D

No casualties. Thank God.

DiGi has EDGE.. oops.. it's 3.5G!!!

2010-01-04T01:49:00.004+08:00

Many years ago, so long ago that I almost forgotten when I was longing for DiGi to roll out 3G services to their fellow customers so that I could try video call on my first 3G-enabled phone, a Nokia 6680. With utmost disappointment, DiGi failed to tender for 3G spectrum license somewhere in the year 2005/6, losing its bid to Time dotCom and MiTV. *cough* MiTV is no where to be seen now *cough*

Upon losing the spectrum bid, DiGi's CEO Morten Lundal told reporters that broadband in Malaysia is not important for the next three to four years. Now that we have just stepped into year 2010, exactly 4 years from year 2006. DiGi has finally rolled out 3G/3.5G services to its mobile subscribers upon request.

Obtaining steady HSDPA signal - Yes
Making video calls successfully -Yes
Connecting to the internet via HSDPA - Yes

Thanks to DiGi Campus plan, I am able to make video calls for 15c per minute, unlimited video call to DiGi subscribers after RM2 usage in a day and also unlimited internet usage for RM30 a month. I sense satisfaction in terms of pricing after being DiGi subscriber for 8 consecutive years. Yellow man, I am keen to see WiMAX too, which you have also given hopes since year 2006.

PIKOM PC Fair 2009 (III) -Continued 2

2009-12-08T12:40:00.001+08:00

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For high resolution images or to view more images, please visit my Flickr Photostream. Alternatively, visit my Lowyat.Net photobox

PIKOM PC Fair 2009 (III) -Continued

2009-12-07T01:15:00.002+08:00

I went to PC Fair again on Sunday.

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For high resolution images, please visit my Flickr Photostream. Alternatively, visit my Lowyat.Net photobox

PIKOM PC Fair 2009 (III)

2009-12-05T01:10:00.006+08:00

Some quickie on PIKOM PC Fair 2009 (III)

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Dell: Is it Christmas or April's Fool?

2009-12-01T21:26:00.004+08:00

I had to LOL at Dell today. Earlier this year in June, Dell Taiwan made a mistake to sell E1909W, a 19" widescreen monitor at USD15. 8 hours after the great deal was put online, Dell realises the overwhelming orders and put the sale to stop. This error cost Dell to lose USD19 million in the short 8 hour sale as Taiwan's Consumer Protection ordered Dell to honour those monitors at USD 15 each.

Dell Malaysia made a similar mistake today. 64GB SATA SSD drives are offered at a price of RM17 (USD 5). The description was illogical but I joined the fun of ordering ten units of 64GB SSD and five units of 32GB SSD and these drives sum up to RM255 only. I was never in such a shopping spree.

Image from Lowyat.Net

My orders appears to be successful and I also received order acknowledgement mail from Dell. While I do know about Dell's fine print in its pages, I'm still in my misty dream where I set up these sparking new SSDs in RAID configuration on my i7 computer.

At the point of writing, Dell has put down the SSD sale and something similar is up for sale. The great RM17 64GB SSD that Dell sold several hours ago is probably worth RM1089. Again, note the description that Dell has placed for this SSD. It SPINS at 7200RPM! I LOLed again.

The Dell joke hasn't ended. With a little more searches, I found a 50GB SSD from Dell. Theoretically, this 50GB SSD should be cheaper than the 64GB SSD but it costs a ridiculous RM17417. Of course, it spins too!

I'm 21!

2009-11-03T11:47:00.002+08:00

Just shortly after losing me teenager status (19->20), today I'm gonna turn into 21; an adult! Oh gosh, I don't really like the idea of birthday which makes me count myself getting older.

I have no clear plans of how to celebrate my birthday yet. Probably just a dinner with parents. I'm getting a lot of messages over facebook, SMS and a couple of phone calls wishing me birthday. Thanks for all the wishes and I am glad that I am surrounded with good friends.

Can Microsoft Zune and Apple iPod be friends?

2009-10-18T20:45:00.007+08:00

If you call me slowpoke, you got to call everyone slowpoke too. Zune isn't entirely new, but since Zune are only marketed in US and Canada, most of us never knew about Zune.

Zune is a music player produced by Microsoft. As of today, there are already 7 models of Zune; Zune 4/8/16/30/80/120/HD. The numbers are straight forward, it signifies the capacity of the player. Small capacity players like Zune 4/8/16 are flash based where as Zune 30/80/120 are hard disk based. Zune HD has up to 32GB in capacity, but is a flash based player.

I have recently got a Zune 30 in my hands and I decided to write up a comparison with my iPod experience. Zune 30 may have been regarded as an 'old' model from Zune but I believe the quality of Zune is brought forward to all newer models. This review is written based on Zune 4.0 software and Zune 3.20 firmware released on 15th September 2009.

Let's have a quick look of my Zune 30 and iPod nano 3rd gen.

The Zune's physical size may be a downside when compared to the nifty iPod nano. The iPod nano is flash based player which I can operate while jogging but the Zune is a shock-phobia piece of device despite its macho look. The iPod nano has a well renowned proprietary click-wheel which lets the user quickly scroll to make a selection. Zune 30 has only a directional button pad, which does not provide precise control of the scrolling speed. No big deal, it just takes a while to be familiar with Zune's scrolling speed. Newer Zune has touch sensitive directional pad though.

iPod's iTunes store is a well established software with a library of over 10 million songs to puchase. Zune Marketplace isn't that bad, it has more than 5 million songs. Finding the latest pop song shouldn't be a problem for either online store. If you wonder if you can inter-operate iTunes and Zune software, yes you can. Most of the songs in iTunes are DRM-free. I can easily bring my purchased iTunes store songs to Zune. Album art and ID3 tags from iTunes work brilliantly on Zune software. iTunes sells a single music track from USD0.99 to 1.99; Zune Marketplace work slightly different. Wondered how Zune users can utilize a 120GB Zune? Users purchase monthly Zune Pass for USD14.99 and the user is entitled to download unlimited DRM music (which will expire in a month if subscription is not continued). 10 DRM-free MP3 tracks are awarded to the user every month and will never expire. With 5 million songs available in Zune Marketplace, you would have wished for 1TB Zune. =p

Many have seen and used iTunes 9; there isn't much to brag about. Zune 4.0 software isn't the boring spreadsheet or album flow view. When a track is played, Zune 4.0 downloads relevant artist's photo and biography, which will be automatically made into animated presentation while you sit back enjoying the music. The Zune 4.0 can be a little tricky for new users to cope with as compared with iTunes 9 but again, it doesn't take longer than a while to learn.

Sound quality can be a very subjective aspect. Generally, Zune produces noticeably warmer sound. The attack is very prominent and soundstage is wider with my Bose in-ear. Cut the jargon language, I find Zune marginally better than iPod in terms of sound reproduction.

If you are getting bored with your music collection, a Zune can continue to entertain you with its built in FM radio with RDS support. If the current broadcasted song has RDS information, you can buy the song immediately on Zune Marketplace. That's when the Wi-Fi feature comes handy in Zune. Besides purchasing songs while listening to FM radio, you can also use the Wi-Fi to send files and transmit messages to another Zune, join a multiplayer Zune game, wirelessly synchronize your Zune to the computer and also browse for the latest music in Zune Marketplace.

Features aside, one of the LARGEST difference between Zune and iPod is the built quality. Not that an iPod is extremely fragile, but the chrome back of my iPod nano seems to scratch itself as the wind blows by. Being able to keep an iPod unscratched without funky silicon case or lamination throughout its lifetime deserves a Guinness World Record. Zune does not scratch easily; in fact it's a challenge to scratch a Zune. The material used on Zune 30 is silicon-like material which explains why silicon case are not popular among Zune users.

A Zune seems to be designed for years of service life but non-US users are troubled with issues. The difficulty to purchase a Zune in Malaysia is already an issue. If the player happens to stop functioning or even if the owner misplaced the docking cable, there's literally no shop or distributor or repair center or telephone support to give you assistance. Although Apple retailers sells overpriced accessories and offers repair services for a premium price, it does feel better than none. Microsoft, please sell your Zune worldwide.

I wouldn't claim that Zune is better than iPod, but it's rather a personal preference. I seem to enjoy Zune slightly more than iPod. At a second thought, can't they be friends and co-exist? They definitely can, especially with the increasing amount of DRM-free music available from each online store. Sharing music between both music players is never more difficult than a drag-and-drop.

HTC Touch Overclocking

2009-09-13T12:13:00.003+08:00

As an engineer, I'm always fond of breaking open things, hacking devices firmware and overclocking any computers to the absolute limit. Never that we thought of overclocking a new PDA like HTC Touch Diamond or Touch Pro, we can almost do that right now.

nueROM is a developer that says "unleashing the (innate) power of your Windows Mobile device. Any PDA user could have been using their programs already. The popular ones are such as nueDynamicClock (auto throttling program) and nueNullKB. In an random thought of the developer, he has found a way to overclock his HTC Touch Pro to 768MHz.

The benchmark results is amazing. A default clocked (528MHz) Touch Diamond and Touch HD does about 330 points. A 624MHz Samsung Omnia does only 304. While HTC devices is already leading at default clocks, a 768MHz clock boosts the score to 456.41.

This discovery should have brought lots of smiling faces to Qualcomm MSM72xx processor PDA users. Smoother graphics rendering and faster response without purchasing a new hardware! While it sounds promising, not every tester made it to 768MHz successfully. Some had lockups, some restarted. Nevertheless, it's still a good news that all would gladly welcome. The installation file can be obtained in nueROM's web page: nueOverClockTest

First Day @ Accenture

2009-09-01T20:15:00.003+08:00

OMGOMGOMG! It's the first day of my industrial training. I didn't sleep very well and I woke up at 5am. A bit tired but all excited, I pounced out of the bed and happily drive myself to Accenture office to attend orientation and to collect a laptop for work. Traffic was bad, it took me about 1 hour and 20 minutes to get into KLCC parking. I am glad that I am not assigned at KLCC but Menara Annexe 2 beside Menara TM instead. At least the jam would be better outside the city.

Getting all the way to level 66 is quite a lot of fun. The KLCC lift can be extremely fast. It gets into turbo mode when the screen shows XX floor. xD The view is great at Accenture office.

A globe in Accenture office

The actual workplace@Menara Annexe 2; YeeLer @ work as engineering intern:

My place was on the laptop beside YeeLer's. :D

Dropped and gained; lost and won!

2009-08-31T18:19:00.005+08:00

I have dropped my HTC Diamond battery without noticing on the ground numerous time but there was always someone picking it up for me. Lucky things don't occur for too many times. I dropped my battery somewhere when shopping and I did not notice until the next day. >.<

The battery was dropped, something should be gained. I usually do not have faith on lucky draw; this was somewhat ironic. Somewhere around several months ago, I was looking for all the parts for my current computer. As I recall, there was
a lucky draw and I simply entered the draw. While having this lucky draw totally forgotten, I received a message notifying that I am one of the six winner. :D

I haven't got the time to test the power supply on my computer but it appear promising. Well, life isn't that bad right? Little lucky draws like these build confidence in the game of luck. =P

I will be starting my industrial training tomorrow. I will have to drive to KLCC for the first time, all alone. Lets wish that it would be a pleasing experience. :D

PIKOM PC FAIR 2009 (II)

2009-08-02T23:15:00.003+08:00

This PC fair is a maniac. It has been very long since I've seen so much of a crowd in PC fair. Somehow every man's shopping desire is unleashed during the weekend. I did not have anything in mind but I just love shopping around and to try all the new interesting gadgets. I went PC fair for 2 days but bought only one inexpensive item for my ipod - the Agent18 casing

My large hand vs the nano
The built was fine and neat, fits very well and I can dock/charge without removing it.

I have not been shooting for very long. I couldn't get used to carry my 2KG camera anymore. Holding the camera for 2 days literally made my arm paralyzed. Lol.. I took very little photos this PC fair, very very little. Poorer quality too as I am not in the mood right before my finals next week.

Redeem your free RM100 Google Adwords coupon!

2009-07-28T23:59:00.004+08:00

No, it's not Christmas. Google recently offered me a RM100 Adwords coupon that can be used on any fresh account aged 14 days or younger. The coupon has to be activated by 31st July and I have no plans to use it. Anyone who has a good site or a good reason will get the coupon code from me, free of charge (well, I don't mind a treat). Just leave a comment or contact me by WLM (if you know my MSN address).

4 great benefits of Google AdWords

* Reach a massive worldwide audience: Google's advertising network reaches more than 73%* of Internet users in Asia Pacific

* Only pay for results: Your ads appear for free, and you only pay when interested users click on your ads and go to your website

* Control your advertising costs: There's no minimum spending requirement, and you can change your daily budget at any time

* Set up your advertising in minutes: Create your ads online and start advertising in as little as 15 minutes

A day with PM2

2009-07-20T00:10:00.002+08:00

Sweet memories always linger around in my mind. Those were the days when I am still doing A-Levels in Taylor's University College. So quickly that I am already in the final semester of year 2 and most of them are studying thousands of miles away.

It's summer break, like usual, time for a reunion. While it's not possible for everyone to gather at the same time, we have got 11 old friends to eat out in Midvalley today.

All of them, except me, are either already studying in UK/Au or they are setting off to leave soon. Feels emotionally disturbed to be alone. Lol..

We had japanese food for main course; lots of sushi, steamboat with beef, unagi, and more unagi.

Then, we had this large bowl of pancake+ice-cream+banana for desert in Paddington House of Pancakes for RM65.

Feels really heavenly in the beginning. As we finish off the ice-cream and when we were left with only pancakes; ewww. It leaves a bitter after-taste.

For more photos: Facebook album

All the best to my PM2 friends. I will always love you people.

Imageshack hacked

2009-07-11T13:29:00.002+08:00

Most of the images in my blog are hosted by imageshack and flickr. Earlier today, imageshack was hacked and most (if not all) images are modified to display this:

Fortunately every modification is reverted quickly enough. I couldn't imagine if the content is permanently modified and my blog will look crippled. Haha...

Mac+Ipod Discovery Week (Last Day)

2009-07-05T13:23:00.003+08:00

I failed to get myself the Ipod Nano miserably yesterday. I believe in the phrase "as long as there is a will, there is a way". I woke up 5 in the morning today, reached Midvalley at 6am. There was already a few camping at the counter.

Waiting for about 4 hours in wee hours is definitely a new experience. Thankfully, I got to know some of those who were waiting and our chit chatting burned time gracefully.

At 10am, I got my queue number!

After some further waiting till about 11am, the sales system boots up and tada!!!

Like everyday, there will be people arguing that they should get the Ipod. The stock ran short of one before everyone collected their Ipod. Not sure how the conflict is solved; there were none left in machines, moreover 9 units was pre-dispatched earlier on due to previous conflict and argument.

I got myself a DLO HipCase leather pouch that the staffs recommended to protect the Nano. Couldn't wait to charge up the Ipod Nano to try. A big thanks to my parents who waited all along with me :D

Mac+Ipod Discovery Week

2009-07-04T14:27:00.003+08:00

From 1st July till 5th July, there will be Mac+Ipod discovery week. Apple desktop, laptop, music equipment, Leica photography equipment and ipods are displayed at the centre court of Midvalley.

The early bird promotion is definitely a killer. Today, I woke up at 7am, went to Midvalley before lights are up. At first glance, the booths were empty. Alas, to my surprise, there was a loooong queue at the purchasing counter. Crap.

There were many more people in the front (out of line of sight) and several behind me. Knowing that I am definitely not the first 30, Joseph and I continued to queue the line, hoping for miracles. LOL.. Approaching 9.30AM, the staffs gave queue number, and obviously I didn't get any (I am about the 60th instead xD). Some were dissatisfied, claiming unfair practice was done by some people. Finally, those who were near the 30s were compensated with queue numbers which allow then to buy the Ipod Nano for half price.

I, end up empty handed. :(

Engineer+Doctor+Lawyer+Pilot

2009-07-01T18:56:00.001+08:00

Now, who says I can't be all of them? I did it today. LOL

Stop that MSN virus!

2009-06-19T21:21:00.004+08:00

Never in my life that I am in a bad situation where I have to block my Windows Live Messenger/MSN contacts. I thought it would always be better to deal directly to the person rather than being ignorant.

Alas, I had to block 3 person in my contact list. It's not that we got into a grudge for girlfriends or money, their WLM account is sending annoying yet hazardous messages to me every few minutes. It has been months to years their account is compromised but they did not seem to notice any change. People, when someone tells you about your account being compromised, PLEASE do something about it. Your ignorance will not only be annoying but causing risk to others who may have clicked on your messages.

There are many variants of such virus but its propagation is pretty similar. The older variants send files all over the contacts. Can be named with .zip, .rar, .jpg or any file type. These file are usually small, in the range of few KB to 20KB size. Usually phrased with catchy words like "Hey, view my private photo!" or "Check out my new party pics!" or any other lame phrases including "Check out my XXX pictures". Please CHECK with the person for confirmation before accepting the file blindly.

The more recent method of propagation are HTTP link oriented. Similar lame phrases as above, including messages related to slimming pills, Viagra etc. Those links may look very real; for example http://photogbase.com/pictures.php/mengsuan. The virus are capable of intelligently adding names of yours or the sender. Again, do not open links or files when you're not expecting to receive any. Don't be a busybody.

If you have been infected, first thing to do is to try changing password. Some links are able to capture your password when you click on those malicious links. If it fails, you have no choice but to use Antivirus software, specific virus removal tools. For even more advanced users, the combination of Hijackthis and advanced virus removal tool such as Combofix may be used.

There wasn't many user friendly methods to remove WLM viruses that resides in your computer until a Messenger Plus! Live script came around. This script, named WLM Safe, requires Plus! plug in to be installed before you can use the script.

Link: http://www.msgpluslive.net/scripts/view/505-WLM-Safe/
Main Functions:
- Anti-Virus: detects and blocks infected links sent by virus in conversation windows.
- Anti-Phishing: detects and blocks phishing links sent by virus in conversation windows.
- Anti-Spam: blocks annoying spam messages sent by your contacts.
- Anti-Flood: detects flood attacks and block the authors.
- Anti-Freeze: block messages that make old messenger's versions crash.
- Anti-Copy: notifies you if one of your Messenger's contacts copy your Nickname.
- Anti-Bot: notifies you if you're chatting with a Bot.
- Anti-Hackers: notifies you if you're chatting with an Unsafe contact.

New Version Includes:
Threats Registry - Optional, logs all threats received.
Play Sounds - Optional, play sounds on popup notifications.
Process Registry - Detects infected running processes on computer.
Reduce Memory - Reduces ram memory used by Messenger.
Cache Cleaner - Deletes unuseful Messenger's temporary files.

I wish everyone a better WLM-ing experience.

Motherboard and GC Production

2009-06-11T19:19:00.002+08:00

Ever wondered how your computer motherboard and graphics card are made from an empty board till they get into boxes selling on shelves? Also wondered what you are paying for a few hundred to thousands of ringgit for motherboard and GC? I have been into factories which makes MP3, MP4, mobile phone and sound card. Although the production is being impressive, it is not as glamorous as motherboard production which uses much larger machines. There is a new article published today (11th June) from guru3d.com which showed the Gigabyte Nan-Ping factory. Time to ramp up our knowledge!

Level up my knowledge here!

INTI-UC Intionline hacked

2009-06-07T14:16:00.003+08:00

Our all great intionline is hacked 2 days ago till now. So far no administrators has made any comments about this issue, neither a workaround to seal the vulnerabilities.

Windows 7 Ultimate

2009-05-28T21:02:00.002+08:00

Windows 7, the upcoming version of Windows, is released as Release Candidate in Technet and MSDN. I have too, downloaded a copy and installed on my computer. Seriously, the reason I am blogging about it is because it's worth a praise. Microsoft is pretty generous to open this RC version to the public for free until March 2010 before the computer will automatically shut down every 2 hours. I still do remember myself struggling to get myself a beta tester position when Vista was in the making.

Windows 7 Ultimate x64 image size is smaller than Windows Vista x64 (3.04GB vs 3.53GB). As a result, the space taken by Windows 7 after installation is only 10.6GB, compared to Vista's whooping 20GB. Windows Vista Ultimate x64 takes about 1.5GB of RAM after start up but Windows 7 uses only 700MB from scratch. Not to mention slightly faster boot time on my computer.

At a quick glance, the taskbar changed and Aero is always enabled even if you have a program window maximized. Instead of the classic long taskbar (remember the clutter when you have 10 window open), it is now replaced with iconic buttons resembling quick launch.

So far, the interface have been snappy. Definitely feels faster than Vista, especially with its improved UAC which used to nag like crazy.

Worth a try! :D

Core i7 system

2009-05-06T21:21:00.004+08:00

Since 2005, I have been using a Pentium M 1.6GHz laptop with only 512MB DDR1 RAM. While it has been considerably powerful and competent with most Pentium 4 desktops, it seems that it works like an old grandpa to today's applications.

I had thoughts to get a new desktop since the first Intel quad core processor Q6600 was released. The plan was however deferred due to shifting interest to photography. I spent the thousands on my camera instead. :P

Lately, Intel debuted the world's fastest processor, the quad core Intel Core i7! Definitely it strike my senses again. Running on latest DDR3 RAM modules and availability of both Crossfire and SLi feature on the motherboard should allow me to work swiftly on the computer. Hence I bought a new desktop system to replace my laptop for daily chores.

The above are the main (expensive) components; Intel Core i7 920 D0 processor, DFI LANParty DK X58-T3eH6 motherboard well known for overclockers and enthusiasts and Palit GeForce 9800GT graphics card. The rest are Kingston DDR3-1333 2GB RAMs, Seagate 500GB 7200.12 hard disk, Silverstone ST56F power supply and Cooler Master CM690 casing; all paired with a fairly huge Samsung 2233sw 1080p HD monitor. I thought the monitor isn't that big but it seems oversized for my table after I brought it home. xD

The assembly of the entire system took me about 3 hours because I had to look a lot in the motherboard's manual for wiring information.

The result: Really smooth operation of Windows Vista with pleasing smooth effects, highest Vista rating of 5.9, programs load almost instantaneously, camera photo processing done is much faster speed than my laptop, play any games I like and I can run folding@home as one of the top producing machine. All at a price of sub RM4k+. >.<

Bukit Tinggi Photoshooting

2009-04-21T05:57:00.002+08:00

I have been delaying the processing of these photos for about a month. Time to bring them out right after exam. :D

Models: Rae and Felicia Chew

More available at Flickr

YaY!

2009-04-20T19:49:00.003+08:00

Yay! Exam is over! I have recovered from my flu and cough! I went for a medical diagnose again on Saturday. I also made a ABO blood group test. When I was doing Biology during high school, I tested my blood group myself. The first result was O, rhesus positive. Several months later, I found large amount of expired reagents for ABO test. I tested and it shows AB rhesus negative. 0.o

Years later, on Saturday, I confirmed my blood group. It says...... O, rhesus positive! My first test was accurate. I've learnt, do not use expired reagents. :D

While I have been quite worried about trace amount of glucose in my urine test some weeks ago, the results is finally confirmed as follows:

Protein - Negative
Glucose - Negative
Ketone - Negative
Blood - Negative

Yay! Thanks for everyone's concern when I posted the positive result. Love you people!

iSick+iExam=iFail?

2009-04-16T20:32:00.003+08:00

Somewhere last week, I felt some sore throat which I thought will recover very quickly. I was wrong. In just 2 days, I suffered pretty much from sore throat, and fever + flu developed. Maybe the rain during PC fair made me extra sick. And have anyone realised that it rains every PC fair? PC fair this time is noticeably of less participants and visitors. Wonder if it's the effect of economic recession or I went at a wrong time.

This week is my exam week. Fortunately the medicine from the nearby pharmacy cured the sore throat, leaving me with just mild cough now. Hopefully the illness does not adversely affect my exam too much. =p

I'll update again after the exam. While browsing around the internet, I found this picture to be very funny. I just kept laughing at it. Good to share.

And do you know that pokemon can be complicated?

Lifecheck: I'm unhealthy

2009-03-28T13:24:00.002+08:00

Lifecheck of National Kidney Foundation (NKF) came to INTI UC on the 25th and 26th of March to provide health screening. It was the same health screening that went to South City Plaza during the event (check previous post). I wanted to try the check but there were many people and I had to help out, hence leaving no time for me to queue.

The response in INTI UC was great enough, not too many people. Since it only cost RM2, it was a "why not" in my mind. So I dragged some friends to follow along and Vincent Chua went too. It was about an hour waiting, then it's our turn. The following are the results:

1. Body mass index: 21.3 OK
2. Waist circumference: 86 OK
3. Blood pressure: 127, 79 Systolic reading shows pre-hypertension but still fine
4. Urinalysis: Glucose= +-100mg/100mL Bad. See doctor, Protein= Negative, Blood= Negative
5. Random Blood Glucose: 5.3 mmol/L OK
6. Random Blood Total Cholesterol: 4.27 mmol/L OK

For some unknown reasons, glucose is detected in my urine. It could indicate possibility of diabetes mellitus or kidney problem. :(

NKF @ South City Plaza

2009-03-15T20:03:00.007+08:00

As my previous post, I was looking for volunteers to help out the event in South City Plaza and I've got King Fai to join me. Thanks to King Fai for his charitable support.

The day started early; most volunteers met up at SS2 McD on 8.15 am. I was introduced to our stylish coordinator, adrianck and the other volunteers.

We all reached South City Plaza while it's still empty. The situation gives a very new experience to me. While the plaza is still vacant, we set up banners, pack goodie bags etc.

The stage before the day starts

Briefing by adrianck (beside me) to ensure smooth operation throughout the event, especially the peak hours

At the main entrance there was LifeCheck bus and booth that facilitates the truly affordable health check. Each test consists of several tests such as blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood glucose, urinalysis etc; and it only cost RM2 per person. The whole set of test can be done in about 25 minutes and the results is given today itself.

LifeCheck booth

LifeCheck bus

While there is a health check outside, there were performances inside the plaza to lift the atmosphere; wushu, dancing, singing, dancing and singing =p

Group photos of performers in the morning and early afternoon

One of the wushu performers. He paid lots of attention and I could feel his enthusiasm. The darkness feeling is deliberately done to emphasise on his centralised attention

Later there was colouring contest. The participation was overwhelming. There was many participants, parents of the children and bystanders. I have to admit it was challenging to work in a place where there are many people around; have to worry that no one is knocked down when we're setting up the location etc. Thankfully the people had been very cooperative and the contest was done in orderly manner. The kids are all of course, very cute and very nice to talk to. Most called me "kor kor"(brother) which sounded sweet, but there was one who called me uncle. >.< Hehe.. It was forgiveable and I never mind.

Participants attempting to produce the best masterpiece

Sham from Mix FM and Phoebe Yap from MY FM came too and they conducted DJ Contest.

Me (left) and Phoebe (right)

OMG! Who are the participants for the DJ Contest! I see myself and King Fai. King Fai joined too after some persuasion. He's worried of stage fright. Now the suspense is, are we able to get the cash prize of RM50 to RM300?

*drumroll*

King Fai won!!! He got RM150! Hey King Fai, you have to give me a taxed amount of treat already.

*another moment of suspense*

Hehe. Surprisingly, I got it. Every participant was fabulous and I too felt the competition. RM300 funded for my computer replacement. My computer is old enough to decompose soon.

My verdict is, it's not about the money, it's not about the competition. I have found an entirely different experience. I was able to observe the event, rising up in the morning and setting down in the evening, just like the sun. And all these are for the charitable events. Most of us are blessed with a good life which we always enjoyed. With just a simple help, I could utilise my ability to bring the needy a better enjoyable life. This event is not only flawless in operation, it was so perfect that the event covered every aspect of National Kidney Foundation's objective. Donations were collected for the dialysis centre, awareness of kidney health was emphasised, people were given a chance for health screening for early detection of health issues, performance was truly entertaining, gave hope to >1100 needy patients in 22 dialysis centre and a lot more. All these, made this event successful by its own context.

National Kidney Foundation "Giving Hope"

2009-03-13T20:09:00.004+08:00

World Kidney Day (WKD) 2009, commemorated on 12th March 2009, will be celebrated for the fourth year in more than 100 countries across six continents, including Malaysia.

Towards this nationwide campaign, NKF (National Kidney Foundation of Malaysia) in collaboration with AMP Radio Network and South City Plaza will held a “Health & Contests Fun Day” in conjunction with World Kidney Day 2009.

An event fill with funs and family-oriented, among activities are Children Colouring Contest, Quiz Contest related to kidneys, DJ-wannabe Contest, ASTRO DJ mugs for sale, special appearances of local artists and DJ’s as well as NKF LifeCheck Mobile Health Screening Unit, a 40-seater customized bus with purpose of providing the public with a health screening consists of screening on Blood Pressure, Urine, Body Mass Index, Waist Circumference, Blood Glucose, Blood Cholesterol and Counseling.

Event will be held at South City Plaza, Seri Kembangan on 15th March 2009 from 10.00am to 6.00pm.
Forms for Children Coloring Contest and DJ-wannabe Contest available at NKF website www.nkf.org.my or South City Plaza, Customer Service Counter, Ground Floor.

Come & join us for the fun-filled event and support NKF towards helping kidney patients by “GIVING HOPE”. See you there!! For more details, login to www.nkf.org.my

Hehe.. The above is extracted from NKF flyer. They need volunteers and sponsors to help out on Sunday at the booths. Your help gives hope to all needy patients in 22 treatment centres. Volunteers may contact me via MSN/email. :)

squuuuirrel got back the camera

2009-03-03T22:05:00.002+08:00

Yes, I got back my camera and lens shortly after sending it in. Just 2 working days and I got it back. Canon cleaned the camera, calibrated AF and replaced the scratched focusing screen. All for RM15 only! I actually thought that I heard the technician wrongly. Elsewhere is selling the standard focusing screen for RM120. My perception about Canon changed, it is not necessary the most expensive. :D

Yesterday I received Canon Professional Services membership card in my mail box. In the letter, it says that I will have free access to VIP lounge, 20% discount on services and free equipment consultations and speedy service. There is a nice black shiny card with a picture of 1Ds Mark III and 50 f1.2L lens enclosed. Feels great to have a such a nice card in my wallet.

Today I learned drum, for a significant amount of time for the first time. Thanks to yeeler to be my sifu. It was fun. Yee Ler, when shall we go again?

Squuuuirrel has no camera!

2009-02-24T14:58:00.003+08:00

In a blink of an eye, my camera will turn 1 year old next month. It felt like I have just started using a camera. Hence I sent in my Canon EOS 40D and EF 24-105mm f4L IS USM to Canon for cleaning and focus calibration. I thought they can do it in a day time. Unfortunately they need to take my camera and lens for 5 days. Ok larr, no photo shooting this week I guess.

Why squuuuirrel? Dharyl and Chong Wei knows. :D I was in Power Electronics lab yesterday. We all made mistakes in using the simulation software and we need to do everything again. So frustrating. Moreover we're running out of paper to print. I usually print at home but the simulation software requires Windows 98. Crap, no USB support for removable drives. After spending an extra 20 minutes in the lab, I realise that the only print out that seems correct is flawed! I don't know what happened to the printer but the word "Squirrel" is printed as Squuuuirrel! Arrrrrrgh! Everyone laughed.

Celcom SOX/UOX

2009-02-15T19:03:00.008+08:00

What is SOX and UOX? It's basically a prepaid plan but it's not just another plan. SOX stands for School of X while UOX stands for University of X. The name gave a large hint; it's for students in school and university. Quite close, but it is a plan for youths from 18-25 years old, to be precise.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTENT IS EXTREMELY TEMPTING! DO NOT VIEW IF YOU'RE >25

What's special about SOX and UOX? My way of simplifying is "Celcom SOX/UOX is a PREPAID plan that has postpaid benefits, without postpaid commitment fee and prepaid credit expiry". To make calls to anyone of any network at anytime anywhere, the call rate is only 15 cents per minute! That's even cheaper than using italk mobile. To send SMS to anyone of any network at anytime anywhere, it's just 6 cents each! Even my DiGi fuiyoh plan is 7 cents per SMS, with monthly subscription fee of RM3. To make calls and send SMS to 8 pax numbers of your close friends and family, it is only 10 cents/minute and 0.5 cents/SMS respectively. Making a 3G video call to any Celcom numbers are charged at 15 cents/minute. All these, without credit expiry until you turn 26! No commitment, no maintenance fees; SOX and UOX is a truly prepaid plan.

The SIM pack is free, collectable at Blue Cube outlets and Celcom branches listed in How to Join page. The procedure is simple, ask for SOX/UOX, pick a number, give them your identification card, get any reload amount like RM10 and you're good to go. Celcom is kind to give you another RM10 for free after the next day your account is activated.

Conclusion: I am extremely tempted and I got one of these. =P My DiGi number will remain as primary number (please do not delete my DiGi number) but do not be surprised if I contact you by UOX. :D

Pioneer DVR-216BK made external

2009-02-14T17:21:00.006+08:00

This will be my own unofficial Pioneer DVR-216BK DVD writer review. =D

My laptop's internal DVD drive have always been crazy since I bought the laptop. Fail to read most DVD, randomly burns empty discs, making weird noises etc. I have several workaround such as, replacing the laptop internal drive (costs >RM200), purchasing an external drive which works over USB natively (>RM100 to RM200), or to purchase a desktop internal drive (less than RM100). I thought it would be a good idea to buy a 5.25" desktop-type internal DVD burner as I have plans to build a desktop system somewhere this year. So I did!

Well, desktop internal DVD drives' interface are usually IDE or the newer SATA. Whichever it is, the bulky drive can never fit into a laptop unless you're planning to saw off the laptop's casing and carry an inch thick laptop. This means we need a converter to convert USB signals to IDE or SATA. I opted for a SATA drive because it is a newer interface (future proof) and all desktop motherboard in the market have SATA connectors in abundance.

I picked up a retail version Pioneer DVR-216BK SATA drive over a local store (Viewnet) for only RM92. That is after bargaining at all large shops in Lowyat Plaza. This price is typically RM2 to RM8 cheaper than online/other local stores. I had a little trouble to search for a IDE&SATA to USB converter but I found 2 shops that sells them. The cheapest price I got for it is RM40 in Sri Computer. All IT hypermarket sells similar converter for RM59. An online seller offers it for only RM35 but it has less feature (to be explained later) and it looks shabby.

The Pioneer DVR-216BK package includes a DVD burner, manual and Nero 8 CD. No mounting screws or extra bezel included. Some other brands include at least one extra bezel. I thought my box had missing parts but I've checked with other DVR-216BK owners and confirmed the package contents.

Then lets take a look at VZTEC SATA&IDE to USB converter.

There is a converter itself, SATA cable, driver CD, power cord and power adapter. The power is rated at 5/12V, 2000mA. That is more enough to power the most power hungry hard disk and burner. The driver CD contains driver for Windows 98 system and OneTouchBackup program.

That's where this converter is worth an extra RM5 compared to the cheaper RM35 converter. It has a button for one touch backup and of course, it looks more sturdy. This converter is also able to work simultaneously with a 2.5"/3.5" IDE device and a SATA device.

Installation is easy and straight forward. Power adapter to power socket of the drive, SATA cable to the SATA socket of the drive. Voila!

In my simple operation test, everything worked fine. I can burn and read CD/DVD.

Conclusion:
This combination is a cheap way to get a DVD drive working externally. It won't look as aesthetically appealing as ready-made external drive or 5.25" enclosures but it's half their cost.

Pioneer DVR-216BK
Pros:
Better burn quality and low jitter compared to currently marketed consumer drives

Cons:
Significantly expensive than other brands
No screws or extra bezels provided

VZTEC IDE&SATA to USB converter
Pros:
Cheap solution for external hard disk and DVD drives without expensive enclosures
Simultaneous operation with IDE and SATA device
High power power adapter provided
Neatly built and visually appealing when turned on

Cons:
Flimsy power switch which may cause drive to temporarily malfunction if not turned on properly

The whole setup
Pros:
Economical combination as a whole (Only RM132 for this combination or cheaper with other drives)

Cons:
No enclosures to protect your drives
May be less stable compared to native internal drive

Long weekend

2009-02-09T17:06:00.005+08:00

I had no class on Friday. Saturday and Sunday are usual weekend holiday. Monday is a replacement holiday. Woots! That is 4 days of consecutive holiday. It's a nice treat after a round of challenging maths test.

matt2001 sent me message on the Friday evening suggesting a photo shooting on Saturday morning 8am. I think mushroom is going to grow on the camera if I don't shoot. The session continued until 12+pm. With the scorching sun, if I am a fungus on my camera, I'm fried dry. I'm hot, the speedlite (flash) is hot, 24-105mm lens is hot. The models are hot too! :D

The small shooting session group photo:

Top (from left): Kelly, Felicia
Middle: matt2001's salivary teddy bear
Bottom (from left): Vincent Pang, Jia Cheng, matt2001, me

I haven't processed most of the photos but I'll post some of Felicia's first.

Not enough? Don't fret, I will continue to process the pictures and upload on flickr. :)

I got so tired that day until I almost forgotten about Taylor's PM2 gathering on Sunday. If Jian Ren weren't sending me messages over MSN, I might have forgotten about it. The gathering was at Midvalley. Winson Ng, Linda Tan, Chun Yen, Rachel Ooi, Cher Hui and Pang Han came to join the gathering. I haven't saw Linda and Pang Han for ages. Pang Han just came back on the morning itself from India and he rushed to Midvalley for us. Thanks a lot and it was great to catch up on each other. Our initial plan was to take some snack in KFC like cheesy. We then managed to sit and chat in KFC for hours. On the last 2 hour, we decided to make a move and shop. Pang Han was so sweet, he bought many colour paper, wrapping paper and colour pen to make a card for a girl. Love is in the air~ We also saw a cute toy called のほほん族(Nohohon Zoku) aka Sunshine Buddies! It is an eco-friendly bobble head figurine with solar panel to bobble its head. No batteries needed. Omg, it was so cute and I'll definitely get it for my gf, if I have one. =p

Image extracted from candybox's flickr photostream

Relieved

2009-02-05T22:52:00.002+08:00

Phew~ My maths test is done. I was very worried for the test, for I know maths isn't something by luck, at least for me. Everyone looked prepared; Patrick holding an almost 2 inch thick maths book; Vincent answering questions that I failed to solve; Chong Wei attempted all questions related to test and he said he have done question 17 in the book for 3 times!

With the great pressure, I sat for the test in a fairly large room (it's a typical examination venue)with 70+ students. Pressure >9000. The question paper is handed by lecturer. It says 1 question with 6 parts. I thought he said only 4 parts. I panicked. Flipped over, the first question require me to briefly comment on the geometry of the equation Z=(some long many x and y equation). Stun mode ON. Luckily 5% only for the first section. Continued doing the first differentials as instructed by the question paper. Suddenly my mind went blank. Luckily with the Red Bull that I had right before the test, the power kicked in and OMG! I did all my first differentials wrongly. By making a mistake in the early part, my marks for the rest of the question is questionable. Haha. In overall, I still managed to get all the 4 stationary points of the surface and then find its nature.

The bulls that I had before test.

No, just joking. I only had one.

On the other hand, I feel utterly disappointed with the people within (and around) INTI. I lost my shoe on the first day. Now Vincent Chua's PDA, phone, wallet and car keys are stolen. He's not the only victim, there's more phones and hard disk that is lost. The bag which they use to keep their belonging during sports were smuggled away. It incurred a great financial loss and also the confidence I had with the people. I was extremely furious when I heard about it and I had a lot to say in my mind which I find lengthy for this already-lengthy post. Well, the worst should have happened to my friends and I, and the future should/must be great. =p

Happy Chinese New Year

2009-01-31T11:08:00.002+08:00

Gong xi gong xi! So, how many angpau have you received? I have got plenty! This chinese new year was a calm one but enjoyable. I didn't play fireworks at all (polis kata jangan) but I watched fireworks. I did take some pictures of the fireworks during CNY countdown but the images are not satisfying. I didn't have a tripod and my camera is sensitive to smoke at high ISO. The camera captured smoke that my eye can't see. There were plenty of food. I'm enjoying all the chicken everyday. Mmm.. Finger licking good. I played cards with my cousins, and won RM1.50 at the end of the day. Haha. It's not bad for RM0.10 per game bet. I was introduced to a new card game "in between". The objective of the game is to obtain cards valued between the first 2 cards. Unsure what's that game but the return is great, if you win. :P

University will resume after this weekend. I'm still feeling lazy. =p There's a maths 3 test next Thursday and I have to prepare for it. 30% of my finals depends on the test. Wish me luck.

Happy Chinese New Year and best of luck throughout the year. :)

Advertisement in the making

2009-01-21T20:18:00.004+08:00

Have you seen advertisements of every university? They usually show groups of students enjoying their time while studying on the grass land of the university. Soon we'll see another advertisement of the new INTI similar to that. I saw many students sitting and laying down on the grass field when I was about to leave home today. That's so abnormal because no one sits there. I had taken some photographs there a few semester back and I spotted ants, spiders and bees. Yet, they want to illustrate great joy sitting down on the grass. :D

Adventurous suan-Part II

2009-01-18T14:22:00.010+08:00

Yes, I found the route to bypass the toll. I was so near to the exit that day when my PDA shut off. I just have to make a little u-turn and get out through Bandar Bukit Puchong. Through the odometer of my car, the journey takes an additional 2.6KM only while RM1.60 toll is saved. I couldn't stop laughing when I recall lying to Natasha that I'm going to kidnap her there. Woots~ I am good in acting :D

For the past week, INTI UC had club and society exhibition at the Student Affair Office concourse area. For all INTI UC students who is studying in engineering courses or simply for those who have interest in engineering, join us at The Institution of Engineering and Technology for only GBP12 a year. Monthly magazine will be provided, related to your field of interest.
* Communications
* Consumer
* Control
* Electronics
* IT
* Management
* Manufacturing
* Power
* Transport
The IET booth during the week.

I was surprised when I walked into the block A level 1. It used to be all empty, cold and quiet. Now there's a Ricoh e-Resource Centre, guarded by multiple CCTV (stated explicitly on the LCD screen. According to an uncertain source the photocopier machine can be operated by using top-up accounts.

Adventurous suan

2009-01-13T20:22:00.003+08:00

I was on the way home today and I had the thought to turn on my PDA's GPS to lead me home. I selected fastest route that have no toll. Now, just a tip for GPS user. When you trust and use GPS navigation, trust it till the end. Don't hesitate following its instruction.
Because I know the way home so well, I didn't trust the GPS navigation. I missed many turns and I had to detour kilometres. After all the unnecessary detouring, the PDA led me to a place called Pulau Meranti (not a real pulau as in island, just a village).
I was speeding about 80km/h since I already took so much time detouring. Mind you, 80km/h in rural roads is very fast. The roads are extremely windy. I didn't expect a few turns to be so curved and I heard my tyres squeak as I run through the corner. If it's a rainy day the drift could be a crash. I entered deep into the jungle-like roads. A very quiet, remote place. I could only see one or two motorcyclist along the way.
Another tips for GPS user, please bring enough batteries. Halfway through the roads, my PDA quickly gave a final battery warning. I drove faster, hoping that I'll get to the town before the battery runs flat. Faster through the deadly corners. More drifting. We don't expect miracles from electronics. The screen just went black. I'm lost in the middle of the jungle, without GPS to bring me home, without phone. My mixed feelings was scary yet exciting.
I drove a little mile more and I just don't know which junction to take. No signboards, some roads look miserably narrow. With my brain GPS, I made a u-turn, attempting to get back to the Putrajaya-Cyberjaya expressway that I have been taking. Thankfully, I got back out safely and I continued home.
Hence, I'm home, 30 minutes later than usual. I am going to grab my external GPS and several batteries and try that route again tomorrow. So if I'm lost somewhere, just find me there. =P

My house turned green

2009-01-10T20:07:00.004+08:00

Not the whole house, just the lower level of my house interior that is repainted with green from blue. I was surprised when I return home from a simple gathering that I just had. The green, although is a light green, has yellowish tint to my eyes. Looks so bright too. I need some time to get used to the green.

I went to Sunway Pyramid today with my Taylor's College friends; Beng Lynn, Chun Yen and Jian Ren. We watched a horror movie-They Wait.
"After living in Shanghai for three years, Sarah, her husband, Jason, and their young son, Sammy, return to North America for a family funeral. However, Sammy starts seeing ghosts and then falls gravely ill and traditional western medicine offers no hope. It all ties in with the Chinese festival of Ghost Month, when the doors of hell supposedly open and angry spirits are given the chance to terrorise the living. Sarah turns to a mysterious pharmacist who warns that a living corpse is holding her son in a death grip. Sarah must find out what the spirits want if she is to save her child. "
-Cinema Online

Not as scary as I thought, especially at the later part at the movie. The storyline is fairly simple, no complication, no suspense, no surprises. There are just effects at certain parts of the movie that frighten me a little. Thanks to Jian Ren and Beng Lynn for accompanying through the scary portions. =p

I got to try Jian Ren's Crossroad MylarOne Bijou in-ear monitor. When I first try the Bijou, I noticed that it's more comfortable than any other IEM that I've tried. Comfort has been an issue to me in deciding an earphone. This Bijou not only feel comfortable but I also do not hear my own movements. Usually for an IEM, I can hear rattling or tapping sounds when I move. For this, the material don't seem to cause such sound in my ear. Sound wise, it's more or less like described in reviews. Dark signature, solid bass but not too strong, detailed vocals. What can I say? I'm tempted. :D

Beng Lynn blogged a more detailed description of the gathering, including descriptions like me being an octopus in my seat.

TGIF-Freedom

2009-01-09T14:01:00.002+08:00

Whee~ It's Friday Friday Friday! No class, can sleep till late morning and poke around my blog. Classes for the first week has been great, well except for my shoe being stolen on the first day.

I sold one of my good lens today, the Canon 85mm f/1.8 USM. I have been feeling so poor since December. I think I have been spending too much in the previous months. Digging out old photos shot using this lens from flickr. There should be more but it seems that I did not upload any other.

Today should not happen

2009-01-05T20:02:00.002+08:00

Yesterday never happened, today should not happen. Very cool blog titles that seem to link each other. Today is the 5th of January, the day where all schools start. My university is of no exception this time, although the university used to start a week later.

My sleeping schedule has been modified during the holiday which I have been sleeping at midnight everyday. In addition to that, I couldn't sleep last night because of nose congestion. I popped in Zyrtec-D, a drug, containing cetirizine hydrochloride and pseudoephedrine hydrochloride. :S I know this drug is very effective for me but the side effects applied on me too. That little pill made me feel so nervous at night, not knowing the reason (I can't be nervous to go to uni right?).

With all that uncomfortable night, I woke up seeing my PDA contacts empty. Literally no more contacts in it, right before I need to get driving to university. Arrgh! Fortunately there is a backup on 2nd December 2008, which I almost wanted to delete yesterday. Phew. I only lost those new contacts that I've added since last month. Better than losing all of it.

During 1-4PM, I had no class and I went to Vincent Chua's room to overclock his computer. I'm learning a lot about graphics card and AMD system. One man's meat is one man's poison. My shoe got stolen and someone got my new shoe. It's a unique shoe with striking yellow colour as accent and logo colour. If I am able to spot that theif, he's a can of minced meat. Grr.

Anyway, although it's a bad start but future will be better. Natasha gave me a piece of Meiji black chocolate. Yum~ =P

Yesterday never happened

2009-01-03T12:47:00.002+08:00

Nice rainy morning today. With the cooling effect from rain, I slept till noon. Hahahaha. I just love rainy morning. Some people call it troublesome, I find it delightful. Maybe I dislike school assembly on Mondays during my secondary school, thus rain can help me evade it and I like rain in the morning.

As usual, checking my messages and mail on the computer comes first. Wow, I saw lots of messenger window being brought up to my attention. Click. clickclickclick. OMG! Live messenger is not responding! I tried looking for the messages through message log; it's not there! Even messages that I sent and receive yesterday isn't there anymore. Lost my customer's tracking code and a lot of other conversation history. Yikes. It's as if yesterday never happened.

INTI Enrolment Day

2009-01-02T19:23:00.004+08:00

The enrolment day starts today. In the late morning, when I was still sleeping, Vincent Chua called me twice to inform me that our class size is growing too big and the faculty will split the class! The 1B1 section will have only 4 days of studying days while the 1B2 section will have 5 days. So? Lets go enrol quickly before the 1B1 section gets filled up. Yee Ler and I carpooled and made our way to INTI as soon as possible.

Then after all the procedure stuff

Hehe. Hence I got 1B1 section and 4 day classes only. :D p.s. diamond does very fairly well shooting macro too

Eeks. What's all the bar outside block F hostel that makes it look like zoo entrance?

Apparently block F is an experimental block for the new security system. All residents have to scan their student ID when entering the hostel. It could be equipped with CCTV at the entrance too. If this security measure can effectively combat theft in block F, similar system will be applied to all hostel blocks. This can be good if it works. At least it's more high-tech.

In the sports hall, the 3-day orientation is going on. Looks like there will be a lot of new students. All the best to all of them.

Happy New Year 2009!

2009-01-01T16:06:00.002+08:00

Welcome back to my blog. You're reading my first blog post on year 2009. Haha! The air today seems fresh. Feels great to be in a new year. I made an initiative to tidy up things on my table and computer. Made me feel even better for a start.

I noticed I still have several Cambridge A-level textbooks on my cupboard. A lot of notes for chemistry and biology, that I probably won't need anymore. Planning to sell them off to someone who needs it. Anyone going back to college to sell their books? I wanna follow. =P

May all of you have a blessed year 2009. :)

The last day of 2008

2008-12-31T19:03:00.005+08:00

At one thought, year 2008 is short. It seems as if it just started but with another thought, isn't it long? Plenty have been done this year. University started not long before 2008 and I had my first year in uni already. I knew many people this year, from university, photography contacts, forums. Great meeting all of them. I bought a DSLR camera and I bought several lens. I got so much into photography this year. I even had purchased 2 PDA this year (not rich, just because the first broke). To think about it thoroughly, year 2008 is long enough for me to do many things.

Overall, year 2008 is pretty good for me. With God's blessing, my family and I have fairly good health, just occasional minor cough and flu. Studies goes pretty well but I do need to pay more attention on it. Financial wise, I am able to earn some pocket money by sales (ah ya, I sell Kingston memory now. call me up if you need any memory products =P), shooting for some people etc. There isn't any major conflict with anyone this year too. In fact, I don't recall even minor argument. :D I'm still single but it doesn't matter since I enjoy being single, right guys? =P

What's your year 2009 hopes and resolution? I remember I've thought of it and posted some of my thoughts in here.
1. Study with more effort. I want to get better results.
2. Despite the economic recession, I hope I can still earn enough pocket money.
3. I hope that my family are all safe and sound, in the best health condition.
That's all I can think of now.

I went to the newly opened Digital Mall in USJ19 today. Claimed to be the largest IT mall. Ok, quite big but it's still empty! Went there, looks nice on the outside, a lot of cars, went in, went out in minutes. Because it's still so new, most of the shop isn't open yet. Even those opened shops have nothing much but a few thumbdrive. Maybe I'll check them out some weeks or month later.

I acquired a new Targus City Fusion notebook bag. There's a sale in a nearby shopping mall and my mom said it's a good buy. The bag is built with decent quality. Nice thick paddings and lots of compartments. My discman can also fit into the music player compartment.

Hehe. I've made a total of 54 blog posts in year 2008. Thanks for reading my last blog post for the year 2008. Have a happy new year and may your wish come true!

wKkaY appreciation night

2008-12-29T00:25:00.005+08:00

I thought I'll not make it when my dad is unexpectedly occupied on the Saturday night. With the great help from bryanyeo87, I get to go to The Apartment for a gathering with the rest of the mod team. He came all the way to Puchong and he brought me back to my doorstep. Appreciated that a lot.

This is me and bryanyeo87

Smoked salmon for me.

My Strawberry Margarita-tastes like 5M concentrated cough syrup.

Might update more later, depending on the situation. Lol.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T21:10:00.005+08:00

On Tuesday night, Vincent Pang told me that the flash trigger that he ordered from ebay some weeks ago have arrived and he happened to be in Giant Puchong. So I quickly went there to meet him and got the flash trigger in my hands!

p.s. Don't mind the picture quality. I only used my diamond's camera.

Ok, this is the receiver on the right and trigger on the left. My receiver is slightly larger than the ordinary Cactus PT-04 because this model runs on a cheaper, more readily available AAA battery instead of CR2 lithium battery. This flash trigger is a cheaper solution to the original Canon ST-E2 which cost more than RM600. Moreover, these PT-04 work with most low trigger voltage flash whereas the Canon ST-E2 transmitter only work with Canon top notch flashes, 430EX (II) and 580EX (II).

That's my 580EX II flash on the left and Canon EOS 40D on the right. Using the device is simple. Mount the trigger onto the camera hotshoe. Plug the receiver onto the flash. At anytime, when the camera shoots, the trigger will send 433MHz radio frequency (RF) signal to the receiver, and the flash will fire in Manual mode. Yup, only manual, no ETTL-II will operate properly. That explains why Canon ST-E2 is 5-6 times more expensive. Well, this cheap electronic still get the work done with a little more effort.

The trigger has a 3.5mm socket if you have noticed in the previous photo. That is the PC sync port. This means we don't have to use hotshoe to trigger the flash, if we don't want to. This can be useful if we want a flash to light up from the photographers position; the hotshoe is not occupied by the trigger. My camera happened to have PC sync port and it worked fine. :D

While I have fun with my new toy, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Hohoho!!!

Pioneer Car Audio Road Show

2008-12-23T23:10:00.004+08:00

On the 19th December 2008 till 21st December 2008, Pioneer showcased their car audio system at Berjaya Times Square. That was right before I got ill. :P

I liked this mickey mouse pose! Lol!

For more Pioneer road show photos, jump into my Flickr photostream!

Malacca trip with cousins

2008-12-22T18:01:00.004+08:00

For the past whole week, I have been travelling and visiting many places with my cousins.

During the weekend, I went to Malacca with them. I've tried something new, chicken rice ball!

Is it nice? Errr. I would still prefer a normal plate of chicken rice with more delicious chicken laid on it. Hehe :P

Then I went to Jonker Street at night! Lots of cool toys for sale, lots of food too, but I was already bloated.

Now I'm back home taking a rest after they returned home yesterday night. Still suffering from sore throat. :(

Sick!

2008-12-19T22:28:00.002+08:00

I went to shoot Pioneer road show this afternoon. One of those car displayed belongs to my relative, hence I am informed of the event. Hehe. It was fun, I knew several names today. BUT, I got sick by time I went back. No energy to continue shooting at night in Rum Jungle. I will process the photos when I feel slightly better. My cousins (very young kids) are staying over my house and they wanted to learn play electone. Lol. Thought them some but at the same time I'm feeling more tired. :/

Remains of PIKOM PC Fair 2008 (III)

2008-12-16T00:07:00.002+08:00

Those PC Fair topics in Lowyat.Net forum is growing rapidly, especially the photo thread. I couldn't catch up with it unless I stick myself on the computer all day long. There are more than 2500 replies in just 4 days. This proves that internet have no girls. All are men, hungry for fappable material.

I am somewhat disappointed by some people's respond, directly commenting on the girl without respect. It's either insulting like "she's ugly", "monster", "I want to vomit" or "her C cup is nice!", if she is gorgeous. What is wrong with those people? In the end, some of the girls get disgusted and upset. Perhaps it's a culture.

Remaining chunks of photo

Felicia and ^Mochi^ in the house!

Part II: PIKOM PC Fair 2008 (III)

2008-12-14T23:48:00.004+08:00

My uncle, aunt and cousin came over to my house to stay over for a week. I brought them to PC Fair today while I go shoot more photos.

To avoid a major slow down on the blog, please visit my Flickr Photostream for all the photos. Thanks! =D

PIKOM PC Fair 2008 (III)

2008-12-14T02:45:00.009+08:00

I never went to the previous PC Fair, since sometime last year. My parents always complain that the place is too packed and the people are stalling too often. Chak Hoong was the one who asked me to go PC fair with him a month ago. He should already be in Hong Kong enjoying his holiday.

So, I did go to this PC fair alone. Like usual, IT IS VERY PACKED AND THE PEOPLE LOVE TO STALL AT THE WRONG PLACE! Grr. Maybe it's the culture that has to accompany PC fair, otherwise it's not PC fair.

I met Felicious, promoting Acer eeePC and also Swee Tian, a classmate of mine during Form 1, promoting HTC PDA devices! Small world isn't it? I get to meet an old friend in such a large hall with thousands of people. He looked different, from botak last time and much longer hair now. Lol.

I was casually shooting in the halls, while lurking for great but affordable bargains. Most products weren't magically cheaper than usual but worse, some products are actually overpriced despite being sold in PC Fair. Some solar charger was going on sale at RM100++ while I can actually get those half the price. Poorly built card-reader which doesn't resemble any renown brand is tagged RM75 with 50% discount. Somewhat misleading because I got myself a genuine, solidly built Apacer Mega Steno AM400 card reader for only RM23 without any fancy discount tag. Perhaps I can get it even cheaper somewhere else but I was not in the mood to run through all the halls all over again just for a budget card-reader. Result: It's worth a buy! My old card reader always remained at 4.2Mb/s transfer rate even if I used a faster card. Now it's 16.1Mb/s for an Sandisk Extreme III equivalent card and 12Mb/s for Ultra II card. The new card reader makes my photo transfer noticeably faster than before.

Although the card reader is fast but I am still slow. I only managed to upload little photos.

Sony Vaio girls:

Left: Fusion? I can't remember :P Right: A girl promoting Sandisk music player. The pink player (Sandisk Shaker) on the left attracted me. It responds to shaking motion to forward to next song! RM79 for 2GB.

More photos in Flickr photostream =)

Full moon

2008-12-13T21:27:00.005+08:00

I heard that the full moon yesterday is somewhat larger than usual. Instead of going to bed to sleep, I went to look at the moon. Haha. The sky was mostly cloudy but the moon is still visible.

Went to Pikom PC fair today. Will update again later. :D

Christmas Fashion Show

2008-12-12T17:16:00.012+08:00

When I played Half-Life 7 years ago, it's scary. I played Half-Life today, it's still scary. Moreover, I felt like vomiting while playing the game. I didn't play for long, I just reached the level right after the resonance cascade, Unforeseen Consequences. I didn't even kill a single monster and I felt so quizzy. Maybe I should just give up completing Half Life.

Christmas mood is getting more immense everyday. I see christmas trees in almost every shopping mall I go.

That is Midvalley last Saturday. Notice this photo has a very wide view? You can see all 3 CENTRE COURT sign, except for the one behind me, of course. It's taken using a Tokina AT-X DX 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fisheye lens which I borrowed from Vincent Pang. I am now poisoned UWA (ultra-wide angle) poisoned. While those using compact camera is struggling to take the view of the stage and trees, I'm doing it at ease.

There was some fashion show going on that day.

Clicking on those photos will bring you larger versions and you can also enter my photostream to view more picture. Putting all photos in my blog will eventually slow down the loading time.

A Present!

2008-12-11T14:59:00.005+08:00

Christmas is coming soon. Have you got a present? Lol. This year, I got mine early. My parents bought me a G-Shock G-312RL-4A Kawasaki series watch. It's quite a rare watch and it took me a while to look for one on sale locally. Fortunately my mind is still working and I remember Davis is a Casio authorised dealer. Hehe. Then I contacted him, made an order, and I got the watch the next day!

The box! Comes with original box, manual and an extended 12+6 months warranty card.

Opened it up! Ah, it's sitting neatly inside the box.

A close up picture. Hehe. It's a beauty.

Site revamp

2008-12-10T19:48:00.003+08:00

The old template that I used since I register looked boring. I found a nice smoke photoshop tutorial on the net and I played with the PSD. The blog is going wideeeee~. Everyone has a widescreen monitor nowadays, so this site is optimised for screen with at least 1280 pixels wide. Slight changes in font colour and background to match the new banner. If you have any suggestion, comment or complaint, please inform me.

Tagged: 2008 xmas wishlist

2008-12-08T01:16:00.002+08:00

I'm tagged by matt2001. Grr. :P I hate to think about wishlist. Once I started thinking, I'll start feeling itchy to get one of those to satisfy the desire.

Lets see, what is in my top 5 list:
1. Canon EOS 1D Mark III - Top in the series of Canon digital SLR. Tried shooting with it once. The speed of autofocus=incredible. Shoots beautiful contrasty photos in low light as if it's a studio shot.

2. Canon EOS 5D Mark II - A full frame monster capable of 21MP and HD movie. Latest camera from Canon that has DiGiC 4 processor. ISO12800! :D

back to something more realistic
3. A new laptop. My current laptop have been serving me since 2005.

4. A camera flash trigger and receiver. I want to try creative lighting for my photos.

5. A hug or kiss from my friends. That would be good enough even if I don't get any of the above. S&S gift; simple and sweet.

People I tag:
1. rui ting
2. alicia loi
3. chun yen
4. dharyl foo
5. anyone else who saw this post :D

Hohoho~

KLPF 2008 - Amber Chia

2008-12-01T17:58:00.005+08:00

Remember I said I've taken some pictures of Amber Chia during Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival 2008? It has been a month since I wanted to process the photos and I procrastinated until today. Don't blame me, the photos are soft because I was in a bad position with everyone pushing. :)

Attempt with Adobe Photoshop CS3 high pass filter:

Soft focus technique:

Don't you think her back is kinda sexy? :P

WALL·E

2008-11-28T23:33:00.002+08:00

I have just watched WALL·E for the second time, this time at home instead of cinema. For some reason, I just love this movie and I won't get bored of it even if I have to watch it repeatedly. What's wonderful behind the robots is that they are able to communicate in such a sweet and adoring way although they remained silent throughout the movie. Most of us humans find trouble communicating with each other despite we are made of blood and flesh and we all speak English, not the "wuuualll-eeeee" squealing language. When I first watched it with my friends, only Chak Hoong and I liked the movie. Perhaps I am looking forward to such simple yet sweet relationship. Everything said through expression and actions.

Boring Holiday

2008-11-21T15:05:00.002+08:00

Aiks. I feel so bored during this holiday. One month have passed and I haven't done anything productive. I've just been poking around my new PDA, surfing the internet, created epic topics on forum *giggle*, download and watch movies. I even set up a fully SSD (solid state device) torrent system. Fully running on memory cards that I can find in my house, I'm on downloading and uploading spree! Seed all I want without stressing my hard disks. Lifetime warranty for my cards anyway. :D

Anyway, I have started to think of my new year's resolution. Have you thought of yours? Perhaps it's good to start practising one month before next year. I want to:
1. Be serious in studies again, make myself do work and be as busy as I was in college
2. Set myself a time limit before I will give up on certain relationship, and be serious in studies again. lol
3. Not spend anymore money on gadgets. I'm eating grass already. I need to control!

Diamond!

2008-11-11T01:17:00.002+08:00

Yay! I got myself a HTC Touch Diamond. 192MB RAM compared 64MB RAM of my old Dopod 838 Pro. It's so swift and fast. Sadly, I cannot read SMS with chinese text yet. Not every software is compatible with the relatively new VGA technology device. Yay again =P