Giant NES Controller Coffee Table

This is so cool. Always wanted to DIY presentable-things that related to my childhood when I was in secondary school, but all I managed to complete is PC modding of my old desktop.

Hmm, maybe next time when I'm free for this kind of hobbies.

Rehashing World Cup Trend

Nice wavefront, until Paul ruined it...

What Gaming Means to You and Your Future.

 Dedicating this post to some of my friends (you know who you are) and my brothers and sister.

Saw a lot of negative comments on this Youtube video.

The problem with video games (or other technologies in the form of entertainment) is there are many out there who plays video games (or other entertainment-technologies) as if its part of their life. They spent their precious time dwelling in the game without having a clear direction of what they are doing, and what video games mean to their FUTURE.

For example, I have friends who...

1. Surf in Facebook every night, browsing friends album over and over again.
2. Play video games every night, and switch from game to game after few years.
3. Watch PPStream whole every night, and almost exhaust the list of dramas/series.
4. Play WoW every night, and has few maximum-level character, but moved on to another game now.
5. ...

The thing is, if we are very clear of what we are trying to achieve in our future via all these video game, then its perfectly fine.

1. I have friends who play games throughout their childhood, but they are working in game development industry. Thats their inspiration and dream, and the play and fought hard to excel in that area.
2. I have friends who play games throughout their childhood, but they are professional games now in world gaming arena. They play games representing countries, representing companies, representing communities...

So start thinking of why you play games whole night, why you Facebook whole night... Do all these time spent worth anything to you and your future, and your future family?

I think the take-away from this video is

We are the first generation forced to find a balance between letting technology improve our lives, or risk allowing it to dominate us.

[Solution] Google Voice after clicking "Upgrade your account" shows "Not Available in Your Country"

Google says that the latest Gmail feature that allows you to make phone calls is only available in the US, but that's not true. If you set Gmail's interface language to English (US), you should see the "Call phone" option in the chat roster. You can also buy credit using Google Checkout.

If you're not in the US and you want to add credit to your account, make sure that you DON'T CLICK the "Upgrade your account" button from Google Voice. This feature is only useful if you are in the US, since it lets you get a Google Voice number. Unfortunately, if you click on that button and you're not in the US, you'll no longer be able to buy credit.

Here's what you'll see after clicking on "Upgrade your account":

And, heres how you can overcome this

1. Cancel the upgrade using a US proxy (try UltraSurf if you use Windows).
2. Click "Cancel Upgrade" when you enter Google Voice website.

小小彬 综艺大国民

小小彬超cute的，哈哈。

He is so innocent, but he sure knows a lot of things that kids normally do not know, maybe sometimes, even teenagers don't know.

Blogger "Password Protect " Post

Theres a method to "password protect" your blogger blog posts, by encrypting your content with a public key.

To do this, just go to vincentcheung.ca and follow the instructions.

Warnings:

• Do note that this is NOT a safe way to protect your data. 
• Never encrypt personal IDs with this!

Example:
- The key (case sensitive) is "The Key"

Show encrypted text

Tips:

1. To create new line, just use <br />
2. To create empty line, just <br /><br />
3. Enjoy!

Enjoy! :)

Google Voice in Gmail

finally Google Voice is not limited to US only :)

Integrated to Gmail - call from Gmail.

Chrome extension 

Get Chome extension here :)

Check out the call rate; Its free in US and Canada!

Check out the rate comparison here!

Nostalgic

Haha, its very funny to see those junior (raggers) doing the same thing that I did last time - jio-ing their "friend"(s) to go jogging, eat supper, and study together.

Guess most people have the same mindset and way of thinking at that age (18-22). Just hope no one gets hurt badly along the way :)

Sometimes I wonder, if I never have the "impulsive" thinking at that time, will I move to a different stage as I am now? Be able to really focus on things-that-parents-always-want-their-child-to-do-before-getting-into-RS?

:)

Korean BBQ Restaurant at Taman Molek, Johor Bahru

Always wanted to post this long-due makan post, but just can't find the info about this restaurant. Finally found the info at OpenRice.

---

Went to this Korean BBQ Restaurant - Restaurant Han at 76, Jalan Molek 1/28, Taman Molek, Johor Bahru, 81100 with aunt and cousin on 14 July, Saturday.

Overall the food there is nice, and its very cheap. Just look at the amount of side-dish they served, and the portion is big too. We spent about RM85, which is about SGD35.

I think its a new shop, because all the neighbouring lots are still without tenants. The owners are Koreans, can tell from their look, and accent.

The side dishes! 

The embedded BBQ pit uses charcoal.

The waiter help us to BBQ.

The Kimchi  soup!

The decors at the counter.

View Larger Map

蓦然回首，还是家，最好!

Compilation of a series of very meaning short films with the theme 《前进吧，马来西亚！》 (Dynamic Malaysia) from Yellow Pictures and Astro.

Thumbs up!

My Little Nephews

Introduce you to pee mei (pee 妹). She is one month old now :)

xiao pee looks very nervous with pee mei at his side :)

All-time-favourite Indo Songs

Saw these Youtube clips in another friend's blog, all of 'em are my favourite Indonesian songs. :]


Peter Pan - Mungkin Nanti

伟人一生

天降大任于斯人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身，行指乱其所为，所以动心忍性，曾益其所不能。

《孟子》

【译文】

上天将要降落重大责任在这样的人身上，一定要道先使他的内心痛苦，使他的筋骨劳累，使他经受饥饿，以致肌肤消瘦，使他受贫困之苦，使他做的事颠倒错乱，总不如意，通过那些来使他的内心警觉，使他的性格坚定，增加他不具备的才能。

天薄我以福，吾厚吾德以迓之；天劳我以形，吾逸吾心以补之；天厄我以遇，吾亨吾道以通之，天且奈我何哉？

陈继儒 -《小窗幽记》

【译文】

假如上天不肯给我很多福分，我就多做些善事来培养我的福分；假如上天用劳苦来困乏我，我就用安逸的心情来保养我疲惫的身体；假如上天用穷困来折磨我，我就开辟我的求生之路来打通困境。假如我能做到以上各点，上天他又能对我如何呢？

吾十有五而志于学,三十而立,四十而不惑,五十而知天命,六十而耳顺,七十而从心所欲,不逾矩。

孔子

【译文】

孔子说：“我十五岁立志于学习；三十岁能够自立；四十岁能不被外界事物所迷惑；五十岁懂得了天命；六十岁能正确对待各种言论，不觉得不顺；七十岁能随心所欲而不越出规矩。”

Journey and Destination

What matter the most is the journey, not the destination.

Most people always talk about this...

But what I think this is (far) more important is...

Its the destination (goal) that align together people in the same journey.

A common goal/destination, this is very important during the journey. ONLY people who share the same desire for a common goal, who been through together to achieve something together will understand the value of a the journey that they've been through together and thus appreciate it.

Used-Textbook For Sale (NUS)

School of Computing (SoC)

CS1102
Title: Data Abstraction and Problem Solving with JAVA: Walls and Mirrors, 1st Ed
Author: Frank M. Carrano and Janet J. Pitchard
ISBN:
Condition: 5/10, No handwriting. Wrapped.
Price: FREE

CS2100 (SOLD)
Title: Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface, 3rd Edition
Author: David A. Patterson and John L. Hennessy
Condition: 6/10; with plastic cover
Price: FREE

CS2100 (SOLD)
Digital Logic Design
Tan Tuck Choy, Aaron
Condition: 7/10, nicely wrapped
Price: FREE

Module: CS2301/IS2101 CS1105/IS1103 (SOLD)
Title: Business and Technical Communication
Author: Lee Gek Ling, Feng Anwei, Patrick Gallo, Lim Hwee Ling, J.E. Lisa Meyer, Zhang Mingyuan.
Condition: 7/10, nicely wrapped
Price: FREE

CS2103
Title: Software Engineering (International Computer Science Series), 8th edition
Author: Ian Sommerville
Condition: 9/10, No handwriting
Price: $ 15.00

CS2102 (SOLD)
Title: Database Management Systems, 3rd Edition
Author: Raghu Ramakrishnan
ISBN:
Condition: 9/10, nicely wrapped, no writings, no highlights at all
Price: $20

CS2106 (SOLD)
Title: Modern Operating Systems, 2nd Edition
Author: Andrew S. Tanenbaum
ISBN:
Condition: 9/10, Nicely wrapped.
Price: $20

Title: Foundation of Multithreaded, Parallel, and Distributed Programming (Singapore Edition)
Author: Gregory R. Andrews
ISBN:
Condition: 8/10, nicely wrapped
Price: $15

Title: Head First Design Patterns, 1st Edition (SOLD)
Author: Eric Freeman & Elisabeth Freeman
ISBN: 0596007124
Condition: 8/10,
Price: $15

Title: Data Structures & Other Objects Using C++, 3rd Edition
Author: Michael Main, Walter Savitch
ISBN: 032119716X
Condition: 9/10, nicely wrapped
Price: $15

Title: Embedded Real-Time Systems - Introductory Concepts and Tools, 3rd Edition
Author: Graham Leedham, Kiam-Tian Seow
ISBN: 9789810677466 / 109810677464
Condition: 9/10, nicely wrapped
Price: $10

(SOLD)
Title: C How To Program Introducting C++ and Java, 3rd Edition
Author H. M. Deitel, P. J. Deitel
ISBN: 0130895725
Condition: 7/10
Price: FREE

(SOLD)
Title: Java Software Solution: Foundations of Program Design, 2nd Edition
Author: John Lewis, William Loftus
ISBN: 0201612712
Condition: 5/10
Price: FREE

CS2103 (SOLD)
Title: Software Engineering An Object Oriented Approach, Updated Edition
Author: Bimlesh Wadhwa, Stefan Andrei , Soo Yuen Jien
ISBN: 9780071266109
Price: FREE

Faculty of Science (FoS)

Title: Differential Equation & Linear Algebra, 1st Edition
Author: Farlo Hall McDill West
ISBN:
Condition: 9/10, nicely wrapped
Price: $15

PC2131
Title: Electromagnetism
Author: G.L. Pollack and D.R. Stump
ISBN: 0805385673
Condition: 8/10
Price: $25

MA1505 (SOLD)
Title: Thomas' Calculus, International Edition - 11th Edition
Author: M. D. Weir, J. Hass and F. R. Giordano
ISBN: 0321243358
Condition: 9/10, no highlights.
Price: $30

PC1431/PC1432 (SOLD)
Title: Sears and Zemansky's University Physics, 11th Edition
Author: Young and Freeman
Condition : 9/10, nicely wrapped
Price: $35

Fundamentals of Optics, 4th Edition (SOLD)
Author: Francis A. Jenkins, Harvey E. White
ISBN: 007Y853460
Condition: 8/10, nicely wrapped.
Price: FREE

SSA2215 (SOLD)
Title: Singapore's Biophysical Environment
Author: Lu Xi Xi, Wong Poh Poh, Chou Loke Ming
ISBN: 0071250387
Condition: 9/10
Price: FREE

ST2131 / MA2216 (SOLD)
Title: A first course in Probability, 5th Edition
Author: Sheldon Ross
ISBN: 0138965234
Condition: 5/10
Price: FREE

Faculty of Engineering (FoE)

EE2006
Title: Digital Design Principles And Practices, 3th Edition Updated
Author: John F. Wakerly
ISBN: 0130907723
Condition: 9/10, nicely wrapped
Price: S$25

EE2004 (SOLD)
Semiconductor Physics & Devices: Basic Principles, 3rd Edition
Author: Donald A. Neaman
Publisher: McGraw Hill
Condition: 6/10
Price: $10

EE2009 (SOLD)
Signals Third Edition
Author: C.C. Ko
Condition: 5/10
Price: FREE


If interested, please sms me at 97320006. Thanks!

For complete list of books: http://bit.ly/2010-used-textbook

Blogger Navbar search not working

Notice that the Navbar in my blog doesn't work properly. The old entries are not included in the search results.

Did a Google search and found this post in blogger forum.

Hey folks,

We've been troubleshooting failed navbar search results for a while now, and we realize that it is still a problem for a good number of you. The best next step is for us to gather a lot of search data, and debug from there.

So if you are seeing failed search terms for words that you *know* should appear in search results, please fill out this form with that information. We really appreciate your help and patience as we work to sort this out.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGdscTZmUXNadVdrTHJsT1V6YXo2OUE6MA..

G

Hope it helps some of you out there as well :)

NUS RAG Day 2010

Took me a while to blog about this - NUS RAG Day 2010.

The overall standard for halls, and even faculties are improved. Maybe because the float structure was outsourced this year... hAhAhA... But glad that I went back to be part of this 1 whole day event (last time was half a day).

In conjunction with YOG this year, the whole RAG Day was so extravagant, with all the fireworks, performance by external parties, flame arrival/welcoming ceremony... and a lot of paparazies... hAhAhA

Anyway, these are the performances on RAG day which I think is good, and stand out. Credits to kpchen for all the videos. :)


Presented by: King Edward VII Hall
Float name: KE Soul
Country Represented: Korea


Presented by: Kent Ridge Hall
Float name: KRohanga
Country Represented: New Zealand


Presented by: Eusoff Hall
Float name: Estrados
Country Represented: Mexico
Winner of:
1. Best Rag Performance (NUS President's Shield)
2. Best Float Design
3. Best Presentation
4. Most Environment-Friendly Float


Presented by: Sheares Hall
Float name: EsCaPe!
Country Represented: Dakar


---

Personally, I would prefer the performances by King Edward 7 (KE7) and Kent Ridge Hall (KR) than Eusoff Hall (EH).

There are a lot of elements incorporated in the dance (by KE7), and represents the past and present of Korea - Traditional fan dance, Tekwondo, K-pop - and the integration of all these elements in modern Korea. Definitely a lot of things see, compared to other performances.

Just my 2 cents. :)


p/s: At first wanted to comment of each of the performance... but, ah, lazy... will post again some other time. :)

NUS RAG 2010 - KRohangga by Kent Ridge Hall

Presenting to you, NUS RAG 2010 presentation by Kent Ridge Hall. Credits to Eusoffworks.

I Don't Want To Miss A Thing

"I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by Yuna Ito



I still prefer the original version by Aerosmith. :)

Google Chrome Canary

Been always wanted to have 2 good, or should I say "perfect" browsers. Was using Firefox and IE as my second browser, after trying so hard to give Opera, and Safari chances.

Thanks to the Dev build of Chrome - Canary build, I can work with 2 browsers independently. Maybe some of you wonder why I need 2 "independent" browsers. This is because when I go to work, I prefer not to mix or logout of my personal accounts with work accounts.

Below are the excerpt from GoogleSystem.blogspot.com. Thanks for the article, I've found a permanent (and perfet) solution to address my problem :)

The Canary build is only available for Windows, it's "installed to a different path, gets updated separately, and runs side by side with an existing stable/beta/dev installation". Google says that the Canary build will usually be the same as the dev build. "Sometimes if necessary, we may push additional updates on Canary build so its version is higher than dev."

Site note:
Seriously, Opera and Safari lousy to the max, a lot of small bugs here and there. For example, a lot of shortcuts (for blogger) couldn't work. The worse things is when the layouts doesn't display properly, in Google Docs for example.

Hope the dev improve the browsers asap, else the browsers are going off the market soon.

Feel bad of Making Joke of this friend

Ah, just heard news about a friend's mom got cancer.

No wonder she's been busy for the past few months.

Feel bad for making jokes of her "busyness", when she didn't even defend herself.

So sorry.

Hope miracles happen so her mom can recover.

Failure Is Always an Option at Google

Saw this article at googlesystem.blogspot.com. I find it very true in the computing world, in fact, its also applicable in our lives, as we always adopt trial and error method to test-water before we actually expand and further develop things.

The concepts which I think are important are in bold.

Google is a company that has a lot of ambitious projects and it's inevitable that some of them will fail. Eric Schmidt says that failure is actually a good thing.

"We try things. Remember, we celebrate our failures. This is a company where it's absolutely okay to try something that's very hard, have it not be successful, and take the learning from that."

Google's Peter Norvig has a more detailed explanation for this attitude:

"If you're a politician, admitting you're wrong is a weakness, but if you're an engineer, you essentially want to be wrong half the time. If you do experiments and you're always right, then you aren't getting enough information out of those experiments. You want your experiment to be like the flip of a coin: You have no idea if it is going to come up heads or tails. You want to not know what the results are going to be."

In fact, Peter Norvig says that Google is a company where failure is always an option:

"I think Google was early in accepting hardware errors. Other companies have tried to say, 'Well, if you can buy big, expensive computers that are more reliable, then you'll have fewer breakdowns and you'll do better.' Google decided to buy lots of cheap computers that break down all the time, but because they're so much cheaper, you can design the system with multiple backups and ways to route around problems and so forth. We just architect the system to expect failure."

Why there are so many Google products discontinued after a few months or a few years of development? Peter Norvig thinks that's a by-product of Google's rapid development model.

"We [try] to fail faster and smaller. The average cycle for getting something done at Google is more like three months than three years. And the average team size is small, so if we have a new idea, we don't have to go through the political lobbying of saying, "Can we have 50 people to work on this?" Instead, it's more done bottom up: Two or three people get together and say, "Hey, I want to work on this." They don't need permission from the top level to get it started because it's just a couple of people; it's kind of off the books."

via googlesystem.blogspot.com

Windows 7 GodMode

Just saw this news about the Windows 7 and its GodMode.

GodMode is a feature that was revealed by CNet's Microsoft Correspondent, Ina Fried. GodMode is a folder that brings together a long list of customization settings allowing you to change all your settings from one place.

Neat huh? It's very easy to enable and very useful if you tweak things around a lot.

To enter "GodMode," one need only create a new folder and then rename the folder to the following:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

GodMode is actually a shortcut to accessing the operating system's various control settings.

怕苦

不怕苦就苦一阵子；怕苦就苦一辈子!

- Anonymous

Love this! Will use this to remind myself from time to time!

Apple Magic Mouse - Windows 7 Driver

Was searching for Apple Magic Mouse driver for Windows 7, but found that all the sites link to uneasysilence.com and apparently the links to the file somewhat broken. Without the driver, the scrolling function for the mouse will not work.

After Google-ed for a while, manage to grab the drivers here and there from the web. Thought would be great to share with everyone here. :)

Enough talking, heres the downloads:

• AppleWirelessMouse4.exe (32 bit)
• AppleWirelessMouse4.exe (64 bit)
• AppleWirelessMouse5.exe (32 bit)
• AppleWirelessMouse5.exe (64 bit)

Troubleshoot:

• If scrolling doesn't work, after installing the driver:
• Revert Bluetooth stack to Microsoft Default (Generic) Driver, in Device Manager
• Pairing key required
• The default pairing key is "0000".

Enjoy! :)

Thank you Baby

Thank to xiao bb for the Magic Mouse! Totally loves it! :)

For those who are looking for the MagicMouse Windows driver, you can download it here.

☑ Apple Magic Mouse

Date added: August 05, 2010

Price: S$70.00

Details: 

Date acquired: August 05, 2010










Will post the photo soon, after I got my data cable to transfer the photo :)

Blizzard Confirms StarCraft II Overheating Bug

Wah, nasty Blizzard... luckily saw this article from gameinformer.com before start to play.

Anyone else have StarCraft II try to melt their hardware? Blizzard admits that it's a known issue and has a fix for you.

Apparently, the game's menu screens aren't framerate-limited. This means that when there's nothing else going on, your graphics hardware renders the bejeezus out of those screens, causing nasty overheating problems. The fix is easy, requiring players to add the following lines to your "Documents\StarCraft II Beta\variables.txt" "Documents\StarCraft II\variables.txt" file (nice catch, commenter LegolElf):

frameratecapglue=30
frameratecap=60

Good to know. Personally I would have appreciated a heads-up before my video card fried, but maybe this can save someone else from the hassle I've been dealing with since yesterday afternoon.

On a related note, Blizzard explains StarCraft II's system requirements in detail here. If you're curious, you'll get a much better answer there than you would from me directly. So stop asking and read the official post already!

[hat tip GiantBomb]

Apply the fix before your Graphic Card fried... or before... some real life firebat comes together when u halfway playing SC2.

Planning

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

- Anonymous

我的鼻子不見了 - My nose lost

So funny the kid.

Saw a lot people commented that the parents are awful, mean, making fun of the child and affects the kids mental growth.

How many parents out there willing or have time to play with their kids? How many parents willing to sacrifice their time for watching TV, watching games, going out shopping with friends... just to play with their kids.

At least through these interaction they know their kids them better. Like some kids (and babies), they will get jealous easily.

To those people who gave negative comments:
Just ask yourself, how much time you will be willing to spend with your kids? How will your interaction with your kids be if its not through simple-and-fun games like this?

Google Prospective Employee Qualities